Easter w/ Grandma and Grandpa / Foto Friday
May 24th, 2013This picture post is LOOOOONG over-due. Orthodox Easter was in early May, and my parents came up for the week-end. There was baking, egg dyeing, egg hunting, Easter basket opening and lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. Crazy fun! My favorite two pics though are the ones of my dad with the boys.
Snake & all the answers
May 23rd, 2013G declared today that he’d like to be a snake for Halloween next. I won’t lie. I thought to myself “Great! Another surely impossible costume to find”, so I went with “well, you have a long time to decide between now and Halloween”. That didn’t seem to phase him, so I went into Stage 2: sabotage. This brought us into this conversation:
Me: G, snakes don’t have any arms. How will you hold your candy bag if you don’t have any arms as a snake?
G: I’ll carry it in my mouth
[Damn!]
Me: … but if you have your mouth full, you won’t be able to say “Trick or treat!” Then how will people know what to do?
G: I’ll only talk with my mouth a little open
[Damn ^2!]
I think I’m doing to need to start looking at some snake costume patterns.
Movie Monday
May 20th, 2013Who kicks the heck out of that soccer ball during scrimmage? That’s right! Our kid.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNee-HkrK4Q]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxCCDDQ7H1c]
Little stinker
May 18th, 2013My conversation today w/ S2 as we were changing diapers. We still play our “stinky feet” game. You know… the one where he waves his foot in front of my nose and I pretend to faint because they are stinky? In all honesty, his stinky toes are no more: the stinker bombs those things were when he was an infant has gone away. But we still play:
Me: [pointing to one leg, and then the other] That’s Stinky Woo, and this is Sticky Wow!
S2: Tinky woo woo?
Me: There’s no Stinky Woo Woo, just Stinky Woo and Stinky Wow. And you’re the Big Stinker!
S2: I not Big Tinker
Me: You’re not? Who are you then?
S2: I Little Tinker!
Ok — you win!
An early Mother’s Day gift
May 10th, 2013G ran into our bedroom this morning fully dressed (thanx, S for letting me sleep in and taking care of the boys!). He asked “Mommy, can we go to Special Breakfast for Mother’s Day” Ok, so that alone is not a bad way to wake up. G and I do a 1:1 “special breakfast” at Heidi’s Pies in San Mateo once in a while. I asked “do you want to do that today, or Sunday on Mother’s Day”. “Today!” he replied. I didn’t have any early morning work commitments so it was a date. He even asked to pay, although he posed it as “you can give me money and then I can pay.” Ok, still cute!
We did have a breakfast. We even played Tic-tac-toe while we waited for our food. In the end, as we headed to pay, G went back to the table. Apparently he had dropped his tooth-picks and spent a while gathering them up. I was going to give him cash to pay, but at this point I figured “Nah!” and gave the lady my card. He came up as she handed me the receipt to sign. Then he started digging in his pocket. And out comes a folded up wad of bills. He really WAS planning on paying for breakfast!!! Yeah, everything was clearly orchestrated (or at the least heavily assisted by S), but it totally melted my heart.
Not a bad way to start the day, or Mother’s Day week-end for that matter!
Love you boys!
Soccer class
May 9th, 2013G is playing soccer again! Hooray!!! S2 is now into his second session of Parent+Me, and this time around, G said he would like to try again too. We signed him up at a class the town over because they have a refund policy (sadly, our town only refunds you if you cancel before going to any session). So we hedged our bets ;p So far, though, three sessions in and he’s playing, and participating. Did I mention is NOT a Parent+Me class? Yep, he’s on the field and S is on the side watching. The non-back-to-back classes makes things interesting for our Saturday, but it’s not too bad. I get some 1:1 time with each monkey at home, while S is chauffeuring the other to/from class.
My parents were in town last week-end, and G asked for them to come watch him play. Score! He even let me take photos. Double score!! (I hate the quality of light this time of day, but beggars can’t be choosers. I get photos of my kid playing a sport he is ridiculously naturally talented at)
look! no hands!
Things I have forgotten about living with a cat
May 7th, 2013– the feel of kitty litter on bare feet in the early morning hours
– the feel of a fuzzy tail on my legs/face when they want attention
– having my toes jumped on while I’m in bed
– cat hair everywhere
– the sound of purring
– big eyes greeting me with excitement when I get home/wake up in the morning
– watching where I walk as to not trip over a furball that is purposefully winding at my feet
– how curious they can be
– how high they can jump (and quickly at it too)
– furballs
Zoe
May 6th, 2013We brought Zoe home yesterday. I’ve been too nervous to talk about it too much, because I was worried I’d jinx it and something would fall through. She was ready for us to take her home on Monday night, but they called too late for me to pick her up. I also wanted to stay home with her a few days while she acclimates, but between evening classes, kid activities, relatives in town, etc. it just wasn’t practical to get her any sooner than yesterday. I was worried I’d walk into the rescue only to be told that there was a mistake and someone else adopted her. Paranoid, I know.
I’ll take a moment here to acknowledge that adopting had been a much more stressful and time consuming experience than I imagined. Or it is, if you have criteria around the pet you want to adopt. We wanted another Maine Coon, that would do well with our kids, be indoors only, not be black (S’ request) or red (mine – just don’t want to be that close to Neko resemblance), and be a young kitten. Well, the kitten part was ruled out right away. Most shelters wanted to adopt kittens in pairs (or to a home with another cat). I’m not opposed to two cats. Neither is S, but I wasn’t ready to bring two home right away. Just the thought of it stressed me out. So then we were looking for a cat between 1-2 years of age. I was scouring petfinder multiple times a day, ready to call whichever post came up that met our criteria. I did two pet fairs, with an hour drive to each last week-end too. It’s just a lot of work. We weren’t in a rush, but waiting for the right furball was a lot more involved than I thought, and I couldn’t do the driving thing EVERY week-end. So we started making compromises. I guess what went was the age request. Zoe is listed as 6.5 (although our vet is thinking closer to 4). Definitely FAR older than I thought if be adopting, but is super loving and extra sweet with the boys.
Watching the boys interact with her has been really neat. She’s only been with us since yesterday afternoon, but when she comes out of her hiding mode, she is very adventurous, and a lap cat. She did circles between me and each kid to make sure she got some love from everyone, she’s not afraid to ask for it.
S2 is talking about nothing else since she’s been with us. He said ‘My titty’ (I refer you back to the k/t replacement)’ to which I had to remind her that she is ALL of ours. He wants to pet her and pick her up, and have her sit next only to him. G is a bit more reserved, but he was pretty into her too. He asked that she sleep on his bed. What I’m doing true injustice on being able to explain is how their faces are reflecting their joy over this. S2 is full of giddi-ness. G just has his reserved smile. It makes my heart happy that she’s bringing this to us, and I hope we can make her happy too.
I’ve been nervous about her being the right fit for us. I’m looking for signs here, and I’ve manufacture a couple:
1) her birthday is 8/5, which is the date S and I got married.
2) S requested her name be Zoe. Zoe was one of the names we were saving if we ever had a girl, but it also means ‘life’. I’m hoping this means a healthy kitty for a long time.
I don’t have great photos of her yet. She’s either hiding behind our bed (and my cameras ISO sensitivity is good but not THAT good) or when she’s out, she’s quickly exploring and wants to be loved, which makes it very difficult to get a good kitty pose. So here are a couple, and a video of S2 enjoying his sister after she climbed into my bed to sit next to him.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/35tzV73C1l4]
So far, she’s a keeper 🙂
The newest bike spot
May 6th, 2013S and G have discovered a new place to ride their bikes. It’s local, it’s really neat, a little secluded, and the boys like it. The only minus is that it’s on the beach, so all the ground is literally crushed up sea shells, which makes spills unpleasant. G can actually attest to that. On this particular adventure, we kicked off by asking if he wanted to wear his knee and elbow pads. He refused, and not 3 minutes later received a big fat sea-shell sand scrape on the elbow of his arm. After awhile of his friends riding, though, he came around to show ’em how it’s done.
This was s2’s first visit to this place too. He did pretty great!
While G was lamenting his wounded arm he watched the RC planes fly over head. We got some nice swoops. I wish I had a good photo 🙂
The few moments of non-foggy skies