The Loyal Subjects

A Girl and Her Dog

2012-01-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

copper dog has been with our family for 99% of his eight years, and in that time he's gone from a crazy puppy to a lovable bad dog to a wonderfully good dog. along the way, he's also become a dear friend to our children, especially olivia. here's a little comparison of olivia and copper over the years.

olivia and copper were big pals from the very beginning. in this first pic, olivia is about 3 months old, and in the second pic, she was around 7 months old.

here, olivia is around 18 months old and is taking advantage of the comfort of her copper pillow

olivia is around 2 and a half here and is loving her copper pillow

i caught this shot this morning. with his mobility so greatly reduced, copper cannot get into the middle of whatever the kids are doing, so we make it a point to go to him to snuggle, pet, and talk to him. olivia often reads him stories...always ones about other dogs. this morning, she was listening to kidz bop on the ipod, and she decided to lay on copper while she enjoyed her tunes.

we're giving copper's new med regime another 5 days before we call his doc back and ask for the big guns. josh built a ramp for copper so he can get from the deck to the yard a little easier, and josh also took the futon mattress off its frame so he could sleep on it (it's been "his" couch since he was big enough to jump onto it. our goal, though, is for copper to be able to join us in play and take (short) walks with us and just generally have a good quality of life.

My Closet Purrs

2011-12-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

olivia "hiding" in the leaves

olivia in the wheelbarrow

q hiding in the leaves

q "helping" gather the leaves

q waiting to be transported by wheelbarrow

craft supplies! it was sooooo much fun to buy all this stuff, and i can't wait to start getting crafty!

our first crafty project will be to decorate/paint these salt-dough ornaments the kids and i made yesterday.

josh and the pups cuddling. copper is starting to show some improvement. the higher dosages/additional meds seem to be working. i expect his supplements to be here monday/tuesday. here's hoping we can get our boy up and moving comfortably ASAP.

waffle enjoying the view from his kitty climber

i think sookie is contemplating how to get to waffle.

that little seat waffle is sitting in is like a kitty hammock. notice his left eye looks irritated...kitty flu seems to be flaring a bit. he's a little wheezy and his left eye keeps watering, but he's still eating very well and is very playful. i have my eye on him...he may end up meeting his texas team of vets next week...we'll see.

waffle luuuurrrrvvvvessss the mousey that's attached to his kitty climber.

the last couple of days have been pretty busy. jet lag stopped being nice and started kicking our asses. josh was up at 3 a.m. two mornings in a row. i was up at 3 a.m. only one morning, but i seem to still be trying to catch up! one good thing about a 3 a.m. wakeup is being able to go grocery shopping EARLY and without kiddos!

yesterday was a super busy day, but i got a TON done since i had an extra five hours in my day. along with grocery shopping, i also did some baking/cooking, some craft-making, lots of cleaning, some food shopping for a special meal (my friend, taz's butter chicken), some leaf raking, some CAR shopping (we now have a new-to-us kia sedona named ruby), and some socializing. today has been a little more low key, but i did get some stuff done. i finally got my u.s. phone back in working order, and i finished up my christmas shopping.

while we haven't been home a whole lot the last two days, we have been home enough to enjoy watching sookie and waffle's relationship continue to grow. i found them chasing one another today, and i have seen them touch noses many times. waffle is really, really happy...he's 100% back to his spunky, talkative self. the other day, i finished showering/dressing and walked into my closet to put something away only to notice that my closet was purring. i looked around until i noticed waffle tucked into a dark corner giving me blinky love stares and purring as loudly as he could. my beloved frankus spankus used to do the same thing, though he was more stealthy. he would tuck himself into a box or a suitcase or under a shelf and then start purring. i love it when my closet purrs :-)

several weeks before we left hong kong, i started doing some amazon shopping for the kids and josh for christmas, and i also did some shopping for waffle. i found a nearly-eight-foot-tall multi-level kitty climber for less than 60 bucks, so i jumped on it. it arrived a couple weeks before we got back. we unpacked it and josh assembled it today. it is AWESOME. waffle was playing on it before josh was even done putting it together. josh positioned it so that waffle can sit on the various levels and look outside to watch birds/animals.

Scratching and Fluffing

2011-12-21T19:43:00.000-08:00

sookie is really loving having the kids back in her house. she gleefully plays chase with them, patiently waits for them to turn their heads so she can steal their food, and doles out kisses non-stop. tonight, the kids played a game where they pretty much commanded sookie to kiss them. she was happy to oblige.

i scratched and fluffed my nest so much today that i am expecting to sprout feathers any minute.

jet lag has really treated us well so far, and the only real change we are seeing is the kids sleeping late while we wake up earlier...josh wakes up before the sun has even thought about coming up while i wake up sometime between sunrise and a half hour earlier than normal.

today, the kids did not wake up until 9/9:30, so i got a bunch of organizing, straightening, and cleaning done while they slept. i moved a dresser into the room, sorted and folded clothes, rearranged books, and put up a small christmas tree in livie's room before she woke up. all the noise i was making did nothing. typically, livie's a rather light sleeper...just not with jet lag.

after putzing around for the morning, we had a fun play date with olivia's bestie, and then we took our beloved copper doggie to the vet.

copper dog has been with us since he was around six weeks old. he was diagnosed with hip displaysia very early and was on meds by the time he was six months old. his pain has always been managed with a few twists and turns where we had to change his meds or dosage. in the last several months, it's become very apparent that copper, now 8, has very severe arthritis in just about every joint. he has some good days, but he also has a LOT of really bad days. we have walked him each night we've been home...just a short walk halfway around the block...but for the most part, he's most comfortable laying down.

today was a very bad day for our copper dog. his back end kept collapsing, and he got stuck down in the yard...couldn't get up the stairs to get to our deck and back in the house. i had to lift him into the van. not that i want my big, furry boy to be in pain, but today was a good day to go to the vet...she could see him at his absolute worst. we have some new meds, some new dosages for old meds, and some new natural therapies to try. if these three changes don't help him, we will change another dosage on one of the meds he's been taking long term. if the combined four changes don't help him, we will move to an injectible pain med. if those five changes don't work....well, i don't want to consider that option. we will be building a ramp to help him get down into the yard, and we will continue with his short walks (as per the vet's advice)...and we will lay down on the floor with him to talk to him, play with him, and love on him.

we took copper dog to the vet not only to discuss his arthritis pain, but also to discuss a rapidly-growing tumor on his nethers. this tumor was not there a month ago when the vet did a house call for him. the vet drew some material from the tumor and looked at it under a microscope...it currently appears to be benign, but we have instructions to watch it carefully and take him back if it grows rapidly in the next couple weeks.

after our rather sad and stressful afternoon adventures, the kids and i took a snack timeout back home, and then we walked over to pfluger park to play a while before dinner. jet lag reared its ugly head again after dinner in the form of hyper, punch drunk, not-listening-to-a-damn-thing-i-said kids, so i packed them off for a slightly early bath and bed time. that turned out to be a wise decision. q fell asleep with his light blazing in the five minutes it took for me to lure waffle out from under his bed.

Unrequited Love

2011-12-20T20:23:00.000-08:00

today was a super busy and fun day. we started off with a playdate at chik fil a, and then we continued the fun at the franz' house. after playing and hangin' out for a couple hours, it was time for me to gather up the kids to run a couple errands, but my friend, jeanette, offered to keep them, which was awesome. i had booked an appointment to take our copper dog into the vet to see about new meds to help him with his arthritis pain. i got home, packed him up in the van, which is difficult for him because one hip is very, very sore and weak, and then trucked off to the vet...only to find out that i'd booked the appt. for wednesday, not tuesday. ooops. jet lag is giving me brain fog :-) once i got copper home and then ran back out to get the kids, there was just enough time for a quick snack at home before we headed back out for the bug's best friend's birthday party. both kids had a ball. it took q a while to warm up because he'd fallen asleep in the van and doesn't wake easily, but once he was awake, he was more than happy to join in all the games and fun with the big kids.

we weren't home a whole lot today, but when we were home, we noticed a new aspect to the relationship between our dog, sookie, and our waffle kitty. mostly, we noticed that sookie was BEGGING for waffle's attention...she followed him all over the house whining and yipping at him. he was more than patient with her, but he did swipe at her a couple times because she was being a big pain in the butt. i am eager for these two to become friends and play with one another, but i hope sookie can ease up and not harass waffle constantly.

waffle snuggin' up on the bug

q looking super cute

waffle getting ready to swat his annoying shadow

copper has barely acknowledged waffle. he sniffed him when he first met him, and waffle immediately started rubbing his cheeks on copper, but other than that brief interaction and the mousey-dare incident, they have ignored one another. tonight, as we were preparing to walk the dogs, waffle decided to get into the action and plunked himself in a chair close to where the dogs were standing while we got their leashes on. waffle reached through the bars on the chair to pat copper on his side. i would love to know what that little pat meant to waffle...and i'd love to know why copper so studiously ignores his cat brother :-)

The Maytag Man

2011-12-19T20:36:00.000-08:00

er...cat.

waffle is a nosey, nosey cat!

i always need a good reason to sanitize the microwave :-)

josh thought it was funny to partially close the microwave door on waffle and then call my attention to the fact that my beloved cat was in the microwave. i did not share his enthusiasm.

as he settles in and becomes more comfortable in the house, waffle is really ramping up his curiosity. we have found him in the dryer, in the dishwasher, in the microwave, behind the washer and dryer, and with two feet and his head inside the washer. he, of course, has done all the obligatory exploring...cabinets, top of fridge, bathrooms, bedrooms, and so on. after looking for several minutes and not finding waffle (and having a small panic attack), josh found waffle sleeping in one of the bathtubs behind the shower curtain.

not only do we have happy/exploration evidence of waffle settling in, but we also have other great evidence...purring. waffle did not purr for the first 36 hours he was here. he now thunders whenever we pick him up. ...playing...waffle played laser tag and catch-the-mouse with me late yesterday and again today. we had a short period where we were certain sookie had snarfed mousey, but we later found mousey hiding in some shoes. at one point, i threw mousey kinda close to the copper dog, and some sort of unspoken communication passed between waffle and copper. i think the gist was copper daring waffle to come get the mouse and waffle politely declining :-)

waffle and sookie are sorta becoming pals, but because they both are possessive of me, there have been some minor turf wars (started by sookie). we react by telling her no and then withholding scratches/lovin's for a few minutes. i hope she gets it soon....i am sure she will because she and baby kitty were able to share me pretty well.

speaking of baby kitty, i got to see and scrub and love and hug on my sweet marshmallow kitty this afternoon. the kids and i headed out to elgin to find gabi's house and see the kitty. with gabi's help, we got there in no time and with no trouble, and we had a great time visiting. i had to keep shooing the kids away from baby kitty so i could hog her all to myself. we also met lots of baby kitty's cat and dog friends and generally had a great time petting and admiring all of them.

7700-Mile Journey and Homecoming Recap

2011-12-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

kiddos posing with their dinners. we have been missing grill-cooked food for so long! it was delicious. tomorrow, we add the yummy grilled sausage to some gumbo that our friend, lan, brought us. i can't wait, which is ridiculous considering i am still full from dinner tonight :-)

we left our apartment in hong kong at 8:30 on saturday morning, which was at 6:30 p.m. on friday texas time.

our flight was delayed for an hour due to a passenger becoming too ill to travel, but once we were airborne, things went smoothly and the 13-hour flight actually flew by (har har har). getting waffle onto the plane took just a little extra time, but that process went very smoothly...except that quinn cried his eyes out for almost 10 minutes. he was super sad to not be with waffle and was very worried about him.

our arrival in chicago was also uneventful. we got through customs and immigration in less than five minutes. waffle and one other kitty were waiting in the oversize luggage area. waffle looked scared, but was otherwise doing well. i had to change his bedding because his water spilled all over it, but otherwise he was comfortable. when we tried to check waffle in for the flight from chicago to austin, we learned that the temps had dipped too low for him to be allowed in the vehicles that transport the luggage to the plane, so he got to ride in the cabin with us. we had to get a new soft-sided carrier for him, but other than that, it was super smooth getting him on the plane with us. he even got to sit in a seat next to me because the plane was not full.

while we were in chicago, we got to meet up with the b family, our chicago friends who visited hong kong this past summer. we had a great time catching up with them over some lunch before it was time to board a plane for texas.

when we got home, we found that the dogs DID remember us and were thrilled to see us. we had a great time loving on them and taking them for a short walk. once we got the kids' rooms set up and got them bathed, it was time for lights out. jet lag reared its ugly head with q waking up around 3:45 and taking a while to get back to sleep. the kids did very well being up all day with no naps today; we are hopeful that they will sleep well tonight.

today we spent time unpacking our suitcases and getting a little more settled in. we had a fun little playdate with the franz family, josh put up the christmas tree, and i made an attempt at visiting baby kitty (b-k). b-k's new family lives in elgin. i used google maps to get to her new house, but it turns out that google maps doesn't know squat about elgin. i do not have a working cell phone right now (mine is still locked...has been since i lost it in a taxi in HK), so i drove around and stopped at two different gas stations to ask directions and use a pay phone. no dice. i am hoping to reschedule with b-k's mommy to visit this coming weekend.

this afternoon, i whipped up a couple of our family favorites: pumpkin bread and beer bread, and i did some grocery shopping at HEB. i did find grocery shopping a little bit overwhelming. i have gotten so used to shopping for one meal at a time. as much as i loved looking around the HEB, i think it's going to take me some time to get used to doing big shopping again.

we are finishing out our first day home with a quick walk with the dogs (and kids in the wagon) and a delicious dinner of elgin smoked sausage on the grill, sweet potato fries, beer bread, and pumpkin bread/coffee with brian and rayo.

Mills Pond 2010

2010-12-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

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**photos by greg benson**

December 2010

2010-12-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

december has been a super fun month! since we are leaving the area in a few weeks, we have been catching up on stuff we've been wanting to do. the kids and i went down to the mckenna children's museum in new braunfels with some friends of ours, and we had an absolute ball. i really liked the size of the museum, the assortment of attractions, and the layout. i feel disloyal saying this, but i liked the museum FAR more than i like the austin children's museum. i could easily manage both kids at the mckenna children's museum with a minimum of heartburn.

earlier this week, the kids and i took advantage of the holiday hours at sea world and went down for a day of fun. we had an absolute ball. our timing was such that we got to see every show but one, and the kids' favorite was the sesame street christmas show. they both tried very hard to get up on the stage with all the sesame street characters. both kids did super well on the visit and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. there were some very sticky, tired little faces in the van by the time we got home that night.

today is christmas, and we had a fabulous time together. unfortunately, 3 out of 4 of us woke up sick, which slowed us down a bit, but we still had a great time. quinn is now the proud owner another 4 or 5 trains from his beloved thomas the train show, and spencer has been replaced as his favorite! this is remarkable considering he's been carrying his spencer around everywhere for months. he got the hero of the rails movie, which introduces a new character, hiro. baba got him a hiro for christmas, and now hiro is the apple of his eye...he has not let go of him the entire day. livie spent the day being creative...she got some musical instruments and lots of art supplies...her two favorite things.

the kids are sharing a room for the rest of this week partly as a christmas tradition and partly so that their nana has her own space when she comes to visit. so far, they are doing great with sharing a room. they shared a room when we were in boerne last month, and surprisingly, they've done much better with it than we thought they would. much of this is due to livie being an awesome big sister and taking her job very seriously (being patient with quinn when he's not ready to sleep yet and staying quiet rather than playing/talking).

we have had an absolutely wonderful year. we are sad to see 2010 go, but we are super excited about all that we have to look forward to in 2011!

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November Catchup

2010-12-25T20:39:00.001-08:00

november started out with a bang...quinn turned TWO! i cannot believe that my baby boy is already two...these two years have just flown by. he had a great birthday with family and really got into opening his presents.

the month flew by in a flurry of fun activities with friends and family. josh and i took a gaggle of kids to the zoo one sunday, and we had an incredible amount of fun. quinn is now old enough to really get into this favorite activity of ours. he also is now old enough to realize that there's a train at the zoo and to REALLY enjoy riding it.

we went down to boerne for thanksgiving. we spent some time doing fun stuff in the area including taking the kids to the witte and to a holiday festival in boerne. it was a great trip!

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October Catchup

2010-12-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

october was another busy month for us, and it was one with some HUGE news. we learned that we will have the opportunity to live in hong kong for two years. we move at the end of february. we are all very excited (and a little nervous) about these big changes!

in october, i also got the opportunity to travel to san jose to help a dear friend celebrate a special birthday. the kids had a great time at some fun playdates and doing just regular old stuff like grocery shopping, eating ice cream, and playing at home. livie started soccer in september, and by october, she was madly in love. i wasn't sure what to expect, but she really got into and and has missed it since the session ended. the kids had a great halloween and both really got into trick-or-treating.

quinn's big news for october was moving to a big-boy bed. the move was rather sudden after his crib tent got stuck closed, and he handled it great at first. it was after a couple weeks that he started having some problems going to sleep in his bed. he slept on the floor for a while, and i was, once again, up with him many times a night. fortunately, that phase did not last too long and he has been sleeping in his big-boy bed like a BIG BOY for several weeks now.

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September Catchup

2010-12-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

september was a super busy month for us. the kids started preschool, i went to upstate NY to visit family and see the two homes i grew up in, and josh went to china for ten days. the month absolutely flew by!

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Summer Recap

2010-09-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

i know, i know...i'm a slogger again. we've been having a lot of fun this summer! we've been playing ourselves silly, doing regular stuff like gymnastics classes, and traveling to see family and friends. here's the proof!

Bug's Gymnastics Open House

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Visiting Washington, DC

while visiting nana in MD, we took a trip into DC to visit a couple museums. the kids got a kick out of the train ride and the museums. it was a great day. the biggest hit for all of us was the air and space museum. we also liked the museum of natrual science, but it was a lot to take in in just a couple of hours. we look forward to visiting both again.

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Hiking and Swimming at Nana's House

while at nana's house, we did some hiking and a lot of swimming. both kiddos are such little fish, though quinny can't handle the cold for very long. livie, our little polar bear, would stay in the water 24/7 if we let her.

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San Antonio

just this past week, we headed down to Boerne to visit with grammie and aunt kimmy. while we were in the area, we also went to the san antonio zoo. we had a fabulous time and were lucky enough to rent a nice cottage near boerne. we enjoyed a leisurely 4-day stay and enjoyed the cottage so much that we will rent it again for thanksgiving.

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Monster Catchup

2010-07-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

i have a couple good excuses for not posting anything about the kids for a couple months. the first one is that i accidentally drowned both my phone and the camera in milk.

the kids and i took a bike ride to a friend's house, and before we took off, i had handed quinn his sippy of milk. when we arrived at our friends' house, i took the sippy from quinn, threw it into the bag i had put all our stuff in, threw it into the back of the trailer, and forgot about it...right up until i needed my phone two hours later and found it leaking milk out of the dial pad. good times.

i did such a good job of ruining the phone and the camera that i could not get my SD card out of the phone or the camera...both appliances were under warranty (thank god) and both had to be replaced with new appliances. the good thing about this is that i finally got a new phone that does all the cool stuff like text, take pics, and give me web access. the bad thing is that getting pics off the damn thing is a nightmare of a process. i have to email each picture to myself!!!

this is why there are no pics or updates...we also have been very busy having a ton of fun!! it's summer, and there is so much to do!

we hiked bull creek....

we visited a snake farm....

we have gone on a billion playdates all over town...

josh did his first triathalon...

quinny got his first hair cut...

we celebrated birthdays...

and when we weren't doing 3 million things, the kids climbed the walls (or the gate) or spent time quietly (really, they were quiet for only about 30 seconds at a time)....

we're planning to do much, much more! on our list are trips to MD and boerne to see the grandmas, going to the waco zoo, mckinney roughs, brenham, new braunfels children's museum, riding the capital metrorail, and taking advantage of our new anual membership to the austin zoo.

Save Someone's Life Today

2010-06-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

we get a reasonable number of comments and questions about why we still have quinn, our monstrously-sized 19-month-old, rear-facing in his car seat. i typically just give my quick spiel about how it's safer and the AAP recommends it. i found this video on another blog i read regularly, and it sums up the issue much better and more profoundly than i ever could.

every once in a while, i think about turning quinn's seat. i suspect he is car sick riding backward; he's not a happy traveler and begins voicing his displeasure in less than 30 minutes in the car. after watching this video, i have resolved to not turn him around until he's at least 2...maybe even later if josh will agree.

we will be doing our annual trek to the motherland later this summer, and we will be renting a car and car seats...this ALWAYS poses a problem. we ended up turning livie forward facing much earlier than we wanted (she was the age quinn is now) simply b/c the car rental company did not have a car seat that was rated for rear facing for a larger child. we have avoided traveling with car seats in tow for almost 3 years now, but i think we might be hauling quinn's easy chair (first years true fit) through a couple airports this year...so that i can ensure he remains rear facing. fanatical? maybe. safe? definitely!!

QRA v. 1.5.001

2010-05-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

qra v. 1.5.001 (qra) is an adorable, mobile natural disaster complete with soft, curly strawberry blonde hair, big blue eyes, killer dimples, and a talent for creating chaos wherever he goes. this unit also is available under the following names : quinnado, quinnzilla, quinnkong, qunnikaze, and hurriquinn.

quinn enjoying his half-birthday lemon cup cake

features

qra contains the following features:

qra is a sensitive and responsive unit; this unit responds very well to hugs, kisses, and endless snuggles.
qra is very easy to reprogram. should the unit behave unreliably, load and run one or more of the following applications:

Reading or Watching Anything about Thomas the Tank Engine
Reading Anything about Icky Sticky Frogs
Watching Anything Containing Shaun the Sheep
Loading Baby into the Backpack for a Walk
Loading Baby into the Stroller for a Walk
Holding Baby Close and Rubbing His Head
Singing to the Baby about Bumble Bees
Performing This Little Piggy on Both Feet
Holding the Baby and Letting Him Repeatedly Open and Close the Microwave While You Attempt to Cook Dinner
Allowing the Baby to Plunder the Refrigerator

qra has a finely-tuned sense of humor and loads and runs Laughing Hysterically very easily.
qra loads and runs Help Mommy Vaccumn and Sweep very consistently and efficiently.
qra loads and runs Put My Cups and Bottles in the Sink very consistently and efficiently.
qra responds appreciatively to all females of the like species, loading and running Flirt Shamelessly with ease.
qra responds appreciatively to all felines, loading and running MEOW! with ease.
qra successfully loads and runs Hug Mommy's Knees and Launch Myself at Mommy's Butt many, many times a day. Caution : when qra loads and runs these programs, the unit may also load and run Knock Mommy Down.
qra loads and runs Hysterically Happy when you load and run Hang The Baby Upside Down by One Ankle.
qra loads and runs Hysterically Happy when you load and run Hold the Baby Up as High as You Can and then Pretend to Drop Him.

known issues

qra contains the following known issues. these issues will be addressed in future revisions of qra.

auditory output is limited to the following : MINE! NO! MOMMMEEEEEEE! DAAAAAHHHHDEEEEE! CAR! GO! DOOR! MOHHHHH (milk)! DAW (draw)!!!
qra loads and runs sleep mode unreliably. sleep mode performs correctly approximately 65% of the time.
qra loads and runs Share Mommy with Sissy unreliably. often, qra simultaneously loads Hit/Push Sissy and Cause a Gigantic Tantrum Fest when you attempt to load and run Share Mommy with Sissy.
qra is unable to keep peripherals correctly installed and needs twice as many peripherals to be installed to perform the function of just one set of peripherals.
qra reliably deposits output in the wrong receptacles; users must be aware of this issue and be ready to reverse it and decontaminate the receptacle.
qra is not compatible with most restraint systems.
qra has vertical tendencies and often causes system crashes.
qra regularly crashes the hard drive. repeatedly.
qra may be responsible for providing incorrect input for canine units. this known issue is not reliably repeatable.

Party Animals

2010-04-27T06:29:00.001-07:00

on sunday, the kids and i got a chance to help two dear friends and their families celebrate 3rd birthdays. the kids had a WONDERFUL time playing all the games, jumping in the bounce house, and consuming about a pound of sugar each. i enjoyed getting to catch up with two of my dearest friends in 1-minute increments as i ran by them trying to catch quinn before he got into something (else) that he wasn't supposed to :-)

livie kitty

quinn taking a break in the bounce house and plotting against another baloon

NOM!!!!

2010-04-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

NOM! NOM! NOM! yummy toes :-)

Mug Shots

2010-04-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

i have one kid who loves to have pics taken and one i can never get an actual still face shot of b/c of constant motion. can you guess which is which?

Work/Life Balance Gone Horribly Wrong

2010-04-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

i had a bunch of work to do on various freelance gigs one morning, and i needed the ankle biters to be otherwise engaged for a little while. i decided they could be occupied making a gigantic mess (one of their favorite pastimes). i was right in one regard...they did make a gigantic mess but, it didn't take them very long and i ended up writing and making code changes in 5-minute increments b/c i had to keep taking paint brushes out of sookie's mouth, taking paint out of quinn's mouth, and reminding livie to not track her painted toes into the house. it was a brilliant plan, no?

who me? i didn't eat any paint!

my kid is FOUR and already a little obsessed with goth colors...GAH!

showing off her self-designed goth pedicure

making messy mischief

Too Much Time on My Hands

2010-04-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

i have long been planning to do a little photo shoot with the kids as sort of a gag gift to goof around with a family member that is WAY more proper than josh and i are. the photos didn't turn out so great, so i think our family member is spared :-)

here are my two cuties all dressed up as biker babies!

quinn giving his tough-guy look as he takes a break from playing in the water table

livie giving us a gun show

pensive tough girl

the tough-guy image is absolutely destroyed by those cheeks. NOM!!!

Family Fun

2010-04-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

man, this week has flown. last weekend was one full of family fun! aunt kimmy came to stay with us for a few days, and aunt maria came all the way down from upstate NY to hang out with us, too.

we had an absolute ball. we spent a lot of time eating, talking, and seeing some sites here in austin. we went to the lady bird johnson wildflower center. it was beautiful, but not exactly kid friendly. we had originally planned to take the kids, but the timing didn't work with quinn's nap...this was a blessing in disguise. i think we might have been asked to leave if we had unleashed our hurriquinn on that beautiful and tranquil setting.

we had a great time showing aunt maria some of the coolest things about austin including amy's ice cream, waterloo records (with a live reggae band during reggae fest), and the wildflower center.

we followed it all up with a couple of relaxed, home-cooked meals and lots of good conversation. the kids were in seventh heaven having three aunties around to spoil them rotten. i can't wait to do it again!

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

2010-04-20T12:14:00.001-07:00

the kids and i went down to boerne on sunday to take aunt kimmy home and to spend some time with grammie. on the way home on monday, we decided to stop by the natural bridge wildlife ranch, which is a drivethru safari.

we had an absolute BALL. we spent about 3 hours at the ranch, and despite being exhausted, the kids enjoyed every minute of it. my favorite were the llamas (which are not pictured b/c my camera was acting up) and the petting zoo (also not pictured b/c i forgot the camera in the car). the zebras were EXTREMELY aggressive with each other and with us as were the ostriches. i kept the kids' windows closed through those sections.

livie and quinn really enjoyed petting the goats in the petting zoo...and the goats enjoyed them too (and me)...they nibbled on all of our clothes and leaned on us and rubbed their heads on us. we came home smelling like goat and did an emergency load of laundry to try to get rid of that smell. they're cute, but SMELLY little guys.

both kids napped the entire way home as well as for another 15 minutes in the car while i got everything unloaded, laundry started, and the dogs fed. NIIIICCCCEEE!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Quinnikaze

2010-04-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

as i blogged about a week ago, quinn has taken a tumble out of his crib 2x in the last couple weeks. somehow, he escaped injury, but the situation is serious and left us scrambling. our boy is NOWHERE near ready to be in a toddler bed or have free reign during what is supposed to be sleep time. he's not the best sleeper ever, and i believe that if he was able to get out of bed and monkey around, he'd NEVER sleep.

so, what is a fam to do? we looked and looked and looked for a crib that was deep enough to contain him...no luck. we did finally get to test quinn in a crib at target that was set at its lowest mattress setting and highest rail setting...he was still head, shoulders, and some chest over the top of the rail (there was barely an extra inch of protection compared to his current crib).

so, i started looking for a crib tent. i just wasn't sure about this product, but after talking with a trusted friend who used one for her own escape artist, we decided it's the safest option for quinn until he's more ready to move to a bed. after checking every baby retail center and second hand store in town, i came up EMPTY handed. none of the retailers carry the tent or had it in stock...same for the second hand stores. i posted a message of desperation on a message board, and i got an email from another member telling me she was ready to sell hers. her name sounded familiar, and i finally figured out who she is...Buttermilk from the Biscuit Brothers. it was a treat to meet her, and we are so relieved to have our quinnikaze safely confined during sleep time.

here's a pictorial of the morning of his last escape along with how he looks in his currently-under-rennovation big-boy room and crib tent.

after about an hour and a half of screaming and crying (amidst my going in 4 or 5 times to try to soothe him with water, hugs, and tylenol), quinn threw himself out of his crib. there was no going back in after that. josh cuddled him until he fell back to sleep, and then laid him on the sofa. he actually slept like this for almost 3 hours.

notice how sleepy the animals are...it was a rough night for everyone except livie (somehow she didn't hear a THING)

quinn seems intrigued by his new confines, if not actually thrilled :-) my fear is that he will find a way to tear that mesh, creating a strangulation hazard. i expect this thing will get us a couple months before we HAVE to move him to the big-boy bed.

quinn hangin' out...see how much of him is over the crib rail...no bueno. he's in a sleep sack, so he can't technically climb out, but we know from experience that he can lean and/or throw himself out.

sissy demonstrating the correct use of a big-kid bed. quinn has studiously ignored this bed. it's been in his room for almost 5 days, and he's gotten on it only once...and that was b/c i PUT him on it.

oh, and it turns out that what we thought were nightmares (first time he threw himself out of the crib, he seemed to be crying in fear a couple minutes before we heard the horrifying thud (i guess it's good we've never been a big CIO family, eh)) are actually night terrors, which explains why he was still asleep when i went in to pick him up and cuddle him and have a GIGANTIC panic attack the first time he fell out. the trip to the dr. also revealed that he is getting his 2nd-year molars. i guess the combination of the two and some fear of sleeping/the dark is what's had him so agitated these last couple weeks. he's been doing better these last couple days, but i'm not sure how long that peace will last. he was gnawing on anything that came near his mouth again today...not sure what that means for tonight, but at least he can't fall/throw/lean out of the crib again.

Female Bonding

2010-04-15T14:25:00.001-07:00

livie and i try to do something special together when quinn's down for his nap. sometimes we play a game. sometimes we color. sometimes she gives me a manicure and i give her a pedicure. today, i curled her hair. she stood the actual curling very well. oddly, though, she brushed out the curls less than a minute after i took these pictures, which was about 2 minutes after i finished curling her hair.

despite livie's hair having a lot of body and natural wave/curl, her hair DID NOT want to hold a curl. odd, eh? enjoy the pics of my little girlie girl.

375 Days without my Poopy Dog

2010-04-15T14:24:00.001-07:00

puppy love

today marks 375 days since my poopy dog, ippy-good-dog, went to heaven. i still miss that crazy red dog every damn day. just in the last week, i have accidentally called for her when i went to round up canines from the outdoor woods. sookie-cookie-the-good-bad dog has really filled my heart, and i love her dearly, but she's not my poopy dog. what really counts is how much copper loves sookie and how happy he is to have a playmate and a snuggle pal. i think he could do with less chomping-on-his-back-legs and with less tugging on his ears, but i'd say he's pretty happy to have a little sister all the same.

Bluebonnets, 2010 - the after "party"

2010-04-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

they're wondering why the stroller isn't moving...it's cuz i had to stop and go pick up a toy that quinn had thrown out in anger.

all better...got the hose to play with and generally wreak havoc with...it's ALL good.

someone turned off the hose...it's no longer all good.

in fact, it's pretty darn BAD!

Bluebonnets, 2010

2010-04-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

i had to bribe them with jelly beans to get them into the stroller and to stay in the stroller long enough to walk to the bluebonnets, but getting these shots was A LOT of fun!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

2010-04-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

a week or so ago, we went to south carolina to attend a family memorial. we were fortunate in that family took care of all the lodging, and we really lucked out with a spacious condo right on the beach. the water temp was in the high fifties and low sixties, and the air temp was in the 70s and 80s, but our kids did not care. quinn would turn purple and start shaking after about 10 minutes, but our polar bear, livie, had a ball and never really seemed to be cold.

super tired quinn hanging out

quinn checking out the fam

me, livie, and quinn along with their cousin, jordan

quinn in his adorable suit (thank you, lan!)

livie monkeying with the camera and making silly faces

livie on a mission

josh and quinn burying one of quinn's legs

quinn being carried like a baby (and loving it)

josh and the kids checking out the ocean

super happy quinn

super happy and silly livie

livie and her aunt jen

Some Random Catchup

2010-04-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

quinn misappropriating the water table *ahem*

two people contemplating hacking my computer

livie getting ready for an easter egg hunt here in town. it was hot and humid that day...i think that's why she looks so nonplussed

scary looking easter bunny. ever since josh and our friend, danielle, told me about donnie darko and i watched it, i am not a fan of extremely large bunnies

Quintissential : Best.Week.Ever.

2010-04-05T05:51:00.000-07:00

stick your tongue into your cheek as you read that title.

look at that adorable face, skinned nose and all!

quinn has had a run of REALLY bad luck:

nastiest stomach virus ever that kept him seriously ill for 5 days - check
falling on his face and scraping 75% of the skin off his own nose - check
falling out of his crib at 3 a.m. - check
falling down on his face again...so hard he got a blood blister on his lip - check
exorcist-level vomitting after almost 5 days without any symptoms of the nastiest stomach virus ever- check
awake all night with suspected ear infection and empty tummy (see above) - check
falling asleep in the car and sleeping so hard that he slept through the transfer to his stroller and through a 30-minute run through sprouts for homeopathic ear remedy (the last time quinn slept this hard, he was about 10 weeks old) - check
falling down AGAIN and making that sickening watermelon sound while hitting his head on pavement -check
falling on his face AGAIN while playing on his climber before nap

i think we're just going avoid pretty much anything except park outings with quinn for a while in an attempt o avoid germs the best we can. there's not a whole lot we can do about livie being in preschool without losing a lot of money, but i'm tempted to pull her out, lemme tell ya.

it doesn't help that we traveled for a family memorial during the vomit-and-poopfest of 2010...we seem to have picked up a nice upper respiratory funk along the way...and gave aunt jen the tummy virus from hell (i think next time i will listen to that little voice in my head that says "don't travel, dummy"). i think we're also going to have to outfit quinn in a nerf super suit or a protective helmet with a nose and mouth guard.

on the flip side of all the horror, quinn thoroughly enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time, going swimming in a pool, seeing family, and having sleepovers with sissy (they stayed in the same room on our trip, and livie did a GREAT big-sister job of not waking quinn up and being patient if he woke up in the middle of the night). livie is a wonderful big sister. quinn's a lucky guy!

50-Month Winning Streak Comes to an End

2010-03-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

intestinal virus : 1
livie : 0

okay, really, everyone but josh is scoring zero right now.

it's amazing, but true...livie has gone EXACTLY 50 months without ever throwing up. she had a few urps as a baby (she was diagnosed with "silent" reflux...the non-spitting kind, but she did have a few urps here and there. she just never had a real vomit-fest)...and then, and then...she let it all fly last night. we have been knocking on wood for the two years that livie's been in preschool hoping she would not succumb to one of these nasty bugs, and up until yesterday, she didn't. how unique that she gave up the fight exactly two months after her fourth birthday. we have long thought that she has a stomach of iron. i still think this is true b/c while quinn and i have been queasy and cranky since sunday, livie just got sick last night but is already interested in eating again whereas quinn and i could not care less about food (quinn can barely hold down his milk).

i'm thanking god for weather good enough to open all the windows and for the power of a yankee candle ;-p oh, and for being able to buy diapers in bulk (this is not the week to stick to our cloth diapering guns).

Dancing Duo

2010-03-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

quinn LOVES to put on sissy's shoes. apparently, he also loves to dance in them. livie was thrilled to join in the dancing!

The Bug Mug : My Fashionista

2010-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

livie has very definite ideas about what she likes to wear. we are not interested in fighting her on this and believe it's not a battle worth fighting. it's fun to see what she comes up with and to let her run wild with her creativity. sometimes it's a battle to get the right amount of clothing on her to make sure she's properly attired for the weather, but as for the color/pattern/style...it's ALL livie. enjoy the stylings of our little fashionista :-)

Quinntissential : Quinn in Pics

2010-03-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

here's my cutie patootie doing various things. he's super proud of himself for being able to get up onto the furniture. he's even starting to use it in its intended manner. sometimes. :-)

The Dynamic Duo

2010-03-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

quinn is increasingly interested in everything livie is doing. for the most part, livie is a GREAT big sister. she often instigates playing with quinn and is usually pretty patient and gentle when he instigates playing with her. there have been some tiffs about sharing, and i know there's a lot more to come, but so far it's all pretty doable. yesterday was a bit of a rough day...livie tipped quinn out of a toy car and onto his head (in the driveway) and then shut his hand in a bathroom drawer while they were brushing teeth before bed...but most of the time, she's a lot more gentle than that. quinn shows no fear and is not at all intimidated by livie. he's also freakishly strong and can move her around when he wants to (dragged her around in her kitchen chair b/c he wanted to get what she had). he also is not interested in sharing me right now and will just dump whoever's in my lap out of my lap so that he can claim it. it's kinda funny. i have to work pretty hard to keep my stern-mommy straight face when he does this.

Randomness

2010-03-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

here are some random looks at what we've been up to over the last several weeks. there are a lot of pics at home b/c we've been SICK a lot of the last several weeks. we could own stock in saline nasal spray, children's triaminic, and children's motrin. we are pretty tired of being sick around here. this week is starting off on the right foot...hoping it stays that way. livie's been out of school so much that she's apprehensive about going. that's CRAZY...this kid LOVES school.

A Day at Zilker

2010-03-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

i know, i know...i am a slogger...a slacking blogger. so, let's have some catchup, shall we?

here are some shots of the kids at a fun day out at zilker right when the nice weather started showing up. we had a quiet good time...the kids were sleepier than we anticipated, and thus were pretty low key for the outing. despite his love of all things thomas, quinn wasn't as fascinated with the train as we expected him to be. he did seem to enjoy the people watching and general sight seeing, though. livie had a ball just being livie. she busied herself with making friends, sliding and climbing, and taking turns wearing my sunglasses.

Snow Day!!!!

2010-02-23T14:34:00.002-08:00

i started hearing rumors of snow yesterday, but sorta blew them off. yesterday was so beautiful and reasonably warm. i pretty much never watch the weather or even check weather.com. when i looked out around 7:45 this morning and saw sleet, i thought to myself "whaddya know!"

as the day progressed and the sleet got whiter and fluffier, i was still dubious. right after i put quinn down for his first nap attempt, i looked out to see BIG PUFFY WHITE FLAKES everywhere! surprisingly, my recently turned-princess daughter was eager to get out in it. i figured it'd last 2 seconds and she'd be whining to come in and have hot chocolate. much to my surprise, she played outside happily (and by herself) for about 20 minutes before she came in asking for hot chocolate.

quinn woke after only 30 minutes of napping, and after about 10 minutes of fussing in his crib, i figured he wasn't going back to sleep, so livie and i went and got him up and dressed to go outside in the snow. he wasn't too thrilled...cried every time he fell over and his hands landed in the snow. i don't know if he was grouchy due to being sick, or if he just plain didn't enjoy the snow. we stayed outside for a few minutes, came in and had lunch, and then went back outside for another 30 minutes.

since the snow is slushy and muddy, our adventures have resulted in a couple loads of dirty, cold, wet laundry. since the kids were soaked through from playing in the slush, they got a nice warm bubble bath before we all settled in for an afternoon of looking at the snow from inside.

it's kinda fun and novel, but i am glad that snow very seldom comes to this part of texas. i have no idea how my mom managed ferrying three kids and doing regular errands in a couple feet of snow (in upstate NY) for six months out of the year!

my favorite shot of the day...livie throwing a snowball.

copper getting warm up against the house (i think...couldn't quite figure out what he was doing, but i assume that the foundation must have felt warm against his side)

sookie in the snow

red-cheeked quinn in a too-small jacket in the snow

playscape in the snow

quinn happy in the snow (this was short-lived)

kids in the snow

snow on a palm tree (that's just wrong, isn't it?!?!)

copper in the snow

happy snow princess

snow coming down reasonably hard

A Sick Day

2010-02-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

quinn thinking about heckling the sleeping sissy

the result of heckling

note to self : MUST get the red chair professionally steam cleaned!

both kids are sick again. it seems to be relatively minor illness, but an illness nonetheless. if livie falls asleep in the afternoon, we KNOW she's fighting something.

Quintessential : A Hair over Hair Review

2010-02-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

i'm almost 4 months late in doing a year over year review for quinn, so i thought i'd start it off by comparing his hair year over year. quinn was born with a pretty full head of red hair, but within a few weeks, that red hair was all over the house, his crib, and his car seat, but not on his head. fast forward a year, and now quinn has a spectacular head of beautiful, curly, soft, thick, strawberry blonde hair. see for yourself!

quinn at 3.5 months old showing off his beautiful bald head (and having a conversation with lady bug)

quinn at 15ish months showing off his smile, his gorgeous hair, and his relentless climbing abilities (despite the chairs being bungee corded together, he still manages to climb into them and hang around under the table)

The Bug Mug : A Look Over Five Years

2010-02-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

typing that title just about killed me. HOW is my baby bug in her FIFTH year?!?! time just flies so incredibly fast these days. here's a look at my beautiful bug over the last five years:

my itty bitty bug at about 4 days old

toddler bug at about 12 months

two-year-old bug

three-year-old bug

four-year-old bug showing off the beautiful dance clothes her nana sent her for her birthday

You know it's going to be a long day when...

2010-02-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

your kitchen looks like a murder scene before 8:30 a.m.

the kids and i were just playing and having a good ol' time this morning when i noticed that sookie was acting a little strange. i coaxed her onto the blue (read : dog) couch beside me only to look down and see....taz, cover your eyes/ears...that her right rear paw was bloody. and had bone sticking out of it. ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!

sookie, in her never-ending quest to torment the kitties, seems to have caught her pinky toenail on the baby gate as she scaled it to chase the cats up the stairs. apparently, she caught that nail good because she tore it clean off the bone.

sookie got to spend some time with the vets this morning, and i got to spend some time making my kitchen look less like a murder scene.

sookie is home now, sporting a pretty cute pink and white bandage on her foot and rockin' her e-collar (cone). livie and i have been decorating the e-collar...i predict that by the end of the seven days of wearing it, sookie will have acquired a LOT of bling (and hannah montana stickers).

we have been suspecting that sookie is a pretty smart cookie, but she proved it this morning. i swear to you that she listened to my phone call to the vet, and then placidly followed me and the kids through the kitchen, through the laundry room, into the garage, and into the van. any other time i have tried to get this dog into the van, she has done everything in her power to avoid it. once we were at the vet, she even laid patiently and quietly on the exam room floor while i waited to read/sign the paperwork for her procedure. smart cookie! okay, maybe not that smart...she did tear her own toenail off.

as of this evening, sookie seems to be afraid of the kitties and not at all interested in chasing them. i think she thinks THEY took her toenail off!

Now Approaching Blogerrhea

2010-01-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

well, now my blogging has become prolific, eh? this is what happens when you have a 6-week backlog of pics, videos, and stories.

i completely forgot to tell the story of princess poopy head and NO! MINE! first, the princess...

being the 2nd child, quinn has inherited a lot of livie's toys...some of which are these adorable little people of royalty. they came with a little people castle that livie got for her first christmas, but they are rarely found playing in the castle...they are usually in some sort of car or being cooked on the play kitchen's stove. i digress. so, now that he's constantly on the move, quinn has become REALLY hard to diaper. a couple afternoons ago, i was attempting to destinkify quinn when he escaped my grasp, toddled off, and then fell...and ended up sitting on one of the little people princesses. yep...princess poopy head had to endure a bleach bath. BLECH!!!

so, quinn is trying to communicate with us and has mastered a few words. he uttered his first two-word word combination recently, and again, since he's the 2nd baby and has to fight for the toys, he is getting pretty good at NO! MINE! see for yourself...

Baba in the house!

2010-01-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

you know what i keep forgetting to blog about (okay, i've alluded to it)...baba has moved to pville! he lives just 2 miles from us and 2 miles from uncle brian and aunt rayo. since we also live 2 miles from uncle brian and aunt rayo, it's practically an equilateral triangle of family goodness!

we get to see baba a couple times a week now, and we are all loving it. livie asks for him almost every day, quinn lights up every time he sees him, and i'm really enjoying having my dad around and watching my kids develop a relationship with him.

On a Roll

2010-01-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

computer time at the wells branch library on a rainy day

ridiculously cute with those heart-breaking dimples (courtesy of grammie, who has the same dimples)...love how he's rockin' the pink necklace?

livie as hannah montana. really...she thought that the shirt and headband MADE her hannah montana, and she was not to be dissuaded of this notion.

fun at KFP with friends on a beautiful day. spring/summer has made a comeback, and we've been living it up in the beautiful weather!

again with the climbing...at least the landing would be soft-ish should there be falling

in an effort to relieve dawn's refresh finger, i'm attempting to completely catch up on blogging. these pics are from just a couple days ago (gasp!) instead of 6 weeks ago. i do have a good excuse for my slacker tendencies, though...i've been wrapping up the first push on my freelance gig. i turned over docs for review on thursday night, and i'm a free woman for a couple weeks. i just have a couple articles to write and some javascript to conquer, so i should be able to keep up the blog a little better...at least for a couple weeks :-)

Birthday Bash

2010-01-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

my big sis, aunt kimmy, just had a special birthday. it's really been a lot of years since we have gotten together to make a fuss over just one family member's birthday (we usually combine b/c 4 of the 5 of us (in my immediate family) have fall birthdays and we just tack kimmy on there, too, since hers is in january).

well, this was a special one, and it called for a special trip down to boerne. we had a wonderful time visiting with grammie and aunt kimmy, sharing a yummy meal, and giving kimmy some long overdue birthday prizes (we haven't exchanged birthday gifts in YEARS). we had a great time. both kids had a blast. livie enjoyed helping kimmy open her gifts while quinn ran amok in grammie's house and got himself all muddy when i took him outside (to spare grammie's house and poor little sarah kitty...quinn scared her lunch right outta her...poor kitty).

we don't get down to boerne often (definitely not often enough), but we always have so much fun when we go! now, if some of us (okay, two of us) could just master sleeping in the car, we'd be able to make the trip more easily and more often. i wonder if there's a baby dramamine....muwahahahaha (just kidding!).

Mommy's Babies

2010-01-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

it's pretty rare to get a pic with both kids in it let alone both kids and me. if only quinn's eyes were open!

Double Trouble

2010-01-23T20:29:00.001-08:00

stinkers!!

Must. Go. Outside!!!!

2010-01-23T20:15:00.000-08:00

quinn lovin' the swing

quinn lovin' the slide with sissy ready to catch. livie is a WONDERFUL park helper for me!

quinn enjoying the teeter totter

livie enjoying the teeter totter

quinn still loving the swing

livie mastering the climber thingy (what is this thing called?!)

livie catching quinn on the slide...such a good big sister!

quinn and livie partaking of the rocks. who knew it was such fun to pour rocks from one container into another?!

with quinn's new climbing proficiency and many areas of our house having to be declared a hard hat zone, we are finding that time outside is the best solution for all involved. the fresh air and exercise does us all good, and we often meet up with friends on our park outings. the only caveat so far is my having torn a hole in the right knee of both of my favorite pairs of jeans climbing all over area playscapes after quinn. because he's tall and naturally inclined to climb, he has yet to meet a playscape he can't conquer. BUT, he's still not stable enough or aware enough of himself in space to be up on those things by himself...which is why you might see a big ol' mommy climbing around on the equipment at local parks and restaurant playscapes :-)

The Bug Mug : 10 Things about our Bug

2010-01-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

livie and josh on a daddy-daughter date at chick-fil-a. she is wearing the beautiful dress grammie gave her for christmas.

livie loves to help in the kitchen. aunt rayo and uncle brian got her this adorable apron/hat/potholder set that she can wear when she helps us cook.

livie also loves to help do quality assurance on whatever we're making :-)

again, since i am SOOO far behind, here is a 10-point summary of what livie's up to these days.

10 livie is OBSESSED with hannah montana even though she's never watched the show. she has seen and heard advertisements and seen hannah montana's face on t-shirts and other merchandise, and apparently that's all it takes. she got some hannah montana stuff from uncle brian and from a friend of ours, and she is in 7th heaven with it all!

9 livie loves to sing along with the radio and her kidz bop CDs. she sings all the wrong words/makes up her own words. she's inherited my tone deafness. my ears are bleeding.

8 livie is great at entertaining quinn in the car and helping keep him calm when she can. sometimes, though, she plugs her ears and cries right along with him (coming home from boerne last week was a cacophony of cries).

7 livie loves school and is learning to spell at an alarming rate. josh and i spell out stuff all the time to keep her from figuring out what we're saying. somehow, she still figures out what we're saying and just a couple days ago said to me "is A-R-K the park?". i see this trick is going to be short lived.

6 livie LOVES LOVES LOVES scary shows on animal planet. the scarier and/or more gruesome, the better. she's got a macabre sense of humor. she laughed uproariously about a skunk that got squished on a highway near us. this pains me.

5 livie asks just about every day if we're going to see baba that day. she is really enjoying him living close by us.

4 livie has quite a mouth on her. many times, she's just plain funny, but sometimes she is not. a couple weeks ago, she says to me (while sitting on josh's lap) "mom, your husband stinks and needs to take a shower!". she got a consequence for that one. also about a week ago, i was sitting next to livie on the couch cuddling and just staring at her. i flopped a section of my hair over hers and said "hey, our hair is the same color". she gave me poker face and told me "no, yours is more gray." just yesterday after scoring a bunch of hannah montana stuff, she says to me "you can call me hannah montana" in this very self-assured voice. she also has entered that socially awkward stage where she will call out random opinions about people around us. i have yet to figure out how to handle this without making the situation worse.

3 livie recently got a bad report from her teacher for the first time. generally, she is much easier on people she does not live with/see all the time. apparently, she's getting REALLY comfy at school. this is a pretty huge deal to us; it's one thing for her to give us a hard time, but it's COMPLETELY unacceptable for her to give anyone else a hard time. we're working hard on making sure she understands this.

2 last week, livie had her first major injury scare complete with a call to 911. it's a long story, but the highlights are jumping on the couch and attempting to do a front flip in the air, and landing really hard on her back. the EMTs cleared her at the scene, and she ended up being no more than really stiff for a couple days, but she scared the living crap out of me, my friend cheryl (who was visiting from ft. worth with her daugher at the time), daddy, and baba who got a 10-word phone call from me summoning him to the house to stay with cheryl, maddie, and quinn while i went to the hospital with livie. it turned out that she didn't need to go, but it was a comfort to have baba here anyway.

1 though she is a spitfire, livie is also a very sweet little girl. she loves babies. we have a lot of playdates at our house where she is the oldest child, and while she gets grumpy about this sometimes, she also loves to ask mamas if she can hold their babies, and she does a great job of playing gently with the toddlers.

Quintessential : 10 Things about Quinn

2010-01-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

since i am sooooooooooooooo behind, i think a 10-point summary is in order (with pics, of course!). without futher ado, here are 10 things about quinn:

10 quinn is an accomplished climber.

9 quinn is the reason i buy a set of bungee cords weekly (explanation to follow).

8 quinn has gone from having 8.25 teeth at his birthday to having all 16 of his 1-year teeth at least broken through if not all the way through (the bottom teeth are all the way in while the top molars are 3/4ths of the way through and the top canines JUST cut through in the last two days).

7 quinn is allergic to cedar.

6 quinn is very likely allergic to peanuts (broke out in hives after suspected exposure).

5 quinn is "this" close to running...he does this sort of fast stumble when he tries to run.

4 quinn LOOOOVVVVVEEESSSS his baba and lights up like he's been plugged in anytime he sees baba.

3 quinn loves to help. when we ask livie to get her shoes on, he picks up her shoes and thrusts them at her. sometimes he goes and gets his shoes when we ask livie to put hers on.

2 quinn has learned to moo for cows and quack for ducks.

1 quinn has become a wonderful snuggler. he often comes over and throws himself into our laps if we're sitting or into our knees if we are standing. he has mastered hugging his stuffed animals and is working on learning to hug us when we ask. he even pats our backs sometimes. he gives really cute little mmmaaaah kisses, too.

quinn plundering the gingerbread house that livie and josh built (thank you, baba!)

quinn's climbing gone wrong.

quinn climbed up onto the dining room table to help himself to some sprite that was left after a playdate. i was in the kitchen when livie called out "come see what your son is doing!!!" in her best tattle-tale voice.

i have SO reaped the "reward" of allowing (let alone filming) this behavior. quinn is no longer safe around any table. he perfected climbing our chairs to the point that they are all now bungee corded to each other so he can't pull them out. he has climbed restaurant chairs twice in the last two weeks (chick-fil-a and mcd's). we're working on redirecting him when he starts climbing, but it seems that nothing is as fun as climbing something that could let you fall on a really hard surface (thus giving your mother heartburn and MORE gray hair).

Anderson Christmas, 2009

2009-12-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

though we got some good pictures, we don't have enough pictures to accurately convey how wonderful our christmas was. we had a ball. the kids had a ton of fun opening and playing with their gifts, we ate a delightful and leisurely breakfast, and basically just chilled out for the day and talked to family on the phone.

the highlights for the kiddos were a big-girl bike for livie, lots of dressup clothes, and her first video game system. for quinn, christmas in itself was the highlight. he reacted very differently than livie did for her first christmas. he's much more into toys than she was at the same age, and he carefully and tirelessly played with all of his toys. in my opinion, the best toy for him is his My Pal Scout, a plush stuffed dog that is computerized and customizable. it can talk and sing to quinn specifically all about him. it seems to be a hit.

the grandparents spoiled the kids rotten, as always. they got some beautiful clothes and cuddly stuffed animals, a toy kitchen, and a leggo truck.

josh and i were equally spoiled and thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with each other and the kiddos.

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The Outdoor Woods

2009-12-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

one of my ALL-TIME favorite kids' movies is over the hedge. i picked it up from the library on a whim almost a year ago. i figured the kids would enjoy it and that josh and i would roll our eyes at it. we had remembered seeing previews for it when it was in theatres and thinking it looked really bad. we were WRONG. it is a delightful movie full of great one liners and some interesting viewpoints about human nature. my favorite character is tiger, the overbred indoor kitty that falls in love with a skunk. he calls the outdoors the outdoor woods. we now own this movie and watch it almost every time it's my turn to pick a movie :-) and, i love to say "outdoor woods". my family thinks i'm nuts.

last year from spring all the way through the end of the year, livie was our rough and tumble tomboy who loved the outdoor woods. now? not so much. there's a lot of shrieking about bad plants and bad bugs and a lot of whining about it being too hot or too cold and about tired legs from walking a few yards. this annoys me to no end. i love to be outside and was sooooo excited to have my outdoor buddy last year (and there was a lot of time when it was nearly impossible for me to get ouside b/c quinn was still so tiny and incredibly, incredibly white (okay, he's still REALLY white, but i can put sunscreen on him now)). and now? my outdoor buddy has disappeared and is replaced with a princess. i can only hope that my princess begins to love the outdoors again soon, b/c that's where quinn and i will be...and we'd rather not drag her along kicking and screaming. where is the little girl that was FASCINATED with the dead cicada i found and who hoarded said dead bug for MONTHS?!?! she better come back soon!

so, today, i got a wild hair and decided to rake up the leaves that our two front-yard trees have been spewing for about two weeks. i thought livie would enjoy jumping in the pile of leaves. she did. for about 3 minutes. and then she whined to go inside and get some hot chocolate. normally, i have to set the timer and badger her to go pee (she has camel bladder and won't go unless you make her or she's about to burst)...today? she HAD to go pee 2 minutes after i started raking. oy! i did manage to get some snaps and a couple videos of the princess. enjoy :-) (oh, and despite 5 bags of leaves, our yard still looks like a tree threw up on it.)

Rudolphs

2009-12-24T13:08:00.001-08:00

a few family members took some time to try out for the part of rudolph today.

Quintessential : The Eye of the Storm

2009-12-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

our hurriquinn/quinnado is keeping us on our toes. during the eye of the storm, we spend a lot of time snuggling (quinn is a cuddler), but when he's in motion, ya gotta take cover.

ahhh. where to start. well, let's start with that adorable little face...he turns on that charm, and i forget that i've just spent the last _____ amount of time getting him out of something, cleaning up something he trashed, or trying to capture him and hold him still long enough to get fresh pants or whatever else he needs.

this boy is on the GO. he is walking really well now and has recently learned how to stand back up without having to pull up on anything. he's got a few words..."hi", "daddy", "nooooooooooooooooooooo", and sometimes "mama". he has been having trouble sleeping lately, but i think that's because he went from 8.25 teeth to 10.5 teeth in the last 6 weeks. his lower canines are trying to come through now, too, and i think they must hurt something awful...he'll bite on something and start wailing. he's also learned to give kisses and sometimes says "mmmmmmmmmmah!" when you ask for one. most of the time, though, you get a big, open-mouth, drooly kiss.

i also think he's in a perpetual growth spurt. the top of his head is now a good couple inches over the tables...there is no more walking under them or standing up under them...this has resulted in some tears. he now comfortably fits all the 18m and 24m pants we had to roll just a few weeks ago. recently, i had some friends over for lunch, and quinn decided to show off by polishing off 5 meatballs, 1/4 cup of pasta, 2 pieces of bread, and 2 cookies. he ate all of his lunch and most of mine. i think i've said this before, but i'm already worried about trying to feed him as a teen :-)

quinn's made some good progress on some of the TODOs we had after his 1y appt. he now gets just one bottle a day and takes all the rest of his milk from a sippy. he's completely on soy milk now. sleep has actually gotten worse instead of better, but i'm not ready to fight that battle right now. i will have to move him to the spare room downstairs to sleep train him (and not keep everyone else up all night), and i just don't have it in me right now. i have convinced myself that he is actually hungry at night since he sucks down 8 oz. of milk in less than 3 minutes when he does wake up (and he still sleeps thru on occasion, so i'm not completely convinced waking/eating is a habit). i will cross this bridge later...right now, i'm just going to stand at it and think about it :-)

All about Livie : Our Little Scribe

2009-12-23T19:11:00.000-08:00

livie loves to practice her letters. she's getting really good with them, too. it's so much fun to watch her learn and enjoy learning this kind of stuff!

S.A.N.T.A.

2009-12-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

this is how we say santa in our house...we spell it out so that we can avoid drama when we can't produce him on command.

we had been planning to take the kids to see santa a couple weekends in a row but hadn't made it out yet. on a whim, we decided to see if he was at the domain. we thought he was at macy's. nope. we found a sign near starbucks/the kids' play area that said he was available for pics every day from blah-blah-blah time to blah-blah-blah time. nope. didn't see 'im. so, we looked, we asked, we looked some more, and THEN...we found evidence of santa in a random "room" near aldo's. he was out "feeding the reindeer" when we first stopped by, but after a little bit of walking around aimlessly (and stopping for the kids to play in snow), we were able to get some time with the jolly old man. livie did great. quinn did okay. he was mostly intrigued...a little serious...and a lot nervous when santa moved him. he was also overdue for a nap. considering all this, the pic we got is pretty good!!

Christmas Cat

2009-12-23T19:00:00.001-08:00

christmas kitty hiding underneath our charlie brown-esque christmas tree. ya gotta do what ya gotta do. to keep sticky fingers out of the tree. and from pulling it over. and taking all the ornaments off. and eating them. :-)

Christmas Cookies at The Book Box

2009-12-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

we have a new bookstore in pville, the book box. it's a great used book store, and the owner, beth, has been coordinating all kinds of great events since she opened a couple months ago. the other day, she had a cookie decorating event that benefited the Christmas dinner that Immanuel Lutheran Church will be providing. i took the kids over so that livie could decorate cookies with one of her pals.

livie covered in red sugar and frosting

quinn contemplating his next act of mischief

quinn is too young to decorate cookies, so he busied himself with trashing the place. there's a reason his nicknames are hurriquinn and quinnado. the boy is a one-man wrecking crew :-) i think we could hire him out as a babyproofing consultant...you know, what NOT to do to babyproof your home/business.

Livie's Stage Debut

2009-12-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

livie's in the back row toward the left side of the screen. enjoy the scream-singing :-)

December at a Glance (or Two)

2009-12-23T18:38:00.000-08:00

From Collages

here are some random shots of the kids in December...mostly at home.

From Collages

here are some random shots that josh got with his phone over the past weekend. the snow is at the domain...they actually had a snow machine!!

A BIIIIIIGGGGGG Thank You

2009-12-16T10:36:00.001-08:00

Give a shout out to the men and women who are serving our country and might be away from their own families this holiday season.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

we had an absolutely beautiful thanksgiving yesterday. we got a long-distance visit from baba, a semi-long distance visit from grammie and aunt kimmy, and a neighborly visit from uncle brian and aunt rayo. we had a great time sharing a TON of food and lots of good conversation. this was my first time to cook a turkey, and thankfully it turned out well! we ate ourselves silly and have SOOOOO much delicious food left to savor for the next few days.

we were lucky enough to have a great visit with baba. he was a tremendous help to me...bringing lunch and helping me walk the crew during this week of the sickies. i'm spoiled now and don't really relish the thought of walking the four-ring circus without him. we have the added blessing that baba is looking into moving here! we would love to have him just down the road from us!

we have so much to be thankful for every day. we are thankful for our health, our children, our children's health, and the blessing of stable employment that provides for our family.

Truce

2009-11-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

i'm not sure i'd go as far as to say that baby kitty is sookie'd, but i'd say they have called a truce.

The Land of the Living

2009-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

we have been SICK. sick, sick, sick! we have been sick since the week before halloween with about a 2-day respite somewhere in the middle. this last round of illness was a doozy. livie had it the worst with a 5-day fever, ear infection, nagging cough, and apparent narcolepsy. it's been a draining couple weeks. today dawns with far fewer sniffles, coughs, and moans. i hope we can maintain a healthy status for at least a week. i think livie's gone to school no more than 5 times the entire month of november. gotta love cold and flu season.

we have been on the fence about vaccinating for H1N1, but after reading just too many horror stories and having us all knocked out by colds, we've decided to vaccinate at least the kids if not all of us. now all we have to do is play phone tag with the pedi's office until the planets align and they can get both kids in (healthy) for the vax. i was supposed to start the phone tag this week, but with two feverish kids most of the week, that was a no go.

i'm starting to think i prefer the blazing summer...something about 100 plus temps seems to keep the viruses to a minimum ;-p

Puppy Love

2009-11-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

meet puppy...quinn's most favorite-est lovey EVER!

here is the story of puppy. grammie brought puppy for quinn when he was first born. puppy decorated quinn's room for several months until quinn was rolling well, out of his swaddle, and in the stage of his life where it was time to introduce a transitional object to help him self soothe. enter puppy. the minute we put puppy in quinn's crib to sleep with him...it was love, snuggles, ear sucking, and apparently paw sucking at first sight. if you click on this picture and look closely at puppy's paws, you will see what appears to be some kind of mold/mildew stain. yep, i've washed puppy MANY times to no avail. puppy still stays in the crib with quinn, still gets sucked on, and is just about to be replaced with a new puppy. i have introduced several different loveys to quinn, and he does love them all, but none as much as he loves puppy. for that reason, moldy-pawed puppy will stay with quinn until i can find an identical replacement.

oh, and if you squeeze puppy's tummy, he barks. it's adorable, and the barking always brings a smile to quinn's face. the puppy is ingeniously designed...he has to be squeezed just the right way to bark, so no matter how much toddler loving and snuggling he gets, he does not bark and interrupt sleepy time. you have to pinch his tummy JUST SO to get him to bark. genius!

Quintessential : Surrounded

2009-11-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

it's not enough to play with the toys...one must play IN the toys :-)

The Bug Mug : Hammin' it Up

2009-11-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

she'll do just about anything to get on camera :-)

The Pitter Patter of Two Not-So-Tiny Feet

2009-11-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

ever since his 1-year check up on 11/13, quinn has started walking more and more. he's now walking about 50% of the time. surprisingly, he is not yet using his new skill to get into any more trouble than usual. i'm sure this will change fast enough.

Double Trouble

2009-11-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

three sillies

chillaxin' on the couch. quinn has been mastering climbing up onto the couch for a while, but he just recently decided to actually sit once he climbed up...usually, he's trying to climb up onto the back of the couch.

All about Big Boy Quinn

2009-11-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

quinn had his one-year well checkup today. here are his stats:

height: 32.5 inches
weight: 26 pounds 2 oz
head circumference: 19 inches
teeth: 8.25 and counting. his pesky molars are torturing him right now.
TODOs: quit bottles, drink less milk, and sleep through the night all the time.
BIG DEALS : he's off all of his reflux meds and has been for about 6 weeks. he's almost 100% weaned onto lactose-free milk. just in the last 24 hours, quinn's begun to walk more and more!

i'm dreading the 3 battles facing me : getting quinn off his bottle and to stop throwing his sippy across the room/car, getting him to realize that solids are better than milk (despite eating lots of solids, he still prefers/needs milk to be satisfied), and to sleep through the night all the time instead of 1/2 the time.

i'm giving us the three months before his next well check to get these items accomplished. wish me luck.

Cute Boys

2009-11-13T13:26:00.001-08:00

here are a couple of really cute videos of two of the cute boys in my house : quinn and copper

Quinn "Talks" on the "Phone"

starting yesterday, quinn has begun to put my cell phone to his ear to have conversations on it. it just so happened that he also did this with my computer mouse.

Copper Howls

we have long known that copper howls. he used to howl miserably when we would leave the house...we'd hear him from the garage. but, we never caught him in the act. we all got to see about 3 seconds of howling when we were all upstairs playing and sookie decided to bark out the windows at passerby on the greenbelt behind our house (the dogs can see a huge portion of the greenbelt from upstairs...a good-and-bad thing).

this morning, i was packing everyone up to take livie to school and sookie was putting up a ruckus from her crate. it took me a couple minutes to realize that copper was howling right along with her. he stopped as soon as i looked at him, so i had to take this video kinda sneakily. even with the poor quality of this video you can tell that copper is sad for sookie. or, maybe he's sad b/c she's making so much noise. it's funny to me that her bark triggers his howl!

btw, it's loud and messy in our house :-)

Sookie is Certifiable....

2009-11-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

or so i thought. during lunch today, i put sookie outside with a chew b/c she's just plain RUDE when it comes to food. after a few minutes, i noticed she was barking incessantly. i figured she was tormenting copper into playing with her. then i noticed that the barking just did. NOT. stop. so, i looked outside to see my dog barking at the grass. yep. at the grass. i took some video and could see something moving in the grass, so i went out to investigate. here are the two videos i snapped of what my crazy little dog was up to.

Sookie is Certifiable

Gonna Getcha!

Quintessential : He's Tricky

2009-11-12T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Walker and His Walker

since we caught video of him taking a few steps a couple weeks ago, quinn has staunchly REFUSED to walk. he sometimes walks by accident. here's what it looks like when he catches himself walking. stinker!

Trapped

quinn's a little obsessed with sookie's dog crate. he comes crawling over as fast as he can when he hears it open or close. i often have to whisk him away before he can really get sookie riled up by sticking his fingers in and talking to her when she's newly jailed (as we're leaving the house).

Up and Down

i am guessing this will be short lived b/c words seem to come and go with quinn, but yesterday he said "up and down" and did the arm movements with it. as of late last night when he was in the back pack helping me walk sookie, he was fixated on saying "down" and pointing down.

Switcheroo

2009-11-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

this morning, livie woke up later than quinn, so he had finished his breakfast by the time she was ready to eat hers. since quinn kept trying to stick his hands i in livie's hot oatmeal, i put her in the high chair so that she could finish her breakfast in peace and quinn could avoid hot oatmeal burns. this looks pretty funny, eh? especially with the baby brother hanging off the tray. guess how many times quinn's pulled the high chair over onto himself?

All about Livie

2009-11-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Explaining Her Art

the bug explains her (awesome) drawing. i love watching livie's drawing abilities expand. i also love that she has a story for her drawings.

Spelling Her Name

livie has gotten REALLY good with her letters just in the last couple months. if we're ever able to make it out of the house today, we're going to go get some poster board to make a poster of her numbers so that she can master those, too. she astounds me with what she can spell. though she can spell about 6 words (names of kids in her class), she does not yet recognize words or sound out letters. i'm sure that will come with time and practice...i'm still stunned at how well she can spell by memory. she is finally spelling her name with ALL of the letters (she used to spell it ol via) and with the l upside right :-)

Demonstrating Her Budding (West) Texas Accent

i am not sure where this is coming from....i'm assumming someone from her class is from west texas....but all of a sudden, livie is pronouncing hair as "hay-r" (two syllables, thank you very much). she also pronounces there as "they-r". too funny!

Liberating our Pictures

2009-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

well, we got our camera back and had full use of it for...um...3 days. i broke it a little bit trying to get video of quinn opening a bday gift from his girlfriend, kate. while filming, i got accosted by two slobbery noses that tipped me over so that they could get a better angle at slobbering all over my face and neck...i dropped the camera (with the lens open) amid this assault. josh fixed the camera, and we had use of it for about 5 more days. while at sea world this past weekend, josh put the camera in his pocket with the lens open. our beloved camera is DOA. i'm sad. we have a ton of great pics on there. i'm going to have to get the card out and take it to CVS to get the pics burned onto CD so we can share them. there are funny pics of the kids, dogs, a trip to sea world, and just general merriment. and, i guess it's back to our old seemingly-five-pounds digital point and click that is so big it doesn't fit well into any of the smaller pockets on our diaper bag.

josh found a great DSLR deal, but it's out of our price range and i figure that if i can't even keep from breaking a digital point and click, i have no business owning a DSLR.

ready for some random updates? josh took vacation last week, so we had a great week of fun and relaxation. i got out to see a couple friends all by myself (no kids!!!), and we all took a trip down to SA to celebrate lots of october and november bdays with family and to go to sea world. we had a great trip, though cramming the four of us in a small motel room and expecting sleep to happen...well, let's just day we were dreaming ;-)

i have a job! i'm doing some contract work developing an internal process manual. yesterday was my first day of trying to juggle ankle-biter management, domestic engineering, and working on the computer for several hours. those hours got divided up into 20 to 45-minute increments between bouts of feeding, playing, and rescuing quinn from various situations while livie was in school. today will be a different deal since both are home and both are sick. this contract is short-term, so even if it turns out to be a three-ring circus trying to manage the kids and house full time while working p/t from home, it will be a relatively short duration of insanity.

things are slow this week. both kiddos are sick again. fortunately, today is a non-school day for livie and she's off on wednesday for veteran's day. she's doing much better than quinn is, though...has a minor dry cough and some sneezes while quinn has a lot of sneezes and a fever. i love this cooler weather, the changing colors of the leaves, and the anticipation of all the holidays, but i HATE the colds and flu that are so prevalent this time of year!

Sugar Rush

2009-11-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

we've known for a few months now that quinn loves loves loves sweets. we've been looking so forward to his time with his first birthday smash cake, and we were not disapppointed. here's a little video of quinn's post-cake-and-ice-cream sugar rush.

365 Days of Mightiness

2009-11-05T06:40:00.001-08:00

our beautiful, mighty quinn turned one yesterday. i can't believe how fast this year has gone by. here's a little recap of our first year with our little man. we are more in love with him every day.

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Quintessential : Double Trouble

2009-11-01T20:18:00.001-08:00

quinn and sookie are the same age in terms of the human calendar. i know that, technically, sookie is about 7 in human years, but in terms of time on earth, she's been here the same amount of time as quinn. they are turning out to be partners in crime at times. they like some of the same toys, they both like to bother the cats, they both like to investigate the fridge, and they're both obsessed with trying to scale the baby gates.

quinn tries to climb the gate
sidenote : notice how loud it is in our house...that's sookie trying to tree a cat...in the house. you might also hear livie crying...she was having a rough day.

partners in crime

quinn and sookie both like to investigate the fridge. they work together. i recently had to rescue a package of the lunch meat i use for my lunch...it had teeth marks in it by the time i got it back...pretty sure they were sookie's, but i'm not entirely sure.

quinn makes some music with one of sookie's toys

hilarious! quinn will do this with anything that comes close to his mouth. i was trying to clean him up after he dribbled his milk all over his chin today, and he did the same thing with my hand!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

halloween 2009 was great fun...for 2 of us. livie and i got to go to two parties in addition to dance class...we both had a ton of fun and were absolutely wiped by the end of the day.

this was livie's first year to trick or treat...she was sick last year and had to skip it. she LOVED it! she joined forces with another little girl and led the way to most door steps with barely a glance back to see if i was still there...she didn't need me to hold her hand through it in the least!

quinn had to miss out on all the festivities. both kids got sick this week; livie early in the week, and quinn late in the week. livie had been fever free for more than 72 hours by the time the fun day rolled around, so she got to get out and have some fun. quinn? not so much.

we also took the kids to a local pumpkin patch a week or so ago to try to get some pics...that wasn't a smashing success :-)

here are a couple snaps of livie in her costume and the kids in the pumpkins.
i wouldn't call this a successful pumpkin shot...yes, there are pumpkins and kids, but no one's looking at the camera. it is FUNNY though, isn't it? i love that look on livie's face!

livie dressed as a super-cute cheerleader for halloween. quinn has a flight suit costume that he looks VERY handsome in, but i don't currently have any pics of him in it...stay tuned!

It's Pumpkin Bread Season

2009-11-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

i can't bake to save my life....with one exception. i make a mean pumpkin bread. and, i make it in vast quantities. well, it's pumpkin bread season, and it's time to share the yummyness. so, the kids and i whipped up a double batch (8 loaves) about a week ago. here are some snaps of my pumpkin bread-making assistants.

quinn enjoying some pumpkin puree

livie, my mixing assistant. notice the sunglasses...they were required apparel for this job (according to livie)

quinn ate, and enjoyed, about 3 tablespoons of flour. i put it on his tray just so he could play around with it...nope, he ate it!

Sookie'd

2009-11-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

i think it's safe to say that we've all been sookie'd. i'm definitely the most sookie'd, and i think josh and the kitties are tied for the least sookie'd, but we're all in the same boat. this little dog has stolen our hearts. she's fur-covered mischief, but she's also very lovable and sweet. even her worst deeds are at least a little funny...she's a comical little thing. some generous friends have loaned us a dog crate, and it turns out that sookie's been crate trained, so keeping her safely tucked into her crate with a rawhide is sparing our house/toys/furniture when we're out of the house.

i'm getting a ton of exercise walking the dogs 2x a day...usually with at least on child either attached to me, being dragged along by me, or being pushed along by me. we are a sight, lemme tell ya. we've brought the city mowers to a halt. this past week, both kids have been sick, so our morning walks have been more like a morning parade...quinn in the backpack, livie in the jogger, and two dogs running every which way dragging their leashes (and us) everywhere. i caught two mowers staring at us with their mouths hanging open...i guess we're a sight.

anyhoo, here are some pics of the place that sookie's taken in our lives. i have to say that the hole in my heart left by the passing of my beloved ippy dog is healed a little more each day that i have to love on this sweet dog. while she will NEVER replace ippy, she reminds me of some of the best (and quirkiest) things about ippy; they are kindred spirits.

sorta related : how to walk with a baby in the rain...tie your largest rain jacket around him and the backpack

baby kitty's not quite as sookie'd as the rest of us :-)

i think it's safe to say that copper is sookie'd

mommy's definitely sookie'd

Sook-ized

2009-10-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

we (or maybe just i) have a habit of adopting special needs pets. ippy was wrought with terrible anxiety. baby kitty is a medical marvel (it's a long list and i'll spare you). frank's pretty normal except that he has that horrible urinary tract condition that male kitties are prone to. copper has a lot of hip/joint issues and had a very rough start in life that led to him being the only mean puppy i have ever met. truly...he was MEAN...he would get so angry that his eyes would roll back in his head and he bit us (me) hard enough to draw blood. we have worked with all of our special needs animals, and we have made the commitment to be their lifetime family. we have reaped the rewards....copper is truly an amazing dog. baby kitty and frank bring a lot of joy and soft, squishy love. i think i've made it pretty clear here how much joy and love my ippy-dog brought me (and josh). all of their "issues" are small potatoes compared to the joy they have brought us.

it's becoming apparent why our beautiful and sweet sookie found herself homeless. i absolutely DO NOT agree with the way she seems to have ended up homeless...she was a street rescue. and she's spayed. that leads me to think that someone took the time to care for her and then just let her go b/c she has "issues".

sookie's got a destructive streak a mile wide. she destroys strange things. she has destroyed one of quinn's PJ tops. i just found a sleep sack that she chewed the velcro fasteners off of. she chewed the belt clip off of quinn's big high chair. she did all this when she was inside and copper was outside for a total of ONE hour (my mistake...i didn't realize he was outside before we went to get livie from school), so i'm guessing that this is some separation anxiety at work. she ate quinn's PJ top when livie and i took copper on a walk by himself so he could meet his cousin, jaxon, over the weekend (auntie rayo and uncle brian adopted a chocolate lab named jaxon...he's gorgeous and sweet).

hmmm. i'm not sure how to break a habit that occurs when i'm not around to intervene. i could coat everyting in bitter apple, but that's not exactly practical.

onward and upward...and hopefully in one piece :-)

Meet Sookie

2009-10-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

here's sookie on the ottoman...she loves to sit/lay/sleep on top of it. notice sleepy copper behind her...he is WIPED from all the walks and the playing :-)

on friday afternoon, livie and quinn and i went to a local vet hospital to pick up our new dog after she had been spayed and vaccinated. we arrived to find that she was the last adoptee to be picked up...and that she had not had to have surgery that day b/c she had already been spayed. this was great b/c it meant one less thing to have to contend with as we eased her into our household. getting both kids, me, and a new dog who is not all that well leash trained back into the car was some feat, but we made it home in one piece. actually, we made one special stop first.

we wanted the new dog and copper to meet away from the house to hopefully help with territory issues. so, the kids and i drove past our house to a spot in our neighborhood that picks up on the trail system that runs t/o pville. i loaded quinn into the backpack and got livie and the new dog out of the van (this was comical, by the way), and we headed over to a field to let the dogs meet. copper grumped at the new dog at first, but accepted her quickly in the field. we walked them home together, and they did great. things were a little more tense once we were in the yard and especially in the house, but after just 45 minutes, copper was playing with his new sister. along the way, we were trying out different names, and we settled on sookie.

sookie is one smart cookie. she appears to be some sort of working dog combined with shepherd. she has the markings of a heeler. she likes to point at and herd the cats (cats are NOT thrilled with their new sister). she already knows her name and will come when called a couple times. she does not know any commands, so we'll be staring obedience school soon. she's super sweet...very lovable and cuddly. she is a jumper, which is a BIG problem b/c she's just the right height to knock kids over with her jumping....so that's something we're working on. she's already a mama's girl. sleeping arrangements have been weird b/c she can't settle for about 20 to 30 minutes...she seems to have a motor that goes and goes and goes. we're walking her 2x a day right now and she could easily handle a third walk...if we could fit it in with our busy schedule.

we are thrilled to have this tiny little dynamo in our family and look forward to having a lot of fun with her. we are hoping to get her into obedience training soon and then hopefully move on to agility training. in the mean time, there will be lots and lots of walks and running around outside.

All Tied Up

2009-10-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

a couple months ago, livie was playing dressup when she came to me in a mild panic asking me to take something off her neck b/c it was too tight. it was a belt that she had tied around her neck. i thought it was a fluke, but we had a long discussion about tying things around our necks, and i confiscated any other belts or scarves she could accidentally tie around her neck again.

since that incident, livie has proven to us over and over that she can tie knots. josh has begun teaching her how to tie a bow, which is a little harder for her. here's a video of livie tying on her disco dressup shirt.

Baby Steps

2009-10-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

quinn has been working on his walking skills. he's not really all that close to walking independently, but he is getting around as a biped more and more. here are some peeks at his skills.

Opening the Bathroom Door

this skill causes some problems...like keeping the baby in one piece, out of the toilet, and out of the sink.

The Half Step

several times last week, i got quinn to walk to me by handing him my cell phone and then backing away a few steps. on this occasion, i was able to capture just a half step on video. oh, and this trick doesn't work anymore. now he takes the cell phone in one and and a tight fist of my pants or shorts in the other hand :-)

Four Steps

over this past weekend, quinn took several steps at a time for josh. i got one such occasion on video. we promise that quinn was not sampling the gin before we took this video...he just looks like he was. also, here's a glimpse of our new family member, sookie...more about her later!

Have Cable, Will Blog

2009-10-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

josh discovered that the cable to livie's fisher price toddler camera fits our old digital point and click, so voila...PICS! let's have a little catchup, shall we?!

sunday afternoon sleepy time

silly kiddos

lookin' outside

talkin' to copper

beautiful girl with wild hair

handsome boy

double decker kitty (it was cool outside and we had the windows open)

one of copper's last days as an only dog

livie's beauty school in the bathroom sink

Copper's Gonna Be a Big Brother!

2009-10-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

for the last couple months, we've been tossing around the idea of adopting another dog. we both miss ippy terribly, and while we cannot replace her, we have been wanting to add to our animal family. SOMEBODY has got to make use of the scandalous amount of yard we have...who better to do that than a young, energetic dog (copper, while young, does not even remotely qualify as energetic...unless you count marathon episodes of holding down the couch cushions).

last weekend, we went to a local pfestival and met a couple of adorable little female dogs. we settled on one that is of greatly mixed heritage, small stature, and big energy. we put in an application and found out today that we are approved to become her family. copper, quinn, and i went out to the shelter to let copper meet his future little sister. he was nonplussed. he studiously ignored her as she leaped and bounded and gave out a lot of kisses...to him, me, and quinn. we asked a lot about her...she appears to be around a year old, no one's heard her bark yet, and she (strangely) does not bite/teethe like i would expect her to being a young dog. her body is colored like a shepherd, but she's only about 2 feet tall and around 30 pounds. she has helicopter ears...half up and half down...and she has big, warm, brown eyes with matching eyebrow dots (like a doberman).

we had fun getting to know her a little on saturday and again today...we'll pick her up and bring her home on friday after she's finished getting her last round of shots and being spayed. we don't know yet what we'll name her...want to see her personality first, though i do have a name in mind (matilda/tilly for short). i expect the next few weeks to be a little crazy in the anderson house, but i also expect that our new family member will settle in fast and enjoy our active and lil' bit crazy household.

i will post pics as soon as i get a cable for our camera (and after i post the backlog of kiddo pics i have).

The Countdown Has Begun...

2009-10-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

dun! dun! dun!

i'm soooooo not ready for this. on sunday, quinn turned 11 months old. the official countdown to his birthday has begun. did i mention i'm not ready for this? i guess that a big part of my problem is that quinn is our last baby, so i want to keep him a baby for a long, long, long time. also, after (sorta) surviving livie becoming a toddler and then a preschooler, i am dreading going through all the drama and angst again with quinn. i want him to stay about 10 to 12 months old and not develop the ability to sass :-)

just in the last few weeks, quinn has gone through a major growth spurt. he's no longer fitting into most of his 12m stuff, fits little of his 18m stuff, and is comfy in his 24m stuff. there are always exceptions to this rule (there are a couple pairs of 6/9m shorts he can wear if he's in a disposable diaper(?!?!)), but we're packing away an alarming amount of clothing these days. he can no longer stand up under any of the tables b/c he's at least an inch too tall. he is tall enough to climb up on to the dining room chairs...and onto the dining room table. he can open any of the doors that have a lever. he has officially outgrown the front pack i used for 13 months with livie and for about 9 months with him. i am so sad to see that one go...it has so many memories.

i don't have any pics or video of quinn's latest escapades...because i broke our camera and it's in the shop. i have another digital point and click that is a little wonky, but i've gotten some pics and video (of quinn opening the bathroom door and going up livie's step stool to get into the sink), but i currently do not have a USB cable to download the pics to my 'puter...nor do i have a card reader on my 'puter. since our main camera is going to be in the shop long after quinn's birthday, a trip to radioshack is called for.

just since yesterday, quinn's taken a total of 6 steps all on his own. granted, it was 2 at a time, but it's something, right? he is more than capable of walking...he's very stable and walks while holding one of my hands all the time, but he's not ready to let go and do it all on his own. he can stand, bend down to get something, and stand up again without holding onto anything. i am both eager for him to walk and scared of what he's going to get into when he does. we currently do not have any areas of the downstairs gated off...we might have to change that depending on what quinn gets into once he is walking. he has figured out how to open the oven...and how to dismantle the child locks i put on the oven. so, gating off the kitchen is prolly gonna have to happen. i don't know what we'll do for the cats and copper in regards to food/water/kitty box.

**** BUG BULLETIN **** BUG BULLETIN **** BUG BULLETIN

livie just asked me if i've ever drank a Minnesota :-) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

**** BUG BULLETIN **** BUG BULLETIN **** BUG BULLETIN

Swim Away! Swim Away!!

2009-09-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

i try to appreciate my daughter's fearlessness...i really do. and, i do appreciate that she's not easily grossed out. i appreciate that josh takes the time to have one-on-one time with her and to do things with her that i will not (go fishing (i'll just throw 'em back, which really is more cruel). go ice skating (only b/c i can't with my bum knee). go bowling (only b/c i don't want her to learn from the worst). and so on). BUT (you knew there was a but, didn't you)...

i cannot bring myself to appreciate my daughter's complete lack of regard for the lives of worms. or fish. josh took her fishing recently...and regaled me with a tale about livie with a pair of pliers and an innocent worm. here is the evidence.

my daughter is not easily grossed out. she had the opportunity to meet some live tarantulas and other creepy crawlies at a birthday party this past weekend. she mostly enjoyed the creepy guests...she wouldn't pet the tarantulas (they're soft!), but josh told me she held a millipede. i was safely outside playing with quinn for that one. yech. surprisingly, she wouldn't pet the python (he was also VERY soft), but enjoyed feeding a bearded dragon some meal worms. in the future, i think our family would enjoy having a python and/or a bearded dragon for pets...and i think it will be livie's job to feed them their live prey. YECH!!! my daughter is definitely not a candidate for being vegetarian.

Double Trouble

2009-09-28T14:06:00.001-07:00

what's wrong with this picture? (no, the bug's not nekid...she decided to wear just a skirt...before she helped herself to the baby walker :-)

here, livie's getting her little bro to laugh at his favorite puppet, cow.

Quintessential : Quinnado

2009-09-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

this beautiful pic was captured by my friend, sarah (isabel's mom).

*sigh*

other mothers always told me that boys were way different from girls...more energetic, more destructive, more all-out crazy. i argued the point, assuring them that my livie bug was crazy enough to go toe-to-toe with any boy. she always wanted to go higher, faster, and messier and i thought she was plenty energetic. until i met quinn.

this boy is into EVERYTHING all the time. he abhors a closed door (or gate). he wants to see everything that you're doing at all times. he is an accomplished climber. he doesn't seem at all close to walking, but the boy can climb! he has mastered the step stool we have in front of the sink for livie. ...and he's mastered stopping my heart by stepping right off of it into space. there is no such thing as peace (or privacy) in the restroom. not that there really has been much of either since livie came along, but i did have a respite where i could have at least a few minutes of peace. not any more. quinn hears the bathroom door open (how does he know it's the bathroom?!?!) or the sink come on or the toilet flush, and he hauls baby butt over to the bathroom as fast as he can and he's up those two steps and looking at himself in the mirror with a HUGE grin of accomplishment before i can even finish washing my hands. it's crazy!

not only is quinn an accomplished climber...he's up for a drama award, too. he throws tantrums...full-on, head-banging, liquid-baby-dripping-out-of-my-hands tantrums. i am in sooooooo much trouble. the other day, it was around 80, and i had let the kids play in the sprinkler until i noticed quinn's chin quivering b/c he was cold/shivering. so, i turned off the water and picked quinn up to take him back inside. well, that was unappreciated. it was all i could do to keep a hold on his liquid/boneless self and get him onto the porch where set him down on his hands and knees (so i could shut the gate)...he promptly threw himself down head first (always a nice sound...your child's head hitting some hard surface) and threw a hissy fit. did i mention that i am in some deep doo-doo here? livie has shown an increasingly strong personality, but she at least kept it to herself until she was around 15 to 18 months. not quinn. nope. he's giving us a heads up at a mere 10 (almost 11) months. did i mention that i'm in trouble? i'm gonna start stocking up on wine and boxes of hair color (to cover the increasing gray) now.

here's a pic of quinn when he's quiet and not destroying anything....

and one of him at one of his favorite activities. what are the chances that this is covered in the appliance warranty (you know, when the door breaks right off the hinges)? i have to stop letting him do this so that we don't have to spend christmas money on a new dishwasher ;-p

The Copper Chronicles

2009-09-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

how do i love thee, copper,...let me count the ways... okay, i won't count the ways in which i love our 85-pound, bed-hogging, fur-shedding, no-more-than-20-minutes-walking, lump of canine love, but i will show you pics and video of WHY we love the copper-bad-dog. he has redeemed himself in too many ways to count. i miss my ippy dog every day, but the one good thing to come from her passing is that, in her absence, i have gotten to know the copper dog in ways i hadn't before. i have fallen in love with him. he is josh's dog. ippy was my dog. before ippy passed, i mostly just tolerated copper...and loved him a little bit. now i cherish his big lovable self. he truly is a gem.

being watched and shadowed by "his" cat. actually, this cat (baby kitty) thinks that copper is her personal dog.

being sandwiched between an adoring cat and an adoring little girl. he doesn't look too unhappy, eh?

working with his partner in crime to make sure that all utensils that go into the dishwasher are as spotless as canine-ly possible.

Playing Tug o' War with Quinn (note how gently he plays with Quinn)

Allowing Quinn to Use Him as a Jungle Gym

Dog Toys are Better

Quinn ignores the walker in favor of dog toys. Hmmmm.

Outdoor Fun

2009-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

it is FINALLY feeling less like an oven here in the heart of texas, and we are taking advantage of the nicer weather. we've been biking, and hiking, and generally enjoying the fresh air.

livie's always been an outdoorsy kinda girl, and we're finding out that quinn also loves to be outside. getting him outside is a little bit harder b/c he doesn't walk yet, but we find ways.

we've been biking more these days. we used an ibert bike seat for quinn...for about two days. the seat did not work well with my bike; it impeded the movement of the handle bars and the seat was in the way of my knees. so, it went back to REI, and we bought a used chariot bike trailer instead. these trailers are 'SPENSIVE, but buying a 2001 year model saved us lots of money. we like this trailer better than the basic schwinn we had b/c it has a firmer seat and two separate 5-point harnesses. the kids are still really tight in there, and it will work prolly only for another year b/c our children are GIGANTIC, but it's come in really handy for biking to school and to get ice cream. i look forward to using it more and more as the temps continue to come down. here's a little collage of some of our outdoor fun. we recently took the kiddos to one of our family's favorite parks (quinn's first time), and they had a blast. it is so much fun to see quinn be able to enjoy "big-kid" stuff. this park adventure was after a recent rain storm, so there was plenty of mud to splash in...

From Collages

Ten Mighty Months & Quinn's First YOY Review

2009-09-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

quinn hamming it up this morning. check out that wild-man hair...too cute!

today, quinn is 10 months old. i'm not doing so well with this particular month's birthday. it reminds me how close quinn's first birthday is and how fast he's growing up. i want to keep him my itty bitty baby boy a lot longer...but it's just not happening.

at 10 months, quinn's personality is really SPARKling. this kiddo's got a bit of a temper. he gets MAD when things don't go as expected. he even throws these tiny little baby tantrums. boy are we in trouble :-) quinn is also very quick to smile and laugh...he seems to have a great sense of humor. he is a non-stop explorer...he doesn't like closed doors and wants to see what's in or behind every one he encounters. he seems to love animals...chases frank all around the house (and fank lets him, which is the funniest part of this scenario...frank could jump up on the furniture or just go upstairs, but no, he just lets quinn chase him in circles around the island.). copper is possibly quinn's favorite thing ever. much to my chagrin, quinn loves loves loves TV - PBS to be specific (oh and his baby crack DVDs (baby einstein). his favorite PBS shows seem to be murray and his little lamb on sesame street, sid the science kid, and super why.

i am almost 100% certain that quinn is in the middle of a gigantic growth spurt. he's eating us out of house and home. quinn has full-on boycotted babyfoods and now eats only table foods. last night, he was still eating dinner for about 10 minutes after the rest of us finished. he was super quiet and intent on his task of polishing off the following items : a meat ball, 1/4 of a new potatoe, a couple tablespoons of steamed spinach, a handful of rice, and the dregs of sissy's orange jello. i handed him the jello cup that just had little bits of jello clinging to the sides and bottom of the little cup. five minutes later, i look over and somehow, quinn has gotten every morsel of jello out of the cup. this boy has a sweet tooth. to this day, livie can still pretty much take or leave sweets. at quinn's age, she spit anything sweet out (besides pureed fruits). quinn...notsomuch. i handed him livie's tootsie pop the other day just to see what he'd do with it. i had to fight him to get it back, and he threw one of his mini fits when i did. last weekend, he went to his very first birthday party for one of his baby friends, and he ate more cake than she did. the baby's parents got some great pics of quinn's cake adventure, and i can't wait to see them/share them. i think i'm starting to see what it's going to be like to feed a boy...i am already scared about the teen years. maybe we should start a special feed-the-teen savings account now :-)

just about a year ago we got our first peek at quinn via a 3D ultrasound. that was a truly amazing experience, and i am so glad we were able to do it (and wish we'd done it with livie). because quinn was in a transverse lie, the clinic that did his 3D ultrasound asked me to come back on a weekend so some students could practice "finding the baby". it was great to see him in 3D two times. here is quinn a year ago :

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Bug Mug : A New 'Do

2009-09-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

for the last few months, the bug has been pretty resistant to having her hair combed or put up. we let her go "wild". she's usually sporting some crazy-wild natural curls with the front of her hair covering half of her face. she has learned to push it back and even tuck it behind her ears, but she doesn't like anyone else (me) to do that for her. well...she's 3. who really cares if her hair is a little crazy, right? she has the rest of her life to obsess about its color, sheen, and arrangement :-)

yesterday, i attempted to run my hands through livie's hair, and i found a large knot...like the whole right half of her hair was knotted. this is the 2nd time in a week i have found a big knot like this. so, on a whim i asked livie if she wanted her hair short or long. she said short! i asked her if she wanted her hair like two of her friends who have cute little curly bobs...she said YES! so i called josh to give him the 411 and make sure he was okay with it...he wasn't thrilled, but he agreed. while quinn was napping, i sat livie down with a comb and some detangler so i could work that knot out before anyone else had a chance to do so...as soon as quinn woke from his nap, off we went. here's the result...

bye bye long locks. considering my emotional attachement to livie's hair, i did a lot better with this than i expected.

soooooooooooooo cute!

quinn supervises while kicked back with some baby brew...

here's the adorable result! good lord she is cute! she's looking very "big girl" with this new 'do, though...not sure i like that part!

most importantly, livie LOVES her new hair. the first thing she asked me this morning when she woke up was "did my hair grow out already?!". she promptly told me she needed to have her hair cut again today. um. no. :-)

Random Silliness

2009-08-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

From Collages

notice the teamwork between quinn and copper! boys! livie had fun pretending to be camera shy, dressing up copper, and imitating jimi hendrix.

August : A Look Over Four Years

2009-08-31T08:13:00.000-07:00

From Collages

Quinn Goes Green : Repurposing the Kitchen Chairs

2009-08-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

who needs that big, bulky, singing, blinking, plastic walker upstairs?? not quinn!