8.9.09

We have a new family member and she has wings…


She’s technically Joe’s bird, but I named her Sunshine Delila Dalbo. She is a Sun Conure and she is probably the neatest pet I have ever had. The kids all love her already and physically fight to hold her (Junior and Jaime got into a shoving and pushing match last night over who was next to hold her.)

July 15 - 31, 2009

The last two weeks of July were busy ones for all of us. Junior would say “this is taking forever” as that is his new saying. He is also sounding less and less like a baby. He has learned to add the sssss sound at the beginning of words like nake, quare and kool. He’s also learned a lot of shapes including squares, rectangles, octogons, and pentagons. We had a yard sale on the 18th bringing in a little over $300. The girls’ portion was $80 which pleased them. They were also beside themselves with excitement of their impending birthdays. This is the first year ever that I have not held a party for them. It was strange not to be preparing for it for the past couple months, but kinda nice just the same. We all went to Chuck E Cheese on the 31st to celebrate. All 3 kids had a blast. With their tickets, Jaime bought an invisible inkpen set and proceeded to write on the interior roof of my van on the way home. Sabrina’s purchase was not as defacing but pretty irritating, as she got trick glasses that squirt water at unsuspecting parents and siblings. Did they just turn twelve or two????? For the last movie night it was my turn and we watched In The Womb. I’m sure I enjoyed it more than the others. For game night, it also happened to be my turn and I chose a game I played with my Nunna years ago, Rummi-O-II. Joe and I had been wanting to start teaching the girls Rummy, and they really seemed to enjoy it. Yippee! 

June 15 - July 14, 2009

THIS *MONTH* IN THE DALBO FAMILY

I haven’t posted in a month – do I blame “busy”ness or “lazy”ness? How bout a little of both. I was on vacation at home from the 3rd to the 12th of July, so it’s likely we were very busy up to that point, and then decidedly lazy from July 3rd on.

I am back in the swing of things and hope to keep posts up on a weekly basis. I do think the format will change to weeks ending on Fridays and postings on Saturday mornings. We changed our family game night to Mondays (except this week), so we get to do it more often – which has proved to be more fun with each person’s turn coming around more quickly. The timing cut the way the weeks were falling though, so I’ll try this for a bit, and we’ll go from there.

Quick Overview of the Month:

First ultrasound was on June 17th

Sabrina was promted from elementary school and received 3 awards on June 18th

Girls have been reading and writing daily to keep their skills sharpened. They don’t know it yet but Math and Physical Fitness are in store for this next month, along with a sprinkling of spelling and vocabulary. And more chores too. Mean mommy – I know. They’re gonna be so happy when school starts back and they can slack off. hahahahha

The whole family had a BLAST watching the City of Manassas fireworks show. Happy Birthday America!!! May God bless you and keep you safe this next year!!!

George was fixed on July 10th and seems to have recovered incredibly quickly. Even though he still “wrestles” Simon in play, I think he is showing signs of becoming calmer already.

Movie Nights – we had to have had a couple – I only remember Titanic off the top of my head – it was good to see again, but boy – what a tear jerker. On my vacation I also saw Knowing and Marley and Me – “Puffy eyes” would have been a compliment

Game nights – there’s been at least 4 – Joe has been choosing UNO Flash quite a bit and winning too. We played Cranium Cadoo one week and Jaime and I were on the winning team. I’m drawing a blank on the other games we’ve played lately.

Today we had a genetics ultrasound because of the higher risk of my age, but everything looked great. The whole family enjoyed seeing the baby wave it’s arms and legs around at first. It measured 1.89 inches long and it’s heartbeat was 154.

June 8 - 14, 2009

Let’s see, last week, what happened?!?! Hmmm I really don’t recall anything eventful. The pregnancy hormones must have taken over my brain because I don’t recall anything at all.

The gas ran out on my grill – I remember that – 3 minutes before the chicken was finished cooking. Had to finish it up in the oven/broiler. No one showed any signs of sickness from it – so that was good.

Joe was off Tuesday and Wednesday with his new schedule and seemed ok after working Thursday through Saturday in a row. He used Sunday to rest up after the long stint. I am sure it will take some getting used to, and then about that time, it’ll change again. :-)

Joe, Junior and I went to the Salvation Army Wednesday afternoon to purchase some maternity clothes for me. Excellent prices and an even better fit. Junior found a Buzz Lightyear shirt for 75 cents. My kind of deal! He was so excited that he wanted to wear it home. We talked him out of that, but he did wear it the next day to day care.

The weekend was quiet and lazy. A trip to the library and swimming a lot was about it. There was some unneeded excitement in the swimming department. George dunked Junior with both paws. Junior had been in the pool and George wasn’t paying him any mind, but I watched him turn and look at Junior at one point and I KNEW what was coming. George pounced and I pounced. Junior was only under for a second if that. I quickly stood him up on the edge of the pool, out of harm’s way. He said, “Thank you Mommy.” Awwww how sweet. Now to kill the dog. I didn’t have to – the second I turned around he had tucked tail, jumped out of the pool and bolted out of the fenced area. My best friend mentioned perhaps it is George’s “instinct” that has him “saving” people. Joe thinks he’s just playing like he does on land, not realizing that water is softer than land, and has the potential to drown his playmates. I am taking the easy way out and hoping it hormones. Well they run my life – why not everything else’s? He is scheduled to be fixed on July 10th. Until then, he is not allowed to step paw into the pool area while children are swimming. After July 10th, it’ll be on a very closely watched basis.

June 1 - 7, 2009

Last week didn’t end well and this week didn’t start well. Just as he was preparing to leave for work, Joe heard an inner voice tell him to check on the female snake who appeared to have ovulated recently. Sure enough – there were eggs – unfortunately – all four appear to Joe to be slugs. He did move them to the incubator but feels it’s only a matter of time before they perish.

Sabrina’s Monday wasn’t much better. After arriving at school, they ushered the 5th graders to the auditorium to begin a day of healing after the loss of one of their teachers.

Junior was quite excited about the contents of the care package that arrived Monday from Grandma and Papa Halcrow, especially the Nintendo Game Boys! He played The Land Before Time game like an old pro. I had never seen a 3 year old do so well on a video game. It was really cool!

We also celebrated Joe’s birthday as a family on Monday. We had a Carvel ice cream cake. Aunt ‘Nita, Grandma and Papa Dalbo arrived in time to share in the celebration with us. The kids got their Daddy an orbital sander thingy.

Georgie-Porgie turned 6 months old this week and Simon is now forever in his shadow. I never thought I would view Simon as a small dog but he is looking smaller and smaller each day.
Family Game Night was my choice and I chose a $100,000 Pyramid DVD game that we received in the care package. The girls have never seen the show themselves but really enjoyed the clue giving part, once they got the hang of it.

Family Movie Night was Sabrina’s choice and at least now I don’t have to worry about a trip to the beach this year, as she chose Jaws. She loves sharks and did pretty good watching one wreck havoc. Kids will be kids, and I guess I have two with pretty good heads on their shoulders (SOMETIMES) because they actually laughed at the point where Jaws killed the old boat Captain. I think they saw the movie for what it was and were happily entertained. I will admit – I saw the movie through different eyes this time. Not sure when the last time was that I watched it, but it was before having children, because I let loose quite a few tears when Roy’s sons were in/near the pond where Jaws was attacking. Funny how things change with kids around.

Our weather was rainy all week so the pool was pretty cold Saturday but quite comfortable on Sunday. It’s amazing how much time and energy the members of our family use in planning to throw people into the pool. It’s almost become an obsession for some. :-)

Speaking of…..Jaws, our eldest ferret, has lost his hop it seems. He’s not the young, bouncing hairball he used to be. When he spent time running (walking mostly) around the house on Sunday, he looked his age. He seems a lot more fragile now. Still the sweetest ferret in town though!