Anyone still reading?

I haven't posted in a long time, mostly because I've been feeling pretty rotten. I've got morning sickness which tends to peak in the evenings when I normally post. Yes, thats right...morning sickness. I'm pregnant! Due May 1st, 2009. Yipes!

A few other updates...Sean is taking a few steps, but not really walking yet. He is almost 17 months. Maggie has lost another tooth and is loving Montessori school. For Halloween, Maggie was a flower fairy and Sean wore an old witches hat and got pulled around the neighborhood in a wagon during trick-or-treating. I've been teaching an astornomy class online and its taking up all my free time...well, that and sleeping. Glen picked out a "new" car for us which I love. Its a 2005 Dodge Caravan and its red. We had to increase the size of our car since we have a new little Hestenes coming soon.

We went to the train park today and Sean *loved* riding the train. We went a few months ago and he was indifferent. But today, he was sitting up and smiling and waving to everyone as we rode by. He has really been into saying "hi" and "bye" when people come and go. He also says "no" a lot, but not many other words. He continues to be a very happy and easy going baby who prefers dad. *sniff* :)

Not much else to report that I can think of.

Car update.

Its toast. Apparently the water pump broke and the engine overheated and died. It will cost more to fix it then the car is worth so our little car is headed for the junk yard in Camp Verde. *sniff* We are currently using a rental car until we buy a *new* car.

Our "Vacation"

So Glen entered in the Jerry Garcia Frisbee Golf Tounrament near Flagstaff and played this weekend. Maggie, Sean and I tried to drive up on Saturday to camp overnight with him, but, our car broke down on the highway! Yipes! Still not sure what is wrong, it just stopped moving. So we played with the tumbleweeds while we waited for AAA to send us a tow. Got towed to Camp Verde where the mechanic is closed on the weekends, of course. The tow truck guy was nice enough to give us a lift to McDonalds where we waited for Glen to come and rescue us. Glen was driving a rental car as the VW is still not fixed. Glen took us back to Phoenix, and then drove back in the wee hours of the morning to finish the competition. So now we are extending our rental car contract as our car is stuck in Camp Verde where the mechanic there will hopefully fix it. I don't see how we will be able to pick it up until next weekend.

Pictures from the past month.

Mmmmm...cottage cheese...


Working on the tree house.

First day of school!

Making monster bubbles.



And finally, Maggie and the trampoline. I was tired of her jumping on the couch while watching tv. (When things get intense, she gets jumpy....literally) So the trampoline has really helped.

I know I don't have a lot of pictures of Sean in this post. We'll focus on him next time. He does have 2 more teeth (total of 7) and now says "hello", "bye bye", and "uh oh". Everything else he just gestures for in his cute baby way and says "dah" and then waits for us to give him what he wants. He is still a crawling speed demon with no interst in walking. And the mosquitos love him. He probably has 30 to 40 bites on him right now. Mosquito repellant makes his skin break out in hives, so our only hope is to leave all the fans on high and hope the mosquitos are blown away.

Appliance Update

Glen was able to fix the washing machine. Yay! However, our dishwasher is still broken. Boo.

Stormy!

Phew! Last nights storm was a doozy! 100 mile an hour winds left trees blown down onto roads, houses, and cars all over town. Our house remained relatively unscathed. Several 2 foot long ceramic roof tiles blew off and shattered and several more are askew across the roof, but all of our trees remained upright and intact! Yay. Our cable and phone are dead, but the internet and the power (the important things) still work. Lots of trees in the street in our neighborhood and all across the valley. Driving to school we came across many intersections without power. In fact, when we drove in to Sean's daycare, they turned us away. They had no power and so couldn't care for any kids by law. This was a minor glitch for us as babies and teaching don't usually mix. But Friday is our half day and we had several unusal activities happening at school which meant I was only really teaching one class so I could probably bring Sean to work ok. However, when we got there, the power was out as well, and school was cancelled! Woo hoo! So Sean, Glen and I went home! (Maggie had school all day -- shhhh! Don't tell her we were off!)

I used my time wisely. I cleaned the bathroom (finally), graded some tests, and completed some assignments for my online class. Sean and Glen kept busy outside and in the laundry room. Sean definately prefers daddy these days. When I finally brought him in for lunch around 11:30 am, he fell asleep after only 2 bites! Right in the highchair. So I put him straight to bed where he slept for almost 4 hours!!! Yes! Glen and I got lots done today. :) And amazingly, Sean went to bed ontime as well.

Looking forward to the next 3 days off. Hooray for long weekends.

Sean's big puffy eye!

Sean woke up this morning with his left eye completely swollen shut. It appears a mosquito was feasting on him in the night as he has 7 bites on his cheek and one on the eyelid. Poor little guy! He looks like a drunken sailor. Called the doc and she recommended benedryl but we are holding off on that and just trying to keep him distracted so he won't rub his eye and make it worse. Its cracked open a little bit now so I think its on the mend.

Maggie, Sean and Glen are all outside in the backyard right now on this lovely Saturday morning. I am online (of course) and just booked the Candy Cane Inn for a quick visit to Disneyland in October. Driving out the 17th for just the weekend. I thought we would wait until Sean was out of diapers, but I was out voted. So off we go! Should be fun!

In other news, I went to wash a load of diapers this morning and the washing machine is broken! Wah! So Glen is going to go out this afternoon (after Maggie and I get back from her ice skating class) to go and scout out a new washing machine. We are still working with only one car. He is hoping he can fit a new washer into the back of the Taurus. I don't think it can be done and since the VW isn't working, well, we might just have to pay to get it delivered.

We are loving life without homework for Maggie. Yay Montessori!

Yipes!

Its been a few weeks since I last posted! Time certainly has gotten away from me. All is well here in Hestenes land, just busy. Glen and I are back to work. I also picked up a section of teaching astronomy online for some extra bucks hence my lack of computer free time. Maggie is loving her new school. Today when I was dropping her off, we walked in and found a rabbit in a HUGE cage (big enough for several kids to be inside -- I guess it was more of a fenced off area). She was soooo excited. School doesn't start until 8:30 for her. There is recess from 8-8:30, but we have to drop her at 7 a.m. so we can get to work. So she had an hour before school to pet the bunny. She was also proud to tell me she held a hissing cockroach during class the other day. In Geography, they are focusing on China (of course! Olympics!). In Zoology (science) they are focusing on Fish. Maggie was telling me all about gills and oxygen in the water. Maggie didn't have much interest in discussing the focus for math, reading or writing, but it should be in her friday folder which I should get today. Heck! I was excited she told me what she did! I never got a single thing out of her last year. She is also learning to play four square and soccer (with the big kids) at recess. Grades 1-3 are all at lunch and recess together. School is over at 3 and they have snack and recess until 4:15. I'm usually picking her up at that time. Daycare goes until 5:30 and Maggie will stay until then on Tuesdays and Thursdays because they have special classes you can take. Maggie wanted to do art and ballet so we signed her up and will pick her up late on those days.

Sean isn't adjusting as well to his new surroundings. He is back in daycare while we are at work and SCREAMS when I drop him off. He is soooooooo not happy. It totally breaks my heart. However, the daycare worker told me today that he finally had a good day. He was happy and took a good nap and ate his lunch, so maybe there is a silver lining. He gets picked up ASAP (between 3 and 3:30) and thank goodness for our half days on Fridays. ;)

Looking forward to this weekend as a good buddy of mine has moved back to town and is having a house warming party. It will be good to him and meet his fiance! Maggie, Sean and I have a playdate with some friends to check out the new children's museum in Phoenix as well. So busy weekend.

And Glen finally got my panty built! Woot!!!

Scenes from our Oregon Vacation

Lost a tooth!

When Maggie heard the dentist mention he might pull out her tooth if it didn't fall out soon, she got straight to work on wiggling it. She was complaining that it hurt today and wanted some of Sean's teething tablets. It came out when she bit into an extremely soft peach. At first she cried a little. I thought she had bit her lip. But then she reached into her mouth and pulled out her tooth! Here she is showing it to Sean.


Maggie and Grandma Nancy had just made a little tooth fairy pouch to put her teeth in about 2 days ago. Here it is tied to the door knob of her bedroom awaiting the tooth fairy tonight! (I never noticed how dirty her door was until I looked at this picture!)

We are not hiding it under the pillow because I know I would wake her up if I tried to retreive it. Plus, being on the doorknob, perhaps I will actually remember to take the tooth and leave her a suprise. I'm not sure the going rate for teeth these days. I asked Maggie what she thought the tooth fairy would leave her and she said a dollar so I think that is what I will leave. ;)

Unplug Your Kids -- Stone

This weeks theme from Unplug Your Kid was stone. I was hoping to make some stone soup but Maggie had other ideas, which was just fine! While we were hiking to the playground the other evening, she found some stones. And the next day she painted them. Some also have googely eyes. It was fun.

Sean spent his time trying to teeth on the larger stone. It was a little hard for his chompers so he gave up and went to unload the dishrags from the bottom drawer. Oh...and speaking of teeth, Maggie has a loose one! (First!)

More fillings for Maggie

Maggie had her teeth cleaned Tuesday and the doc saw a need for 2 more fillings. She had them done this morning and it was HORRIBLE! I felt so bad for her. She didn't like the nitrous oxide gas mask they put on her and kept trying to take it off. And the dentist was fairly irritating. This was a pediatric dentist, which our insurance doesn't cover. We tried to get an appointment with her regular dentist, but after her last cleaning, when she wouldn't let them finish because the cold water spritzer hurt her teeth, they won't let her come back until she is older. I was so mad! They kicked us out! She did fine there the previous 4 times and now the receptionist won't let us schedule an appointment. Our dental insurance is lousy. It won't let us change dentists except once a year, which will be January for Maggie. So Maggie is basically without a regular dentist until then. In the mean time we have to pay for the one we used today. Grrrrr.....

On top of that, Maggie has not lost any baby teeth yet, but her adult teeth are coming in right behind the baby teeth. It looks kind of like shark teeth. The dentist said he would have to pull the baby teeth out at the end of the summer if they don't fall out. Waaaaahhhhh! Is this necessary so soon? Can we let them hang out a little longer? I've been trying to get Maggie to wiggle her teeth so those baby ones will fall out, but they just aren't loose. So more dentistry may be in our future.

Oh, and did I mention she has 7 more "spots to watch" on her teeth which may become in need of fillings? Why is this happening? The dentist said I need to have her "cut back on the sodas". I looked at him dumbly and said she has never drank a soda in her life. And I cut her juice consumption down to almost nothing last year when we first learned Maggie was having tooth problems. We are brushing like mad, use a brush on flouride gel (the $27 toothpaste). What else can we do?

Bloody Nose!

Sean had his first bloody nose today. :( Maggie was running around and tripped over him, kicking him in the face as she fell to the ground. I watched the whole thing in what seemed like slow motion from the kitchen. Poor baby! I scooped him up and was tending to the blood and the screaming while Maggie started sulking saying we only cared about Sean and not her. Well...she was uninjured. Of course I'm going to take care of Sean first. *irked* Everyone is fine now. The bridge of Sean's nose is purple though.

Unplug Your Kids -- Sky

Well, I found this website recently, Unplug Your Kids, and decided to join in the fun this week. The theme was "sky" and Maggie had been asking recently to look at the moon, so I finally dragged out my telescope. Its been a while...not since Sean was born. But with work a distant memory over the summer, and everyone feeling rested, it was definately time to bring the telescope out.


Maggie helped me set it up and then I taught her how to use the Telrad to sight her object in the sky and use that to slew the telescope to the correct position. It didn't take her too long to find the moon.

She learned very quickly and was soon off to view a nearby star. It was about 8:30 at night and not too dark yet. Plus with brush fires, pollution, thunderstorms, and city lights, the seeing wasn't all that great. Maggie had a great time regardless, and it was fun for me to see her getting so excited. I think, when the weather is a little better, I will let her stay up a bit later so we can view something other than the moon. The moon is cool, and a great first object, but I think she is ready for some planets and maybe a few bright double stars. We will leave the fainter objects for viewing outside of the city lights.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We had a fun day. I tried to get a cute photo of my kids in their holiday garb, but they weren't into it.


We had fun making a 4th of July feast. Below is our jello flag. Very tasty.



And we also tried our hand at an appetizer we had at a dinner party last week...little smokeys wrapped in bits of crescent rolls. Oh so bad for you but oh so good. We ate them as a main dish though. ;) Here is Maggie making sure that each one has a flag toothpick.


Next Maggie decorated the stroller and her bike. And we went for a "parade" around the neighborhood.





Next Glen brought out the smoke bombs. Fireworks are illegal in Arizona. We couldn't even find sparklers. This is the best we could do. Oh...and we were eating pop rocks too. So that was like having fireworks in your mouth.

Finally...its dark. We walked down to the duck pond in order to see the town lake fireworks. We had stocked up on glo-sticks at the dollar store and had lots of fun with them while we were waiting for the show to start.

Cool pictures huh! Thats "night" mode on my camera. Back home and everyone in bed at 10:30 pm. Phew. Long day.

Splash Park

We've gotten into the habit recently of eating early and then going out in the evenings after hiding out from the sun all day. Last night we went to the Splash Park down by the lake during sunset to cool off.


Although you might not be able to tell from the picture below, Maggie is standing in a waterfall.

We've also gotten into the habit of grilling chicken in the backyard. Glen has figured out exactly how to cook it so everyone in the family is happy, including Sean. :) We've also grilled a lot of eggplant. Our CSA keeps delivering eggplant and none of use particularly like it, but its tolerable when grilled.

This past week we've been visiting a lot of public pools to go swimming. Grandma's pool is infested with algae and the chemicals she had to put in there to kill it make us not want to go there for awhile. Unfortuneately, the high chlorine at the public pools is really making Maggie's eyes irritated as she swims underwater with her eyes open so much, and wont wear goggles. The splash park was a nice change to give Maggie's eyes a break. However, Glen and I were still hot. Well, we got a few splashes to cool us off.

Zoo Camper and Family Fun Night!

That's right! I gave Maggie hair cut. Its kind of messy in this picture, but its short enough to avoid lots of tangles, hair brushing problems, and shampooing battles, but long enough to *just* pull back into a pony tail. Its a good length for a head band, which is her preferred style these days.

And here is a picture of our little zoo camper. (If you click on the picture, you can see her face and shirt in more detail) She got to tie-dye her own shirt and all the campers got matching hats and water bottles on a shoulder strap. I was worried she might be too hot at the zoo, but they did indoor activities in the afternoon and had time for lots of water play...even set up a water slide for the campers. We also have a brush fire currently burning in south Phoenix near P.I.R. and there is a TON of smoke blocking the sun and cooling it off a bit. We were brushing ash off of our hair the other day at the pool.

Here is a picture of Sean at the Art Museum for Children. The theme was "table manners" and he was busy at the Japanese table picking up the "sushi".

Today was family fun night from 6-8pm at McClintock Pool so we went! They have a water slide Maggie loved and a kiddie pool as well as a regular pool. Glen, Sean and I hung out in the regular pool while we watched Maggie compete in the cannon ball competition off the diving board (she got extra points for cuteness and was probably the youngest kid up there and won some bubbles). We also watched her in the "dance off" where all the participants won beads. Everyone got a raffle ticket upon entering the pool and we won twice! (diving rings and splash balls). Maggie and Glen enjoyed snow cones and we all had a great time. Got home late! Everyone is peacefully sleeping now though. :)

Maggie has a camera!

And here are 2 of the first photos she took with it during zoo camp today.

Not too bad for a first timer. She is very excited to have her own camera. Lets see what kind of pictures she comes home with tomorrow.

Glen spent the day fixing the vw, fixing grandma's pool pump, and fixing 2 flat tires on his bike that he got enroute to grandma's house. Poor guy. After the kids were in bed he went out again to try and buy a fuel line hose or something. He's is happiest when he is working on something though, so his plate is full.

Sean and I went to "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" this morning at the library. Its a program for little ones that involves singing and shaking musical instruments, and throwing scarves around. Sean mostly sat and watched. He will probably be more into it next year. Then we came home and he took a nice long nap. Then we picked up Maggie from zoo camp. Glen was still busy, and grandma's pool is out of comission for the time being, so I took them both to Eldorado Aquatic center. We had a blast. Maggie went down the water slides many times (even though she didn't meet the height requirement) and Sean loved the zero-depth entry to the kids play area which meant he could crawl around on his own in the water. It was later in the afternoon, around dinner time, so there weren't too many people there and the buildings cast shade onto the water. It was really nice. Oh...and since we came an hour before closing, they let us in for half price. Yeah! We will be going back.