"I should probably go do my email now." - Sawyer

Notes from the day

I finally got around to taking down the Christmas tree this morning and partway through Sawyer looked at me and said: "Mommy, what are you doing with Christmas?"
I explained that I was putting it away until next year. He looked around the house desperately, his eyes landing on the art supplies and easel he received from his aunt and uncle, and, said: "Well, can I keep this part of Christmas?"
____

Sawyer is very interested in helping us cook dinner, and the participation is helping expand his menu. Tonight, trying to scrape something out of nothing in the fridge, I suggested scrambled eggs. He helped me melt the butter in the pan, crack and beat the eggs, pour in some milk and stir them in the skillet. We topped them with some salt and cheese. When he tasted them he said: "These are delicious."
Typical Jack-Spratt-and-Wife moment, Arden wouldn't touch them. (Both my kids enjoying the same meal would be more than I could imagine.) Sawyer said: "Arden, it's eggs, butter, milk and cheese. How can it be bad?"

More fun

For those of you who don't follow Sarah Q's blog, she wrote about her family's visit to Colorado and posted a slideshow, which includes a lot of photos of our house and family, here.

Twice the fun

I can't really go the cliché route here and say that I'm in disbelief over Arden turning 2 in a few short days. Really, she seems like she's been 2 for a while. Maybe that's because between keeping up with her big brother and proving her worth, she's always been about 10 steps ahead of me. Walking at 9 months, speaking in sentences at 15 months, potty training at 22 months . . . I've never quite been ready for her.

The second birthday is the most low key affair of all the single digit birthdays in my opinion — not the same to-do as the first, too young to really care or understand like the third. So we took advantage of having the godparents in town and threw an unpretentious (read: grocery store cupcakes, no decorations, one present) early birthday party Friday night. The real birthday is Tuesday.

The Girls

We spent the New Year with two of my favorite people on the planet. Sarah and Dara have been my best buds since freshman year high school — more than 20 years! While our lives have taken different paths, getting together always feels like no time ever passed. Us girls got away today for a ski in Rocky Mountain National Park followed by lunch. The snow fell hard. A good omen and blessing for 2010.