Why There's Always Just One Shoe on the Road

Mark is out of town right now, has been since last Wednesday and won't be back until this Wednesday.  You can imagine what it means being alone with two rambunctious boys; but we're fine over all.  The big luxury with Mark out of town is access to a car all day long.  Today I drove the boys out to a diner in Silver Spring, MD.  It's an old school diner that's small, dirty (clean dirt though - you understand) and just full of character. You could smell the grease when we walked in.

Peter, of course, wanted a Coke.  If you tell Peter we're going to a restaurant he immediately wants a Coke - the two things are 100% related in his mind.  As soon as we parked the car and before we got out he starts chanting "I want a Coke, I get a Coke.  Coke Coke Coke!"   So, when the waitress walks up to take our order Peter says, where's my Coke?!  He still doesn’t understand he has to ask for it first then it comes.

The meal was quite a circus act.  I asked for a booth so I didn't have to worry about chairs being knocked over and I feel I can pin them in if we're sitting in a booth.  The table top juke box provided some entertainment much more than the computer print out drawing of Sponge Bob Square pants and crayons provided.  The food came quickly and was nothing to write home about, but the kids were excited - Paul for the ketchup which is pretty much all he ate, and Peter for the Coke and pancakes (we were there for lunch but he wanted pancakes and...whatever...).   I ordered a sandwich because anything I have to cut to eat with these two kids is impossible.   Paul constantly jumped up and down in the bench while he ate, I think the guy behind me left with some ketchup on the back of shirt - totally unbeknown to him (I didn't see it until they were walking away).  Paul managed to get his little hands on the pepper shaker which was glass and was broken on the tile floor within seconds.  Peter, who is obsessed with street names right now, was chattering away about what route we are going to take home:

Peter:  Yes, that's it mom

ME: what?

Peter: Mom, we can take Colesville rd to Connecticut Rd and then turn on Tilden

ME: a bit impressed because it's almost right except that Colesville doesn't really run across Connecticut... that's good peter (I'm wrangling Paul off the back of the seat again and wishing I had asked for a high chair even though they now make Paul scream and cry)

Peter:  what street is this diner on?

ME: Cameron i think

Peter: oh yes, then we can take Cameron to Coleseville.... I stop listening to take a bite of cold steak sandwich

The adventure doesn't end with the diner though.  I'm happily driving us all home (down Georgia Avenue by the way, not Colesville Rd) with the windows open on this gorgeous day, answering Peter at every cross street with the street names and dreaming of nap time that's just 30 mins away when I hear all this honking behind me.  The guy behind me is frantically waving.  I roll my eyes - I've gotten in the habit of driving a bit slow and people around here just don't like it and i just don't care...I'm in the right hand lane.  He goes past screaming something out his window.  Now really, I'm not going that damn slow - I am 5 miles over the speed limit even.  The next light up, I hear more honking and look to see yet another person waiving their hands.  I'm totally baffled why these people are going so nuts!  The woman pulls up next to me and says your kids are throwing things out the windows! Oh Christ! I yell.  The woman and man in the car start laughing and I started laughing too as I rolled up the windows and said thank you.

We lost two rubber balls, a shoe, a sock (if you're ever wondering why there is always just one shoe on the road - now you know), a stick the kids had gotten from the playground this morning, some food that was in the console between the kids, and a sippy cup.  I'm sure we lost some other stuff that I'm not aware of and will go nuts looking for a week from now.

Paul is 10 months old!

God, where does the time go?!  Paul will be a year old in just two months!!  I just love him to pieces!  He's all over the place crawling and cruising between furniture.  He loves "walking around" pushing his older brother's toy car around.  We went for his wellness exam and got his shots and some blood work done, we also got his stats:

Weight 21lbs 5 oz (down to the 25%)
Height: 39.5 inches (75% for that one)
Head Circumference: 18.5 inches

So he's growing and I"m shocked to find he has dropped so low in percentiles for weight, because all this kid does is eat!  Almost anything we put in front of him he devours.  He has two little teeth in the bottom front and he uses those suckers to nosh on apple wedges, bagels, orange slices, he eats like he has a head full of teeth!  He loves making noise and grunts and says mamamamama and dadadadadda a lot.  He'll clap on cue and wave and recently we got him to blow kisses but we can't get him to do it on cue every time.

One of his favorite pass times is chasing the cat and squeezing her.  Our cat either likes it a lot or is just incredibly stupid.  She will saunter past Paul with her tail in the air as slow as possible until she has his attention and then pretend to try and get away - but never actually runs off, she just kind of saunters a little faster.  It's like she's waiting for him to do this (see the photo to the right).

Paul has been at the home-based daycare that we started Peter at (well both boys started together) back around Thanksgiving last year.  Paul is quite happy there and now that all the issues with getting him to sleep at the school seem to have been sorted out I'm happy with him there too.  The staff there just loves Paul so much and I have so much confidence leaving him in the care of women who are clearly so very anxious just to hold him when we arrive each morning to drop him off.

Paul seems to have the same love of music Peter has and we even managed to catch him on video playing the piano with his little fingers all proper-like (that's the first video below).  The big-deal gift of Peter's birthday which we played down a bit, was this giant authentic African drum that was made by a man in Africa that is friends with a friend (did you follow that)...basically it's quite unique and damn nice!  Anyway, you'll see Paul banging on it in the series of videos below (the drum is taller than him).
:

Here's a series of 4 videos of him ...well, being him :)

Paul Starts Eating Solids with Gusto!

This kid LOVES food!

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:

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**

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.

Messy Boy Eating Alert!

I know I've been absent lately - I promise some more posts (and an explanation of what's been keeping me busy) is coming. Meanwhile, feast your eyes on this mess, my cute little six month old attempting to feed himself...he does quite well:

Yeah...I don't bother with bibs anymore.

My Kids Don't Drive me to Drink...

... they drive me to EAT!

I'm not a big drinker, though I love a glass of Clicquot anytime you set one in front of me or some oh-so-smooth Chimay Red. Stressful days or situations don't make me run for the nearest liquor store - they make me run to the nearest chocolatiere!

I just spent from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm trying to get my two cherubs down for their afternoon naps. Here's the series of events and go ahead and imagine the classic circus song (called Entry of the Gladiator, if you're wondering) playing in the background - I know I often do. It's what makes me grin to myself during these hectic moments. Here, you have to get the perfect image in your head…here’s the song:



I put Paul down for his nap at 1:00pm (30 mins late because we had taken a walk to the store).

Peter finishes eating his lunch and I put him down around 1:30 pm – emerge from Peter’s room to here Paul crying his heart out.

I go in and find his mattress is soaked with tears and snot (I thought he had burst a diaper) – but it seems he never went to sleep (as far as I could tell). I found him with both of his socks off and at opposite ends of the crib, he was crooked in the crib with one foot out over the bumper and somehow the crib was pushed out from the wall!

I work to get Paul back down but he just won’t go to sleep and starts playing, cooing and laughing. I bring him down stairs where he plays for a bit and starts crying again and then just breaks down in tears as if he had hurt himself!

Back up stairs to try again to get him to sleep. He falls asleep in my arms almost immediately. I put him in the crib and he wakes up screaming his head off. I wait a bit but he never stops crying.

I pick him up again and again he’s falling asleep fast so I put him down before he’s totally asleep. He starts crying again, but I know he's sleepy so I let him cry it out. After 20 gut-wrenching/heartbreaking minutes of straight crying, he falls asleep.

But what do I hear? Coming from PETER’S room… Peter, course saying ”Mama,Mama.?” very quietly. I don’t answer and come back downstairs. Because if I open his door…all is lost. That child is taking his nap!

I come downstairs and open the freezer to finish off the last of a pint of ice cream I have been so proud of not touching since before we went on vacation over a week ago.

Gone! Is the ice cream.

Gone! Too is the remainder of the bag of Salt & Vinegar chips.

Gone! Yes, yes... is the chocolate bar that I hid from myself in the upper shelving in my kitchen (that never works).

My kids drive me to EAT!

Breakfast with the Kushnir Boys

All these video posts, I'm sure, are quite boring to my non-family members... feel free to ignore them and move on. :) I've been drawing a bit lately and will likely start posting about my art work soon...I hope...maybe.... **GRIN**

To my family (and anyone who cares): Here are couple of videos from breakfast this morning with Paul and Peter. Paul, by the way, has been eating like a trooper! He's had carrots, sweet potatoes (of course he's had rice cereal and oatmeal already), Pears, mashed bananas, mashed potatoes and this morning he had a blend of blueberries and applesauce for breakfast (the first time with berries) he seemed to like it.

The second video is Peter having breakfast and being a two year old! :|

Paul, Oh so Close to Crawling!

I know I just posted a video of Paul scooting/crawling yesterday but the kid figured out how to get up on all fours last evening and today I managed to catch it on video. I love it! Those of you checking my blog that aren't family - I promise to soon be posting about other....well, stuff...but what can I say? I'm obsessed with my kids!

Paul can Crawl!

Well, almost. Our 5 month old is showing signs of mobility! Check out his cute little scoot (around 00:22 on the video).

Paul Eating a Teething Biscuit

Another post? Well, yes - I have the video camera out today! Here's a quick (maybe longer than it should be) clip of Paul gumming on a teething biscuit. Yes, he's only 5 months old but he cut his first tooth at 2 months, so ...yeah, they're needed and he's ready. I just watch him carefully to make sure no giant chunks break off and choke him. It's definitely not something I leave him alone with. Other things Paul eats: pureed peas, bananas and rice cereal. I haven't gotten around to the oatmeal - we kind of skipped right over that. Paul LOVES to eat, he grabs the spoon when it gets near him and he shoves it in his mouth. I'll have to enlist Mark's help to get a video of that (hard to feed Paul and video tape him).

Anyway, here's Paul chomping on the teething biscuit:

Paul Likes to Bounce!

OK... he LOVES to bounce. This kid is a maniac on the bouncer! Check him out (this is at 5:30 in the morning!!!):

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:

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:

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!!!

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!!

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.

Here's a shot of Paul from Sunday - he's kicking the play toy at his feet:

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:

From DD to JJ...Miss you JJ!!!

DD has progressed to JJ. My sister was recently in for visit. I miss her already, it was so great to see her! Her last visit she came in town to help out with our two year old while I was in the hospital delivering our youngest.

My sister stayed in the house alone with our 2 year old rolling through his daily routine and handling it perfectly! Peter loved his "DD", as he called her, and cried when she left!

Well, this visit he no longer calls her "DD". His mispronunciation of her name, Auntie AJ, has now progressed to "JJ"...still a cute nick name! :)

When my sister was here last time I lamented in this post that I never got a photo of her with my newborn son. It still makes me sick I didn't capture them together in a photo. I made up for it this last visit and love the outcome.

Miss you JJ!!