Months Later....

It's been a long time since our last entry so this is a summary. Jay has been busy with work and is leaving for California where he'll be working until Thanksgiving! We'll miss him! He also completed a 5-K that we ran with some friends and Jayson thought his dad won the race because Jay sprinted to the finish with his arms raised high in the air. Jayson laughed and cheered. I ran it too and got 2nd overall, which was a little boost to help prepare me for the Nike Womens Marathon. It helped me get there, but that's it. It was a fun weekend in San Francisco with my mom and sister Kelsey (I got to meet baby Briley for the first time, too!) butthe marathon part of it was rough! By mile 19 I threw up and was not feeling great, but I finished. In 4:30. Oh, well. I did get my Tiffany's finisher necklace. It was harder than delivering a baby though, I think. Of course, I can never remember the pain of childbirth so maybe I should ask Jay. It stays very fresh in his mind. Jayson is doing very well in school now, and is often assigned the job of clean-up leader (reverse psychology, I think. It seems to work.) We just got back from trick or treating with one of his new school friends Nathan (Pooh Bear for the night). Jayson was a cute Peter Pan and Aidan was a pirate. Arggh! He managed to lick off all of his eyeliner mustache and take off all accessories in the first 10 minutes or so. While he is still struggling to walk on his own, he has begun picking up his toys (then dumping them out again) and his best talent is still eating. Speaking of eating, Murphy tried to get into Jayson's candy bucket tonight after trick or treating and got it stuck on his head. He ran around and around and finally bumped into the couch and it fell off. Some of the pictures in the above slide show require explanation...We went to the Marriott Ranch with Crystal last weekend for their annual Corperate Retreat and it was so much fun! Jayson got to ride a horse and we all went on a wagon ride (pulled by a tractor) and Jayson played tug-of-war. There are also pics of Jayson's Fall Festival and Halloween party at school (different days) and some of my marathon and our 5-k. That's it...it's all I have the stamina to write tonight. Goodnight!

As I sat down to update this blog I didn't really feel inspired. There isn't really anything new to mention and my head has been in such a fog lately. Why? Blame it on whatever you like, and you could be partially right. Lack of oxygen due to holding my breath for a lot of the day as Aidan teeters from one dangerous predicament to the next, fatigue from miles ands miles of pavement being covered as the day of THE MARATHON looms larger than life, synthetic hormones coursing through my veins after one nightmare week on birth control, nights of staying up far too late to watch the Dog Whisperer recorded on our cable channels, getting up far too early as I try and fail to beat Jayson and Aidan out of bed to give myself enough time to shower before they wake up, or could it be that because Jay has been home so often lately I have simply become lazy? Lazy brain. That's the most likely cause. So my head is in a fog lately because I have Lazy Brain Syndrome. Anyway, as I was saying...wasn't inspired...then I was...by something! What was it? I've completely forgotten. Instead, I'll just tell you some current events. Monday was Jayson's first day of soccer class. I am proud to report that Jayson was the best player in class, although since he was expecting more soccer playing involved (and less running on the lines of the field), he spent some time apart throwing himself down and pretending to get tackled. Very entertaining. He also thought the water breaks were ridiculous...a complete waste of time. Tuesday marked the beginning of his second week of school and he seemed surprised and a little disappointed. "I already went to school, last time!" Perhaps too much structure. He doesn't like it one bit when someone has the nerve to tell him that he needs to stop playing with one thing so that he can play with something else. On Tuesday night Jay and I went sailing with a couple of our new friends and Crystal spent the night and babysat for us. The next morning she came with us to Jayson's swim lesson and said she felt like a "rich" person because we were all so idle that we could sit around watching one 3 year old swim. I laughed. I does seem leisurely with three adults but when it's just me we usually come tearing in 5 minutes late and I practically throw Jayson in the pool to save the time of his walking to it. Just when Aidan and I get comfortable, Jayson is done. After the lesson we went to the Outlet mall where Crystal got an iron. Thursday was Jayson's first show and tell day and I wanted to be there, but they don't allow siblings to come to class so I was hoping he could tell me how it went but he seems to have blocked the entire memory from his mind. I feel like a huge piece of my experience as a mother has been robbed from me. I can't remember what we did on Friday, but on Saturday we went to the Burke Lake Park and rode the train. It was very exciting for us all. Aidan loved the flavor of the wooden seats and Jayson was in awe of the engineer who shook his hand and let him sit on the drivers seat. I've got to hurry away now...we're on our way to Crystal's house to have a picnic after church (where we were called to team teach the 7-8 year olds. They explained to us that they need two people due to the large volume of ADHD children in the class.) And another week begins...

New Snow Family Vocabulary

A certain three year old has been creating words lately and there's nothing like a silly made-up word to spice up our family conversations!

Head Betector: When you're flying with all your might you wear it to betect you from the bugs that get smashed.

Plinking: When you're worried, you just blink your eyes like this (blink, blink, blink) and that's just plinking.

Poober: When you go number two (also sounding remarkably similar to Pooh Bear).

Teeger: When you go number one (I don't know why bodily functions are named after our dear friends from Hundred Acre Wood, but this one sounds a lot like Tigger).



A Funny Conversation

Jayson was playing a computer game in which the keyboard keys simulate piano keys. I heard him playing, so I asked him,

"Wow, Jayson! Was that you!?"

Jayson,without even glancing up from the computer screen, said "no, that was just a funny smell."

Going Buggy!

Two of the most disgusting things that have ever happened to me happened twice in one day. I went to bed with my skin crawling. On Saturday morning I got back from my run to find Jayson entertaining Aidan in his crib again while Jay sawed logs. Jayson told me in so many words that Dad was sleeping and wasn't opening his eyes. How does he sleep through a three year old's attempts to wake him? I don't know...one of life's mysteries. Anyway, I needed to multitask so that I could get in an ice bath while my muscles were still warm. I decided to make a pot of oatmeal that everyone would like (except Jay, although he did manage to gag it down) and wouldn't take long. I cooked the oatmeal while doing five other things, tossed some brown sugar and raisins (perhaps my downfall) on top, and crammed it into every one's mouths as fast as I could. I thought there seemed to be little mini raisins mixed in. Whatever. It tasted great and filled us up. Aidan seemed to especially enjoy it. I left the oatmeal container (a cardboard cylinder) sitting on the counter while I showered. Half an hour later, I picked the container up to put the lid on and three little black beetles(?) fell out onto the counter to join the other three that were already scuttling away. Peering into the container, I discovered several more attempting to escape. Were those the mini raisins? Perhaps. Shortly after sanitizing and inspecting the pantry (nothing else that I could find thank goodness)I put Aidan into the bath. I put some bath toys in the water and sat down on the floor by the tub. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something writhing in the corner. A grub. A weevil grub I think. Now the gross part (no, eating them was not the worst of it). Aidan was happily sucking away on his bath toy and gave it a little squeeze. Out shot another grub! Grub is a less gross term for larva. After sanitizing the bathroom and throwing away all bath toys that squeeze water in and out of them (Bethany told me they were gross once, and I really should have listened.) I looked everything up on the Internet. The beetles looked most like Weevils indigenous to India, but were probably just regular old wheat weevils. We haven't come down with symptoms of E-coli infection, probably because I boiled them for so long before we ate them. I don't know how they managed to get on the bathroom floor. I feel like I am a pretty clean person, although now that we have two children I have slackened in some of my cleaning habits. I went to bed checking under my pillow for bugs and feeling like a naughty housewife. I just pray that Jayson doesn't mention it during show and tell or something.

Wow, a whole month has gone by! I've been avoiding the blog...I do it with every journal I've ever tried to keep too. The pressure just gets to be too much. If I miss a week I start to feel guilty and I try to blot it out of my mind. Story of my life. But see how mature I am...facing the past! Summaries are in order, since so much time has passed. Where to start? We'll go youngest to oldest. Then animals. Animal. Aidan is doing what he does best, and lots of it! Growing! Eating is a close second. We went out to lunch with some friends and they pointed out something that we hadn't really noticed about him because he's always been this way. He started eating as soon as we got there and did not stop until we left. I think that's why when we go out Jay and I take turns wolfing our food down while the other feeds the Stomach. Poor Jayson pretty much gets overlooked (I think he prefers that to being force-fed. Now he can get away with picking and making "creative" messes with his food and silverware). Aidan is an excellent mover and he's obsessed with Murphy. I like to imagine Aidan through Murph's eyes: all hands and drool (tasty) coming closer with nowhere to hide! When he gets tired, Aidan crawls into Murphy's bed by the bookshelf and rolls around in it, just like a little puppy. As a matter of fact, Aidan is very doggy-like. He puts his little paws up onto the couch and chairs begging to be let up. He eats any scrap of anything he finds on the floor. He loves chewing on shoes, especially flip-flops. He loves walks and chew toys. What a sweet puppy though! The sweetest. He still loves me best which is nice. Jayson is getting ready for school! He saw a leaf fall off of a tree a few weeks ago and said, "Oh, it's Fall! Time for school to start!" His teachers came over to meet him on Monday and he was so excited we could barely contain him in the living room. He kept zipping in just long enough for Mrs. Hamel to ask him something then he would zip out before he could answer. Every time he left the room there was sort of an awkward silence while we waited for him to come back in. He did some great break-dancing moves and when she asked to take his picture he said "Oh..yes!" and immediately did the splits with a very serious face. I've included some Jaysonisms at the end of this post. He's been so funny lately and I regret that if I don't write his sayings down right away they are lost forever, because I don't have the brain power to remember anything lately. Jay has been home and now that he has his security clearance he has been working at the Pentagon for the past couple of weeks. It's nice because we're settling into a routine, but Jay isn't thrilled about a lot of the drama that he's dealing with right now. It's hard for him to just go in and get his work done but I cannot go into details, especially online. He doesn't really tell me a lot about it anyway. I have been running and eating and sleeping and somewhere in between those activities, I take care of the kids, clean, cook, etc. I've been reading a lot lately too- the public library system here is the best, so I can burn through books as fast as I want without having to worry about running out of "good" ones. I put that word in quotation marks because obviously the things that qualify a book as good are very different to everyone. I love it out here, in the green and the constant bustling. That's what makes this area so unique: when I get up to go running at 5:00 there are already so many people out and about and it goes on all day long. But we are still surrounded by beautiful trails and parks. It's a wilderness here, and I feel a little bit like in a heartbeat the natural habitat could take over and cover up that we were ever here. My sister Kelsey very successfully delivered her first baby, Briley! That was really exciting for me. We gave talks in church and Jay told everyone that I proposed to him. They all think I'm very brazen now. We've been to Mt. Vernon three times. Jayson opens his eyes underwater now and back floats very well. I could very easily have won the Gold Medal for "the Housewife who Watched the Most Olympic Events". The one member of our family not fairing well is Murphy. He's allergic to the climate I think. He looks very mangy right now because he broke out in nasty skin pustules and when they crust over all of his hair falls out. I bathe him twice a week and we have him on antihistamines and antibiotics. Poor doggie. The Vet said that it's very common for Pugs to have this problem here though. So.


JAYSONISMS
a song: "I love you so much my child that is so wild" When he sang this song, Jayson said "I love that song so much that I cry a little bit when I sing it!"

When we were watching Michael Phelps win yet another gold medal, Jayson got caught up in the moment and blurted, "I'm so happy that Michael John won the golden medal!"

While watching Olympic wrestling, Jayson could not contain his amusement,he laughed so hard. But he suddenly became very serious and turned to me and said "Oh, Mom, I never had a wrestling class before!" (meaning that he'd like to take one)

I've been waiting for this phase to begin and it finally has. I told him not to tell me no and he said "I'm running away!" He then ran to the next room and waited for me to follow. When he got tired of waiting he came in and said "hey, I was running away and you didn't chase me!"

One night as I made a grocery list, he got a pad of paper and a pen and "wrote" all over it. When he was done he held it up, admired it, and said, "there! Nice and tricky!"

Picking up on my Valley-girl slang (obnoxious, I know!): One day when Aidan picked up a toy that Jayson was playing with, he came and said to me "that toy was totally being a lawnmower! I need it!"

Burps have been the theme for the month of August: "Mom, I just burped and it sounded like a white-tailed deer!" and "Oh, I just burped and I spiced a little bit in my mouth." Gross!