Del Mar High School's 20 Year Reunion, Pre-Party

I am behind in my blogging but I have been having a great summer! Last week I was without a decent laptop because one of my sons gnawed through the wire on AC adaptor. So while I waited for that to be delivered I dragged out an old laptop from our ewaste pile and, well, it was TORTURE!

I had a mini high school reunion last weekend at a friend's house in Watsonville. We were having this pre-party because 2 of my friends live out of the country and won't be here for the real reunion in August. Kellie lives in Honduras and Jen lives in Australia. So our friend Julie opened up her home to us. It was perfect! Especially since her kids are 16 and 17 years old and the rest of us have toddlers.

Julie told me that I would be sleeping in a trailer with my 3 kids (my husband was on-call that weekend) but it was more like a cabin. It was so cute with a woodburning stove and wingback chairs. There was a kitchen, bathroom and a queen and a double bed. I took the double bed, and gave Mike and Bekah the queen. Jake was in his porta-crib but Jake and Bekah eventually all ended up in my sleeping bag with me squished in the middle.


Julie set up her music room downstairs, with window paints, toys, stuff to color with and play-dough. That's Kellie on the left, Jen on the right standing with the cocktail and Linda sitting down.

I have known Kellie and Linda since I was 9 years old, I met Julie in Jr. High and Jen in high school. Jen looks exactly the same, beautiful. Me and Linda tend to drink more beer than others.

Jen's daughter made this nice poem about Margaritas, hilarious!

Kellie was opening some red window paint for her daughter and accidentally poured it on Jake's head. As you can see she was more concerned than he was.

Linda's son. Freaking Cutest Boy!!!! I would die for his eyelashes. Him and my Bekah hit it off immediately. We need to get them together for a playdate and drink ourselves some beers.

Bekah and Jake enjoying the trampoline. Remember when we went camping and Jake was throwing rocks in the creek for Henry the rock fetching dog? Well Julie owns 4 goats and Jake was trying to throw rocks into their pen to make them fetch them. He was laughing and I was apologizing.

Awesome view.

This is Julie and she is not only pretty and a gracious hostess but she made these crepes at midnight that kicked ass.

Jake had too many margaritas. Just kidding. I wish my kitchen floor looked that clean.

7 kids and 2 teenagers and no meltdowns! We lucked out! They were perfect angels.

Towards the end of the night I was feeling as fuzzy as this picture.

I didn't bother going straight home from Julie's the next morning. I left the nice cool weather of the coast and headed home to the Alameda County Fair where it was a 103 degrees. I have a wagon with a canopy that I can load all 3 kids into and we drank a gallon of lemonade each. I had sweat dripping off my chin, gross. But we had fun and it was the last day so I felt obligated to go. Mike is in the yellow t-shirt onstage with this silly band and Bekah is in the red t-shirt playing that tin can.

The real 20 year high school reunion is August 29th but it won't be as much fun as we had at Julie's house.

My Lazy Ass Weekend

Yesterday I did not shower or wear a bra all day. I was so lazy it was ridiculous. And today doesn't look much more productive.

Friday night I went to a sex toys party at Auntie M's and that was a blast. In fact it was sooo much fun my husband let me sleep in until 10am! I was hanging a little.

At 10:30am Saint Sarah, my kids' babysitter, picked up Michael for the day. On her own time and money she took him to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for his birthday gift. I offered her money but she wouldn't take it! Sarah also bought him lunch, a t-shirt, a toy and toys for Jake and Bekah. Can you understand why I call her a Saint? And no you can't have her phone number, she's mine, all mine!

Then my dear husband woke up from his nap and took Bekah to the gym with him and I put Jake down for a nap and slithered back into bed for another hour. LAZY!

I did manage to do some laundry, dishes and housecleaning and I took a picture of this cute faun below. But the majority of Saturday my ass was planted firmly on my couch with my laptop open. And I discovered the addictive properties of twitter. At first I just didn't get the concept, I update my status on Facebook all of the time why would I need twitter? But the whole Iran revolution thing got me hooked, and now I am finding all kinds of interesting characters out there. In fact I guess I was hungover enough yesterday to be gullible enough to think this guy was real. His stage name is Billy Bob Neck and he posted a petition on twitter for fetal consent to abortion. WTF?! It was so obviously a joke but I was moving so slow yesterday I thought it was for real. I actually sent him an outraged twitter. He is actually a comedian, and Billy Bob Neck is his character. How embarassing that I didn't figure it out right away.

So after we put the kids to bed I made an awesome steak and potato salad with a horseradish and red wine vineagrette. Erik and I drank 2 bottles of champagne and watched Jack Ass 2 (the movie). Being married to your best friend is, well, it's the best!!

This morning started off with Erik dragging both Bekah and Jake into our bed at 6am. Then he promptly fell back asleep and started snoring while they tortured me. So I kicked them all out of bed and slept until 8:45am. I relieved Erik so he could nap and I downed a pot of coffee and once again wasted time on the internet. After the caffiene kicked in I did manage to some more housecleaning and cooked everyone lunch. The steak and potatoes from last night scrambled up with some eggs, cheese, broccoli and red bell pepper made an awesome lunch.

I put Jake down for a nap, I showered and Erik took Mike and Bekah to the park to hang out with some of their buddies. I was holding the broom in my hand when they walked out the door but as soon as I heard the garage door close............well here I am again. Loser!

In my defense next week is going to be insanely busy:

Monday= Gym and swimming.

Tuesday= Going overnight to Santa Cruz with my monkeys, Auntie M, the cousins and crashing at a room my mom is renting for the week. That should be fun but exhausting. When my boys are around even a puddle of water they lose their minds, so the Pacific Ocean should be exciting for them. Bekah is a little more refined.

Wednesday= Recovery

Thursday= After the kids' morning music class, I have Saint Sarah all day. Grocery shopping, paying bills, filing, and if Erik is not on-call I would love to take him out to an early dinner date.

Friday= Single motherhood for me the entire weekend! Erik is scheduled to be on-call, which means he will be at the hospital most of the time.

Saturday=Going back to the Santa Cruz area for a mini high school reunion. I have a friend home from Australia and a friend home from Honduras and we are all meeting up at another friend's farm in Monterey. We are all bringing our small kids, doing bbq and potluck,playing music, and some clothing optional hot tubbing. We are spending the night too so nobody has to drive after beer and margaritas. My husband is very sad that he has to work both Tuesday and next weekend, these are his kind of events.

Sunday=Recovery.

So next week's busy schedule is my excuse for this weekend's extreme laziness. I did manage to shower today, but I am still not wearing a bra!

Lazy Mom's Breakfast Buffet

This is my serve yourself snack tin. It's actually a rubbery silicone muffin "tin" but I use it for snacks more than for cupcakes. This morning I used it for breakfast. Lately my kids have been eating almost no breakfast and I end up wasting a bunch of cereal and toast. So this morning I filled this "tin" with grated cheese, turkey meat, banana slices, apple slices with peanut butter, sliced strawberries, chunks of Challah bread, and honey nut cheerios. So they got their dairy, proteins, fruits and whole-grains and I got to fold 3 loads of laundry. I have already re-filled it twice, so it's working.

Bacherlorette Party Details

Details and pictures from last weekend are on my N.E.O. Moms blog. Don't judge me until you stagger a mile in my shoes.

Swine Flu Cupcakes

Actually we made Orange-Chocolate Cupcakes but they were inspired by Swine Flu. I was sitting around with a recovering sick child and one on the brink of illness and I was stressing out because I was thinking it was Swine Flu. I was thinking that it was Swine Flu because my brother was just here from San Diego and him and his wife were sick and because I watch too much cable news. I was really stressing out because I am supposed to go see Chelsea Handler next weekend and I don't want to be home with sick kids instead!!

So here I am on a Monday afternoon freaking out and realizing I am being an idiot and that I need to do something to calm myself down. Baking and cooking usually helps and I had an excess of oranges. I had already made orange chicken the night before so I decided to make orange-chocolate cupcakes.

When I get inspired like this I make up recipes, but not really. My math skills are that of a 3rd grader so there is no way I could technically make up a recipe. So I usually just look at what I have on hand and then go to my cookbooks or allrecipes.com and find matching recipes. Then I draw a chart like the one below. The first column is the main ingredients, the second column is how much the 1st recipe uses of those ingredients, the third column is how much the 2nd recipe uses of said ingredients and the fourth column is how much I am going to use or what I am going to substitute. So for instance I didn't have plain yogurt or sour cream so I used vanilla yogurt and reduced the amount of sugar in the cupcakes. I used butter instead of oil and added Triple Sec. I also used whatever I had leftover of some Nestle Quik and then bulked it up with unsweetened cocoa powder and once again took notice of the sugar content.

Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

10 Tbs. softened butter (That's a cube and 2 Tbs., this is not a W. W. recipe)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
juice from 2-3 oranges
zest from 2 oranges (Pampered Chef zester came in handy)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. Triple Sec (optional and next time I am using more because you really couldn't taste it)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup Nestle Quik powder (that's all I had and then I bulked up with cocoa powder to make 2/3 cup, if you just use the unsweetened powder adjust your sugar)
enough Unsweetened Hershey's Cocoa powder to make 2/3 cup
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Combine first 7 ingredients, and Triple Sec if using, and beat until fluffy. At this point I was ready to stop and eat it with spoon. Add all dry ingredients and beat until color is even but don't overmix.

Batter will be thick like chocolate frosting. Add to paper cupcake liners in cupcake pan. Fill 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes. Should make 24 if you don't eat too much batter. Let them cool until they are warm and poke with toothpicks, drizzle slowly with a Tbs. of fresh squeezed orange juice until absorbed. Makes them even more moist and orangey tasting.








This is where I had to hide the batter while the first batch was in the oven and I had to get Jake out of his crib after naptime. Mike and Bekah would have been on it like flies.

They didn't sit there the whole 20 minutes

This is the best pic you are going to get. I flunked photography in high school because I spent all my time partying in the dark room instead of developing pictures. Trust me I wasn't partying by myself.

As for the suspected Swine Flu in my house........Bekah woke up with a 103 fever this morning and I asked my husband if he thought I would be stupid and paranoid if I took Bekah to our pediatrician. My husband said, "I would never think you are stupid.". Fine, paranoid I can handle. And I am so glad I took her because even though she does not have Swine Flu she does have a double ear infection and now she has a scrip for Amoxycillin. Yay!!!

Did I mention I am going to Chelsea Handler this weekend?

Inaugural Hangover, In-Laws and The Super Bowl

I obsessively watched the inauguration almost 2 weeks ago. And I have been crazy busy since then so this is going to be a long read for you.

I had a friend and her 2 kids over that morning of 1/20/09 and we feasted on bagels and donuts. As soon as Aretha, in her fabulous hat, started singing I was teary and sniffling and it lasted all day long. That evening Auntie M and I tried to come up with our own version of the inaugural feast for our dinner.

http://www.chow.com/food_and_cooking/7032

We ate shrimp cocktail, rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green salad and apple pie and vanilla ice cream. And lots and lots of champagne.

The next day I had a teensy bit of a hangover and I am so jaded from the last administration that I just assumed Obama would take a few days off to play golf. He actually went to work after staying out all night dancing. And every time I see him sit down and sign a new pledge to the American people with his left-handed scrawl, I want to make-out with him.

Soon after the inauguration my inlaws came to town from Arizona. Must people would shudder at a week long visit by their inlaws but mine are really cool. We visited and ate and took pictures and celebrated my FIL's 60th birthday. That is the picture below. My children don't sit well for pictures, they are the squirmy ones. Don't worry that's just water on Jake's pants, he has a hole in his lip.
Right after that party was SUPER BOWL. I could really care less about the game but having 55 people over to party on a Sunday was very exciting! I made 2 huge vats of nacho cheese sauce and we had a make your own nacho bar. It was a potluck too so we had a variety of toppings, plus hotwings, taquitos, several desserts and tons of beer. Good times!!! I think Bekah basically ate a dozen cupcakes by herself as much as I tried to stop her. Well at least she didn't go to bed hungry. That's her picture below with the evidence on her face and trying to put her 3D glasses on for the halftime show.







Our other halftime show was my dear husband and his buddy playing guitar. They sounded way better than Springsteen but the video I took turned out really shitty so I didn't post it here. They also played a post-game show that included Uncle Chrissy singing made-up blues songs that were, uhm, very interesting.

We did some betting with squares and I am not even going to pretend how that works but some squares were empty and since the game went long everbody decided that Erik and I would get the cash from the 3rd and 4th quarters and the rest would go to the N.E.O. Mamas party fund.

Speaking of my new and improved mom's club. When the universe slams a door shut she opens a window. I feel bad for blowing up the last club but everyone seems happier and far more entertained and we get almost one new member a week. There is obvioulsy a need for a group of women that aren't easily offended, and their husbands like it too. I know because a couple of husbands have told me to my face that this club is better.

I also heard that a couple of scab pickers are still reading my blog/blogs. What I mean by this is that there are some women who read my blog only to get mad or to confirm their suspicions that I suck. Hey if that floats your boat be my guest. I personally avoid stuff that pisses me off or makes me feel bad. Life is way too short.

Even though I just said I avoid stuff that makes me feel bad, I do have to take a minute to get personal and talk about feelings. So skip this part if you want, I am fine with that. So all last week and yesterday, people kept commenting on how brave I am (and maybe a little crazy) to host a super bowl party with 55 guests. Most of these guests were under the age of 5 years old. Let me tell you why I don't mind doing this. I grew up in a house with an asshole, alcoholic, drug addict. That would be my mother's current husband (sorry mom you might want to skip this part). Even though my friends were welcome to come to my house, they often did not want to because they were scared of my step-father. They told me this then, and they tell me this now as adults, how they felt as children. So don't think I am just projecting my feelings on others, this is a fact.


This is why I don't mind hosting parties, playgroups, potlucks, etc. I won't lie it's a killer on my carpets and I spent a huge part of my morning cleaning, and I am not done yet, but it's so worth it. To have a home where not only my kids feel safe, but where other parents' kids feel safe and have fun, is something that is very, very important to me.

Uh-oh now I am having some deep feelings so I better go eat the leftover pork ribs in my fridge until these feelings go away.

Bekah's 3rd Birthday

This is Bekah with her 2 favorite gifts. Throne from Auntie M and Barbie guitar from my Dad. This is from the end of the evening and she is partied out! She had a beautiful butterfly dress on to match her butterfly theme party but she pooped all over it. Poop is actually a more appropriate theme.

Super cute butterfly and lady bug cake. Bekah is very excited as you can see. No poop on cake.

I chose this picture because I look thinner than any other picture from that night. Also nobody else's kids are in view and I don't want to post pics of other people's kids without their permission. That beer is courtesy of a dear friend and fellow beer drinking mom who gave me a 12 pack for my birthday which was last Friday.

That beer did eventually get kicked over and spilled by my oldest. When you are a parent you just can't have your beer and drink it too. At least nobody pooped on my beer.

I really hate potty training

xcuse typing jake is sitting on my lap eating teddy grahams, mike is running around talking on a banana like a phone and bekah is probably soiling her pants

potty training totally sucks and i suck at it. she actually peed on my foot today. and this was less than a minute after she got off the toilet. she came into the kitchen stood next to me and peed on my foot. i was so angry i had to walk away, my right foot going squish-squish. i wanted to scream.

what's wrong with me? why do i lose my temper so easily when it comes to potty training? whats gonna happen when i have to teach them how to drive?

bekah is my smart one too. and everyone always say girls are easier to potty train. easier than what taking out my own kidney? fuck!!

if freud was right than my kids are going to be serial killers or just plain neurotic. i even told bekah today i would buy her a maserati if she pooped on the potty. it's like i become possesed by this horrible person. i keep chanting little mantras to myself about patience, empathy, enmeshment and then i lose it and start yelling.

its like that last month of pregnancy where you seriously think you are going to be pregnant forever. you know you are going to be in a nursing home with alzheimers and still pregnant at age 85. that's how i feel today, that bekah will never be potty trained. she will be at her high school graduation and her gown will have a big wet spot on it as she steps on stage to receive her diploma.

Old Post Before Blog Existed

So today since I can't be too far from the bathroom I am going to be posting alot to my blog and just messing around on my laptop in general. Below is something I wrote over a year ago.This was before I started my blog so I wrote about my day's events to my mom's club, that one in San Ramon that I never belonged to. This was back when we just had fabulous women as members.

We had put our first house on the market and Mike had just turned 3, Bekah was barely 20 months old, and Jake was 5 months old. So below was one of the adventures we had in preparing our house to sell.



Hey Everyone,

This might be long sorry. Today was really crazy. Last week we had an inspection report on our house and they found a leak under our kitchen. So today we get a plumber and he finds, gray water and food debris and some fungus. So now they need a clean-up crew to clean up under the house before they can fix the leak and a general contractor to come out and rip up some cabinets and maybe even some kitchen floor.

Here is the clincher to make sure the fungus doesn't spread we need to turn off our a.c. and cover all of the vents and this is all going to take about 5 days. And the guy said that it's not good for small children or the elderly to breathe so we need to leave!!!! So I had to pack up all my monkeys and ship out. Erik came home from work to feed the kids so I could pack everything. I called Sierra Suites and ask them if they have corporate rates for local businesses and since Erik sees paitients at San Ramon Regional I get a $100. knocked off the room rate.

As soon as Erik leaves both Michael and Bekah poo. So I changed them and load everyone in their carseats and blast the van a.c. and gas the light goes on empty. Luckily there is a gas station right next to the hotel. After I fill up I pull right up to the lobby doors and unload and usher all 3 inside the lobby. Three twenty-somethings are loafing behind the counter and tell me the room will be ready in 15 min. Of course Michael and Bekah are starting to explore the whole lobby. Luckily they had a t.v. in the lobby so I turned on cartoons. Jake starts to get mad so now I have to whip out my boob in the lobby and feed him. And then Bekah poos again!

Finally our room is ready. As I am gettting my room key/card Bekah sprints out the door towards parking lot, so I sprint after her. Michael says, "That's funny!" and is cracking up. I yell," That is not funny!", as I drag poopy Bekah back in. The staff behind the counter are trying not to laugh. They give me a room on the second floor as far from the elevator as possible but the girl offers to help once I bring my van around back. So I load them all up again and drive to back door and unload a diaper bag, duffel bag, suitcase, porta crib, my boppy, Jacob in his portable car seat and 1 hyper toddler and 1 poopy toddler who is an hour past her naptime.

I get a luggage cart, load everything but the kids and push that with one hand, while holding Jake with the other hand and screaming at Mike and Bekah to get on the elevator. No staff showed up to help and I couldn't abandon the kids to go get them. When we got to the second floor the nicest guy in the world pushed the cart for me while I herded the monkeys to our room. The guy has a 4.5 month old and informed me they are only having one kid. He probably made that decision right then. When we get to the room I am dripping sweat. I turn on the t.v. for Mike and change Bekah who now has poop soaked shorts, gross! In the worst case of passive-aggressivness I walked all the way back to the elevator and disposed of the diaper in the garbage can for everyone to enjoy.

They did provide a crib so I actually put Bekah in there attempting nap.........that didn't work. But it gave me time to set up the other porta crib and send out some emails and make some phone calls. In that 45 minutes I realized this room even though it has a kitchenette and a seperate bedroom is way too small and is not going to work for 5 nights!! So I load up kids again and take them to P3 Party Place. They love it there so I get no problems from Mike and Bekah. Right next door is the Residence Inn so I go in there and give them my sob story and turns out they have a 2 bedroom place, with free bfast and a pool for only $10 more than the place I am at now! So I signed us up for that for Friday night. Now that I am a little calmer I also remember that my SIL is going camping Sat. morning. So I call her and hook up her house for Sat. and Sun. night. We will figure out Monday when we get there. I go home for some stuff I forgot and to the grocery store for some basic provisions like beer and ice cream.

I go back and get kids and come back to hotel. Repeat process from before but now with groceries. This time another gentleman holds doors for me and the elevator. Mike gets in and pushes all buttons and the man says it's a good thing there isn't 20 floors! Back in the room the kids smear mac and cheese and ice cream everywhere and now the carpet in here looks like my kitchen floor. We did our usual bedtime routine to make life as calm as possible but Mike and Bekah still cried for 30 minutes before passing out. When they finally fell asleep we could put Jake in there with them and now Erik and I are out here in the "living room" watching football and drinking beer. Michael gets this huge cozy king bed to himself and Erik and I get a sofa bed. But I didn't want Mike sleeping out here with a stove! I would rather have him flush things down the toilet than set things on fire.

Wish me luck,

Charlotte

Must Clean Kitchen

Ugh I sat down to eat a sandwich and now I really don't want to get up. Jake was up at 5:30a again so Erik let me sleep alone in the bed until 7:30a and then I let Erik nap until almost 9a. And I still want to go back to bed, I am soooo tired.


But I need to rally while Jake is napping and Erik has Mike and Bekah. I need to bust a move in my dirty house and filthy kitchen. After naptime we are going to Merrill and Chris's housewarming and tommorrow we are having Nana Jan's 60th birthday here so I need to clean now.

Ok one more thing. Some friends of friends may be splitting up. I know these people just peripherally but it still makes me super sad. Makes me appreciate my husband so much more. I just can't imagine leaving him or him leaving me. And with kids involved it's just too depressing and incomprehensible to me.

Makes me want to send Erik flowers and candy.

Many Species of Jake

So this my youngest Jacob William, Jake. I tried so hard to find just one picture or image that conveyed Jake's essence but it could not be done. It's almost impossible to describe what it is like to live with a mammal so wild. We have decided he is not defnitely not human, and maybe even of another world. These are not negative labels, anyone who has ever lived with a beloved pet or thought a mythical creature was really cute knows what I am talking about. To add even more dimension to Jake's persona, he was our surprise, bonus baby. During those middle of the night, deep thought moments I often wonder if he was really sent to us and we had nothing to do with his creation. I usually snap out of it at by daybreak.



So below is pictures of Jake with comparative images I scrounged off the internet.





Directly below is Jake in the tub. We were used to Michael and his obsession with water and then along comes Jake to make Mike look like a desert nomad. The first swim lesson I took Jake to he didn't shed a tear! Most 14 month old babies would cry and cling to their mothers and sputter and cough when submerged in the water. Jake tried to jump out of my arms and into the pool on the first day. My chest was always covered in little scratches where his paper thin nails clawed at me so he could get under the water. When you stick him under water his eyes are wide open, and he is smiling. It ranks in the top 5 parenting miracles to see how he would naturally hold his breath and swim away from me like a merman, or dolphin, the first time I submerged him in the pool and let go.

So before you get comfortable and think he is the cutest thing that ever lived, he can also be insane and infuriating. His curiousity and gross factor is limitless. Today I changed his poopy diaper and it was full of sand and carrots. It was so disgusting! This was sand that he ate, not sand that got into his diaper from playing in a sandbox. He has supersonic hearing and as soon as he hears the toilet lid go up he runs full-speed ahead to burst into the bathroom and straight for the toilet. This usually involves him either getting his head peed on or if he is late he only gets to splash around in and drink the urine from the toilet bowl before it's flushed. He is also not afraid to eat trash from the garbage can, and anything he finds on the floor or ground outside is fair game. He loves to experiment with textures and make giant messes. When he is finished eating, every last morsel, utensil and dish is thrown from his high chair. Then he will fingerpaint his highchair tray, his face and his hair with any liquids or sauces left behind. He is like a mad scientist who isn't afraid of the most disgusting experiment and not afraid to use himself as a guinea pig.

Jake is also indestructible. He climbs and falls and runs smack into walls and rolls of the couch or bed like a sack of potatoes. He gets up smiling and runs away. He weighs a ton. He was only 5 lbs. and 14 oz. at birth. In 3 months he was 15 lbs. Can you imagine tripling your weight in 3 months?! Let's just say you are a 100 lb. adult (that's all my math skills can handle) and in 3 months you weigh 300 lbs, you would be very concerned to say the least. Jake is now 18 months old and weighs 28 lbs. which is not light. But he feels even heavier! Like when it's cold outside but also windy, so even though your thermometer says 55 degrees it probably feels like 40 degrees. That's Jake. I see unsuspecting adults trying to help me out by picking up Jake before he runs headfirst into trouble and they almost fall on their face! It's like he is chained to the ground or made of super dense material like moon rock. Not only is he indestructible but he is destructible. If he can't make something happen he just rams it with his head or whole body. He is our tank.

Sometimes I think Jake is our smartest kid. I have seen him use critical thinking skills to get himself unstuck before I could help him. He is an early talker and has a great memory for faces. Sometimes though I wonder. Like when he spits out water all over the kitchen floor and then slips and falls in it. I scoop him up and comfort him and put him on the carpet and before I can grab a stack of paper towels to clean up his puddle he is flat on his back again and crying. Arrrgh!

I call all of my children monkeys. They act like monkeys, and they look like monkeys. Monkeys are clever but silly, kind but mischeivious, messy but cute, active but cuddly.........I could go on and on. Yesterday Jake displayed classic monkey characteristics by escaping his cage while his keeper's back was turned. My youngest was in the backyard happily eating sand and I needed to take the cans to the curb. I was hopeful that he was so into his snack that I could get at least one can to the curb before having to lock him inside with his father. Wrong! I got only as far as the driveway before he was in the middle of the street. This is quite a distance he covered so he was hauling ass. I am not exagerrating when I say middle of the street, barefoot Jake ran straight to the middle of the street, turned right and headed for the main road. He gave himself away because he is yelling, "I did it, I did it, I did it!". As soon as I start huffing after him he actually picks up speed and starts laughing at me! Right before I grab him he turns again and heads back to the sidewalk and trips over the curb landing on his face. This doesn't faze him at all he is still giggling. So I breathlessly lug him back inside and hand him to Erik. By the time I am done with my chore Jake is tearful and despondent, another escape thwarted. His behavior is more chimp like but Jake reallys looks like a baby orangutang.

Going to the gym

So remember when you were single and you would go to the gym? You would just put on your work-out clothes, grab a change of clothes and your car keys and you were out the door. 15 minutes tops right? This morning I started getting ready for the gym at 7:30a and didn't hit the gym floor until 10:20a! That is ridiculous.


I am nanny free today so that was the delay, that extra pair of hands makes a huge difference. So I fed all 3 kids and myself. Changed Jake's poopy diaper twice and his pants twice since one diaper was a blow-out. Got all kids changed (Mike wears a pull-up at night), clothed, shoed and hair combed. After all that they were ready for a snack and bottle. Then I packed their lunches, answered the phone but kept it brief. Had to console Jake twice, once when he hit his tender, emerging teeth on a tambourine and again when he hit them on the refridgerator door. Stifled the urge to scream when Bekah and Jake pulled all of the tupperware out of the cabinet and all over the kitchen floor during the 5 minutes I was on the phone. Finally I packed them into the van only to realize I forgot a change of clothes for myself and a blankie for Jake which I totally left at the gym.

So I raced upstairs got all that and then jumped into the van and raced to the gym. Once we are there it's unload Jake into the stroller and load that up with the 3 lunchboxes put on my gym bag and I push the stroller with one hand and hold Mike's hand with the other and he holds Bekah's hand and we all walk into together. And then it takes another 15 minutes to check them all into childcare. Phew! At least Michael was a really good boy and I got in a whole work-out and had time to check some email and call Whole Foods and A Grand Affair to order food and rent tables. Jake's first birthday party is Saturday and it's a rager.

Jake fell asleep on the way home and I sucessfully transferred him into his crib but Bekah was a beast and hasn't napped and is now watching t.v. with Michael and I think I hear Jake stirring so I have to run and clean up this house. Nana Jan and Haley are coming to visit this afternoon so I have to clean up a little.