KerryAndGabe.com

Sunday, Monday…what’s the difference, really?

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about making some muffins for breakfast with Maddie. Obviously, I started writing this before breakfast on Sunday. We did indeed make muffins.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to be able to attend That Board Gaming Thing after missing it the last couple of years. I suppose we need to decide this week.

Something happening around the house: Ants! It feels like they may finally be under control. I hate dealing with ants!!!!

Something I’m reading: I didn’t read anything this week, but I do plan to start on Mockingjay very soon! I did start on this last night, but I only read about a chapter or so before passing out from exhaustion.

Something I’m watching: We watched some more Supernatural. I’m not sure we watched anything else. Shows are going to start pretty soon, and I don’t know how we’re going to keep up with them this year.

Something I’m playing: I’m mostly playing Carcassonne on the iPhone. Fun!

Something Maddie is doing (30 months old): This weekend, she didn’t nap on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday was mostly our fault, but Sunday we stuck to the schedule and still had no nap. She continues to answer every question with, “Um, I don’t know…” regardless of whether she knows or not. I know she gets that from both of her parents. She had a great time with her Kentucky grandparents and Aunt Heidi. She and Grandpa are “buddies” and talk in British accents about potstickers and a “spot of tea.” This amused us all. I also love how she declares that she’s “playing a game” when tossing a ball or doing some other repetitive action. She’s getting the concept. It won’t be long before I can teach her some “real” games!!!

Something Cullen is doing (32 weeks old): Another week went by, and I didn’t finish up the photos for his letter. At this rate, I’ll have to post the 7 month and 8 month letters at the same time. Cullen had pears for the first time, and I made him a new batch of carrots that weren’t singed. Tonight, he tried organic cereal “puffs” for the first time. It turns out that he has that pincer grasp down pat. Who knew? He picked one right up and put it straight into his mouth. He’s not quite sure what to think of them so far. I don’t blame him. The ones we got aren’t as tasty as the Gerber kind, but I like the smaller ingredients list and the organic content.

Something I am struggling with: I’ve been quite exhausted this weekend (hence posting a day late).

Something I learned: I learned that Shutterfly has some new layouts in their photobooks since the last book I created.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m definitely NOT looking forward to my dental appointment this week.

Something captured: Cullen and Maddie playing a duet.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Buying clothes for the kiddos. It’s so much more fun than buying clothes for myself!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that another trip to the Smithfield outlets is not in my future…perhaps ever, unless maybe I’m passing right by it on the way back from somewhere.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping we didn’t go overboard too badly when buying the kids’ fall wardrobe. Something tells me that we have a bit more than we will really need.

Something happening around the house: My parents came to visit this weekend. We were originally going to visit them at their house, but we had a long week and they agreed to visit us. We had a great time!

Something I’m reading: Um, let’s see. The Poky Little Puppy, Elmo Says, books about Winnie the Pooh, Richard Scarry books, snippets in Parents magazines, The Three Little Pigs, and other kids’ books. I didn’t do any reading for book club. I’m really starting to doubt that I’ll finish this month’s book.

Something I’m watching: We watched another disc of Supernatural and the finale of Hell’s Kitchen. Supernatural had a few scary episodes early in the season, but it isn’t scaring me nearly as much now. Some episodes still make me jump a bit, though! We’re still on Season 1.

Something I’m playing: Ooh, it was a great week for games! We installed the Carcassonne app on the iPhone. I’m loving it! It’s nice to play a “real” board game. I’m still playing Words with Friends. Cullen also slept long enough for us (with a few interruptions) to play Tichu with my parents! It gives us a little hope that we might be able to do “normal” things like that here and there.

Something tasty: We went out to eat with my parents and sister last night, and then we came back to the house. My mom, sister, and I went to the grocery store to get dessert. We found a dairy free brownie mix. The brownies were quite tasty!!!! It was a treat to get something chocolatey like that, since most easily accessible chocolate has milk.

Something Maddie is doing (29 months old): We went shoe shopping for her this weekend since she is outgrowing her current set of shoes. This was a very frustrating experience, and I think I’ll write up a separate post for it. She is definitely into her books these days. She wants us to read to her constantly and can sit through some lengthy stories. She talks nonstop and makes me laugh all the time. Yesterday morning, she saw Gabe putting powdered sugar on his pancakes and said, “Daddy, I want snow on my pancake!” Cute. Since we’ve been feeding Cullen, she’s very into feeding her baby doll. We got her a baby doll high chair, so she’s excited about that. And baby continues to poop all over everything (no, she is not a potty doll. My child has an active imagination). This morning, she spent a good hour with a wipe cleaning up baby’s “mess.”

Something Cullen is doing (30 weeks old): It’s been a crazy week with Cullen. He had the follow up to his bladder infection testing on Tuesday. We were hoping that they wouldn’t find anything, but they diagnosed him with kidney reflux on both sides. We won’t know much more until the appointment with the urologist later this month. We may need to get Maddie tested as it is very commonly found in siblings. I’m guessing that they will put him on a maintenance dose of antibiotics, he will have to be tested periodically, and he may require surgery if he does not outgrow the condition. In better news, we have declared that little dude is crawling! He is definitely on the move. He showed off for Nana and Papa this weekend, and I have some video to post soon. He easily can sit for lengthy periods of time. He also enjoyed some more new foods this week with the introduction of oatmeal (as a thickening agent), peaches, and butternut squash! Little Man is loving his foods! Oh, and we dismantled the co-sleeper. He hasn’t been sleeping in it for a few weeks, but it made a nice bed rail and place to put things like books. We put the Snug Tuck pillow back into place. Cullen has also slept in the pack-n-play in our room two nights in a row for a little bit at a time. There is hope.

Something I am struggling with: I’m struggling with patience as we have to wait a couple more weeks to find out more about Cullen’s kidney reflux (and find out if Maddie needs to be tested).

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m going to the Jack Johnson concert next Saturday!

Something I learned: Almonds are not nuts. They are a fruit.

Something I’m looking forward to: The concert with friends next Saturday.

Something random: I miss playing poker and board games sometimes, but I love the life we chose with our kids!

Something captured: We got some new camping style chairs for the kiddos.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Going out to a concert with my hubby (and friends) made me happy! It is always a little strange getting out of the house without the kiddos. It makes me feel like we need to do it more often!

Something I’m thinking: Um, August already???

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that the tests that we have to do for Cullen come back without any serious problems. I’m trying not to worry too much.

Something happening around the house: Right at this moment, Gabe has the kids upstairs in the bonus room. I’m hearing kids’ songs and Maddie’s constant babble. Everyone sounds happy, and I think I’ll join them soon and finish this later!

Something I’m reading: I finished Little Earthquakes in time for book club this week. I’m trying to get started on Special Topics in Calamity Physics, which is our August pick for book club. I have tried starting this one in the past but haven’t gotten too far. Maybe I’ll have more success this time.

Something I’m watching: We watched King of Kong, a documentary about competitive (classic) video gaming. It was entertaining enough. I told Gabe that if he got laid off from his job, it is not acceptable for him to pursue world records in arcade games.

Something I’m playing: It would be nice if I could use this category for board games or card games, but I haven’t had much opportunity for those lately. I do get to play Words with Friends on a daily basis. I’m still playing a little Scramble 2.

Something tasty: We had fajitas tonight with friends, and they were tasty (though a bit spicy!).

Something Maddie is doing (29 months old): She is doing ok without the paci, but bedtime has been a more lengthy process. She babbles quite a bit before falling asleep. Her naps have been more challenging as well. She had a very rough night last night with lots of waking, so we are really hoping she’s not getting sick. Maddie has been asking us to read lots of books, and she has started reciting some fairly complicated books almost word for word. Repetition, repetition, repetition. She’s very into doing everything all by herself. If you do something for her, she makes a point of putting whatever it was back to the original state and then redoing it by herself. Parenting a toddler requires quite a bit of patience.

Something Cullen is doing (27 weeks old): Poor little guy has had a rough week. He started on Monday night with a fever and vomiting. He had a little congestion, so we thought he must have a sort of cold or virus when we took him to the doctor on Tuesday. Wednesday was his 6-month check up. Since he had gotten worse, they decided to take blood and urine samples and run some cultures. The blood test showed an elevated white blood count, pointing to a bacterial infection. Unfortunately, the urine looked abnormal and the cultures grew bacteria. So, he is being treated for a bladder infection. We will find out more this week with a follow up visit to the pediatrician. He is going to have to have some further testing at the hospital. I’m trying not to worry about the guy too much until we know more, but obviously that’s hard to do as a Mommy. The pediatrician focused on his illness, but we did talk about his 6 month well visit a little bit. His weight was 16 pounds, 10 ounces (30th percentile), length of 27 inches (68th percentile), and head circumference of 17.5 inches (98th percentile). Dude has a big noggin. The pediatrician commented on Cullen’s “advanced” babbling skills. He has been cooing at us and squealing more often. He has been rolling more to get places, and you can just tell he wants to crawl. He’s not quite getting on his hands and knees, but he’s getting closer. He is able to sit for brief periods by himself, not just in the tripod pose. We’ve been introducing him to foods, and this week he had banana, avocado, and sweet potato. He’s hitting a bunch of milestones all at once!

Something I am struggling with: Cullen’s health issues. Sleep. Keeping up with photos.

Something I learned: I am learning a little bit about kidney reflux, one of the things that they are testing Cullen for soon.

Something I’m looking forward to: Maddie’s ribbon dancing class and a possible visit with my parents.

Something random: I love how Cullen touches my face. I think it’s his special way of telling me that he loves me. It’s not an exclusive affection for me as I’ve seen him to do it to certain others as well. Of course, he does prefer me over all others right now. He’s all about Mommy!

Something captured: I will now always think of this as “The Shimmer Wall,” immortalized in song by Barenaked Ladies at last night’s show. It was a big deal for Gabe and I to get out of the house and see a concert together!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

I have had this video ready to post for almost a month now. I have been overwhelmed with managing videos of the kids. I get behind on photos every now and again, but then I can look at hundreds of them by browsing thumbnails and sort through them in a fairly efficient manner. Video is just so time consuming. I often have long clips with very little usable material. So, I was excited about having video and a way to edit it on my iPhone.

The following embedded video (click through to the post to see it) is my first movie shot and edited entirely on the iPhone. This was also my first HD movie upload, so be patient while it loads… And did I mention that I’m a really bad videographer?? I cannot seem to hold the camera still. It doesn’t help that my subject is moving all over the place.

It is nice to be able to put together a polished video anywhere anytime, but I don’t think that I would use iMovie very often for that purpose. It’s more likely that I would use it to make a very short video clip for sending to grandparents. I did this just before going to the beach with Gabe’s mom. I made a very short clip of Maddie telling Grandma that she loves her and is looking forward to going to the beach. It was nice to be able to splice together a few clips right there on the phone.

iMovie on the iPhone is very, very basic. I expected it to have a few more features, though it’s possible that some features exist and I just haven’t been able to find them. The biggest feature that I would like to see is the ability to split a clip for titling purposes. I was able to achieve multiple captions on a single take of video by importing the clip multiple times and splicing them together seamlessly. That was a bit of a pain.

I thought that the built in “titles” were a bit chunky for the way that I like to use them. I like to put little explanatory captions on the clips to say what the kids are doing or saying, like I did in the video I’ve included. The titles I used were the only ones that weren’t too big (thereby blocking too much of my cute daughter). As always, more themes to choose from would be nice. I feel the same way about iMovie on the Mac.

iMovie on the iPhone allows for importing of videos, photos, and music. Transitions can be added, and there is minimal control over this and all of the various features. Very simple captioning is allowed, but it was a bit of a pain to do what I did (adding multiple captions for one clip). Apparently captions are not possible for images.

I think that I will probably most likely use iMovie on the iPhone for trimming videos for emailing to Gabe or grandparents. I’m not sure how often that I will want to use it for creating a polished video, though that could be useful on vacations. It might be nice to have the videos already put together and polished so that I don’t have to take the time later to filter through all the clips.

iMovie for iPhone is a good start, but it needs more features. The ability to split clips and add simpler titles would be great. More themes (preferably ones that do not take up so much real estate) would be nice. The way that you do video clipping is nice, but it is a big of a pain when you know you want to clip out a large chunk. There might have been a shortcut to doing that, but it was not immediately obvious to me. It would be nice to be able to not just drag the ends of the movie clip but also to specify a start or end time as a shortcut.

Overall, I’m glad that I downloaded the app and look forward to future upgrades.

Something that makes me happy: Lazy Sundays with my family (though we did make some plans for after nap, so today isn’t totally lazy).

Something I’m thinking: I’ve lost over 40 pounds since January!!! Yes, I know that some of that was due to giving birth to Cullen, but I’m counting that in my numbers, thank you very much.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that my grandpa gets well soon. He’s not been feeling well and is currently in the hospital.

Something happening around the house: Intermittent ants. I hope that isn’t a sign of what’s to come. We need to call the pest control people this week and put a stop to the parade before it’s a real problem.

Something I’m reading: I’m almost finished with Little Earthquakes for book club this week. I think I can finish it before Wednesday! I’m enjoying it. She’s really hit the nail on the head with various baby and child issues. Some parts have really made me laugh because they are all too true!

Something I’m watching: I don’t think we watched anything this week, aside from maybe an episode of Losing it with Jillian or Hell’s Kitchen. I want to see Inception, but I’m not sure when or how that is going to happen.

Something I’m playing: We wanted to play some games with friends on Friday evening, but the kids did not cooperate. Oh well, next time. We are still playing Words with Friends and started playing a boggle-type game (Scramble 2).

Something tasty: We had some tasty peaches from our produce box this week. I love the smell of ripe peaches! Yum! I tried pureeing some and putting them in pancake batter this morning, but I don’t think that it worked out too well. The pancakes were fine, but they didn’t taste very peachy.

Something Maddie is doing (29 months old): Thursday, we decided to say goodbye to the paci. She has been using it only at night and during naps for a while. We had wanted to take it away entirely a while ago, but she has had lots of major transitions this year. I should do a separate post about the paci.

Something Cullen is doing (26 weeks old): Cullen had a big week, too. He turned 6 months old – I can’t believe it! He also had his first taste of solid foods. We decided to skip the yucky rice cereal this time and go straight to banana. We might try cereal later once we have some fruits and veggies to mix into it. I’ll have to do a separate post about his first taste of solid foods.

Something I am struggling with: I’m struggling with the space on my hard drive. I’ve been taking more video clips lately on my iPhone and regular camera. They are taking up space, and I don’t have time to deal with them! I need to figure out a system or something.

Something I’m looking forward to: Dinner with friends, Cullen’s 6-month appointment, book club, and a fun-filled Saturday!

Something random: My friend Shannon says that Vermont is random.

Something captured: I think Cullen wants to crawl!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

This is part two of our recent trip to the beach. I posted details and photos of Maddie’s experiences and now it’s time for Cullen’s story.

Cullen is almost 6 months old, so he’s at an age where it is pretty easy to take him places without complaint. As long as he’s fed, has had enough sleep, hasn’t been forced to spend too much time in the car, and has his mommy nearby, he’s a happy boy.

As I mentioned in Maddie’s post, we headed to the beach on Saturday morning. I was concerned about the kids getting too much sun. In addition to lathering them with sunscreen, we borrowed a cabana for some extra shade. Lugging the cabana, 3 adult chairs, a kid chair, a beach blanket, water bottles, snacks, sunscreen, 5 towels, cameras, and 2 small children to the beach was no small feat for 3 adults. In the end, it seemed like much more trouble than it was worth (especially considering that I got only a few decent photos, most of which were taken with my iPhone).

Once we figured out how to set up the cabana, some beach patrol dude came by to inform us that we were welcome to use the tent but that we needed to have it at waist height (um, whose waist?). It took some finagling to flatten it to the approved height. At this point, we’re already frustrated because the tent looks unusable and we realized that we had it backwards. So while Gabe and his mom turned the tent around, I managed to wrangle the two kiddos. The beach started out to be quite a bit of trouble.

The good news is that Cullen liked it! It’s rare for us to lay him down and then have him fall asleep, but that is precisely what he did. The comfort of the beach blanket on the sand plus the added darkening effect of the cabana shade and sunglasses only added to the lull of the waves. Add to all this a tired little boy and a pacifier, and you’ve got a recipe for a fabulous nap!

After he woke up from his nap, I was happy to have the privacy of the flattened tent so that I could feed him without exposing myself to the world. This was a big plus!

I tried to keep Cullen from the sand, but he still managed to get little bits of sand all over himself. It’s just impossible to avoid getting sticky bits of sand everywhere. I tried to keep him wholly on the blanket, but a little foot kept slipping onto the sand. Oh well, it eventually all washed off of him at the pool, and he didn’t seem to mind. I just didn’t think that his soft, sensitive baby skin needed any exfoliating.

Cullen enjoyed the pool in his newly borrowed suit and rasher guard. He looked adorable in his beach/pool digs. He gave us many smiles while we played in the kiddie pool.

Cullen was awake most of the time while Maddie took her marathon nap, but he was ready for a good nap by the time she woke up. Fortunately for him, we brought the Ergo and he comfortably was strapped to Mommy for the walk to dinner and slept throughout the majority of our dinner. I had to contort myself in weird positions to avoid dropping food on him, but it sure was nice to eat a meal without a wiggly baby trying to grab at everything.

He woke up and gave out smiles to other restaurant patrons and waiters. He spent a little bit of time outside of the carrier before it was time to take our stroll on the beach. Once again, he was comfortably strapped to Mommy.

He developed quite the attachment to Mommy this weekend. He certainly has preferred me in the past and even demanded me to hold him above all others, but he took his Mommy attachment to new levels. It’s very sweet, and I’m loving the extra cuddles and special smiles. I love how when I take him into my arms, he looks around and grins at anyone who will look at him and then buries his head into my shoulders. He’s clearly saying, “Look! I have my Mommy! I got what I wanted! My Mommy is the best! She’s right here, look! I got my Mommy, I got my Mommy!” It’s adorable.

Aside from refusing to sleep in the co-sleeper (which is a pain to pack up and tote on a trip) and a few rough moments in the car, Cullen had a great weekend. I’m not sure when he will be visiting the beach again, but I’d say it was a successful first trip for him!

Stay tuned for more posts about our beach weekend…

Something that makes me happy: Planning (and going on) vacations makes me happy!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about getting some of those new designer diapers from Pampers. I saw them in Target the other day, and I was tempted!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to take better photos of Cullen than I have been taking lately. I’ve been lazy and many days the only photo I have taken has been on the iPhone. The iPhone’s photos aren’t as good as the small camera (and definitely not as good as the SLR, obviously).

Something happening around the house: We had our friend Shannon watch the kids on Friday so that we could go to a dinner and a movie. It was strange being out of the house together without the kids. This was the first time since Cullen was born that we managed to do it. The next time will probably be for the Jack Johnson concert next month.

Something I’m reading: I started reading Little Earthquakes, the revised book club book for July. I don’t know if I will be able to finish it in time or not. I have plenty of time, theoretically. I just haven’t made much time for reading lately.

Something I’m watching: I was sad that Babies left the theaters before I could see it. Darn! Guess I will have to netflix it. I did manage to see Eclipse and Toy Story 3 in the theater. Wow, I can’t believe I saw two movies in one week! We also watched the first few episodes of Supernatural which is a bit creepy so far.

Something I’m playing: Gabe and I have been playing a lot of Words with Friends and iAssociate on our iPhones!

Something tasty: We had dinner at Lucky 32 Friday night for the first time in a while.

Something Maddie is doing (28 months old): She was doing great with potty training, but we had a couple of setbacks this weekend. Yesterday, she had a tiny accident while playing with a buddy. She wet herself a little and stopped herself and did the rest of the potty. But then after bath, she peed on the floor before getting her clothes on and announced happily that she had done so. Nice. She did the same thing again this morning, so I’m not sure what’s going on with her. We aren’t making a big deal of it and tell her that “peepee belongs in the potty.” Maybe she’s just trying to get attention. She had no other accidents this week, not even at night. I can’t believe how few nighttime accidents that we have had so far (only a couple in that first week). In other Maddie news, she continues to love singing songs. She loves her baby brother. She is very much into doing everything herself from climbing into her high chair or car seat to pouring her own drinks to dressing herself. She refuses to let us dress her and has to do it ALL by herself. She’s pretty good at it, but she’s not always the fastest dresser. Parenting a toddler takes a lot of patience!

Something Cullen is doing (24 weeks old): He started sleeping on his belly this week. I think that he’s more comfortable. He hasn’t miraculously slept through the night or anything, but I think we’ve been able to get him to sleep a little longer in the bassinet sometimes. Maybe. He still spends most of the night in the bed (NOT on his belly). Cullen gets compliments on his smile and his blue eyes everywhere he goes. He has a great smile. He’s so pleasant to be around (most of the time!). He loves his jumperoo. He seemed to be rolling over with more purpose this week. It seemed like he was rolling to reach things and for movement. He is good at spinning around on his belly when he’s playing on the floor. He explores everything by putting it in his mouth. He drools excessively. He’s wearing 9 month sized clothing (and has been for a little while). He’s getting close to being able to sit on his own.

Something I am struggling with: Keeping up with photos. Now that the first half of the year has passed, I had hoped to start on “volume 1″ of our photobook for 2010. I still need to organize quite a few photos from the first half of the year (including getting them on the website…I am still in April for those).

Something I learned: I learned that the front camera on my iPhone does not have as good resolution as the regular camera. Oh well, it’s still useful!

Something I’m looking forward to: Gabe’s mom is visiting soon, and we’re going to go to the beach for a couple days.

Something captured: My kiddos. They were both amused to see themselves on the iPhone while I took this photo with the front facing camera. Maddie had been singing “Where is Thumbkin” to Cullen, hence the sock puppets.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Our new iPhones!

Something I’m thinking: I’ve been thinking about some blog posts that I want to write…just haven’t had as much time as I would like to do it.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that Cullen gets over this nasty cold soon. Poor guy has been congested and coughing for most of this week.

Something happening around the house: Gabe and I have been setting up our iPhones, syncing them with our contacts/laptops/calendars/email, and researching apps. Fun!

Something I’m reading: I finished Catching Fire, the second book in the Hunger Games series. I’m looking forward to the third book, coming out later this year!! I started reading The Lightning Thief. I’m having fun reading some of the books that have been sitting on my shelves waiting for me. Still not sure I’ll find the motivation for July’s book club book.

Something I’m watching: We’re hoping to watch Alice in Wonderland tonight.

Something tasty: We’ve been eating a lot of (vegan) fruit cobbler! Last night, I made cobbler with fresh peaches and blueberries. Yum!

Something Maddie is doing (28 months old): She’s doing fabulously with her potty training! She only had one daytime accident this week. We’re no longer setting timers, and we don’t even have to ask her about the potty that often. She’s doing very well with telling us when she needs to go. She decided that she was done with nighttime diapers on Thursday evening. She’s had just one nighttime accident so far.

Something Cullen is doing (22 weeks old): Poor Cullen has a bad cold. Fortunately, he hasn’t been running a fever. We took him to the doctor, anyway, on Saturday morning since his nights have been so rough. I wanted to make sure we had his ears checked and such, just in case he had some kind of infection but wasn’t running a fever. Cullen is very interested in putting whatever he can find into his mouth. His favorite thing to chew on at the moment is his own foot. Toes in the nose! He’s been sleeping poorly and prefers to be held or to be next to Mommy in the bed.

Something I learned: I’m learning all kinds of stuff about my iPhone!

Something I’m looking forward to: Book club!

Something random: I’m playing Words with Friends now (some friends have been begging me to play for a little while now).

Something captured: One of the first photos taken with my iPhone (before I realized that the protective film on the back was causing the photos to not be as clear as they could be).

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey