A Typical Sunday

The boys are over at Amanda's so I can have time alone in the house to clean. The cleaning. It's never ending. Although our new place is larger, I'm hoping the cleaning tasks are more manageable since I won't have 3 floors, two staircases and 3.5 bathrooms to clean. Wait...I will still have 2 staircases but only one of them is carpeted. Damn. Although I've been cleaning for 3 hours, the things that need to be done is still long. Who am I kidding? Once I cross one thing off of the list I add two more!

I'm taking a break now and making baked kale chips. They are seriously addictive. It's the only way I eat kale nowadays and I make them daily. When I run out of kale, I crave it until I get more. The first time I tried making them a few years ago, they turned out horribly. I recently read some new tips on how to make them better and now I just can't get enough.

The farmer's market in the neighborhood starts running again on Wednesday. I am so excited! I've missed it so. Sure, there are 3 farmer's markets that are year-round in other parts of the city, but I never seem to make it to any of them. It's likely because they happen on the weekends and I find myself focusing on other things (like cleaning) on my Saturdays and Sundays.

OK - off to do more things on my list while I wait for my kale chips to bake!

Happenings

It was my birthday recently and we had fun. I said, 'No!' to cooking so we went out to eat twice over my b-day weekend. I am 36 and I feel older. I even dyed my hair brown in hopes of never coloring it again. What? Yes. I'm throwing away my hair-dying shirt and saying goodbye to my artificially hair colored days. Well, that's my goal anyway. Let's see if I can do it.

The little brother in my belly is kicking up a storm and growing like a weed. My OB even said so. I have outgrown my maternity pants that I wore with Malcolm already. I don't want to go shopping for maternity clothes, but it looks like I'm going to have to since I've exhausted all of the options of borrowing from friends.

I am happy to say that we are no longer on the hunt for a place to live. We found a place on Capitol Hill that is much larger than our current townhouse, has a yard, lots of charm and is just a few blocks away from our old apartment. We are pleased as punch. It's a duplex and we'll be on the top two floors. Friends of ours live on the bottom half; they were the ones who referred us to the owner of the house once they heard that their current neighbors were moving out. Our lease starts on June 1st. Now it's time to put this place on the market and get the hell out of dodge!

Finding a New Home

At 5:30 today, we're scheduled to look at an apartment on Capitol Hill that is larger than our townhouse. Townhouses around us have been selling quickly lately, so we are hoping that ours will do the same once we put it on the market. We moved away from Capitol Hill 3.5 years ago and can't wait to move back. What can I say? We're people that just need to be in the center of it all even with our kids. Plus, it will save us quite a bit of money to go back to renting from owning.

Pregnancy Update

My apologies for the delay in posting an update - life gets busy! Everything went really well at the ultrasound and the baby looks perfectly healthy. He's measuring at 20 weeks, 5 days so I wouldn't be surprised if he arrived before July 30th. Yep, Malcolm's getting a little brother! I'm excited to have 2 boys. My belly is so much bigger at this point than it was with Malcolm:

I Love Food

A good portion of the blogs that I read are about recipes, cooking and eating. I love good food. I love to cook and do not do it nearly enough. So many of the food blogs I read include recipes with meat. The meals look and sound delicious. They make me wish I ate meat if the writer describes and photographs the dish well. However, when I actually think about eating meat, I get totally grossed out. But many of these dishes out there? Just gorgeous.

Tomorrow afternoon is my 20-week ultrasound. I am nervous. Very nervous. Tony isn't worried in the least. Men!

New Babies

I started leading a new PEPS group this week. Last night was the first meeting. I had 16 new parents and 8 new babies (10 days to 3 months old) in my living room for two hours. First, I do not have enough seating for that many people, so there were a couple on the floor. Second, it gets rather warm in our house when we pack that many bodies into a smallish room. Third, I get so nervous about doing a good job. This nervousness kept me up last night after the fact. I wonder, "Will any of the families drop out because I did something wrong? How can I do things better?" Of course, I want to give all of the new parents a perfect experience, but, I have learned that it is impossible. In fact, PEPS tells you in the training that there may be a few families in your group that will not be completely satisfied. I can only do my best, right?

I also thought about how we thought we were going to have a baby that would have been in the age group that these babies are in and it made me a little sad.

Good Intentions

The swimming date never happened. Malcolm woke up from his nap and was very adamant about not wanting to go swimming. Next time, I'm not going to tell him where we are going. I have a feeling he'll want to go once he sees the pool.

I haven't been feeling 100% for the past, oh, 4.5 months. This pregnancy is wreaking havoc on my thyroid and we haven't found the right dosage yet. I have my OK days and then I have really bad days where I am too exhausted to eat. It's hard for me to motivate myself to do many activities with Malcolm. We get out at least once a day, but not as often as I'd like.

I really enjoy being productive so it's a downer when I don't have the energy to do much when my list of things I'd like to do is so long.

Just Keep Swimming

A few weeks ago, I made plans with our friend Angie (mom to Zavyen and Rowan) to take the kids swimming this afternoon at the best indoor pool for kids. We'll be heading out in about half an hour. I haven't bought a bathing suit for Malcolm in quite some time and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that (1) I can find his bathing suit, and (2) it still fits him. I'm also hoping that he will actually want to go swimming. Last time I took him swimming while we were in San Diego, he didn't seem to really enjoy himself.

Don't Mess With Texas

We just returned from a lovely, long weekend spent in Georgetown, Texas. My dad & stepmom bought a house in Sun City last May and it was our first visit out there. They love it there and I can see why. Malcolm loved being outside, playing in the waterfalls and driving golf carts. We spent most of our time in Georgetown but did get to see a little bit of Austin on Sunday before we flew back to Seattle. I prefer it over Houston hands-down. We had lunch at Threadgill's and I loved that they had a ton of vegetarian side dishes for me to choose from. I got to eat real southern cooking, meatless-style: black-eyed peas, garlic cheese grits and turnip greens with sweet tea to drink. Delish! Oh! And I can't forget the dessert: banana pudding. I ordered it for Malcolm but he was just interested in the whipped cream and cookies. More for me!

A First Time for Everything

Today was our first parent-teacher conference. I appreciate so much that the teachers at Malcolm's preschool do this. We got to ask questions and she asked us questions. One that struck me as funny was Malcolm's eating habits. At snack time at school, Malcolm is always the first kid to finish eating (if he eats at all). Who wants to eat when there is so much fun stuff to do?! He also has a gross habit of chewing up food and spitting it out. He does this all the time but it was something that she had never encountered before. It started when he was younger and would shove way too much food into his mouth and couldn't chew it. The habit of overstuffing his mouth has stopped, but not the spitting out of food. It occurs most often with cheese and apples.

Another first for me - I was bitten by a dog yesterday. Malcolm loves dogs and always wants to go say, "Hi". I always ask the owner if the dog is friendly before we approach the dog and I always let the dog smell my hand before I let Malcolm near it.

A mom had her two dogs, on leash, in the play area of the playground. We went over to the dogs and I asked her if they were friendly and she said yes. As I reached my hand out to the Boxer, it bit me hard enough for me to have a deep gouge in my thumb. The owner was shocked; she said it had never done that before. I was too flustered and also bleeding to get her contact information before heading to wash up and get a bandage.

As we were walking home, Malcolm and his friend, Han, were climbing a set of stairs when the same dog came running up and lunged at Han. It was off-leash and obviously in front of its house. The owner called out to it to come inside. I am incredibly relieved that neither of the boys were bitten or attacked by this dog. I've got a call into my doctor to see if I need to go in for a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

I'm still undecided if I should search out the owner and talk about the situation. I understand that dogs can be unpredictable and I hope that she is more cautious with her Boxer. She had both of her dogs in the play area of the playground which is illegal in the city of Seattle. Can I count on her to keep the dog a safe distance from other people, most importantly children?

30 months

Our little Malcolm turned 2 and a half yesterday. To celebrate, I took him to the doctor's today for a check-up and fun vaccination shot. He is doing great and actually jumped up to the 10% curve for his weight. His weight has always been a bit of a strain since he was born. For much of the past year, he had fallen completely off the charts. He's continued on the 10% curve for his height.

Yesterday, he decided to sleep until 9 AM and skip his nap. Today, he's taking a long nap. I ponder waking him up so we can go outside and enjoy a bit more of the sunshine, but I figure he must need his sleep. Speaking of naps, I believe he just woke up. Time to go crash trucks with my little guy!

Neglect

Hi Blog,

I neglected you for a whole month. I'm not sure if I've ever done that before. I can make up a lot of excuses but I'm sure it wouldn't change anything. I'll try to tend to you better from now on. I know it wasn't the best way to start a new year, but I'll do my best to change my ways. Sorry.

Love,
Kris

Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha Hee Hee Hee

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holidays. We have! Our celebrations started off with me and Malcolm going to San Diego for a few days to visit Jenn & her clan before Christmas. The boys had lots of fun as always (and the adults did, too!) Jenn was ill with a cold that had turned into an infection, but it was still much better than last December where everyone had the stomach flu. We celebrated Christmas morning very mellow-like. Tony's brother, Greg, and his girlfriend, Kara, arrived at our house around noon. I spend the day preparing for our Christmas potluck dinner. I think we had about 20 people over which was, by far, the most people we've ever had in this house for a meal. Good food was consumed and conversations were had. It was an enjoyable evening.

We took down the holiday decorations & tree the next day because our poor tree was drooping terribly and the lights and ornaments were falling off. Plus, I was so done dealing with the falling needles. On Monday, I went snowboarding at Crystal Mountain with Julie & Jeremiah. The snow wasn't great, but we still had a good time. Today, me and Mal are headed over to a friend's house for a playdate. He's missed his friends. Right now, he's choosing to eat his oatmeal with his fingers instead of his spoon. Toddlers!

Super Pancake

Malcolm is on a bit of an eating strike. He doesn't want to seem to eat anything. The only thing he will consistently eat is pancakes. So, I make him super pancakes. I put spinach, blueberries, wheat farina, wheat germ, flaxseed meal, whole wheat flour and Brewer's Yeast in them. Yes, I go there. He gobbles them up. In fact, he turns his nose up to pancakes made with white flour. That's my kid!

Brrrr!

You know it's cold when your toddler asks you to put a blanket on him at 10 AM. The heat is on yet my feet and hands are freezing! In actuality, I don't think it's that cold outside (mid-30's) but I think the insulation around the doors where I'm sitting could be better.

We put up our live holiday tree last night. It's the first one I ever remember having. The past couple of years, we've gotten small living trees. This year, we set out to get a 5' tree and came home with a 7' tree. The smell is glorious but I think the dropping needles might drive me insane!

Dreaming of Eating

Well, not actually dreaming. Just looking forward to it. Thanksgiving! Thursday! We're going over to Jill & William's house for eating festivities. We'll be bringing the non-meat 'roast' (as always) and, of course, sweet potato casserole. This year, though, I need to make it vegan since one of the eaters cannot eat dairy and egg. I think it will still turn out delish.

Last night, we were meant to host a PEPS get-together, but Malcolm has a full-force cold with congestion and coughing. He still has all the energy in the world so now I have to keep the kid entertained while avoiding play dates. His school is closed this week for the holiday. I've got activities for Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and was planning on filling the rest of the days with play dates but now I'll have to figure something else out until he gets better.

Vaishali is having her baby today! Now everyone in our PEPS group has 2 kidlets except us. And they all are singing the same song - it is really, really hard having two small children! Some say they think it's insane to have two children. It's easy for me to tell them that it gets easier :p

Time for a Weekend

Today was a typical Friday - preschool in the morning and then a play date in the afternoon. It was a very fun day for Malcolm. This weekend, it's time for Momma to get stuff done. I get a bit of 'me' time tomorrow: haircut and then book club meeting. Sunday, I'm meeting with the other grant writer for Malcolm's preschool to hopefully make some progress and then we're hosting a PEPS get-together in the evening. Busy weekend, y'all!

And, I'd also like to wish a very happy birthday to Carolyn! I'm guessing that her and Dad are celebrating properly right now on their cruise.

Malcolmspeak

Malcolm's pronunciation of words continues to improve. In many ways, we wish he'd slow down. The way he used to say 'motorcycle', 'bicycle' and 'popsicle' would kill us. But now he pronounces them correctly. There are a few words that he says that just kill me. 'Yogurt' is pronounced 'Ogurt'. 'Stool' is 'Stoon'. 'Lemonade' is 'Wummywade'. If there are any more, I'm going to have to write them down right away before they are gone.

Two-year-olds are so much fun to have around. Seriously.

Outside Time at Preschool

At the end of Malcolm's preschool day, the kids get to go outside after snack time if it's not raining. Malcolm takes *maybe* two bites of his snack and then proclaims that he is done. He is always the first kid with his shoes and coat on. A few weeks ago, when telling us about his day, he started talking about crashing trucks with Daniel & Yoni. I always thought that he was talking about the cars & trucks that they play with inside until I witness their play routine today. The three boys each have their favorite big truck and they never try to take each other's truck. Malcolm's truck is the big, yellow dump truck. They then proceed to stoop over their trucks and drive them back and forth on the sidewalk for the majority of the outside play time (20-30 minutes). They pause at one end of the 'road' and laugh together and then they start driving down the road again in a line. It is the cutest thing.

Nap Post

It's nap time for my sweet boy, Malcolm. So, I thought I'd take a minute and pop out my daily post instead of waiting until right before my bedtime. I'm also taking a break from straightening up the house - we're hosting a play date today. I chose to skip exercising today so the house would be more presentable. Jillian's 30-Day Shred really does kick your ass in less than 30 minutes. I worked out on Thursday and Friday during nap time and still had time to eat my lunch and do some other things. Perfect!

All of the ski resorts around here have already opened up. Our friend, Chris, went to Baker this weekend and was blown away by the deepness of the powder. Three years ago, we would have been up there with him. I miss the days of snowboarding every weekend. I am very eager to get back out on the slopes and really want to make it happen more than once this season.

I have a very strong urge to attempt daily to-do lists again. First item on the list: write daily to-do list. Second item: menu planning. I think about doing it but never actually do it. I've made a couple of attempts at starting to do it, but have yet to follow through. Third item: follow through on things.