Long time no pictures

These are from January.  Freakin' hilarious!  There is nothing like fleece and baby fine hair to produce perfect static.  Patrick's face could not be more priceless!

Super Mom!

It's kind of a long story but my children have intense anxiety over traveling in a car without water and a bag of snacks.  I take full responsibility for this...I simply like to be prepared in case we get stranded somewhere and someone is starving or dying of thirst.  Anyway, they now require travel rations no matter where we're going.  Which includes our morning 15 minute commute to work/school/daycare.  Recently Natalie has been wanting yogurt.  I am happy to commute with yogurt and she's happy to wait to eat her snack until she's happily hanging out with her buddies in Miss Jennifer's room.  Patrick, on the other hand, has not figured out that eating dairy in a small container, with a spoon, in a messy 1yo way, in my car and is definitely not happening and is not happy to wait till he's hangin' in Miss Tracy's class.  So, I have to sneak Natalie's yogurt into the car every morning or suffer the consequences.  And by consequences I mean listening to Patrick wail "ooooooogurrrrrr, oooooohhhgurrrrrr, mine ooooooohhhgur" for that entire commute. 

Fast forward to Wednesday morning. 

Natalie: "MOMMY!  You have gone and forgot my yogurt AGAIN!"

Me:  (thinking: what is she talking about?  When did this yogurt forgetting qualify as a habit?) "No, I didn't forget it.  I was just extra sneaky this morning.  It's here with me in the front seat."

Natalie: That's awesome Momma! (gosh she's so southern all of a sudden...note the "gone & forgotten phrasing of her first accusatory sentence)  You're like SUPERMAN!  Now picture her shooting off fake guns in the back seat....

Natalie: Wait, you're SUPER MOM!!!!  More fake gun shooting and psssshew gunshot sounds from the back seat.

Me: (Glowing and laughing hysterically) Thank you Natalie, I love being Super Mom!

What I did not mention as I was glowing over my fabulous Super Mom self was that I'm fairly certain that Superman does not shoot off guns.  And that my shooting off guns in our car would most definitely disqualify me from being any variety of Super Mom.  Unless maybe you're friends with Sarah Palin....which I most definitely choose not to be.  Anyway, after this whole gun shooting, Sarah Palin friending stream of consciousness went on in my head it occurred to me that I'm one step away from being CRAZY MOM!

I've gone and done it!

I joined the gym.  It's been over 5 years since I last worked out in a gym and it shows.  My weight isn't all over the place but I'm just so soft...ack.  Anyway, I've been twice and am going with my friend Emily (who, by the way, could double as a Southern Blonde sweet talking drill sergeant) and I am super excited to be doing this for myself.  And super sore.  Super, super sore!

Way To Go, Natalie! Way to Go!

On Saturday Natalie had her kindergarten screening at the private school we very much wanted her to attend.  She was scared despite our constant reassurance that she was only going to meet new friends and play for an hour.  Soon after meeting the teachers she did warm up and admitted afterward that she'd had a very good time.

Fast forward to today...  I had the follow up to the screening to get the results.

Nat has been accepted to the Luther Memorial School in Richmond and we're thrilled.  When I spoke to the admissions woman today she was equally excited about Natalie.  And in a wild moment of parent pride and gushing let me fill the rest of you in on the details.

Natalie tested in the 98% and fully out of about half of the 6yo criterea.  We've known for awhile that she's got a natural atheletic ability and was very bright.  We're glad to see that everyone agrees with us!

Teeth!

Patrick is 1 molar shy of a full set.  I'm not sure where it is but I'm not putting any fingers in there so we'll just continue to resort to tickling him until we can visually verify it :)  I suspect it will come right in time for natalie to lose her first tooth.   Her bottom right front tooth is hanging sideways in her mouth right now and is super wiggly.  I desperately want to wiggle it constantly until it comes out.  She has declined my help.  Gah!

Grammie's Artwork

The Hub's grammie was a painter and we have several pieces of her artwork.  Unfortunately the style of our home did not lend itself to the barnwood frames that his grandfather had made for them....and the barnwood frames did not lend themselves to being moved across state lines and between homes.  Long story short we had these lovely paintings but they had no frames and were at risk of being damaged.  I finally brought them in to the have them custom framed over the holidays and am thrilled with the result.  They're hanging in the diningroom and while I have no aptitude for interior decorating I think the placement is flattering and came out well. 

And of course it touched all our heartstrings to see them on the wall.  It's really nice to have this connection to family in our home.

Garden Journal?

Yes, it's 1/14/11 and there is a cold breeze under cloudless blue skies...that has not stopped my mind from wandering toward the garden.

Anyone out there ever done a garden journal?  I really feel like this is the year that I need to get a handle on what is in the yard, flower beds, garden, etc.  I've lost all track of it and when I was planting bulbs this fall I kept digging up other stuff I'd planted earlier.  And then I had a few things send up shoots and I have no idea what they are. 

So, I need to get organized.  I want to know what is in the yard.  I want to know when I'm supposed to fertilize it, prune it and what I should plant near it based on size and color and bloom season. 

I think I will start with a small flower bed near the kids play set.  I know I have a tree there (no idea what kind anymore), a peone, and some bulbs.  As this stuff comes to life this spring I intend to catalog it.  Then repeat for each area of the yard. 

Now, how do I organize all of this into a binder?  Here is where I need suggestions.

And I need some kind of a calendar to remind me what I'm supposed to do when.

And yes, I'm aware that I'm type A.