tlc
My little guy plays hard, but also knows how to relax. When he finds himself in an especially comfortable position, he crosses his legs. Every time.
love it.
Incidentally, my camera made a noise that startled both kids. They looked so concerned, I couldn’t help but snap a quick picture:
It all turned out okay, though. Not to worry.
And no news from Casey today. I know he was distributing food in Port Au Prince. Details forthcoming.
These two hooligans
..were absolutely crazy today!
I don’t know how, but they somehow knew that I was outnumbered.
There are currently dishes in my sink, mounds of clean laundry to fold, and crumbs on the kitchen floor. I, however, am going to sleep.. and counting today a success.
Oh and Casey? Today he was building a house in Haiti:
Dear Haitian Mosquitos,
Don’t bite Casey..
Even though he insists on wearing this hat, and making this face..
Because i like him anyway..
snapshot
Jump for joy.
This weekend seemed an appropriate time to dust off the old excersaucer because I don’t have enough ridiculously large and obtrusive baby items in my little living room because Arthur just loves being on his feet. I failed to anticipate, however, the joy that this old baby toy would bring to Penelope. I know, I know, I should’ve seen it coming. Can I be honest with you? She spent about an hour in the thing.
No kidding.
I kept facing this inner battle…
“This is really passive parenting, carrying on while she is stuck in that hunk of plastic.”
“No, you’re allowing her to get it out of her system, so that when Arthur uses it she won’t pay any attention, or be jealous. Yeah, see, this is smart!”
“Is it even safe in there? She’s way too big…”
“Enjoy this, she’ll be over it and into trouble before you know it..”
It’s kind of that same dilemma when a baby is oversleeping. Do you wake them when it’s time to eat? Time to start the day? Oh the mystery.
I’m thinking really deep thoughts today, in case you couldn’t tell.
Without further ado..
and this? this was yesterday. right? right? right? just yesterday? right?
{assuming the fetal position now}
mad skills.
Don’t you just love it when a baby starts learning to sit up? All of the sudden they’re transformed into this little person. I don’t know what it is about sitting… but it seems so advanced. Might be my favorite baby stage– sitting, but not yet mobile.
Sigh.
Don’t even get me started on that proud baby smile..
Here he is, in all of his wobbly glory:
{And a quick note about Arthur’s health: Cutting dairy from my diet has yielded incredible results. His countenance is greatly improved, as is his sleep. It is absolutely wonderful to have my happy-go-lucky guy back. It will still be a few more weeks before the milk protein has completely cleared my system, so I’m sure there will be little bouts of indigestion here and there.. but overall, I’m so glad we found a solution. And apparently most of my poor eating habits involved dairy (read: butter, chocolate, cream, cheese, etc.) so I’ve already lost 3 lbs!}
Yes, I am that mom.
My life is perfect.
Every day, I get up an hour before my kids to read the bible and exercise. My house is always clean, and always smells of freshly-baked bread. That’s because I make all of our meals from scratch, using fresh and organic ingredients. Penelope never disobeys. And my baby? He never cries. Casey and I always get along. I have never, ever yelled at him. Or my babies, for that matter. I am never behind on laundry. Each night I read or craft instead of watching television. I look amazing when Casey gets home from work, and dinner is always ready on time.
I am never overwhelmed.
But you see, I have this friend. She tells me the craziest stories. I can hardly believe them, being that I’m so put together and all.
Here’s one of her favorites:
She hears her fusspot of a little boy crying in his bed. Well, in her bed actually, since he doesn’t have a bed yet. But that’s neither here nor there.
So she hears him crying, and sees that her little girl is happy and occupied with a few books.
My friend sneaks into the next room to comfort her crying baby. He’s been crying a lot lately, so this is hardly unusual. After not more than a couple of minutes, she emerges from the room. She doesn’t remember what she noticed first– her daughter no longer sitting on the couch, or the distinctive snap-crackle-pop of a crunch coming from underfoot.
She looks down to notice a small sprinkling of Rice Krispies.
“Hmm. That’s strange. Nobody ate cereal today.”
Around the corner she discovered her mischevious toddler sitting on the ground, mashing handfulls of cereal into her mouth, straight from the bag.
“Hi Mama! Mmmmmm, cereal!”
Then she explored further, and found that e v e r y s q u a r e i n c h of her apartment was covered with a fine layer of cereal. More cereal than she’d imagine could fit in just one box.
Can you believe my friend?!
Oh the fun..
…of Penelope’s first trip to the Splash Park. She was so much more adventurous than I had expected.
This is part-two to my birthday celebration. Last night Case and I left both kids for the first time (since Arthur’s arrival) and ate more than is probably appropriate at Havana Rumba. Have I talked about Havana Rumba before? It’s a really, really good Cuban place. Like really, really good. We don’t go often– it’s a perfect place to celebrate one’s birthday. Nice and loud, slightly garish decorations, authentic cuisine, and always on a wait. An empty restaurant makes me nervous, you know?
Anyway.
We ate our food while it was still hot, finished each sentence we started, and didn’t multitask. Not even once. We chewed slowly, discussed trivialities, and pondered weighty topics, uninterrupted. This, let me assure you, is not the norm. My kids, yes, are desperately cute… but they are also so needy. So, so needy. As is to be expected, I’m sure. I love them. But I also love savoring a meal with my guy without them. Special thanks to Lucy and Ricky.
Oh but then there is this..
Do you see the forlorn sense of misery? The slightly red circles around the eyes? That’s probably due to my sweet, previously-sleeping-through-the-night baby boy being up every 45 minutes last night. It is sort of a culminating event, forcing me to admit that my little guy has an issue with milk protein. I’ll spare you the icky details, but things have been getting pretty out of hand over here. My once easygoing boy has transformed into an inconsolable mess. He’s sleeping on my shoulder right now. As you can imagine, I’m typing v e r y, v e r y s l o w l y.
Elimination diet time. For at least six weeks. I start my milk/casein/whey/lactose/etc -free lifestyle tomorrow morning. With almond milk in my coffee, if you must know.
Imagine.
I love to see Penelope’s imagination at work. Her pretend play is becoming more elaborate each day. I just love it. Here she is dressed as “Pih-lah-ta-tee Giwaffe.”
Every five minutes or so she begged to see herself in the mirror. It might be time to acquire a full-length mirror. Lifting her up to the bathroom mirror is getting kind of laborious. Her smug, slightly-surprised smirk is impossible to resist. Seriously, it’s hilarious every time.
Oh, and say “smug, slightly-surprised smirk” ten times fast.
snapshot
Now that we’ve survived potty-training bootcamp, I’ll be back to blogging. Thanks for your patience. The hiatus was quite worthwhile.
