Kai had a blast at his school field trip. I was anxious the whole time he was gone. The great thing about it was that the camp leaders emailed the parents every evening with updates as well as a password protected photo site. It looked like they all had a blast and learned a lot. Kai came home with a video montage of their trip as well. It was surprising to see Kai be so 'active' with his peers. He was goofing off and waving at the camera, dancing around because it was so cold up in the mountains (30 degree nights), and in group pictures he was always front and center. It's nice to see that his peers enjoy him as a person, I think that is where he found the confidence to run for student council President.
Kai's gone again. He left this morning to DC with my stepdad. They'll be touring museums, seeing national monuments and catching the Redskins/Colts game on Sunday. My stepdad was SO excited for their trip, he's been planning it for them for a few months. When Jewel turns 10, he is taking her on a trip as well. Right now, she chose to go to New York.
The kids got their progress reports a week ago. Kai got straight A's with 100% percents except one 96% in social studies. Jewel got 3 A's and one B. I am very proud of them both.
Jewel's hip hop classes are going well. She's very much growing into a 'girl'. I noticed that she's never taken interest in dolls. She will play with baby dolls every once in awhile (Jake LOVES to play baby dolls). She has never desired Bratz or Barbie dolls. She does have quite a few Barbies that she plays with from time to time, but she will quickly get distracted with their clothing, stop playing with the dolls and start drawing outfits and dreaming up ways she can make these outfits. Jewel and I butt heads a lot, B laughs and says its because we are so much alike. I don't see how we are alike at all, but sometimes it takes someone outside looking in, to show you. Jewel is loving, and she always shows how much she loves me. It's amazing, the moments that you know your child thinks the world of you. Jewel expresses this a lot, and it's one of the best feelings in the world.
Jewel is a bit more 'scatterbrained' than Kai. She easily forgets where she put something, or if she's told to do something, she will forge to do it 5 minutes later. This applies to her schoolwork as well. Her teacher says that she manages to finish her work, but with constant reminding on what needs to be done. She is exactly like my sister. Kai, on the other hand, stays up late doing schoolwork on weekends, and he is very organized.
Jake is definitely the humorous one. He says things that make us laugh constantly, and daily. His carefree, easygoing personality mirrors his Dad's, but he also has a temper like myself. His t-ball is keeping him active. Recently on Twitter, someone made a fake account and tweeted to me that Jake was fat, and maybe I should lay off the cupcakes. It was pretty harsh, but it didn't affect me. Jake IS an enormous child. Hovering at 60 lbs at 3 years old. But he's also tall. He has always been a big child, as Kai is. His percentiles are in the 90's at his checkups. His pediatrician has never mentioned his size in a negative way, only with comments like, "He's still a big boy!". I actually felt bad for the person who had to stoop so low in their life. Targeting a child to get to ME? People are strange.
Jake can recognize the letters, numbers up to 20 (and various numbers up to 100-I blame his love for racing and Nascar, with the car #'s) and can read various words. I definitely want him to start reading more but at his age I don't want to push him. He is interested one day but totally not wanting to do anything the next day.
I am actually a little sad to admit that we are not co-sleeping anymore. He has a full sized captain's bed that he prefers to be on. There are no remnants of his babyhood anymore since we are not co-sleeping, except for when he is fast asleep. The sweet chubby cheeks and full lips look exactly how they looked when he was a baby.
Being a parent is amazing. Have I mentioned that?
Billy broke his thumb while racing. His teammate accidentally crashed into his car and he somehow broke his thumb in two places. This has halted our home improvement progress, but I'm not worried about it. Ideally, I wanted to finish the hardwood in our living room before Katie's bridal shower, but I'd rather his thumb heal quickly and properly.
Life has been, and I feel like always will be, BUSY.
- Planning the bridal shower and friends thanksgiving dinner at my home in the same weekend
- planning a Halloween party at my Dad's with a bunch of friends
- PTA meetings as well because the school's Fall Festival is in a few weeks.
- Meeting about the Autism Walk, then the actual walk itself
- JDRF (juvenile diabetes walk) that I'm doing with friends.
- my birthday and going to Disneyland that weekend
- booking a hotel room for our trip to Lake Havasu for Kai's baseball tournament (the same weekend as the autism walk
- Thanksgiving at my house (we do all the cooking) and I haven't even THOUGHT about Christmas.
- I'm supposed to squeeze in a day of volunteering at the American Cancer Society as well, this is a high priority for me.
- I have a few photo shoots this weekend, and of course, I don't charge because I will never consider myself a professional. It's just something I like to do.
Work has kept me busy. The days still fly by, but I'm enjoying what I do.
Baseball is still kicking my butt. Kai had games 3 times this week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The team is currently playing in two tournaments. Luckily, one tournament has finished except for playoffs, which of course his team is in. Playoffs start next weekend but in the meantime, they are still in another tournament.
My stepmom is moving out next weekend. My Dad went with her to choose an apartment to live in, which is really close to where he lives. They are civil and are getting along extremely well considering they are in the middle of a separation/divorce. They have both realized that they get along better as friends. My stepmom wants to maintain a relationship with everyone, and out of respect for her and my Dad, we are acting as if nothing has changed. Ultimately, what happened in their relationship is between them anyway.
My Dad just got back from Hawaii so I've been munching on all the goodies that he brought back for us. He's also been coming to every game of Kai's, and Jake's when he isn't working. It's been nice spending so much time with him.
Nothing to report about Dad's skin cancer.
..and now, the ickies:
- my truck broke. The temp gauges went all whacko one day last week, on my way to get cupcakes. I pulled over and B came and loaded the truck up on the trailer. We got home, opened the hood and realized that the sensor went bad (that was my guess) but also the intake had a piece missing. B along with our neighbor, took it all apart and changed everything. New head gasket, new coil packs, new intake, sensor. So basically, my truck has a brand new engine in it. Sweet. Of course, it'll take all day tomorrow or Sunday, to get it all back together, but we've definitely saved on labor and any other headaches, at least for awhile. Been driving the minivan that my Inlaws and our family shares. It's so much easier to load the kids in it.
- some of the parents on Kai's team are embarrassing. They are very opinionated when it comes to calls that the umpires are making. Usually, the umps block it out (its part of the job), but one game this past week was at Big League Dreams park. It's a park with a series of fields that are mini replicas of real MLB ball fields, complete with beer. Beer may be the factor, who knows, but the umpire got mouthy with a Mom on our team about her opinions she was yelling out ("What the hell was that!?", etc) so he ejected her. She had to watch the remainder of the game from inside the restaurant/bar. I was embarrassed. Some of the parents were still heckling after that, and some were relieved to see her leave. I can't side with either the Mom nor the umpire because I didn't hear all what she said, but I do know it is unprofessional of the ump as far as the way he went approached it-he should have asked the coach to control his parents (the ironic thing was that it was the Coach's wife who got ejected). It was also very unsportsman-like for the Mom to say and act like she did. It was not a good example to show the boys.
Haven't been taking many photos of the kids lately, they truly loathe the camera and cringe every time they see me break out the camera bag. The trick to getting these? take them somewhere fun so they have smiles on their faces and don't mind being posed =)
These are from when we drove to Washington, Utah to Staheli Family Farm. This was our first year going, but we are definitely going back.
My sister, sister in law, stepmom (I'll always call her that even after the divorce), and a family friend, his girlfriend and his niece made the 2 hour trip with us. It was so much fun!
20 feet high on hay
Not too many taken in the corn maze, it was pitch black and long. LOL
Lovin' on the farm animals
Me and B
Us, October 2010
