Two Year Old Epic - Future Olympic Freak!

I have been glued to the Olympics like a kids face to a candy store window. What with Michael Phelps’s epic achievement being broadcast and all. It’s hard not to think of much else. And no, it hasn’t distracted me in the least from my amazing motherly duties. I’ve even got a few suggestions to the I.O.C. about possible future events they may want to consider.

Toddler Tagging. I bet my two year old could out-tag yours any day. Why the other day when she was under the watchful supervision of her teenage brother (I was at a fitness class), she could have won a gold medal. With a couple of markers and a 15 minute time period, she amazingly tagged no less than 4 different rooms (minimum 1 wall per room)...




two different hallways...




... one air-conditioning unit...

...two tables...

mom’s sheet.

Beat that will ya!

And with the Olympics often comes coverage of proud parents and relatives cheering on their loved ones. You can bet the teenager and toddler are going to be doing some serious bonding while exercising the Magic Eraser all over those areas.

The next event would be…

Climbing. Don’t have your toddler try this at home unless you want a heart-attack! Sorry no pictures because it involved one of Hopes biggest Freak-Mom-Out episodes. I put her in my bed to watch a movie in the only air-conditioned room in the house. I’m selfish that way. Then I went downstairs to get something knowing that ‘The Little Mermaid’ Movie would hold her attention like no other. Five minutes later I came back up to check on her.

Freak out coming!

Are you ready for it?

Guess where she was?

On the Roof! Bet your two year old can’t do that. Nor would you want them too if your anywhere near sane.

She had climbed on top of the air conditioning unit and straight out the window. She’s seen her twelve year old brother go out the window a couple of times (against mom’s wishes, of course) and I guess she finally thought it would be fun to try this stunt herself. When I found her I immediately clamored out the window myself trying to sound calm even though I was having a massive Tremor attack so as not to scare her right off the roof and onto the cement driveway below.

Fortunately everything turned out o.k.

Then today she decided to try out my third suggestion for an Olympic sport.

Toddler Swimming – in the neighbor’s little water garden. Whenever Hope takes off there’s a wonderful chance that she’s visiting the neighbor’s little bamboo garden pond. At least she hasn't decided to round the corner and take off into busy traffic, like her big sister did and lived to tell about it.

Lucky for me again that the pond is less than a foot deep and she is an excellent dog paddler.

However I’m seriously thinking of taking out stock in or at least investing in the following products, especially if Hope is going to continue training for her very own Toddler Olympics…


Try climbing through these beauties.

Or holding onto markers with these glued to your fingers.

And the neighbors pond might be a lot safer is this balloon is fastened around Hopes body. She probably won't even fit in their pond with it on.

And this might help with Mom's peace of mind. Unless it shorts out if it get's wet.

Heaven Help Us both to survive.

Breaking Dawn Girls Night Out = National News Story!

Have you ever attended an event that was worthy of a blurb on National News. For me this is only the second time. The first was when I was in a crowd of people in SLC, UT when they announced that Salt Lake City was awarded the Winter Olympics. But I couldn't even pick myself out of the crowd even though I knew where I was standing.

So, Could this be my nano-second of fame? You may see my backside on the National News (Nightline on ABC) tonight because I and another 2000-something obsessed fans went to Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn Book Tour in Seattle on Tuesday. I think the camera’s were rolling (behind us) when they opened the doors as we went into the theater- if that clip even makes the program I'd be surprised. I’m wearing black like maybe 9/10th of the other attendee’s, a Bella pony tale and have my book waving high in the air as I’m giggling hysterically like some teenager high on something other than life. Although to be honest I don’t need any substance other than life to make me happy. Whew!

I had enormous hopes that this would be my chance to get a good picture of Stephenie. What with being on the Ticketmaster Website within 100’s of a second of the tickets going on sale secured me seats in row 30ish. I thought when they said orchestra seating DD meant I would be near the front. But alas we were a mere 30-ish rows back from the stage which means that my camera only picked up blur. So here is Stephenie in all her vampire speed blurish glory.

I was so enthusiastic that I bought eight tickets to the book tour. My family wasn’t interested in sharing more mental time with me but these brave and courageous chicks were, and I think they had as much fun as I did.

Rkimedes had to be the bravest since her own little Bella is due within days. I was wondering if the hysteria of the evening would put her over the top and we would have to make an emergency trip to the baby ward of the local hospital. We might have scared her little larval unit into staying where it was nice and quiet for a bit longer.

We even braved taking my gas-guzzle tank into a Seattle parking garage. Then we all repeatedly winced as the antenna scraped every bit of pipe or concrete outcropping of the ceiling. Fortunately we cleared everything by maybe ½ an inch. Never again will that beast venture into Seatlle. It’s just too darn big.

This creative family did, I think, make the news.

At least they said they were interviewed. I think they deserved the award for the best eye catching T-shirts. I may have to copy their shirts they are so creative. Especially the teenage boys, ‘Someone feed me, my mom’s reading Twilight again.’

Had a blast, even enjoyed a little new-age rock and roll provided by Blue October’s Justin Furstenfeld. The songs were more mellowed out because he preformed them on acoustic guitar. I don’t think I’ll count this as my first official concert because it was only around 5 songs. Still great!

Stephenie was as fun as last time I saw her. Thankfully the program lasted for just over an hour. Last time it was all of twenty minutes. Then it was the wait for the signing. And guess who surprised us as we were standing in line?

Our Best Western check-out lady from our Forks weekend. And Shocker of all shockers – she remembered Pazzaz and myself. Well I guess that isn’t too much of a shock seeing that we are a bit odd and stand-out as wanna-be teenagers. So our Forks-y Lady friend kindly caught us up on the festivities planned for Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks, WA on September the 13th and now I’m seriously tempted to make one more trip this summer. Hummmmm? Wonder if Prince Erik is opposed to a road trip?

Dream On - Kitchen Weight Loss Secrets

Searching for that elusive secret weight-loss miracle that’s a sure-fire way to shed those all-too-pesky pounds? I’ve discovered it and I’m about to make loads of money if I can figure out how to market it.

But, because I’m feeling a wee bit generous, I’ll share it with you for free. First of all have your two year old dump baby powder all over the kitchen floor.

You’ll get an extra cardio workout while sock skating from one side of the room to the other while trying not to biff it. Then, just think of the exercise it will take to clean it up. It will be worth the effort.

Want to improve your chances of losing your craving starved appetite. Well clear out those cupboards.

Chances are if you run into a few creepy crawlies nesting in your pastas, beans and grains you will lose your cravings for anything carbs for the next week. What a perfect excuse to chuck the carbs and eat veggies. Oh, and finding some baby food that expired two years ago will be an extra incentive to avoid eating. Again, so worth the purging. You'll even then have room to store some of the stuff from the counters.

Repeat this workout often –

not just once every two year or so like me.

You’ll be amazed at how the time flies when you make the kitchen your workout central.

So I mostly got this weeks challenge of eradicating the clutter monster from my kitchen but not quite.

Yes, I did work on this part of the kitchen as well but didn't finish it enough to take some coveted after pictures. So the kitchen, well, it’s going to have to be a two week dream-on challenge because I still have the dreaded Inside of the Fridge (The Holy Grail of weight-loss unappetizing, mold covered goodies and a few more cupboards in which to locate more forbidden yuckies.

And if you need to take a break from your cleaning workout. Go round up some adventurous and crazy friends.

Then in a single morning Swim 4-500 meters across a lake in 60 degree weather, ride 14 miles up and down hills in pouring rain, waddle jog/walk 3.4 miles. Then collapse from the sheer euphoria of surviving.

And this was only the dress rehearsal. We participate in our official Sprint Triathlon on the 23rd.

So this Friday the kitchen will be done, and I'll be a lot skinnier! Wahoo!

Naptime hazards

Never lay down with your 2-year old if you’re trying to get her to take a nap. Because chances are you will be the one to fall asleep while she merrily skips through the house reeking havoc with something or another. Especially with the baby powder! Nothing like covering the entire kitchen floor in a fresh layer of (softer than silk but slicker than a greased pig) powder.

She will then track her cute itty bitty footprints all over the house and under the noses of her oblivious five other siblings without them noticing a single thing amiss. After about 10 minutes of this the 6-year old will notice the floor is a bit more hazardous to walk on and will then come wake up mom.

I think I’m going to be pushing powder for a whole week. This act alone has convinced me that my Dream On room for the week will have to be the Kitchen. Tune in Friday to see if I manage to make the room streak free by then.

My Twilight Pilgrimage

I’m going to now vicariously take you through the Most Fun, Most Grown-up, Giddy-Girl-High Weekend I’ve ever experienced. However, as I’ve never been on a Grown-Up (though we don’t act it) Ladies weekend retreat in my life, (Another Fawndear 1st) I have nothing to compare it with. But as you can see from my photo ops, my perma-grin of happiness from experiencing several Fawndear firsts is plastered onto my face and will probably be there for a while.

DaringYoungMom and Eve started the whole idea rolling a while back and invited a huge circle of friends to come partake of our inner-child, school-girl, and obsession-fest with the Twilight Book Series by Stephenie Meyers. Nine of us were brave enough to make the once in a lifetime trek to the Olympic Peninsula to visit the settings described in her series. And we did it on the very weekend that the Fourth Book in the series ‘Breaking Dawn’ was released.

So here’s my trip in a long photo adventure nutshell – many of the pictures are taken with my B.A.B friend also named Fawndear who stood in as my replacement.

Wait three hours to ride a 20 something-ish minute ferry ride across the Puget Sound. Not too much fun...

However, It wasn’t too bad because my van buddies...

Pazazz, Ethel & Lucy, and Angela (poor-human-lady-who-has-never-even-heard-of-the-Twilight-Series-but-wanted-to-take-a-girl-break), and me had too much fun telling everyone on the ferry what we were off to do, eliciting strange and 'your mental' stares from many fellow passengers.

On our way to our evening gathering location in Port Angeles we made a little detour so Fawndear could drive through a local game preserve and meet some of her not-yet-vampire-food relatives.


Oh so cute!

Then it was off to the cushy Best Western.

...where we gladly paid and arm and a leg not to sleep in the beds for more than a couple of hours. We were there long enough to unload and then we needed to make it to our dinner reservations at Bella and Edwards’s first-date-but-not-really restaurant the Bella Italia in Port Angeles.

Where we're joined by DaringYoungMom, Eve and her 2 1/2 week old baby sweet Miss Annie, my roomies for the night. We figured sure bring a newborn along because we weren't planning on sleeping anyway. She was a doll and people were lining up just to snuggle her.

And get this (as I scream with excitement) we got the happy couples (Bella & Edwards) booth around the corner and next to a line of other booths. DYM ordered Bella's dinner of Mushroom Ravioli ...

Heavenly taste - However the price-tag was a once in a lifetime but worth it ticket

DYM graciously let me have one of her raviolis’. I'm not a mushroom gal - But Yummy!

I would have got the whole dinner but it had prawns in it and I didn’t feel llike tempting my seafood allergy so I ordered the Chicken Storm..a..bocca or something similar sounding that was divine. Well, we daintily ate, gabbed, giggled, conversed with our cute (Edward crushing) waitress for a couple of hours before we headed off to the… very same bookstore ...

(that Bella did not go in, on her scary evening in Port Angeles) for the midnight release of the Breaking Dawn book...

Talk about a party!

with hoards of real life, honest to goodness teenagers. It’s o.k. we fit right in.

I think they had handed out all the books by 12:05 a.m. I got mine around 12: 04: 30 sec.

We were soon back to the lobby of our nightly lodging establishment.

Where we quickly found out who were the sleepers and who were the Twi-hards who could stay-up-all-night reading. I made it till 6 a.m. then zonked for 1 ½ hours.


And our reaction to page 360…


Silent Screaming because we didn’t want to get kicked out of the establishment and DYM collapsing from the sheer brilliance of Ms. Stephenie's Writing…

And… yes my first adult experience with bed-jumping.

And no, I didn’t break anything.

Let me tell you eating and taking showers are inconveniences when you’re so sucked into reading a book. But we did them anyway and were off by noonish Saturday to continue our journey on to Forks, WA.

The primary setting of the novels and location for the most Fawndear cheesy grins and girly squeals you can get in any one town.

Poor Angela had me sitting behind her in the van, screaming and giggling hysterically (probably from lack of sleep) whenever I would see different locations mentioned in the book. All my vehicle occupants agreed that I should continue seeing my Young and Gorgeous Counselor on a regular basis.

So Forks, WA was very Giddy-Tourist-Camera-Wielding hospitable town. I was regretting that they didn’t have more Twilight souvenirs but its o.k. because the pictures are priceless.

Here we are visiting the fictional character’s very real sites. Like...

Bella’s truck in front of the Chamber of Commerce Building with an oh-so-adorable city greeter who would pick up and read her own copy of Breaking Dawn in-between the hoards of romance fans who entered the premises.

Then we visited Sully’s burger for a Bella burger with pineapple and plastic vampire fangs, the Thriftway grocery store for some of Charlie’s (explode the microwave) favorite spaghetti sauce…

The Swan Residence… The funny thing was they had a motercycle parked in the driveway. I think Charlie must have been on vacation or something.

And look whose parking spot we found at the Forks Community Hospital (more girly screams). The Dreamy Dr. Cullen.

However, the Mercedes wasn’t there so he must have been off hunting, I mean hiking. Drat!

Back to Forks High School and a few other drive-by photo spots before it was off to our favorite Werewolf haunt down at…

and my favorite destination of the Day - First Beach.

Could this be Bella and Jacob’s favorite seat?

Or was it this?

Love is in the air - Look how sweet. We found this cute couple on the beach reading the novel of Breaking Dawn together.... Oh How Romantic! (Prince Erik take notes)


Stunning Location! I had to shamelessly collect a few pieces of red-brown driftwood and rocks that looked like perfect moons to bring home. Look Kids what mom brought home for you from my trip - ROCKS!

Then all too soon it was over, and we were headed back home to finish reading the book and join the land of reality.


Total time it took to read all 700 plus pages of Breaking Dawn – 25 hours. But consider that we visited all those locations as well, not to bad.

Now I just need to get some sleep and plan my return trip. I can’t wait to come back!