A Flint Holds Fire

Summer is almost over...

2010-09-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

... thank God. I know I shouldn't complain, and I really do love the weather here most of the time, but this summer has been crazy. Birmingham had a record-breaking heat streak of 50 consecutive days with temps above 90 degrees (heat index in the 100's). The old record was 37 days, set in 1932. The last few days have only been in the upper 80's, but are supposed to go back up again this week. Beck's bike has cobwebs on it, it's just too hot to ride. I CAN NOT wait for it to cool down a little so that we can spend more than half an hour outside at a time.

So, let's see, what have we done these past few months? Lots of Super Mario Bros. for Wii has been played in our house. Maybe a little too much, actually. Beck is completely obsessed with all things Mario, and when we tuck him in at night we play a game he made up called "Mario hints", where you guess what place or character from the game he is thinking of. We also play "Mario favorites" where we talk about our 5 favorite things from the game. Did I mention that he is obsessed? Maybe we all are a little bit, I myself was pretty excited when I finally beat the last board...

Beck started kindergarten at Hoover Christian School, which is right down the road from us.

We were a little apprehensive about sending him to a Seventh Day Adventist school, but so far everything seems fine. He does come home telling us really funny and mixed up things that he learned during the religious portion of the day. The other day I asked him what he learned at school that day and he said "Well, God was having a meeting and Lucifer wanted to come, but God wouldn't let him come to the meeting, so he went and hurt all the children". Hmmm, that's not really how I remember the story going, but it's pretty funny anyway. Beck also told us that God's family was made up of "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spearmint". I just hope he's actually learning something important (like reading and math) at this school. Like most kids, he isn't that forthcoming about what he does every day, but we have heard from his teacher that he is very advanced in his reading and is a "great kid."

Baylor moved up to the "Busy Bees" class at the daycare. This is the class where they do the hardcore potty training, so being the lazy parents that we are, we are hoping they will do the majority of the dirty work for us. The past few months his language has exploded and now I understand what he is saying about 80% of the time. He absolutely loves to sing, especially "Twinkle Twinkle"and "Wheels on the bus." Most mornings when we go to get him out of bed he is laying there, rolling around and singing loudly to himself. So far his terrible two haven't been that terrible, usually only if he missed a nap or didn't get to do something that he really wanted to do. He still lets me baby him a little, and is always down for a snuggle. The best part is that now he is getting old enough to play with Beck, and the two of them will go off together and do things and mostly get along. Baylor loves to follow Beck around and try to do whatever he is doing. He is also perfectly content to just sit and watch Beck play Mario.

Here are some pictures that I have taken over the past few weeks with the camera on my new iPhone 4. The quality isn't too bad, for a cell phone, as long as you hold it perfectly still. I will probably still take my other camera along for important events, but for just everyday things the iPhone has been great!

These next pictures are from our favorite hiking spot, Moss Rock Preserve. When you first go in the entrance there is a tree that the boys love. We call it the "knee tree," since it looks like a skinny leg with a knobby knee.

Beck spent the rest of the hike insisting I take pictures of his weird poses.

He's a strange child, but we love him anyway.

These last couple are from today's trip to Krispy Kreme, which is also right down the road, and a favorite of all three of my boys.

Chattanooga- Day 3

2010-07-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

Our last day in Chattanooga we managed to squeeze in some breakfast, some more pool time, and then a trip to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum for a ride on the Missionary Ridge Local.

Rob was happy to wear all of his Tennessee gear proudly, without getting the usual dirty looks from all the Alabama/Auburn fans.

It was incredibly hot, but the boys still had a great time on their first real train ride.

I highly recommend Chattanooga as a family vacation spot. Beck is still talking about how much fun he had, and showed his class the trip pictures for show-and-tell today. We also lucked out and the boys slept for most of the 2 hour trip home. They're so sweet (when they're asleep).

Chattanooga- Day 2

2010-07-01T19:46:00.000-05:00

On day two of our vacation we started off with breakfast at a delicious yet not terribly kid-friendly restaurant called The Blue Plate. After scarfing down eggs and pancakes, we walked down the street to check out the riverfront. Right there on the water is a nice little park, and even though it was already in the 90's, we stayed to play for a little while.

When we got back Beck was anxious for us to get in the pool so that he could show me everything that he's learning at swimming lessons. We had a good time just the two of us.

After lunch and naps we headed over to the Creative Discovery Museum which was the perfect place to spend a hot afternoon.

We were greeted by a steel drum concert. I like steel drums as much as the next guy, but it was a little loud.

There was so much to do. Unlike the McWane Science Center here in B'ham, this place is geared toward younger children, which is great.

Grossology. The entire upstairs was devoted to a travelling exhibit called grossology, defined as: "The Impolite Science of the Human Body"

Of course the boys loved it.

That's Baylor trying to climb up the wall of pimples and warts.

There was a lot more to do, but it took a little bit of effort to drag them away from that stuff.

No children's museum would be complete without a dinosaur dig, Baylor's favorite.

We all went to Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner that night. The food was pretty good, and the kids got theirs in souvenir cars to take home. Grandpa and I both got milkshakes, mine was cookie-dough flavored and was gone in under a minute. That night Sessy and Grandpa were nice enough to watch the kids so that Rob and I could get out. We ended up at Hair of the Dog pub and had some Fat Tire Ambers and gin and tonics and pretended like we were young and childless again.

Chattanooga- Day 1

2010-06-30T22:58:00.000-05:00

After our plans for a vacation at Fort Walton Beach were thwarted by the oil spill disaster, we decided to stay inland and spend our family vacation in beautiful Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga is actually very kid friendly and only a couple of hours from our house, so it was ideal. Grandpa and Sessy met us there on Friday and we immediately went over to visit the Tennessee Aquarium, which is one of the largest in the world. It is split into 2 buildings: Ocean Journey and River Journey.

This male penguin kept bringing the female rocks for the nest that she's sitting on. Each time he brought her a rock he would put it down and then make a noise at her as if to say "is this enough yet?" and she would just close her eyes and turn her head away, and then he would go get another one and do the same thing over again.

Shark Bait!!

The Ocean Journey had hundreds of different jellyfish and other invertebrates (A.K.A. Boneless Beauties)

Once you get down to the bottom floor, the ceiling is glass and you can watch the fish swim above you.

There are little nooks where you can lay down and watch the fish swim over you. The boys crawled into one with some very nice and patient teenagers.

Some juice and tickle time...

Tennessee River

Touch tanks are always a hit in this family.

The boys were pretty exhausted by the end, but I could have stayed for a lot longer, there was so much to see. We will definitely be back!

Hot Hot Heat!

2010-06-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

With temperatures in the 90's lately, we have been doing everything we can to keep cool, which means a lot of outdoor water play. On Saturday we went to the zoo, which happens to have some of those randomly spurting fountains that kids (and some adults) love to play around in.

Right next to the fountains they have a thing that you can pay to go in that has piles and piles of foam to play in. So far we haven't tried it out, I figure the boys will get enough experience with foam parties on Spring break in college. Whenever the wind blew, some of the foam would come over the side and the kids would run after it.

After drying off, the boys went for a ride on the carousel.

Then we went for a walk in an area of the zoo known as "Alabama Wilds." We usually skip over this area, because it's a little boring (beavers, turtles, birds, etc..), but it was a perfect day to walk in the shaded woods.

There is a little dinosaur fossil dig place that I had forgotten about.

At the end of the trail is a rustic log-cabin that you can explore.

And then, of course, the Outhouse...

Sunday was even hotter, so we broke out the sprinklers again. This time Rob had the genius idea to set it up on the front lawn, that way we're watering the grass instead of the drive way. I'm not sure why we didn't think of this before.

The boys love this thing. Even I put on my suit and joined them for a little while (not pictured).

Finally, here is a picture that Beck drew of the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." You can see Mickey, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and the rest of the gang.

You can tell who they are, right??!! This picture cracks me up, as do most of the things that Beck does lately. Yesterday at lunch, Beck pointed to the almonds on his plate and said "Daddy, these almonds are driving me nuts!" We love our little guys. It's so much fun watching them grow up and develop their creativity and humor.

Our Son, The Graduate

2010-05-27T19:24:00.000-05:00

This week is "senior week" at the daycare center, an entire week devoted just to Beck and his other friends in the Pathfinders class, which are the oldest children at the center. Every day there is a special event or trip including an ice cream social, a bike rodeo, picnic lunch, bowling, pizza and movie party, and a graduation ceremony. I swear, we didn't have nearly this much celebration for my high school graduation!

Rob went with Beck to the bowling alley on Wednesday, it was Beck's first time bowling. He even got a spare!

Today was the actual graduation ceremony, it was really pretty cute. The theme was "Children All Over The World." The kids performed a song in Spanish, then a song about the world being a mixing pot, and finally they sang the Cat Stevens song "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out." (For all the grandparents, I did make a video recording and I will post it soon) The kids were each presented with diplomas, and there was a slideshow made of pictures from the past year. The center director gave a speech, and then the lead teacher Mrs. Faye gave a speech and she got choked up in the middle of it. After that there was cake and punch and the kids just ran around crazy for a little while.

There was a piano at the conference hall where the ceremony was. The kids found it right away, of course.

Various Goings On

2010-05-24T20:39:00.000-05:00

Hola, amigos, I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. These past couple of months Rob and I have been alternating trips out of town, trying to work on the backyard, and generally just trying to have fun with our two crazy little boys. Last weekend I went up Rochester for the first time in 3 years (!) to visit family and friends. I had a great time, especially getting to see my friend Mary's little boys, who are the same age as Beck and Bay. They are both super cute and very, umm, spirited. We had a blast!

Here is Gavin, he is just a few weeks younger than Beck. They've never met, but I hope they become good friends some day.

This is Logan, he's 2 and a half. Here he is trying to attack me with a toy chainsaw.

Here's Logan and my sister snuggling on the porch. He's a very sweet little guy.

Here's Peg and Mary and I. When we were in high school, Mary and I were so tight they called us the "Mary sisters." I also got to go out with some high school friends and good times were had.

It was so great to be back home, I definitely need to go back more often!

Rob and I decided that the next big project for the house should be the deck and the back yard. The deck was in desperate need of a new coat of stain. I picked out the stain and let Rob do the rest. I think it turned out pretty good, a definite improvement.

Before:

After:

We also went ahead and tore down all the hedges that were around the deck. They were too tall and mismatched and they blocked us from being able to see out into the yard. Slowly but surely we are making the yard into what we envisioned when we bought the place.

I guess we could have just hired some guys to come and spend one day tearing down and pulling up stuff, instead of the days and weeks we've put into chopping, sawing and digging, but that would be too easy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that even more plants that I thought were weeds and almost cut down, bloomed into gorgeous hydrangeas.

This backyard is just so random. I also discovered that the bush/tree on the right side of our house has some sort of reddish orange flowers growing off of it.

I still haven't figured out what this one is, so any help is appreciated.

Yesterday it was crazy hot, so we opened Baylor's birthday gift from his friend Aleksey- a sprinkler ball shaped like a giant globe.

Motivated by the fact that Beck's pre-school class is having a bike rodeo this week, we decided that it was time for him to have a real bike. We picked this beauty up at Target, it only took an hour of time and three arguments to put together.

Ironically, the name of this bike is "Major Damage". Why would you write that on a little kid's bike? I don't know, but it feels foreboding.

I smelled it....

2010-04-17T18:12:00.000-05:00

Here is a little snippet of a conversation I had with Beck. For those who don't happen to watch the Disney Channel, Handy Manny is a cartoon about a guys and his helpful tools.

Beck has never cared much for the show, for reasons unclear to me.

Me: Hey Beck, do you like Handy Manny?
Beck: No.
Me: Why not?
Beck: Well... his breath stinks.
Me: Who told you that?
Beck: (totally straight-faced) Nobody told me-I smelled it!

Sometimes I can't tell whether Beck is really creative or mildly pathological.

The Witch's Forest

2010-04-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

In the past couple of weeks it went from cool to rainy to hot and everything has come to full bloom, seemingly overnight. Trees that barely had buds a couple of weeks ago now have full size leaves and flowers, and literally every surface of this city is covered in a dusting of green pollen. It's April in Birmingham, which is similar to June or July in most places I've lived. This week calls for highs in the 80's every day, and this is just a taste of what's to come. Our backyard, as we discovered last summer, can turn into a jungle after a couple of days of rain, and since we didn't move in until July, I am pleasantly surprised to see that Spring in our neighborhood is actually very pretty. The air is fragrant and bug-free, the grass is soft. Bushes that I thought were dead are flowering. Here are some pictures I took the other night of our house and the yard.

We are lucky to live on a pretty quiet street. You could say that we live on a cul-de-sac, but that isn't quite accurate. The house next to ours is the last house on the street, but then the road simply stops. It's as if it wants to keep going, but it hits a giant wall of vines.

I like to compare it to the wall in the movie Labyrinth, it looks like it stops there, but what you can't see until you walk right up there is that there is an opening to the... Witch's Forest.

There is a little bit of wooded land back there that no one (except neighborhood kids I see sneaking out of there) really knows about. Beck dubbed it the Witch's Forest last summer, and now that it is warm again, we have been making evening trips out there to visit the witch. Usually what happens is we walk down there, look around, throw some things in "the hole," look for bugs, look for good sticks, hit stuff with said sticks, and then Beck will declare that we better head home before we wake up the witch. We have a lot of great conversations out there- sometimes we will talk about what happened to the dinosaurs and why they are extinct (we talk about this a lot in our house). Sometimes we will talk about what bees like to eat. Even if it is getting really dark and I am starting to feel a little creeped out I stay there until he decides it's time to go.

Here are some pictures of the Witch's Forest which, like the rest of Hoover, is currently covered in Wisteria:

The "secret" entrance.

A waterfall of wisteria.

"The hole". You can't tell by looking at this picture, but this hole is actually about a foot and a half deep. Throwing things into it and jumping over it are just two of the many fun things to do in the Witch's Forest.

Russian Easter

2010-04-12T21:13:00.000-05:00

This year for Easter we were lucky enough to be invited over to our friend's house for Russian Easter food. We had special Russian Easter bread, breads stuffed with meat and sweet cabbage, ham, and a sweet cheese spread that I think is called Pashka (you can correct me, Kat). Apparently each of these dishes takes several hours and/or days to make, so it's unlikely that I will be re-creating them anytime soon. Everything was sooo delicious, and the best part was that I didn't have to cook or clean AND got to take home a lot of leftovers.

We all stuffed ourselves and then the kids opened their Easter baskets which were filled with chalk, dinosaur toys, hollow chocolate eggs and other assorted goodies.

The D particularly enjoyed crushing his chocolate eggs with his super-human Baylor strength.

Aleksey caught a quick snuggle with Rob...

After food and treats we walked to the park down the street and let the kids run around a bit.

Thanks again for having us over- we're going to miss you guys!

A day at the gardens

2010-04-04T20:11:00.000-05:00

Now that we've moved to Hoover, and the Aldridge Gardens are literally down the street from us http://www.aldridgegardens.com/ we don't get out to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Mountain Brook as much anymore. But yesterday it was gorgeous out and we wanted to go see if the flowers were blooming at the "old gardens".

There isn't any reason that everyone is wearing red shirts, it just worked out that way. Check out my boys...

The roses aren't blooming yet, but plenty of other flowers were and the gardens are full of blossoming trees now.

As usual, Baylor preferred to sit on the bridge and throw rocks in the water. He likes to do his own thing.

The boys playing soccer in the still unfinished living room:

Baylor is really into kicking the soccer ball around, and he is actually pretty good at it. Beck is a little less coordinated, but he really enjoys it, too.

She's crafty...

2010-04-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

So, I came to the realization that I was probably never going to learn the proper way to play with our newly found Carrom board (see earlier post). I wondered what I could possibly do with the thing, since the frame is a huge piece of solid metal and can't be thrown away or fit into our car to take to Goodwill (I'm guessing this is the same problem the original owners had when they decided to abandon it in the basement). I've always wanted the boys to have one of those big Lego tables like they have at McWane center, and I've seen them for sale before, but they are usually around $200. I figured that I could probably use the frame and make my own Lego table top for much less than that. I got a piece of plywood from Home Depot big enough to fit the table ($2), sanded it down, and applied four large Lego baseboards with cement glue to the top. The baseboards are usually $15 each, but I went to the Lego store by our house and they had the red ones on sale for 1/2 off.

I think it turned out pretty good. I hope the glue holds. Apparently it is really difficult to glue plastic to other things. The guys at Home Depot know me by name now. When I went there the other day some guy I didn't recognize asked me how my flooring turned out. Maybe I need to drive out to Lowe's every now and then, so I don't look like some sort of crazy fix-it lady.

The D turns 2!

2010-04-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

We have a lot of different nicknames for Baylor David- Bay-Bay, Baylon, Peach, Peachtree, Sweet D, Baylor D, but usually we just call him "The D". Since The D is our spring baby and was born so close to Easter, we thought that this year we would just have a couple of friends over and have an Easter themed birthday party. The kids had a great time!

Here is The D on his actual birthday, isn't he a peach!

For the party we did an Easter egg hunt in our backyard, a harder one for the big kids and a very easy one for Baylor and Aleksey.

Beck had a great time. Baylor was less interested. I don't think he really understood the concept. He preferred instead to throw things into the lake that used to be our sandbox. He is kind of in a throwing-things-into-things phase, he doesn't care as much for organized activities.

After the egg hunt we dyed Easter Eggs out in the driveway.

Then it was cake time.

Bay with one of his presents. We can not wait to open it up and use it. It is supposed to be 84 degree here tomorrow, so it shouldn't be long before we break out the slip-n-slide and other various water games. *Note to grandparents- sorry I didn't take any pictures of Baylor opening your presents. With Rob out of town, and so many other things going on, I just kind of let him and Beck tear into them in no particular order. Thanks again for all of the wonderful new toys!

I do need to mention one special present that I did take a picture of. My sister Peg made the boys a stuffed Brobee doll from their favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba. At first I didn't even realize it was homemade, it looks that good. I still think Peg needs to go into business one day with all of her jewelry and knits and different projects. Thanks Aunt Peg! Brobee is being loved on every day. Beck even took it to show and tell on Friday and I heard other kids ooohhing and ahhhing over it. Everyone loves Yo Gabba!

Baylor conquers his fiends

2010-03-31T12:28:00.000-05:00

Every month Beck and Baylor's classes send out electronic newsletters describing the upcoming activities for the month. I just got Baylor's newsletter for April:

To celebrate our theme for the month of April, the Hugger’s class will be learning about how our bodies grow and develop. The overall theme for this month is, “All About Me.” The weeks and their topics are as follow:

• Week of the 5th: My Body

• Week of the 12th: My Fiends

• Week of the 19th: I’m Growing

• Week of the 26th: My Family

I don't know why, but the thought of 2 years olds sitting around discussing their "fiends" made me laugh out loud.

Carrom anyone?

2010-03-21T21:09:00.001-05:00

I was doing a little spring cleaning in our garage/basement today and look what I found...

And the flip side:

Yup- you guessed it, it's a Carrom board. Judging from the looks of it, I would be willing to guess that it was purchased by the original owners of the house, several years before I was born. Rob and I Googled how to play it, but were left with more questions than answers. If anyone is a Carrom expert and knows where I can buy some Carrom-men that are "ICF-sanctioned pieces with a diameter of no more than 3.18 cm and no less than 3.02 cm, and must be between 7 mm and 9 mm thick, with an edge that is round and plain, and a weight of 5–5.5 g." please let me know. If feel like if our old college friends were around we would find some way to make a Carrom drinking game that would probably make about as much sense as the actual games rules.

Kitchen Pictures

2010-03-18T21:56:00.000-05:00

So, I finally got around to doing the kitchen and I would say it is 90% finished. I am extremely proud to say that I laid the flooring completely by myself. I also cut and installed the baseboards and quarter round and painted. It was a lot of work, spread out over a week's worth of nights. I ended up with a lot of little cuts and bruises and a sore back, but it was completely worth it.

We basically went with the least expensive flooring, so it didn't turn out to be exactly what I would have otherwise chosen, but I've come to view this house as my practice house where I am here to learn all of the lessons of home improvement and maintenance. We went ahead and had professionals fix the drywall and tear the wood paneling off of the other walls, but I feel like maybe I could have done that myself too.

They tore off the old painted-over wood paneling that covered the bottom the kitchen walls, and replaced the drywall under the window, which had gotten wet and rotted.

I think this is a vast improvement on what we had when we first moved in.

Before

After

Some Updates

2010-02-18T22:30:00.000-06:00

I know it's been awhile since I posted anything new. We are finally getting around to doing some fix-ups on the house. On Monday we bought a new Heater and Air Conditioner, since the ones we had were 20 years old and we got a really good deal on a new set. Obviously I would rather spend the money on things you can see (like new floors and windows), but we are hoping that we will be able to save some money on our bills with this new system.

After putting it off for the last few months, I decided it was time to go ahead and paint the living room/dining room. I chose a shade of green that I thought looked nice, bought a test jar and painted a small area to make sure I liked it. I thought it looked great. SO I went and bought 2 cans and started painting. Everything was going smoothly until the paint started to dry about 3 shades DARKER than I had originally thought. I went ahead and finished up the first coat and stood back to look at it. I decided that I hated it and would have to prime over it and redo it with a different color. I went to bed feeling defeated. But when I went downstairs in the morning and the natural light was shining through the window I decided that it really didn't look that bad after all. That night I went ahead and did the second coat, and it made all the difference. The color is still not exactly what I wanted, but I am learning to love it.

Now all we need for this room is some new flooring, a new light fixture (something from this century) and some furniture. The boys will be really disappointed when their soccer/scooter/running around in circles room becomes an actual living space.

Fairly unusual for Alabama, we got some snow last week that actually stuck on the ground. The boys were elated and wanted to stomp around in it and eat it.

When the snow melted Beck said "Oh, I wish it was winter all the time and there was always snow on the ground." Sometimes I think it's funny that neither of the boys have ever been any further North than Tennessee. Beck would freak out if he ever saw the kind of snow that Rochester or Madison gets.

My birthday was last Monday and Beck helped Rob make my birthday cake.

It was lemon cake with white frosting, my favorite. Rob and Beck are both big chocolate fans, so I think they were both a little disappointed with my choice. Beck ate off all of the frosting and left the cake part on the plate. Rob and I went out to celebrate and found a new favorite hang-out, Dram Whiskey Bar in Mountain Brook.

Beck has been super cute with Baylor lately, giving him lots of love and affection. He's always saying things like "I love Baylor" or "Isn't he so cute?" We really couldn't ask for him to be a better big brother, we feel very lucky.

Beck has gotten more into his homework lately, he seems to enjoy the math problems much better than the handwriting. Since both Rob and I both had (and still have) terrible handwriting, I think it's a given that Beck will never have perfect penmanship.

A few weeks ago we had our friend Kat and her two kids Victoria and Aleksey over to eat pizza and watch Shrek. Aleksey is in Baylor's class at daycare, the "Huggers" room.

Our next big project for the house is the kitchen, I'll post before and after pictures soon!

Seasons Greetings

2010-01-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

Well it's been a little while since I've posted anything, as the weather gets colder and colder I seem to get lazier and lazier. We did have a nice extended holiday with both Grandma and Nani coming to visit, so the amount of wine and good food was considerable. Up until Christmas it was still pretty warm here, and one day we took the boys for a walk at the Botanical Gardens that are right down the road from our house. We go there fairly often since it is a 3 minute drive, you can feed the fish and turtles, and best of all, it's free!

Here is Bay looking out at the lake...

In preparation for Kindergarten, Beck's teachers have been giving the class handwriting homework that is due every Monday morning. Even though he has several days to do it, Beck generally rushes through it every Monday morning quickly before we leave. Hmm, reminds me of my own homework habits as a child. Although he doesn't care much for handwriting practice, he does enjoy coloring and drawing.

Here is a picture of a dragon, can you tell?

Grandma came to visit for a few days over Christmas and the boys had a great time with her. This was the first Christmas where I really felt like Beck understood exactly what was going on, i.e., the meaning of Christmas, the story of Santa Claus, giving gifts to others, etc... Of course all of that went out the window once he got a look at his Christmas stash!

As is the tradition in most families we let the boys each open one small gift on Christmas Eve. Beck got a new dinosaur puzzle and Baylor got the stuffed Spot dog that he always tries to snuggle with whenever we go to Barnes and Noble.

Baylor's alter-ego "Sock Hands"

Christmas Morning

Reading Wild Things w/ Grandma

And a quick snuggle

Baylor had almost no interest in opening presents, he preferred to run wildly around the house, giggling, and stopping occasionally in someone's lap for a snuggle.

Their big present from Santa was this dragon castle, which is kind of an updated version of those Fisher Price castles we all used to play with as children. The boys have not stopped playing with it.

They have done a pretty good job playing with it together, Beck is generally very good at sharing and being kind to his little brother. Sometimes Baylor will do one of his crazy little Baylor dances or just come over and start snuggling and Beck will look up at me and say "Isn't he so cute?" It's very sweet to watch these two at this age.

Nani came for New Years, and we did the whole thing all over again.

Thanks so much to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and especially to Grandma and Nani for babysitting!

My next big project for the house is to paint the Living/Dining Room, so after Christmas I took everything out of the room in preparation. I was walking down the stairs to go the kitchen and saw this.

A lonely Brontosaurus was sitting peacefully in the middle of the room, I'm not sure who put him there.

Here are a couple of more "before" pictures.

I picked out a light green color for this room and hope to get it finished by the end of the month. After that we are (eventually) going to replace the carpet in here with wood flooring. For now it will remain the boy's soccer-ball-kicking/running around room.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T21:32:00.000-06:00

The weather has been so nice here lately, that we find ourselves doing a lot of outdoor trips on the weekends. One place we recently discovered is Moss Rock Preserve which is a wonderful woodsy area with hiking trails, not too far from our house. http://www.hooveral.org/Default.asp?ID=485

On Thanksgiving day Beck and I decided to go on a hike at Moss Rock while Rob and Nani and Baylor stayed home to take care of the food and football watching. We had a great time hiking and hunting for pine cones. We took the biggest and best ones home with us and turned them into holiday decorations. Sort of.

We decided to do a pretty low-key Thanksgiving this year and just have a simple dinner with the usual stuff, and do a breast instead of a whole turkey. Of course we had to make a stop at our favorite store Penzeys to pick up some "Bi-centennial Poultry Rub." Rob stuffed bay leaves under the skin and coated the breast in rub.

It turned out great! Even Beck asked for multiple helpings. Aside from a little, um, issue regarding the mashed potatoes, everything was really delicious. Especially the chocolate-pecan pie I made (mostly) from scratch.

As usual the kids had a blast with Nani. Beck, Nani and I spent a good chunk of time on a "Battle Bugs" craft that Nani brought. We all got pretty into it! I think one of the best things about being a parent is getting to relive some of the fun parts of your childhood through your kids. Whether they will admit it or not, I think all grown-ups secretly love going to the pumpkin patch and circus and playing with Legos and playdough.

Of course, Nani being here also meant a welcome rest for Rob and I from some of the lesser-enjoyed activities, such as lengthy games of Memory.

Rob and I managed to get a night out to see a movie ("The Fantastic Mr. Fox", which was really good) and get a couple of cocktails as well.

Sunday afternoon we all went to pick out our Christmas tree, and waited until Baylor was in bed to do the tree-trimming. I gave Beck a small pile of non-breakable ornaments to put up wherever he wanted, and he was so incredibly happy, he still hasn't stopped talking about it.

The finished product...

And since I'm still up...

2009-11-14T22:38:00.000-06:00

Here is a video of Beck reading The Giving Tree. Over the past few months he has gone from a good reader to an amazing reader. I can hand him pretty much any kids book and he can read straight through it with little or no help. We are really happy to have boys that love books as much as we do!

Fall

2009-11-14T21:51:00.002-06:00

Autumn is finally here, although some days you wouldn't really know it. Having lived in the North for 27 years of my life, I consider anything above 60 degrees to be Summer. Today it was 75. Despite the warm weather, the leaves still die and fall and our back yard was getting out of control.

Our poor sandbox was decimated by the monsoon summer we had.

Here is a picture of Izzy Lizard just chillin' on the speaker outside near the door to the deck. He is one of our many new lizard friends who have decided to live on our porch for some reason. We don't mind them at all, but it means we have to open and shut the back door very quickly. We've already had several sneak in, and one terrible (gross) tragedy.

We finally broke down and bought an electric leaf blower.

Still not perfect, but much better.

Things can get pretty routine when you have little kids, so we are always on the lookout for new places to go, especially parks. Last weekend we found a new one not too far from our house.

Today we met up with my friend Kat and her son who is in Baylor's class (the Huggers) at daycare.

Beck is really sweet with little kids. He has told us he wants to be a baby doctor when he grows up. He also wants to be a farmer.

The ice-cream man came rolling by the park, and Beck scored a treat. Apparently it was blue.

Sweet Potato Chicken Curry

2009-11-14T20:51:00.000-06:00

Rob and don't usually have time to cook elaborate meals, but every now and then we find a recipe to add to our favorites collection. This recipe for Sweet Potato Curry was in this month's issue of Cooking Light, and it is super delicious! Interestingly, the recipe was sent in by a woman who also went to UW-Madison, and was inspired to create this dish based on one that she had eaten as a college student at a place she described as a "hole-in-the-wall Nepalese restaurant" (Himal Chuli? They never had anything this good.) We have made this 3 times now, and I'm making it again tomorrow. Here is the recipe:

2 Teaspoons Curry Powder (we use Hot Curry Powder from Penzeys)
1 Teaspoon ground coriander
1 Teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon black pepper
1/4 Teaspoon ground red pepper (or just use Hot curry pwder)
1 Bay Leaf
1 1/2 Teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces (or omit this if feeding a vegetarian)
1 1/2 cups vertically sliced onion
1 1/2 Teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free chicken broth (or vegetable broth if your vegan sister is coming to town)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups (1/2 inch) cubed peeled sweet potatao
3/4 cup drained and rinsed chickpeas
1/2 cup frozen green peas (we have skipped this everytime, but it would probably be good with)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. Combine curry powder, coriander, turmeric, salt, pepper, and bay leaf in small bowl.
2. Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add chicken to pan; saute 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from pan. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Increase heat to medium high; return chicken to pan. Cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Stir in ginger and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add curry powder mixture; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly . Add broth, tomatoes and potato and bring to a boil (*note- the recipe says to leave out the sweet potato until the last 1/2 hr, but we found that doing this makes them hard and not fully cooked). Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hr. Stir in chickpeas. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes. Add peas; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice. Discard bayleaf. Yield: 7 serving (serving size 1 cup). Serve over Basmati rice.

Yes, cooking this will make your whole house smell like a cheap apartment in Brooklyn, but it is totally worth it. Enjoy!

Stolen Pictures

2009-11-07T09:47:00.000-06:00

While my sister was here over Halloween, I let her be in charge of picture taking while I wrangled the boys. Here are some pictures I stole from her Facebook page:

After spending the day together shopping and eating lunch at Bottletree cafe, Peg and I went to our daycare center's Fall Festival. They had treats and activities for the kids, but mostly they just ran wild.

They has a little face-painting area and 2 of the teachers were painting things like bats and pumpkins on the kid's faces. One teacher told Bay that she was going to paint a pumpkin on his face and then proceeded to paint a red pumpkin. I was very confused, they actually had orange paint, but I didn't say anything.

The boys thought it was more fun to steal the pins than to wait in line to bowl.

Normally they have two separate playgrounds for the different age groups, Baylor was thrilled to get a chance to play on the "big kids playground"

Things were getting a little crazy so we headed out to the park near our house to work off some more sugar before dinner.

Some more left over pics...

I love the next picture, we didn't plan this...

Beck is becoming an excellent builder. He spend large chunks of his time building elaborate castles, bridges and obstacles. Please forgive the lack of pants, clothes don't stay on very long in our house, even when there is company.

All Hallows' Eve

2009-11-02T21:27:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving and Christmas are fine, but who doesn't love a holiday that revolves entirely around dressing up, partying and free candy? In my younger days I would spend literally months in search of the right costume. This year I was extra excited because my sister Peg was coming to visit from Rochester and it was Beck's 1st time trick-or-treating. Rob was out of town on a long-due trip up to Wisconsin to go to the UW-Purdue game with some friends of ours. Peg and I had a great time and, as usual, had many bouts of giggles. I took off of work on Friday so that her and I could enjoy some time together without the kids. We even managed to find the elusive Peanut Depot which I have previously attempted to find on 3 separate occasions, with no luck. Who would hide a peanut shop underneath a bridge in the middle of the city? It was worth the hunt, the peanuts are amazing. We tried some cajun-style boiled, but in the end stuck with plain salted.

Beck was really excited about going trick-or-treating, it was all he talked about for days. He kept changing his mind about what he wanted to be, but in the end decided that he wanted to be a skeleton again, like last year. I was happy with that, since it meant little money or effort on my part. I did do a little face paint on him, which ended up looking much creepier than I originally intended.

Baylor was originally supposed to be a lion- he rejected that idea outright. I tried several time to have him try on his costume, but that only elicited tears and screams, so in the end he just went as himself.

Maybe next year.

We stopped by our friends Harrison and Katy's for some pre-trick-or-treat chili and snacks (and glasses of wine for mom), and then headed down a couple of blocks to a street know as the "Halloween Street." This street is amazing, every house on the street does up wild decorations and everyone tries to outdo each other. Kids come from all over to trick-or-treat on this street, they even block off both ends and have police guard.

This whole thing was kind of like Mardi Gras for children.

This house had a Peter Pan theme and was actually showing the movie on their front yard on a projection screen.

This robot girl is the niece of a co-worker of mine and happens to live on the Halloween street.

This little guy was awesome.

All in all Beck made out like a bandit, we are definitely going back next year.

Thanks for coming to visit, Aunt Peg!

October, so far.

2009-10-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

We still haven't started working on re-doing the living room, so for now the boys have a giant empty room just for them to play in, which they love.

Grandpa and Sessy came for a visit at the beginning of the month. The boys always look forward to visits because they know there will always be yummy treats and lots of story reading! Beck's class decorated t-shirts with tie-dye and puffy paint for them to all wear on their class trip to the pumpkin patch. Check out Beck's shirt...

Hmmm...

Rob took Beck with his class to the pumpkin patch up in Hayden, AL. Usually I'll be the one to go, but I had to work that day, and besides Beck and I always do a Mommy-Beck pumpkin patch trip to the Grand Ole Pumpkin Patch in Clanton, AL, which is our favorite.

Here are some pics from the Clanton pumpkin patch. It is so rare and nice when we get to do things one-on-one with the kids. There are a lot of things that Beck can do that Baylor can't do, and so we are often limited when we have them both. Sometimes Beck gets overlooked because Baylor still needs so much attention, so it's nice to have a day where Beck (and I) could just run wild without worrying about fussing or diapers or naps.

Beck finally conquered the giant inflatable tiger slide, which he has been wanting to do since he was 2. I guess all of these recent birthday parties at Pump It Up have given him the courage to face his fears.

When we got out to the field to pick a pumpkin, Beck literally walked up to the first one he saw, picked it up and said "O.K., this one."

I made Beck go stand next to this sign. Yes, it says "fried Oreos" and "fried Snickers," and no, we didn't sample either one. Not for lack of interest though, I simply had run out of cash and didn't think it was worth it to go to an ATM just to buy fried candy. I am regretting that decision now.

How good would a fried Snickers be?! Mmmm...

Here are some more random pictures from the last few weeks.

By the way, the picture quality on here is pretty terrible. Maybe my camera is the problem, it is kind of old.

The boys are looking forward to Halloween next week. Aunt Peg is coming for a visit, and Beck will be trick-or-treating for the 1st time. I am looking forward to rifling through his candy and picking out my favorites while he sleeps. Aside from a tiny cold snap it has stayed pretty mild down here, and the leaves haven't changed too much yet. Only one tree in our yard has turned, so far. We still need to buy a leaf blower and a bunch of other things that people who own houses are supposed to have.