Ramblings of a Rocker Mom...

Love affair with a fan and other insatiable urges...

2011-06-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

Let me start this post by saying that this past weekend kicked some major ass! It seems that summer is fantasmically upon us and I could not be happier about it!! We spent Saturday night at the Justice League of Street Food party with some of our favorite humans, enjoying some killer street food and having a blast watching the kids play and dance together. Sunday was spent organizing for the garage sale that will be happening this weekend (so excited to rid our house of baby stuff!!) and we took a nice long break to take the kids to Sunday School at the D-Note in Arvada. Great people, killer house beats, lots of child chaos, bottomless bloodies and mimosas, and super yummy eats!! It was pretty stellar and our little cubs had so much fun running around with all of the other kids and Stori even dabbled in some pole dancing (much to my dismay...I mean seriously, couldn't she at least wait til she was 18?).

Professing his love

Since we are on the topic of mildly inappropriate toddler experimentations, I thought it may be a good time to bring up Zoren's newest romantic interest.... wait for it.... My son is quite seriously in love with the fan in our living room. He literally gives the fan hugs and kisses multiple times a day and says "I love you, fan. I love you so much". Only slightly disturbing, right? I mean, as far as household objects go, a fan is quite helpful on hot summer days and ours kind of looks like a small child so I can at least consider his expressions of undying love a step in the right direction... Yeah, I will keep telling myself that anyway in hopes that he will not wind up professing his love to a "Real Doll" or something equally as creepy when he reaches adulthood...

I am very much enjoying the ages that my kids are at right now. Our little bot-man is 27 months old and his vocabulary has just exploded within the last couple months so he is constantly spouting off phrases that he has heard me and the hubs say (luckily not any swear words yet)... Here are a few of my favorites:
- "Bummer, Dude!" (his go-to phrase whenever something doesn't go his way)
- "Back Here NOW, Mommy... Sit the butt down and read a book!!"
- "Find the pill bug, Mommy! Hunting pill bugs, under here!!" (usually accompanied by a jaunt around the house lifting up all of the big toys, rugs, and toddler chairs as if they were rocks outside)

Bugs, bugs, bugs.... I am not a fan of bugs. I am good with them behind glass at the butterfly pavilion but I would not be sad at all if I never had to encounter another insect or spider in my life.... Unfortunately, I have a toddler in my house with newfound aspirations to become an Entomologist. It all started with a trip to the library where Z insisted on borrowing a DVD put out by the Smithsonian Channel about insects and other bugs. No big deal, right? Well, it has now escalated into daily bug hunts inside and outside the house (luckily the indoor ones involve little plastic insects which make my skin crawl a little less than the millipedes and pill bugs that he hunts for outside). We also have quite a collection of pill bugs, millipedes, and beetles as temporary pets, living in Zoren's bug houses. He takes them out every day and has them run through mazes (they need their exercise), feeds them small pieces of apple and potato, examines them with a magnifying glass, and has races to see which bug makes it out of the chalk circle fastest.

Playing w/millipedes

Bug Hunting

Examining bugs at the Museum

While I am beyond grossed out by all the creepy crawlies that my son is always on the lookout for, I have to say that his interest and dedication to these little buggers is quite astounding. I mean, how many 2 year olds know that pill bugs are isopods and related to many sea dwellers, can name every body part of an insect, classify which ones are insects, myriapods, arachnids and so forth, or understands the life cycles of different bugs (I mean this kid knows which bugs go from eggs to nymphs to adults... and which ones go from larvae to pupa to adults). I mean some of these are things I didn't even know until we started reading books about bugs everyday. This kid just can't get enough of them!! Whether this bug thing is just a phase or not, I hope that he brings this much devotion and enthusiasm into everything in life that he is passionate about.

When Bad Parents Attack...

2011-04-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I am way behind on posting about the twists and turns of my incredibly exciting life, it is probably time for me to suck it up and get you all caught up over the next couple days, huh?

Our Disneyland vacation was a total blast, although it seems insane that an amusement park can so skillfully suck every last dollar out of the pockets of unassuming guests and we just stand there smiling and forking out the dough :) Ha! I am such a sucker. Anyway, here are a couple memorable moments of our trip:

On our first visit to Mickey's House in Toontown, Pluto came out of the City Hall, walked right up to Zbot, patted his blue hair, then grabbed his hand, and walked around Toontown with Z in tow. A very cool moment, indeed! We also did this Magic Morning thing where we got to go into the park an hour before it opened. The down side was that we had to get up by 5:30 am after getting back to the hotel only hours earlier, in order to get there in time. Ugh... but I am so glad we did it as we got to go about 8 rides in a row and the kids thought it was so awesome to just be able to walk up and get on a ride, especially after spending much of the first day waiting and waiting. I also highly recommend seeing The World of Color at the California Adventure Park. That was one of the coolest water and projection displays I have ever seen and totally worth keeping the kids awake til 10pm to see!! All in all, it was really quite a perfect family vacation and now I can't wait to take the kids to Disney World!!

Now let's talk a little bit about bad parenting. It seems to me that every time I go somewhere family oriented, I seem to notice how unequipped a lot of parents are and it really frustrates me. I am all for a law that requires someone to pass a test and receive a license before procreating. Seriously, it makes me crazy because I know I am not a perfect parent, but some people shouldn't even have a license to walk around in public, much less the privileged of breeding! Here are a few examples of what I am talking about, be mindful that these are extreme cases but are all things I have encountered within the last month...

We flew back home on my birthday and had to endure the most obnoxious lady in the seats in front of us. She was flying back to Denver with her 2 small children (they were 2 and 3 years old and only 10 months apart, as she made a point of telling the whole plane). It started with the take off when her little girl, the three year old who had just finished potty training, had to pee really bad and couldn't hold it. So the mom gets up with the girl and the flight attendants let her know it isn't safe to be standing up and moving around on the plane in the middle of take off. So the mom just freaks on them and starts screaming about how it will be all their fault if her kid pees all over the seat, and how they will have a huge mess to clean up. Needless to say, her reaction just freaks out the little girl even more and she is sitting there screaming about having an accident, while her mom is busy berating the flight attendants... Eventually one of the flight attendants came over and told the mom that, although they cannot advise her to get up and take her kid to pee, they really can't stop her from doing it... So she grabs her daughter (still crying) and runs to the back of the plane to the bathroom and doesn't even tell her 2 year old little boy what is happening or where she is going. The whole time she was in the bathroom with her daughter, her son was freaking out because he was probably scared to death that he was left alone on the plane without a clue as to where his mom and sister had gone to.

That whole situation was really frustrating to me for a couple reasons. First, as a mom, isn't it your responsibility to make sure your recently potty trained child uses the bathroom (or at least tries) before getting on a plane? Or wouldn't you at least put your kid in a pull-up or diaper for the flight since it is a situation where your child may not be able to get up and pee at a moments notice and may also be a place where a kid isn't comfortable using the potty? Not to mention that I find it so irresponsible to leave a 2 year old unattended and not even give them a clue as to where you are going and if you are coming back. I would love to say that the flight was fine after that, but that mom just made things worse and worse. She spent the remainder of the 2 hour flight yelling at her kids and telling them the police were going to come arrest them if they didn't leave their seat belts on, and telling them she just wanted them to shut up and take naps and didn't want to hear from them until the plane landed. It was so hard to listen to, especially since her kids were not misbehaving or being disruptive at all. I just held onto my sleeping Stori and kept kissing her little forehead. The first thing I said to Steve when I got off the plane was that I will NEVER treat my children like that.

Continuing on the subject of butt-head parents, I thought it might be appropriate to mention another encounter I had, this one at Target. I do a lot of shopping at the Super Target down the street from our house because it is convenient as I can get everything from groceries to clothes and books for the kids in one place... and I feel much less ghetto shopping there than at Super Walmart. So I was shopping in the Easter section with Stori and a mom with 2 kids came by and the 2 kids started pointing to Stori's hearing aids and asking their mom what they were and why she had them... And the mom's only response to their inquiry was- "We don't point at retarded kids". What an ignorant bitch! I didn't even stop to think about what to say, I just turned to her and said as calmly as possible "it makes me really sad that you are going to raise 2 children to be as ignorant as you are". And then I got the hell out of there. It was almost too much for me to take and it took everything I had to keep it together and not burst into tears. I am sure I could have yelled at the lady and explained Stori's hearing loss and how it has NOTHING to do with her mental capacity, not to mention the fact that there is no situation where the use of the word "retard" should really be relevant, aside from stand up comedy maybe. I mean there are people all over the world with different abilities and to lump them into a category of being "retarded" is such an injustice. The world should be more focused on helping people reach their full potential, no matter what it may be, instead of wasting so much energy putting others down and trying find a label that fits every person they encounter. Such a waste. Anyway, I was pretty pissed about the whole situation and what hurt me the most was that these 2 kids were just asking an honest question and instead of an explanation from the adult in their lives with the most influence, they were just taught it is better/easier to label a person then learn about a person. This folks, is one of the many things that is wrong with this world.

Just to add a little more fuel to the fire, on the way out of Target that day, I saw a lady taking her baby (maybe 6 mos. old) out of the car... and instead of a carseat, the baby was buckled into a bouncer, which was sitting in a Sterilite bin, which was seat belted into the backseat of the car. How on earth did she think that was an acceptable safety restraint for her child??? I mean you can get a free carseat from the hospital if you can't afford to buy one yourself. By that point in my trip I had to get out of that place. I have always said that I don't like people, in general. But this shopping trip has put a new meaning behind that statement for me.

And thus concludes my recent adventures with terribly horrible crap-tastic parents. More tomorrow on things in life that I actually enjoy... Like my kids or something :)

Off the plane and on vacation!!

2011-04-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

We are officially on our first family vacation!!! Yipee!!

I woke up this morning thinking I must have been utterly insane to stay up late doing shots on the night before we leave for vacation. But alas, I did just that and found myself awake at 6am with my head pounding and the rest of the morning pretty much went like this... water, Ibuprofen, 5 hour energy drink, 20 minutes of cardio, followed my 20 minutes of searching for Stori's missing tennis shoe, which we never found. Packed the few remaining toiletries, finished writing thank you cards to send out today for Astoria's bday, to the bank to cash in the money from our change jar for some extra spending cash, and off to the airport...

As we approached the airport we realized that all of our hotel vouchers and resort transit tickets were still on the dining room table. Shit. I managed to pack every item from our house that we could possibly need for any foreseeable circumstance, but I didn't bring our damn vacation package. Such a typical situation to find myself in. Anyway, at that point we only had a few options. The first was to turn around and drive 20 minutes home to get it, then 20 minutes back to the airport at which point it was a guessing game as to whether or not we would make our flight and we certainly wouldn't have time to get the kids any lunch. That wasn't going to work for us... So we went with the best plan we could think of, which involved me calling the agency we booked through, them faxing our reservations to our hotel, we purchased new transit tix, and we were good to go! The agency even said we could send the transit tix that we left at home, back to them, for a full refund. Sweet!

After that mess, we finally got to the airport, had no problem with security, got some lunch in my babies bellies, and then got to the gate about 5 minutes before they started boarding the plane. We tried to plan our flight according to the kids naptimes, hoping they would just sleep in the air so we didn't have to deal with bored and antsy children, but it didn't exactly go that way... Stori squirmed and fought and complained a lot of the flight and didn't fall asleep until literally 3 minutes before we touched the ground. Ugh.... Long flight! Zoren was pretty good but didn't sleep at all, until we were off the plane and on the shuttle to our hotel. So we got about a 15 minute nap from each of the kids. Bummer.

By the time we got to the hotel and I somewhat unpacked, it was time for dinner so we hopped on the resort transit and went to Downtown Disney and ate at The Jazz Kitchen. We had some amazing crayfish beignets and I had the seafood jambalaya. It was insanely awesome and totally hit the spot. There is nothing like some fried dough to shove in the face of the diet I should be adhering to.. Ah well, no points for that meal, I guess. Luckily, tomorrow is my day off!!! Yay!

After dinner we did a little shopping and then realized that both the kids were fading fast so we headed back to the hotel. Once the kids were in their jammies, we decided to take a little walk to Target to get a few snacks and such to keep in the fridge in our room. I am so glad we did that because now I officially have enough healthy food on hand to fulfill 3 of my 5 daily meals, every day, until we leave. Rock on!! The kids fell asleep by the time we got to Target and they barely even moved when we got back to our suite and moved them into bed. The only glitch was that Stori woke up coughing about 10 minutes after we laid her down and wound up puking all over her bed, then all over the floor, and then all over me. Still not my favorite. I could seriously do without puke, especially on vacation. Blah...She eventually went back to bed and we propped her up to hopefully help her coughing and I think it worked. She has been in bed for over half an hour and I haven't heard anything coming from their room.

We are going to give day 1 a rating of: "somewhat successful".... Cranky kids make for a long day but they did remarkably well despite the drastic change of schedule and serious lack of napping. I can't wait to take Z to see Mickey Mouse tomorrow morning. He is going to freak!!!!

-E-

I like animals and I don't like sick kids

2011-03-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

My Monday was kinda sucky but I managed to live through it so I guess it wasn't more than I could handle. That's always a good thing. Zoren has put his boundary testing skills into overdrive and I swear that Stori is practicing to become the next Bam Margera and will probably wind up being my first child with stitches or a broken bone. Not to mention Zoren's snotty nose has developed into a super junky cough and he hasn't slept for shit in 2 nights (which means I haven't either). In fact, an hour after I put him into bed tonight, he woke up hacking like crazy, did a zombie-like walk out of his room crying and still coughing, and eventually wound up puking all over me (after about 5 minutes of nonstop coughing). Not my favorite. He is now laying on the couch next to me and finally fell asleep about halfway through The Princess Bride. I figured that would be a great movie to start the "up all night with a sick kid" movie marathon. I love the snuggle time with my poor little cub though and I have a couple movies to catch up on, so it's not all bad.

Needless to say, I got nothing done today... at least nothing productive or really worth talking about. On the plus side, I did get the new National Geographic in the mail, which is sweet. I am such a geek for anything pertaining to ancient civilizations, marine life, or any kind of animals, really. That is probably why I am currently feeding a host of wild little creatures in our yard now. Let's see, we have 2 families of squirrels, about 4 bunnies (which will probably multiply to about 15 by the end of Spring), a pair of doves, a whole bunch of other birds which I have not yet identified, and our newest addition is a couple of ducks that wandered up from the creek a few days ago and keep coming back. I am such a sucker for animals and the kids love watching them through the sliding glass doors that overlook their little feeding area. I think it may be driving the cats a little crazy though. Morticia Mae and Wednesday Monster (my cats) sit at the door in super stalking mode and spend most of the days awake and on high alert. It is especially entertaining to watch the squirrels and cats interact through the glass. The squirrels are such social creatures and they jump up onto the back step, just inches away from the cats, bob their little heads back and forth a couple times, and then chatter at the cats as if to taunt them, and then the cats just go insane and start jumping around. It is almost like watching a cartoon. It gave me a much needed laugh this morning, anyway.

So yeah, today sucked for the most part and to top it off, this is the second time I have written this post because things seem to be aligned against me today and it was deleted the first time I tried to publish it... Jerkface computer, internet, whatever.... Luckily, today is almost only just a memory and hopefully tomorrow will be better. Time for me to go change movies and prepare for an interesting evening! Oh, and if you haven't seen the movie Hard Candy with Ellen Page, see it. It totally rocks. Ok gotta go. Catch you later!

To My Little Pixie Pie On Your First Birthday

2011-03-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

Astoria Joy Talulah Stodola, it is hard to believe that an entire year has passed since you came into this world, kicking and screaming as the nurses gave you your first bath, weighed you, inked your tiny feet, and bundled you up tight so I could get a few moments to touch your little face and kiss your little nose before you were handed to daddy and whisked away to wait for me in the post-op room. I remember that you stopped crying the instant your face touched mine and at that very second, I was overwhelmed with love and knew we had already formed a lifelong bond. It may have only been a brief moment, but it is one that I will never forget. There are times, even now, when your little nose brushes up against my cheek and I am brought right back to that day and become flooded with emotion.

Within a couple days of your birth, we were told that you had failed your newborn hearing screen multiple times and would need to see an audiologist for another hearing test after you came home. Hearing loss is not something that runs in our family at all, and the prospect of having a deaf child is something I had never even considered. But once faced with that possibility, I chose to embrace it with open arms and an open mind because whatever the results were, it wouldn’t change the way we looked at you or how we felt about you. To us, you are perfect.

When the day finally came for your first audiology appointment, your father and I were prepared for anything and more than ready for a diagnosis. And we got just that... You were just over a month old when we you were diagnosed with “mild to moderate bilateral neurosensory hearing loss” We immediately began the process to get you fitted with hearing aids and started working with CHIP (Colorado Home Intervention Program) to provide us with a speech therapist and sign language instructor.

You received your hearing aids when you were just about 3 months old and have worn them like a little rockstar, ever since. We now have Marsha come into our house for speech therapy and Rachella come for sign lessons once a week. These ladies are amazing and are such a perfect fit for our family. I am eternally thankful for their presence in our lives. We also have some amazing friends, Misha and Jolie, whose daughter, Metta, has the same type and severity of hearing loss as you. All of these people have become our Colorado family and we would never have known any of them, without you! You have blessed and enriched our lives and our family in ways I could never have imagined.

My dearest little Stori, I want you to know, more than anything, that hearing loss will always be a part of your life, but it will NEVER define you as a person. You are absolute perfection to me and I would never change a single thing about you. You are an amazing little girl who is tiny but strong; feisty but incredibly sweet and loving; extremely dramatic but unexpectedly easygoing at times. You are quick with a smile so brilliant it could shine light in the darkest of places. Your determination and ability to learn new signs, gestures, and words to communicate is astounding. You already know almost 20 signs and 10 words, which is so awesome and such a testament to your determination and intelligence. No matter what goals and obstacles are set in your path, you always seem to be a couple steps ahead of the game.

I love to see you in the role of “little sister”. You just adore your big brother, Zoren, and would follow him to the ends of the earth just so you could be by his side. You are a tricky little pixie though and I am never surprised to see you sneak up behind Z and steal whatever toy he happens to be playing with, just so you can run away at top speed, giggling all the way, and knowing that a chase will soon ensue. You are also notorious for running into his room over and over after you wake up from your nap, with high hopes that you will wake him up so you can play together, and many times, you do just that. Watching the two of you grow, learn, and interact together on a daily basis makes my heart swell with love and pride.

This year has brought our family a lot of great memories, unforgettable moments, some fun outings, and even a new grandpa! You went to your first Dragon Boat Festival, Renaissance Festival, Boo at the Zoo, and survived your first 30 hour round trip car ride to and from Wisconsin for Thanksgiving! We have been on countless outings to the Denver Zoo, Children’s Museum, Downtown Aquarium, Botanic Gardens, Science and Nature Museum, Butterfly Pavilion, and we got to explore the Garden of the Gods, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, and feed the giraffes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. This has truly been an amazing year!

There have definitely been some obstacles this year as well, the hardest for me was when our school district did their initial evaluation on you at 3 months old and subsequently tried to label you with a developmental delay, deciding you would need physical therapy once a week for 6 months. To me, this was unacceptable. I knew you did not have any kind of delay and refused weekly PT, but did allow for a physical therapist to reevaluate you and come over to see you once a month for 6 months, to ensure you were on track with your milestones... And you not only hit your milestones, but you, by far, exceeded any expectations we could have possibly had. You were crawling at 6 months, pulling yourself up to stand on your own by 7 months, walking unassisted at 8 months, and running and climbing by 10 months old. Needless to say, the physical therapist was stunned and quickly dismissed herself from service.

You seem to have a way of effecting everyone that you meet and people seem to be transfixed with your beauty, charm, curiousness, and spunk. You have an adorable facial expression for every emotion and every occasion. With one look, you somehow maintain the ability to bring warmth and sunshine to even the stormiest of days and that is something that I dearly treasure. It is safe to say, that in your first year of life, you have already touched the lives of many people, and I can say for certain, we are all better people because we have you.

No matter the obstacles you face in life, my dearest Stori, I want you to grow up knowing that I will forever be your ears when you cannot hear, your eyes when you cannot see, your legs when you cannot stand, and your source strength and support when you feel all is lost. I am so blessed and proud to be your mother and no matter what the future holds, that is something that will never change.

So we now arrive to the dreaded time when I have to officially bid adieu to your infancy, as you are quite officially a toddler now. Such a big step for me even though I know you have unofficially been a toddler for months already. I hope your next year of life brings you endless amounts of joy and happiness because that is a gift you give to me every day, just by being you. You are my little spitfire, my pixie pie, my drama queen, my monkey shine, and above all, my baby girl. I love you so much more than words can express and I am so proud of all you have accomplished this year. I guess there is nothing left to say except:

Happy 1st Birthday Miss Astoria!!!

To be fair- here is the letter I wrote for Z for his 2nd birthday this year- 1/27/11

2011-03-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe just 2 years ago, I was meeting you for the first time. It feels as if you have been a part of my life and family forever and yet the time has passed more quickly then I ever imagined it would. This past year has seen a lot of changes for our family and presented us all with many opportunities to grow and learn. I must say, you have taken it all in stride, as you seem to do with almost every situation.

This year, you became a big brother and words can't express how proud I am of your immediate willingness to embrace your new sister with love and kindness. You are the first person to run to her side when she cries with lots of hugs, kisses, and sweet words of comfort. I love to watch you interact with Stori, whether it be dancing, laughing, singing, playing, or just chasing each other around the house because I can see how close the two of you are and will be for the rest of your lives.

You have also spent a lot of this year learning new things and it scares me a little to see how smart you are and how quickly you pick up on things. It won't be long before I run out of things to teach you! You have learned to run, jump, and climb all of the ladders at the playground, you even learned to climb the rock wall this month!! You are already an avid reader and love your books more then most of your toys which is super cool. You know and recognize EVERY letter of the alphabet independently, your numbers 1-10, your colors and shapes, and just last night you started writing the letters, “i, p, b, d, and o”, all by yourself! You are truly an amazing and gifted little boy.

For awhile I wasn't sure you would ever talk but since we started signing with you, about 6 months ago, you have blossomed into an excellent communicator with both your speech and your signs. You can sign in complete sentences and talk in simple sentences, which is so cool! It's crazy how much your personality has just exploded with the addition of language and I can most definitely say I am loving every minute of it!

This year has also brought you some new friends and a bunch of fun outings. We have been to the Denver Zoo, the Science and Nature Museum, The Children's Museum, Heritage Square, and Monkey Bizness with Jolie, Misha, and Metta. We also got to take a trip to Colorado Springs with Grandma Joy and Aunt Jennifer where we got to go to the Renaissance Festival, Garden of the Gods, and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Mima and Papa came to visit when your sister was born and we all went to the Butterfly Pavillion and up to Pearl St. in Boulder.

We were also fortunate enough to take a long trip to Wisconsin to visit some of our friends and family for Thanksgiving. Even though you won't remember the visit, I know you had a blast seeing everyone and it was so cool to watch you play and interact with your cousins. It was also great for you to get a chance to spend some time with Grandma Joy and Grandpa John, Mima and Papa, Grandpa David, and all of your adoring aunts and uncles. Coming back to Colorado after that trip was a little bittersweet knowing you wouldn't see a lot of them for quite some time. Good thing we have Skype!

The Xmas holidays were so much fun this year because you were totally into putting up decorations and tracking Santa on the computer. Christmas morning was just a blast. The look on your face when you saw what Santa left for you and Stori was just priceless. Pure joy and excitement just oozed from every pore in your body and it made my heart swell to see how happy you were and to be sharing those precious moments as a family.

I feel so lucky and blessed to be your mother and there are so many things I love about you. You are such a sweet and caring little man and at the same time you are all rough and tumble and into everything. You are so good at figuring out how to put things together and make things work, from puzzles to the DVD player and Wii, you seem to have it all mapped out in that ever working brain of yours. You play the drums and harmonica like nobody’s business…And man, can you dance or what? You will dance to anything and everything and have great rhythm. You have even taught Stori a lot of your signature moves! I wish I could say that came from me or your dad, but neither one of us could dance to save our butts, so it's all you dude!

So here we are... You are now 2 and not so much my little baby anymore. I know this next year will bring us a lot of struggles with tantrums and potty training but I know it will also bring us a ton of amazing times and lots of exciting adventures. Whatever the next year brings, I just hope you will be happy and healthy and know that you are loved so much! You are one cool little dude and I am so thankful to have you.

I love you my little Z-bot!

Happy Birthday!!

New goals and other such nonsense...

2011-03-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just started writing a couple weeks ago and I can already label myself a slacker for not posting sooner... Not looking good. Lots of new things happening here, utter insanity mostly. Sick kids with snot constantly racing down their faces; only to be wiped by a hand, sleeve, and sometimes an actual Kleenix (if I can catch them fast enough!)... Started a new diet, daily cardio, frequent small healthy meals, mending bad habits, creating good habits, and drinking lots and lots of water... You know, all the garbage that I have slacked off doing most of my life but now that I have kids I feel the need to set a good example... Yikes! Taking responsibility and making changes in life can kinda suck. I have only been at it for 3 days so I am am just learning. Good news is that I feel better than I have felt in years and I am just getting started so there is something to be said for clean living, I guess! Other things occupying my precious time are Stori's First Birthday next Saturday and our trip to Disneyland in California the week after that (our first family vacation!!....aside from trekking to and from WI to visit family and friends). Like I said, lots happening here!!

First off I would like to address my baby turning one in a week!! WTF?!?! Seriously, it's been an entire fricken year since she was born, did I miss something?? I swear she was a 7 pound little fledgling just a few months ago and now she is flying out of the nest and into toddlerhood at top speed!! I will talk more on that later when it really sets in that she is beginning her second year of life!!

Now on to the, oh so important, life changes that I am undergoing... It's called GameOn! Diet and you can visit their website if you want for more details... http://www.thegameondiet.com/

I ordered the book from Amazon and started on Wednesday. If you don't really care enough to check out their website then here is a quick summary...Basically you play with friends and form 2 teams or play against each other as individuals and you receive points for healthy things like meals and sleep and exercise... and you get penalties for unhealthy things like unsanctioned snacking, consuming alcohol on game days etc. The cool thing is that you get one day a week and one additional meal off and those times you can eat whatever and consume alcohol ( I like alcohol!! ). Really the whole point is to help you lose weight and form healthy food, exercise, and lifestyle habits. We shall see what path this takes me down :)

Let me address our trip to Disneyland really quickly... First and foremost, It's making me batshit insane!! Seriously, who starts picking out clothes for their kids to wear, two weeks in advance... who buys their kids multiple hats, swimsuits, leg/arm warmers, and hoodies, just to wear on a 4 day vacation?!? Me... that's who.. batshit insane, like I said. When I hear the word "vacation", all my sic little mind can picture is... "lists, packing, organizing, planning"... That is so bad! Shouldn't your first thoughts of a family vacation be "fun, excitement, memories"... Yeah, I am working on that. Don't get me wrong though, those thoughts of fun and such are not far from my mind. No seriously, I keep telling Z that we are going to Mickey's House after Stori's Birthday so he is super duper psyched (although part of me thinks that he is convinced I am totally lying to him about seeing Mickey Mouse). I have never been to Disneyland and it will be our first family vacation... Oh, did I mention that we just cut Z's hair and dyed his faux hawk blue tonight? He is going to be the most rockin' kid at Mickey's house :) The best part is that the neighbor kid yelled out to him while we were on a walk tonight "Nice hawk! Mine used to be green!"..... This is how I know we chose the right place to live :)

-E

Working out sucks so let's plan a party!!

2011-03-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

Working out SUCKS!!!! Seriously sucks! Just putting it out there. Back in the days before children, when I would go to 3 to 6 concerts a month, I could just sweat it off in the mosh pit. But alas, those two back to back pregnancies later, and I have come to realize that I am not going to lose this fat ass and gut unless I do some sort of physical activity that doesn't involve wiping snotty noses and picking up toys. The key is to find the workout that makes you look the least ridiculous and makes you feel the strongest... My workout of choice is some cardio kickboxing, I can deal a good blow if anyone gets too close and I don't feel like a beluga whale fumbling around aimlessly while my husband and kids laugh at me during breakfast. But that's just me...I mean, if you want to do stripperobics because dancing on a pole makes you feel good and doesn't make you look like a total ass, then go for it!! I will stick to the kickboxing.

Now onto my current task at hand which is planning for Stori's first birthday. I must be crazy, because even though we aren't really having a party, or guests, or even family over to the house... I have decided I must turn the kids playroom into a fairy garden for my little pixie. Such an overachieving bitch, I know. Don't worry, I have heard it all from my husband.. "you are just stressing yourself out for no reason", "she isn't going to even remember her first birthday", "you are putting way to much time and effort into this"... Yes, I know... But I can't help myself! I made over 150 tissue paper flowers for the room, colored and cut out over 100 butterflies and faeries to adorn the walls and hang from the ceiling. But this is what I love, what I live for. Anything that ignites the creative spark in me is worth the time and effort, no matter what. Besides, it's not like I am forking out thousands of dollars for a kid's party or doing anything crazy and over the top. I think I spent somewhere around $50 to transform the playroom for a one year old who will most definitely never remember it, but will have a blast tearing it all to shreds!

A Night of Firsts

2011-03-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

My husband and I moved to Colorado from Wisconsin when I was about 7 months pregnant with our son, Zoren, who turned 2 a little over a month ago. So we have lived out here for just over 2 years and this past Saturday night is the first time we have been out on a double date with friends, since our relocation. It is also the first time we have had someone other than our family watch our kids for the evening.

Let me start out by saying that making friends isn't something that generally comes easy to either me or my husband. He is a total geek and therefore his social skills leave much to be desired... And I just tend to avoid human interaction as much as possible because people generally suck. So, needless to say, it took us awhile to make enough friends to have someone to go out with and someone to watch our kids... Interestingly enough, our daughter's hearing loss turned out to be our catalyst for meeting Misha and Jolie, who have now been are good friends for about 6 months.

We have a speech therapist (Marsha) and sign language instructor (Rachella) that have been coming to our house once a week to work with Stori since her initial diagnosis of mild/moderate hearing loss last July. One day last summer, Marsha told me there was a family with a daughter that is Zoren's age, who she thought we would get along really well with, and she gave me their number so we could meet. We met and have been getting together a couple times a month to take the kids on outings and such. It is so refreshing for us to know other parents who have a child with hearing loss, and a huge bonus that we all have so much in common regarding interests, ideals, and past experiences.

Anyway, we finally made friends!!! Yay!!! And we finally got a chance to go out on a double date with them during Denver Restaurant Week, which is a total bonus because we got to eat really great food at an unbeatable price! The only catch was that we needed to find a babysitter and actually leave Zbot and Stori home for the evening, which was something we hadn't really done before... Well, I suppose that's not entirely true as our families have watched them for a couple hours here and there when they came out to visit or we went to Wisconsin but that's not quite the same as leaving them with people they don't really know. Luckily, my husband has a good friend at work (Mark) who offered to come over with his wife and 4 kids (ages 5-13) and watch them while we went out for the evening so we jumped at the opportunity.

The good news is that the night went off without a hitch. Mark and his family showed up right on time to watch our little cubs and both of them were so excited to have other kids at the house to play with them that they didn't even react to me and my hubby leaving, aside from a short wave goodbye.

We met Misha and Jolie at a cute little mediterranean restaurant called Olivea about an hour before our reservation, so we sat at the bar and tried a few of their signature drinks. I had something called The Impressionist which was a vodka martini with a hint of lavender and Steve had an Ophelia which was composed of gin, lemon, pomegranate molasses, and a hint of rosemary. Excellent. We were seated early and had a killer 3 course dinner which totally exceeded our expectations. We had great conversation and once dinner was over we decided to go out for a few drinks at Vita before coming home. Vita (meaning, "life" in Italian") was a cute little bar/restaurant which is actually right on the other side of a huge funeral parlor. As Misha pointed out, it is an interesting dichotomy of life and death because the signs for each establishment are literally back to back...

We ended up getting home around midnight to sleeping children and a report that they had a blast and went to bed like little angels. So awesome! We could not have asked for a better night! Great friends, great food, excellent conversation, and coming home to happy babies is more than we could have asked for!! Total success!!

-E

A Brief Introduction

2011-03-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

After spending a large part of my day contemplating the perfect initial post for my blog and spending an even larger part of my evening staring at a blank word document without a vague idea of where to begin, I am ready to fumble through this...

It has been far too long since I have taken a moment sit down, take a deep breath, and reflect on the whirlwind of the last few years of my life... Here is a short summary of my life after high school:

Went to college, partied a lot, fell in love with the wrong guy, dropped out of college, got a job and my own place, continued to date the wrong guy for about 5 years... going nowhere... met an amazing man at my dull office job, dumped the jerk, moved in with the amazing man, got engaged, got pregnant, got married, moved to Colorado while 7 months pregnant, gave birth to our amazing little Zoren (aka. Z or Z-bot), became a stay-at-home mom, gave birth to sweet and sassy Astoria (aka. Stori or Pixie)... and BANG!!! Here we are! I never anticipated that a single decision and action could change so many aspects of my life and lead me down the unexpected road to marriage and motherhood.

My kids are most definitely my heart and soul in life right now and I am so lucky to be able to stay home with them and watch them learn and grow on a daily basis. Having 2 little ones that are only 14 months apart can be challenging in some respects but I have found that implementing some form of structure and routine to their day is the key to keeping everyone laughing, playing, learning, and having a good time. I spend quite a bit of my downtime planning activities, games, and lessons for them that pertain to a weekly theme, which can be tedious at times, but it is definitely worth it!

Now that Z is a big 2 year old and my little Pixie's first birthday is quickly approaching, I am finding that life with two toddlers is zipping right by and leaving me in the dust a little bit. Hopefully, my attempt to chronicle our adventures together will give me the opportunity to pause at the end of a long day, and reflect on the moments that matter, before those memories just pass me by.

-E