Unfiltered

A friend and I were chatting this morning and somehow we ended up discussing the fact that I have no filters. It's so true.  And I think I've gotten worse since I've become a stay-at-home-mom.  I no longer recall how to properly function in normal, adult mode. So we joked that I'm "unfiltered" and I thought that could have been a good alternate name for this blog.  "Unfiltered"...maybe we could even work a little photo-related tagline...let's see..."Unfiltered...except for the UV one on my lens."  Hmm...better work on that.  Perhaps someday I'll actually learn to edit my writing and stop with the stream of consciousness posts.  But then I don't think we could call this blog "Unfiltered" anymore. 

In the meantime, back to my mommy duties.  The kitchen counters are atrocious and there's scads of laundry to be done.  Plus I need to comb my little girl's hair before driving her to school.

Holiday Photos

My lack of activity on here is a symptom of my increase of activity in real life.  One fun thing is that I've taken holiday photos for several of my friends.  I don't want to share them now because I want to let them unveil them on their own.  But after the holidays maybe I can share a few of my favorite shots from these various sessions.

Meanwhile, holiday photos of my own family have been a disaster.  It's very frustrating.  I know the shot I want to get, but it's very hard to take it and be in it at the same time.  *sigh*

Pretty One

Today the girls were describing themselves at breakfast.  A Girl said, "I'm the silly one."  Little K said she was the cute one and K Girl piped up, "I'm the pretty one."  I nearly choked on my tea. What have I done these girls?!  I wanted to make sure they had healthy self esteems.  Oh...they have healthy self esteems alright. They're downright arrogant, in fact.  I'm trying to back pedal but I think the damage is done.  Anyway, I said, "you're all pretty girls".  So then K Girl wanted to know "what" she was?!  I said, "You're the sweet one".  Of course I added the caveat that they're all sweet but I told K Girl she was especially sweet.  The girls then wanted to know what O Boy was.  I thought about it and said, "He's the obedient one".

But back to the pretty one...she may not be the only pretty one but she definitely IS a pretty one...of course I might be biased.

Yum

A friend sent this edible arrangement after my lithotripsy next week.  Chocolate dipped apples...delicious.

Made with Love

Made with ♥ by Annika, Kiersten and Kardynn

Netflix

I'm looking at the rental activity on my Netflix account. My first Netflix rental was in 2000. Whoa! That means I've shelled out like $1500 for Netflix so far. I should figure out how much I've paid per movie.  Never mind. I'm way too lazy to count all the movies on that list.

Neglect

My poor blog has been neglected.  It's not that I've forgotten about it. I take photos with the intention of posting them, I think of little snippets that I want to share, I work thoughts around in my head...but somehow I never manage to sit down and make any of it happen. Ever since school started back up I've been busier than ever. I had big hopes that things would be a little less frenetic this year but alas, no, it's as crazy as ever.  And I just enrolled Kardynn in preschool which I'm sure will make things even crazier.  Of course that makes me question why I've signed her up but I'm doing this for her.  When I first signed Oskar up for preschool it was totally about me. I needed a little break.  Two kids in preschool was even more of a break.  Last year was a disaster. I had one in afternoon Kindergarten and two in morning preschool...and not even on the same days.  I had hoped this year would be better but now I have four kids going to school at four different times.  So...once again I've pinned my hopes on next year...next year things will calm down, next year I'll finally get organized, next year I'll get a set workout routine, next year.

In the meantime Kardynn is getting to be such a big girl. She's bull-headed and difficult but she's also delightful. She uses such grown up words. I'm frequently amazed by the things she knows. And of course in order to start preschool she needed to be potty trained. At this very moment she's upstairs sleeping in her big girl bed - with no rails - in big girl underwear.  It's hard to imagine that this day has arrived.  Of course I'll be real and tell you that this is still a risk. I may be washing sheets tomorrow.  But she's getting there...we're getting there.  I'm almost done with diapers. And it feels as wonderful as I always imagined it might feel.

Other current news is that I've been on a bit of a health roller coaster. Honestly, this is perhaps the biggest reason I've not been blogging.  I've spent so much of my "free" time going to doctors appointments the last few months.  I'm not sure this will be the final chapter in this book but it turns out I had kidney stones...four kidney stones, to be exact.  So on Thursday I had lithotripsy.  Fun, fun.  Hopefully now life can get back to normal.

The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love

This morning as the kids were eating breakfast and I was running getting this and that for each of them Oskar announced, "I know it's a hard job to be a mom."

When it rains...

When it rains, it pours - and quite literally this morning.

On Saturday mornings Dwight plays basketball at the gym.  Today he happened to leave his phone behind.  But no biggie.  We never call him there anyway.

The morning was plugging away rather uneventfully until I discovered the girls playing in the upstairs bathroom with their kitchen toys.  This is a big no no in our house.  They're not supposed to play with their kitchen toys in water because we've had several ugly incidents in the past.  So I unhappily scold them and tell them to clean up the water they've spilled on the floor.  In the meantime I hop in the shower and throw Kardynn in the bathtub (which is where all the girls are supposed to be headed, as soon as they finish cleaning up the mess).   Annika saunters into the bathroom and informs me that Kiersten has made a big mess.  Kiersten comes bursting behind her, in tears, saying the bathroom is leaking.

Uh oh.

I reacted poorly.  I might have cursed.  I'm not sure.  But I definitely pounded the tile with my fist.  Not a graceful reaction.  I jumped out of the shower, grabbed my towel and ran down the hall.  At this point, water is pouring out of the bathroom.  The hall carpet is getting wet.  There's water an inch deep all over the bathroom and more pouring over the sides of the toilet.  I grab the plunger and manage to get the wad of toilet paper on its merry way.  (Later the girls informed me that when the wad of toilet paper wouldn't go down, they just kept flushing.  Naturally.)

I'm madly trying to soak up water with all the towels we have...and hopping mad to boot.  Eventually I get the water soaked up reasonably well.  I transport sopping wet towels from the tub to the laundry room and start load number one.  And then I jump back in the shower.

Breathe.

I tell the girls to get in the bathtub and we resume our morning.  I explain that I hope they've learned to not keep flushing the toilet.

The day will get better, right?!

Just now I discovered the puddle of water on the floor in the kitchen.  I unscrewed the vent (water poured out when I did that) and discovered that the puddle is on the other side.  Of course it is.

Is it time to page Dwight at the gym?

Hot Dog

O told me he wished that he had gotten lunch at the cafeteria today because it was hot dogs.  I explained that those hot dogs, unlike the ones we have at home, are made from real meat.  He said, "Oh..." and then added incredulously "are they made from dead dogs?"

Kardy-isms

Kardy was just explaining to Dwight that someone could not go to work if they did not have "a work necklace" (a badge).

Yesterday she was asking where Dad was - was he "at work" or "sleeping"?  So I love her take on Dwight's life.  He goes to work at the gym and he comes home and sleeps.  *haha*

Water

I'm not really a PDA kinda person.  My husband and I can probably be sickeningly sappy but we tend to keep it to ourselves.  But today I just have to put it out there how much I appreciate my guy.

Sometimes I think about the enormity of the decision I made at the tender age of 23.  I guess I have to credit good instincts because I'm pretty sure I didn't know what I was doing.  But thirteen years later, I occasionally reflect upon it and am amazed by my good fortune.  Maybe I used up all my good luck on that one thing.  I dunno...but whatever it was...I'm pretty grateful.

Today my guy called me to remind me to drink water.  I won't get into all the specifics of why that's a very sweet gesture...you'll just have to take my word for it.  And sure, he does lots of other sweet stuff too but that phone call put a smile on my face and for once I decided to blog about it.  I mean, you need to know that we can be mushy gushy, right?!  Seriously, he's a great guy.  I'm pretty darn lucky.

Swimming Progress

After my triathlon relay, I decided I wanted to learn how to swim correctly.  So two days later I was at the gym for my first swim lesson.  Ironically my swim teacher is someone who taught my kids at another facility, several years ago.  That didn't make me feel the least bit silly...no...not at all.  But I'm totally putting my ego aside and just going for it.  And it's great.  I've already learned so much in two lessons.  My swim teacher is awesome.  And she does a great job juggling the wide range of skill levels in our adult swim class.

Yesterday was swim lesson number two and I'm feeling really good about my progress.  At one point my teacher told me my freestyle looked almost perfect.  Yay!!  So now I just need to practice, practice, practice!!  I'm trying to focus on keeping my arms straight and keep my side breathing smooth.  It still doesn't quite feel natural to me but I'm getting there.  Yesterday I had an AHA moment when I thought maybe I would "take a break" and swim with my head out of the water.  When I went to try it I realized that swimming with my head out of the water now feels incredibly awkward...after just two lessons!!!  Wow!!

After my lesson I stayed for another half hour practicing my stroke.  At one point someone hopped into the lane next to me and started cranking out laps.  I always feel a little intimidated when a proficient swimmer gets in the lane next to me.  But at one point when I stopped to catch my breath, I watched her and realized that she was making some mistakes - mistakes that I've been making up until now too.  It felt awesome to KNOW that...I actually know a little something about what I should be doing.  Having said that, she still looked pretty good to me and was clearly swimming with ease.  Meanwhile I felt like I was inching across the pool because I'm struggling to get it all together.  I'm just trying to go slow and focus on getting everything right.  So I was shocked when at one point I ended up next to the lady in the other lane and I realized that I was very easily maintaining her pace.  It felt to me like I was going really slow but I was actually going just as fast as she was. I think maybe I was a little frenetic in the past...so now that I've become more efficient, it feels calm and slow and easy but I'm probably going just as fast as I had been in the past.  *haha*

TB

We were on the elevator yesterday and Kardynn got excited when she saw the alarm button.  "Taco Bell!"

It's Baaaa-aaack!

We have a little girl in our house who desperately needs to nap. She's taken maybe half a dozen naps since the end of May...and this is a VERY BAD THING. For a while I thought maybe she was just giving up naps early and while that sucked for me, such is life.  But it has become increasingly apparent that she NEEDS to nap. She gets so grumpy.

The problem started when she stopped sucking her thumb in May.  Since then it's been nearly impossible to get her to sleep during the day. At first it seemed like she was okay.  But she's not.  So last month I really started my campaign to get her back to napping.  I tried laying with her (which in reality was pretty much me trying to be a straight jacket for her because she was not going down without a fight). That was no fun and it didn't work anyway.  Well, it worked once when she finally wore herself out but the rest of the times she wore me out first.  I tried bribery. That didn't work. I tried lulling her to sleep in the car...and in the stroller. None of that worked. So now I'm trying the only other thing I could think of. Eight months after having taken it down, the crib is back. *fingers crossed*

Crib, originally uploaded by hezro.

Heads Up

On Saturday I'm swimming a mile as part of a triathalon relay.  I do the swim, another person does the biking and a third person does the running.  Pretty cool, right?  Ironically I have far more experience running and biking but I'd like to be a better swimmer so I signed up in hopes that it might motivate me a little.  If nothing else, maybe it would help with my efforts to lose weight. Of course I didn't really think through the fact that I'd be swimming in a lake...cuz I have some issues.  You see, when I was eight, I had a traumatic water experience.  In fact, you might say it was an extreme traumatic water experience, not to mention extremely traumatic.  I once blogged a very detailed post about it  but it was more about recording details than providing entertainment so I don't blame you if you never read it.  I'll give you a quick run down now.

I was eight, my Dad was teaching my brother and I to swim in a river, in Central Africa...and he encountered a hippo...right there in the river with my brother and I.  Now it's hard to garner a lot of sympathy from your family for having witnessed a hippo attack when another member of your family was the one attacked.  Because of course they're all going to think it was more traumatic for the person who was attacked.  And they're probably right.  But still, it was VERY traumatic for an eight year old girl to watch her father collapsing on the shore in a bloody mess and wondering whether or not he was going to live (because lots of people were voicing their opinions that he would not). And for the record, the rest of the week continued to be traumatic for that eight year old girl.  I won't get into all that now - suffice to say, I have some water issues.

Oh...and let me tell you one more thing.  When I was about fourteen years old, my parents took us on vacation to Bujumbura, Burundi. One day they took all of us kids to Lake Tanganyika for a swimming outing.  Some parts of Tanganyika are not open for swimming because of crocodiles but they drove around until they found a spot with no signs telling you not to swim.  I'm not sure why the crocodiles haven't figured out that the eatin's good if they just come around the bend but who am I to question the waters that my parents deem safe.  (Though, now that I think about it, from now on I *may* start questioning.) 

Okay, okay, I do think it was a public beach so don't go retroactively calling child services on them.  At any rate, my brothers and I ventured into the water with great delight.  Danny and I were enjoying the surf when one of us happened to look back and notice that my parents were behaving quite erratically on the shore...and Ted and Jonny were no longer in the water.  Mom and Dad were jumping around and shouting something.  We couldn't hear what they were saying above the roar of the waves so we went in to see what was going on and guess what?!  About twenty feet from us there was a hippo.  Yep.  We hadn't been able to see it over the waves when we were in the water, but they could see it from the shore.  And as you can imagine, my entire family is a little jumpy about hippos.  (That's apparently where my parents now draw the line.  I mean, crocodiles around the bend, that's one thing but hippos in the surf, nope that's it, you're coming back in.)

I joke but I probably ought to thank my parents for their approach because I did overcome my fears enough to continue to swim.  I still get out there and do it.  I don't like deep, dark water - particularly the dark part - but I'll endure it as long as I'm not alone.  And I'll be the first to admit that I have a few funny quirks.  It terrifies me when I try to touch and can't.  When I'm with a group of people, once we've gone out over our heads, I'll never try to touch again until someone else in the group verifies that they can touch.  If somehow I end up alone in the water, I will seriously swim until my knees drag in the sand because it terrifies me *that* much.  And this is probably something I shouldn't admit but I'm always scoping out the other swimmers around me and determining whether or not I could beat them in a mad dash back to shore...away from the shark.  Now, I'd like to think that if a shark really did attack my companion, I wouldn't wimp out and that I would actually try to help them.  But don't hold your breath...just sayin'.

So...anyway...like I said, I'm swimming a mile on Saturday in deep, dark water. If I think about it too much my heart starts to race.  For a while I was working really hard towards the goal of swimming a proper crawl with my head under the water but I've since given up on that.  Now I just want to finish the race. I'll still wear my goggles and maybe I'll surprise myself but pretty much I've also just accepted the fact that I may very well swim a mile with my head out of the water the entire time.  Or maybe I'll just swim with my head under the water for long enough to get away from the spectators.  I mean, I do have my pride.

Band-Aid

So much for this new box of band-aids...

Sibling Rivalry

Yesterday we finally taught Oskar to tie his shoes.  Once he learned, Annika was determined to learn so today *she*m learned how to tie her shoes.  That's sibling rivalry for you.

Entropy

Oskar just informed me that he doesn't want to be outside "because of entropy".

Edit 3:20pm

As I mentioned on Facebook, he was explaining to me that entropy causes your cells to die and clearly he didn't want that. He also had concerns about Blackbody Radiation.

We just got home from soccer, where we were, and I told him that I was going to look up Blackbody Radiation in his Physics book. He said, "Look under "Hot Stuff". Sure enough - here they are entropy and blackbody radiation.

Breakfast Convo with Osk

Oskar: Mom, where should I live when I grow up?

Me: Close to me.

Oskar: I was thinking close to the Natural History Museum.

[pause]

If I have kids, I could take them to the Natural History Museum. And I was thinking you could come with us.  I'll call you up, and then you can come meet us, and we'll go to the Natural History Museum."

I've Got the Travelin' Bug

Yesterday my brother jokingly - or perhaps not so jokingly - called me a "babysitter whore".  (Though I would argue that I'm actually more of a babysitter pimp...just sayin'.) But I'll tell you what, I totally feel like that's true. And frankly, it's no laughing matter.  I think this has been the hardest thing for me about motherhood for me - the constancy of it.  I know that probably sounds ridiculous and maybe my situation is a little extreme (with four young children and all) but truly, I wasn't prepared for how trapped I would feel.  I mean, I love my kids, I think you all know that.  And I love doing stuff with them...and taking pictures of it.  But there's so much MORE that I want to do (and used to be able to do).   

This seems like a good time to acknowledge a few saints in my life.  First there's my very kind sister-in-law who comes over and watches our children several times a month so that my husband and I can spend a little time together doing SOMETHING.  I appreciate it so much.  It's a luxury we would not otherwise be able to afford. I try so hard to not additionally take advantage of her, because it already feels like so much.  And I do try to let her know how much we appreciate it but the fact that she does this for us, without even having children and understanding how desperately I long for time to myself...well...like I said, she's a saint.  That's all there is to be said.

The other person who deserves a public thank you is my next door neighbor.  She has five children of her own so she totally understands why I don't relish dragging my troop to doctor appointments or shopping or oil changes or whatever it might be.  Many a time I've called her up for a favor, "Can so and so (or more typically, several of them) come over while I run and do XYZ".  She's a really good sport about it and I'm pretty sure I owe her about a week's worth of solid babysitting.

But contrary to the experience those two have had with me, it's actually really hard for me to ask for help. I hate to be a bother.  And neither of them are really able to help me scratch my traveling itch anyway (though not for lack of willingness on either of their parts, I have no doubt). My mom was such an awesome help when the kids were younger but then she moved out of the area (hopefully not just to get away from my perpetual requests for help!!).  At least once Mom came back and watched all four kids for a long weekend but quite frankly, I think she found it a little overwhelming. It'd probably be easier now that the kids are a little older and more independent, but still, it's a lot.  I have another sister-in-law who would no doubt be very willing but again, she has a job and plenty of responsibilities of her own.

So yeah, traveling is tricky these days.

Why don't we travel with the kids?!  Ha!  I'll tell you why.  One thing that I hadn't considered before we suddenly found ourselves the parents of four children was how expensive everything would be.  I would love to take them out west for a ski trip or plan a family cruise but plain and simple, WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!! 

*sigh*  Becoming a parent has forced me to plant my feet on the ground much more solidly than I ever intended too.  Instead of making plans for the near future, I daydream about the distant future.  (And anyone who knows me well probably also knows that patience is not one of my fortés.) So who knows when I'll actually be able to start traveling again but it WILL happen, I promise you that.  Someday...someday.

First Day of School

Oskar and I were both up bright and early for the morning bus.  Afterwards, several of us gathered at a neighbor's house for a little back-to-school celebration. (I was the only slacker who showed up empty-handed. Oops!)

Waiting for the "afternoon" bus (which arrives at 11 in the morning).

The kids got home from their first day of school and Annika was immediately telling me all about her new friends and the things they did and who invited her for a playdate and so on and so forth.  Eventually I was able to ask Oskar how his day was and he responded, "Average" and quickly added with a whine, "But it's too long."

Assistant

The other day Kardynn was being particularly clingy.  I was trying to get the house cleaned up and it was challenging with a child attached at the hip (literally).  So I tried to think of ways to distract her.  I thought maybe I could get her to "help" me.  We proceeded to have a conversation that went something like this:

Me: Would you like to be Mommy's assistant?
Kardynn: I not She-shen, I Kardynn.
Me: No, not Kiersten, A-SSIS-TANT. Do you want to me by A-SSIS-TANT?
Kardynn: Sheshen's downstairs. I Kardynn Engen.
Me: An assistant is someone who helps someone else. You can be my assistant.
Kardynn: No, I Kar-dynn.

And on it went.  Eventually I gave up and continued to carry her around on my hip.  For the record, typically she doesn't even call Kiersten "She-shen" anymore.  She's moved on to calling her Kir-sten.

Overheard at Breakfast

Oskar: Mom, babies don't know how to control their bladder so that's why they wear diapers.

Kardynn, protesting: I know how to go up the ladder!

August 16

This past weekend my Mom was in town (on her way from Cairo to her home in Florida). We enjoyed her visit so much. It was a little crazy though. On the day she arrived, my brother had an unpleasant medical procedure - which resulted with his being diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. But he was very uncomfortable and wasn't supposed to be alone for 24 hours so he hung out at my place. Plus Mom was fighting jet lag AND struggling with allergies. In the meantime, my father-in-law came up from North Carolina so we also visited with him and my sister-in-law and my nephew.

What a crazy weekend!

Yesterday we drove my Mom to Reagan National Airport to catch her flight to Florida. We dropped her off around 8:40 am and then I wanted to kill some time before getting back on 66, because the traffic going back towards home had looked nasty.

First we pulled in to Gravelly Point and watched planes landing and taking off. The kids loved it...well...Kiersten was not 100% sold. You'll notice she would plug her ears as the planes went over us. It *was* quite loud.









Next we pulled off to explore Roosevelt Island. We walked to the memorial and then wandered around on the trails.









While walking around I realized I was WAY overdressed. It had been cool the last couple of days so I'd been wearing jeans. We left the house early enough that I didn't realize the cold snap had ended. I was still wearing jeans. By 9:30 am I was dying.







I also realized that I have a completely irrational fear related to the kids. When we were walking on the bridge between the island and the parking lot, if Kardynn would get too close to the side, I would seriously start almost hyper ventilating. I worried that she'd slip through the cracks...or best case scenario, simply lose a shoe. I kept trying to rationalize it away but if she started to get close, I would literally get dizzy. I had to go grab her away from the side and encourage her back towards the middle of the bridge. I was not quite as loopy about the older kids (the older they are the less it seemed to bother me - as you can see from the above picture of Oskar). But yeah, if Kardynn got too close to the edge, I would get woozy.

But back to the day's adventures, I wanted to run by Tysons Corner and take care of a few errands. I had a pair of Hanna Anderrson PJs that had had a seam come out. HA was awesome and they gave me a full credit for those PJs two years later. (Unfortunately I got a really good deal when I bought them. *hmph*)

Then I went by Pottery Barn Kids with a towel that I bought around the same time. The one seam has completely ripped out and it's all fraying along that side. The lady said, "normal wear and tear". Uh...then never mind buying towels from PBK in the future because the only other towel that has ever done this to me was a cheap-o towel that I bought at WalMart and that one was fine for like ten years before it happened. What a bummer because usually I think Pottery Barn has good customer service. I'm not sure what I thought they should do but if they think it's normal for a towel's side to completely unravel after two years, that's a problem. Our final stop was at Teavana to sample the fares (now that I'm a tea fanatic). The kids tried the iced herbal tea and liked it. I'll have to make some at home.

I had promised the kids that if they were good at the mall, we'd go to a playground. So we left Tysons and headed for Clemyjontri Park.

























The kids had a blast but now I was really DYING in my blue jeans. I mean, look at THEIR faces and imagine what mine looked like.





They really, really wanted to go on the carousel and of course I'd left my wallet in the car so we went back to get money, bought tokens and enjoyed a ride on the carousel before leaving.









Then we played a quick game of Follow-the-Leader...and headed home. *whew*





When we got home I assembled a doll house for Kardynn.





And as if I hadn't already had enough time outside, then I mowed the grass.

Heather Engen Photography

I don't know what I'm doing.  Don't start making "What else is new?" cracks!  I can't figure out where to post my photos...and more importantly, what I'm doing with my life.  As my most dedicated followers know (Mom?), this summer I've been exploring photography as a potential career path.  And I think the most important thing that I've learned from this is that I am SO not ready for anything like this right now. But of course I still love photography and I still love taking pictures of/for people.  So for now I just want to keep practicing on the kind people I know.  People who are gracious when I totally screw up.  (Thank you Aunt Esther!)

So...in the meantime...I had made a "Heather Engen Photography" page on Facebook.  Should I close that down? Should I post my photos there?  What to do, what to do? Or should I post my photos to Flickr (which is kinda what I had been doing).  Or both?  I need to decide.

Work

Kardynn apparently thinks that Dwight goes to work "at the gym" and "plays basketball".  He wishes that was his job!

I can't remember what prompted it but last week the other kids and I got into a discussion about work and jobs.  Oskar said, "Being a mom is a really hard job.  You have to discipline people." And that was the extent of his description.

We had some big milestones last week and all of them happened at the gym. The first big milestone is that Oskar and Annika went down the enclosed water slide. A few weeks ago Annika tried the open water slide and she had a hard time getting out of the water at the base of the slide. So I told her she wasn't quite ready for it. But she's been making great headway at swim lessons so I encouraged her to try it again. She did great. After a few times down that I told her I thought she'd be fine to do the other one too.  She and Oskar both decided to try it. They went down several times. Oskar loved it. Annika got water up her nose on one of descents and she didn't like that but I think overall she liked it. On the weekend we dragged Dwight to the gym with us and they all rode the waterslides together numerous times.

They had another success which I initially forgot about (and that did not happen at the gym).  We went swimming at a neighbor's house and they both swam in the deep end (sans life jacket).  Annika tended to make sure she wasn't too far from either the edge of the pool or a float but she certainly does not lack for confidence.  Oskar, on the other hand, swims much better than he realizes.

The second success at the gym happened on Thursday. I met up with my friend to work out. When we dropped the kids off at the child care center, I realized that Kardynn's diaper was wet. I no longer carry a diaper bag - of course - so to spare me a trip out to the car (in the rain), my friend gave me a pull-up to use. About 50 minutes into our workout, I got paged to the child care center.  When I got down there, they told me that Kardynn needed help in the bathroom.  I said, "Oh, she's not potty trained".  In the meantime, she had spotted me and came running up shouting, "Mommy, I need to poop."  Alrighty then. So I took her into the bathroom. And guess what?!  She used the potty!  Hurray!  Now I need to teach her the difference between peeing and pooping.  *hehe*  When she informs me that she's poopy, 90% of the time she's actually wet.  When she does poop, her trend is to flat out deny anything is going on. Strange child.

Whole Grain Pancakes

I made whole grain pancakes for breakfast this morning. When I tasted them I thought, "Oh man, the kids are going to pitch a fit."  But I was wrong. If they noticed a difference, they didn't mention it. I added frozen blackberries to part of the batch and Oskar and I both agreed that was delicious.  Anyway, point is. Sometimes our kids aren't as finicky as we expect them to be.

Growing Up

Annika amazes me with her seemingly fearless approach to life. Last week she and Oskar did a rock climbing camp and she easily conquered that challenge.  She had no trouble reaching the top of any of the routes they did.  Oskar said, "Mom, she's younger than me and better than me!"  (I admire him too for the way he wants the best for everyone around him.  He's a very selfless person.)

Yesterday Annika went down the waterslide at the pool again and this time had absolutely no problems. I encouraged both of them to try the covered waterslide and they did.  Oskar loved it.  Annika was not as sold but she still tried it several times.

Speaking of Oskar, yesterday we were walking out of a building and Kardynn pitched a fit for some reason or another.  (Who knows why?)  I started walking away (making sure she was safe from cars, of course).  But Oskar was so upset. "Mom, she can't get up. She needs you to pick her up."  Twice he tried to go pick her up himself but of course she shooed him away because she was having a tantrum.  He's an amazing kid. I went back and picked her up.  Not because SHE was demanding it but because HE wanted it.

Oh my...they're all growing up so fast!

Busy Week

The past week has been busy, busy, busy. Last weekend I took photos of sweet baby Cameron. He was such a cutie! And it was a really good learning experience. Mainly I learned that I still have a lot to learn!

After the photo shoot, the kids and I went to Dad's place for a sleepover. The sleepover part was a bit of a disaster in that it was nearly impossible to get my girls to sleep. But when that small detail fades from my memory, I'll have nothing but fond recollections!

On Sunday we went to the Natural History Museum downtown. We took the metro to add to the adventure...which turned out to be a mistake because they were doing maintenance and single tracking. We spent entirely too much time getting to and from the museum and not enough time wandering around it but such is the substance of all the best adventures, right?!

The three big kids had camp this week. Oskar and Annika did a rock climbing camp and Kiersten did an art camp. After day one Oskar said to me, "Mom, Annika is younger than me but she's better at rock climbing! Can you believe it?!" Yep, Annika took to rock climbing. Today when I picked them up, Oskar pointed out to me a smiley face that Annika drew at the top of one of the climbs (is it still called a pitch on a wall?). She went to the top many times and Oskar wondered whether next time she should do Advanced Rock Climbing. Today I watched the kids climb and Oskar would climb up quite comfortably and then all of a sudden he'd reach a height that felt uncomfortable to him and he'd just stop. But he told me he knew he could reach the top because each time he went a little higher than he did the time before. I'm very proud of him for stretching his comfort zone a little. And it makes me happy that he loved camp despite his fear of heights. Several times I said, "I'm sorry you don't like rock climbing buddy" and he'd say, "I love it Mom!" So it was a good lesson for me to back off and stop putting my grown up spin on things. He also drove me crazy all week telling me that he wants to do "Rock and Swim" (which is an all day camp that starts at the rock wall and ends up at - you guessed it - the pool).

I uploaded pictures to Flickr but it's getting very late and today is another busy, busy day so I really need to get to sleep. I'll have to add some photos later on...maybe Sunday?

Kardynn-isms

Kardynn is quite articulate for a two and a half year old. I figure it's because she's a girl and the fourth child in a family of condensed children. But sometimes this sophisticated vocabulary leads to funny results and her vocabulary gets the best of her. For example, she thinks a muffin is actually called muffin man and she's started using the word bathtub for the verb bath or toenail polish for toenails or hangnails for fingernails.

Examples:

K: "Mommy, remember when we ate the muffin man?"

or

K: "Mommy, I love to take a bathtub."

I need to remember to jot down some of her other little sayings because they always make me smile.

Convos with the Kids

The kids were calling Independence Day "Appendix Day".

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Last night Annika slept on the floor in our room. She'd made some deal with Dwight while I was away. I was quite amused when she informed me that she'd packed for the occasion: her sleeping bag, her pillow and a change of clothes for the morning. (She just came down in her change of clothes.)

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Earlier this morning:

Kiersten: Thank you Mom.
Me: For what?
Kiersten: For everything you do for us.

Ah...that was nice.

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Oskar: J. told me that his Grandma is rich.
Me: Are any of your relatives rich, Oskar?
Oskar: Nope.

Happy Birthday Oskar!

Yesterday we celebrated Oskar's birthday with a scavenger hunt with friends. (Thank you to Because...I'm the Mom for reminding me how much I loved this kind of stuff as a kid.)

You can see all the photos at Flickr but here's the condensed version.





One lap around turtle pond.



Supper at Red Robin.





$10 shopping spree at Target.



I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.