Eric's favorite video of all time!

Last night I took a video that Eric just laughs and laughs and laughs when he watches it. Here is a picture teaser.

Nate is such a character, last night I was sitting on the couch and Eric calls me in and says you've got to see this, so I pull out the camera and take the above picture. I tried to get an action shot, but that didn't work, so I decided to take a video. Here is Nate, aka trouble. Hopefully he never does it again, he is likely to land on a toy and get hurt. Enjoy!

Jumping! from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Swim Lessons

I finally got around to loading the swim lessons pictures, the new and improved swim lesson pictures, but new and improved I mean from last Saturday. Nate's swim instructor feels like he will be swimming soon. He has always been a kicker, and by kicker I mean even if on dry land you lift him up he kicks his feet...it is a good thing to remember about him, always!
Gwen is freaking out about putting her head under water, she wants her goggles, I don't know where they are, but she cries about it a little bit. I tell her to suck it up and put her face under...ok I don't tell her to suck it up, but I am being a little stubborn about this because she won't always have goggles and if she would just learn to keep her eyes closed she wouldn't have a problem, as a matter of fact I used to swim with my eyes opened under water without goggles as a kid, maybe I should tell her to suck it up! I guess it wouldn't help though she is rather stubborn, I don't know where she gets that from! ;) Here are last week's swimming lesson pictures, in slide show. Enjoy!

Changes

Lately I have noticed some things I'd like to change in our family. Mostly I want to change Nate and Gwen's dependence on junk. It might be my fault, but I'd like to get healthier stuff in them. I guess I shouldn't have bought the cheese crackers and stuff that they've become addicted to. So, I've been looking for other types of snacks to give them that might sneak some nutrition in. Nate has been refusing to eat/try dinner so I'd like get as much healthy options in beforehand. To that end yesterday Gwen and I made granola bars. With pumpkin, apple and lots of sugar, which I guess is better than lots of preservatives. The kids really have liked the granola bars, that didn't harden up as much as I thought they would, I am wondering if it is because I made the applesauce myself and it was a little "juicier" than store bought. I also made yogurt and today we made smoothies. The kids enjoyed that also. Gwen enjoys helping me in the kitchen and my kids really like fruit. I have to figure out how to sneak some vegetables in, I think, but for now I am happy to get some good nutrition in them. I hope these small changes improve our overall health.
The kids are doing well. Nate cracks me up, he wakes up in the morning and looks like a drunken 2 year old, hilarious! He stumbles out rubbing his eyes, wobbling a little bit, hair kind of crazy. He has also decided to nap again, we are going with it because he's not 100%. I am trying to decide what to do about him. He seems to have a lot of congestion in his lungs he has a terrible random cough and a clear runny nose.
Gwen is doing well and appears to be planning her birthday party. She is funny about it she wants all the girls and then she mentions 2 boys she'd like to invite. And explains how the second little boy doesn't like princesses, but it will be ok, I am sure we can talk her into whatever we want to do, it is a long way from now. She has been rearranging Eric's bookshelf which is hilarious. Eric has painstakingly arranged his bookshelf. She can't read yet and alphabetical order doesn't mean a thing to her, she is arranging the shelf by "penguins and roosters". This goes against his plan of books he's read and books he's not read. She is so helpful!
Eric has finished one of his classes, he is gearing up for spring break and the big visit from the Godfather and his girlfriend. We are glad he is back from MD, it ended up being a rough trip for him-it took longer to fix than he expected and the car we rented had no cruise control. :(
I am working on an Easter Egg Hunt for the Parish. That is taking up some of my time. I don't have much else going on, I am just happy to no longer have a fever and can eat foods again. Some day I hope to get the pictures off the camera and post them here, but first I need to charge the camera's battery and that apparently is too big of a commitment for me! Don't worry Mom, I'll get to it soon!

The business at hand...

We have been rather busy lately and I feel like the business will continue for a while. The kids are not 100%. We had swim lessons today, the kids did great. Gwen still will not dunk her head, she wants goggles, I know we have some somewhere, I just don't know where. Plus, I kind of want her to swim without the goggles and I am a little ticked at the 2 Mothers that let their kids bring their goggles, but what can you do? Nate is doing really well in swim class, his teacher thinks he will be swimming soon, he LOVES to kick. Plus I don't think he gets that irritated when he gets his face wet. Both kids took long naps today. Almost 4 hours! We let them stay up a little later and they were both exhausted and went to sleep right away. I am hoping a good night's sleep will do them well. Gwen doesn't have school on Monday, so an extra day of rest will probably do everyone some good!
Eric has to drive up to the old house tomorrow to take care of some wiring damage done by squirrels. We are a little ticked that our tenant did not let us know that there were squirrels living up there. But that's how things go, I guess.
We went to a birthday party for Gwen's classmate the other day. Now Nate keeps asking to go to Chuck E Cheese. Whenever you ask him what he wants to do, he says Chuck E Cheese. I guess you could say the boy knows what he likes and doesn't stray from it.
We have been enjoying the nice weather, we had a picnic lunch yesterday, played outside today. Gwen played with the neighbor's dog, but Nate still afraid, plus that dog barks ALOT! Gwen also held a guinea pig and now wants a guinea pig...Mommy wants nothing to do with a guinea pig! But I am glad that she does like animals, now we just have to work on Nate.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's day this year we decided to bake cookies for Daddy. I thought I would do this on Thursday, I don't know why, I had a 99deg fever, but for some reason felt like we should make cookies? Eric had an after work obligation, so maybe I thought I'd have more time. Sadly, when I made this decision, I had no idea that SOMEONE had used up almost all the FLOUR and the SUGAR! So I had to improvise, and well, it made for quite the interesting problem. First off, I used some wheat flour, second I left dough in the refrigerator too long, although I imagine that might have had a lot to do with the wheat flour than with the time. Also I might have forgotten to add all the wet ingredients before the dry ingredients, oh well, you have kids, things happen! I had already told the kids that I was going to have the help me roll out the dough, sadly Mommy didn't realize it would be too hard and not really stick together. Fortunately, Daddy doesn't really care about such things. And the cookie still taste the same. So lesson learned, spend more time discussing with husband how not to use up the baking supplies before "holidays" fake or not...
Today we were set to decorate and Nate was acting pretty tired/sickly he laid down in his bed and went to sleep. Sadly it was at 3:30, but he only slept 2 hours and since he was sickly, appeared to go back to bed on time-ish. Gwen and I decorated the cookies by ourselves. I will let you determine who made which ones. I decided to do Mexican for dinner tonight, not even Eric's favorite or anything, but I knew the kids would eat burritos/taquitos I fancied ours up a bit. And then for dessert I made panna cotta. It was pretty good. Here is the slideshow:

Eric asked me today, if I was completely on the mend, I told "well, when you don't have any backups you gotta get better", he thought I had looked in the mirror and willed myself better, as per my Dad's advice, who knows, it might have been both. So after 3 days of a low grade fever and hardly eating solids, I am back in the swing of things, the kids are starting to get sick, possibly. Hopefully some good nights sleep for them will get them on the path to recovery.

Some more randomness

I have a couple random photos here for you to enjoy. Here's one of Nate one night right before bedtime...he looks pensive and probably is thinking of something he shouldn't be doing...Another random photo...don't know what's going on here either, I think it might be the same night...
Bedtime...
I have started working on the princesses. It is more challenging than the Toy Story series. I think this is for several reasons, one the wall is bright pink! Second, the paint on the wall is eggshell as opposed to flat. The colors don't come out as I expect so, challenging! I think the paint brushes that I used on the flat wall aren't as good for the eggshell wall.
This is what Eric and I have finished so far, yes Eric has helped me...
I think it is pretty spooky right now, and I ran out of Red, can't you tell? You can't tell, but Aurora besides being a little pasty, is a little clumpy, but I think changing the brushes is going to help, I hope!

Happy Groundhog's day!

Gwen was very excited about Groundhog's day today, she brought a groundhog that she cut out of construction paper, she named her Wally. Here she is digging Wally out of his hole. Pulling him out...
Giving Wally's prognostication...it is spring, winter is over. I hate to tell her the temperature dropped has dropped and her prognostication is wrong...(BTW Gwen doesn't actually know the word prognostication).
We decided to go for a walk because of the warm weather today, Gwen was a little upset here because Nate was beating her and she is not pleased! It is all about winning these days with her.
We walked Wally, of course.
I was allowed to pet him and Gwen stopped a couple times to talk to Wally. Nate ran pretty much the entire way. Sadly Wally was injured today over a scuffle of a chair...Nate tore his leg, fortunately we were able to reattach his leg with tape! Hope you had a great groundhog's day!

Warm Weekend

I am exhausted! First it was swimming lessons, I don't think that was exhausting for me, since I sat on the benches. But, then there was the painting and the bike riding and well, I don't think we did anything else, I am exhausted. So, this is what I started this weekend...actually I think this is from Thursday, but I had the green done, and that is about it.This is where I was last night, being distracted by little children and climbing...
And this is where I am now!
And I also finished slinky's slink and did a little work on Rex.
And then of course, Eric started more drawing...
Can you see the HUGE princesses, of course Gwen says they are the perfect size for her, exactly what she wanted and I am just thinking, crap I just about finished buzz and the rest of them, still have to do touch-ups, but dang it, they were supposed to be smaller than Buzz!

Swim Lessons

We would like to thank Grandmom for sending the kids money for swim lessons for Christmas...the kids LOVE it! I mean seriously, Eric had a hard time getting them out of the pool; Nate especially wanted to stay. Since I couldn't find a weekday morning/afternoon time swim lesson, we decided to do Saturday...I am not ready to give up 5p twice a week yet, sorry. But this works out because as I have been used to doing the swim lessons, getting in the pool and stuff, I asked Eric if he wanted to take Nate in and he said yes. So, for once I got to be dry and take pictures, a win-win for all of us, because now you can enjoy a slide show of the swim lessons.

So, hopefully we will continue to have kids that love the water and hopefully my little girl will work up the courage to get that face in the water and blow some real bubbles!

Daddy's first tea party

I had to post Daddy having a tea party with the kids, since he was so against Gwen getting one. These are for you godfather! (they are actually having pink lemonade)Nate is giving me a big smile...
I tried to get a group shot, I didn't think this one worked out like I hoped,
so I tried again!
What was I doing during this tea party, that's right, I was painting! Good news, I am almost done...until Eric starts the next drawing!

Settling

Just when I thought we would be settling back into a routine with the kids, my husband goes and starts working late and not sleeping. Now to be fair, there are so many hours in a day and he's had a lot to do. He has turned in his grant proposal and we are glad he is done with that. He went to lunch yesterday with a couple of students and a guest lecturer. They discussed Eric's grant and how much work it is and the lecturer mentioned that his students work on them for 3 months, Eric has only been working on it for a month! This could explain his late working and sleepless nights. Sadly, this also throws off my schedule; I am tired also. Eric came home from work today, we had dinner and I sent him to bed...he pulled an all-nighter!
Last week we had a random warm day, I took advantage of it and took Batman and Gwen outside for some fresh air. They chose to ride their scooters...

Nate is getting really good at his scooter, he has the advantage that he can fit both feet on side by side. Gwen is still having some difficulty, but she is also getting better.
They chose to change scooters and I saw that Nate really does balance well on the scooter he had no problem on it and Gwen could use some practice.
It is back to being cold here this week, so I guess there will be no more scooter riding. Mom gets too cold standing out there watching, I guess I could move around or something...

Grandmom visit

Last week Grandmom came to visit, a quick visit; not much time to take pictures. But we got a few. Grandmom wanted to do some "Grandmom shopping" as she calls it. She wanted to spend a little time getting them some stuff while she was there so she could see the kids when they got the stuff. Hence the Batman boots and raincoat/cape Nate is wearing. He has been wearing it almost nonstop. Here is Grandma reading a book after the purchase.
Gwen was 'child of the week' while Grandmom was here, she got to bring in a "special snack" for her friends. She was line leader and able to pick a special friend to eat snacks with each day. We were able go into Gwen's class and meet all her classmates, introduce ourselves and read some stories to the class. Gwen picked out 2 special songs for her class to sing. I snapped this picture quickly before we left, only Eric apparently knew that I was going to snap the picture.
In the parking lot of Toys 'R Us, we went there also.
Grandmom took over some of our responsibilities-brushing teeth, reading books and combing hair!
We also took Grandmom to the Farmer's market. Sure it is winter, but they had "Okinawa sweet potatoes"-purple sweet potatoes. We didn't have a chance to try them while Grandmom was here, I found a recipe for them we are going to try possibly tomorrow? These turtles are in the park near the Farmer's Market.

Gwen and Nate climbing on Daddy as usual. Not a particularly a good picture, but you can see Gwen is wearing her child of the week crown.
Reading a book before Grandmom left.
It was a short trip, but I think we squeezed in some quality time and everything she wanted to door accomplish. A humorous story from Grandmom's trip, she noticed that Nate has Woody, Buzz and Hamm from Toy Story and is pretty obsessed with the everyone from Toy Story. She promised Nate she would get him Rex and she was pretty insistent we go somewhere so she could get him Rex, she didn't want to go back on her word, understandably. So, day 2 we go to Toys R Us and we wander around and find some potential new Rex's to take home. She asks Nate do you want this Rex and he says "No". HA! 2 year olds! After another 30 minutes we settled on the Slinky Dog for Nate and "naked baby" #2...aka naked baby's twin. That is kind of humorous also, while I was tasked to help Nate decide what get after the Rex fiasco, Grandmom went with Gwen to the pink section to look at a new baby. (maybe I should clarify a new doll baby). Grandmom tried to talk Gwen into a Barbie, but Gwen had her heart set on "naked baby" number 2. I came over and tried to talk her into something else and oh the sad face, I thought she was going to cry. So, Nate left with what he wanted and Gwen left with what she wanted. And Grandmom was surprised and will likely talk about how her Grandkids have minds of their own and can't be talked into something they don't want. But a funny memorable story to be sure!

Project day

On MLK day we got a little crazy, and decided to paint on the kids walls. And not just anything, Eric has some skills in the drawing department. He asked the kids to help and he gave them some paper and told them to draw them on the wall, so they took their papers put them on the wall and started coloring on the paper. So funny! Anyhoo, here are some pictures.
Hamm done, Rex in progress! (see the coloring on the paper Eric is holding up, colored by the kids)
Here is my part of the work, the painting.
Buzz and Hamm-done!
Rex, Mr. Potato Head and Slinky dog. I've started on Mr Potato Head.
I think Eric is pretty much done with drawing, now I have to get busy with the painting-it might take a couple weekends of work, if only we could get them to sleep somewhere else, I could get a lot done!

Videos

While my Mother is recovering from her surgery, I thought she'd like to view these videos I found while cleaning up the 2010 pictures.
Video 1-Nate chasing squirrel. I have talked about this before, here and I watched this video and still giggle just thinking about it. Just imagine this happening over and over with Nate running around the tree and Gwen not running off...hilarious!

Squirrel from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Nate playing the guitar. He is our musical one...

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

This is from our snow in the beginning of December, Eric took this video.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

This is the box, Eric called me over to see what Nate was doing, but the daughter was starved for attention apparently, because she jumped right in there, but picture Nate, doing this.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

For the first couple of days, Gwen would insist on putting the windows back in and Nate would punch them out, it made her so mad!
Hope you are feeling better Mom!

The box

While my Aunt was here she was kind enough to buy us a chest freezer. Of course it came in a large box, which translates to hours and days of fun, if you are 2 or 4...
Daddy cut holes in it and they have slept in it and played in it.

Here they are getting cozy in the box.
Nate was out cold, but Gwen asked Eric to get Nate out of the box so she could sleep in the box by herself. She felt like it was too crowded for her to sleep in there with Nate.
She has slept in the box several nights. We even "hid" in the box from Daddy. They have now turned the box over and it has new life, we might throw the box away sometime in February, we'll see how it goes.