Really, though. Could he get any cuter? This is AJ on his way back to the car after a long fun trip to a local park. His little arm-swingin' shuffle run is way too cute!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Excuses, Excuses
Wow, what have we been doing for the past week? I will admit that I'm not always on the ball about posting to the blog, but it's a big difference to go from last month's record number of posts to letting the past week go by with nada. One of the things that we've been doing lately is working hard to slim down! Andy and I finally decided to put our money where our mouths were (we put money there now instead of food--it's quite low in calories) and go on a diet in hopes of losing weight and creating tone for the upcoming summer months. We have a nice beach vacation planned for July, and I am personally hoping for some positive results to ready me for those days on the sand in a swimsuit. But as you might know from personal experience...it's hard to eat right! It involves all that planning and counting and cooking and trying to muster up some enthusiasm for an afternoon snack of carrot sticks when a bowl of ice cream would do nicely. The easiest part, actually, is that we are doing this together. I have a friend in California (Hi, Jen!) who started a blog experiment to chronicle her journey of losing 40 pounds by her 40th birthday, and she has (besides her husband and toddler daughter) a pre-teen son in the house who plays sports--I can't imagine how many calories he has to eat while she sits next to him at the dinner table. If I had to carefully portion out my ounces of whole-wheat pasta with tomato sauce while Alton energetically wolfed down lasagna with extra cheese, using a steak as his fork and flour tortillas as his napkins, I think that I would start to lose my willpower! But with Andy counting out forkfuls of ground turkey meat onto the food scale alongside me, we are managing to look on the bright side of our new eating habits (the getting skinnier part) instead of salivating over Alton's leftover Easter candy (I will be so glad when those chocolate bunnies are gone).
Like my blogger friend Jen, Andy and I are doing Weight Watchers, which is actually a sensible eating plan despite my whining above, and like Jen we are incorporating exercise into our routine to help us feel energetic and fit. Instead of guiltily averting my eyes from the exercise equipment at the gym while I usher Alton into the family pool, I have been lacing up my sneakers and hitting the machines or one of the many classes our athletic club offers. After hearing good things about a salsa-dance-based exercise class called Zumba, I decided to show up on a Monday afternoon and boogie myself sweaty. Well, it kicked my ass. After 45 minutes of stepping, swiveling, kicking, jumping, shimmying, and sashaying, I had to starting modifying the routines that our instructor was demonstrating because I feared that I would misstep and sprain an ankle! My limbs Jello-fied, I headed home and stumbled around the kitchen like a klutz trying to make dinner while Alton begged Andy to read book after book. I was all thumbs and after I cut my finger trying to slice a tomato, Andy took over the cutting board and gently suggested that I go sit down while he finished things up.
I passed out exhausted in bed that night, but was surprised that I wasn't too sore when I woke up the next morning. Two days after my Zumba class, I worked out again, then again two days after that, and slowly but surely I can feel the exercise getting easier! I went to Zumba again a week after my original class and was surprised that afterward I was tired and sweaty, but not the gooey mess I was the last time. Hooray for muscles!
I was also trying to keep up the workout regimen in anticipation of Mother's Day. I knew that Andy had some meals out up his sleeve, and I was surprised on Saturday night when we went out to one of my favorite restaurants in the area, an Italian place called Mingo West. We wined and dined (the restaurant has one open-air side that overlooks a station for our Max light rail train--Alton was in heaven throughout the meal) and amazingly, after two weeks of clean livin' Andy and I were unable to finish our desserts. What?! We were weighed down with delicious but rich food and it was a good thing that we didn't have a big Mother's Day breakfast planned, because water and coffee was about all we could manage in our poor overloaded systems (we were still able to go out again to dinner again that night, however). But we loved our celebratory weekend and I felt very pampered and showered with lovely gifts from my two great guys.
(Alton and me at dinner on Mother's Day--picture with Andy's camera phone.)
We also got a little bit of outdoor work done that weekend, in preparation for our major yard overhaul! Expect more to come about this in the future. Until then, I am your lazy blogger and vow to take more pictures (or at least ask Andy to do it) and share them with you. Off to go enjoy gorgeous sunny weather!
Like my blogger friend Jen, Andy and I are doing Weight Watchers, which is actually a sensible eating plan despite my whining above, and like Jen we are incorporating exercise into our routine to help us feel energetic and fit. Instead of guiltily averting my eyes from the exercise equipment at the gym while I usher Alton into the family pool, I have been lacing up my sneakers and hitting the machines or one of the many classes our athletic club offers. After hearing good things about a salsa-dance-based exercise class called Zumba, I decided to show up on a Monday afternoon and boogie myself sweaty. Well, it kicked my ass. After 45 minutes of stepping, swiveling, kicking, jumping, shimmying, and sashaying, I had to starting modifying the routines that our instructor was demonstrating because I feared that I would misstep and sprain an ankle! My limbs Jello-fied, I headed home and stumbled around the kitchen like a klutz trying to make dinner while Alton begged Andy to read book after book. I was all thumbs and after I cut my finger trying to slice a tomato, Andy took over the cutting board and gently suggested that I go sit down while he finished things up.
I passed out exhausted in bed that night, but was surprised that I wasn't too sore when I woke up the next morning. Two days after my Zumba class, I worked out again, then again two days after that, and slowly but surely I can feel the exercise getting easier! I went to Zumba again a week after my original class and was surprised that afterward I was tired and sweaty, but not the gooey mess I was the last time. Hooray for muscles!
I was also trying to keep up the workout regimen in anticipation of Mother's Day. I knew that Andy had some meals out up his sleeve, and I was surprised on Saturday night when we went out to one of my favorite restaurants in the area, an Italian place called Mingo West. We wined and dined (the restaurant has one open-air side that overlooks a station for our Max light rail train--Alton was in heaven throughout the meal) and amazingly, after two weeks of clean livin' Andy and I were unable to finish our desserts. What?! We were weighed down with delicious but rich food and it was a good thing that we didn't have a big Mother's Day breakfast planned, because water and coffee was about all we could manage in our poor overloaded systems (we were still able to go out again to dinner again that night, however). But we loved our celebratory weekend and I felt very pampered and showered with lovely gifts from my two great guys.
(Alton and me at dinner on Mother's Day--picture with Andy's camera phone.)
We also got a little bit of outdoor work done that weekend, in preparation for our major yard overhaul! Expect more to come about this in the future. Until then, I am your lazy blogger and vow to take more pictures (or at least ask Andy to do it) and share them with you. Off to go enjoy gorgeous sunny weather!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Sleepful, Then Seattle
Last weekend we paid a visit to the Evergreen State (Washington) by spending a day and night with our good friends Brian and Alexa. It's about a three-hour drive from our house to their house, and so we always debate about when to leave. Early afternoon Friday and risk rush-hour traffic out of Tacoma? Late Friday and have to rouse Alton from his warm cozy car seat upon our arrival in Seattle? Or Saturday morning, cutting our visit a little shorter? This time we opted for Saturday morning, because Alton's habitual weekday preference of awakening at 6:45, 6:30, 6:15a.m. had us assuming that we'd be on the road with travelmug in hand by seven o'clock at the latest. Nuh-uh. Of course, last Saturday morning became the one morning out of the week when Alton decided to sleep in, 'til past eight! Where were these luxurious mornings when I stayed up way too late reading (or blogging)? Of course I wasn't taking advantage of Alton's lie-in, I was up early brewing the coffee, looking at my watch and wondering why he wasn't up yet!
At any rate, we got on the road and left the little guy in his comfy monkey pajamas for the trip. Andy sat in the backseat with him for reading purposes, and you can see in the picture below Alton's customary car seat pose: ankles crossed, water bottle clenched between the knees, book open in hands.
We arrived in Seattle just shy of noon, needing to burn off some energy for Mr Sleepyhead before lunch and nap! We scurried around the corner from Brian and Alexa's house to a local elementary school for some playground time. It was dry but crisply cool outside, but we kept our blood flowing with fun and chatting on the playsets.
Alton and Brian, both happily crossing the bridge.
Brian took Alton in hand for much of the time at the playground, demonstrating for us why, when we go to stay at their house, the first words out of Alton's mouth in the morning are "Bee? Bee?" Fun on the slide, below.
Alton loves steering wheels on jungle gyms.
Brian showed him Oregon on the U.S. map painted on the blacktop.
Climbing a treacherous cliffside...
crossing the vast prairie...
conquering volatile mountaintops.
Andy took about 25 pictures of Alton with this stick. And yes, he stuck it in his mouth. Mmm, dirt.
Our little garden gnome with his pointy hood.
Heading back for food and sleeeep. (Note that gnome hood is beginning to droop.)
Post-nap, much of the day was spent reading...
(reading...)
but B & A had a few tricks up their sleeves. They babysat for some other children one day since our last visit, and had purchased a few toys for entertaining their charges (although I'm told the charges preferred a video). Alton was wide-eyed over the Etch-a-sketch.
He also enjoyed a little coloring time, although
his favorite thing to do with crayons is to take them out of the box, then put 'em back in. Out of the box, then put....
Next morning saw more reading, of course. Here is your typical manly morning: Bob the Builder, monster trucks at stage left, and a Diet Coke for breakfast. Yummy.
Artful monster trucks against a wet windowpane.
We squeezed in a quick outdoor trip, to a different park this time. We actually turned the lens around on Andy for once.
Hangin' out with Mommy.
The trip ended too soon! But I am glad to get to see Alexa later this month for her birthday. Until then, we'll gaze pensively out of the window with our long-lashed eyes and adorable chubby cheeks. Or maybe that will just be Alton.
At any rate, we got on the road and left the little guy in his comfy monkey pajamas for the trip. Andy sat in the backseat with him for reading purposes, and you can see in the picture below Alton's customary car seat pose: ankles crossed, water bottle clenched between the knees, book open in hands.
We arrived in Seattle just shy of noon, needing to burn off some energy for Mr Sleepyhead before lunch and nap! We scurried around the corner from Brian and Alexa's house to a local elementary school for some playground time. It was dry but crisply cool outside, but we kept our blood flowing with fun and chatting on the playsets.
Alton and Brian, both happily crossing the bridge.
Brian took Alton in hand for much of the time at the playground, demonstrating for us why, when we go to stay at their house, the first words out of Alton's mouth in the morning are "Bee? Bee?" Fun on the slide, below.
Alton loves steering wheels on jungle gyms.
Brian showed him Oregon on the U.S. map painted on the blacktop.
Climbing a treacherous cliffside...
crossing the vast prairie...
conquering volatile mountaintops.
Andy took about 25 pictures of Alton with this stick. And yes, he stuck it in his mouth. Mmm, dirt.
Our little garden gnome with his pointy hood.
Heading back for food and sleeeep. (Note that gnome hood is beginning to droop.)
Post-nap, much of the day was spent reading...
(reading...)
but B & A had a few tricks up their sleeves. They babysat for some other children one day since our last visit, and had purchased a few toys for entertaining their charges (although I'm told the charges preferred a video). Alton was wide-eyed over the Etch-a-sketch.
He also enjoyed a little coloring time, although
his favorite thing to do with crayons is to take them out of the box, then put 'em back in. Out of the box, then put....
Next morning saw more reading, of course. Here is your typical manly morning: Bob the Builder, monster trucks at stage left, and a Diet Coke for breakfast. Yummy.
Artful monster trucks against a wet windowpane.
We squeezed in a quick outdoor trip, to a different park this time. We actually turned the lens around on Andy for once.
Hangin' out with Mommy.
The trip ended too soon! But I am glad to get to see Alexa later this month for her birthday. Until then, we'll gaze pensively out of the window with our long-lashed eyes and adorable chubby cheeks. Or maybe that will just be Alton.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Over All
Wow, a total of 20 posts in April 2010, which makes a new Walk the Rhyne blog record for mosts posts in a month! Here is #20: cute overalls pictures.
Playing the drums on his bucket 'o cars.
Carrying the bucket. As Alton says, "Heaaaaavveeey!"
He carries it over to Daddy to open.
Happily liberating the cars and trucks...
...from his hat!
Dance moves.
He pulls out the rhythm sticks for a jam session.
His constant companion looks on while he makes the tractor wheels go round 'n round.
Playing the drums on his bucket 'o cars.
Carrying the bucket. As Alton says, "Heaaaaavveeey!"
He carries it over to Daddy to open.
Happily liberating the cars and trucks...
...from his hat!
Dance moves.
He pulls out the rhythm sticks for a jam session.
His constant companion looks on while he makes the tractor wheels go round 'n round.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Walk This Way (by Andy)
Following the completion of our paver patio in May of last year, we had quite a few extra bricks left over. We also had about a half of a yard of road base rock left over (the recipe for the pavers is road base, sand and then pavers on top). We wanted to use the bricks and not throw them away as there were almost 300 of them (varied amounts of all three sizes) and it would be too wasteful to throw them away.
You'll notice the bricks move from their initial location (above) to a new location next to the side yard (below). I needed to move them last September for Katie's birthday party. The picture below also serves as a great 'before' picture.
We landed on a plan to use these extra pavers along the west side yard of our house. You'll remember that this side was previously extended 12 feet and had a gate installed. This walkway would act as a transition from front yard to back and would provide an attractive use of our extra bricks. So the plan was in place. Last summer, when we decided on this plan, I sat down and devised a clever pattern for a section of walkway 4 x 6 feet. So last weekend, with the prospect of putting in our grass at the end of May and the need to actually get those spare bricks out of the way, I set out to complete our walkway. On day one, I excavated the dirt about 5 inches down and hauled it all away in 2 truck loads off to the dump. Afterwards, I shoveled in the left over road base that had been sitting in the driveway for almost exactly one year.
End of day one.
At the end of day one, I decided that it was time to get out my old plan for the walkway to review the pattern I had planned out. When I eventually scraped it up, I made a shocking discovery. I had remembered my plan incorrectly and as I had originally planned a 24 square foot area, I had just excavated and prepped a 54 square foot area. Oops. After catching my breath, I sat down with my brick inventory and a fresh sheet of graph paper to see if I could devise a new plan. I found that I could actually achieve the same pattern as our patio. Day two was a flurry of activity that involved setting brick retainers in place (black plastic borders that keep the bricks in place), pouring 10 bags of sand and placing paver bricks on top of the sand. So, at the end of the day, the project was finished. I even had enough time to "sand" the bricks. This involves spreading sand on the top of the bricks to help fill the small gaps between each brick to lock them all in place.
The sand and brick progress. The white lines are pipe that is laid down to ensure a 1 inch thickness of sand.
One of the challenges of this project is that the two smaller bricks (4"x4" and 4"x8") were actually in short supply. I was short 5 small bricks and almost 20 medium bricks. Luckily, there was an abundance of large bricks measuring 8"x8". I was able to make up for the lack of smaller bricks by cutting the larger bricks in halves and quarters.
The 'after' pictures.
Over all, the outcome was great and I'm very happy with how it looks. Now all that remains is to fill the gaps around the walkway that I had to dig to make room for the brick retainers I installed. In the end, of the nearly 300 bricks that were left over from the patio project, now only 8 remain.
The remaining bricks. All that remains of a once great stack. We will be putting a small garden in the space between this walkway and the back yard (seen in the picture immediately above) and will use these bricks to put stepping stones through that garden.
You'll notice the bricks move from their initial location (above) to a new location next to the side yard (below). I needed to move them last September for Katie's birthday party. The picture below also serves as a great 'before' picture.
We landed on a plan to use these extra pavers along the west side yard of our house. You'll remember that this side was previously extended 12 feet and had a gate installed. This walkway would act as a transition from front yard to back and would provide an attractive use of our extra bricks. So the plan was in place. Last summer, when we decided on this plan, I sat down and devised a clever pattern for a section of walkway 4 x 6 feet. So last weekend, with the prospect of putting in our grass at the end of May and the need to actually get those spare bricks out of the way, I set out to complete our walkway. On day one, I excavated the dirt about 5 inches down and hauled it all away in 2 truck loads off to the dump. Afterwards, I shoveled in the left over road base that had been sitting in the driveway for almost exactly one year.
End of day one.
At the end of day one, I decided that it was time to get out my old plan for the walkway to review the pattern I had planned out. When I eventually scraped it up, I made a shocking discovery. I had remembered my plan incorrectly and as I had originally planned a 24 square foot area, I had just excavated and prepped a 54 square foot area. Oops. After catching my breath, I sat down with my brick inventory and a fresh sheet of graph paper to see if I could devise a new plan. I found that I could actually achieve the same pattern as our patio. Day two was a flurry of activity that involved setting brick retainers in place (black plastic borders that keep the bricks in place), pouring 10 bags of sand and placing paver bricks on top of the sand. So, at the end of the day, the project was finished. I even had enough time to "sand" the bricks. This involves spreading sand on the top of the bricks to help fill the small gaps between each brick to lock them all in place.
The sand and brick progress. The white lines are pipe that is laid down to ensure a 1 inch thickness of sand.
One of the challenges of this project is that the two smaller bricks (4"x4" and 4"x8") were actually in short supply. I was short 5 small bricks and almost 20 medium bricks. Luckily, there was an abundance of large bricks measuring 8"x8". I was able to make up for the lack of smaller bricks by cutting the larger bricks in halves and quarters.
The 'after' pictures.
Over all, the outcome was great and I'm very happy with how it looks. Now all that remains is to fill the gaps around the walkway that I had to dig to make room for the brick retainers I installed. In the end, of the nearly 300 bricks that were left over from the patio project, now only 8 remain.
The remaining bricks. All that remains of a once great stack. We will be putting a small garden in the space between this walkway and the back yard (seen in the picture immediately above) and will use these bricks to put stepping stones through that garden.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Birthday Party
A week ago we went to a birthday party for one of our favorite little friends: *F!
His mother Elizabeth and I were musing the day before his first birthday about where we were one year ago...a quick labor that culminated in an ambulance ride to the hospital for Elizabeth. *F sure was excited to be born that day. While Elizabeth and Baby *F recovered in the hospital, big sister *B was at our house having fun with Alton.
Fast forward to last weekend, and the big one-year-old guy has already taken his first steps. A happy crowd gathered in Elizabeth and Chris's backyard, where they recently had installed a fully-loaded play structure and set up *F's birthday present: a sandbox. Both items were extremely popular with the kids attending the party, including Mr Alton! Andy and I were hurriedly taking mental notes as he zig-zagged around their yard testing out all on offer.
We congratulated ourselves when we saw how in love he was with the sandbox--we had already purchased the exact same one in an early-season sale! It is in the garage waiting for grass to be installed in the backyard; I'm not sure that we could move that sandbox once it was full.
Much of the party was spent this way: kids surrounding the sandbox, with *F smack in the middle.
Alton had a great time digging.
*F's dump truck became Alton's new best friend for the day.
*P loved the swings...
and the slide!
*B shows you how to work the ship's wheel at the top of the fort.
Time for presents: *F is in love with a fabulous handmade wooden airplane.
Alton explores *B's "big sister" present: a play cookie-baking set!
Everywhere he goes, Alton manages to find a way to read; he thumbs through one of the birthday gifts.
Mmm, (cup)cake time!
Not much for sweets, Alton snags a cracker and polishes this off after halfheartedly nibbing at the cupcake.
*B wound up with a snappy chocolate goatee.
Alton loved the party favors: a plant-your-own flower and pot.
Let's take it home and give it lots and LOTS of water!
Happy 1st Birthday, *F!
His mother Elizabeth and I were musing the day before his first birthday about where we were one year ago...a quick labor that culminated in an ambulance ride to the hospital for Elizabeth. *F sure was excited to be born that day. While Elizabeth and Baby *F recovered in the hospital, big sister *B was at our house having fun with Alton.
Fast forward to last weekend, and the big one-year-old guy has already taken his first steps. A happy crowd gathered in Elizabeth and Chris's backyard, where they recently had installed a fully-loaded play structure and set up *F's birthday present: a sandbox. Both items were extremely popular with the kids attending the party, including Mr Alton! Andy and I were hurriedly taking mental notes as he zig-zagged around their yard testing out all on offer.
We congratulated ourselves when we saw how in love he was with the sandbox--we had already purchased the exact same one in an early-season sale! It is in the garage waiting for grass to be installed in the backyard; I'm not sure that we could move that sandbox once it was full.
Much of the party was spent this way: kids surrounding the sandbox, with *F smack in the middle.
Alton had a great time digging.
*F's dump truck became Alton's new best friend for the day.
*P loved the swings...
and the slide!
*B shows you how to work the ship's wheel at the top of the fort.
Time for presents: *F is in love with a fabulous handmade wooden airplane.
Alton explores *B's "big sister" present: a play cookie-baking set!
Everywhere he goes, Alton manages to find a way to read; he thumbs through one of the birthday gifts.
Mmm, (cup)cake time!
Not much for sweets, Alton snags a cracker and polishes this off after halfheartedly nibbing at the cupcake.
*B wound up with a snappy chocolate goatee.
Alton loved the party favors: a plant-your-own flower and pot.
Let's take it home and give it lots and LOTS of water!
Happy 1st Birthday, *F!
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