I don't remember if I ever told you about the last minute fill-in ped we saw for Addie's 2 month well check when I had to change her appointment.
But first, yesterday, talking with our regular ped...
Him: Addison looks great. She's in the 50th percentile for her height and her weight.
Me: And the 100th for her head?
Him: (a little half smile) Nnnnoo....just the 97th.
Paul: (Laughs out loud)
............................
So, back to the 2 month well check.
I took Addison by myself and the ped I'd never met was going over her measurements....
Her: Wow. Did you have a c-section?
Me: No
(awkward silence)
Me: Why?
Her: Because her head is so huge I'm just really surprised she fit through.
Me: (kind of laugh)
She then looks at me, but doesn't make eye contact. More, looks around at my head like it's a giant globe and she's trying to locate all the continents.
Her: But I see that it runs in the family.
Me: . . . .
Her: Can I measure your head, just to see how big it is?
Me: Sure. Why the hell not.
She measures...well, *tries* to measure...
Her: Yeah...your head is too big to even measure with the adult sized measurer.
Me: So just to make sure we're clear, my daughter and I have HUGE heads??
I don't get offended because none of our doctors here are American. Seriously, between my kids and I, we've seen 14 doctors in California and only two of them are American. Doctors of other nationalities are more free with their words and less careful about offending, that's my experience anyway. I'm used to it, and I don't mind it. Adds a little fun to an otherwise routine visit.
And I think Addie-cake's head is adorable, even if it is like an orange on a toothpick.
Look at my cool hoodie...And my cool bag...And my cool travel mug...And Paul's cool travel mug...And my cool "Keep calm and Hunger Games" pins from Etsy... (That I can't find the link for and can't remember the sellers name. :/)And my cool resin refrigerator magnets I made. (That wouldn't have been possible without my amazingly talented friend, Heidi, who shared her designs for free in a guest post on her friends blog. I love them!The mugs, hoodie, and bag are from cafepress.com And we got everything for 31.4% off on pi-day (3/14). They do 30% off sales every few days, so if you want to order from them, wait for a 30% coupon code, seriously, it's offered like 1 or 2 days a week.
I'm glad I read the series so close to the movie release. It was so hard for me to wait for the 2 weeks or so that I waited.
Let me start by saying, I had very high expectations for this movie. I was quite possibly more excited about this movie than I've ever been for a movie.
Paul told me I was too excited, and that this level can only lead to one thing: disappointment. (Personally I think Paul kind of wanted me to be disappointed so I'd stop talking about it so much. I squeeze in little HG references whenever I can. Like, we voted by mail, and Paul was taking it very seriously, I was too, but he kinda watched me do it like I was 5 and he thought I'd mess up. When I finished and sealed my envelope in the way I was instructed by him (and the instructions) I said, "Now can I write, 'May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor' on it?" And yesterday morning at the farmers market bakery, I pointed at a loaf and said, "That looks like District 11 bread." He just rolled his eyes.)
There were two things I was worried about, but didn't want to admit it. One- I don't like Woody Harrelson. The Haymitch the book created for me was very different than what I thought Woody could pull off. Two- I saw Ellen interview Lenny Kravitz and he was blah, he needed to step it up to be the Cinna I had a crush on after reading the books.
Also, the very first facebook review I read from a friend who had seen the movie was a bad one. That worried me.
Having said all that, I was still really excited.
And, my expectations? They were exceeded.
I absolutely loved the movie. It was very true to the book. (Thanks to Suzanne Collins for helping write the script.) The casting was amazing. Haymitch and Effie were even better on screen than in the book. Cinna was exactly what I wanted to see him be. The scenery, the train to the capital, Katniss' personality, the peacekeepers, the capital, the capital people and their clothing and done-upness, all was so well done. Also, Katniss and Peeta looked awesome on fire, and Katniss' interview dress was fantastic.
I was more emotional than I expected I'd be throughout the movie. From the moment Effie read "Primrose Everdeen" I got a little teary eyed, and felt on the verge several more times. During Rue's death I did a couple trying-to-be-quite-but-awkwardly-loud-sniffle-cries. It was such a beautiful and heart breaking scene.
There were a couple parts that I really 'got' while watching the movie, and know that if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have caught on as much. Like, Katniss' 'acting' in the arena as Peeta's star crossed lover. She was very conflicted in the book about kissing him, playing the game, thinking of Gale, what Haymitch might think of her actions, and you didn't get that much in the movie... Her constantly reminding herself to stay strong, do this, don't do that, etc. in order to get sponsor gifts... Her shock in seeing Peeta with the careers was greater in the book.
But when you think about how much of the book is Katniss thinking, and also the vivid descriptions of everything, I think it was pretty amazing that you could still get so much of that in the movie.
I loved the added scenes that will help flow into movie #2, like after Katniss' salute to district 11 and what broke out there, Seneca Cranes death, and I also loved seeing the game makers workspace and plans. The commentary from Caesar was perfect, I thought, to help the games flow along. Stanley Tucci did not disappoint, but I wasn't worried about that. I was glad the dog tribute mutations scene was short. That was a little much for me in the book- having them look like the fallen tributes, and having them go to town on Cato all night. The finale of the games in the movie was better than in the book in my opinion. But did we all pee a little when the first dog jumped out on Peeta??
I have to say, I had a really sad/conflicted moment at the end when I saw Primrose on Gale's shoulders. I was a little sad that he becomes such a revolutionist in the future, instead of just loving Katniss. But I love how much Peeta loves her, too.
Paul didn't like the parts that were done with handheld camera work. He said he got motion sickness. I don't know, but I didn't feel like it was that much. Just a few minutes at the beginning, and then in the arena, but mostly just the fight scenes. And I think the shaking and the silence that happened was good because you saw and heard less of the blood baths, which also is probably the reason it could get a PG-13 rating. So maybe sit middle to the back to avoid getting dizzy during a couple scenes or whatever, but really it's not that bad.
Anyway, I heart the hunger games, but I'm going to try and move on with real life now. Like, on 'The Voice' when the host announces the next pair to battle in a sing off, I'm going to try not to automatically think that it's a battle to the death.
Paul and I want to take the kids on a little trip every year. Even if it's just for a night. I though that camping would be our thing, and maybe it will be eventually, in like 3 or 4 years. But not at this age. (Last summer with just one kid showed me it's too soon for that.)
Last year we took Garrett to San Diego for a night and we went to the zoo. This year the four of us went to La Quinta, (Palm Springs area). Paul's second cousin has a vacation home there that we stayed in. It was so nice to get away for a night. And we had nothing planned and didn't do much of anything either. Perfect vacation! The kids both napped for a long time when we first got there. We went on a walk in Old Town when they woke up. We went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Ran by Target to see if that had a cake plate I wanted that our Target sold out of. (They had it.) And then went back to the house for the evening.Funny story at dinner. It was a tiny little restaurant, and their obvious goal was to hit the max amount of seating that the law allowed. Cra-ammed. There were two cute old couples sitting together who's laps we practically got seated on for dinner. They were done eating and just sitting and visiting. The kids were being good, but Addie wanted to be out of her car seat and Garrett wanted to touch everything, and he was at a arms reach of about 4 tables so we had to watch him closely. We ordered and our food came. As soon as it came, one of the cute Grandmas reached for Addie and said, "Here, let me hold her so you can enjoy your dinner." It was kind of one of those, "Ahh...what do we do?!" moments, but we passed her over. As she took Addie from Paul, cute little Garrett had the most precious reaction. His bottom lip sagged and began to quiver as he fought back the tears. He looked at me, then at Paul, then back at me. He looked so sad and confused. I wish I knew exactly what he was thinking at that moment, but I will forever believe that he absolutely loves his sister and can't imagine living without her in our lives, and the sadness on his face was because he thought we were giving her away. I kept saying, "It's ok pal, she's right there, it's ok." He finally seemed kind of ok with it, but kept looking over at her a lot just to make sure.
We put both of the kids to bed and then played cards and ate the new coconut m&m's. You have to try them. Delish!...if you love coconut, and chocolate, and hard candy shells that melt in your mouth- not in your hand, because that's what they are.Both kids were little rock star sleepers. I always have vacation sleep anxiety. G slept 11 hours, and Addie slept 8.5, had a quick feeding, then slept 2 more before we had to wake her to head to the farmer's market.We wandered old town again, had a farmer's market breakfast and we were on the road back home.We had to head back for Poppy's birthday party, but with a quick Hunger Games matinee before that.
About The Hunger Games. Paul has been telling me for days that my expectations were way too high, and that I probably needed to prepare a little to be disappointed. My expectations were exceeded. Come back tomorrow for a full movie review, right now I have some babies to go snuggle.
Paul's friend (and my friend), Braden, came to town for the week. He's an apprentice at the funeral home Paul worked at in Utah and he's in the new Mortuary Science program that just started this year at SLCC, but we're trying to convince him to move here, work for White Emerson, and go to school where Paul went. I don't know if it'll happen, but we at least convinced him to spend his spring break out here to check it out.
He went to work everyday with Paul, so every evening I had two men come through the door in suits and ready for dinner. I even got "Hi honey, we're home." a couple times.
I didn't take any pictures with my camera, but I got a couple with my phone.
Here's Braden seeing how many toys he can stuff in Garrett's jacket before it makes him tip over.And here's the men and the kids walking into an event that Paul sponsored for work. Braden thought they looked like Mormon missionaries. I thought we all looked like a Polyandry family because I was walking ahead of them with the bags and bottles.It was nice to have an extra set of hands, but I'm sticking to my one husband!
Also this week, Garrett's hair got long enough to be able to put an elastic around it. Look at that shaggy mess!Addison got even cuter.And I've been working on all kinds of projects. Picture frames...sewing...resin...making lists of new things to buy and make when I'm in the craft mecca (Utah) in a couple weeks... I wish I had a huge studio where I could organize everything and leave stuff out all the time, and I wish I had a little more uninterrupted time, but it's so great to be creative again. Maybe I'll take some pictures of what I've been working on sometime.
And it's the weekend! Paul worked last weekend so he's ready for a break. We're taking the kids on a much needed mini-vacay. I'm not even sure where...Palm Springs I think. And it's Hunger Games weekend!!! I'm more excited for this than I have been about anything in a really long time.
I was going to let this holiday slide by unnoticed. Friday was quite possibly one of the most randomly crappy days I've had in a very long time. No reason. Just crappy. So much so, that Paul took the day off at the last minute, just so I could work on getting out from under the dark cloud. By Friday evening I decided to try and think of something fun to do on Saturday to help me snap out of it. Paul had to work all weekend, so it was just me and the kids.
I'd pinned a few ideas on Pinterest. Which, Pinterest, by the way, made the news here in LA a few days ago and the reporter doing the story called it, "Pin-interest", and said it's "Facebook's new social media threat." Ok, not quite.
Anyway, Garrett and I had green french toast and green milk for breakfast. I think he was scared of the milk. I gave him syrup for the first time. For some reason syrup can put me in a sugar induced coma faster than anything, so I only gave Garrett a few drops. But he LOVED it. He (literally) licked his plate clean. After his morning nap we frosted sugar cookies. (Note to self: Next time, eat lunch before you pull out the cookies.) Syrup for breakfast + frosting for lunch = mother of the year.
I made Irish Stew for dinner, minus the irish. It was so yummy and so easy, and partially made up. Here's what I did if you want an easy crock pot dinner.About a pound of steak (or stew meat) cubed and browned in a couple tbs. oil 4 med potatoes, peeled and cubed 6 med carrots, peeled and sliced 1 lg onion diced A little diced celery...I don't love cooked celery, but I had some, and my mom always puts it in her stew so I added a little. 2 cans of Cream Of whatever soup. I had one chicken and one celery so I used those. 2 cans of tomato sauce About 1 tbs minced garlic About 2 tbs chili powder About 1/4 cup ketchup
Mix it all in a crock pot, I added about a cup of water. I salted and peppered it a little and let it cook for a few hours. Yummy. Oh and I think if you want it to be Irish, just add some Guinness instead of water.
Poppy had worked with Paul all day so we invited him up to join us. For dessert I made Irish dirt cake. Also, minus the irish. Very easy as well and pretty good. I got the recipe from tablespoon.com via Pinterest.I also dressed my kids festively and took pictures of them being cute. And during nap time I made a handkerchief dress for Addison. I wish I could find smaller handkerchiefs because when I finished this I tried it on Garrett and I bet it won't fit Addie for a couple more years, but if I cut it down I'd lose the pattern in the fabric. Anyway, it took like 15 minutes, I'm going to try it with regular fabric too though, so I can make them any size I want. Total cost, less that $5.00!And when the fun was over and all the messes were cleaned up, I went to find my family because it had been pretty quiet for a while, and this is what I found in our bedroom.Perfect way to end the day.
