panic at the disco

Just in case you were wondering...
1. a sneaky three year old child can somehow manage open child-proof vitamin bottles on their own when motivated to do so.
2. the levels of vitamins A and Iron in approximately 10-12 chewable Flinstone vitamins (over 20x the recommended dosage) is NOT toxic for a skinny little three year old child.
3. it's best to check for yourself anyway if you encounter one such devilish three year old child and the number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222.

Go, Dog. Go!

A dog party!
A big dog party!
Big dogs, little dogs,
red dogs, blue dogs,
yellow dogs, green dogs,
black dogs, and white dogs
are all at a dog party!
What a dog party!
~P.D Eastman

Well, that might be a slight overstatement since there were actually only two dogs in attendance tonight...but I just couldn't resist.

Today was our four-legged friend Scout's first birthday. We celebrated with squeaky toys, cupcakes, doggy treats, hockey, baseball, costumes & goody bags. And friends. Most of all, we celebrated with friends. Here's the clip...

happy halloween!

No, I haven't completely lost my mind. Yet. You see, it's pretty much Halloween year round in this house. There are two closets and a rolling ottoman overflowing with costumes and "the silver box" where mommy used to stash her chocolate somehow became a candy free for all one day. But, it just wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't discuss (two months ahead of time) what we wanted to be and then order our favorite (expensive) costumes on line. And this week, we're celebrating the arrival of those costumes.

This post, will serve as a reminder of what the children ordered to wear on Halloween which we will inevitably refer back to when I post pictures of what they actually do wear on Halloween. I can assure you that at least one of them will be different. In fact, one of them already is.

Zuzu has chosen Little Red Riding Hood. Now, I've never actually read this story to her but somehow she knows all about Grandma & the Wolf. Could have been the ride at Lego Land or maybe they are actually teaching them something at pre-school. Who knows? Needless to say she is the cutest damn Little Red Riding Hood you've ever seen. And no, I'm not just saying that because she is my child....


Gage chose GI Joe Snake Eyes. Not because he has any idea who GI Joe Snake Eyes is, but because the costume looked cool and came with a super long sword. It was also one of the hardest costumes to find in stock. Go figure. I guess he has good taste. The costume that we ordered looked like this....


I do not, however, have a photo of him in it yet as he has already dismissed the costume for Halloween. He has now announced that he will be a football player and will sport his new San Francisco 49ers jersey that he got on Sunday and has worn all but one day since. And, as you can imagine, that laundry day did not come easy....


Alas, I will keep you posted. Stay tuned for more Halloween photos throughout the next 38 days....

tuck and hold

I'm seriously dreading going to sleep tonight for fear of how my body might revolt tomorrow. Today, you see, was my introduction to the dailey method. Instead of trying to explain what *the dailey method* actually is, and assuming you might be too tired or busy to click on the link I just supplied (or lazy), you can read this copy that I so generously cut and pasted directly from their website...



Now I like to think that my body is pretty well toned. I can make it through a 90 minute yoga class (and frequently do) without cursing once. Today? Not so much. And *the dailey method* class is only 60 minutes. And it was the beginner class. Seriously. I kept turning to my partner in pain saying, "how come everyone else in here can do this?" The woman in the corner next to us actually looked bored as she grazed on her chewing gum while tucking and holding. Me on the other hand? I really just had to laugh when the instructor came over and told me to straighten my legs and touch the bar with my feet while my quads were shaking so intensely that they were no longer under the control of the rest of my body. Not just twitching. Shaking so uncontrollably that I'm really not sure how I will stand or sit tomorrow.

My girlfriend thinks we should take a harder class next week. Her logic? Apparently it's more crowded so the instructor doesn't have as much time to correct you and you can cheat a little. But with my luck...

Pray for me and my quads why don't you?

all in a sunday morning

Just another Sunday at the farmer's market. We munched on some sugar waffles, croissants, kettle corn, peaches, plums, strawberries, grapes & tomatoes. We rode some ponies, tumbled in a jumpy house and even got a face painted. All in just over an hour. Damn I love California.

tutu school

Pardon my unexcused absence. One week ago today, my darling, but not so gentle daughter delivered a head butt so fierce that one doctor, one ER, one IV and one blood draw later I am only now able to deliver a fairly sensible blog post. Apparently her head is much harder than mine as she is just as spunky as ever. And today, little miss spunk had her very first trip to *tutu school*.

Now I know this is hard to believe but the class is even more adorable than the name implies. Truly. Below is a brief three minutes and four second edit of the forty-five minute class. Needless to say I went ahead and enrolled her for the next 18 weeks...

awesome!

Today was day five of kindergarten and tonight the (oh my goodness. I just wrote kindergarten.)
Stop. Scratch that. Let me start over.

Today was day five of FIRST GRADE and tonight the parents got to go *back to school*. We all gathered in our kids classrooms, sat at their desks, went through their stuff and, oh yeah, met and learned a little more about their teachers. But for me it was obviously the going through their stuff part that was the most exciting. Even if only five days worth of stuff.

The above photograph was taken with my cell phone because clearly I didn't show up to back to school night with the SLR although, in hindsight, maybe I should have. Anyway, this is page one of Gage's daily journal. Are you still wondering why I'm rambling on and on? Yeah, well, I'm getting there....

If you know me at all or have spent any time reading my blog(s) you might happen to notice that I use the word *awesome* quite a bit. Overuse? Yeah, maybe. Whatever. I like *awesome* and apparently Gage does too. Just because he spelled it *osum* in no way means that I didn't know EXACTLY what he meant the second I looked at it.

I love that "first grade is osum" & I love that he loves *my word*. But now I am going directly to google to identify as many intelligent synonyms as possible which I will begin substituting into my excited remarks immediately. I wonder what *cool* would look like phonetically to a five year old? Oh, did I say intelligent? Hmmmm....