Category — Shane

Here’s a little laugh for you…Travis shaved the boys’ hair today, and in the midst of Shane’s haircut, we got a glimpse into what he’ll look like in 60 years:

Jack came outside, took one look at Shane, and said “Shane looks like Granjoe!” and then proceeded to laugh his little butt off.  I’m pretty sure my father-in-law would find Jack’s sense of humor just as funny as we did! 

Once the shave was complete, it was adorable.  Shane loves to get his haircut and especially loves all the praise he gets as soon as it’s done – everyone loves to feel his prickly head! 

Jack HATES having his haircut; the sound of the razor drives him crazy.  Strange thing is, he loves the dentist.  Weird kid;)  I love both boys with short hair – you can see their features so much better.  We’re heading out for what should be an incredible hike tomorrow, so I’ll hopefully take some pictures of the new ‘do’s there.

Jack starts school in 2 weeks.  I wonder if that’s going to ruin the munchkin games he, Shane, and Fin have made up and enjoying playing together, like “Princess Parade.”  I wish they could stay little and carefree forever.  Please make note of how dainty a princess Shane is in this video, pinching the sides of his gown to keep it from snagging on the ground – hilarious.

A few other funny updates.  Here’s a picture of outer space that Jack drew and hung on his own bedroom wall. 

I was tucking him in tonight and he was describing his artwork for me:  “that dark thing is a meat-eater (meteor), and that swirly thing is the Milky Wave (Milky Way)…”  Just can’t believe my baby is actually starting school!!  My mom sent him this backpack and lunchbox that he’s quite eager to wear:

Today was my day off and Fin and Shane let me sleep in until almost 8am!!  It was amazing.  Jack, however, still runs on 8hrs sleep – not much for a 4 year old, but that’s always been how he rolls.  So Travis got up and laid down with him at 6.  Jack was tossing and turning and trying everything to get Travis up and downstairs with him.  He finally resorted to paraphrasing a line from Wall-E, when the people are traveling back to Earth and the video is informing the people of 1 effect of having been lazy/not exercising.  Jack pulled that one out and told Travis “dad, I’m experiencing slight bone loss!” 

Fin also has been cracking us up lately with some line she picked up from God knows where.  Anytime the boys do something wild she doesn’t want them to do, she’ll tell “don’t do that!  It brings down the value!!”  And perhaps my favorite conversation between Fin and Jack that highlights their differences:

Travis: “oh, I think that grasshopper is hurt.  let’s leave him alone.”

Jack: “Yeah, maybe his mommy and daddy will come find him and take care of him.”

Fin: “or maybe a snake will come along and eat him!”

We went on a hike today and Shane, our expert bug catcher, caught tons of critters for our little critter / amphibian / reptile tank at home.  He and Jackie caught a couple frogs, but one little jumper was tough to capture.  Fin got frustrated watching the boys gently scoop and miss, so she pushed them aside and tried to stomp on it.  I yelped, which stopped her in her tracks before the frog had been completely flattened.  Fin noticed my concern and said “oh,” then she looked back and pointed at the lame frog and comforted me with “it’s ok mom, he’s still jumpin.”  Heart a gold, that kid.  She really cracks me up though.

Then there’s Shanie and his incredible etiquette.  He’s always excusing himself and apologizing for things Fin or Jack did.  It’s funny because Fin will own up to her naughties and say “no Shane, that was MY fault.”  On several occasions, he has interrupted restaurant conversation to say “cuse me! CUSE ME?!” and then when he has our attention, “my farted.” 

Apologies for the deteriorating quality of my photos!  I haven’t edited a picture in MONTHS, and most I take these days are with my iphone.  Here are 2 from our hike & picnic today:

I’d have to say, it’s not a perfect reward / discipline system, but I don’t believe there is such a thing…however, the sticker charts have been easy and pretty effective for us so far.  I was worried the very 1st day when Fin bit Jack, then realized since she’d already lost her sticker, she might as well say “screw it” and just keep biting every time she got pissed.  I thought she’d cracked our system, but we seem to be back on track now (though she fell off the wagon once today).  Like I said, it’s not perfect;)

So guess whose last 3 poops have been on the potty?!  Shane’s first ever potty success was just yesterday, and it was quite exciting!  He had been trying so hard to go on the potty (we told him that was worth 5 stickers!) that it had been 2 days since he’d gone at all…so it was like twice as large.  After he labored and delivered, we cheered and everyone ran in to ooh and ahhh over its size.  We ran out to T@rget to pick out some big boy underpants for Shane.  Jack saw all the attention Shane was getting and said “maybe I could get new underpants since I pooped on the potty too,” then he added, in a melancholic tone while shaking his head in defeat, “but it wasn’t huge.”  Yes, everyone was impressed with Shane’s work.  He definitely earned those 5 stickers.

So it turns out, the secret to potty training is to just do nothing; if you wait long enough, eventually kids just potty train themselves and it’s totally stress-free that way.  For some (Fin) it happens by 22 months, for others (my boys) just before they turn 3.  As I tweeted, it’s one of those times when parenting can coexist with laziness.  A beautiful thing.  So the end of diapers is FINALLY in sight…until December.  I can’t believe we’re starting all over again!

So speaking of Shanie, we had a little family birthday celebration for him tonight (a few weeks early, but wanted to do it before I fall into the blackhole of residency…orientation starts tomorrow).  He got a basketball hoop, which we knew would be a huge hit.  He’s been obsessed with basketball for awhile (so random considering we’ve never exposed him to it).  He was adorable and SO SO happy with his little gift.  We let him take his basketball to bed tonight, so he’s up there snuggling with it right now.

I’m off to bed, but before you head there too, please visit Nicki’s blog!!  She’s running a SkinnyKidz giveaway right now, plus she wrote the best product review ever.  And don’t forget we’re having our Independence Day sale at SkinnyKidz right now and offering a super cute 4th of July belt, along with 2 other prints, for 25% off.  You have to order by June 28th to get them in time for July 4th, so hurry!

Travis and I have been trying to come up with a better way to reward / discipline Finley.  We have gotten into this rut with her where we’re constantly taking things away or threatening to take things away in punishment.  It’s just not very positive or productive.  She’s always outsmarting us, and we are always huffing and puffing and saying things like “fine Fin, you just lost the fruit snack I was going to give you / this piece of gum/ your treat for tonight / etc.”  We’ve pretty much incorporated all sorts of crap in our kids’ diets, just so we have something we can take away from Finley when she bites, acts ornery or defiant, throws stuff out the car windows (happened today, so she lost “window privileges”), takes her shoes off in public places just to be a stinker, etc.  ANYWAY, we have been trying to incorporate more ways to positively reward GOOD behavior from Finley, rare as it is;), so we instituted a HUGE sticker chart that hangs on the family room wall for each kid (who needs fancy artwork in a house trashed by toddlers). 

On the night of the sticker chart inception, we told the kids they would be able to earn their 1st stickers by staying in bed all night – no getting out of bed, no messing with each other, no coming downstairs, etc.  They were SO THRILLED about the possibility of earning a sticker that they all ran up to bed, kissed us goodnight, and we didn’t hear another peep from them. 

Travis and I always sneak back in the kids’ rooms before we go to bed to tuck them in again, cover them with blankets, etc.  When we opened the boys’  bedroom door, there were poop balls ALL OVER the floor.  Henny had been with me and Trav downstairs, so there was no puppy to blame it on.  We played detective and traced the trail right to Shane (wasn’t hard since there was poop smeared on his bed railing).  His hands were covered, but he was PASSED OUT. 

Apparently, the kid was SO freakin motivated by the damn stickers that he didn’t want to violate our “don’t get out of bed” rule for fear of losing his sticker.  So he took a dump in his diaper, scooped out the goodies with his hands, chucked them on his bedroom floor, wiped his hands off, and went back to sleep!!

Outsmarted as usual, Travis and I were left trying to figure out if that was sticker-worthy or not…we decided not.  But it was one hell of an effort!  Now Shane’s chart reads:

1. Telling us when diaper is dirty
2. Not getting out of bed at night…

Fin’s chart is my favorite though:

1. Not biting (she can earn 2 stickers / day for this – 1 if she doesn’t bite anyone before nap, and another if she doesn’t bite anyone between nap and bedtime)
2. Not screaming while Daddy is driving
3. Asking before opening Henny’s crate
4. Keeping shoes on during outings…her list goes on and on

We really struggled to find stuff for Jack’s sticker chart, since he really is so good most of the time.  He gets rewards for stuff like:

1. Practicing to ride his new 2 wheel bike
2. Helping mommy & daddy
3. Staying in bed in the mornings until 7 (hasn’t earned any in that column just yet, but we’re only a few hours away each day;)…

Shane is doing AWESOME.  He’s been happy and chatty, and is still as snuggly and sweet as ever.  He and Fin have been playing together tons lately, and it’s so cute to watch them take each other’s hand and race through the house.  He’ll say “come on Findee,” reach his hand out for her, and they’re off.  A favorite game around here is for the kids to pretend to be race cars.  They’ll zoom around the picnic table, when it’s stationed in the middle of the family room, as if it’s a NASCAR track (we do NOT watch NASCAR; the influence is from CARS;).  They’ll come to me and Trav for pitstops and request a “tire change,” or “gas,” or “car wash” (love that one!), etc., and then start zooming again.  Shane LOVES this game and initiates it very often.

Shane is heavily relied upon by his cautious big brother Jack, and his hyper-exciteable little sister Fin, neither of whom can calm their nerves enough to actually catch any of the bugs they spot.  So Shane ALWAYS does the dirty work.  He is fearless, and totally enthralled with insects of all kinds.  I’ve found him pinching a hold of red ants, spiders, and bees, to name a few!  He never seems to get stung or bitten though, so I’m  pretty sure he still thinks I’m a total freak for flipping out every time I see him holding something nasty.

Shane loves to play the harmonica.  The funniest part is that Henny often chimes in, howling, when Shane starts making “music.”  This place truly is a circus.  Oh, and Shane still thinks his puppy’s name is “Henry.”  So cute.   Shane also still yells “aww, new puppy!” every time he sees Henny.  Henny was singing to Shane for some reason in the picture below (that’s what reminded me of the harmonica):

Shane isn’t potty trained yet, nor have we really tried much with him yet, but since he still lies about having a dirty diaper, I don’t think he’s quite there and we’re not in a huge hurry to start.  We’re not big into pushing kids early to potty train.  Fin potty trained insanely early, but that was 100% her own initiative.  But I’m sure I’ll hit a point with Shane, like I did with Jack, when I’ve had enough of the patient approach and I’ll encourage potty training a little more than I have thus far.  I’m not there yet, but we’re only ~2 months away from Shane turning 3.  I’d love to have him potty trained or close to it before I start internship.  I don’t know, I just do not like the idea of a nanny potty training my baby; it’s one of those milestones I want to be there for.  But I’ll have to see where Shane is.  For now, he sits on the potty when we change his diaper or take it off before bath time, but no success yet to speak of on the throne.

Shane is WAY into superheroes.  He found a little plastic one somewhere and smuggled it home.  I must hear “ mama, look!  Superhero!” a thousand times a day.  Shane starts every sentence with “mama,” which sometimes makes me want to change my name, but when there’s not a million other loud noises around is totally precious.  He talks a LOT these days, and often it’s in a really loud voice.  I think for so long he compensated for incomprehensible speech by increasing the volume (as if that would make us understand him), which we allowed.  We also enabled whining for a long time, since it was one of the few ways he could express himself before he had verbal language.  We’ve been working hard to curb those things now that he’s talking and we can understand what he’s saying (80% of the time); we’re doing great now on the no-whining front, but we’ve still got work to do on the “indoor voice” concept.  It helps when we can remember to talk softly in response to his loud voice, so he has to quiet down to hear what we’re saying.  Our awesome speech therapist has been helping us with that.

Shane is still the sweetest 2 year old I’ve ever met.  He has tantrums for sure, but they’re not nasty like Fin’s some two year old’s tantrums are.  He’s such a cuddle-bug, and the best part is he’ll snuggle on my terms, not just his.  I love that about him.  He’s always the first to share in order to resolve a conflict, and whenever Fin another kid is in timeout for biting doing something not-so-nice to Shane, he is always standing by waiting for them to be “released” from the TO so he can hug them.  He’s such a forgiving little guy.  Shane is also the 1st to say “Gah-bless-oo-mama!” if I cough, snort, sneeze, or make any of the other disgusting sounds I’ve been making since I had bronchitis.  He cracks me up with his “eh-cooz me” if he comes within feet of anyone else while he’s trying to get somewhere.  The other day it was raining and I was on the verge of needing to be committed, so we took the kids to T@rget and told them to run wild, the only instruction they listened to all day.  Shane was zooming, pretending to be a car, and he’d zigzag around other shoppers yelling “eh-cooz me!”  That would have been considered obnoxious if it’d happened in the T@rget where Travis and I grew up (average age ~80, and 99% hate children), but the shoppers here thought it was just as hilarious as we did! 

Shane has SHOCKED us with how much he knows.  We never bothered teaching him stuff like letters, colors, shapes, etc. because we didn’t think he was understanding a lot of what were saying.  Turns out, he was getting it all along.  Now that he’s talking, he has demonstrated how much he knows.  He has his colors down, knows all 26 of his letters, and is a puzzle master.  Pretty funny.  He’s a sleeper, full of surprises!  He still has a really hard time initiating speech sometimes, which goes along with our prompt speech therapist’s theory that his has been a motor planning problem.  It just takes a lot of repetition, but he’s doing so well and we couldn’t be happier about his progress!!

Shane continues to be such a mama’s boy, and I’m very happy about that.  He’s very sensitive to criticism, has such a gentle nature and a huge heart.  We are so proud of our sweetheart and love that he is simultaneously a rough and tumble boy who loves collecting bugs and wrecking stuff with construction trucks, yet has a nurturing side that is so warm, sensitive, and loving.

I know it’s getting annoying, and I promise to start blogging about something of substance soon, like maybe healthcare.  But for now, I’m just so in love with my puppy, he’s all I can really talk about.  Well, him and my kids of course;)  The only downside to Henny is that I’m so in love with him that our relationship *might* be interfering with my marriage.  Travis put his foot down when he found me carrying Hen around in the Hotsling I’d worn all our kids in as babies.  He drew a line.  All I have to say is, “don’t push me Travis.”  If I have to choose, this *could* get ugly!  Just kidding, and I have no idea what’s up with my usage of *.  Check out the seriousness of this kiss:

I’m so proud of my little Hen-dog; his floppy ear is starting to stand up on its own!  It spent a few minutes upright yesterday, and longer today.  Slowly but surely…the little ear that could.  He’s growing up so fast, and pretty soon he’s going to be a REAL Frenchie!  How hysterical is this breed of dog?!  I am obsessed.  You know the saying, “once you go French…you never go English?” er, something like that.  That’s not fair at all, as few dogs are as cool as an English bulldog.  I’m just loving that my Frenchie is going to be a quarter the size, but still 100% the personality.

As much as Travis hates that I worship the dog, I catch him doting too.  Travis could talk this puppy into a coma.  It’s crazy how Henny can relax to the sound of our voices or our touch.  Henny is not dead, but actually asleep in both the following photos:

This is Henny after he got colored on.  He’s such a good sport, but I wonder if he’ll be quite as inclined to play with kids while they’re drawing with chalk in the future?

Doesn’t he just look like the picture of speed?  Hahaha!  This is the most inefficiently designed dog in the world.  And I LOVE him for it.

Possibly my all-time favorite picture of Hendrick:

Please don’t be inspired by the photo below to call PETA.  I promise Henny’s airway was intact and he breathed through the chokehold.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but it’s been awhile since we’ve had any illness around here (knock knock).  We don’t get sick often (knock knock), and I think it’s been since fall maybe since anyone has had a fever, and no one has had a fever for more than a day since long before that.  We are very lucky in that department, and God knows we have frequent & significant germ exposures…you should see our house!  But anyway, Shanie had a fever 2 days ago and it sucked.  Thankfully, it only lasted a day for him, a night for Jack, and not at all for Fin (knock knock).  But it caused Shane to nap for 5 hours yesterday!!  He was completely back to himself today, but he & Jack have both complained of mouth sores, and Jack has had tummy aches, which he blames exclusively on Fin’s birthday cake.  Here’s what that nasty virus did to Shane:

Diva alert:

I love how Hendrick “pinks up” even more with exercise; you get him runnin’ and he REALLY looks like a little piglet!  At the rate his ears are growing, “the day pigs can fly” might be just around the corner;)

Jack has been going through a tough phase lately.  I’ll explain more in a future post, but I’m hoping he pulls out of it soon.  I miss my happy boy.  He has also NOT been into posing for the camera lately.  This is pretty much as close to a smile as I’ve captured from him in awhile:

Look how happy Henny makes my littlest boy:

Oh to be kids:

Oops:

And then there were 2:

Travis and I have been swamped with work lately.  All my pigmented skin textbook chapters are due this week, and I’m nowhere near completing them.  Also, remember that invention of mine from a couple years ago that I’ve talked about a few times but still have never shown you?  Well, it’s coming along and we’re hoping to launch it very soon, so that’s been consuming chunks of my time as well…but in a fun way.  I totally believe in the product, feel strongly about how we’re establishing our company with its roots in charitable contributions, and am totally psyched to actually start marketing and selling it soon.  I can’t wait to share more and hope to have my blogosphere friends, as well as real life friends & family, help us promote on a grassroots level.

Travis has been crazy busy with school, his 2 jobs, his ophtho research (which has led to several publications), and now a really neat new consulting company he & our really close friend, Kaakpema, are getting off the ground.  We’re also trying to figure out if we’ll be able to swing some time up in Wisconsin before I start my intern year so that Travis can work with the ophtho department up there, and also to get to know the city we’ll be moving to a bit before we actually make the move next year.  As if our plates weren’t totally full, we’re also trying to sort out things like childcare, schools, etc. for the kids once I start in June and Travis begins his 4th year medical school rotations.  Lots of moving parts here!

Anyway, looks like we have an exciting adventure coming up this weekend.  We’re going someplace very very cool with some really good friends who happen to have 2 little girls that our kids adore.  I’ll keep it a surprise for now, but the thought of where we’re headed makes me giddy.  A clue: it’s a very unique natural landscape and environment right here in Colorado.  We’ve been before, but not with all 3 kids.  I can take a picture of water, desert, and snowcapped mountains all in one shot.

I love Henny!  To answer Nicki’s question about potty training a bulldog (English or French), so far this is the easiest freakin puppy in the world, potty training included.  Our English was also super easy to housebreak.  Bulldogs, in general, are HUGELY motivated by food so you can train them to do virtually anything (unless it requires a lot of exertion, in which case they’ll weigh the effort vs reward;), and it makes potty training a bully especially simple.  Henny’s potty cues are super obvious – he frantically sniffs, circles, and runs to me or Trav so we can scoop him up and let him out.  He only had 1 accident today, and it was my fault for losing track of time and ignoring his cues.  Didn’t help that we had a blizzard last night and neither Henny nor Trav & I enjoyed being outside until it warmed up this afternoon; but he is almost potty trained on day 2 (knock knock), which is pretty crazy.  I guess Hen could always pull a Fin on us - start out as the world’s easiest, most laidback creature, then turn villain around 6 months old.  But so far he’s just a really well-behaved, sweet, snuggly little guy and we absolutely adore him.

Shanie loves “Henry!”  We have a neighbor whose name is Henry, plus Heny is also a train from Thomas, so I think even if Shane knows we’re calling him Henny, he’d still rather the puppy be named Henry.  I have a feeling this dog will answer to a lot of names.  Shane is just such a sweetheart, so it’s no surprise he’s so good with his puppy too.  He is excited, but gentle, playful, but careful.  It’s so cute to watch them interact.  Seeing how happy our two Littles are with this dog reminds us why we thought this was a good idea;)  At one point today, Fin was in timeout for hitting and Hen went over to comfort her.  He laid in her lap and timeout all the sudden became a huge reward!  All becomes right in the world when a kid has a dog to cry to;)

Finley gets so excited she almost has a heart attack every time she sees “Honey!”  The toes say it all here, since her enthusiasm can’t be contained and usually leads to uncontrollable muscle contractions throughout her entire 20lb body:

The joy of kissing a dog:

This poor puppy gets absolutely no relief.  We are crate training, and the kids understand that’s the puppy’s space that is off-limits to them…I wonder when Henny will wise up and start living his whole life in there just to escape his other reality.  Finley is a friggin riot with the dog.  She’s always trying to get him to follow her, which he does naively, and then she’ll wait until he *considers* doing something naughty (this could be as minor as sniffing a shoe), and she’ll POUNCE on him with “HONEY NO!  No no, Honey!  I. SAID. NO!”  The dog will stop, look up at her like the looney bin she is, and then she’ll turn all angelic and say in the softest, most gently voice ever “good dog Honey, that’s a good boy.”  All I can say is at least we gave her a dog to bully and boss instead of a younger sibling.  Oh, and Sophie~Bug’s Mom from the previous post’s comments hit the nail on the head – when the youngest kid turns 2, sometimes the baby bug is in full swing.  I decided the appropriate way to deal with a totally inappropriate baby craving was to get a puppy!  It’ll work because it has to!  Seriously though, I love our baby dog.

I don’t really have quite so many pictures of Jack with Hendrick because, well, Jackie only plays with him every now and then.  Jack’s a funny kid, a tough nut to crack.  First, he didn’t think Henny should be allowed in the house.  Overruled.  Then, he didn’t think Henny should be allowed upstairs.  Overruled.  At least Henny isn’t allowed on furniture or in the playroom (downstairs) I guess.  Jack isn’t interested in kissing the puppy, hugging on him, holding him, or really much else that involves contact with the Hen either.  He had fun with Henny for a little bit today when they played a game where Jack would throw a blanket on him to make him look like a ghost, and Henny would run until the blanket fell off.  I’m sure Jack will grow to love his puppy eventually, right?! 

On another note, our baby girl turns 2 tomorrow!  She’s in 7th heaven with this dog, but I’m betting Fin will have an extra special glow about her on her birthday.  She basks in the spotlight like that.  I feel bad because we haven’t planned ANYTHING for her yet.  I think we’ll just do a low-key family thing tomorrow and maybe have a little birthday party with some close friends & neighbors when my parents come out to visit in early April.  We’ll see.  Finley has been telling people “I’m almost gonna be two” for months now.  Sometimes she’ll even tell them “my bert-day is March twenty-five.”  I only told her that one time, but man was she listening.  She knows there are generally presents involved with :bert-days,” so there was no way she was going to forget her own special holiday!

Here’s Fin playing “this little piggie” with Henny’s puppy toes.  Poor dog pretty much slept through the whole thing!

This has been the strangest day EVER; it was sunny, then it snowed these HUGE, gorgeous, chunky snowflakes, then it rained, and then it stayed light until 7pm because of the time change.  To top it off, the kids and I didn’t leave the house and I was in my pajamas today until 5:30pm.  Weird, as that is NOT something I ever do (not since post C-section spinal headache anyway).  We were up past 2am last night hosting a little get-together with some neighbor friends to watch the Pacquiao – Clottey fight, and of course our kids didn’t sleep in this morning or anything.  A quick story from our night: we planned wings and beer for fight night.  Of course, we’re wing AND beer snobs, so they had to be specialty wings, and it had to be our favorite Colorado microbrew on draught.

So Travis got home with his beer for the kegerator, hooked it up, and watched the CO2 meter plummet instantly.  Empty CO2 = non-pressurized kegerator = flat beer and non-functional tap.  So no draught beer.  Travis was devastated.

Then, the wings were cold by the time our friends were on their way over, so Travis said “I’ll just put them in the oven,” and he stuffed them in, still in their styrofoam boxes.  I was BURNED out at this point from a really long day (8 mile run, lots of cleaning, etc), and so was he.  So when I asked Trav, admittedly in a somewhat nagging tone, if styrofoam can go in the oven, he was annoyed and said it would be fine.  So I let it go.

About 5 minutes later, I came downstairs and asked Travis if he’d lit a candle or something.  He shrugged and said “no, but it smells like one.”  I ran for the oven, and of course, the styrofoam had melted all over it.  I threw a mini tantrum about the toxic chemicals that had, no doubt, absorbed into the wings, and we moved on.

Our friends got here, and 1 had brought a homemade pizza.  He was so proud of it and told us how he’d spent several hours slaving over it and 3 others just like it.  All fresh ingredients and made completely to perfection.  All we had to do was put it in the oven.  So Travis did that.  Then we all went downstairs to play with the kids in the playroom, but Travis disappeared for a few minutes, so I ran upstairs to see what was up.  I walked in, only to find him hunched over the oven in mourning, with the evidence all over his sauce-stained hands.  He looked up with the most guilty face ever, I shot him the “I-know-you-killed-the-pizza” glare, and he told me “I don’t know what happened, it just lost integrity when I tried to take it out!”  There were pizza guts ALL OVER the oven floor and the oven door.  I watched Travis’ pathetic attempt to fit the puzzle pieces of crust back together, and then slap the cheese, chopped onions, green peppers, and pepperoni haphazardly back on top.  Something just didn’t look quite right;)  Wish I’d snapped the picture when Travis was still wearing the toppings on his arms:

I told him he had to go give our friend, John, the bad news.  We did the nudge / shove, “you go do it,” “NO, YOU go do it!”  Finally, Travis solemnly broke the news that he’d wrecked John’s masterful creation.  Thankfully, John was a few drinks in and took it in stride.  He was a really good sport about it, but we felt awful.  Travis might be getting a pizza tray for his birthday (which is this week!).  I tried to get him a kilt with his family’s tartan, but man skirts are freakin EXPENSIVE.

Anyway, in spite of its perils, last night was a good time!  Lots of drinks, lots of laughs, and a good boxing match.

Speaking of Match, I am dying of anticipation right now.  I was calm as a cucumber for most of application, interview, Match season, but I’ve actually been pretty anxious today.  I am having horrifying flashbacks of last year’s shock and horror, when I got the email on Black Monday.  “Black Monday” is the term used in medical education to refer to the Monday of Match Week, when applicants find out if we matched or not.  Hopefully mine will not be “black” this year.  The email does not contain any information other that to tell us “congrats,” or “sorry.”  Details for those who match don’t come until envelope opening on Thursday of Match Week.

At this point, I am just feeling CRAZY for ever worrying over the order of my rank list.  How presumptuous.  Right now, I’m in the “bargaining” stage: “oh please, oh please let me match; I’ll be the best resident, I’ll never complain about work-life imbalance or having to live in a crappy city!  I just want to be a dermatologist, I’ll go ANYwhere!”  Seriously, Travis and I are just on edge waiting for that email tomorrow.  We’ve both decided that if we get good news tomorrow, we’ll hit the ceiling, and enjoy the rest of the week when we get to find out WHERE I matched.

Our plan is to get up at the crack of dawn to do P90X, then maybe bundle the kids (tomorrow’s high is 50, but somehow it’s supposed to snow…only in Colorado;) and go for a run.  For some reason, I just don’t want to be cooped up in the house waiting for the results.  Travis doesn’t have to go to work & school until later in the day.  We just have to be back 30 minutes after the email arrives for Shane’s speech therapy session.  So that’s the plan.  SO. MUCH. BUILD UP.  And it’ll all be over in a matter of seconds, as soon as I open the email and read the 1st sentence.

Here are some funny videos that put a smile on my face.  This is what happens as a result of our kids waking up and coming downstairs to find us doing P90X:

And this is Shane-bug counting away:

Wish me luck; tomorrow I’ll either find out I’m definitely going to be a dermatologist, or that I’m still just hopeful that someday a path into the field will present itself if I keep working for it.  Big day, big day.

Shane’s barber had a little mishap with the clippers this morning (the guard fell off!), and the result is a toddler who looks like he survived brain surgery.  He has a stripe down his head where his hair was BICKED.  Since his barber was Travis, I gasped, tried not to laugh too hard, and then pleaded with Travis to just bic the whole thing.  He refused.  When I said “but he looks like he had brain surgery,” Travis’ retort was “if I bic his WHOLE head, he’ll look like he had chemo.”  It was a dead end discussion, so I let it go.  Shane’s hair grows faster than a pothead’s though, so I think this patch will replace itself soon…like before CPS gets involved.  It’s really, really bad.  I’ve never seen such a bad haircut in my life; not even the one my little sister gave herself just weeks before she was the flower girl in our wedding.  I’m pretty sure if crop circles could be seen from outer space, Shane’s hairless rectangle can too.  Poor kid.  I’m just thanking God this happened at age 2 and not age 12.  I fired the barber, so it shouldn’t be an issue when he is old enough to notice his haircuts.  Since words just don’t do it justice, feast your eyes on Shane’s hairless patch:

He was all about playing with magic wands tonight and casting spells.  I’m betting he put one on the barber.  Either that, or he was trying to poof us back in time.  I actually think the exposed scalp makes him run faster…

Good thing he doesn’t need his hair to be cute.  In spite of the haircut mishap this morning, Shane had an awesome day.  He is just talking up a STORM these days, and PROMPT therapy continues to do wonders for his speech.  We are really excited about his progress. 

Also, guess what we got to do this weekend?  Hang with the Stickley family!  We’d planned on a big weekend in a tiny mountain town, called Cripple Creek, that has an ice festival this time every year with cool ice carvings and festivities.  But it was snowing pretty hard and we decided mountain driving wasn’t a smart move, so we drove down to the Springs and hung with them for the day.  It was a BLAST, not just for the 5 kids 3 and under, but for us big kids too.  We always seem to have a great time together, and our kids get along SO well.  It’s really adorable.  Emilie had a cookie-making station all set up that was a HUGE hit with the kids.  Below are Jack, Nova, Finley, Juneau, and Shane decorating their sweets.

Below is Nova enjoying her creation:

Jack, Shane, and Juneau:

The other big hit for Finley were the dogs! 

Look at the intensity of Fin’s “gnarly patch” in the next photo:

I have a few cute videos that have been sitting on the flipvideo for awhile, one from my phone of Shanie singing, and another of Fin from yesterday morning telling me she’s “fusta-wated.”  She’s back to her spitting and biting routine (I swear this kid is the devil’s spawn, but she’s so damn cute), so this morning, after she spit orange juice at everyone, I confiscated her sippy cup.  I knew she was going to react dastardly, and I wanted to catch what I could on camera, so I started recording AFTER the part where she tried to bite me, but in time to hear her little articulation of how she was feeling.

Here’s one from weeks ago of the kids pulling movie quotes.  There’s a line from the movie Ice Age that just cracks my kids up.  It’s when Sid’s family ditches him secretly in the night and he wakes up and says “Uncle Fungus?”  You can hear Finley’s impression of that line.  Additionally, Jack is quoting Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch.  Then you can hear Travis prompt Shane’s favorite saying for when something is super cool; it’s from the Christmas movie Prep & Landing.  He says in a falsetto voice “that’s so tinsel!”

And here’s Shanie’s rendition of Twinkle Twinkle:

A few more funny things -

Jack has been having very vivid dreams and has been asking to draw pictures of those dreams.  He has become an amazing drawer.  I’ll have to take some photos of his pictures, but he draws lots of flowers and rainbows.  Also, yesterday I was asking him to do something he didn’t want to do and he turned around and gave me another Sid from Ice Age quote, “I choose LIFE!”  I had to laugh and give it up to the kid.

Every morning, Finley asks for “sausage, bacon, or French toaster” (French toast).  She always spills things or gets crumbs trapped under her chin, in her neck fold.  She calls it her “necklace,” and will scream “mom!  get it out of my necklace.”  Yesterday, she somehow looped her legs through the baby gate and got stuck hanging upside down by her legs (it was hilarious and not dangerous like it sounds).  She was yelling “I’m dying here.”  I have NO IDEA where she got that, but the cutest part was that I thought she was crying wolf & being dramatic, so Jack actually got to her first.  He put his hands under her armpits to support her weight and try to help her out of her pickle.  So cute.  Oh, 1 more Fin story.  A cat followed us home from our walk to the park the other day.  I thought Finley was going to hyperventilate to death from excitement.  The cat followed us all the way to our porch, so I read its tag and called its owner (who didn’t give a crap that her cat was blocks away and annoying another resident).  It’s tag said “Felipe,” so I told the kids the cat’s name and Fin has been talking about “Leafay” ever since.

Shane has been struggling still with sleep and also acting out a little bit.  He’s taken to Finley’s technique of biting, only he doesn’t do it when he’s mad necessarily so it’s hard to predict.  He’s gotten Jack a few times over the past few days.  When he’s mad, he’s been feeling his oats and hitting (pretty much only Jack; I don’t think he’d dare hit Fin out of fear of her retaliation).  I don’t know why, but he’s also not sleeping nearly enough.  Yesterday he refused a nap, and eventually woke Jack up.  He later passed out on the carpet downstairs and woke up when Fin jumped off the couch on him.  I hope he gets over this hump soon!  On a positive note, he has been chatting up a storm!!  He has said more sentences than I can count, and repeats, or tries to repeat, almost everything we say now.