xmas

There is so much to catch up on, I can't possibly do it in one post. Here are some highlights from the actual holiday.

Everyone had to dress up for the annual Christmas Eve party. Sawyer was too scared of his tie and belt to wear them. He was also in a typical holiday mood (read: uncooperative).

Scott, typically, cooked. Awesome food, only it tasted like cardboard to me because I had a cold. In between seasoning and slicing, he found time to work his sleep magic on Baby A.

I recycled a pre-Sawyer Christmas outfit. I didn't quite fit into it, and only realized AFTER adorning it that I matched the kids. Sooooo geeky.

Wearing the Armstrong tartan tie that used to be Uncle Ross's, Justin exemplified Tweenhood when he plopped down to play with a toy on the floor in the middle of the party. Moments before he was super excited about getting a sweet skater hoodie from the Kim family.

Christmas morning arrived and Sawyer SCREAMED when he saw what Ho Ho Claus had brought. Oddly, the entire family gave him play kitchen accessories. How ever did they know? We can verify, however, that Santa's elves were up until 2:30 in the morning assembling the kitchen - post Xmas eve libations - which came in 134 pieces. Apparently Santa's elves do occasionally cuss loudly.

Still a believer, Justin was thrilled that Santa was able to make a Wii in his workshop, even though they were all gone from the stores. It's lucky that Santa gets things for FREE!

Arden says: so let me get this straight, Sawyer got a kitchen, Justin got a Wii, and all I got was this lousy pink duck? (actually, Santa gave the kitchen to Arden too, but Sawyer hogged the whole thing).

We all got a chance to enjoy the Wii (oddly the entire family gave Justin Wii accessories including extra remotes - how did they know?) Mimi played golf with Justin and Scott. Even great Aunt Bobby took a few rounds bowling (and scored a strike). Pop Pop was so obsessed with tennis (convinced that his remote was broken) that he turned the game back on after Justin went to bed and attempted to brush up on his skills.

Hark the Herald Angels . . . . Cry.

Poor Sawyer made it about halfway through his Christmas play and then just lost it. I'm not sure why. Maybe he was cold. It was like 40 degrees and we were outside. Maybe the pressure was just too much. There were about 100 people watching him. Maybe it was the fact that he blurted out BIG TRUCK! when one went by on the road behind us and everyone laughed. I wasn't allowed to go up to him and the teachers left him there so he just stood there amid a choir of angels, crying, for about 10 minutes. Later, when people asked me which kid was mine, all I had to say was 'The angel that cried" and they all knew who I meant.

Gingerbread House

Sawyer put this together from a kit during a rainy weekend day before Thanksgiving. He was so intent and careful. Good thing I'm no Martha. The end result was hardly something for the cover of Good Housekeeping, but it was entirely his and boy was he proud.

Photo shoot comedy

We postponed taking the official Christmas photo until Justin arrived. Coordinating three kids can be a bit difficult. Here are a couple highlights:

Sawyer, stand behind Justin. Okay just squat down behind him. Put your face next to his. Put your chin on his shoulder. I didn't say sit on his shoulder!


Scott tries to dogpile all the kids. It looks really cute, until he snaps the shot - see Arden in the back?

Arden: I can't take this any more!


To see the REAL shot look in the mail in weeks to come.

Lessons learned

Sawyer has been attending a Baptist preschool these last four months. In addition to learning about Jesus when they study the letter J, Sawyer is learning to say his prayers, mind his manners and obey the 10 commandments (or a preschool version of them). For $100/week (full time), it is a miracle. Yet, it's a constant struggle between my lion-hearted son (he's not officially a LEO but he should be) and the teachers who have little tolerance for strong-willed children. Most days I get notes home that Sawyer lost his 'star' for telling the teacher "No." Some days he loses it for 'stubborn behavior' or 'running wild.' Still, they manage to get him to follow their rules most of the time. The best thing they have taught him is to put his hands behind his back when he stands in a line at school. I use the hands behind the back trick when we go shopping. He can run through a toy store and not touch a thing. Another miracle. On the good side, they tell me that he has an amazing attention span for books and movies. Of course, we don't have TV so we watch a lot of movies at home. And we read three or four books every night. When we get to the end of each book, Sawyer closes the cover and says "Amen."

Kooza!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my mom treated us with tickets to Cirque du Soleil. She watched Arden so that we could enjoy the show with Sawyer. For anyone who isn't familiar with Cirque du Soleil, its like the circus only better - there aren't any elephants and they serve white wine in plastic wine glasses. Through luck of the draw we ended up with front row seats. The show was UNBELIEVABLE. PHENOMENAL. OUTRAGEOUS. Sawyer was mildly terrified. Especially when the room went dark and the strobe lights started flashing and the music kicked in at about 5 million decibels. He cried when a giant costume dog barked at him, but he was oddly unafraid of the army of skeleton suits. He spent the first part of the show burying his head in my shoulder, but peeking. The second half he applauded and shouted hooray at the end of every trick. I wonder if he'll remember it down the road. It's definitely left an impression on me.

32 degrees

This morning Sawyer walked out the front door and let out the high pitch scream he usually reserves for when Arden steals something he's been playing with or when Duncan starts licking his face. He ran back inside screaming: "It's cold! Want hat!" It was the first time he's ever acknowledged the need for extra clothing.

By the way - it was really f-ing cold. Duncan's water bowl was frozen and so was half of the fish pond.

Walking and chewing gum

I really wanted to post some video of Arden walking all over the house but I couldn't seem to download it off the video camera. Two weeks after taking her first steps, Arden became a full time walker. She's bow legged, so she looks like she just hopped off the horse. And she's still so tiny that people laugh when they see her toddling around. But she's fearless and her entire purpose in life at this point is to hone her skill: can I walk carrying this cup? can I walk carrying this cup and a shoe? can I walk carrying this cup and eating the shoe? hello, cup, can you hear me?

More Notes

I'm afraid I'll forget all those cute things Sawyer says once they start slipping away. My current favorite is "I dood it! I dood it!" which he says with delight after accomplishing a task by himself. I yelled at my dad over the weekend for correcting him. Other language mishaps are a bit more confusing. Like when he says "Help me," while trying to put on his clothes. If you actually try to help him, he starts screaming even louder: "Help me, help me!" running in the opposite direction. What he means is that he's helping himself, Me being the operative word in that sentence.

On the Menu

Scott cooked our Thanksgiving dinner today, entirely by himself, and he never even broke a sweat. My mom and I sat around and watched him, napped, took the kids to the park, did a few dishes and that was it. It was just the three of us, plus the kids for dinner. My dad is enjoying his Turkey in Napa Valley with his sister Bobby, Ross, Niki and Baby Kieran. I have to say, it was the best Thanksgiving dinner "we" ever cooked. The best part was that we deviated from the traditional side dishes.


On the menu:
Organic Turkey, brined and roasted to perfection
Harvest stuffing with apricots, pine nuts, cranberries, apples and plums
Green beens with shallots and clementine zest
Mustardy Kale and bacon salad (this was AMAZING)
Roasted sweet potato rounds with crispy sage (PHENOMENAL)
And a can of cranberry sauce, rings still visible.

sweet potatoes

5 years later

Engagement party, 2003

Scott and I celebrate five years together this Friday. It's a special one because our anniversary is going to be the day after Thanksgiving, exactly like it was when we got married.

It's amazing to think about how our life together has changed in those five years. The biggest two changes are obvious - Sawyer and Arden. I had a little laugh looking over their birth certificates the other day and realizing that I was 33 when I had Sawyer and 34 when I had Arden. I have literally been either pregnant or nursing since October 2005.

The other major change is that when I got married I thought I was saying goodbye to certain things, like not being able to get the lid off a jar of pasta sauce when I'm by myself, or setting mousetraps. or taking the garbage to the dump. (I realize that these last few may baffle some of you city folk). But, here I am happily married and back at a point where I have do all these things by myself. Okay, I don't set the mousetraps but I've had to remove a few 'used' ones. It's so easy to become dependent on a spouse, so it's good for me to bust out some of my old survival skills and to remember that I can do these things (with the help of a jar opener, large tongs and a thick pair of work gloves). I'm so proud of Scott that it makes it all worthwhile.

In these last five years, we've been better than I ever anticipated, even when things were worse. And we've been richer than I ever dreamed, even though we were poor.

Here's to many future years of health and happiness honey. The best is yet to come.

Notes

Too cute to correct:
Sawyer when he finds something he was looking for, like his cup or his coat:
Here it are! Here it are!

Reasons to suspect Sawyer might make a good reporter:
What's that? Why? What doing? Why? Where it go? Whyyyy?

Go Big

Scott and I have always been big believers in the "Go Big Or Go Home" mantra. While it may have originated as a bumper sticker stuck cockeyed on the tailgate of a snowboarder's Pathfinder, we tend to apply it to all aspects of life - for better or worse. Taking Sawyer to see his first movie was no exception.

I really hadn't planned to take Sawyer to see his first movie this year, or even next year for that matter. We live more than an hour away from the closest movie theater, and I figured we'd wait until Sawyer was old enough to appreciate the movie, or at least sit still through it.

I have distinct memories of my first-ever movie "Star Wars," which I saw with my dad and my grandmother when I was still too little to keep the seat from folding back up on me. My grandmother put her 10-pound purse down next to me, which solved the problem. The movie both terrified and captivated me, and I may have been one of the few 6-year-old girls to possess the entire action figure collection as well as a fleet of x-wing fighters and the evil empire's dollhouse.

Several weeks ago Sawyer saw a full page color ad for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and went absolutely nuts. He owns the first movie and can name all the animals. It's never been my favorite movie, but the thought crossed my mind that it could be a good first movie him - except that its rated PG, for 'crude humor.' That's what happen when Chris Rock stars as a zebra.

On Saturday, during an impromptu trip to the Dulles air and space museum (AWESOME) we came across a life-sized poster advertising the movie at the IMAX theater. Throwing caution over 'crude humor' aside, we bought tickets. After all, if you're going to see your first movie, what better venue than an IMAX theater.

Sawyer sat riveted through the entire show and Arden (eventually) slept (thanks to Magic Dad who can put any baby to sleep) despite a volume decibel that I found borderline painful. And, while it's no Finding Nemo, it was pretty good. The soundtrack was great and now Sawyer makes me sing on command (Sing Momma. Sing!): I like to move it move it . . .

My Backyard

A Sunday morning kayak through my backyard with my neighbor Jayne. Photo taken by Scott from our house.

Roasted

Legend has it that any month with an R is a good month to eat oysters. Around here, November and December are filled with oyster festivals, oyster roasts and oyster sandwiches on special. My mom has been farming her own oysters off her dock for about five years now and almost every weekend during November and December we roast them on the grill. This was the second week in a row we ate oysters - I like them alternately dipped in lemon butter and spicy cocktail sauce, but I prefer the small ones. My mom's not scared of the bigger oysters, but this weekend she may have met her match. She pulled up some of the biggest oysters she had. Scott joked that they were abalone, not oysters, and passed on eating any. My mom ate the biggest oyster in the batch in just one bite and after that she couldn't eat any more. I've never seen her turn away oysters before. We put the rest of the behemoths into a bowl for oyster bisque and decided that we'd all rather stick with the smaller oysters from now on.

Headed out for dinner

Happy Birthday Scott!

Have to add a little props to my good friend from high school Potato (aka Jonathan Williams) who has opened this awesome restaurant in Arlington: Restaurant 3. We had a really yummy meal there. If you're in the area, check it out.

When things don't go as planned

Neither of our kids seemed exactly thrilled about being dressed up for Halloween and forced to pose for countless photos. But as soon as we hit the streets and Sawyer got the hang of it (run, ring door bell, get candy, run, ring door bell, get candy, run), there was no turning back. He ran from door to door, ('I runnin' I runnin') said trick-or-treat and thank you to everyone and even told the little old lady who kept giving him more candy to 'close the door now.' We started early (I think we were the first group at almost every house) but got home in time to greet all the tricksters who came knocking at our door (equally as fun).

okay shut the door now lady.

This Just In

Really wasn't planning to post anything today. Figured people are barely keeping up as it is and soon I'll start getting all those 'I don't know how you find the time' messages. But this just happened in my living room about an hour ago and I'm still in shock:

Just for fun

me. age 2.

Melt-my-heart

I know everybody else thinks THEIR kids are the cutest on the planet, but seriously - how did our kids get to be SO darn cute?

Happiest baby on the block

punch drunk happy:

Not likely to be an astronaut

Sawyer continues to be afraid of everything new. Today we went to a little kiddie festival in Lancaster Courthouse and while every other toddler we know ran straight into the moon bounce with giggling fits of hysteria as they fell all over themselves, Sawyer refused to so much as cross the threshold. Our typical response to this kind of fear is to, say, thrust him through the mesh door kicking and screaming assuming that he'll suddenly realize that its something FUN we are trying to make him do. That face-your-fears-son tactic never seems to help. After all the kids had moved on to the petting zoo, Sawyer returned alone to the moon bounce. He got in, spent about five minutes sitting on the inflatable floor and then another ten minutes just standing, getting a feel for the thing. Whoa! Whoa!! he said with each tiny move he made. He was having so much fun NOT jumping I finally had to bribe him with candy to get him to come out. Oh, and I learned something new about myself today. I'm not above bribing a kid with candy to avoid a scene in public.

Do-it-yourself

Sawyer is getting into that 'me do it' phase. He loves wearing boots - cowboy or wellies - because he can put them on by himself even though 9 out of 10 times they go on the wrong feet. We spent 20 minutes putting on his pajamas the other night because he couldn't figure out how to pull up the butt. He helps himself to snacks, opens doors, turns on and off lights, brushes his own teeth, lets the water out of the bathtub and carries his own lunch box to school. This morning, he also put on his own hat before we walked out the door. I guess he didn't realize that I had already put a a hat on him.

Pumpkin Patch

Arden and I joined Sawyer's class at the pumpkin patch today. Typically, he was TERRIFIED of the hay ride (for a kid who loves tractors, I can't believe how scared he is of them). We forced him on kicking and screaming. He didn't want to sit in the wet grass to eat his snack. And he wanted me to carry him everywhere (like having Arden in the backpack wasn't enough). But, when it came to racing the other kids into the pumpkin patch, he made a bee line for the biggest pumpkin he could find. Then he said: Help mama. Hold. Up. Right. Like I can carry TWO kids AND two giant pumpkins. I may be supermom these days, but I am definitely not superwoman.

Cousins!

It's a beautiful thing.

Can't believe my eyes

I'm at work. Sawyer's daycare is closed today (WHO CLOSES ON COLUMBUS DAY?). So I had to bring him with me to work. He survived our entire morning meeting at a restaurant. Played with his cars on the floor of my office for a while. Ate lunch. Then I put on a movie and now here he is - sleeping - for more than an hour on the floor. It's a blimey miracle I tell you.

Growing up

It seems like the second one grows up faster than the first. It's survival, I think. They have to keep up. Arden was clawing at Sawyer's dinner last night so I put her in the opposite chair with a cracker - Sawyer didn't even start sitting in a regular chair until he was 18 months old. She sat there perfectly still, content as could be, munching away. The whole scene just cracked me up.

We had our 9 month check up yesterday - funny, with Sawyer I could have spit out every statistic they gave me at the doctor's office. All I can remember about Arden's appointment is that she's still short - 35th percentile. After the appointment I took her grocery shopping and somebody stopped me - because when you have a baby in the grocery store it's impossible to get through without somebody stopping to coo over the baby - and they asked me amid all the cooing: 'How much does she weigh?' Random. Especially since I had been at the pediatricians less than an hour ago and had her weighed, but I didn't have a clue. (A little less than 19 pounds - I checked when I got home). Then the lady asked me: 'Where does she get her red hair?' I wouldn't call it red - but it does have a lot of blond in it now and the way it stands up on her head like a fuzzy halo it might have been reflecting some of the light from the deli meat display.

Happy Happy Happy

Scott was floating after his first day on the new job. He's really excited about the people he's working with/for, and he is so impressed with the organization. They were completely ready for him - name on the cubical, computer set up, passwords, keycard, parking passes, cell phone number, a welcome message on the big screen and, yes, balloons. Lesson learned: However long it took them do to all that, an hour, a day, a week, it was worth it. The little things go such a long way. What a difference from places where they scramble to find you a wobbly chair to sit on your first day!

Bathtime Calamity

All together now: BANG BANG BANG!

I survived the first bedtime routine by myself and got the kids out the door this morning relatively intact and without any major meltdowns (although I forgot my cell phone and my calendar and I was 15 minutes late to my Monday morning meeting). We miss daddy already, but wish him luck and know he'll be great. For you moms of two out there, let me just say that it gets a lot easier when they can take a bath together. I have no idea how people with three kids manage.

Dad.

There's been a huge void on this blog – something I haven't talked about, even though I think about it all the time. It's like one of those appendages at the end of your hand that you don't pay much mind to until it's broken and wrapped in a cast and suddenly you're crippled. In this case, it's my husband.

Dad

For the past nine months, while business has been slow, Scott has been Mr. Dad. When Arden was born, he kicked into high gear. We play man-on-man defense at home. He gets Sawyer up, fed and dressed every morning. He drops him off at daycare while I deal with Arden. He picks Sawyer up every night, feeds him dinner, and rocks him to sleep after I've done the bath and books routine. He cooks us all dinner and cleans up the dishes and picks up the house while I bathe the kids. And two or three nights a week he does it all himself while I work late at the newspaper or cover events and meetings. He's the one daycare calls when Sawyer needs to be picked up and he's the one that takes the kids to the doctor. When I put try Sawyer to bed at night, he looks up at me with sweet round eyes and says: Where's dada? Want hug dada.

He has a magic ability to get our babies to take naps.

Having two babies - let's not mince words here - is Really F-king Hard! (okay I minced one word, but it's a family blog). And I couldn't do it without Scott. I'm not one of these super domesticated women. I'm terrible at cleaning. I hate recipes. I'm really not that good at taking care of the children (we survive, somehow). I take no pride in my domestic chores. In fact, I'd rather work and make NO money if I could hire a maid and a cook and a nanny to do the hard parts and just get to enjoy my family. Me being a housewife is about as laughable as me being a quarterback for the Washington Redskins.

Naptime is not my forte: Evidence.

Scott, on the other hand, excels at all these domestic things (he's cringing as he reads this) and were it not for the crushing weight of bills and the fact that his income potential so far surpasses mine that it takes a whole extra sheet of paper to graph it, he might be perfectly happy to stay at home and raise the family.

On a playdate to the museum.

But the world being as it is, and us having two-point-five children to support, he needs a good, steady, reliable job with benefits that we can depend on for the next 20-something years. We're all done with self-employment (at least until we retire and open a ski-yurt-b&b-ranch in Colorado). And - so - DRUMROLL PLEASE . . .

Scott has taken a job in Northern Virginia with a wonderful construction company that builds high-end custom homes in the Great Falls area. For now, that means he is going to be living up there during the week while I live down here. (It's about two hours away). I know that raises about a million questions - How will that work? Won't it be hard on me? Will I move up there soon?

She's her father's daughter. (J. Kim photo)

The truth is, we don't know yet. All we know is that this is a really good opportunity for Scott, and we're going to try this happily-married-living-separately for a while and see how it goes. It's not like we are the first family ever to do it - many parents travel for work. I may not be the ideal candidate for single-momdom, and BELIEVE ME, I am going to miss the heck out of him (especially when I'm trying to potty train Sawyer). But the world is crumbling around us, and on the same day that congress failed to sign the bailout, Scott signed his offer.

So, Monday morning this blog will take on a whole new purpose. It will be a way for Scott to be with us for all those little moments that happen sometime between breakfast and daycare.

Encouraging us to try new things. (J. Kim photo)

And Scott: We love you. We are SO proud of you. And, we wish you Good Luck on Monday.

Baaaah!

I have a very distinct memory of going to a petting zoo when I was about 6 years old. All was fine and good until some pushy goat who hadn't had his fill bit my finger, forever scarring me (mentally). I like domesticated animals in theory, but being a child of suburbia I am rather nervous around anything that makes a barnyard sound. That said, I recently added 'own goat' to my list of things I want to do before I die. So, I was glad to see that Sawyer wasn't afraid. I'll just wait until he's old enough to feed the animals before I acquire any. Or, if the economy tanks, maybe we'll start a small farm on the property and start exploiting him a little sooner than expected.

Mud Pies

A little tropical depression that later turned into Hurricane Kyle kept us inside most of the weekend. The rain came down in buckets and the wind was worse than that actual hurricane that blew through the area a few weeks ago. I'm convinced the term "cooped up" was coined by somebody with a toddler in the house. As soon as we had a momentary break in the weather we were all racing outside - mud boots on - to play in the puddles. Sunday we went berry bogging at the Westmoreland Berry Farm . I was amazed by how gentle Sawyer was picking the ripe raspberries, although he wasn't much into eating them. Add 'Seeded Berries' to the list of things this picky toddler refuses to eat.

A little skeleton

It's time to let a certain skeleton out of the closet. While other toddlers are watching the Backyardigans, Dora and whatever the heck else is on the Disney Channel at 10 am, Sawyer is obsessed with musicals. One musical in particular: Hairspray. During a weekend at Mimi and Pop Pop's house when Arden was born, Sawyer was looking for something to watch among a dirth of options - the Horatio Hornblower boxset, some history channel specials. So, they put in Hairspray, the movie where John Travolta plays an overweight woman. Sawyer was transfixed. He would stand in front of the TV, shake his little booty and watch the thing from beginning to end. My parents often talked about his love for this movie in the months that followed, and I eventually had to watch it myself. While there's nothing outright unacceptable about the movie, the 60s-era racial tension at the plot's surface seemed a little inappropriate for a two-year-old. I suggested that if he likes musicals so much, perhaps we should try something more classic.

My mom took this mission to heart and started ordering them all: Annie, Oliver, Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Music Man and Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang. (She ordered Grease too, but I've 'top-shelved' that one due to all the smoking and drinking.) The absolute winner with Sawyer and the rest of Pierce-ville is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It starts off with an exciting car crash and delivers with cute kids and catchy tunes the rest of the way through and, like any good Disney musical, it stars Dick Van Dyke. We've watched it no less than 50 times, and I never get sick of it. (I can't say the same for Pixar's CARS). What's not to love about a movie that uses the word "uncategorical" and has a floating/flying car that travels to an imaginary country called "Vulgaria" where children are outlawed? And how COULD anyone forget Truly Scrumptious?

Not every musical is a winner, at least not int the toddler category. Oliver is rather dark (wouldn't recommend it) and Sound of Music, as much as I love it, is pretty slow if you're 2-years-old. Mary Poppins and Annie are enjoyable but haven't hit the top of the charts yet in Pierce-ville. (Sawyer can say "Annie," which I find incredibly cute). We don't have TV, so movies are our sole source of hands-free entertainment. I am a bit leery of how this watching the same movie over and over will scar him down the road, especially when I see a scene like this:

Mud - good. Rocks - good. Bike - good. Beads around the neck - highly suspect.

Oh dear, don't let your pretty necklaces dangle in the mud!

Return of the Blogger

Sorry it's been so long folks - I can't even get into what all has been going on here - at least not yet, although I do promise a full update this week. Let's just say that my mind's been elsewhere - and NO, I'm not pregnant, just in case THAT thought crossed your mind. Scott and I have a goalie on a 5-year-contract to any possibility of THAT.

Last week signaled the end of our supplement season and a major lightening of my work load. We had a wonderful family weekend and I spent some time catching up on my blogging and taking lots of photos, so check back for updates every day this week!

Metamorphosis

Found this time lapse video of a black swallowtail turning into a chrysalis - starts out slow then BAM! What a finale. And to think that all this occurred in my kitchen while we slept.

Tribute

Because I'm a little bit weepy today:



This commercial ran as a tribute to 911 for one day only. Promise to have an uplifting post next time.

Now I lay me down to sleep

Sawyer and I have recently started saying a little bedtime prayer. It's a nice way to sum up the day and transition from fun books to get into your bed and go to sleep. But I've been feeling awkward about the only bedtime prayer a know. It seems so GRIM.

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
And if I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I was looking for something a little more uplifting when I came across this website and the Today show segment posted below.
It's one of those things that I found simultaneously horrifying and fascinating, and it made me stop to appreciate just how blessed I am to have two healthy, beautiful babies. Just a warning - the link and video are very sad. But, I was so moved, I had to share.

By the way - I did find a version of the prayer that I like better:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Guide me through the starry night,
Wake me when the sun shines bright.

Shelter From the Storm

Arden sleeps soundly in her daddy's arms Saturday.

Oh Hanna!

All's well. As far as these things go it was benign. No trees down. No flooding. I've seen worse thunderstorms to be honest. Thing is, we were all prepared for this one. It's the one's that you don't see coming that really pack a wallop. Holding my breath for those people in the way of Ike.

Because you may not know my brother

Ross and Niki are only 4 weeks into the parenthood experience and they've already posted one of the funniest blog entries I've ever read. Read it here.

Oh Hanna!

If you follow that black line through Va - where it goes off the white land and meets the blue Chesapeake Bay - That's my house. Wish me luck!!

1:30

That is how long this video is - 1 minute 30 seconds. Even with the big build-up by Scott, this video is in the running for the DULLEST baby video EVER. Aren't you just dying to watch it now?



Funny, looking back (that was about two months ago, it was the best eating Arden has ever done. Now we have to open her mouth with a crow bar to get the baby food in and it still comes back out like that, or she sticks her fingers in after it. Really I just like this video cause I think my baby is friggin beautiful.

Happy 8 Months Arden!!

Thank you for playing

This entire video is worth it for the last line.



Did you note that Arden is sporting a softer, more feminine version of the Mohawk? It's so fuzzy that people just want to touch it when they walk by. I was looking back to photos and videos from last winter and I can't believe how much Sawyer's hair has grown in recently.

While we are there

Video week continues at Pierceville:
While we are beaching it, here's a little short bit of Justin skim boarding.

Surf's up!

Today I am going to take you back to the beach - which is where you would rather be anyway after a holiday weekend. As you may recall, Sawyer was absolutely terrified of the water and sand for the entire week we were on vacation. On the last day, he wandered into the surf and then . . . .



Scott is a grew up surfing in California, so he was possibly the happiest dad in America at this moment.

Singalong

Guess What? It's your lucky week. This is VIDEO WEEK at Pierce•ville. I've been busy this weekend pulling half-a-year's worth of videos off the recorder and so check back every day for something new and exciting. To warm you up, here is a lovely bit with a diaper clad Sawyer singing along to Bob the Builder. We don't have TV - which is a good thing - but we do watch videos and Bob is one of Sawyer's favs. Think he's seen it too many times? Check out how he knows what Bob is going to say at the very end of the video (when he's done jamming).



PS - WHY - WHY - WHY do kid songs have to be SO dang catchy? If I was ever deserted on a desert island I'd go mad with the soundtrack to Bob the Builder repeating over and over in my head.

Change is good

This spring my mother brought me a flat of herbs for my garden. We have enjoyed them all summer long: fresh basil for our tomatoes, oregano and thyme for our pasta sauces, chives for our baked potatoes. But I was having a hard time finding any useful purpose for the fennel scented dill - a hybrid of sorts that may be better in concept than reality. A few weeks ago, however, I discovered that a very large and colorful caterpillar with gourmet taste had consumed nearly half the plant. Sawyer had recently taken home a bug box as a birthday party favor so I trimmed a twig off the plant and placed the caterpillar in the bug box thinking about how much Sawyer would enjoy looking at a real live Very Hungry Caterpillar:


For two days the thing ate and pooped up a storm - seriously, you wouldn't believe how much a caterpillar poops. I even had to cut another sprig off the fennel-dill plant for it. I really hadn't considered any long term plans for our new household pet. I just figured that we'd enjoy him for a few days and then release him back to nature. Imagine my horror when, on day three, I lifted Sawyer up to the window to say good morning to our caterpillar only to find him shriveled up at the bottom of the box - moldy, hard and brown. I've KILLED it, I thought.

Anybody who knows me knows I've harbored thing for butterflies since nearly dying on a mountaineering expedition in Patagonia. Of course, anybody who knows science knows that our little pet had likely metamorphosized into a pupa. But, I'd never actually seen this up close and was alarmed by the speed and, honestly, the severity of the change. He was half the size of his former self and not the same shape at all. And this was no Eric Carle cocoon either. (Apparently only moths actually make cocoons.) It more closely resembled a stumpy twig. I had already identified the caterpillar as a Black Swallowtail in my Peterson's First Guide to Caterpillars; but the book said that the species overwinters as a chrysalis and I hadn't signed on for six month roommate situation when I took the little guy in. We left twiggy in his box on the windowsill, primarily because I wasn't sure what to do with him. I still thought it was possible he had died. We added him to our nighttime prayers (Godbless mommy, daddy, justin, arden, duncan and the caterpillar) and hoped for the best.

So guess what I found this morning:

A beautiful butterfly!

Hatman

There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this video (taken by Scott with my cellphone) unless you understand that it was about 90 degrees outside last Sunday and we were driving to the pool. Sawyer has, for whatever reason, fallen in love with Scott's beanie. He carries it around hugging it like a stuffed animal and wants to put it on whenever we are going outside. Have you ever tried arguing with a 2-year-old? They have a way of being very convincing. So he pulled it down over his eyes and passed out in the 20 minutes it takes to get to the pool.

Saved

Scott and I sat down at Sawyer's little table to eat lunch with him today. As we tried to get comfortable with our knees at the same level as our ears, Sawyer sat very still in front of his PB&J not eating. We both turned to look at him. He looked down and, for one very brief moment, folded his hands in prayer. Did I mention his preschool is run by Baptists?

Arden 7 Months

Arden is my little over-achiever. She was crawling before six months, pulling up before 7 months and just wants to walk walk walk. She sees her big brother running circles around the living room and starts cracking up - I mean doubled over hysterical giggling. And then Sawyer starts cracking up and soon we are all laughing. Sawyer says "come here, come here" and holds out his hands to her encouraging her to walk over to him. I think he can't wait until she's racing circles with him, and I doubt it will be long. She's babbling up a storm and says mama and dada to nobody in particular. We're still nursing and haven't really started solid foods. No teeth yet. She hates all baby cereal and pureed food but will gum a frozen bagel like its going out of style. Just what I need. Another picky eater. When she's unhappy or wants to be held, she's got a screech that will curdle your blood. But she can also squeal in delight - something I never really heard from Sawyer - and all I can think is that she's SUCH A GIRL. The thing that surprises me most is how much the kids interact with each other already. I knew it would happen, but I just didn't realize that they would be so close so soon. They share and fight over toys (and Arden gets her way just as much as Sawyer - she will go after whatever he has) and look for each other whenever one is missing from the room. On the stats front, Arden is still short (35th) and fat (60th). But with her fuzzy head, she pulls the look off well.