May 27, 2010
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At Long Last!
Wow, I’ve forgotten to update for so long that I’m not quite sure how to cover everything that’s happened! Most everyone who reads my blog is also my friend on Facebook, so sometimes I’m too lazy to post again here. (If you haven’t added me, please do! I’m just Beverly O’Neal on FB.)
Two weekends ago, our friends Ann and Erik came to stay with us for a few days of their SoCal vacation. Ann and I have been friends for a couple of years now through my July 2007 moms bulletin board, but this was the first time we met face-to-face. We had a great time! We ate a lot, hung out, went to the botanical garden, and went on a double-date without the kids Saturday night. It was great because Ann and Erik totally understand what life is like with kids around (they have two boys also, ages almost 3 and 5), so they were unfazed when Jack threw tantrums or when Derek was fussy. They were completely helpful with entertaining Jack and Derek, and as luck would have it, Ann is a nurse, which came in extremely handy because Derek was very sick when they were here (he’s fine now). Here are some pictures from our great weekend.
Double date: dinner followed by a visit to a wine bar. We had a great time, despite the fact that I was running a pretty high fever. Next time, we shall all be healthy!
Jack tries to get in on the picture that Ann and I are taking at the botanical garden
Family pic!
Last weekend, I got a rare treat: An overnight trip away from home! I went with my parents, June and Charles to Las Vegas, to help June get settled into her rental house there. She’s there for a three-month optometry clinic. The poor girl sees about 60 patients a day! We’re all very proud. Anyway, we drove off Saturday morning with two cars full of June’s stuff, and returned on Sunday afternoon. We all stayed in a fantastic suite at the Palazzo, and we enjoyed the Wynn buffet, and even went clubbing at XS on Saturday night (well, our parents didn’t, but June, Charles, June’s friend and roommate Brian, and I did)! Don’t get me wrong, I love my boys (all four of them, Atari included), but it was awesome to spend an extended period of time with my family, and to enjoy a few meals where my attention wasn’t constantly on the boys.
June and I with our parents at the Wynn buffet (sorry these are so large; I’m linking from FB, being too lazy to upload them here)
June and I at the Venetian, on the way back from the club
At the club
It was a great trip. Now we’re looking forward to next month, when we leave for our summer trip to Michigan. Jack’s very excited to see his Nana and Papa, and he’s anticipating being able to watch DVDs in the car (we’re driving, so we told him we would be spending several nights at hotels, and that he would be able to watch movies in the car). Oh! I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention that Jack’s played his first video game. Ann was generous enough to lend us one of her boys’ Leapster 2 handheld game consoles. We gave it to Jack to see what he would do with it, and he turned it on right away, and with only a little help, completely got how to use the stylus. I got him a Ni Hao Kai-Lan game last week, and he was able to choose the correct option from the opening screen to choose the “cartridge game” (instead of playing games that are already loaded on the Leapster), and he knew how to choose different games on the cartridge, and how to use the D-pad to actually play them. It’s insane. Speaking as someone who didn’t learn how to use a mouse until she was 15, I am just astounded. Little kids these days are so smart! (I’m not naive enough to think that that Jack is the only almost three-year-old who instinctively knows how to play video games.) Anyway, we’ve taken it away for now, because Jack could easily sit there and play with it for two hours at a time. We’re saving it for the road trip, since we’ll be driving many hours each day for four days.
Let’s see, what else? Oh! Jack now can disrobe, climb onto the actual toilet, get off of it, put his clothes back on, flush and wash his hands all by himself! Most of the time it’s still faster for me to help him with the steps, but it’s really nice that he can now go to the bathroom by himself if I’m busy changing Derek or something. Actually, Ann taught him how to take off his pants by himself without losing his balance. After she left, I saw Jack push his pants down past his butt, then sit down to take off his pants all the way. I asked, “Who taught you that?” His reply was, “Auntie Ann!” It’s a genius move — so simple, yet so effective. So, that’s a big development.
Derek is pulling up to standing all over the place. I think he’s skipped the crawling stage altogether. He still army-crawls, and he moves his knees correctly, but his tummy remains on the floor. Anyway, now he has no patience for crawling, he just wants to cruise around everywhere! And he’s already attempting to climb stuff. I’m at a little bit of a loss, because Jack was never like this! He crawled everywhere, and he also liked to pull up to standing, but he rarely wanted to climb anything. And he never went for electric outlets or standing lamps or little objects. Derek, on the other hand, wants to stick his hand in all the outlets, he attempts to pull on any cord or standing lamp in sight, and he manages to find any small object and then wants to put it in his mouth. Jack has become very adept at pulling small things out of Derek’s way. He once found a loose screw in Derek’s path, said, “No, DEREK! DANGEROUS!” picked it up, and brought it to Johnny, saying, “I take this away from Derek.” Thank goodness! So, whereas we half-assed our babyproofing with Jack, we really have to step up our game with Derek. It is tiring! Thank goodness he’s a reliable nighttime sleeper. I definitely need my 12 hours of recharging time.
OK, speaking of the little devils, Derek is up, so now it’s time to make our Costco run. Hope everyone’s having a great week.
Comments (10)
Hottie in the red dress!!! Dang girl, you are so beautiful!
@ShamrockLover - Awww shucks, thank you! I wore that for Halloween, too, but have lost some weight since then, since that was only 3.5 months after Derek was born. It felt good to zip up the dress and go, “Hmm, this feels looser!” LOL.
Lovely picts!!! The boys are growing up fast! You’ll be surprised how much smarter kids are nowadays… well, its not that we weren’t smart back then, just that we were not exposed to as many things back in the pre-internet days.
Tyson has been playing the wii since he was 2, with encouragement from his brother for a wii playing buddy.
Have a great long weekend!
Yay-love the pics! And by the way, as a facebook friend, I still enjoy checking out your xanga because then I get the commentary that go along with said pictures.
Hope you are having a great Memorial Day!
Yes, please no fevers next time! Aww, Beverly, we had the best time with you guys and you are the greatest hostess ever!! Erik STILL talks about your Korean BBQ and I’m just lucky I look OK in a bikini again after pigging out that whole weekend. I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for us–the cooking, the planning, all the stuff you did even though you were so sick! I really can’t wait to see y’all again and I hope you get to meet my boys soon!
I din’t realize you updated you Xanga last week. Missing you today!
when are you guys leaving? One whole month! I was thinking, once you get your veg garden going, maybe you can give me some pointers! I was trying to make C’s baby food last weekend, so I went to the market …. then I started thinking which foods I should buy organic. I googled that, …. and found all this info on pesticides and chemicals that are sprayed onto the fruits and veggies of very common every day foods. YUCK! So I thought maybe it’s NOT such a bad idea to have some of my own organic foods. I went to Henry’s and they were selling 1 green bell pepper for $3.99. WTF?
@My_Enigma_Heart - Wa, we leave on July 1, and I’m so excited! My tomatoes are doing really well, and while I would be happy to give you veg garden pointers, the truth is that by the time you harvested your veggies, Caleb would already be done with baby food for quite a while.
They take a few months to mature. BUT, you could do veggies so your whole family could eat organic! I know, organic veggies and fruits are so expensive. I don’t buy everything organic. Actually, I wrote an article on which foods it’s most important to buy organic for for your baby. It’s part of my guide on how to make your own baby food: click here, and then under the picture of frozen baby food cubes (I made those! 
), there’s a link to the buying organic guide. I wrote this back in December, but the info is still good.
And, you can get rid of a lot of the pesticides by washing well and soaking in a solution of salt water. When I can’t buy organic strawberries or grapes, that’s what I do. I wash them well, and then I soak them in a tub of cold water with a whole tablespoon of sea salt. Wait 15 minutes, then rinse well. In general, I don’t get too sketched out by the pesticides. They’ve been used on food for a long time, and we can’t all afford to buy organic all the time. So we do the best we can, and what we CAN’T buy organic, just clean it well.
@bevconeal - Good points. I will start soaking with salt. I do wanna start the veggie garden since I feel all of us should eat healthy. Working in the insurance industry, I realize we are all living longer… but with more health issues.. and cancer. Sadly, but I think every day little bits and pieces contribute to our health and well being. Obviously I won’t be going all extreme aka raising my own cows and pigs.
but a little veggie garden might a good idea. And I said I hate gardening;haha .. I think it’s the sun. Don’t find it odd if you pass by my yard and find me digging and farming in my backyard in the middle of the night. ha!
I’m miss you for the month of July! All I wanna do is relax for the summer, aside from work… that’s it. Don’t really wanna go anywhere. I just wanna stay home with caleb.
@My_Enigma_Heart - Yeah, I totally agree that little things we do on a daily basis add up to a HUGE effect on our health! It’s great that you are raising Caleb to enjoy fresh-tasting foods from babyhood. He’ll grow up knowing how to make good food choices, and that will help him make good lifestyle choices as well.
Oh, yeah, I don’t enjoy being out in full sun for gardening. I usually do my gardening stuff right after the boys go to sleep (around 7 p.m.), so at dusk. LOL.