sportsball champions

for the last seven weeks, we have been going to a fun little thing called Sportsball, offered through the city of chandler. it was 45 minutes for 2-3 year olds to hang out with their parent, and a professional Sportsball Coach, and learn the basics of sports with balls- volleyball, soccer, golf, baseball, floor hockey, football, and tennis.

we had an awesome coach in Coach Megan. she was just all about the kids and encouraging them, and being so patient and excited for any and every thing they did. we did a little bit of one sport each day, with other little fun things for toddlers to do- jumping over a wiggly rope on the ground, going through an obstacle course, 'rescuing animals from a tornado' (aka trying to get a bean bag without getting hit by a bean bag at the end of a rope that Coach Megan swung over her head VERY CAREFULLY.)

the whole thing was a very positive experience for us, cause we were able to be active with our kids, and have them follow instructions from someone who wasn't related to them or one of their friends' moms. the kids did pretty well- lily a little better than topher. but that's ok. listening skills are developed, not just something everyone is naturally gifted with (especially boys/men! i don't care if that's sexist or a stereotype.) we are on the fence as to whether or not topher just has a really short attention span, or is not very interested in sports. or maybe a little bit of both. hockey was his best sport, which is maybe his half-canadian side coming out. (though i hate hockey, and that's why i left canada :) as big a sportsfan as topher's dad is, he was very ok with the fact that his son might not be. maybe we will sign topher up for hip-hop dancing, even though he (and you) will have to wait till he's 3 for that. lily did great with most sports, and we are definitely setting our sights on sports scholarships to get her through college. her next stop will probably be ballet though. just to keep her options open.

anyway, it cost us about $70 ($50 instructor fee, $20 class fee) which is kinda steep, but it definitely made us get off of our lazy bottoms and into that class every saturday! it's fun to expose the kids to different things and having them interact with other toddlers with sports equipment in hand. it's also interesting to see what the kids gravitate to, and what they do not. i would definitely recommend it if you have the extra cash floating around, but if you don't, there's nothing wrong with converting your livingroom into a baseball diamond/soccer field/obstacle course at least once a week.

text much?

ours is a generation where we have so many, too many, methods of communication- phone calls, e-mails, blogs, texts, facebook updates, tweets, letter writing, using dixie cups to write messages in chain-linked fences over freeways ('prom?' was a message i once saw. who was asking who though? i could only imagine how many girls hysterically thought the guy of their dream was asking them to prom.) etc. etc.

today we got a text from one of our renters. they had moved out of our house,left the key in the kitchen drawer, and left the backdoor unlocked. the text ended with a "sorry." OUCH. sorry??? really? what has happened to our society that as shocking as it was to receive this text, it kind of wasn't. people break up with other people via text. people find out that their siblings are pregnant at the same time as millions of others via facebook updates. is this not craziness to anyone but me? what happened to picking up the phone and having a conversation? or asking someone to meet face to face to talk about serious things- like breaking your rental agreement 1 year and 1 month early?!?!?!?...

i am an avid texter, i admit that. but i do it mostly so that you can't hear my kids screaming while i am texting. you can (and will) if i call you. that's my excuse though, what's everyone elses?

"i do it!"

there are 3 little words that i kinda detest hearing right now, and they are "i do it!" and yes, they are alwaysalwaysalways followed by an exclamation point. or as lily calls it: "i" (at the beginning and the end!)

the kids are in a very funny, very annoying, but ultimately amusing independant phase. they think they are old and big. case in point- topher likes to pretend that he is going to work sometimes. just like his dad. (and mom, once a week.) the other day ago, he was strutting around the apartment, getting ready to go, putting on his shoes, and then he shouted out to me: "where's my coffee????" i thought chris put him up to it, but alas, the lad came up with that himself. lil' punk.

anyway, i guess this phase is good cause the kids want to do stuff themselves, which means i will sooner than later not have to do those things for them. but the things they get real worked up about doing are things they truly cannot do without my help! which is where the annoyance factor comes in.

today it was 117 degrees, according to my car's thermometer. that's 47 degrees celsius, dear metric readers. the kids and i went over to our friend's house for dinner, but i thought i would run to the store and pick up a nice dessert since we had missed my friend's birthday. big mistake. the kisd each had to do their own car seat seat belts by themselves. twice. in 117 degree weather. if i help, without being asked, they freak out and need to start all over again. the car is running, i am ruining the environment, my feet are burning from the blazing hot concrete and the car being on. the whole thing is a disaster. i made the mistake of picking topher up out of his seat when we got home and he was NOT ok with that. "I DO IT!!!!" so he walked over to lily's car seat, climbed into it, sat for a second, then hopped out, and climbed out of the car. oh.dear.Lord. give me patience!!!!!!!!!!
and please oh please oh please make arizona a lot less hot!

to pee or not to pee

i had kind of a terrible day yesterday.
we met our friend jenny at 9:30am. or we were supposed to. only i was about 15 minutes late. sorry again jenny! hanging out with jenny was definitely not the terrible part though. we met at chik-fil-a cause they have a big slide. that's pretty much all my kids need to have a fun time. that or a pool.
anyway, we were having a gay old time, until topher wet his pants. another mom, who was sitting with her kids and two other adults came over to ask if those were our kids and to inform us that the little boy just ran up the climbing apparatus with wet pants. oh expletive. i even thought i should have made topher pee before he started playing, but he's been so good about telling me he has to pee, even when he is playing. but alas, he peed.
so i took him to the bathroom. jenny was good enough to climb up the VERYSMALL, and urine-infested climbing apparatus to get a sad lily who was dealing sith sudden abandonment issues. thanks jenny! after i got topher cleaned up and wrapped up in a pull-up, we went to the counter, ordered some food (had to give these people some cash before i dropped this bomb on them) and told them topher had an accident. i asked if they had any disinfecting spray and that i would be more than glad to clean topher's mess, but the girl at the counter was very sweet and told me they would take care of it 'no problem.
so we sat, ate our food and waited. the girl came over and put a 'caution-wet floor' sign up on the door. then she was gone. for like ten minutes. the mom, who knew that topher had peed in there, let her kids go in and play. but i stopped them and told them that it was closed. the mom came over to see what the 'commotion' was. so i told her it was closed and that someone was coming to clean the area. she smiled and said 'oh! usually the person who causes an issue takes care of it, but, ok!' WOW. do you think that because you make a jab at someone with a smile on your face, that it makes it less of a jab???? i hate jabbers. i wanted to slap the woman. i was going to tell her that i had offered to clean the mess up, but i was too pissed due to her snideness. thanks for making an already bad situation worse lady. i really wanted to punch her in her smiley little face.
then the girl from behind the counter came over, armed with sponges, bags, gloves, and spray bottles. she asked me where the accident happened, and i told her i didn't know. cause i didn't. but that there was definitely pee on the steps, and that i found him at the top of the steps. so she looked at me and said: "oh, so, like, everywhere." i told her i didn't know, but that i really really really wanted to help her clean it. she said it was company policy that they take care of it. her 'no problem' attitude was no where to be found. there was a problem. and that problem appeared to be me.
needless to say, we ate and got the heck out of there. but not before another family came in, and the kids immediately ran for the closed play area. 'sorry guys, they're cleaning it right now.' this time, the mom (who knew nothing of the real situation) was pleasantly surprised. 'wow! that's great that they're cleaning it.' and it WAS GREAT that they were cleaning it. cause i have never really seen a fast food chain clean their slides and stuff. so now the question that irks me, (besides what the heck that other mom's problem is) is whether i should always walk into fast food restaurants and tell them that topher peed on their slide just so i can see someone clean the dang thing.

liar liar pants on fire

my kids have started lying. it's not good. and by 'started', i mean they've been doing it for a while now. but today, as i was getting ready for church, topher was hanging out in my room, messing with stuff. as usual. then he dropped two books on the ground and said: "uh oh! noona did it!" it was SO HILARIOUS. cause lily was no where near us! i had to muster up everything in me not to laugh and to tell topher very firmly that it is not ok to lie.

the kids 'lie' about stuff all the time actually. their favorite word right now is 'No'. topher likes to scream it, repeatedly and loudly. lily just likes to say it. even if you ask her 'do you want some water?' and she is clearly parched, she will still say 'no' if she is feeling sassy, and then when you walk away with the cup of water, she starts crying and says that she wants water. this drives me crazy for so many reasons, but i have tried to explain to her that this is called 'lying', cause she is not telling the truth. most of the time, her sassiness overpowers her better judgment.

though it is in our sinful nature to lie, as our pastors often remind us- you don't have to teach a kid to lie, you do have to teach them to tell the truth, i feel like my kids are at a particular disadvantage because chris is a seriously good liar. this really helps him with his job, which makes me happy. i guess. remember i told you april fools is one of his favorite holidays? it's cause that's when his talents are really highlighted. his mom told me a story a couple of weeks ago, and i shared it with some friends over lunch today, and i thought i would share it with you now:
when chris was about 5 years old, his mom left him with her friends so she could go out on a date with chris' dad. the friends, a wife and husband, took cute little chris to the store. cute little chris was sitting in the shopping cart, politely telling his babysitters that his mom buys him something every time they are at the store. they said 'not this time'. but they did not realize how persistent cute little chris was. so he continued to badger these poor, kind people, who had unwittingly agreed to babysit cute little conniving chris. well, the babysitters stood their ground with this stubborn little kid they were babysitting, and made it all the way to the checkout counter without buying anything for chris. and at this point cute little conniving chris decided to make these people pay the expensive price for ignoring him and his wishes. he started screaming: "help! help! these people are kidnapping me! they are not my parents!" the lady at the check out just looked at them, shook her head at chris, and told them to go.

chris' pants are always on fire. and if you really know chris, you know this statement is true for many different reasons.

what's up with october?

i am watching the 'cupcake wars' episode where owners of a local coffee shop here in arizona win the whole thing. i will be going to said coffee shop (it is called 'the coffee shop') any day now to eat me some yummy yummy cupcakes :)

watching these people make 1000 cupcakes is crazy. i am honored to be making a few cupcakes/cakes myself this month. and it made me think of how many birthdays there are this month. july is a crazy birthday month! on the 5th (five days ago) we welcomed the newest member of the giant-watson-clan. i have two very pregnant friends from my small group who are ready to erupt. another friend who is a missionary overseas is actually past her due date and pissed! but in a holy kind of way. :) today is my friend grace's bday. my nephew, corban, is turning one on monday. then two of my girlfriends have babies turning 1 this month as well. one of my dearest friends from high school and beyond has a bday this week. my sister turns 32 next week. i looked for a birthday present for her today. didn't find anything, which means she will probably get her present closer to christmas. my sister-in-law, bre, is also having a birthday this month. chris' brother justin had a bday earlier this month. chris has 2 cousins and an uncle that had bdays this month (thanks for the giant birthday list grandpa!) and i'm sure more people in my family had bdays in korea this month, but i honestly don't know any of those dates.

so, the question that lays open here is: what is so sexy about october???? apple cider? thanksgiving (for canadians!)? making halloween costumes? does that bring a married couple so close together that they create new life together? i don't know. all i know is that i will keep my distance from chris this october, seductive autumn odors be darned.

L and T 'milestones'

-we are actually 'loving' summer here in the desert. we swim, or find some kind of water feature to splash around in, pretty much every day. sometimes even twice a day.
topher thinks he can swim. but he can't. but he is the cutest thing in 'floaties'. yes, even pink ones. (they belong to his girl cousin! don't judge him.) topher loves his dad and tries to be just like him. i love my chris+topher!!!!

-lily came out of my room the other day with her hand behind her back. 'guess what i have' is one of her favorite games right now. usually it's something that she shouldn't necessarily have- nail polish or a bottle of lotion. i will admit that i give lily a little baby pedi every week. only cause colorful toes make her SO HAPPY. she loves seeing other people's colorful toes, she loves having colorful toes, and she especially loves when our toes match. anyhoo, this time it was none of the above. 'what do you have lils?' i asked. 'popsicle!' she screamed and presented me with a Tampon! yeah!... it was still in the wrapper people. don't freak out too much. i told her it was not a popsicle. 'chocolate???...' not even close my love. i told her it was not for her and she should just put it back in my bathroom and never go in there again. she did not believe that it wasn't a wonderful edible treat. so she opened it up and was so very disappointed to find cotton on a string in a mess of plastic tubing. can't wait to tell her what that is really for...

-topher learned/figured out on his own how to take out a dvd that he doesn't like and turn on a new one that he does. it was all probably a lot more serendipitous than anything else, but i was amazed when i heard a korean dvd playing, when i knew for a fact that i had not put that in. i was in the kitchen making dinner, and topher was very proudly standing in the middle of the living room, looking at the tv, to me, and back to the tv. he has been shoving dvds under the dvd player, the cable box, and the tivo (i know, we have too much crap for our entertainment) for months and months, thinking he is putting in a dvd. this time he got it right. this happened at the same time as lily's tampon/popsicle moment. so many emotions going on in the apartment all at once.

-lily and topher are officially composing their own music. yesterday, during the 'singing portion' of our bedtime routine, topher found a ball and said he wanted to sing a song about it. 'ball goes up, ball comes down.' this jaunty tune was accompanied accordingly by the ball going up and down. it was awesome! we were so proud of our boy. then lily said she wanted to sing a bathing suit song. of course we thought she was going to sing 'happy birthday' to her bathing suit, something we occassionally do around here. instead she starts to sing: 'who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit? who has a bathing suit?' no joke. her own lyrics. her own melody. chris and i looked at each other. neither of us had ever sang that song with her before. musical geniuses we are raising!!!!! ok. maybe i am taking it a bit too far. BUT, chris and i could not be happier that our kids are so creative and that their little brains are much much bigger than we give them credit for.

-i'm gonna throw in a big 'jihae milestone', just cause i can. yesterday chris and i went golfing and had the BEST time. we haven't golfed together since december i think. anyway, i had one 'legitimate' par and one 'legitimate' bogey. it was awesome. i am usually a 'double par' kind of player (if you don't play golf, that means if par is 4, then i usually get the ball in with 8 strokes. or more honestly, 9.) i say 'legitimate' cause chris keeps our score with our 'handicaps', which i don't understand fully, cause it makes me look like a MUCH better golfer than i am. i think handicaps were created for wives to continue golfing with their husbands and not feel bad about themselves.

-lily usually wakes up at 5:58am. that's what time she pees at. topher usually wakes up soon after that, if not at the exact same time (probably cause lily wakes him up. her partner in crime, what would she do without him?) anyhoo, our kids are not big sleepers. but the other day, lily fell asleep at 6pm, on our way home from swimming at nana's. then she could not be shaken or stirred from her sleep, not even for a little dinner. so we put her in bed and didn't see her until 6:30ish the next day. i was all at once amazed at her 1.bladder control 2.apparent exhaustion 3.bear-like hybernation-skills.

-today we all woke up at 7:45ish. MIRACLE. i don't remember the last time we all slept in that late. oh wait, yes i do. it was like 6 months ago when topher was still in a crib... sure, i was on the floor in the kids' room, with topher beside me (he started crying/screaming at 6ish), but the fact that he fell back asleep, and that lily and her alarm-clock-bladder didn't wake up earlier was all so very very great.

-topher has taken to calling chris and i 'honey'. chris usually calls me 'honey'. i don't think i call him that, but maybe i do. and i don't think that we run around the apartment yelling: 'honey, where are you?' but for the simple fact that topher does that a lot, we are thinking he picked that up from one of us. it's kind of hilarious. and the other day ago, we went to the zoo (it was only 104 degrees! the coolest day of the week!...) and chris had the genius idea of bringing a spray bottle filled with ice water in it to cool the kids, and us,down with. so smart. he's a true arizonite. every time he sprayed topher, our beautiful son would look up at his dad and say: 'thank you honey', for the cool down! how precious is that?!?!?

-lily is becoming more and more conscious of the dangers of the world these days. her big one these days is wrinkles. gotta lay that sunscreen on thick to keep the skin looking vibrant and youthful. take it from lily: sun safely folks.