How to clean the kitchen floor in 1 hour or less

Well, it could be worse. They could be terrified of the vacuum. They are excellent helpers.

Sun protection

On the rare days the sun is out, it shines right in Dash's eyes while we sit at the kitchen table. Solution: use one of my precious Marimekko panels that I never want to cut up. Success!

Reasons why

This is one of the reasons I wanted children so very badly: so they would hide matchbox cars in my freezer and make me laugh.

the end of Dash's rainbow

What you see:

 What Dash sees:

I have gotten pretty adept at dressing him while he holds a car in each hand. Getting the sleeves over can be a bit tough but we make it work.

Galosh

I take back what I said about Crocs being horrific. Little toddler Croc galoshes are pretty damn cute.

Between

Somewhere between taking off your day clothes and putting on pajamas, there are The Crazies.

Happy Snow Day

I've had a blog entry percolating for a week or so now, about how I have been working to turn my boys who are terrified of playing outside into little nature fiends. I had been doing pretty well, but let's just skip ahead to yesterday and the first of The Great Snowfall.

I don't really want to think about how we may get 15 inches of snow on Wednesday and have already been snowed in since Saturday afternoon. We have enough milk to make it to Thursday, and I am just going to attempt to listen to Charlie and channel my calm. It's not quite time for me to freak out and go all Little House On The Prairie We Are Out Of Food wringing my hands. We have enough food to last for a good long while.

 Dash deciding that standing on the snow is going to be ok after all

confident enough to forge his own trail!

 ok, enough with the standing in the snow thing. Carry me.

Liam had one hell of a good time

So, to the snow! We carried the boys up to the road and watched one of the neighbor kids careening around on his 3-wheeler. Once he sped off down the dirt road to make louder and bumpier skid marks, we walked down the street and checked out the pretty trees. Then the boys took a try at walking in snow for the first time. Most of the pictures are of Charlie and Dash, since I was carrying Liam.

Perhaps tomorrow we will go out and play in some fresh powder!

heavy readings

Liam loves books. He loves big, enormous, weighty tomes. The bigger the better. If he can barely pick it up then great!

Award for most pretentious author pose: National Geographic retrospective

I've asked a few friends to contribute obsolete items from their libraries, and went to Half Price Books today to see what they had. I picked up a trilogy of awesome old Jaques Cousteau picture books and a history of National Geographic's first 100 years. The prize, however, goes to a gift from the manager in their book buying department. He overheard me asking an employee where their sale section was with the heaviest books (and my explanation as to why) and as I was leaving he hurried over with perhaps the biggest textbook I have ever seen. I seriously don't know how people were supposed to use this thing casually. It begs for a podium to hold it up. On the surface it is just another Oracle text, but to Liam it is so much more.

delectable cookbooks

We noticed his fascination when he kept bringing me the same board book over and over. Excellent, another Charlie Harper! I thought...but he was choosing it because it's the biggest board book we have.  Then he branched into pulling all of the cookbooks from the bookshelves in the dining room. A ten pound tome on French cooking? Sure! This enthusiasm was not exactly healthy for Charlie's prized cookbook library though.

Enter: Liam's bookshelf. I had to move the piano bench in front of the fireplace to keep them from pulling the screen out and climbing inside, and it makes a dandy platform for some heavy reading. Liam's endeavor of the afternoon: figuring out how to remove the books in a stack and carry them all around at once. Perhaps he has a future in the circus.

Dec 26

On December 25th, we had a present opening frenzy, but no power for most of the day. Thankfully our house had been transformed into an entertainment bonanza palace and with the help of a few lanterns we played the day away.

To give you a bit of flavor, this is our floor this morning after the paper was picked up and things were "straightened up" a little bit. Any time you tried to give a toy a home, one boy or the other would run over and demand it from you.

 

Dec 24

On the twenty-fourth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, a Charlie Brown ornament, one fluffy white Christmas tree, and a shining star.

I also got wonderful friends, a tasty dinner, children (my own and others) shrieking with glee as they opened presents, a glass of eggnog, and a few hours playing Star Wars with Charlie. Delightful! 

Dec 23

 On the twenty-third day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, a Charlie Brown ornament, and a fluffy white Christmas tree.

Dec 21 and 22

On the twenty-first day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, and a beautiful B.

 On the twenty-second day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, and a Charlie Brown ornament. 

For their present, we got the boys a membership at a kid's gym. They'll have one class a week, and then one day with a free play period. I took them there today to see how things went and Dash loved wallowing in the ball pit. Liam rolled huge balls around the floor and they both ran about like maniacs.  I think this is going to work out well. 

Dec 20

On the twentieth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, and a green Christmas tree. 

The lights progress apace. Today's visitor was the drywall guy. I had the singular pleasure of listening to his holiday negotiations. He took a break for lunch, and after came back with his brother and nephew, who were in the neighborhood doing another job and offered to help him finish up the rest of ours more quickly. His brother has much land and many horses (and also two! sets of twins). Our drywall guy has a teenage daughter who is horse crazy. I bore witness to the conversation that will lead to a girl actually asking for a pony and getting one . They are going to put a huge red bow on it and the whole nine yards. I was almost giddy with excitement. 

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Dash today thought that the ravioli he was eating for lunch would make an effective hair product. He was right.

Dec 19

On the nineteent day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, and Batman. 

Dec 18

On the eighteenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, and a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man.

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The chickens are working a Christmas miracle! Even though it's been oh so dark and dismal, the new teenagers are managing to lay their first eggs and then keep on going.  The first pullet eggs are hilariously small, but so far all of them have had a yolk and everything. I can't wait till everyone gets into full swing after the winter passes. I'm guessing we'll get five eggs a day. Time to start lining up frittata recipes! 

Dec 17

On the seventeenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, and a slow tortoise.

I blame that tortoise for being behind by a day with these last few pictures.  To get energized this morning, we are watching videos of Prince playing live shows and rocking out in the living room.

Dec 16

On the sixteenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, and a bluebird of happiness.

Dec 15

On the fifteenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, and a glowing candle.

Dec 14

On the fourteenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, and a shimmering snowflake. 

The living room ceiling has grown many more holes as the electrician added to what the sprinkler guy started. Cans are in, sprinkler head is moved, and now there is just some drywall work before the final fixtures are put in. The electrician was not as fascinating as the sprinkler guy, because there weren't any lengths of piping to play with. Though we have been taking advantage of the temporarily cleared living room floor, having wild wrestling matches and playing in giant Amazon boxes. 

Dec 13

On the thirteenth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, and a golden bell. 

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It also gave to me a photo taken with the flash on my phone, which is not optimal. We are having some new lights put in the living room ceiling, and that started the day with the dining room chandelier getting pulled down. Then there was a lot of sawing while the sprinkler guy relocated the head that was smack in the middle of the living room. The boys were rapt, sitting back on their feet at the edge of the plastic sheeting on the floor, each of them holding onto a short length of bright orange sprinkler pipe. Entertainment for the day: provided! Tomorrow, the electrician.