January Recap

I had originally planned on doing a Dec/Jan combined recap but I can't remember back as far as 2008.

Ben - Is still on a research rotation and has submitted a case to show for it. He has been honing his woodworking skills and has made us some cool "furniture" for the new house. He also started working with the 16 yr old boys at church as an advisor.

Miles - Can be found "skateboarding", playing "raquetball" and jumping off of things while dressed as spiderman and playing the harmonica (he'll ask anyone - "do you like my music?"). And telling me he can do everything "myself". Yep we're at that stage.

He made the jump to a size 4 diaper. As you can see he is getting quite chunky. :)

If his mom had more time to devote to his training I'm sure he could have made that jump straight to the Thomas undies. Instead, at home he will say when he needs to go but is very annoying in that he will only relieve himself a little at a time. So he needs to go a little every 5 minutes. Contrast that to his sisters "bladder of steel" and she who goes once a day - midday and once before bed because we make her. And yes she drinks plenty of liquids.

Vital stats from his 2 yr appt. at 27 months : Height - 33 in. (7th %ile) Weight - 24.4 lbs (5th%ile) His head is 51 cm (90th %ile)

He met all of his milestones except that the doc said he should be dressing himself. At 2? Really? He can put his own shoes on the wrong feet and both legs into one opening of his pajama pants but I guess that doesn't count. This is why I don't go to appts unless an immunization is involved.

Avery - Big events for Avery in January included turning five, turning five and turning five. See post below for details.

Another highlight (for me too!) was going to the Seattle Aquarium with longtime friend Erica and our new friend Kari. And the giant octopus.

Lynn - I learned this month that turning 30 doesn't make you feel old - having your kid turn five makes you feel old. I'm not neccessarily looking forward to the changes come the Fall but we'll do fine I'm sure.

At church they switched my calling from teaching the Valiant 9's - all boys, I loved those kids - old enough to have good conversation but young enough not to be bored and aloof - and a game of hangman solved anything. I now am with the Mia Maids (14-15 yr old girls), which is familiar territory only this time I realize that I am in fact not their peer. What a difference 3 yrs. makes

The house - It's coming along and we are about halfway done. We are getting to the fun decisions now. We have a couple polls going and coming up if you want to weigh in on sink selection, appliances, flooring etc.. Speak now or forever hold your peace!

The car - Our VW hit 100000 miles this month during our road trip. You might recall that we were wondering if we should keep this particular car or get something different a few months back...almost a year ago actually. Well we kept it. Not that it was ever a question for me really. I love this car for a number of reasons and will continue to do so for some time if it continues to treat us well. I also loved the car I had previously - a '93 Honda Civic that had around 267K on it when we had to leave it behind to move overseas (the shipping cost was nearly it's book value)

Other family news - I forgot to mention that Ben's brother McKay left the country to serve a mission in Peru in November. We'll miss the best manny we ever had but I for one can't wait to go to Peru in about oh...22 months.

Here's a little snippet from one of his recent emails to the family: "The people here are pretty awesome. Well, some stuff is kinda weird here too, like I often find myself thinking - why are those dogs on that roof? And why is that lady sweeping that dirt floor? And, it smells like poop in here. Oh its cuz that's poop right there."

Sounds awesome.

Where a kid can be a kid.

On her actual birthdate we celebrated with chocolate lava cakes and ice cream but what she really really really wanted to do was go to Chuck E. Cheese. I didn't know if I could do it, but I put my child first and we went. I made her a castle cake (out of boxed funfetti cake - can you believe it Chelsey? Horrifying I know.) and let her have all the tokens she wanted. Unfortunately we ordered their pizza. Ben refused to play me in air hockey - he's never beat me - but played DDR (against the kid who had been there for hours sweating up a storm - you know there is always one of them). Miles thought the fun of tokens was just putting them in the slot and moving along his merry way. I hit the lucky jackpot on a couple games and scored major tickets, which would ensure that we came home with lots of junk.

Things were really going fine until the party moved in at the table next door. The birthday girl was turning two - as evidenced by her princess sash she was wearing, that went with her princess dress and princess crown. And her balloon bouquet. And her two professional airbrushed Disney cakes. And her mound of presents. Well, looks like it was time for us to be going...I can't compete with that.

Impression of a First Lady

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I don't know where she comes up with these things, but she is a very entertaining five-year old.

Is there something you know that I don't?

Question - Do I have a Facebook account?

I just got 12 emails today saying people added me as a friend on Facebook. Which is fine...except that I didn't know that I had an account. I've been thinking about it since everyone raves about it. But unless I surf the web in my sleep I haven't signed up as of yet. I tried to get on once but found the sign up process time consuming and confusing so I never went back.

Don't you have to have a cute picture of yourself to get a Facebook account? I have to work on that first, then I'll sign up and frolic with all my newfound friends.

Bipartisan lips.

Last night I asked Avery if she knew that we had a new president*. She said "oh, who?"
I said "Barack Obama" and she said "oh yeah, the guy with the purple lips". I was a bit confused by this because I hadn't noticed, but being as observant as always, she is right, his lips are kinda purplish.

She's not the only one who noticed because when I did a search for "Obama purple lips" to see if I could find a picture that supported her claim there were thousands of queries into this issue. Some were wondering if this is a health issue - a smoking thing, poor circulation etc.

I hope it's a bipartisan thing. (Red + Blue...)


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*We didn't discuss the whole monumental, historic race issue thing because frankly, I don't want her to think that there is anything abnormal about having a president that happens to have different skin (and lip) color than she does. I don't want her to think that in 2009 we were supposedly still dealing with racial injustices - I say supposedly because I've never felt it to be an issue personally (at least not where I grew up). Hopefully now the media will feel the same.

Except that - and somebody stop me now - was anyone else horrified by Rev. Lawery's closing prayer/speech? The first 10 minutes were beautiful and had he only stopped before "Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right (uh, what?) I thought this was a rather offensive end to a prayer. I heard it on the radio first and when I watched it later and realized how old he was I cut him a little slack considering what things he has probably lived through. Or maybe this is some poem I'm not familiar with and I missed out on the inside joke therin. But during a prayer? There are other ways to make that last statement ryhme where we could then all been left laughing.

Inauguration Rewind

No, we didn't get tickets for this years inauguration ceremony - I would have loved to - either to be there or to sell them on eBay - although you get a much better and warmer view from the comfort of your own home.

We did get to go in 2005, Avery was a year old and we went with our friends Dom and Annette. I remember having to go to many a building to find Sen. Feinsteinn's office and then on the actual day having to walk very very far to find an entrance and their being many many people on the Metro and on the mall. After all that we could barely get a glimpse of the swearing in.

So the funny thing is as I was searching for this picture, when I pulled it up I realized that I was wearing almost the EXACT same thing today, four years later. The same pink puffy vest, the same black fleece jacket and although I can't see them I'm 90% sure that I was wearing the same jeans as well (I wore the same outfit yesterday too, so I guess the probability of this occurring is pretty high). And I still have that hat and gloves. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. Either way, as Erica C. pointed out, I have "an inauguration outfit". Not as beautiful as Mrs. O's inauguration day outfits but an outfit nonetheless.

A proper retirement

Yesterday we decided that, despite how much we love the holiday season, it was mid-January and the Christmas tree needed to come down. So after packing up all the ornaments (the tree was pretty anemic in the first place. One string of lights, a homemade star, about a dozen hangy balls) we threw it in the back of my truck and took it to the lot where we have a dumpster. After once again making the kids hang out in the back of our wagon well into the hours of darkness while we worked on the house I decided to reward them with a show. Instead of just tossing the tree into the dumpster I would retire it in a much more noble, Westbrook fashion. Taking advantage of our spacious and mostly saturated lot, I set her ablaze. As this little 4 foot tree threw flames 10 feet or more into the air and glowing embers another 30 feet above that, we noticed the neighbors had all come to their windows to appreciate the festivities along with our family. It was at that point that Lynn reminded, "Did you remember that our neighbor is a fire marshall?"

"No. No I didn't"

Post by Ben (I can't change it now or the comments would be erased)

Five

Welcome 2009

We made it to CA and back. I had every intention of catching up on my holiday happenings and blogging while on vacation but all I have to show for it is a handful of half written entries, just waiting to be backdated and posted as I am known to do. Annoying I know. But who wants to read about things that happened in December with a date of mid-January on it? So if you want to know more about our Christmas, new haircuts and anything else that happened in the last few weeks I'll try to catch up over the next few days. All I ask is that you take a moment to scroll down past entries you've already seen to get to them.

So 2009 huh? When your spouse has a employment contract/obligation that goes to 2020, 2009 doesn't seem all that futuristic. But then, when your spouse has an employment contract that goes till 2020 one should be grateful for the job security. So I'll start off the year in that frame of mind.

I don't usually "do" New Year's resolutions. I do make character adjustments and lifestyle changes through-out the year as I recognize problems but I prefer for things to happen organically rather than force January 1st on them. I'm more likely to stick with them that way.

Of course there are a lot of things I could resolve to change immediately:

not biting my nails, allowing myself more time to get places so I get there on time, going to bed earlier, keeping up with the laundry, not backposting blog entries ... to name a few

I'm not a fan of deprivation without a really really good reason so I'm not big on giving things up, yet I wholeheartedly welcome self-inflicted pain and stress if it makes me a better person. I do live by personally philosophies that rotate periodically. I've been stuck on "live slow" as a favorite for a while now - just ask Ben. If only he could embrace the same credo he could see the beauty of it. And, if he could choose a resolution for me I'm sure it would be to keep my cell phone with me. Actually that's a great idea! Not to keep my phone with me..but to have someone else make your resolution for you. I think next year we might have to try that.

Well, I guess it's time to officially say farewell to 2008 and usher in 2009. I should probably start by taking down the Christmas tree, still ornamented with brittle yet still fragrant needles. The wreath should come off the door, the nativity put in it's box and while I'm at it I think I'll finally toss out the pumpkins from Halloween...

Commando

It is not uncommon for one of us to forget snacks, scriptures, the binky or something for the kids to play with on Sunday. But forget to diaper a child? Yep. About 45 minutes into the service Ben discovered that Miles was going commando. I'm not sure who to blame for overlooking this important item of clothing. I'm surprised he could keep his pants up without some bulky underthings to bolster his waistband.

Luckily, we didn't find out the hard way and were able to rectify the situation before he went to nursery and before we all needed a wardrobe change.

Return Road Trip

Ben flew back because as he likes to say "someone has to work" and I got to continue my vacation in Calif. for an extra week. Originally the kids and I were going to fly back on the 7th because the kids are starting gymnastics so with a probably 3 day drive ahead of us we had to cut our trip short. Unfortunately we couldn't get reimbursed for our return trip (Alaskan Airlines did refund our cancelled flight) because we were on a different airline and it wasn't their fault we had to drive. Luckily our flights were only $76 a piece, and after the $50 per person change fee we are left with a whopping $78 credit on Jet Blue and a long drive home.

Fortunately, my mom was willing to travel back with us and we decided to make as much of a vacation of it as possible. We hit up Napa and the Redwoods (my moms old collegiate stomping grounds and current home of Amy T. - soon to be Amy W.). We saw Amy, saw some big trees, beautiful scenery, and had some delicious milkshakes along the way.

My mom drove the entire time. She says it's because I'm not old enough. It allowed me to finish Volume 4 of The Work and the Glory so it worked out for me. But the drive was long. Seemed longer than the way down. Must have been because it was uphill this time. ;)

My mom drove the entire time. She says it's because I'm not old enough. It allowed me to finish Volume 4 of The Work and the Glory so it worked out for me. But the drive was long. Seemed longer than the way down. Must have been because it was uphill this time.

(happy to be out of the car!!)

December Recap

I'll combine December and January in a recap next month. A girl can only blog so much.

Happy New Year!