Burger Beat!

We had a really fun day today!

We caught a metrolink train (only $11 round trip!) to Oceanside this morning. I've never planned a train outing before and had no idea what to expect, but everything worked out even better than planned. So lucky today! We caught the train at San Juan Capistrano, and if I didn't already live nearby, I would totally take a train there. The stop is GORGEOUS! All within walking distance there are restaurants, great shopping, the San Juan Mission, a petting zoo, a little historically-based village (don't know what else to call it?), and they even have a Starbucks. I was shocked. I'd been to 90% of those places before, but had never seen them from the train station. It all looked so adorable and quaint and classy from that station platform.

So, we got on the train, it smelled like a bathroom on the lower level, but the upstairs air was clear. The train runs along the ocean a majority of the trip. And, when I say it runs along the ocean, there was a stretch where waves were breaking barely 10 feet from the rails. My mother in law loves the ocean and it made me happy that the trip was so enjoyable for her. Jackson, a new Thomas the Train FREAK, was in heaven as well. We started walking towards the pier and ran across a little coffee shop. Abbie fell asleep as soon as we walked in and they had Sesame Street playing... could not have been better. I had a coconut hot chocolate that was decadently to-die-for. We had a fantastic pseudo-breakfast and set off towards the pier again.

To my astonishment, there was a playground on the beach. Perfect again! Jackson ran wild til he could barely walk straight. It was a beautiful day, sunny, mid-seventies. We got some cute pictures down by the water, and threw some rocks into the ocean, and amazingly, nobody got wet. The pier was forever long, but was great for people watching and bird watching and fish watching. Ruby's, at the very end of the pier, is so adorable. I got a pumpkin milkshake that really made my day. The kids weren't exactly on their best behavior... Abbie was cranky because she had to go to the bathroom, and Jackson was just plain crazy (I think I used at least a hundred napkins soaking up his messes). It turned out okay though, we all lived and enjoyed our burgers. They had a balloon animal making man walking around. We got Jack a blue monkey (that lasted about five minutes) and Abbie a pink and purple butterfly.

We walked back to the train station and got there at the perfect time... not so early that we had to wait forever, but not so late that we felt rushed. It was SHEER JOY watching Jackson's face as the train rolled past us and came to a stop. His mouth was literally hanging open as wide as it could go, and if it is possible, he was smiling at the same time. Beautiful moment! Jackson was also SO excited and just shaking with anticipation to meet "Mr Conductor" (of Thomas the Train fame) as he came around to check our tickets. We were all a bit disappointed as "Mr Conductor" turned out to be a normal looking, normal dressing guy with a nondescript name tag. Oh well, it can't all be perfect!

Everyone passed out for naps (except me, because I can't tear myself away from the computer lately) and we tried carving pumpkins after we woke up. I got mine 1/2 finished, Greg 1/4 finished before the sky started getting dark and trick or treaters started trolling the streets. We have a couple sweet neighbor girls that Jackson adores that were just starting to leave, so we threw him in his costume, gave him a granola bar and set off trick or treating. I think my current favorite thing ever is how he says trick or treat: BURGER BEAT. I love it!!! And he says it in this falsetto sing-song voice sometimes. Just adorable! He was kind of zombie-like and clumsy most of the time. I couldn't figure it out, until I picked him up and discovered he had a HUGE poopy diaper, the first and only of the day... bad news. We hurried to as many houses as we could before our 'reasonable time to wait before changing a poopy diaper' timer ran out. It's a little sad that he didn't fully enjoy the trick or treating, but at least he's only two, he didn't care.

The real fun started when we were home and the trick or treaters started coming to OUR house! We had a minor tantrum because he could. not. decide. if he wanted to eat dinner or help give out candy. I compromised, by putting his dinner on the steps, right next to the door. Every time the doorbell would ring, he would go OOOOH OOOH OOOOOOH KIDS!!! And run for the bucket of candy. He was too shy to actually give the kids candy, but was right there next to me the whole time. At one point, he refused to have the door shut, he said 'I just wait here for kids.' Practical. I managed to finish both pumpkins during this time and got them out just in time for the last two sets of trick or treaters to appreciate them. Oh well, they were worth the wait.

So, overall, a great Halloween!! Can't wait to do the train ride again. Perfect, perfect day trip for us!

Eight Months

Here's a link to her Month Eight album.

Abbie turned eight months old the day we drove up to Salt Lake City, over a week ago. I am using that as an excuse, and it is entirely valid because my parents computer is so slow, I could almost run information to a server and back faster than it travels over the internet.

Abbie did really really well on our trip. She is a content and happy little girl. Rarely complained, although she did stay awake for 10 hours on the return trip because she kept pooping at inconvenient times... she cried a bit then. She always gives strangers huge smiles, loves her grandmas and aunts, but was a little unsure about her Papa and uncles at first. She was even a bit unsure about her daddy when we got back. I guess I can't blame her, we were away from him for a whole week. (and he missed us terribly).

She is trying to crawl now. She can pop up onto her knees and rock back and forth. She'll lunge forward, but no real coordination to her movements yet. When she REALLY wants something, she can commando army crawl across the carpet at pretty impressive speeds. She's a big fan of eating paper. I find a little ball of wet, semi-dissolved paper in her mouth at least once a week. This is the problem with having a toddler in the house with a baby, lots of scraps around to pick up and put in her mouth. She doesn't love standing on her feet, but I'm trying to get her more interested. I try to set her up next to the little picnic table now and then, but she can't hold herself up yet for more than a few seconds.

She has discovered the usefulness of crying. She cried one day in her bed when she should have been napping, I ran to get her, and I could see the wonder of her new discovery register in her eyes. She's been complaining a bit more now that she knows it gets results. Oh, and how could I forget, she has her first two teeth now! This, I believe was the cause of the original fussing. She has her bottom front two teeth and is acting like more are coming.

She yells for MAMA when she really wants me, says DADA in a low growl, peeps NYNY and waves so sweetly when it's bedtime and bellows BABABABABA for no apparent reason. This always makes Jackson laugh. He says 'Abbie say BABA, Abbie so funny!' She waves hello to everyone and everything along with HUGE smiles. She's such a happy and delightful baby. I feel so lucky to have her in our lives. Maybe she'll keep the rest of us from being so grumpy all the time! :)

I DID IT!!

129.6!! One month, one day late, but at least I reached my goal of getting under 130! I've been struggling with that last pound all month. I think this horrible horrible cold finally gave me an advantage. I suspect the last pound was mostly comprised of mucus. Seriously, I know nobody wants to hear stuff like this, but I have never NEVER seen anything like what has been going on with my sinuses over this last week. It's like an alien experiment gone wrong. Poor Abbie caught it, but I hope my antibodies will help her fight it off. It is inhuman to have to produce this much snot.

Anyway... I'm excited about reaching my weight-loss goal. I am going to revel in this for a little while, then make a new goal. Maybe 125?

My Kids Make Me Laugh

I decided to do a post at the beginning of each month to recap the month prior. I figure now that Jackson's two, I don't need to do monthly updates for him anymore. But, he still does a lot of cute stuff that I want to remember. If my brain was better about retaining information, I wouldn't have to write everything down... as it is, this is what works best for me.

Here's a link to our September album.

One of my favorite moments this month was when I took Jackson on the Small World ride. He loved it, had to go again and again. The first time through, I held his hand to make sure he was comfortable, every time we went after that, as soon as we got in the boat, he'd hold out his hand for me. Last night when we got back from Disney, I emptied out the car and put everything on the kitchen table... diaper bag, half-empty water bottles contaminated by all four of us, gas station hot chocolate and coffee cups from the morning... as soon as the kids were inside I ran to go to the bathroom. When I came back, Greg's coffee cup was open on the table and there was a little bit left in the bottom. I said 'how did this cup get open? did you open it Jackson?' he gave me a sly look and said 'nooo'. I smiled and looked him in the eye and said 'did you open this cup?' He started giggling and jumping up and down and said 'yes... I drink... a little bit.' I left the room again for a second and when I came back, he had a chair pushed up to Abbie's high chair where she was eating cheerios. He was eating her snacks and wheeled around when he saw me. He said 'I ask Abbie please, she say YES!'

Our rule for playing outside is that he can play around in the cul de sac, but can't go past the manhole cover to the right, or down the path to the park on the left without asking please AND having me with him. He's always constantly testing his boundaries, trying to think of loopholes. He's started getting on his plasma car and racing down the driveway, then going down the street to the right as fast as he can, following the route Greg takes to work, yelling behind him: 'I go work, make MONEY!' When he wants to go down the path to the left, he stops at the edge of the path, waits until I see him, then yells 'MOM! I go park, PLEASE!' (complete with pleading look and signs), then he takes off down the hill. This week he's getting better at resisting the temptation, and will mostly stick to our 'play zone'. I hope we get this down before Abbie is on the move. I'm not sure how well I'll do with two kids running opposite directions.

Abbie was making me laugh so much yesterday. She is so good at reciprocating expressions and gestures, such a social little thing. I usually give her lots of kisses on her cheeks and jawline, and to get her laughing really good, I chew on her chin a little. Yesterday she was trying to do the same thing to me. Latching onto my face with all her force. I literally could not get her to let go! She started gnawing on my chin, forcing my head back. I could not stop laughing, then she started laughing, still latched onto my chin, which made me laugh even more. I had to get Greg to help me get her off! She is so cute it kills me!

My favorite thing that Jackson does now is how he identifies everything with a size, color and name. We drive down the street and he yells BIG WHITE TRUCK! LITTLE BLUE CAR! BIG YELLOW BUS! We were people watching last weekend and he was identifying people by the color of their shirt... RED GIRL! YELLOW MOM! BROWN MAN! I tensed up a bit when I saw a large manly woman in a blue shirt being wheeled towards us. Jackson was very excited to announce BIG! BLUE! MAN! And then it was time to go...

When the kids woke up this morning, Abbie had her trademark sticking-straight-up-all-over hair do. Jackson looked at her with appreciation and a little bit of envy, patting his hands lightly around the circumference of her hair, and said 'Abbie's hair GOOOOD!!' And, at breakfast, I was reminded about my favorite new thing that Abbie does. She jabbers so much that it is almost impossible to get a spoonful of cereal in that girl's mouth!!

What a Great Weekend!!

We started out with zero plans and ended up having a fabulous time this weekend! Most fun I've had in a loooong time!

Saturday morning we went with Jackson's friend to Pretend City, a children's museum in Irvine. They have a pretend grocery store (Jackson's favorite), farm, construction site, house, theater, beach, fire/police station, art stuido... and a bunch of little cars, trucks and tractors to drive around the city in. It was SO fun. I loved being able to just let him go play and not worry about him getting into trouble, making a mess or hurting himself.

Saturday night I got talked into going up to the Hollywood Bowl for The Sound of Music Sing-a-Long. 18,000 people singing along enthusiastically to one of my favorite movies of all time... Tons of people dressed up as characters from the movie (lots of nuns and curtain-dresses), and almost everyone brought picnic dinners to eat during the pre-show costume contest. Everybody cheered for Maria, hissed at the bad guys, rang bells every time a bell was mentioned, shot off 'poppers' during their first kiss. Oh, and when they sang Eidelweiss, everyone waved their cellphones high in the air. It was spectacular, wonderful, epic, brought tears to my eyes. I loved it!!! I'm putting it on my calendar for next year, and hope to get tickets early for some good seats. My mom and sisters are required attendees and everyone is invited! ;)

Sunday morning, faced with a long day of watching Greg watch football, I decided to leave the baby at home and take Jackson to Disneyland!! It gets so much easier and so much more fun each time we go. Next time I'm not even bringing a stroller (he ended up pushing it himself the whole time). We took the main street busses to fantasyland and stayed in that area the whole time. The lines were not bad at all. Didn't wait longer than 5 minutes for any ride, except for Dumbo (which always seems to be a good 20 minute wait). Went on the Carousel, Dumbo, Teacups, and Small World (three times). We also went to the petting zoo to visit the goats. Jackson fell in love with Jessie from Toy Story... he's usually hesitant about hugging the characters, but he wouldn't let go of her, then couldn't take his eyes off her ;) We had our PB&Js and water for lunch, got some ice cream and took the train back to the front gate. Most fun I've had at Disneyland EVER! I think every visit after this one (unless we have visitors), we'll just stick to one Disneyland "-land" or California Adventure area per day. Super simple and relaxing.

So...

One of the main reasons I started keeping a blog was to try to figure out what the heck is wrong with me. I guess I lead a relatively normal life, husband, kids, extended family, a few good friends, had a well-paying job, mostly clean and orderly house, nothing glaringly off-kilter... but I've always felt abnormal, like there was something wrong with me. Something that everyone noticed, and I knew they noticed, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Like I had a sign on my forehead and everyone could read it but me. Like there was a piece of the puzzle missing, I knew it was missing, but I still couldn't put it together.

I can't remember what made me think of it, but I looked up Asberger's Syndrome today. I realized I'd heard of it, but didn't really know what it was. I started reading and it was like I was reading an exact description of myself. It was like an out of body experience. It fit so perfectly, just like the missing puzzle piece. I took a few online tests, and, I'm not stupid, I know they're not for diagnostic purposes... but still, I scored off the charts.

So, there it is. I am unofficially diagnosing myself. My problems have a name. I don't know what to do with that, but at least I can fit in a category now, at least I know what is wrong with me and that I'm not the only one. Apparently there's a fine line between just being a geek and having Asberger's. If I'm just on the geek side of the line, it's still all the same to me, the description still fits me to a T.

Part of me thinks it's a bunch of malarky to pigeon hole people into disorder categories, but somehow it makes me feel better, stronger, more confident. It's a lot better than my other option, problems caused by deeply repressed childhood events... I'd prefer to think my problems are just genetic :)

Seven Months

Here's a link to her month seven album

Little miss Abbie is getting SO BIG!! She can sit and play by herself now, which is an enormous help. We went to a little kids' concert (Hullabaloo Band?) at an outdoor amphitheater this week. She LOVED it. She was jumping (with help of course) and kicking and clapping. She's such a fun little girl. Still gives everyone huge smiles, always pleasant and cheerful. She caught a cold this week too, and even while plagued with boogers and watery eyes and a cough, she is smiling through it all... a pathetic, sad little smile, but a smile nonetheless!

She's very vocal too. More so than I remember Jackson being. She has been saying 'mama' for a while and jabbers up a storm when she is in the mood to talk. I was chatting with a neighbor this week and she jumped right in, completely adult posture, facial expressions, tone, she was just missing real words. We both stopped and just stared at her. Last night she had a hard time sleeping (because of the cold) and was moaning 'mooooom, mooooom' in her sleep. It was really tugging on my heart strings. I couldn't help but get her up and cuddle with her for a while.

She is becoming a little individual. I occasionally get glimpses of what she might look like and be like when she gets older. She's so darn cute and fun! My favorite new development is that she can ride in the shopping cart now. No more baby bjorns!! Jack and Abbie just about killed me, they were so cute at Target yesterday. They have those big plastic two-seater kid-cart things under the handle... I don't know how else to explain it. Anyway, they both sat in the little seats while we were shopping. Abbie never made so much as a peep. She sat straight as an arrow the whole time. Looking around, kicking her feet, loving every minute, accepting awkward hugs from her brother. She is just a joy.

I had to buy a bunch of pajamas for her because she suddenly grew out of all the 6-9 month jammies. 12 month sized pajamas... already. Crazy. I'm finding it so much fun to buy little girl clothes. So much more fun than shopping for a boy! I love all the little dresses and girly materials and matching shirt and pant sets. They are just adorable! My favorite finds have been fuzzy pink pajamas with bunny feet and a black halloween shirt with a purple rhinestone skull.

She can feed herself snacks now and drink water from a sippy cup (most of the time). I love the gerber star-shaped fruit puffs. I had to put a door lock on the pantry to keep Jackson from eating them all. They're pretty tasty, and I think, a great alternative to plain cheerios. They're made out of fruit, how could they be bad, right? We've tried out rice, barley and oatmeal baby cereals (all are insidious mixtures of impossible-to-clean liquid cement... and STAIN clothes on top of it all), and bananas and applesauce.

We bought a bunch of peaches from Costco this morning. Planning to make them into baby food, then on to trying out the veggies. I really enjoyed making baby food for Jackson. I don't know if it is all that much better than canned baby food, but I thought it looked and tasted quite a bit better. I also felt good knowing exactly where it came from and that there wasn't anything 'extra' in it.

To sum up... adorable, happy, sweet, chatty, cuddly, enormous squishy thighs... that would be Abigail in a nutshell :)

Two Years Old!

Here are links to his birthday album and our
August album (including Hawaii vacation pictures).

I am officially declaring Jackson a speaker of the english language. During his birthday party, he spoke his first proper, unhalting, full sentence, complete with a pronoun: "I need more water." His speech has just exploded in the last couple of months. I was extremely worried that he would be behind developmentally, but I think that he has done really well. Often, he'll string 6-7 words together to get his point across. My favorite thing that he says is "Abbie, bop it (stop it)! Mine!!"

We went to disneyland on his birthday, then had a little party for him the next day. I bought a few sports-themed decorations and made a baseball cake. We bought him a little red Strider bike (one without pedals), and stars for his ceiling (he was in love with the one's at my parents' house, leftover from when we were kids). He also got so many great and thoughtful gifts from his aunts and uncles. The toy that has kept his attention the most is a Thomas the Train race track, from his little girl friend. I was surprised, I didn't think he was old enough, but he LOVES running the little trains down the track and across the floor. (And *I* love it because it has built-in storage for all the little parts!!) I'm so excited because those kinds of toys were always the ones I liked best as a kid. I am going to have to restrain myself from buying more until Christmas!

We had his 2-year well-checkup yesterday. He is completely average :) 51% for weight, 53% for height. On target for speaking, gross motor and fine motor skills. He was chatty and friendly with the doctor, which was a first (usually he is extremely shy and quiet around everyone). He even went with the nurse to get measured and weighed without me. He wasn't a huge fan of getting shots, pretty mad at me about the whole thing, but recovered quickly. Poor guy started crying again when Abbie got her flu shot though.

He is so sweet and good to his sister. He still likes to hold her, and play with her, and make her laugh. They had each other cracking up while we were waiting at the doctor's office. He'd jump off the stool, she'd laugh, he'd laugh, she'd laugh more, he'd laugh more. It was probably the best moment of my life as a 2-child parent by far! He was making me laugh on the way to the doctor's office too. I was explaining what would happen, and he would say "No, it's Abbie's turn!!" He likes talking about Abbie a lot... tells everyone what is hers, tells me all about what she is doing, and has just started saying "think Abbie's pretty!"

I wish he obeyed a little bit better. I think he's a pretty good kid, but he is continually testing his limits. The last two days, he has started running away from me when we're outside... my worst nightmare is that he'll start running away from me in a parking lot while I have Abbie on my hip. Not funny at all. He started walking away from me at the grocery store parking lot while I was buckling Abbie in the cart. The 'STOP!!' that came out of my mouth was loud and scary enough to make him freeze in his tracks. I guess he can listen when it's important enough.

We've been having some serious nap wars all month. I may have mentioned it last month. He can climb very very easily in and out of his crib. He literally can't help himself. For weeks, he would climb out as soon as my back was turned, making getting him to go to sleep a 2-3 hour ordeal of picking him up and putting him back. (I think this is why I started losing weight... no time for lunch plus 100-200 reps of lifting a 28 pound child). Some days he would finally get tired and pass out cold, other days I would have to sing him to sleep. (It is SOOOO sweet when he asks me to hold his hand and sing to him).

I think the end of the battle is near. The first step was setting a bedroom door boundary line. No leaving the room as long as it is nap- or bedtime. Second step was getting him over this uncontrollable need to climb out of his crib. Third step is re-teaching him how to put himself to sleep. The last several days, I've set up a 'bed' for myself in his closet, right next to the door. After he's tucked in and we re-charge the stars on his ceiling with a flashlight, I'm off duty and don't accept any more requests. He has been falling asleep in about 10-20 minutes, and then I leave the room.

Today he actually fell asleep AT naptime instead of hours later!! I think in a couple of days I'll move my bed outside his room, then hopefully, we'll be over this ordeal. Biggest issue remaining is that he's started getting up 1-2 times a night and stands in his doorway crying and calling for us. I don't understand it, but I sure hope this is something he grows out of.

Abbie's awake and ready to eat, Jackson should be up soon too. Time to go!

Official Birthday Weigh-in

131.0. Soooooo close!! Greg got me a surprise spa day, so maybe I can sweat off the extra 1.1 pounds in the steam room!? :)

Also, this is making me smile lots today. I spent/wasted naptime yesterday putting this together. It's all the clips of Jackson swimming in Hawaii set to his most favorite song ever, "na na hey" as he calls it. I could watch this video fifty times a day.

Girl Talk

Abbie: [smiling ear to ear, as usual]

Me: You are just delightful!

Abbie: [spits up all over the front of my shirt]