these are a few of my favorite things

happy birthday to my sweet cheekies

2010-01-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

shannon turned 1 on november 3. we took her to the zoo that day because she LOVES animals, and later that night she got a pink cupcake. i love how excited she was about the candle.

that weekend we had a party for her, with mostly family and a couple friends. its so amazing that she's already a year old! my precious little girl is getting so big so fast. didn't we just bring her home? a more beautiful and delightful gift i could never have imagined. we love her more every day.

i have a lot to catch up

2010-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

but i'll do it in pieces.

here's some cute pictures of the kids at halloween. shannon was a bumble bee and luke was his alter-ego "supersuit." he always tells me that his name is in fact supersuit, so for halloween i decided to actually make him his suit. i was going to surprise him with it on halloween day, but he snooped and saw it at one point and looked at me very excited, and said, without me telling him what it was, "that's my supersuit!!" i was so happy he knew what it was!
i made shannon's outfit too, she already had the cute tights so i just added to them. the wings were made from packaging foam.

we went to my mom's school during the day to watch the kid's parade, and that was really fun. later that evening we went to justin's parent's house to trick or treat. it was luke's first time, and he was ringing doorbells and saying "trick or treat" without any prompting. he got lots of comments on his cool suit.

in light of the name of this blog...

2009-10-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Luke
*always eats all of his yogurt
*randomly says "i love you" for no particularly obvious reasons
*Eskimo kisser
*always has to wear socks; never barefoot
*has very expressive eyebrows
*cannot be parted from "shirt"
*asks you to sing "slippery fish" when you least expect it

Shannon
*dances, no matter the music
*follows me anywhere- even into the closet
*has itsy bitsy feet
*blows kisses and gives extra snugs
*always offers you a bite
*likes trying on hats
*points to things to share with you how marvelous each one is

The Husband
*wears three outfits. ever.
*you say "comb," he says "my black hat"
*has wicked dance moves he stole from the numa numa kid, and tunac tunac
*thinks eating is a "contact sport" if you're at taco bell
*claims to be a shaman
*has a BA from discovery channel, and his master's from the university of youtube
*hail all ye nerds- the king has arrived?

look what i found under the tv stand...

2009-09-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

just kidding, its a toy. but i still had trouble picking it up even after i realized it. if it was real we would have had to leave the house till justin got home from work.

three years

2009-09-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

i canNOT believe my little man is three. its bittersweet, it seems to have flown by too fast. he is such a great little guy, and changed my life so dramatically i can't even imagine life without him. every day i am reminded of how grateful i am for his life, even when he's throwing a fit and won't eat dinner, or pushing the limits as far as he can; he looks at me with those big brown eyes and i know i was born to be his mama and i will love him forever. here's a little collection of the past three years, doing very little justice to the wonderful experiences and all the love we've had. i'm totally balling as i'm doing this, so be forewarned.

at long last

2009-09-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

sorry folks. august was a bit of a trying month, comprised of much illness and exhaustion, and i found myself not getting much time for blogging. but hopefully i can get back on top of my game.

i'm adding some summer-fun photos of the kids. we didn't do any big trips this summer, but we did have some fun stay-cation activities.

swimming at auntie theresa's with some friends. shannon was a bathing beauty! luke was a little nervous about going past his knees but eventually warmed up when the nikko and tino played with him.

some cool park adventures at our favorite digs:

NOT so sleepy babies! shannon is literally this excited every night before going to sleep. its hilarious!
luke was having trouble going to bed at night, we'd hear him jumping and banging around in his bed, keeping himself and shannon awake for at least an hour after we put him down. lately i've been putting books in his bed with him, and he's quiet and goes to sleep without the circus action.

here's some sleepy babies, not in their beds but cute all the same (minus me):

zooin' it with marcus:

filling some big shoes:
i've been doing a lot of crafting lately (more on that later) and here is a crummy picture of a cute outfit i made shannon:
justin says she looks like minny mouse in it :)

we love you grandpa

2009-07-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

yesterday our family lost one of its most precious members: grandpa albert passed away in the late afternoon. he was a good man who cared so much for the people around him, and will be terribly missed by so many. luke and shannon were so lucky to have him in their lives. many people don't even get to meet their grandparents, but they spent years living with their great-great-grandparents. to me, that gift was immeasurable, and i am so grateful. at this point it feels so surreal. he was someone who had such a constant presence, it strange to think he isn't downstairs, reheating his coffee and toasting a tortilla, or digging for something in the garage, or caring for his garden, or watching his wrestling. at least we know that he is at peace and resting in God's hands. we love you grandpa albert!

pictures of home

2009-07-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

i haven't been very good about taking pictures this summer; i always seem to think of doing to when we're sitting at the breakfast table, so many of the pictures i take of the kids center around meals. hopefully i'll have more to post soon. adventures in potty training soon to come!!

my little photographer and one of his favorite subjects

a rare candid moment. luke likes to make funny faces in pictures these days.

yummy; monkeys and cheerios

almost, but not quite, crawling.

ps- many people have told me there was some trouble with trying to leave comments on this blog. i've messed with some of the setting so hopefully that's cleared up and there won't be any more trouble.

big brother, baby sister

2009-06-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

so lately the green eyed monster has been showing a bit more lately with luke. he seems more aware of the fact that shannon steals people's attention from him and he'll ham it up more, raise his voice just a bit louder, repeat himself 100 times, or literally get into your face so you focus only on him. all the same, he's been so sweet to shannon. they sleep in the same bedroom every night now (finally that transition is complete) and sometimes before they fall asleep, luke looks out the little trap door justin put in his bed that opens right above shannon's bed and sings to her, or makes her laugh. i love hearing them crack each other up in their room at night, even when it keeps them up a little bit later than i'd like. it reminds me of when my brother and i shared a room and we'd make each other laugh before falling asleep. i'm so excited to see the way luke and shannon's relationship will blossom and grow apart from justin and me.

the other day, i finished feeding shannon, and luke asked if he could have the nearly empty jar of baby food. i expected him to eat it himself, since that's what he normally does, but instead he pulled up a chair and started feeding shannon himself. he even tried signing "more" to her and was talking to her in the same tone of voice i use when i feed her. it was so sweet!

by the way, anyone who thinks that boys get into "boy things" strictly because of nurture never had a child of their own. out of no where, luke has turned into such a little boy; he's really into pretending to burb and cracks up when anyone talks about bodily functions (his favorite thing to bring up is "poop soup." don't ask me, i have no idea). really, i don't know where this is coming from. it must be in his dna.

my little artist

2009-06-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

what can i say, luke's a natural artist.

ok so there were lots of the ground and his nose too, but hey! he still got some good ones out of his photo shoot. any bids?

baby sister is figuring out how to sit up. she can pretty much do it on her own, but occasionally throws herself backwards, so pillows are still necessary.

twas the last day of playgroup...

2009-06-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

and we had so much fun. luke has come leaps and bounds from his first day, he now participates in everything, plays with other kids, loves to sing and dance and do the crafts. we're signing up again as soon as its available. hopefully budget cuts don't completely eliminate these programs, they are priceless!!! these are a few videos from today, sorry the quality isn't great. i was using my phone.

luke rode in the car while his buddy emmett pushed.

here the kids are supposed to follow the teacher's direction and run back and forth. for some reason, luke always waits until everyone else is about half way across before he takes off. i guess he likes the extra challenge.

this was during singing time. he was really getting down today.

this final video is from a couple days ago. i was trying to show what a great eater shannon's become but it ended up being more about luke's agenda. on a side note- he's been really facinated with the whole baby food situation. he's started wanting me to spoon feed him his meals, than after shannon eats her jar of food, he likes to use her spoon to scrape out whatever's left. just a touch of jealousy perhaps? i don't mind if he eats it, its just pureed veggies and fruits, its just so funny that he's gotten so into it. he didn't care for baby food when i was trying to feed it to him as a baby, but as a 2 years old...?

daddy's are good for lots of things

2009-05-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

including making really cool beds for big boys to sleep in. we needed to make the crib available for a rapidly growing little sister, (who still slept in the closet in our room in her bassinet) and wanted to give luke a cool space of his own. here is the result.

this picture doesn't really do justice to the awesomeness of the bed that justin made luke, but the room is very small and it was hard to get a good shot. the first evening justin was working on this project, luke was so excited he could hardly contain himself. he kept running back and forth between me, justin, and gina, telling us each in turn "i lub you" at random points in the conversation. he asked us no less than a hundred times if he could sleep "up" before it was even finished. i was really concerned that we'd have to have a huge fight to get luke out of his crib, but it took no effort at all. he was thrilled to sleep in his "new bed" and slept without any trouble at all. the bed itself is really cool, justin put in all kinds of windows that open different ways, right up luke's alley.

the trickier part in this situation is getting shannon to sleep in the crib. she's a much lighter sleeper then big brother and its been challenging getting her to sleep through the night. i had her sleeping in the crib a few nights, but she got into this kick of waking up at 4 am every night for no reason and screaming like a banchy, so we put her back in the bassinet until she got out of that. i'm thinking that tonight we'll try again.

and here's some more pictures of the nuggets for your viewing pleasure.

we went to the part on a exceptionally hot day a week or two ago, and tried to enjoy ourselves but it was basically miserable.

luke loves saturday morning trips to mazetti's to get a "chochy donut."

shannon has a natural beehive do.

she's rolling all over the place now. we find her stuck under furniture sometimes.

photos

2009-05-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

i thought i'd take an opportunity to put up some recent pictures of the kids.

these two were taken at the zoo on one of those ridiculously hot days we had a couple weeks ago. luke handles the heat like a champ but shannon has a much harder time with it.

reading stories before bed...

nobody's quite as fun as daddy

he LOVES to read stories these days. he even "reads" them to himself.

she got it from her mama

2009-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

when luke was born, people right away started mentioning how much he looked like his dad. looks are notable from day one, but as luke gets older its becoming pretty apparent that he and justin have very similar personalities too. like justin, luke is reflective, observant, mechanical, mellow (with a firey temper), crazy about dinosaurs, and will watch the same movies over and over (and over) again. sometimes when i watch luke i feel like i'm looking at a clone of justin! people always give credit to justin for luke's good looks, and i've always felt like my genes must have gotten lost somewhere in there.

while i was pregnant with shannon, i was secretly kind of afraid that i would have another baby who looked exactly like justin and i wouldn't get any credit for how she'd look. it would add insult to injury if my daughter ended up looking nothing like me! (i must make a note here to point out that i think my husband is very handsome, and i'm thrilled that my son takes after him, i only mean that i'd like my kids to vaguely resemble me.) so of course i was totally excited when shannon came out looking so much like me. she seems to be getting some of my personality too, though i don't think she's nearly as difficult as a baby as i was, according to some of the horror stories i've heard.

i think you'll find the similarities pretty striking.

trial and error

2009-04-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a day of trial and error, though i feel like most of my tries ended up in errors.

first trial: i took luke (shannon in tow) to a tiny tots playgroup program over in the richmond district. we missed the first two weeks because of illness and... oversight? anyway it was the best set up i've seen in a while: first they have free play with a bunch of cars, tricycles, rockers, you name it, in this enormous gym. the parents/grandparents/gaurdians all just sit and watch for half an hour while the kids burn off steam. luke loved it; during that time he finally figured out how to pedal a tricycle for the first time. he does fine when there isn't any structure... unfortunately for him there was plenty of structure to follow.

next the teacher lead them in a couple of little "organized" games which mainly consisted of a lot of running back and forth across the gym. it was really impressive to see the teacher, a large, middle aged guy, with so much stamina and enthusiasm with these little kids. after that the kids had a simple little craft time which consisted of paper, glue, and crayons, followed by a snack. then lastly they had some music and dancing time. it was great!

except that luke was completely uninterested in anything but free time. no joke, every new task made him cry. not just whimper, full on break down and cry. he would not join in the organized games, he would watch and point and get excited and as soon as i suggested joining he'd start pouting. the art project i had to force him to join in and once he did he actually didn't mind it. the dancing: forget about it. he loves music and once in a while he'd crack a smile when he recognized the song. but join in? no way. in fact, at one point i went with him to play ring-around-the-rosie, and a little girl took his hand, he started wailing and shouting "ow ow ow." the little girl, who was probably about 4 looked at me and said "why is he crying?" "i have no idea" i said.

2 1/2 year old... i'm so ready for this too to pass. my main consolation for that behavior is that it was his first time there and hopefully he won't be so resistant next time. but i'm not holding my breath. luke is the mayor of rigidtown.

second trial: feeding shannon her first solids. i thought she'd be really interested in this since she's always grabbing at our plates and watching us eat really intently. she was just not that into the rice cereal i offered her. granted the stuff tastes like paste and is about the same consistancy (yes i did try it. no not paste, the cereal) so i can hardly blame her, but i was surprised at her lack of enthusiasm. we'll try again today.

third trial: making shannon cry it out at her regular 4 am wake up time. normally its too hard for me to let her cry, she sounds so heartbroken, so i give in after about 5 minutes and just feed her. but her pediatrician said there is no reason for her to be waking up at that point (especially since i fed her only 6 hours earlier) and that it sounds like she is just developing a comfort habbit. i suspected as much, but its so hard to just let her cry. i was resigned to try last night. she put up a major fight- she cried for nearly an hour. its so obvious she's waiting for me to come get her, she cries one loud wail, and then waits about 5-10 seconds for my response. when i don't respond she cries out one more time than waits. that went on from 4 till 5 am. but she did go back to sleep for an hour. at 6 she woke up to feed again, and this time i gave in. most likely we're going to have to go through this again for a couple of nights. her doc said it could take three or four nights to break the habit. as rough as it was to go through, its really worth it in the long run. the 4 am feedings were killing me.

starting out

2009-04-16T15:19:00.001-07:00

lately i've realized that i really regret not documenting luke's first couple of years in more detail. i don't think i realized just how fast time flies when you have little ones, and how much they can change in just a brief period of time. so i guess starting at some point is better than not doing it at all. my hope is that through this blog, people who do not see my kids very often (and even some who do) will be able to connect in some way, in the experience of raising them and enjoy watching them grow, develop, and change. i also just really enjoy writing, and don't have a lot of opportunity for it these days, so this will be a chance for me to indulge in a favorite pass time. forgive me in advanced- i've noticed that this blog doesn't really offer spell check, so it may be painful for those of you who are especially particular in that regard, sins im stil a horibl speler.
i'm starting out with some new pictures of the kids, i'm pressed for time at the moment, and i'll go back in time and add some older pictures soon.
enjoy!