Hybrid Minivan Please

So I was thinking about my gripe with the oil companies. I expect them to make money, obviously. But RECORD profits seem a bit ridiculous. The fact is that we've actually been fairly lucky - other countries pay a lot more for gas (the UK is near $10/gallon). And I can get used to the price of gas, I guess. I don't complain every time I fill up anymore.

I think the problem is the lack of alternatives. Don't get me wrong, I'm not very good to the environment, and I wouldn't consider myself "green" by any means. But it still drives me crazy how many great technologies are out there to save energy and fuel, but most of them aren't actually being used yet. I mean, we could generate 3 percent of the entire nation's electricity with cow manure. One of my clients could power 40 2,000 square foot homes with just one little generator that uses waste heat.

I know I'm not the first person to ask for this, but PLEASE, can we have a hybrid Minivan option? They have been selling a Toyota hybrid Minivan in Japan for seven years now. Seven years. It gets 40 miles to the gallon, versus the 16 I get with our Caravan. We can't fit in any of the other fuel-efficient cars, so I am really looking forward to the first option for families who need more than 4 or 5 seats.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled, non-political, "Mommy" blog.

Maddening

Exxon Posts New Profit Record

Pacifiers Anonymous

Last week a short article about kids not using pacifiers after age 2 appeared in my mail pile at home. I think someone is trying to tell me something. No one fessed up. Not that I was offended - I've been talking about taking them away for 6 months now.

Ben is out of town this week and suggested I take them away while he's gone. I guess he doesn't want to hear the cries of "paci, paci!" I guess he doesn't want to see our near-perfect schedule of naps and bedtime thrown out the window. I guess he doesn't want to be the bad guy.



I think I'm almost ready to be the bad guy. Almost. Just trying to psyche myself up.

P.S. Don't even get me started on how they need to move to big kid beds and be potty trained too. Now that they are two I feel like we need to enter "big kid" world. Can't they be babies a little longer?

Boy/Girl Twin Research

This video on CNN highlights research that suggests girl twins are influenced by boy twins in the womb. I'm not sure I buy their findings...Isabel is pretty girly.

But, she has been known to hit or bite now and then. Do you think Adam taught her that in the womb?

A New Question

A while back, we wrote about how often people say, "Wow, you have your hands full." We still get that a lot. But now that Adam and Isabel don't quite look the same age, and Anna is only a little bit bigger than they are, the new question is....

"Are they all yours?"

And then another question often follows.

"Are you going to have any more?"

Strangers never cease to amaze me. Note: If I know you, you can ask me this question. If we have never met and are in line at Wal-Mart, you cannot expect me to discuss my plans to populate the earth.

Summer Blues

I noticed I hadn't updated in over a week, and we didn't do much that was blog-worthy this weekend. So, I figured I would just ramble about the not so fun things about summer. Because its not all about Pacific Palisades and birthday parties, right?

I'm pretty sure it has been a month or more since we saw a day below 100 degrees. The problem is, if it is over about 90 I don't really like going outside. So there is about a month in the summer I would rather just sit in air conditioning, but I don't think the kids like that as much as I do.

Gas is expensive. Duh. But that means when Saturday morning comes around, there are lots of options (go to the beach, a kids museum, etc.) but gas is a big factor and often keeps me from doing anything. This Saturday we went to the mall instead.

Anna is dying for school to be back in. She only went to preschool for a few months before summer, but she asks about school every day. She asked how many more sleeps and we told her about 50.

As we speak, Anna is crying about going swimming in the big pool. The problem is, one adult can't take three kids swimming in a big pool. It takes two of us to do this successfully.

Hopefully the little pool will appease her this afternoon - and I think it might be a long summer.

Weekend in Pacific Palisades

We don't have a summer vacation planned, so for now we are enjoying short weekend trips that don't require too much gas. This holiday weekend, we were lucky enough to stay at a friend's house in the hills of Pacific Palisades, CA. They were out of town so we took the opportunity to house sit for a few days.

We spent a lot of time relaxing at the house, since they had lots of kids toys, a great view, and hundreds (no joke) of kids movies. We went to the beach in Pacific Palisades on Friday, and then to Malibu on Saturday. We also enjoyed a few fireworks from the deck. The kids are becoming quite the beach bums.

Triple the Fun Birthday Recap

We had a small get together at John's Pizza for the kid's birthday, followed by two more days of individual cake and presents. I'm sure we'll have many years with three individual parties, so we took it easy this year while the kids are young.

Adam still wakes up some mornings singing (or yelling) Happy Birthday. And at dinner tonight he said, "Happy Birthday Anna." It's over buddy, it's over.








P.S. Mom and Dad Y were there at each event too - Mom and Dad, we never take any pictures of you with the kids!!