Update

Okay....I neglected my blog. I know it. I figured I would set a record for inactivity. Not buying it? Neither am I. Here's a few pictures and I'll see if I'm feeling froggy to get some major updates on this site. :)

Tristan's pouty face

Kisses for little sister

Look ma! I have two ring pops!

My babies!

Belated greetings

Life has become quite hectic and has sped by this year. I cannot believe it is already April. I haven't posted since 2009! Why? Taking three classes this semester may have had a bit to do with it. Work becoming overly busy the past few months may have not helped. Here's my first quarter, 2010, recap:

• Tristan was kicked out of daycare - it was a home daycare. Our provider told us she couldn't handle him and that he was showing signs of severe ADD.
• We put the kids in Tristan's old daycare, a commercial one, for a premium (over $300 a week)
• We take Tristan to the doctor's to get evaluated.
• Doctor says he's an active four year old that we don't have to worry too much about until he is closer to school age. In the meantime, praise him when he is quiet and following directions and offer him a fairly structured day.
• We're not sure, but we think it really wasn't our son that was the problem. We are still a bit upset about the ordeal.
• Scott now is a stay at home dad with the children. I work full time and go to school about 3/4 time (3 classes a semester is my goal).
• I'm happy that my children get to be at home with their father. Not many children have that privilege and I hope one day they will appreciate that.
• I'm jealous that it isn't me staying at home with them. Unfortunately, the job market is still pretty horrible and he wouldn't be able to make enough to let me stay at home.
• Tristan is now playing on a soccer team through the city's Park and Recreation program.
• Tristan isn't so enthusiastic about playing. He's more enthusiastic about watching his shadow.
• Melayna is more enthusiastic about soccer than her big brother is. Maybe we'll save the cleats and shin guards for her.
• I'm turning 27 this month. Not any major milestone or anything. Just another year that I can be thankful to be alive.

Honestly not much exciting stuff has been happening lately. A few personal things going on, but otherwise pretty darn good. I can be very thankful that we were able to manage living on one income without to many adjustments. I'd have to say the hardest would be the groceries. I've tried so hard to cut down on our spending, but I just can't seem to stay within budget. Perhaps my budget is unreasonable.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some of the few pictures (and I mean few - poor cameras have been neglected) I've taken over the past quarter.

Melayna sporting a pretty cool sweater from her Uncle Robert. It is a little big for her, but she'll grow into it.

Melayna testing out the balance beam at the YMCA downtown. They had a free Easter celebration and I went along with some good friends.

Tristan playing at the YMCA for Easter.

Melayna going through a crawling tube. She was having a blast!

Tristan having fun.

I♥Faces: Week 47

This week's theme is tooshies. Pictures from the back side. I thought I was going to get a cutsie picture of my one year old in cloth diapers, but I ran into an issue: time - I work, I have school, and I get home late (it is dark, so not good for lighting, and my daughter is asleep).

So, I instead have this picture of my boy from our visit to the zoo. They have this awesome play area where I got a cute picture of him crawling over the tunnels.



Check out all the cute tooshies at www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

I♥Faces: Week 45

Check out all the other Autumn Beauties at www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

Hooked on Phonics

A while back I was introduced to Bob Books by Thingamababy.  His daughter began reading Bob Books at an early age.  Read about it here.  Shortly after learning about the books, I bought the first set.  We didn’t have much luck.  Over time they were mostly forgotten as other books became Tristan’s favorites.  Tristan was still interested in reading and eventually writing.

Here a month shy of three is his writing (mostly tracing) a few letters (he could write some letters without tracing, but this was the only time I bothered to take a picture of his writing):

Yes, he’s a lefty.  I was corrected by my mother-in-law.  Apparently, her mother and her grandmother were both lefty’s.  Now I know where he got it from. An oddity since I don’t know of any lefty’s on either side of the family.  

 

I did some searching for programs and sites that are kid friendly as Tristan became more interested in the computer.  I found www.starfall.com.  It focuses on literacy through phonetics.  Some parts of it is kind of cheesy, but to a three year old, it was something new and something Mommy and Daddy would allow him to play around with while on the computer.  I would let him play around on his own and with our guidance.  Before I knew it, he was pronouncing all the letters phonetically with amazing accuracy.  We revisited the Bob books and I was amazed that around the age of 3 1/2 he could read them.  With some assistance, he was able to get through the first set. 

 

For the last couple of weeks, I’d catch him sounding out words.  He would break them down and sound them out phonetically.  This morning I wanted to test his ability to spell words.  We talked a little bit about fire.  He was sounding the word out when I asked him to tell me the letters.  At first, he would just say the letters phonetically.  “Ffff”  “ahh”  “rrr”.  So, I had him type the letters. 

 

Here is what he spelled (correct spelling in parentheses):

 

FORR (fire)

 

FOOG (frog)

 

CAML (camel)

 

ELFANT (elephant)

 

FLOMEGOO (flamingo)

 

DOG (dog)

 

SNAC (snake)

 

CAT (cat)

 

.FINK (fink – correctly spelled – name comes from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss)

 

SSOC (shark)

 

Tristan had always been interested in reading and writing.  I’m excited about his interest in spelling, too.  I haven’t tried to force the issue on him, but I do try to encourage it.  Lately, we’ve been reading Green Eggs and Ham almost every night before bedtime.  He loves the rhythm, rhymes and repetition.

Busy, busy, busy

So, life has been busy. Life has been hectic.
Besides being super busy with work, we've had a whole bunch going on that I just haven't been motivated to post.

Since my last posting, we made our second trip to the Renaissance Festival. We dressed up Tristan in usual fashion, but for Melayna I finished a princess dress just for her.


These pictures don't show everything, like the shoes I made to match. The dress isn't perfect, but it looked adorable on her.

She wasn't happy here. She really needed a nap.
This time, Tristan got an octopus painted on his face. An even better picture of Captain Jack of the Colorado Renaissance. Not bad, eh?

I♥Faces: Week 24

Let's Hear It For The Boys!

This week's theme means no pictures with girls and women in it. Only boys and men. I'm sure it is in honor of Father's Day.

Anyway, I've decided to enter both categories...


Here is a picture of my son, Tristan, when I took the kids outside on a nice evening. This pose is very rare and, in fact, lasted long enough for me to take it. Then he was off running again.
This picture was taken at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. These guys were hilarious. You can't see it in the picture, but the back of their vests have pretzels embroidered on them. If you're curious to see what it looks like, I have a picture in this post.

Well, that's my entry for this week. Check out other boyish and manly faces at iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

I♥Faces: Week 23

iheartfaces is now back to its regularly scheduled programming. This week...sepia toned pictures.

Here are my entries...

Kid's entry

Tristan at Renaissance Festival this weekend. I don't know what it is about his expression that gets to me, but I really love his eyes in this one. Normally, his eyes are just dark pools of brown. The light reflected well off his eyes and, I believe the sepia tone made them stand out just a tad bit more.

Adult Entry

My friend and neighbor with his daughter on her second birthday. She is definitely daddy's little girl. I wish I got a more focused shot (the moment, though dear, happened at a two-year-old's pace....very quick). What I love about this shot was the genuine love and affection he shows for his daughter.


Check out more sepia toned pictures at iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

I♥Faces: Week 20

This week at iheartfaces the theme is silhouettes. I had planned to try getting some silhouettes of the kids this weekend, but we had a gloomy, wet weekend. I even practiced the weekend before on inanimate objects and even got a couple walking with a stroller (I don't think it is good enough to submit though, because the stroller and guy were cut off by trees).

Anyway, this picture is the only decent silhouette I have. I took it when my son was just over a year old at his first visit to the aquarium. I love how his hand is reaching out touching the glass. I miss him being that little, but at the same time I'm so proud of him and the things he can do now.

Check out more amazing silhouettes this week at iheartfaces.blogspot.com

Oh boy..

We've been having some warmer weather lately. As such, we have better reason to run outside.

I share with you today a few pictures I took of my sweet, baby boy. Okay, he isn't a baby anymore. He's turning into a boy. What happened to his sweet baby roundness? What happened to his chunky thighs and baby belly? What happened to my baby? He's grown so much.

Ah, here's my baby. Still utterly dependent on my help, love, and presence. Sweet motherhood.
By the way, he looks so desperate here because he wanted my help crossing the creek because I was on the other side. He couldn't be content playing while I took pictures of him from a better angle.

I♥Faces: Week 18

This week's theme is laughter. I took this one during our ski trip to Monarch Ski Resort last month. Tristan had so much fun skiing for the first time.

Check out other faces depicting laughter at iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

I♥Faces: Week 17

This week's theme is hats. Check out all the awesome hats at iheartfaces.blogspot.com

Brotherly Love

Melayna, I think, has grown quite fond of her big brother. She loves to watch him (she's been doing so for months now). She loves to laugh with him. She loves to laugh at him. And she loves to scream with him.....

My silly son

Tristan isn't usually cooperative with me when I want to take his picture. This is why you mostly see pictures of girlie and not him. I caught the two of them having a blast screaming at each other (video post to follow), so I pulled out the camera. Tristan thought I was taking pictures and immediately begin to make his silliest faces ever. Each time I took a picture he would say "Let me see" and come to see the picture on my camera.

Here are a few pictures that were just too funny to not share...

The stare down

Tristan can be a defiant little child sometimes. He can be pretty adamant about what he wants and trying to get his way. He can also be very stubborn. Scott can be just as stubborn and adamant as Tristan, if not more so. It is sometimes cute to see the two get into their "stare down" contests. I never have the camera handy when such instances occur....until our ski trip last Saturday. I don't even remember why the stare down took place. Scott was getting Tristan out of his jacket and bib (snow suit) and I'm sure Tristan had his mind set on doing something else. I'm sure that's how it went down.

Regardless of how it went down, I happened to capture this oh-so serious moment on camera. I quietly laugh every time I see this picture.

*It just occurred to me why they had a stare down. Tristan kept insisting that he take his bib (snow suit) off. He proceeded to take them off when Scott told him no. After the stare down, though, I suggested that he have it taken off since we didn't want him to get too warm inside and during the car ride home.

Ski Trip

We had the opportunity this weekend to go skiing. So, early Saturday morning (after dropping Melayna off with my dad) we took a road trip to the slopes. Our friend, Samantha, came with us - which turned out to be a really good thing since I had no clue how to ski. I've gone snowboarding once, but that was over four years ago.

The mountains were pretty, the air was crisp, cold and pure, the slopes busy from closing weekend. Scott and I had our issues with the slopes. Enough so that we were pretty sore and tired from falling. I did get the hang of things eventually, but I had to stop because I believe I bruised my tailbone. Anyway, I think it was much more exciting once we got Tristan into some skis. It was so cool to see Tristan take to something new without hesitation and fear. He was eager to try it out and love almost every moment of it. He looked so grown up to me.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Tristan enjoying the snow and skiing.

Snow angel!

Eager to hit the slopes.

Maintaining his balance.

Pure joy.

A good teacher and guide. Sam was awesome with Tristan. She took him down a pretty long (but not steep) slope. She was great with how she talked to him which I think helped him feel better and more confident. Her assistance definitely helped enhance Tristan's experience.

Despite getting bruised all over and being really sore, I had a fun time. It was really nice driving through the country side up into the mountains. Passing through a few of the smaller towns really made me think about where I'd really like to raise my children. Besides, if we lived in one of those towns, then our drive would only be less than thirty minutes instead of over two hours!