Santa's a Sell Out or The True Meaning of Christmas

I don't think this photo needs much explanation apart from the title of this post. However I will say that even though I was trying to save money by going to this free photo op with Santa at our local Wal Mart, that still doesn't make it OK that he's sitting on a THRONE OF COKE! It is kind of funny though - in that "sad, sad commentary on the commercialization of Christmas" kind of way.

Even though Asher doesn't really understand who Santa Claus is, he knows that this guy is an imposter. He is looking at Santa in this photo as if to say "Who are you trying to fool, man? Thanks for the Candy Cane though."

Visitors From Afar

Earlier this month, Lindsey, my good friend from Mentor, came to visit with her daughter Thalia. Thalia is 2 months older than Asher and they got along swimmingly. Lindsey & her husband have been living in Switzerland for the past 2 1/2 years and are in the process of moving to Dubai. So while their stuff is in transit, they are spending a month in the US visiting family and friends. While we were sorry that Frank couldn't make it to Denver, we were so excited to have Lindsey & Thalia for a long weekend.
We did a ton of stuff in just 3 days as you can see by our pictures. The weather cooperated and we were able to enjoy lots of outdoor time - which probably helped with the jetlag.
The highlight of the visit for me was Girl's Night Out. I really haven't taken a true girl's night out since before I was pregnant! Four of us headed downtown once the kids were in bed for some drinks and great conversation. Lindsey & I didn't get home until 3am! so you can see it was a great Girl's Night Out. Now, the next day we were tired beyond belief, but still managed to have some fun with the kids in the leaves.

Enjoy the Photos!

A Momentous Moment: Random Thoughts from Angela

This is the first post I have done that does not have anything to do with Asher! Woo-Hoo! I am making progress here. Incidentally, it will also not have any photos, since, as you have noticed, we only take photos of Asher.
So, I was driving home from work today, normally a 20 min. drive and ended up getting stuck in some crazy traffic jam for over 50 min.! Luckily I was in Paul's car (luckily might not be the best choice of words since the reason I was in his car was that mine was in the shop for a Power Steering catastrophe - which is a whole other story)....anyway, in Paul's car, he has a CD player (I only have a cassette player in mine) and he had made a mix CD which was actually quite good. While I don't normally listen to anything when I drive (another story having to do with Real Simple magazine article in 1999), I was in stop and go traffic and needed to distract myself, so I turned on the CD. Ahhh, there's nothing like a song from your past and being stuck in a traffic jam to get you thinking.
So, I am reading this book called "Living You Yoga" by Judith Lasater (sp?) which is just awesome - even for people who don't practice physical yoga - it's just a great "life" book. Anyway, one of the recent chapters had to do with being present, in the moment and watching your reactions to things happening around you. So here I was in the traffic jam and I could have gotten really pissed and angry and tried to weave through lanes to get 1 minute ahead of the car beside me, but instead, I decided to wait it out, be in the moment, look around me at the other drivers and just chill.
In doing this, I saw some really awesome displays of humanity. A motorcyclist was actually walking his motorcycle instead of riding (yes, traffic was THAT slow). I thought, what a great idea, not wasting gas, not emitting fuel and getting some exercise! He was also talking to the other cars who passed him with their windows open. Then the lady behind me was TOTALLY groovin' in her car (Amy - think Davy Jones). It made me smile and laugh and also made me lighten up a bit because as you may remember from Chapter 10, Verse 5 of this post, I was listening to some pretty great tunes myself and wanted to sing and groove, but felt a bit self conscious as traffic was moving so slow. However, after seeing this lady (mid-40's maybe) totally rockin' out, I started singing and really enjoying the music. Then the Flaming Lips "Do You Realize" song came on, it was just really fitting, if you don't know that song then you need to go find it and listen to it.
That made me start thinking of one of my absolute favorite occurrences - some of you may already know this, it is odd, I admit - when the traffic lights are out at an intersection and there is no one to direct traffic, I think it is totally awesome that everyone automatically takes it upon themself to treat it like a 4-way stop and take turns! I don't know why I think this is so awesome, but I do. It takes us out of our methodical rushing here and there and makes us stop and be in the present moment. It forces us to take responsibility for creating order alongside our fellow man to ensure a safe passage for everyone involved. There is no one taking charge and telling each person what to do, yet as each new car pulls up to the intersection, they have to take part in this display of community and humanity.
I guess that's why this drive home tonight was so thought-provoking as to constitute this Volume of Random Thoughts. So, I think you should all try it tomorrow, try being fully present - especially when it's not a particularly great situation you find yourself in - and see if you can find things to appreciate and wonder about in the most mundane of circumstances.

Happy Ween!

I think Asher is still a bit young to really understand Trick-or-Treating and Halloween, but he's old enough to follow instructions on what to say and do to get candy! The Children's Museum has special Halloween activities for the kids so we headed over there once again this year to check it out.

The weather was beautiful (not like last year when we nearly froze!). They gave you a bag when you arrived, which was good since I completely forgot to get Asher something to put all the candy in! He loves the bag and still likes to carry it around (probably on the off chance that someone will drop some candy into it!) Once I explained how it worked, he was like a man on a mission. He spotted the candy booths throughout the musuem, (not even wanting to stop to play in the train room!!!!) and went from booth to booth holding his bag open and saying some form of "treat please". I kept having to remind him to say Thank You, which he usually ended up doing when he was about 10 feet away from the booth. Once we hit all the candy booths inside we headed outside. As you can see in the photos, he had a blast - face painting, games, characters in costumes, train rides, etc.

I think the museum gave him some good practice for the real deal the next day. I figured that we would do about 5-7 houses on our street before he would get tired and want to be carried or just get bored. Boy was I wrong. No only did he do our entire street - both sides- but then went out for round two with Paul and did the street behind us - both sides! Never once asking to be carried.


He was so friendly with everyone walking up and down the street, saying hi and Happy Ween! One house we went had a little girl dressed like a fairy giving out the candy, Asher said "Thank you princess" and went on his way - too cute! There was one house that had a man dressed as a skeleton sitting in a chair handing out candy. We got about 10 feet away and Asher froze....literally froze. He didn't blink, move, say anything. I tried to tell him that it was ok, just a costume and to remember the skeleton we hung on our door earlier in the day. He was having none of it so I finally pulled him away from the house and he was fine. It was so odd, he didn't cry or grab my leg, he just froze and stared at the man. The man tried to assure him it was ok too, by saying hello and trying to offer the candy, but I guess this did not fit in with Asher's idea of what was supposed to be on this magical night where mommy & daddy took him house to house to get candy.

Anyway, hope you had a Happy Ween and enjoy the photos!

Pumpkins & Twins

We had the pleasure of babysitting two of the cutest twin girls around this weekend. We watched them all day Friday, overnight and all day Saturday for a friend. This is the 2nd time we have done this and no we are not crazy. These girls are the sweetest and easiest babies around. They are 17 months so about 7 months younger than Asher but the two of them combined are far less work than Asher alone! Seriously.

Asher wasn't too keen on sharing mommy or his toys with them, but eventually he decided that he liked having them around and as you can see in the photos, wanted to do everything they were doing.

The big adventure was taking everyone to a Pumpkin Patch to pick our halloween pumpkin. While the escapade ending with all three kids eventually eating the dirt in the field, I think the overall experience was good. We did get a lot of looks from people (probably thinking they were all our kids) and several people asked if they could take photos of the kids because they just looked so cute wandering around in the pumpkin patch.

We tried to get a few "staged" photos, but if you think getting 1 kid to look at the camera is hard, try 3! Then try to get them all to smile at the same time - or at least not cry - and I will be impressed. I think Paul did get a few passable photos though, enjoy!

Happy Birthday to Asher

Well, our little baby turned 2 today. Kind of sad that he really is no longer a baby, but he's so much fun lately that we are enjoying our little toddler. We had a pool party for him yesterday with all his friends at the Golden Rec. Center. They have the warmest kiddie pool in town. We started out in the party room with some food. The theme of the party was Finding Nemo so all the food was "fish" themed - Tuna & chicken salad sandwiches (some even cut out in the shape of fish), a cheese tray artfully laid out as Nemo himself (with black olives outlining his stripes), the cake (which I had a blast decorating) and a punch bowl of "Ocean Water" - apparently it's the recipe that Sonic Drive-In uses, basically sprite and coconut extract - of course with gummy fish & sharks swimming inside.

Asher still remembers the first birthday party he went to, his friend Katherine, and somehow thinks that birthdays only happen to her. This past week whenever we would say that his burthday was coming up, he would reply "No, Katherine birthday". That is, until this party. After he went to bed last night, he was talking to his stuffed animals (we were listening on the monitor) and he said "Friends....Happy Birthday Asher!.....Cut the cake....Mommy did it." It was just too cute!

So getting back to the party, after we sang Happy Birthday and everyone got blue mouths from the frosting, we headed for the pool. Asher LOVES the pool so it seemed natural to have the party there. Did I mention how warm the water is at this particular pool? It feels like bathwater so you never want to get out. We brought a bucket of rubber squirt fish that I think the adults enjoyed just as much as the kids. Unfortunately the fun had to end because everyone needed to get home for naptime. We were happy that so many of Asher's friends were able to come celebrate his birthday!

You can see all the photos from the party below (double click to make it larger).

Pooping at the Happiest Place on Earth

I don't normally like to share "poop" stories, but this one is just too funny. So Asher & I went to Disney World one last time before he turned 2 in early October. He had been doing great with the potty training the entire trip. As we were heading back to the car, going from one park to another, he says "Mommy, poo-poo". The two words I have become super sensative to every since we started the potty training. Usually the drill is to pick him up and make a b-line to the closest restroom - sometimes making it, sometimes not. However, we were in the middle of a large parking lot with no restrooms in sight.

Being a girl scout early in my life, I spotted a patch of trees and dirt, scooped Asher out of the stroller and yelled to my sister to follow with the tissues. This patch of trees and dirt just happened to be next to the main entry where all the happy visitors came to start their magical day at Disney World. Luckily for them it was the middle of the day so there was not much traffic. In addition there was a Disney Park employee directing traffic about 20 feet away from us. Luckily for us she didn't radio the Disney Police that some n'er-do-wells were popping a squat in Mickey's backyard.

I was so excited that Asher had actually waited until we got into position to start peeing and pooping that I really didn't care about the traffic or the fact that my sister is actually a Disney employee and this probably wouldn't reflect well on her. So, he finished, we wiped up and my sister had found an empty plastic bag to dispose of the mess. We were ready to head back to the stroller when Asher said "poo-poo more". I thought, ok, sometimes he does this at home too, so down came the pants and sure enough, out came more poop. This time I asked if he was all done before pulling up the pants and he said yes. However, once again we found ourselves ready to head to the stroller and he insisted there was more. I think we went through this game about 2-3 more times before he truely was finished. This was more poop than I had seen from him in days! I think it was a combination of the enourmous breakfast he had eaten and the fact that it was cool to poop in the grass that made him keep wanting more. In any case, it was definitely a first for me at Disney World and I'm sure a first for the employee who was watching the whole thing! However, I do have to wonder since, as we were walking away, she thanked us for picking up the poop....would someone really leave a pile of poop at the main entrance to Disney World?

You can see more photos of our trip (except this experience) below (Double-click to make it larger).

Mama, Truck, Big

A few weeks ago we took Asher to the Children's Museum for a construction truck exhibit. He had a great time seeing all the trucks he's been reading about in books - the digger, bulldozer, cherry picker and dumptruck - or as Asher would say "digga", "boo doe", "picka" & "ump kuck".

After spending time waiting in the long lines to sit in the trucks, we headed inside to the Junior Job Site exhibit. Asher was fascinated by the big lego-type blocks that headed up a conveyor belt and continued to rush back and forth with determination to pick up the blocks and send them along the conveyor. After about 30 minutes of doing this, it was naptime and we had to drag him kicking and screaming out of there. Unfortunately this is not a permanent exhibit so we will be heading back as many times as possible in September before it leaves.