Actually, it's pretty easy being green

"Green" has become big business in the last few years. Which is good and bad. Good in that being environmentally friendly is, well, good. And bad because some products that claim to be "green" are not.

But if you want to go green, it's not really all that hard.

One way to go green (and save green) is to buy used/refurbished. We bought a refurbished washer on Tuesday after our washer died. B had fixed the beast, but it broke again and he was pretty sure it was the transmission. So off we went to Appliance Warehouse, where we found a 7 year old washer (energy star!) that was 1/10 of the price of a new washer. Score.

So they recycled our old washer for us and we have a working washer that cost less than a student loan payment.

Another way we save (a LOT) is cloth diapering. A lot. Sooooo much.

How much?

Well, the average household spends about $3,000 on diapers per child. So for two kids, that's $6,000.

Six THOUSAND dollars.

We have spent about $600 on cloth diapering supplies, overnight disposables, and travel wipes. That's an OVERestimate of cost.

So by cloth diapering, we save approximately $5,400.

Yeah. You read that number correctly.

PLUS, some of our diapers have pretty good resale value. After Griffin is potty trained we may recoup some of our cost by selling our used cloth diapers.

So we'll save even more. I know people who have saved more than us - using prefolds is cheaper than buying the pocket diapers. It is entirely possible to buy ALL your cloth diapering needs for less than $200.

And we haven't seen an increase in our water or our electricity (a small increase in electricity, but you get that when you have kids anyway). We do 2-3 loads a week. It's pretty easy.

And for a savings of over $5,000 - it's worth it. For us anyway.

It's pronounced "tu-tu", didn't you know?

For years I have been mispronouncing the word "tattoo". Apparently it's pronounced "tu-tu". Thank goodness I have Penelope to correct such egregious pronunciation mistakes. Thank you Penelope.

We went to a friend's 1st birthday party last weekend and the take-home prizes were temporary tattoos. Poe immediately wanted to wear one, but then freaked-the-f-out when I actually attempted to put it on her. So her butterfly was missing a wing. She didn't seemed to mind, and showed off her brand new "tu-tu" to anyone with eyes.

She then proceeded to try and rub it off with a paper towel... and then she tried to do the same to mine & my mom's wrist tattoos.

Even now, almost a week later, she asks where her "tu-tu" went. When I ask her if she wants a new one she quickly says "no thank you mama".

I will remind her of this when she's 18 and wants her first real tu-tu.

Also? We have entered the phase of "I do it myself" which is fun and exasperating. So now I budget extra minutes of getting ready time so Poe can put on her own shoes and climb into the car seat. After she successfully (or sometimes unsuccessfully) completes a task she says "yea! I did it!" very proudly. It's cute.

AND Griffin took two steps Wednesday at Kim's house. She is the queen of getting babies to walk.

Oh yes, Poe is better and now Bryan is sick. He seems to be feeling a bit better after sleeping most of today and a good part of yesterday. I hope tomorrow he's well again because it is no fun for anyone when ANYONE in this house is sick.

And? I lost a dress size.

She's a maniac, maniac

If you read the title without getting the song stuck in your head then there's no hope for you. You will never be as cool as Kathy.

Although the maniac to which I am referring is actually Pah-pooh-pea.

This is what she picked out to wear today:

Rainbow babylegs, a polka dot dress, and a striped sweater

Two days ago we had an argument over clothes. Our first. She wanted to wear her tights and a jacket. And that's it. Um, no. I realize I'm a hippie and all, but we don't live on a commune and there's no way I'm going to let my two year old dress like a flasher.

Anyway, I took the munchkins to the zoo today. Poe woke up at 5am & G was awake at 6:30 so we didn't stay as long as we normally do... they were exhausted by the time we left.

But we had fun. Got there early and had the run of the place for almost an hour. Met up with some friends and had a nice morning. I even brought G-funk's walker so he could join in on the fun.


Orson & G-man


Griffin and Lu-Lu


G, P, & O


The big kids on the crocodile

Hello, I (sorta) have an M.Ed.

Hello, my name is Jessica and I have a Masters. Sorta. I have completed all my coursework, got an A on my Thesis, and have petitioned for Graduation. So all that's left is paperwork (not on my end) but I don't technically have the Masters until the paperwork is completed.

This should all happen rather quickly. As will getting my Credential - I have all the paperwork in for that and am just waiting on the CTC to process and send me my credential #.

And then it's continuing to look for a full time classroom position.

In kidlet news, Griffin took a step today! He's getting braver and stronger each day. We are definitely close to walking and no one is more excited about it than Griffin.

Here are some pictures of the beast-man:







I don't have any recent Penny pics. I'll try and take some tomorrow. She's had an on-again-off-again fever with no other symptoms. Weird. She's fine during the day and feverish at night. Weirder.

He really is like a drunk

My Dad called Griffin a "belligerent drunken midget" (sooooo NOT PC) the other day.

And he is.

Right now he's crawling around the floor picking up various sippy cups - and when he finds them empty he shakes them and throws them violently onto the floor. Like a drunk.

He's also tossing things out the dog door. Which is just obnoxious.

What is Penelope doing? Coloring. And ignoring her brother.

Also? G is drooling and mumbling to himself.

A damn drunk I tell you.

Lets Pretend

Pah-pooh-pea loves to play pretend. She plays it everyday... practically all day long. She pretends to be her favorite characters, she pretends to make food, she pretends to be a baby (she calls herself "baby Pah-pooh-pee" and crawls into my lap and says "I nurse Momma, I'm nursing").

But today she decided to pretend to be one of her own friends. While jumping around on her bed she turns to me and says "Mama, I'm Orson!" then promptly falls down on the bed.

She's a silly goose.

A silly goose who now does full somersaults. See:

Lasagne with half the noodles

Today has been productive. I finished the major edits of my Thesis, it's currently out for proof reading, and will turn it in Saturday at the latest. I also assembled a new walker-thing for Griffin (see video), did laundry, wrote 3 blog posts, and made lasagna (from scratch) for dinner.

Only I only had 5 lasagna noodles. I need 9. Noodles are like the spine of a lasagna. They are essential to the process. I don't know if I can technically call what I made a lasagna. Haven't tasted it yet... so we'll see.

G is experimenting with walking. So far the results are positive. He books with his mail-walker-thingy and took 2 naps today, one for TWO whole hours. So maybe walking will help him sleep. I also picked up some children's Calms Forte today. It's a homeopathic sleep aid.

So onto the video (which, if you're viewing this on Facebook you won't be able to see, so click here to come to the blog).



Also? Penelope said this today:

Mommy: Here, let me fix your hair. (put's Poe's hair into a rather messy pony). There.
Penelope: (looking at herself in the mirror) I'm a GIRL!
M: Uh, yeah.
----
Penelope: I have tiger blood, I'm winning!
----
Penelope: (holding up a balloon inflator-thing) Look, it's Buzz's spaceship!
---
Penelope: (drops a toy) Oh Monkeys!

Also? She's been saying "oh crap" lately. She didn't get that from me. I say "Oh Monkeys" or "Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln" (thanks Jessie doll). So whoever is cursing around my child needs to stop.

Nursing a yearling

That makes Griffin sound like a deer.

Anyway, G-man is swiftly approaching his 1st birthday and lately more than a few people have asked me about my plans to wean.

Most health organizations recommend nursing for at least 6 months but most recommend nursing for a year or longer. I believe the average age (worldwide) for weaning is 5. But I can't remember where I read that, so maybe I made it up.

Regardless, there is no time in a child's life where breastmilk stops being nutritious. There's no point when it turns into poison, or turns your child gay, or makes the baby Jesus cry. I'm sure nursing past a year makes Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, and douchecanoes all over the world shed a tear (of jealousy?) but I really don't give two sh*ts about Limbaugh, Falwell, or other wackadoos who want to insert themselves into my nursing bra.

If you can't tell already, I'm very passionate about this subject.

I didn't used to be. Like circumcision, I have done a 180 after parenthood. In fact, I have an Aunt (who shall remain nameless, although she'll recognize herself) that nursed her children into toddlerhood - and I used to think that was weird. I never told her this, because was naive not rude, but I certainly thought it. Well, I take it all back.

Women should nurse until they (and/or their child) is ready to wean. If a child wants to wean, there's not much a mom can do to stop it (if you've ever nursed a child, you know that you cannot force a baby to nurse). But as long as a child and mom are willing/able to nurse, they should be supported in that decision. Of course, if a mom really wants to wean, she should not be forced to continue - it is her body after all. But provided both parties are willing, I say nurse away.

This means (as if you hadn't already guessed) that G and I will nurse past his 1st birthday, provided I still have milk. And if a miracle of biblical proportions occurs and I still have milk as he nears 2 years old, then we'll probably still be nursing.

A blog that I read had this to say about weaning. Her verbiage is a little harsh at times, but I agree with her.

So we're still nursing (and still supplementing) and we'll do this until it stops working for us. That will probably take us into toddlerhood. And I'm ok with that.

Stup*d iTunes

Actually, this is my fault.

So I know that I have chronicled Penny's love for the Lady GaGa. A love which I don't quite understand, but whatever. I certainly don't hate LGG, but she's a "small dose" musician/artist/freakshow/whatever. I cannot listen to her for an hour straight, no matter how much Poe would like to.

So I downloaded a bunch of kids songs to break up the GaGa-ness that occasionally invades our house. Pen really seemed to love the kids CD Kim & Orson have so it seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

Until now, when I'm finishing up my Thesis and listening to music... and f*ing children's songs, with the annoying tone-deaf chorus, screaming in my bloody ear. Yeah, not such a good idea.

I also have x-mas music on my iTunes because (shut up) I like x-mas music. Only it is March and damnit, I do not want to hear the Glee cast sing "Oh Christmas Tree".

F*you iTunes.

But then, when I skip the latest round of kids and x-mas music, iTunes plays "I'm on a Boat" for me.

Ok iTunes, I love you again.

The Incident

This was actually really easy to clean up, but still. It shall henceforth be known as "The Incident".

Mondays are my least favorite days of the week. Bryan has school so I get the munchkins during the day and I'm flying solo for dinner and bathtime. We have a routine down so it's not nearly as overwhelming as it once was, but it's still not exactly 'easy'.

Usually we end up taking an early bath and then we watch a short movie until bedtime. We didn't have any TV this morning (hooray!) so an hour of a movie at night to unwind is nice for us all. I nurse G on the couch and P snuggles up next to us.

Anyway, after dinner we're playing in P's room (with puppets, ohmygoodness the kids *LOVE* those puppets) and I decide it's bathtime. So we all head into the nursery where I strip both kids down, grab the towels, and head into the bathroom. They're crawling around on the floor together, laughing and screeching, and I start the bath. I look over at Penelope and she's standing there peeing on the floor! I have her sit on the potty, but it's too late, there is a HUGE puddle of pee on the bathroom floor.

I turn to G, who is standing next to me at the bathtub waiting (impatiently) for me to put him in his bathseat when I notice a huge pile of BABY POO on the floor.

EWWWWWWWW.

Ew.

G goes in the tub, Poe follows, and I clean up the gross-ass mess. Kids are NASTY.

The rest of the night went off without incident. G even fell asleep 15 minutes earlier than normal.

Ugh

I have allergies. Or I'm dying. I cannot decide which - and I can't decide which I'd rather have/be.

I think the crappy weather, stress from my Thesis/Capstone, G's sleep, teething, and today's all-day headache have combined to make me spectacularly p*ssed-off. I want to run away to Hampton Inn & Suites for the night. Or two.

Parenting is hard work. Like really hard. You never get a break, ever. Especially if you're a nursing mom. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and my parents have the kids for the night (so I guess I get a sorta-break). Only I wish I could actually sleep for 10 hours straight when they're at the weekly sleepover. If my parents hadn't been taking the kids every Friday then I shudder to think about what my emotional state would be.

Put another way: I DO NOT recommend going to grad school while having two young children. DO NOT.

The good news is that I'm almost done with my project. Chapter 2 is done (I got an A- on the rough draft) and I need to do some edits, but nothing major. Chapter 1 is also finished. This is what my professor had to say about it:

Jessica,

I rarely award 5 points for a writing assignment since no one is perfect. However, your paper was excellent.

The paper was clear, concisely written, and the style of writing was interesting! I did make a few changes and added a heading. Please refer to the color code in the attached file.

John

That's right. I got 100%.

I do still have to make a few changes, but nothing major. I'm quite happy about it.

Chapter 3 is due Tuesday, so I'll work on that Tuesday (I know, I know, but I probably won't have much time this weekend) and then I just have to turn in the entire paper after I've edited it. Then I am done. D. O. N. E.

I will have my M.Ed. and my credential. Done.

I don't think I can say that enough, I really love that word.

You know what other word I love? Sleep. Both kids are in bed (G fought the good fight, but I won this round) so I'm going to take my headachy, sore-throat self to bed and hope that tomorrow finds me in a much, much better mood.

11 months

Today marked Griffin's 11 month birthday (you see what I did there? No more pseudonyms).

I was going to measure him, but time got away from me. So maybe tomorrow I'll have official measurements.

We marked this momentous occasion with a trip to Kim & Orson's house for play group, a 2 hour nap (he slept on me, but at least he was asleep), and baked macaroni for dinner. G didn't actually eat much, he's been refusing table food lately. I think he's going to cut a molar or two soon - at least I hope it's soon. Poe refused solids when cutting molars as well. When he's not cutting teeth he eats like it's his job. That kid can pack it away - one day for lunch he ate a half a PB&J, a handful of craisins, a couple of strawberries, and some goldfish. Pack. It. Away.

He also stood up for 4 seconds on his own, which may or may not be a new record. I'm still hoping he'll be walking by 12 months, but we'll see. He loves to walk around the house while holding onto our hands and sometimes will walk with just one hand support.

He's also taken to pointing. All. the. time. He points at EVERYTHING and says "dat". So I guess we're adding "that" to the list of words, along with "dada".

Sleep isn't great while teething, but as I said in my last post, things are improving. I am reeeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy looking forward to the day when he sleeps from 8-7 like Poe-poe. Maybe by my birthday? I hope.

In non-G-funk news, my mom & I will start bellydancing together next week. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it will help my reach my goal of being back to my pre-Penny pregnancy size by the time I turn 30. I'm *almost* halfway there!

Funny things kids say

Leia is a motor mouth. Most of the time she talks just to hear the sound of her own voice. Maybe she'll go into politics.

Some of the things she says are funny. Mostly they're just funny to us. Often times it's a "you had to be there" kind of a thing.

But I want to record some anyway, because I'm her mother and it's my blog.

Sunday Vader got a new hat (Twins, his new AL team - the Giants are still his NL team). Anyway, every time she saw the hat she would say "Nice hat Daddy!" and then, because she felt the need to compliment me as well, she would turn to me and say "nice glass-eyes Mommy!" (she calls glasses glass-eyes. how literal of her). When bath-time rolled around and Vader was seen without his new hat she asked him "where's your hat Daddy?"

Today, after nap. "Mommy, look at me!" she then proceeds to run around the living room babbling in her unknown silly language.

She now calls Luke "Chewbaca"

She also unfailingly polite, after I fix her hair, or give her lunch/snack, or really do anything she says "thank you Mommy!"

She's also taken to handing out compliments in general. Whenever I dress in front of her or put on a hat or necklace she comes up to me and says "you're beautiful Mommy!"

I love her. Love.

Sleep

So before I go to sleep each night I spend a good half hour to forty-five minutes awake. I've been like this for as long as I can remember; even when physically exhausted I usually lie awake for quite awhile before I finally fall asleep. I've tried a thousand tricks to get to sleep faster but none of them work more than once. I usually end up composing blogs in my head, blogs that never get written.

These are glorious bogs. Witty, funny, smart, tragic - everything you could ever want in a blog post and more. So much more.

Alas, they disappear from my brain as soon as I fall asleep. So I am sorry, dear blog reader, that you never get to read these magical blogs. They would change. your. life.

No, no, not really. But they're not half bad and I do often contemplate getting up and writing them all down - not because they're literary masterpieces, but because I really want to get all the thoughts in my head OUT so I can SLEEP.

Sleep is a precious commodity here at the Death Star. Leia (you see what I did there?) sleeps beautifully - and has for the last year. She has occasional trouble falling asleep (don't we all?) but for the most part she goes to bed without a fuss, falls asleep on her own, and stays in her own bed all night. It's glorious. And since she co-slept until she was 14 months old there were are a few people (not me) who are shocked she transitioned so well (take that! Don't worry, these people don't read the blog, they're random BBC debaters who claim that bed-sharing babies will end up to be bed-sharing teenagers).

Luke, on the other hand, is slightly trickier than his sister. Maybe it's all those midichlorians. How do you even spell that?!?!

I have to remind myself that even at this age, Leia was still up at least once a night, so sleeping from 8-8 is still a bit in our future. But I would bet money that it will take him longer than she did to reach that particular milestone.

Some people have told me that we need to let him cry. I'm just not comfortable with that. Sure, it might get him to sleep through the night - which would be nice, really nice - but I'm just not comfortable with the method at all. I've read a lot of articles, a few studies, and talked with A LOT of moms and while I don't think CIO is the devil, I just don't think it's for us.

Luke goes from 0-Banshee in about 6 seconds. Even when he's comforted it takes him awhile to calm down if he's already worked up. He's woken up Leia at least once from 2am crying which was sooooo not fun.

Plus, I cannot stand to hear him cry. Cannot. I would have to leave the house and sleep at a hotel if we attempted CIO. I'm not exaggerating. I just can't do it.

Contrary to what some people think (not you, again I'm talking about obnoxious BBC people), this does not mean that my son is emotionally manipulating me. He's not even 11 months old. He also won't be sleeping in our bed until college. Or until pre-school. I am not "weak" for letting him reach sleep goals on his own time. He is not "developmentally delayed" for being an 11 month old who still wakes up 2-3 times a night.

He is just fine. He's where he NEEDS to be. He will learn to go to sleep and stay asleep in his own time.

We are fine. While we're all a little tired, we also have a family, school, work, and life. Of COURSE we're tired, we're PARENTS.

If, in a year, Luke is still struggling with sleep then we'll reevaluate. The cry of an almost 2 year old is much easier to ignore than that of my 11 month old. But we'll see. I'm not going to remove CIO from my parenting toolbox, but it is my very last resort. And that's just what works for our family.

I will say this - Luke's sleep is improving. He went from 6-8 wakings in the Fall to 2-3 now. A few nights he's able to skip the bottle of formula and just nurse. Vader and I both wake up whenever he does, but the wakings are slowly starting to stretch themselves out. So while I'm not ecstatic about his sleep, I am content. For now. :)

Pseudonyms & Pirates

Lately I've been contemplating the use of pseudonyms for the kids & B on the blog. A lot of blog I read use them for privacy reasons and I'm trying to decide if it's something I should adopt. I know a lot of people already know us, especially those who read via Facebook feed, but I do have readers whom I haven't met and I get the occasional e-mail from strangers now and then who have stumbled across the blog.

I certainly don't mind that people we don't know read the blog. It's flattering actually. I figure my parents and relatives read it out of obligation, but if internet strangers are reading then it must mean one of a few things: 1. we lead relatively interesting lives, 2. our children are adorable/funny, 3. I write tolerably well, 4. I occasionally muse on interesting topics, OR 5. the reader has no life to speak of. I really hope it's not #5.

With this in mind, Bryan and I did some brainstorming on themed pseudonyms for the family. Tell me what you think:

P: Duchess
G: Duke
B: Baron

P: Sunny
G: Tsunami
B: Hurricane

P: Rudder
G: Sail
B: Mast

P: Leia
G: Luke
B: Vader

I don't think I need one - it's mostly for the kids anyway. And really, it's not a National blog (nor will it ever become one) so we probably don't NEED them, but it might be fun. Anyway, let me know what you think.

Now, onto pirates.

Poe (Leia? Sunny? Duchess?) has been really into pretend play lately. You name it, she pretends to be it; this includes pirates. Although to be honest, talking about pretend play was not the goal, the goal of this portion of the post was to talk about Penny's eyelid, which has been in various stages of swollen for 2 days. I was going to use pirate pretend to get us there in a very round about and clever way but that would have required more effort than I can muster today.

Anyway. P's eye.

She seems to have rather... severe? intense? reactions to mosquito bites. Last week a bite on her forehead started to look like a unicorn horn and this week her eyelid was almost swollen shut - for two days!

Benedryl helped, but it was not the cure-all. I was reluctant to use creams so close to her eye. The Kaiser advise nurse advised us to keep an eye on it (haha) and bring her in if it didn't get better or if it got worse.

Well it's slowly getting better... but in the meantime P's looked like Rocky's cute younger sister for two days. I have to admit that I felt pretty embarrassed to be out in public today - people gave her the occasional odd look. It made me want to pin a note on her shirt that read "we did not hit our child".

Luckily it was almost back to normal by bathtime tonight, just slightly swollen and still a little red.

Also - washer broke, Bryan fixed it - yea!

I got offered a job last week, tutoring, part-time. I'm still hoping to find a full-time teaching gig come the Fall Semester, but it will be nice to be working again. And it will be nice to still have days with the kids since it's an after-school gig (which also means I can sub, provided any district starts hiring subs again!).

I'm sure there's more, there always is. But for now, I will sign off and hope that I get the chance to post again next week. Once my Thesis is finished I should have some time (I hope) for regular updating and to step upon my soapbox for other things. We all know how I love my soapbox ;)

Re-thinking Easter

Before Penelope was born I told Bryan "The Easter Bunny or Santa Claus", meaning that I would only consent to celebrate one holiday involving a deity in which I didn't believe. I was only going to lie to my children about one magical creature. He chose Santa so we haven't ever "celebrated" Easter.

I may be changing my mind.

First off, I never understood why someone would celebrate a holiday if they weren't going to celebrate the religious aspects. The purpose behind Christmas and Easter is a Christian purpose, isn't it? Yes, the timing of the holidays was co-opted and originally belonged to the pagans (of multiple varieties) but the current incarnations of the holidays revolve around Jesus. And I don't believe Jesus (if he existed) was the son of god, so why on Earth would I celebrate the holidays revolving around his mythology?

But then I started to talking to some other Atheist moms and they had some very good points. One of which is that modern celebrations are generally secular, the icons are originally pagan (x-mas tree, eggs, etc), and celebrating the change in the seasons is a valid reason to gorge yourself on candy. Ok, so the last reasons isn't that compelling, but it was a reason mentioned. It was also pointed out to me that celebrating these holidays would be an excellent teaching opportunity - I could explain to the kids the origins of the traditions, discuss who celebrates what and why, and get them to think about diversity.

Of course, should we celebrate Easter this year there won't be much discussion or debate, but as the kids get older it would be yet another way for me to expose my children to diversity of belief, traditions, and begin conversations about the evolution of thought, religion, and culture.

And yes, I DO manage to take all the fun out of everything.

Conversations and Imagination

I've been having conversations with my children since they were in utero (respectively). These conversations have been mostly one-sided, and any response on their part was mostly babble or in pre-speak (which sounds a lot like gibberish). After awhile you get rather adept at translating toddler-speak, so Poe and I have had many conversations in the past few months that have been quite fulfilling and incredibly amusing. Lately her lexicon and enunciation has markedly improved and we can have quite lengthy conversations about everything she sees... which is a lot.

Here are snippets of today's conversations.

P: Mommy, sing "Dinosaur Train" song please.
M: Really?
P: Yes please.
M: *sigh* ok. *sings DT song*
P: Thank you Mommy, that was beautiful.

(As an aside, I have become (remain??) a jukebox for my children. Penelope regularly requests her favorites and Griffin's car wailing is only stopped by certain songs. Poe's current favorite are the Dinosaur Train song, B-I-N-G-O (she calls it "mango"), the Kipper song, and the Caillou song. We haven't watched Caillou in ages - I despise that cartoon - so I made up new lyrics: "I'm just a boy whose 4, each day I grow some more, I'm so obnoxious I'm Caillou! So many things to do, each day is something new, I'm quite annoying I'm Caillou!")

M: Ok, pick out a new diaper.
P: Hmmmm... I think I want the polka dot diaper
M: You sure?
P: Yes. Please.
M: Ok. You know, Mommy made this diaper.
P: Good job Mommy! It's soft!

Often times these conversations will revolve around her quite vivid imagination...

P: Mommy, I'm Tiny Pteranodon! You're Mommy Pteradnon! (From the Dinosaur Train series)
M: Ok, SQUAWK!
P: SQUAWK! What's Bubba? Hmmm. Bubba is...
M: Don? Buddy?
P: Yes, Buddy. Bubba is Buddy! Hahaha.
M: Who is Daddy?
P: Silly Mommy, Daddy is Daddy Pteranodon.
M: Of course he is. Are we riding the dinosaur train now?
P: Yes. Whoa! That's fun. Whee!
M: Time tunnel approaching!
P: No mama, that's Mr. Conductor. I'm Mr. Conductor.
M: Oh, I thought you were Tiny.
P: I'm Tiny too!
M: Got it.

She cracks.me.up.

Oh! Griffin's 8th tooth has officially arrived! I'm hoping we get a few days before the next round. Although I hope it's not longer than a week. While I hate teething, I'd really like for him to get in a set of molars already - he really wants to eat everything and I can't give him some foods w/o his molars.

And his "yearbook" is almost finished. Once I have it done I'll post a link so everyone can look it over. I'll have it printed like I did for Pen and at his 1st birthday party people can write him notes :) I love how P's turned out and I'm liking the look of G's so far.

I should probably work on it now that I have a few minutes. Tomorrow I'll be writing my Thesis so tonight I'll give myself a little time for the yearbook.

And... I've lost 17 lbs since New Years Eve. Woot!

A day at the park

Today was a lovely day, especially for early March. So after picking up Thing 1 & Thing 2 from my parent's house we headed out to McKinley park (our favorite!) and had a lot of fun...


Griffin playing in the bark


Griffin *eating* the bark


Want a kiss??


More bark! (he really, really enjoyed his time in the bark)


Love my Bubs!


Griffin and Daddy


Playing around with Woody


He's coming to get you!


Very silly siblings


Playing chase

Ready...


BOO!



So very silly


Helping out...

In non-picture related news, tooth #8 isn't in yet, but it will be soon.