- Both my ex husband and my current husband are named Mark.
- Can belch half the alphabet.
- I am a physics/black holes/theory of all things fanatic!
- I have been known to make an entire batch of homemade chocolate icing with the soul intention of eating it straight from the bowl.
- Once traveled to
- Shot a hand gun at age six.
- Spent $200 to have a half pound of French chocolate express shipped to me.
- Took a West coast touring vacation by myself from
- Traveled to
- Used to have competitions with my sister to see who could do the best #1 sign with their big toes.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Truth or a Big Fat Lie?!
My friend over at Lil' Welsh Rarebit recently did a Truth or a Big Fat Lie posting and challenged her readers to do the same. So here goes; I'm listing some things about myself and you post in the comments what you think the lie is. I'll do a new post with the answer on Saturday.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Paul is almost 5 months old
I know I just posted Paul's 4 month stats not too long ago, but we just now had his 4 month check up today (1 week shy of turning 5 months old). He's had so many developmental advancements lately that I feel kinda bad I haven't posted recently to update the family. So here it is, Paul in a nutshell (I was going to photoshop a pic of Paul into a nutshell, but I'm lazy tonight) :)
- He can roll over to his stomach and back again (in fact he does barrel rolls back and forth in his crib all the time - I know this because I can see a trail of slobber across the crib sheets)
- He smiles and coos like crazy!
- He's teething too. BOTH of his eye-teeth are coming in.
- Finally, yesterday, he started on solids with rice cereal and took to it like a champ!
Here are Paul's stats according to the doctor:
Weight: 16lbs 11oz that's 7 1/2 kilos to my Canadian family
(he's in the 70th Percentile for weight)
Length: 27 inches that's 68.6 Centimeters to my Canadian family
(he's in the 90th Percentile for height)
Here's a couple of photos and videos:
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Realizing I'm getting Old (but it's OK)
It seems there are many things in my life lately that are insisting that I take notice of my age and finally admit that I'm getting old. My high school is hosting a 20 year class reunion for my graduating class this weekend; I keep hearing my beloved 80s songs on the classics stations; and earlier this evening I was tasked with the job of compiling a stack of photos and memorabilia to prove to the US government that my husband and I are indeed married and not together just to get my husband his green card (it seems the two children we've produced are not evidence enough!). But I still don't feel old in my gut. I'm still surprised to look in the mirror and find I've aged.
But, boy I really enjoyed digging up these photos though. Looking through them ...I finally got it (OK Universe?! I get it!) - I'm old and getting old...here's the proof:
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This is the first time I met all of Mark's friends in Montreal.
It's at a chalet just outside of Montreal. We're completely blitzed and it's New Year's Eve in this photo (2003):
This is at my friend's wedding in Seattle (I was a brides maid) 2003:
Here we are hiking Mt. Tremblant, North of Montreal
(wow, I remember thinking I was fat back then) 2003:
This is when I participated in ArtoMatic here in DC.
Mark helped me paint and prep my space (2004):
Here are a few from our trip to Scotland in 2004:
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Christmas at a Chalet in Val des Lac (North of Montreal) - 2005:
Crappy picture of the two of us in NYC (2005):
Christmas 2006 in our house here in DC (I'm 8 months pregnant):
Visiting family in Montreal (2007):
Visiting family in Montreal (2008):
An almost classic family photo here in DC - Thanksgiving 2008
The whole family here in DC Easter 2009:
Saturday, July 18, 2009
NOT a George Rodrigue orginal
In my last post I put up several pictures of my son's room. On the wall there is a painting of a blue dog in a field of yellow flowers. As a result I received an email from a random (not frequent) reader who offered to buy the painting. Boy was I flattered!
There is a story behind that painting. My husband and I had taken a trip to New Orleans to attend a wedding in Biloxi. This was before t he kids arrived in our lives. We had a blast while there. While walking down the street we happened past the art studio of George Rodrigue, we had never heard of him before this trip but apparently he's quite famous. Mark fell over laughing at the dog's mesmerized eyes. We joked almost the whole weekend about the story behind this dog's eyes. We finally decided the dog was tripping on acid. ha! I snuck back to the studio to buy one for my husband as a surprise...I planned to hang on to it until his birthday later that year in June.
I was surprised to find how much even the smallest of these "Blue Dog" paintings cost! So instead of buying one, I painted a knock-off for him. That's what is hanging in my son's room. It is NOT a Rodrigue original...just a Jennifer-knockoff! And no, I'm not willing to get into the business of making knock-offs... but I am flattered you asked dear reader!
I won! I won! I won!! - The Follow up
Not too long ago, I posted about winning a blog giveaway. I finally got around to putting up the decals in Peter's room. I'm so excited his room is starting to come together and look like something. I'm still shopping around for some bedding that works. He has some ABCs bedding and what's on the bed now is from our guest bedroom. I think going basic, something chocolate colored. Anyway, my thanks again to A Lil' Welsh Rarebit for hosting the giveaway, and thanks to Dali Decals for my awesome decals!!!
On with the photos:
Entering his room from the hall.
The room standing just inside the door.
Standing in the door, looking to the left.
The cute elephant decals!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Win $150 to spend at allmodern.com!
Do you like give aways? I sure do! This is one that just can't be missed. I shouldn't post it here, I don't want to decrease my odds of winning a $150 shopping spree at All Modern.com! This blog giveaway is unique in that all you have to do is go to allmodern.com and pick out what you would spend your $150 on should you win and leave a comment at Charlie's Design Diary: Giveaway from All Modern stating what you chose. That's it. You don't have to post on your blog, don't have to twitter or facebook it...nothing. awesome giveaway!
What would I choose...one of these:
These cool strappy-thingies for both of the kids' rooms.
Or these really cool outdoor lights - yes outdoor!!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Grandma day count down, t-minus 19 hours
I couldn't resist uploading this photo of Peter and Grandma from last Halloween.
My husband was out of town last night and won't return until after bedtime tonight. Last night was hell. I won't go into details, but basically it all happened....one waking the other, the two year old having sudden fears of being alone in his room demanding mom sleep with him, baby waking up ... what a mess. I expect a repeat tonight which will put me at roughly 4 straight nights with little to no sleep! I will NEED this quasi-free day tomorrow (I will still have the baby with me).
COME ON GRANDMA!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Pay it forward....here's your chance!
I got this from my neighborhood forum, this is a school that is literally 2 blocks from my home. I'm tempted to just go buy all those books they've asked for...but I don't have the money to help with the other request...maybe some of you know someone who does or has used computers to donate.... pass it on and pay it forward as they say......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear PoP,
I was hoping I could appeal to your readers and fellow DC’ers.
I teach middle school Language Arts at Sacred Heart School in Mt Pleasant. We need your help!
I work with amazingly creative and determined kids who have the odds stacked against them. We work together day in and day out to tackle reading and writing skills. We are a bilingual school with most of our kids on scholarships. I watch my kids grow every day as they take advantage of all the opportunities given to them. However, our lack of funds for technology in the classroom is limiting our success.
We are hoping that maybe some of you have just bought new computers and are looking to get rid of your old ones. We are not asking for brand new state of the art computers, but we will definitely take those as well
Most of our students do not have personal computers in their homes and we do not have very many working ones in our school. It is really hard for our kids to learn how to use computers and stay competitive in the growing trend of computer science when I don’t have a computer for them to use in the classroom. If you have working computers or printers that you are trying to get rid of, we’ve got a home ready for them in my classroom! We would appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.In the true spirit of an inner city teacher, I’m asking for another favor….! If any of you are looking to donate Young Adult books, we would gladly accept those as well. All books are welcome, but my kids do have a few requests:
The girls (and secretly some of the boys - shhh!) are asking for:
- The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
- The Friends by Rosa Guy
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
- My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall
The boys and girls agree on asking for:
- Anything by Gary Soto - and other “Spanglish” books
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Monster by Walter Dean Meyers
- I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
- Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- “We want to read funny books! Ask for anything funny!”
Thank you so much to those of you who read this! Your support is SO appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.
Much love,
Ms. Kullberg and the Sacred Heart Middle School Kids!
Contact: kristen.kullberg@catholicacademies.org
Sacred Heart School 1625 Park Road NW Wash, DC 20010
(202)265-4828
http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2009/07/dear-pop-computer-and-books-needed-for-middle-school-students/
Good morning world! It's 5:30 a.m. and Paul, my 4 month old is up! My perfect angel that had been sleeping good 6 hour stints at night has, the past two nights, been up almost all night. I think he's teething (again)...but who knows what it is for sure. The only thing that's positive is he's too darn cute for me to stay irritated with him no matter how zombie-like he's making me!
It's the middle of the night, I'm up for the 800th time rocking Paul back to sleep when he looks up at me and gives me the biggest gummy smile ever. I love this kid.
So here I am at (looking at clock) - wow it's 6:30 a.m. already posting about being tired but not minding so much because the boy is adorable.
Here's Paul playing this morning:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Antics
I'm tired this morning. My 4 month old is teething and snotty-nosed...he was up all night and so that means I was too. The days that I'm extremely fatigued are golden days for my oldest son because I just don't care. I let him do things I wouldn't normally do, I don't jump up and come running when I hear something crash to the floor (provided the crash is not glass). I lay on the couch in a half-comma and just do what I have to do - breast feed the baby, get food and drink out for the toddler and the rest can be hanged! We're lucky if I bother to try to put my oldest down for a nap because it requires effort. Yes, I'm that tired! I can't seem to catch up on my sleep!
So, the result of not watching over my two year old this morning was this:
He unrolled an entire brand new roll of paper towels just to get to the tube in the center! Ah...to have the unfettered logic of a two year old. No hang-ups about waste, no second thoughts about the cost, just the fun of it. I started to get upset and then stopped and said..ah have fun kid!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Owls are NOT assholes!!
...as The Onion would have you think! :) I LOVE owls. The problem is, from a decor standpoint, they tend to conjure up images of 1960's crocheted owls with beads for eyes - at least it often does with me.
I've chosen to go with a sort of owl motif for decorating my youngest son's room. I'm just beginning to decorate. I'm not big on going ballistic in decor for a baby, so I have plenty of time to have fun searching out and creating Owl decor for my son's room. I figure I should have it all in place by the time he's a year old; an age where he's more likely to appreciate or at the very least enjoy it.
The room we're talking about is painted purple, yes purple, by the previous owners and we have never bothered to repaint it, mostly because we're never in the room. Now that I'm in it daily (and nightly) I can not stand to look at it any longer. I plan (I think) to paint it all a light beige color and have one wall that is dark chocolate. On that dark chocolate wall I plan to paint a stylized mural of a tree with an owl perched up on a branch.
Google searches for owl fabric for the curtains in his room are not very encouraging. I wanted something that was subtle - all I'm finding is bright over the top materials. I may research how to stain/dye/or otherwise alter fabric myself...not sure how.
What else I found with my Google owl search was that it seems my unique choice of owl decor was not so unique after all (as this blog post will attest), such a disappointment. But owl popularity is not enough to make me change my mind.
What started all this owl nonsense? Well, my husband has these cute glass or pottery-type figures he's had with him since his commune days of University. I love them! There's a bear, a chicken, and an owl. He tells me there used to be a few other animals that were broken over time. My oldest son LOVES these figures and they currently all reside in his room. But Mr. Owl Asshole, as we lovingly call him ever since The Onion photo, will eventually perch somewhere in my youngest son's room.
I welcome any hints, projects, tips or awesome owl finds!!!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
My two boys...
When I posted Paul's four month old stats the other day, the picture I put up with it reminded me so very much of a picture I had of Peter when he was infant. I dug it up and was surprised to find the picture I had in mind was of Peter at 6 months old. Check it out above, Paul at 4 months old on the left and Peter at 6 months old on the right.
Gee whiz my boys are handsome if I do say so myself!!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Paul is 4 months old!
Wow, I think it was yesterday...yes just yesterday it seems that I posted Paul's 3 month old stats...boy that month went fast! Paul turned 4 months old on Sunday.His doc visit isn't scheduled until the 15th - so I don't have his official stats. We did, however, measure how tall (long) he is and that little weed of a boy is already at 27.5 inches (68.95 cm to you my Canadian family) that's 3.5 inches taller than 2 months ago. Grow Paul, grow!
I weighed him by stepping on the scales alone (we won't share that weight) and then weighing myself while holding Paul...that gave us his weight of 14 pounds (approximately). Oh and that's 6.35 kilos to my Canadian Family. I swear I thought he was closer to 16 pounds by now. Either way he is definitely a tall kid! He's already wearing his 9 month old clothes....next week I'll be writing that he's into his 12 monthers!!! The picture above is about 1 week before he turned 4 months old.
Monday, July 6, 2009
My son's duck bathtub
I had forgotten all about this inflatable duck bath tub we had purchased for my first born. I was never a fan of the plastic baby bathtubs intended to be used on your counter top. They were cumbersome and my baby always looked uncomfortable in it. The instant I felt comfortable propping my son up in an upright position without him flopping over (with both boys that age was 3 months old) I bought this inflatable duck bath tub and ditched the counter top bath.
I've resurrected our duck tub from the depths of basement with great joy for our second born son. He clearly enjoyed his bath much more with kicking feet and splashing hands...so fun! The tub is just wonderful. Since it's inflated it's soft on all sides (no hard plastic, no rigid supports ... just soft inflated plastic), also on the bottom inside of the tub is a small circle that turns colors and lets you know if you have the water too hot for the baby. It's small enough that it fits inside our traditional bathtub. Finally, it has a suction cup on the end so you can hang the duck up on the bath wall to drain.
I didn't take pictures of Paul in the tub tonight (we were having way too much fun to think of photos), but I promise to get one up soon...here's a few of Peter in the tub from when he was a wee baby boy. These are shots of us using it as a pool outside.
This one will give you a perspective on the tub's size:
Saturday, July 4, 2009
From DC to Memphis and back!
My sons, my Mother and I all recently took a road trip from Washington, DC to Memphis, TN. My Great Uncle had passed away and we decided driving with the boys was better than flying.
My Great Uncle George and his wife Frances (who passed away a few years ago) were (are) pillars of the family. All of my cousins and I have fond memories of family functions always occurring in their home. There's not a single Christmas that wasn't spent at their house during my childhood - no small affair! We are a huge family!! Here's one of my favorite photos of Uncle George and Aunt Frances.
The trip as a whole had it's ups and downs. Like checking into a Howard Johnson's at 3:00am in Knoxville that was old, musty, smokey, had FILTHY shag carpets in the room and, I noticed as we were walking out (no we did NOT sleep there!), dried blood splattered on the hallway walls! We moved to a Best Western in another part of town where all was normal. The boys did pretty well on the trip. Peter had fun yelling out TRUCK!! every time one drove by or "cy-cycle!" every time a motorcycle went past.
Peter's vocabulary really seemed to blossom during the week we stayed at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Gail's house in Memphis. He also had tons of fun! Uncle Mike has an awesome train set with a wood mill that cuts logs and produces slats of wood, the set has smoke that comes out of the train engine, and a firehouse where the engines come out of the garage with bells and sirens going. Peter LOVES it!!
Peter met his cousin Linley who is a bit younger than him and then met his cousin James who is almost exactly the same age. They had a blast playing together.
Bath time at GiGi's house - Gigi is Aunt Gail. All of my Aunt Gail's grand kids call her Gee, Peter kept hearing Gee and for some reason it came out Gigi. So she's Gigi and we, apparently, were staying at Gigi's house! He was constantly saying go home to Gigi's? Anyway, bath time at Gigi's house was pretty much the same as at home except in the basket of bath toys that Gigi keeps for her grand kids were two action figures. Every night Peter would get each toy out and put it in the bathtub, but when he got to these two figures he would put them on the toilet and say "no men!" Every time he did it, it made me think of my cousin's blog post about her son James evicting a gazelle from playtime at home. Must be a two-year-old thing to do.
We made the required trip to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks parading out to the fountain in the lobby. I got to catch up with some old grade school friends. Soon, all too soon, it was time to go home. Here are a few photos of our trip. ALL of the photos we took, including several Peter took, are on my Shutterfly page ~here~ I forgot to say, if you are a friend or family member - basically if I know you IRL and you don't have access to my Shutterfly photos, just sign up on the page that comes up to join and view and I'll approve it or email me and I'll add you. If you are a blogger friend and we haven't met - sorry... I won't approve it...nothing personal, I just dont know you that well! :) Here are few:
Peter, Gigi and his cousin James playing with the marble toy:
The boys watching Gigi going to get the mail:
Peter played with bubbles every morning:
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