Friday, June 1, 2007

Hey, where ya been?

I had to take some time off from blogging to shoot and edit a bunch of photo stuff over the last couple of weeks. As Pooh says, "Oh bother!" The whole work thing really cuts into my personal time. I have missed writing on the blog. It's very therapeutic being able to just sit and do something for myself, to think about the things that are important to me, and to connect with everyone who reads. I've been a little cranky lately and I think it can be directly attributed to the lack of blogging. My problem is that I can't just write a little short entry- I'm way too long winded for that! Instead I have ideas and photos stacked up in my brain just waiting for me to sit and write them down. Right now I'm on a shooting break between the ceremony and reception of a wedding, so I'll write what I can for now and then do some more this weekend.

Here's what's new with everyone:

Dan

We just got our tax refund so Dan has ordered the study course for the Patent Bar exam. Passing the Patent Bar will make Dan a licensed patent agent which will open up more jobs to him and give him greater credibility at the firm he's drafting patents for. He just started looking for an office space to rent because trying to work from home and the library isn't that conducive to getting a lot of work done. Dan's enjoying the patent work but the firm hasn't been keeping him as busy as he would like to be (although all the extra riding time has been great!) He talked with them last week and they should be giving him more work. They will soon be adding another attorney to their team that does pharmaceutical patents and they want Dan to help with those. Yea, he'll actually get to put all that knowledge of molecular biology to good use!

Lily

Preschool finished last week and now Lily is patiently (or not so) waiting for me to get her signed up for swimming lessons and ballet class. She begs to have a friend over everyday, but I've started making her clean her room before she can invite anyone. Why is it so freakin' hard to get a little girl to clean her room? She can have as little as 6 or 7 little things on her floor and she fights, whines, and lolly-gags for half the day before I have to go in and instruct her one by one what to put away to make her room clean.

This, for example, was the state of her room last Saturday. A pretty small mess. Should be manageable to a five year old. I swore to myself that I wasn't going to help her because I was sick and tired of cleaning her room. "I'm not your slave" (do I sound like a parent or what?!) I resisted for about two hours until I got so sick of her pestering me because she was bored that I went in and told her exactly what to do. Man, that ticks me off when I lose the battle of wills with my five year old!

Amelia


Crawling is just days away! Amelia has been scooting herself backwards and rotating in circles for a couple of weeks now. A few days ago she started doing little push-ups on her hands and feet. Yesterday she started getting up on her hands and feet and then lurching forward. Now all she has to do is figure out how to bend her knees and she'll be in business!



She finally outgrew her bassinet and is now a huge wiggler when she sleeps, turning several times a night, so Dan got the port-a-crib out of the storage unit. While it is nice in concept and she does pretty well taking her naps in the crib, most nights she ends up in the bed with us. We think she just gets lonely. When Dan is out of town I love having her sleep next to me, hearing her breathe and reaching over to pat her occasionally.

But when it's all 3 of us in a queen size bed, Dan gets the short end of the stick because Amelia likes to turn sideways and kick him!

Me

That will have to wait until later as I have to rush off to shoot a wedding reception!

4 comments:

The Nelson Family said...

I know why I was about 10 min late to the reception, is this why you were? :) Good luck with the race today! you'll have to put t photo of you and the bike up.

Kris said...

Hi Sue, I've missed your posts! I love to read them, and love the pictures. I hear you about the kids and the cleaning. I wish I could say I had that whole thing all figured out. We usually go with "I'll help you as long as you keep working too" or "if these are not cleaned up before the timer beeps, I'll clean them up for you" - but if I clean them up I get to choose what to do with them! i.e., put them away for a day or two, or longer, throw them away, donate them... And then there are the days I just start yelling...that never turns out well...

Anonymous said...

I just want to know where I can get me a wide angled lense for my little point and shoot digital camera... I want to see some pictures of the fearless bike racers... It sounds like you guys had alot of fun! Maybe I will have to get in on the biking action too. I am so glad that I have such a cool family that I can look up to. You Rock.. is there anything you can't do? Oh and thanks for the advise and wise comments on my blog... You are so smart!

Becky in Wyo said...

Teaching kids to clean their own room: Yes, it's a humongo pain in the butt, that's very irritating in the short run, yet very satisfying in the long run, when you can say, "Go, clean your room, or else!" and they can go do it themselves. Believe it or not, this stage does come. It just takes years of patient instruction. Sorry. When they're little, they see all this chaos on their floor, and their brain freezes, and they tell themselves, "There is NO WAY I can clean that!" But over time, you teach them to clean one category at a time (i.e. big things like blankets and stuffed animals first, then dolls, then blocks, etc.) You can get them to whittle it down to a little pile of miscellaneous objects this way, and then you can help them do the rest when they're little. If you're really gung-ho, you can make a picture chart to help them clean by category. It helps their brain start to organize instead of freeze up. Hope this helps! Becky