This weekend

Our weekend kicked off with Will tripping on his vent and coming out of his room dripping blood from somewhere in his mouth, of course obscuring his front teeth so that I immediately thought he'd lost them both.

His lips aren't exactly small to begin with, so with his additional swelling, he reached Mick Jagger proportions.

I made blueberry muffins Saturday morning and both of the kids ate way too many muffins. (Will kept saying, "I love eating these things!" He had eaten six or seven by lunchtime. True story.)

After our muffin binge, we took a nice walk around the neighborhood.

We do not, in fact, have an endorsement deal with Horizon.

Will requested that I take his picture. This was his chosen pose. After seeing it on my phone, he deemed it acceptable. 

Laura got tired of walking and promptly fell asleep in this awkward position in the stroller.

This is not mold. It's chia seeds. Jamison brought some back after a trip to Whole Foods. He mixed up this appetizing potion and actually asked me if I wanted to try some. You'd think he would know me a little better after ten years together. He took a drink, looked at me and said, "This is even grosser than what you imagine." He then proceeded to drink the entire thing. I have nothing more to say on this subject. (However, he did clean out the garage this weekend so I won't make too much fun of him.)

Have a good (chia-seed-free) week!

Greetings from the playground

Today the weather is too good to be true, so we stopped off at the playground on our way home from picking Will up from school.

It's so nice out I'm almost tempted to do yard work. Almost.

A month later

Well, I would apologize for not writing anything here lately but I'm pretty sure you've made it just fine without any of my usual drivel. I would also vow to write more often but I'm also pretty sure that that would be an empty promise. So.

Where to start? We spent a week in WV while Jamison was in Milwaukee yet again and it felt like I was on vacation! With Grammie around constantly, I forgot how time consuming the mundane areas of life with kids (preparing food, cleaning, bathing, so forth and so on ad infinitum) can be as she did a fair bit of assisting with both of the kids. And to top it all off, my mother-in-law watched the kids for a few hours while my mom and I went to lunch. Alone! I can't remember going out to lunch with my mom alone since having any of the kids so this was a much-appreciated afternoon off. (Thanks, Mamaw Di!)

We spent a morning at my nephew's birthday party. Will loved all the rides and games.

Laura wasn't so sure. We'll be going back to the same place for the kids' party here in a few weeks so we'll see if she's a little more adventurous the second time around.

We had to go to the mall so Jamison could augment his extensive collection of corduroy pants before leaving on his trip. The bonus was that we got to ride this little train all around the mall. Will loved it. Laura was ready to disembark after a few minutes.

Photo by Will. We have about 446 pictures of various parts of the van's interior.

Our activity level while in WV completely overwhelmed Laura.

The kids both got haircuts.

It was Laura's first haircut. Such a big girl now. The woman cutting her hair (Normie) is a family friend who also cut Will's hair for the first time so I wanted to wait until we were home to continue the tradition. (And yes, that's a sucker in my not-even-two-year-old's hand. Will had his first sucker sometime well into his first year of preschool so we're obviously a little more lax this time around.)

We took the kids to the playground to enjoy the warm weather.

And to the library for story time.

Will got to ride his bike some while Sister was napping.

We also went on a long walk.

Will could walk around in the woods for hours. Sometimes I think we're doing him a disservice by living where we do, a little ways away from the kind of rural childhood I had.

We saw lots more cousins and family while home but I'm not exactly consistent with the picture-taking and have no pictures to show from all this.

I'm sorry this was so boring. My writing/communication skills in general appear to be a little rusty.

Hopefully it's as nice out where you are as it is here!

We had a big weekend

We celebrated Super Bowl Sunday by getting a van.

Sorry she's cut off on both ends. I was a little bit embarrassed to be photographing my van and didn't want the neighbors to see me. Although I should just check my dignity at the door for all eternity, since I now drive a van and all.

Kidding aside, I've wanted a van for some time now. We were really crammed into the Forester. The kids' car seats were separated by a few inches, not nearly enough for someone to sit. (Unless you're lucky enough to be my mom, who has on a few occasions been shoved into this tiny little space. No more, though! Grammie can have her own personal row now.)

Just look at all that space between car seats! And the back row of seats is folded down, leaving a veritable cavern in the back.

Laura approves.

I approve. It basically does everything except get Will out and take him into his classroom.

So now we're van converts. I can't imagine that we ever didn't drive one. (Speaking of driving, it drives really well and doesn't seem all that much bigger than the Subaru.)

In other news, Jamison also got a Prius. Two new cars in one weekend (more accurately, in one day--we were the Toyota dealership's favorite customers that day). I don't think we can handle much more excitement.

Speaking of excitement, we're pretty excited that we finally watched "Downton Abbey." We're hooked. It's definitely a little different than "Friday Night Lights" but it's really, really good.  (I was listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" this weekend and there was a joke made about telling the audience that the Super Bowl was some event that was on at the same time as "Downton Abbey." I cracked up.)

All for now...

Oh, we're still around...

I'm still on Official Computer Restriction. So I'm breaking my self-imposed time limits this afternoon to show you some obligatory pictures of my children.

I surprised the kids by taking them for a picnic at the playground on the way home from getting Will at school the other day. Their sheer joy at such a small thing made me want to do it a lot more. (Weather permitting, of course, although winter has yet to really show up here except for brief cold periods. We've only had snow once or twice and neither time was the messy accumulating kind. Our brand new snow boots are brand spanking new, two full months into possible-snow-territory.)

Will fully embraces the "big kid" section of the playground now. It seems like it was a few months ago that he was a little hesitant to go down the big slides. (And they are kind of tall.) No more.

Not to be outdone, Sister has to go down the slides by herself now. She still embraces the toddler part of the playground, though. More my speed.

Playing spaceship. There was a complicated navigation pattern that I was supposed to be following (I was the driver, as Will was on the lookout for baby aliens). I don't usually think that Will and Laura look alike until I see them in pictures. Then the resemblance is obvious. Like in this picture.

I found this in the fridge the other day. You just never know, do you?

In other earth-shatteringly monumental news, I got a new steam mop that has really had an embarrassingly significant effect on my life. It really is a game-changer. (Sidenote: Here is where I have to mention that Jamison reviewed the options I gave him and chose one other than my initial choice based on reviews. I would hear about it later if I neglected to say so.) I actually purchased one a few weeks back at Big Lots for a steal and loved it the first day. (I have a love/hate relationship with Big Lots. Right now it's a bit skewed toward the "hate" end of the scale.) However, the second day, the water coursed through the mop and out the bottom at an alarming rate, leaving a huge puddle on the floor. Needless to say, I was not thrilled. But I had seen the Steam Mop Promised Land and I made it my mission to get another one asap. And here we are. Thrilling, right?

And now my steam mop and I have some more mopping to do. 

And PS. Eileen, your thoughtfulness is really overwhelming. I so appreciate your putting me on the traditional African clothing mailing list. In return, please look forward to receiving a catalog featuring lederhosen and such for your visual pleasure. Enjoy and you're welcome!

Focus, I have none

We're on Day 4 of 5 of Daddy being out of town so please excuse my babbling and lack of structure and organization. I have also pretty much stopped using my actual camera since my phone is so much easier and fits so much better in my purse. (And, truth be told, the memory card that I have in my camera is full and I'm way too lazy to delete pictures at the moment.)

So.

I take lots of pictures of Laura these days because she's a much more willing subject than her brother.

Sister loves her some spaghetti. As does her brother.

Conked out. The ten-minute ride to get Will at school is often too much for her.

Both of the kids are suddenly way into coloring. It's way nice and way more peaceful than some of the other things they've been way into.

Poor Will is seriously under-represented in my pictures here lately, isn't he?

In case you were wondering, this is what a ham hock looks like. I made pinto beans (soup beans for all my WV peeps) and cornbread for dinner last week and the recipe I used relied heavily on one for flavor.

This is what I fixed myself for lunch today. It's delicious and I highly recommend trying it. Top and tail some green beans (fancy speak for trim the ends), cut them approximately in half and steam them until they're to your liking. I like them fairly crisp. Mix some Dijon and mayo in a bowl, add the beans and mix all the deliciousness up. Sprinkle with sea salt (and I really think it must be actual sea salt instead of table salt, since it adds a nice crunch that table salt wouldn't). I bet you didn't think you'd be getting a recipe from me today, did you? (Well, not really a "recipe" but whatever.)

I received this catalog in the mail today. I'm still trying to figure out what we have bought at some point that placed us on this mailing list.

And finally, as bedtime is rapidly approaching, here is a picture of our bedroom, my very favorite room in our house. It's the Zen amid the chaos and I like it more and more the longer we live here. She's come a long way from her yellow striped wallpaper and wall-to-wall ugly carpet. See?

Well, that's all for now. It's supposed to be frigid tonight so our super cozy flannel sheets are calling my name.

Hello there

It's 2012! How did that happen so quickly?

Here's what our car looked like before we headed back to Cincinnati from WV:

(All of these were taken with my phone, so they may be a little blurry.)

I can't even begin to describe the amount of gifts the kids got. I still have no idea how we crammed ourselves and the mountain of stuff into the same relatively small vehicle. But we made it back and most of the new stuff made its way . . . straight onto Laura's bed. (Not her crib, fortunately for her. We have a full-size bed in her room as well that is now home to our Christmas overflow. It's not pretty but it has nowhere else to reside until we get the basement back in working order. It makes me break out into hives if I think about it too long so I'm going to move on now.)

Look! It's a hair clip! She's starting to slowly let us put items of containment in her hair. She's also on her own personal mission to somehow cram herself into the dishwasher without me noticing. Speaking of noticing, please refrain from noticing the bag of trash. Or refrain from judging me, at the very least. My housekeeping skills have been a little bit suspect in the past few weeks.

Look who's forward facing now! (I know, she's not supposed to be turned around for another few months but I couldn't fit her in any longer rear facing. And I'm a total Nervous Nelly about car seat safety so I've already fretted enough about it for all of us.)

We've had lots of family game nights.

Speaking of games, Will loves this one that my sister and her fam got for him. It involves thinking and planning and doesn't make a lick of noise so it's a hit for everyone.

She is the sweetest child.

With the start of the new year, we've made a few changes around here. We're determined to eat out less so I've been cooking a whole lot more, which I always enjoy when I get back into the swing of things. My major accomplishment was actually accomplished some time ago but I'm really off the Coke this time. However, I've been supplementing my water drinking with chocolate milk so I don't know if I should boast about it, exactly.

I'll try to write something soon. I'm limiting my computer time these days because I have about eighty million things to do around here and about one hour in which to do them, unless I want to stay up until the wee hours of the night. But that interests me not in the least. Right now, for instance, it's 9:05 and I can't wait to finish this and get in bed. And they say parenthood makes people boring. (Obviously "they" didn't know me pre-parenthood.)