And speaking of records...

I finally hit a milestone.  35 lbs down, 25 to go!

(It is SOOOO much easier to put on the weight than to take it off.)

26.2 mpg

Jonathan hit his personal record today.  Not bad for a minivan!

Witness my and Jonathan's passions in life: respectively, food, and things that go boom

Family-participation dessert: the kids loved chopping the apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, blueberries, and dried cherries and then mixing it all up for fruit salad.  (I hadn't realized the ketchup was in the picture, that was leftover from dinner.)

Putting together the kids' rocket.

They specifically picked one with a cargo hold, to hold a toy of the children's choice.  Here Jonathan is inserting Xander's lego minifigure so it can "go up in space!"

The next night, reading all about rocketry and what to expect.

The intensity deepens as they look at a picture of actual take-off:  oh my goodness, how amazing!

See the next post for our own personal rocket extravaganza... Connor and I stayed in since it was cold, but Jonathan and the older boys came in pink-cheeked and literally hopping with excitement. (Well, the boys were.  Jonathan looked right tuckered out).

Kid updates

- Xander started multiplication and division.  His passion for math honestly amazes me.

- Ari's really starting to communicate.  The other day in the car we were talking about who he wanted to invite to his birthday party, and I asked if he wanted one of his usual playmates to come.  "NO!" he said vehemently.  "[He] push me down in the wood chips."  He'll probably change his mind about that kid tomorrow, but I love that he used (almost) correct grammar to tell me about it!

- Connor's a prime roller, he goes from his back to either side with a vengeance.  We're still working on the tummy to back part.  And his eyes are turning color, they went from blue to a dark gray.  Maybe this will be the child who has brown eyes like me?  I guess we'll find out soon enough.


Lots and lots of pictures to come...

You can take the girl out of L.A., but can't take L.A. out of the girl

I was driving 45 minutes to get to a funeral today, on an unfamiliar freeway, and I kept seeing all these single drivers going in the carpool lane.

I hmmph'd at the first one, scoffed at the second, and by the time the fourth car driven by a single person went by, I started craning my head looking for the inevitable cop.  No one came.

The single-driver cars kept driving by.

Then I started to think it must be me - did the diamonds painted on the line mean it was no longer carpool?  What did these other drivers know that I didn't?

And then I realized.  Duh.  It's only in SoCal that carpool lanes are for two or more drivers all the time.  I was driving at 10:30 in the morning, past rush hour and therefore past required carpool times.  And... yep, there was the sign on the side of the road that said that.

I laughed at myself and moved to the left lane. :)

Throwback Thursday

I got out of bed early this morning, pulling myself away from a snuggly, sleepy baby with regret.  The reason?  I had to go to a work meeting.

A budget meeting, to be exact.

Leaving a warm cuddly baby to go to a budget meeting... it was like 8am college calculus all over again!

Human Milk 4 Human Babies

Go Facebook!  The group in the title just set me up with a woman from Santa Rosa who's medically unable to breastfeed.  She's willing to drive 2 hours each way to get milk from my freezer.  Very simply, I pump one extra session a day, and her son gets antibodies and other good stuff he would never receive from formula.

I don't give away nearly as much money as I would like, but this is a mitzvah I can do!