Cousin Jealousy is Normal

Big news in Handmade Beauty Box land: I filmed a segment on Fox News about Handmade Beauty Box and how we launched on Kickstarter. The segment hasn't come out yet but I'm hopeful that we did justice to our awesome brand.

My Mastermind Group met last week and had a hilariously wonderful time coming up with 100 things we want to do (ah, the bucket list!) before we die. It is surprisingly hard to come up with a list of 100 things, unless you just open up a travel magazine and list all the great places to visit that they list. Some of the notables on my list include visiting Greece, doing a family trip to the Galapogos Islands, Disneyland with the family, and learning to cook Thai food. In Thailand. And, duh, meeting the President of the United States.

Visiting the Starbucks Roastery with my Renegade Business Forum was amazing. Every detail was perfect and so much had been thought about in terms of  'the experience'. It's very much the Disneyland of Coffee.

Jamisen and I made meatballs - FROM SCRATCH - the other day. It was super exciting. He decided to put bath fizzies in his meatball recipe. And water. And baking soda. Soooooo ..... that was fun.

Jamisen and I also had a hilarious conversation yesterday. It went like this: "Mommy, I don't like it when I get a new toy and you make me pay for it." It was such a funny perspective. Here I thought we were really making a connection for him and really, all he gets is: whenever I get a new toy, I'll have to pay for it.

We've had Baby Alise over for a visit to give Erik and Cheriss a date night. Baby Lily was VERY concerned that Alise had her pacifier at all times; it was almost like she was like: "Look lady, they give you this thing ALL THE TIME and you are WASTING your opportunity! Use it! Use it! Because, one day, you will only get it at night. And then look at Jamisen, he never gets one. Do not waste a moment, not a moment!"

More binky help ...

Do you see the look that baby Lily is shooting baby Alise? It's clearly a "Hey girlfriend, don't get too comfortable here. Notice who is IN the lap and who is on the floor? That's right, Chickee. And I'm here to stay. Also, bigger. I am bigger."

Money! We have discovered MONEY!

Hooooooh boy, Jamisen has discovered that MONEY can buy things. Yes, things. Things that he wants. He just bought his first toy with money he had "earned" himself. Jamisen has no idea what a quarter is versus a penny but he'll learn quickly.

Behold a very sick little Lily wearing a fever monitoring sticker on her head. She had a fever for a full ten days. It was quite a mystery until this happened:

call it Mother's Intuition but I had this crazy flash of inspiration that Lily had a Urinary Tract Infection. She had been fighting off a cold but it didn't explain a full 10 days in fevers ranging from 99 to 103.6. While our awesome bag trick did not collect the final clean urine specimen because Lily really was not a fan of wearing it (Chris had to go to Urgent Care to get an actual infant urine specimen kit), we did confirm she had a UTI. Poor baby. We're just waiting on the results of the latest culture to confirm the antibiotics got rid of it all.

Jamisen has been a HUGE help in the kitchen. He's helped with salad, meatballs (organic, grass fed meat, of course) and pizza (flax seed crust) in the last week. He's a superstar with helping to unload the dishwasher too - and cleaning his own plate after meals. Our little 3 year old is growing up (sniff sniff).

Little Lily is still learning how to use utensils. She knows how to but prefers to use her hands. She also likes to play with her food much more than Jamisen ever did (scooping out yogurt with her hands etc).  We do sit down meals at least 2X a week now, instead of family meal time in the "stand-up thingies" around the island. The kids are learning table manners and it's working well.

Jamisen and his best friend (girlfriend?) Ava did a day of science fun at the local museum where they painted rocks, made hummingbird feeders and learned more about the life cycle of birds.

Lily is learning the "little to big" concept right now and we have several toys to encourage the concept. Her favorite, by far, are the Russian (or in this case, Mexican) nesting dolls.

We did afternoon date outing to a sophisticated Superbowl party filled with great girlfriends, good food and lots of cheering. While our lovely Seahawks did not prevail, we did have a great time and enjoyed the company.

Family Bowling & Baby Turtles

Just like Daddy =) Lily is such a sweet little monkey-see, monkey-do, both with mimicking words and with her actions.

When we were in Mexico, the girls and I were beyond amazed and just in awe as we watched a newly hatched baby turtle make it out of his nest and go all the way down to the water. It took a long time and boy oh boy, that little turtle had to work SO hard. Every divot was like a mountain for him/her and every little bit of uneven ground needed to an extra spurt of energy to move over.

We hiked every day and swam every day as well. It was great to be active daily.

Back at home, before I left for Mexico, we were so happy that Cheriss and Erik arranged for us to all go bowling at a private bowling alley in Whatcom County. It's actually located in someone's home (!!!).

Baby Alise was awake for part of the festivities and amazingly, managed to take a short nap during all the ball clanging.

Team Cherik is really looking good with the addition of baby Alise.

Jamisen LOVED bowling. He kept saying "I want to go back! I want to go back!" after we left. Of course, it helps that he had the bumpers in when he was bowling.

Even Lily got in on the action, pushing or trying to kick 6 pound balls down the lane.

She also really was excited because there was some junk food at the party - cake and chips - and her sense were on full overload happiness.

The entire bowling team with the Faiolas and Bosseants posing proudly and planning their strikes.

Two Word Sentences & South o' the Border

This has been a banner month in Lily's development. She picks up more words every single day and today, she said a two word sentence. We were thrilled! When Chris was headed off to work, she said "Dad go!" Aw ... and she loses more and more of her baby chubbiness daily and is looking like a toddler every day.

Another welcome development is that she is becoming more and more useful as a play friend for her brother. They both are so genuinely fond of each other and love to play together at least 60% of the time now.

The rest of the time is still fights about sharing, who is in who's standy thing and who can ride the motorcycle and who can't. Jamisen goes back and forth between "I want her to ride on the back with me!" to "GET HER OFF!!!!" and they're both equally hard to manage since Lily is pretty sure she mostly doesn't want to ride on the motorcycle with Jamisen.

One thing that I want to make sure I remember forever and ever and ever is the absolutely crazy-making that the same song, played over and over and over again for 8 hours is. The kids both ADORE their Christmas Music Boxes from  Grandma and Grandpa Faiola and play them incessantly (incessantly!). As much as I love Christmas cheer all year round, year round + all day = crazy brain. However, #silverlining, this means they are totally going to be musical, right?

I went on a little trip south of the border with my Mastermind Group. Just a quick 3.5 day trip to a sleepy fishing village for some centering, rest and some seriously kick-butt focus and business planning.

It was just what this busy Mama needed to start off Q1 of Awesome with some serious motivation.

We've been enjoying family sit down meals at the table, craft time and cooking time since both kids have been getting slightly older and more manageable. Every day, it's less like herding cats and more relationship building. 

A Few Straggler Updates - Holiday Post 2014

Ah, Christmas 2014 ... what a fantastic two days we had. We went to a Christmas Eve church service. Alise slept in Grandpa's arms so sweetly and Grandpa was so proud.

The kids were THRILLED with their Bouncy Tent and in the weeks after Christmas, are down there multiple times a day. It's definitely made our house the party house!

Jamisen really was the perfect little Christmas helper elf. His festive sweater and great hat made him such a merry little Christmas gift for his mama! =)

WHOAH! Santa!!!! Santa visited our house. He had one last gift that he couldn't deliver through the chimney (a motorcycle, fully motorized) for Jamisen. It was mind-blowing. Jamisen was so delighted; like over-the-top insanity.

Christmas was also full of Mastermind parties! Mastermind Group (original) not only had a Christmas party but most of us spent Christmas Day (evening) together as well. Big thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Faiola for watching the kiddos so Chris and I could do Christmas night with my 'Front Row' galpals.

Mastermind Group B also threw a fun party complete with a hilarious photo shoot. Between the ice cream shop and the cookie shop, we're not lacking in sweets in that group or amazing ideas on how to take our businesses and personal lives to the next level.

FSE also had their Christmas parties. 'Twas the season for much celebration and festivities. They did it at a beautiful art gallery in town; it was hard not to shop the walls. Thankfully, two little kiddos kept us too busy to actually take home a painting or three. Hat tip to Grandparents Renoud for the fun outfits the kids are wearing. Aren't they adorable? Jamisen wanted to help Chris with the speech and at one point, climbed up onto the bench to be adorable and copy him. Awwww ...

One of my bucket list items is to meet a current or former President of the United States. I'm climbing that ladder with Vice-President Gore (and Governor Jay Inslee). It was fascinating to hear Vice President Gore's thoughts on energy independence, solar and the future of business.

As always, we are so grateful for our familys' health, the amazing parenting team that help us with Jamisen and Lily and our thriving, challenging businesses. Here's to more blessings, more laughter and more joy in 2015!

Merry Christmas!

Chris and I have both realized that Christmas is twentybajillion times better with kids. They are SO excited about everything. We’ve made the celebration last even longer by incorporating Elf on the Shelf into our December.  Elf on the Shelf, he (or she) is a mischievous little elf that watches all your actions and reports to Santa daily on if you’ve been naughty or nice. Our elves got into so much trouble every day! In fact, the night before Christmas, they tee-peed the ENTIRE house with 2 rolls of toilet paper. Alas, they have flown back to the North Pole with Santa and will return next year.

This year’s Christmas was particularly special because cousin Alise has joined the family. She is growing like a champ, soon to overtake Lily. Cheriss, is an amazing Mom and Erik is a fantastic Dad. We can’t wait for baby Alise too start walking so she can join in all the cousin fun.

Lily is wearing an outfit my Mom purchased for her (before Lily was even a twinkle in our eyes) over a decade ago. We start our holiday family time off with (not a surprise, given our family’s love of cooking and food), Christmas Eve dinner where I made a version of this lasagna and added butternut squash and spinach. It totally worked.

After we had eaten, we took in a beautiful Christmas Eve service. My Dad was thrilled to have baby Alise (yes, that’s her sitting upright in my Mom’s lap up there; she is so wide awake and alert!).

All three kids did great as we adults were reminded of the true reason for the season. For the kids, the concept is still a bit esoteric and very ‘opening presents-y’. We left out cookies, milk and of course, a treat for the reindeer and Jamisen hoped that his good behavior would push him over the edge for a gift-filled Christmas morning.

Santa left a note in return saying that he was unable to fit all the gifts down the chimney and may be back to deliver more. And then, this happened. And Jamisen’s little brain exploded with unicorns, puppies and glittery fairies because life  just does not get any better for a 3 year old than this:

Santa delivered quite a gift: a motorized scooter that Jamisen is so very excited about. I’ll be purchasing him a helmet to go along with that scooter if it ever goes outside.

Lily was not so sure about this Santa with the beard. Jamisen was catatonic in joy, wonder and anticipation. Alas, Santa had a few more houses to go to and was not able to stay for lunch (though he was invited).

Wishing you a loving, fun-filled holiday season week as we ponder the upcoming year and look back at the current year with a mixture of thankfulness, wistfulness and joy. Here’s a fantastic 2015 for us all!

Lily Discovers Fashion. Jamisen Discovers Sugar.

Aw, sweet sweet Lily; she is starting to really talk a lot with many new words. Every day, her vocabulary expands in some new and wondrous way. Just today, she started saying 'bubbles!' for the bubble bath she was taking. It was adorable. She also is getting quite vocal about what she likes and doesn't like. And she does NOT like being told 'No.' Oh, the crocodile tears....

Jamisen has found sugar and it is love at first bite. This holiday season has not been kind to our kale loving household, with the slow introduction of the white poison. Plus, the elves on the shelf (more on them later!) delivery sugar many times a week for breakfast (oh, those mischievous elves!) so that's not helping us. 

Boss woman Lily is so good about finding her place in our house. She and Jamisen are getting along better than ever, and, she completely knows when he is going to come running over, screaming: "Get her out of my Standy Thing!" or "No! I don't want her playing with that!" and is generally cooperative about complying with personal space needs. It will be interesting to see what happens as she gets bigger!  She LOVES to dress up and show off her outfits. She's very proud when she's wearing a dress or sparkly shoes. 

Jamisen loves cooking and loves baking. Here he is both baking a cake WHILE using his trucks as instruments of cake making. It's quite a feat and there are still cookie crumbs on the floor. Yes, the elves provided both the cookie (Erin Baker's of course!) and the marshmallows!

We went to a birthday party and had the best time at the gym it was hosted at. The kids got to run around and everyone was happy, especially little gymnast-in-training, Lily.

I jetted off to NYC for a whirlwind Handmade Beauty Box trip. 

I visited 26 editors in two days (!) and even managed to take in a show (The Elephant Man). It was a great trip and I hope it will pay dividends in the months and years to come. I did miss my kiddos, of course, but was thankful that Chris held down the home front just fine! =)