Off the Shelf: Michael's Favorites

Michael loves books, and I'm trying hard not to take it for granted.  I know that just because Alex and I both love to read there's no guarantee that our children will as well.  But Michael certainly does.  He loves to look at books himself, and he loves for anyone and everyone to read books to him.

When we can tear him away from his Thomas & Friends books (or hide them, I'll admit), these are his current favorites (and his pronunciation of the titles are my current favorites).

Tat, White Shoes  "Pete the Cat: I love my white shoes"
'Struction Site  "Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site"  (What? There is a matching game too?!  Don't tell Michael...)
CBs "Dr. Seuss' ABC"
Tidden Yiddle "Chicken Little"
Mutney, Lellow Hat  "Curious George"

I absolutely love when he asks for books by name (especially when it is anything other than Percy Tochlate Trunch "Percy's Chocolate Crunch").  And I love that he is starting to read along with me.  He does particularly well with Dr. Seuss' ABC (and you should hear him say "fiffer-feffer-feff," it's pretty impressive) and he announces the colors and says "Goodness no!" at all the right points for Pete the Cat (I'm in love--I think Pete the Cat has replaced Mo Willem's Pigeon as my favorite children's book character... maybe).

We're always looking for new books to fall in love with--what do you suggest?

"Cheese!"  (Yes, it's an old video game controller)
Because my camera is being dumb and I don't have a "stock photo" of
M reading that I haven't already posted.

Waiting...

Well, I'm finally doing it.  The boys are both napping, I can't remember anything more important that I'm supposed to be doing (for the moment... it'll come to me as soon as one of them wakes up... shhh, no, not laundry).  I have time to blog in peace and not at bedtime, and all I can think about it our house hunt.  So here's the saga (so far).

The waiting is the hardest part

Every day you see one more card

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

The waiting is the hardest part

I don't know what it is, but I love Tom Petty (as long as I don't look too closely at the lyrics).  And while I'm pretty sure he wasn't pining away to own his own home, this chorus has been my theme song for the last year.

Year?  Yep, this week marks an entire year since we moved in with Alex's parents.  It was only supposed to be for a couple months... just long enough to finish saving up a down payment and find the right house... we were going to be happily and comfortably settled in said house long before the baby we had just found out we were expecting was born...

7 Quick Takes (vol. 25)

--- 1 ---

I'm back--after an unplanned, unexplained, and unproductive hiatus.  I didn't mean to go two weeks without blogging, but seeing as how the only person who complained was my mom, I think I'm probably forgiven.  I just got so caught up in house stuff.  We put another offer in on another house, and were outbid for it.  *sigh*  My expectations of planting my own garden this spring are slipping back into the realm of "hope/dream"... hopefully they don't regress further.

I keep thinking I should write more about this whole process, the ups and downs, what I've learned/am learning/am probably supposed to learn but am too stubborn to figure out, etc.  But it's so all consuming!  Either I'm thinking about it and too stressed to blog, or I'm sick of thinking about it and don't want to dwell on it further in order to blog.

--- 2 ---

So.  On to not-house takes.  The boys and I had a playdate on Wednesday with a friend and her two beautiful daughters (no matchmaking, I promise, even if the first is only a week and a half younger than Michael, and the second is only 3 months younger than Liam).

As you may or may not know, I am a super introvert and this friend also happens to be a coworker from one of my jobs and my boss's wife from the other job.  So very first playdate with her and her kids = kind of a big deal.  It was a huge success, and I really do love watching toddlers play together.  It was also great to get to commiserate brainstorm with another mom of two little ones who also works from home.

--- 3 ---

Our playdate was a lot of fun.  And helpful (movie line, kind of).  Michael now knows more Italian than I do (which isn't saying much. at all).  We were introduced to Little Pim, and now I desperately want the Spanish set (I guess I could start with just one) to get Michael started on a second language (and let's be honest--to refresh my very, very, very forgotten Spanish).

Any and all donations for the education of my children are most welcome...

--- 4 ---

Speaking of my children, Michael's newest thing is saying "Yes sir!" without being prompted.  In fact, I don't think we've ever prompted him to do this.  My best guess is that it grew out of his recently discovered love for "Baa Baa Black Sheep"... maybe?

--- 5 ---

Liam's newest thing is trying to suck his fingers and nurse simultaneously.  All. The. Time.  Needless to say, it does not work particularly well.  He thinks it's hilarious.

--- 6 ---

One of my students opened class yesterday with a prayer for parents which started out with "O Lord, omnipotent Father, we give you thanks for having given us children.  They are our joy, and we accept with serenity the worries, fears and labors which bring us pain."  I almost stopped him right in the middle of it--accept with serenity?!  No!  I keep praying that those things go away!  Maybe I'm doing it wrong...

--- 7 ---

To make amends to my mom (and anyone else who missed pictures of the boys these last two weeks), I leave with you the many faces of Michael:

Initial response when I asked him
to smile for the camera

After significant cajoling

Go see Jen for more quick takes!  Happy Friday :)

Theme Thursday: Mud

Thursdays.  *sigh*  I suppose any day of the week that I knew I needed to take a picture (but never managed to take it ahead of time) would seem like an inordinately busy day.  But seriously, Thursdays are ridiculous.

This week's theme is mud.  And this is Colorado.  Insanely dry Colorado.  Which means we have lots of, well, dehydrated mud (technically different than dirt, I'm sure).  It actually did rain for about ten minutes today, but as the driveway was nearly completely dry within minutes of the rain stopping, I didn't bother to abandon the children and rush outside to try to find a patch of still-hydrated mud.  Pretty sure the ground soaked up every last drop of moisture and still looked like baked clay.

So instead of just taking a picture of dirt dehydrated mud, I'm cheating this week and pulling up an old picture to post (because I still want to be included... I missed last week and was very sad about it... once I remembered that I'd missed it).  And in honor of St. Patrick's feast day on Sunday, I present to you:

Irish Mud

The picture is even from a beach near Downpatrick, where the grave of St. Patrick is located.  I took this almost five years ago (oh my, has it really been that long?!) when I was in Ireland with some friends.  We figured it was June, we were on an island, and we should go to the beach.  Well, the island was Ireland and the beach was what you see above.  Technically a beach, but not really what we'd had in mind.  No idea the camera, settings, or what I did to it (except that it was probably in Picasa).

Next time I'll try not to cheat... I promise...

Go check out Cari and the other non-cheaters!

Theme Thursday: Piles

It was a busy day.  Crazy busy.

I remember sometime around 9:15pm that I hadn't taken my Theme Thursday picture yet.  The only piles I could think of to photograph were the piles of laundry (at least it's mostly clean).  Laundry folded and waiting to be put away... laundry waiting to be folded... laundry waiting to be laundered.  Blech.  Depressing, and kind of ridiculous that I have such piles of laundry (or at least slightly ridiculous how long each pile has been in its respective place without action).

Then Alex and I sat down to our nightly game of Settlers and I had a moment of inspiration.

Piles of cards > piles of laundry.  Even if Alex did beat me.  For the third time out of the last four games.

This was fun--it gave me another chance to practice playing with the aperture.  And how convenient--multiple red elements.

Check out Clan Donaldson for more piles!  It is so past my bedtime...

Dance party!

Michael loves music.  One of his latest habits is to walk around holding both ends of a drawstring from a sweatshirt up to his ears and tell us he's listening to m'ic.

He also, to my unending delight, loves to dance to music.  All kinds of music.  Especially TV show theme songs (NCIS, Eureka, and Numb3rs being his favorites).  Unfortunately his lazy parents have been thoroughly remiss in capturing said TV theme song dancing on video.

Instead, I present to you Michael's David Crowder Band dancing.  It is much more involved than his TV theme song dancing (which usually only involves arms), but oddly enough he still failed to nap that day... grrr...

So there you have it.  The impressive dancing skills of Mr. Michael Crane.  He also likes just about anything with drums and brass (I think we're going to be in trouble when it comes time for him to pick an instrument) and he's a pretty big Newsboys fan.  But just the real (old) Newsboys, none of this dcBoys nonsense.  (And if you have any idea what I'm talking about, you can join my "I grew up on 90s CCM" club).

Four months... really?!

I can't believe that this boy turned four months old yesterday.  Already!  We thank God for the blessing of a happy, healthy baby.  I just wish he would sleep a little bit more (or a lot, that would be fine too).

New favorites include grabbing at anything and slowly drawing it toward his mouth.  And drool.  Lots of drools. When we video chatted last night my mom noticed the abundant gnawing and drooling and asked if he's teething.

I certainly hope not...

Note the big blue eyes... and the drool.

The bouncer is another recent favorite.  I can't believe he's big enough for the bouncer already.

Happy four month birthday, Liam!!!

Sweet dreams

This is my favorite.  Ever.  I will never, ever, ever, EVER get tired of seeing my boys asleep.  Not even when they are teenagers and I can't get them to get out of bed at noon no matter how hard I try or what I bribe them with.  (Okay, maybe then.  But probably not.)

I'm kind of obsessed with sleep.  Is that a normal parent thing?  Probably...  I remember in college when I would voluntarily only get four hours of sleep a night, sometimes for several nights in a row.  I mean, I had to hang out with friends and then when I got home at midnight there was still that geography exam the next same day for which I hadn't studied at all yet (until I figured out that Geography 101 or whatever it was was actually the easiest class ever and required approximately zero studying).  Bedtime at 2am, followed by class at 8?  No problem.  Stay up all night to write a 15 page paper?  That's why they invented coffee!  But no one tells you that your dependence on the wonders of caffeine will just mock you when you have an infant, because that darling little breastfeeding baby will suck out all of your caffeine and will never ever sleep!  At least mine seem to do that...

Oh, what I wouldn't give to go back and sleep when I had a chance.  I think I'll be tired forever.  But you know, it's one thing for me to realize that on my own, and it's a whole other thing for more experienced parents to hear me mention being tired and inform me that it won't change for a very, very long time.

I am thankful that Liam sleeps much better than Michael did.  But even so, he still only catnaps during the day.  And ever since his mega-cold (which I am thankful was no worse than it was!) he doesn't sleep for more than a couple hours at a time at night.  I've given up checking the clock in order to calculate how long he's slept and how many times he's woken up.  I just check in order to try and hold out against bringing him to bed with us until after 5.  That's failed at least twice in the past week...  And Michael still wakes up during the night at least a couple times a week.  I honestly doubt if I'll ever sleep through the night again.

So, Ashley, is there a point to this?  No, not really.  Just a couple of cute pictures of my boys fast asleep, and a bit of lamenting that they don't do it more often/consistently/together.

According to Alex

Obviously not terribly recent,
as it is obviously not winter.
Lest his reputation suffer--I think he
was just holding my drink for me, not
actually drinking something girly, blue
and fruit flavored.

Upon complaining about how very sore and exhausted I was from my workout and informing him that I was going to go hop in the shower: "I highly doubt you'll be doing much hopping."

His mocking response to me informing him that I couldn't relax because I didn't trust him not to tickle me: "Oh no, I'm looking at you with tickling eyes!"

Alex: "Are you sure?"  Me: "Yes."  Alex: "Positive?"  Me: "Yes."  Alex: "Encouraging? ... What?  Those two just seem to go together."

While walking through a house and discovering the sprinkler controls in plain sight in a basement bedroom painted neon green with bright pink flowers, "Of course.  If I were a little girl this is exactly what I would want in my bedroom.

Story Time (part 2)

Michael "reading" Percy's Chocolate Crunch to Liam.  It's kind of our favorite.  As in, read it multiple times every day favorite.

7 Quick Takes (vol. 24)

--- 1 ---

Even though we had time to prepare, I'm finding this whole Sede Vacante thing thoroughly surreal.  To help focus on praying for the conclave, we've each adopted a cardinal and committed to praying for him through the end of the conclave.  Okay, Alex and I committed... I committed for the boys.  But M is very good at repeating short prayers one word at a time, so Cardinal Dolan can be assured of the prayers of one very enthusiastic two-year-old.

Our cardinals:
Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston
Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York
Cardinal Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid
Cardinal Monterisi, Archpriest Emeritus of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (Rome)

If you haven't already, go adopt your cardinal today!  Also, Jimmy Akin has a great post about the Cardinals' choice of Pope being God's choice (or not).

--- 2 ---

Are you ready for something really exciting?  Alex is (mostly) done with his thesis.  This. Is. Amazing.  I mean, it's nice for him and all, but mostly I'm relieved and thrilled for my own sake.  I have a tendency to stress vicariously over academic-type things, and I'm sure my "it's halfway through the semester and I've missed four classes when the absolute limit was three and now I'll never graduate" dream earlier this week was due to Alex's thesis deadline.  Almost three years since I finished my masters, and I'm stilling having those dreams on a regular basis...

--- 3 ---

In the same dream I also inexplicably found myself in a parking lot lacking certain important articles of clothing (as in, most of them).  I immediately got back in the car, but everyone else was talking about it behind my back for the rest of the dream.  And then I dreamt that Michael was running unrestrained through the parking lot and almost got run over twice, and I couldn't move fast enough to get to him.

My three least favorite dreams, all in one night?  So not fair.

--- 4 ---

On a more positive note I've been winning lots of things lately.  I won a gift certificate to Aquinas & More from the wonderful (and generous!) Dwija (and quite a lot of their inventory is on sale--go take a look!); I won a Mary Kay facial and gift certificate at the CO Garden & Home show two weeks ago; I won a book from CatholicMom.com (and you can too).  Alex was so impressed with my lucky streak that he made me enter in a raffle to win a Glock from our local gun owners association.  I have no expectations of winning that one...

But I do have very high hopes that my luck will hold out and I'll win Ana's Cabin Fever Creativity Link-Up.  She's extended the deadline, so you still have a couple days to join in if you haven't already.  You should totally link up, even though you already know I'm going to win.

--- 5 ---

I also won myself a couple hours out of the house this afternoon.  I "won" this prize by whining to Alex after M wouldn't nap (for the second day in a row) and both he and L were being Needy McNeedyPants at the same time (all I wanted to do was have a few minutes in the bathroom all by myself) and the non-existent nap time was over and I had accomplished about 7% of what I had intended to accomplish during that precious time and Alex still wasn't going to be home for another hour and a half... you get the picture (right? because I could go on...)  It's a good thing they're both so sweet... most of the time...

Anyway, when Alex got home he very generously kicked me out of the house and sent me up the street to Dazbog for a (very decaf) vanilla latte and a whole hour and a half of uninterrupted work (/blogging).  Bliss.

--- 6 ---

Well, mostly uninterrupted.  The baristas (who look waaaay too young to have jobs) are blaring Neon Trees and Silversun Pickups.  I only know this because I was curious and asked Google about the lyrics (as if my time here wasn't short enough without wasting it on frivolous internet searches).  It sounds like stuff I would have liked during my poser-phase in college (ooh, more potential procrastination... I should blog about that sometime...).  In other words, I wish I had thought to bring my iPod.

--- 7 ---

I had my first Shutterfly experience this week.  I had a coupon for a free photo book that expired yesterday. I figured, what the heck, I'll just quickly put together a bunch of pictures of family, especially my parents and sister and brother-in-law, and mine and Alex's grandparents, so the boys will have a picture book of distant family to look at and practice saying names.  Well.  I don't suppose it would have been good marketing, but it would have been more accurate to call the website "Enough Options to Drive you CRAZY."  I was the kid who took the idea of collages to an absolute extreme of inclusivity in elementary school.  Needless to say, it was a good thing I did this at the last minute--I had to make decisions and get it done.  If I had started early enough to explore all the options and agonize over the hundreds thousands of necessary decisions I would have no sanity left, instead of just the minimum to appear functional.  And it's a good thing it was free, because when it comes and I realize the other dozen or so pictures I should have included, I won't need to kick myself (hard).

Go see Jen for more quick takes!  Happy Friday :)