This Crawling Thing

There you have it, friends. An official crawl. From a pile of blocks over to mama, straight for the phone. This boy seems so innocent, and yet he makes good time, especially when something exciting is present. His favorite seems to be power cords. Yes, these are the days in which I have realized that my house is not at all babyproofed. Nor am I exactly sure how I will get it to be babyproofed. After all, he has big sisters who like to play with all sorts of things like shells, beads, dominoes, and legos. Perhaps certain babyproofed "zones" without these toys? One floor of the house with baby safe stuff, with another for choking hazards? Or I could temporarily replace some of those tiny tiny toys with other things that are more baby friendly?

Here's where I need your advice! How do I do this?

Weekend Wanderings

Pink rainboots, delivered just in time for some sunshine.

Valentines Decorations are making their way up. What better way to make February festive?

Painted toenails, big and small.

She's suddenly seeming so big. Quite the delightful company for some girl time.

Daffodils, inside and out. Is spring playing a trick on us?

On the Move

I believe I'm ready to make the call: Hugo is a crawler. After weeks of scooting, rolling, and awkward flailing, he has it down, and can get into all sorts of trouble. Alright, Hugo! Now the fun starts. Lily has already figured out she has to watch out.

Would it shock you to learn hamburgers are our guilty pleasure? With not one, but two amazing burger places in the hood, we are spoiled. One has better burgers, but the other has sweet potato fries. It's a tough call, I tell you! The order is generally 2 cheesburgers with some interesting toppings, one hamburger with ketchup, mustard, and one pickle, one hamburger with just ketchup, and some fries to share. And if we've been good, two chocolate shakes to pass around. Bonus points to anyone who can guess whose is whose. I'll call Hugo "The French Fries Grabber," although it actually looks like Ben is the one who's about to grab Lily's fries.

All in a Day

I'm still sans camera over here: but you know what's funny? Since using my phone to take pictures, it's actually become easier to chronicle little things. I suppose it's something about being liberated from that clunky camera that makes it easier to capture candid moments here and there. When I look over my pictures from the last few days, they seem to speak more to what our daily experience is around here. We spent the day with our table covered in drawing paper. It lasted us through a playdate, a quiet time, and served as a lovely tablecloth for dinner.

While waiting for some papers to print for an upcoming birth class, I popped over and enjoyed a cup of tea all by myself. For old time's sake, I bought a newspaper to go with it, but after reading a few pages, just put the paper down and enjoyed a moment of lovely peace. News is overrated.

And what would the day be without a nice evening routine? How did these guys know the drill so perfectly well? And now, just as the kids are all tucked in bed, I slip out the door for a little get together with the neighborhood ladies. Isn't it amazing how much life fits into one single day?

New Recipes

We have been enjoying Every Day Food shows and recipes for the past few weeks now. Simple, tasty, and usually a little bit interesting, plus the recipes are well organized and easily accessible on their website. Last night's menu: Braised Mediterranean Chicken and Polenta from the "Cheap Cuts" episode (of course I am a sucker for such a title!). The girls have been quite the hands in the kitchen! I didn't have to chop a single vegetable last night. Just the thing to mix things up in the kitchen.

What have you been cooking?

These Midwinter Days

He's sitting! After a week of "sitting up boot camp," in which we helped him practice sitting up all on his own whenever we thought of it, he is an absolutely proficient sitter, thank you very much. Did you know that children in cultures where babies are worn tend to sit later than others ? In many, they actually walk before they can sit up, because sitting is just not all that natural a position for babies (and let's face it, Hugo is usually either in a carrier or on his tummy scooting around)? This was my consolation as I realized that Hugo was on a slightly later sitting timetable than our other kids. You've got all the time in the world, kiddo!

Puzzles, train sets, legos, and large amounts of coloring have filled these midwinter days. Today it has warmed up, and I can't wait to chase the kids around outside for a bit.

A piece on our chalkboard entitled "The solar system," made by Zosia. I love all the little planets around the very big sun. We are a little obsessed with the solar system right now. Star gazing, constellations and mythology fill our evenings. This is a pretty amazing universe we live in, isn't it?

Odds and Ends

Alright. It seems I'm without camera for a few days here (did you know a camera card can just up and split in two? It can: it happened today!). Well, in the meantime, here are a few pictures from our snow day, and a few little housekeeping points.

(The daffodils had already come up, thinking it was spring, and now they're coated in snow. Come on, little guys, you can make it!)

I've added a couple of lists: "On My Nightstand" features books I'm reading through (usually in a slow, meandering sort of way). "We're Reading" shows whatever books I'm reading with the girls. I'll do my best to update both of these lists on a weekly basis.

I'll be back with a few camera pictures over the coming days. It seems there are just so many new exciting things around here to capture and share!

A Birthday Present

It's always so hard to come up with a good present for a post-Christmas Birthday. Not only does it have to be a good present compared to other birthday presents, but it has to be a good present compared to Christmas presents. And with Ben's birthday falling on December 28th, he truly does have a Christmas birthday. Whew!

(steel cut oats, blueberries, almonds, and raw milk. The best!)

This year, I knew just the thing: the most perfect, wonderful present I could think of. The opportunity to sleep in, one day a week, for the whole year.

(We're not actually sleeping. Nor are we, apparently, very good at pretending)

I had some doubts about my ability to keep up with it: getting up with the earliest riser. I have been known to like sleeping in myself. But so far, it's the best! I get up with the first one or two little ones who are awake, and get some lovely time in a quiet house. I make coffee, light a candle, and today, even made some delicious steel cut oats for breakfast.

And I suppose the truth is that Ben doesn't even like to sleep in that late. Which is good, because I think we would miss him too much.

And today, not only did he wake up to coffee and a hot breakfast, but a blanket of snow. Magic!

From Ben's Phone

Because I always love seeing what other people find beautiful and interesting, here are a few pictures off of Ben's phone over the past half year or so (all pictures his, except, I think, the one of Ben hugging a Christmas tree). It was fun for me to get a different perspective into this little family of ours! I hope you enjoy it, too.

Balance

Have you all heard of balance bikes? I'm sure you have: they're basically little bikes without pedals or gears. The idea is that toddlers can learn how to balance using these bikes (doing something called "coasting" in which they run up some speed and then lift their feet up). Then, when they are really really good at coasting, they can switch to a regular old bike and all they need to learn how to do is pedal.

See? That's coasting! "Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause" gave Lily an actual bona fide balance bike (Lily firmly believes Mrs. Clause is involved in the present delivery, however, she does not enter your home, because, "She's shy.")". We realized that Zosia's "big girl bike" was both a bit too big for her and over her head. Our solution? Ben took the thrift store bike we bought for her a year ago for $2.99 and took off the pedals and gears. According to Ben, all you need to do this is 2 wrenches, a screwdriver, a hammer, and some elbow grease. I'm only wishing we had thought of this in time to do it for both girls!

Ta da! And then when it's time, you can always put the pedals back on. For now, we're loving the balance bikes: it's amazing how quickly the kiddos pick up on it! We're balance biking all around the neighborhood these days.

Snow Day

I'm calling today a snow day, just because it's the closest we've gotten this year! With flurries coming down for the past couple of hours, it has given us just enough time to run outside and try to catch a little snow on our tongues. I'm taking this as a good omen of more snow to come. Come on, we have to go sledding at least once. And in other news, I successfully made a fire in the fireplace! Clearly magic is in the air.