Brother and sister

I was out of the house tonight and Nick sent me this picture of our crazy kiddos.  Super sweet.

Sans kiddo?

What??  Sans kiddo? No kiddos? Over night?  Yes! Yes! YES! 

We were ready and we had a perfect excuse.  A good friend from college was getting married at the Crystal Ball room in Portland.  You may remember me mentioning that place in October of last year.  Such an awesome place and so glad all our friends keep getting hitched there.  Well some how we convinced my sister's to watch them in the afternoon and grandma and grandpa Bodle to watch them in the evening.  Other than looking tired the next day with just a hint of "get me the hell outta here" hysteria I think the grandparents survived there first sleep over à la maison Johnston.

We on the other hand, we had a blast.  I had too much wine which always leads to too many mini cup cakes (this may have happened to me in the past).  I didn't do much dancing which means I must not have had WAY too much wine.  We did, however, stay out way past our bed time, visited a couple bars that could only be described at Portlandia'ish and slept even less than we would have had we stayed home.  Success. Love this City.

Back at the pool

I remember taking lessons when Aaron and I were little but I think we were too little and couldn't keep up and had to stop.  I finished the lessons way later but in the mean time we just spent summers at my grandparent's house and it all just solved itself.  While Deven and Tova's grandparent's houses are fun no body has a pool...yet.  So we made our way back to the pool this week after a brief...err...9 month break while we figured Tova's sleeping habits out.  Well, those [Tova's sleeping habits] still remain a mystery but I thought we just better move on and hopefully that will solve itself too.

So here we all are back at the pool.  The schedule isn't ideal because I remembered to sign up a little too late.  Next session I'm hoping we can get their classes at the same time.  Right now they are an hour apart and dev and nick must have done at least 25 walking laps around the pool.  You would think the walking would tire a three year old out but not so.  Deven is a great huge ball of energy every moment he is awake.  Thankfully Nick and I have been seeing this be more of a good thing lately. I mean it has to be a good thing again at some point right??  Well Deven is a little nervous to be in the pool.  We are learning that if he's uncomfortable for ANY reason he starts acting out.  A.k.a., telling the teacher how the class should go and exactly what the activities will be or not be so-to-speak. 

Control the class = don't do scary stuff = not so scared Deven

Or he could just get this controlling nature from his maternal side...but let's not over analyze. 

It's hard to explain to a teenager teaching a swim class to save for college that your kid just needs a few more practices before he stops being a total _____ head.  But all and all she handled him well and seems to not completely want to kick him out of the pool.  All good things.

Tova did awesome.  She loves loves LOVES the water just as much if not a little more than Deven did when he was a babe.  She had a huge smile on her face the whole time and nick said you could hear her laugh from the other side of the pool.  Her favorite things were getting thrown in the air (also a non water favorite), chasing after a ball and chilling on her back with her head on my shoulder. I'm pretty sure we had a case of over stimulation that night but it was worth it.  She's hooked.

Open this link, bake as soon as children are sleeping and be joyous.

no. 2 pencil: Perfect Single Serving Size Chocolate Chip Cookies
http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/09/perfect-single-serving-size-chocolate.html?m=1

Christmas 2012

So I just realized that I never did an xmas day blog.  Bad momma.  But can I use the, "I was sick as a dog" card??  Well I was.  But even more important Deven was INSANE.  I mean something jumped into his body and took over for the day.  Around 2pm when I found him running around my Nanna's room naked I really had the 'this is so not worth it thought.'  No naps for two kiddos, lots of travel mixed with a healthy dose of being spoiled by all our wonderful family pretty much equals hell for the mommas and daddos of the world.  Thankfully by the time we got home that night both were passed out and unwakable...until snack time. ; )

Even though we almost didn't make it out alive this year I did manage to get some really cute pics that will help us look back on xmas 2012 with more fondness than the total insanity that I have thankfully already started to suppress! ; )

9 month check up - Tova

Today we had our 9 month check up for Tova.  I double checked some growth charts online and I'm pretty sure our nurse ment to write 95% for weight.  As you can.see she is quite rollie so I wasn't convinced that 70% percent of the girls her age were chubbier than our sweet t. Doc said she's doing great and is super strong.  He decided to check me out too because I decided to have a coughing attack while we were there.  No worries I checked out fine too...I'm not going to tell you what percentages I fall under though.

I haven't been good about doing lists for Tova so I will try now.

Likes: 
* her corderoy bear, raspberry blanket and her thumb...think comfort
* laughing dadadadada
* crying mamamama
* waving bye bye or waving hi
* her brother because when she just isn't feelin it, dev always makes her laugh
* waking up at 6am to go get coffee with momma
* playing fetch...with herself. Girl throws (anything) across the room or across the bath tub and crawls or dives after it.
* per above, bath time - we can only fill the tub about an inch because she's a kamikaze every night.
* sammy, she and sammy are bff's.  She crawls all over him and would cuddle with him in his bed if we would let her.  Sam actually seems to enjoy her invading his space.

Dislikes:
* stuffy noses, coughs and cold seasons on general
* getting her top four teeth ALL at once.
* sitting still, this kids just doesn't stop.  It is so rare I've included the latest picture of one such moment so we can look back on this post and know its possible.  This also marks the first book she has read with us...not joking.
* changing...cloths, diapers, cars...you name it...can't we just wear pjs and stay at stbx all day??

So that's our sweet t in a nut shell. We still wake up a couple few times a night to have a snack but definatly moved past the crazy first months.  She is so giggly and happy except when we inflict her dislikes upon her.  Three months ago I would have laughed out loud if you would have told me she would be our easier child right now!!  But Deven's likes and dislikes will have to wait for a different blog!