Posted by: ppernick | October 30, 2008

Wow

I bit on a headline from the MSN home page – Palin attacks LA Times for not releasing Obama Tape.

“…

Wurzelbacher, who was never introduced by his real name, served as a prop to Palin’s continued critique of Obama’s tax plans. She suggested Obama would raise taxes on small businesses, stifling growth and making it more difficult for small outfits to hire new people and create jobs.

Palin said voters identify with Wurzelbacher, who asked Obama a question at his tax plan at a rally earlier this month. He officially endorsed McCain earlier this week.

…”

Joe the Plumber is endorsing a candidate.

When I hear the term endorse, I get the sense that whoever is doing so has sway over others.  Joe the Plumber has that kind of sway now?

Wow.

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Posted in News, Politics

Posted by: ppernick | October 29, 2008

Brotherly Love

Between getting dressed into pajamas and before the next step of the bedtime routine, Simeon turned to me this evening and said “I want to make Caitlyn laugh again.”  He then looked at her, said excitedly ‘Come! Come!’ and ran out of the bathroom – checking back in the door a moment later.  He was sooooo excited when she started crawling his way[1]

The two of them were playing in the upstairs hallway last night as well (same point in the evening – after pajamas).  I spent the time worrying Simeon was playing too rough (lightly pushing her down as she’s crawling then tackling her with a bear hug of sorts), but meanwhile both of them are laughing it up.

It was absolutely adorable to see them playing together. Wish there had been a camera upstairs to capture it because I really didn’t want to disturb things just to get some photos.

[1] A little help from me to turn her around before he peeked back in, but she did seem to answer his call.

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Posted in Caitlyn, Siblings, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | October 29, 2008

Holding down the fort

This week, Ari has been in LA attending the PDC (Professional Developers Conference) and manning a demo booth for Windows 7 (I think).  In the meantime, I’m getting my taste of full-time working single mom.

Sunday: Ari left at the crack of dawn.  I think he was out of the door around 5 or 5:15.  I then went back to sleep.  Kids and I made it dressed and downstairs by 8ish.  Around 10:45 we were out of the house and on our way to the pumpkin patch. 

I’ll post more about our trip later when I offload some photos, but picture this – I’ve got Caitlyn in the baby bjorn, I’m carrying an 8lb pumpkin in one hand, Simeon’s Thomas the Train backpack (containing a few random small toys, a diaper for each kid, and the big camera) in the other and attempting to hold on to Simeon’s hand at the same time.  Now add to the picture that we’re trying to quickly get to the wagon to get back to the main area.  I only lost a lens cap – woo hoo!

On the drive home, both kids fall asleep.  Simeon transfers into bed successfully and sleeps 2 hours.  Meanwhile, Caitlyn sleeps in the carseat in the dining room for 1.5 hours.  Yay!

After everybody is awake again and has eaten a late lunch, we get in the car and head over to D,J & D’s house for playing, pumpkin carving and catching up.  It was actually this that prompted me to try the pumpkin patch to begin with.  It was a good thing because I otherwise would not have gotten out of the house until 3pm.

Monday: Caitlyn’s first day at the daycare.  Drop-off takes awhile and Simeon is not making it easy.  Strike 1 – I turn off the music in the car.  Strike 2 – I put the drumsticks down because we can’t take them in. Strike 3 – I’m carrying Caitlyn, so I can’t carry him.  Needless to say he was bawling his head off when I got him to his room.  Caitlyn is being very good but was not happy when I left her at daycare.

In the evening, I don’t fight the fact that Simeon refuses to eat any dinner.  I let him play on the computer while I give Caitlyn a bath.  He then comes upstairs and says he wants a bath too.  Success – two kids bathed!  Caitlyn doesn’t go down easy but I do manage to get both kids down by 9:30.

Tuesday:  Much easier.  Simeon, Caitlyn and I all ate dinner together.  No bath, but I’m figuring out ways to give Caitlyn downtime before actually laying her down to sleep.  Both kids down around 9.  Late, but I can handle that considering we all got home at 7pm.

Tomorrow: Taking the day off.  Simeon has a cardiology appointment at 8:30am and I’ve got a playdate (for Simeon and me) with some other families in the neighborhood in the evening.  Will attempt to find Halloween costumes for Ari and me.

Thursday: Nothing too exciting.  Ari should get home after the kids are asleep.

And then Friday is Halloween.  Daycare parade / office trick or treating in the afternoon, then a stop at Microsoft for trick or treating there, and then on to our friend’s house for a party.  We’ll see how long we stay and hopefully Simeon can go to the next door neighbors and trick or treat.

I’m not doing anything than what other’s have done before me.  But in some ways I’m feeling a bit like Super Mom right now – working full time and not only taking care of two kids by myself but I’m getting in a few extra things and getting some chores done. Go me!

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Posted in Parenting

Posted by: ppernick | October 29, 2008

Milestones

Today marked another milestone in the life of Caitlyn Arwen Pernick. 

Big Milestone 1 was around 2.5 months of age with her first social smile and giggle.  Not to be confused with smiles before this point that generally are just an expression of relief from expelled gas.

Big Milestones 2 and 3 were both around 5 months of age – solid foods and crawling.

And while there have been other milestones such as rolling over, full-blown laughing, face and voice recognition, responding to her name that are all very important and impressive, the next big milestone is upon us.

In less than an hour, Caitlyn will be out of me as long as she was in.

Happy 9 months Caitlyn!!!

Hrm…now that I think of it though, she was a couple weeks early…so I guess I missed the milestone. *sigh*  Happy 9 months anyway!

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Posted in Caitlyn, Development

Posted by: ppernick | October 28, 2008

Speaking up

I’m not generally good at being proactive to resolve problems.  This goes not only for personal issues, but even with businesses.  For example, I was annoyed when the bank we bought our new house from changed the terms of the contract – should we have been late in closing on the property, they wanted to charge us more per day than what was written in the signed contract.  In the end, we weren’t late on closing so I didn’t feel any affects and didn’t do anything about it.  However, my dad had suggested I call the BBB to make a complaint – others should know what kind of company they are considering to do business with.

Just over a week ago, my parents, Ari and I took the kids across the street to the playground.  Part of the playground structure is a short, covered slide.  While Simeon was kicking his soccer ball around, I happened to notice that the rim of the opening at the bottom of the slide was half broken off.  I was a bit nervous that he would find the one sharp point, but not enough to actually contact anybody.  Being a good parent and neighborhood citizen, I should have contacted somebody anyway, but the group mentality of responsibility won over. Simeon is generally more interested in rolling his ball up and down the slide than actually going down himself – somebody else would get it fixed if they were worried.

Then, last Friday my parents and I went back to the park with the kids and I noticed that the damage was worse.  Much worse.  More of the rim was broken off and there was a huge crack in the top cover – just above the bolts of the bottom-most section.

From what I’ve seen, the kids that play at the park are more interested in climbing on top of the covered slide than actually sliding down.  It would probably only take one or two more kids before it completely gives way. Even though Simeon is too small to climb on top and doesn’t usually want to go down, I finally felt some personal responsibility to get it fixed. 

Yesterday, I sent an email to the neighborhood Yahoo! group to find out who to contact.  Minutes later I received a response and emailed the parks department (and received a response just as quickly that it would be looked at).  This morning, I also saw a response from the Mayor (who happens to live down the street from me) that he would make sure somebody looks at it immediately.

I did nothing all that big.  Just two quick emails.  It’s amazing just how good I feel about it though.

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Posted in Me, Reflection

Posted by: ppernick | October 28, 2008

Grandparent Visits

So the family has come and gone. 

Ari’s mom and her friend Miss L came for an extra long weekend.  I can’t thank them enough for watching Caitlyn and helping unbox and rearrange Simeon’s room.  It is absolutely wonderful to walk into his room in the middle of the night and not worry I’m going to bump into something.  The one thing I do regret is not managing to get a birthday cake and celebrate Simeon’s birthday a bit early while they were here.

Then, my parents came in for a week. They took babysitting duties of Caitlyn in between the neighborhood babysitter and the downstairs daycare.  Thank you!  It was a wonderful visit and I was even able to take off a day from work. Simeon finally warmed up enough to hug and kiss Bubbe and P-pa (as he calls them) the night before they left.

My parents left on Saturday morning.  Next Uncle I and Aunt R move out here within the next month or so.  Then, we see a everybody in January – the 100th Pernick reunion is in FL over MLK weekend. My parents and brother will then come down to join Ari’s parents, Ari’s brother and sister-in-law, and the four of us for a Western Caribbean cruise.

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Posted in Family

Posted by: ppernick | October 27, 2008

Simeon's Birthday

I meant to post a happy birthday to Simeon last wednesday, but…well…yeah.

3 years old already.  No idea how the time passed by so quickly but he’s definitely a 3 year old.

We held his birthday party at Tot Spot Cafe in Woodinville.  Awesome!  Aside from everybody having a good time, the owner was super nice and the initial cost includes everything (cupcakes, kid food and goody-bags) except food for adults, which they also provide[1].  One boy was reluctant to come that morning and then put up a fight when it was time to leave. 

When visiting Tot Spot Cafe previously to check things out and talk with the owner, we figured it would be better to just let the kids play the whole time rather than trying anything formal.  Apparently, one family brought in a magician or something and only one or two kids were interested.  We gathered everybody up for blowing out candles and opened up one representative gift, but otherwise left it to free play.  To be diplomatic, we gave him mommy, daddy and Caitlyn’s gift – a soccer ball and plastic cones.  He was more than happy.  He’s played with them pretty much everyday since then. 

I have to say, he’s getting quite good at ball control.  We’ve taken the ball and cones to the playground across the street a couple times and getting him to put his hands in his pockets seems the best way to prevent him from just picking up the ball and placing it somewhere.  He’s getting to be a pro and standing the cones up using only his feet.

[1] Since it was a mid-morning party, we ordered fruit and an open beverage bar for the adults.  The owner’s mother decided to make coffee cake so it was a really nice (and delicious) add on.

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Posted in Happy Birthday, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | October 17, 2008

Too much Dora…

First there was ‘Say map…say map.’ when playing with a toy.

Then there’s ‘We did it! Yay! We did it!’ as we left Yom Kippur services early.

Now he’s saying ‘Path 1 or Path 2.  Second path, mommy. We go on the second path.’ as we leave the daycare and head to the car.

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Posted in Quotable, Simeon, Television

Posted by: ppernick | October 11, 2008

Simeon Says

A couple quotes I recently heard Simeon say that I don’t want to forget…

[Leaving the synagogue after Kol Nidre, before services were over.] ‘We did it! yay! we did it!’

[A couple times, after I found the book he wanted hidden in his blankets] ‘You found it. You found it, mommy. Good job!’

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Posted in Quotable, Simeon

Posted by: ppernick | October 3, 2008

Nighttime Bathroom Call

It isn’t very often that I’m happy to be woken up in the middle of the night.  Last night was an exception though.  Well, I can’t say I was happy to be awake at 3am.   But Simeon woke me because he had to pee and he actually peed on the potty!  woohoo!

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Posted in Development, Simeon

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