The Im Family

ozzy gets in the highchair (add video)

mimi continues her magnadoodle series today. after she finished her first one of the day, she says, "mom, would you like to see my new picture? it's SO magnificent, you wont even be able to say words when you see it."

me: "mimi, tell kaya to get out of the family room. you can use a greenie to lead her past the baby gates. go to the other side of the gates, and call out firmly "kaya come!" mimi get a greenie and from the kitchen, chucks it w/all her might towards the front door. proving that there's more than one way to skin a cat.

mimi asked me a long time ago what a 'coincidence' is. after explaining it to her, she asked me if i could think of some times when there was a coincidence. she might as well have asked me to recite the gettysburg address, backwards, in Klingon. you can't ask me to just remember stuff of the top of my head. i can't even remember five minutes ago, let alone random, inconsequential past events in our life together these past five years and five months! while hunting for a youtube video of a song on YoGabbaGabba, that particular show happened to come on t.v. at the same time. mimi jumps up screaming, pointing at the t.v. and my computer at the same time, "MOM! IT'S A COINCIDENCE!!!"

mimi says to me as she is drawing, "mom, do you want me to draw you some pictures? i'm a very good masterpiecer." she drew a few faces on her magna doodle for me. here's a sampling. there were more that she erased before i got pics of them. one was an elephant and another was a clown with the most jacked up teeth i ever saw.

baby boy is 13 months old...this post is about a week late in coming. juggling posts on two different kids is, believe it or not, is twice the work. if mimi didnt notice, i could probably get away with sliding a bit on posts about her, but she notices and she reads the posts whenever i forget to close out of blogger and she'll express a wish that i share more about her. nothing like a five year old cracking the whip of guilt on mama's back. so what's new with ozzy now? he's chugging 9 oz of formula, three times a day. wants to eat everything we eat, but does a terrible job of chewing anything and is constantly taking partially chewed food out of his mouth and setting it back on the tray. i dont say anything and just let him play around with his food. if he can figure out how to chew and swallow it, i trust that he will. trying to keep the pieces small though to minimize any risk of choking. he likes to try to use a spoon, especially for his applesauce. half of...

mimi was full of mimi-isms the other day. she wanted to go to the play area at tysons, specifically tysons because she likes to leap on the blocks. so we went to get out of the house and expend some energy. as we drive up to the 6th level of the tysons parking deck, and we're turning corner after corner to get up each level, the minivan listing heavily to one side with each turn, mimi says, it's a good thing i'm not sea sick! do you get sea sick, mom? i think it must feel like bubbles in the tummy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ we get out of the car. a light rain had been falling as we drove, but it had stopped by the time we arrived. we get out of the car and walk to the mall entrance. the hot streets and the quick rain combine to create very heavy hot air. mimi runs ahead, then stops, takes a deep breath and says, whew! it feels like i swallowed a warm coat out here. ------------------------------------------------------...

here's the pictures you were shown in the previous post: the answers are: A. rob B. rob C. rob yes, they are all rob. and these are all ozzy, below:

i've been having that feeling of regret over so much wasted time, money, and emotion ever since i signed mimi up for private swim lessons with a life guard at Upton Hill pool. five years of group swim classes, some times even two group classes in one summer, and mimi's fear of the water was steadily getting worse. to the point where she would cry about having to go to the pool and begging me to take her out of swim classes and regaling me with "what ifs", like "what if i drown and no one saves me." "what if water goes in my __ (fill in the blank: nose/eyes/ears/mouth)" "what if my hair gets wet." and at the end of each swim class, the only way her hair would be wet was if the instructor took the time to cup some water in his hands and lightly poured it over her head. we took a swim class earlier this summer and while she was making a little bit of progress, there were days when she would cry that she would never be able to swim, tha...

gotta wear shades...

today, i was having the worst time getting mimi to go clean up her play room. after several attempts, none of which were met with any action, i finally hauled out the kitchen timer, set it for 25 minutes and told mimi she needed to get in there and get everything off the floor before the timer went off. anything left on the floor was getting trashed. she took the timer (she likes to keep an eye on it...if she added minutes to it, i didnt mind, so long as everything was picked up and i didnt have to go in there and pick up anything myself!) and starting running around her room picking up and chanting, it's getting so clean, mom! look at me clean! after a while, mimi announces she is done. unbelievably, there's still 17 minutes left on the timer (so either it was broken or she messed with it and added more time to it). the room looked tidy so i praised her good work. she beams up at me and asks if she earned a dollar for cleaning her room. i smiled and let her have a doll...

i was folding laundry while mimi was brushing her teeth and ozzy, who had been next to me was up and gone with a "go! go! go!" so i hauled myself up and went after him. here's where i found him. had to get the camera and get a shot of it. he just loves to follow mimi and do whatever she does, eat whatever she eats, play with whatever she's playing with. if she's standing on a step stool, then by golly, move over 'cause here he comes.