Beat It! The Heat...Beat the Heat!

With the heat index reaching 110 for days this week, I had been promising Ruby an after nap swim...that is after we got a pump to pump up our back yard pool. So, on the way to Becca's softball game Friday night we dropped by Target to pick up a pump (the kind you use for air mattresses and apparently blow up pools nowadays). After having an exciting morning which included a trip to the Downtown YMCA (fabulous gym, by the way), lunch with Honey and Nana at Whole Foods for Popcicle Palooza (free popcicles and fun crafts all day), and a side trip to the "lilo-tard" store (what is with ONE gymnastics leotard size XXS for a 3 YEAR OLD costing nearly $50? Needless to say we didn't buy one!), the kids went down for a nap and we set out to get the pool ready. Of course it didn't quite work out that way. We tried to get a bit of rest too and ended up blowing up and filling up the pool with Ruby after she woke up...but that was fine because I think it was just as exciting as the swimming was to her. Imagine being a 2 1/2 year old watching a pool grow before your very eyes. It must have been a total trip for her not really knowing exactly what was taking place. Yes, of course we offered an explanation. I think the acts of air are still pretty magical and mysterious to her, even so (and sometimes funny, i.e. passing gas...farts get ALOT of laughter in our house lately). Ruby, Alex, and Elvis had so much fun in the little pool (I say little, but these blow up pools have come a long way since I was a little kid. . .and adult, even two, can fit in them with their kids...that is so awesome compared to the 6" deep, 3'x3' circle pools of my youth!). My bonehead moment of the day came when not 2 minutes after I got out my camera with the long lens attached so as not to get at all wet, Ruby decided to take the hose out of the pool and wave it over her head like a lasso... getting me, my camera, and our living room (thanks to the sliding glass door being left open by me, of course) very very wet. I promptly turned off my camera leaving it to dry and shut the door...only to pick up my camera when the pool was full and the hose was turned OFF! I got some fun pictures of the three of them having fun. They played for about an hour before I gave in and put on my swimsuit...45 SECONDS after I stepped into the 95 degree water (it was like getting into a warm bath) it started to RAIN! I'm not complaining (reading over it it certainly sounds like I am, but I'm not!)...we REALLY NEEDED the rain! Even with the rain it was a perfect summer day! It was relaxing but not lazy. It was hot then cooled off. We all had smiles on our faces and breezy attitudes. I love the way I feel after swimming...the most good natured sleepy feeling (every one of us in this house is usually a grump when sleepy and that is putting it nicely). I didn't even stress about dinner, we had picnic food at the dinner table: sandwiches, cheese bunnies, and cut fruit. OH GOSH, it was a fantastic day! xoxo

Just want to shout out to Michael Jackson, wherever he may be. Our pastor actually spoke about him this morning in church and made me realize that no matter how I feel about what he had become in recent years that his music brought me through some really important times of my life. I actually can't remember a time in my life, not taking in account the past maybe 5 years, that I didn't listen to his music from Jackson 5 to Prince of Pop days. Quick memory: When I was in preschool I had a life size poster of MJ in a white tuxedo lying with a tiger hanging next to my bed. As a little Jayme I would talk to Michael endlessly about anything, I would sing to him, and dance. I can remember the day I put star stickers all over the poster and my mom being none too happy that I had done so...I mean, life size posters weren't cheap! I can't remember a time that I didn't know the words to Billy Jean or a time when it wasn't cool to learn the dance steps to Thriller (which I did have a Tshirt that had a picture of MJ in full Thriller costume that said something along the lines of "I know its you Michael and I'm not scared"...weird.). He may have become a total side show since his time in the the center ring came to a close, but his music will always hold a fondness in my heart as a monument to my youth.

CANNOT Believe I Forgot . . .

Our emergency room visit!!! Thursday afternoon we were all at Honey and Becca's (minus a working late Honey) when we heard a big bang (it was the familiar sound of Becca's bedroom door hitting her closet door) followed by crying and Becca saying, "Jayme, come in here I think Ruby hit her head." When I got to her room Ruby was on the floor looking down and when she looked up I caught sight of the most disgusting GROWING bleeding bulge on Ruby's head. The egg was growing so quickly it got to the size of nearly, I swear, my fist in no time. It was the bleeding that freaked me out the most. I must say that I am completely impressed with my and Alex's calm quick action. We were in the car, calming Ruby, attempting to calm Becca, and at the nearest hospital (points for having the clarity to know the nearest hospital to some one else's house) in minutes. It turned out that everything looked fine. As you can see in the pictures that the hematoma had gone down considerably even before we were seen by the doctor. Ruby truly enjoyed her $600 (maybe even more) orange popcicle and dose of motrin! And we enjoyed our expensive, but worth it peace of mind! She did have a slight concussion, but nothing a few hours of staying awake didn't help. I think Becca was more freaked out than any of us. She's totally learned a lesson on watching the little ones! NOT that it was her fault to begin with...it could have happened with ANY of us!

Also, my Uncle Paul passed away last week and we had the honor of attending his funeral which was one of the most wonderful celebrations of life I've attended. As difficult times seem to do, it allowed me to see family that I haven't seen in ages. Some of the family hadn't even met Ruby or Elvis! (My favorite moment of the day was when my cousin Aliska, with her 3 nearly grown boys, practically squealed when she realized the mom calming down her crazy toddler was me! It is great to be loved!) We spent the entire afternoon into evening hanging out and wondering why in the world we let it go so long without seeing one another. We left with a renewed spirit and resolve not to lose touch as we had before! Love to my family! xoxo

Little Stinkers Updates

So, these are the fruits of our morning portraits. I'm not sure if these are my favorites yet or not. There are so many to pick from that I just quickly chose a few to share. Ruby and Elvis were in such good spirits for us (Alex and I could have taken a lesson from them that morning...we did a little bickering). I would have to say that these are so much better than our previous attempt! They actually look happy together. Though it is still going to take them a little time to work in perfect concert...there are a TON of photos with one of them looking wonderful and the other like a complete insano!

Since I last blogged, we've been super busy. This summer we are taking my sister, Becca, to her strength and speed training at the YMCA. Of course it couldn't be at the Y just around the corner from our house, but out at the far reaches of civilization (otherwise known as 15 minutes east on the freeway). Her training only lasts for an hour and a quarter each day, so the little ones have been becoming familiar with the Y nursery (and all of the super nice ladies in it) and I am getting reacquainted with my nemesis the GYM (OH MY!). As much as it is forcing us to readjust our routine, I do like the idea of getting rid (or at least lessening) my post 2 baby jelly belly (let me tell you...I've got a lot of jelly). After one week of gym-ing it, Ruby got slightly sick from nursery germs, Elvis had the sniffles, and I got the worst case of mastitis (bacterial infection in, GASP, the boob...well, a milk duct to be exact) with a 103 fever for 3 days! Thanks to Becca and Mom I was able to get my relax on while I was sick. Ruby spent 2 nights/days with them so I could get better. I'm still nursing Elvis or he would have been with them, too! I didn't get quite as much relaxation as I thought I would because Elvis started CRAWLING (Tuesday, June 16) the day I started feeling bad! He was totally inspired by Bree, my friend Liz's little girl, who stayed Tuesday morning with us while her mommy and big sis went to the dentist. They had a wonderful time being little together! That is the only way I know how to put it, they were just so cute checking one another out looking so excited to see someone their own size!

There really isn't too much more to report. I'm just getting over feeling bad, we had a wonderful Father's Day with Sunday School (we've found a great little SS class that we love & Ruby has started one, too), Church (we love our new church and feel so lucky to have found it), lunch at WFM, and our annual Father's Day movie (Year One...the babies were asleep so we saw a PG-13)! Monday we headed to the YMCA, and today we rocked it at a birthday party at the Spray Park in Gtown! Ruby is totally into water fun lately...who wouldn't be with a heat index of 110???

xoxo

Summer School

Ruby at Mimi and Papa's house in the desk Papa painted for her.

Elvis playing while Ruby and I have school time. . .I think all of his floor time without Ruby jumping on him has helped him move forward in the milestone department. 

Ruby making playdoh snakes. She also made sausages and a pickle (her ideas)!

Ruby in her "lilo-tard" on her first day of gym. We are at Little Gym now to introduce her to gymnastics, and I am looking for her a traditional gym for the fall when she can join a 3 year old class.

With the beginning of June came the start of summer and the start of our homeschooling journey. Ruby has been showing interest in more structured learning. I had been just waiting for the right time to give it a shot. All of our circumstances aligned. I wanted the beginning of homeschool to correspond with the start of some other structured activity like dance, gym or Sunday school. So, we began Little Gym gymnastics, Sunday school, AND homeschool in the same week. I'm planning on setting 6 month goals for us during the preschool years and getting into more structured curriculum at our start of elementary learning. So, for now we are learning our letters, phonemes (sounds the letters make), counting, shapes, colors, thinking skills, to recognize written letters and numbers, a few sight words...basic preschool stuff. The first week has been wonderful. Ruby LOVES her gym class (see smiling picture in her leotard...she calls the class "lilo-tard class")! I see her follow my directions on a daily basis, but it was really special to watch her follow another person's directions, help the teacher and cooperate with other kids! We did a craft everyday this week that had to do with our letter of the week, "S". We sculpted, glued, cut, colored and stickered. Our "S" subjects were the Sun, Spiders, Scooby-Doo (Ruby wanted to watch a movie one day and I told her she could if she picked one out that started with an "S"... and so Scooby-Doo entered the schoolhouse!), Stars, Snakes (see photo of Ruby with the playdoh snakes), and Spongebob Squarepants. Along with craft time we read books featuring our letter, sang songs. . .all the things you think of when you think of preschool. I think our first week of school gave Ruby the confidence to try out Sunday school again (we had tried the previous week to get her to stay in Sunday school instead of the nursery at church with no success). She did wonderfully, especially since it was mostly older kids (over the summer they have only a handful of kids in attendance so her class is 3-7 year olds instead of 3-4's, but it is going to have her super comfortable once the fall session arrives). All in all, Ruby had a terrific week!

In Elvis news, he has hit a number of milestones at once. . .and they keep on coming. Two days ago he sat up by himself (I think he may have been doing this on the sly before that, but it was the first time I had actually witnessed it. . .and, hello, I have it on video on my phone. . .I have to figure out how to post it!)! He has been rocking on his hands and knees for a week or two now and I know it is only a matter of a short time before he is all out crawling.  Ruby only crawled for something like 2 weeks before she was full on walking. Goodness help me! What am I going to do with both of them RUNNING around the house? Yesterday afternoon E thought it was time to pull an adorable kid classic out of his hat and start waving . . . at himself no less. Melt my heart!  He waves with his little hand and will then proceed to wave his entire arm in utter joy! I'm taking his waving expertise as he is ready to learn sign language now. How wonderful to begin communication as if he hasn't been completely telepathicly linked to us up until now (oh, yes that is was I meant to say...sometimes we just know what he means to say). 

This morning we did some much needed portraits of Ruby and Elvis. I have 52 billion beautiful photos of other people's kids and hardly anything but snapshots of my own. So I made an appointment with myself and told Alex we had to treat it as if we had one with someone else (and were paying them as much as people pay me) so as not to flake on our own kids pictures. I hope there are some good shots. I know there must be of them on their own, but getting both of them to be happy ... heck, I'd take not miserable ... in concert is a quite the task. Ruby just hasn't perfected her self control enough to sit next to baby brother and take her thumb out of her mouth (honestly I think she has plenty of self control and is just hard headed...that is a 2 year old for you, though) and Elvis is a great model, but his timing doesn't match up with Ruby's quarter seconds of serenity. We'll see!

xoxo

More Mickey Magic

Oh my goodness have we been busy. So busy I haven't been online in days! Here is the promised conclusion of our Disney days sure to be followed by stories of what has been keeping me from blogging.

Fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. We found a perfect spot to watch with nobody around us (on the edge of Frontier Land).

Ruby and Alex "Goofy-ing"  around at Epcot, our favorite park by far.

Elvis in his very first pair of Mickey Ears! That face is his "determined to have more fun" face!

Ruby doing her part to get the luggage out to the car on check out day. We were all totally sad to leave the Happiest Place on Earth!

 A few little side stories from our trip. . .

*Ruby has never been around so many people not speaking English. We do have a few friends that we hang out with that speak Spanish (and Alex speaks a little "Californian". . .an interesting blend of kind of Spanish at times), but never before has she been literally bombarded by foreign languages. I can only imagine what her little mind must have thought about hearing snippits of French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, and a handful of languages. So, it was about day 3 when she started speaking in her own made up language. For the rest of the trip whenever she saw fit she would go on and on in "Ruby-ese". It was pretty amazing to witness her noticing other people speaking and figure. . ."hey, I can do that!"

*We met our friend Joey Boone (who works for Disney and is the only person I know that loves it more than we do) at Fort Wilderness for dinner and an outdoor showing of High School Musical 3 (they show a FREE movie EVERY NIGHT at the campgrounds after the smores roast and campfire songs with Disney characters). It was loads of fun and Joey is now Ruby's best friend. She has asked about him as many times as she has asked about Mickey since we've been home! 

*From day 1 Ruby called the entire resort "Mickey's House". When we got to our room it was:

Ruby: "Mommy, is this Mickey's room?"

Mommy: "Yes, baby! He's going to let us sleep here, he has plenty of room."

Ruby: "Can I go pee pee on Mickey's potty?

(while going) Mommy, does Mickey pee pee on this potty?"

Mommy: "Yes, of course, it is his potty."

Ruby: "I'M PEEING ON MICKEY'S POTTY!"

*Ruby and Elvis did wonderfully the entire trip just going with the flow! Napping when they were tired, staying up late to have extra fun, being super good sports about the heat...all in all they did great! Our last night in the parks the Magic Kingdom was open until MIDNIGHT! You guessed it, while Elvis lay fast asleep in the stroller, Ruby, Alex, and I went on a ride bonanza! We rode more rides in the two hour time span between 10 and midnight than we had ridden our entire time in the Magic Kingdom! Ruby even rode on her very first ROLLER COASTER in Mickey's Toon Town Fair called Goofy's Barnstormer! I took her on it first. Alex rode with her a second and third time (those were consecutive because there was nobody in line...not too many little kids in the park that late...I guess we were living on the edge!). Every time she got off she ran and squealed "AGAIN! AGAIN!" I wouldn't trade experiencing that for anything in the entire world! 

We just got a postcard from the Disney gang a few days ago that said "We miss you, too!" Boy did they get it right, we do miss Mickey! I think we've got the babies hooked now, too! Alex has already mentioned planning our next trip down there! WOOO HOOO! 

xoxo