::having some fun::

It looked like there was one little chance for us to get away as a family before the summer gets really crazy at work. Summers are always crazy because kids are off school and parents want to get the dang kids teeth fixed, but this summer is a little more crazy because one of our associates leaves mid June and Kelly won't be done with his residency and here ready to work until July 6th! So Kris and our other associate will be doing the work of 3 docs for a couple of weeks there.

Anyway, that can get really exhausting and se we wanted to get away and try to recharge before things get too crazy. So off we went to our go-to quick trip location--San Diego. Sandy's place, as he calls it. (He was overheard in the car yesterday talking about someplace called "Daddy-eggo" and "Lucy-eggo". I'm not sure he quite gets that this place really isn't named for him.)

We got in late on Thursday night after a long day of work, trip prep and Max's school moving up ceremony. Everybody was really tired and crashed into bed after some tears and complaints. After that everybody slept pretty well, UNTIL morning.

Morning, when everybody popped awake at 6AM, raring to go. Oy, oy.

Kris and I decided it was better off just to get up and roll with it than kick against the pricks and we headed out super early to get breakfast in downtown San Diego.

I think it was just barely seven by the time we got out there. Sandy was dazzled by the downtown buildings and he said that it looked like Danville (the city in Phineas and Ferb) or Tokyo. Is he a small town guy or what?

We went to this delicious breakfast place that we had gone to a few years ago when Sandy was just teency and we were staying over in that area for the AAPD conference. We saw somebody order German pancakes there and they looked amazing so we needed to try them ourselves.  Plus, they opened at like 6:30 or 7, so it was our perfect option.
The boys were "cold" because we were seated outside (and Sandy had refused to wear his jacket of course) so they got to start out with hot chocolate. Most of Sandy's hot chocolate ended up in his saucer and his chin/nose/lap.

This next photo series cracked me up. I was going to say, mostly because of Lucy, but no--it's both of them.
She's a smart little sneaky girl, and yes.  She definitely got a spoonful of chocolate.  The kids loved the breakfast, it was really delicious.  Kris had a huge apple pancake thing that was about as big as his head and he said it was amazing.

Alright, this is all for now but I've got more to say tomorrow.  Lots more fun to report on.

::lucy likes to help me work::

Don't worry, I'm still alive!  I didn't die or anything. I just can't seem to keep up with everything, and blogging can go by the wayside, especially if I get behind and try to catch up.
And really we can blame it all on Lucy. Now she's toddling around and isn't satisfied just to hang out anymore. She wants to DO things, and SEE things and not to sleep to much.

Anyway, she does like to help me work. Well, like might be a strong word. She is required to help me work, and from time to time she tolerates it.

Here she is "helping me" try to have a small meeting at the St Francis office.  She figured out how to use the adding machine and added many many receipts worth of numbers up until she decided it was way boring and just wanted to leave.



She loves to draw way more than the boys ever did.  In fact both boys hated it when they were little.  Lucy loves pens so much.  She wants to hold every pen I'm holding and always tries to draw.  Yesterday she was drawing on my work while she was in my lap (see below), and she also drew all over her arms, my arms, her chin and my face.  She kept sneak attacking me with the pen and getting me on the face, and then when I told her "Not the face! Not the face!" her lower lip would stick out and she would cry like her heart was broken.



This is not the same day, but it could be.  Now she's sick of the lap and just wants to get DOWN.



What a helper, huh?  No wonder I have so much time left over to blog!

::::

Tonight Sandy was having a total melt down flip out in bed. At bedtime.  When he was supposed to be asleep. It was a serious major meltdown that included screaming and kicking and death screams.

I was just done with it.  Sandy has been experimenting with all sorts of different "behaviors" lately and by bedtime I'm all worn out.

What happened?  Well first I told him he wouldn't be having a sleepover with one of his little girl friends at school.  That was so mean.  Then later on he had an "injury" on his finger and "needed" a bandaid.  Against my better judgement I stepped into his bathroom and grabbed him a bandage.  His box of Star Wars bandaids was empty and so I grabbed something else.  I had a feeling of inpending doom when I saw the empty box......and rightly so.  When he realized that minions from Despicable Me were surrounding his finger rather than Yoda or Luke, he lost it.  Truly lost his mind.

I left.  I was done like I said earlier.  I went and found Dad and told him it was his turn for some of the fun.

While I was finding Kris though, Max snuck into the room.  He was sure he knew what to do in order to fix the problem.  I saw him darting around the house, finding things and doing things.  I didn't think he could fix anything, figured he could only make things worse, but I was wrong.  He fixed it.  He made Sandy a Star Wars bandaid.  See the above photo.  It's complete with a little bandage cushion made with a tissue.

When it was wrapped around Sandy's finger Kris said that Sandy looked at it and with a shuddery breath said, "It's SO CUTE!!"

When I went in to give the crazy guy one last kiss, he told me "I'm so proud of my brother!"

Even though these guys fight a lot, they are great brothers.  And Max's drawings are SO CUTE.  Good job Max, saving the day.  I can always use the help!

::this week::

This week there was obviously not enough time for blog posting.  But lots of things happened.  

Mostly people were sick though, and it was sad.  We were supposed to go on a fun weekend trip to CA, but Sandy had been sick the weekend before and then Lucy and Max both started throwing up mid-week so we had to cancel our fun.  Nobody threw up at Target this week though which was better than the week before.  Sandy may not ever be allowed back in the women's bathroom at Target again after that episode.

But lots of other things happened.  The kids were cute.  Some flowers bloomed that had never bloomed in the yard before, which was pretty exciting.



Here is the requisite Lucy and Mom shot.  She doesn't hold still much these days.



Poor miss Lucy got the pukes on Tuesday night and thew up all night long, it was a long night for both of us.  Luckily in the morning she felt better and there were no more pukes.  But she had to do some pretty good napping to catch up.  Me too.  Here she is in my bed.



A little pre-bedtime Donald Duck for Sandy.  Bedtimes are the best and yet sometimes the hardest part of the day.



Lucy got a new chair that attached to the counter so she could sit with the boys.  She loves it.  Now we have even more mess to deal with on the counter. It's so fun to see her interacting with the boys, when they're not fighting over toys that is.



Here's Lucy not eating.  That's the thing she mostly does when she's in her chair--not eat.  She only likes processed packaged food these days.



The most exciting thing that happened this week was WALKING!  Lucy has been taking steps here and there and walking between Kris and I--diving into our arms at both ends--but not really walking.  Well, this week one afternoon you could see a switch flip in her head and suddenly she was a walking kid.  She decided crawling was for babies and she was big.  And off she went.



Yes it's pretty much the cutest thing ever and she is SO proud of herself.











A walking baby angel!









Poor tired baby.  I seriously can't even imagine how much work it would be to learn to walk. It must be completely physically exhausting!



On Friday we went to do some fun things in ABQ, but Kris wasn't feeling good at all, poor thing.  We still had dinner and a little shopping, but sadly it was just a sick week.  Poor us.  I missed church both Sundays attached to this week for sick kids.

But so many great things happened too.  We're just lucky to be together and to get to take care of each other.

::::

I love this little dress that Mom and I found at Target.  Lucy didn't love it because it really impeded her crawling.  In fact, she was really mad when  first put it on her.  It was just too long.  She had to monkey crawl or stand up.




And the fact that she insisted on putting on Sandy's old baby shoes didn't help.  She really wanted them on, but they were also driving her crazy.


Anyway, she was just so cute I kept trying to get pictures of her--not all of them worked.





And to make sure that we have plenty of goofy pictures in this post, here's a rather goofy one of the two of us.  She's mad at me--why?  Who knows.  Maybe becasue she's wearing a bib.  Good thing she's so cute!

::end of april already??::

Seriously it's the end of April already!?  This month has just flown by.  We've been so busy and things have been so crazy around our house.

So since it's the last day of the month I thought I needed to at least post SOMEthing!

Here we are today having lunch with Kris to discuss all sorts of work problems.  It was a beautiful day.  Lucy was eating.



Lucy spent most of her time practicing walking in the last little while.  She also discovered the joys of Max's old plastic car and has spent HOURS getting in and out of it, sitting in it, and pretending to fill it up with gas.

She also makes herself at home wherever she is.



Everybody got haircuts last week.  Max's ended up a little longer than he wanted but I think it's cute.
Max has spent lots of time on schoolwork, swimming and riding his bike outside on the trails.  Oh, and playing with his little siblings.  He's a great big brother, especially when he's in the mood.



Sandy's haircut.  Sandy had a bit of a rough month.  All the family visitors over an extended period of time wore him out and he's thrown more fits in the last two weeks than he did his whole third year of life I think.  We've been working through it though.  He's also spent lots of time in the bath lately, his favorite place.  He would be in there all day every day if I'd let him.



Yes, Lucy got her first little haircut too, just a bit off the front and sides.  She was proud of herself.



Sleeping has been going better--daytime naps anyway.  For the middle part of the month, nighttimes were awful, but they're improving now. But the happy thing is that she's been taking daytime naps much more consistently--pretty much every day, and they're long!  It's been amazing.



And of course many other crazy shenanigans and goofiness has gone on.  If I have time later I'll go back and post some of that stuff, but for now, see you April 2015.  You were a good month, but it's time to say goodbye.

::down the shirt::

So Lucy likes to put her hand down my shirt.  It's a comfort thing.  And she likes to put her pacifier down there too.



A bunch of these pictures I didn't take on purpose, they just happened.  Then I started taking them on purpose.



















Whatever it takes as long as she goes to sleep, right?

::jungle::

Jungle is a baby giraffe that we got at the Animal Kingdom a couple of years ago for Sandy. She's really cute and comes with a little leaf blanket that she can be swaddled up in.

She's spent lots of time in the stuffed animal bin, like all of the other friends, but the other day Max and Sandy were playing in Sand's room and Max found Jungle.  They started pretending that she was a real baby.  
 

They went and got one of Lucy's tiny onesies and dressed her in it.  They found a little box and made a soft and snuggly bed.  She got rides in Max's old stroller, all strapped in.  She slept next to Sandy's bed in her little crib that night and many nights after.



I was instructed to watch her while Sandy was at school, and he would take her in the car and strap her in on the way to school. Sometimes I forgot to get her out of bed or I left her in the car and I always got in trouble.

Sometimes we had to be quiet because Jungle was napping.  It was like she was a really real baby for a while there and it was adorable to see Sandy being so careful with her.


The pretend has mostly worn off now, and she's hanging out in Sandy's room again like a regular buddy, but she does still get some extra special treatment.

I love that little Sandy, and the cute Max that inspired the whole game.  They're great boys.