Mmmmm....

My favorite thing about Trader Joes is the neat products they carry that you just can't find in the grocey store. There are certain Trader Joe staples like the cracked wheat sourdough bread, the frozen 5 cheese brick oven pizza, cool cat cookies, and the list goes on. But I always end up with something new in my cart each time I shop there. And here you have a little something something that jumped into my cart. Unfortunately my family has a way of seeing past all the fresh fruits and vegetables and organic products and they too have discovered my little gem. Note to self...save the packaging from frozen vegetables and stash them in there for chocolate emergencies.

My Haute Tot

While searching for the photos in the previous post, I came across this picture. Chris bought this outfit for Morgan while on a business trip in Paris along the Champs Elysees. Between the outfit and the cute little haircut, she's making quite a fashion statement just like little Suri Cruise. The only difference is Morgan's parents' bank account is missing a FEW zeros! :-)

Flowers From My Garden

There's a quote that says, "Sisters are different flowers from the same garden." So insert the word siblings and here you have my flowers. I'm often scratching my head when other people look at Jack and tell me he looks just like _____ (fill in the blank, though more often than not they say Morgan). Especially when many of these people didn't know Morgan as a baby. I still can't tell. Morgan and Jack have Chris's chin and they all have his eye color. Garrett had so much more hair and tons of teeth and Jack has that gap between his front teeth. He also has the longest eyelashes of the three. And Morgan was the peanut weighing about 7 pounds less than her brothers. When Jack was born my first impression was that he didn't strongly resemble either of them. Now, I don't know, what do you think?

What Kind of Parent Are You?

When I taught kindergarten, I would see those first day tears from scared little five year olds, but more often I would see them streaming down the faces of the parents who couldn't bear the thought of their baby going off to school. Having no children of my own at the time, I wondered if that would be me. I have to admit, maybe a tear or two came to my eye when Garrett and Morgan went off to school, but those tears were quickly dried as I sped off for a long overdue pedicure. I just recently came across this video and I suppose if you find it funny, then you too have found yourself speeding out of the parking lot when your child went off to school. Come on, admit it, it doesn't make you a bad parent :-)

The First Day of Preschool from Brian Sargent on Vimeo.
ETA: Due to technical difficulties (AKA I don't know what the heck happened) this video has decided it does not want to been seen on my blog. If you still care to see it, click the name Brian Sargent above or try this link: http://vimeo.com/2802588

The Price is Right

The other day I was at Gymboree with Jack and the mom of his friend Emma was there with her new 6 week old baby. She mentioned that this precious little girl hardly had any pictures. Well my ears perked and I decided to do something about this injustice. After all, Jack has thousands of pictures and the thought of a six week old having none just broke my heart. So I volunteered my services. So today I arrived at her house with a few simple props. Being the professional that I am I realized that I left my camera card at home so had to make a quick trip to pick it up. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to be thanked for something I had such a great time doing. She hasn't seen the pictures, but just had to share. I'd say for the price, she's getting a pretty good deal.

12 on the 12th

Some new projects are on the horizon and here's a look at one of them. This year I've picked a few photography goals that I want to work on and here's something I've been wanting to try: 12 on the 12th, meaning on the 12th day of every month I'm committed to taking 12 pictures that give a snapshot of our life. So today, armed with my camera by my bed I began snapping. I think I ended up with over 50 pictures and narrowed it down to 12. I didn't have the most cooperative participants to work with, in fact, they were down right hostile! I'm trying to convince the subjects that they will indeed appreciate this someday, but it seems to be falling upon deaf ears.

1. Monday is laundry day here. We opened Jack's new magnets for him to play while I folded clothes. Brilliant boy, can't you tell?

2. Homework, a staple throughout the week. Usually we have few homework wars here, but tonight Morgan left a book at school so we needed to borrow it from a friend.

3. Milk-we go through a gallon of whole milk and about 1 1/2 gallons of 1% every week.

4. Independence-Every day Jack is demonstrating a little bit more independence.

5. The "good" toys. Computers, real telephones, real cell phones, etc...these are the things that Jack really wants to play with now.

6. There are some days when I think it would be great to leave California-cheaper houses, less congestion, seasons, etc...but not today~beautiful sunny skies and 70 degrees. I just need to remember this when I pay the mortgage bill.

7. Preteen-He puts up a good front that he doesn't care how he looks, but he sure has a way with the hair dryer.

8. Carpool~Driving 2 other kids means I only drop off in the morning. It's a beautiful thing!

9. Grocery shopping. Today we went to Trader Joes. The bill was only $80 which means I probably can expect a couple more trips to the grocery store this week. Note the recyclable bags I'm using-making an effort in 2009 to be a little more green.

10. Monday morning...Why when you have all weekend do you need to finish getting your stuff together on Monday morning?

11. Static electricity.

12. Routine-Still in his pajamas after his morning nap, Jack and I don't rush through the morning, just enjoy slowly getting ready.

Eye to Eye

A little backtracking here. While Garrett and Morgan were on vacation all three of them had well check ups. Garrett is required to have a yearly physical to play sports, Jack went for his 15 month check up and Morgan is rarely sick and hadn't had a physical in two years. So here's a look at some numbers.

1. Garrett

• Height-64 1/4 inches (85%)
• Weight-96 pounds (50%)

Ever since this appointment he's been drinking a ton of milk and eating yogurt because he really wants to be 100 pounds. Can you imagine wanting to gain four pounds? He's about 3/4 inches shorter than me and I can't tell you the last time I was a number under 100. Maybe I'll loan him 4 of my pounds :-). The doctor said that based on the height of Chris and I he will end up around 5 feet 10 inches, but based on his current growth pattern, he might be 6 feet. So it will be a little bit before he and Chris are eye to eye.

2. Morgan

• Height- 53 5/8 inches (40%)
• Weight-66 pounds (30%)

3. Jack

• Height-30 1/2 inches (25%)
• Weight-25 1/2 pounds (64%)
  

Christmas 2008

A Decade

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, this was a much anticipated birthday...the double digits. She had a pool party on Sunday with 10 friends, brownies last night at gymnastics, brownies again today at school, and an Oreo pie tonight after opening gifts. I think she's partied out. Here's a look at the birthday girl through the years. And a happy birthday to Aunt Jenifer. Hope you had a good day as well.

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Technical Difficulties

The other day we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom 

in Vallejo.  Always a challenge to find an activity that a cautious 12 year old, a brave 9 year old and a 1 year old all might enjoy, but this was fun.  We started off on the wrong foot, literally, we went the wrong way and ended up in the back of the park and passed exhibit after exhibit that were closed.  We were beginning to wonder if that was the reason  we were able to buy the tickets for such a reasonable price.  We did see some animals and then spotted some spinning ride.  So Morgan and I raced up to the front of the line only to be told that the ride was temporarily closed for technical reasons...okay it doesn't take a genius to figure out that when attendants are hosing down a spinning ride exactly what technical difficulties they were having.   We would not be going back.   So on to the next ride, a big roller coaster called Kong that included a lot of loops.  Again Morgan and I decided to give that a try.  What luck, the people in front of us decided they would be waiting for the next ride so we  hopped on, got buckled in and dangled our feet as we grew excited for take off.  And we waited, and waited.  And then buckles clicked and we were told to exit the ride because technical difficulties.   Fortunately we experienced no more technical difficulties and had fun until the sun went down and it was just too chilly to stay.

First Post of 2009

Just sending a quick Happy New Years to everybody!