the babe is 2

Yesterday Roxie turned 2 years old. I keep wondering if that's why I've been so weepy and pensive lately, it's hard to tell. It's really amazing to me that she's already 2. I really feel like (and I was just talking to a girlfriend about this today whose son is nearly 1) it was just a moment ago that we were dealing with the "aftermath" of her birth and the absolute JOLT we encountered with the addition of another child.
Having two children is incredibly difficult and BUSY. Thank goodness you get more than double the return!
Amazing what a couple years can do...


We've had quite a fun couple of days, and we haven't even had her party yet. (Note to self: Have the party BEFORE the big day rather than after... it's kind of a buzzkill this way...) We celebrated a couple other birthdays this past weekend though, so she really enjoyed that. What a blast. Her special flower balloons from Red Balloon C. again and LOVES them.

and that's what birthdays are alllllll about

until next time...
STOP GROWING!

illin like bob dillin

It's the classic story.
Mom gets busy, kids get busy, kids get sick, husband goes out of town, Mom gets S.I.C.K!
ugh
Luckily the kids are, so far, being pretty awesome. I think Milo fell asleep after I did, but he didn't complain about it too much, just required his light to be a little brighter than normal since he was scared of the dark. Couldn't have been the "Ben 10" comic he was reading while falling asleep, certainly not!
The little Diva is doing ok. She only woke up once and wasn't awake too long, and then slept through 'til 6am - which totally works for me (except when I'm sick - but beggars...).
Everything is ramping up it seems.
We're trying to catch up with friends because we just never see them enough. We even had my parents babysit overnight this weekend, but ended up staying home since I was sick and SM was getting ready to leave. So we're scheduling babysitters for the next couple of weekends - I'm still trying to take my Dad to see the Spiderwick Chronicles and hoping it's still in theaters - and visit with friends who are very fun, but don't have kids so they're not as easy to take to Red Robin ;o).
Plus we have Roxie's bday to plan, Milo's bday to plan, a 40th party to attend, a shower for Roxie's teacher to plan (and booties to knit)...
wahooo, no wonder time flies!
time for more cold meds
until next time...
c'mon spring, hurry up!

busy madness

I haven't had alot of time to post lately. We're busy with all sorts of things... Easter is early, and this weekend; March Madness is fully underway; we've started soccer and swimming for the kiddos; baseball season is starting in a week; we have our master suite remodel well underway; both of their birthdays are coming up; we're awaiting m's school assignment; we're both busy with work; we've completely changed the kids' room and sleeping quarters around to encourage the girl to sleep through the night...
ugh
this has all led to no posting
and this post is lame because all I did was regurgitate the list I already have constantly running through my brain
I'll try harder I promise
until next time...

looking good, feeling great

By now you know I'm a Mom. I have two children and work full-time. Our closest circle of friends have at least one child, if not two - not to mention all the families we're getting to know from our son's preschool class as we all go through the "kindergarten ordeal" together. This adds up to me being a very very busy gal, with a very busy family.
I've never had the greatest body image. After two children and genes of a NON-supermodel (read: normal woman) my self-image is not great. I'm solidly in my mid-thirties and still shop the sale racks at Old Navy and wonder why none of my clothes look good.
I've started taking Pilates classes in the evenings at a WONDERFUL studio in my neighborhood, which means it's easy to get to and a great workout = no excuses! Still, progress is slow because I just haven't found time to do anything else.
/whine
I have found salvation!
Friends introduced us and now I am proud to say I am both a friend and client of Angie's. I am also an AVID reader of her blog.
For Christmas SM presented me with her services and together we completely went through my entire closet and "cleansed it of all the badness". If there was anything that didn't look good - it 's gone, whether it was $5 or $500 (ok, you know what I mean) it is gone.
Then we shopped.
Hallelujah did we shop!
It has been a good looooong time since I've had a "good" shopping day. Granted, I don't have that much time any more either, so many things were returned because I didn't have time to try them on. The problem was, I just couldn't find things that fit me, so when I tried them on, whether at home or in the store, I tried on things that weren't right for my body, so they looked like crap, which meant I FELT like crap. SM and I recalled together the horror involved in shopping for/with me.
Somehow Angie made it all go away.
We shopped for an ENTIRE DAY and it was all fantastic! Nearly everything she put me in looked good, and if it didn't - it was "shame on the clothes" instead of "shame on me" and that, in and of itself, made it all worth every single penny.
Not to mention the fact, that for the past two days I have felt really good about how I look - and even look good too. ;o)
It's not an easy thing, on a limited budget, to splurge on seemingly frivolous things like "stylists". But for me, this "stylist" has helped me do SO many more things. I FEEL good, I LOOK good, I know what TO shop for and what NOT to shop for. I know how to find GOOD quality clothing without paying too much for it. Even better, I know how to find POOR quality clothing and not pay for it at all.
Priceless in so many ways.
thank you angie...

vacation vs home

Isn't it funny? The strange feeling of vacation vs home. We just got back from a week's vacation - a day/night in Vancouver and then a few days in Whistler. On paper it sounded great, and even while we were there, it sounded just as good.
Then the sickies hit.
Roxie didn't just get sick - she really got sick. She had pink eye in BOTH eyes AND hand, foot & mouth (no - not mad cow - read about it)! So the beginning of the week was a bit tough.
Milo, in the meantime, was in three days of ski school. The first day he came out absolutely beaming. He was so excited to do it and had SUCH fun. I also think he was pretty proud of himself for doing it and that was pretty cool to see. By the third day, however, he was getting a bit sick and rundown since it was his 5th nap-free day in a row and he was staying up late because he and his friend were sharing a room and having fun doing it. By Thursday morning Milo had a fever and was looking baaaad.
We decided we'd had enough.
Vacation was hard hard work and we were heading home early.
But vacation is, after all, vacation, so we didn't go home too early. We left on Friday morning instead of Saturday morning, but somehow that extra day made all the difference in the world for us. We were all THRILLED to be going home.
Once home (after a very tough ride with M throwing up twice and R getting VERY restless by the end of the 7hours) we pretty much did a little jig! Everyone was happy and yelling and dancing and that even lasted through Saturday and into Sunday. It didn't hurt that it was a beautiful day on Saturday and we all went and played in the front yard and even did a little gardening together.
My point, and yes it's long in coming, is that it's such a strange thing to SO look forward to vacation, enjoy it for a couple days, and then start longing for home.
Maybe it's not so strange.
I guess if you have a happy home life and enjoy being there, it's only normal to want to be back, even when you're enjoying where you are.
It's also probably not so strange to wish to be back on vacation a few days after coming home - cuz life's just better when you're on vacation.
Maybe next time we'll just rent some sand and heat lamps and vacation in the guest bedroom.
until next time....
enjoy

SM Returns just in time for his valentines

 SM got home from Barcelona yesterday (after being gone since Saturday... NOW you know why I haven't been posting!) just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day with the kids. They had a great day at school, they both had parties and got some face paint. But the best part was that Daddy was waiting for them at home when we got there.
phew
 
We even got to have pizza for dinner and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
 And I even almost got a good night's sleep. almost....

what to write about? plenty!

How is it that we have so much to do and so much going on but I still don't have anything to write? I think it's just that we're plodding along too busy to really be able to make a note of the "fun" we might actually be having.
We actually had a great weekend. Friday night was "chill" night and had the fam hangin' in the basement watching a little Ninja Warrior*.
*beware, this show is totally addictive for all ages!
Saturday we went to the grand opening of a great new kids' shop near U-Village called "Le Petit Shoppe". We scored a super-cute rocking chair for the diva and a gently-used stokke high-chair that we've been searching for. Plus the kids got babycakes just for coming with us. Then we went and got books and lunch and headed home for a little family naptime before friends came over. Saturday night we had 4, YES FOUR, sleeping children while the adults drank and played poker in the basement. Best fun in quite a loooong time - plus we were all stuck singing the same song... "on the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door...."
good times

Sunday we went for a family walk around the neighborhood so milo could get some time on his bike.
Then we watched one of the best SuperBowl games in a long time. And I'm not even a Giants fan.

Well there now... I guess I did have a little bit to write about.
Guess I'd better keep it up.
until next time...
hope it's not too long 'til then!