Josie is Three!

It took some convincing ("well, if it's not your birthday, you don't get presents or a party...") but Josie finally admitted that she was three years old, not two. She kept insisting that she would be three in June, and would not admit that it was June. A little knowledge, right?

Anyway, we had a great weekend. My sister and parents watched Josie and Kieran on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. I joined up with them on Friday and the kids had a great time. Josie and Logan have a connection - they really get along well. Emma too, but Josie just seems to worship Logan. We made dozens and dozens of cupcakes that went through various stages of meltiness but finally made it to the birthday party. The birthday party - twenty five crazy kids in a warehouse of HUGE bounce houses - was fantastic too. All of the parents seemed to try the bounce houses too, which was awesome. Very tiring that - if you want to start a new gym, buy bounce houses - they will wear everyone out, guaranteed....

There are some crazy local ads on TV in Thousand Oaks

Was the title good enough to distract from the fact that it's been a good 7 months since I wrote anything here? Mercy.

Well, since October: we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, went to Alaska and New Zealand and I was temporarily stationed in Thousand Oaks. Phew!

Now, on to the important business: it's Josie's third birthday this weekend. Very hard to wrap my head around that. Here is a great photo of her working hard on her teeth.

Kieran is doing great. He's getting so big - he's sort of talking now. He's starting to do the sign for milk and saying Ma Ma Ma when he does the sign. Then if you say "Do you want milk?" he says " Ya Ya Ya" - it's ridiculous. He says Mama and Dada and HI. Appropriate for Kieran considering how friendly he is. He's constantly smiling and laughing, except when he's hungry, which is often, becuase he's got a monster appetite. ENORMOUS.

The Slowest Blogger on the Net

I know, I drop the ball and forget to post for long stretches. But, my friends, this post will catch you up on everything. BTW, I *hate* the way John McCain always says "my friends." In an attempt to overuse the phrase so much that he can't use it anymore, I will punctuate this post with that annoying catchphrase. Fun for you!!

So, my friends, the last time I posted Josie was starting preschool and Kieran was kind of sleeping. I can proudly report, my friends, that Kieran is sleeping like a CHAMP or un champinion as they say in Spanish. (mushrooms sleep *really* well). He's up to about 12 hours a night, very regularly. And we haven't had to resort to driving him around to get him to go to sleep. As a great man named Kevin once said, Giddyup. (that was a test to see if any UVA folks are reading this blog. I doubt it.) Those of you planning on having babies, invest in a machine we call the baby beat box, commercially marketed as Baby Plus. It's dopey, people will make fun of you, and you will feel like a goofball, but, my friends, it works. For reals.

Now for Josie. She has a number of accomplishments under her belt, including going both pee and poop in the potty nearly every time, walking up and down the stairs on her own, and sleeping in a big girl bed. However, my friends, she has been doing some other big girl stuff that is not so great. For example, she literally threw herself on the floor, screaming and crying, at Target in the shoe aisles the other day. (You caught me. I buy my shoes at Target. My friends, you know that all top notch professionals buy their footwear at discount stores. Don't hate the player, hate the game.) There is just something about that store that makes kids totally on edge. Maybe it's all of the red, maybe it's the low prices accompanied by high style. Whatever it is, my friends, perhaps you should take along some sedatives the next time you take a kid in that store. They just can't handle it unmedicated.

I have had the kids on my own for three days. ALL on MY OWN. Go me. For reals. Many doubted that I could handle this, my friends, but I have proven them wrong. I can totally do it. Pioneer women would be super impressed by me, what with taking care of two small children for three full days, with my washing machine, dishwasher, seemingly unlimited supply of clothes, numerous local entertainment venues and a car to drive around in. When you think about it, my friends, it's pretty darn amazing what I accomplished. I think Cory should send me to the spa for the rest of the week.

I have no photos because our camera is broken. Fuji was kind enough to fix it and send it back to us. Some minor problem involving sand in the zoom lens. A small piece of advice, my friends, next time you go to the beach, leave your delicate digital camera at home.

If anyone has talked to either Cory or myself in the last few weeks/months, you know that a) we are *obsessed* with politics; b) I have found a new target for all of my anger and unhelpful feelings in the person of Sarah Palin; and c) if given the chance, Cory might just leave me for Campbell Brown. Okay, if you've talked to us you know that's not true. Cory would DEFINITELY leave me for Campbell Brown if given the chance. My friends, I'm going to be volunteering for the No on 8 Campaign this weekend. If you have any doubts about voting against this attempt to insert discrimination into the California constitution, please give me a chance to sway you. I have limited persuasive powers, my friends, but I'd like the chance. It's super important. For reals, for reals.

I'm also living in total fear/hope/fear about Obama possibly winning. It's hard for me to believe again that the Democrats can actually win when it's important (see, e.g., Gore, Kerry) but we might just do it. I get kind of freaked out with excitement thinking about him standing on the steps of the Capitol with that awesomely smart and sassy wife of his (I have a soft spot for smart sassy women, my friends) and their two adorable children taking the oath of office. Whether he can get anything done or not, my friends, remains to be seen, but I think that just him winning will be a huge step forward for all of us. For reals.

First Day of (Pre)School!

Hard for us to believe but Josie set out on her first day of Preschool this morning. She's going to this fancy-pants liberal indoctrination center selected by her father. It's awesome. Really, though, it's a very nice school. Kieran slept through the whole thing.

Josie is asserting more and more independence these days and seeming so grown up. On the playground the other day, she climbed into this (very low) treehouse and said "mama, wanna come hang out with me?" She also says about pretty much every task "NOOOOOOOO!!! Let ME DO IT!!!!" which is so aggravating because a) no one likes to hear kids scream sentences/demands with the word MEEEE in it and b) she takes for freaking ever to do stuff. But I guess that's part of the process of growing up - I have to learn to be more patient. :) She also tries to negotiate. In the bathtub, at the park, anywhere fun: "two more minutes!" Before bed: "one more book??! one more song??" I think I even heard her ask for a glass of water last night. It's like they have these excuses hardwired into their brains - it's not like we have ever given or offered her a glass of water at bedtime, so I have no idea where she came up with that one. By the time Kieran is sleeping on his own (see below) Josie will require 2 hours of my time to get to sleep. Oy!

I took a couple of photos of the (non) event and they're below. BTW, how cute is dad in his plaid shirt?

In Kieran news, he slept from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. without making a peep!!! I still woke up every few hours to see if he was breathing - its very unnerving when they sleep quietly for long stretches. Usually he grunts quite a bit in his sleep so it's easy to know he's alive. It's probably a lot like having an ogre live in your house. At any rate, the sleep was good, even though it took from about 8:30 to 10:30 to get him to go to sleep. I think he was all riled up after watching that bonehead Fred Thompson and that doofus Joe Lieberman speak last night. What is wrong with these people?!?! And those "country first" signs?? What does that even mean?? They get me so angry with their idiotic slogans and just the whole mindset. It's ridiculous. Perhaps that's why Kieran couldn't get to sleep, despite the rocking, eating, pacifier, and 40 minute walk in the cool night air.

One Month!

Hard to believe he's been here a month - although sometimes the days seem like weeks....

A few more photos. We've been spending lots of time with Nana and Pop Pop and Nana Carol just came in from Minnesota a few days ago, so Kieran has been spending lots of time throwing up on I mean getting to know his grandparents. He is starting to show some signs of personality and his eyes are a beautiful steely blue. Josie has also been basking in the grand-parental attention. In this photo, you can nearly see the smirk he inherited from Pop Pop:

Kieran Arrives

Well after complaining non-stop about being sick to death of being pregnant, and eating one *really* spicy lunch, Kieran finally arrived on Wednesday, July 16th at 1:59 a.m. after about 30 hours of labor. They have lots of good drugs at the hospital though, so I can't complain. The entire time I was in the hospital I thought about women who gave birth a) ears and years ago; and b) with no access to fantastic maternal care in this country and others who did/do not have such awesome inventions as perineal ice packs and percocet. We came home on Friday morning and Josie has been very excited to spend time with baby brother. Some photos of Kieran's first few days:

The Big 2

Josie is 2! Hard to believe. She had a lovely birthday party with the California family and the Minnesota family briefly by phone. A video of Josie begging for birthday cake, although you have to listen closely ("Want some birthday cake!!"). You can see she is her mother's daughter the way she puts away a *huge* piece of cake.