Melodies About Me

This morning I dragged my kiddo's on a bunch of errands, one of which was the craft fair at Vasa Park Lodge. I didn't see much that jumped out at me until I got to the back of the building.



Sitting beneath a banner with her laptop and printer was a nice lady playing music on her computer speakers. Mr. B immediately started dancing to the cute tune so I asked the lady about her product. It is a CD of music written by her and some other family members that incorporates your child's (she can do multiple names per CD instead of just one name) name into each song. She asked Mr. B if he liked pirates and then played Pirate Adventure with his name in the lyrics. Then she did the same for Beeb. These little tunes are very catchy, a good quality recording and I actually liked them so we left with an individual CD for each kiddo and jammed all the way home. (my favorite is Purple Sock Blues)

It was fun to see their faces light up when they heard their name in the songs and especially with some of the silly lyrics. They giggled and danced in their booster seats until we got back to the house.

You can visit the company website Melodies About Me to hear samples and/or order your own CD. Great for your child or as a gift.

Tagged!

Okay I've been tagged by my good friend Rayette to display the fourth folder, fourth picture. Since I have a gazillion folders I went for the year 2008 and picked the forth folder (June - because it is sorted alphabetically).

Ironically enough this is the fourth image from that folder:



From Beeb's 4th birthday!

My Greatest Joys!

I posted this on my other blog but thought I had better put this here too. I captured this today while scouting out a location for a photo shoot. I am thrilled they are not fighting and are actually touching!!!

A Dilemma

I have a dilemma. Do I start "The Host" tonight and risk not being able to put it down and get a good nights rest, or do I wait until tomorrow?

Thanks Erin for the temptation (and the book)!

Mr. B and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Mr. B had a really rough day at school yesterday. He had to leave his class twice to regroup, had a hard time following directions, poured glue all over his desk, drew on another childs leaf and bit the teacher. One phone call and one email later (one from each of his teachers) and know I have a son who is out of control. I don't know why he had a hard day, especially since he had a fantastic morning at home, but we have noticed (AH & I) that the "hyper" part of Mr. B's AD/HD has been in overdrive the past few weeks.

So as a result I talked extensively with Mr. B this morning about our two house rules, no hitting & no pushing, and school behavior (same rules apply there too). He assured me he would follow the rules.

I stuck close by him all morning and he "forgot" the rules often and as a result got to spend a large chunk of time in the "timeout corner". For the most part I really try to avoid timeouts because if they are used more than 3 times a day they are not working (so we learned from a parenting consultant/expert) BUT in the case of physical violence it is an automatic timeout, no exceptions.

After sending him off on the bus I hoped that my diligence would pan out for his teachers today. Well, I just got an email from one of them and he did GREAT! He even earned his reward (computer time) for doing so well in class.

Way to go Mr. B!



Now I only have to stick to him like glue for the next 13 years. :P

Family Ties . . .

I just talked with my brother for the first time in twenty years. So strange. I can still feel the adrenialyn in my system and my hands are shaking. I am not sure what to think. We'll see how this pans out.

I Won't Swerve

I found out something about myself tonight that I have wondered about for many years but haven't had the chance to test; I won't swerve.

Driving home alone tonight in the dark with the rain beating down I almost ran over some little animal crossing the road (or maybe I did run it over but didn't feel the "bump"). I have no idea what "it" was but drove away from the situation thinking, "wow, I didn't swerve." (although I did cringe) I've always wondered if I would be one of those people who do swerve and go off the road or have some sort of other accident trying to miss an animal in the way of my car. I am not sure how I feel about it. Right now I am kind of proud of myself for not swerving because I would never want to endanger the life of any passengers I might have or myself over a possum but then I also feel a bit melancholy over the idea of hitting "Thumper" or some other woodland creature that I find so cute.

It was just one of those nights when I got to learn something about myself.

I'm Impressed

Tonight for FHE we decided to take a family walk around our neighborhood since daylight hours are dwindling and we had a break in the rain. This walk requires lots of prodding of Mr. B to actually walk because he spends the first three quarters of the walk dragging his feet, moaning and complaining that he needs the scooter in order to "walk". By the last quarter we are on the home stretch and he perks up and will usually manage on his own forgetting the abuse we are heaping on him.

After our invigorating walk we enjoyed playing on the rope swings for a few minutes until Beeb announced she was getting chilled. As she started to head back to the house she turned to us and said, "How about I put my helmet on and Daddy you push me on my bicycle with out my training wheels on!" She then came over and dragged Daddy away.

Unfortunately for Beeb her bike wasn't in the best condition and Daddy had to take a few minutes to get her chain back on before she could ride. After he finished and while he was cleaning his hands Beeb took her bike from me, hopped right on and started riding without any problem or needing one of us to help her balance. She took off out the driveway and down the street and then came back.

A while later she stopped her bike, looked at us and said, "I'm impressed!" Me too Beeb, me too.

Meal Time & Bed Time Moments

Last night as we all sat down to dinner Beeb announced that there was too much on her plate and that she couldn't eat it because she had a "small mouth and small teeth." One of these days I am going to have to video tape these "Beeb Logic Moments" because she is just so darn funny.

I had a tender moment with Mr. B last night when I was putting him to bed. He had a great day at school and we talked about how happy his teacher was with his efforts. We then read some stories, said prayers and then he asked me to stay and snuggle with him so I did. He just chatted away about various things on his mind and then rolled over and I snuggled with him until he went to sleep. I love these moments of peaceful time with my kiddo's; it just fills my heart right up.

Kindergarten for Mr. B

Mr. B had his first day of kindergarten this past week. Unlike most kindergartner's Mr. B was NOT excited to go back to school. Despite his eagerness to tell every stranger we meet that he is, indeed, a kindergartner I had to burst his bubble with the cold hard fact that he is not actually a kindergartner unless he physically goes to his kindergarten class. He reluctantly agreed to go. . . ha ha.





We were delighted to find out one of Mr. B's best buddies is in his class!




Despite his reluctance he had a GREAT time and has two terrific teachers. I think he will have a great school year.

The Last Hoorah

We've just returned from our last summer trip before school starts next week. We met up with the family at Priest Lake and spent our time goofing around and relaxing. This time I took my neice Katie with us which brought a new level of energy to our days (she never gets tired!) and so we had many adventures.

The weather was so-so and the water was cold. Those who braved it generally didn't stay in for long.

Katie braved the cold cold water!


Chris with a low low turn.


My Amazing Husband - still a hotty!










The "Triplets"




A little Beeb attitude on our walk back from the tennis court.


On our hike to the rockslides Chris found a snake. What I didn't photograph was Beeb grabbing the snake out of Chris' hands and holding it in her own. She is such a funny girl!




Also along the hike to the rockslides we found a Geocache - that was exciting!


Mr. B is modeling the latest in swim and eye wear.






That is Mr. B demonstrating his swimming skills for us all. Swim coach Donna would be proud!




Katie and Me - Katie is trying hard not to laugh!


We also had fun riding the motorcycles, out on the Sunfish during a nice windy afternoon (and thanks to AH's amazing sailing skills, not getting tipped over), Katie did a scramble with AH and Chris one evening and scraped up her leg pretty good, we got caught in a massive hailstorm on our hike to the rockslides, a Geocache treasure hunt (I missed this since I was out riding the motorcycles with Katie), and lots and lots of games. It was a nice way to end the summer.

The Sounds of Nature

Last night I went to bed kind of early for me (9pm) and while I was laying there I was noticing how peaceful it was with the windows open and the sound of the rain falling onto the leaves of the trees that surround our property. It reminded me of those nature CD's people buy at Target (the ones with the demos so you can listen before you buy). I then started thinking that this last week we've had a number of interesting nature sounds that make me really enjoy living where we do. On any given night the frogs in our neighbors pond will serenade us with their croaking, over the weekend we had some whopper thunder and lightning storms and the last few days the beautiful sound of rain. I think I'll open up my bedroom as a yoga or spa studio and see if I can make some money to help cover our property taxes.