Invincible

On Wednesday afternoon, Grammy and Poppy picked up the kids at school. Miss R's class was in a different room watching fish in a larger fish tank than the already very large one in the hall. My mom said that Miss R was pressed against the glass. She really loves fish.

Jeff and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. My expectations were high (the reviews said it was one of the best HP movies); Jeff had been trying to keep his low. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one of my favorite books in the series. The movie was OK, which in essence means that I was disappointed in it. I'm not quite sure why all of the rave reviews. The character development was poor. And they changed minor things throughout the story for no apparent reason. Plus they added a scene that's not in the book, which also served no purpose. Some of the special effects were neat. I am pleased that I didn't go at midnight last night.

When we arrived at Grammy and Poppy's house, Aunt Erin was there. Henry showed her my parents' collection of DVDs. Upon looking at the case for Invincible, Henry said "Eagles!" How on earth did he know that the movie was about the Eagles? He's never seen it before. Again, the question arises: Can he read?

We had a crisis in the wardrobe department before swimming. We were out of swim diapers, but we had their swim suits. I discussed the pros and cons with my mom of them wearing real diapers under their swim suits. Erin looked at me and said, "Wow. You really are a mom. It just hit me."

Swimming went well. The water was a little cooler than the previous couple days of bath tub temperatures. Henry was in a mood. He wanted to be simultaneously in his whale floating device and outside the pool and was upset that neither he nor we knew how to make that happen. He was obviously tired. Miss R, however, was in a very good mood having taken a 1.5 hour nap upon arrival at the grandparents' house.

We had dinner. Henry wanted my baked beans instead of his chicken stew and hot dog. He ate quite a few baked beans. After dinner, Grammy gave him animal crackers in a little bag to share with Miss R. He did share a couple but seemed to relish in ownership over the baggie. Then, it was time to head home.

Is It Really Time to Go Home?

On Monday afternoon, Jeff picked up the kids at day care. He observed that Henry didn't come bounding out of his seat to greet him. He took his time getting out of his chair. In the car, Miss R was eying Henry's gold fish crackers. Apparently, he shared them with her. Her fingers and mouth were blue from a birthday cup cake that a classmate's mom had brought to share with the kids in Miss R's class.

Alison, our family specialist from A Place to Call home, came for a home inspection. It doesn't appear that Miss R's case is moving forward. We have a CFT meeting (CPS acronym for child-family team meeting) on Thursday. Alison said how cute Miss R and Henry are together. Very true.

On Tuesday, Miss R was supposed to have a bio parent visitation, but it got canceled. Carmen, Miss R's CPS caseworker, called Jeff in the morning to let him know. My parents picked up Henry and Miss R at day care in the afternoon. The teacher was reading a story. Henry was sitting in the front row. He saw my parents come into the class, but he didn't move until the story was completed. The teachers told my parents that Miss R had a very good day.

Jeff and I arrived at my parents around 6PM. We took Roger (our labrapitt) with us so that he could visit Indiana (the border collie). Apparently, they became very good friends during our vacation when Roger stayed at Grammy and Poppy's house. We went swimming. Henry and Miss R had a great time. Both learned to blow bubbles in the water the other day. Miss R was having fun doing that again. Henry was showing Grammy and Poppy how he could throw balls with both hands. The kids had chicken stew for dinner. And then we came home.

We got off to a late start this morning (Wednesday). I made the kids oatmeal and gave them fresh fruit. Henry was unimpressed. I made our last egg (single) for myself but ended up sharing it with Henry. After a few bites of egg, he appetite perked up and he was willing to try the oatmeal. The fresh strawberries and peach could have been mud as far as the kids were concerned.

I dropped Henry off at school and then took Miss R for a blood test. We aren't anticipating any problems but are just being thorough with her care. She was pretty happy in the waiting room, acting silly in fact. She was not happy when she got pricked with the needle however. She expressed her displeasure to me for the next 10 minutes. Then, it was off to school for her as well.

That's all from here. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens today. It is the first time that I haven't gone to a midnight showing of a Harry Potter movie, but I decided not to abandon Jeff and the kids last night and am patiently waiting for a 3:30PM showing this afternoon. My parents are picking up the kids again. We plan to go swimming with them after the movie.

The Pool

On Sunday morning, we took Henry and Miss R to Grammy and Poppy's house. They took long naps for Grammy. Henry slept 2 hours. Miss R slept 3 hours. In the late afternoon, Jeff and I returned to go swimming. Grammy and Poppy had bought the kids some pool toys. Henry did an excellent job throwing the balls. Henry enjoyed his blue whale floating tube. Miss R had a lot of fun. She really liked her pink dolphin floating tube. Miss R liked swimming around with Poppy. She called out for "Poppy" in the water. Her vocabulary is coming along so well. I wish that we had tracked its trajectory. With two kids these days, such thing are hard to do.

After we swam, I was in charge of getting the kids out of their suits. They didn't make it easy. Miss R was particularly head strong and wanted to run around the house in her new swimsuit.

The kids had chicken catchatorie (sp?) for dinner. My mother had made it on Friday. The kids gobbled up the rice. Henry had several pieces of chicken. Miss R didn't even try the chicken. She did, however, take a piece of my salad, sucked off the dressing, and then threw the soggy, mangled leaf across the table. She also put her feet on the table during dinner and then Henry tried to copy her.

Then we came home. Henry was sound asleep by 8:15PM. Miss R refused to sleep. I finally got her to bed around 10PM. I went to bed around midnight. She got up at 3AM and refused to sleep. I changed her diaper, got her a bottle, the works. I had to take her in the living room so that she wouldn't wake up Henry. Very frustrating. She's been a terrible sleeper since the "vacation" began, meaning that I forced to get up at least twice during the night to tend to her. I thought that this phase should have ended long ago.

This morning, I didn't want to get up b/c I was tired. Henry, who slept more than anyone, didn't want to get up either. And Miss R was a log. Jeff had to physically pick her up to wake her up. Henry was perky once up. Miss R only ate two bites of her breakfast. I got the kids to school by 8:50PM. Miss R cried but the tears dried before I left the room. Henry was upset b/c he thought I was going to leave him in Miss R's class. Once I took him to his class, he was happy to see Miss Lulu. She asked about his vacation. I asked Henry, "What did you pick at Grandpa Joe's?" "Picked raspberries!" he answered. He didn't cry at all when I left. He looked good.

On the docket today is a visit from Alison, our family specialist from A Place to Call Home. The house is a bit chaotic b/c we haven't put everything away from the trip.

In other news, I forgot to mention that Henry started calling me "Kate" on our Oregon trip. He hasn't completely replaced "Mommy" with it, but it is so weird to have my two year old son call out "Kate! Kate!" Either yesterday or the day before, I'm pretty sure that he referred to "Daddy" as "Jeff!" This is just a personal preference, but I'd rather not have our son call us by our first names. It reminds me of a scene from Some Kind of Wonderful where Eric Stoltz's character starts calling his parents by their first names at the dinner table. The father sternly says, "I'm dad. This is mom" as he points to his wife. We haven't corrected Henry b/c I'm pretty sure that would just make the first name option more appealing. Hopefully, this phase will be short-lived.

"Where's Grandpa Joe?"

On Thursday afternoon, we took the kids to Bagley Park in Hillsboro. It is a small, neighborhood park. Henry was fearless as usual on the super high slide. He decided to sleep on some of the equipment at some point. The Twins went on some slides together. They rode on a tire swing. Played on a merry-go-around (hand pushed kind). There was also a "car" to drive. We picked up a pizza on the way home. Had dinner on the deck. The kids took forever to go to sleep. Miss R was wound up. She was cute but in a super silly mood. If I hadn't been with her all day, I would have assumed someone gave her Jolt! cola. Perhaps olives make her giddy.

On Friday morning, we had breakfast. Henry and Miss R were cute in the living room. Henry gave Miss R a kiss on the cheek, which made her smile. I think that she kissed his forehead. At one point, I called my mom so that Henry could talk to her on the cell phone.

We went outside to play before packing up. Henry hit bubbles with his baseball bat. When Henry realized that Grandpa Joe had disappeared, he called out "Where's Grandpa Joe?" We went on a search through the green houses. He found Grandpa Joe tending to the plants. He thought that Grandpa Joe was "picking raspberries." The raspberry plants were in another green house. We found the plants. Miss R wanted some raspberries. I found a couple that were in picking condition and pleased to see that she actually ate them. Very rare for Miss R to eat fresh fruit.

We went back inside for a snack. The kids went down for a nap without too much commotion. Then, Jeff and I packed up our belongings and did some light cleaning. Our goal was to leave the place in as good a condition as we found it. I learned that Henry had discovered where Grandpa Joe kept cards in the living room. He played the first half of 52-card pick up with two decks and no pick up.

As we got ready to get into the cab (minivan), Miss R put out her arms for Grandpa Joe to hold her. The cab ride was warm. Miss R and Henry held hands in the car. When we got to the airport, Henry splayed on the ground as Jeff put together the car seats on the carry-on suitcases. He was very dirty when all was said and done. Miss R, by contrast, was very patient. We had a late lunch at a good deli. Henry had the opportunity to climb some things. On the airplane, Miss R was fine on the take off and fell asleep on me. Jeff kept Henry busy with books. Other than Miss R knocking over some water accidentally, the flight was rather uneventful. Henry got a little fussy, but his agitation was cured with The Sword and the Stone via my laptop. When Miss R woke up, I kept her entertained by showing her how to work the seat belts. The row behind us was empty so we sat back there together, and she practiced putting the seat belt together about 80 times. I was needed to unlatch it. We also looked out of the window and saw the Grand Canyon. All in all, the kids were as good as we could have possibly expected two toddlers to be.

We had flown to Portland on Alaska Airlines but returned on US Airways. Our car was in the terminal 2 parking lot; we arrived in terminal 4, which meant that we had to take our four suitcases, two car seats, and two kids on the shuttle bus. Somehow, we managed. Again, the kids were as good as we could have expected. When we got in the car, the kids were cranky. They didn't want to sit down, and we couldn't blame them. We kept our eyes open for a McD's with a play area but didn't see one. We figured that they were hungry again. Hungry kids = Grumpy kids. So we stopped by at the IHOP in Casa Grande. Henry got to eat pancakes for dinner. Miss R had a grilled cheese sandwich. She was irked that I tried to cut it into smaller pieces. She wanted to take control and tear the pieces herself (something that I'll keep in mind in the future).

We got back to the house after midnight. The kids were asleep.

On Saturday morning, Henry woke up happy. I think that he was pleased to be home. He hadn't said "go home" in a couple days, but I think that he missed the familiarity, although on one of the days he did say "Go home to Grandpa Joe's house" suggesting that Grandpa Joe's was becoming familiar.

I made the kids and Jeff pancakes (because one can't eat too many pancakes in a 24-hour period). Henry had almost three pancakes. They weren't huge pancakes, but he normally eats one. Maybe he is going through yet another growth spurt. We played around the house. Jeff noticed that Miss R can now turn off the lights in the living room; right before we left, she had learned to turn them off but didn't seem tall enough to turn them on. The kids had a much needed bath. I gave them a snack. We had planned to go to Grammy and Poppy's house, but the kids didn't get their naps until 1PM or so. Miss R didn't settle down until after 2:30-3PM. Jeff and Henry woke up at 5PM and found Miss R and I on the couch. Princess had cuddled into my side. I was very hungry not having eaten (I forgot to eat breakfast when I was making breakfast).

We met up with Grammy and Poppy at Swenson's. To entice Henry out of the house, I said the word "ice cream." That proved to be a motivating factor. We had a good meal. Henry ate more than he usually does for dinner. He rejected his frozen yogurt in favor of Grammy's praline sundae (I asked her to not give him the fudge sauce though; the last thing that we need to Henry on caffeinated foods).

We went over to Grammy and Poppy's house to pick up Roger. Roger missed us, but it was nice to see that he and Indiana are now good friends. They gave each other lots of kisses. We came home. Played in the living room. Henry practiced golf swing. Miss R sat by my side with her bottle. Then, it was time for bed for the kids. Jeff and I stayed up and watched a movie, which hasn't happened in a very long time.

Jeff mentioned that he thought it was good that we've given ourselves a couple days at home before jumping back to work. Today was a much needed jet lag recovery day. We should be back to normal tomorrow. Henry and Miss R are going to visit the Grammy and Poppy tomorrow. My parents say that their pool water is 90 degrees. At that temperature, I may even go swimming.

On the Farm

We woke up this morning, had breakfast, and played out and about around the nursery.

During breakfast, Henry was perturbed because I had sullied his waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. He said, "It's messy" and refused to eat them. I made him a new waffle without anything but syrup, and he ate. I remember Carolyn being one of those kids who wouldn't eat if her foods touched on the plate. I suspect that Henry is going to be the same way.

After breakfast, we went out to the nursery. We walked along the plant beds. Henry and Robin took turns on the tractor.

The Enchanted Forest and Fresh Air

On Tuesday, we noticed that the kids were in pretty good moods. Miss R had been in a pretty good mood at the zoo on Monday, and her good mood continued. Henry seemed more like himself. We left the house around noon to meet our friends Dave and BJ and their daughter Morganne at The Enchanted Forest, which is an amusement park 7 miles south of Salem. It is about an hour and a half drive. The kids fell asleep in the car.

The kids were groggy waking up. They were initially a little reserved around our friends (as they are with anyone new). But they really opened up toward the end of the excursion and had a lot of fun with Morganne. Morganne was very sweet to them. She brought them toys. A very cute frog for Henry and a super soft lamb for Miss R. Henry hugged his frog as soon as she gave it to him.





The Enchanted Forest is a theme park. It has cute models of various fairy tales (some are ripped off from Disney stories as Dave pointed out). As you get to newer areas of the park, they have changed the names of the characters (e.g., on the seven dwarfs, Smiley = Happy, Grouch = Grumpy, etc.). Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. Henry went down some slides with Jeff.





We went to the area where they have rides for little kids. Henry and Miss R were a little short for some of the rides. They'll be the perfect heights next year. Henry wanted to ride the train. Jeff, Henry, Miss R, and I road it twice. Then, when Morganne had arrived from one of the bigger rides, she road the train with Henry, Miss R, and I. But Henry cried through the ride b/c he wanted Jeff, which was sad. Clingy-mode had returned. He ate a lot of Jeff's hot dog for a late lunch. I didn't know that he liked hot dogs so much. He ate half of Jeff's hot dog at the zoo plus some of Wyatt's corn dog on Monday. He and Miss R also had some cheesy popcorn. It was the first time I've ever let Henry try popcorn. I don't know whether Miss R had had it before but she loved it.

We watched a show called "Snow White and the Seven Dorks" at the theatre. Henry and Miss R actually watched a good part of the show. They even clapped at some parts and yelled in the appropriate spots. Afterward, Miss R gave high fives to two of the cast members. We then ran into Chippy the Chipmunk. Miss R gave him a low five.

The kids really liked Geppetto's Shop, which had fun gadgets to play with and a model train to start and stop. Miss R liked a little room that had black birds singing out of a pie. She danced. We went to a water fountain show that ended up being a big hit. It helped that there was a family at the show who went crazy with clapping, which got our kids excited about clapping.

We went back to the western town to change diapers before heading out of the park, while Morganne went on the big log ride with Dave. We got side tracked in McGoon's Saloon, which was a hallway of uneven, bouncing floor boards. I think that Henry could have spent a good hour in there!


We then went to dinner in Salem at Red Robin. The kids played with crayons. They seemed to prefer throwing them to coloring with them. Henry threw one at the table next to us (oops!). The kids liked their dinners. Henry ate a lot of mac and cheese. Jeff, Henry, Miss R, and Morganne visited the arcade afterwards.



We then unfortunately had to say goodbye and head home. Beautiful Morganne was so kind to our little ones. Henry was obviously taken with her (as shown in the pictures above).

We drove through Salem on our way home. We drove by Willamette, Jeff's and my alma mater. It looks as picturesque as it did when we attended. It really was a special place to go to college. I told Henry that Willamette is where Mommy and Daddy fell in love. He repeated "fell in vuv." He pointed at some trees and said "rain forest." Apparently, in The Fox and the Hound, they refer to the forest in which the fox is released as the rain forest.

We took the back roads way home. It was beautiful. Henry said "Go home to Grandpa Joe's" a couple of times. Henry drank two bottles of milk. I think that the roads may have been a bit too windy. About 7 minutes from the house, Henry spewed the entire contents of his stomach. We had to pull off to the side of the road to do a quick clean up. The car seat took the brunt of the spew. Henry announced a little bit later that he wanted pancakes.

The kids went to bed rather late. I don't know what time it was, but it was way past their bedtime. We all slept in until about 9:40AM. I was the first one up. Then Jeff. Then the kids. We spent the day at home. It was too cold to go to the beach. And Henry's car seat still smelled, despite Jeff's clean up efforts [So while the kids napped in the afternoon, Jeff did a clean up round two on it.].

In the morning, we had breakfast of pancakes and eggs. Miss R didn't eat much, but Henry ate most of his eggs and pancakes. We followed Grandpa Joe out to one of the greenhouses to collect fresh raspberries. I figured that it would be nice to show the kids where berries came from (besides the store). Jeff learned that he too had issues with getting his hands dirty when he was a toddler. Apparently, he used to wash his hands every time he fell in the dirt, which was frequent at times. So that's where Henry gets some of his hand issues.

When we came inside, the kids watched something on TV, I can't remember what. I took out Miss R's braids so she was sporting a rather wide hairdo.

Henry went down for a nap at 1PM. Miss R followed around 2PM. Both kids slept between 2-2.5 hours, which was good. When they got up, Henry said that he wanted a "snack." Then, we went outside and played with the balls and bubbles that Jennifer, Charlie, and Wyatt gave them. Miss R insisted that Grandpa Joe come down with us. Miss R, incidentially, is very fond of Grandpa Joe. She lights up when he is around. We sat on the grass. Marley ran around in her spunky dog mode. Miss R jumped on my back, Henry followed. Then Miss R tackled Grandpa Joe and Henry followed suit. Henry wanted to go "inside" which was code for "watch a movie." We got his juice but we stayed out on the deck for awhile longer. Miss R and Henry fought over a box. I believe that Henry won the rights to it. At one point, he wanted to the chair that he had rejected earlier, but Miss R had claimed it. He then proceeded to hug her and was trying to sneakily roll her out of the chair. That play didn't work. At another point, both Miss R and Henry gave each other some genuine hugs. And that was so very cute.

The kids watched The Jungle Book (or at least a part of it) when we came inside. It was about 7PM. I fixed dinner for myself, while Jeff took care of the kids. Joe made hamburgers for himself and Jeff. Around 8PM, we got the kids some dinner. Henry had actually eaten a fair amount of snack on the deck (about 2 servings of dried fruit). They kids played with their spaghetti and apple slices. Miss R grunted at Jeff. It turned out that Henry solved the mystery of the grunting. Miss R wanted "potatoes" as Henry pointed out. Jeff had been eating potato salad in front of them. So Henry gave the kids most of his potato salad, which was a big hit.

At 8:40PM, Jeff said goodbye to us. He went off to play volleyball with Tony. The kids have actually been quite good. Miss R needed to use the potty about 2 minutes after Jeff left. Henry stayed with Grandpa Joe and cuddled on his lap. Miss R stayed with Grandpa Joe when I needed to get Henry a new bottle of milk. We watched a little bit of So You Think You Can Dance and then the kids headed to bed. We stopped by the bathroom to brush our teeth. I had to remind the kids that we don't brush the floor with our tooth brushes, but other than that, they did pretty well. Henry found a cardboard roll from a roll of toilet paper that he used as a telescope and found highly entertaining. In bed, Henry said "read books." I read them The Monster Under the Shed once and we did two rounds of Lady and the Tramp. I didn't read the latter word for word b/c it is rather long. But I did a pretty good synopsis.

The First Half of Our "Vacation"

On Friday, I took the kids over to Grammy and Poppy's house in the morning. They were still runny-nosed, so I decided it best not to take them to daycare. I think that it was in morning before we left that Henry was playing on the floor with his puzzles and putting the pieces into their proper places. Henry has found puzzles difficult in the past, so it was nice seeing him play with them on his own w/o prompting and doing well.

Jeff and I cleaned, did laundry, and packed. It was a productive but crazy-busy day. We left the house at 4:15PM. We picked up the kids at 4:45PM and were on the road to Phoenix. It was raining in the mountains during our drive.


We got to Sky Harbor Airport by 6:30PM, which was better than we had anticipated given our late departure from Tucson. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15PM. It turned out that it was late b/c of lightening storms in the Phoenix area. Luckily, there was virtually no one in the security area when we arrived at the airport. Very good news b/c we had to take off our shoes and the kids' shoes, take out the laptops, detach the car seats from the suitcases, and make sure that Henry and Miss R didn't run off. We had time for Round Table Pizza. Jeff got four slices of veggie pizza. Henry didn't want to eat. Miss R ate all of the black olives off of all four of the pizzas. It was a LOT of olives. Our gate was at the end of the terminal. We had an excellent view of the runway. The kids got to watch the planes take off.

Things went about as well as we could be expected. Henry drank his bottle when the plane took off. He fell asleep right away. Definitely my boy. I managed to stay awake b/c Miss R had a panic attack on my lap. She refused her bottle, which probably made the situation worse on her ears than it should have been. She panicked but then jumped into Daddy's lap and then passed out for the rest of the flight until the decent into Portland. Both kids didn't like the decent; luckily, it was short. The flight was OK except for the intoxicated, loud people doing shots with mystery liquids behind us. They spent a good part of the trip trying to get the person next to them to do shots too but refused to tell him what they were drinking. The gal had the mouth of a sailor; we were glad that the kids were asleep.

We arrived around midnight. Jeff's sister Jennifer and his dad Joe picked us up. We got to Joe's house around 1AM or so. Marley was excited to see us. She looks fabulous. Jennifer and her son's Charlie and Wyatt took to her right away. There are two double beds on the first floor. Jennifer offered her room to us, but we decided to cram into the bed in Jeff's old room. Henry usually cuddles up to Jeff, and lately, Miss R has been sleep on top of me. Miss R was riled up and didn't settle down until 3AM.

On Saturday, the 4th of July, we slept in until 9AM or so. Got up. Got to see Jeff's handsome nephews, Charlie and Wyatt. Jennifer, Charlie, and Wyatt got the kids gifts: crayons, coloring books, the DVD The Land Before Time, Little Foot (the dinosaur from TLBT), bubbles, and balls. Wyatt had a neat, glittery top hat for his birthday hat (as he was born on the 4th of July). Both Henry and Miss R were fascinated by it.




We went to Jeff's Aunt Kay's house for lunch. We visited with Jeff's mom Gwen and her sisters (Kay, Gail, and Jean). Henry slept a good part of the time. He wasn't feeling well. Gail brought the kids beautiful presents. Henry got a nice new outfit, and Miss R got a swim suit. Wyatt broke out the bubbles for the kids, which entertained them. Henry had been very clingy to Jeff in the morning. The bubbles were Jeff's one reprieve. Miss R had a mega temper tantrum when I changed her diaper. That was followed by a second temper tantrum when I took off her shoe after she indicated that she wanted to go to the pool. Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Around 4PM, we returned to Jeff's dad's house and had a sumptuous dinner made by Joe's friend Diane. Excellent homemade salsa and chocolate-dipped cherries and strawberries. All of the traditional BBQ dishes plus excellent veggies. The buns for the burgers and veggies burgers were homemade. Miss R liked the buns. Jeff's brothers Andrew and Cooper were at Joe's house when we arrived. It was a great family get together. Henry was in Daddy-cling mode, and Miss R was in Mommy-cling mode. If Jeff moved 2 feet away from Henry, he'd whine.

Miss R was clingy, but she took to her Aunt Jennifer right away. That gave me a chance to rest my arms in-between holding sessions. For Henry, there was no one but Jeff. He said "go home" a couple times...just like he did in San Diego. That's one disadvantage about keeping Henry home so much as a baby. He isn't particularly flexible about being away from home. That was compounded by the fact that he didn't take a nap on Friday and didn't quite get enough sleep Friday night.

After Jeff's brother's left, we watched the first half of Happy Feet. Then, the kids went to bed.

On Sunday, Jennifer, Charlie, Wyatt, Jeff, Henry, and Miss R went back to Aunt Kay's house and spent time with "Grammy Gwen" at Henry's request. He said her name a couple times. I stayed behind and got some work done that I hadn't finished before I left. That was good for me. It sounded like Henry and Miss R took naps over at Aunt Kay's house, which were much needed.

On Sunday night, Jeff and I took Henry and Miss R to Tony and Kaylynn's house. Tony is Jeff's best friend from high school...maybe even middle school (I'll have to check with Jeff on that). Tony and Kaylynn have four beautiful children: Lexie, Phoenix, Brooklyn, and Colton. Lexie was a hit with Henry for showing him her rats. She has two of them. Phoenix did a wonderful job playing piano for us. Henry followed Brooklyn around. Brooklyn is a sweet heart who generously offered Jeff and I some of her pretty rocks. Colton is a handsome boy who is three years old. Miss R spent most of the time on my lap. Henry, however, enjoyed running around with the other children. The kids ate dinner together at the table. Jeff and I were surprised at how well the kids did...other than Henry talking through the blessing. He really liked the chicken a lot, and we were pleased to see him consume something other than starch this trip. We had a great time talking with Tony and Kaylynn. Kaylynn and I discussed the possibility of our families going to Disneyland together next year. That would be a lot of fun.













On Monday morning, the kids were in a mood. Both were clingy. I was desperately trying to send out my article reviews before we left for the zoo (I did it!). The kids did eat some pancakes for breakfast. Miss R said "yummy" as she ate them. Jeff and I are both coming down with whatever Miss R had a couple days ago and what Henry can't seem to shake. Every morning, he seems OK but then has a relapse by day's end. I think that Jeff is more stuffed up than I am. His voice began to change throughout dinner last night. I think that I'm actually having more allergy problems than anything. Needless to say, this hasn't exactly helped our moods...in addition to having two kids who scream when one of us isn't holding them. They don't seem to care that we might need to use the restroom or take a shower.

We went to the zoo today, hoping that the fresh air would distract Henry from wanting to go home. Portland has a fabulous zoo. And Henry did enjoy himself, but he did cling to Daddy the whole time. Jeff was getting tired at lugging around a 26 lb weight. Miss R had a fabulous time. She paid attention to the animals. She liked the fish. She enjoyed watching the penguins. She really liked running around on the grass and being silly. She shared my hummus plate. She ate some pita bread and, oddly enough, the lettuce. I didn't know that toddlers would actually eat lettuce. Turns out, at least one of them will. We had a good time in the lorakeets' aviary. Jennifer got us nectar to feed the birds. On the ride back home, the kids had a great time with cousin Wyatt. Jennifer bought Henry a toy Humboldt penguin, Miss R a giraffe, and Wyatt an owl. Miss R hugged her giraffe. She and Henry also took turns dropping their animals on the floor and saying "Uh-Oh!" and pointing at them for Wyatt to pick up. He was a good sport.

Once home, Henry was again clingy. Jeff was tired. Miss R needed a nap. On top of that, Jennifer, Charlie, and Wyatt had to leave to head back to Idaho, which was sad. I very much enjoyed talking with Jennifer about parenting. And, we loved seeing how handsome and kind Charlie and Wyatt are. They were so nice to The Twins during the trip, which we appreciate b/c our kids were in full-blown terrible two mode.

On Monday evening in the basement where we had set up Monsters, Inc. at Henry's request, Henry, after getting admonished for rifling through Grandpa Joe's things, stood up and said "Twinkle Twinkle Up Above" and had a little dance move to accompany his song. He was so cute. And as Jeff said, "That melted my heart." It was awfully sweet. Of course, the kids both then acted up. We decided that they needed to go to bed. They hadn't napped well. Jeff took Henry to the spare bedroom. I took Miss R to the usual room. Henry was almost asleep when Miss R had a major fit b/c I insisted on changing her very soggy diaper. Henry then got up and yelled out for "Miss R, Miss!" Jeff brought Henry into the room. We settled them into bed, where they fell asleep most unwillingly.

Well, that wraps up the first half of our "vacation." I can't say that it has been relaxing. We've been a little bit surprised by the amount of Henry's neediness. He really has been crying and whining more than we've ever seen him do so. To be fair, he isn't feeling his best. And we know that changes in routine are hard for him. But we had hoped to share more of the Happy Henry side of his personality to our family who don't get to see him often.

We are meeting our college friends Dave and BJ and their daughter Morganne tomorrow. Dave and BJ are our friends who set us up on our first date (blind date). We will be meeting them at The Enchanted Forest.

Hug, Kiss, Hit or Shove

Dr. Bianchi's office called at 5:05PM to say that Sonora Quest did not send them the form. Apparently, the person at the main office of Sonora Quest never sent the form to the satellite office where we go for blood tests. And that was the only person in all of Sonora Quest who had access to this mysterious form.

I just wanted to offer a shout out to Liz the blood test worker from Sonora Quest for going out of her way to track down this form oh-so-diligently today and to the bureaucratic rules at Sonora Quest making it so that only one person in their entire operation had the ability to send out special forms. You've just ensured that a little girl could not get the blood tests until mid-July. Way to Go! Perhaps you all at Sonora Quest could add to this to your collection of B.S. motivational sayings that you have posted all over the walls of your offices.

Henry and Miss R didn't eat much at Grammy's today. They still have lots of drainage. Henry's voice has gone hoarse. Miss R seems OK other than her super snotty nose. Henry and Miss R played golf tonight. Henry's swing is looking pretty good. He was hitting the ball fairly firm and straight.

I witnessed a couple of hugs and kisses given today between Miss R and Henry. They were, however, followed by some hitting and shoving (not hard). Henry was very cute tonight. He kept offering Miss R her bottle saying "R's bottle." He wasn't pleased when she borrowed his golf club though, which he referred to as "mine."

I suspect that the kids will be staying home tomorrow...or at least Henry will b/c of his hoarse voice. Miss R seems pretty good, and I'd like her to stay in her routine as much as possible. Henry is waking up, so I'd better go attend to him.

Sick Again!

On Wednesday afternoon, we picked up the kids at school. Miss R was having a fun time in this really cool play area that they have off the main lobby. It is a mini-town with a grocery store (two grocery carts), a movie theater, emergency center (e.g., police, fire station), a bridge, all sorts of hats and gear that represent various occupations, a motorcycle trike, and a couple plastic cars (like the Flintstones). It was the first time that her class used the place, which was brand new.

We went to Sonora Quest at 4PM to get Miss R's second blood test. The doctor's nurses again didn't fax over the order. They again claimed that the parents (meaning us) said that we'd pick it up at their office...just like last week, which is utterly ridiculous. Why would we waste our time stopping by their office rather than having it faxed directly (which they ended up doing anyway)? Besides, again, Dr. Bianchi said that "they" would send the order over. I'm going to tell him that the nurses aren't following his directions and have messed it up every time. So they finally sent the order over. The blood test person looked in the computer and said that they needed to send an additional form. It was 4:30PM and they were closing at 5PM. I told her that she needed to call the nurses at Dr. Bianchi's again and ask about the form. The nurses said that they'd never heard of this form. The blood test person requested some third party to send her "the form." They didn't fax it to her by 4:55PM. By that time, it was unlikely to reach the doctor to sign and return it before the closing of the office. The blood test person reminded me for the billionth time that they closed at 5PM. So we wasted a good hour of our time with a toddler for nothing. Thanks for going out of your way, medical workers! Makes me just want to jump right on board the universal healthcare band wagon and see their behaviors become even more lazy and pathetic.

We dropped the kids off at Grammy and Poppy's house for a couple hours. When we returned, Henry and Miss R with sitting on Grammy watching Fantasia. Miss R was sound asleep. When we returned home, I put her into bed, but she woke up and insisted that I lay down with her. I had hoped to get some work done, but she screamed as soon as I left her.

I'm not exactly sure when Henry came to bed. At 3:45AM, Jeff woke up because Henry felt warm. We took his temperature. It was 100.1 under the arm, which means it was really 101.1. I took it a little later. It was 100.5 under the arm. We took off his shirt to let him cool off. He wasn't quite warm enough to give Tylenol. He was very snuffly. I was wide awake at that point. I hoped to get some work done, but again, Miss R's mommy sensors went off and she screamed until I held her. There is such a thing as too much together time.

This morning, I let the kids sleep until 7:40AM. Because Henry had had a fever, we couldn't take him to school. School policy says that the child's temperature has to be normal for 24 hours before they are allowed at school. And that policy does make sense from a public health stand point. Of course, that meant that we had to keep the kids home, which was a bit inconvenient to our work schedules. My mom, however, came at 10AM to pick up the kids, which we appreciate. Henry and Miss R were happy to see her.

The dumb[fill-in-the-blank] blood test worker was supposed to call me when she got the form so that we could take Miss R into the lab this afternoon. By 4PM, there was no call. So I called Dr. Bianchi's office. They returned the call at 4:30PM and said that they hadn't received the form. The nurse called Sonora Quest and was told that their main office had never sent them the form (and the lazy, dumb[fill-in-the-blank]es hadn't thought to follow-up). Sigh. It is now 4:53PM. If the form doesn't get into the doctor's hands in the next seven minutes, we'll have to postpone the bloodtest for when we get back from our trip to Oregon b/c the pediatrician's office is closed tomorrow. Double sigh.

Happy at Daycare

Henry and Miss R have been having a good time at daycare. On Monday, I picked them up in the afternoon. They were happy to see me. Unfortunately, they were not happy with the car ride home. I'd come straight from school and didn't have bottles for them. They let me know that they were displeased with my performance. We had a busy evening around the house. After their bath, I braided Miss R's hair because she was scheduled to have a bio parent visitation the following day.

On Tuesday morning, Henry did not want to be separated from Miss R when I dropped her off on the playground. He was very unhappy and yelled out for her "R! R!" He clung to me as we went to his classroom but not as tightly as before.

Miss R was scheduled to have a bio parent visitation. The CPS driving service picked her up at daycare. They were supposed to drop her off at home after the visit. The visits last from 11-1PM, so she usually gets back around 1:45PM or so. The driving service called me at 11:35AM. They had picked her up but after they arrived at the CPS office, they were told that the visitation was canceled (no reason given). They wanted to know if they should return her home or back to daycare. Jeff and I decided to try her back at daycare. She was happy when she returned, but she didn't nap; she just "rested quietly."

Grammy and Poppy picked the kids up in the afternoon. They want to spend time with them this week b/c we'll be gone next week to Oregon. The kids swam. Miss R is starting to like the water. Grammy was surprised that Henry ate some of the broccoli served at dinner.

Henry was asleep when they came home. Miss R was wide awake. She played in the kitchen as I made dinner (gazpacho soup). She climbed up onto the high chair all by herself. She was very pleased with herself, smiley and giggly. I pondered to Jeff if this is what it is like with most kids, them quietly entertaining themselves for brief snippets of the day so that parents can do things like cook, clean, go to the bathroom, maybe even shower. It's never been like that with Henry. If either of us were single parents with Henry, we'd never get anything done. I made the best gazpacho soup that I've ever tasted. Jeff said that it was good...for gazpacho soup which doesn't rank very high on his list of foods. Miss R loved it. She had several bites, even though she'd already had dinner at Grammy's house.

This morning, we had a late start. I got the kids to school at 8:20AM. Miss R didn't cry at all. She happily walked to her class on the playground. Henry didn't want to leave Miss R behind though and called for her again. He clung to me as we entered his class. He cried, but today it was his melodramatic fake sounding cry. I'm guessing that he was putting on a show to make me feel bad. Miss Lulu held him and told him to put on his happy face. He mustered a small smile for me as I left.

Grammy was going to pick up the kids today, but Jeff and I are going to pick them b/c we have to swing by SonoraQuest to get Miss R's blood drawn again. She is going to be an unhappy camper this afternoon. That's all for now.