food for thought...

"Are you "there" when you're there? Listen closely if your child says he misses you. Perception is reality for sevens.

If you're spending a lot of time around your child but he senses that your mind is somewhere else, he's picking up on the disconnect. This is a real risk in our computer- and cell-addicted culture. Consciously step away from your laptop after a certain hour. Turn off the pager if it's not critical. Put away the Blackberry when you're playing a board game.

In addition to creating "poor quality" quality time, you're setting an example that your child will naturally want to follow. Before long the whole family will be sitting together in the same room night after night, each person absorbed in his or her own screen. Sound far-fetched? It's happening all over the country right now — and the impressionable, curious, and lively age of 7 is too soon to get sucked down that road."

baby bee, obe wan kenobi, mrs.witch and mr.awesome.

halloween 2009:
8 or 900 parties, events, carnivals...and my wonderful mom being the sport of the year by donning her historic witch costume for the class party ...getting into character with the her notorious witch cackle and all...if you have had the privelage of hearing her, it's the best!! (...i may get kicked out of being codys classroom mom by letting her suprise the class party and scare the crap out of a few children...) i'll post pictures if i can get my hands on them.

us getting ready to head out for our final round of 2009 halloween goodness...

"quick cody!! the infant bee is escaping!!"

me:"and you are?..."

him:"mr awesome, of course."

me:"of course."

fall.

we've been super busy. party season is here. we went to a birthday party and then to the phelps annual halloween party saturday night. no pics. bummer.

also:

dressed lola up as an old man bear

took cody as my date to see merv play a live show (don't worry. it wasn't at a nasty old bar.... and grandpa jim chauffered.)

overheard by cody, " this song sure makes my feet rumble."

went on the boy scout haunted hike with a big group of friends and fam. the thriller zombie reinactment was my favorite part.

the scariest thing was this freaky stache merv dug out of the halloween dress up box.

...got dressed up in our fanciest lounge around the house clothes and took a cranky baby for a hike. we bundled her way up. she liked it. we went down on the new paved part of fish lake trail, just down the hill from the house. i highly reccommend checking it out. cody loved it.

dad and cody hiked up to neato cave.

checkin the veiw & the train.

fresh pebbles.

the tradish dreamy self timer family shot

the end.

lola: 8 months.

she loves when cody gives her rides in a basket. she pretty much loves cody all of the time and he loves her too. excpet when shes in his room.

shes crawling everywhere.

love real peas (not baby food type...) cheerios & grape bits.

weighs about 18 1/2 pounds. i believe she is now the fattest of the 3 baby cousins, and the youngest. we've been passing hand me downs to cousin sarah.

we love her and we'll keep her. even when shes cranky from double ear infections....:(

crickets of cascadia.

yay! the flyer i made for merv's band was featured in the inlander theis week!! they called merv to ask permission. go see mervs show here. :)

private guitar lesson.

...just overheard the best line ever on the tv in the background: "...get him a workin mans flavor like rum raisin or brown..." made me laugh to myself. any guesses on which show?

laundry.

a few things:
am i the only one that gets overwhelmed with laundry? especially when your loosing the baby weight so your wardrobe keeps changing and the kids grow out of everything. (the only person around here who stays the same year after year is merv. that & he keeps his sock drawer immaculate....) i seem s to me that as soon as i feel like i'm caught up on laundry the weekend comes and its all back!!

came across this today {here} and it completely describes how i'm feeling:

"...it's been so nice just having what we need (and what fits!) and more regular washing/putting away in it's place (as opposed to my usual routine of a gigantic pile of clean washing in my bedroom that cannot be put away due to overstuffing of all drawers/excessive amounts of illfitting clothing etc)."

i wish i could get on top of all of the excess. that's my big goal. and also balancing my life. but i keep reminding myself that i'm not wonder woman. i have to work, be a mom and juggle everything else. but i've been doing a pretty good job about sorting through and getting rid of clutter. i hate clutter! time and season for everything right?

...we have managed to squeeze in some fun.

us at greenbluff for the tradish pumpkin picture... it was super duper cold so we lasted oh, about 5 minutes i would say.

-i'm bummed out that i will not be running the sf womens marathon this weekend with kera. boohoo. but thats ok. i'd rather stay here and do laundry. ;)