Friday, June 22, 2007

Heading for Vacation

Ben on his horsey

Ella enjoying Daddy's chocolate chip pancakes


We have been very busy this week...busy having fun and now paying dearly for it. We have gotten together with lots of friends for playdates and have spent time outside enjoying the summer weather. How is that bad you ask? Because we are leaving for vacation tomorrow morning...and we have a ton to do!!

We ran to the grocery store this morning before 8:30, came home and unloaded everything, put Ben down for a nap, and now Ella and I are busy making goodies to take on our trip. We still have to take care of the pool, mow the lawn, water the garden, wash a load of clothes, and pack every one up. Hmmmm....I'm tired already...maybe I'll just take a nap instead. Wait....it's this procrastination that has gotten me in this much trouble already! I'm sure I will be up until the wee hours of the morning finishing everything up.

We are headed up to Lake Kabatogama for a week. I'll be back to posting when I return. Ella is telling me she wants "someone to play with" so I guess here ends the post.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Just like Daddy...






Ella enjoys bike rides with Dad. We have a trailer to pull behind the bike and she thinks it's loads of fun. We took a trip to Walmart over the weekend to purchase bike helmets for both Ben and myself. Jason is all excited as he thinks we are going to go biking together as a family. Here's the thing: I hate biking. And when I say that, I don't just mean that I dislike it, don't really care for it, or it isn't one of my favorite things. I mean I hate it. Simple as that.




When Jason and I were dating he convinced me that I really needed a bike. I wasn't exactly sold on the idea...but I was on him, so I decided I would check it out. He said it would be so fun, we could ride all these trails, spend time outside...it all sounded good. Then I test-rode one and I remembered what it's like to sit on that stupid, little seat all hunched over. Hmmm...I was pretty sure I could spend oodles of my money on something a little more practical for myself. But Jason was persistent and we left the bikeshop with one new shiny, blue, Trek bike in hand.




Well, needless to say, I have rode that bike only a handful of times in the last 7 years. And each time we only get a few blocks before I want to turn around and go home. Literally. Fast forward to 2007...Jason thinks I need a bike helmet because we are going to take the kids all over the city on bike trails. Now what do you think are the odds of that happening?!? I told him I was pretty sure we didn't need to invest in a bike helmet for me, but he demanded that I buy one.




Maybe having two children straped in the back of a bike trailer unable to get into mischief will change my mind. Maybe the only way I will get a chance to have two thoughts of my own all day long will be while my legs are busy pedaling. Maybe the only way I can stop the constant "up mommy" requests will be by sitting my butt on that little seat. Oh, the irony of it all!!




Maybe I will log so many hours on that bike that I will be doing the MS150 next year!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

MS150

Jason prepping for the ride.

Jason organized a "warm-up" with his buddies. They biked 20 miles around the Elm Creek Park Reserve. Don't ask me why, I don't understand it myself.


Jason rode in the MS150 last weekend. What exactly does that mean? Well, he took a bus all the way up to Duluth and then pedaled his way back down to the Twin Cities. They start on a Saturday morning, bike 70 miles and then camp out in Hinckley. They all get up again early Sunday morning and finish out the last 80 miles until they arrive at the Blaine Sports Center.



Ella, Ben, and I met him along with our friends at the finish line. It is so much fun as there are bells, whistles, hoots, hollars, and lots of cheering as the riders come across the line. They all are smiling, but are hot and tired from their long trek. To top it off, the weather on Sunday was 87, hot, humid, and windy.

We are so proud of Jason as well as all his friends that did the ride along side. Way to go guys!!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Strawberry Pickin'

















We had such a great day yesterday. We got invited out to pick fresh strawberries with our friends Tricia, Greta, and Owen. Ella was so excited about our adventure. The minute she woke up yesterday morning she was asking when we were leaving to go pick strawberries. We loaded on the sunscreen and selected our pails. Ella even wanted her own. I wasn't sure how that was going to go...was she really going to actually want to pick more than 3 strawberries?? She assured me that she did and needed her own pail. Much to my surprise, Ella was a great little picker! She filled her pail about 1/3 full and filled 100% of her tummy full of those little red gems.

Ben had fun too. I wore him on my back as I knelt down and searched for my treasures. He was content just sitting there enjoying being outside. Once I was finished, I let him have his first taste. He was a little unsure with the first bite, but then decided whole-heartily that he indeed did love this little fruit. I couldn't get them in his mouth fast enough. He was devouring them... as little drops of sweet juice ran down his chin. Now that's a good day!




Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Hurry Mama Hurry, Gotta Chop, Chop, Chop



Hungry, hungry, hungry for some BeeBimBap!


Just a pic of Ben after his bath, complete with water drops still on his face. He saw the wooden spoons and couldn't help himself. He just had to bang them together as loud and as hard as he could. What fun!!


There is a great children's book called "BeeBimBop". Ella loves this book and it's so fun to read. The best part is that it is about one of our favorite korean dishes. We just can't get enough of the stuff! It's also one of the things we look forward to on our return trip to Korea someday. Authentic BeeBimBap! Yum!!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Quick Update

Well, the fevers are gone! Yeah! Ella's broke sometime during the night and she is slowly getting back to her usual self. She was up for quite a while last night...from 1-3:30am...so she is taking a decent afternoon nap right now. I hope that she will be even more chipper once she wakes up from a good rest.

Ben is doing better too. He's not back to himself yet, but we are getting closer. He had this bug a lot worse than Ella. I haven't given him any motrin today for his throat and ear and he seems ok.

Well, maybe we won't have such good naps afterall...Ben is up.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Round 2


Well, our week didn't start out so well. On Sunday night, Ben shot up with a fever...and a doozer at that. It was hovering around 103 and I could only get it down to between 101-102 with the Tylenol in his system. As soon as it would wear off, he would spike back up. He was so incredibly miserable!! He slept horrible on Sunday night...30-45 minute intervals and then up crying and we would rock or walk the floors with him. Monday proved to be just as hard and the fever wouldn't let up. By 6pm, I was in the van headed to Urgent Care. They took a look at him, ran a strep test, took some blood, and looked at his ears. The long and short of it is that it could be strep, an ear infection, hand-foot-mouth, or any combination of the three. Helpful, huh?!? The 24 hour strep culture came back negative, the white blood count came back as "elevated" (not high...just elevated...you know, the gray area where you can't tell if it's viral or bacterial), and we were put on antibiotics for the ear.


Ben woke up Monday morning and the fever had broken sometime overnight. It was such a relief to see him give me a smile. He's still not back to his normal self, but at least he's not feeling as crummy as he was when his fever was so high. I think his ear and throat are still bothersome and I am keeping him on the motrin for the pain. According to the doctor, who thinks it is most likely hand-foot-mouth, it can take up to two weeks to get over all of this stuff. The worst part is that it is HIGHLY contangeous...so guess who is now running a fever as of supper-time tonight? Yes. Ella. She is at the beginning of the climb of the fever, is crying, generally feeling crummy, says her tummy doesn't feel good and that her head is hurting. Poor sweet thing. I hope that she can get some sleep tonight and that tomorrow isn't horrible.


If you get a chance...please say a prayer for our family. That Ben will continue to improve (he's still such a handful), that Ella will make it through this quickly, that I will be able to get a little rest to keep me going, and that I will have the strength, compassion, and patience to help comfort a 1 year old and a 2 year old...both who just want to sit on mommy's lap and have her make it all better.


Ding, Ding...Round 2 is about to begin...

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

What a Good Mommy

Ella was busy rocking her babies and getting them ready for a nap. I wasn't sure who was more tired...the babies or Ella. She almost fell asleep in the process.

Ella is sooo into babies. She lives, eates, and breathes babies. Often times supper will be a few minutes late as Ella is busy diapering or bathing her babies and she has to finish before she can come to the table. One wipe can go a long way and clean up a lot of dolls! They get a good scrubing from head to toe.

She will walk them around, pat their backs, sing lullabyes, and put them to sleep. There are so many times that I go to put Ben down in his crib and find numerous babies who are already fast asleep. Needless to say, she's not that happy with me when they are being removed from their comfy bed. Now if only I could figure out her secret to getting them to sleep so fast!