beth_leonard

Here's some photos. I'll have to add video later after some processing. Youtube isn't taking my native files.
--Beth

The phone rang at 4am today. It was a fax. I went back to sleep. It rang again at 5am, and I turned on the fax machine and tried to set it to receive mode. I failed, because when the phone rang at 6am it still didn't pick up properly. At 7am however, the fax came through. I have successfully canceled my merchant account with Elevon. Yes, they were told that they'd have to call the phone line first before trying to send me a fax so I could set the fax machine to answer mode.

And today is Jon's birthday. Happy Birthday Jon.

--Beth

Somehow it came to be November already. Mid-November even. Today is Jon's birthday, happy Birthday Jon!

I had this plan to post daily Thanksgivings every day of November. Better late than never? I'll post several today to make up for it.

I'm thankful for Jon.
I'm thankful that Disneyland has a "get in free on your birthday" policy, and that Jon thought he'd enjoy taking Peter.
I'm thankful that Jon & I both recovered from our illnesses and it appears Jon & Peter had a good time at Disneyland today.

I'm thankful for Amber. I'm thankful for the image I have of her in my head right now from earlier in the evening. She wanted to wear her Tigger outfit -- which at 12M size is far too small for her -- and play outside. She put her cup "way up high" on the spa cover. She had to stand on her tippy-toes in her gear boots to reach it. The image of her both being too big for her clothes but nearly to small to reach her cup and so proud of everything is a photo I want to hold dear in my heart because I couldn't get the camera in time.

I'm thankful for Peter. As he's getting older he's getting more and more capable. On Tuesday when I was so sick he was able to get the honey down from the shelf all by himself and heat it in the microwave to serve with dinner.

I'm thankful for my parents and my in-laws, that they all live so near and love my children so much. My parents watched the kids last weekend so I could go on my church women's retreat, and my in-laws watched Amber yesterday so I could take a class in San Francisco.
I'm thankful they are all wonderful people I love so much and trust with my children.

I'm thankful the class went well and I learned quite a lot of interesting and useful things that will save me time.

I'm thankful for computers that keep me in touch with my friends and family.

I'm thankful for digital photos and video. I want to remember and relive it all, and this ability to snap a photo and hold on helps me to let go and let my children grow.

I'm thankful for sanitation and garbage collection.

I'm thankful that food, so basic and fundamental a need, is so plentiful in my life that like the air I breathe I didn't even think to be thankful about it until I re-read everything and was about to hit "post" and I realized something was missing from a Thanksgiving day post.

--Beth

There's a saying that goes, "No one ever puts on their tombstone 'I wish I'd spent more time at work.'" implying that people who work too much while their kids grow up should come home more often.

I'm pondering the concept of "No one ever put on their tombstone, 'I wish I'd spent more time folding laundry.'"

Our laundry is unfolded. All of it. There's some clothes in the drawers from back before we had kids[1], but for the most part we live out of unfolded laundry baskets. While I did manage to put a few bags of clothes that were too small for Peter away, most of them are still in circulation. Meaning that I dig past them every time I need to find clothes to put on the kid. Sometimes I put them straight on Amber without ever having put them in the closet.

Peter is just now completely outgrowing 18M clothing, while Amber is nearly beginning to fit into it. Amber is outgrowing some things before we ever managed to get them out of the closet from the first round. Luckily she seems to have slowed down on the growth curve and maintained the 9-12 and 12-18M size for a few months.

I however am going to stop feeling guilty for never folding the laundry. I'm sure my mother is horrified. I love my children. My children love me. We don't have a maid. We wear clothes in public. I answer (most of) my e-mail and maintain relationships with my friends. I think we're doing ok.
--Beth

[1] Jon will point out that I'm exaggerating here. He is the person who washes the laundry, and if it ever gets put away, he does it. He makes valiant attempts several times a month. But the work is never done, and I've decided to just live with it that way.

November 12: I'm grateful Peter slept through the night without waking anyone up. I'm grateful the Advil worked. And that the splitting headache I had in the morning behind my left cheekbone didn't turn out to be a sinus infection (I hope).

I'm also grateful that Peter finally did what people have been telling me toddlers are supposed to do for ages. That is, he played happily in the kitchen with the playdough while I prepared dinner in advance, so we could eat right at 6.

I'm grateful Jon had work today. All 7 clients worth. Or at least I'm trying to be. Today was a tough day. Peter managed to stall and delay his nap until after Amber was awake from hers. I guess I'm grateful that I'm trying to remember one thing to be grateful about because trying to find the good in the bad thinking about what I was going to blog about tonight helped level things out.

--Beth

Amber has been waking in the middle of the night again for food. She has a cold so it's covered under acceptable use. But I really wish she wouldn't. This is the second cold in two weeks and we only had a few days of all-night sleep (until 4:30 or 5 am) between colds.

Peter has been waking up basically every night. We've trained him to be quiet and go to Daddy's side of the bed and get Daddy. Jon goes into Peter's room and then does whatever he does with him. This is acceptable to me, but not to Jon.

We talked about what we could do about it tonight.
( this rambles too much )

Happy 10th anniversary to jon_leonard!

Love,
--Beth