Messin' around

We went to the doctor yesterday, just to be sure J's cough wasn't anything too serious. We're having some tough nights lately, and with asthma-like symptoms, I get anxious listening to her breathe. We have the world's BEST doctor, he is so gentle and personable, not to mention that he looks like Jasmine in his Asian features. I tell her he is Chinese like her and that seems to please her. It also helped that I promised her a new toy if she was cooperative. Nice that T@rget is right next door.
She picked out a playdough toy and in between her time-outs and meltdowns this weekend, we actually managed to have a little fun. It hasn't exactly been a honeymoon these last couple of days.
But here, she's having some honest-to-goodness light-hearted fun and I was as eager as she was to enjoy it.
So if she wanted to climb up on her chair and take a picture of her feet, I said "Why not?"

Making the best of it

It was a beautiful, sunny day, a break between stormy and rainy weather here on the West Coast. We took full advantage of the sunshine despite Jasmine being too sick to go to school today. She's sidelined with a bad cold, but don't expect her to admit to any of that. She practically dragged me out the door this morning wanting to "play outside, mama." Never one to miss an opportunity to be outdoors, we still needed to walk the dog, so this morning we headed off to our little pond in search of dragons. They've been spotted recently at the pond, mostly yellow, according to J, although I could swear we've seen several that are multi-colored and even spotted.

Even more enticing than the dragons, we now typically walk with Dora and her monkey, Boots. Dora is a new addition to our entertainment repertoire, and we have grown to love and hate Dora. More about that later. But with J's ever-expanding imagination, she will walk for over on hour if Dora and boots are with us, holding hands or putting Dora and Boots on her back (or all three on mine...).
We took some time to admire the sky and the passing clouds.
J eventually ended up with my hat on her head. In fact, most of my things end up on her, in her or around her. She generally wants whatever I have.

We spent the day wrapped up with each other. With Shane away working for the weekend, I cancelled my day at work to stay home with my sick girl. Clearly, our morning outing doesn't indicate how poorly she feels, but trust me, she's wheezing and coughing and generally feels lousy. She loved having me close and didn't whine or complain one bit about her ickiness. And I didn't whine and complain about her wanting to be held all day--after all, who doesn't want to be comforted when they're sick?

Me and my girl

My dad-- photographer, author, chef, geologist--catching us in a moment together.

Olympic junkies

Oh yes we are. While there are plenty of qualities that Shane and I don't share, the love of the Olympics pre-dates our relationship by decades. We have both been Olympic junkies since childhood. We love the intensity of competition, the sacrifice made by so many athletes around the world and the symbolism of Olympic pomp and circumstance. We appreciate the philosophy of the Olympic games, that athletes from around the world are representing their countries in a peaceful and joyful way. We know that it's a flawed system at times, but it sure works a lot better than most systems out there. And as a truly international family ourselves (Irish, Canadian-Hungarian-American and Chinese), we are not one-dimensional in our patriotism.

So, every 2 years (and yes, we were thrilled when the summer and winter games were offset) we stay up way too late and immerse ourselves in sports that we may know little to nothing about. We learn the names of the competitors, know what snowboard cross is about and cheer for the Chinese figure-skating pair winning their gold medal after 18 years of trying. I emerge from the bedroom in the morning to Jasmine's break-of-dawn calls, bleary-eyed from our midnight Olympic run. Midway through the games, things really start to take their toll. We start to get tired and cranky. We start counting the days until the games are over.

The creme-de-la-creme was summer 08, when the Beijing games coincided with our trip to China. It was a surreal time as we prepared to go to China, completely engrossed in the games, trying to imagine at the same time that we were on the verge of becoming parents. We lost sleep for many reasons that month as we tried to prepare for our big trip while foolishly staying up too late night after night. We're on our way to bed early tonight, out of sheer necessity. But we'll be back at it tomorrow night, no doubt, staying up too late until the games are over.

New shades

It's probably unfair to post pictures of Jasmine in a new pair of shades, given that most of the country is buried in 10 feet of snow. We've had our fair share of rain these past few weeks, but we really have no room to complain about the weather. Jasmine, on the other hand, does complain when the sun gets into her eyes, especially when we're in the car. So, while at our local bike shop this weekend, Jasmine got herself a real pair of UV protected, actual sunglasses. She picked blue over pink and insists on taking them wherever we go.
This morning, it was a quick stroll with the dog.
Oh yes, she loves her new accessory.
And while you're at it, can you believe how tall this kid is at 2 1/2 years old?

If there's a kid around who knows how to fill up Mama's boots, it's J.