Olympic Reflections

The other day, I found myself reading an article online about Gaby Douglas' HAIR. That's the point when I realized that perhaps the Olympic obsession has gone a bit too far.  But it's only once every 4 years, right?! But we are oh so tired from staying up for the late night coverage.

Faster! Higher! Stronger!  Here are some reflections on our Olympic experience as observers:

We let the kids stay up to watch the first half of the opening ceremony.  They loved it, but were in bed long before the parade of nations and torch lighting, which was what we were all looking forward to. Of course, Scott and I still needed to pull out Owen's new globe to find some of those island nations. Tuvalu?

The Olympics coincided with our summer swimming lessons and provided perfect motivation for Owen to work on his front crawl and start figuring out the side breathing.

We've been watching highlights of the events after breakfast or before the kids go to bed. I love watching Josh do his rendition of his favorite events. Tonight, he was doing laps of run-jump-run-jump-run-jump to mimic the hurdles. On the other hand, what's not so awesome is his rendition of the backstroke start that he is doing (repeatedly) off the side of his crib each night.

I found myself taking a much greater interest in the men's events than the women this year. Especially the men's gymnastics. I think it's because now I imagine my own boys dreaming about being Olympians instead of  imagining what it would be like to be an Olympian myself.  Man, those P&G "Thank You Mom" commercials really get ya. (Though I gotta say, I do have wicked respect for those women who have stepped away from their sport to start a family and then return to the Olympics with toddlers in toe... wowza!)

Thankfully, my boys took a great interest in the women's gymnastics, so we had plenty of excuses to rewatch the videos of those golden ladies.  They especially liked pronouncing their own judgements on each dismount.  When I showed the kids the highlights of the team final, Josh watched the vaulting and declared, "She sticked it! She sticked it! She sticked it!"

We are feeling the full effect of living in Oregon, and so close to "Track Town USA" in Eugene.  So many track athletes have ties to Oregon - many of them training in either Eugene or Portland, so each day's newspaper has a great recap of how "our" athletes (representing countries across the world) are performing. It was particularly remarkable to watch Mo Farah (Great Brittan) and Galen Rupp (USA) run as a team and go 1-2 in the 10,000 meters. And now, Ashton Eaton from BEND is in the middle of his Decathlon and we'll get another chance to watch Rupp in the 5,000. Go Oregon!

The boys loved Oscar Pestorius' "Robot Legs" - we think they're pretty cool, too.

After watching the 100M Final, Owen decided that his name should be "Owen Bolt Bolt" because he's sure that he can run faster than Usain Bolt. I'd like to see that.

Go USA!

For those who have been asking...

Yes, yes, we are still here!

Ever get so far behind on something that you just can't bring yourself to even start tackling the task? Well, that's where my blog is right now. I keep telling people that I've been writing witty, entertaining blog posts all along... it's just that I "write" them in by brain while driving and they never actually make it to the screen.

I might say that we're busy ENJOYING life to spend time DOCUMENTING life. On the other hand, I might also say that after spending all day staring at my computer at the office, and 2 hours trying cram together making dinner, eating dinner, absorbing quality time with the kids, and working through the bedtime hour (or 2), we barely muster the energy to clean the kitchen and collapse on the couch for a mindless hour of television before sleep comes calling. Powering up the computer is very low on the list...

One other funny thought about this blogging delay: now that we're checking email and facebook from mobile devices, the idea of booting up the computer, downloading pictures, crafting posts, uploading photos, and publishing to the web... seems somewhat convoluted. How quickly our brains adjust to the NEXT BIG THING!

All that to say, new posts are coming. I'm actually adding them below this one, so scroll down to see what you've been missing. Thanks for hanging in there.

Sip Sip

For Christmas, Scott got me a great coffee mug from World Market. It's the kind with the silicone lid, that makes it look like you just got a Starbucks Latte. I swear, my coffee tastes "fancier" in that thing. Not to mention, the lid is just AWESOME for keeping my coffee close by while playing with the kids. It's not spill proof, but at least it gives me half a chance to prevent a major mess when it does get knocked over.

Scott was so sold, he bought himself one and a third one for me to have at the office - which my office mate, Chris, is very grateful for, as he has helped me clean up a massive coffee spill at LEAST 3-4 times in the last couple months. (You would think I would learn not to put my coffee mug between my arm and the ringing phone, but apparently I'm still learning that lesson.)

Anyway, happiness reigns in the small things, and right now, these commuter mugs are bringing a little bit more joy to my daily routine.

And then, it struck me. I don't think I have any position to try and break the kids of their habit of requesting "warm milk in a sippy cup" first thing every morning. Notice a similarity?

Be Still my Type A Heart

Over at SimpleMom, Tsh is leading Project: Simplify to encourage us all to clean the clutter from our lives. I haven't been playing along so far, but this week, her area happened to coincide with a project I tackled over the weekend. Hooray!

For a long time, I've been wanting to reorganize our pantry. Really, I wanted fancy, matching containers and an excuse to use my label maker - You think I'm Type A?? Plus, Owens near constant climbing on dangerous objects to "see what's for snack" told me that we needed a new system to get all the "kid stuff" onto lower shelves before someone knocked their teeth out.

The final push came from Scott's mom, who made a trip with me to BB&B and then gave me the much coveted organizing canisters for my birthday. No more excuses.

We started with this:

Which turned into this (seriously? who is eating all this food?):
Owen was a great helper with washing out the containers and printing labels. He and Josh also complied with my requests for "one more trip to BB&B" (three total). Granted, the last time required a blatant bribe of ice cream, but we all make sacrifices. In the end, I am grinning every time I open my pantry because now I see this:


Everything kid friendly is on the bottom two shelves and all my bulk foods are out of the plastic grocery bags. And this when I open the baking cabinet: Scott kept rolling his eyes at me as I launched into such a monumental project, but in the end, he rallied and sorted through our dish cabinet. Turns out we probably don't need those commemorative pint glasses from COLLEGE to be right at our finger tips. Instead, the little used dishes found new homes (or the goodwill box), and our dish cabinet - that has been driving Scott NUTS since we started stocking kid dishes - looks wonderful:

I also didn't take a picture of the little cabinet full of coffee mugs and sippy cups - that thing threatened to pour dishware down on anyone that dared open the door. Now, it holds an appropriate number of mugs and sippies, and... get this... the tea and coffee supplies, too! Love.

On Health

We have returned to health. Mostly. I'm sure we have a few more rounds of ickies awaiting us these next few months of winter, but I am praying we are through the worst of it. I'm grateful most of our bouts have been relatively minor thus far, but I was just tired of being tired. What worked?

For Josh, we had a "restoring health" weekend. The dumping of snow pretty quickly eliminated our weekend plans anyway, so we decided to just keep Josh home and encourage as much sleep as possible. I also pulled out my "Natural Baby" book to evaluate homeopathic remedies. (No cold medicines for kids anymore and I'm not so keen on the chemical stuff anyway.) After reading about all sorts of roots and extracts and feeling overwhelmed - where might one buy any of this stuff and how do you know how much to use?? - I flipped to the resources section and logged on to the suggested website. Sure enough, you can figure it out on your own, or you can hit your local Hyland's retailer... which for us, now means Safeway! Of course, the makers of our favorite teething tables also have a cold remedy, and we had Josh popping "C-Plus Cold Tablets" all weekend long.

On Tuesday, he finally traded yellow snot and nasty goopy eyes for teething drool. Hooray for health... and a few more teeth are certainly welcome, too!

What worked for Owen? Eating dirt? Somehow Owen is the only one to remain relatively healthy this month. He did manage a rather scary playground accident - biting completely through his lip. But it healed quickly on it's own without a trip to urgent care. (Nice to be good friends with an orthodontist who could reassure me that I was okay heading home for "observation" despite the initial fountain of blood.) I am continually amazed (knock on wood) that we have made it to 3 1/2 without an injury visit to urgent care or the ER.

What worked for me was Yoga. I haven't been since early December (yes, way back in 2010!), and I had been avoiding signing up again until I was feeling healthy, but last week, the kids were on the childcare schedule (you have to book 2 weeks in advance), so WE WERE GOING. The minute I stepped into the class, I was regretting my decision. You know, "inhale through the nose... exhale through your nose..." In the moments that I CAN get any air flow through my nose, it's not something that anyone would want to listen to in close proximity. But 10 minutes into the class, my airways cleared up and I WAS BREATHING. All those forward folds did what the last 3 weeks of Kleenex and Sudafed could not accomplish. It was awesome. More please.

On a somewhat related note: Scott took his first yoga class over the weekend and I think he's going to be hooked. He's occasionally done this hokey yoga DVD that we had, and I keep telling him that it's nothing like the real thing. Kevin dragged him to a great class at Groove Yoga - rockin' music, hard work, no new age mumbo jumbo. "I expected to be sore, but not in so many places!"

Looks like Scott is still fighting the latest round of lingering germs, but the early morning (5:30 AM on Wednesday) and last evening work hours probably aren't helping. We are grateful to have a job in this economy... we are grateful to have a job... we are grateful...

Did you think there would be pictures at the end of this one? Not on your life.

New strategy

Sometimes I feel so far behind on this blog that it squashed my motivation to even get started. So this year, I'm making a commitment to myself to at least create a "month in review" post at the end of each month to capture the images that are important to us. Don't worry, my other blog related goals are to post at least weekly and try to use this space for more reflection instead of just observation, so I'm certainly not dropping out of the blog-osphere. I actually think the month in review idea will help free up my other posts, so I can write more freely and not worry about having the "right" pictures to go with my thoughts.

Actually, I'm going back and posting "months in review" from 2010, but I'm back dating them, so my loyal readers (Hi Grandparents!) don't have to wade through them all at once.

Someday, I'll finish my blog books and have all those pictures saved in one place - Hey, I did 2007, so now I'm only 3 years behind!!

Naturally...

My kids love pancakes. It's one of the few foods that both of them (even Josh!) will happily eat and usually ask for seconds. That MAY have something to do with the addition of syrup, but "calories in" is what counts around here folks.

Natrually... we got through a lot of pancake mix.

We've been reliant on Krusteaz whole wheat pancake mix for some time because I can't justify buying one of the fancier mixes - though they really do make much better pancakes. However, even the Krusteaz seems pretty expensive for what amounts to a bag of fancy flour, and...

Naturally... Costco does not sell the whole wheat mix, only the buttermilk.

We're trying to eat less processed foods and cook from scratch when we can. It's healthier and more cost effective.

Naturally... I've been thinking about making my own pancake mix.

So last week, I pulled out the trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook - the one with the red and white checkered cover - my go to classic. Imagine my embarrassment to see how rediculously simple it is to make pancakes from scratch. It's like 8 ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, oil - one bowl, and 90 seconds.

Let me tell you, those were the best pancakes! I used whole wheat flour and tossed in a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. They fluffed perfectly on the stove, crispy outside, airy inside, beautiful color, even shape. Beautiful and delicious! I even thought about taking a picture, but I was too focused on scarfing down the finished product. I was totally stoked putting the plates on the table and doling out the syrup.

Naturally... my kids did not eat them.

Sigh.


(But don't worry. We're persistent and I made the pancakes again on Sunday to show Scott. This time, the kids ate a more reasonable amount. I'm never buying bag mix again!)

The Good in March

For some balance after that last post (and to help brighten my own mood), here are some other things that have been going RIGHT around the Maxwell House:

Aunt Kate came to visit.

My parents were in town for a long weekend and Scott and my Dad took Owen up skiing. I'll post those pictures separately.

Scott's mom was here for a whole week over Spring Break. In addition to taking care of the kids while I worked, she helped out in the evenings while Scott was slammed at work. We took the kids to free Ice Cream day at Ben & Jerry's, Scott and I got a date night (3rd one in March!), I got some one-on-one time with Owen, and Grandma helped Owen build a snowman during one of our freak morning snowstorms. Owen is also now convinced that "Grandpa is taking me to a baseball game," so Jeff and Ethel are on the hook because that kid doesn't forget.


I start a running program on Saturday - 9 weeks to get you ready for a 5K. Baby steps, baby!

Huskies won two games in the NCAA tourney. Owen watched some parts of the game with Nana and Papa, yelling, "Go Huskies! No Ducks!" Whenever one of the other games came on, Owen would say, "I don't like that basketball game." When I asked him why, he replied, "They're not wearing purple." and when the Huskies wore their black uniforms (why??), he kept saying, "Those aren't Huskies. Those are Beavers." Smart kid.

I finished up 3 weekends of XC ski class and loved it. Julie and I tried to ski to Swampy Lakes shelter on Sunday and found that the trail was much harder than anticipated.

We had a much needed dinner with two of our favorite couples that we used to see all the time a church. Between the three families, we now have 5 kids under age 3. It was actually incredibly encouraging to get together and discover that a community dinner is still feasible. Sure, it takes some planning (and a reschedule due to sick kids), but Owen and Joseph even entertained themselves in the backyard for a time and the adults had some semi-coherent conversations. We're hosting the next one in April.

Scott finally got back out on his bike and is looking forward to a long weekend in Moab at the end of April.

And Scott and Owen have been growing their hair out a bit...

March Madness

As the Huskies continue their march through the tournament today, we have been sporting our purple and gold here in Duck/Beaver country. Go Dawgs!


As the Huskies

All the Randomness

Here are this week's odds and ends:

- We took Josh to meet with the surgeon, and it was the best meeting ever. What we thought was a hernia 3 weeks ago has disappeared, so we'll just keep our eye on it and re-evaluate if the need arises. Awesome.
-We're facing a few health issues around our house today - Owen has a cough that got him sent home from school and wants nothing more than to rub his grubby hands all over Josh's face. I'll spare you the details of my issue, but just say that feeding Josh is not particularly pleasant for me or him right now. Urgh!
- I was totally bummed out about going back to work February 1, but I've had some good quality time with Josh this week, scheduled a massage and haircut next week while he's having a "practice day" at daycare, and cooked a bunch of meals for our freezer, so things are looking up.
- I'm actually not stressed about leaving Josh at daycare. It makes a big difference to be taking him a place that we already have a relationship. Plus, all the other kids are so excited for Josh to come to "school" - this morning 3 of them asked me if Josh was staying when I dropped off Owen.
- Josh and I got to take a dinner to Michelle and her newborn TWINS today. She looks great, the babies are beautiful, and it was great fun to compare the babies and see how much Josh has grown and matured in the last 2 months.

And Josh is really smiling!

Reality Check

The house needs cleaning...
the dishes are piling in the sink...
we're short on sleep...
I'm behind on blogging...
and we're spending lots of time curled on the couch.

Sure, there's a new baby here, but that's not the reason. Let's tell it like it is...

We're reading The Twilight Saga - and we're totally hooked!

(Yes, I am cringing even writing that, but we just can't put those books down. 3 down and 1 to go before I can exit the land of vampires and werewolves and return to real life.)

You Know You Married an Engineer

My friend, Cailean, runs an occasional series on her blog where she lovingly documents the ways her Engineer Husband shows his true colors. I, of course, find these snippets hilarious and so close to home. So...with acknowledgments to Cailean and full admission that we have TWO trained engineers in our family, I bring you the Maxwell Family version of

You know you Married and Engineer When...
Someone has calculated (accurately and without a calculator) that, "Owen is me at 1/8 scale and Josh is me at 1/20 scale."

A Baby in the H1N1 Era

The H1N1 virus has been making the rounds through Bend. The hospital has been hit really hard and we already know people who have been down with the high fever flu that is assumed to be H1N1.

As a pregnant woman, I got access to the vaccine pretty early. Protecting Josh is our next priority. Owen will be getting his vaccine in the next week or two and we’re trying to figure out how to get one for Scott. (They say the best way to protect a little one is to make sure all his caretakers are flu free.)

The flu had a much bigger impact on our experience at the hospital. No visitors under 12 are allowed in the building – period. So Owen didn’t get to visit the hospital. The birth center has also implemented a STRICT policy of only 2 visitors per patient… and dad counts as a visitor! That means if you have a doula or labor support person in addition to your husband, nobody else can come in your room for the duration of your stay. Our nurses said they have had families “meeting” babies through the hospital windows and some women laboring with support people watching from outside. Even my friend Shawndi, who works at the hospital, couldn’t use her credentials so sneak in a visit!

Thankfully, we only had one grandparent in town during our hospital stay, so we didn’t have to do some sort of crazy “Josh Lottery” to see who could visit. Ethel got the privilege, but she was had to walk the halls like this:

Better safe than sorry!

Thoughts on My Day

In my last two work days, I have spilled iced coffee and lemonade on my bulging belly. Today's goal: clean shirt.

Curious George spent this morning’s episode predicting weather based on cloud types. I thougth that would be a fun thing to add to our morning routine ("What's the weather like today?") until I realized that blue sky everyday might not be that interesting. Rough problem!

Why is my computer running so slow this morning?

The half and half in the fridge at work says, “sell by July 25” and is not yet sour… If I end up at Urgent Care, you'll know why.

Everything work related seems to be converging - loose ends unraveling instead of getting tied together, projects once far in the future becoming urgent, unexpected tasks getting added to the list - it's going to be an interesting trick to get all this ready to transfer to someone else in ten weeks.

My computer is still running ridiculously slow - not helpful in remedying the previous issue.

I think this baby is trying to push his way out through my belly button. S T R E T C H...

Scott and I got invited to a swanky fund raising dinner this weekend (and found a sitter). We have a wedding to attend next month. None of my maternity clothes are going to cut it. I need a new dress.

Curse the slow computer - I'm going shopping.

New dress! Clean Shirt. Dinner in the park with friends. Happy, exhausted kid. No dishes. Ahhh...

My Spidey and Me

This is Spidey.

He joined our family in May and has been Owen's best playmate for the last several months. Yes, Owen has much more "comforting" friends - like his blanket and stuffed doggie that live in his crib - but the plastic Spiderman (that Aunt Kate picked up in Mexico for less than a dollar) has been a favorite from day 1 and has been accompanying Owen on many adventures throughout the summer.

Spideyand Owen watch Seasme Street
Play in the forts

Owen taught him how to take a flying leap off our couch

Spidey also joined us on our trip to Portland and kept Owen (sort of) occupied through parts of the drive. Here Owen is giving Spidey a tour of our hotel at Edgefield.

Thankfully, Spidey is very durable. He has made frequent trips to the "mommy hospital" when he turns up like this:

Owen always says, "Oh no, Spidey bro-ken. Fix-it please mommy." as though he has no idea how Spidey could have suddently lost all his limbs. We've also learned that Spidey likes to swim (though his legs get pretty waterlogged), read books, rock in the rocking chair, wear Owen's PJs, and run through the airport. He will lie patiently while Owen traces his body with markers, and I've many times been asked to "draw spidey."

It really is fun to watch Owen interact with Spidey and sometimes we get an interesting clue into what's on his mind. Like the morning when Spidey seemed to be pushing Owen an awful lot and I finally asked Owen if Spidey needed a time-out. "Yes, sit here Spidey. No push Owen." I think he was testing to see if my discipine would be applied consistently or just randomly directed at him. Hillarious!

I know you can't predict what objects your kids will embrace, but this one continues to bring amusement to our household. Thanks Spidey!

Plan vs Reality

Saturday Morning Plan:
1. Breakfast, lounging, get Owen ready for the day
2. Purchase Father's Day gifts
3. Visit the Library
4. Grocery store for Father's Day food

Saturday Morning Reality:
1. Breakfast, lounging, get Owen ready for the day - Check
2. While loading Owen in the car, turn a 20 pound bag of cat food into this...


3. Spend an hour turning the above mess (not one smidgen managed to stay in the bag), into this...

4. Find exactly the gift we want, then feel swindled by the store, abandon the purchase, and leave nearly in tears (maybe some pregnancy hormones playing into that one).
5. Visit the Library - check!
6. Abandon grocery store visit, we're out of time
7. Lunch - one glass of juice on the floor (Owen), one larger glass of juice all over the kitchen table (me)

Boy, was I glad to get to naptime, so I could just sit on the couch and not risk messing anything else up. When Scott walked in the door, I asked for a RESET button on my day. Sometimes life is just like that.

Whole Foods

What I Love about Whole Foods:
Fancy Cheese Samples for my child who won't touch them (darn, I guess I'll have to eat that?)
Odwalla Smoothies
Annie's Mac & Cheese on Super Sale
New Zealand Cheddar purchased after the free sample
Veggie Pirate's Booty that makes Owen chant "booty, booty" all the way home
California Blueberries already

What I hate about Whole Foods:
Quick stop for mozzarella, mushrooms, and pizza sauce = $30 after all the above impulse buys.

Dueling Laptops

Tonight is one of those evenings when both Scott and I are sitting on the couch staring at the computer screen. Only this time we have dueling laptops ... we got a new computer! We have to do our part to stimulate the economy right? So our tax refund went to Best Buy and a new HP laptop that is super slick and with gabs more memory than the 5 year old machine sitting on my lap. Now begins the long process of transferring files, so our pictures are in digital purgatory until we get things up and running, so I updated the blog background design to give you something new to look at.

Our evening:
I've said before how the 5-6 o'clock hour is a tough one in our house. I walk in the door with a mental list of tasks to accomplish, a hungry belly, and a nearly 2-year old that just wants attention after a long day at school. Today, turned out awesome because I was able to put Owen to work on a few of those tasks. He pushed our rolling garbage can all the way in from the curb (I wish I had pictures - the can is double his height), and then helped me shuck corn on the cob for dinner. That kid is just happier with a job to do!

Finally, hooray for the second trimester! I still have bouts of exhaustion (i.e. after a Saturday in the sun without enough water), but my stomach is no longer rebelling. Of course, this also brings the frustrating phase where none of my pants fit, but there's no way I'm pulling out the maternity box yet. We'll see how far a little creativity and my Bella Band will get me...

Busy Day

For some reason, my Thursday's tend to be jam packed full. I think because I work a couple hours from home on Thursday, I think of it as my day to get stuff done. Whereas I reserve Friday for more play time because it's my day off to spend exclusively with Owen. Today may have been a bit of overkill. Here's my "completed" list for the day:

- Up and dressed mere milliseconds before Owen got up
- Owen up, read books, get dressed (a rediculously challenging chore these days)
- Breakfast (including scrambled eggs at Owen's request that he then refused to eat)
- Prep double helping of dinner and in the crock pot while Owen watches Elmo
- Vaccuum house with help of a toddler
- Wrestle the cat for trip to the vet
- Drop off the cat, meet with the vet
- Bank
- Playground time, Swim Lessons, back to the playground, all with snacks on the run
- Home for Lunch
- Sweep house, wash cat urine off the walls (reason for the trip to the vet)
- Owen goes down for a nap
- Blessedly long nap lets me get my work done, finish the crock-pot dinner, pasta salad, and miscellaneous extras for a friend with a new baby
- Snacks on the run, while we take dinner to Diana
- Chat with Diana and meet 3 day old Winston, Owen has a minor panic attack when I hold the baby
- Play group at Bouncing off the Walls (we bounce, climb, slide, ride, and laugh ourselves to exhaustion)
- Back to the vet to pick up cat, entertain a 2 year old in the vet office for 30 minutes waiting for the vet, cat is medically fine and probably spraying our walls on purpose. Sweet.
- Home for dinner, more vacuuming, dusting, and prepping for friends coming to visit for the weekend.

I feel productive. And justified in sitting on the couch the rest of the night. At least the only think on the calendar for tomorrow is a walk in the park with friends. I guess that's why I cram it all in on Thursdays...

P.S. This was my day with just one kiddo that thinks cleaning chores are the best game ever. How do people do this with multiple children? How will I do this come November. Yikes!

Twittering the Weather

If I was on Twitter, this is what you would have seen yesterday:
9:30 AM - Can they really be predicting snow today and 75 degrees on Saturday?

10:00 AM - Snow flakes...in April??

1:30 PM - OMG! Hailing sideways. You have got to be kidding me!

3:30 PM - Sun's out. Hail is melting. Must be spring in Central Oregon.

7:00 PM - Spoke too soon. Real snow is falling - and sticking - in April. Insane.

10:00 PM - Going to bed with 1/2 inch of snow on our deck.

7:00 AM - Snow on our grass and deck. Weather forecast says 80 on Sunday. Central Oregon spring weather is insane... but I'll take it if we really get to wear shorts this weekend.

To go with the snow, Owen and I had a funny interaction this morning that showed me just how much he's paying attention. A few weeks ago, he wanted to wear his "boo-oots" to school and I managed to dissuade him by explaining that we wear boots when it's snowing. Problem solved (because it's SPRING!). This morning, as we wandered sleepily downstairs, he looked out the window...
Owen (pointing): "now-ing"
Me: That's right honey, it snowed last night. The grass is snowy.
Owen (thinking, processing, grinning): Boo-oots!

So, he wore his snow boots to school this morning. Grinning the whole way.