I voted!!!

I am pretty proud of myself; yesterday I voted in my very first presidential election! I know I am old enough to have this be my second time voting, but the first time around I was fairly unconcerned with anything outside of my own little world. I am still pretty overwhelmed by all the political discussions and really don't understand most of what is going on. But, I think that we are in a time when we can't afford to sit back and let other people make decisions for us. My vote may only be one of many and things may not go the way that I voted, but at least I did something instead of being a passive observer like usual!

Ode to digital

I cannot say how much I love digital cameras! I can take hundreds of pictures, literally, and the odds that a handful of those will turn out well are pretty good as opposed to hoping for one or two out of a whole roll! And I can check to see if I have the perfect shot and keep trying if I'm not happy!

The reason behind this tribute to technology is our now traditional fall leaves photo shoot with Kadin. My mom and I take him up to the arboreteum by the zoo, find all the beautifully colored leaves and let Kadin run amuck. This year I took 142 pictures of Kadin; most of them turned out like this:

or this one . . .

but then, in the middle of all the junk, there are a couple keepers like these:

By the way, have I mentioned that fall is my favorite season. especially in Oregon. Every day I see more and more amazing colors on the trees. And the weather has been beautiful too; sunny and a little chilly, enough for sweaters and hot chocolate!

So I forgot that the blog adds pictures to the TOP of the list instead of the bottom, so the order of these pictures is backwards, and I don't want to take the time to change it. If you want to see them chronologically, just go from the bottom up!

Daddy's pumpkin: Jack Skellington from "Nightmare before Christmas"

Mommy's pumpkin

Kadin's pumpkin

Kadin cautiously scooping out the insides of the pumpkin
(after feeling what was in there, he decided he wasn't so
interested in carving pumpkins after all)

What's inside? Before we opened them up, he
told Jeremy and me that there was a baby in there;
maybe a reference to the similarity to my stomach?

Carving out the top of the pumpkin
I promise there was more adult supervision
than this picture implies

Kadin showing off his pumpkin and best smile

When I asked Kadin to smile for me in this picture,

this forced kind of grimace; at least he tries!

Me, Jeremy and Kadin with our chosen pumpkins

Kadin found his pumpkin!

"How 'bout this one?" Kadin thought EVERY
pumpkin in the entire patch was worth our
consideration

Jeremy and Kadin on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin

We had a great time picking out and carving our pumpkins! I still cannot believe that Halloween is next week and then the whole holiday craziness begins. I am really excited for the holidays this year, but not quite sure that I am ready to get ready for them; if that makes any sense! The next three months are going to be really busy!

great gift from a great husband

Last week Jeremy told me that he had ordered me a surprise to help me out. He wouldn't give me any more clues than "see a need, fill a need" (from "Robots") and he said that he had seen my need and tried to fill it. I was curious to see which need he had tried to fill (there are so many to choose from) so when the big package arrived a couple days ago, I was very excited to see what he had chosen.
My wonderful hubbie had seen (and probably felt) my need for comfort when I sleep. Since being pregnant, I have experienced the very common problem of not being able to find a comfortable position to sleep in. After a lot of tossing and turning and sticking nearly all the pillows we own around me, I still could not get more than a couple hours rest without waking up aching in some place. So Jeremy found this . . .


a body pillow that wraps around to hit all the important things; back, knees and belly. I was so happy!!! It finally afforded me a good night's sleep (minus the getting up to go to the bathroom, blow my nose and take drinks of water)! Thank you to my very observant and very wonderful husband!

It kind of makes me laugh that even though I am 5 months pregnant, I still shock some people when I tell them I am expecting. I know that I am a very subtle pregnant person, I don't tend to announce it to the world loudly and I really don't get very big at all. Now that it's getting colder, I could probably wear sweaters and sweatshirts all the time and no one would ever notice the bump. But even though I may not look pregnant, there are days when I feel SOOOOOO pregnant with the back aches and the little bundle of joy shifting all her tiny wieght right onto my bladder. There are nights when I feel like my stomach is stretched so tightly that I wouldn't be surprised if I popped right open! Those are the days when I wonder where the "glow" that everyone attributes to pregnant women is, people who said that probably never had a basketball strapped to their stomach! But then there are times when I do remember why it is fun to be pregnant; when I get to see the ultrasounds and remember that there is an actual little tiny person in there, when I feel her rolling around and nudging me, when I see all the adorable little girl clothes we are accumulating! I held a friend's baby the other day and was amazed at how light and tiny he was. I am excited for my own little tiny baby to snuggle with!

At a loss

I am struggling to find the right way to deal with Kadin as he is becoming his own little independent person, with quite the attitude! Most of the time he is great, happy to play and run around and listens as well as any two-year-old can be expected (meaning it usually takes 2-3 repititions to get him to pay attention and follow through with something). But then there come the days when he gets the itch to be mischevious and starts to do things just because he knows they push my buttons. He gets this look in his eye and makes sure I am paying attention and then . . . ARGH! Makes me want to scream!

Anyway, I am at a loss as to how to discipline. So I am asking the moms out there, what have you found to be effective when you are first teaching discipline? I have tried time-out (he thinks it's a game to see how far and fast he can run as soon as I set him down), loss of privileges (this works pretty well, except when he gets into his deliberately defiant mode and then he could care less what I say) and today I even put myself in timeout (when he was throwing things at me and refused to stop, I barricaded myself in my room after telling him that Mommy doesn't like to play with him when he throws things). Maybe all it will take is time and repetition of things for it all to sink in, but it drives me to my wit's end! I can be patient when he is doing "normal" toddler trouble making things, but when he gets that look in his face that says "I know what I am doing is wrong and I'm doing it anyway. . . . " HELP!!!!