Well, I was all set to abandon this poor blog but apparently some people are missing it, so here is an update, lest any of my readers think we all fell off the face of the earth. After such a long break, I think I should be able to manage at least semi-regular updates now.

Let's see...Emma started kindergarten, and I think so far it's a raging success. I am very pleased with her school so far, and she seems to love it there. I posted this picture - from her first day of school - on Facebook so everyone reading this might have already seen it, but it's the only one I have of her so far that relates to school.
Noah is pretty much the same, still busy busy busy, except now he is also quite the chatterbox. I love listening to him talk to me all day long. He is really into shoes these days, and is very particular about which shoes he wears, when. He never lets a single raindrop fall from the sky without pulling on his rain boots and running outside to play. Today, pretty much an entire day of rain, was no exception.This beautiful baby is still wonderfully sweet and cheerful. She has a new trick that she'll show off with enough coaxing. I wouldn't call her an honest-to-goodness walker yet, but it probably won't be too much longer until she is.

Emma had her preschool graduation ceremony last night, which included receiving a diploma and singing a darling song about summer helping to recharge her batteries and getting a little "R and R". When my brother asked her what R and R meant, she said it means "when you go to sleep, in the night time". Personally, I am looking forward to sleeping in somewhat during the next few months. Hopefully my children will cooperate.

We've been staying home a lot lately, mostly because I've been trying (somewhat successfully - finally!) to get Noah to be a little more reasonable about nap time. I've also realized that staying home more has helped us settle into a comfortable routine and I think those relaxed, pleasant days at home are more enjoyable for everyone than rushing around to a bunch of activities. Anyway, now that Emma is going to be home every day, we will probably have to start getting out more again so she isn't bored silly this summer. When I asked her what she wants to do this summer, she said, "play school and learn gymnastics". I think we can handle that!

Today I realized that I haven't written anything about Allie in awhile, which doesn't seem quite right because she has actually been very busy learning new things. She has been sprouting teeth, crawling all over the house, and - as of yesterday - pulling herself up.
She isn't eating any solid food yet. I've offered her a few things in the past month - banana, pear, sweet potato, and kiwi - but every time she has thrown her head back and grimaced as though she thinks I'm trying to poison her. She will gag and spit until the food comes back out, and since she seems to dislike it so much, I'm not going to force the issue. I'll keep offering occasionally and eventually she'll probably be a little more into it. For now, I'm certainly not complaining because nursing is so much simpler than dealing with solid food anyway.My mom was here two weeks ago and at one point she watched the kids while I went to Target by myself for an hour or so. That was my first time away from Allie since her birth so kind of a big deal, but she handled it like a champ. Then the very next weekend Steve watched the kids (meaning he drove around with them) for two hours while I got a much needed haircut. So, that means that I had three hours all to myself in one week, which sort of makes me feel like I'm moving out of the stage of being needed by babies all the time and into a stage of having a small amount of personal freedom. Woo!

This stuff is taking over my brain. I've had Nutella before, but I never actually bought it until last week. Oh. My. It is so amazingly delicious and creamy and fabulous and I can't stop eating it. At first I was trying to eat it a bunch of different ways - on bagels, on toast, on pancakes, on pretzels, on any kind of fruit - but then I said to heck with that and I just started eating spoonfuls right out of the jar. When our little regular sized jar was gone, I decided to stop messing around and go for the giant Costco-sized two-pack.
The other night we were walking out the door to go to Cinzetti's and I actually debated stuffing the Nutella in my purse because there was bound to be something there that was just begging to be smeared with it's chocolate-y, hazelnut-y goodness. In the end I decided I needed to get a grip and left the Nutella at home.This morning it became apparent that the kids have picked up on my obsession. Emma woke up, immediately walked into the kitchen, and said, "So do you think we should just have Nutella for breakfast?" Upon hearing her suggestion, Noah actually pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "'Tella!" Hey, at least they have good taste. (As evinced by Noah's trying to steal it before I could take a picture.)

Yesterday I turned 30 years old. My family - mainly Steve and Emma - made sure that it was a really great day. We did fun stuff all day and I also got flowers and many lovely presents.Thirty seems like kind of an important birthday, and I sort of feel like I'm leaving my youth behind and entering a new period of greater wisdom and maturity. I guess we'll see if that part actually comes true, but for now it's making me look around and evaluate my life a little bit. If someone had asked me when I was twenty what I expected to accomplish in the next ten years, I know my answer would have included getting my degree, getting married, having some kids, and staying home to raise those kids. So now, looking back, I can say with absolute certainly that I'm doing exactly what I always wanted to do. And seriously, I couldn't be happier.

I actually sewed something! Woo! I have actually been working on a couple bigger projects here and there, so I guess my excitement should be over actually finishing something. Really though, I shouldn't be so quick to pat myself on the back because this shirt could probably be completed in a total of 45 minutes, but it ended up taking me almost two weeks. Ah well, I'll take what I can get.
She likes it and has already worn it to school twice, out of five days. I guess that means it's a success. Now I'm feeling motivated to carve out some more sewing time for myself and actually finish a few more things.

The weather this week is amazing and we are loving it. There are so many flowers coming up in our yard that the kids are able to go out and each pick a new bouquet every day. We have a crazy amount of vases placed around our house, all stuffed with flowers in various stages of vibrancy. I didn't think "vibrancy" would be a word, but my spell checker isn't flagging it so I'm going with it. I love how Noah's "bouquets" are really just fistfuls of crumpled petals.Moments after I took this picture, but unfortunately after I had already brought my camera back inside, Noah managed to somehow shove one of these dandelions in his mouth. He grimaced, then opened his mouth and blew out, sending dozens of the little fluffy seeds shooting out into the air. Too bad for him, the rest stayed and it took him a good ten minutes to get them all out of his mouth. Is it wrong to, every once in awhile, laugh at your kids and not necessarily with them?Today we went to the arboretum and Noah was pretty good about only picking the dandelions and nothing else. He had a handful of them at all times, with a constant stream of little fluffy particles billowing out behind him as he walked. When we were getting ready to leave, he proudly handed me a large bundle of mostly naked dandelion stems - all of which are currently displayed in a vase on our kitchen table. What a sweet, sweet boy.

In a surprising turn of events, during the past few weeks Noah has really started to grasp the concept of using the potty. Some days he will tell me all day when he has to go and I start to (hopefully, joyfully) think that I will only need to be washing diapers for one baby from now on. Other days, he's not into it and he just wants to wear a diaper all day.We had a Parents as Teachers visit last week, and Noah peed in the potty in our living room just as our lady was pulling into our driveway. Since she was about to walk in the door, I just closed the lid to the potty and reminded myself to dump it out after she left. About halfway through our visit, we were sitting on the floor chatting. Her folder of papers was open on the floor behind her. Before I caught on to what he was doing, Noah picked up his potty, tilted it, and started to walk across the floor. I jumped up to grab it from him but not before the pee all dribbled out exactly all over the papers on the floor. Great. Because who doesn't love to go visit someone and have their stuff get peed on? When our visit was almost over and I was still trying to recover from the initial embarassment, I got up to go get my calendar to schedule our next visit. At that moment, Noah came racing down the hall and skidded into the living room. Determined to show off his lack of potty related social skills, he had apparently pooped and then removed his diaper. He plopped down on the floor next to our visitor, oblivious to the poop smeared all down his legs. Wonderful. Before we could attempt to schedule another appoinment, she grabbed up her stuff, quickly said, "I'll just call you," and escaped out the door. I'm sure she can't wait to come back!

Not much time to write these days, but I wanted to pop in to offer a recommendation for anyone local who doesn't already know about Door to Door Organics. You can choose all fruits, all veggies, or a mixture of both and what size box you need. It's all organic, and local whenever possible. You can sub up to three things every week, which is good news for me because I am sure that at some point onions will be on the list. Best of all, it's delivered to your house! Sweet! We received our first box last week, filled with beets, celery, avocado, red peppers, oranges, tangelos, romaine lettuce, zucchini, apples, chard, lemons, mango, and strawberries. Yum!

Today we are taking the kids to Opening Day. The sun is starting to peek through the clouds and it's going to be a beautiful afternoon. I am so happy that baseball season is here!

Have a wonderful Easter, everyone!

For awhile now, Emma has been asking to get pierced ears. I kept telling her she could do it when she was older, but she finally wore me down and convinced me that five years is old enough. Still, look at those sweet little un-mutilated earlobes. I'm going to miss them.We went to the mall on Sunday to get it done. I'd heard stories before about little girls who get them pierced one at a time, but freak out after the first one and don't want to get the second one done. I figured that would be the sort of thing Emma would be likely to do, so I said we were only going to do it if there were two people there to pierce both ears at the same time. Well, when we got there we tried every single place that does piercing and not a single one had more than one person working. Against my better judgment, we went ahead and did it anyway, and she completely wowed me with her bravery!She was smiling until the first earring punched through. After that she looked completely somber, but when Steve asked if she was ready for the next one, she just gave a silent, but determined, nod. I was completely amazed and impressed with her.

So far I think she likes them and I have to admit they do look pretty darn cute. Sniff, sniff...my little girl just keeps growing up!

There have been several events of late that I think are blog worthy, but I haven't found the time to actually sit down and write about them. Hopefully this week I can get all caught up. But first things first: Noah turned two years old today!Our whole day was unbelievably fun. We didn't start out planning to do a million fun things; it just ended up that way. One of the things we did was go sledding - just in time, because by the time we were ready to go back home, a lot of the snow had melted and we were sledding in half grass and half slush. We were all soaked, but it was warm enough that no one was cold. Even Noah managed to get completely drenched, even though Steve wrapped his legs in trash bags and his arms in freezer bags to avoid exactly that.I made Noah a birthday crown, which he loved so much that he wore it all evening, including at dinnertime. I guess next year when we get it out, we'll laugh about the cheese and ketchup that are smeared all over it. He also spent a lot of time messing with the train buttons on it so they are all hanging off precariously now. My plan was that these crowns would last throughout the kids' childhoods, but I'm suspecting Noah's may not make it that long.
We are planning to get him a train table to set up in the basement but we couldn't find a good one today so we just got him a little circle of track and two trains for now, which he absolutely loved. After he opened them, he sat on the floor pushing the train around and around and saying "Choo chooooo!" until it was time to go to bed.
Right now he is sound asleep in bed with Steve, still wearing his crown and clutching his trains in both hands. Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

When I was five, I received a little tea set from my grandparents for Christmas. I saved it with the intention of letting my own kids play with it, but since my own kids seem to have a knack for breaking things, it's just been sitting in a box in the basement. This week, Emma finally wore me down with her begging and her promises to take super extra special care of it.

I gave it to her right before Noah's nap so that she would have something to do while I spent who-knows-how-long getting him to sleep, and also so he - the primary destroyer of everything - would not be around while it was in use. After he was asleep, I came back to the living room to find a lovely tea party all prepared for us. Is there any better tea party fare than grapes and roasted edamame? I think not.I guess I wouldn't really know though, because I apparently have a lot to learn about tea parties. When I took my first sip of tea, Emma shook her head at me disapprovingly. "Oh, mommy," she sighed. "Don't you know that people at tea parties are supposed to hold their pinkies out?" Oh. Right.
Also, in case anyone is wondering about the mice, I'm happy to say that they are gone. When the exterminator came, he told me it could take two or three weeks for us to notice a difference, which sort of seemed like a rip-off to me. Luckily, we have not noticed any evidence of the mice - no scratching in the kitchen, no fluff on the oven door, no mouse poop, no actual mice - since the day the exterminator was here. I'm pretty sure they were gone almost immediately, which makes the exterminator worth every single penny we paid him!

My sister-in-law is doing a Menu Monday thing on her blog where each Monday she posts the menu she has planned for that week, and I like the idea so I'm going to do it too. I am not quite that organized because I never plan our menu on the same day, and of course today is not Monday, but I guess you just have to take what you get. This is what we will be eating this week.

~ Chicken Cheesesteaks with Peppers with grape, strawberry, kiwi fruit salad
~ salmon ravioli, whole wheat garlic bread, spinach salad
~ spinach salad with chicken, feta, grape tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette
~ baked tilapia, fingerling potatoes, spinach salad
~ Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce, brown rice, green beans
We had the Chicken Cheesesteaks on Sunday and I thought they were really good. I've been trying to pack the remaining sandwich in Steve's lunch for the past two days and he keeps "forgetting" to take it to work with him, so maybe he didn't like them as much as me.For lunches, we've been eating a lot of the most delicious salad ever: spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, and a basic balsamic vinaigrette. So easy, and so fantastically yummy. In fact, I was about to sneak into the kitchen and get myself some cookies 'n cream ice cream cake from the freezer, but I think I'll make myself one of these salads instead. (With maybe a teensy slice of the ice cream cake afterward.)

Last weekend my brother Andy came in from South Korea for the first time in almost a year, so the kiddos and I spent a few days at my parents' house hanging out with him and catching up.
Even though they hadn't seen him in so long, Emma and Noah didn't waste any time suckering him into playing with them. But really, who doesn't love a tea party?He brought us all gifts, including some snacks. I like to think I'm fairly adventurous in trying new foods, but I could not bring myself to eat those little dried fish. They still have eyeballs, for crying out loud! No eyeballs for me, thanks.

I realize that you're probably getting sick of hearing about the mice, but they are occupying a good portion of my thoughts these days so you'll just have to bear with me.

Steve and I are apparently both huge babies because, although we are not willing to share our house with the mice, neither of us want to set the traps and then dispose of the poor dead mice. I was planning to get some of the round traps, where you don't actually have to see the dead mouse, but then I read that mice give birth to a litter of three to five baby mice EVERY EIGHTEEN DAYS year round. Yeesh. No more messing around. I had an exterminator come out yesterday to check out the situation and give me a quote, then another guy came back today to actually start the exterminating.

Yesterday the guy told me that we also have mice in the basement. Now I don't want to go down there, even though we are about to be buried under mounds of dirty clothes and diapers. Then this morning I saw some little pieces of fuzz on top of the door of my oven. I thought to myself, "Weird. I hope this isn't mouse related." as I threw the fluff in the trash and promptly forgot about it. We left the house for a couple hours, and when I got home I was startled to see the entire 1/2 inch opening along the top of my oven door filled with more of the same fluff. I'm no mouse expert, but I'm pretty sure that is a bad sign. So, not only can I not do laundry, now I can't cook anything either.

Let the carnage commence.

Bad news. I just saw a mouse in the living room. It looks like we need to step up the fight, which we had actually abandoned once we came home from the trip and were left with SEVEN unsnapped, yet completely peanut butter-free traps. I have never seen any evidence of mice - no mouse poop, no chewed open food packages - in the house (except for the actual mouse I saw) so I sort of didn't worry about who ate all the peanut butter off the traps and let myself believe the mice were gone. So much for that.

Since Emma started school and is slowly becoming a little more worldly, there have been a few times when I've been unsure of what is the right thing to do in a certain situation. Today she went to a party that was actually a birthday party for her friend's little sister. Her friend wanted to invite Emma so she'd be able to play with someone her own age. The plan was for me to drop her off at Tunnel Voyage, then later go pick her up at her friend's grandparents' house, where they were going afterward for dinner and cake. The friend's parents didn't get a birthday party package at Tunnel Voyage, but they were going to pay Emma's way in. So, when I dropped her off, I couldn't decide if I should send her in with any money. I felt like by sending her in with no money, I was just counting on the other parents to pay for anything she might need, which I didn't want to do. On the other hand, all I had was a ten dollar bill, and sending a (barely) five year old in alone with ten dollars seemed like a mistake as well. I can just see her at the snack bar, ordering a huge soda and every piece of candy she can possibly purchase with ten dollars. I thought about giving the other parents the money, but they likely wouldn't have accepted it. In the end, I didn't give her the money. Was that the right decision?Last thing - I have a tip for anyone who might be reading this. If you've never purchased a pineapple, you really need to. You won't be sorry. I love fresh pineapple, but I've never bought one before because they always looked sort of intimidating. A couple weeks ago, Emma convinced me to buy one, and it turns out they are really no trouble to cut up and SO delicious. The kids and I have been devouring almost a pineapple a day lately. So yeah, if you see some weirdo at Costco buying five pineapples, that's me. Ahem.

We spent the last few days skiing with my family, which was great fun, as always. Emma skied for the first time this year, and honestly, I was a little apprehensive about it beforehand. When I learned to ski I was a couple years older than her, and I remember lying in the snow before I had actually even started skiing, crying because my feet hurt and begging to just skip the whole thing. Luckily, she wasn't that lame and she totally rocked! She took a lesson in the morning, then went out with us in the afternoon and then again at night. By the end of the day, she was a little speed demon. I was so impressed with her. I didn't get to ski as much as I would have liked because Allie has developed a little case of separation anxiety, but there is always next year.We drove back today, and after eight hours in the car with the kiddos, I am beat. We saw some bald eagles on the drive home, as well as on the way there. Steve was willing to stop and wait while I took a picture, but not willing to wait for me to change my lens so I could actually get a good picture.The mouse eradication is not going well. We set two traps in the kitchen before we left, and several more in the garage, all with big globs of peanut butter. We came home to find the traps in the kitchen still unsnapped, but there was no peanut butter left on them. Not a trace. We must have some very stealthy mice. I don't know yet if we caught anything in the garage - I'm afraid to look.

Awhile back we noticed that a bag of birdseed in our garage had been torn into and strewn around the workbench. We figured there might be a mouse or two living out there, but we said they were probably just trying to get in from the cold so we let it go. Two times after that, I actually saw a mouse in the garage, and briefly searched online for humane mouse trap options. Really though, we don't much care if there is a mouse or two in the garage, so I forgot about catching them and setting them free somewhere else, and we left them alone.

This morning I was changing Allie's diaper in the living room and as I glanced over to the kitchen, I happened to see a mouse run along the length of the wall and then disappear behind the refrigerator. Oh. No. Mice in the garage is one thing, but mice in my kitchen is another thing entirely and I am NOT cool with that. We tried to be nice and let them be, but now they have overstepped their boundaries.

Right after I saw the mouse, we left to take Emma to school, and then came back here just so I could run inside and grab enough diapers to last us through the day. We left again, and since the thought of hanging out in a house with mice totally creeps me out, we didn't come back home until about 8:30 tonight. We bounced from one place to another all day and did whatever we could find to do just to avoid coming home. One of the things we did was buy mouse traps - the killing kind. I am feeling very bad about this. Still, I do need to go in my kitchen at some point, so I'm just trying not to think about it. Steve is going to take care of all the mouse trapping duties so I can continue to not think about it. Except that I obviously am.

I have not ever taken a picture of a mouse so I searched Google images to try to find a picture of a mouse for this post. I didn't want to get anything gross, so I searched for "mouse cute", which was clearly a mistake. What is wrong with me, wanting to kill those sweet, cute, innocent looking little furballs? You'll notice that there is no picture in this post because I can't put up a darling picture of a wittle bitty mouse and then come here and announce that I'm going to kill one (or more) without seeming like some kind of ogre.

And by the way, I am so thirsty right now. I am positively dying from thirst, but I can't make myself go in the kitchen and get a stupid drink. I've got issues.

Noah pretty much always tells me when he needs his diaper changed, so I figured it might be time to start the whole potty learning process. I brought the old potty chair up from the basement, and gave Noah a little crash course on what he was supposed to do. He seemed to get it, and actually acted pretty excited about the whole thing. We've tried it several times now, and here's how it always goes down.

1. He sits on the potty.
2. About 2.4 seconds later, he gets up to look inside and see if there is any pee there. "Pee?"
3. He appears surprised that the potty is empty, then shrugs and wanders off.
4. About 3.7 seconds later, he pees on the floor somewhere.
5. Immediately after that, he runs to find me and show me the puddle, all the while clapping, pointing excitedly, and exclaiming, "Pee!"

I guess he hasn't really got it yet.

My mom and grandma came to visit last weekend and we had a little pre-birthday celebration for Emma while they were here. I made and decorated her a cake, under her watchful eye and strict instructions. She dictated the colors, the shape, and told me exactly what she wanted it to look like. She wanted to do the sprinkles herself, so I handed them over and let her have at it. She worked very meticulously on those sprinkles for a good twenty minutes. While she was working so diligently, I heard her say to herself, "This just might be the best cake ever." I think she might be right.The other night I made her this birthday crown out of wool felt. I bought enough materials to make one for Noah and Allie too, and my hope is that they will each wear theirs every year on their birthday. Steve said he also wants one, so maybe I'll make one for him too. Emma seems to like hers so I'd say so far the birthday crown idea is a success.Even though it isn't really her birthday yet, it was a fun little celebration, and who wouldn't like an extra birthday party? And I, for one, am always up for extra cake.