Babysitting Co-Op RULES!

On Saturday night, Rob and I had the pleasure of watching Junia and Eden While their Mommy and Daddy had a date night. Well, Sarah and Davis said they had a fabulous time, but I think we had the better evening at our house. We played outside, blew bubbles, watered the flowers, ate dinner, and used all of Jack's toys we could find! The girls loved playing with the toys that Jack has grown bored with and he inturn decided they were his new favorites! The green-eyed monster of jealousy did NOT take kindly to some other little people sharing his Mommy and Daddy. After a huge tantrum during dinner, he decided to make the best of matters. And by the end of the evening they were all snuggled in bed together watching a cartoon. The best was when I piled into the little teepee with all three of the kids and they shrieked when Gracie poked her head in too! Rob laughed when the phone rang, he got up to answer it, and it was Eden calling our home line from Rob's i-phone! She chatted away to Mommy and Daddy before giving it back. Too Cute!

Then on Sunday evening, Jack played with Junia and Eden at their house while Rob and I attended a fabulous fundraiser in Santa Barbara. Great food, excellent wine, super auction items and plenty of laughter with amazing friends. We got outbid on the 6-night ski trip to the French Alps, but I think we might have won a couple magnums of wine from a local winery during the silent auction. The event was held outside on the cliffs in Summerland overlooking the gorgeous Santa Barbara coast. Breathtaking! We live in paradise.

And I can't resist adding a shot of Jack eating ribs tonight. He worked that bone over until a forensic scientist could not have found any evidence that it ever had meat on it! Mmmmm! Yummy! And yes, it was bath night tonight!

Brunch with Friends

Jack could not eat breakfast today without his doggie friends. Since they were too big for his tray, we tucked them all in next to him in the seat. They were cozy, but he was happy. He LOVED his peaches as usual (I craved them while I was pregnant with him. Connection?) But that English Muffin he was not entirely sold on.

Midway through posting this blog, our local Jehovah's Witnesses came calling. This of course caused Gracie to bark and when I set my lap top down to answer the door I managed to knock over my entire cup of coffee all over the "coffee" table. I failed to see the irony at the time. Well, I yelled "Shit!", locked the dog in the bathroom, then answered the door. They were smiling politely. "Bad timing?" I'll say.

Tonight we will be trying out our new babysitting co-op. We will be watching Junia and Eden while our neighbors Sarah and Davis have a date night. Tomorrow, they will watch Jack while Rob and I head to Santa Barbara for a work event. No paying a baby sitter AND we know our kids are in great care with our friends. So far there are 6 families in our co-op, but this could get big. This will be our first try at it, but we are really excited. I'll let you all know how it goes. We are looking forward to our fun evening with the girls. Ruffles, butterflies and bows...I'll be in girlie heaven! And they've both got a spunky spirit that Jack totally loves.

Have a nice weekend!

Cookie Monster

Happy Labor Day everyone! We celebrated by enjoying our annual block party on our street. It is really a flash back to a different era, when neighbors watched out for one another, kept an eye on each other's children, shared vacation stories and exchanged pot luck recipes. AND WE LOVE IT! This year there was even a 12 foot high blow up water slide! Jack loved waiting at the bottom for the big kids to woosh down and SPLASH him! He danced to Ian's music (great selections), munched on popcorn, hotdogs & chips, and impressed all the neighbors with how big he's gotten over the last year.

After his late nap, Jack helped Mommy bake cookies. Oatmeal with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts...yum! I am trying not to be one of those paranoid moms, so I even let him lick the spoon despite the fact that unbaked cookie dough contains raw egg which could potentially lead to salmonella. Screw it! I ate cookie dough when I was a kid and I lived to tell about it. I am not going to be a killjoy over it. He loved it. The spoon tasted yummy, the mixer went round-a-round and made a rurring noise, and he got to push the handle on our new toaster...what more could a boy need? After watching Lady and the Tramp, he snuggled with Mommy and then went off to sleep happily. We had such a great weekend together as one big, happy family.

Room and Board Day

Today was room and board day at the Fredericks' residence. Daddy got the keen idea to clean up the garage...well, Jack thought it was a mighty fine idea! He found many treasures to play with...a wooden train that his Great Great Grandpa Gordon made, a small bag of Doritos, a miniature American flag, part of a shower head, and a yard stick were among the discoveries. He helped by dancing in the pile of dirt Daddy just swept up and examining the insides of an old computer. As you can see he especially loved climbing the ladder with Daddy. We made a good dent toward our goal of getting both cars back in there. Later it's off to Lowe's for some new wall cabinets to finish up the job. Hope you all have a productive and fun holiday weekend.

P.S. Last night Jack got his first taste of chewing gum...unfortunately it was from the underside of a restuarant table. We were mortified as I am sure you all are too.

I Will Not Sleep

Here is a list of the things I will do:

I will extricate myself from my sleep-sack like Harry Houdini.
I will remove my diaper.
I will throw my diaper on the floor.
I will pee in the corner of my crib, aiming for the diaper on the floor.
I will watch the pee splash and drip onto the sheets, dust ruffle and several stuffed animals.
I will laugh and play with all the toys in my crib when I should be sleeping.
I will smile broadly at Mommy when she comes in to discover my nakedness.
I will talk and sing while Mommy changes my sheets AGAIN (yesterday was laundry day).
I will give Mommy a big hug and everything will be OK.

It's a Jungle Out There!

This was my first week back to school and even working just 50%, I don't know how full time moms do it. Jack and I fell asleep on the couch during his night-night bottle at 8:30 PM on Tuesday! But we made it through OK. And the really good news is that my class is super and our new math program should be great once I get the hang of it.

Yesterday was HOT in Ventura!! We took Jack to get his passport, played for a little while at the park, and went to Costco in the afternoon mostly to stand in the refrigerator section! Jack found some very cute animal hand-puppets while we were there. Here he is in the parking lot carrying ALL 8 of them in his arms! We were impressed when he carried 5 or 6 cars at one time, but this is pretty hilarious. Wish you were here to see how cute he was carrying all of them to bed with him last night. He did a full inventory before he would brush his teeth and climb in the crib. Well, it's hot again today, so I see some pool time in our future when he wakes from his nap. Hope you're all having a great weekend.

"Kitty" Pool

Jack spent some time in his kiddie pool today with his favorite kitty, Alex the Lion. He practices tough love with his toys. Here he is teaching them to swim...kind of. He spent an hour chucking them into the pool and then tossing them onto the grass. Be that as it may, he was having fun. He had a lot more fun than Gracie, who used the pool earlier in the day, but only for her bath. She hated it, but she is very soft and cuddly now. Other than that, we are just relaxing, reading, doing crosswords and watching movies. It's the perfect way for me to spend the last day of my summer vacation...sigh.