Kelly's Blog

2009-07-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Seamus and Ciara removing pen off of Seamus' leg on 12seconds.tv

This is the first video I've just taken with the Blackberry and posted to 12 seconds. It's not much...Seamus had pen marks on his leg (not sure if it was him or her that put them there)...but they were trying to get it off.

There are fairly recent pictures posted to Flickr. Sorry I haven't written in a while, but work has been very busy!

Flickr set just for some May photos

2009-05-20T11:27:00.001-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26378635@N05/sets/72157618536323594/

Pictures from May…just general ones.

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Warning: All e-mail sent to this address will be received by the corporate e-mail system, and is subject to archival and review by someone other than the recipient. This e-mail may contain proprietary information and is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s). If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient(s), you are notified that you have received this message in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately.

 ==============================================================================

Flickr set for Rochester vacation

2009-05-20T11:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26378635@N05/sets/72157618449656079/

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Uploading pictures to Flickr

2009-05-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

I’m in the process of uploading pictures to Flickr. I hope, over the next weeks, to be able to manipulate them so that they look better, but I’ll be sending out emails just to let you know there are new pictures up.

Here is the first set I’ve put up…these are pictures from when Ciara and I went to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix on 5/2. That was Seamus’ birthday, and he was in Disneyland with Mike.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26378635@N05/sets/72157618450669599/

Enjoy!

Kelly

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

A couple of pictures on the blog

2009-04-27T10:36:00.001-07:00

A couple of pictures I posted on the blog...they are from a group of Twitterers getting together last Friday night on the West side of the Valley. They had groups meeting on the East side, the North side, the South Central part of Phoenix, but not on the West side, until last Friday. So, we quick got the kids home, fed them something, and headed out to this. They were the only kids there (but we weren't the only parents), and for the most part, they were well-behaved (although getting antsy after a while...I don't blame them).

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed, sent an e-card, sent a real card, or posted on my Facebook page to wish me a Happy Birthday! Oh, I think Tina texted me...wow, are there enough technological ways to communicate now, or what?? I did get myself a new phone over the weekend...a Blackberry Curve (in pink), so now I don't have to be left out of Facebook...I can get it on my phone! It's a little weird. I'll probably look for a skin for it from decalgirl.com, like I have for my Kindle.

This week, Seamus and Mike leave Friday for Disneyland. I am tentatively planning to go to a meeting on Friday evening...some sort of Listening Tour that Obama is having, and they have one on the West side on Friday, in Glendale. I'm sure that Ciara will not want to stay the whole time, since it starts at 7, and she'll probably just bury her head in my shoulder for the first 15 minutes or so, anyway. There's no venue yet, as far as I know...I hope it is a coffeehouse, so I can just get her some whipped cream...that'll draw her out!

I got an ear tube re-inserted into my right ear today. It took 15 minutes. Getting the kids dressed in the morning takes longer than that. We talked about Mythbusters and Time Warp (2 Discovery channel shows) during it...and then I went to work. Nice how convenient that is, eh?

So, the party is on Saturday May 9 for those of you in Rochester. THERE WILL BE RIBS!! You don't need to bring anything, I'm sure, but you can if you feel guilty. I put in my request for those flavored Smirnoff Ice drinks...those are pretty good. There's the backyard where the kids can run around. Tina, you're coming, right? RIGHT???? I'm hoping for some white hots too...the pop-open kind. Wow...I can just run down to Weggie's and get them myself!!!! I'm going to hate when vacation is over...not that I don't like Arizona, but it's going to be really difficult.

I'm not sure what we're going to be doing while we're there...probably go to the beach, Strong Museum, Nick Tahou's, I dunno what else. I'm sure we'll think of something. I can't wait!!!!

IMG_3888

2009-04-27T09:46:00.001-07:00

IMG_3888
Originally uploaded by templestark

Here's the picture of Ciara at the #wvfn. Yes, that's a Twitter tag. If you have no idea what that means, well, I'm sorry. :P

IMG_3880

2009-04-27T09:43:00.001-07:00

IMG_3880
Originally uploaded by templestark

We went to a meeting of people who use Twitter who live on the West Side of the Valley of the Sun. Here's a picture that one person who seems to be a lot better with a camera than I am got. There will be one of Ciara in the next post...but I figure with a name like 'Seamus'...well, I'm sure there's a Guiness in his future...when he's a lot OLDER!!!

Ciara in bouncehouse at church

2009-04-19T17:04:00.001-07:00

Spring Fling...bounce houses and games for free. Some Spring FLing though...it is over 90 degrees out!

Birthday list

2009-04-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

In case anyone was looking for some birthday ideas for Seamus, here’s a list I came up with:

Monkey stuff

Bowling stuff (he already has a bag, ball, towel)

Disney or Princesses stuff (although I’m sure Ciara will be fighting with him over any Princess stuff)

Train stuff

Cooking stuff

He wears 4T or 4 or XS shirts (just depends on where you buy them…if you go into the Infants/Toddler section, he’s a 4T. If you go into the Boys’ section, he’s a 4 or XS).

Kid’s board games (he has Candy Land already)…nothing wood, please (the dog eats the wood stuff).

Cheap Disney-related scrapbooking supplies (nothing too expensive, but he’ll be in Disneyland on his birthday, and he might enjoy doing a page about it if there are pictures from his weekend).

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Huh?

2009-04-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

So, yesterday was Easter, and I completely blanked out on the fact that I needed to actually DO something for Easter so if you’re expecting pictures of the kids going on an egg hunt, or eating little chocolate bunnies…well, you can forget that. I did have a special dress for Ciara yesterday…not one of those pastel Easter-type dresses, but it was nice and colorful, and she really liked it.

So, I was telling Ciara how pretty she was, and Mike mentions that Seamus is handsome too. I didn’t have any special clothes for him…but not to leave him out, I say to Seamus, “Yes, you are very handsome too!”

As serious as anything, Seamus replies, “I not handsome…I Scottish!”

We just burst out laughing. We had told him he was Scottish when we went to the Highland Games in downtown Phoenix…but I don’t think he realized he could be BOTH handsome AND Scottish!

We’ve been trying him in underwear at night…he wants to, and he was dry for a couple of days in Pull-ups. Well, he hasn’t been dry in underwear, and after last night, I think that maybe we should go back to Pull-ups at night. Gosh…what a mess! He needed to be dunked in the bathtub this morning…usually, we can just wipe him off. Not this morning! He wants so much to not wear Pull-ups.

He has cooking class tonight…so that will be fun. I brought all the stuff that I needed for it, so when I pick him up, I don’t have to head back home. This week, I’m bringing Ciara to daycare in the mornings. She loves to sit in Seamus’ carseat when they’re not together. I have no idea why…but she does. She and Mike went to Disney on Ice on Saturday…I guess she liked that quite a bit. They went to the Spaghetti Warehouse afterwards for lunch. Seamus and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch…he really likes that place. Afterwards, we went to Target. He picked out a piggy bank from the dollar section…it was in the shape of a whale. He was doing pretty well, but he dropped it in the kitchen, and it broke on the tile. He was pretty upset about it. He had kept asking me for change to put in the thing. Maybe I’ll head out to the Target here near work, and see if they have any. I picked up some cheap scrapbooking stuff for him too in the dollar section, so I want to order some pictures for him to scrapbook with, like he did one time. He did a good job with it too! Maybe I’ll pick up enough so that Ciara can do some too…I know she’ll like playing around with that stuff, too!

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

DSC_0485a

2009-04-10T13:12:00.001-07:00

DSC_0485a
Originally uploaded by khamilton611

Here is a picture from March 2009 of Ciara. It is just a perfect picture of her. Besides cropping out some of the extra background, I can't change a thing.

No more snow emails!

2009-04-07T09:25:00.001-07:00

I have already had 2 family members comment on the April snow in Rochester.

I get it! You guys have a lot of snow!

If you don’t like it, then move to Arizona…I guarantee you, you will not need to shovel snow here in Phoenix.

So, I’m going to be sending emails to y’all this summer complaining about the heat. I hope, however, that there is no snow when we come up there in a few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing some lilacs, you know!

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Seamus doing fine this morning

2009-04-06T13:16:00.001-07:00

I called during Seamus’ naptime…he was doing fine. I guess I forgot to label his stuff (that teacher should be grateful I REMEMBERED to bring a crib sheet…I swiped it out of his dresser this morning. Probably should get something for him, because I brought in a Winnie-the-Pooh crib sheet for him, and what self-respecting almost-4-year-old wants a WtP sheet?

Anyway, he was doing fine, the teacher said. I think he knows he likes those computers, and that helps when he gets to use them! She said he wouldn’t eat his vegetables for lunch…well, I guess he takes after Daddy on that one. He did eat his ‘steak fingers’…breaded steak?? Ick. I’d rather of had the veggies and the fruit (I guess he didn’t eat the fruit much either. She didn’t say what kind it was.). I’ll find out more this afternoon, when I take him for a snack before cooking class.

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Seamus' first day at new daycare

2009-04-06T08:25:00.001-07:00

Well, Seamus started his first day at the new daycare. We got in, and I took him to his classroom…he didn’t even stop by any of the tables. He went STRAIGHT to the computers, and sat down at one. The teacher there (he has a teacher where all of the preschool classes are with this one teacher until 7…she’s the pre-K teacher, I guess) asked another student to turn on Seamus’ computer (which is really just turning the monitor on), but nope, Seamus did it himself. He started playing, and I hung around for a while, but he was just playing on the computer, so I told him that I was going to leave. He said he wanted to close the door behind me, and he did. I went out to the front desk, and asked about the payment, which I paid, and then I saw him in the front door to the class (that classroom has 2 doors, and one is just all glass, so he could see me through it), and he wanted to give me a hug, so I did that. He was at the computer again, and after he gave me a hug, he went back to it. So much for having nerves…it felt almost anti-climactic.

Ciara had a good weekend. I spent a lot of time with her on Saturday, since Mike took Seamus bowling. The only time I wished I had left her at home was during grocery shopping. It’s not that she was bad, or trying to hand me things I didn’t want, but when your little toddler girls plops down in the dairy aisle and draws on your shopping list, well…it’s just time to go home.

We did go to McDonalds, and I got an iced coffee (oh my goodness, the iced coffee with caramel is SOOO good!), and she wanted to stir it with my straw, and I would let her, then she would start stabbing my mouth with the straw, and say ‘DRINK, MOMMY!’. Goodness! I think she was trying to help. I did get her the fruit/yogurt snack, and I thought she wouldn’t want the walnuts and I would get to have them…nope! She ate all the walnuts. Go figure.

On Saturday night, I was supposed to take Seamus to church with me…I signed up to hand out grocery bags to people…they are for the food drive. But…Seamus was acting pretty badly at home, so I told him that he wasn’t coming with me, and I took Ciara. It was past her bedtime, but she did wonderfully! She handed out bags…I tried to explain to her what they were for. I don’t know how much sunk in, but she did a really good job. I felt a little bad that I had to tell Seamus that he couldn’t participate when I had signed up so that he COULD do that…but he really wasn’t listening at all, and was misbehaving at home…and I didn’t want him to continue to do that when I needed him to do what he was supposed to.

Today, after I pick Seamus up, we will be heading to the first of 5 cooking classes. He and I are doing a parent-kid cooking class through the school district’s community ed department. We think he will really like that…he helps at home too. Both of them helped with dinner last night…just too bad that neither of them actually ATE any of it.

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Seamus and Mike are going to Disneyland

2009-03-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

I encouraged this, actually…Mike and Seamus are going to go to Disneyland the weekend of Seamus’ birthday. There’s a thing going on that weekend called Westfest…Mike wanted to go, especially since we’re not going to Florida this year, and also since there is no Mousefest in Florida this year (it’s funny…Westfest is on Seamus’ birthday, and Mousefest is on Ciara’s birthday. In fact, Mike couldn’t go to Mousefest in 2006, because Ciara was born during it). Anyway, they’re podcasting festivals, and I have really no interest in going, and even less interest in Mike going to these events and I walk around with both kids…so I encouraged Mike to take Seamus to Disneyland. Seamus can get in for free on May 2, because it is his birthday!! Mike has an Annual Pass to Disneyland (and so do I)…so why not?

I’m sure Ciara and I can find something to do without the guys. There’s the Children’s Museum, the Science Center, the Arizona Museum for Youth down in Mesa, the Botanical Garden, the zoo (which I’m not crazy about going to)…just a lot of stuff that we can find to do. She’d probably just like going to the mall to play in their play area, too. I like that one too…keep one eye on her, and whip out the Kindle. (if you don’t know what a Kindle is, just go to Amazon and look for info on it). Maybe I’ll try to find Tammy Coe’s bakery…they make specialty cupcakes…something that Ciara would REALLY like!

This doesn’t affect our vacation…we are still coming up for vacation. Everyone can relax now.

Oh, this morning, Seamus locked my keys in the car at the daycare. I put them in the cupholder…got him out, got her out, and then I was getting the jackets out of the passenger side, and the keys, and it was locked. I went to the driver’s side, and it was locked. I wasn’t too happy about that, although I got to spend quite a bit of time with Ciara in her classroom. I went to Seamus’ too, but after about 5 minutes, he kicked me out. Went to the door, opened it, and say ‘Bye, Mommy’. So…I went back to Ciara’s classroom. She loved having me there! Seamus was saying he had a stomachache, but he didn’t have one when we left the house. I think he knows I was pretty upset at the keys being locked in the car, and he knows that it was his locking the doors without permission that did it. So, I left a message on Mike’s voicemail to come and rescue me, which he did, but he didn’t get the message for a while (which I knew he wouldn’t, since he was getting ready to go to work himself). Oh well.

Seamus was really very helpful last night…Mike got home late, and Seamus helped me unload the dishwasher, he compromised with Ciara on what they were watching while I started getting dinner ready…he did some other stuff too that was very helpful. Ciara ‘helped’ unload the dishwasher, but he really did a lot…even pointed out when Ciara had gotten a breakable item out of the dishwasher, so I could grab it. He does lock the car doors when we’re out someplace, but I tell him to do that…he must have thought that since we were all out of the car, it was OK to lock the doors…he didn’t know that I was getting more stuff out of the car, and that I hadn’t put the keys in my pocket yet.

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

His dolly is now 'Ariel'

2009-03-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

So, as if Ciara’s ‘Disney Princess’ obsession wasn’t enough…

Seamus has had this doll ever since I can remember…her name has always been ‘Dolly’. On Friday, I think it was, he informed us that he had named his dolly ‘Belle’, which makes some sense, since he likes ‘Beauty and the Beast’. On Saturday, he informed us that he had named his dolly ‘Ariel’…and it looks like this one is sticking. I remember asking him this weekend, ‘Do you want your dolly?’ when I put him to bed, and he told me ‘Her name is Ariel, Mommy’. Huh. He’s been telling us that he wants to be a king for a week or 2 now…I think he finally got it through his head that he couldn’t be a princess because he is a boy.

I took Seamus to Target on Saturday to get Ciara some underwear. Sure…she’s making progress on toilet-training, but that’s not why I got her underwear. She’s been wearing more dresses lately, and some of them don’t have those diaper cover things. So, she got inventive and pulled a pair of Seamus’ underwear (from someplace…I’m hoping it was the clean clothes basket) and either gave them to Mike to put on her, or she started putting them on herself. Either way, I bought her some underwear that she can put on over her pullup when she wears dresses. So, I asked Seamus…which kind of underwear do you think Ciara would like? There was a choice of Princesses, Sleeping Beauty, or Elmo. He said that she would like the Sleeping Beauty ones. So, that’s what she got.

Not only did Seamus name his dolly ‘Ariel’, but he also tried to take a picture of his cousin Sarah to bed with him. We compromised, and put it on his dresser. He overheard me talking to his Aunt Diana on Saturday morning about Ariel nightgowns being on sale at Kohls, so that is probably what started the whole thing.

He’s been having a great time at bowling lately. Last week, he bowled his highest game ever of 94. This week, he bowled his second-highest game ever of 85. His average is now a 70…might go up another point as well. He’s been doing extremely well…he’s been throwing with more power. We’ll be signing him up for the summer season as well…he says he wants to go, and he does really like it.

I took Ciara to the Arizona Science Center last weekend while Mike took Seamus bowling (the same week he got that 94, so I missed seeing it)…she really liked that. We have a membership, so it was free to get it. She remembers the ‘big nose’ exhibit (and she liked throwing foam balls at the nose, until it sneezed them out at her…then she didn’t like it so much). We learned about how sand can hold water back, and if we move the sand, then the water can break through (I think she just liked playing in the water, to be honest). She did have a good time, and we took the light rail downtown. When we arrived back at the Park and Ride lot, she was asleep in 5 minutes after buckling her up in the car.

This is Seamus’ last week at his daycare…next week, he will switch to Tutor Time. I think he’s really going to like that…they have more computers in their classroom, and he really likes those. We think it will be a good change for him…maybe shake things up a bit for his behavior to get better.

"Email Firewall" made the following annotations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ==============================================================================

Like mother like daughter?

2009-03-21T09:38:00.001-07:00

We stopped at Sonic to have breakfast/snack. Nice to sit outside! We got back in the car...and she picked up the book...said it was HER book.
It's Christian romance...so nothing to worry about, even if she could read. :)

DSC_0525

2009-03-16T08:09:00.001-07:00

DSC_0525
Originally uploaded by khamilton611

On Saturday, Mike and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden here in Phoenix to view the Chihuly exhibit. This guy (whose last name is Chihuly) has a team of glass artisans, and he/they create these wonderful one-of-a-kind glass pieces. I don't remember what this one was called...I think it had something to do with the sun. Anyway, I have pictures on Flickr from this exhibit...if you're in Phoenix from now until May 31st, I would highly recommend visiting this. You have to go to the website to order the tickets BEFORE you go, and I suggest the 4-8 pm time slot, since these pieces look totally different at night. We walked around for 3 hours!

After that, we tried to go to the new Irish restaurant (The Auld Dubliner?) on Northern, but we could NOT find a parking spot! So, we went to Lis Doon Varna, which is an Irish restaurant we've been to before, and that's always good. I think the Strongbow cider I had kicked me on my (bleep), and I probably should have had a Diet Coke, but the Strongbow just tastes so good! The kids were exceptionally good for the babysitter, but that is probably because they were completely vexing to us over the weekend.

Seamus' highest game to date

2009-03-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

Last season, his high game was 81. He got 82 on his 1st game today!

Ciara with barrettes

2009-03-04T18:13:00.001-07:00

First barrettes...also wore a dress for the first time today too.

Seamus at 2009 Scottish Games in Phoenix

2009-02-21T15:39:00.001-07:00

We're having fun...I just had my yearly Scottish meat pie. Maybe one of these years, I'll get up the nerve to try haggis. Um...maybe not.

Ciara at Paradise

2009-02-21T10:02:00.001-07:00

We're having a snack before heading to the library Mike took Seamus bowling this morning. I got the Disney bus and plane that I bought last trip out...now she won't part with them.

Seamus playing on his computer

2009-01-28T09:17:00.001-07:00

Seamus playing on his computer
Originally uploaded by MikeScott8

Here's a picture that Mike took with his camera phone. Here Seamus is, playing with the comptuer that I got him (it hooks up to the desktop we have upstairs...so actually, I'm buying this kids' keyboard thing and the sofware).

I'm pretty impressed on how well he does with it...navigating around the system, and using the pen+tablet it comes with (it uses that instead of a mouse). I would recommend this for preschoolers...only an adult can log out of the software and get back into the regular computer, because there is a password required...so he has to stay in this program until we stop it (so he can't mess up the regular computer).

He really likes this, too! We told him that he couldn't use it until he was done with his tracing (with a real pencil and paper), and when he finally sat down and did it, then he was able to use his 'keyboard'.

Seamus eating a cookie at Paradise

2009-01-25T15:22:00.001-07:00

Ciara eating a cookie at Paradise

2009-01-25T15:20:00.001-07:00