Potty Training Update

How is potty training going? Just need to get him out of the corner and into the bathroom. That's all.

Then and Now: First Grade

Last year I posted a picture of Luke on the last day of kindergarten wearing the same shirt as the first day of kindergarten. So I thought, "What a fun tradition! I'll do that again this year."

You may remember the popped collars of the first day of First Grade:
Or maybe not, since I can't find a post about the first day of First Grade anywhere on this blog. Maybe it never happened? Alas, you may remember this picture from facebook.

Well, unfortunately for poor, long suffering Luke, this post is not as much about how he changed over the last school year as it is about how his brother went from cherub to attention seeking tyrant. Allow me to present:

Last Day of First Grade
It's all about Jack
A Photo Essay

From 2010

Ok - the camera is working. Luke, get in the picture!

From 2010

Jack - now one with just Luke. Luke, can you smile normally please? Jack - get out of the picture.

From 2010

OK - that's cute, how about one more?

From 2010

Jack!

From 2010

Just Luke please!

From 2010

From 2010

I give up!

From 2010

Bailey Hundo

My husband is soon to be an old man: 40 this year on his birthday. How is he celebrating? Beach vacation? European ski vacation? Weekend getaway with the wife? Big party? Nope. He's going to bike the Colorado Trail. It's a 500 mile trail from Denver to Durango.

If that is how Dave plans to celebrate his birthday, you might wonder what he plans to do for Father's day weekend. The answer is a hundred mile mountain bike race called the Bailey Hundo. The race raises money for worthy causes (Trips for Kids and Colorado High School Cycling League) so if you want to donate, please click here.

Originally we planned to camp somewhere in Bailey, until our Buffalo Creek camping trip this past weekend. After I cleaned up puke for the 5th time (Lucy x2, Jack x3) , and tried to hike with Luke, Jack and Lucy, (they go in 3 different directions and Jack wants to be carried) I started to dread our next trip. I'm not sure how long it takes to race 100 miles on a mountain bike, but I am pretty sure it's going to take longer than the amount of time I want to spend in a campground with that vomit-prone crew.

Se we are staying in a cabin! Glory be! I am so happy. Since we won't be camping in the van, I may be able to drive to some of the spectator spots along the race route. I'd love to post updates throughout the day, but I suspect cell phone internet access will be spotty.

In the meantime, follow Dave's training plan on his blog.

And FYI: I will be running a comment contest in July again this year, and I will be purchasing the prize on our Colorado Trail Vacation.

Go Dave!

Like Dis

This conversation just happened during a pre-nap diaper change:

Me: Hey we are camping this weekend, so you can just pee on a tree when you need to go to the bathroom.
Jack: I want to pee on a pink tree! Cuz a pink tree is so bootiful. And I could pee on it. Like dis: Peeeeeeeeeeee. And there might be lions there. In the forest. And we could pet them. Like dis: Pet, pet, pet, pet. But you'd say no. And I'd be a baby lion. And you'd be a momma lion. And we could punch each other like dis: punch, punch, punch. Ow! It's OK. Punch, punch. And storm troopers would come and we'd be on our speeders.

It sort of reminds me of a conversation we had earlier:

Me: Oh, lucky you. It looks like you get to go to the reservoir this summer with daycare!
Jack: I don't want to go der! Der's dinosaurs der. And dey might roar at me. Like dis: ROAR! Or dey might stomp der feet at me. Like dis: Stomp stomp stomp.

Also like a conversation we had the other day about Carrie Ann.

Jack: I say, "Can I have more guacamole?" And Carrie-Ma'am says "No." And then I say, "May I please have more guacamole?" And Carrie-Ma'am says, "Yes you may." And I get chips too! And I eat the guacamole like dis: Chomp chomp chomp.

Shall We Play A Game?

I've never had a list of things I want to accomplish without one of them having something to do with "getting in better shape", so I am sure you won't be surprised that MetaMegan 2.0 comes with an exercise plan. Or, the idea that an exercise plan should be developed at some point in time.

(Long boring section about how/why I never have time to exercise edited out. )

Today, I decided my best bet was to shower, get dressed for work (jeans/camisole/blouse) but throw on tennis shoes instead of heels and then take the puppy for a walk.

Where is this formerly long boring story going? It's going on a 3.48 mile walk/jog. I've been contemplating walking around a big trail near our house, but I never felt like I had time to do it because I didn't know how long it would take. Today I decided, what the hail? How long could it possibly take? Well, I knew it would take longer than I had time for, so I just decided to jog. In jeans and a blouse. No big deal, I just pretended it was the 80's and I was Ally Sheedy jogging over to Matthew Broderick's house in War Games. (Except I just googled "Ally Sheedy War Games" and it turns out she was wearing SWEATPANTS in the scene I was remembering. People jogged in jeans and kangaroos in the 80's right? Or was that the 70's?) Then I saw someone else and I thought it was my friend Jen. How embarrassing! Jen is going to make fun of me! What a relief when I figured out it wasn't her. Except whoever it was still gave me quite a disparaging look! How dare you jog in jeans and a blouse in Boulder, CO! Haven't you heard of Title 9, Prana, REI, Athleta, or Patagonia? What is wrong with you?!

But I did get exercise today! And a shower, and that is a rare combo. (Yeah the shower was before the exercise, but not daaaays before.)

In the end it was totally worth it because today Lucy looks like this:
Instead of this:


Or this:

What the Hail?

A miracle happened today: my camera, memory card, battery and laptop where all in the same place at the same time. Also, I felt like blogging. This has been a crazy year, and it's been difficult for me to be hilarious. I do, however, have a lot of material for my tragic memoir, which by the time I write it, will be tragically hilarious. But MetaMegan has been suffering, as I am sure dedicated readers have noticed.

Enter MetaMegan 2.0. I have a lot of exciting things planned for the rest of the year. I am sure many of them will turn out to disastrously, which will make for some good blogging.

Take our impromptu Saturday night dinner party! The pizza was in the oven when lightening struck and the power went out. It came back on right away and I said to our guests, "I hope we don't have a crazy hail storm like we did that other time you guys were here. Ha ha ha ha ha."



After I watched the hail for a really long time, I said, "THE PIZZA!"

The pizza wasn't burned because when the power went out the oven turned off. Sigh. I turned the oven back on and thought, "I'll just switch the bottom pizza with the top pizza while the oven heats back up. Except the bottom pizza (barbecue chicken) had sort of expanded beyond the pan, and grew around the oven rack. So when I pulled it out, half the pizza stayed in the oven. AAAHH! Pizza Disaster! I threw the pan on the counter to try to get the rest of the pizza out and in the process knocked over my wine glass, spilling wine across the counter and down the other side. My guest took off running, I assumed to laugh in the other room so as not to be rude, but actually it was to start cleaning wine off the wall across the room.

Since the oven was so cool by now, it was easy to get the rest of the pizza out and reassemble everything with delicious results. I'm on the come back trail here!

Potty Training

Jack likes to use the bathroom at The Med, Murphy's, The Rio, Coors Stadium, and other places that are not our house. (Well, our bathroom is an exciting destination at 2:00 am, or just after Jack has been put to bed.) I have a new theory on this: When we are out, it's obvious when a family member is going to use the bathroom because they excuse themselves and leave to go to the bathroom. Jack wants to go too. At home, it's not such a big deal, and not something Jack would notice and it isn't so exciting that he would want to join you. This is just a theory. But I am going to suggest to the rest of my family that everyone start making a big deal out of announcing that they are going to use the bathroom. We'll see how that goes.

But I wanted to share this: The second time I took Jack to the bathroom at Coor's field during the Rockies game on Saturday, I covered the seat with toilet paper, took of his shorts and diaper, sat him on the pot, etc etc. Then once he was dressed I quickly went to the bathroom. This time, instead of trying to open the door and escape, Jack just hung out and waited until I was finished. And then he loudly said, "Good Job Mommy! GOOD JOB!"

Things I'd Rather Think About When I Should Be Thinking about RMAN

I should be thinking about Oracle's Backup and Recovery Manager. But what I really want to know is...

Would I get more use out of Star Wars Pancake Molds? Or Cookie Cutters?

And when is my mixer going to fix itself so I can get back to baking?

Guys

Jack refers to Dave and Luke and I, collectively, as "guys". As in, "Watch dis guys!" "Guys! Come here and play."

Lately, Dave and I have been cracking up around 5:45 when Jack wakes up. After the initial round of "Mama. Mama! MAMA!" and sometimes even, "Daddy, Daddy! DADDEEEEEE!" things get interesting. Saturday morning it was, "Daddy, Mommy, Lukey, Lucy. I miss you. I miss you guys. And I love you. SUNS UP GUYS!" After we couldn't take it anymore, Dave stuck his head into Jack's room and told him it was too early to wake up. Jack said, "I just need my Darth Vader helmet!" (He slept in the rest of the costume) And then we didn't hear from him for another hour.

This morning it was, "Daddy's on FIRST BASE! And Lukey's on SECOND BASE! And Mommy's on THIRD BASE! And it's Jackie's turn to bat!" (the bases are pronounced with a very deep voice.)

Last night I went in to give him a kiss after Dave had put Jack to bed. He jumped up and said, "I have my king hat on! I have my magic boots on! I am going to take my sword and slay the dragon and the monster and save the princess! He held up one index finger, "This is the MONSTER!" and then he held up the other index finger, "This is Jackie!" And then he swirled his fingers around in the air and all over the place. "I'm skiin' with the monster! And the monster is fast! And I am faster! And we hit the rails. And we ski everywhere." Then he held up his two index fingers to me and said, "I'm gonna sleep wif' dese guys. Kiss them goodnight." So I kissed his index fingers and he laid down with his head on his pillow, and his two index fingers resting side by side on the pillow too.

Good night guys.

More Quotes

I recently instituted the Whine Fine. You whine, you owe me 10 cents. Lots of people on facebook had questions about how it was working, so here is the latest. Luke whined, I told him he owed me 10 cents, and he has been so polite ever since that I told him I wasn't going to collect on it. Jack, on the other hand, pretty much has to pay for college himself based on what he owes me so far.

Today, Luke asked me if Jack also had a whine fine. I said, "Yeah, he owes me a lot of money. But it's hard for him because he doesn't even know what 10 cents is."

Luke said, "10 cents is?! No wonder! He only has 5 senses."