hands

My aunt gave us a gingerbread kit, so I squished a ton of icing all over that thing and the boys decorated "the fool out of it" as we're fond of saying in my family. Eve was sleeping peacefully, which gave me a chance to click away to my heart's content.

Everyone looks at my littles and declares that Eve favors Micah in her looks. What they don't realize, unless they stroll through our photo albums, is that all my babes looked exactly alike (save for Eve's dark hair). People just look at the three of them, and they assume that my Eve looks like my Micah, because he still has that baby-ness about his features.

But as I watched them build and decorate that little house, I saw something.

Micah is leaving, forever, that chubby-fingered, round-face stage. He's shooting upward, stretching all that sweet baby fat into the features of little boy-dom. His face, at times, looks more and more grown up. And his hands? They are still chubby, baby hands, but they change, ever-so-slightly, every day, and when I look at the pictures I'm forced to realize that his hands are looking more and more like his brother's, like a boy's hands...

Funny to think that someday those hands will be big enough to clasp around my own wizened hands.

...makes me wonder what Mary must have thought when she held Jesus-the-toddler's little hand. The chubby little baby hand of God Himself.

Brighter Afternoon

Rough morning. Just one of those days. So I had a little, ahem, chat with L. When I went to get him and his brother up from rest time I was feeling better already, but this really sealed the deal. L jumped out and cried, "Supwise Mommy! I kweened my room - all by myself!" And it is very clean indeed. It really was very thoughtful, as just yesterday I was saying we needed to clean his room up.
So my afternoon, just like the skies above, was much brighter than my morning. M was pretending the cooler was a horse, so I pulled out the old wooden one, which brought out the cowboy in both of them. Big brother actually got him into that get-up, and while it didn't last long, it was really cute, and some excellent sharing too!

Well, I'm going to get to work on one of my maps for the shop, as all three have now sold out - have a great weekend everyone!

Oops!

Oops! I realized the other week that I totally and completely forgot to send something fun to my girlfriend back home when she had her baby. I think this occured to me when I was posting a picture of the little pirate lass from our last trip to Ft. Pierce. She and her mother and sisters made a big deal over my first pregnancy, so I couldn't let this go! I doubt very highly that she reads this blog, so I thought I'd show off what I've been up to lately!
I made her little girl a couple of bubble suit jumper thing-a-ma-jigs, and a bonnet. I'm going to use the extra fabric to make a couple of these and put them in my shop too...
They seem like just the right thing for summer (or really most of the year where this kid lives), so hopefully they'll fit okay, and she won't mind the ribbons! The pattern I used for the first one was okay, but I felt like it left a good bit of room for improvement, so I altered a few things for the second one, and was really happy with it (not only was my way a bit neater, it was also easier - go figure)!

A Small Discovery

First, some fun stuff. Here's the ship L built. Very proud of this ship, he was!

And here's M wearing my shoes. He walked around repeating, "Mama shoos! Waak, waak, waak..." over and over!And here's my small discovery. Yesterday we went to REI for fun. That's a great store to take kids to. The staff are usually very friendly, and the boys loved getting in the store tents and checking the traction of their shoes on the rock pile (it's made for that). But most of all they love going through all the camp gear gadgets (I love it too). Even M put everything back where he found it! I would love to have been there when the staff went to clean up the mess that they'd expect two small boys to leave and found it left better than most adults! They both were drawn to the small greenish camp cups, and being a dollar I let them each have one.

The cups are perfect! Just the right size for small ones, durable, don't spill easily, perfect for snacking from, stackable, and have a little handle! What a great thing for the boys! Silly, I know, but when you've experienced the frustration of tipping kiddie cups, or giant-portion sized kiddie cups, you'll know what I mean!

It's the little things that make life grand! And in case you're wondering, M did not spill that cup of milk!

So happy together...

Man, we have been having fun! These pics are all from the Nana Cam! M freaked out when Nana let L use it to take a couple of pictures. Man, was he mad!

He got to sit on her lap and take a picture. Of himself. Isn't that hysterical?

And this is us having some fun with sword practice! M likes to hold out his sword and yell "Aaaagghhh..." as he charges.

Two against one.

Getting ready to go see the fish at Bass Pro Shop. They have a massive tank, and it's a real fun trip, because the mall also has a Medieval Times, so we get to check out the castle too!

Moose alert! Bass Pro is always full of strollers. That's what happens when your store is decorated with life-size bears, moose, raccoons, fish, airplanes and mannequin men running over rickety bridges.

Bubble Dance

And here's a bit of the fun we had Thursday evening...

I taped some bubble wrap to the floor and the boys danced away! It lasted longer than I thought it would!

Waiting for Mama...

Mama's in the shower, so I'll just wait right here...

Oh... are you going to take my picture?

I'm ready....


I can be like Chewie...

"MAMA!"

Happy baby, happy Mama!

And for sharing... here are my favorite activitiy books!

And here I am, filling extra socks with rice, to heat and put in my pockets. I need to take the boys outside, and maybe this will help?

Let's Go Fishing!

L and his friends...

And here's L de-nuding the couch. It is now a ship. M loves it, because he can get up without any help!

Going fishing on our ship! I tied a string and clothespin to the end of these soft poles! L was so excited, and loves putting "fish" on and off. Wheel-fish, flying wheel-fish, bird-fish, dog-fish, you name it, we caught it!

Our First Freezer Paper Artwork

Nana also brought some fabric paint and canvas bags for some fun crafting time. We got some freezer paper and tried SouleMama's approach, which I read about in The Creative Family. It was awesome! The kids can actually do their own painting, and it comes out looking really great (which is a plus if you're investing in fabric paint and canvas bags)! I cut their patterns while they took their rests, ironed them onto the bags, and then taped the whole thing down to the table. Here I am working on mine (a little one-floor school house, which L declared, "That's our house!")...

When the boys got up they were eager to get to painting! M used a variety of colors, and needed a bit of help!

Here's L carefully removing the paint from his hands. He is always so cautious when we first start a messy project. After that he chose to paint with blue, blue, and blue (no surprise there!)!



We put them somewhere safe to dry, and then chilled out for the night!

Here we are the next morning checking out M's dry project.

We peeled off the freezer paper together....

And this is what we got! It turned out so great!

Here we are with L's bag...

I'd say he's proud of himself, what do you think?

And here's our finished bags, all lined up. We are going to use them for library books and road-trips! Thanks for the materials Nana!

Toddler Fun - Crayon Jar

M spent 15 or 20 minutes playing with the crayon jar this morning. Back when L was a toddler, we made this for him to keep his crayons in. It's rediculously simple, and it turns cleaning up crayons into fun, plus the jar is way more durable than a crayon box!

Directions: Take one empty peanut butter jar. Drill hole in lid.
That's it! Hand over jar to toddler and show him how to drop a crayon into the hole!