A Scary Little Dragon!

Trick-or-Treating :)

"Toojs"

Did I previously say Grandpa worked on the sunroom?... I meant Jack with his "toojs" of course (tools).

The worst blogger EVER!?!?!

...Yes I am! My pal Brenna pointed out that I have not been on the ball at ALL with my blog. SO, how's life you may ask? I could probably write ten pages about Sept, Oct, and the first half of November but I'll keep it simple.

-We're fully moved into our condo and it's AWESOME.
-Well, just shy of awesome; the other day our roof leaked and ruined work that my dad-in-law did in the sunroom. No worries, a roofer came and it's fixed... so he says...
-Jack is starting to talk! His "words" are often still missing the first consonant but nonetheless he says more and more everyday. We talk about colors and numbers a lot but if I ask him a question that he's not sure of the answer well then "yellow" is what he responds with :)
-Aaron is back with UPS for the "offseason" and actually enjoying working out of Bremerton instead of Tacoma. The commute is much better and the volume is significantly less than last year (the economy of course).
-Jack and I are just getting back into our activities at the Y. Especially when it rains that kiddo needs some exercise. He can hardly stand being cooped up inside... okay okay we live in Washington, I should probably just throw on my raincoat and stomp puddles with him but its been cooooooold!
-Potty training: hmmmmmm tha lack of progress is entirely my fault and I admit that. I keep making excuses for just DOING it. My book about it tells me I just need to sit home for 3 days (or bring potty with me wherever I may go) and he'll be potty trained... I keep telling myself I'll set aside those 3 days... Maybe the week after Thanksgiving?... if we're not busy... okay okay I'll do it!

Enough of my babbling. In sum, life is good and I'll post pictures from Halloween momentarily :)

And so it comes to a close...

It's about that time of year when I begin to despise baseball. It not so much the sport that irritates me but rather all other things related. Instead of going into detail, I'd rather focus on the fact that this season is essentially over. I'll focus on the positives as well. For one, Aaron has gone through an entire season without any injury, continues to be the league leader in strikeouts, and has received attention from a few affiliated clubs all while achieving great grades in his quest to complete his degree online. Jack has had an awesome summer surrounded by family and so the fact that daddy is so far away hasn't been too awful. He's grown SO much this summer and is beginning to comprehend SO many things. He's on the verge of talking and is beginning to be extremely frustrated when he's trying to communicate with us but the words just don't come out. I, on the other hand, have spent the summer trying to keep busy and pass the time until Aaron comes home. It has been a lonely few months indeed but my fingers have been busy painting and my mind consumed by books or film noirs with my father-in-law.

In two weeks (God willing, or how about "en shalla" for Aunt Judi ;) we should be moving in to our new place and are all thankful to be spending this offseason back "home" in U.P. Although last winter was quite a shock for us as we'd grown accustomed to the beautiful weather in Arizona, it's been nice to be "home." Although the offseason brings happiness because we're all back together, uncertainty also accompanies it. I can only hope and pray that things happen just as they should in our lives and careers and that happiness surrounds us no matter if we are here or there, playing baseball or not, in law school or not, and all that happens along the way.

So, as August comes to an end, so does baseball season and come Monday morning I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief once we're all together again...

I don't have any new pictures to upload as my camera batteries are dead and somehow remembering to buy them escapes me each of the last 3 or 4 times at the store! Here's a few of my favorites from Chicago. Arevaderche Jammer! (Jack still gets excited when he sees the mascot on the computer screen).

Should we ask if they'll charge us for eating the strawberries?

My little sister is engaged!

She and Jae left this morning for Hawaii (Jae had already called us on Wednesday so we knew). The story goes something like this:

When they arrived to their hotel Heather saw champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.

She exclaimed "Oh look chocolate covered strawberries" and then added a bit disgruntled "yeah, but I bet if we eat them they charge us extra... maybe we should call the front desk and ask."

Jae responded, "no Heather, no need for that" (of course he had requested the treat ahead of time) and they made their way to the patio where he told her (on bended knee) how much he loved her and asked her to marry him! What an exciting day and congratulations to them!

Here's a pic of the someday Mr. & Mrs. Chung

BIG NEWS in Monsterland!

You'll NEVER guess what happened this morning...

Monster, just minutes after getting out of bed, pointed at his bum and then at the bathroom. Bathroom doors are always closed to prevent the spread of toilet water every which way and to ensure TP remains on the roll and not strewn around the house... I said "you want to go potty?" and he nodded yes. Strange indeed since I've never encouraged him to use the potty. Not even once. So I took off his diaper and sat him there. He laughed a bit and after about 30 seconds he was ready to be on his way...

Same instance happens again about 15 minutes later... then we move on and eat breakfast.

Grandma Carla had a bit of free time this morning to grab a coffee with Monster and me before she headed to work. As she was just finishing up in the bathroom monster, again, pointed at his bum (more urgently this time) and began walking into the bathroom. Ohhhhhhkay, I think to myself, I can't possibly discourage potty use can I? So again I oblige. Carla sort of laughed and said "Jack I'll give you a little privacy..." After maybe a minute on the potty (adult-sized seat so I'm holding his under his armpits, because I don't even HAVE a baby potty!) he went poo poo! Can you believe it?! 18-months and going poo poo on the potty! Perhaps the most funny thing of all is when he was done he had to wave bye-bye as he flushed! I think this was perhaps one of the funniest events of my entire life! I'm not quite sure how to tackle this now though. Do I encourage potty use or let him decide when to go? I may need to flip ahead in some of my books and check out potty training dos and don'ts. Hmmmmmm...

Anyhoo, of course I have no actual pictures of this event. However, here are a few from last weekend when Uncle Mike, Aunt Marcanne, and cousin Michael came to visit.

Just for Auntie Heather A...

Jack loved to play with her toothbrush last time she visited, so Heather sent him a spongebob toothbrush after she'd returned to AZ. This video was a few weeks ago and yes, monster does tend to romp around the backyard in old tee shirts and his diapers... Anyway, since this video was taken monster has realized that an electric toothbrush sounds much like "abba" Jim's electric razor so he now turns it on and rubs it on his cheeks! Perhaps that video will be the sequel to this one if I can catch him in the act...

Player of the Week!

For the week of July 21st-27th Aaron was named "player of the week." This was on account of his ridiculous strikeout record (97 Ks in 91.2 innings pitched), 6th overall ERA (a mere 1.50 for this particular week), and also leading the league in wins (8). What an honor in addition to doing so well in the All-Star game earlier in the month. Hip hip hooray for Aaron and dagnabbit scouts TAKE NOTICE!

Here's a link to the actual article:
http://www.northernleague.com/cgi-bin/dist/news.cgi?id=1217358613

Waldorf school?

So, apparently there is something now that is pre-preschool... many parents are taking their kids to "parent-tot" classes to get an early start on learning. Of course, I'd like to think that my daily doses of ABCs, 123s, colors, animals, etc are educating the little monster. But, is there something to attending actual classes? It's a ways away since such classes start at age 2 but something to think about nonetheless. I've read the "mission" of a local school that offers parent-tot classses and fell in love with it:

Tacoma Waldorf School inspires an engagement with learning that fosters understanding, a respect for the intrinsic values of our fellow humanbeings, and a reverence for the natural world. As children's capacities to feel compassionately and to think clearly and creatively are awakened, they are empowered to act with initiative and courage to meet the challenges of humanity (http://www.tacomawaldorf.org/Parenttot.htm).

How beautiful is that? Isn't that precisely what we want for our children? Parent-tot classes are only once a week so it'd probably be good for the both of us... and it seems to me the "Waldorf method" would be appropriate for monster in particular. Any thoughts? Anyone familiar with Waldorf schools in general?

Microphone check 1-2-1-2

Okay, I'm very very new at this but have been intrigued for quite sometime by my friends blogs. PLUS now that I have been scouring the internet for decorating ideas, I've found that the world of blogging is an EXCELLENT place to share (& steal) creative ideas and awesome websites. Okay, so I'll share one right here on my very first post: www.etsy.com I've been addicted for weeks now... check it out and you'll see why. My favorite thing to do is shop by color; it's an awesome way to shop. At any rate, stay tuned for updates and bear with me while I attempt to figure out the whole bloggerworld. Side note: the title of our page is "Go big or go home" in Italiano.

Ciao!
~Janna (& Aaron and monster of course)