Just Another Day

Lest I ever forget what my "real" life is like, here's a little reminder.  Below is a list of all the stupid things I've done just today (and it's only 4 pm)

- dumped my full coffee cup all over the counter and cooktop.  and it was "splurge" coffee, too, doctored with heavy cream.

- went to finally fold the load of clothes from a few days ago, and found them wet (and now stinky) in the dryer.  Yay.  Rewashed those....

- thought it would be fun to let the kids play outside while I potted my new geraniums.  Jacob thought it was fun, too.  He scooped up potting soil, put in the pot, and dumped the pot over his head.  Not just once, either.

- bath day.  Not really a stupid thing I've done, but Jacob did pee standing up in the tub (with Jordan in there) and was ENTHRALLED by the stream of urine coming from his body and splashing in the tub.

- learned that my effort to keep a minimum $500 balance in my business checking account, to avoid the monthly service fee, has been in vain.  It's a $1000 minimum. 

Happy Friday!

Funny Conversation

The kids just went to bed.  Jamie tells me Jordan wants to say goodnight to me (I had put Jacob down), so I go in there and give her kisses goodnight.  She asks:
"What are you going to do when I go to bed?"

- "I'm going to work on the computer."

"You're going to work on your computer?  Ok, well, if you need me, I'm in here..." 

Aww... I think I'll go tell her I need another kiss.

Jordan Bloopers

I get such a kick out of some of the stuff Jordan says.  She was in fine form yesterday when I picked her up from school.  It went something like this:

"Guess what, Mama.  Jesus died."  (Easter time, Lutheran school)

 - "Yes he did, honey."

"Yeah.  He died on the clock."


I tried to ask her some more about her day and what she learned at school, but she got really irritated with me.  (Jordan is frequently irritated when I pick her up because she's tired, hungry, and doesn't want to leave.)  So she starts acting badly and tells me "I don't like you!"  This has apparently become the retort of choice with the girls on the playground, and we're trying hard to correct it.  But on the way to the grocery store she asks for some treat or special privilege, I think to ride in the shopping cart.  So I tell her she needs to start acting nicely and stop saying mean things, to which she replies, in a syrupy voice, "I'm sorry, Mama."  pause.....  "I'm sorry I don't like you."   Nice.

She was pretty good at the store and at Costco.  She got to ride in the cart.  We're leaving and she says, "I can't wait to eat that porcupine." 

??? 

Then she points to the pineapple. 

Jordan-speak

Jordan sometimes hears things differently than the rest of us, and her mis-translations are hilarious.  What's even funnier is the vehemence with which she defends her version of things.  Here's a sample:

- She thinks Snow White is singing "Whistle while you were".  If you sing it "wrong", she'll get completely exasperated with you (involves lots of irritated sighing).

- She likes the story about "Handsome and Grittle".  (She likes any story with a witch, or a mean old woman that she can make into a witch.)

- a buffet is a cafe

- she randomly subs a "f" for a "th", but is consistent with the words she does this for (fink/think, somefing/something, toof/tooth)

- she's finally acquiesced on this one, but for a long time she called pepperoni pizza macaroni pizza.

Leg Man

It's been warming up: warm enough to bust out the running shorts in place of the running tights for our morning jogs.  Apparently the sight of my bare legs is a novelty for Jacob.  All day long yesterday he'd come up to me and feel my legs up and down, and make his "oooh" sound which translates to "hey, look at that!".  Lucky for him they were shaved. 

Lame

Looking through my blog really quickly, I realized that there are NO PICTURES.  I'm a photographer!  How lame is that?  Hmm, lazy is a better word maybe. 

Here's my Zilla:

I don't have pics of Jacob pooping the tub (thank goodness), but here he is after he got himself stuck in the Legos bucket.

And waiting for the brownies to cook:

And some soccer shots of Jordan enjoying our 68-degree day:



Toy

I shed a tear today for my beloved Godzilla toy.  Despite new juice, he could not be revitalized.  He was a really cool attack Zilla.  He has a ramp the charges him up, and he runs down it with a red LED blazing in his mouth.  He also has little charging leads under his butt to get juice from the batteries inside the ramp.  I think one of the leads broke; I'm sure one of my children is to blame.  He's special to me because I got him years ago direct from the source: a cool toy shop in Tokyo.  Ok, technically he was made in China (what isn't), but I remember the experience of buying him, so he's special.  And I love Godzilla in general.

Where have you been?!?

Me?  I've been here, at the computer, until all hours of the night.  Not on this blog, obviously.  Not posting pictures.  And recipes?  Ha.  I do write down the good ones, but forget about bringing the recipe book upstairs and posting them on the recipe blog.  No, I've been working (technically it's "slaving") away on my new website for CatchLight Photography, which funny enough, is a blogsite. Let's hope I do a better job posting over there. 

When not working on the website, I've been working on taxes.  I know, we're just going downhill....  But tax time is a boon for us this year, so there's definitely incentive to get 'em DONE.  That refund is getting Jamie's car new shocks (which blew out 5 years ago) and me a pro-grade camera.  Which I'll write off, show a loss, and the vicious cycle continues.  Some day my business will show a profit. 

Anyway, winter is a good time to work like dogs because it's been too cold to do anything.  Until this week.  It was 68 degrees today!  I can feel the itch of Spring Fever and my will to work at the computer wane.  But while I'm here, I'll write a quick post about the kids.  The recipes can wait.  They'll just make you fat, anyway.

Jacob Strikes Again

Yep, he's still pooping in the tub.  This time Jamie was the lucky bath-giver, and Jordan was the not-so-lucky bath mate.  And it got stuck in the drain, so I was the fisherman, with my mangled wire hanger.  Happy Valentine's Day!!  Love, Jacob.

Waving a White Flag

Today was one of those mornings.... Lately, I seem to have more than my fair share.  I'm not sure what I did to piss off the gods, but I hope we're even now.

It's my own fault because I create a lot of projects for myself.  Today's project, with its hard deadline, was making the icing and decorating the V-day cookies we're taking to a party tonight.  I've gotten pretty efficient at this over the years, so it didn't seem like it would be that much work.  Jacob, however, wasn't impressed with my plans for the morning.  I put him in his feeding chair so he can hang out while I work; he screams; I appease him with puffs dotted with icing. And create a monster (with "crazy eyes") hopped up on sugar.  Sweet.

Next, it's time for his bath.  He always gets a bath at night, but I had better things to do last night (I had to roll out and bake those &$#!-ing cookies), so he got one this morning instead.  Three minutes in, he poops the tub.  So I take him out (which makes him mad), scrub down the tub, start over.  No biggie, I can handle a curve ball.  He poops the tub again. These are not scoopable turds, here.  I rinse him off, take him out (now he's furious), scrub down the tub, let's take bath #3.  The silver lining is his three baths knocked him out. 

So, now I'm getting to eat my lunch in peace.  Nothing a big bowl of fatty pasta can't fix.  I did look longingly at the New Castle when I grabbed my diet DP out of the fridge.  But then I looked at the time, and sighed.

Winter, Winter, go away...

Oh great day, Jordan went back to school today!  :-)  But it looks like we may be house-bound again come Wednesday.  Boo!!!

I like the cold.  I like jackets and blankets and heavy food.  I like snow.  I do not like being trapped by the weather, though.  And of course, being a Texan, it doesn't take much for me to feel like I shouldn't get out in it.  But this last week SUCKED.  It was so cold that my windows froze over.  It was so cold that they cancelled school because 1) the buses' fuel froze, and 2) the city ran out of natural gas.  It was so cold that my cable couldn't transmit the TV signal.  It was so cold that even Jamie didn't go out for his morning run.  Now you know how cold it was. 

I'm not sure how those Northerners cope.  And I don't plan to ever find out.

Drug that kid. Please.

For those of you who used to marvel at how EASY Jacob was as a baby, I have to say that 1) all good times must end, and 2) payback is a bitch.  On our flight home from Texas yesterday, Jacob was that kid.

The flight to Dallas was packed, not a spare seat to be found.  We learned on the flight out that Jacob does better near the window, and from that vantage he can usually only kick one seat and yank one tray table.  So there we were, wrestling the whole way to Dallas.  A short flight, thank goodness.  Jordan, bless her heart, slept the entire way, and most of the next flight, too.  Jacob shrieked, clawed, kicked, threw cheerios, did that weird rear and arch your back thing that only baby boys seem able to do.  He was so bad that when we were sitting at the gate in Dallas, the woman sitting in our aisle seat turned to me and said "She was great", nodding to Jordan who was sound asleep on the woman's arm, followed by "He really gave you an awful time.  I don't know how you do it.  Next time try giving him Paregoric.  Two drops in his milk and he'll be out."  I just looked at her, like "What???"  She says, all sarcastic,  "oh, that's probably one of those things doctors would frown on in this day and age."  So I got home and Googled it.  It's freakin' Opium.

The leg to Albuquerque was empty, less that 40 people.  Some woman took the seat right in front of me and Jacob.  I leaned forward and said, "Just so you know, you have the worst seat on the plane right now.  You might want to move."  She just looked at me like I was nuts, and did not move.  But she didn't ask me to drug my kid.

Jacob Headlines

I got my first smooch from Jacob two nights ago.  It just melted my heart.  It's been a bit of a hard sell to get him to go to bed at night.  He's been pretty energetic well past his bedtime.  While I'm trying to rock him to sleep, and generally calm him down, he'll pinch my face, poke my eyes, pick my nose, and push my face back and forth.  All the while laughing.  It's pretty funny.  He's been just bumping his open mouth against my chin, and I was afraid he was getting ready to bite me.  I think if he figures out biting, he'll find that even more amusing.  But then he figured out how to give a kiss. 

Christmas: Kropka Style

Happy New Year, Everyone!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season, getting to do what you love with those you love!  We surely did, and every year it gets better.  We made a few tweaks to our Christmas festivities, for the better I think, and I want to remember the details in addition to the feeling of Christmas in our house.

First off, Christmas starts the weekend after Thanksgiving for us.  Not a MINUTE sooner... We get down the tree, decorate the house, (try to) mail the Christmas cards.  For me personally, Christmas is about spending quality time with family, hosting friends, creating a season of joy and wonder for the kids, and reflecting on our recent year and good fortune.  It's important to me to NOT be stressed out at this time of year.  For the kids, it's about extra playtime, extra movie time, extra sweets and goodies, and TOYS.  For Jamie, I'd speculate that it's about chilling out and playing with his kids.  Here's how we celebrated.  It was wonderful.

- We spent Christmas at HOME.  I'm a homebody.  We have little kids.  Christmas on the road is just too stressful right now.  I'm so thankful for the family that could come to us, yet again, this year, and for those who couldn't but were here in spirit.

- We have a new family member!  Karen's partner, Marsha, joined our family for Christmas this year, and we're thrilled to have her, and thankful she wanted to share Christmas with us.  We all adore her.  Jordan is NUTSO for her.  She calls her "My Marsha"...

- We really try to make Christmas about the kids, without going overboard.  So this year, we just did gifts for the kids and modest stocking stuffers for the adults.  It was nice, less stressful, and less "stuff" oriented.  I always say money is better spent doing stuff than having stuff.  Although the mess of toys downstairs begs otherwise.

- We went to the River of Lights.  This will be an ABQ tradition, weather permitting.  Poor little Jacob had a nasty cough for weeks and had to stay home with Nana and Pa, but Jo, Jamie and I braved the drizzle (which cleared up) and enjoyed a stroll through the lights.

- We went to Old Town on Christmas Eve eve to see the Luminarias lit up in the Plaza.  So pretty, so nice to be outside in the crisp evening air, and I great way to get ready for Santa.

-  Food Food Food!  I love to cook, and I really love to cook nice, decadent meals when I know I have a crew on hand to enjoy it and help eat it.  Christmas Eve dinner this year was Latkes and Tamales, and Xmas dinner was a standing rib roast.  We had cannoli, stroufflies, Biscochitos, my traditional Xmas cookies, and a new chocolate cake.  I hope there will always be an abundance of good food in our house for the holidays. 

- Outdoor winter fun.  It's nice to live in a place that feels like Christmas and winter, with a reasonable chance of snow sometime over the holiday.  We took Jo sledding and ice skating.  Jamie and I spent New Year's Day skiing.  It's nice to have activities planned besides eating and lounging. 

So, onto the new year.  New plans, new resolutions.  I actually stuck with one of my resolutions from last year: stop eating junk for breakfast.  This year, my goal is to stay positive with the challenges I've taken upon myself in the form of my new business, while keeping focus on my children as my number one priority.  I hope it's a year of personal and professional growth.  I know it will be as every past year has been: a fast-paced adventure.