{swimming, anyone?}

As I mentioned in my last post, Morgan took an unexpected dip in the pool yesterday. Since many of you have asked about it, I thought I'd share the whole story. Let me start from the beginning...

Gerard's friend Logan's grandparents have a pool at their house. On Mondays during the summer we swim there along with our other friends that we met in preschool. Gerard really looks forward to Mondays. Ah, who am I kidding -- we ALL look forward to Mondays! Last year, Gerard had to wear his life vest to swim, but by the end of the summer he was down to arm floaties. He's now showing some interest in swimming without any floaties so I'm going to sign him up for another swim class.

Morgan, on the other hand, can't swim at all. She's only 2, for goodness sake! I try to put Gerard's old life vest on her, but she usually takes it off. When she's in the pool she obviously leaves it on, or happily lounges in her little inner tube.

Well yesterday was a little chilly so the kids went in but the adults did not. Morgan didn't want to go in either and I can't say that I blamed her. She played around the sides of the pool and then started playing with some of the little floaty toys that were IN the water. She did not have her life vest on. I told her several times not to lean over the edge of the pool, but she just wouldn't listen. The adults were all chatting and I looked over to see her reach for a ring and fall into the pool. Needless to say I ran over, jumped in and pulled her out. She was almost at the bottom of the shallow end. She was a little freaked out by the whole incident, but after getting warmed up and dried off she was back to playing. She told Daddy "I fell down. In the pool. It scared me."

But she was just fine. I'll be signing her up for swim lessons, too...

{run, forrest, run!}

For those of you who don't know me well, let me tell you how much I enjoy running.

I hate it.

I can spend forever on the elliptical machine, I can walk for miles, but I DO NOT RUN. Not unless I'm being chased by a large dog. Or a man with a knife. Or Morgan is hanging precariously from the monkey bars. Or Morgan falls into the pool without a life vest (yes, she fell in the pool yesterday).

Several of my good friends are runners. I feel pangs of guilt every time I see Jayna run by my house. Robyn runs marathons. The rest of you know who you are. Me, not so much. Let me share a story with you to help put it all in perspective....

Back in college at SUNY-B (remember when it was called that?) people used to run around the "brain". The road that traveled through campus was called the brain because of its, um, brain shape. My dear fit friends Robyn, Ilene and Aldine were among the brain runners. I, however, was not. One day I decided to give it a go and when I returned, defeated, I told Robyn that I only made it to the mailbox. She seemed quite impressed, figuring of course that I ran THE LONG WAY to the mailbox, not just the short stroll (which probably amounted to less than .1 mile). I'm not sure I ever corrected her assumtion. (Now you know, Rob!)

I do have a point here other than to completely embarrass myself.... I ran a mile today! Woo hoo! Yay me. I didn't set any records or anything, but I did it. I know many of you are thinking, "so what!?" but I am proud. Please forgive me for gushing. :)

{games}

When you don't have family nearby and your regular babysitter goes away to college it's hard to get a night out alone. Here in our state they frown upon leaving a 5 year old home alone with a 2 year old. I can't figure out why. My dad and uncle nearly set their house on fire when they were home alone and they were much older. Gerard and Morgan would be much safer. We don't have any shoe polish that needs to be softened. On the stove. Near the curtains.

Luckily, our friends across the street don't have family here either, so we watch each others' kids about once a month. This past Saturday was their "date night" so we watched Ashley and Nicole. Nicole has offered (on more than one occasion) to trade Morgan for Ashley. Tempting, but I think Gerard and Ashley would kill each other if they had to live in the same house. They are way too much alike.

Anyway, it's cute how great Nicole is with Morgan, and Morgan LOVES Nicole. She wakes up from her naps asking for her. Her first words upon waking are usually "Go outside" and "Nicole?"

Here they are together -- Nicole is teaching Morgan how to use her Nintendo DS.

And here are just a few more pictures from tennis this morning:

{new phone}

Just FYI....I got a new phone and I'm back in business!

{what's a phone for, anyway?}

I've gone and done it. I'm a f*cking clutz. I've dropped yet another cell phone. This one still works (I can make and answer calls) but both the internal and external screens are dead.

So that means I cannot see who is calling and I cannot use my phone book. And who the heck knows phone numbers by heart these days?

So that means I cannot call anyone because all my numbers are stored on the phone and I cannot see them. I cannot text. I cannot use the mobile web.

So that means I'm screwed. 'Cause we all know that a phone is considered broken if all it can do is make and receive calls, right?

{t-ball}

Gerard had his last t-ball game this morning. Based on his birthday he really should play t-ball again next year, but we're going to bump him up to machine-pitch. He's already a little bored with t-ball... they don't keep score, there are no outs, they swing and swing and swing until they hit it (or use the tee), and they can only advance once base at a time. He's ready for more. So today really was his last t-ball game. EVER.

Here are some pictures from practice, a few of Morgan really paying attention to the game, and some of the post-game ceremonies. I didn't get a chance to take any during the game, but Shauna's brother was there taking pictures so hopefully he'll share them with me and I'll be able to post them.

{feelin' hot, hot, hot!}

It's been so hot here that we've barely ventured outside these last few days. We've been doing a lot of this:

Our favorites at the moment are Monopoly Junior and Clue Junior. I'm sooo happy to be past the Candyland/Chutes and Ladders phase with Gerard. Those games bore me to tears. Unfortunately I can't get rid of them yet -- I'm sure Morgan will be more than happy to play them OVER and OVER and OVER again soon enough! In the meantime, she's happy playing with her princess shoes, Care Bears and Little People (and no, that's not a euphemism for midgets). Yesterday she occupied herself by running around the house playing peek-a-boo, chasing Gerard, and just looking cute.

To help stay cool, we've been making our own popsicles this summer and they've been a big hit. The strawberry-banana was definitely our favorite and yesterday I tried blueberry. Not quite as popular, probably because I didn't strain out the blueberry "skins" like I strained out the strawberry seeds. Both kids ate the blueberry popsicles, but they both had issues with the texture. Note to self: strain the blueberry puree next time to avoid THIS (check out the teeth!):

EASY POPSICLE RECIPE:
To a blender, add the following:
*any fruit
*about 6 oz. yogurt (I have been using a container of Yoplait Light, but you could use plain and then add a little honey to sweeten)
*milk
Blend. Strain if necessary. Pour into popsicle molds (or a cup with a stick in it) and freeze.

EDITED: I've started using plain low-fat yogurt instead of the flavored kind. That way I can adjust the sweetness (by adding up to 1T of honey) based on how sweet the fruit it. Our latest popsicles were banana, strawberry and raspberry. They raspberries were pretty tart, so I think I used close to 1T of honey.

{jumping rope?}

Morgan thinks she can jump rope. Shhhh, don't tell her she can't...let's keep her dream alive....(Once again this video is taken with my cell phone, so please excuse the poor quality. One day I'll break out the real video camera.)

{report cards and a recipe}

We got Gerard's report cards the other day and we are very proud of him! (You can click on them to enlarge them.)

And I thought I'd share a recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta from The American Heart Association's Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook. I made it last night and it was very good. A little too spicy for the kids, but Gerard and I liked it (click to enlarge):

{computer help}

Any computer pros out there? I can't seem to get my new computer (Windows Vista) to recognize my Western Digital external hard drive. Debbie and I googled it and apparently many, many people have had the same problem, but none of their fixes seem to work for me. Any suggestions????

UPDATE: Apparently it's not the computer, it's the EHD. I tried plugging it back in to my old computer and it's not recognizing it either. Ugh.

{tennis}

Look out Roger Federer, here comes Gerard! He loves tennis camp again this year which reaffirms my belief that he chooses the sports he likes based on whether he can carry a big stick (think tennis racket, hockey stick, baseball bat, golf club, NOT soccer ball). Today they were learning proper serving techniques:





And Morgan will always be his biggest fan!

{at the park}

I am LOVING having a laptop!!! The kids are finishing up their lunches so I thought I'd post a quick picture from the park today. We meet up with a bunch of friends on Wednesdays at the park and we usually stay all day and have a picnic, but it was way too hot to stay that long today. So we brought the picnic back home and had our lunches in the comfort of our air-conditioned kitchen. Ahhhhhhh.

(taken with my cell phone)

{a gift for morgan}

Morgan loves the Disney princesses so Grandma Andrea made her a wallhanging for her room. On the back it says "For Morgan, our princess" and Grandma used Morgan's favorite princesses: Sleepin Booty, Snow White, and Cindawella. We haven't hung it up yet, as Morgan would rather walk around with it. Here is the photo play-by-play of Morgan opening her gift:













And Gerard finally agreed to get his hair cut. I thought I took a picture, but apparently I did not. You can kind of see his hair in this one of the kids playing with Gerard's Wedgits:


Goodnight. I am tired and I have a headache and I was supposed to go to bed hours ago, but having a laptop makes it too easy to lay in bed and work on the computer instead of going to sleep! I am officially turning the computer off now. Or in another 5 minutes....