Sibling Rivalry- 4.5 and 1.5 Years Old 2015

9/4
J: Maybe you don't need two babies.
E: No? How many do I need?
J: 1.
E: Just keep one of you?
J: Yeah, you keep me, and not Miranda because she's a bad baby.
E: Oh so I keep you, and we send Miranda away, and we never see her again?
J: Yeah.
E: Aw, but I would miss her so much!
J: Yeah. Bye Miranda!
E laughs
J: I'm not kidding. I'm serious.

Fun with hats!

9/5
J: I'm sorry, Miranda. I'm sorry about this, but you have to leave.

Racing! Except not at all because Miranda wouldn't move.

9/8
Miranda playing with iPad at library. James approaches.
M: Go back!

She speaks!

Brushing their teeth together.

On drive back from library, Miranda drops her water in the car.
J: You blew it, Miranda! Sorry but you blew it.

9/21:
J: Miranda thinks she's reading a story.
E: I eat the baby. Yum-yum-yum-yum.
J: And she ate the baby!
E: Once upon a time, there was a very tired mama. And the baby kept asking for stuff. So she ate the baby! The end!
J: Once upon a time, there was a very tired mama. So she ate the baby! The end!
E: (Again.) Once upon a time, there was a very tired mama! And the baby kept asking for stuff. So she ate the baby! The end! Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. (Pretending to eat Miranda up.)
J: What a beautiful story. I'm going to put it on my bookshelf, and we'll read it tomorrow.

10/11:
J: Miranda made me do it.

10/13:
J: For she's a very bad baby, for she's a very bad baby, for she's a very bad baby, that nobody can deny!

Sock puppets!

Miranda is 1.5 Years Old 2015

I can't believe Miranda is a year-and-half old! She's such a big bossy girl! This is not sexist. I call James bossy when he's bossy. But Miranda seriously directs the traffic here and James follows her instruction instead of the other way around.

She's 31.75 inches tall, and 25.5 pounds. She's says the following words with some regularity: Dada, James, milk, no, yes, stuck, up (to be picked up), go!, book, ball.... Mama (infrequently).  She will repeat a lot more words than that. (I've heard her repeat the words shoes, jump, and many others.)

Miranda and James at the Drive-In

She doesn't like being left out of anything no matter what. For example, she really wants to play soccer. She thinks it's a bunch of bs that she goes every Saturday to see James play with a bunch of other kids and she can't join in.

She loves coloring but she eats the markers. I found that the crayons are safer.

We gave her corn but she said, NO she needed the whole cob.

She spends a large chunk of everyday pretending to read books. Usually children's book, but she has been known to flip through books stolen from our bookshelves. Or just pull off a bunch of them and put them on the floor.

She puts a blanket on her head and pretends to be a ghost. I watch while trying to prevent her from crashing into the fireplace.

She's trying to jump, or possibly just give me a heart attack. Because she can't get into the air from the floor, she has resorted to jumping off furniture.

She can stack blocks! (Not sure when this skill developed, since I only gave her blocks recently.)

Wearing my shoes well.

I'm gonna drive my car yeah... and the wheel turns fast, and the lights go flash.

She still wants to be held almost constantly. She will snuggle me, kiss me, then suddenly bite my face. When she sees that it hurt me she laughs.

Snuggle bunny.

Enjoying the music the elephant plays.

Brother-sister fun.

She makes this face ALL THE TIME.

Miranda has also been in Mommy n' Me Classes since September! Post on that soon.

• James at 1.5 Years Old- October 2012

KonMari Progress- Forward and Back 2015

I blogged a whole bunch of times about KonMari in the previous months. My motivation kind of took a nose dive when we moved in the middle of my process (at about 4 and half months). For a month I had to focus on packing and unpacking instead of Konmaring. But moving was itself interesting in the middle of the process. When confronted with having to move the object to a new house there was a point in favor of discarding the item rather than the usual default of wanting to keep it. I also handled everything we own twice because I packed and unpacked almost everything.

Unpacked new smaller house- Love all the free space with less stuff!

But then, I thought I was in sentimental items, and when we got to the new place I realized I had totally blown the Komono step. This is what Marie Kondo calls the step where you do all the "miscellaneous" items that just aren't clothing, books, papers, or sentimental items. Well, that's the biggest category and I really didn't push myself very hard on it. So a lot of my unpacking time was been trying to deal with all these items that don't necessarily fit into my life now. For example all of our CDs... really torn about whether to keep them when I rarely play music off them. I don't know why I had less trouble discarding clothing and books which I care a lot more about, than I'm having getting rid of CDs, but there it is. Also, the solution to convert our VHS home movies into DVDs will take time and money, etc. So I'm back to dealing with all that.

Some additional things have found their way into the house in the meanwhile, though we try to control that, but the new house had some new needs. Then once I lost the momentum of having a regular time to work on it each week, it's been hard to get back in.

Also, when I saw the huge positive effect Konmari was having in my life and in my way of thinking, I decide to find and apply similar processes to other problems in my life. So I discovered Dave Ramsey, and it's totally changed how I view and handle finances in my life-- for the better. Much better!

Next I decided that the weight I was dragging around wasn't sparking joy (duh) and there had to be a more motivational way of getting rid of it. So I discovered Alternate Day Fasting, which is supposed to make it easier to lose weight, and more importantly, reduce your chance of getting cancer or weight-related illnesses like diabbetes. The diet costs nothing (actually saves you money) and I've lost 17 pounds since the end of June. (I started on 5:2, but now I do 4:3 or 5:2 depending on how well the week is going.) But my focus on these new projects distracted me from Konmari. It's difficult right now to keep myself from moving on to even more projects before having finished this one.

This is a chart of my weight (and averages) since November 2008, and the correlation with some big projects I took on. Almost back to a healthy weight now. (First time since 2007 which isn't even on this chart.)

Seven-Year Weight Chart (11/2008-10/2015)

So now it's been a bit over 7 months since I started, and I still plan on finishing my Konmari "festival" by the end of this year. It will be amazing to know I am surrounded by what I love. But no matter what, Konmari has already changed my life a lot (just like Marie promised) and changed how I approach and surpass challenges.

I found this video by a blogger I already knew and like, Laura of HowToGYST.com, and yes, totally agree with almost everything she says, except the less shopping is a huge plus for me, not a con.

 

• KonMari- Clothes 2015 
• KonMari- General Solution 2015
• All my other KonMari posts

Baby Ezra 2015!

Roger and Lina had their second son Ezra this month! I was wondering if lightening would strike twice and they would have another red-headed child, but this time the baby shares their hair color. He's just as adorable as his older brother though. Congratulations! I can't wait to meet the newest addition. Hopefully my kids will learn enough Spanish to have secret talks with Caleb and Ezra. Congratulations, Roger, Lina, and big brother Caleb!

Baby Ezra is perfect.

Brothers meeting

Bronchitis- October 2015

James was sick for the last two weeks of September and all the rest of us thought we were safe, but then October 1, I started getting fevers. October 2, Miranda got a scary rash and fevers. While Miranda was only sick for about 5 days, and pretty much only needed a little Benedryl for the rash, I was slammed hard. I had fevers for over a week, the doctor put me on antibiotics, and I took so many other cold drugs that we have a small pharmacy here now. And this right after having cleaned out our expired medicines in the move. Coughing, coughing, so much coughing. I'm functional as of the last few days but I'm still not totally better.

One day supply of virus stuff.

Sadly, our friends Cory, Robin, Lukas, Sarah. and Lio were going to visit last weekend and we had to cancel so that we wouldn't ruin their lives. Seriously, we've been dealing with this virus for over a month! Even Grandma got sick. Go away virus! 

September Art Gallery 2015

Since James started PreK and Miranda and I started Mommy n' Me, we've been inudated with kiddie art. Now you will be too! Curated for your enjoyment!

James and I had this homework for the first day

He made this hat on the firt day

And he brought this heavily-teacher-assisted-art home

Aw, yay! He's friends with the other boy in class Dillon.

Miranda's "Bloody Apple Tree"

James's kite!

Miranda's "Foot on Foot"

Grandma Visits- September 2015

Back in September, Grandma Kathy came to visit for 5 days during the week. The kids adore her so they were so happy even though it rained a lot while she was here and they couldn't go out much.

Lunch time with Grandma

James using Grandma's light up glasses

Miranda chilling with Grandma

Bedtime stories

James was particularly excited about helping Grandma cook meatballs ("I got to stick my hands in it!") and bake apple crisp.

Pouring the apples

Mixing the sugar and cinnamon

Adding it to the apples

Miranda thinks it needs more cinnamon

Miranda is trying to help.

Good night kisses!

Unfortunately for Grandma, at the end of the week Miranda and I caught James's virus. At that point, James had already been sick/recovering for two weeks so we thought we were safe. Miranda and I both got feverish and Miranda got a really scary rash. Luckily for us Grandma was here to take us to the pediatrician to get Miranda checked out.

Waiting at the doctor

Trying to escape the doctor's office (Kevin met us and intercepted her)

Post-doctor sticker picture

Grandma also wanted to stay for a soccer game and got rained out. So sorry the weather and our health didn't cooperate for your visit Grandma, but as always your visit was much enjoyed by the all of us, and a lot of help to me and Kevin. We love you. See you soon!

Spanish Tapas- September 2015

This is our 1000th post!

Back in September, Grandma Kathy came to visit during the week, and Kevin and I went on a date night, our second one since we moved here. This time we tried a Spanish tapas place, La Parrilla Spanish Bistro. The "tapas" were actual entree size so we accidentally ordered a lot of food.

We had a lot of serious conversation... about how many kids to have. The final decision appears to be that we are two and through. Which means I need to come over and borrow your babies for snuggling. Let me know when.

Toasting with our sangrias (mine is a mango sangria!)

After dinner, we walked around Port Jefferson which was mostly empty because it was a rainy Tuesday night. Kevin had been wanting to try Brewology because they have a lot of good beer on tap. Kevin got a Blind Bat Hell Gate and I got a Goose Island Sofie. The bar was also playing the Red Sox, though he politely feigned some disinterest, I told him to go ahead and watch. We tried to stay out as late as possible... we made it to about 9 pm. As James would say, "It was a good try."

Blind Bat Hell Gate and Goose Island Sofie

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse 2015

I always want to watch these astronomical events and then I either completely miss them because I forget, or they are at a really late time of night so I just refuse to get up (or set an alarm). Well this time the total lunar eclipse was perfect. It could be seen in North America before my bedtime. A lot of my friends and family tried to watch it without a lot of luck, but we had a good view from our house and clear skies. Kevin was not so interested, but we put lawn chairs on our front yard and sat facing the direction of our house and sort of our neighbors house (yes, we looked like weirdos) and watched until our earth completely blocked sunlight from the moon. Then I clapped for the drama.

September 27 Lunar Eclipse

This lunar eclipse was a little different because it was a supermoon. A supermoon is a full moon (or a new moon) at the time the moon is closest to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, which makes it look as big as it ever looks. There was also a lot of talk about a "blood moon" but that has to do with all lunar eclipses. When the Earth completely blocks the sun the glow on the moon looks red. I saw it in the little sliver that never seemed to go away.

Things My Wife Complains About #29 Apple Picking

It's fall, which means it's apple picking time! As someone who has long enjoyed apples, what greater pleasure could I take than paying to pick my own dirty, worm-infested apples? I'm so tired of buying clean, tasty apples that someone else picked and washed. I enjoy pork, too, but it's not like I get to slaughter my own pigs in an abbatoir, alongside hundreds of other tired families. Lame!

If you think you're about to read a snarky takedown of picking apples, guess again, because despite traveling to two different orchards, nobody in my family picked a single apple. The first orchard, to be fair, had a lot of rules. First, somebody told my wife she wasn't allowed to bring in her purse. Second, I don't remember: The gatekeepers were just generally weird and scary. So, for some reason, we bought a lot of peaches. Has anyone in our family ever eaten a peach? Possibly. Now we have approximately three hundred of them.

We knew what to expect from the next orchard, namely more not apple picking. This orchard has so many places for children to play, it's a miracle anyone ever picks apples. Here's what we did instead of picking apples: Eat apple donuts (close), drink apple cider (arguably closer), get stuck inside a plastic tube (daughter), shimmy inside the tube to retrieve the child while people gathered worriedly around one open end of said tube (wife), burst into tears after being told it made Mama very sad he said he didn't want to pose for a picture (son), stare expressionless into the distance (me).

Possible solutions!

1) Stop eating fruits and vegetables
2) Start picking less popular produce, such as potatoes
3) Go apple picking again very soon (extremely likely)

Tractor

Tractor

Ship

Ship

Train

Watch out Miranda is driving!

Before the doom

Happy pumpkin

Confused ghost