Thursday, April 30, 2009

Blog Burnout

I really have no excuses because I am still very new to this, but I'm going through a little blog burnout.  Writing has become what English 315 was to me in college--painful!! Kevin was great to offer me a hand by setting up the last 3 posts of our trip to California separating and downloading all the pictures.  I mean, that's the hard part, right?!  Well, it's not.  It may be tedious, but it's easy.   It's the writing part that's hard.  But like I said at the very beginning, I'm a reader, not a writer and right now I'm enjoying a very good book which is much more enticing than sitting down to the computer and trying to invoke some writing creativity when my brain is half-dead from the days events of work, kids, meals, housekeeping, errands, etc.  So. . . here is one small paragraph until my energy, will and desire returns.  Who knows, maybe it will be tomorrow?. . .Yeah, I doubt it.       

Monday, April 27, 2009

6 Days and Counting

Six days ago I put Keenan to bed without a binky.  He was sooo tired, he only called out once or twice for it before he fell asleep.  Well. . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, days later, the binky is still hidden and Keenan hasn't said anything about it since!  Hooray!  I think we've broken him/us of the habit.  So Mom (if you are reading my blog), please discard of all those "lost and found" binkys in your kitchen drawer.  We won't need those back-ups any more!:)

Next up. . . the night-time bottle.  

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Parenting Challenges

Molly was outside playing today with one of the neighborhood kids who is 4 (she is 5.)  When I went out to check on her, I discovered she had a nice pile of yellow and red tulip heads.   Well. . .this wasn't just 1 or 2, but 7 or 8.    I was able to easily deduce which house in our townhouse complex they belonged to because they are the ONLY ones with the same colored tulips in their front yard.   Now, if these had been my tulips and someone had beheaded them, I would not be happy (and those of you/us who grow tulips know what a short shelf-life they have anyways.) So. . . logically I confronted Molly, and she didn't even have to say anything for the look on her face betrayed obvious guilt.  She quickly, however, tried to escape the responsibility of thinning our neighbors small flower patches by blaming Keenan and the 4 y.o. friend.  They may have contributed, but Molly had been recently warned about not picking these particular tulips and I KNEW that SHE KNEW better.  So, after giving her a "talking-to" I felt retribution needed to somehow be made:  A couple of hours later, it was a trip to Fred Meyers with dad to buy a bunch of pink tulips and a walk over to the neighbors to offer the bouquet and an apology.   Well. . . Molly became "shy" as she usually does in a tough and awkward situation.   She was willing to go without wearing a dress to school for 2 weeks instead of going to apologize.   She crawled on her knees down our stairs and to the front door.  She insisted on carrying her pillow and hid behind me as I rang the doorbell.   Our neighbor Val is/was very nice and remarked that she didn't even notice the headless tulips (I would have).  She held her cat in her arms and asked Molly if she would like to pet her.   Molly was quiet throughout the "apology," but later told Dad in a story that her heart felt better.  Was I overreacting doing what we did over 7 or 8 tulips???  Molly IS only 5 (almost 6:)--an innocent child.  Like Kevin said tonight, we are entering into the deeper realm of parenting--no more just feeding, changing diapers and meeting basic needs--but teaching and modeling what we feel to be morally correct behavior.  And it is HARD--disciplining a child is hard.   I feel that what we did tonight was right, but of course, I was questioning and second-guessing myself.  Trying to find the appropriate level of "strictness" for the right age of the child has got to be one of the biggest challenges parents face.      

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Quite a Change in Temperature: Day 3 in Ca.

In hopes of confusing everyone, I'm bouncing back and forth from past to present.   No, really I'm just behind in posting and am slowly trying to catch up. Day 3 in Ca. took us from Banning to Tustin/Irvine and the weather went from 90 degrees (in Palm Desert) to a chilly 60 degrees, reminiscent of Oregon.  I didn't want to be reminded of Oregon though, I wanted SUN! SUN! SUN! HOT! HOT! HOT! On the bright side, it was just one cool day among seven.  
Anyhow, it was so great that we were able to stay with Kevin's mom in Banning and then Kevin's brother, Scott, put us up in his place in Tustin.  Unfortunately, however, we didn't get to see Scott because he was gone to Denmark the entire 5 days we stayed at his place. It was also a bummer because we also couldn't see Molly and Keenan's cousins (Scott's kids) Alison and Alex. We did, however, get to see Uncle Mark, Aunt Cindy (briefly), and cousin Sarah. We spent a nice afternoon (thanks for lunch Mark and Sarah!) at Irvine Park. Molly rode a horse, took a train ride with Keenan (Dad, Mark and Sarah), and we all visited the little zoo. Keenan cried and complained several times because he couldn't jump in the big inflatable castles, etc. because they were reserved for private brithday parties, but he would get over it and there was lots of other fun things to do. I wasn't trying to be partial, but I didn't get many photos of him. (Hmm. . . maybe he was crying a lot and that's why there are not any photos. . .:)


With cousin Sarah waiting to ride a horse


My little equestrian rider

Not afraid at all
Family photo of uncle Mark, Sarah, Molly, Dad, Keenan,Grandma Helen
Riding in the little green caboose



Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter

Although Easter is such a special, joyous occasion, in our family where parents belong to two different churches, there are some feelings of sadness as our family is split. I needed to play the piano during sacrament meeting so as Molly is the easier one to "watch," Molly came with me and Keenan went with Dad. I wish things were different, but . . . that is just the way it is for now. At least I got pictures of the nicely-dressed kids together. And then it was down to Grandma and Grandpa Compton's for a delicious FAMILY Easter dinner. See pictures below.




Goofy Paul (photo taken by Molly)
The lovely spread prepared by mom/grandma (minus the rolls that needed a little more time in the oven)
Grandpa, Kevin and Molly digging in
Ellen, Paul and the pretty daffodil centerpiece






A pre Easter-dinner glimpse

The Easter Bunny Returns

Saturday, April 11th.

Yes, Easter is overly-commercialized like several other holidays we know, but we love it anyways.  I have good memories growing up of us 5 kids racing down the stairs and searching high and low for those Easter eggs.  Yes, naturally the older kids found more eggs than the younger ones, but mom and dad would make us share and we all felt very special when we found large peanut-butter-filled (or chocolate or caramel-filled) eggs with our own frosted name on them.   The Easter Bunny knew us by name!!!:)

Now it's Molly and Keenan's turn to make fond candy-filled memories.

"On your mark, get set. . . Keenan's not quite awake yet to . . . GO!"

There he's starting to perk up with a few eggs in his basket:)

He's got it now!

Good job!  Under the table


Proud Molly with all her eggs

The Easter Bunny throwing in some non-ingestible items

Happy as a clam

Spreading out the goods and Keenan eating a Reese's with the brown wrapper still on.
Some of the action

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Giving-In to the Selfish Side of Me: Day 2 in Ca.

I faced a dilemma. We are in Ca.--30 minutes away from a major tennis tournament that features a majority of the great pros from around the world. I have a chance to see some of the semi-finals and quarter-finals. Many of you know tennis is one of my biggest passions. However. . . I am on a family vacation--in Ca. to see and be with family. For months I looked on the BNP Paribas Open website anticipating the possibility of maybe seeing one day of tennis. Well. . . . 3 days before we leave for Ca., Kevin gives me his reluctant blessing to buy a day ticket and it's done! From around 10 in the morning until 5:00 at night, I was able to see (distraction free) Andy Roddick--both practicing and in a match, Andy Murray, Mardy Fish, Vera Zvonareva, and at the end of my day, Rafael Nadal. The day was very hot in Indian Wells--90 degrees, but after a couple of hours, a coolish breeze came through which made the viewing a lot more tolerable. I would have enjoyed watching with Kevin and friends like we did 6 years ago before Molly came along, but I didn't feel lonely. I made friends with a nice older lady who was also there solo and a few volunteer ushers who I would sometimes stand by trying to get out of the sun for a few minutes. Amazingly, only the part on my scalp and a small patch on my arm where I missed sunscreen got sunburned.

I left at 5:00 in the middle of Nadal's match (I had to see if Nadal cont'd his trademark habit of "pulling" his underwear out of his rear after nearly every point which he did:)). (Later I found out he won easily.) I headed over to Palm Springs for a nice seafood dinner with Kevin, the kids and Kevin's mom. They told me all about their trip to Joshua Tree (see photos below) and then we stopped for frozen yogurt at this incredible place on the way home. This place had 10 or more flavors of frozen yogurt. You fill your own cup with the amount that you would like--choosing any flavors you want. You then added your own toppings from 20 or more choices. I felt like I was at a salad bar, but with a lot more sugar and calories:). My favorites were fresh strawberries, small pieces of cheesecake and frozen raspberries. After you are done adding more toppings than you have yogurt like Molly did, you put all your cups on the scale and pay 39 cents an oz. Talk about encouraging indulgent behavior! It was awesome!

Anyhow, although I missed the family during the day and I know they missed me, we had a nice evening together and we have 5 more full days of fun together.


Cute Andy Roddick

                                #1 Rafa Nadal

                          Any Roddick from yards away--photo taken with my phone.

Joshua Tree


   Look out for the cactus Paul--I mean, Molly:)

      Climbing rocks  That is a giant boulder, Molly!



With Grandma Helen





Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Favorite Molly Tradition: Dying Easter Eggs

Kids get so excited about holidays and most the time as a mom, I'm happy to oblige with all the little traditions that go along with them.  Molly has been asking for weeks to "color" easter eggs and so last night we finally did it.   There were a few upsetting moments, for example, when Keenan put one of the dye tablets into another cup which was already "fizzing" thus making the color brown (not a pretty brown either) and when he plopped an egg a little too far away from the dye dish making it crack.  Overall, however, it was a good time and Molly should be satisfied until the next holiday rolls around.





The colorful result

Yo Ho Ho

It's wonderful what kids can do with something as a simple as a box.  Here is a Costco diaper box that Molly and Keenan spent time coloring and then used as a pirate ship.  It's getting a little torn because they both have squeezed in there together, but I took some photos/video of Keenan (Molly was at school) before the box totally got demolished.

Keenan holding a purple plastic knife for a paddle.



I sound ridiculous, but I wanted to show how Keenan's language is coming along--slowly, but surely.

Idol's Delight!

Every week I look forward to American Idol, and last night, definitely did not disappoint.  5 of the remaining 8 (in my opinion of course) are so amazing--all of them should be named "The Next American Idol."  Usually I am calling and voting for my favorite at this stage of the game, but I am so divided, I couldn't vote for any!!!   You know a performance is especially incredible, however, when you later go watch it on You Tube.  And that is exactly what I did with Adam Lambert's. . . twice:)    I tried to post a link to it, but apparently it has been pulled from You Tube due to copyright claims.  How ruuuude.   Hopefully you caught the live version.   

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Twilight

I would have posted more about our trip (still working on Day 2), but I went and saw Twilight instead (I normally post in the evening.) I thought I had missed the theatre-boat on this one as it is already on DVD, but when I saw in the newspaper it was still at our local cheap theatre, I put the kids to bed, ditched Kevin when he got home from work and headed out. At 9:30 on a weeknight I thought I might be the only person in the theatre, but I wasn't so alone as there were 2 other women (of course, women:)). Now, I read the whole Twilight series--loved them for the storyline and not necessarily the fantastic writing--and so had to see the movie. I knew the critics didn't like the low-budget film and there were some things that annoyed me as well, but you have to remember the audience for both the movie and the books: teenagers/young adults. So, still being a teenager at heart:), I liked the movie. I liked seeing some familiar places in our beautiful pacific northwest.  I liked most of the characters except, unfortunately, Bella not as much.   There was something about her personality that irritated me slightly.  I knew the storyline, but that didn't take away from any of the action/suspense and the movie went by quickly.   

I hear the next movie is coming out this fall which I am looking forward to.   We'll see what a bigger budget and different director??? will add.