Six, a cupcake, and some words

It's official: This has been the fastest six months of my entire life. 

This time thing, it's an epidemic.  It just keeps moving forward before I can grab at any little pieces. 

Do you see this adorable little blue-eyed chub?  He is six months old.  How did that happen?! 

And, in typical fashion, as per the tradition started 2.5 years ago when a certain little miss got her first taste of solid foods in cupcake form, we had to celebrate. 

 

One of these items may or may not have been re-gifted.  And I may or may not have forgotten just how obnoxious this particular toy is...

 

I'm slightly obsessed with taking pictures of his hands.  I think it might be because of the way it looks like there is a rubber band around his wrists.  Don't worry, he's just that rollie pollie. 

 

At first, it was more about the squish factor.

 

 

Before too long, though, he got the hang of it.  

 

 

Logan has mastered the signs for both "hungry" and "more."  To be fair, it's because those are the only ones I've taught him, although they do come in extremely handy.  And this guy?  He's not afraid to use them when a cupcake is at stake.  A child after my own heart.

 

Happy half birthday to my beautiful little peanut.  I wish you'd slow down just a bit!

A little friend for life: An anatomical love story

Pop culture would have us believe that great chasm exists between boys and girls.

At the ripe old age of almost 6 months, that gap seems not so much chasm-like, but more like the fence that divides two yards: although it runs through two different households, the grass is still grass on both sides. 

Logan's babyhood has been remarkably similar to his sister's.

Except for one thing, and it involves... well, his thing. 

Leah went through a very brief phase of exploration which was unquestionably linked to the fact that we were naming all of her anatomy.  Elbow, shoulder, ears, fingers, knees.  For a week or two, when I would change her diaper, she would look at me curiously as if to say, "we haven't talked about this one yet."  It was an indictment, really; just shy of an accusation. 

My sweet baby boy, on the other hand, has reached this phase all on his own, and it is in no way due to the fact that we've been naming body parts.

In fact, I worried last week that he'd given himself pink eye due to that curiosity.  I can't keep those little fingers out of there during diaper changes!

Part of me wants to yell: stop that!  If you play with it, it will turn green and fall off!  (I hear that's a good deterrant, no?)

The other part of me just chalks it up to boys being boys. 

Because this kid of mine?  He grins like he's won some kind of prize and looks as pleased with himself as if he's just ushered in world peace every time he reaches down and finds that his little diaper buddy is still, in fact, there.

Good grief.   Boys.

P(r)esto!

If you've seen me - especially since having my second - you know that I'm no stranger to food.  Although I'm trying (for whatever that's worth) to diet, it's more the kind where I try to only have two servings rather than three.  Score one for self-restraint.

But I digress.

My husband - the man who weighed the same from the time he turned 15 until last year - is in love with tortellini and pesto.  In his long-ago single days, it was one of the three meals he survived on in rotation (the other two being quesadillas and out-of-the-box instant mashed potatoes.  Yes, I also resent that he doesn't weigh 300 pounds). 

Luckily, with whole-wheat tortellini, this isn't a bad diet food.  Particularly if you can limit yourself to one serving instead of two... but good luck with that.

 

Pesto Sauce (enough for 16 oz tortellini):

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 bunches fresh basil

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup parmesean cheese

Juice from 1/2 to 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

In food processor - puree garlic, basil and pine nuts to coarse chop.  Mix in parmesean cheese.  Slowly add olive oil until well blended.  Add lemon, salt and pepper to taste.

The best part about this recipe is that you really can't go wrong.  It's super fast, easy and there is no such thing as a mistake. 

And also, it's one of the few recipes that guarantees Casey is going to eat more than I do. 

Snow days are better during the week.

Colorado has had one of the hottest, driest years on record, and the winter season hasn't helped much.

I've worked in my district for four years now, and each and every one of them has included two snow days - one in the fall, and another in the winter/spring thanks to the fact that 85% of our kids are bussed in. 

So far this year, we haven't even had one.  Which was all fine and dandy, since I was on maternity leave until December.  But since returning, I wouldn't turn my nose up at a snow day. 

Well... I got my wish.

And it was put to excellent use, including Logan's first forray into the snow.  (For the record, it lasted about three minutes. I don't need to tell you which of these photos is the before and which is the after.)

So, hooray for 2013's first snow day, even though I think it's fair to say that teachers everywhere would have preferred this fall on a weekday.

Sidenote:  How much do you want to pinch those chubby cheeks?  You should see his knees.  They're to die!

The one wherein I need a SAD lamp

So it's been a while.

Like, most of the month of February since I wrote.  Which is really a shame, because I really really like to write. 

I thought about writing about our Valentines Day and how adorable it was.  There was a pink table, complete with confetti, pint-sized little mailboxes, books and chocolates to celebrate. 

But, when the pictures from the day mysteriously wound up deleted from my camera, I lost all my motivation. 

All I have as evidence that Valentines day did not, in fact, go completely unmarked in our house?

Okay, they were completely delicious.  And soooo not on my diet.

Have I mentioned that I greatly dislike February? 

It's true.  Every year, I find that I could skip this month completely.  I'm ready for spring.  March means it's just a hop, skip and a trimester's worth of weeks to summer break, and that is always okay in my book.

This February has consisted of: making lots of baby food; liking my students more every day, but still wanting to cry every Sunday night; watching Downton Abbey - which I do not recommend to pregnant women or new moms, even though I love it; trying to work out and watch what I eat (HAH!); Casey actually being home all month; lots of wall painting; practicing that discipline thing we were going to do for our new year's resolution.

It's been a good month. But even so...

There are cute, summer-y clothes in all the stores.  I bought Leah and Logan swimsuits.  The Easter bunny is preparing to hippity hop on over to our house.  The planning is in full swing for Leah's third birthday.  Days are getting longer again.

C'mon, spring!

A super superbowl

 

 

Love languages