Back to Easter for a Second

I know Easter has passed but I am just getting the pictures up from our meal and wanted to share a few, mostly of the delicious fare. We had such a lovely meal with friends and family from DC, Virginia, Maryland, and Michigan! And, I must give a special thank you to Grandaddy, without him, none of the amazing food would have been possible. (If you haven't had the opportunity to eat his creations, you are missing out!)




(**Grandaddy MADE those crackers. Yes, made them.)

Happy Birthday...

dear Anna! Our friend Anna has officially moved from "baby" Anna to "big girl" Anna as she passed the one year marker.



I hope she enjoys the bean bags as much as I enjoyed making them. I got the idea from a recent post on my very favorite new(ish) blog, the Artful Parent. I did use rice instead of beans though -- she'll be able to put them in the freezer or microwave to soothe any boo-boos.

Sweet Smells

Before I forget, I wanted to note two of my favorite sweet smells. I love the way the warm spring sunshine smells in Eleanor's hair. I love the way Henry's (almost) toothless breath is so soft when he plants a smooch on my chin, like a humid, yet fragrant, summer night. I know that soon Henry will have lots of teeth and be eating more solid food, which inevitably changes that sweet baby breath smell. Hopefully, though, I'll still get the sweet spring sunshine smell for a few more years on both of their little heads.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Hope the Easter bunny made it to your house too.

The New Arrivals

The two new arrivals in our household have been keeping us up late nights and generally trying every last ounce of our patience. For some reason, they are unexpectedly difficult, maybe because they came just at the same time. I suppose we should just be thankful that they have come at all, but sometimes in the middle of the night when Henry is screaming we all mumble bad words under our breath (or occasionally out loud). So, here are the new arrivals as they make their first appearance:

Quote of the Day

Me: I'm going to brush your hair now. [This is always a chore around here!]
Eleanor: I want some piggy tails in it.
Me: You want piggy tails?
Eleanor: And I want baa sheeps in it.

Spring is Busting Out All Over

Spring is definitely here. Our house is entirely surrounded by yellow. Daffodils on the east side, forsythia on the west side. (Forsythia is Eleanor's new favorite word, "forsifea" she calls it.) The past couple of days have been just lovely -- clear, sunny, windy and very spring-like. Birds are chirping away and we even saw a bunny rabbit today.



We have been taking lots of adventure walks down to "the valley" and generally enjoying the outdoors. I'll have to take some pictures next time we are down in the valley, Eleanor thoroughly enjoys running around in the open space and throwing rocks in the stream. She managed to bring home a couple of rocks from our walk today, which made it into her bathtub and one of which made it into her mouth. Crunchy brown rocks. Yum.

Quote of the Day

Eleanor: What I did see outside, Momma?
Me: What did you see, Eleanor?
Eleanor: I saw flaMINgos [high pitch on the MIN]

[Me: Searching my brain to remember when we had talked about flamingos. Nothing. Eleanor runs out of the room and then back in.]

Eleanor: What I did see outside, Momma?
Me: What did you see, Eleanor?
Eleanor: I saw birds.
Me: What color were they?
Eleanor: Yellow and brown.

[This continued a few more times but I didn't write down the other things she said. And, now I have completely forgotten what else was on the list. Somehow I think she may have mentioned "baa sheeps" but that may be because she always mentions "baa sheeps".]

Chompers

Henry's first two teeth cut through his bottom gum this morning. Poor little thing has been grumpy as all get out lately. We suspected that it was his teeth but now we have proof. As soon as there is anything to be seen, I'll get the camera in his mouth and get some pictures up.

Trains in Baltimore

We have a new favorite museum. Or, should I say, Eleanor has a new favorite museum, that we also loved very much. The B & O Railroad Museum in Baltimore is just amazing. It has LOTS of trains, many of which are exhibited in a beautiful roundhouse. Several of the trains are open for visitors to enter, which I found to be incredible. To see the inside of those enormous engines, with their tenders, fireboxes and innumerable knobs and levers, was really impressive. Even more impressive, the thought of that giant machine roaring down the tracks at 80 miles an hour. It must have been frighteningly exciting to see. At any rate, we enjoyed our visit (thanks Aunt Jenn) and I am sure we will head back there in April when they have a train that you can take for a little ride.

Correction?

Vince thinks that maybe the other day, instead of "snowflakes", Eleanor was saying "With no flakes." Could be. I could have sworn I heard snowflakes though. Either way, still pretty cute.

Eight Months

For some reason, when a baby is eight months, it seems like some sort of significant threshold to me. Maybe because it is (at least for my early arrivals) the amount of time they were inside me during pregnancy. Perhaps it is because they start reaching some really significant developmental milestones. Or, it could be, that I just have a lot of friends with really little babies right now and seeing them makes me think that my babes are huge. For whatever reason, Henry is really living up to his "big man" nickname. Just for fun, here are pictures of Eleanor and Henry both at about eight months.

Quote of the Day

I have about twenty posts in the works, which I do hope to get up eventually. For now, a funny thing that happened this morning:

Eleanor: I want raisin bran with no milk.
Me: Ok, raisin bran with no milk.
Eleanor: I want just raisins. And snowflakes.

And also, she is starting to get the concept of time. She knows (approximately) what "earlier" means. She also understands that "an hour" is longer than "a minute", and therefore asks for "just one more hour" before coming out of her bath.

Quote of the Day

I've decided, as you may have noticed, to put up some of the hilarious and/or insightful things that Eleanor says.

From this mornings quote, you may be able to deduce that we are working on potty training. If this is too much information for you, stop reading now. Lots of talk about poo poo and pee pee. And, long hours of running to the bathroom, getting the potty all ready, and sitting there, waiting. While she has had some success, she definitely isn't ready to give up her diapers yet.

Anyway, this morning she was playing with this new little bus and people that she got a couple of days ago (thanks Caryn!). All of a sudden, with great gusto, she said, "Wow! There is a lot of poo poo right there. [Pointing toward the rear of the bus.] Lets clean it up. Clean. Clean. Clean. Clean. All done!"



Maybe it doesn't sound as funny typed out, but it gave me a good laugh this morning.

Quote of the Day

Eleanor came out into the living room at about 7:15 this morning (very late for her) and declared, "I had a GREAT nap." If only Henry had slept so well!

Kisses, Hugs and Other Updates

Henry is giving the most wonderful kisses and hugs these days. By kiss, I mean open-mouthed, slobbery gumming on the cheek/chin -- very sweet.

He is also sitting up very well for long periods of time. He occasionally leans forward as if he is going to crawl but doesn't have enough control yet and usually face plants. He did a couple of super face plants into the grass yesterday when I was outside raking the leaves out of the daffodils. Still not entirely sure how he managed to do it, I had him set up in a way that I thought would make it difficult.

He still loves his sister and she is able to make him laugh more than anyone else. If she is laughing, he is laughing too. If she is crying, he is usually still laughing.

Both kids have had a rotten cold for the past week and I have been referring to them as my barking seals because that is exactly what they sound like. And, I am not sure if it is due to the cold or teeth but they have both been excessively cranky. Eleanor is getting some molars on the top and Henry might be getting one or two of his front bottom teeth, though we can't see anything yet.

Amazing how fast they change! More pictures soon to come.

Picture of the Day

No, it isn't booze. It is maple syrup. The real stuff.

Art, for Goodness Sake

I have been feeling like I need to be more artsy around here lately. It all started out when I enrolled Eleanor in an art class with Paula, her new art teacher, several weeks ago. It is the most adorable thing -- six little darlings around a low table up to their elbows in paint, glue, glitter and joy. (Thank you to Cathy for the recommendation.)

Coincidentally, right around the same time, I came across a new blog that I am really enjoying called The Artful Parent. The woman who writes the blog, Jean Van’t Hul, seems to know exactly what questions I have, because every post is just what I need to keep (or bring) a little bit of art and beauty in our day to day existence. So, thanks Jean.

The idea of art in everyday life has also got me thinking about the Kuna. They really live artfully without even stressing out about it like I seem to be doing. They just naturally incorporate beauty, color and lovely forms into daily life. The most obvious example is the molas that the women wear, but even in small things such as the wirwir, a kitchen utensil that they use for making madun (a thick warm plantain beverage) the Kunas' artful ideals shine through. And, don't even get me started on their language -- I mean, a word like wirwir to describe something that stirs really fast -- it's fantastic. Anyway, the exhibit and book "The Art of Being Kuna" really hit the nail on the head with that title.

These various tangents have led to much more artsy experimentation around the house. This morning we tried a bit of painting, which I have been hesitant to do because of the carpet. However, as I have seen in art class, Eleanor is pretty decent at keeping it (whatever materials she is working with) on the table. So we gave it a go.



The results were very satisfying, Eleanor enjoyed experimenting with the brush, her fingers, a baby food jar, the textured watercolor paper and the paint. From what I have been reading lately, it is important to discuss the experience with Eleanor rather than the finished product, but I must say, the middle piece with the baby food jar prints, is quite visually appealing to me. In fact, I think I am going to frame it and put it up somewhere. And, my worrying was for naught, as no paint ended up on the floor.



(These pictures are sideways, I couldn't pin them up the way she painted them because there wasn't enough space. So, tilt your head to the right and you will see them as they were created!)

Pink Martini

We went to see Pink Martini on Thursday for our date night. What a lot of fun. Getting dressed up and going to the Kennedy Center for an evening of lovely music with my dear husband -- I can't ask for much more than that. Pink Martini is a Portland, Ore. based band that plays a very diverse lineup of music. They were accompanied last night by the National Symphony Orchestra.

My favorite song was their opener, Ravel's Bolero. It was just amazing the way they built it up and then busted it open with the horns. I think it was my favorite because the tune is so familiar from Torvill and Dean's 1984 Olympic performance -- one of my all time favorites.

I also really enjoyed the song Hey Eugene, that the singer China Forbes, had written about someone she met at a party who never called. Hilarious. (You can listen here if you scroll down to the bottom.)

A huge thanks to Bill for the tickets and Sarah for the babysitting!!