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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Sleeping babies who suck (thumbs & pacifiers, mostly)

Not to make any one jealous but...I would just like to take this moment to brag comment. I am a sucker for watching sleeping babies.



Izaak and I sleep VERY WELL.  We rarely have gotten less then 8 hours. AND if we do get less then than  8 hours, it almost NEVER has to do with a certain 3 year old and 3 month old. It's us, not them.

I love pictures of zombie-fashion models-cousins holding my children

 Can you tell from this picture that I have a thumb sucker and a pacifier baby?  I think that it is a nature thing that little ones like to suck (clearly nature, as a matter of survival).  But how is it that Elliot was born with a thumb in her mouth, and Henry scoffs at his thumb in favor of a pacifier.  He is even brand specific.  MAM.  Can't find one? Go ahead and try to sneak a Soothie or NUK into his wide open mouth.  No chance that will satisfy.  MAM's the word around her.


I still remember Henry's 1st two nights with us.  He slept fitfully, and only if held upright.  So I slept, sitting up on the couch.  For two nights, I had bad sleep.  At three nights old, he tucked in nicely to me and slept away. Content to cuddle until morning. 
 
I also love pictures of Thing 2 -Uncles partying Halloween style with Skeleton-Henrys


What?  Do some of you envy us?  Do some wonder why?  Nurture, nature?  I don't know.  BUT it seems that lately there has been an onslaught of questions from people - Is Henry sleeping through the night yet?  Are you guys catching up on sleep yet?  Two little kids, you must never sleep.
 
Isn't that a pretty lady?  She is a very lovely person indeed.
 Sleep sleep sleep.  Why do some people get so preoccupied with babies and sleep?


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thoughts on housekeeping

Housekeeping is a funny thing to do.  Especially with a 3 year old whirling dervish that loves to help with chores.  Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just hold off a couple of years and give it a go then.
popcorn is never a tidy snack.

I really like the articles by Leila that talk about a reasonably clean house. Hum.  That phrase reasonably clean has rung through my head since I first read it.  A perfectly clean house is not practical.  More so, I think, because our house is negative 600 square feet big. 

Thought I would randomly pepper this post with pictures of some projects that Izaak & Elliot have worked on - a castle

There is no space that is child-toy free.  I do not have a dedicated playroom to help manage her things.  I do not have a formal living room to keep perfectly clean as a refuge from all the living that we do.  In cleaning and tidying the house, Elliot follows behind me playing duplos and getting out markers and…before you know it I need to start all over again.  

A dog chasing its own tail. 

A perfectly clean house (with little ones, and small spaces) is not attainable.  So, I like the idea of a reasonably clean house.   I have a dear aunt who said to me once that clean doesn’t have a  smell.  Yah, that stuck with me too.  Clean doesn’t smell like expensive scented candles, plug-ins, or chemical pine.  Clean is just fresh air.
Elliot can do awesome things with glitter glue and wiggly eyes, right?

As an aside, I have for over three years now, made all my own cleaners.  I got this book from the library about the time that Elliot was born.  Changed my pine-sol-bleaching-409 housekeeping to a something else entirely.  (And thankfully, because this was before we were fully aware of her skin issues...she, as it turns out, is super chemical sensitive)  That all to say that sometimes there are whiffs of tea tree, clove, or mint in the air.  All from essential oils . (not just perfumes.  Eo's have antibacterial properties, ya'know.)


Why I am talking about all this now?  Well, I was pondering how much calmer I am when my house was clean and tidy...and how being reasonably clean might just mean different things to everyone else.   That to me, it feels nice and calm with a little tidying and vacuuming.  I am also and perhaps foremost a fan of a place for everything, and everything in its place.  That if I had one housekeeping rule that would be it.  No matter how messy life gets, there is always the possibility that everything can be put away somewhere.  (And, if company is expected, it can be put away very quickly.)


So. Ramble ramble ramble.  Happy pre-thanksgiving



Sunday, November 21, 2010

I thought I had posted these pictures already.  But I was looking back and realized that I hadn't
well, here you go... (my apologizes if I did already post these.  Please bear with me again.)

The Pumpkin Festival-Corn Maze-thingy

Elliot picked out her pumpkin


 And posed with it


A few times. 



We jumped on a huge blow up pillow


Elliot, ever the Pioneer, forged her own way through a maze - with little regard for rules and pathways.

A hayride  

Saturday, November 20, 2010

To my loving husband who mockingly pointed out my obvious misspelling in the last post, I retort with the authority of Mark Twain:

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."

and Henry Louis Mencken:

"Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world."

Thank you, I thinke I porved mi point.

A vision of thier future.

Elliot said today that when she is my age, or maybe just 5, she is going to marry Henry and sew all of his clothes.  His jackets and pants and zippies and underwear, everything.

As a mother I cringed (on the inside).  My children, married to each other, wearing awkward home-sewn clothes.  Great.

But I'd hate to be the one to crush her dreams...so I just let it roll.

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Friday night pizza night that almost wasn't

the setup:
   we relocate Friday night pizza night to another house. We have everything.  fun talks, beer, pineapple chunks.  Everything is in its place.  And then...oh crap!  No recipe.  We left it at home.

The debate begins. was it 1 3/4c flour or 2 1/4?  Soy Flour?  I don't remember? 

And then...we are rescued.  By my knight in shining librari-armour.  (ha) The new saviour of pizza night.  Who bravely set aside her hard cider to rescue the lost-at-sea-pizza makers in a far away land.  Who courageously faced the wilds of google to find the truth recipe - and with a call to Boise SAVED at least 5 people from a dinner of beer and pineapple chucks. 

And that folks is a good friend.  And an excellent pizza. 
Cheers!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Thoughts and leaves falling falling

Wow have I really not written anything here in 3 weeks?  My faithful few are perhaps a bit upset.  (I am speaking for you, since y'all keep so quiet on the comments).  Lots of fall pictures are awaiting their chance to dismount off the camera and make a new home on the computer...perhaps another day.  I do have some pictures to share.  Have you seen these?





Elliot is not feeling well today.  She told her dad that it was all because she ate a dog.  Oh boy.

We have been better this fall about not turning the heat on.  Most years I turn it on high in October and leave it that way until March.  Power bill can suck.  And that is not the soundest environmental plan.  So this year I am trying to acclimate to the weather as it changes. That seems the more natural approach. Proud to say that we have only turned the heat on on a few occasions so far.  It is amazing how much you don't need to heat a house when you are appropriately dressed for the season.  My guess is that the same is true for the summer and a/c.  But I didn't have benefit of central air this summer...

I love baby stretches.  When a baby puts his two fists behind his head and arches his back and then puts puckering mushed face and then wiggles just a bit.  That is perhaps my favorite thing to watch - aside from sleeping children. 

Prince William got engaged.  That's good.  Every webpage I went on today was saturated with the breaking news coverage.  This to shall pass, I hope.

I was also going to share a quick story about Elliot and her new duplo guns and another about the letter I am helping her compose to Santa.  But I will save those for another evening. 




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