My Day By the Numbers

Number of ...

• windows open to enjoy the gorgeous weather: all of them
• new outfits necessitated by accidents involving bodily fluids: 3
• catnaps JP took instead of taking a real morning nap: 3
• toys taken from their rightful place and strewn about the living room: 90% of all upstairs toys
• puzzles taken out of their boxes and mixed with pieces of other puzzles: 2
• times I read "Little Blue Truck": 5ish
• miller moths found (and destroyed) in my bedroom in the last 24 hours: 2
• hours all three boys napped simultaneously: 2.5
• times I got to go to the bathroom uninterrupted before Alex got home: 1
• books placed in the (ever-growing) "to be taped back together" pile: 1.5 (still need to find the other half of one of them...)
• diapers changed: ha! you think I can count that high?
• loads of laundry I did today: 0
• loads of clean laundry I meant to fold but didn't get around to: 1
• loads of dirty laundry I really really need to do tomorrow: 3
• times I paused to thank God for the crazy-but-beautiful life: more than usual :)

Liam's Growing Vocabulary

Liam is growing up so quickly. He'll be 19 months in a couple weeks, and this learning-to-talk stage is one of my absolute favorites (the teething, climbing, and defiance, not so much). I love all his words.

taut! = hot/anything he's not supposed to touch, which he often says gleefully as he reaches for whatever it it is 

wa-wa/ba-ba = water

nana = banana

cheee = cheese, macaroni and cheese

jooos = juice

honk = truck

vroom = car

tooo-toooo = train

Mama/Daddy = totally interchangeable for Alex and me

shoo! = shoes/any article of clothing

no/uh-uh = no

yeah = yes

tay = okay

hoh = help

doh = down

Liam, what does a puppy say? Ffff. Very good!

Liam, what does a cow say? Ffff. No, not a puppy, a cow. Tow. Yes, a cow! Can you say 'mooo'? Oooo.

Liam, what does a rooster say? Ffff. No, it says 'cock-a-doodle-doo!' Doo-doo!

He also says "llama," "stop," "clap," and makes a snoring noise thanks to his Llama Llama books.

He signs "more," "please," "all done," and (when prompted) "milk." His kisses have just recently become real, pucker-lipped smooches instead of head butts of varying intensity. He desperately wants to be able to jump, and his dancing involves lots of stomping and bouncing, and occasionally waving his arms. He is still ridiculously ticklish, which often makes changing diapers or getting dressed difficult. But no complaints on that score, because his giggle is one of my absolute favorite sounds in the whole wide world.

Boy Talk

his new favorite thing is to pick out his clothes all by himself--not bad for a first attempt

M: (talking about playing with Liam on the tire swing) "I will teach him how to hold on. And then I'll teach him to listen to me."

sometime around 1am
M: hysterical crying
Alex: What's wrong?
M: Where's my bear?
Alex: discovers the bear under the covers all the way at the foot of the bed He's right here. Do you want him?
M: Nooooo! He's going to tackle me again!
okay, no more Calvin & Hobbes before bed

"That's a beautiful truck!"
yep, he's a glass-half-full kind of guy

M: fidgeting frantically with a toy phone Mama, I'm playing with the phone!
Ash: ...Okay...
M: It's for playing with. I can't stop playing with it!
Ash: Sure you can.
M: I need help stopping playing with it!
maybe Mama needs to reevaluate her own phone usage, even with the excellent excuse of spending hours each day nursing...

"Do you want to take a picture of my hat?"
and another outfit with no input from me

Snow. Boo.

We have been thoroughly enjoying the excitement of watching our new yard come to life over the past several weeks. We knew we had some nice bushes in back, but we had no idea they were pretty much all flowering bushes. The scent of the air drifting through the open windows in the evenings has been simply heavenly.

So here are some shots from around the yard, as it looked heading into the weekend.

two weeks ago, before weeding, budding, and grotto-building

interim grotto

these smell absolutely amazing

I was thrilled to discover we have lilacs

and cherries!

the front flower bed coming alive with allium

And then here's my view of the yard today:

I was able to rescue the allium that had already started to bloom as the snow started yesterday

No bueno :( I keep trying to find comfort in the fact that the grass will be ridiculously green when all this snow melts... but I'm not sure the trees will recover as easily.

I also had a visit from these little guys this morning:

I was doing dishes when I heard something and saw some movement outside our back door. I was startled--Alex wasn't due to be home for another several hours, and no one else had any business on our back patio. But then I realized it was a bird trying to fly into the garage through the window of the closed door. He sat and shivered on the doorstep for a minute and I was momentarily tempted to let him in, but then I came to my senses and realized that Michael and Liam provide more than enough chaos without introducing actual wild animals into the mix. As far as I could tell, they were American tree sparrows (you can't tell in this picture, but they had white breasts and red heads). Not as impressive as some of the rest of the family's Big Year entries, but I don't think anyone else has reported a bird literally knocking on their door to be let in yet.

Come back, spring! We miss you!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 36): The #SOTG Edition!

--- 1 ---

This is a pretty good visual representation of my week:

tired, emotional, and in desperate need of a shower

But it wasn't all tears and listlessly staring off into space (for Liam or for me). There were plenty of these moments as well:

after all, even if life's blessings are messier than we would like, they are still blessings!
and that goes for food, kids, houses, whatever!

--- 2 ---

One of the highlights of my week was finally receiving my copy of Something Other than God on Tuesday. And I want you to know that I exercised extreme self-restraint and heroic generosity when the book arrived. As usual, Alex grabbed the mail before coming in the house after work, and even though I had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the book for several days and I saw the package in his hand and knew exactly what it was, I still managed to kiss him, ask how his day was, and wait for the answer, all without grabbing the book and running off to read the entire thing in one sitting. Be impressed, be very impressed.

--- 3 ---

One of the difficulties of my week has been trying to find enough time to read. I kind of feel like my precious new acquisition is being held hostage by adorable yet conniving pint-sized taskmasters: 

Despite their unreasonable demands--like dirty diapers and empty stomachs--a little creative multitasking has allowed me to almost finish the book: I can usually get through several pages while nursing JP and moving my foot around spastically to entertain Liam (yes, he chases it like a puppy chasing a ball and he thinks it is hilarious--epic mothering skills right here, people). 

--- 4 ---

I even attempted a new type of multitasking inspired by a passage from the book itself to meet my families needs and get my reading time in all at the same time (and to find out what was so inspiring you'll just have to read it yourself!) Considering how much I love reading, I'm kind of surprised that I never thought of it before.

Other than JP's rompers, the one-handed folding experiment was not particularly successful. But if I win the Epic Selfie Contest then I may switch to exclusively folding laundry one-handed. Besides, then I wouldn't worry so much about Liam trying to "help" with the piles of already folded laundry, because the difference wouldn't be as noticeable!

--- 5 ---

I'm looking forward to a little extra reading time over the weekend to finish the book. My weekend plans had initially included this project:

lots of flowers + whisky barrels = happy Mother's Day to me!

But then I discovered the forecast for Sunday includes a Winter Storm Watch, complete with an expected 4-9 inches of snow. Maybe the flowers will be happier in the garage for a couple days...

--- 6 ---

Rats... I still need to think of two more takes before I can use up the rest of the boys' nap time reading! Or maybe I should clean the kitchen before Alex gets home... that would probably be a nice, wifely thing to do as a reminder that yes, I really do love him more than reading books and eating chocolate. Even more than reading books while eating chocolate. Yeah, he's lucky and he knows it.

--- 7 ---

Whoops, Alex is home!

So, completely unrelated, but if I wait to give it its own post it'll be another three weeks (at least) before I get around to it. We had great fun celebrating the canonizations of Saints John XXIII and John Paul II, complete with dressing our little JP up for the event and making pope cake for dessert.

I was very pleased; apparently so was everyone else, because there were no leftovers

Batman meme courtesy of CatholicMemes
Batman onesie--complete with cape--courtesy of godparents Uncle Matt & Aunt Jamie

Aaaand nap time is over for 2 out of the 3, and they are making those unreasonable demands for food and water and stuff again.

Check out Jen and the rest for more Quick Takes, and get your copy of her book ASAP