Tongues and Talking

Some more baby Q for your enjoyment. Notice the hilarious tongue action.

PS It is better quality on youtube with the HD setting.

Christmas 2010

I don't have any pictures from Christmas, amazingly. We had a fabulous time regardless. It was very relaxing and the kids all enjoyed their gifts this year. We made a very conscious effort to get toys we knew would be enjoyed and didn't just stock up on gifts to fill the queue. Both Brother B and Loofa got their first airsoft guns. I did have to return the original ones since they turned out to be crap. I'm excited for them to learn gun safety with something a little less dangerous. Fefe got the Fisher Price doll house. It takes up a lot of space, but is much enjoyed. Ephant got a stereo/alarm clock for her ipod. J bought me a black pea coat. He was nervous to pick it out on his own, but he did a great job. I feel so stylish at church now. I'm tempted to wear it everywhere. It's really soft wool too, not scratchy at all.

Christmas dinner at Aunt J's was great. Not too many kids there so it was pretty low key. The kids enjoyed trying out James' new kinect. We might have to get that at some point. Maybe next Christmas... Our present from Corey Grandparents was really fun too. They bought us an HD Flip camcorder so now we have an ultraportable camcorder. I'm sure it'll get tons of use. Morgan Grandparents treated us to a Christmas movie (Tron) and Christmas Bowling. I'm so out of practice! It was a tad embarrassing. Definitely need to go bowling more. The kids loved it though. Loofa was excited to put all his Wii bowling into real use. Ephant and Brother B enjoyed learning to bowl with just their own two hands. Fefe just liked to cheer everyone on and blow her hair in the hand dryer.

You can visit my youtube channel later to see our Christmas Interviews. My dad had a tradition of interviewing us each Christmas to talk about our year and we finally implemented it this year. It is pretty long, so definitely not for the faint of heart.

A Schmattering

At the beginning of December, our friends from church invited us to stay with them at their timeshare near Bend, Oregon. It was loads of fun, mostly because they're our kind of people! On Saturday we drove down to Bend to watch the Bend Christmas Parade. The kids kept refusing to move around so their feet got pretty cold about halfway through. Loofa was reduced to tears and too stubborn to do anything about it. It was pretty dang cold. Some evangelical church had a table with hot cocoa and a pitch. We welcomed the hot cocoa at least.

This was my favorite part of the parade:

Some random pics from December:

The kids just can't resist bothering sleeping parents.

Yet another choice outfit. All thanks to Ephant's dance classes.

You need to look at this pic up close to truly appreciate it.

This video is a little long, but I couldn't bear to trim any of it.

Let the Countdown Begin Again

My desire to blog is definitely starting to wane. I'm going to force myself though because this is about it as far as journaling goes and I know some family members actually like to see updates.

So, for your viewing/reading pleasure, what follows is the tale of a boy who has waited for his birthday, so long... ONE WHOLE YEAR!

Loofa turned six so he was allowed to have his first birthday party. I gave him the choice of going to a party place and just inviting 2 friends or staying home and inviting six. He chose to stay at home. Surprised me because I didn't know he had six friends. He invited 3 friends from school and 3 from church. None of the friends from school showed up.

We didn't have much of a theme to the party, mostly due to my own laziness. He wanted it to be a Wii party so after the scheduled stuff he just played wii with his friends. We had a craft, piñata, a game and a treat. Pretty simple, my kind of party.

Two days later was the family party. I broke down and bought him yet another scooter. He's not allowed to take this one to the park, so maybe if we're lucky it won't be stolen anytime soon. I also decorated the heck out of it with my cricut. Should make it easily recognizable from far away. Plus I used outdoor vinyl so it won't be easy to remove. Loofa also got another Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy II. Probably his favorite present since he's been dying for it since it was released. He's definitely put plenty of time into it.

He's already counting down to his next birthday. I keep waiting for him to grow out of this, but it seems here to stay. The boy loves his birthday.

When Wild Animals Attack

We've had another couple strays hanging around our house again. I finally decided to take one of them to the shelter. He's more tame than the feral ones I took in last time so I thought it would be a piece of cake. He lets us pet him and even pick him up although he is a tad skittish. So I picked him up, took him in the house and petted him for a few minutes. As soon as I tried to stick him in the cage, he freaked! I tried harder, but then he bit my arm and scratched me up good.

It hurt like the dickens! I must admit I let out one choice swear word. I took a shower right afterwards to disinfect. I wasn't sure if I needed antibiotics so I called the nurse to see what she thought. Turns out she was totally clueless. She said it was up to me. I called my cousin, who is a PA and she said she always prescribes antibiotics. I did some research and the internet doctor said 80% of cat puncture wounds get infected. So, I set myself an appt that afternoon. My doctor cleaned it and gave me a prescription for doxycycline. It continued to hurt pretty bad for the next two days. I could barely use my arm the first day. I finally devised a sling the next day since it hurt more just letting it hang there.

The doxycycline was a pain. I couldn't drink milk 2 hours before or after and it was twice a day dosing. That's 8 hours a day that I couldn't drink milk. It about killed me. 10 days of torture. I rejoiced when I finished.

I borrowed a trap from a lady here in town, but the cat was very wily and never triggered the pressure plate. We did catch some other cats, including Rush, but they learned eventually too how to not trigger it. I found another trap online that is supposed to work better for cats that I might buy.

Sunday, Brother B discovered a big old wound on Glen's leg. Poor kitty had been bit too. At its stage of development he must have had that abscess for awhile. I took him into the vet Monday afternoon. They cleaned it out and now he gets an antibiotic twice a day for 10 days too. I have to squeeze neosporin right into the hole too. It's pretty gross. I'm making him stay inside till I'm able to catch that cat. He's not super happy about it, but I feel better having him inside. I bought one of those automatic litter boxes too. It's pretty cool. It's nice that I can keep it in my bathroom and not have it stink.

Birthoween

I declare copyright on that title, no one else can use it.

Halloween began with a trunk or treat at the church. It was a hectic day after two soccer games and two award parties, but we made it. Brother B and Loofa were skeletons. We bought the face paint last minute, but it really made the costume. J is quite the artist. Loofa didn't want any on his face though. Ephant wanted to be a pigmy, but her costume didn't come together quite as well as we hoped. Fefe was a princess at trunk or treat, but when we went trick or treating the next night we put her in the Tigger costume. Ordinarily she loves being a princess, but for some reason she didn't care for this dress and she LOVED the Tigger costume. In fact she kept wearing it over and over for the next several days. Money well spent.

A bit blurry, but this is the only picture I have of them all together.

The master at work.

The whiskers really make the costume.

He's really working it.

The loot for his birthday.

Brother B told me a few days before his birthday he wasn't as excited as he used to be in years past. It was pretty cute that he recognized that. It didn't stop him from noticing each and every toy advertisement on television. He gave me quite the detailed list to pick from. To be honest, I was grateful. There is nothing I hate worse than trying to figure out the perfect present. I think we were mostly successful. He's played the most with his nerf swords and he wears his robe around before bed every night and in the morning when he gets up. I really should have taken a pic of him in it. It is truly masterpiece theater quality.

I'm starting to notice a trend with how much monkey bread I'm making for birthdays.

We sure love our Brother B. He's such a sweet, polite boy and we couldn't ask for a better kid. Now if I could just get him to eat his fruits and veggies.

Goooaal!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great soccer season this fall. It was Brother B's third year and Loofa's first year. Both of them were amazing and essential to their teams (as we found out after they missed two games due to our vacation). Brother B was very good at focusing his attention and going after the ball. Loofa was very aggressive, whereas most of the other kids on his team seemed too intimidated to really get up close. I think the soccer camps I had him take the last couple of summers really helped. Most of all, they both had fun.

I took this video with my iphone so not the best quality. That is him making the goal at the end. I tried to take the audio out of this one, but if I messed up and it comes through I apologize for my yelling. It was very exciting.

Again, not the best quality. Brother B's soccer award this year was a giant cookie. Nice.

Share the Love in Philly

We met my sister, Marv, at the Fairfield Inn by the airport. They didn't have a hot tub, but the pool was almost as warm. They had hot cocoa too! The kids enjoyed having their cousins around again.

The next day was Sunday, but we decided to spent it worshiping our founding fathers at Independence Hall.

Killing time playing the DS and hugging sisters.

A random cute baby boy who happens to be my nephew.

The Liberty Bell. Felt like a line at Disneyland trying to get a pic.

Marv left with her family after a late lunch. (I had to eat a salad, I couldn't stand one more burger at this point.) We were sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Too much girlie love.

We started walking up to the Poe house after goodbye. Halfway there we turned around to get our car. It wasn't that crowded for parking and the walk there was a little ghettoish. We didn't end up making it there afterall, we got sidetracked into the Benjamin Franklin museum. Fefe had a nice nap in her stroller (as she did most days).

One of the exhibits at the Franklin House let you dial a historical figure to hear what they had to say about Benjamin Franklin. The kids were entranced by the rotary dials some of them had.

After days and days of fast food, we decided enough was enough and went to Denny's for dinner. Food had never tasted so good. I love Denny's. The kids appreciated it too.

A bowl of blood (aka raspberry syrup)

Our flight the next day wasn't supposed to leave until 6pm so we had some time to kill. We found the Franklin Institute. It looked fun and with my Happy Hollow membership we had reciprocity and we got in free. The kids had put up with a lot of history and museums so they deserved a little fun.

This machine measured how much blood was in your body by weight.

Ephant has really enjoyed how many references she's seen about the Franklin Institute, including the 39 Clues. We are really hoping that the kids will enjoy history so much more for being able to picture the locations and have a personal connection to it.

Dropping off our rental car went really smooth. So smooth in fact that we had 2 1/2 hours to sit in the airport and wait. J and I were exhausted, but we found a play place to entertain the kids while we sat and vegged. That flight was on time, but our connecting flight in Denver was almost an hour late. Fefe slept most of the flight. Ephant slept a bit. Brother B didn't sleep great, but he put up with it. Loofa was so distraught towards the end because he was so tired and couldn't sleep. He was just sobbing. I felt so bad for him. Our flight got in about midnight and we got home around 1am.

We were very happy to get home safe and sound with everything intact (and no dead cats).

New York, New York

I've had this desire to see New York for years. I've seen almost every other place in this country, but never the northeast. I just wanted to be able to picture what the place was like.

Our hotel was in Jersey City conveniently located right next to PATH train to NY. We were starving so we walked over to the mall for dinner, also conveniently located next to the hotel. We had our one and only celebrity siting there. After dinner, J noticed a man getting a lot of attention and recognized him as a Joe Jackson.

After dinner we took the kids into the pool/hot tub at the hotel. I wish we had remembered Loofa's arm floaties. Fefe had to learn she wasn't invincible. In the past she has pretty much always had some kind of flotation device. While we were sitting in the hottub, she insisted on jumping and running around without me holding her. I decided there was only one way for her to learn so I just let her go for it. She predictably jumped in and I fished her out. She seemed a little wiser after that. I need to get her into swimming lessons.

We woke up early so we would have sufficient time to navigate the subway system. We had 11am tickets for the statue of liberty. They only allow 240 people up to the crown each day. I had bought our tickets several months in advance. It was fun feeling like we had all access passes. We were able to pass everyone in the will call line. Of course there was the old security screening process. J stayed down on the pedestal with Loofa and Fefe because they were too small to climb to the crown. Those stairs were intense. It was a spiral staircase that just went up and up.

Inside the crown.

A very windy pedestal.

That's a big foot.

The things kids come up with.

We jumped back on the ferry right when we got down and ate our lunch there. Our next stop was the Museum of National History. One of my favorite book series, starting with Relic is mostly based in that museum. The kids were intrigued by the Night at the Museum aspect. We got in pretty cheaply. They had a suggested price, but apparently you could make your own offer. I told them I'd pay $10/adult and $4/kid, meaning $36. I thought that was a steal compared to the $70 they suggested. Later I realized she misunderstood me and charged us $14 total. Nice!

We didn't get a whole ton of pics inside because the lighting was atrocious.

The fabled jackelope. Oh wait, maybe not.

Watch out for the horns.

Never thought I'd get a chance to see the Star of India. Beautiful.

Dum dum.

The kids were tired and hungry by the time we finished the museum. We had one more stop before dinner, Times Square! That was hilarious. We arrived after some slight troubles figuring out which direction was north. All those tall buildings make it impossible to see the sun. When we got there I thought we were facing the famous ball drop billboard, but realized after taking our first picture that it was the wrong one. Oops. So we turned around and took another. By that point, the kids grumpiness was on overdrive.

Our final stop for the night was Gray's Papaya, another dream of mine. When I was pregnant with Fefe and feeling so morning sick I was watching a show on Food Network about the 10 most famous hot dog places in the country. It actually looked appetizing to me so it made a big impression, particularly Gray's Papaya.

While we were waiting for our food, a homeless guy came in and started begging for money. The staff behind the counter started yelling at him to leave. He came over to us and asked us. I told him no, but he wouldn't leave. He moved over to J and started on him. Then he started giving the kids fist bumps. When he got to Ephant he grabbed her hand and started to stroking. At that point I yelled at him and told him to stop and leave. He was completely unintelligible and wouldn't budge. The staff finally dragged him out. Ephant was somewhat freaked out. Boy was the food good though. They had a mango drink that was even better than the mango lassis I've had before. On our way back to the subway we saw an authentic New York protest march against the police, escorted by the police. Ironic, huh? NYPD, KKK!

Our second night in the hotel was fabulous. I stayed up late to read. Big mistake. We forgot to put a pullup on Fefe and when I climbed into bed it was sopping. We stripped everything off and managed to get comfortable. Fefe decided to wake up sobbing every hour or so after that. I stayed up till 3:30am to wash her blankie since she peed on that too. I was hoping when it was done she would calm down, but no such luck. I wish we had had ibuprofen.

We had no set schedule the next morning so we could sleep in a little. Our first destination was pizza. I had gotten a recommendation for a place in the Bronx. We took a subway from Grand Central to ride up to the Bronx. It turned into the ride from (*&%. J tried to convince me to turn around after 1 hour, but I was determined to eat at this pizza place. When we got there there was no place to sit. We were exhausted and decided to go all the way back to New York to find a place we could sit down and eat. So, what started at 11:30am ended at 3:30pm in a very subpar pizza place.

On our way back to the subway we walked by the empire state building. I had considered going up, but decided nay after seeing how much it cost just to go up. Ridiculous. I had had my fill of expenses at that point.

We took our final subway ride back to New Jersey and got into our car to drive down to Philadelphia. It cost $4 just to drive over one bridge. Bleh. The cost alone was making me homesick, but we still had a couple more days to spend in Philly.

A Sidetrip Through Pennsylvania

Thursday morning we headed up to New York City. On the way, J wanted to see the place his family lived for a year in Pennsylvania. It wasn't exactly on the way, but close enough for it not to be a big deal. Driving there did turn out to be a bit of an expensive proposition with all the tolls we had to pay. Talk about nickel and diming. There was no where to eat along the way either. I've never seen such a dearth of fast food restaurants. We stopped one place to get gas and just bought the kids some drinks and pretzels. The lady at the checkout was wondering how we could afford to have 4 kids. I understand how she feels with how much everything cost out there.

We managed to find our destination easily (thanks again to my iphone). J's dad went to Lehigh University for a year so the whole family came with and lived in the student family housing (all 8 of them). And you thought your housing situation was bad! Can you believe the name of the road?

J took the kids for a tromp through the woods while I took Fefe to find a bathroom. He really enjoyed his trip through memory lane.

Pennsylvania was gorgeous, particularly between Bethlehem and New York. Very green, rolling hills. I love how green it is out here, but it would be nice to have more deciduous trees.