Hair Cut

 Before haircut, yesterday.

 Wow, look how messy it was!

 After haircut, today.

Look at my handsome boy!
I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

Music Class

Yesterday was the last day of a 10-week music class for the Blobster. He loves to listen to the music we got for the class…he often asks for “Wiggle Music” as he calls it. He likes to dance and at class his favorite part is playing the instruments.  At nighttime he now tries to sing some of the songs with me, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It’s pretty cute to see him trying to figure it out.

As a parent it’s hard to know sometimes how to direct my children.  At this point the Blobster is interested in everything… music, art, sports, reading, you name it. The question is: do I put him in activities which I value, or ones that I see he has the most fun at? Do I put him in classes for him to learn something, or just playgroups where he can have fun?

So far I haven’t found a rock-throwing group, which is probably what he would like to do the most. Do you think there are any future career options for him with rock throwing? Humm…

My cute, blue-eyed boy

Random Observations

1. Pink ballet inspired socks don’t stay on feet any better than the plain white ones


2. English Breakfast tea doesn’t last very long at our house


3. Store bought cookies are never as good as homemade



4. Making a fort is fun no matter how old you are



5. Sod can be laid in a small backyard very quickly when several people help

Diapering in the Dark

Isn’t that a song? Oh wait…it’s Dancing in the Dark. That’s different.

I have recently moved the Sweet Pea into the Blobster’s room. She now has the big crib because her feet were hitting the end of the bassinet. And that means we had to get a new bed for the Blobster. He loves having a ‘big boy’ bed.

Here we are reading before bedtime on the Blobster's new bed. It is a bunk bed which will come in handy when the Sweet Pea outgrows the crib. 

But now that they are together in the same room it means that I’m going in there to feed and change Sweet Pea in the middle of the night. In an effort to not wake up the Blobster, I don’t turn on the light. Let’s face it, I don’t want to wake up any more than I have to either. The nursing part is mostly up to Sweet Pea…all I have to do is sit there and burp her when she is done. So that is easily done in the dark, but the diapering part is all up to me. As much as I wish she could climb up onto the changing table and do it herself, somehow I just don’t think that is going to happen. Sigh...

So I have a method to diapering and follow the same pattern every time so that I can pretty much do it with my eyes closed. I mean, come on, I’ve been doing it for 2 years; I should be pretty good at it by now.

Undo the millions of snaps on her sleeper. Undo the velcro on the cover, undo the Snappi – put it in the same spot as usual so I can find it again, put the dirty diaper in the pail, new diaper on – twisted just so and folded down, Snappi on, new cover on. 

Redo all the millions of snaps on the sleeper. 

So now I’m sneaking around diapering in the dark. Oh, and the Blobster still wakes up.

Here is a picture of what he should be doing... sleeping.

Some crazy math… let’s say I’ve changed an average of 7 diapers per day for 25 months. That’s 5,250 diapers. And that doesn’t take into account the 12+ diapers a day for a newborn or the overlap of diapering when I had 2 kids in diapers before the Blobster potty trained. That sure makes me glad we are using cloth diapers. If we had used disposables we would have spent over $1,800 so far. It’s hard to say how much all our cloth diapers cost because most of them were generously given to us by family and friends, but my estimate is about $600-$700. And now that Sweet Pea is reusing the same diapers we got for the Blobster, we are saving even more. 

And they are really cute. I’m just sayin’

These are her colorful diaper covers. 

Recent Happenings

I apparently have a few events to catch up on. Mother's Day, Easter, and my friend Jen's visit. I just uploaded the photos from my camera and realized I haven't posted anything recently. So I will get you caught up with the most current events in my life.

Mother's Day:

This is a photo of the girls...my sister, my mom, the Sweet Pea, and me. We had lunch at our house to celebrate both my mom and Goatee Man's mom.

There he is with his mom; the lovely lady. 

 Here's my sister again with the Sweet Pea.

 And the Sweet Pea again. Isn't she cute?

The Goatee Man helped celebrate my motherhood on Saturday night with a lovely dinner and flowers. Then he made breakfast (with help from the Blobster) for me in bed. The Blobster even picked some dandelions for me. He was so proud of himself. It was so cute.

Easter:

We had Easter baskets for the kids at breakfast. Then we went to church, and were able to sit through the whole service without being called out to attend to our children in the nursery. That is a rare occurrence. What a nice treat!

Then we went to my mom's house for Easter lunch. Goatee Man's parent's also came, as well as Isabelle, a wonderful family friend. We had a nice, relaxed time and wonderful food.

Here is my mom with Sweet Pea. 

Here is Goatee Man's dad with Sweet Pea. 

I didn't get any other pictures that day. I really wanted a family photo (we were after all, dressed up so nicely), but it didn't happen. It is getting really difficult to capture the Blobster in photos. 

He moves too much. 

Jen's Visit:

One of my best friends moved to St. Louis a few years ago, and she came into town for a visit recently. It was so nice to see her. We didn't do anything exciting. It is too difficult to get out and about with 2 kids these days. But we were able to sit and talk for a long time. It didn't feel like any time had passed since she left. We were able to talk just like old times. 

Except we were often interrupted by the Blobster. 

And we weren't sitting at Champs with beer/wine and appetizers. That was what we used to do after work regularly. Ah...those were the times. 

Anyway...

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many photos of her visit here, and most of them didn't turn out very well. So, sorry Jen, this is the best I have. 

 Jen was bouncing the Sweet Pea to keep her from crying. 

It didn't work. 

Still Sleeping

It is 7am and my little boy is still sleeping. This is monumental! He has very rarely slept more than 9 hours at any point in his life (usually much less). I remember the last time that he did this I went into his room at 7:30am to make sure he was still breathing. So far, so good (on the breathing bit, not so good on the sleeping history bit).

Most recent pictures of my little man

 Because he was still in bed I went ahead and started breakfast without him. He is my kitchen helper. He really likes to cook with me. Especially breakfast. We usually alternate between making eggs (sometimes with bacon or as he says ‘bakie’), and oatmeal. This morning it is oatmeal. He regularly sits on the counter next to me and measures out the oatmeal into the pot. When it is ready we add cinnamon applesauce to it and he eats almost more than I do.

When we make eggs, his favorite part is stirring the eggs before I put them in the pan. We are now getting our farm eggs again (from a co-worker who lives out east), and he is fascinated with the occasional green and blue eggs. It’s like opening a present every morning when we open the egg container. What color will they be today??

He also now tells me the steps… by pointing… to how I should make my tea every morning. I sometimes have coffee, but lately I have been making tea more often. 

There is something comforting about having my tea and listening to morning news radio. I really enjoy Marketplace Morning Report. They are so sarcastic it makes me giggle. Okay, maybe that shows more of my lame financial side. As my friend Dan says “Accountants aren’t boring people, we just get excited by boring things.”

Well, ahem… moving on…

My plans for the next few days…

The Goatee Man is gone for some training, then helping with a plumbing project, so he will be gone for a few days. I will be having lunch with a friend today, then my sister is coming for the weekend – the plumbing project is at her house so she is coming to escape the mess and be here where there will be running water. I have a birthday party, a dr. appt, an engagement party, and shopping planned. So I will stay busy!

Cheers! Have a good weekend!

Birthday Party

The Blobster’s birthday was Monday, so we had a party for him on Sunday. Well, we kind-of had a party for us which he attended. He is really only just starting to understand what a birthday means – he is only two. But he does understand that it means cake. And balloons. And presents. 

We had considered just doing a small family party but all of our friends started asking when his party was going to be, so we decided that we better do a big party. It is so nice that our friends like him and enjoy spending time with him. At least they tolerate him. 

He had so much fun playing with everyone, and playing with his new toys.