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...