Also Kids

When Campbell was about 3, Nanna and Poppie came into the possesion of three little kittens. These kittens became Campbell's and she got to name them. She named the girl kitten Zoe. The boys were named Little and Little Too. We tried to convince her to give Little Too a different name but she was not budging. The cat's name was Little Too. Little Too is the only surviving kitten and still hangs out at Nanna's house.

Fast forward about 6 years. No, we did not get kittens for the kids. Before Caleb was born he was given a frog luvvy. He became very attached to his luvvy and still has it today. A few months ago we purchased a second frog luvvy just incase the first one becomes lost. Well, he has ended up with both of them in his bed and he has named them. What are the names? Wait for it....we have Frog and Other Frog. Frog is the original. Other Frog is the backup frog.

Where do my kids come up with this stuff.

15 degrees

The high today is 15 degrees! That is just silly. We have had to venture out a couple of times today. Just to go out of the house we have to put on 20 pounds worth of warm clothing. If I had it my way, I wouldn't even leave the house on days like this.

Since I had to take Campbell to the bus anyway I decided I'd still make it to the gym for my daily torture, I mean exercise. When I finished my workout I showered and got ready for the day. As we left the gym I noticed that I had a missed call on my phone. It was the school letting me know that Campbell was in the office complaining of a sore throat.

We headed over there to pick her up. To make her feal better, we stopped at the store to get her some hot tea and the majical chicken noodle soup. We came home and let her eat and rest while waited for her doctors appointment at 2:30.

We had to start getting ready at 2:00 because of the one thousand layers of clothes we needed to put on. It only takes 2.5 minutes to get to the doctor from our house. Normally we would walk but not in this weather!!!

Her strep test came back negative. We were instructed to keep an eye on her. If she doesn't improve by Monday, we need to take her back for some blood work. Apparently mono is going around. I hope she's better by Monday.

But yeah....15 degrees (0 degrees with wind chill factored in). And it's suppose to drop to -1 tonight.

Nemo Fish

Today we were able to go the Denver Aquarium. It was our first visit. Being in a land locked state we didn't really know what to expect. Aaron and I have been to aquariums on both the East coast and the West coast. This one wasn't too bad though. It was not huge and we were through it in about an hour and a half. That was with a lot of stopping and just looking at things. We didn't hurry at all. It was nice though.

They had a couple of things that we didn't expect. They had an exhibit with four real life tigers. They were right at the glass. You can't get much closer than this without being in danger of being eaten. All the parents in the area did take a double take to make sure that the glass wall was high enough. It was and on top of the glass they also had netting. It would be next to impossible for those tigers to get out.

They also had the requisite Dori and Nemo fish. These were the only reason that Caleb went to the aquarium. He did not like the flashflood exhibit. I guess he thought he was going to be washed away. He also felt that the place was much to loud. Campbell got to touch the rays so she was happy.

After visiting the fish we went out to lunch. Because the Italian restaurant we went to was not busy, we got to sit in the kitchen booth to eat. Sitting in this booth you can watch them cook your food. The kids thought this was very cool. We will just ignore the minor choking incident. (Caleb turned blue and everything.)

After lunch we went to a large store that sells outdoor gear. We didn't get anything but we sure did make our wish list.

Alrighty Then

I was just standing in kitchen. Caleb walked up behind me and planted a big kiss on my behind. I asked him what he was doing and he just said "Diss Mommy's butt." You have all been warned. Never invite him to kiss your behind. Most likely he will actually do so.

Discrimination?

Our baby girl is being discriminated against. That's how she feels anyway. You might wonder why this is. She is a very popular child. I don't think there is a child in her class who doesn't like her. Everybody we know only has nice things to say about her.

The problem is size discrimination. You see, she is the smalles kid in her class. At age nine she wears a size 6 child's clothing. She is 46" tall and 44 pounds. These stats put her firmly in the 5th percentile for height and weight for her age.

The other day in class they were doing an experiment with a fulcrum. They needed one child on one end while the rest of the students had to try to lift that child. When the teacher asked for volunteers, Campbell raised her hand like a good little student. The teacher thanked her but told her that she needed a larger student to do it. They couldn't use her because she was too small.

That day she came home from school practically in tears. She said it wasn't fair that she didn't get to do it just because of her size. Her dad and I tried not to laugh and explained why it wouldn't be a very good experiement with her on the fulcrum. We also told her that we would set one up here at home and let Caleb try to lift her. Hopefully our little talk about everyone being different and everyone having something about their bodies that they don't like worked. This is tricky one. We don't want her to have a body issue complex at 9. We know when she's 30 she'll be glad to be small and petite.

Finding Family

Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet family members. Mark's brother D, his wife T, and their daughter J came to visit. Also their son M came with his wife Ta and their 3 year old daughter A. It was really neat to meet them all.

A reminds us so much of Campbell. She has the cute little blonde hair and blue eyes. She is very laid back and quiet, just like Campbell was at that age. A and Caleb played very nicely together. She didn't seem to mind Caleb's boyness at all. She would just go another direction when he became too much for her. It was very cute! She also followed Campbell around a lot. She was enamoured with her. It took Caleb a few minutes to accomodate sharing. He eventually decided that it was more fun to share than to sit in the chair by himself.

M look's like a smaller version of Aaron's brother Adam. It's amazing how much the two look alike. I think it's really cool to see these family similarities. Aaron looks more like his mom's family but is built like his dad's family. Adam looks like his dad's family but is built more like his mom's family. All very interesting. M's wife is a very cool person and I can see us hanging withthem a quite a bit.

J who is 29, according to Poppie, has cerebral palsey (not sure about the spelling). She is such a cute person. She is very chatty and will talk for hours if you let her. She also has a deep love of jewelery. She told us all about every piece of jewelery she was wearing as well as each piece she wants to buy in the future. She is a lot of fun!

It was a lot of fun to just sit and visit with Aaron's family like that. We plan to get together with M and Ta a lot more. They are about our age and A just couldn't be any cuter.

XO34

Wow! What a week. We have had an interesting week. We were suppose to be on vacation in Utah Tuesday through Friday. That didn't happen. We have Poppie here with us so we have had a pretty low key week.

Aaron has spent a good bit of time doing woodworking. Campbell had a playdate and a sleepover this week. We were suppose to find me a birthday present on our trip to Utah this week. I like unique gift items and we can usually find some cool stuff on our little trips. We didn't go on that trip so we hit the mall on Thursday to shop.

Poppie visited with some friends while the four of us went and walked the mall. We ended up finding a really nice necklace for me. After the mall we went home to get Poppie. We then all went out to dinner. We had a terrific dinner! We went to this Italian restaurant that serves family style. We got so much food! It was all delicious too.

On Friday, the actual day of my birthday, we sent Poppie with his brother. The four of us headed down to Colorado Springs where we took a terrific train ride. The train took us to the top of Pikes Peak. This is the 2nd mountain over 14,000 feet high that we have been up. The train ride was a lot of fun. Caleb slept most of the way up, but the rest of us got to see some beautiful scenery. The ride up took about 1 1/2 hours. At some points the grade was 25%. Once we reached the top, we got off the train and attempted to look over the fence. The wind was blowing at 40 mph so we were getting pushed pretty good by the wind. Campbell was really having a difficult time with the wind.

After spending a couple of minutes outside we went into the observatory to grab some lunch. By this point, Campbell was feeling the effects of the altitude. She was feeling rather ill. Caleb's lips were a little blue. Apparently, these little southern babies don't handle the thin air too well.

We spent about 30 minutes at the top of the mountain before getting back on the train. We later learned that with the wind chill, the temperature at the top was -30 degrees. That is the type of cold that just hurts.

Campbell slept half way down the hill. Once we got below 12,000 feet she was feeling good again. She even felt well enough to her her special "high altitude doughnut". They told us that regular doughnuts don't cook well at the high altitude so they had to create a special recipe. I don't know if that is true or not, but of course we had to buy the special doughnuts.

We all really enjoyed our day on the train. When we got home Campbell made me a necklace for my birthday. She is such a sweet kid! The jury is still out on whether I have hugs and kisses for 34, though. If I can ever get over this killer cold maybe I can be more objective about being 34. Right now I just feel tired and old.