Reminiscing

I've got a gazillion pictures stored in folders on my computer. Clear back from when we got our first digital camera in 2001. Each folder is dated with the date that I uploaded them. So it's pretty easy to find what I'm looking for when I go back to search for pictures for slideshows or scrapbooking or to share with someone. Recently, I started going through them and deleting the ones that I didn't want. Often, I'll take 10-20 pictures of the same thing and end up liking only two or three. Once I upload them, I rarely get around to deleting the ones that aren't so good. But to clear up some space on our hard drive, that's what I've been doing the past week or so. My criteria is that if I might possibly use it in a slideshow one day, I'll keep it. If not, I'm hitting the delete button. I've already printed the ones I wanted and put them in a scrapbook (at least most of them!... I am a little behind!). Plus all of them are backed up a cd.

Oh my! What fun I'm having reminiscing, looking at the pictures of my cuties when they were little winky tinks. It's been fun and bittersweet to see how their looks have changed from baby babies to little people. My girls still have the same spark in their eyes that they've had from the beginning... the same cute little mischievous grins that capture everyone's heart. But they're also growing up before my eyes, in warp speed as I go through folder after folder. There are newborn pictures, pictures of "firsts," pictures from holidays, the county fair, our yearly camping adventures, seasonal pictures, and just day-to-day fun. Pictures that one day we'll look back on and giggle and possibly even cry, as loved ones in the pictures are no longer with us.

I am currently up to summer of 05 so I have plenty more to go through.

Hmmm... maybe I should start a new folder for pics that I can show to their (way in the) future boyfriends. I can think of a couple that I know will embarrass them. Hee Hee Hee....

Ok, I'm off to reminisce some more...

This is so not fair

A couple months ago, I talked to my sister-and-brother-in-law about going to Outer Banks for a week this summer. They've got kids the same age as mine so I figured keeping them entertained wouldn't be too hard. When I first asked them, they said a gung-ho YES, they'd love to go. So I set about looking for the perfect (not too expensive) beach house. Found a couple that I liked and sent my sister in law the links. She didn't get back with me.... so when I finally got back with them, they hem-hawed around and ended up backing out on us. Said they'd bought a camper with their vacation fund, blah, blah, blah, and didn't have the extra money.

Then why did they ever tell us they'd go?!?! It took me a couple days but I got over it and wasn't tooooooo depressed. Until today. LOL

Yeah, so I like to torture myself. Today, on a whim, I decided to take a peek at a couple of the houses I'd picked out for when we went to the beach.


So. Look what I found. Yeah, the house I liked is still available. This is so not fair.

http://www.surforsound.com/properties/234.html

They've lowered the price by $245. But we still can't afford it on our own.

Now I'm depressed all over again that we're not going.

The Twirl Factor

My middle child is a little pistol. Ever since she started walking at 9 months, she's been on the move like the Energizer bunny. She's the kid who will pick up a worm and bring it right to me... or pick on the cat till he reaches out to swat her. Then she laughs about it. She's the one who any time she gets in trouble, she has the mischievous grin that makes it hard to stay mad at her. She's the one who has been jumping in the pool (with a ring on of course) since she was just a wee one. Big sister, btw, STILL won't jump in!

As rambunctious as she is, she's got an adorable soft side. LOVES LOVES LOVES to wear dresses, even when she's going out to play in the dirt! And she loves to twirl around in them. Which brings me to the point of this post.

I've bought Cass several cute little dresses this year, most at garage sales or thrift shops or ebay. I wanted her to have plenty to choose from. The other day we were getting ready to go somewhere so I was trying to get her dressed. The first dress I picked out, she tried it on then proceeded to spin around. Tragedy. It didn't twirl. She started crying and demanded the dress had to be taken off since it didn't twirl enough. So, she took it off and found another one. Once it was on, she did the twirl. And even though this one had a little more twirl than the first one, it still wasn't good enough. SO, she insisted on taking this one off too. I have to admit, I was getting a little annoyed since I was trying to get ready to leave the house! But I helped her get it off and she went back to her closet and found one more dress.

Eureka!!! You should have seen her face when she did her twirl this time! The dress twirled and she was thrilled. I happened to have my camera handy, of course. This isn't her first reaction but you can definitely tell she's satisfied with the twirl factor...

Heard back from the company....

And this time, I spoke to a very nice PROFESSIONAL woman who was more than willing to take care of the problem. I told her everything the woman from this weekend had said to me and she was definitely not happy.

She has forwarded the info on to her manager and to the product development team. She had me send a picture of the damage.

She's also sending me a refund AND a little something extra for Nicholas.



I'm thinking Miss Kenya (the lady I spoke to this weekend) is going to be hearing from her bosses soon....

Bounce Bounce Baby

Ok, so I bought this for Nicholas a month or two ago. And have been happy with it. Until today. The part on the right that has the mirror.... the mirror broke off. When I picked it up to try to put it back on, I noticed that there was paint chipped/scratched off of the little animal figure that is attached to the mirror. From Nicholas chewing on it!!! I was able to use my fingernail and easily scratch more off.

SO, I found a phone number on the back of the seat and called customer service. The lady proceeded to offer to send me a replacement part!!! Huh? Send a replacement for a part that is defective??? Another piece that my son can chew and eat more paint!? She told me that she had never heard of any other complaints of this happening. Which I find hard to believe. We had about a ten minute conversation which ended with her telling me I was rude and asking me what I expected them to do about it, other than replacing the part!!! She had the gall to compare the situation to buying a piece of defective clothing then taking it back and expecting the store to take every piece of that clothing off the shelf. Just because of one defect. In my opinion, this was not even a close comparison.

I am planning to call back on Monday and speak to another customer service rep. The beyotch today told me my son must have been teething pretty hard to scrape off the paint. Give me a break... he has two bottom teeth. Tonight, I was looking closer at the whole exersaucer and noticed other places where the paint is coming off from his teething.

Am I wrong to think they need to correct this problem rather than just mailing out the same defective part to replace it?

**edited to add a picture...


The larger part on the bottom is where I picked off paint with my fingernail that had already started scratching off. The rest is from his chewing. Notice the black on one of the eyes is gone.

UNDER!

My six year old has always loved to get in Grandma's pool. Any pool for that matter. With her arm floaties and swim ring. She loves to float around, splashing and basking in the sun... with sunscreen on, of course! One by one, her cousins around her age have been learning to jump in the water and go under... and swim. But not J. She was content with floating. Anytime I mentioned learning to swim, she balked and said she did not want to.... that she was scared.

Yesterday, J decided she was ready to be brave. So, with me in the pool, she took off her swim ring and got in with water with just her arm floats on. I pulled her around for a few so she could see that they would hold her up. Then I let her go... and she stayed up! It wasn't long before she decided she was ready to try to go under water. She closed her eyes tight, held her nose with one hand and the side of the pool with the other, and went down. With about 3/4 of her head still sticking out of the water.

"WOW! That was great," I told her!

She did it again and again, each time going just a bit farther until finally she could get her whole head under the water. She was so proud of herself and couldn't wait to show her daddy when he came over.

I told her before the summer ends, she and I are going to get in with no floaties, no rings, just me and her and a bunch of water. And she's going to learn to swim. She is excited!

I imagine once she can swim, I'll still make her wear the arm bands for at least a little while longer. And of course, she won't be allowed in the water without adult supervision for the next several years. I'm thinking maybe when she's 20. LOL We're planning to go over to my inlaws this summer as often as we can. Hopefully soon, she'll be a little fish.





My next goal... getting rid of the training wheels on her two wheeler. Wish me luck on that one!

Summer Fun!

So we took Nicholas "swimming" for the first time today at my in-law's! He was a little leery at first, especially when I'd hold him out away from me. He didn't like that much and would start crying. But before long, he was splashing and laughing and having a good ole' time with his sisters and cousins. In the 15-20 minutes or so that we were in the pool, I lathered him up with sunscreen three times so he wouldn't get a sunburn! Gotta protect that baby soft skin!

Yes, I do still exist!

It's hard to believe I haven't posted in almost three months. I guess it's easy to get out of the habit and then once I do, it's hard to get back in. Anyways...

Things are going well. Nicholas is doing GREAT! He'll be eight months old in just over a week. Hard to believe. He's still working to catch up weight wise (since he was 3 lbs 11 oz at birth!) but developmentally, he's right on track. Getting close to crawling, eating a little baby food, not doing so well with solids, charming everyone he meets... etc, etc, etc.

In other news, yesterday was the last day of school for my not-a-kindergartner-anymore. Where in the heck did this year go? It seems like just a week or so ago I was watching her get on the bus for the first time.. and then going back inside and calling my own mom to tell her my baby was on her way to school. And now she's been "promoted to first grade!" She is soooooooo excited to be a "grader" next year. I'm excited for her.... but it sure does make me melancholy thinking about it. Someone needs to invent a little button where we can freeze time for a bit, eh?

She did a wonderful job learning this year. She's reading a little and writing up a storm. I definitely need to make an huge effort to keep her doing it this summer so she's ready for school in the fall. Speaking of the fall, not only will be she be going to first grade but my middle kiddo will start preschool!!! Two days a week for just a couple hours. This was actually the year we had talked about me going back to work part time, possibly at the preschool we sent Cass to. The arrival of Nicholas has changed those plans a bit. Which is just fine by me! I don't mind saying home a bit longer with my sweeties!