Monsoons

I love Monsoon season. Right when you think it'll never rain again, it pours and pours. We haven't had a lick of rain since May 1 (it is the desert...) and the last three days we've gotten rain in the afternoon. It makes me think of the African wildlife shows that document the annual weather cycle, and show the animals coming out of their baked stupor once it starts raining. I love that we get beautiful clear mornings, then menacing clouds by 2 or 3 pm, then a nice downpour. I mean, it's 72 degrees outside right now! Sure beats 100. And by this evening, it will have cleared off and we'll get an awesome sunset.

Saturday Night Fever

My Saturday nights have reached a new low. Jamie's too; he fell asleep with Jordan at 8:30. Me, I watched Dinocroc, a Scy-Fy network original movie. Translate: silly, low budget, two-hour time suck. It's about a genetically mutated super croc. Of course, it eats people. I got interested in it because I caught the last five minutes of its sequel, Dinocroc vs Super Gator, which the TV guide gave zero stars, but gave 1 1/2 stars to the original. To my credit, I gave up after 45 minutes and crawled in bed to read a book. By myself. Because Jamie was still passed out with Jo. We like to get crazy around here on the weekends.

Father's Day Fun

We celebrated a nice Father's Day yesterday. It was a pretty typical Sunday: Jamie did his long run, the kids and I hung out, but went to get bagels at Einstein's and we Skyped Pa to wish him a good day, played a little outside... That afternoon I felt like I was the one celebrating Father's Day, I feel asleep on the couch watching the US Open. Just like old times before kids. For dinner we went to Kelly's, a cool microbrew-type place (they have like 20 craft brews on tap, for $4 a pint!! and kids eat free on the weekend!!). We pigged out on pub food, watched more golf. I had a little incident with a table umbrella stand while trying to navigate my way out of the restaurant, but no matter.

After dinner we walked around the UNM campus for a Father/kids photo shoot. What a pretty place; it was lush with all kinds of trees, a pond, a waterfall, rolling hills. So much fun for photography. Jamie and Jordan explored the waterfall area while I fed Jacob. He was hungry, in a very bad mood, impatient after watching us stuff ourselves on fries and heavy beer. Anyway, I got some great pictures of Jamie playing with the kids, and I learned some new tricks for keeping Jordan engaged. Although one of the tricks involves letting her take a few pictures with my camera. This cost me some shots (I forgot to readjust the camera when I took it back from her) and a lens smudge, but she really got a kick out of it and even got some cool shots that I hadn't thought of :-) Here's the best one:

The weekend ended on a super high note with homemade cherry/raspberry pie. Happy Father's Day to all of those great Daddies out there that are integral, fun, and irreplaceable parts of their kids' lives!

Positive Reinforcement

I keep talking about how when Jo goes back to school, I'm getting a gym membership b/c Jacob will be old enough to leave in a gym daycare while I work out. And I'm excited to get to do this, but it seems like I should still be able to get plenty of exercise now. I found a used double jogger online, so walking is back on, and I still have two mornings available to me to swim (if I can get out of bed). So, the only piece really missing is weights (but I lug around a baby), spin class and ab workouts. And obviously, there is no good reason I can't do an ab workout at home. AND, given the previous post, and the looming beach vay-cay in September, it would behoove me to get on it.

So during Jordan's naptime today, I found an ab workout on the freebie On Demand programs on cable. Jacob was up, so I just let him play nearby while I did my crunches. Some cheerleader... he laughed and laughed at me the whole time! Every time I would roll up, and he could see my face, he'd start laughing. It's really hard to do sit-ups when you're laughing. I'm sure I'll be really sore tomorrow. Sad, sad, sad. It was a 10 minute workout.

Clothes

Something strange happened to my body after bearing two children. Somehow, my torso must have elongated 2 inches, which means my legs must have also shrunk said 2 inches, since I'm still 5'6".... Why do I think this??? Because every last shirt I own is TWO INCHES TOO SHORT!!!! I can understand things still being a little snug in my midsection, I stall have a few pounds to go, but this is ridiculous. I was standing in line at the post office today (another story), and to my horror, when I glanced down at Jordan, I saw in my peripheral vision a band of while belly fat. Soooo embarrassing. Thank goodness I had Jacob with me, who I think sometimes serves as the silent explanation for my disheveled appearance.

Sha-Zam!!!

Jordan's latest passion is Magic. And Magicking. Yes, magick is the latest craze in this house, and it's used as a verb. By Jordan. She has magic wands all over the house, and she likes to use them on us. We're turned into princesses, dragons, toads, horses, whatever her fancy. I think this is so fun for her because she gets to be the boss.

Jamie likes this new phase; there must be some deep rooted longing in him to be the boss as well :-) He started a game with Jordan where he takes a piece candy of a certain color and magicks it into a different color (by swapping it out from a stash of hidden multi-colored candies). Jordan tried to get me to do this trick one day, but she only brought me one candy and the wand, and I told her I couldn't do magic, only Daddy could (cleverly exempting myself from Jordan's obsessive repetition for the new game).

Anyway, Jamie decided to take on the role of house magician, and checked out like 8 books of simple magic tricks from the library. So morning, noon, and night, Jordan requests Daddy to magick something. It's so cute. She believes all of his tricks are real, but she also helps out by closing her eyes right before the magic happens. Today, I magicked the little remote control to the fan into disappearing, and we found it in Jordan's pants. She was so caught up in thinking about what the surprise would be, that she totally missed me tucking it down the back of her pants while she was sitting by me. When I said "Hey, what's that?!?" and pulled the remote out of her waistband, she just laughed and laughed with glee. How sweet is that?!

Powers of Persuasion

Jordan's bedtime routine, through all its evolution, is an excellent example of how she bends us all to her rule. Here's how we've progressed (or regressed).

Original deal: in bed by 8:00 after reading a book and a quick snuggle in the rocking chair.

As she got older we added a second book. Hey, reading's important.

Jordan outgrows the crib and gets a bed. Now Mama or Daddy can lay down with her for the "quick snuggle".

During times of Grandparents' visits, this quick snuggle turns into a full blown nap with Jordan, and no getting up until she's sound asleep. A week of renegotiating after they leave fixes this.

Eventually we're back to one book (her books are getting longer) , which Jordan always insists on reading, plus one of us lays down with her for a while, but not until she falls asleep. Bedtime more like 8:30. And there's usually an argument over the need to go potty before bed.

Then Jordan started requesting an extra hug and kiss when you get up to leave, no matter how many she got in bed.

Now we're at the following: one book, someone to snuggle her in bed, that someone needs to sing two songs at her request (always ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), after songs she wants you to scratch her back, then rub it, then a hug and kiss when you get up to leave. Tonight she tried to get me to scratch her belly, too, which prompted the blog entry. And BTW, I'm not adding belly scratching to the nightly routine.