Our Weekend

Our weekend has been filled with some relaxing, some Wii and hanging out with friends. Yesterday morning Aidan, Leo and I went to the Great Harvest Bread Company and got a pumpkin muffin and juice. They have one of the best pumpkin muffins. Upon leaving the bread store the "I need gas ding-ding" kept screaming at us so I figured I had better stop for gas. I hate getting gas and to be perfectly frank I was a bit annoyed at Jason for leaving the car empty. After that we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond (B,B&B) to buy a new toaster. Our toaster of six years finally conked out on us. You may remember that we got that toaster from Grandma Helen when we moved back from the states in 2003. If I remember correctly she didn't want it because it was too high-tech. I hope Grandma Helen is happy to know that we used and abused that toaster for six good years. After B,B&B we went home. I know I am going to come across as a wimp here but I could not manage another store. We were supposed to go to the grocery store too but lugging the kids around from store to store, on a busy crowded people day (from the stores to the roads) was really not my idea of a good time. I was spent, gave up and drove straight home.

The reason I wanted to go to the store is because I was planning to make chili yesterday. For some reason I was really craving chili. I didn't have all of the ingredients so I couldn't make it and was a bit disappointed when lunch came around. Nothing seemed interesting to me at lunch time and out of desperation I started rummaging around in the freezing when what to my wandering eyes did appear??? A plastic container that brought a sudden tear. It was full of Crow's Chili, the Chili Premier. Needless to say I was most happy.

Jason, Aidan, Marcia and Allen Wii Racing (Aidan beat everyone just about every time)

Coincidentally, we went to Gracie and Sabrina's house yesterday for dinner and Allen made, you guessed it, Chili! It was delicious as was everything else he made. He made tacos with chicken and poblano peppers, rice, and regular taco meat and for dessert we had blueberries, strawberries, pears and clementines. We had a great meal and played Wii and Wii fit. We played a car racing game and on Wii fit we walked a tight rope, did the down hill ski jump, and hit soccer balls with our head (and got hit a couples of times with shoes and other crazy things). It was a lot of fun. I think we'll save our money and try to find a Wii fit too. Aidan was cracking up when people crashed on the down hill ski jump and turned into big snow balls and when people fell off the tight rope.

Jason, Sabrina and Fairy Princess Gracie

Today I am making Chili - Ha! I'm trying a turkey chili recipe. If it is good, I will add it to my recipe list on the left side of the blog. I will make cookies too-I'm thinking chocolate chip oatmeal with a hint of cinnamon. We are having Aidan's friend from school (Kentaro) and his family over and we will make pizzas for dinner and play and visit with his family. I haven't taken a shower yet and it is almost noon but then again it is Sunday.

Bonne Dimanche!

How Experience Changes Us

If you would have asked me only a couple of weeks ago whether I thought it was appropriate to give gifts to the sibling(s) of the birthday child I would have said "no way!" I always thought this was such a silly thing. Surely, I thought, kids could manage adequately, even successfully, to be happy for their siblings on their birthday. These were my thoughts until Leo had his 3rd birthday on Monday.

Aidan was deeply bothered that Leo would get presents, receive special attention and treatment all day on his birthday. I tried to reason with Aidan and tell him that on his birthday Leo would not receive any presents either. We even talked about how Leo's birthday was a day to celebrate Leo and be thankful that he was born and that he was a great little brother who loved Aidan and looked up to him and wanted to do everything that Aidan did. As much as Aidan new all that was true he couldn't get past that Leo would get all of these special presents and attention and Aidan would not. Aidan asked days before if he could use the money that he saved to buy something special for himself on the day of Leo's birthday. (He already bought Leo a special birthday present).

I thought about this for a while. Was Aidan capable of understanding or learning a lesson that sometimes it's not always about us or that sometimes we have to think of other people first and watching other people happy is what makes us happy? Giving is better than receiving and giving a gift that you are excited to give and that you know the other person will love is more fun and important than getting gifts? Or at this age is he really incapable of learning that lesson? Watching Aidan for a week worrying (maybe that is too much of an exaggeration maybe just preoccupied) with Leo's birthday changed my mind. I let Aidan spend his own money on Leo's birthday and buy something special for himself. Do you know what Aidan wanted as well? He wanted me to buy something for Leo too because he didn't want Leo to feel left out or not have something special.

This whole experience has changed my mind about buying gifts for siblings on the birthday child's special day. I don't think it is good idea for other people to buy gifts for the siblings but I do think it is not a bad idea for parents to have something special for all their children on a child's birthday. Of course this does not last forever but 5, 6, or 7 is probably about right but I guess I will have to wait and see.

So that is what I learned over the last week or two.

Happy Birthday Leo!

Happy 3rd Birthday Leo!

Today is Leo's 3rd Birthday. He had a weekend long celebration. We celebrated his Birthday yesterday--all of the Holma's were here and Doris--and today. Yesterday, Aidan and I took Leo to a little shopping area and we went to Starbucks, Hallmark, the Toy Store and Whole Foods. Aidan and Leo both got a webkinz(c) for Valentines Day and Aidan is now really into them. He was feeling pretty bad that Leo was getting all the attention on his birthday and all the presents so he asked if he could buy a toy on Leo's day. He spent his own money so I thought that was fine and he bought a new little webkinz(c) a bald eagle. He wanted the bald eagle because it was "from the US". I'll write more about that parenting dilema on my next post...so anyway...While we were at the store Jason and the in-laws decorated. When we got home Leo opened presents and ate pizza and cake and ice cream. Leo had, you guessed it, a Cars birthday cake and themed party. He had a great day.

Today Leo opened presents in the morning and at about 10:30am we went ice skating. Once we got there Leo didn't want to go and Aidan tried it but didn't like it so Jason and I enjoyed the ice skating the most. After that we went to the big Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out at Dulles Airport. Leo loves, planes, trains, cars and polar express so of course he loved it.

On our way home from the Museum Aidan pulled out a loose tooth. It is one of his front teeth so he looks very different and very cute. He was pretty excited and is excited for the tooth fairy to come.

A tribute to Heidi and Patrick

On Sunday, we had a super day. We left the house at 8:50 am and drove about 25 minutes to the coffee shop/cafe that is located on the first floor of Heidi and Patrick's old Condo building. Since Heidi and Patrick left the area, a couple of years ago, we have not been back to the cafe. Quite possibly, this cafe has THE best pain au chocolat (a.k.a. chocolate croissants) on the east coast. They use only the best chocolate and when you bite into the flakey, buttery crust the delicious chocolate is all melty and yummy. They also have great coffee too. So Jason and I had the pain au chocolat, Aidan had a blueberry muffin and Leo had a chocolate muffin. Chocolate everything for Leo.

Leo enjoying his chocolate muffin.

Aidan enjoying his blueberry muffin.

After that we went to the mall. I had a couple of gift cards that I wanted to use...I bought some new beads and materials to make a necklace (or two); I discovered a new author, thanks to Doris, that I really like (Jeffery Archer) so I bought one of his novels, another book entitled, "three cups of tea," and workbooks for Aidan (world Mazes) and Leo (tracing); and I bought a pair of brown cords and a white t-shirt from L.L. Bean. Thanks Pa and Crow for the gifts cards! Since we were at the mall so early the play area was pretty calm not too crowded so the boys got to run, jump, climb, slide, and fall on the soft toys.

After the mall we went to this fantastic out door park, again, near Heidi and Patrick's old house. It was almost an amazing 70 degrees outside so everyone within a 50 mile radius seemed to have the same idea and the park was crazy crowded but still the boys ran around and had some fun. After that we were starving for lunch (about 1:30pm) so we went to Elevation Burgers. A burger joint recommended by, yep, you guessed Heidi and Patrick. We had burgers, fries, and milkshakes and we were happy. After we left elevation burgers we realized our day had been a tribute to Heidi and Patrick. We miss them so much and we wish they still lived close but they should know we think about them so very often. It was a great, great day.

We Have a New Champ!

The sports world was rocked today when the long standing Wii bowling champ of the Holma/Ritualo household division was defeated. Striker, A.K.A. Amy, was upset in a grueling 10 frame game. Although Striker still holds the record for most strikes in a row (8), she has handed the belt over for high score and most strikes in a game. In what some are describing as a Cinderella story, the young rookie from the mean streets of Renton, Jason, upset the King of the virtual lanes with a nearly perfect game. The pressure of beating Striker’s eight strikes in a row was just too much for Jason to handle. That one little hiccup in the 8 th frame was all that stood in the way of a perfect game.

After the game we had a chance to ask the new champ how it feels to hold the record in the Holma/Ritualo household division. His response was “How the hell does leaving one pin standing which was picked up with a spare drop a 300 game to a 279? Shouldn’t that be 299. Someone show me the math.”.

P.S. Everyone is doing well. This was just the only blog worthy news lately.

Not Much Going On

So, there is not much going on around the Holma-Ritualo household. It is super cold here. Yesterday, it was 13 degrees when I went to the metro. It just gets under your skin and in your bones. This morning the boys were eating waffles. I forgot to put syrup on the waffles (they usually have peanut butter, jelly and syrup-could we add any more sugar?) and Aidan reminded me. I said, "I forgot the syrup? I'm falling down on the job" and Aidan said, "Are you trying to cut out the caffeine?" Is that a hint or what about what is going on in our house!

I went to a chiropractor-natural medicine-quack doctor on Tuesday. I have been searching for such a doctor since we got here and 4 years and three doctors later I have found her. I'm very excited to see how it goes over the next few months and I will keep you posted. But...point is she said I drink too much coffee. It's true. No doubt about it. I drink too much coffee. I drink about 2 cups on average in the morning at home, and then I get a medium/grande coffee at work, and then occasionally 2 times a week I drink coffee in the afternoon. The biggest problem with coffee is it is a diuretic so you have to drink two glasses of water for every one cup of coffee. Anyhoo, long story short I have tried to cut down to one cup of coffee a day and it has been fine. I wouldn't go so far to say good but it's fine. As it is Friday, I am feeling a little worse and really want more coffee but let's see.

This weekend we don't have much planned except that we are going for a family play date at Aidan's classmate Kentaro's house. We are going tomorrow at 2pm. Other than that we don't have a lot going on over the weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Falling Down on the Job

I'm so sorry I have not posted anything for a week. For a quick update, I ended up getting the stomach flu on Thursday last week. I left work at about 4pm with a terrible stomach ache and then rested until about 8pm, vomitted, and then slept and felt better. I had a meeting on Friday at work so I got ready and went to work. That was it! We kept Aidan home on Friday to make sure he was okay but then Saturday morning Aidan woke up again and got sick. We cancelled our family play date at Kentaro's house and had to cancel our super bowl "party". I put party in quotes because we were just having a few friends over. The rules for the party were that everyone had to wear track pants or sweats and lounge around on the couch, eat snacks, play Wii, eat snacks, watch football and eat snacks. Unfortunately, we didn't get to eat snacks. So, besides maxin' and relaxin' we didn't do anything this weekend.

So I just wanted to provide a few things that have been going on with the boys. Oldest first.

AIDAN

Aidan wanted me to share with our family and friends, through the blog, how well he is doing in certain areas. The first thing he wanted me to share is that he is doing really well reading. He can really read books! Of course they are kindergarten books with mostly their sight words (the, and, come, like, I, eat, etc.) but it's super amazing. I never imagined that I would have a child who could read. Of course, I thought eventually one day they would read but not now, not so soon. It is really neat to see. He also wanted me to share that he had swimming lessons yesterday and they put life jackets on and went into the deep end of the pool. He was afraid from the very beginning to the very end but he did it and he is really proud of himself. At school, they are four days away from their 100th day of school. They have been counting down the days since the very first day of school. Each child had a homework assignment to glue 100 items to a sheet of paper. Aidan chose his bottle cap collection. Thanks to all of those that contributed over the past six or seven months! One last thing I found funny this week. Aidan occassionally throws out a new word that some how makes it in to his vocabulary. This time it was "overwhelming". It was very cute, so we were coming out of his bedroom and we were talking about playing in his room and he said, "That's so over, over, overwhelming." It wasn't really used in the right context but it was super cute. Aidan asked Jason what he was making for dinner (SOS). Aidan wasn't too sure about eating SOS but Jason told him he liked it before and Aidan said, "If I like it, can I stick my head in it?" Jason replied "no" (as the average parent would), and Aidan said, "That wouldn't be appropriate at the table." It is amazing how they learn to read and how they learn new words and how they figure out how to use those words. It's a joy to watch him grow.

L-E-O, me

So Leo, our youngest. Leo is talking so much. I can't believe how much he has changed just in the last three months. He is learning lots of new words and the number of words in his sentences are really growing. He is into the "why?" phase but instead of saying "why?" he says "how?" So when you say, "we have to take Aidan to swimming" Leo asks ,"how?". When you tell Leo, "It's time to go to bed" he says, "how?". It's very funny and very difficult to respond to some times. The other really fun thing Leo does now is he likes to give "tiny kisses". Most of the time, he likes to give "tiny kisses" with "big kisses". Tiny kisses are very light, quiet kisses while big kisses are lip-smacking, loud kisses. He likes to give tiny kisses on the cheek but will also give one on the knee if you are sitting down or on the hand if that is closest in reach. Also Leo is learning to spell. Every word is spelled "e-o-s". I have no idea where that came from but if you ask Leo to spell his name he says, "e-o-s". If you ask him to spell "car" he says "e-o-s". I could go on and on...so amazingly fun.

So that is a little about what is going on in our lives and what the boys have been up to for the past few weeks.