Photo shoot!

Ah Mondays. Today I worked for awhile while Judit took the kids bowling. I think I would have rather gone bowling, but I'm also glad I got some work done. I still have a lot more to do before I'm ready for the school year to begin, but thanks to my Yearbook Business Manager, I'm well on my way.

In the afternoon we picked up Bryan at his office and went to a country club where he and his coworkers got their pictures taken for the website. Judit, the kids, and I went - and I brought my camera so I could get some pictures of the kids & Judit.

I bribed Bubby with a quarter to dress up. Judit and I think he looks ADORABLE. Bryan thinks he's going to look back on these pictures and say "I can't believe my mom made me wear that!" Maybe it'll be both. You decide :)

In his pirate shirt with suspenders

Bubs & Judit

He's totally in love with her. He's both very sweet and a little mean, just like most boys are when they're in love! We went out for ice cream after dinner and he was very concerned that we had left her behind since she say in the back of the van and he couldn't see her from his carseat. Once we got there he kept asking where she was until he got out of the van and then he held her hand as we walked into the ice cream parlor. He's really, REALLY going to miss her.

Penelope and Judit. Penelope has started using the "Nicolas Black smile".

This smile is totally my brother. It was one of his more hilarious phases. I think it is funny, cute, and a little frustrating. The frustrating part is that I want a nice, genuine smile - not an angry grimace. But she's 4, so whatevs. She's still adorable.

My children insist on laying on top of me all.the.time.

I really should have taken my sunglasses off. Oh well.

My sweet almost-5-year old

Relaxing in the shade

He needs a piece of straw between his teeth and he's Tom Sawyer.

Lifting the kids while his coworkers look on

I like this one because it has my 3 favorite people in it :)

More fun with Daddy

In order to capture a genuine smile from my husband, he can't know he's being photographed... or at least, it can't be posed. He's an incredibly handsome man (and a great dad) and so this picture gets all of that. Plus I'm amused by how amused his coworkers are with his shenanigans.

Hugging Daddy's leg - his new favorite pasttime

Griffin's new thing is to hug our legs and not let go. Makes for cute pictures. Not really for getting anywhere on time.

Playing

They really do love each other. And I love them.

Aquarium!

Today Judit and I took the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We haven't been in awhile and Judit had never been, so everyone was pretty excited. I brought the fancy-camera in the hopes that I could get some cool shots of the various sea creature and/or the kids.

Because you're not supposed to use flash (so as not to disturb the creature and because the light bounces off the glass) most of my pictures are pretty blurry. I'm still not very good with the manual focus and the auto focus has a hard time in low light.

So I didn't get a lot of pictures that I love. Below are some that are just ok.

Penguins!

Jellies!

More jellies!

Baby turtle!

Judit & kids, having fun at the jellies exhibit

More jellies...

Dragon-thingie (can't remember its name)

Octopus Garden

Looking through the scope... at the sky

Judit and the kids

Sometimes they're sweet to each other

After the Aquarium, Bubby slept and I did a photo shoot with Sissy so I could play with the settings. Here are my favorites.

A girl and her dog

Chalk

Love this girl

Daddies

I am fortunate to know a lot of really amazing fathers. But my husband and my dad are two of my favorites. So here's some pictures of them being awesome.

My dad carting around a very tired Bubs

Bryan and Penelope on the beach

Playing on the beach with the babies

Right after Bubby's birth. This is one of my favorites.

Dad with Sissy at the Tour of California.

I could wax poetic about Bryan and my dad. But it's 10 and I'm tired. So I'll wax poetic about them tomorrow (on actual Father's Day, to their faces).

Suffice it to say, I love my husband and my dad. They're great fathers, and I'm lucky to have them both.

Airplanes

Three really gets a bad rep. Yeah, there are tantrums - but I know grown ups who throw tantrums. In fact, that's basically just the back row of a staff meeting. So whatevs.

Three is when they race down the sidewalk pretending to be an airplane, complete with airplane noises and their arms outstretched.

Three is when they jump over every.crack in the sidewalk and insist you jump with them.

Three is when they MUST walk on every parking lot bumper (I googled it, that's apparently what they're called) like they're on a balance beam.

Three is when they automatically reach for your hand when you're walking together. When they put their head on your chest just to hear your heartbeat. When they enthusiastically love and hate everything all at once.

Three is awesome.

It is especially awesome when your three year old sings the following song to you:

"There's no mommy like yooooouuuuuuuu. There's no mommy like yooooooooooouuuuuuuu!!!!!"
(to the tune of "No Day Like Today" from The Secret Garden play Penelope was recently in).

Love!

First Crush

DVD covers and cartoon characters aside, Penelope has recently developed her first real crush. A crush on an actual human being.

His name is Jared and he's one of my brother's best friends. I've known Jared for 7 years? 8? I have no idea. Suffice it to say it's been awhile. He and my brother are in a band together (Jared plays guitar, Nic plays drums) and he's a genuinely nice guy.

She used to be a tad afraid of him (for AGES she was wary of practically every male excepting Bryan, my Dad, and my brother) but she's gotten over that. Apparently the other day she was sitting on the couch next to him carrying on a conversation about a movie, or a picture, or something - as much as a 2 year old can converse with a guy in his mid 20s. She also didn't want to have anything to do with my Dad or my brother at that point, which is quite shocking and cemented the suspicion that she's got quite a crush on The Hammer (which is Bryan's nickname for Jared).

I really like Jared and I totally and completely approve of his being Poe's first crush. He's perfect first crush material: he's older than her, cute, listens attentively, and listens attentively. Did I mention that twice? It's because it's important. Because listening to a toddler is the key to her heart; she just wants to be noticed (and adored, she totally gets that from Bryan).

I will try and get a picture of the two of them together so I can show it to her future boyfriend/girlfriend (because you never know) one day and embarrass the heck out of her.

Mommy, I love Jessie

Today while playing I said to Penny:

"I love you Penny."

She thought about it. Then she said:

"Mommy, I love Jessie"

brat.

Although 2 days ago we had an "I love you" contest. I was in the kitchen and she was in the living room. She would yell out "I love you Mommy!" and I would yell back "I love you more Penny!" "I love you more Mommy!", etc. For about 3 minutes.

So I'll let the Jessie thing slide.

An updatey type thing

Both kids are asleep and I just submitted the worst paper I've ever written so I have a little time to update. I've been meaning to write a couple of posts about a variety of things but it's so hard to find the time (I must sound like a broken record at this point).

So let me sum-up.

I'm madly in love with both of my children even though they've started conspiring to drive me crazy. Penelope's tantrums are more frequent, which isn't unusual considering her age. And really, they're not that bad... but MAN she can scream.

She can also be really sweet. She loves to share her toys with Griffin. When she pretends to make tea she'll give him some (which means she shoves the toy cup in his face, but at least she's sharing). She also loves to bury him under her stuffed animals, give him books, and give him lots of kisses. She calls him "bubba" and "dude" and will greet him with "hi dude" on occasion. It's adorable.

And he loves her too. His face lights up when he sees her - he's got a great grin and they'll spend a bit of time staring and laughing at each other. We're still waiting for his first belly laugh, but that should be soon. Penn had hers around 3 months and we're coming up on that mark for G.

Other "new" words... sign: giraffe, elephant, bird, cookie. verbal: dude, cheese, ice, teeth, meow, woof (which sounds like "ffffffff")

We've been thinking about potty training lately. Penny has asked for a diaper change on a couple of occasions and lately she's taken to coming into the bathroom when I pee and sitting on her potty chair. I have a little too much to do during the day to focus on "real" potty training, but we'll work on that this summer. We might do the naked-outdoors-for-the-weekend trick and see what happens.

Pen's moved up to the tub for her baths... she was in a duckie tub-thing that fit inside of the bathtub but she outgrew it awhile ago and it started leaking air (it was an inflatable) so we finally got rid of it. She's doing well. Her cousins come to visit the first week of July and I'm looking forward to cramming all the kids in the tub for one big splashy mess :)

Their visit should be a lot of fun. We're so glad they're coming out! They're driving all the way from Wyoming so it will be a long trip, but a fun one. Plans so far are to catch a Rivercats game, hit the beach, the zoo, Fairytale Town, and spend some time at the pool. P is going to LOVE having the kids around!

I just finished up my first class since Griffin was born. Grades will be posted by Friday so we'll see... through week 3 I have a 98% but I totally half-assed my last week's assignments and am not expecting to get all As on those. So this class might be my first B of Grad school. Or not.

I start student teaching in August (did I already mention this? I forgot). And while I'm looking forward to getting into the classroom I'm also nervous about leaving the kids for so long. Being a stay at home mom is exhausting (well, a SAHM looking for work), but I do love spending my days with the kids. Not everyone gets the chance to spend this much time with their kids at this age and I'm trying to appreciate every moment (even the screaming tantrum ones).

Ok, I should really try and sleep. Maybe Griffin will be nice and let me have 6 hours uninterrupted... he did that 3 nights ago and it was AMAZING.

Good morning baby

I'm spending the day doing massive amounts of silly homework (my assignments for this class are beyond ridiculous) but I decided to take a quick break so I could tell you, my beloved blog reading audience, about the phenomenally cute thing Penelope does every morning.

If I've mentioned this before you'll have to forgive me, but it's just so damn cute!

Every morning she wakes up in our bed (see previous blogs on why she's in our bed every morning - damn teething). Anyway, she smiles, chatters, and then makes her way over to me where she proceeds to lift up my shirt, expose my pregnancy belly, and give it a big kiss. This morning "&" received no less than 6 kisses from his/her big sister. She also placed her ear on my belly as if she was listening to the baby... she'll also hug the baby and poke the baby.

It's so sweet :)

Ok, back to homework.