First week on duty

For those who don't know, we're apartment managers for our complex here at UCLA. The gig means that we get reduced rent, a small salary and that UCLA pays our utilities. In return we do rounds in our area each week and we're on after hours phone duty 4 weeks a year and after hours fix-it duty 4 weeks a year. Typically the husband does the 4 weeks where we go out on the calls to fix stuff and the wife does the 4 weeks of phone duty. So Chris' first week was last month. It was pretty quiet for him, lockouts and sink clogs mostly, until Sun morning, when there was a huge plumbing clog and he was gone for 6 hours. Overall, we decided it was worth it.
So my first week was this week. I found it really hard to get everything done during the day in prep for being busy in the evenings, but it was mostly pretty good. Some nights were busier than others and I only had two middle of the night calls. Saturday was really, really busy but today the phone hasn't rung in 6 and a half hours. Knock on wood!!
Some of my favorite calls of the week:
On Monday within a half hour of each other I had to send our friend Travis to clean up a dead rat on a playground and a big pile of fresh, giant man sized poo under the stairs. Today I had to walk a woman through re-setting her circuit breakers. She had no idea what they were or how they worked. She was positively amazed when her electricity went back on when she flipped the switch over. Seriously? Who doesn't know that?? Then there was Mr. W. who called 4 times in one day to complain about his refrigerator that wasn't cooling and that his food was all rotting. When I asked him why he hadn't called before now (it hadn't been working in about 9 days) he said he was just hoping it would get better. Hmm. What do you say to that? :-) Another favorite was a kitchen sink clog Sat night at 11:30. After Travis had plunged it out and gotten it unclogged he called to report and said that the good news was that it was fixed and that the bad news was that it had once been fish stew! Ewh!
My next week is in November so check back then for more gems of human stupidity. :-) :-)

Jenna left out the best ones!

What I appreciate most is that the majority of what Shea says starts with "Hey ___" and that he 'really loves', not just likes, everything. For example:

"Hey dad, what's that on your shirt?"
"A squirrel."
"Hey dad, I really love your squirrel shirt!"

or my favorite:

"Hey dad, I really love your toe hair!"

Then, of course, there's his continuing obsession with mustaches and his firm belief that they come from a special store -
"Hey dad, next time you go to the mustache store, can you buy one for me? I want to wear it to church."

Recent Shea tidbits

"Mom, this is not fair at all!"
What's not fair bud?
"I don't know, I just like saying that."

While eating dinner: "Dad, this is literally warm!"

After tasting my Light Cherry Garcia: "Tastes like chicken!"

When a kid on the playground wrenched his light saber out of his hands: "Mommy, I was extremely sad."

After seeing a granola bar left on the sidewalk: "Apparently someone didn't want their granola bar."

After he & Chris came in from playing outside: "So how's it going mom?"

And he's taken to calling Clare, "Cupcake." I have no idea where he got it (she did just get new cupcake jammies) but it's adorable.

An experiment

Tonight Chris took Shea to a meeting with him and left me here alone with the phones (I'm on duty this week) and Clare. Well, Clare went to sleep just after they left and the phones weren't ringing so I thought, Heaven! I'll just sit here on this couch and do NOTHING! For an hour!! I won't grade any tasks for work, I won't make the jewelry I'm supposed to be making, I won't start the decorations for the baby shower that's here on Sat, I won't do the dishes, I'll just RELAX.

I can't do it. Absolutely could NOT just sit and enjoy the Food Network. I'm so jealous of Chris. He's a giant help around the house, but when he wants to relax, he sits down and plays Wii or watches TV without doing anything else. I'm apparently totally incapable of this anymore. I couldn't watch Iron Chef, all I could think about was the fact that at least 3 of the things I have to do tonight or tomorrow I could be doing while watching TV. LAME!! Moms, are we all like this or is it just me? Is this part of my OCD or am I just weird? I just want to be lazy! (For a few minutes at least.)

Gettin' fat!

I know it's only been 7 days since the Dr. told me Clare was too tiny and to fatten her up. Well, we definitely think she's gained weight. We swear she feels a little heftier and that her sweet little cheekies are plumper. What do you think?

Here she is today enjoying her dinner.

What can you get for $3.09?

Not a lot these days. Not a whole loaf of bread (unless it's on sale, or you're Heidi and you make your own - so good!) Not a whole gallon of gas and certainly not a lot of office supplies...
unless it's the back to school sales at Staples.
I love this time of year! I don't know what it is about free and uber cheap office supplies that thrills me, maybe it's the teacher in me, or all those years of working in an office but I can't resist! I have a huge box of unopened office supplies in the garage just waiting for someone to desperately need 11 boxes of magic markers or 8 things of Elmer's glue or 16 packages of mechanical pencils. When, oh when is Shea going to start kindergarten? :-)
This is what I got this week for the grand total of $3.09:
(8 three ring binders, 10 pocket folders, 2 pencil (aka toy) cases, 36 erasers, 12 glue sticks, 2 hole punches and 3 pencil sharpeners.)
Office supplies anyone? :-)

It's all fun and games until it's mommy's bum!

Shea's new favorite thing to do is vacuum. He liked it a lot and then I pulled the hose off and that's when he decided he was never going to do anything but vacuum! He seriously vacuumed each and every tiny sliver of Life cereal off the carpet for 25 minutes straight. Then he discovered that the hose sucks up other things. This is his face when he discovered what it does to mommy's bum as she's bending over to put clothes in the bottom drawer!
To quote him, "Come on! That's funny!!"

Vacuuming...

Vacuuming...

And more vacuuming...

First Food

She. Is. A. Fan!!
Maybe mean Dr. Bourne was onto something. :-) - Ok, he's not really mean, I just feel so bad. We definitely should have started this a while ago. She was so excited to get more in that she kept grabbing the bowl and trying to eat it. Not at all how Shea reacted. Shea was so excited to help her, he got to give her the first spoon full. What a sweet big brother. (What a mess!)

Shea's reaction at his first feeding at 6 mos. (He was less than impressed.)

Clare today, so excited! (Daddy missed all the really excited moments, so you'll just have to trust me.)
Shea's first bite:
Clare's first bite:

Eating the bowl:
Posing for this momentous moment in the life of a 6 month old. (And still eating the bowl, trying to get more.)

(I still can't believe how much they look like each other!)

Family Photos

The last family photos we had taken in a studio were when Shea was 6 months old. Chris HATES going to a portrait studio. He seriously complains, but eventually I forced him to go, it was high time to get a new family photo! See to the right for the family pic, Shea's 3 yr photo and Clare's 6 month photo. The kids were AWESOME that day, smiling like there was no tomorrow, but the photographer kept snapping photos right after the smiles so we got a few cute ones, but not as many as I was hoping for. Oh well. Here are a couple more...

Together forever!


I love this one, I only wish you could see her face a little.

Too tiny?

Seriously? She's too tiny? I know she's petite, but she's so cute - she even has a few darling little rolls! How is she too tiny? Is that possible for a girl? (This coming from the mom who can't imagine being too tiny. I wish!!) Anyway, yep, apparently I've been slowly starving my sweet little angel. I feel terrible! Today I took her to her 6 month appointment and we found out that she's only gained 2 ounces in the past 6 weeks. She only weight 12 1/2 pounds. On the charts she's actually started going down! She's in the 5th percentile for weight, 10th for height and 25th for head circumference. So now...
I have to give her a formula bottle after EVERY SINGLE feeding and we are supposed to start solids, not the normal 3 times a day, but 5! to get more calories in her. And yep, you heard it, straight from the Dr's mouth - nights? EVERY time she wakes up I'm supposed to feed her. Forget sleep training for at least 3 more months! Don't even think about letting her cry through a feeding so she'll sleep longer, nope! Feed her, feed her, feed her. I don't see a full night's sleep for a long time yet - but I do see a fat little dumpling!!

Vacation to Arizona in July??

My three brothers and their families all live in the Mesa area, so when my parents go there it's easy for us to drive out and have a little family reunion. My baby sister and her cute hubby, back in Michigan were greatly missed, but we still managed to have a good time. Although this makes the second reunion where someone arrives sick and manages to pass it to half of the rest of us (thanks Dad!) :-) I guess it's not a party until someone's puking, right? :-)
We had fun hanging out with all the cousins, playing at a cool indoor play place in Chandler and swimming in Chris & Matt's gorgeous pool. Then we drove up to a little town in NE Arizona called Pinetop. So fun!!! It was 20 degrees cooler up there and we were in a beautiful pine forest. We hiked, swam, watched the woodpeckers, squirrels, and 2 rattlesnakes! played horseshoes and spend many quality hours at the playground.

Hiking

Smores!
The highlight of Pinetop though, was the bonfire and the Smores! Yum! Yum! Yum! We found out that Shea is a big fan of fire. (Hope that's nothing I need to be worried about. :-)


Then we headed back to the valley for baby Tagg's blessing, which was beautiful. We LOVE our aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Although, thanks everyone, for ruining Clare for me. She was VERY upset upon arriving home to realize that she wasn't going to be held every second of every day any more. Poor girl! She misses her grandma & grandpa!


Thanks for letting us come play everyone! We had a blast and we love you!!!

Summer Fun

We have spent quite a bit of time at the pool/beach this summer. We've also had a lot of movie days (so mommy could get work done) and endless hours at the playgrounds with friends. We've also had daddy home with us all summer! We are so lucky. Summer rules!







Thanks Rachelle (and Elisa and Lydia), for hanging out w/ us so much and for EVERY one of these pics!! Your camera is awesome and always at the ready for me! :-)

And summer wouldn't be complete without some super messy, delicious rainbow sherbet!

Reilley's Trip

Chris' oldest sister's daughter, Reilley, came to visit for a week. We tried to squeeze in a few fun things: The little family reunion, the pool, the beach, the zoo, the playgrounds, kid paradise (a.k.a. Chuck E Cheese) etc. Thanks Reilley, we had so much fun with you!!

Siblings?

I love this pic. I went in the other day to check on them and they've both got the far arm tucked under their heads and the other stretched out towards each other. Oh my gosh!! And they look so like each other. I love these two more than I ever thought possible.

Breaking Dawn

I had to toss in my two cents here. I've been waiting a really long time for this, since when Twilight was published in early 2005, it was only the Jr High School librarians and their English teacher friends (biggest thanks ever Jen and Lisa!!!!) who were on this now ginormous bandwagon, so I'm especially happy to have it all FINALLY tied up nice and pretty for me. I really, really liked Breaking Dawn. I'm the sappy type though and for me, all the loose ends tied into a pretty package with a big bow, where everyone gets to be happy is perfect!! So it was everything I wanted and more. And tonight I listened to the live stream of the Breaking Dawn Concert at Royce Hall (Chris' bldg at UCLA!) and Stephenie didn't disappoint (again) and I really enjoyed Blue October, who I've never heard, as I'm not a huge music person and never listen to the radio. I have to admit I purchased two songs on I-Tunes when it was over and will be waiting for that My Never song next year. It was AWESOME. So, I'm sad for the days when you could walk up to Stephenie and take a pic with her and chat like you were friends, (sorry, I couldn't resist throwing this in. :-) but happy for her success. Mostly I'm just sad that I don't have another one to look forward to in a year or so -although she did say tonight that she can't imagine she's done w/ the Cullen universe (she is still working on Midnight Sun) and that Leah is especially a character she'd like to explore further - but she also mentioned something about 10 or 20 years so, I guess I won't hold my breath. :-( If you haven't finished it. Enjoy!!!

The many faces of Clare

(And all in about 30 seconds.)
Happy, gorgeous baby girl!
Ambivalent about what's going on.
Uh oh, here comes the lip!
Starting to get worked up and...
Wailing!
We're never bored with you around sweet girl!