First Hair Cut!

Before: It was getting a little scraggily….though we love, love, love the curls!

After: His hair still hasn’t come in all the way in front, so I just trimmed a little off the back and neck. Now he looks somehow both more polished and grown up.

I’m resigning myself—little boys do grow up, and I guess 23 months is longer than most go before getting their first cut!

skill or coincidence?

Charlie has taken to very carefully, painstakingly, drawing little tiny shapes recently. They usually look like small circles that accidentally got in a head-on collision with a truck. As he draws, he tells me they are a car or a flower, but they look nothing like what he says they are. So, imagine my surprise today when Charlie excitedly called for me to come see his rocket. (He and Jonathan have been talking a lot about rockets recently.) I was expecting to celebrate the funeral of another mangled family of circles while making blast-off sound effects and instead I saw this:

(I’m not sure how he did it, since I didn’t see him draw it. And believe me, I checked to make sure that Jonathan hadn’t drawn it for him! All I can figure is that he did it by accident and then recognized the image!)

I hearted my birthday—literally!

When we woke up to the first day of February, it was doing a little of this--

        and a little of that--

      --all in all too nasty to go out in. 

 

 

Classes were canceled and I couldn’t make it out of the parking lot to go babysitting, so Jonathan had the time to roll up his sleeves and make blueberry muffins, thyme scrambled eggs and tea for breakfast.The tea was a special treat--Commodore Grey from the Tea Cup in Seattle, hand carried to me by my dear friend Abby.  It is SOOOOOO good!While the muffins baked, Charlie and I broke out his new to him fishing game that I found at the thrift store.  He was more excited about it than I expected, and insisted that Dada and Mama come fishing with him!

Isn’t a candle-lit breakfast exciting? 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sure, especially if you take into account the bed-headed and pajamad participants!)

 

 

 

The fact that Charlie got to drink some tea milk from his very own tiny tea cup excited him to no end!   He took a sip every time I or his Dad did, just because he could!

After breakfast, I invited my neighbor friend Debbie over for what I thought would be an hour or two of cutting out hearts for a heart garland I had in mind to make for Valentines day.  

 

 

 

 

 

One idea led to another and pretty soon, there were 3-d heart mobiles and see-through lacy hearts flying out of our hands….There were a LOT of hearts –different colors and sizes—but no garland!

 

The three of us ended up cutting out hearts, and coloring  and gluing all morning, though lunch.  Then Debbie went home for a bit…

 

…And Charlie went down for his nap. . .

…And I stared at the pretty paper for a while before giving in to cut out more hearts so I could do this! Oh yes, friends,  it was long--around the living room long! It was double sided! And it was the most fun I’ve had in a really long time!After I got it up, it felt like spring inside while it hailed and iced over again outside!  Charlie woke up from his nap and wandered into the living room and noticed them immediately, pointing excitedly,   “Hahts, Mama, hahts!”  You’d think I would have had enough or maybe just the common sense to stop there because really by this time I was quite tired! 

BUT …there were those left over hearts that I hadn’t used just staring back at me…even after I made these….

…and I didn’t have anything to put on the door after taking down our Christmas wreath….

…AND Jonathan was making fairy cupcakes with sour cream chocolate icing—pretty much my favorite—so I invited my friend Debbie back over for dinner and cupcakes and wreath making!

We finished up around 9pm.  So really…(should I be embarrassed to admit this?)  I, the mother of one almost two-year-old,  shirked all my responsibilities and did nothing but cut and glue paper hearts alllllllll day long!   And, um, it was pretty much the best birthday I can remember having! 

Also….…it needs to be mentioned, that Birthday celebrations like these, especially when there are toddlers at hand, are made possible by terrific husbands (and conveniently timed ice storms).  Thanks for making all the food, changing the stinky diapers and washing the dishes so I could I could be so extravagantly crafty and happy all day long, my Boy!  You are the best husband a girl could desire!

a snow day song….

Charlie and I were playing the piano together today, and he suddenly started singing out along with me, mostly in tune, at the top of his lungs.  It was so loud that Jonathan heard it behind the closed door to the bedroom and came out to video it! This is the most developed singing I’ve heard from him yet and it gives me hope that he may enjoy music along with his sports some day! 

Update….

I have let life get away with me.  And let me just say, it has been fabulous.  We have loved our Winter break from school.   Jonathan had December 19th through Jan 27th off from class and we had no where to go.  So we just settled right in to enjoying it by:

Busting out a few good dance moves!

 

(this one is dedicated to and inspired by Moira.  Can’t get enough of that girl’s moves!)

Working from home in our pajamas all day (Jonathan’s Jan-term specialty),Learning a new song or two,

Starting (and knocking down) few building projects,Picking up a new instrument,

And playing in the snow.  Twice!  (Don’t my boys look warm in the hats and scarves I knitted them?  I felt so happy to send them out into the snow with stitches I’d loved into shape for them!)(walking in the snow is hard work…)(Yep, you haven’t really experienced a good snow storm until you get a drippy nose and snowflakes stuck in your eyelashes!)(Snowflakes are good to eat!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that classes are back in session, we are busier and gearing up towards our birthday month in February, (Charlie’s second birthday is in two weeks!) and Baby girl’s entrance into the world around the end of April. 

I am resigning myself to the fact that I am becoming gargantuan.  In utero, Charlie demanded collard greens, broccoli and nectarines—and I think I only had bites of desert if pressed, because it really just didn’t sound good.  This  baby girl wants chocolate and pastries, oh and by the way, some potato chips, please, and some more chocolate—I’m doing my best to resist, but I fear she is persistent!  27 weeks!  I post this picture with the warning that if you ask me if I am having twins (as three people already have in the last month) or any other such nonsense,  I will probably seriously consider terminating our friendship!  =)  My sensitive pregnant skin is getting thinner by the comment!  (And yes, thank you dear fellow mom at the playground this week, who lied and told me that you couldn’t even tell I was pregnant!)

All this to say, though we are far from wealthy, we are definitely healthy and well!  I hope you can say the same yourselves!

Friendship….

Hi dear readers, I know I have been letting you down.   And I have plans to address the issue in the near future.  However for a little update on Charlies life you can check out this blog post, written by his friend Alaythia’s mother about their afternoon and evening together.  They were babysitting Charlie while Jonathan and I went out to dinner.  

Guest Post: Bad Mom Complex?

This is the husband.

Every once and a while I will say something to Keren that I think is completely ridiculous. She undoubtedly catches on that I’m using some sort of reverse psychology to prove a point. Here’s the situation from this morning.

Recently, we’ve both been marveling about how much Charlie’s features have become more elongated than round.

“He looks so much older!” we’d say, “Where’d our little boy go?” Of course it excited me that he was growing tall and strong. On the other hand, Keren would worry that she was feeding him enough. “Are we giving him enough food? Do you think he’s starving?”

In order to prove beyond a doubt that Keren is not the bad mother she sometimes thinks she is, I said, “Gosh, Charlie sure is looking gaunt today!”

Far from the response I was expecting, she joined in, “Yeah, I know!”

I stood there quietly, a huge smile on my face, waiting for her to turn to me. As soon as she did, I had to recoil in defense of the swinging fist toward my gut. Then we both looked at each other for a second, and erupted in laughter.

Keren is not the bad mother she sometimes thinks she is. I’m sure you all will agree with me.