Pizza and Popsicles

When I picked Hayden up from his first day of school yesterday I gave him the video camera and he recorded himself telling me all about it during our car ride home. I knew he wouldn't repeat anything to anyone else (I'm lucky if he tells me anything). He had a lot to say and it was too big to put on the blog but the most interesting thing I learned was about lunch. He had pizza and a Popsicle. Popsicle? I know that I have been out of school for a while and I don't know how lunches work yet, but that seems weird. No vegetables? No fruit? Now, Hayden may have had those items on his tray, but he didn't mention them. I'm wondering if he was given the choice of vegetables or Popsicles. I have to let it go. Did you know that parents can buy a lunch and eat in the cafeteria? I would have been mortified when I was little. Is it a cool thing to do now? It's so confusing. First days of school are hard. But all went well. The basic rundown was that it was a long day. He had three recesses (blew his mind), his clothespin didn't move (part of his teacher's discipline system), and he didn't pay any attention to what the other kids ate for their snack time.

And there was no fire drill, Hallelujah.

1st Grade

So, school mornings are busy. Hayden was in afternoon kindergarten last year so we never had that morning rush to get ready. Well, we did today. It was his first official real day of first grade. We just made it. That's why I was only capable of taking pictures of him in the car, and then again from the car (that's him behind the handlebars of that bike). I'm waiting for him to come home and tell me all about it. I'm telling you, if they have a fire drill today that's ALL I will hear about for the next ten weeks. I'll keep you posted..........

Tummy Time

We have found the secret for the dreaded tummy time-naked tummy time. Now he will actually hang out on his stomach for twice as long (which still isn't very long, but we are working on it). This is his favorite blanket to lay on because it's so soft. He also likes to try to pick up those dark bears that are sprinkled amongst the lighter bears.

The picture below shows what Jake does to let me know he's done with naked tummy time. He puts his face down onto the blanket, restricting his breathing. It isn't fun to watch and I don't let him stay that way long. I've tried to show him how to lay his head to the side so he can breathe, but he thinks I'm dumb.

His hair is so beyond my control. I thought about cutting it the other day but stopped myself when I considered the wrath of Hayden. He doesn't like talk of hair cutting and Jake.

Walkie Talkie Walk

Hayden, Jake and I went on a walk this morning. We had a great idea to take the walkie talkies with us. Hayden rode ahead of the baby and I with one walkie and I had the other. I had to look for him all over the walking paths in our neighborhood. This is what I learned-Hayden can ride his bike 20 times faster than his fat mommy can walk while pushing a stroller. I also learned that it's hot outside at 10:00 in the morning. Oh yeah, I also found out that no matter what you do, the baby's feet will stick out of the stroller into the sun, making you paranoid about foot sunburns. Socks next time. I'm too scared to use sunscreen with his eczema. I also found out that when you pass the house in our neighborhood with the cop car parked out front, the walkie talkies go nuts. I couldn't make anything out though. Darn it. Six more days until first grade. I know we can make it......

Projects

This week I've been busy doing projects in my house. I'm working on the living room and finishing up my laundry room. I'll post before

and after shots of those two rooms soon. I hope it's soon. The living room is getting tedious. The woman I bought my house from made some seriously interesting choices when it came to paint.

I'll give you one example. Check out that first shot of Hayden's room.

Oh yes, that is hot pink on the walls. Oh wait, you did notice the bright orange trim right? (and yes, she thought it would be a good plan to paint the outlet cover too) That was such a pain to cover. Those second two shots are of how cute Hayden's room is now. It's been hard work around here. So if I don't blog for a while longer it's because I'm very boring and I have nothing to report except that I am tired of projects already. I have to finish them soon too because "Breaking Dawn" comes out soon and I need to read it right when it comes out. Wish me luck.....

Uh, Excuse Me, But Your Nerd is Showing

It has been very exciting to see news on the Yahoo headlines that there are two Sherlock Holmes movies in the works. You can click here for one article I found. I love Sherlock Holmes. To be more accurate, I love Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes from the Granada Television series they played on PBS. Love him. I have the entire collection on DVD. Brandon got them for me on my last birthday. The music playing during the beginning of that show is wonderful. When I was little I wanted to learn how to play the violin just so I could play that song. Jeremy Brett was my first celebrity crush. There are so many things about me that add to my nerdiness, this is just another of them. Back to the Yahoo stories. Sacha Baron Cohen is going to play Holmes in a comedy with Will Ferrell and Robert Downey Jr. might play him in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock movie. I'm so excited for both. If that makes me super nerdy, then so be it. It's okay to show your nerd sometime. I'll just restrain myself from discussing my love of Star Trek:The Next Generation and my obsession with George RR Martin fantasy novels.

Hayden is Awesome

This shot sums Hayden up pretty well. It may be the best shot I've ever taken of him. If you've never met him in person, this gives you a pretty accurate sense of his personality. I wouldn't change a single thing about him though (even if he is a little exhausting with all that energy).

Park City

Hayden's list of fun things to do this summer is getting shorter.
We surprised him with an overnight trip to

Park City last night.

We stayed at our favorite hotel, the Park City Marriott (it's our favorite

because of the great indoor pool).

Hayden went with Daddy on the Alpine Slide. He jumped on the trampoline and played on the inflatable bouncy slides.
We ate BBQ for dinner and had room service breakfast

on the patio outside our room. Jacob is an awesome traveler. He slept more on this trip than all of last week combined. Awesome. Here are some of our pictures.

(see, the baby is already tired)

Hayden had a great time jumping. The camera, on the other hand, didn't have a great time trying to catch a shot of him jumping.

Jake made this face a lot.

I Love Allrecipes.com!

So we had a little brunch today at my house to celebrate the holiday. Brunch is the best meal to celebrate a holiday with when I have to work at 6 p.m. (don't have to wake up too early and the party is over in plenty of time to get ready for work). I decided to make a quiche. I've never made quiche before but I thought it sounded good and brunchy. How do I make a good quiche for the first time when company is coming over you ask? I go to this website.
Holy cow. It's been one of my favorite websites for years and years now (my infamous chocolate chip cookies originated from this site). It's great because the recipes posted there are from users of the site. You can read reviews other people have left for recipes where they describe amounts they changed or problems they had. I love it. It takes away all the guesswork. And if you type in "quiche" you get dozens to choose from. All recipes are rated by users on a one to five scale. I have found that five star recipes are always worthy of their ranking. The quiche I selected was true to its ranking. I need to take a moment. It was that good. So I would have posted a picture of the quiche I made but it was gone too fast. Click here to get the recipe. I did make a couple of changes from the original recipe. I made it with cheddar cheese instead of swiss and I added a cup of chopped fresh broccoli. For any of my blogger friends who love to cook, this is the place to see.......

Special Blanket

We were so lucky to open our mail yesterday and find a very special present. Brandon's Nee made Jake a blanket. It's the perfect size for him. It's so very special because we know how much time and love went into making it. I took pictures of Jake and his new snugly blanket right away. During our photo shoot he got so comfortable with the new blanket that he fell asleep. I'll have to put it somewhere safe later, because right now, it's the only thing that's made him take a nap longer than ten minutes.......




Thank you, thank you, thank you Great Nee for the present we love so much.

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape

Chloe introduced me to the "Potter Puppet Pals" and now I've gone nuts (possibly more nuts, instead of just nuts, according to my therapist Ron). Once you see this awesome little video clip you can't get its catchy little tune out of your head. No matter how hard you try. At work last week I was even having a difficult time concentrating because this catchy little tune was playing in my head. I walked around all shift singing it in my head. I was describing the catchy little tune to my co-worker Angie. I told her how catchy it was. I even sang her a little bit. "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape.........."

Then she tells me she'd heard that little tune already. When I was singing it. Earlier. Out loud.

The catchy little tune wasn't being sung in my head, it was being sung out loud. Since the baby has been sleeping through the night for weeks now I can't even use that as an excuse for my craziness. I'll have to come up with a new excuse. Please enjoy.

p.s. Twitchy Harry is my favorite