Happy Happy Halloween!!!!

Our Halloween...

Videos of the boys

I'm sure there will be more updates with substance in the future given tonight is Halloween and a supreme photo taking opportunity. Meanwhile, and this is mostly for my family since few others I would think would be interested in sitting through long clips of babies and toddlers, here are a few clips of the boys:

This first one is a video we made to send to Daddy while he was traveling for work:

This clip is 1:22 long.

These next three are all of Paul. They are all first thing this morning when Paul woke up. He opens his eyes for the day and just starting go-go-going!

This one is 1:46 long.

This one is 2:42 long.

This one is 1:37 long

Christmas, Halloween and dancing in between

My two year old son has pneumonia - or so says the lab at the doc's office. But, you look at this video and tell me if this looks like a sick kid!

In this rather long video my son discusses what he wants for Christmas, Dances a ton, discusses Halloween a bit and entertains his 7 month old brother. Besides a phlegm-y cough you can't tell he's sick!

Angry? Scared? Frustrated? Just sing your ABC's

The boys have been in daycare for about 3 weeks now and each morning Peter still cries. I hate that for him. He's inherited my deep sensitivity towards life. He's very attached to mommy and daddy and he starts dreading going to school as soon as he gets up in the morning. I have distinct memories of that level of dread and fear from my childhood. He's fine once he gets to school and has fun all day, but the instant one of us shows up to get him his eyes fill with tears and he comes running for a big hug. So sweet for us, but I hate that he's so emotionally torn up so young.

One morning on our way to school he just couldn't bear it anymore and broke down crying on the bus and started screaming "No School Mama!" over and over again. I tried to stay calm and not cry myself. As calmly as possible I asked him if he was scared to go to school; answer: yes. Are your teachers mean? answer: no Do they hit you? NO!!!, he says loudly. Do they play with you? YES! he says all happy (with tears still streaming down his face). Then you have fun at school! YES!!! he says, still crying. So why are you scared to go to school? "Miss mama! Miss Dada, Miss Tiggs (that's our cat)". We had gone through this routine everyday since he started school, so this time I was prepared with a photo album of the family he could take with him. He was happy, and we made it to school. That tactic only worked once, however. The very next day we were on the city bus again with him in tears. This time, for an added little twist, he sat down on the bus floor and refused to get up. Here I am with a stroller, backpack and the baby strapped to me trying to maneuver my two year old off the bus in a way that didn't make me look like a horrible abusive parent. What I wanted to do was just grab his arm and drag him off. He finally relented and got off sobbing. I told him anytime he's angry he can sing to feel better.

So... now what happens every morning when he starts getting anxious about our impending arrival to school he starts singing the ABC's at the top of his lungs and really fast. Kind of like an adult might count to ten to regain composure (only my little man is yelling).

The people on the bus find this cute (or at least pretend to) and I'm not the horrible mother dragging her kid off the bus by the arm. I hope this approach to the school day melt down sticks because I'm all out of tricks and ideas.

Paul can Crawl - for real this time!!!!

This kid is on the move... and I wasn't there to see the first crawl :( It's hard being back at work! Here's the cute boy on the move:

Things I learned while in NYC

Christy (of A 'Lil Welsh Rarebit) and I went to NYC this past weekend and we really had a great time. We had planned to go up Friday night and come home Sunday morning...and so begins the list of what I learned while in NYC:

1. you don't have to rush to the train station to catch your train on a long weekend; the line will be so insanely long that there is no way you'll miss your train.
   
   
2. meeting up with old friends you haven't seen in ages can be fun and exciting; there's tons to catch up on and talk about because you so rarely see each other.
   
   
3. when booking hotel rooms through Priceline.com be sure to confirm that they have reserved a room with TWO beds for you and your friend. Thank God Christy is a tough negotiator! She got a us room with two beds for the first night and free upgrade to a king suite for the second night!
   
   
4. If you're heading to NYC and want a super-cool and hip (do people still say hip?) hotel room, book at Dream Hotel. It's walking distance to Central Park, Time Square, and FAO Schwarz. I got the impression that the locals came to this hotel for the extremely cool bar/nightclub in the hotel. The two moms (that would be Christy & I) did NOT go to the club.
   
   
5. Shopping in NYC can be overwhelming
   
   
6. Food is good everywhere in NYC
   
   
7. Don't buy your theater tickets ahead of time if you think you might miss your children and spouse so much that you decide to cut your trip short and head home a day early! **big grin** Yes, we actually did this. I know for my part, I was having a great time with Christy but everytime I saw a dad with his kid I got a little choked up. It didn't help that Christy was doing the same so we were feeding off of one another's emotions. Some lucky soul at the hotel got free tickets to see "Next to Normal". My husband was not in the least bit happy with me paying for two nights at a hotel that I only used one night, a ticket to a Broadway show that I dind't see, and extra money to get an earlier train home. Women...aren't we great! We really do excercise our right to change our minds!
   
   
8. John Fluevog makes the best damn shoes on Earth. Bought two pair and left them on the train. :(
   
   
9. Never take a room next to the elevator where the BING of the elevator is audible in the furthest reaches of your room and where you can hear every syllable of the people getting off the elevator. Actually, just bring earplugs.
   
   
10. Embrace your touristy-ness and do not be ashamed to flaunt your camera, pose stupidly in front of things, and take cheesy bus tours and bicycle taxi rides when you travel!
    
    
11. Do NOT try to do everything when visiting a large city and be willing to change your plans while traveling. I think Christy and I both did really well with this.
    
    
12. Never travel on just two hours of sleep, lest you leave your prized and expensive purchases on the train for someone else to enjoy.
    
    
13. Keep your purchased items close to you when traveling.
    
    
14. Once you make the decision to cut your travel short (as if everyone does this) do not look back with regret that you did not: make it to the street fairs, eat at that famed restaurant, purchase clothes for the new job, go to Central Park, or go to that huge store you had planned to go to...because you can always go back!!!
    
    
15. Remember to enjoy the quirkiness that allowed you and your friend to look at each other and say "You're fun, but I want to go home" and neither of you get offended!
    
    
16. If you're "normal" by the rest of the U.S. standards then you will always standout in NYC.
    
    
17. If you're still nursing your baby and try to take a vacation - just remember that you're going to have to interrupt your sight seeing about 800 million times to go pump or else you will suffer horrible engorgement! Oh and be sure you travel with someone who understands this and is not the least bit bothered by this interruption (thank you Christy!).

All photos are here.

NYC in photos

Well, we're back from NYC a day early but it's all good. Photos from our trip (by the end of it I was more focused on shopping than clicking the camera so not really photos of everything we did)...

Victim of Technology!

Have you heard this phrase? Do you have an intimate understanding of it? I didn't think I did until recently. It dawned on me last night while trying to go sleep. You know

that moment (or in my case roughly 2 hours) just before falling asleep when your mind wanders down different thought-paths working out the day's events, the plans for tomorrow & beyond, and reasoning out ludicrous what-ifs? Yeah, during that mind-wandering pre-sleep moment it dawned me that I am the epitome of a technology victim!

How? You may have read over at A Lil' Welsh Rarebit that Christy and I are planning a trip to NYC. Well, actually, Christy is planning our trip for us. I have to be honest I've been so distracted with the kids starting daycare for the first time ever, my Dad having heart surgery and me starting a new job that Christy has been planning our trip to NYC with a bit of opinion injected from me from time to time (now that is a good friend, right?! I mean Christy, not me!)

Here we are planning this huge trip to NYC and haven't spoken on the phone for over a year! Even now in the midst of our planning we haven't spoken on the phone! Yeah...email exchanges have happened and comments on one another's blogs too...but isn't that more to the point?

Technology victim!

Actually, we have NEVER spoken on the phone! Seriously. Christy and I have known each other since we worked together I think over five years ago. We use to have a small-ish girl group that got together every now and then for drinks or dinner until the group slowly disbanded. I went to a party here and there hosted by Christy and I went to her baby shower while she was pregnant with Ms. Foo. Christy came to a couple of my art shows. These few events have happened over the past five-some-odd years and always with an emailed or post-mailed invitation. In all this time, over all these events not once have we spoken on the phone. The last time I saw Christy or spoke to her was at her baby shower! That was Ms. Foo's baby shower and now Ms. Foo is a little over a year old!

Technology victims, we commune on Facebook and email, but rarely in person or on the phone. But maybe the word victim is not accurate here; because it's thanks to blogging, Facebook and email that I've been able to keep in touch with friends like Christy who have moved away or that I no longer work with and see on a daily basis. I've managed to keep a casual at-arms-length contact with my ex-bosses and coworkers thanks to these social networking tools. It's kind of cool to hop over to my ex-coworkers blog and see what she's been up to. I think you have to have had some fondness for the person in the first place to have any curiosity about their lives. My husband can't quite understand blogging about our lives and he really gets rolling with comments about Facebook statuses. I think they're perfect "just keeping in touch" type tools. I mean could you seriously see yourself calling up an ex-coworker from a year ago that you use to have lunch with on every Wednesday and Friday and saying in Facebook status lingo: "Jennifer is sitting outside watching the blue sky and sipping mojitos." saying nothing else and then hanging up? Or how about just randomly snail-mailing photos from your recent awesome vacation to Paris?! I choose Paris for my example because I've never been and would love to go. Can you imagine opening that envelope of photos from someone you haven't seen in a year and barely had a close relationship with in first place? These old forms of communication don't seem to offer the same opportunities the social networking tools offer. These tools have a very odd dynamic but they're definitely a dynamic that works.

So, if we're not technology victims then I guess we're ... what? ... technologically enhanced? That sounds like a robot...but you know what I mean!

*The image in this post was taken from Media Bistro.

Some Cuteness and Some Clothes

Sheesh...that's a big post... hope you don't get bored with all I had to say but there's something cathartic about blogging/posting...guess it's like a journal entry.

Let's start with the cuteness; I am talking about my two boys of course. I start back to work full time next week after being off and at home with my boys for almost three years. Yeah...I'm pretty much an emotional wreck! But it's all good, it has to be done. I lucked out and was able to get the kids into their daycare a week before I'm due to start work. So we took advantage of that and let them start with a half day yesterday and today and they will go all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

We have a busy week to be sure. Along with me learning the ropes of what's needed to get the kids packed for school and out the door I've had to go up to my new office for meet & greets and tomorrow to get my ID badge. Sounds mundane, but nothing with the Government or The State Department is mundane. It's all been so exciting! Yesterday I walked the boys to school, dropped them off and walked up to wait for the bus down to The State Department - the bus never came. Geez. Had to flag down a taxi and book it downtown for my meeting. When I finally had a moment to think (while riding the taxi) I got all choked up and started crying. The man driving the taxi was really sweet, he had a very thick Ethiopian accent and was explaining to me that God never gives us something we can't handle. I'm not religious (not in the least) but it was a nice sentiment and made me feel good that this stranger was trying to cheer me up. I finally got my act together and started focusing on the fact that I probably was going to look all red-faced and splotchy from crying. Thank GOD I opted for a make-up free day.

I finished my meetings and jumped in another taxi back to the daycare to pick up the kids. Day one of daycare down. I had forgotten to send Paul's lovey to school with him and as a result of being in a strange place and no familiar things they had a tough time getting him to sleep. He also seemed to need/want more food than I sent. :| I can only pump so much! I also learned that I OVER-packed the bag the night before. Lessons learned: solid foods, extra milk, and the lovey for Paul packed for today's daycare.

Today Peter cried and cried when I dropped him at daycare. I told a friend I didn't know if I was more upset over Peter crying or the fact that my youngest, Paul, didn't care I was going. I'm sure I'll get use to this at some point, but it sure tugs hard at my heart! So...to lift the spirits...take a look at these photos.

Here's Paul having a grand ol' time with a mix of blueberries and applesauce. By the way, I don't do bibs. I learned with Peter they are useless and the kids just yank them off. I strip them down to their diapers and go. I also have this fab and expensive Peg Perego high chair that's all padded and cushy ...yeah nice purchase (read with sarcasm). My off-the-charts tall boys never sat tall enough to eat in the stupid high chair and by the time Peter was tall enough for it he refused to sit in it. So Paul is getting fed in his Bumbo. :)

Here are a few of Peter as we were heading off to school this morning. Peter picked that backpack out himself, he loves Spiderman!:

OK...now on with the shopping. I mentioned before that I've been shopping with Kaboodle. Well, this weekend I went out with my Mom (so fun shopping with her!) and bought a few things for the new job. The wardrobe is nowhere near complete as I now only have three outfits, I figure if I have nine outfits total to get me started I'll be good. That's where my girls' trip to NYC this weekend comes in! I'm soo friggin' excited. Christy (from A Lil' Welsh Rarebit fame) and I are heading up on the train with no kids and no husbands...look out NYC here we come!

So, what did I buy this weekend? Here are some photos, I tried to find some on-line photos but I can't seem to find them...I have fallen in love with the Lauren by Ralph Lauren collection for this season. The belted grey sweater below and the suit are all Ralph Lauren, the argyle sweater is just some no-name but oh so yummy cashmere. :) Finally, the boots are Cole Haan. I discovered during this shopping trip that my anticipated issues with clothes not fitting was a non-issue and surprisingly the issue was SHOES! Nothing fit! I'm still a size 7 in length but some how my feet are now wider! Thank boys, I'm sure this is due to my two pregnancies.. boohoo. I couldn't get the all black suite to photograph very well....so just picture a slightly ruffly collared jacket and a knee-length skirt with the same slight ruffle in the bottom of the skirt. So, yeah, I spent some money and the hubby has NO CLUE the amount I've spent...I keep hoping it will fly under the radar and just blend in with the expense of my trip to NYC this weekend. **GRIN**

Another Giveaway

Over at The Life of a Suburban Princess she's giving away some body lotion and fall-themed soaps. Go here to learn how to enter to win and for once you don't have to have a blog to enter.

Here's what she's giving away:

These soaps...

And this body lotion:

Some floor swimming, a rockin' baby & a plug for Sweden

Here's a short clip of my 6 month old floor swimming, and yes, it's laundry day and that's my pile of clothes on the floor in the background! :)

Short clip:

Here's a longer clip of the floor swimming and of course the tell-tale signs of a beginning crawler - THE ROCK!

Longer clip:

Uploading several more (longer) clips of Paul crawling on my YouTube account.