Lunch with friends

I had a very fun lunch today with some former coworkers (from VERY long ago - early LMS crew). We try to do this periodically, but it seems to end up being only once a year now. Only five of us showed up this time, but it was actually really nice since we were all able to carry on a conversation with each other. One thing about the big group lunches is that you usually can only talk to the people sitting immediately around you. But with our small group the people sitting immediately around me were the only ones there.

Anyway, lots of fun catching up with each other and trying to catch up about everyone else we knew. For as much as we all bitched about working at LMS, there sure was a great group of people there. Either that or it was just a fun part of my life (at least AFTER that first marriage ended and my coworkers became my social life - if you can call working advertising hours fun). And if any of you former LMS-ers are reading this, be aware that we are going to really spread the word about the next get together so hopefully everyone can make it.

A Mom Rant

I almost hate to add a post to my blog because I love pulling the site up (of course it's my home page) and immediately seeing that great picture of Grace sitting in her chair at the beach.

But I have to comment about what I saw at the grocery store the other day. I went to Tom Thumb the day after we returned from vacation because of course we were out of just about everything. I had to get some more baby food and had planned to try some of the Gerber organic stuff (I typically buy baby food at Whole Foods, but only wanted to make one store trip on a Sunday afternoon). But I discovered that the regular Gerber stuff was on sale, plus I had coupons for it so I figured just this once I'd buy non-organic. I'd actually read an article saying that baby food is low on the list of stuff you should buy organic, I think because there's a short travel time between farm and the jar or something like that.

Anyway, I'd picked out my jars of veggies for the boy and was looking for the fruit options. I found these 4-packs, which of course weren't included on my coupons so I kept looking for the single jars. So I finally look and discover "Apple Banana" only then to see "dessert" after it. Same thing with "Dutch Apple" (dessert), "Fruit Medley" (dessert), "Banana Yogurt" (dessert), "Peach Cobbler" (dessert), etc. Gerber trumpets how these are all fortified with Vitamin C, but these all have ADDED SUGAR. WHO NEEDS TO FEED A BABY DESSERT??? What an insane idea.

Lots of Florida pictures

Grace wearing her butterfly suit in her butterfly chair.

We have discovered that Alex often looks like Larry Flynt.

This is one of my favorite expressions Alex does. He's so happy. In fact, he's probably laughing out loud while this picture was being taken (probably just ecstatic that he was eating Cheerios).

Grace was very concerned because Alex kept trying to chew on the grass.

According to Jim this picture has Alex looking like a tiny version of his grandfather.

Me and my kids.

Our family in the classic (cliche'd?) white shirt and khakis on the beach photo.

Ahh, Florida

Well, we had an awesome time in Destin. Thank you so much to my in-laws for allowing us use of the house for the week. It makes a world of difference on vacation with two kids to have access to both a fully-stocked kitchen and a washer/dryer. Not to mention not having to pay for a hotel room for a week-long stay.

We discovered that Alex does NOT like the beach (the ocean freaked him out) and confirmed that Grace LOVES it (Jim took her out swimming in the waves - of course I was not able to hold her correctly when I took her out). But Alex does love the swimming pool (and the bathtub) so we know he's not totally against the water.

Grace got to feed the ducks, turtles, and Bubba the 50-lb fish every evening. And since we didn't have access to Noggin (the preschool digital cable channel we watch at home) she got to discover Spongebob Squarepants who she now loves. Oh, and that freaky Nick Jr show Lazytown (this one gets its own post at a later date).

Our weather was great, but we came home a day earlier than planned to avoid the tropical storm. I'm actually still not sure if it ever developed into a hurricane, or even how severly the area was hit. But I feel good that we left when we did, because if we'd stayed until Saturday with our luck I'm sure things would have gotten bad.

Jim and I were discussing about how a vacation with two small kids could be hellish. But we have such great kids that the whole week (save for a couple of meltdowns) was just wonderful. Many pictures to be posted soon.

Vacation

Packing today and to the beach tomorrow. No posts for a week.

His first haircut

Not sure what to think.

Almost there. 

Done! 

A post about the boy

So since Alex is now getting close to sitting up on his own, I decided the other night to switch him to the other side of the baby bath tub (the side where he can sit upright versus at an angle staring at the showerhead). Wow, what a difference that view made for him. He spent probably 75% of the time leaning forward trying to grab the surface of the water. He also became very busy shifting between grabbing the water and grabbing the dolphins on the toy suctioned to the bath next to him. He got so into this grabbing stuff, splashing the water up onto his face, that I couldn't tell if he was enjoying himself or freaking himself out. He never laughed, but he also never cried. He just kept at it with this weird intense focus. Next bathtime should be interesting.

Also tooth #5 came in, and #6 is not far behind. The two top middle ones, so we won't have a hillbilly baby for much longer.

Anger

Those of you with kids probably already learned this lesson. Those of you without will be one step ahead.

As parents of a small child, we are continually trying to teach Grace how to recognize and express her emotions, if anything to prevent screaming meltdown tantrums. Last night I was assisting Grace on the post-dinner/pre-bath potty time. Upon finishing, I praised her enormous poops (yes, that's what you do with a 3-year old) and proceeded to flush them away. Now realize that this is my child that rarely remembers to flush, and often when I remind her comes back with a "you do it, mommy". But of course last night the minute my fingers depress the handle, I get a "Mommy, I want to flush!". After explaining how sorry I was that I'd already done it, I now have a 3-year old bursting into tears proclaiming over and over "I want to flush". So she decides to get back on the seat right then to do more poops so she can flush it. Her body is not obliging (though she does get a little more pee out), so she continues to sit up there crying about how she is going to flush. Finally I ask her "Grace, why are you crying? Are you angry that Mommy flushed your poops?". Ah, she now has her word to attach to the situation. "Yes, I'm angry with you Mommy." As she sits up there for what seems like forever trying to poop (probably more like 5-10 minutes), we talk about her favorite tv show, about what toys we're going to play with in the bathtub, about what she'll do at Miss Jackie's class the next day. But out of the blue multiple times she keeps popping up with tearing eyes and a "Mommy, I'm still angry with you."

Lesson learned: NEVER flush without first asking.

And so it begins

We've had a couple of kid incidents in the past few days that make us shudder. We went to the zoo last weekend which means we pulled out the double stroller (it's used primarily for walks to the park and all-day outings that would wear Grace out). When Grace decided to stop riding on Jim's shoulders to move to the stroller, Alex suddenly realized that he could sit up all the way in his seat, straining against his "seatbelt", and grab his sister's hair with both hands. "Mommy, make Alex stop grabbing my hair! Mommy, he's still doing it! Mommy, make him stop!"

The other eye-rolling event was during dinner the other night. As Grace was freaking out, throwing a fit because she was being forced to take two bites of a chicken and pasta salad that had pesto on it, she sobbed "I wanna go to Gramma and Grandad's house." I figured it was either (a) because she likes going there or (b) she knew they wouldn't make her eat pasta with something unidentifiable on it.

Also, I pulled out Grace's baby book to confirm that Alex at 6 months weighs as much as Grace did at 12 months (22 lbs). Jeez.