TEA TIME!!

What a treat.. we got to go to the tea house again today. Four generations!! My grandma, my mom, myself, and Alissa. Very cool indeed. Jonathan stayed with Grandma Davis -- I learned my lesson the first time.

When I dropped Jonathan off at Grandma Davis' house a gravel truck arrived to fill their driveway.. what a surprise we got!! The driver got out of the great big dump truck and used a remote control to back it up the driveway. That's right folks, no driver.. we are talking the biggest remote control vehicle you have ever seen. Waaaay too cool. Grandpa was very impressed.. I think if he hits power ball he will probably get himself one. :)

It was cute when I came to pick up Jonathan after our tea, he started signing "bath" to grandma over and over again and pointing to the tub... soooo.. of course grandma gave him his wish. It is so great that he is able to communicate so well. It really cuts down on his frustration and mine.

Life is good.

Really.

:)

p.s. Pictures aren't downloading for some reason.. I'll post some later.

Story time..

This picture creeps me out a little.. I have a thing about clowns, does Ronald count as a clown?

So today was pretty laid back. Jonathan and I got up at 8 and I decided to let Alissa sleep in. She has been a bit sniffly the last day or so so figured she needed her sleep. She finally decided to join us at 9:30. We got dressed and fed and headed to the Salem Library for story time. If you don't know what this is let me explain. It is a large usually crowded room full of mommies, daddies, and toddlers. And Friday story time is for the younger toddler crowd. It is a half hour where a librarian leads everyone in a song or interactive activity (treasure hunt, lady's ride, row your boat, etc etc) then reads a book and alternated song/activity and book for the half hour we are there. When it is over the kids all gather round the librarian for a hand stamp and off we go. The kids and I usually hang out in the room after everyone leaves to socialize with friends. Today we stayed an extra hour to chat with Colleen and let the kids play.

I am feeling a lot more confident with my ASL and was encouraged that Colleen thinks I am ready to interpret story time. Damon (her hubby and also a terp) told me it is a great place to practice because if I interpret something wrong it's not like someone will get the wrong medication or lose the wrong kidney.. story time is a safe environment to practice interpreting. I wasn't quite ready to take the step today and sit in the terp chair (although Colleen was nudging me that direction because for the second week there was no terp available). But some day soon I will do it. I feel so blessed to be a part of such an amazing community of people and have them share their language and culture with me. I hope to pass it all on to the kiddos and I hope they appreciate it like I do. Alissa understands 80% of what we sign, but doesn't use the signs herself very often.. unless she is in the mood. Jonathan is the opposite -- could care less about talking and LOVES to sign. Maybe it's a boy thing? More physical? Who knows.

So we got home from the library and I put Jon down for a nap. Alissa and I then made sandwiches. She wanted grilled cheese and was insisting that the bread needed butter on ALL sides not just the sides we cook.. that was an interesting debate. I won. :) And after sandwiches we made these yummy Earth's Best ABC noodles for a little learning time. You see I have had a heck of a time getting Alissa interested in learning her letters -- until the magic pasta!! Hehe.. We have fun fishing out the right letters and spelling words together before eating them. In fact, she insisted we leave "Alissa, Jonathan, Daddy, Mommy" spelled out on the table - so now I have semi-hard noodles superglued to my kitchen table. Fun fun.

After our noodle adventure Ali insisted on watching the Little Mermaid because she wanted to see Ursalla the sea witch... why? This is what she insists she wants to be for halloween. Umm.. good luck to me finding that one.. I guess I will have to get creative. I already have Jon's costume.. found it at a consignment shop -- it is awesome. I will post pics after halloween.

Matt worked o/t today so had to be up at 5pm (on o/t days he leaves for work at 6pm and comes home about 8am). So I made him a yummy omelette and said farewell. Still have not heard about an interview yet for patrol.. he finished his tests and passed everything.. the wheels of the county move ever so slowly. Speaking of jail I am SOO excited!! I get to go to jail for 4 hours!! :) I am going in on a Friday night to shadow Matt at work from 11 - 3am and see how he does in action. What a neat opportunity. I found out also that when he goes to patrol I can do a ride along WITH him. Nifty.

After Matt was off to work the kids and I went to my mom's house to eat dinner and hang out. Jonathan loves her doggies. He is a big time animal lover already, but I guess all kids are. Grandma Adams gave Alissa some "Bird Food" icecream... looked good, I'm not sure why they would name it bird food.. leave it to Ben and Jerry.

After my mom's we came back home, everyone got a bath and went to bed.. and here I am!! :) I'm trying to catch up on my laundry so writing this has been a good use of my time while waiting for the washer to finish hehe.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Evergreen Aviation museum with Great-Grandma Jensen and "GG". The last picture is on the B-17 of Alissa standing next to the 50 caliber machine gun.. that was for her daddy's benefit. We got there about 1:30 and had lunch at the museum cafe. Then in was on to a tour of the planes. It was great timing for our little field trip, because in Alissa's science class today at AC Gilbert house the kids learned about flight. You know, as many times as I have seen the Spruce Goose on tv, I never really appreciated it until seeing it in person. That is the most ridiculously huge airplane I have ever seen. It was very cool to say the least. It's wing span goes from goal post to goal post on a football field. I'm glad we got to see the planes and then have Alissa do some hands on learning to help understand how they work. In class they made 6 different airplanes and Alissa got to try all of hers out off of a bridge at the playground. The kids had a blast flying their planes, and Alissa's favorite was her helicopter. Anyways.. back to the museum --

After looking at the planes we headed for the "Sea Monsters" movie at the Imax theatre. Alissa had been begging to see this since she got a bucket with an advertisement for the show on it from Jack in the Box. I didn't realize until we had bought our tickets and went to enter the theater that this was a 3d film. Cool, 3d glasses and all. What I didn't think of was what a 3D dinosaur chomping on a fish right in front of your face might be like for a 3 year old. Yikes. I thought it was cute when the show started and Ali was reaching out trying to grab the fish that seemed to be right in front of her face.. cute quickly turned to concern when she startled back into her seat when a big scary T-REX was looking into her eyes. So I spent most of the show reassuring her that it was only pretend and she couldn't really touch them and more importantly they couldn't touch her. All in all she didn't do too bad. She held on to my arm real tight and didn't seem too bothered. When the movie was over she said it was a little scary but she liked it. Then, when we were walking past the theater she asked if that was where the dinosaurs lived behind the wall... umm.. maybe the movie was a little too real. Live and learn.

When we left the museum Alissa put on her new Spiderman slippers that Great-Grandma Jensen bought for her and has been wearing them ever since. It took a lot of smooth talking to convince her that it was NOT a good idea for her to wear them to class today. Think she likes them? In fact, she is laying down for a nap now and wanted to wear just a t-shirt, undies, and her spiderman slippers. Hehe..

I realized that I blogged about some issues awhile back and never updated on them so here goes:

Remember I told you about Jonathan banging his head on things? Well, for awhile I was really concerned because this is one of the major signs of autism.. well, I brought it up to his pediatrician on his 1 yr check up and she said because he is so far advanced socially it is nothing to e concerned with and he doesn't have neurological problems. Funny thing is within a week of his appointment it stopped. No more head banging thank God.. Now he is having fun experimenting with his gag reflex.. sigh.. what next? I do remember Alissa about the same age doing the same thing.. I used to tell people she was the worlds youngest ballemic (sp?). Although luckily neither of them actually gags to the point of vomit, THAT would be a real nightmare.

Second issue was school for Alissa -- private vs public. Since then we have found a school!! I 86ed the private school idea when I researched and found that private school teacher to student ratio here in Salem is the same as public.. umm.. what would I be paying for exactly? ? So I started looking at public schools and fell in love with Rosedale Elementary. It is about 5 minutes south of where we live and has a K-5 student population on about 150. Awesome student - teacher ratio (about 8:1) and has scored very well on its report cards. I plan on interviewing teachers and sitting in on classes next year to see if I should try for an indistrict transfer. As far as preschool, I think I'm going to skip it all together and just teach her from home. I don't want to waste the last year she can be at home full time with mommy. I really don't see the benefit so phooey on it. I might change my mind next year, but for now I am happy how things are and Alissa doesn't start kindergarden until 2009 because of her January bday.

Dance Baby Dance! PART 2

For some reason the last video didn't load up correctly so you only got 4 seconds of it. Here is her whole dance. :) ENJOY!!

Dance Baby Dance!

**SEE PART 2 FOR VIDEO** I'm thinking Alissa is long overdue for dance class, although I'm not sure she needs much instruction hehe... Alissa and Jonathan both go nuts for the rollerskates song and I finally caught one of Ali's performances on video. It brings me back to when I was a kid, my mom used to sing this song to me. I think my little girl is destined for the theatre.

I love God's sense of humor -- I have a little girl who looks just like her daddy but acts more like me (sweet and innocent ;)) and a little boy who looks like me but is a little rascal like his daddy. Veeeeeery funny God, but you got my order backwards!! Ahh but I feel blessed and wouldn't have it any other way. I never experienced true joy until I experienced it through a child... what an eye opener.

So while I am waiting for this video to upload I might as well tell you the funny Ali story of the day. So Alissa and I play this little game where I say...for example.. "You eat lizard feet" and Ali would respond with her own little "You eat____" and this goes on and on with Alissa and I cracking up at our own clever little jokes. Anyways.. it's fun and I figure it helps her imagination (not that it needs help).. Reason I write about it today is she came up with one that had both of us laughing to the point of tears. I was so proud of her originality. So it went something like this: Mommy: "Alissa... you eat slugs and snails". Alissa: "Mommy... you eat KITTY FARTS!!" LOL.. I about died. Kitty farts? Gotta love kids.

THE PLAGUE.. PART 2

So I know everyone is just dying to hear about my little moth problem. Hehe.. Well.. since my last post we have only found one or two little moths and promptly turned them to squish-ka-bobs. I think my little moth nightmare is over, although I must confess I will never again look at them the same. I find myself examining the walls everwhere I go for the liitle buggers. I found a couple at the in-law's house and pointed them out. Now my poor mother-in-law is a bit freaked out and planning on cleaning out her drawers quick before it's a problem.

In other news... Jonathan got his chicken pox vaccine on the 26th of September. On October 6th he got a 102 degree fever that lasted two days with a rash at the injection site. GRRR.. I felt like a bad mommy letting him have this shot and then seeing him get so sick. I am really at a loss with this whole vaccine issue. I have friends swearing vax is the devil.. and doctors telling me its just fine. I research and just can't get any straight answer. Ordinarily the chicken pox vaccine would have been given to Jon at 18mths old, BUT I was concerned about the MMR vax so doc said "NO PROB!" he will just switch MMR and chicken pox so I can wait a bit and not need to worry about the MMR. Ooook.. now that I have gone through this with chicken pox, do I let him get the MMR at his 18 mth?!!? Any opinions would be welcome on this subject, because I am really at a loss as to what the best thing to do is.

Alissa update: Alissa got to use mommy shampoo and conditioner a couple days ago for the first time -- and since then has been going up to everyone she knows saying "FEEL MY PRETTY SOFT HAIR!!" It is too cute.

Oh! Sorry about the random thought process, but I have to tell you about the most fun I've ever had eating. Last week, I took Alissa, Jon, Bethany, and "GG" to a place in Dallas called Althea's (I think) Tea House on Jefferson St. What an experience! We had no idea what to expect, but we walk in to this old house and I swear it was like we all became characters in Gone with the Wind. The tables were set with real linen napkins (the frilly kind) and just every detail was really elegant. And maybe I have been living in a cave for too long, but I have never gone anywhere that served tea sandwiches. When they brough our lunch it was served on a tower where the bottom platter was big and had on it the tea sandwiches, middle rox was a bit smaller and had fruit and cheeses, and the top smallest plate had desserts. My favorite thing was when our tea arrived we were told we could chose our tea cups from those sitting on shelves all around the house. So we all picked the cup we wanted from a huge variety of china cups and saucers. I could go on and on.. let me just say it was great. Food was good, experience was better. Of course, it is definately not the place to bring a hungry man.. I think Matt may not have enjoyed the experience like I did.. in fact, unless your man likes to drink his drinks with his pinky finger held out this may not be the place for him. I am going to bring my mom out there this weekend. My one regret was bringing my little man.. love him to death, but not the right environment for a baby... especially one who is practicing to be the next quarterback (you would be amazed how far a strawberry can fly when hurled from his little hand).

Speaking of "GG" -- we recently replaced all of her kitchen lights and light defuser panels to brighten up her kitchen (we being Matt.. I had the bright idea, Matt got stuck with the labor). We also got rid of an old light fixture in her living room and replaced it with something more modern and brighter. It looks sooo much better now! We were concerned that she would get too gloomy her last month in Oregon before retreating to Arizona for the winter. Problem solved!!

Jonathan has a couple new signs: "Hot" (When he sees fire) and "Daddy".. last count he has 16 signs and 14 spoken words... ok, 6 spoken words that others can understand the rest I count but only I know what he is talking about. He is finally starting to get hair too! We thought it would never happen. :)

I will update again soon!

HASTA

My house has been invaded.

Of all the luck. You know, I used to think moths weren't half bad. Thought it was cute when Ali said, "Moth! Moth! Catch it mama!!" Yep. That was until they invaded my kitchen like THE PLAGUE. Let me warn all of you that if you see one tiny innocent moth on your wall -- he carries with him the power to make your life miserable. In other words: KILL IT FAST!! Here is the story:

It all began one sunny day when I was pregnant with Jonathan. The midwife we were seeing (Salem Clinic at that time before we decided we wanted to have the baby in Silverton and switched to Salem Nurse-Midwives) advised us that taking flax oil pills was good -- but buying pure flax and putting it in my food would be even better!! You see, studies show that flax oil (omego fatty acids) will boost your childs brain power if you take it while pregnant. Sounded like a good idea to us, so we went to Roths for the brain boosting flax. Well.. it was MUCH cheaper to buy the stuff bulk, so we grabbed a plastic bagged, filled her up, twisty tied it, brought it home... and promptly lost it behind our toaster and continued to take the more convenient pills. OK! Now, fast forward A YEAR. We start to notice that the one cute little "MAMMA CATCH IT CATCH IT" moth is now 10 cute little moths. Ok, no problem we think.. we just got a new security door -- the little buggers are sneaking in through the cracks attracted to the light. We moosh them (which is really messy business and sucks to get off walls btw) and think nothing of it.. until the 10 moths keep reappearing. I'll never forget the prolific comment my mom made when she came to visit one day, "Oh, you have moths.. better be careful".. thanks Mom. You didn't SAY "Better be careful because those little moths start out as NASTY WHITE WORMS and will get in to EVERYTHING you own!!" That might have gotten my attention. But I digress..

So finally I start clawing my way out of denial and realize I have a bit of a bug problem. Sooo.. I start to dig around to find out where they are coming from. Now.. my denial was not only in the fact that we had a problem.. but a big part of my denial was that moths don't begin life as moths. No folks.. those nasty white worms I mentioned above.. yes, lets call it what they REALLY are.. MAGGOTS!! *GAG*.. So anyways.. I'm digging and I see the corner of a plastic bag sticking out from behind the microwave.. HEY!! What's this?? My forgotten bag of brain-boosting flax!! (sorry Jonathan).. only now it is not a bag of flax!! Oh no no... now it is a wiggling mass of little white MAGGOTS!!!!!!! Soooooo... I of course dispose of the bag and promptly call Matt to share my woes.. he is pretty grossed out (he has had a thing about maggots since a meat incedent, but thats a story for another day). We both heave a big sigh of relief because we found the source of our little bugs -- problem solved. HA! Yet again I was soooo naive.

A couple days go by.. and I notice more moths appearing in my kitchen. Hmm.. thats odd I think. I decide to poke around some more. Apparently my little visitors are called "grain moths". They found their way into more then just my flax. They found my cereal, my pasta, my oatmeal, Matt's dark chocolate.. they found pretty much everything. That's right folks, I found little friggin nasty worms in my food. I REFUSE to think about how long they had been camping out in our stuff.. but they were there. And this realization brought on World War 3 in my house. About 5 fully loaded trash bags of "food", lots of elbow grease, moth traps, cedar balls, and countless dish washer cycles later... I think I might have won the war. I hesitate to be too confident, but if they are still there I might just have to call a professional.. or buy a new house. Would that be too extreme? :)

If you have stuck with me through all of that.. I'm sincerely sorry. But let it be a learning moment for you -- Moth's are the enemy. LOL. Keep your fly-swatters close and your dried goods sealed up tight. I NEVER want to go through this again. In fact -- I now know what I want for Christmas.. some kind of food storage containers or food saver.. or SOMETHING that seals out EVERYTHING. That's right, no more rolling up the bag of chips and setting it on the counter. I used to think other people were silly when they emptied their chips or cereal into baggies or an airtight containers -- they were the smart ones. Aaaaaaaanyways. I will update you on the moth saga, hopefully it is over. My kitchen has never been so clean. Hahaha... Good night!!!

<3