Alarm Clock Dancing

I will occasionally walk into our bedroom and the alarm clock music is playing. Paul has figured out how to make the music turn on. So he'll turn it on, dance for a moment, and walk off leaving it playing. I thought it was pretty funny. Another thing he recently figured out how to do is take off his diaper. Hence, he is always in onesies now. :)

Santa Round 2

We tried the Santa thing again at Pat's work party. There was a slight improvement, but still tears. I think what made a slight difference was this Santa gave him a candy cane. Paul's a sucker for candy. The party was at the zoo so after dinner we walked around and looked at all the lights. It was a lot of fun.

Santa

So it turns out Paul, like most kids, is afraid of Santa. When Santa entered the room Paul was decorating a cookie, but he still noticed his enterance. His eyebrows went down, his nose scrunched, and his mouth slightly opened. You could tell he was initially concerned, but was easily distracted back to the frosting. After he was done with his cookie we went to visit Santa. I think the picture speaks for itself.

'Tis The Season for Snow

Paul doesn't seem to mind the cold. I guess I didn't mind it as a child either, but the older I get the more I dislike snowy weather and being cold. I think part of this development has sprung from my lack of skiing. Oh, I miss skiing more than anything. My life dream at one time was to be a ski bum, and work as ski patrol for a resort. Who knows maybe my dream will someday still come true. I must confess, my favorite ski resort is still Grand Targhee in Wyoming. That place is heavenly.

Christmas Train

Pat loves trains and we have one that goes underneath our Christmas tree. It always seems to happen at bedtime, but Paul will ask to play with the train. He loves the train as well as staying up late. I apologize that the lighting in our apartment was very poor where we took the movie, but here is our new nightime ritual. I think it is fun that Paul gets so excited about it.

Thanksgiving

We went to Boise to celebrate Thanksgiving. My mom and I went to the Day After Sales and had a blast! I bought a pretty nice camera for about half price. I was excited to take pictures. I took about 50 pictures over the weekend. The Monday after we bought it I went to the computer to download the pics and update the blog. Only 5 out of the 50 pics were in focus. I was so disappointed! Even the movies were poor quality. On Tuesday the camera stopped working altogether. We took it back. Don't buy the Kodak ZD710.


Here is a picture of Paul. I feel like the majority of the pictures we have of Paul are him in onesies or sweats, and filthy. I assure you he does wear regular clothes and isn't always a mess. He is a mess a lot though... Anyway, this is a picture of Paul with chocolate down the front of him, the remainders of a forehead wound, and wearing Mardi Gras beads that he became very fond of while we were there. He rode a little push bike off the side of a friend's deck and scraped his face along the fence. I wish I could've gotten a picture of it a week ago. It looked pretty bad. Sorry I don't have a more interesting picture to share of him doing something cool, but this was the only picture of Paul that was in focus. So this is the one you get. :)



Here are Pat and my graham cracker creations. It is a holiday tradition. Pat's is a sleigh and mine is a tractor. I asked my sister-in-law what I was missing from my tractor and she told me a window. So I put in a window. After I put the driver in place I was informed that the driver sits inside, hence the window to look out of... My tractor happens to be the rare air conditioned model.

I HATE SPIDERS!

I don't think I can communicate in words how much a loathe spiders. The other night we were in the kitchen putting groceries away when Pat yells, "Paul NO!" I wasn't sure what Paul had done because from my angle he was standing by the footstool minding his own. He was apparently playing with a very large spider. Pat, who grew up in the south, has a little better eye for types of spiders. He thought it looked like a big dangerous spider and reacted accordingly. I took Paul and put him to bed. Paul's bedroom and the kitchen share a wall and as I was reading Paul a story I could hear Pat banging around in the kitchen. After Paul was in his crib I went to check on Pat who was crouched over a very large dead spider with a big spoon his hand. It was amusing. Pat's comment was, "I found it." The spider had disappeared when I took Paul out of the kitchen, and our mighty hunter tracked it down. It was a black widow. When Pat told me that it was a black widow I was skeptical. Sure enough a very distinct red hourglass... Luckily Paul was not bitten. My first thought was spiders that big have babies! I hate spiders!

One, Two, Three!!!

A couple weeks ago I was making cookies, and Paul was helping me (eat the dough). I was counting as I was putting scoops of ingredients in. I said, "one, two." Paul then said, "THREE!!" I did a double take. I tried it again to make sure I heard him right. On que he'd say three everytime after two. When Pat got home I couldn't wait to show him Paul's new trick! So right on que again he said, "THREE!!" Right after that Paul said, "one, two, THREE!!" Pat and I did a double take again. Did he just count to three? Sure enough, he did it a couple more times right then. "One, two, THREE!!" We are so proud! I wanted to get it on video to show on the blog, but the little stinker hasn't done it on que since.

Boo for 35mm

I am disappointed in the quality of the pictures from the 35mm. I never really payed attention to it until now. I spent quite a bit of money for a lot of pictures that weren't in focus. I am completely sold on the digital camera era. The last three posts were 35mm pictures, excluding the first one on the berry farm. I stole that one from Melissa's website. Thanks Melissa!

Halloween

Paul was a monkey for Halloween. It was fun to take him to the Trunk-or-Treat. He was more interested in the other kids and their costumes than the candy. We had a difficult time getting him to walk from trunk to trunk because he wanted to look and take it all in.
So, Paul enjoys suckers. Whenever there was an option for him to pick a sucker that's what he chose, but since I wanted candy too, I had to choose for him some of the time. Another characteristic I noticed was when there wasn't a sucker to choose from he'd pick the shiny wrappers, which always seemed to be the big, fat tootsie rolls. So we got alot of suckers and big tootsie rolls that he doesn't even like. I like them okay though.

Six Flags

Pat got free tickets to Six Flags, which is in downtown Denver. Parking was $15, and being the cheap skates that we are didn't want to pay that much. Partly because we didn't have that much cash on us. We were only going because we had free tickets, and there isn't much an 18 month kid can do there anyhow. We spent an hour trying to find cheaper parking. I am sure we spend a pretty penny just on gas. We finally decided we were going to go to REI and exchange some cash for quarters so we could use the meters. When we got back to the meters all the spots were taken, FINE. So we drive around some more and find a dog park (in the middle of downtown you say? yes.) We park at the dog park and walk to Six Flags. Once we were inside we had fun, but we didn't stay for very long because there wasn't a whole lot that Paul could do being so late in the season; not everything was open. I think Six Flags also caters to an older crowd. We'll have to get a babysitter next time. :)

Berry Farm

We went to this farm a while ago to pick produce off the vine. We thought it would be a fun thing to do with the kids. We had intentions of picking strawberries, but when we got there we heard they had raspberries! So, we picked raspberries instead. They give you little containers to hold the fruit and when you've picked all you want you go to the little shop and pay for what you picked. As you can see in the picture Paul was more interested in eating the sticks than picking raspberries. He did eat his fair share of raspberries though. I would love to have a raspberry bush in our backyard someday.

Tag, I'm IT

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking
them to read your blog.

5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO:

1. I was living with my parents; not worrying about living expenses or debt. Those were the days.
2. Telling my friends to just climb in through the window of my 1980 Subaru. Nothing worked on that old car, except the engine that wouldn’t die.
3. Spending my winters on the ski slopes. Oh, the days when my season passes were paid for…
4. Struggling to get up for zero hour (6:50am) high school classes. Practice round for parenthood.
5. Trying to get a grasp on the whole dating thing. It took a while.

5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY:

1. Clean the bathroom. After being sick, the bathroom really needed it! That was probably too much information.
2. Vacuum. Now that I am feeling better I need to catch up on the housework.
3. Take Paul on a walk. We’ve been cooped up inside for about a week. Paul really needed to get outside for an extended amount of time. We ended up walking to the park and having a picnic lunch.
4. Laundry. I feel like I am constantly doing laundry. It is like threading beads onto a string without a knot at the end. I don’t mind putting the clothes into the washer and then transferring them to the dryer, but the folding and putting on hangars is what I dislike about laundry. I’d rather clean the bathroom.
5. Pick up my pictures from Walgreens. I finally got through the 35mm roll of film! I will be able to update the blog from several weeks back!

5 SNACKS I ENJOY:

1. I am a junk food junky!
2. Peanut butter and chocolate chips. It’s cheaper than Reese’s.
3. Fruit snacks
4. Fudge bar popsicles. Those things are heavenly.
5. Fresh fruit isn’t junky, but I love it straight off the vine or tree.

5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:

1. Buy a large house.
2. Get season ski passes to several resorts.
3. Get a second car, maybe even a third.
4. Remodel my parent’s time-warped home. It is stuck in 1971.
5. Pay off Paul’s hospital bills. :) Wouldn’t it be nice to be a billionaire? I am sure I could get used to it.

5 OF MY BAD HABITS:

1. Losing keys. My mother used to have several sets made of all keys. She knew me too well.
2. Over analyzing. I think way too much about things. Replaying conversations in my head over and over, “When I said that, and then she said that, was she meaning…” I can drive myself crazy.
3. Replacing meals with snack food.
4. Procrastination. I work well under tight deadlines.
5. Watching HGTV. I think I live my life vicariously through the shows. We got the extended cable channels for ESPN during football season. I am looking forward to getting my life back in February.

5 THINGS I WILL NEVER WEAR AGAIN:

1. Glasses
2. Pink poke-a-dot shirts
3. Curled bangs
4. Gold tennis shoes. I was pretty fashionable as you could probably guess.
5. Blue or green eye shadow. I’ve had make-up consultants try to convince me otherwise. However, the answer is no.

5 OF MY FAVORITE TOYS:

1. Remote control. Could you imagine life without remote controls?
2. My stroller, because Paul loves being in it. It makes shopping and his whiny days more manageable.
3. Our car, but I think I like it so much because I never get to use it. Pat takes it to work and if I need to get somewhere I walk. I always want what I don’t have.
4. Anything that keeps Paul’s attention for an extended amount of time. Excluding: my make-up drawer, the toilet, and the linen closet.
5. Computer

5 FACTS/HABITS:

1. Reading puts me to sleep. I want to enjoy reading. I want to be able to get together with friends and discuss good books. My only problem is getting through it. I read Anne of Green Gables once. It took me over a year to finish it. By the time you’ve gotten to the end, you don’t remember the beginning. My mother used to read me stories so that I would take naps (not kidding). Thank goodness for books made into movies during the school days.
2. I still don’t have a great fashion sense, so I try to stick to solid colors. I think part of my problem is that I don’t like to spend more than $20 on a pair of pants or $8 on a shirt. So in other words, I have bad fashion sense AND I’m a cheap skate.
3. I secretly wish I was blonde haired and blue eyed. In high school I tried out blue contact lenses. I loved it!
4. I am terrified of sharks, and have this fear of being eaten by one. I do not swim in anything I can’t see the bottom of.
5. I sunburn very easily. As a child my mother used to put t-shirts under my swimsuits. It was very embarrassing when other kids would inquire about it. I stuck out like a sore thumb. As I got older I preferred to just burn. It was better than public ridicule.

MY TAGS ARE:

Mandi
Gina
Kristina
Jessica H.
Anna

Tricks, No Treats

So here is our pitiful Halloween story. On Sunday we got Paul out of his crib covered in throw-up. Pat and Paul stayed home from church. That night it felt like I had been elbowed in the eye. I couldn't sleep well and my eyelids kept sealing shut. In the morning we concluded Pink Eye. That morning Paul woke up in his crib in the same situation as the morning before. So Paul got a bath and we washed all the bed linens again. Tuesday night Pat and I weren't feeling so good. We were up all night long. He was camped out by the toilet. I was bad, but Pat was worse. After getting two hours of sleep Paul woke up and we spent most of the holiday nibbling on crackers and watching cartoons to keep Paul somewhat occupied. We did not go trick-or-treating due to nausia and splitting headaches, not to mention a highly contagiuos eye. We didn't even carve our pumpkin. Halloween night the Pink Eye traveled to the other eye. It is a good thing our camera is out of commission because any pictures taken within the last week wouldn't be pretty.

My Character is...

Take the Quiz here!

My friend had this on her blog so I took the quiz. I am most like Elizabeth Bennet's character. I was unfamiliar with Elizabeth Bennet, mostly because I have not been a fan of Jane Austen's work in the past. So I borrowed the movie Pride and Prejudice from a friend of mine and watched it, along with a couple other of Jane Austen's movies. They are slowly growing on me.

Picking Apples

My mom and I also canned pie apples. Paul was a great help picking the apples. I think he took more apples out of the bucket than he put in. That apple tree produces so many apples my mom's life seems to revolve around it. She ends up harvesting (eating, drying, pies, giving away) through February and then has to turn around and start spraying the tree again in April. I always try to help her with them when I am in town during the fall. My poor mom is so sick of apples.

Leukemia/Lymphoma Walk

Our camera is out of commission, so I decided to post more pictures of our Boise trip. My mom and I went and did a night walk for Leukemia and Lymphoma. It was a lot of fun. They gave out balloons that lit up. That was Paul's favorite part. He went through so many balloons, but he didn't seem to mind too much he'd continue to drag around the popped balloons anyway.

Gutter Ball

More Gutter

I went to Boise while Pat was on a business trip. It was nice to break up the routine, and nothing does that better than vacation. Paul loved the yard part of the trip the most. It was so nice to be able to put on shoes and just go play outside. He jumped on the trampoline, picked apples off the tree, ate some dirt, and drank out of the gutter. It's amazing how much fun you can have in a puddle of water.

Word of the Day: Resilient

We had a little scare a few days ago at the park. Paul fell on the cement curb egde. He had an instant goose egg right between his eyes. The goose egg was so big it changed the shape of his eyes and he looked like a different kid. It has since gone down some. About 5 to 10 minutes after it happened he fell asleep. I started to worry and tried to wake him up. He was lethargic and hard to wake. After about 5 minutes I was able to wake him. In the meantime a friend I was with was trying to get ahold of a physician. When he did wake up he was his usual self, and has been acting normal since. It was scary though. I assume he had a very mild concussion. Here are some aftermath pictures for your enjoyment.

Every Kid Loves the Zoo

We went to The Denver Zoo and had a great time. We went late in the afternoon until they closed. The weather was cool, and we had the place to ourselves. It seemed as though the animals were more active later in the day as well. Paul and I went with Heather and Tommy, one of his best friends. They had a staring contest with the Komodo Dragon. The Dragon won.

Paul's Favorite Place to Play

Paul loves to play underneath the BBQ Grill on our deck. However, he keeps ruining clothes. The grease is even hard to get off his skin. He loves it outside, but everytime I let him out on the deck he goes straight for the greasy grill. It's hard to get mad when he's having so much fun though.

Paul's 1 Year Portraits

Labor Day Campout

We went camping over Labor Day with a number of friends. We went back to the Scout Camp, but we had the entire place to ourselves. It was nice to have a good experience there. Paul was in his element. He loved it! We thought we would have running water, but we didn't. So, Pat and I were under prepared with drinking water. We had whole milk for Paul... not my personal favorite. Paul (our little wiggle worm) slept with me. He slept, I didn't. We forgot our camera, but we had a great time. We made a couple of zip lines that were fun. Paul cried the entire way down. It was pretty funny. We also went canoeing and paddle boating, which was my favorite part. We had water fights and got soaked. It felt so good in that hot sun. Thanks for a good time everyone!

Our Little Climber

Paul has been climbing on everything lately. I can't keep him grounded. It all started with figuring out how to get up on the dining chairs. From the dining chairs to the table. I couldn't get mad at him on the table because I have seen countless baby pictures of myself on my mother's dining table. I was amazed when I watched him climb up into his highchair from a chair to the highchair tray to the seat. He also has been climbing up onto the toilet, and has figured out that he can get into the tub from the toilet. Yesterday I was putting laundry away and when I came back to the laundry room Paul was in the dryer. I think I am going to try to find a monkey costume for Halloween.

Trip to Boise

After camp we went on vacation to unwind. It was a lot of fun spending time with family, and it always seems when it's time to go back to Denver that we just need a few more days to do everything we wanted. While we were in Boise we went on a luxury campout. We parked the motorhome with electrical hook-ups at the airport in Council, ID. My dad had his plane there, and we just sat around and enjoyed good conversation. We also enjoyed the entertainment from Paul. He played for hours in a bucket of water, and he was caught taste testing Bailey's dog bone.

Our Camp Album

Paul Talking on the Phone

This is Paul in the camp office playing phone with a wall plug. The pile of binders he is sitting on is evidence of him helping Susan reorganize the office.

Paul's First Popsicle

It was a hot day at camp and popsicles seemed to be doing the trick. Paul ended up with a popsicle fetish by the end of camp.

Pikes Peak

This was an adventure! The drive up to the peak was insane! I honestly don't know how that park gets away with not having guardrails. Once we were on the top the view was incredible, but all I could think about was the drive back down. Our breaks overheated on the way down so we stopped by some rocks and Paul played. If anyone is planning on going in the future I recommend riding the train.

Castlewood Canyon

It was the perfect afternoon away from camp. We hiked along the Cherry Creek River through this beautiful canyon. We rested on the shore where Paul played in the sand and picked flowers. It was really fun despite forgetting our baby backpack.

Paul's 1st Birthday!

We were at Boy Scout Summer Camp for a couple months this summer. Paul's birthday was June 19th while we were at camp. Paul was leery of the cake after he burnt his finger on the candle. He did eventually make a mess though. We got him a castle play gym with a slide that he loves!

Memorial Day Picnic

On Memorial Day we got together with several friends and relatives. My parents were in town for my brother Scott's Graduation. Grandpa hepled Paul drink some Rootbeer, but most of it ended up on the front of him.

Fun with Licorice

Before and After