New Beginnings: Arise and Shine

Happy Valentine's Day

Little Lord Steed asks, "Would you to be my Valentine?"

How could you possibly say no?

(photo from 2010)

Pant Skills

Baby A is developing great skills. These photos document the newest skill: putting on pants. Now, as you can see he does not have it mastered just yet but this was his first attempt--not too shabby for his first time.

Today after I announced to Baby A that it was time to leave the house and go pick up Big O from school (an event that he looks forward to each day), I went to use the potty. Upon exiting the bathroom I noticed that Baby A was no longer in the hallway, but I could hear him heading out the back door. Remembering that he was not dressed, I stopped at his dresser and grabbed a shirt and a pair of pants for my undressed baby, and ran to the back door. There he was on the back porch, backing down the stairs, dressed in a pair of inside out pants pulled halfway up and backwards, plus a pair of pants in his left hand and another pair laying on the back porch.

Wow. I was impressed. I have never once allowed him to try putting on his own clothes and I guess he was tired of waiting for me to give him the opportunity. Plus, he really wanted to go and pick up the Big O and knew that clothing would be required for such a trip. What I can't figure out is if he opened up the pants drawer in his dresser on his own or if I left it open giving him easy access to all of his pants. Regardless, I am super impressed that he managed to get on his own pants. Clearly, Baby A is developing great skills. Maybe his next development will be the nunchuck skills.

Bad Mommy

For the last two or three days Baby A has been refusing to drink milk.

Each time I handed him his kleankanteen sippy cup (see above) he has eagerly grabbed it, taken a sip, returned it to me and then started crying. And I would take the sippy cup and place it back in the fridge. Today he refused to even take it from me when I offered it to him--he just started crying. I have been very confused by this since Baby A loves milk. When he wants some he runs to the fridge and bangs on the door until I open it up and hand him his sippy cup. I have been rather confused as to why he has been refusing it for the last two days.

But this evening the confusion was all cleared up when I decided it was probaly time to give the sippy cup a washing. Oh what a suprise I found.

Turns out his sippy did not contain milk in the liquid form. Oh no, it had moved onto the realm of solids-- the milk had become cheese. And not yummy cheese, sour stinky cheese.

To Baby A I offer this apology: I'm sorry I have been trying to making you drink sour chunky milk for the last three days. I am sorry that I have become such a negligent mother. Trust me, I'm feeling pretty bad right now. I hope you can forgive me and that I have not caused you to hate milk or your klean kanteen sippy cup.

Happy Valentine's Day

Pretty Valentines.

The Big O and I made these valentines for his kindergarten class, last year.

I still love how they turned out. I think they are beautiful. It was hard to let him give them all away to his classmates.

This year I was far less ambitious.

This year's valentines, I am a little ashamed to admit, were store bought. But not by me, by my Mom, some years ago. So I was just using something up that would have otherwise been thrown away, which is a good thing. Only, they were Sponge Bob Square Pants valentines. >sigh<>

(The Big O and the valentines he made, February 2010.)

And now I am taking solace in looking at these photos of last year's valentines and reminding myself that I am capable of doing fun, creative and pretty projects with my kids. It's just that I don't have to do them all of the time. And sometimes it is better for everyone involved to just do the simplest and quickest project available.

Happy Valentine's Day

Large S has Awesome Hair

Large S has some awesome hair. As he approached one year of age the awesomeness of his hair began to emerge; small curls began to form at the base of his hairline. As he grew older the curls remained and got larger and longer and more springy. Take a look at the pictures and see for yourself:

(1 year old, the curls emerge)

(2 years old, look at those ringlets!)

(a happy curly haired three year old)

(Oct 2010, the ringlets are getting longer)

(Dec 2010, that hair is awesome! Look at all that curliness! It's out of control!)

So, as proven, Large S has awesome, beautiful, curly hair.

Or rather, he had some great hair. Last weekend (while visiting Theric's family) we did something drastic. Something that had me pretty close to tears. Take a look:

We cut Large S's curly locks off. (Well, actually we had Theric's mother do it, she did a great job. It's hard to cut the hair of a wiggly three and a half year old, even if you are distracting him by letting him watch Wonder Pets and feeding him marshmallows.)

I am still in shock about this and I'm still not sure how I feel about it...I think I miss his curls, maybe they'll grow back. He says he likes his new haircut, but sometimes he says he doesn't and that he wants us to stop mentioning it.

One good thing about the new haircut is that it may end the awkwardness strangers feel when I have to tell them that the cute little girl they were asking me about is actually a cute little boy. I've always thought it was his long curly hair that made people assume he was a girl, but now that the curls are all gone I can see that the Large S is just really really pretty.

But I think his snappy dressing may solve this problem. Maybe we'll move to bowties everyday.

It's Official!

Baby A is walking!