Just in Time for Christmas (Part 2)

Just a week before the swim meet we were scrambling like chickens with our heads cut off to catch up from our long Thanksgiving vacation in Houston. It's official. I am an Aunt! Rob is an Uncle! Des is a Cousin! The Houston trip was in honor of the newest addition to the Paulsen clan...little baby Isaac. Oh babies are so fun, and so is Thanksgiving and pie. In that order of course. We had a splendid holiday de-stressing, reading, eating, sleeping, movie watching, house admiring, sight seeing, baby chasing, dog walking, warm weather enjoying, family picture taking, Emily and Harrison visiting, and my favorite...game playing. We played many rounds of Dominion, Nerts and of course Dance Dance Revolution and MarioKart. Overall it was just a great time seeing and enjoying family. Tiff you look amazing btw...

I can't believe Des was ever that small 

Playing with Grandpa at the airport.

Dear baby Isaac

Tina Puppy and her new friend

The iconic house of beer cans

Giant president busts

Just in time for Christmas (Part 1)

Hello again everyone! I always imagined that when I was grown up I would not let the holidays eat all of my time and stress me out...so I've just decided, I'm not grown up yet. : )  It has been a tornado of activity in this Maryland home since the holiday season arrived so here's an update, just in time for Christmas.

Starting with most recent activities....

Yesterday, in Cleveland, OH, I competed in my first swim meet since I quit swimming in college almost 8 years ago. My heart is all a flutter with the excitement of racing again. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as we drove the 5 1/2 hours home after the meet. I am a mother/athlete now and student/athlete no more.  I'm a little bit fatter, a lot bit slower, but I'm equally as jazzed about swimming as I ever was. I even had a cheering section as the Lovinger's were kind enough to join us for the afternoon.  It was a 25 meter pool and my inaugural times were this:

50m free: 33:00 (29.57 scy)
100m back: 1:19.42 (1:11 scy)
200 IM: 3:04.06 (2:44.9 scy)

I have a bit of work to do but I love having a benchmark to work from and I feel pretty good about those times. Especially since some weeks I get three swims in and some weeks I get one. I think I beat every woman at the meet, except for one, and a large handful of the gentlemen folk as well.  I'm mostly hoping that Des will catch the swimming bug with all this exposure. Cross those fingers that our future will be filled with swim meets and not baseball games.

So Dad, here is a snippet of my 100 backstroke for you to analyze (I'm in the closest lane if you can't tell)To begin the critique, my start was horrendous, but I've still got it under water off the walls. My age group swimmer timers told me I was, "impressive". That's a high compliment from a teenage swimmer to an old timer.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

Bad Holiday Photos

We know we've been away for a while and we'll give an update soon.  But tonight Rob and I found something so great we couldn't pass up the chance to blog about it: Bad Holiday Photos!  We couldn't stop laughing on a number of photos.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.  Thanks Ellen.

http://photos.ellen.warnerbros.com/galleries/bad_holiday_photos

My Creative Stirrings

This is my cousin's blog:

I think she is the happiest person I know...and quite possibly the most creative. I think you should check her out. I can not think of enough nice things to say about her. So I'll stick with this, I'm the luckiest cousin on earth that she moved across the country, just like us, and now is close enough to visit and go to the zoo with, and have other fun adventures with!

Butterball Turkey Lake Swim

I went for a swim this morning...outside...in a lake. Please remember it is November. November 12th to be exact. The water temperature is 47 degrees. The outside temperature 40. AWESOME.  It actually wasn't too bad...at least it wasn't as cold as we all thought it was going to be. Your hands, feet and face went numb after 5 minutes anyways. So what's the problem?The crazies involved in this event are my swim team buddies. YAY masters swimming! These are the same sane folks that I meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, at 5:15am, to swim 4000yds with, before work.  I love to swim. Can you tell? 

Jim and Lori prepared an amazing South African breakfast on a "skottel".  A gold star goes to any of my readers who actually know what that is.

10 Months

Today marks another month milestone for Peanut. He is growing and thriving despite our best efforts to ignore him this month. Rob is taking a basketball reffing class two nights a week, which will become actual game reffing in the new year, and I got called into the Young Women's presidency--for those of you who don't go to my church, this is the youth organization, specifically for the girls. Our lives are growing fuller, richer and busier by the moment. And we are enjoying it all...all except for the dark circle beneath our eyes due to a lack of sleep (one that's not even baby induced). So here are a few milestones for the baby:

* He had his first haircut this month. There's not much there but that little bit sure was getting long and scraggly.
* He figured out how to drink out of a straw, just last night actually.
* He officially balanced on his own two feet, not holding onto anything, for a whole 5 seconds. But other than that he wants nothing to do with it.
* He kicks his legs like crazy whenever I pick him up. Like he's running at a ridiculous rate through the air. Hilarious!

Halloween Bash

Family, without further ado, here are some photos of the Halloween party! For the rest of you who have never heard of this party or any of the other variety of reasons I have been too busy to post, here's part of the scoop...I threw a party, with a fantastically fun and creative friend, who also takes amazing pictures. Therefore these photos look far better than the point and shoot fare you usually find here. We went all out, planning for the whole month and cooking for two days straight. The invitations were so neat if I do say so myself. Here's a peak at the toe tag:

This was attached to a pile of skeleton bones that the invitees had to assemble to find out the details. The whole thing went off without a hitch. We had loads of games including a cookie decorating station, tombstone toss, mini scavenger hunt, monster bowling and terrifying twister. We had even put together a round of balderdash, Halloween style, but everyone was mingling so well we never got to it.  The highlight of party though really was the food, my favorite being the home made mac n' cheese... excuse me, vampire teeth. Well Happy Haunting! I can't wait till next year.

Salted Bat Guano & Dragon Eyes
(Curried Cashew Popcorn
&
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts)  

Brain Cupcakes

Petrified Werewolf Warts
(Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts)

Sweet Bat Guano
(Caramel Popcorn)

Witch Bones
(Parmesan Bread sticks)

Swamp Water
(Something like a pina colada)

Deadly Nightcrawlers
(Jello Worms)

Graveyard Dip
(7 Layer Dip)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween 

from Tigger, Piglet and Pooh!

Daily Dose of Humor

So I think sometimes I get a little too serious, and focused, and cranky, so I've made a goal this week to look up one funny thing a day. I'm trying to re-enact those days where I used to sit around dying laughing at a you tube video with a bunch of friends, and then all of a sudden it's three hours later and you're still there and have watched about 100 videos, just on a little bit smaller more efficient scale...see there I go again trying to schedule fun...all business. Sheesh! I'll work on it.

So I thought I'd post a few pictures that made me smile from our very oh-so-exciting little lives, to start off the week...

This is me, looking ridiculous, with a fried mound of heavenly
funnel cake. We went to the fair, maybe only for this. Ok no,
for the animals too.
Fried=always delicious.

This is what Peanut looked like the morning after the baby-
sitter put him to bed. Don't think she quite cinched that
diaper up all the way. "E" for effort.

C'mon Mom, did you seriously just post that
picture of my butt?

Allright and just to squeeze a little bit more into a post here, we had another visitor. Looks like we've got it goin' on here (don't know what "it" is...maybe our couch is super comfortable...I'm guessing it might be that cute little behind up above that's drawing the crowds). This was a visit from an old swimming buddy of mine. Thanks Victoria for moving to the east coast.

Class Act

We saw a free play the other night thanks to this program, http://www.freenightoftheater.net/:

So for those of you looking for a cheap date, check it out and see if you can win some tickets at a theater near you. Looks like they do it every year. We saw "The Rivals" and it was fantastic. And it was not just a cheap community theater. These were professionals. It was a great date!

9 Months

My goodness, time flies! And with it has flown the warm weather. As I headed off to bed two nights ago it occurred to me that the little guy might benefit from an extra blanket. The minute the blanket was settled on top of him, he lifted his head, rolled over twice towards the opposite side of the bed, buried the blanket underneath him, and resettled, all while fast asleep. So I tried again. The minute the second blanket was on he rolled the opposite way once, got up on his hands and knees, rubbed his face into the sheet, and resettled with both blankets somehow lodged underneath him. Desperately trying to stifle my laughter, I gave up and tried to tuck the tiniest loose parts around him into some kind of nest hoping in some way it might produce a little bit of warmth. What can you do?

On that note, Peanut has had another month birthday come and go. Here are the stats and a few funny stories:

Height: 30"--This has been an exceptional growth spurt that put him way above his growth line on the chart
Weight: 18 lbs 2 oz--I can't feed him enough to keep up with his height. He eats almost adult sized meals these days, plus 4 bottles a day, plus snacks and never gets any chubbier.

* New favorite hobby...opening and shutting doors and drawers. He slams his fingers at least once a day. I think enough slams will help him figure it out eventually. I have tried to use his hobby as an opportunity to teach opposites. He giggles while I say, "Open", and "Shut," as he does each one. He thinks it's especially funny as he does it faster and faster, and I say the words faster and faster.

* He is fascinated by small tight spaces. Especially the one between the toilet and the bath tub. He takes the cap off of the bolt holding the toilet down and sucks on it until I come dashing over and say, "Gross" or "Icky", and remove it from his hand. He just smiles. He knows exactly what all these words mean but seems to think they don't apply to him. He does the same thing with the plunger. I've started pinesoling both every time I wash the bathroom. I have also become an exceptionally adept blocker while rinsing poopy diapers in the toilet, so he doesn't climb up and try to stick his hands in the toilet. It's like a dance. My body moving around the toilet as he goes from one side to the open side, gently pushing him away with my foot, while my hands speedily rinse, remove the diaper to the sink, and flush.

* The clingy stage has begun. He wants to be carried around quite often, especially when he can't see what I'm doing on top of a counter. He climbs up my legs and whines for me to pick him up, and if I don't succumb, he head-butts my legs instead. He's tried this on the slider door as well. Alas his efforts are never fruitful there. ;)

* Freedom is my child's middle name. Any apparatus where we have to strap him in is guaranteed to produce screams. He is pacified by quickly snatching the keys while I buckle, then screams again when I take them away to drive the car. Oh what a vicious cycle. Maybe we need to work on sharing.

* Peanut has experienced his first real cold. His snot filled nose has run a marathon over most of my shirts and pants and all of our blankets and furniture.

*You will be rewarded with this one if you have read this far...yesterday I was rearranging his room again and had taken the fish bowl off of the dresser while I moved it. I forgot to put it back..dun dun dun.  As I'm putting things away I hear a splash, and see Peanut kneeling with hands gripping a tipped fish bowl as the water and fish spill over his head, and into his open, crying mouth, and onto the carpet. I  had to pick up a fish off of the floor rush to the sink and toss it in some tap water. Yes, I left the baby crying, on the floor. I rushed back to him next and tossed him in the tub also turning on the tap water. All are well. What a way to start the morning.

Now that I have written a small novel for this post I'll sign off with this: We are having a grand old time playing, laughing, growing and making a giant mess. It is wonderful to be a mother and it's wonderful to have a son.

"E" For Effort

We are dragging a bit around here...OK make that "I" am dragging, which means the whole household comes down with me.  I'm just plain pooped. This year seems to finally have caught up with me. I don't particularly like this state of being. I feel unproductive. That said I thought putting up a post might make me feel productive. I'll earn an "E" for effort for the week. So here we go...

We had another set of visitors this week. Grandma and Grandpa! Yes Peanut's Grandma and Grandpa, just so we don't confuse anyone. We had a lovely time eating (Tiffany, there were most definitely meatballs), celebrating birthdays, touring battlefields, and just spending time together. We are so blessed to have so many visitors in our humble abode. You all make our life exciting. Thank you!

What a great photo!

Watch out folks. He means business

We sure know how to show guests a wild time

The lovely Lady
waiting on the carriage step

On another note,  I would like to give a big cub scout round of applause to our fellow church members in thanks. We hit the jack pot on timing our move in. Everyone is just finishing having kids or their youngest's are just growing out of all the things that we are just starting to need, and we seem to have become the local hand-me-down drop off center. Mountains of clothes and toys and most recently a bike trailer have found their way to us. It's simply awesome. 

That said, we decided to take the bike trailer out on it's maiden voyage with two of the rental bikes that our apartment complex offers (our road bikes and an unpaved trail = disaster). This ended up being another "E" for effort adventure as it in no way could earn any other satisfactory grade. When we got to the trail of choice, we realized that these bikes did not have quick release wheel hubs and we did not have a wrench to attach the bike trailer. Thankfully after 15 minutes of discussion on how to proceed, or whether we should just give up and go home, a giant semi of train workers pulled in the park n' ride lot. All seven got out. All seven went searching for a wrench and all seven supervised the removal of said bolt and then supervised Rob as he attached the trailer. They then oohed and ahhed over the tiny baby we were planning on strapping into the attached trailer. After lots of thanks you and all of this commotion we hit the trail. Two miles down I noticed my tire was not just a little flat but completely flat. Lucky for me we had a pump in the car. So Peanut and I waited by the bike on the side of the trail waving at fellow riders and runners until Rob's return. We pumped up the tire and I took off like a shot to get back to the car before it went flat again. So that became our two hour, two mile bike ride. "E" for effort family!

Waiting for my knight and his trusty steed
to return.

The other knight in shining diapers.

Most successful part of the trip...
clean up.

8 Months

Our little peanut has grown up so much this month. Today I marveled at how heavy he is, and how much food he eats, and how incredibly strong this little tiny boy is! I picked him up by his hands just a bit ago (to move him away from the dishwasher that I needed to close) and in his rage at being taken away from all the shiny silverware, he held himself there in a chin hang. You know like this:

 I think we have a little rock climber on our hands. He is always looking for finger and footholds in order to climb the cabinetry. He does a pretty amazing job considering it's a completely smooth surface. Also this month, he has figured out how to crawl like normal, but he still slips back into his butterfly stroke on occasion. I love it.

I snapped this picture the other evening and was inspired to write a little poem to sum up this month in an oh so general way. I think he's heard this word a lot lately:

My dear Desmond,

Please stop chewing on electric cords.

Please stop putting rocks and dirt in your mouth.

Please stop falling off of one piece of furniture when there is a sharper/harder piece of furniture or floor near by for you to land on.

Please stop taking your bib off during a meal.

Please stop throwing all your food on the floor.

Please stop crawling into small spaces that you can't reverse out of, that I have to crawl into to get you.

Please stop putting your arms in the cleaning bucket...when it's full of suds.

Please stop pulling the toilet paper off of the roll.

Please stop grabbing the items off of the shelf or rack at the store.

Please stop taking Daddy's glasses off of his face.

Please stop throwing a tantrum whenever I try and keep you safe.

Please stop biting me just because you're tired.

BUT...

Please don't stop getting the giggles before bed.

Please don't stop giving your heartwarming smiles when you see Mommy.

Please don't stop being curious.

Please don't ever stop moving, little energizer bunny.

Please don't stop being so strong.

Please don't stop being so forgiving.

Please don't stop being such a good, adventurous eater.

Please don't stop being such a crowd pleaser.

Please don't stop entertaining us at church.

Please don't stop being such a good sleeper.

Please don't ever stop being you!