When I was shopping for some food for a Pampered Chef party I had a couple weeks ago, I saw that there was a no-calorie diet version (more deminals, yes) so I bought it. I mean, hey, I'm not nursing OR pregnant anymore for the first time in how many years? I can throw all caution to the wind, right? I only had one can that night, but ooohhhhh was it good. I continued to have one can (JUST one!) the next several days during lunch time. I liked the taste and I really liked how my brain felt that little pick-me-up where I had been feeling a mid-afternoon slump. What is amazing to me is that I used to regularly drink 5-6 cans of Mountain Dew a day, and I would hardly feel its effect. (That's what four years of "going clean" will do to you. One can was all it took for me to feel the caffeine buzz.) 

So, several days later, the one pack of Coke that I bought was running low. Then Phil took the last can with him on Thursday,  on the way to work to have for lunch. I didn't even realize that I had been consistently drinking it every day (it was just what I picked for lunch because it tasted so good), but in its absence, by early afternoon I started to have a little headache. By 3:30 I was almost pulling out my hair. At 5-something I had to drive to pick up Phil from work and I barely made it there. I had scheduled to go do one of my paid surveys with Delve that night, but I had to cancel because my head hurt so bad and I was now feeling nauseous. I got home and Phil took the kids, and I went straight to bed, where I then sat (it hurt too much to lay fully down) semi-reclined for the next three and a half hours, occasionally running to the bathroom because my stomach couldn't handle it anymore. I used to have migraines like this all the time, but it had been so long that I didn't even recognize it as such until about midnight, when the Tylenol finally started to kick in (and stay down) and I remembered what migraines were like. Very unpleasant. The next day, I started having a headache again around about noon (I quickly took some Advil this time before it got really bad) and just rode it out, along with body fatigue. I couldn't believe it -- I was going through caffeine withdrawal! After just one can per day for a little over a week, my body went back to its familiar drug so quickly. I'm now back off the sauce. For good this time. I can't believe how quickly my body adapted (and liked) the caffeine jolt, and how fast the withdrawal from it came!

Just as an oddity to post tonight, the Webshot wallpaper on my computer screen today is the photo of me and Natalie, and my great-with-Ethan-child belly, on the beach in Florida in 2004. Late this afternoon, Natalie was playing a Blue's Clues game, and when we turned it off, my photo had gotten warped somehow. Anyway, in an odd way I think it's rather neat looking, in an almost Andy Warhol sort of way, so I made a screenshot of it and saved it -- take a look.

January 23, 2006
First, a few random "cute Ethan moments".

When we get ready to pray before meals or bedtime, Ethan now puts his hand right smack over his entire face while we're praying. It's really cute. (When I pray, especially before meals, apparently I put my hands up close to my face, though not quite in the same way that Ethan does it.) 

The other day we were watching TV and a commercial came on for one of those plug-in room fresheners. When he saw the person in the commercial plug in the freshener to an outlet, he started shaking his finger back and forth (our "no touch" sign) and saying "no-noooo, no-noooo". Smart boy.

That's one of his favorite words right now, and he says it really cutely, almost like "newwww", with his lips in a complete circle and the word so carefully spoken, with a look of seriousness in his eyes. His other favorite word right now is the opposite, "yeah". "Do you like your dinner, Ethan?" "Yahhhh", he says, very wide-eyed. We need to get this recorded, because a year from now I know I'll miss how he says it.  Just like Natalie is making leaps and bounds into saying so many things correctly right now, and part of me is already missing some of her "Natalie-isms". For instance, lately she's saying "Bite-a-mins" instead of what she's been saying for a year, "Bite-ems", which we thought was a really cute Natalie-ism for "vitamins". I'm glad she's learning to talk correctly, of course, because lots of people still have trouble knowing what she's saying, but I'm still going to miss that stage.

Ethan still persists in wanting to explore his artistic side. Last night the kids were drawing with crayons (on coloring books) but then I saw him head toward the closet (which is the kids' toy area) and reach up to the door frame inside the closet, with a green crayon in hand. I looked up and said, "Ethan, DO NOT color on walls! Crayons are for coloring books ONLY!" Just as I started saying his name, before I'd even gotten to the "do not" part,  he tossed the crayon down on the floor behind him, almost nonchalantly, like I wouldn't notice what he had had in his hand. So he's starting to understand, I think!

Our biggest news of the week -- we found a house, and we'll be starting to move in the weekend of Natalie's birthday party (which is why her party is not going to be held at our house this year -- right now Natalie wants it to be at Chuck E Cheese, so that's probably where it's headed). We probably won't move that weekend but will be doing some painting and we need to put in new mini-blinds (which are really worn out). We're excited about it - it is a ranch, which I'm not used to, but it has LOTS of space -- about 2300 square feet, and it has four bedrooms and three full baths. And, to Natalie's liking (as well as ours), it has a BASEMENT! But not just a plain old basement-- it runs the whole length of the house and it's completely finished. There are two storage rooms, including the laundry, but then most of it is one big multi-media room, with three different areas of lighting. There's also the fourth bedroom (very small, so it's more likely going to be the office) and a full bath as well. We plan on putting the TV room down there, along with the kids' toys, and the exercise equipment that we've been collecting (via Freecycle! Woohoo!). It will be our main living area. On the main floor is a big living room, which will have a sitting area (provided we can find another couch - we gave one of our old ones away last year when we moved in here and had no room for it) and our bookshelves, and once we get settled, our BIG fish tank (which we also got on Freecycle). So it will be a nice, quiet area. The kitchen is nothing to write home about (it is pretty small and there is little counter space, so that was our one negative about the house, and something I'm going to have to get used to for while unless we find some kind of island to put in), but at least it has an eat-in area. There are two additional full baths on the main level, one between the kids' rooms and one by the master bedroom. (Which also has a walk-in closet -- I am HAPPILY saying goodbye to the closet we have right now, where I can't even reach more than half of my clothes.) AND, we will have our own yard, and it's fenced in! 

All we know for sure right now is that we'll be painting Natalie's room purple. Right now it's pink, which she doesn't seem thrilled about. (Although she likes the idea of maybe having it pink and purple swirled.) I'm thinking that the main/kids bathroom will be a pale yellow, which will match with the ducky decor. Other than that, I'm not sure. We don't have to do it all at once, but I know from last time painting our old house that it is definitely easier to do the painting before all the stuff gets moved in! (And the best part is, there will be NO stairwell to paint!)

January 17, 2006
I'm pleased to report that I found, bid on, and won the Backpack that Natalie has been missing for months. She saw a photo of it on eBay yesterday, and she said, "Maybe that's my backpack! Maybe that person found my backpack and maybe they'll bring it to my Dora party!" I think maybe it might just show up at her Dora party. But this time, no crayons will be put in the bag and then brought out into a hot summer car. But even if that would happen again, we'd just let the crayon harden and then try to pry it off. We wouldn't just throw away such a precious toy again, would we? Phil?

It should be arriving in about a week, so that will be plenty of time to get it before her birthday. Speaking of which, we're tentatively planning for her party to be the Saturday after her birthday, on the 11th. Natalie seems to think that the cake I make for her party should not only have Dora on it, but also Backpack, Boots, Swiper, Diego, Daisy, AND Dora's mom and dad. That would have to be one big cake! She's been "calling" Daisy and Dora on her phones and inviting them to her party. She's just sure that Daisy and Dora will be there. She's also certain that she will be getting the Dora house at her party. You understand, she's been planning this party since the day after her 3rd birthday party.

January 12, 2006
There are two issues of my kids' -ahem- writing "achievements" that I wanted to note today. First, about Natalie -  this one actually is a real achievement. She wrote her whole name this past weekend. And right after that, with a little help from me, she wrote "Daddy" too. Well, she needed a little help with getting her letters written in the right order for her name, but she pretty much had it all down. That's pretty good for such a long name to learn! I mean, me, I had to just learn five letters and two of those are the same letter in a row. Natalie's name requires a little more thought! We were over at a friends' house for a dinner party, and I was keeping the kids quiet (ha ha) by bringing out the crayons and paper. To which Natalie just wanted to go through writing all her letters, as she has done a lot lately. And the next thing I know, she's writing N, then A, then T... all the way through. She was writing the letters all over the page in random order, though, so I helped her start again on the back of the page, starting at the left side and working her way over, and there was her name, written out all by herself for the first time. Then she did "Daddy". She wanted to do more, but she was starting to ask too loudly and was defeating the purpose of this being a quiet activity, so then I told her to just go back to writing without my help.  I'm so proud of her though - she just seems to be growing mentally in leaps right now.

Ethan is our little budding artist these days. His favorite activity is to color, and he loves to color everything in sight. I'm trying to impress upon him the rule about "crayons are for paper and coloring books ONLY" (Natalie's got this one down and she'll quote it back to you on cue) but he's not getting it yet. I try to keep crayons under watchful eye like it's a controlled substance, but with an almost four year old and the little guy, they're always sneaking out sooner or later every single day. Lately I've been finding his favorite toys with some...decoration added. I think Natalie did this once or twice, but she pretty much stuck with paper. Ethan needs more challenging canvases, apparently. Like my walls. This afternoon I was in the kitchen cleaning up, when I heard a light "swish swish swish" sound from the wall next to me. Ethan had a fat brown crayon in his hand and was going to town on the wall. When I yelled at him and told him "NO!" and the aforementioned rule that I want him to memorize too, he cowered his little head down and started whimpering, then crying, when I took the crayon away. (He really doesn't like being yelled at.) A little later on, as I walked out of the kitchen, I noticed that another wall had the same scribbles, as did one more. Apparently he'd been hard at work at it for quite some time, and I just didn't notice until he was right there next to me. If I would have not noticed for a little longer, chances are good that every open wall would have had the same brown "designs" on it, right at Ethan's eye level. 

I tried to wash the crayon off, but I washed the paint off the walls instead, and the crayon stuck. (One of the many cheap things we've noticed about this apartment, which LOOKS really nice but if you look closely see things that just aren't quite right...) I am going to try one of those "magic erasers", but it didn't work last time I tried it to get some scuffs off the wall. Other than that, I can't do much else. The last time I tried to really wash the walls was a few weeks after we moved in, and the paint came right off then, too. Then I just figured that the paint was still fresh and so a little unstable. Well, now it's been a year and it still wipes right off as if my water and soft washcloth contained paint solvent! 

Just in time to move out in about a month, too! Oh goody! If I can't get it off, I'll probably go over to the office and let them know that I really did try, but it's not my fault they have the cheapest paint ever made on the walls. (Our old house also had flat paint on the some walls, and they were impossible to wash, but at least when you attempted the impossible the paint didn't come off on the washcloth!) Maybe it will be okay since I'm sure that after we leave they plan on throwing another coat of paint on the walls anyway. I hope!

I promise to get some new photos up soon. I've fallen behind on that. We have to get Natalie scheduled for her four-year-old birthday photo too! It's coming up soon!

January 6, 2006
Natalie is just so smart, and still she surprises us. Yesterday I went with the kids to look at a house, and Natalie really liked it. (She likes any house with a basement.) As we were leaving, as we were backing out of the driveway, I asked Natalie, "Did you like this house?" She said, "Yes! I want to move here and not be at [our address] anymore!" Just the day before, I had been telling Phil that I was reading through a kindergarten readiness assessment, and that she knew about 80-90% of the stuff they asked for her to know to start kindergarten. (I was actually looking at some formal home school pre-schooling materials, and was just reading through the kindergarten readiness section just for comparison; to see what was coming next.) One of the few things I thought she didn't know was her address; we don't regularly recite it or anything, and as I told Phil, "It's not like I expect her to, we haven't lived there that long and won't for too much longer anyway!" So when Natalie completely, correctly, quoted our entire street address, my jaw about dropped. I looked at her and said, "What did you say?" She smiled and said, "That's where we live, at.." and quoted our address again. Little smart cookie.

A little while ago I was getting food out for lunch, and Natalie saw our bag of natural potato chips. (Yes we still eat potato chips, but at least we get the ones where the ingredient list isn't 50 but only contains three things: potatoes, oil, salt.) Natalie pointed to them and said, "We eat these ones because they don't have lots of "deminals" in them." I gave her that "huh??" look, and she repeated, "deminals, the stuff that's yucky." Oh, yes, "chemicals". When we go to the store, she observes us reading the back of every single package these days. Not only is she smart, she listens to EVERY WORD WE SAY...

New Year's Eve was rather uneventful. But that was okay, I was coming down with a pretty big cold on Saturday anyway, and we just ended up spending time together as a family which is the thing we like to do best, anyway. We went to a Mexican restaurant that is near us, and then we went to Magic Mountain, which had an early-hour New Year's Eve party going on from 7-9 pm. Every hour they had a "countdown" and a balloon drop. We played with the kids in the play gym for a little while. (Ethan really liked the ball pit, of course, that was until some big kids started jumping on top of him.) Then we did a few games and kid rides, and that was enough excitement for us for the night. When we got home Natalie went to bed easily but Ethan decided he wanted to stay up late, so Phil and I didn't get the time alone that we had been hoping for. (As usual.) I think Ethan finally went down at about 11:30, so Phil and I watched the last few minutes of the ball drop at Times Square - so very anticlimactic! And then went to bed about 5 minutes after 12.  It's hard to believe that in just a few short years, I've gone from absolutely needing to do something dramatic and "FUN!!!" every New Year's Eve, to just preferring a quiet night in with my family. Of course, it would have been better if we could have topped our night with some time for just Phil and I to relax together, but that will come. Ethan will someday go to bed, just like Natalie does. Someday...