Simon. Cecilia.

Simon has been a little too "social" on the bus lately. So much so, that the bus driver had to have a little chat with me. It's not the social part that is the problem, it's the walking around on the bus in order to be social that is the problem. Simon assured me it will never happen again.

Cecilia walked around outside for the very first time in her short little life. She walked on snow and grass and wood chips and you could see the pure excitement and curiosity on her little face. I tried to absorb the moment.

When Simon wakes up in the morning he walks to his door and I hear it click when it opens. He shuffles down the hall and slowly takes each stair one at a time. I never want to forget the pattern of his morning footsteps.

When I put Cecilia to bed at night she will always put her head down on my shoulder literally for as long as I'll let her. It's quite possibly the best part of my day. Maybe that's why I put her to bed so early :)

Simon always likes to wear sleeveless shirts and I finally asked him why. He told me it's because then he can show off his upper arm tattoos. He also likes his nails painted blue and red; blue for ice power and red for fire power. When I asked what the kids say at school about his nails he said sometimes the boys laugh at him (insert mom's broken heart here), but proceeded to want his nails repainted despite the laughs. I asked if the laughs bothered him. He said, "Yeah it bothers me a little. I won't paint my nails when I'm six. Can you pain my nails now?" I pray that he forever stays as confident as he is today.

Cecilia is getting so goofy and fun in her old age. As challenging as toddlers can be, I love how full of life they are. She rolls around on the floor giggling about who knows what. She carries books all over the house and laughs at the pictures. She pretends to hand you something then takes it away at the last second and thinks this is hilarious.

Easy to love, these two.

Brand New 'Do

Yesterday I decided to try something a little different on Cecilia's head. I'm not sure what possessed me as anytime I try something new it never quite turns out, but I guess I'm an optimist. Ultimately, I liked what we got but it took a lot of monkeying around to get it there and it didn't last the night. 

Simon loved it and was disappointed to see it go, but we're rocking a fro until the weekend :)

Bad mom.

I took away a paper airplane that she was trying to eat.
I know....I'm such a bitch.

Curly Sue

So. This is what I'm working with.

This girl's mop continues to grow thicker, curlier and coarser. This means that I'm struggling more and more to take proper care of it. It's not quite long enough to really style it in a completely protective way and even if it were, I don't think either of us could tolerate the time it would take to accomplish it (and it probably wouldn't last very long anyway, what with her favorite past time being putting blankets over her head and pulling them down over and over...breaks my heart and her hair).

Right now time is of the essence. Her patience is thin at best and I just don't have time to get very creative. Cheddar Bunnies have been an absolute life saver, though. They are her official hair time treat. She will only get them at hair time and I'm going to pray that they continue to buy me enough time to get something done each week. When do babies start watching tv? That's gotta help some day too, right???

Anyway, last week I tried something a little different and while I loved it the first day, it quickly frayed and looked like a hot mess in no time....

So today it was back to what's been working. Flat rope twists into pigtails with another pony in the back. Hoping it lasts a good solid week!

{You can see the remains of a crushed Cheddar Bunny in her hand and the subsequent glee on her face from having just dropped it on the floor...she was thinking this was naughty and therefore hilarious.}

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A friend of mine commented that Simon got a whole blog post to himself last week and there wasn't a single picture of Cecilia. I feel bad for having so many more pictures of her, but seriously, this is a normal response out of him when I pull out the camera:

I can't help that I can still strap C into a high chair and that she thinks peek-a-boo is the funniest thing ever. So imagine my delight when Simon ASKED to have his picture taken next to his balloon that he got to stick to the wall, which he thought was awesome. 

Beautiful boy, beautiful smile. Oh happy day!

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And by request, here is a flashback video from September 2010 :)

Green

A friend of mine called me on Sunday to ask whether leprechauns visited our house because her kids had high expectations (unbeknownst to her until that morning). I said no. We spent most of the day Saturday trying to convince Simon that leprechauns were not real because apparently schools set traps for them? Well he got it in his head that if we didn't set traps all over our house a "lefrechaun" was going to come and throw him in a sack. Despite our best efforts at easing his fears, he slept in our bed that night. Thank you to the person or persons responsible for this meltdown; I owe you.

With or without this fear of a little green man, I had no plans to do anything but maybe wear green if I remembered. Then a beautiful blog post came my way and I felt liberated. It made me feel like it was okay to all but ignore these little holidays and that there are other women out there just like me :)

Here's my favorite part from that post:

"But I can’t do this alone. Fellow parents . . . teachers . . . sunday school workers . . . I beseech you. BRING IT DOWN A NOTCH.  Ya’ll are setting up expectations that I just can’t maintain. Wouldn’t we all be just a little happier if we returned to the slacker days of store-bought valentines and kit-dyed eggs and JUST WEARING A GREEN SHIRT AND CALLING IT A DAY?"

I did save a green diaper for Cecie to wear on Sunday, though. I even threw a green tank on her and we pretended it was summer...

Perfect Day?

I recently read a blog post about someone who posted a few things on Facebook that gave the impression of a perfect day. In reality, her day was far from perfect and it was a comical account of what really went down that day.

It made me wonder what impression I give people in this space. I know I read some other blogs and they definitely give the impression of perfection, even if they are saying things aren't perfect, somehow everything still looks perfect. It doesn't really matter, though. I think anyone who has a blog like mine (in other words, a super high tech and detailed baby book) is just writing to capture these days that go by too fast so we can relive them when we are old and alone in our big empty houses (nice thought, right?!). So as usual, I will keep writing for me and my future empty nesting self as truthfully as possible no matter what impression I'm giving to the world. {Oh, and I suppose it's for my children to look back on too.}

Along with the aforementioned blog post that I read, these pictures also had me thinking about this very issue. Because don't we look happy? Doesn't this look like a fun day with a super hands on mom? Well first of all, this was the first snowman we've ever made (sad that I feel so guilty admitting that like I'm going to be judged to high heaven for this). Second of all, he was such a big fat whiner before making the snowman that I told him he was ruining our fun. Third, I almost didn't finish it with him because he was complaining so much about the shape; I couldn't help that the snowballs were turning out like squares...this was my first rodeo in years, remember?

Okay, so really it was pretty fun overall, but it was a rocky start :)

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Bryan, seeing my Simon-sized snowman, decided to try to one up me. He chose to focus on height and perfectly shaped snowballs for the body. Jerk.

I think mine was better.

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P.S. I've been thinking about how pictures can lie for a while :) http://becauseiwanttorememberitall.blogspot.com/2011/09/playing-it-safe.html

Sibs

She just wants to be by him and he just keeps trucking along letting her invade his space without a second thought.

There is nothing quite like messing with your big brother, right? Except when your brother is messing with you, in which case there's really nothing like it. She thinks it's hilarious when he is borderline abusive to her...

So glad they have each other.

Blah.

I learned a lesson this week: I can't get away with just doing ponytails in Cecilia's hair. I tried it and it looked like a hot mess after about a day. I bought her a sleep bonnet that I thought might help preserve her hair during the sleeping hours, but how do you convince a one year old to keep a freaking bonnet on? You don't. You put it on and watch her take it off. Over and over. And subsequently, you watch her hair fall further and further into disarray from all the on and off defeating the purpose altogether.

This thing is my new ridiculously cute enemy.

Anyway, as I mentioned the puffs weren't cutting it so I had to figure something else out. This style has been working great for us for the past few weeks so I'm sticking with it!

Another hair related obstacle that we are trying to overcome is the fact that she loves to be naughty. She will go up to anything she thinks is off limits, look at me, touch it and laugh maniacally. She has figured out that mama doesn't like it when she messes with her locks so she will touch it just to be sassy. I'm learning to just try to distract her with anything rather than letting her know just how crazed I feel inside when I see her grabbing at all of my hard work on the top of her head.

Do you see how much she is loving being naughty??

And then there's Simon. 

Sick again. 

I've had this weird illness since last weekend, basically a scratchy throat evolved to a very sore throat, then laryngitis then a deep cough. By Wednesday Simon joined in the fun. He never complained about a sore throat, but he's not great at telling me what hurts so who knows. Today his cough is deep and sounds painful and he's got a little fever to boot.

At least he doesn't know how to act sick - he just knows how to be cool...

Oh these kids. I'm having one of those blah days when I want to completely ignore them both all day long, but despite that, I sure do love them :)

Is it bedtime yet?

For the Bible tells me so...

It's dark and we're sound asleep. A recording of a little girl slowly singing "Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so," rings in our ears. We both hear it. I check the time, it's 4:20am. He is glad that I heard it too, to verify that he's not crazy. I'm not glad I heard it.

Was someone playing a recording right outside our window? Were they warning us before they started our house started on fire? Were they waiting for us to come downstairs to shoot us? Were they in our hallway? Was it a recording on one of those whacked out Jesus cars with the megaphones attached to the roof just driving around town in the middle of the night? Bryan asked if it could be a toy. I assured him no way, and besides, why would it suddenly start playing right now?

A friend who lives across the street should be up by now, maybe she heard the passing car too? With a racing heart I reached for my phone to text her and there it was again, "Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so." This time we were wide awake and could identify where it was coming from. It was, in fact, a toy shoved right in between us under the covers. The dog moves things all over the house and surely this was her handiwork. And if it's a musical stuffed animal, we know that was my mother in law's handiwork.

So thank you Elliot and Mary Lynn for contributing to the creepiest wake up call ever. Still trying to get my heart rate back to normal...

A little school, a little latte, a little shake

Since about January, Bryan and I have been trying hard to figure out which school to send Simon to next year (really it's been an ongoing discussion for five years). It was only between one private and one public school, but it seemed like such a difficult choice. We spent so much time weighing the pros and cons, but all we really needed to do was walk through the halls on a regular school day and our decision would be made for us.

After touring both schools with their respective principals, there is no longer a shadow of a doubt that we are making the right choice. We are both in complete agreement that our family belongs at the public school and honestly would pay to have him go there if that were necessary (which happily it is not!).

Funny how you can think about something all day long, but then you live each decision for 20 minutes (aka walking the halls) and the pros and cons list doesn't even matter anymore because you just know. Nice how that works out sometimes :)

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Sometime in Fall of last year I decided to give up coffee because of the calories (hello creamer!) and its likely negative impact on my never-ending heartburn. Well, this new little rule of mine quickly turned into "no coffee at home," leaving Starbucks wiiiiiide open. So, sure, I consumed less coffee but those addicting, devilish lattes are full of calories and they cost a fortune.

My little plan backfired.

I'm happy to report, however, that my urge to sneak through the Starbucks drive through has been squashed by my own newfound ability to make a delicious latte at home. I've been playing around with a recipe and finally found one that rivals Starbucks, plus it only uses real ingredients and costs pennies. (I've all out stopped caring about the calories because this is just plain worth it and as for the heartburn, whether I drink a 1/4 cup of coffee or not doesn't seem to make a difference so I'm going to enjoy every sip.)

1/4 c very dark coffee
3/4 c milk
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp pure maple syrup

We have a milk frother so I mix together everything but the coffee first, then pour them together. So easy, cheap and delicious. Screw you and your $4 lattes, Starbucks :)

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Sadly, I have lost my passion for running. I love to hear about other people running and their goals and accomplishments, but it's not fitting into my life right now. Mostly because I don't want it to (I only want to run when it's nice out and when I don't have to bring along a child...not likely to happen any time soon).

Really I just want to have fun.
And shake some tail feathers.

Enter Zumba :) My friend Julie asked me to try a class with her at the Y a month or so ago and I loooooove it. It's not a crazy good cardio workout like running is, but it gets you moving and is so much fun for an hour. It fits perfectly into my life right now and I'm so happy she asked me to do it because I NEVER would have done it on my own (classes are scary the first time).

So that's all, I like Zumba. Enough to blog about it (not sure if that's saying much or not....ha).

Drama Queen

This is quickly becoming a common sight in our home...flat on the floor tantrums. I think I took away a coffee mug and she was quite displeased. She showed her frustration by falling to the floor and sobbing into the ground. It literally makes me laugh every time because it's so over the top dramatic. I'm sure it will be much less comical as she gets older so I probably shouldn't laugh and inadvertently encourage her.

Either way, I think we are going to have alllllll kinds of fun when she really hits the toddler stage.

Speaking of toddling, she is upright more and more these days. Slow but sure, she is retiring crawling. It still catches me off guard when I see her walking into a room, but I love it! She took her first steps so long (three and a half months) ago that it made me feel so impatient for her to really start walking. I was nervous she was just never going to get the hang of it since most kids seem to go from first steps to walking in a much shorter time frame. "Normal" development looks so completely differently from baby to baby, though. You'd think I'd have learned that by now.

We all have our issues, right? :)

In any case, it's looking like she will be walking fine just in time to play outside when the weather warms up a bit. I can't wait for those days....one day soon I will look outside and see green instead of white and what a glorious day that will be.

Stupid snow.