The drinks are cheaper, the equipment is in way better shape, and you only have to share with as many kids as you invite over to play.
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| “Here you go, Thomas, you drive up on this ramp that Ian’s Mommy put together!” |
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| Thanks for the expansion pack, Uncle Ty… it really comes in handy. |
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| “Thomas, you are a good boy. I’m proud of you!” |
PS: DADDY is drinking the Monster Blue… NOT Ian.
This little bit of cuteness started when they asked to play trains. They set up the tracks together- I’d hand them each a piece and they’d each lay their piece and ask me to help them when they couldn’t figure out how to make it do what they wanted, like make a circle.
Then they started a game where Ian was driving his train and Sophie was doing the signals- red means stop, green means go, and blue meant something I couldn’t quite understand. I was trying so hard to capture it on video, but they were done by the time I got it fired up. After that, we have what you see here.
This utopia of interactive play came to an end when they realized there were not enough train pieces in the track box to make a really LONG train and started trying to poach each other’s engines. I had to get down on hands and knees and dig up the basket of trains from Ian’s room to restore harmony- and restored it was.
last night, Baby 2.0 woke both his parents with his favorite 3:00 am pastime, which is, apparently, the Can Can.
His brother’s facial expression here pretty much sums that up.
Keep it up, bitty dude… we’re glad you’re growing.
Winnie the Pooh Day (not to be confused with Pooh’s birthday) happens on January 18th every year. We have now officially added this holiday to our family “Wheel of the Year.”
For our celebration this year, we made cupcakes and decorated them to look like bees, and I made a Bundt cake with a honey glaze to represent the beehive. Unfortunately, the bees’ stripes started sliding off the icing about half an hour after we decorated them, and the honey glaze was so watery it soaked into the cake and made it mushy. So we’ll work on refining our techniques for future years. The only absolute keeper was the “smackerel of honey” cream cheese frosting we made for the cupcakes. Well, I suppose we can keep the pretzel wings, as well.
We hosted a little party and the kids really enjoyed putting their own wings on the bees. Ian received a copy of The House At Pooh Corner from Mommy as a gift in honor of the day, and it has become a story time staple ever since.
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| Ian and Sophie eating their bees. |
In case you are having trouble keeping track, this is 23.5 weeks gestation.
Mister and Little Mister are putting up some shelves in the basement today.
So, yesterday morning I realized that, not only do I still have the Christmas decorations up, but I’ve started hanging some for Valentine’s Day. And then, it dawned on me that the Halloween pumpkins were still outside the front door.
I decided that it was high time I put my foot down. We are NOT going to hang onto holidays long enough to do three at once. So I sent Mister to throw the pumpkins away after Little Mister went to bed last night. Then, the terrible mother I am told him the squirrels ate them, without a single qualm. As it happens, given his recent Beatrix Potter obsession, that explanation went over rather well, but it was clear that if it were up to him it would still be too soon to let go of the pumpkins. I sort of regret the decision to wait and buy them really close to Halloween, so they “wouldn’t rot before the holiday.” I didn’t realize that the “holiday” they wouldn’t rot before was Mother’s Day.
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| All set up for the Giving Tree Gift Swap- right down to the fake fire. |
The reason I’ve not put away the Christmas decorations just yet is that we have a (now) annual tradition of swapping White Elephant items on the Twelfth Day of Christmas. (Yep, that’s a real thing, not just a goofy song.)
This year we were a bit late and tied it into a gently used gift swap we started for the kids last year- each family picks something they’ve finished with or found on Freecycle or at a thrift store, etc, and chooses one kid from the list to receive the item as a wrapped gift. Re-using is the name of the game, and the kids have a BLAST opening gifts with their friends. Ian insisted on taking the Bob the Builder fleece blanket that is part of his “haul” to bed with him.
In some ways, this event was almost more fun for him than Christmas, because he had the fun of getting a gift, the fun of giving a gift, but without the sleep deprivation, the overdose on sugar, or the need to “dress up” and “look cute.” (Naw, I’m kidding. It wasn’t more fun than Christmas, but it was WAAAAY more relaxed.) And, apparently, when you’re a small child, one gift is all you really need, as long as you have friends to play with after you open it. Let this be a lesson to all of us who buy more, more, and MORE trying to make Christmas “perfect” for our kids.
I did NOT make a King Cake, but Ian and I did make “dear little muffins” together, which delighted him, and everyone else brought food to share and it was quite the party. Ian begged me to make him into a Roly-Poly-Ian-Pudding, but I drew the line and refused. He got over it. And, for my part, I’m excited that now we’ve finished that, we can pack away the tree and the Santas and move on to the mushy stuff! Bring on the LOVE!
I found and installed curtains I like. We moved into the house in March 2007, so I guess it’s about time.
I got lucky at the thrift store- I found curtains that worked for three rooms (and possibly a fourth- still working on that!), and, after not only paying way more than seemed reasonable for drapery hardware, but throwing away FAR more trash than you’d think possible from the packaging for a couple of curtain rods, we are in business. It’s a pity I couldn’t find the hardware at the thrift store, too, but you need all the pieces, they have to be the right size for your window, and must be the right type go with your curtains, so my odds were slim!
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| The burgundy is flecked with gold and picks up the colors in the chair seats. It also covers the entire wall from side to side and floor to ceiling. |
In case you are thinking that the dining room drapes look a little uneven, it’s because they are. The window is not centered on the wall, so there are two panels on one side and one panel on the other. The family that lived here before us built the house for themselves, and one of their (four!!!) daughters informed us that “Mom always said the dining room would have been bigger, except that dad forgot to leave room for the kitchen stove.” In other words, they adjusted the position of the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, but didn’t move the window accordingly. These little quirks are why I love this house.
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| The embroidery is the exact same color as the wall paint! |
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| We had to add some solid panels to make these wider- they were just a SMIDGE small on their own. The colors look better IRL. |
For instance, I cannot believe how many places under the new lights turned out to be much, much dirtier than I thought. So, if you’re planning to do this project, allow an hour to take your kitchen apart and empty all the cabinets, 45 minutes to install the lights themselves, and the rest of your day to clean up all the sawdust you create and wipe off all the dirty smudges that are suddenly very obvious.
PS: While I was up on my step stool, I observed that the dirtiest places in the room are those I can’t see from the floor. What a different world very tall people must live in.
First the tractor knocks everybody down, then it apologizes, followed by a gentle explanation of why it’s mean to knock everybody down “on purpose.”
Then the game starts over with setting up the animals and making each animal noise and giving them all rides on the back of the tractor.