Life in the Diaper Lane

Morgan is Ice Girl Superhero!

2010-06-28T11:41:00.002-07:00

Morgan wrote and acted in her first play with her classmates! It's a Superhero play and she plays Ice Girl Superhero!

You can see her standing in the wings on the left side of screen around 1:16. She's actually blowing me a kiss (which she does again at the end of the play). She comes on stage around 2:00.

Hmmm...maybe I should find an agent....

They put on the play right after her graduation. Her first diploma! I'm so proud!! :)

I would have put it in a bigger screen but for some reason it cuts off half the screen when I do that...

School pics!

2009-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

School pictures! Thanks grandma for the great outfits!!

Here are the pics that were taken at school. I realized that the kids didn't have any outfits that matched until I found these tucked into the back of the closet. Checked the sizes and hey! they're the perfect size! Coleman didn't have the appropriate pants/shoes but I think they still turned out pretty cute!

Has it been almost a year already??

2009-09-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you procrastinate! The kids just keep getting bigger regardless. We just celebrated Coleman's and Morgan's birthdays. For Coleman we just brought cupcakes to his school and celebrated with his friends there. Ironically half of his class was out that day so they decided to combine his class and another class. Amazingly they ended up with the same number of kids and the same boy/girl ratio so my goodie bags worked out perfectly. Thank goodness for serendipity!

For Morgan she got lucky and got to celebrate her birthday over two weekends! Her actual birthday was over labor day weekend so I had decided not to throw a party since most everyone was likely to be out of town. Well lucky us got invited to a classmate's birthday party two weeks before her birthday, so of course Morgan started telling me what she was going to do at *her* birthday party.

So, duh, I had to plan a party.

So I threw one together for the weekend after her actual birthday. By then of course I had planned a nice little birthday weekend for her already in Santa Barbara. So she got to go on a nice little holiday for her birthday and then had a nice little bash the weekend after. Spoiled girl! Okay, maybe Santa Barbara was more for mom....but still...

Morgan with all her loot from the party!

Coleman pleased as punch that he got to help Mo open her loot from her party.

Party madness! We had 26 kids there plus parents

I'm glad someone was paying attention and gave the birthday girl some food - I was too busy running around and Michael was busy chasing Coleman around so neither one of us checked to see if Mo had food! :(

The party was at this fitness place for kids - Coleman and I are standing - barely - on this little skatboarding thing that actually mimicks the movement of a skateboard. It's on - that's why he looks like he's clinging on for dear life.

Mo socializing at her party. Sweet picture, no? See that girl with the cast on her arm? I think Morgan may have contributed to that. I heard that she broke her arm rollerskating in the house. Then Mo tells me she broke her arm when she picked her up at school and dropped her. So at the party I asked her mom - and she said that she's not sure if it was when she fell down in the house (her grandmother was watching her) or if it happened the following week when a "friend" dropped her at school. I just kinda gaped at her.

Morgan picked "rebounding" for her group activity at the center. In hindsight it was probably not the most appropriate activity for a younger group like this. Guess who was one of the kids who fell off the trampoline and had to get ice on her ankle. Nope, not Mo. Yes, the girl with the cast on her arm. Of course.

One of the interactive games they had. That big red dot is suppose to be a dodgeball and the kids are suppose to be avoiding it - of course if it hits you it explodes so for the younger kids, it was more fun to chase it down and stomp on it...

Mo on the same skateboarding contraption.
Yes its on - which is why she has such a goofy grin on her face

Big climbing wall - the kids got a kick out of this too

Uncle Jay came to visit the day after Mo's birthday!! Yay!

Coleman making a funny face

Coleman's mad face

On the way home on the day of her birthday we stopped by the ranch where we celebrated with a big 'ol cake with Baba. Nothing like a bunch of inebriated hunters singing Happy Birthday to your four year old.

Santa Barbara was nice. The resort was right across the street to the beach. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera but luckily Jim did. Danielle and Jim came with us - and we met Heather and the girls there. Just a few blocks from the resort was a cool playground.

And just a block from the playground was a cool carousel

Which Coleman did not want to ride on by himself so we rode one of the benches

Birthday morning gift opening. She was quite good about letting Coleman help (after a little coaxing). Yes she's wearing a tiara - otherwise known as the Birthday Crown

Lunch in Santa Barbara - Mo went a little crazy with a stamp

Rock -n- Roll! (No really, that's what she's saying....!)

The whole Santa Barbara gang at lunch

Coleman playing "red light, green light" - except he would stop regardless which one you called out. And he'd do this funny stance with his legs, arms and fingers spread out

Here are the kids at the party just before Mo's birthday that made me scramble to put together her own birthday party...

This was Coleman's first ride down the big kid slide by himself - he started going a little sideways but had so much fun I couldn't get him off it for a long time

The family pic at Coleman's birthday party at his school

Eating cupcake at his party

Wearing cupcake at his party

Gratuitous brother/sister shot where they're both smiling

Mo got a new training wheels bike! She's growing up...waaaah!

Coleman after he eats spaghetti

Spaghetti Zombie!! Waaahhhrrrggggg!

Coleman is going through a Cars (the Disney movie) phase. When I say phase I mean obsession. We probably play that movie at least twice every weekend if not more. For the uninitiated - those stickers he's plastering himself with are all characters from the movie. And if you ever stay with us for more than a few days, you will probably be able to recite the movie by heart by the time you leave.

Um...Mo on a kangeroo. What else can I say?

We went to a Pirate Fesitval this summer. It's kind of a smaller renaissance faire but with Pirates. So we had a bunch of people dress in costumes like Pirates....

And a mermaid. There were some other interesting (scary) costumes, but this is a rated G site....

And Morgan won her first medal for being a good shot with the Pistol Bow!

Mo and Coleman went to a couple more birthday parties over the summer....

And finally a visit to the Children's Discovery Museum where they had a Curious George exhibit!

*Whew!* Hope that gave you some idea of what we've been up to! Love ya and Miss y'all!

School pics!

2008-12-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

Morgan and Coleman's school pics....enjoy! Can you believe how big they're getting? I can't...

2008-12-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

We finally went to take our requisite annual Santa photo. As you can probably tell, Coleman was none too happy about being handed off to the jolly ole fellow in the big red suit. I had to pretend to hold him while edging over to the side out of the frame of the photo. At least he wasn't actually screaming at the moment. It was the best we were gonna get. When Santa asked Mo what she wanted she said, in her usual high-speed kind of way, "A dolly at my home". I had to explain to Santa what that meant. Her and her dolls. How many dolls does a girl need anyway??

And in case you can't tell, Coleman got his first big-boy haircut. I'm not too happy about it. It makes him look like a big boy instead of my baby boy! She just kept cutting...and cutting...and cutting. I would look over at Michael - probably with a stricken look on my face - and he just kept saying "It's hair, it'll grow back!". It better - and it's gonna be a while before the next haircut!

Lions and Tiggers and Mice, Oh My!

2008-11-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

So October was an eventful month! First we went to Disney World! Wow! We were there for about two and half days but really should have been there for the full week. Going back and forth for naps midday really ate into our time. I think if we go back we may need to wait until they don't take naps anymore. But we had a good time anyway. We also went to the Tampa Aquarium to visit Auntie Shannon and her 2 little ones! Here are some of the pics....

Riding the carousel with Sissy!

Coleman in the shell @ the Aquarium

Morgan and Austin in the shell @ the Aquarium

Coleman pointing to the fish

Fireworks @ Cinderella's Castle

We had dinner in Cinderella's Castle as special guests of Cinderella!

After greeting Cinderella in the Lobby we went upstairs and had a nice dinner with a show with the Fairy Godmother and two mice.

We also got to meet some of the characters!

Coleman wasn't too sure about the characters though - but at least he didn't start crying/screaming like the kid sitting behind us!

The first day we went to Animal Kingdom. Morgan got to be in a parade in the Festival of the Lion King and Miah got to stand up and make giraffe noises! Which is funny since she wore a giraffe print dress too.

And this is what they looked like after each exhausting day....

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge which was really cool and got to see these Animals right off our balcony! (Look at those horns!!)

This is how big Coleman is now...almost big enough to reach the bottom of Michael's truck door!

And here is their Halloween costume! Yes, I am getting good mileage out of that Cinderella dress and Coleman got Morgan's hand-me-down Tigger outfit - and it looked so cute!!

Hmmm...now that look back - between the trip and their Halloween costumes...I'd say Disney got a good chunk of my wallet this month!!!!!

hairy cupcakes?

2008-09-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

So Mo is starting, after a year, to regress a little. I guess she's getting a little jealous of the attention her baby brother is getting even though we try to include her in everything. One of the ways she's regressing and demanding to be included in is nursing. I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it so I let her nurse a little, but only after I've already nursed Coleman.

A couple of nights ago, at bedtime, she was asking to be nursed, but Coleman was still nursing so I told her she had to wait. She starting whining so Michael asked her is she wanted to nurse on him. She turned to him, looked at his bare chest and adamantly shook her head "no!". Why not?

Ready?

Ready?

Wait for it....

"Because it has hair on it!"

LMAO! Ok I guess it might have been a "had to be there" moment - but we laughed a good five minutes over it.

In the mayhem of her birthday party, I failed to take any pictures of her cupcake tower which was beautifully done. Luckily when I wrote to the bakery to thank them and let them know that regretfully i did not have any pictures of their handiwork, they were kind enough to send me this pics.

They were delicious! Yum!

Mo Turned 3!

2008-09-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from Mo's birthday weekend! We had the party after-hours at the children's museum - the kids had a BLAST! I was lucky if I could get 2 minutes to greet each guest as they came in - the kids would pause for as long is it took them to decide what direction they wanted to go and off they went! Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the lovely cupcake tower that we had - it was Alice in Wonderland themed - but I'm lucky I got any pictures at all - pretty much all the pics were taken by thoughtful friends who grabbed my camera to make sure I had *some* pictures.

Morgan wearing her new princess nightgown - she insisted on wearing this to school Monday morning.

Thank you Auntie Heather, Auntie DJ and Sissy Danielle for coming all the way from LA, Sacramento and Florida to come visit me!

This is Morgan hugging....Morgan! Morgan is the daughter of one of my friends from high school.

Cupcake! Yum! We had chocolate chip, vanilla with raspberry, and lemon - they were tasty!

Morgan wearing her Cinderella dress - she wore this for 2 days straight (jncluding to the party) before I finally snuck it off to the laundry...thank you Auntie Heather!

Even Coleman got in on the action with more belated birthday gifts!

Morgan got lots of hugs throughout the night.

I can't believe it's been three years already! Where has the time gone??!!

Rodeos, Festivals and Birthdays!

2008-08-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of what we've been up to for the last couple months! Coleman turned 1!! He's only got his two bottom teeth still (Mo had at least 4) but he's up and practically walking - taking up to 4-5 steps now! And he is getting into EVERYTHING. Much more so that Morgan did.

Here's Coleman's birthday cake. We didn't teach him how to blow like we did with Morgan - his birthday kind of snuck up on me.. :(

Loot!! See the picture of him standing all by himself? He's getting so big! *sniffle*

We figured fair is fair - since we had the petting zoo and pony for Morgan's first birthday we should do the same for Coleman. He wasn't too sure about riding that pony though - kept looking at me like, why did you put me on this thing??!

How big is Coleman? Sooooo big!

Some gratuitous cute pics of Morgan - she didn't want to do her face painting on her face so she got it on her arm. And riding yet another pony at the rodeo....

Happy Belated 4th of July!

2008-07-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

Mo and Coleman went to their first fireworks show! We were a little worried that they would be bothered by the loud noises (it was a symphony/fireworks) and we would need to run out of there with two screaming/crying kids, but they actually enjoyed it. Well, ok, Mo enjoyed it. Coleman watched it with interest for a few minutes and then, it being way past his bedtime, promptly fell asleep halfway through.

Coleman, who has been crawling like a champ for the last couple of months has just started being able to let go for a second or two at a time when he's standing. I predict he'll be standing/walking pretty quickly cuz he sure is motivated to get around quickly! On Friday he actually had a low fever for most of the day and we were debating on whether to take him to the show, but Saturday morning we found out what it probably was - he's starting (finally!) to get some teeth! I ran for the camera to get his "before" pictures, and once his teeth come out more, I'll take the "after" shots.

I also added some links to the kiddos splashing around in the bath.
The pictures are posted HERE.

Let me know if you have problems getting to the link.

- Carousel pics are when we went south to visit Heather and her family
(We had a good time - thanks to Heather and fam for putting up with us for a couple days. And extra thanks for FiFi for getting me hooked on Guitar Hero! Grrrr! :))
- Morgan in a firetruck (also trip south)
- Coleman practicing brushing - I guess it was a "shocking" experience - lol!
- before teeth pics
- splashing in the bath
- Mo goofing around with Mr Potato Head

turning 40 is a day at the beach?

2008-05-19T16:48:00.000-07:00

Cole is getting pretty good at the "army crawl" and just in this past week have started to pull himself upright on objects. He only started being able to sit himself up from a lying down position it seems a few weeks ago! My baby's growing up *sniffle*! He'll be a "toddler" before I know it.

This weekend my friend turned 40 (better her than me - although I guess I'm next...grrr). She had a nice intimate party for a few families and rented a bus to take us all to lunch and then a quick visit to the beach. Mo loved the beach - and insisted on wading in up to her knees. Every time the wave would come up she would start screaming "it's a big one it's a big one!" and then give an ear-piercing scream (of joy, not of terror)! Brrr it was cold too! I didn't bring an extra change of clothing but baba let her wear his extra sweater. Enjoy the pics!

happy belated mother's day!

2008-05-13T14:39:00.001-07:00

Mo's class had a mother's day party yesterday. Its moments like these that make mommyhood so awesome! :)

Plus i think the sugar from all that pineapple she ate before i got there helped... lol! No, really. She's the one on the food rush....don't ask me why I'm the one that looks a little psycho... :-/

The World has opened up for me!

2008-05-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well. Taking the kiddos to the amusement park has been a breakthrough. I took them both to Costco by myself this past weekend! Granted that this time Mo was contained in the cart. And lucky for me I was able to ply her with enough food through all the tasting stations to keep her in the cart through the whole store. Yay for eating our way through Coscto!

So where shall we go, what shall we do next?? I'm going to Disneyland! Ok, maybe not....

What the heck was I thinking?

2008-04-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Now I get it. Those looks I'd get from mother's of multiple children when I used to freak out about how I would get *anything* done now that I had a baby when Mo was born. I get it now. And I thank all of them for not smacking me upside the head and telling me that one child was easy and what the hell was I griping about? On the other hand - why the heck didn't you tell me that one child was easy and I should stop griping and enjoy it as much as possible before having another one????

Up to now I haven't even so much as attempted to run chores like grocery shopping by myself with the two young'uns.

So I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking when I thought it was a great idea to take both of them, by myself, to the amusement park. Well, I know what I was thinking: Oh it's such a beautiful day it would be a shame to be cooped up in the house - I should take them somewhere outside! What I should have been thinking is: Is it illegal to keep one in the kennel at home while I take the other one out? Then I can come home and switch them out? Oh, and a leash - where is that leash?

Anyway, here are some pics of us having fun. What you don't see are pics of me chasing Mo around the park, leaving our place in line for a ride to go find my daughter, me scratching Cole's arm against a wall because I was too busy trying to keep my grip on Mo's arm leaving the ride, taking advil that night from a sore arm from holding Cole in my arms for what seemed like 2 days waiting in line, and finally me getting ready to stab my eyes out with a blunt object by the middle of the afternoon..... :) Thank goodness for season passes so I can just take them for an hour or two and not feel bad about "not getting my money's worth" next time....

Here are some other pics from Coleman's first trip to the beach, the kids sleeping together (Mo's holding Cole's hand....all together now...awwwwww!), and Coleman with a fitting bucket on his head...

Give Coleman a nickname!

2008-04-28T14:14:00.001-07:00

So I still haven't figured out a good nickname for Coleman. We already have a hard time explaining why I named my SON "DeeDee". So I can't start calling him CoCo... if I use "coco puff" that defeats the purpose of using a nickname to shorten his name. So if you have any suggestions let me know!

Meanwhile, here are some pics of the nicknameless boy....

101 pushups, 102 pushups, 103 pushups...

Um, this hat's a little too big for me....

It figures we'd end up with a drummer in the family.

Daycare Cam

2008-04-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, we don't really have a daycare cam, but the teachers sometimes send us pictures of them...

Coleman really enjoys being in the "pool"

Morgan really enjoys her fruit smoothies!

Coleman playing with the water pillow....
My future gardener - wonder if she'll pull my weeds for me?

happy easter!

2008-03-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

happy easter everyone! the easter bunny left Mo a bunch of eggs this morning...

found another one!
look it's a toy!
ooooo! choooocolate!
hold it up so he can see the pictures mo!

2008-03-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

mo loves going to "school".... dont' ask me what they're doing in this picture - i have no idea - but i'm sure they're having fun! either that or they're practicing for their future criminal careers "freeze! put your hands on your head!" just kidding! (i hope....check back in 16 years...).

PICTURE PICTURES EVERYWHERE!

2008-03-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

ok, so i've decided that it apparently takes me about 6-7 months after birth before i get myself together enough to start blogging again. and i have definitely decided that i just don't have the time/energy (i know all you people with 3+ more kids are laughing hysterically now) to post 2 separate blogs, one per kid, AND try to be imaginative posting in the first person from the perspective of a baby/preschooler so i'm consolidating into this one. they can have their own blogs back after they're old enough to start typing on their own. so there.

before i start posing a gazillion pics, can you guess who is who here?
now, let the onslaught of pictures begin....

coleman is eating solids! he's not too fond of baby food yet but looks *very* interested in "real" food whenever we eat in front of him. poor kid...patience....

oh. and his toes. i guess his toes are pretty tasty.

he's a pretty happy kid in general....

unless baba makes this one particular noise...

then he's not so happy.

mama keeps trying to get in some tummy time...

but he would rather watch tv.

some random holiday pics:

2 teethers for xmas - one in each hand, and he *still* manages to find his hand to suck on!

morgan trying to make coleman laugh xmas morning

c'mon, wouldn't this face make you laugh?

if i could read minds...."what the heck is this *thing* you're putting on my head?"

xmas photo take 1......

xmas photo take 238. that fuzziness at the bottom is the hat that was suppose to go on morgan's head (which explains her bed-head hair) but at this point i gave up. this was as good as it was going to get. kids - 1, mom - 0.

why is morgan so happy here? is it because she fenagled her way into mom and dad's valentine's day dinner?
no.
is it because of that beautiful flower she broke the stem on so we put it in her hair?
no.
is it because of all the sugar in the flan she ate after dinner?
probably.

Having a break down

2008-03-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, before you call the headshrink, let me clarify that it was actually my *car* that broke down. And can I just say, it normally sucks when your car breaks down on a Friday night commute home after a long week of work. But when you have 2 little kids _and_ your car *dies* in the middle of the offramp of the freeway, the suck factor increases exponentially.

I am however, much impressed with triple-A as well as the tow truck company, as well as the city tow. They managed to box me in with 2 big vehicles so I wouldn't get "clobbered" (in the words of Steve-the-tow-truck-driver) - which under other circumstances would get my paranoia up to code-orange levels - but under these circumstances made me feel SO much safer. Cuz my choices were either sit in my car next to a busy offramp, or try to hustle 1 toddler + 1 baby out of my car and down a busy offramp and find a reasonably quiet parking lot (no stores in sight) sans car off a busy main road.

Even the most mundane things become high adventure when you throw the kids into the mix....

Oh, and for those who are counting the days, pics are coming soon...