Olive is walking!!

I haven't posted in a week. So much has happened, that I don't know where to begin. First off, the biggest news of the week is Baby Lucien entered the world on Jan 30th!! Mother/Father and baby are doing well. I will post some pics soon. Every time I go over to visit the little guy, I forget my camera.

As far as my crew, we have made it through another week, sickness-free! Although, Spence and I went to a birthday party yesterday at Gattiland, so that could all be ending soon. Say some prayers!!

This past week, the little Olive finally grew tired of crawling around and began taking steps....Watch Out World!!! She is growing up so fast now. I'm realizing how different boys and girls are. For example: Olive loves babies. She walks around the house babbling "baby baby baby". She carries any stuffed animal and loves on it. She also loves books. She brings me books to read to her. I used to have to literally hog-tie Spencer down to read him a book. Not Olive....she just sits patiently and then points to the pictures. She is a jealous little thing though, and doesn't like to share me with her brother. If I'm reading her a book and Spencer joins us, she hits him. Luckily, he is very easy going and thinks it's funny!

Roller Skating is still Fun!!!

Today was a great Day!! I got to be a kid again today, reliving my youth through my Son. This morning, Mom called with the bright idea to take the kids roller skating. It has been so cold, and the kids have been basically sick and stuck inside the past month, we all needed to get out and have some fun. Honestly, I didn’t know if Spence was old enough or would have enough balance to roller skate, but I thought..what the heck, and with that, we headed down to Champs Rollerdome. Larry and Olive came too and Adam and his kids met us there. I hadn’t been skating since I was in Elementary School…

Turns out, things are a little different now that I’m 35. For instance, I don’t have my own skates like I did when I was 8, so I had to use rentals. At 8, I hadn’t yet stretched my abdominal region out to a frightening diameter, leaving myself (to put it nicely) with a slight decrease in muscle tone. The music they play these days sucks! I didn’t recognize one song. Back in the day, they used to play classics like “Rappers Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang, or various hits from the then ultra-popular movie, “Xanadu”. Also, the roller rink seems much smaller than it did when I was 8. But, other than that, everything (i.e.: disco ball, strobe lights, video games, snack bar) was exactly as I remembered it.

Larry doesn’t roller skate, or ice skate, or ski. He says he doesn’t like the sensation of having no control over his feet. So, he was of no help out on the rink today, but he did have the important job of watching Olive, who, but the way, was shaking her little booty the whole time, loving the music and the lights. Mom was there to help him/us too! Adam skated, so it was up to us to help guide Spence and Isabelle. Jenna, who is 8, has been skating for quite some time and did her own thing.

Going into this, and seeing other small children around Spence’s age skating fairly well, I figured Spence would be a natural like his Mom, but I was mortified when I saw that he could not even stand up. I mean, it was like his legs were made of Jello. One trip with him around the rink and it felt like my back/abdomen were ripping apart (I know, pathetic) because I was constantly pulling him up, getting on the floor, helping him balance, etc. There’s no way I can explain just how terrible the poor kid was. Isabelle looked like a pro compared to him. She would scoot along, and hardly ever fell. I couldn’t understand how he could be so bad….it had to be Larry’s genes. Finally, he gave up and wanted the skates off. I couldn’t blame him. His poor arms have to be at least 2 inches longer with all the pulling I did on them today. When I went to take off his skates, I realized the problem….Larry had tied them on so loosely that there’s no way the kid could balance himself. He had no support around his ankles. Larry argued that tying the skates tighter would not help the poor guy, and it didn’t matter anyway, because Spence was done…he wanted to play air hockey.

While they played, I went out and did some more skating with Adam and Isabelle and, not to brag or anything, but…. I’ve still got it!! It’s like riding a bike I guess. I am still able to skate as well as I did when I was a kid. I mean, since I hadn’t skated in so many years, I didn’t know what to expect.
Eventually I was able to talk Spence into putting the skates on one more time….and would you believe it…it was like a new kid. He was so much better. He had great balance and was able to skate around the rink with me, no problem. I would skate backwards and hold his hands while he was facing me. It helped with his balance. He was so proud of himself, and I was so proud of him..and relieved that he hadn’t inherited Larry’s genes after all, it was just poor shoe-tying.

It was getting late and we were talking about leaving, but then they announced that they were going to have races. Of course, Spence and Isabelle couldn’t race..you have to be able to skate on your own. Jenna decided she would race and she did great!! She didn’t win, but came close. Adam said he wanted to race and asked me if I would. Now…..let me tell you…..at age 8, there was no way in hell I would’ve gotten out on that rink in front of all of those people to race. But, at 35, I said “what the hell” and decided to do it….I’m breaking down walls here people !!!! When they announced that it was time for the parent’s race,I didn’t really mind going b/c I thought it was a co-ed race. Turns out, that’s just a rouse to get people out there. Once out on the rink, they divided us up. Of course I couldn’t leave at that point, I’d look like a coward. So, I had to be tough, and do it. I looked to Adam for support, he gave me the “kick some ass look”, but then we both looked to my right….. and there stood a woman in a muscle shirt, cut-off jeans and her own pair of speed skates. We both knew I was already defeated. I tried to stay strong, standing timidly in my cords, turtle neck and some cheap rentals. My only solace was that the other Mom’s in the race seemed normal like me, I thought I would have a good chance at beating them…they had rentals too. But, alas, I didn’t do so great…I came in 5th out of 6. Muscle shirt woman beat everyone by a landslide. The best excuse I have for my weak performance is that I didn’t have good pole position. I had a great start, but you had to skate around cones, and I was way on the outside. I was also kind of cautious taking my turns, because the one thing I didn’t want to do was fall. When Adam’s turn came, he got off to a bad start, but still finished in the top 3 and just like back in 1980, received a free Coke!! I was very proud of him and of both of us really for getting out there and trying. That’s something I never really had the chance to do as a kid since I didn’t play any sort of organized sports. After the races, we took a few more spins around the rink and then decided it was time to call it a day…and what a wonderful day it was!!

I know the pictures aren’t great…they were taken by my phone, but I thought I’d post them anyway.

Surprise!

Yesterday we threw a Surprise 30th Birthday Party for Adam and a Surprise Baby shower for Bev! It's hard to say if they were really surprised...with so many people in the know, somebody was bound to slip up and say something. But, we had a great time nonetheless. The kids played Wii downstairs while adults enjoyed the playoff games upstairs. Olive had a great time, despite skipping her afternoon nap.

Long Time Gone

It has been too long since I posted. My best excuse, and it's legit, is that I broke yet another camera. I had so many pictures I wanted to put on here, but couldn't. I bought a new camera this weekend, so now..problem solved. Olive's first birthday!! She had 2 actually. One on her actual birthday, which was held in Texas and another party we had for her here at home. Unfortunately, she was sick and running a fever at her party at home. But she still managed to eat some of her cake. In Texas though, she had a ball and made a huge mess with chocolate brownie cake !!

The rest of the month has been spent with our family fighting another flu-like virus. This weekend, we find ourselves healthy, and thankful for that. Olivia is still not completely walking, but is taking small steps unassisted. She also says the word "baby" now...she likes playing with her baby dolls...she has a love-hate relationship with them. One minute she loves on them, the next she chews on them and finally she beats the floor with them. Spencer's newest love is the Nintendo Wii, he's been spending some quality time at his Uncle Adam's playing Wii bowling.

Christmas 2007!!

Christmas came and went in a flash it seems. We spent Christmas day at Adam and Bev’s and had a great time and great food! As seen above. It was a whirlwind of fun that came to a screeching halt when we entered the airport. Since adults don’t do well waiting in lines, it would be safe to say that children's lack of patience for it could be multiplied by at least 10, 20, maybe 30. And, really…kids are just doing and saying what we would like to, but are socially unable.

The truth of it is though, that the lines were the worst part. Spencer took his Dramamine and was successful in not tossing his Christmas Cookies. Olivia, we found out, is the happiest when she doesn’t sleep. She was having the time of her life on the plane, playing “peekaboo” with the passengers seated behind her. It helped that Tom and Sarah were on the plane too, they helped entertain the kids.

Once we arrived in Houston, we found out that our ride was held up by the ferry and was still over an hour away. We were starving, but had already left the secured area of the airport. Turns out, we flew into Houston Hobby, not Houston Intl. Big Difference…..
They don’t have any restaurants in the lobby of the hobby. By this time, it was 7:00 pm and the kids/adults were “done”. We had no transportation and no food. We asked if we could go back into the secured area, but told “no” because we didn’t have boarding cards.

Then, at our darkest moment of despair, we rallied around the baggage claim and arrived at the best idea I’d heard in years. We would call one of the nearby hotels and ask for a shuttle. We would get free transportation to the hotel and then eat at their restaurant. We would have Larry’s dad just pick us up there. I called the Mariott and the 6 of us, so proud of ourselves, hauled all 16 bags out to the underground CO2 hell they call the loading/unloading zone.

After about an hour of waiting, we realized they weren’t coming. So, I called the Hilton and they were there within 15 minutes. You might ask why we still followed through with the plan if an hour had already passed? Well, we spoke with Larry’s dad again and he still hadn’t caught the ferry and was at least 45 minutes away.

Sidebar: There are 2 ways to get from Galveston to Crystal Beach. One is the aforementioned Ferry and the other is a roundabout expressway that is about 50 miles long. The ferry itself, once you are on, only takes about 15 minutes. So, if you catch the ferry, it’s worth taking…but if not, you are stuck in the line waiting.

Now then….Next we were whisked away to the Hilton and as the shuttle driver was helping us unload all 16 of our bags he told us that the restaurant was closed because it was Christmas. Somehow we all overlooked that possibility. In fact, after everything that had happened, I had forgotten it was even Christmas. So, there we were, dropped off in front of the Hilton, with no reservation and no intentions of getting one. Poor Spence had been talking about how he wanted a cheeseburger and Tom mentioned how he really wanted a taco. I would’ve been happy with anything. Now, those dreams were dashed. The only person in luck was Olive who had food in the suitcase.

Then, I remembered that when we pulled in, I had seen a Jack in the Box next door to the hotel, we looked and it was open!!! It was a Christmas Miracle!! Everyone would have their wish. Spencer got his cheeseburger and Tom his Taco and I got an old-time favorite from when Mom&Dad lived in Dalls…the chicken fajita pita!!!

So, there we were, in the lobby of the Hilton, surrounded by our 16 bags, eating our Jack in the Box Christmas Dinner. Thankfully, the people working the front desk there had sympathy and didn’t ask us to leave. Right as we finished, Larry’s dad pulled up and we loaded our bags and headed for Crystal Beach. And, as expected, we waited over an hour for the ferry. It felt good to finally reach the “Escondido”, which turned out to be much nicer in person than in pictures.

So, that’s our Christmas adventure in a nutshell.

Computer Generated Fun!!

This weekend, Spencer and I had some fun creating some computer-generated images of us as elves. Then Aunt Bev showed us another website, Jibjab, and we created a snowball fight (as seen below). The best part of the snowball fight is Olive's face. It wasn't hard finding a picture of her with her signature nose-wrinkling glare. Spence still had some difficulty understanding how she could walk...

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Both kids have colds again (ugh) and Spence is running a fever tonight. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow morning and can go to school. This weekend was hectic with Larry in Memphis. We spent Saturday at Mom & Dads, and Sunday, Spencer was my date to my company Christmas Party, held at the Rivue (the old Flagship atop the Galt House). Let me just say, that place is awesome since it's recent renovation. The deco is gorgeous, very retro and I highly recommend it!! Spence had a great time, and was quite a little gentleman; He did his best to use good manners. They had a chocolate fountain, need I say more....

Visit with Santa Claus!

Well, today was the annual Take the Kids to the Mall to See Santa Day! Spencer was very excited and Olive was.... less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. But, going on a Monday morning works out great because there are no lines. When we arrived, Spencer ran up to the decorated area where he saw another little boy who was clinging to his mom, crying. Spence then yelled.."I'm not scared" and ran right up to Santa. I followed with Olive, but didn't put her in his lap until Spence had his time with the big man in red. He told him he wanted a snowball maker...don't know where that came from....probably him just trying to make something up on the spot.., some art supplies and CD's.

Once I sat Olive down, I knew it wasn't going to be good. She didn't cry, but she didn't like being left either. Spence was all smiles, and Olive gave her basic "get me out of here" look. I'm just thankful she didn't cry...I'll expect that next year. We didn't get a pic of Spence at two, because he wouldn't go near Santa. Speaking of Spence...wow, he's giving us a time lately. His obsession with music and CD's is on the verge of mania. He knows every song and their track numbers on various CD's (i.e. Elvis Costello, Joan Osborne, Jimmy Buffet, Paul Simon, Fiona Apple, Beastie Boys, Ben Folds, etc.) You can probably tell Larry's music versus mine. Anyway, we had to put a stop to Beastie Boys when Spence asked me the other day if I wanted to "kick the habit".....

I am considering getting him a child-size piano that has "real" keys. I've been researching it online and have found a few that have 30 keys. We are planning on starting him with lessons....looking for a way to channel his love and energy for music. I asked him not too long ago to pick an instrument he would like to learn to play and he said "either the violin or the piano"....so I'm going with the piano since we have one (that is in dire need of tuning) and I know how to play (somewhat). That might be his big gift from Santa.

As for Olive for Christmas...I just don't know what to get her. She has all of Spencer's hand-me-downs, so it's hard to justify getting her much....but Spencer knows Santa comes, so I have to produce at least a few things. These are wonderful predicaments to have.....and I so enjoy the magic that surrounds Christmas with my little guys!!!