Sweetness

The little guy took a nap today (yay!) and, as a result, was quite cheerful tonight. We went out and bought pants for his upcoming ice-skating lessons. He's going to be a hockey player-- and he says he wants to be a goalie.

This is what he'll look like in his dorm room one day...

I also managed to get a picture of the little girl looking happy (as opposed to skeptical, worried, or judgmental).

He's Cooking Now!

My brother and sister-in-law sent the little dude a play kitchen (as a late Christmas gift now that we're settled in somewhere for a few months). The little guy LOVES it. He made spaghetti for everyone for dinner, and he's threatened offered to make us salads for breakfast. Yum?

 The little one is pretty appalled by the whole thing... or she's just wondering where her pacifier is.

Whoops!

The weather was gorgeous today-- highs in the 70s-- so we went on a nice walk this evening. I totally forgot to bring my camera, though. Here's one of the little girl after our walk, but still wearing the awesome shorts a friend of ours made for her:

Eric did take a blurry picture of us with his phone...

I think it's a pretty unflattering picture of me, so (totally fishing for a compliment) I asked Eric if I really look like that from behind. He said "Well, it is a picture of you." Wow. How did I land such a great guy?!

Long Legs

The little dude (AKA giant man-child) played in the floor gym with his baby sister. Look at how big (and ridiculous) he looks in there!

He used to fit in it short-ways:

Yummy WV

I made pepperoni rolls tonight since we can't find that West Virginia delicacy down here in North Carolina. They turned out really well-- especially considering that my kitchen helper ate about as much pepperoni as he put in the rolls.

The little girl is starting to reach for stuff. She'll be chowing down on pepperoni rolls before we know it!

Love is in the air

Two posts in one day.  What is going on?  Because I'm spending most of the time with the kiddos these days while someone has to bring home the bacon, I thought I would chime in on our happenings.

The man child has been talking about hockey ever since we went to see the 'Canes practice everyday last week, though he didn't want to go today for some reason.  Like we said in that post he's been skating around the house in his socks and you should see his poor knees.

Recently his "guys" have begun skating around on all kinds of stuff and having lots of meetings, just like the hockey players at practice.  Today they found a clear tupperware full of baby toys to skate on.  After a quick meeting and the ice getting swept (long story) the guys decided to give each other a hug.  Luckily I was there to capture the tender moment.

Blackboots and Fire Chief share an embrace

His toys are now hugging all the time.  And this from one who is so stingy with his own.

Our Beautiful Children

Right. So, the little guy picked out his sister's outfit tonight (down to the hair bow). I managed to get him to let me take their picture, and this is what they did. Twice.

We're sending this to Ford Models, I think.

I'm *so* proud of my photogenic children. (This is totally karmic payback for the entire roll of film my parents used trying to get a nice photo of me and my brother. He kept sucking his thumb and I kept lifting up my dress to see my belly-button.)

Hanging On

The little one has started grabbing stuff (she's so amazing! Ha!). I always found it mildly insulting when the bigger one hung on for dear life while being carried. It's pretty entertaining that the new one already doesn't trust us either. She's following in her brother's footsteps, I guess-- even chewing on blankets.

White-knuckled!

Eat Your Veggies

The little dude goes back and forth on eating veggies at meals. However, if he 'helps' me while I'm chopping them up in the kitchen, he'll scarf down half a head of broccoli. It's ridiculous, but I always ask for his help if I'm cutting up veggies. It'll keep him from turning into a delicious cheddary goldfish.

Big Weekend!

Nana and Pops came to visit this weekend. They helped put together the little dude's Christmas present from them... a foosball table! (He couldn't even wait for it to be together before playing with it.)

The little girl rocked a hair bow (her hair is ridiculous) and had lots of snuggle time with her grandparents. All in all, everyone was happy.

Snuggles

This is what everyone else was doing when I braved the cold to go to work this morning...

I was sooooo jealous!

Go Canes!

Not the Miami Hurricanes (boo), the Carolina Hurricanes! Long before these kids came along, we spent pretty much all the money we got as wedding presents on hockey tickets (playoff tickets the year the Canes won the Stanley Cup). Apparently it's more traditional to use those gifts to buy a house or whatever, but we have no regrets.

Anyway, Eric got to take the kids to hockey practice today. The little dude spent the evening "skating" around the house in his socks... which is about as dangerous as actually playing hockey. He agreed to talk to the camera about what he did today, and here is the result. Enjoy!

What?!?

The little guy was up late last night, up early this morning, and refused to nap today. Then he was fairly melodramatic at dinner. After he ate, he said "Now I want to go to bed!" So he went straight to bed... at 6:30pm! We had a ridiculously long evening, which meant we got to watch the season 2 finale of Sherlock. (It was AMAZING!!)

Naptime a few days ago...

Ahhh... Sunshine!

The weather on Saturday was amazingly perfect, so we went for a hike. The little dude walked the whole way-- more than 1.5 miles! I'm a total sucker for photos like this (I took a million of them):

The baby was pretty suspicious about the whole thing, but she fell asleep after a while.

Boy House

Despite our new pinkish background and the presence of our baby girl, we are still firmly living in boy-land (especially now that I'm gone more).

 I love it when tummy time becomes a family event!

Also, firefighter and policeman disappeared a few days ago, so we can now introduce their replacements our new friends Firefighter, Fire Chief, Black Boots, and Yellow Boots.

Excitement?

Since the older one didn't let me take his picture today, I spent some time trying to get the little one to smile for the camera. Usually by the time I take her picture, her huge gummy grin looks like this:

But I got this photo today, too!

Christmas in January?

The little girl fits her brother's Christmas hand-me-downs... so it still looks like Christmas at our house. I don't think she minds.

Ho Ho Ho!

Daddy's got skills

My foray into stay-at-home parenting is going okay.  I only yell at the big one once or twice a day (his listening ears somehow aren't connected to his motor systems just yet).  We've only not gotten out of the house once so far and we even took a trip to the local library today for toddler time which included stories, songs, and dancing.  Today's theme was the first snow of winter.  Winter?  I think it is supposed to be 75 this weekend.  Plus these 3 and less year olds have probably never seen snow like my mountain boy.

Anyway, Goose just sat in my lap slack-jawed while 8 other moms and their kids sang and danced.  I was embarrassed.  Thankfully the baby just slept.

Oh, and we got there early thanks to some awesome multitasking by Dad.  Here's a photo of the feeding situation while I got the big one ready.  Physics is a wonderful thing.

I Finished!

I finally finished the little guy's baby quilt last week... and promptly gave it to the baby girl. She's been enjoying tummy time on it this week, and I've enjoyed curling up under it in the evenings while she's asleep. Yay!

Meanwhile, the little guy and his dad are working on some awesome cheerleading moves:

Back to Normal?

Normal might be a stretch, but now that we have groceries instead of eating out every meal, things are feeling a bit more settled. See?

Boys versus Girls

The little dude has started enumerating the things I can't do because I'm a girl (which are all ridiculous and tend to be whatever he is doing at the moment). Anyway, at dinner tonight we had a boys' side and a girls' side. He wanted me to take a picture of the boys' side (even though occasionally girls can't take pictures):

Please notice that the firefighter and the policeman got to sit with the little guy and his daddy. They each had (imaginary) mac-n-cheese and a milkshake for dinner, while the stinker ordered pizza, carrots, and apple slices.

We won the lottery!

Well, not really, but close.  We're down in North Carolina now and staying in a place for a few weeks until we can get settled.  We were looking for a place closer to town, but we had to settle for something a little farther out.  We were disappointed at first, but when we got here it turns out that there is a construction site right outside our back window, much like the one in a sweet little bedtime book; "Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site".  The little guy is in heaven!

Do you see dat dump truck, Daddy!?!

It is sad for me to leave West Virginia again.  I never thought I'd have the opportunity to be back in my home state so I am thankful for the time we had, though Morgantown isn't really anything like my home.  Yesterday we left those West Virginia hills for the land of sweet tea and vinegar barbecue.  Here's the family, save me, heading out yesterday afternoon.

Bye Mountain Momma!

Leaving...

You can take the girl out of West Virginia, but you can't take the West Virginia pacifier out of her mouth.

Cheese!

We had a lovely helper come watch the baby while we rearranged the contents of some boxes (yay moving!). Eric tried to get a nice picture of the baby and her great-grandmother, but apparently Beau thought he was the real star of the show.

Happy New Year!