Sisters

Just adding a picture of my happy girls so that you don't have to stare at my lumpy, white, pre-surgery knee.  (See post below.)

Knee Surgery

Over a year ago, when I was on my regular morning run, I tore my meniscus.  The tear created a leak into my knee joint and a cyst began to form.  It was inside the joint, but also formed a nodule that stuck out from my left knee as you can see in the photo above.  It was mostly just uncomfortable, but if I kneeled, walked too much or ran at all, it was very painful.  The time finally came to repair it.  And who better to call upon than that surgeon I keep hearing about, Dr. Boyer?

So yesterday, Jason took a knife to me.  The surgery went smoothly and they discovered that part of the cyst had somehow worked its way between the meniscus and the bone, where there should be no space, so he was able to remove the cyst and use a method that should close that gap and keep it from happening again.  I was under general anesthesia, so I woke up not knowing that time had even passed.  I can walk around on my leg with relatively little pain.  This morning I am just keeping my leg elevated while a sweet friend watches our girls.  And I have great plans to begin running again soon!

There was just one side effect.  The IV they gave me filled my bladder and I had to go to the bathroom soon after my surgery was over.  As I sat down, I discovered the following tattoos, one on each thigh:

I didn't realize that I had ordered tattoos with my surgery, but there they are staring back at me every time I pee.  Jason had taken advantage of my unconscious state and decided to decorate.  I think in the near future while he is sleeping peacefully in bed, he may wake up to some manicured pink toe nails, free of charge, as my personal show of gratitude for the free body art....

Moment of the Month

I'm not sure how, but Claire has managed to top her last moment of the month.  Although she has been technically potty trained for 6 months - she only goes in the toilet and can wear underpants all day - she still has some issues to work out.  Big ones.  I won't go into the frustrating details, but basically she has a fear of letting her caca / poop out.  She holds it for as many days as she can before it forces it's own way out into the toilet.  She has been on laxatives for a long time now, so it doesn't hurt, it is just all in her mind.

At her 2-year pediatric appointment, her doctor advised us to take her Miralax up a notch, so we did.  Apparently a little too much.  But it wasn't until we were at a party that we found out that the new amount of laxatives worked very quickly.  Our good friends, the Keunes, invited us to a "Low Country Boil" at their home in Seattle, basically the southern version of a barbecue, but cooking everything together in one big pot.  As soon as we started to take our first bites of the delicious meal, Claire's urges began as usual and she wanted to go hang out on the toilet.  After 20 or 30 minutes in there, she decided she was finished trying and wanted to return to the party.  I thought I would ease her stress by having her change into a pull-up so if she felt like she needed to go, we could at least tell her to go in her pull-up.

5 minutes later, her pull-up was full.  This was the first time she had ever gone caca out of the toilet for the last 6 months, so we were already impressed and I was glad I brought that pull-up along.  We changed her back into her pull-up thinking the potty issues were done for the day.  But Claire had something else in mind.  15 minutes later, I was talking to someone at the gathering with Claire bouncing around behind me.  I heard Jason's voice, "Uh, Jen - she has to go again."  Then I noticed him focus in on her with a look of shock.  There was runny caca flowing out of her underpants and plopping out of her dress onto the grass!

Claire was completely unbothered by it as we pulled off her now messy dress and underwear and tried to keep her from spreading her trail even more around the yard.  Keeping the other kids off of the territorial markings was not an easy task.  Luckily, one of the many people we met that day had a very large 10-month-old that had a diaper we could put Claire into and she spent the rest of the time running around nearly naked.  Classy.  I took a photo of Claire's trail in the grass, but it was too disgusting for me to post.  I hope some very nice flowers grow up on that fertilized plot.  Jen & John were very accommodating hosts and humored our troubled family.  They may never let us inside their home again, introduce us to their friends, or have their own children following this incident, but they kept smiles on their faces nonetheless.  And now we have lowered Claire's Miralax dose to something she can handle.

On a related note, remember the Fred Meyer play area incident?  We returned for another attempt this week.  I made sure Claire emptied her bladder first and I was happy to see that the child supervisor was different than the one who witnessed Claire's last moment.  But Claire refused to go inside.  She just kept saying, "No pee pee in the play area.  Pee pee in the toilet."  For months, she (and I) could not wait to go and now, thanks to the negative association, she has zero interest in returning and would rather travel the store aisles with me, trying to reach anything she can off the shelves as I maneuver around.  Fabulous.

Puerto Vallarta

We have just returned from a lovely vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  We spent a week at an all-inclusive resort called Now Amber, which did not disappoint.  There are many advantages of the all-inclusive set up for our family at this stage: it is easy to work Claire's nap in without disturbing the whole family, a variety of food is available anytime, anywhere, the beach and pool are just a few steps from our room and there are no surprise expenses - the entire vacation is paid for upfront.

The girls enjoyed relaxing on the beach and making sandcastles.

But their favorite was the kid's pool.  They spent so much time in that pool, Jason decided that next time we will just go to a Holiday Inn in Missouri, where there is a pool in hot, humid weather.  The kids won't know the difference.  :)

Claire referred to both her swimming suit and the swimming pool as a "swim-in soup".

The endless supply of smoothies were always a hit.  Gabby's favorite was one called "Pink Lady".  One day she asked if next time she could have a "White Lady" since apparently she liked the white foam at the top best.  So we ordered her a kid's pina colada and called it a "White Lady", which seemed to satisfy her.

The resort had what they called the "Explorer Club," a place you could drop your children off at anytime (or for the entire day) to enjoy kid-friendly activities at adult-friendly prices (free!).  Gabby was so excited to get her backpack when she joined, she wouldn't take it off.  It had coloring supplies, a hat, a shirt, and other goodies for her to keep.  She usually went to the Explorer Club while Claire was napping and made cookies, played games, made crafts, had swimming lessons and more.  It was a great perk!

There were always activities going on around the many pools and random highlights for the kids.  The girls even got to touch this baby crocodile.

As we dined and explored, we enjoyed some beautiful views of the ocean.

One day, we went deeper into the city and enjoyed Puerto Vallarta until we couldn't take the heat any more.

Along the Melecón, the oceanfront walkway, we enjoyed some impressive sand structures.  Also this amazing rock-balancer.  He had already stacked six sets of these huge rocks on top of each other and was defying gravity with a new set that we watched him set up successfully.  Each large rock was balanced only by a small rock between the two stones.  How do you discover a talent like that?

Back at our resort, we enjoyed many different restaurants, often with great views.  The à la carte restaurants were especially impressive.  I wanted to take photos of all of our delicious food, but I refrained, for your sake.

We also had free room service, so the girls enjoyed eating breakfast on our balcony one morning.

In the bottom right photo, Claire is taken by some mariachi musicians who were performing at a Mexican restaurant we ate at one evening.  Once we let her out of her high chair, she happily performed a dance for them.

This is either a really horrible photo or a really cool one.  My lens was so foggy from the humidity that it gave it a special effect.

We watched many sunsets from this great view.

I couldn't narrow down the photos....

We all had such a great time that it was hard to leave and return home to reality.  Which is why I've posted so quickly after our return... I am still avoiding reality and To Do lists.

P.S.  One thing I forgot to mention earlier was something funny on the flight.  The girls were the best they have ever been (Claire finally had her own seat!).  Both Jason and I read the entire 5+ hours each way while they watched some movies (mostly Dora the Explorer) on the iPad.  They each had their own set of headphones, which covered their ears completely and blocked out all other sound, including the sounds of their own voices.  This lead to a lot of shouting whenever they wanted to say something.  For those of you not familiar with Dora, she asks you to repeat phrases with her in Spanish (and will even say, "louder!") to go along with the storyline.  So Gabby and Claire (although Gabby wins for being the loudest) were silent and then would randomly shout out phrases in Spanish as loud as they could.  By the time we made it to Mexico, they were practically fluent, as were the rest of the passengers.  :)

Moment of the Month

The above photo may not have anything to do with my story, but sometimes I just have to capture how Gabby is drawn to all things girly.

Now for my story of the month.  As you just saw from the last post, Claire turned 2.  Two days later, we made our weekly grocery shopping trip.  Usually, this is not a joyful hour for me, but this day would be different because Claire was two years old and could go to the play area, where someone watches your kids while you shop (for free)!  Needless, to say, I was pretty excited to drop off both of my children and shop in peace and they were both very excited to play instead of being stuck in a cart and hearing me say "no" over and over.

As I was signing the girls in, Claire started talking about needing to go potty.  We had just come from the beach, where she also said that she needed to go and when I took her she immediately changed her mind.  This happens from time to time, but luckily, my girls have bladders of steal, go only 3-4 times a day (only because I make them before and after sleeping) and have never had an accident while we have been out.  I took her to the bathroom again, knowing she would change her mind and she did.  She was too excited to be in the play area and not as excited about the bathroom.  Oh well, off to the play area she goes.

Away I went, with no children!  Ah, the freedom!  The peace of --- [interrupted by Claire's worst scream in the short distance I had made it away from her].  I returned those ten steps to the play area.  Claire was sitting at the coloring table screaming as if she was in horrible pain.  I didn't understand what the problem was until - oh, no, she couldn't have.  She peed in her little shorts her first time in the play area!  She has been potty trained for 6 months without any accident and she chose that time and place to let it go.  And because she has never needed them, I stopped carrying spare clothes around.

Those who have heard this story assume that I left the store at that point.  What mother in her right mind would do an entire grocery shopping trip with a child covered in pee?  Well, me.  I had way too much going on that week to be able to make it back to the store and we needed dinner that night.  Claire would just have to deal with it and I would just have to hope that we weren't leaving a trail of urine smell behind us.  With Claire's wet bum sitting on the cart and Gabby in the play area, we did our shopping in record time and hurried home to finally change her.

The moral of the story?  Wipe down your shopping carts with the wipes they provide at the store entrance.  (I did try to clean down the cart with wipes, but I still wouldn't want to be the next customer to put my purse on that seat....)

Claire Turns 2

On July 30th, we celebrated Claire's actual birthday as a family.  She was a little confused at why she had a party a week earlier, but was still only 1, so this day (and more presents) seemed to ease her confusion.

I think our children have learned at an early age that the better the reaction to a gift, the more people want to give gifts.  These girls get excited even before they recognize what the gift is.  It's great.

A bike helmet...

...plus a horse on a stick...

...equals an extra safe ride.

If you are having a birthday in our family, you get to request your favorite meal for dinner.  Claire picked macaroni & cheese and chicken.  It was an elaborate request, but I managed to boil that water alright.  :)  For dessert, she chose a raspberry tart, which seemed like a rather grown-up request, considering the other options I presented her with.

At her check-up the next day, we learned that Claire is 27lbs 3oz and is 33 inches tall.  She is under the 50th percentile, which is a first for us with either child.  (Gabby was 4 pounds heavier when she turned two.)  Luckily, they are both cute and healthy!

Visitors

We recently had some friends in town, which was a good excuse for us to hit some of our Seattle favorites and even discover some new touristy sights that we haven't been to (in the last 20 years, at least).

We began with Snoqualmie Falls, a beautiful 270 foot waterfall.

In the evening, we ate at Anthony's in Kirkland and walked along the Kirkland waterfront, which means we also picked up gelato from our favorite place, Sirena Gelato (yum!).

Here are Kristin & Brigham.  Jason knew Brigham on his mission in Thailand and then they both had many pre-med classes together at BYU.

The next day we visited Pike Place Market and went around the corner to the Market Theater Gum Wall.  It was disgusting and fascinating at the same time.  Gabby loved it (she has just recently discovered gum and has yet to swallow a piece).  She was especially fond of the "CTR" stuck to the wall, since that stands for "Choose the Right" at church.

We visited the Freemont Troll, which is a bizarre troll under the Freemont bridge.  You may not be able to tell, but the troll has captured a Volkswagen Beetle (that happens to have a California license plate, haha).  The girls had fun climbing on him until the adults got bored.

Next came Gasworks Park, where we enjoyed the beautiful weather and the beautiful skyline.

Before calling it a night, we saw the new Batman movie at iPic and enjoyed some Thai food.  It was fun for me to finally get to know these two friends that Jason refers to often, but whom I have never really been able to hang out with.  We are looking forward to the next time!

Claire's 2nd Birthday Party

Our little Claire turned 2!  To celebrate, we threw a "Bubbles and Brunch" party for her with some of her friends.  Plus, we celebrated while my family was in town, so the cousins were able to join in on the fun as well!

We began with some games:

(1) Find the fuzzy bubbles.  (An easter egg hunt equivalent, but with little fuzzy balls - always a hit)

(2) Pass the bubble beach ball around in the circle to music.  Yeah, I may have forgotten to prepare this game, so we followed whatever instructions happened to come out of my mouth next.

(3) Bubble madness with the bubble machine.  Enormous bubbles were also supposed to exist, but I completely forgot about it and the huge wand sat inside in its package the whole party.  Oops.

Claire at one point froze (as seen in bottom right photo) and stood like that in front of the bubbles for several minutes, despite the bubble chaos around her.

The good photos above (the top three) are courtesy of Elina Ylitalo.

It turns out the theme of bubbles/dots/circles is as easy as it gets.  You can find dots on just about anything.  I forgot to take a photo of the set up, but for food we had pancakes with sprinkles, eggs (they were supposed to be hard-boiled for the round effect, but I was met with resistance on that one), donut holes, blueberries, sprinkled animal cookies, bubbly orange juice, and chocolate milk with straws (for blowing bubbles).  And of course, my signature (can't mess-'em-up) cupcakes with sprinkles, mini ice cream cones and cream puffs for dessert.

I am not sure what Claire is wishing for, but it looks like she is pretty confident that it's going to happen.

Photo of Claire on the left, courtesy of Elina Ylitalo.

It seems the kids all had a good time.

And Claire certainly loved all of her great gifts.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

We Love Family

In July, we enjoyed having my mom and sister in town, with my niece and nephew.  It felt like old times to be together again, except with the added entertainment of watching the cousins play together.

Claire is obsessed with all babies, so she could often be found touching "soft, soft" the feet of her four-month-old cousin.

One of our days together was spent at the local children's museum.  The first thing the kids discovered was the play dough and after quite some time, we had to drag them away, explaining that they could do that anywhere.  (Luckily Claire got some for her birthday!)

Finally, they discovered that there was a museum around them.

Once they found the water area, there was no pulling them away.  As you can see from the bottom two photos, playing with the balls in the water was a serious matter.

We also all visited my grandma and my aunt's family.  It is pretty hard to visit my grandma without making some memories since she gets crazier by the day (literally).

The grandchildren-on-lap photo is getting more difficult for my mom.  Oh, and that is my "little" sister next to me on the top right.  Even standing on my tip-toes, I'm not as tall as her.

Thanks for the visit!  Come again soon!

Moment of the Month

Here are some quotable moments that have taken place in our home recently:

1. Claire is quite the talker these days.  We used to wonder what she was thinking.  Now sometimes we wish we didn't know every thought.  For the last few months, she has been saying, "No pick your nose.  Tissue - yes, yes," many, many times each day.  This "no, no / yes, yes" comes from a favorite book.  And while I am glad that she seems to have learned something from it (she doesn't pick her nose), I find it a little disturbing at how often she thinks about the act.
2. Claire has also developed a phobia (which seems to run in the family, thanks to Jason teasing his poor sister early in life).  She doesn't like people to go up the stairs behind her.  If I do go up behind her, she says, "You no tickle me.  Daddy tickle me.  You no tickle me," as she holds her hand out in a stop signal.  I admit that when we are trying to speed her up from her preferred tortoise approach up the stairs, we will pretend to chase or tickle her.  Apparently, she really doesn't like it when Daddy does this.  We'll claim that it is he who has scarred her for life.
3. Our children love babysitters.  They get easy (which equals tasty in kidland) dinners and a playmate who focuses all attention on them.  About a month ago, we had one babysitter bring another of our babysitters with her while she was watching the girls.  When we were expecting a babysitter a few days ago, Gabby suddenly announced, "Mom, two babysitters are much more funner than one."

Summer Fun

We have had some perfect summer weather lately - upper 70s to lower 80s and zero % chance of rain.  While Daddy was away at scout camp for a week, the girls and I spent a lot of time outdoors.

We began with a backyard swim in our luxurious $10 swimming pool.  It doesn't take much to bring smiles around here.

Another day, we upgraded to our friend's pool.  Claire is fearless in the water.  Gabby is... well... more cautious.

On the 14th of July, we began by celebrating Bastille Day at a celebration at the Seattle Center.  We failed to take any photos, but while I volunteered at a booth, the girls enjoyed some fun activities and then we all enjoyed some crêpes for lunch.

Later that day, we headed to "Derby Days" - the festival that our city does annually.  The girls had such a fun time, dancing at a kid's concert, enjoying free bouncy houses, and most of all the carnival section.

Gabby went on one ride all by herself and loved it!

I thought the girls always enjoyed the carousel.  It turns out that Claire will ride on real ponies, but not pretend ones.  Gabby will ride on pretend ponies, but not real ones.  It is hard to keep things straight around here.

We hope that you are all enjoying your summertime as well!