Some Random Stuff

Here are some random photos. I've got tons and I've barely sorted through any of them...

Papa Tom and Dominic pose by the snowman. It didn't last too long and he fell apart by mid-day. But he was good for a few renditions of 'Frosty the Snowman!'

The kids enjoyed this too and I got a work out in the bargain. If you look closely, you can see Dominic dragging one hand behind the sled. I was wondering why it became so much harder to pull them all of a sudden!

I just like this shot because of the contrasts it presents. This was taken at the Portland Children's Museum.

A cute picture of Jake!

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Tonight it is finally raining! Our winter started off very wet, but we had an extremely dry and warm January. I felt bad for the rest of the country as I know everyone is freezing, but on MLK day I took the kids to the beach! We had a blast hanging out at Mission Bay. The kids dug a pit in the sand (mud), built a wall around it, and then had fun trying to keep the wall patched up as I dumped buckets of water into the pit. It was warm for about 10 days, after which it turned chilly for a couple of days, but then it was back to short sleeves with the weather in the high 70's and low 80's. Today the weather began cooling off again and tonight it is raining pretty good as I can hear it coming down as I type.

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Jocelyn has started into her terrible two's, or maybe it's her terrible three's as she does turn three in a couple of weeks. I generally pick the kids up from day care and get home from work first. About a third of the time she starts to scream and yell in the car. Usually its something like her seatbelt is too tight (it's not), she wants a drink of water (I don't have any), she wants her coat zipped up (I'm driving and I can't turn around), or I didn't take her favorite route home (which is by Dominic's school which means its his least favorite route. Dang'd if I do, dang'd if I don't.)

It does NOT take much for her to begin a tantrum. Lots of screaming and crying and sitting down on the floor until she gets her way. If Joss starts a tantrum, I generally just let her go for awhile as I do not like to give in to her crying. I also can't cook if I'm holding her and sometimes she's screaming because she wants to eat NOW! If she gets too bad, I will sometimes just move her by the stairs where she isn't quite so loud. But usuallyI take pitty on her and pick her up. It doesn't stop the crying, but it makes her and I feel better. But I don't often give in to what she wants.... I just try to distract her a bit.

Speaking of her birthday, I think we are going to get her a bike! She's a bit young for it but she wants one badly.

And speaking of cooking, the kids have developed a taste for gravy. So we've been feeding them beef tips in gravy once a week so that we can get a little red meat into them. They are at the point where I just mention that I'm fixing the beef and gravy for dinner and they will both race to their chairs and wait for me to finish cooking and serve them! Or maybe they are just really really hungry...

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DominicsDad