Five Year Olds

April Fools! For my hilarious prank today, I'm pretending like I'm a real blogger again.
Because, you guys, a whole month has gone by since I took these pictures- documenting that my children are now five years old.
Now that they're five, I've instructed them to start telling people that they're in Kindergarten. I'm so great at home schooling. Ha! (Another hilarious prank.)
How many pictures of Grey and Micah can I post, wherein they are looking straight at the camera and smiling with their pointy teeth, sparkly blue eyes and perfect, yellow-white hair, and their arms are around each other and they look too cute to be real? AS MANY AS I WANT, OKAY?
That's a mother's right! I know they all look exactly the same- (and in fact, even my children look the same) but these are the cutest pictures that I've ever seen and I love them.
My wittle babies are all growed up. (Crying emoji! Because I know longer know how to even write without tiny facial expressions.)

Grey and Micah are both so creative, imaginative, and wacky- more than any other kids I know. They play so well together and spend the majority of their time playing house, having adventures, digging in the garden, or snuggling together. But always together. They both spend so much time trying to make each other laugh, and trying to help or comfort each other. Lately they've been playing "Winter in the Big Woods," in which they build a fort to be their cabin, and then they hunt wild animals, plant a garden, milk their cows and "eat lots of meat, because thats the only food you can get in the winter."

We've read many chapter books out loud together- and their favorites this year have been The Boxcar Children, Peter Pan, Charlotte's Web, and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. They liked Robin Hood, but the language was tricky- more than anything it opened their imagination to games like "Merry Men in the Green Wood." (They like to title their games.)

They love August, but want him to be abel to keep up in everything they do. They usually assign him a silent role in their games, like R2D2, a baby bear, an unhatched egg, etc. 

Grey, at five is imaginative and funny- he is constantly telling us stories, doing impersonations and giving inanimate objects names. He's so thoughtful and spends a lot of his time zoned out or by himself, he'll get lost in his own world and I'll find him sitting in the garden talking to himself and laughing, and then a few minutes later he'll tell me "I wish I were a chicken, so they'd let me join their flock." He's always legitimately surprised and flattered when I say that I love him more than anything in the world. He loves to read and tries SO hard to understand decoding, and listens the best when we read aloud. He has an eye for beauty and constantly compliments the people around him. Every single day, he tells me some variation of "You look beautifuller than ever, today."

He's always the first to spot flowers or notice the sunset and he tells me that it touches his heart and makes him feel happy. He's determined to be GOOD and often asks about or explains pretty deep spiritual and scriptural truths, and tells me that he can feel the Holy Ghost helping him make good choices. 

He has been having nightmares lately, but more often than not- they begin before he's even asleep. He tiptoes out of his room a few times a night and tells me "I had a scary thought," usually it's about monsters, natural disasters, and/or his family disappearing. He gets scared VERY easily, and even cries during shows like Curious George, because he's afraid George will get in trouble for causing mischief. He's very shy and sensitive- something that's been difficult for me to get used to. I'm afraid I often embarrass him by drawing attention or laughter towards him - something Micah and I would both like! But which leave Grey feeling humiliated and shy. 

He's really into Robin Hood (or Will Scarlet especially- as you can tell by his cloak- the only thing he wanted for his birthday.), Princess Leia, and birds and owls. He and Micah play "Birds" all the time, and build lots of forts and nests. Grey keeps his stuffed owl Katie with him at all times, and will cry that she is so scared, hurt, messy, can't sleep, etc -without him. I heard him tell Micah "She's very easy to take care of, because she doesn't even poop." Then he carefully covered her ears and whispered, "She's only stuffed with fluff, but she thinks she's real."

He is my oldest and my gentlest, the one I think will grow up and be a poet, my sweet five year old: Grey.

Micah is such a theatrical, passionate boy. He's so much like me! He wants to have everyone's attention and love, he wants to be admired and hilarious, and always surrounded by lots of friends. He directs their play (without being OVERLY bossy- I think) because he's so imaginative and adventurous and because he's such a natural leader. He always has fun ideas and will assign everyone in their group roles, and gets heartbroken very easily if he feels that someone is not including him or wishes he wouldn't play with them. 

When it's just the two of us- he showers me with so much love and compliments, hugs and kisses, and wants to be touching, hand holding, tickling or snuggling all the time. He asks to "just snuggle together" all the time, and if I won't snuggle, he'll try to snuggle August instead. He loves to make August laugh and will try to pick him up and carry him around so that August will stay with him all day. 

He has a quick temper, but he's also quick to forgive and to help when people are hurt or sad. He is SO helpful around the house, and is constantly asking "Am I being very useful? How can I serve you?" 

He has a very good grasp on right and wrong, and will FIGHT if you contradict him (Gryffindor much? ) He wants to be making good choices all the time- and if you point out that he did something rude or unkind, he gets very upset and defensive, but usually tries to fix it right away too. When ever people don't do what he wants them to do, he threatens them "You're going to make Jesus mad!" or "You're choosing Satan's side!" which is fairly terrible and also funny! Because he thinks that's the worst imaginable insult and people are sure to change their ways and do what he tells them if he says that. 

He loves to talk about the gospel and about choosing to act like people from the scriptures. But he's also sort of tricky and wants to walk the line whenever he's not sure if somethings really bad or not. He found the bag of Easter toys and candy before I gave them out, and was afraid to admit that he'd gone through it. Instead he told me, "I don't know. I think I looked a little, because August wanted to see- but I don't remember what was in there."

He has picked up reading SO quickly and often reads things off of signs or books, even though we haven't been doing school or practicing very much. 

He always wants to pretend to be a hero from a story(while Grey is much more content as the sidekick.) He is Robin Hood, Batman, Peter Pan, Luke Skywalker, and Frodo always, and so he also always has his cloak on. 

My middle child, my mini-me. My lover and fighter and knight-in-shining armor: Micah. 

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Four Years Old

Four year olds.
Recently, a friend with a one, almost-two-year old texted me, asking for advice on dealing with whiney, cry-baby, terrible-two children.
My advice (obviously) was to lock herself in the bathroom and watch 30 Rock while eating secret candy. Because terrible-twos are no joke.
And the terrible-threes are so much more terrible than even that. And all you can do is wait it out.
But four? Four is good. On pretty much a daily basis, I find myself watching my children and feeling so overwhelmingly grateful for them, their kindness, intelligence, humor, and actions. I cannot believe how good Grey and Micah are lately.
Yes, we still have occasional tantrums or violence, but not every day- and certainly not every half hour!
At four, Grey and Micah are best friends. They are finally the friends I'd always imagined twins ought to be. They play all day long, they share, they imagine together, they take turns! But my favorite: they discuss ideas and try to understand things together. I overheard the greatest conversation a couple weeks ago.
Micah said, "Jesus has all the power because he is God." And Grey said, "No, Heavenly Father is God. Jesus is the SON of God." That's right, people. They were discussing (with understanding!) religious doctrine. They talked about it until they came to an understanding themselves, and then moved on to other important topics (like which kind of donut is the very best kind of donut.) They play pretend all day, (and make huge messes all over the house) and I also overheard the end of this conversation yesterday while they played "grocery shopping."
"Thank you so much, sir!"
"You're welcome, young man!"
And when I said, "I'm sorry, Micah, I didn't hear you." He immediately corrected me, "If you didn't hear what I said, you should say 'I beg your pardon.'"
They are so polite! They are so smart, and kind! They are so sweet, and I love them. I am so proud of the boys that they are becoming.

So here are some individual little things about each of them:

Grey. Grey is so calm.  He allows himself to be reasoned with, and likewise expects that we will be reasonable when he has requests. If he can explain why he wants or did something, he expects that we will understand and accept his choices. (Even if his explanation is "I just hit him because I was very angry and felt like I wanted to hit him. If you can forgive me, I won't do it any more.")

His favorite color is pink, and he immediately picks out pink things whenever they have choice in anything. Balloons, donuts, toys, cups? All pink. It is very upsetting to him that there aren't a lot of pink clothes for four year old boys.

He is so loving to littler kids, and especially babies. He's genuinely interested in helping and entertaining them, especially August- although he has a really hard time grasping the concept of being more gentle with them than he would need to be with a kid his size. A few days ago, we saw a friend's newborn and he begged to see the baby up close. Then he just whispered to her in the sweetest baby-talk voice, "Hi, little one! Hi, little girl! How are you today? Are you looking around at the big world?"
And later when we went to the dinosaur museum with friends, he talked to and played with their one-year old, trying to show and explain exhibits to him and trying to catch him when he toddled off. (But Grey shoved him down when it looked like the baby was escaping, because he seriously cannot figure out how to gently do things!)

He tends to be scared more easily in movies than Micah, and ends up on our bedroom floor most nights (we have a no children in the bed rule that is semi-enforced). But once he has decided that something is not frightening, he isn't scared anymore. Once he decided that he wasn't worried about climbing trees, for example, he happily spent 25 minutes scurrying up and down the big maple tree in our yard- going to extremely high and uncomfortable (for me) heights, and then figuring out how to get back down.

Grey is also my book-devourer and story teller. While Micah likes to read, lately it's all Grey ever wants to do.
If I would sit and read to him for three hours in a row: he would sit and listen. He can recite many books by heart and often tells me stories in a very book-like way. (He uses literary phrases and sentence structure, he is a story teller!) and he will often open heavy books without pictures and say "Should I read this to you?" And then begin talking, adding in bits from poems or songs, lines from stories, pieces of fairy tales. He'll continue this until he notices my attention waning. Sometimes ten minutes or more!

Micah. Micah is my entertainer. He is so passionate and expressive, and he doesn't always have a reason for doing things except that he did them! His feelings get hurt easily, because he's such a lover. He wants everyone to play with him and love him and think he's the funniest and fastest (or smartest, coolest, best jumper, etc).

With Micah, it's all Batman- all the time. In fact, he regularly tells me, "I'm really into Batman." He watches the Batman cartoon, which I think is scary! But he loves it. He knows tons of information about Batman (somehow) and gets so frustrated with me if I don't know who villains are, or what equipment is in the Batcave.

He is obsessed with telling jokes, but doesn't understand the format- he just wants to make us laugh. If he tells what he thinks is a joke, and no one responds, he yells "JOKE!" until we all laugh!
He has a book with the knock-knock joke "Dishes... (Dishes who?)... Dishes a nice place to be."
He tells that joke all the time, but he tells it like this:
Micah: Say Knock Knock!
Person: Knock Knock!
Micah: Dishes a nice place to be! JOKE!
Since he usually gets a (confused) laugh, he is satisfied with this delivery.

Micah loves to dance, and asks me every single day if we can have a dance party. We especially like to dance to Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, I Get a Kick Out of You by Frank Sinatra, and anything from the Disney Pandora. (And he knows all the words to those songs and sings them regularly.)  He also plays Just Dance all the time, but I think it's partly as an excuse to have the TV on, since that's the only game we can play on weekdays. He loves video games and recently invented a new game for he and Grey to play, wherein they pretend that they controlling each other in a video game. One boy will sit on the couch, punching an imaginary controller and the the other boy will run, somersault, jump, and crawl all over the room being "controlled" by their brother. It's so funny to watch and listen to!
("Hey, I'm not pushing jump, I'm pushing roll! Start rolling!")

 Micah also loves doing his chores and getting them checked off the chore chart, so he is happy to get dressed, make his bed, and brush his teeth and hair himself most days!

These boys are so fun. There are so many things they do now that I'm so proud of and impressed by (like they finally learned how to clean up after themselves!)
I love the good boys they're growing into and am proud of them, and excited to see how they continue to age and grow and change. I love my silly, crazy, amazing little men. Being their mom is the best ever.

Quarter Century

Twenty-five feels like a grown-up age for some reason.
I guess because I'm a grown-up now.

Today is my birthday and this is what I look like:

I found a gray hair on my head, but I'm not too worried. It's inevitable.
Look at that denim shirt and brick wall. I guess it's because I was born in the eighties (barely).

I was going to write a whole thing, but it turns out - I don't want to. I just want to sit on my couch and eat the birthday candy bar that I found on my doorstep this morning while my kids are on a walk with their Aunt Moony.
Ah. So this is what being a grown-up is like...

Adorable book lover seeks handsome goofball

I recently read a quote by E. B. White, about essayists. I have taken it as my own, since bloggers are certainly the new columnists and essay writers.
"The [blogger] is the self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him is of general interest. He is a fellow that thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs... Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write [a blog.]"

That is highly accurate.
And today, I am especially self-centered. Because today is my birthday.

Sometimes I see personal ads and I read them with interest, and the proverbial grain of salt.
After passing one of those silly Domo billboards the other day, I started thinking about what my "honest" personal ad might say. Of course, I am not looking for anyone in my life, and my perspective of myself is probably as skewed as anyone's. Maybe more so, since I have ridiculously high self-esteem in most areas.



But today, on my 24th birthday, here's who I am:

Mother of two, addicted to them. Needs more and better sleep and food than most to function. Loves to dress well, and dress those around her, but has a natural propensity towards costumes and an excess of pea coats.
Wants to be Ma Ingalls, and will spend hard-earned money on experiments with salted pork and fabric for homemade quilts. Loves children's books, black and white movies, and folksy music with too much banjo. Loves to document with words, and has a camera glued to her nose. Reads and writes poetry in sunny windows and under shady trees. Hates exercise, farts in her sleep, is afraid of pain and loneliness. Snuggles. Daydreams. Wishes she could garden. Wants to make people laugh, feel good about themselves, and love her.
Dwells on the hurtful words of others. Is sometimes too blunt, too rash, and unintentionally hurtful. Is sometimes intentionally hurtful, but feels immediately guilty.
Wife to a dreamer. Loves watching her husband grow, experiment, succeed, and be excited and passionate - but is constantly afraid  for his life. She has nightmares and visions of him dying and cries when she misses him, even though he's just at work. Loves being a woman and mother. Loves The Lord, His Gospel and words. Wants to be like him, and is so far from perfect. But she's trying.
Is passionate and thoughtful, sometimes about silly things. Dedicated to relationships, but forgets names. Loves her family. Her mom is her best friend.  Is generous, and wants to help and feed those around her. She's a good sharer.
Idealistic. Wishes she was spontaneous, but is in love with pattern and sameness. Homebody. Is happy with a little, usually. (Sometimes she yearns for full-priced clothes at Gap.) Is passionate, sometimes to a fault. Sets her heart on things, and then gets them.
Wants to be creative, but has low creativity self-esteem. Makes friends quickly, but hates going new places. Is afraid of driving by herself and finding things in large grocery stores. Wants to be the best wife, mother, and friend to everyone. Likes to have a tidy home, but often gives up cleaning. Drinks a lot of water, but forgets about fruit. Loves soft-smelling babies, and wants another next spring.
Loves old stories, pictures, and names and wants to learn about and be like her ancestors. Hates to shower and brush her teeth, and rarely does either. Loves water and snow, chilly weather and when you can see your breath. Loves words and their power. Loves to cry and feel powerfully and intensely.
Is very specific about the way her laundry is folded and her bed is made. Loves to bring dinner to pregnant women. Seeks out women who need friends. Misses her sisters, adores her brother. Thinks she is pretty, but sometimes feels guilty about it.

Can't wait to own her own house. Can't spell words that use Cs instead of Ss. Can't figure out how to end this lengthy description of herself.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Birthday Party

This past weekend, the boys had a birthday party. I took an excessive amount of pictures of them standing idly in front of their cakes, secretly cried in hysterical joy that it was warm enough to play outside, and made two "fancy" birthday cakes. (They were just regular delicious later cakes, but I adorned them with sprinkle letters, making them unbelievably cool.)

This party did not have
1. A Pinterest worthy "theme."
2. A color coordinated snack table.
3. Goodie bags for our guests to take home.
4. A single planned game or activity.

The theme of this party (which I repeatedly reminded everybody of) was I MADE TWO CAKES AND TWO KIDS AND THEY'RE ALL AWESOME.

But despite our lack of theme, we did have

1. Two very handsome, well-dressed genius two-year-old-birthday boys.

2. Many sugar-high toddlers who were quite happy to entertain themselves.

3. Lots of love for the two greatest children of all time.

4. And a tall handsome man who drove all over Salt Lake looking for balloons and shoveled snow out of our yard so that it could dry in time to be turned into a "picnic area."

So all in all, I think every thing evened out. In fact, I'd say we pulled ahead. 

Pitchers 1, Pinterest 1,000,000 0.

 

Oh, and here's a video from the actual birthday morning, in which the boys got a chance to blow out candles without the help of wind.

Birthday Boy

Today is a happy day. It is Travis' birthday.
Holycrap he is cute.
And OLD.

He is 29 years old.
So old.



And cute.
This is the only picture I managed to get of him this week, because now he is out of town. :(
I miss you, birthday boy.

A mama's summer daydreams

I had a pretty idyllic childhood, growing up in Minnesota.
And as summer approaches, I keep thinking and dreaming of all the things I want my boys to do throughout their summer times.
I want them to fish on quiet, lonely lakes with their grandpa and play t-ball and soccer with their brother.
I want them to run through the sprinklers in their underwear and get sticky from homemade Popsicles.
To get as brown as little Indians, and spend every day in a lake or pool, the ocean when possible.
I want them to go shirtless.
To play in gutter water.
To catch frogs in dark window wells and muddy ponds.
Float homemade boats down streams.
Bike by themselves to buy slushies and snow cones.

To catch candy on the sidelines of parades and eat corndogs at the fourth of July carnival.
I want them to go to family barbecues and picnics, and oh! The road trips!
Listening to books on tape and eating pretzels, driving to visit cousins in California and Minnesota.
Visiting grandparents in Virginia and Arizona. And all the time they're there, just soaking up more sun and getting blonder by the minute.

 Those things are important to me.

Making s'mores.
Patiently turning that first marshmallow until its a perfect, blistering golden brown. Then sticking every consequent marshmallow straight into the fire, because you can't wait another 15 minutes to cook it slowly.
You'll take it, black and chalky on the outside, sticky and hot in the middle. Until you believe that you prefer your marshmallows that way.

 So the boys are only 14 months old.
It's too early for naps on the floating dock and learning to bait your own fishing hook.
Not quite time for tree forts or sleeping on the trampoline, catching fireflies and smearing your body with their sticky, glowing juice.

But it's not too early to be barefoot.
To eat bowls of fresh picked strawberries, and drink homemade lemonade by the gallon.
Road trip to California? Check.
Interest bordering on obsession with bugs and worms? Check.
Morning time walks, before breakfast, with pjs still on? Check.

 Swamping the canoe in the middle of the lake, and pushing it home underwater?
 We'll wait until next year, I guess.
 But it's coming.
And I can feel it. I'm excited for it.

Today is my mom's birthday.  She and my dad gave me exactly that kind of childhood.
One with happy parents who loved me and each other.
Who gardened in our yard, and made fresh salsa and jam from what they grew.
Who taught me the proper way to dive off the dock, and that anything (anything) off the grill is delicious.
I was, and am, happy.

And I want my boys to be, too.
I want to be a mom like you, Mom.
I love you.
Happy birthday.

Bday

Today is my birthday.
And OBVIOUSLY I'm way too busy to do menial regular things like blog on my birthday.
Except that I love blogging, and when I'm done here I have to move on to the laundry, so.... I'm going to write on my blog anyway.
Delay the inevitable folding of 10,000 pairs of underpants and the inability to match any socks. Seriously. Don't they go into the wash with their pair? Why don't two matching socks ALWAYS COME OUT??
Shesh. Anyway.

It's supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday, and I was trying to find pictures of me as a baby to compare to my kids... but to no avail.
Instead, its going to be a Wordy Wednesday.
I am 23, so I was going to give you 23 facts about myself or something, but instead... here's like 10 things you might not know about me if you only read my blog instead of hanging out with me in real life:

1. I chew ice. I chew it a lot. When I fill my cup with water (and I still use my hospital cup, and I hardly drink anything except water) I put in an entire tray of ice. And I chew it all. And about every hour or so, I put in a whole new tray of ice and chew that all up, too.

2.  I hate shopping at thrift stores and places like F21. Seriously. Just fold all the clothes and lay them out nicely, arranged by color.
Even Target is a little too hectic for me. I can't look on the sales rack there, because seriously? It's a freaking mess. Give me Gap and J.Crew and I will shop all day. Because it's clean and organized there. And it smells nice. And the people all look so stylish, and not stupid, which is how people at F21 look.

3. I am OCD about a few things. They are these: the way that my bed is made. The way that my clothes are folded and put away. And the way that dirty dishes are stacked in the sink.
Yes, you read that right. I don't mind a gigantic stack of dirty dishes, as long as they are piled up in the correct manner.

4. I don't like to take baths or showers. I mean, once I'm in there, I kind of like it (usually). But I hate the idea of stripping down and getting wet and having to change my clothes and do my hair and wash my face and then stick it under the shower head SO MUCH, that I only shower like three times a week (at the most) and only when I'm starting to smell or look dirty.
Yep.

So most of these facts are about how I'm disgusting, apparently. So here's a little brag:

5. I try really, really hard to be a good homemaker. My house is generally clean, and I make homemade from scratch meals 5 days a week. I make homemade rolls and occasionally bread. I make homemade desserts a few times a week. I sew and knit things for my kids and Travis. I quilt and craft and am constantly doing really, super domestic things. But I never blog about it.
I kind of wish that I did, so there was proof of what I do with all my time, but... you know.
I never do.

6. I hate TV. When we're at someone's house and the television is on I want to start screaming.  When Travis turns on the TV to watch sports, I am fine until commercials and then that baby better be muted or I will unplug it and send him to his parents to watch basketball.
I WILL NOT watch the news, or talk shows (why are those a thing??), or things on PBS.
I will watch shows on Netflix or DVD, because there are no commercials and commercials make me hate human kind, and I will watch Hulu because when commercials come on (and there are only like 5 a show) I can mute them,  go to another website during them, and usually they're not as bad as the commercials on TV.
But seriously. The news? WORST THING EVER. Sometimes I'm not super informed about the scary murderous whatever just outside my door, nor the dangers of I don't know... shopping malls? But I am alive and not paranoid and not afraid of all strangers and strange weather.
So. That's good.

7. I don't read very many blogs. I read like 5.
Maybe.
I love to read blogs, but I am so freaking busy and writing on this blog takes forever. So a couple times a week, I'll scroll through like 20 posts at once and speed-read a ton of people's blogs. That's kind of what I assume most of you do, too.

8. I cry. A LOT. I cry almost constantly.
I have seen the Muppet movie about 4 times now, and I cry through the entire thing every time. Because I just love the Muppets, and it's so sweet, and I wish kid movies were like that still, and my childhood was like that happy childhood in Smalltown, and etc. etc.
I cry about everything. That commercial with the triplets playing hockey reduces me to collapsed heap of sobbing. And it's not sad, or even especially sweet.
It's just that it's a set of multiple boys and they play hockey, which is Minnesota-y.

9.  I am the worst thing ever at responding to emails or phone calls. If you emailed me and never heard back, I am so sorry. I read your email. I probably flagged it. I MEANT to respond.
But yeah, I probably didn't.

10. I bite my fingernails, and think that everyone should. I LOVE that Travis bites his fingernails, because long or well-kept nails are gross, especially on men. On women, they look like talons. On men, they look like... lady hands.
And men should not have lady hands. It makes me uncomfortable.
I'm going to try to teach my sons to chew their fingernails so that their hands always look like man hands. Cowboy hands. Rangers of the North hands. Um... Astronaut hands.
Yeah, Astronauts probably bite their nails.

And today is my birthday, so you should click to vote!

Partying our faces off

On Saturday we partied hard. Except, you know, sans liquor, loud music and any actual "partying" and with lots of babies, cupcakes, and a toddler having an accident on our floor.
So the norm.

We started the afternoon right with the boys' birthday party.  I made three decorations. That ribbon and felt bunting, the picture banner (which are monthday pictures that I printed and then sewed together) and those hastily cut-out letters that spell Happy Birthday.
I also made rainbow cupcakes.
The calm before the storm:

Then people arrived.
And kept on arriving.
Because I decided to pretty much invite anyone that happened to know that I have babies.
Soon our tiny apartment was a madhouse of children, and there were more people under the age of three than over it.
It was really, really fun.






This cutie pie insisted that I take her picture. I love her. I think she looks like Mowgli, especially when she was a baby with chubby cheeks and big dark eyes.



When the party ended, we all took LONG naps, and when we awoke, lo! it was party-time again. Our whole apartment complex was having a BBQ. It was crazy fun, and the weather outside was completely gorgeous. Sunny and warm and there were (once again) kids everywhere. I love our complex, because all of these kids live within 8 apartments. Seriously, we never lack playmates.




It was a glorious Saturday, and it made me so excited for summertime, when we can relax outside, and have windows open, and BBQ hotdogs every. single. day.




Crazy boy hair. I love.







These pictures were edited with Softly and My Only Sunshine from HoneyBee Actions. 

Click to vote? A vote for Baby Making is a vote for parties and sunshine!

A real birthday update, for the only two babies in the world who refuse to eat cake.

It's been almost a week since my boys turned one, and if you recall, I did not do a Birthday Update, like I do every other month. So here it is.  I set up an elaborate home studio to take Birthday Cake Smash pictures with the babies, but they 100% refused to touch or eat their cake.  

They don't like to be messy.

If I feed them the cake with a fork, they'd be much more interested in it.

So some pictures are from the failed photoshoot, and some are from the bath afterwards. 

In the last month, the babies have made so much progress with understanding social cues, games, and words. Yesterday Grey coughed and choked during dinner, and I patted his back and said "Oh, are you okay?" A few seconds later Micah fake-coughed and then looked at me expectantly. I patted his back and said "Oh, are you okay?" He giggled, turned to smile at Grey, and then fake coughed again. And again. And again. Every time that I patted him, he was so pleased with himself. They've also started initiating games of peekaboo.  In the past, if we hid behind something and popped out, or put a blanket over their heads, they'd pull it off and giggle, but now they will put a blanket over their own heads or pop out from behind things themselves. 

They run and hide from us and each other, they chase us and each other. 

They've just learned "So Big!" and walk around holding their arms over their head, until I say "How big is Micah? SO BIG!" and then they giggle hysterically. 

Travis put cake on Grey's head, and Micah was more interested in daddy's camera than in his delicious personal cake.

Now if I tell them, "We're going outside," or ask "Do you want to go to the park?" They'll walk to the door, and wait. And if I dare to tell them that we're going to the park and I don't take them, they begin having meltdowns. 

Oh, the meltdowns! They throw tantrums now to rock the roof off. Micah literally lies on the floor and pounds his fists and kicks his fists.  Grey prefers to lie face down on the grounds and scream into the carpet. And both love the drama of crawling or stumbling (they can't probably walk during a tantrum) into a corner, where they cry pathetically and hit us away if we try to help them. 

They have also become really snugly. When they were first learning to sit up, they refused to ever lie down. When they were learning to walk, they refused to crawl. When they could entertain themselves, they didn't want to sit and snuggle. But now that they can do all sorts of things, they do everything again.  They crawl around, they lie down on their stomachs and play with their toys, and they crawl on to my lap for a snuggle or a story.  

Grey will walk to me, turn around about a foot in front of my lap, and then slowly and carefully walk backwards until he falls into my lap. 

Micah will sit down on the floor next to me, and then slither and roll on to my lap. It's silly. I love it. 

The boys personalities are becoming so distinct, too. Micah is a clear daddy's boy, and Grandma's boy. But not ever a mama's boy. 

But at least I have Grey. Grey loves and prefers me over Travis (usually).  

Micah has taken to delighting in making trouble. He deliberately searches for doors and cupboards to open, and throws himself from high places, to see if I'll get there in time to catch him. He loves, loves, loves to unplug the tv. He'll stand in front of the outlet and make these high-pitched squeaking sounds "Ahhhh?" until I look at him.  Then he'll take a step backwards (towards the outlet) and do it again.  He'll put his hand on the cord, and then raise his eyebrows at me, and go "Huuhh? Hmm? Maaaama?" and then grin. The second I say "Micah, please come here," or "No no, don't uplug that," he yanks it out of the wall and begins to laugh hysterically. 

He knows he shouldn't do it. 

So he does it. 

Grey on the other hand, will walk to something (like the tv cord in the wall) and stand staring at it. After a bit, he'll slowly reach for it, and if I say "No Grey, please don't," he'll stop.  He'll stare at the plug for a minute, as if trying to decide what to do, and then he'll usually kind of wander away from it. 

But he'll wander back and unplug it later.  Sometimes after I ask Grey not to do something, he'll decide that it's worth it anyway, and he'll unplug the tv, or stick my computer cord in his mouth, or yank a full cup of water off the table, and then look at me guilty. He knows he's being naughty. 

Grey's also become obsessed with putting things in other things.  He moves toys from one toy bin to another. He fills the laundry basket with all the odds and ends he can find around the house, and he flips out at Micah if he dares to take toys out of their containers after Grey has put them away. 

They've both picked up a few new signs and words, and my favorite sign that Micah has learned is the sign for water. He signs when he needs a drink, which is really helpful and wonderful. I love that they're learning to communicate with me. 

Happy birthday to my sweet boys. It's been a lovely year. 

The best of all of my years.