Emma didn't have a nap yesterday, so both kids were asleep by 9:00 last night! With all that kid-free time, I was able to get a couple things done for some swaps I have coming up. I completed six napkins, and a crayon roll for a little boy who likes Cars. I guess I've been feeling pretty swappy lately, because I signed up for a whole slew of swaps to be completed by the middle of September. I might possibly have overdone it.

This week hasn't been a very good one for Emma and me. I don't really think she's been any different, but for some reason I've had no patience with her. Poor kid. I feel like I'm apologizing all day long for snapping at her. However, I have decided that Steve and I have made a mistake with her, and I hope it's not too late to rectify it. Since she was a baby, whenever she got hurt, we'd always make a big deal out of it. I remember seeing other kids fall down or bump into things at playgroups and being amazed that their mamas didn't immediately pick them up and soothe them. Fast forward to now. Emma is a huge drama queen. If the teensiest little thing happens to her, she cries and cries and won't let it go. It's starting to wear on me, and now when she starts to cry, I just want to say, "Would you just get over it already?!?"

***Okay, she woke up from her nap while I was typing that last paragraph, and she really is such a little sweetheart, and I feel like a terrible shrew of a mother for thinking that stuff about her. So I guess I'll work on gently trying to toughen her up a bit, but mostly I probably need to work on my own patience.

Here are a couple pictures of my wonderful sweet boy, just because I haven't posted any of him in awhile.

We went to my cousin's house for dinner tonight and had to bring a dessert. I ran across a recipe for S'mores Cupcakes, and thought they looked fabulous so I decided to bring those.














First of all, it was much too hot in my house today for these to work out and really look good. As soon as I piped on the marshmallow stuff, it all melted into a somewhat goopy mess. The chocolate was also mushy and had to be put in the freezer before we could use it. Not only that, I apparently cooked the cupcakes too long because they were pretty dry. Darn it. Here are my own much less fabulous looking cupcakes.














Today wasn't a total cupcake failure, though, because I finished knitting these cupcakes for Emma and I think they are pretty cute.














And, eeeeeeee! More fabric!

Today is Emma's half birthday. The most exciting thing about that, for her, is that now she will get three and a half chocolate chips instead of only three whenever we have a little chocolate chip treat. Attempting to cut a chocolate chip in half sounds like a little too much work, so we may just round up to four from now on. For the little celebration, we made Molten Chocolate Cakes with Sugar Coated Raspberries, except I didn't have any raspberries so we had it with vanilla ice cream instead. It was good. Really, really good.

I'm sort of in the middle of a fabric-obsessed binge. Joann's fabric has always been sufficient for me, but lately I can't stop drooling over the designer fabric online. And the Japanese fabric - I am absolutely enthralled with Japanese fabric. All this fabric is considerably more expensive than fabric at Joann's but finally I couldn't control myself any longer and I bought some. Some of it arrived yesterday and I can't stop looking at it's soft beautiful goodness. I want to make so many things with it, but I don't know how I will be able to force myself to cut into it.

When I'm doing laundry, Emma really likes to clean the lint filter or "scrape the fuzz". Unbeknownst to me, she had been saving a bunch of the "fuzz" in a pile next to the dryer instead of throwing it away. Tonight she presented it all to me as a special present. Woo-hoo. Nothing says "I love you" like a pile of lint. Ever since she brought it upstairs, she's been cooking with it. Here she is, proudly displaying her "fuzz-sticks" and "fuzz-balls".

Last week we get a book from the library about a little girl who learns to do origami, and in the back of the book there are instructions for folding a butterfly. Steve read the book to Emma, then attempted to fold the butterfly. After he did it, he declared himself an "origamist" and went to Michael's to buy an origami book and paper. He's been folding all weekend, and we now have a zoo of animals inhabiting our house.

I wasn't going to talk about Scrabble here anymore because I think it's probably boring, but you're just going to have to bear with me. This morning I was gloating about winning three of the last five games, and Steve pointed out that he's probably won 97 out of the last 100. Sadly, that is pretty close to being true. However, I won again tonight! I think I must have had some sort of Scrabble enlightenment or something because I am unstoppable!

I sewed this skirt for Emma from this tutorial. She is a sucker for "spinney" things, so of course she loves it. She also picked out the fabric herself, which is always a big selling point with her. She is already asking for a matching shirt, so I'll have to see if I can come up with something.

Three days ago I decided to stop drinking iced coffee. I do love it so, but I'm worried about Noah getting caffeine every day. Since I stopped, every day when 4:00 rolls I feel like I am ready to collapse from exhaustion. That probably means I need to start going to bed earlier, so even though now would be a great time for me to go downstairs and work on a shirt for Emma, I'm going to go to bed. Blah.

I sewed this hamburger for Emma, although she seems to have lost the bottom bun already because I couldn't find it when I took this picture. She is all about play food these days which is probably due to a combination of her excitement about her new play food and her obsession with the Food Network. I can hardly sit down anywhere without her shoving a book/"menu" at me and trying to take my order. She used to just throw all her stuff in a pot and make "soup", but now her cooking has gotten a lot more sophisticated. It's cute to listen to her cook because she'll mumble to herself while she works. "I'll add some coriander...now some carrot zest...a little cumin to give it a smoky flavor..."

Tonight I was walking in the basement when something on the floor caught my eye. I looked again. Could that be - no, it couldn't be. But, yes, it was. A big, nasty, old slug making his way across our basement floor! Blech! What this means is that I can never take another step in my basement without worrying about the possibility that I might be about to step on a slug. And, if he managed to find his way in somehow, what is to stop the snakes from doing so as well? *shudder*

Awhile after the slug incident, Emma and I were hanging out in the basement, sewing and playing. Out of nowhere, she said, "Mommy? I'm so sorry that I drew polka dots all over the couch." We hadn't been upstairs in awhile, so I'm sure she'd been stewing about that the whole time. We went up and looked at the couch, and sure enough, many, many spots decorated it's cushion (or at least the sheet that, thankfully, covers it). I asked her why she did it and she shook her head sadly and said, "I don't know why I did such a terrible thing. I'm so disappointed in myself." I told her she can't use pens or markers by the couch anymore, but really, how can I be mad at someone who is so adorably remorseful? Of course, it also helps that she didn't draw on the actual couch.

We had Mexican Polenta for dinner tonight - another great recipe from Vegetarian Times. Although not so vegetarian for us, because I added ground beef. There is no picture for dinner last night because, uh, we went out. One night out of four isn't bad!

I am feeling pretty annoyed with the state of Missouri today. For anyone who doesn't know, Missouri is the only state in the country where being a midwife, or "practicing medicine without a license" is illegal. Midwives who attend homebirths here are actually felons, which is an outrage. I don't know what is wrong with these people, and why they think the government has the right to tell a woman how she has to give birth. I find it ironic that the main opposer of legalizing midwifery, Chuck Graham, is very vocally pro-choice. I can't imagine why it's okay for a woman to choose to end someone's life (which I absolutely do not support) but not okay for her to choose where she wants to give birth. He also said that today is a victory for those who value the health and well-being of women giving birth and their newborn children. Not only is he a hypocrite, he's also completely ignorant. Women choose midwives because they value their own health and that of their children! One would only have to do a few minutes of research on the safety of homebirth to know what a joke his statement is. Arrrrgh!

Oh, and one more thing...I won another game of Scrabble tonight! Two in a row, baby!

I finished Emma's quilt! I think it turned out pretty well for my first quilt ever. It's kind of a random size, and I think when I do Noah's I will try to make his to fit a twin bed so we can use it on the bunk beds, should we ever actually get those up. I used a wool/cotton blend batting so it will be warm, and she was already using it today, even though it's like 100 sweltering degrees outside and not exactly quilt weather. The pattern is from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing, my current favorite book, although mine is larger than the book suggests. It was so easy, and fun. I can't wait to start on Noah's!



















Dinner was stir-fry with brown rice. Mmmmmm.

Yesterday we went to a World Breastfeeding Week celebration to benefit La Leche League, and I came away with some good loot from the silent auction. My favorite was this play food that was made by my friend Allison. I'm trying to phase out all our plastic play food, and after seeing this cute stuff I am inspired to start making some myself.

Today I was thinking about how Steve, Emma, Noah, and I seem to have settled into a comfortable four-person-family groove. I didn't realize it so much then, but for a while after Noah was born, our relationships were struggling a little bit. I was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed because Steve was working so much, and I know he was too. Emma was being really whiny and extremely over-sensitive, which I'm sure had a lot to do with adjusting to a new sibling, but probably also because she was missing Steve as well. Now that Steve is working more regular hours and we have all adjusted to a new baby, things are pretty great. Every day I am happy that my family is made up of these three, and that we all get along so well. Steve has talked a little bit about looking for a new job, and I really wish he would because it would be nice to have this much time together all year long.

Tonight for dinner I made sandwiches with shredded chicken, spinach, feta, and hummus. So far, so good on the eating at home thing.

We eat out wayyyy to much and, starting this week, it's going to stop. In the last week we ate out every single night except for two, and both of those nights we ended up going out for ice cream after dinner. That's a little ridiculous. Today I was thinking about why we like to go out all the time, and for me, it's not even the fact that I don't have to mess with cooking anything and then cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. It's just a better time. When we eat at home it seems like it's over in ten minutes, but when we're out we have a nice leisurely time to just sit and chat. Usually at home Steve finishes and gets up while Emma and I are still sitting there, but when we're out we often keep sitting there for awhile after everyone is finished. So, in order for us to make this change, we have to work on a few things. Steve promised to stay at the table until everyone is finished from now on, and I am absolutely positively going to cook dinner every night - a decent enough dinner to deter us from wanting to go out. To hold myself accountable, this week, at least, I am going to post what we have every night. Those are going to be some exciting entries, right? I know you're on the edge of your seat.

Several months ago I sold our reel mower to someone, except I never actually got it to her. Today I found out I was going to be seeing her somewhere, so I needed to get the mower out of the shed and bring it with me. Unfortunately, Steve was at work and I am terrified of the shed because of a bad snake experience I had in there. I actually knocked on the door of our unfriendly neighbor who we never talk to, hoping that he would do get it for me. He wasn't home, and neither were any of our other neighbors. I decided it was time to stop being such a baby and do it myself. Sort of. We went out in the yard, which is already a feat for me. Emma, who says she is brave with snakes, opened the door to the shed. I asked her to go inside and yell to scare away the snakes. She shouted, "Get out of here, snakes! This is not your shed!" Then I stood there for a good ten minutes looking at the stupid reel mower in the corner of the shed - probably no more than 15 feet away - and I couldn't force myself to go in there and get it. Pretty embarrassing. Embarrassing and stupid.

In less humiliating news about myself, after playing Scrabble all week, including three games yesterday alone, I finally beat Steve last night! Bladow!

My parents are coming to visit tonight, and today is my mom's 50th birthday, so Emma and I made brownies and we're planning a little celebration when they get here. They are coming pretty late and Noah is already in bed so he will have to miss the festivities. He's not really into brownies and ice cream anyway, so it shouldn't matter too much. I made these slippers for my mom, and I am not real pleased with them. I didn't know until it was too late that I was supposed to have a walking foot for my machine, and sadly, I do not. Consequently, the stitching around the edge is pretty wonky. They're not fabrics I would have chosen for myself, but I wanted my mom to like them, and I hope she does.

I have more to write, but Emma is begging me to watch cooking shows with her, so I'm off to watch some Food Network and work on that never-ending quilt binding.

Today is Steve's and my fourth anniversary. He has beat me in Scrabble the last two nights, so tonight as an anniversary present I wanted to give him a good Scrabble butt-kicking. Both kids were, amazingly, asleep at 8:30. Steve went out to get us ice cream while I set up the board and got ready for a peaceful evening of winning at Scrabble, eating ice cream, and enjoying some time alone with Steve. Of those three, I did get to eat the ice cream. Both kids woke up around 9:30 and were tired and cranky for the rest of the night. (I do have to give Emma credit, because she handled it pretty well when she realized Steve had gone to get ice cream and we'd eaten it without her.) And, I bloody lost again! DARN IT! I am going to beat that guy if it's the last thing I ever do!

Ugh! This window from Internet Explorer - which we never even use - keeps popping up. I ran SpyBot and cleared out all the nasties, and now the dumb window just popped up again. Stupid virusy stuff.

Gah! I just lost to Steve in what was probably the greatest comeback in the history of Scrabble. I was beating him by almost 100 points, and in the end he overtook me and won by a measly three points! All thanks to the stupid Z, which I picked up on my very last turn and was unable to play.

The only good thing is that I was able to work on the binding for the quilt I'm making for Emma. I'm quite possibly the slowest hand stitcher in the world, but little by little I'm making progress, and I expect to have the quilt finished in the next few days. I'm already excited about planning a quilt for Noah.

Despite my resolve to have Emma wearing underwear this week, she is still in diapers. After thirty minutes of her following me around with a diaper this morning, crying and begging me to put it on, I gave in. I can't make her do it, and as much as I am sick to death of changing her diapers, I guess I have no choice but to just wait until she wants to do it on her own. Blah.

Today I went to the bank and wrote a check for cash. I normally carry around absolutely zero cash, and I have to keep double-checking now because I keep thinking I'm going to lose the money I got. And don't even get me started on having to get both kids out of the car and takeSteve and I pay for everything with our debit cards. He lost his last week, so we had to cancel them both, and are now impatiently waiting 7-10 business days to get our new ones. This is proving to be a rather large annoyance. Yesterday I had to write a check at two different places, and I'm certain that both times the cashier was thinking, "What does she think this is? 1987?" them into QT to pay for gas. I've only been without one for two days, but I'm already feeling very appreciative of whoever invented debit cards.

Noah is such a doll. When Emma was a baby, I remember thinking that she was so great that I couldn't wait to have another baby. I feel the same way with Noah. He simply could not be any sweeter and, really, is there anything more heartwarming than a smiling baby? He is such a mama's boy and is always perfectly content as long as he is in my arms. If he falls asleep and I try to lay him down, he wakes up immediately but goes right back to sleep the second I pick him up. This can be a tiny bit frustrating sometimes, but mostly I love holding him and it makes me happy that he finds me so comforting. Some day I won't have any babies to hold, but (in the midst of a mad frenzy of doing all the things I always wanted to do but never had time for) I'll be happy that I held my babies as much as I could when I had the chance.

Emma is completely and totally potty trained, except for one thing - she refuses to stop wearing diapers. She actually goes into the bathroom and sits on her potty whenever she has to go, then comes out and announces that she needs her diaper changed. Weird. I've been trying to let her do this at her own pace, and mostly it's not a big deal. However, she always seems to poop when I am holding a sleeping baby, and I am tired of having to wake him up (because he wakes up immediately when I lay him down) to change her dirty diapers. So, starting Monday, no more diapers for her. She is not pleased about it, but I hope she will adjust quickly. I don't want it to turn into a big power struggle, but this is really getting a little ridiculous. Assuming this actually works, I will be selling off half of my beautiful diaper stash. That part is a little sad, but not sad enough to keep me from doing it!

Yesterday I went to Joann's to buy some fabric to make this bag. I wasn't real impressed with their selection of canvas and I can't leave Joann's empty-handed, so I decided to buy fabric to make a quilt for Emma instead. I started to pick out the fabrics I wanted to use, but then I realized that they were probably not what Emma would pick herself. I replaced the ones I had, and let her pick out all the fabric for her quilt. She actually did a decent job, and this way it really will be her quilt. Provided I ever finish it, of course. I did get started on it last night so stay tuned for pictures of the work-in-progress.

I have a new plan about which I am very excited. A lot of my family members enjoy listening to audio books, but I have always maintained that I would much rather listen to music instead. Today I was lamenting the lack of time I have for book reading, and suddenly a light bulb went on and I realized that listening to audio books would totally solve that problem. Duh. Why didn't I want to do this before? Hopefully the incessant chattering of a certain little someone will not make it too difficult to follow along. I requested two books on CD from the library - A People's History of the United States, and the first Harry Potter book. I think I'm the only one in the world who has not read the Harry Potter books, and I'm interested in seeing what all the hoopla is about.

I used to be a stickler about not letting Emma see any commercials. I have gotten pretty lax about that, mostly because the only things we ever watch are Royals games and the Food Network and both of those have commercials. I usually just leave them on and hope they are not really influencing her. Today when we were eating lunch, she mentioned that there was a commercial that said kids can't eat too much food. I absentmindedly asked her what the commercial was for, and as if she were getting paid for it, she said, "Hidden Valley Ranch! It makes vegetables delectable!" Heh - so much for not influencing her.

A few months ago, Vegetarian Times had a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips. We've made it a bunch of times since then, and I just have to share because it's so yummy. I'm eating a slice of it right now - yum!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar or raw sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup unsweetened crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 large egg
2 Tbs. canola oil
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat standard loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
2. Whisk together mashed bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, egg and oil. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool on rack 15 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely, then slice and serve.

Last time I wrote, we were about to head back home late that night. At the absolute last minute, we instead decided to go to Chicago. My mom and her sisters were taking my grandma there to celebrate her birthday, and I thought it would be fun to accompany them. Thursday we drove to my aunt's house in Indiana, then took the train into downtown Chicago. We managed to cram in as much fun stuff as we could during the two days we were there. I carried Noah in the sling while we trekked all over the city, and my shoulder is still recovering.

When I changed my insurance after I got my new car, I told the guy I don't drive it to work and he said, "So since you only use it for recreation, you probably drive about 10,000 miles a year?" I said I guessed so, but yesterday I realized that I have put over 8,000 miles on it since I got it - and that wasn't even four months ago!

I've decided that next year I'm going to stop being such a wimp about the snakes and plant some milkweeds. My mom has a bunch of them at her house and apparently they are the only thing the caterpillars that turn into Monarch butterflies will eat. Her little patch of milkweeds is full of these caterpillars. Once they've eaten for a couple weeks and become fat, they crawl over to the house and build a little cocoon somewhere. There are tons of these things all around my parents' patio. I want to have these at our house because I think it would be really interesting and a great learning experience for Emma. For that reason, I am going to spend all winter building up enough courage to actually go into our yard and plant this stuff.

And, of course, more pictures:

We ended up having a great time while swimming on Monday - except for a small catastrophe - and I'm planning on taking the kids to the pool a lot for the rest of the summer because we had so much fun. The small catastrophe occurred while Emma was riding in a little floaty thing and I was sitting by the pool watching her. I looked away for one second, and when I looked back she had flipped over and was stuck upside down, under water in the floaty thing! Her little legs were just kicking in the air as she struggled to flip back over. I jumped up yelling and, luckily, another adult was nearby to reach over and flip her back over. She was pretty upset, but seemed to get over it in a few minutes. I, however, could not stop shaking for quite awhile afterwards. After this I will always be super vigilant in the water and never stop watching her for even a split second. That was SO scary, but it's even scarier to think about what might have happened if no one had seen her soon enough. Shudder.

We've been at my mom's since Monday. It's so nice to be here and have other people around for adult conversation all day. I'm also not complaining about the extra help I get with the kiddos while I'm here. Tonight my mom and grandma are taking Emma to see a Peter Pan play, and I'm planning to drive us back home afterwards. I'm hoping to leave here at 11:30 tonight, which will put us home around 2:30 a.m. That way I can be pretty sure both kids will sleep the whole way, and I am very much looking forward to a few hours to be alone with my thoughts and my music. Just to be safe, I will definitely have to tank up on coffee before we leave.

Why do cherries have to be so dang expensive? I guess it might be because they are possibly the most delicious food ever. I cannot get enough cherries these days. I just bought two pounds of them yesterday, and they were gone by this morning so today I bought two more pounds at Target. I swear, I could live on cherries and iced coffee.

The kids and I are going to a swimming playgroup tomorrow. I'm a tad nervous because I'm not sure how well I'll be able to handle both kids in the water. I didn't really want to wear any of my regular slings in the water, but didn't think I could take both kids in the pool without one, so I whipped up this pouch. It's pretty terrible - I didn't even hem the edges - but it only took me about three minutes. It'll be fine just for swimming days, however. The whole time I was thinking that the WAHMs who make pouches are really cashing in because those things are super easy to make.

The kids and I are going to my mom's house tomorrow. I'm also somewhat nervous about that because it's anybody's guess how well Noah will do in the car. Keeping my fingers crossed for am uneventful trip with lots of sleeping from the two kiddos.

A few pics from my brother's wedding two weeks ago...

Emma has had a weird schedule going on all week. She stays up late, sleeps late in the morning, and takes her nap around 5:00. The last three nights when Steve and I have gone to bed at 12:30 or so, she has stayed up to watch the Food Network (which is her new favorite pastime). She's up right now, reading books by herself in the living room, and tomorrow she'll probably sleep until noon again. I'm all for letting someone choose his or her own schedule, but I'm wondering what's going to happen when we have to actually be somewhere in the morning. I can't say I blame her, though. I would totally stay up really late and sleep late every morning if I knew Noah wasn't going to wake me up and if I didn't feel like a lazy slug for doing so.

I think I'm partly to blame for her weird schedule, due to a recent epiphany I had. For ages, I relied on Emma's nap as the only time when I could get anything done. I looked forward to it every day and was always disappointed when she woke up because my "me" time was over. I have now come to realize that I no longer care if she takes a nap or what time she goes to bed. She is self-reliant enough that I can still do a lot of what I want whenever she is awake. In fact, she often asks me if I want to sew because she wants to go down in the basement and play and she wants me to be down there with her. So, now that I am not fervently awaiting any time when she will be asleep and also because she is generally very pleasant to be around, I don't really make the effort to get her to sleep. Is that bad parenting, I wonder?

Check out these cupcakes.

I want to record some cute things that Emma does so I don't forget them when she is older.

- She is fascinated with convertibles. Whenever we see one, she yells out, "A CAR WITH NO CEILING!" I always point them out to her also so she won't miss any. One day we were all in the car and Emma was asleep, but I pointed out several to Steve, just out of habit, I guess. Finally he reminded me that he is not that impressed with cars with no ceilings and I don't really have to point them out to him.
- She has concocted a "soup" made of beads, sequins, and buttons that she cooks and serves to us many times each day. Because of this, at any given time our house is completely littered with these items.
- She will come to me and ask, "Can I do your eyebrows?" Then she uses a special comb and a golf tee, of all things, to meticulously comb and "arrange" my eyebrows.
- She often starts stories with, "When I was a kid..." or "When I was little...".
- She has an imaginary friend named Sarah, and almost every day she and Sarah have a party for Sarah's birthday. Sarah is all sorts of ages, but most often she is turning five or sixteen.
- She likes to tell us stories about random people, and these stories often start like, "My daughter's husband..." or "Did you know my son's neighbor..." We ask her what are the names of these people and they are always crazy things like Ozria and See-no-ina.
- She says, "I am shy to (fill in the blank)" and "I am brave with (fill in the blank)".
- When she misspeaks, she will say "excuse me" and then say it again correctly.

So Noah isn't left out, here is the handsome man modeling a pair of longies I knitted for him a few months ago.

Today we had our first Parents as Teachers appointment since Noah was born. In the past, she has said things that I know are wrong (i.e. breastfeeding during pregnancy takes nutrients from the baby), and more than once she has asked how we are going to deal with the "problem" of getting our kids out of our bed. Fine, whatever. We stick with the program because Emma likes it when this lady comes and plays games with her, and when she is here I just try to give her information and maybe open her eyes to a different way of doing things. Today was especially annoying, though.

- She asked what hospital we went to for Noah's birth. When I told her he was born at home, she put her hands to her face and said, "Oh, no! That was pretty risky, wasn't it? Especially after a C-section?" Um, no.
- She asked if Emma was still nursing. I told her about the weaning party, and then that Emma still nurses when she wakes up in the morning and that is working great for both of us. She incredulously asked me if I've ever met anyone else who nursed as long as Emma. I assured her that I have.
- She said, "And you're all sleeping in the same bed?" I said yes, and she asked me how we all manage to fit. I told her where we each sleep in the bed, and then she said, "Well, I'm not allowed to tell you what to do, but I do need to tell you that sleeping in the same bed with an infant increases the risk of SIDS." Again, um, no.
- She asked what I will do if one of the kids gets sick while they are both nursing. I was a little confused and she explained that she was worried they might spread germs that way. I wasn't sure about that one, but I had never heard of it being a concern before. I just looked it up (it's not) so I'm emailing her the info so she doesn't incorrectly mention that to anyone else.

So after she'd say something with which I disagreed, I'd always start in with, "Well, actually..." and give her my information. I think it's unlikely that she'll go research these things herself, and will probably instead just write me off as being completely loony, but oh well. Overall, I do like her, and like I said, Emma likes her a lot too. So I'll continue to share my information with her, and hope that she is not out spreading misinformation to other unsuspecting folks.

Steve has to work this week, and after having him around for two weeks, we are missing him today. Apparently I was taking two weeks off too, because this morning I woke up and realized that our house is a disaster. Today has been all about cleaning, although for some reason nothing seems to actually be clean yet. Sometimes I get this crazy cleaning energy and start dusting the ceiling fans and washing the windows and other stuff I rarely do, then after all that work I look around at all the toys on the floor and dishes on the table and it seems like, for all my efforts, I deserve to have a cleaner house.

Over a year ago, I was knitting a log cabin blanket, but the blocks started getting too long and taking forever, and I got tired of it and stopped working on it. It's been sitting in the basement collecting dust, but the other night I decided to use it instead of letting it sit there unfinished forever. I figured it would be a perfect Noah-sized blanket, so I cast off, sewed some fabric on one side, and now I have one less unfinished project sitting in my basement. Emma has decided it's hers now, but here is an action shot with it's intended owner.













And, a couple more pictures of the kids from over the weekend: