Whew . . . it's over! Bring on 2008.

We are drowning in toys. And toy packaging. For some reason this seems like the first Christmas where the kids got everything and then some. And I didn't do so bad myself!! But it was a good holiday, in spite of the fact that every one of us had a cold -- Laney topped us all with a triple-double: double ear infection, two trips to the doctor, and two - count them - two different antibiotics. That girl does not mess around!

Anyway, here's a little blast from the 80's past, and a great post Xmas message:

Though I believe, and please by all means comment if I'm wrong, the originals read Frankie SAY Relax. So, fine, they have corrected the grammar. Also, I had the codicil and more subversive social commentary shirt "Frankie Say Arm the Unemployed" -- because that, to a high school kid, is funny. I wore it to a dance where you had to match your date, and there is probably photo evidence somewhere on the property but I don't feel like digging it out. Anyway, hope YOU get to relax in the next few days. Then it's welcome to the new year, so all the best for the last bit of 2007!

Halloween Roundup & Dancin' Girl Bonus Clip

Well the cuteness is in . . . Roman and Delaney made Halloween so fun this year! Roman is still consuming his candy (Mom and Dad begrudgingly mete out pieces in exchange for vegetable eating and tooth brushing) and Laney made it for about 10 whole houses. At that age, it's really just about the costume.





















And the big finish: Laney shows her mad dancing skills (not to be missed):

ComingtoRockStreet.com

Ok, so this huge church behind our neighborhood had a grand opening yesterday. Advertised for weeks in advance as ComingtoGilbert.com -- softpedaling the church part and upselling the EVENT. Food, monster trucks, rock climbing, pedicures, Starbucks -- definitely all things to all people. We're still not sure how the God part fits in but I did read in the paper that the Sunday service will be a live tv feed of their pastor speaking from the North Mesa location. Now I don't know about you, but this seems oddly inefficient. Why should the congregators get dressed and go to church to watch someone on tv? Why don't they just webcast it and everyone can stay at home -- the technology is there to collect the offering via PayPal -- they could even make a little collection plate window that pops up at opportune times! They should hit up the parishioners for whatever they save in gas money! Anyway . . . traffic problems notwithstanding, we did enjoy the big finale from our 'hood -- a 30 minute fireworks show -- and the friends who were over for dinner all agreed that we'd be willing to kick in about $20 for that. We're just hoping they do another blowout for July 4th so we can sit in our driveway and watch and ooh-aah from home! Unless they decide to broadcast it from their other site . . . on tv.

September Already

As promised in my last post, here's a household cleaning secret PLUS the eagerly awaited All Hail the Swiffer write-up! The secret of the week, no, may I say the YEAR is . . . Fabuloso. This very affordable, effective, concentrated, deodorizing miracle alternative to 409 is nothing short of its name. Plus it's fun to say -- c'mon, try it! I think it's about $1.78 for a half-gallon at Target, and the smell alone makes your whole room feel cleaner. It's . . . fabuloso (and arranca la grasa). We like the Ocean Cool "flavor" but certainly, try the Lavender if you're adventurous!

And may I, once again, bow down to the marketing gurus at Swiffer, because those commercials WORK! Maybe it's subliminal visuals, maybe it's backmasking, but hats off to any company that can motivate a 4-year-old boy to actually dust! And think it's fun. Check it out . . . (and observe the TV in its rarely-used OFF position).

Delaney #1!

Wow -- what a year. Our daughter is walking, climbing, sippy cupping, and . . . what? Carrying a purse?!? She loves to put anything with a strap over her shoulder. So . . . out with the formula (here is our last and final can memorialized here and not to be missed!) and in with the whole milk -- YESSSSS!

Here Laney demonstrates her brilliant walking/drinking technique!

And brilliant carrying-things-like-a-purse technique.

Daddy went all out on her cake: and it showed! Those folks at Tammy Coe sure know how to make a cake!

Of course, Roman helped with candle blowing and wish making. He is a great big brother! Laney was a great sport and even tried the fondant . . .

Stay tuned for the next post with more on my secret house cleaning weapons . . . including The Swiffer! All hail the Swiffer!

Roman's Rockin' 4th Bday

Chandler June 30 2007 -- We had a blast at Way2Play Cafe in Chandler with a fun bunch of kids from Rock Street, Miss Jenny's, and more friends and fam we know and love. Roman scored like a rich kid at Christmas, and the one glitch -- 2 dozen cupcakes on the kitchen floor at Nana's just 20 minutes before party "Go Time" -- was quickly resolved thanks to Daddy's sweet talking and a nice bakery lady at Basha's. Though I didn't take a picture of "still life - cupcakes on floor," here's a few shots of the fun:

And one more of Roman on July 2, 2007 with Daddy:

Happy Birthday Roman . . . 4 years and growing!

Lay Loo Walks!

And we thought Roman was advanced!!! Laney is walking, I repeat, Laney is walking! She made it about five feet without support from Mom to Dad this evening, June 24 (also her Grammie Barb's birthday). In addition, she brought us a Trader Joe's ad on request. So, life will never be the same (like it was anyway). Next we'll work on "Laney, bring Daddy the remote . . ."And Mom was wrong -- thinking she would be later to walk than Roman -- they both made it under the 11 m0nth wire! Also, her nom du jour is "Lay Loo" which is short for Laney Loo, which her Daddy starting calling her and, well, it just stuck.

As for Roman, here's the promised update. Right now he's emulating the "Ice Road Truckers" show from History Channel and discussing life in Yellowknife. That's somewhere in the Canadian frozen tundra, eh? The following photo series depicts recent "Turtle Boogie" dance moments inspired by Teenage Mutants:

Sorry, I still need to learn the Flash animation slide show trick. "I'm workin' on it . . ." (in resentful tone).

Welcome to the Big 4-Ho!

Thanks to an awesome group of friends, I had a great weekend! The Valley Ho (new tagline: "Hip Again") was a ton of fun, and the quote of Friday night is still ringing in my ears "I love my birthday at Devil's Martini!!" There are not enough exclamation points to communicate how much fun we had, so I will be working on inventing a new exclamation point superscript which takes the punctuation to the third or fourth power. Ha ha.

Thanks to star former roomie Akasha for the comforting new alternative to "you're not old" -- she said "you're just 40 -- you're not in your 40's 'til next year." Hee hee! No compromising photos were taken so none shall be included herein. Just this one of us ladies!! Kelly is the photographer so she is the only one missing!! Don't be jealous of my "40" tiara!!

Birthday Countdown

Ha ha, someone at work yesterday pointed out it's the last Monday of my 30's (insert audio clip of sad "wanh wanh wanh" music here). I'm sure I can make it fun because that's how I roll!

In other news, has anyone tried the new Diet Coke . . . with vitamins? Here's an idea: how 'bout if we just . . . take a vitamin! Which, uh, I just realized that I forgot this morning. Oh well, I got a whole bottle waiting at home. Am I the only one here who smells irony?

Ok, back to the last Tuesday of my 30's.

Good Juju for June

All right, the kids are still doing well, though we are currently enjoying the dubious household trifecta of both of them AND Manny taking antibiotics. The house will be devoid of flora good and bad. Also, we are out of 409.

Here's a quick view of Laney -- 10 months old and helping around the house. Somehow, she has already recognized my slavish devotion to a clean kitchen floor and will start accruing brownie points for pitching in -- redeemable later for ridiculously priced clothing and gadgetry.

Manny and I just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary (which, he noted in the card, is 5 1/2 years longer than anyone thought we'd last - ha!) We celebrated at home with a sumptuous repast of deli meats, yummy bread, gourmet cheeses and two kinds of olives. No one can say we don't know how to live it up!

For all those who think I look young, zoom an extreme closeup for the crow's feet -- because I turn 40 in less than two weeks!! I told my mom that when my kids turn 40, I'll be getting close to 80! She said not to worry, 80 is the new 40. Especially compared to the cavemen, right? I think their lifespans were somewhere up in the high 30's. But enough about them! We are planning some fun with friends and evening(s) out as Manny turns 42 two days later (on Father's Day -- can you say "COMBO GIFT"?!). So June 16th is our average birthday! Also, our average age is 41. But enough about math!

We are enjoying the yard and highs in the low 100's -- here's Manny, Roman, and our friend Jim's kids chowing some watermelon last night -- so idyllic! Oh, and Roman is still Roman -- don't worry; I'll give him some airtime in the next post.

Enjoy your early summer days and whatever happens to be your watermelon.

get your Spring on

Kids, before the 2008 Easter Epidemic hit

Delaney, Lois, Roman: after the chocolate

Easter! Ours somehow included exposure to some nasty viruses . . . Manny, Roman and I spent the first part of the week running for the bathroom, in the bathroom, or trying to optimize our proximity to said bathroom . . . by Wednesday night everyone was somewhere near normal . . . Laney is still in diapers so she doesn't worry about these trivial matters.

We still had a nice day Sunday, as "re-enacted" above, notwithstanding Delaney's blowout besmirching of her Easter dress. She is shown here in her backup Easter dress. Yes, it's true! I was sweating the small stuff! So, one honeybaked ham, a dozen plastic eggs, two chocolate-stained shirts, and three hours later, we made it home for "picture time." May I say that chocolate fountains should not be placed in the wind, without napkins, at child's eye level like the sugared cereals in the grocery store -- but a whole lot messier? Obviously, the kids didn't care and had a nice time.

Delaney update: both top teeth are showing, she started crawling a few weeks ago, and is starting to pull herself up on crib and other handy furniture. Note to self: get those new gates for our wider longer staircases!!

Roman update: he knows what sounds the letters make, seems on the verge of reading, and stays interested in longer and longer bedtime stories. Bedtime itself is another (less happy) story, but we will leave that for the Christmas missive. Rides his bike w/t-wheels at breakneck speed!

I will close with more pictures from recent weeks. Our family is mostly healthy (except for the odd MRSA outbreak) and we are enjoying the beautiful spring in Arizona. Roman's favorite show is How It's Made on Discovery, so he explains and narrates mechanical things he finds anywhere.

Laney is also interested in books: she looks at them, bites them, and listens politely to my read-aloud efforts. After a 10 minute struggle to cut her nails, I would also say she's definitely right-handed. And her eyes are still blue(ish) -- at least for now.

Cleaning up our act

Thoughts on the keeping of house, formerly known as housekeeping:
Washing machines: the powers that be in consumer marketing are to be commended for an amazing feat: the positioning of much more expensive front-loading, high capacity washers as a critical new NEED rather than a regular old WANT. I think much of the populace has been convinced these are a necessity (kinda like A/C in your car). Some of these new washers cost about three times as much as the plain old top loading box that used to, well, simply clean our clothes and leave them sitting in sodden heaps around the agitator. Okay, I will recognize the incovenient truth that the new models may use just a third of the electricity and water, but some take much longer to finish a load of wash -- 75 minutes compared to 50 with the old kind. And we know someone who spent an extra $200 to buy a set in red. Did anybody ever have to pay extra for good old avocado or harvest gold in the seventies?

Here's a cool alternative: how about a single unit washer/dryer combo (front loading for coolness of course) that costs about 1300 bucks. Or, go for the full-on high capacity set. Don't forget you also have to buy new special "high capacity soap." They've really got us now! Okay, so say we buy these washers and dryers for about $1000 apiece, instead of $800 for the washer/dryer set. And we can do more laundry in one load (with our special new soap) . . . but are clothes cleaner? Do they last longer? Is life better? I hope so, on all three counts.

I also want to report a minor kitchen cleaning triumph -- the successful mopping of kitchen floor two weeks in a row (it becomes a grunge fest at best by the 5th day after any given cleaning) with the big industrial mop, which is actually quite efficient once I get past the hauling in from garage and filling of bucket drama. My sister Diane and I had this in-depth discussion of how there is no intuitive path for efficient cleaning of the kitchen floor for either of our houses, which she attributed to the presence of the island. Anyway, I may have conquered this challenge but it's too early to say. I will continue to work away at my goal of cleaning that floor once a week to stay ahead of the dusty fuzz colonies and kid detritus under the table. Albeit with the old-time floor cleaning technology, which may just help to realign the cleaning universe, which was imbalanced by the proliferation of all these new, high tech, high capacity, higher priced washer/dryer sets. So there.

Hearts in LoSpace

Here's our online Valentine. Hey that rhymes -- it's fun to say. Now you try! And happy heart's day! Love from us. PS: Click it to play!

Click to Play Now

Delaney Sitting Pretty

Check it out . . . our nearly 6 month old baby is sitting on her own, for several minutes at a time. She doesn't yet arrive at sitting position on her own, but that's coming. She also eats from a spoon, but I don't think we have yet found a food she really loves. And sweet potatoes don't love her! We had a couple of bad days after that trial. It was more of an error, really.

She and Roman are getting along quite well, though he is still resisting most photographic efforts. Here's one where he's being marginally cooperative. Roman is a walking case study for renaming the terrible twos to the tiresome threes, but the alliteration just isn't quite the same. I'll keep my ears open for a better suggestion . . . like "the throes of three." You get the idea.