Avon Walk for the Cure

Some of you know and some you don't, but I have accepted the challenge and am participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I'll be walking close to 40 miles in Rocky Mountains over the course of a weekend in June. I am walking to support a friend who lost her mother to breast cancer when she was 9 years old.

I have pledged to raise money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer as part of my participation in the walk. Your contribution will help to support medical research into the possible causes of and cure for breast cancer, education and early detection programs, and clinical care and support services for women with breast cancer in communities across the country. There is a special focus on helping medically underserved women, the poor, minorities, the elderly, or those with inadequate health insurance. And much of the money granted by the Foundation goes back to the communities where it was raised, supporting everything from local grassroots programs to national organizations.

It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking here: Click here to visit my personal page. If you aren't comfortable donating online, you can send payment to me (checks payable to Avon Walk for the Cure) and I'll get it credited to my account.

Whatever you can give will help! Some of you have already pledged money for the cause and I truly appreciate your support. I will keep you posted on my progress.

It's been another quiet week for us. We haven't been to the doctor in one whole month - whoo-hoo! The weather is warming up so we're spending more time outside.

Driving trucks... Reina's turn to be in the driver's seat. Luckily the battery had died at this point but she had fun anyway. She has some sort of automotive part on her head. Not sure what that's all about .... future Ms. JiffyLube 2027?
When not busy honing her driver's ed skills, Reina loves to reorganize the kitchen. Here she is sorting through a brand-new box of sandwich bags. So helpful!Yup, the Buzz Wings continue to be a dominant force in our household. Every morning, the first thing we hear is "can I put my buzz wings on now?" Reina's anticipating getting whacked in the back of the head... again.

Hope your weekend is free from head-whacking!

Normalcy

It's been a quiet week here in Lake Wobegan ... errr Cheyenne. Both kids are healthy (!!), the sun's been shining (!!) and that giant snowdrift in the backyard is almost gone. There wouldn't be much to blog about if it wasn't for all of the language development we have going on in the Pauley household. Oh and Reina has met another milestone. Baby's first black eye. It's more like a light green/yellow eye at this point. It might also look like a brother-inflicted-bruise but it was actually self-inflicted on the stairs and we'll just leave it at that.

Will is talking up a storm these days and I've learned that even when it seems like he's not paying attention, those little ears are hearing everything. Case in point, I'm driving the kids to the store and we are listening to the news on the radio. The announcer is talking about the Masters and Tiger Woods and Will perks up and asks "There's a tiger in the woods?" Note to self: Discontinue all language that should not be repeated in front of church or grandparents and resort to spelling or Spanish.

Will is also getting more expressive. Twice this weekend he told me with awe "You have big hands Mom!" after I leaned into the backseat to pick something up that he had dropped. I'm assuming he was impressed with my reach and not my gargantuan man-hands.

The Buzz Lightyear obsession continues. Will wears his 'Buzz wings' practically every waking moment. At least he can't sneak up on us. The sounds of those wings ricocheting off furniture and the walls give us an indication he's headed our way.

Reina is saying more and more. When you have something that she wants (particularly a food item) she politely points and says "Dat!" If you don't respond right away, she repeats "DAT!" until it's a stream of "DAT DAT DAT DAT DAT DAT" and you have to give in because it's church and everyone else is being quiet and just give your baby a fruit snack already! She also says "yeah" when you ask her if she's hungry. She might be monosyllabic but she gets her point across.

Reina's new obsession is shoes. I bought these sandals for Easter but Reina thinks they go with everything. No "no white shoes before Memorial Day" rule for her! I generally don't put shoes on her but she brought me these this afternoon with the clear message that I was to put them on her feet. She who must be obeyed!We've been trying to get outside to enjoy the nice weather. In Wyoming, you never know how long it will last.

Both kids enjoy riding around the front yard in the John Deere truck.
It's also fun to try to lose Dad by scraping him off underneath the tree.
Finally, this picture could be titled "Events that precede a trip to the ER" but luckily it didn't.
Happy Spring!

Girls' weekend in Phoenix ... and more sickness

Aunt Vicky, her friend Christine and Reina and I made a quick trip to Phoenix this weekend to run another half marathon. Aunt Vicky has a bad leg injury so she ended up shuttling Reina around and Christine and I ran the race. There are very few highlights to report from the weekend - besides the weather. Let's just say that you know it's going to be a long race when you get to the start line and realize that your Ipod's battery is dead. So instead I'll memorialize the trip with a quick picture of Reina. This was the point in the weekend where we all sat around topless watching tv .... okay so maybe just one of us did that. The ibuprofen bottle is mine, too.

Back on the homefront, Glenn played nursemaid to Will with the help of visiting Grandpa and Grandma Pauley. Will added a double ear infection to his cough from last week which made for a long weekend for his daddy and heaping helpings of mommy guilt for me as I left for Phoenix. Everyone survived and Will is feeling better. Reina now has the ear infection, which was very generous of her brother to share. This was one of those instances where I was hoping for ear infections because the alternative was a newly developed personality disorder for my girl.

Here's a quick pic of Will from happier times.

Stuff that really should be in their baby books

1. Reina can now pull herself up to a standing position. Whether it's her crib, the baby gate or our sharp, pointy coffee table, the girl loves to stand. She also claps along to Patty Cake, sways back and forth when someone sings or there is music on the tv and waves bye-bye (about five minutes after you've said "say bye-bye" several times.)

2. Reina and Will are playing together more and more. Well, maybe the term "playing together" is a little optimistic. Basically it involves Will working on something, Reina racing over there, Will yelling "No no baby that's mine!" and Reina sticking as many of the toys in her mouth as she can. But every once in a while, they both sit in the same place long enough for me to get a picture.

3. Will's new favorite phrase is "Right, Mom?" As in, "We don't shoot guns at people. Right, Mom?" "If I'm naughty, I get a spanking. Right, Mom?" I love how he's bypassed 'mommy' and gone right to 'Mom." What's next, Lucy? Hey lady?

4. Will has a new best friend. His name is Buzz Lightyear. I wasn't paying attention this summer when Toy Story was on sale. Now it's "in the vault" or whatever term it is they use to make buying kids movies really tough. Thanks Pixar. In the meantime, we've borrowed the video from Heather's House of Movies. Thanks Heather!

5. Reina loves to walk around while holding on to our hands. She's getting steadier on her feet and she's quite proud of herself. The biggest problem is that now she likes to stop and play with stuff while she's walking around but she doesn't want you to stop holding her up. So basically, she wants a little servant to follow her around, help her walk, and find interesting things for her to mess with. We'll be advertising that job vacancy soon. Anyone interested? The salary is weak and the supervisor is a tyrant. But it's good, steady work. The supervisor is pretty darn cute too.

On a non-baby-book-related note, I made Sauerbraten and Spaetzle for New Year's Day dinner. It was good but I'm a horrible dinner organizer. The sauerbraten was done about 30 minutes before I even started the spaetzle. I totally forgot to cook anything else and I spent about 10 minutes fishing giant lumps of flour out of the gravy. Yum.

Sauerbraten:

Spaetzle: Kitchen aftermath:

Happy New Year!!