Haircut and Handstand 31/365

Aaaand.... I have officially completed one month!  Yay me!

Today we finally got the boys in for haircuts.  I am already mourning the loss of Thomas' shaggy look (although it's still long... I'm not ready for any "bigboy" haircuts yet) but the trim means the reemergence of Samuel's curls.  I was ridiculously pleased to see them.

Here he his from the front... new coat, new haircut, new "no more pictures!" attitude.

  

And here he is post-bath and curly.

Meanwhile, Thomas has been perfecting his handstand and I am STILL trying to get a decent picture of it.  He only stays up for about a count of 3-5 before rather ungracefully flopping forward onto his back... c'mon, he's not even TWO yet, let's not get picky!  He DOES get all the way up with his legs up, and tuck his head, but that's what I haven't managed to photograph.  The first is the closest I was able to get and he was about to go forward.  He'd already done about five before I got my camera.  Crazy kid!

 

Not Samuel - 30/365

This is not Samuel.  This is Lucy or, as the boys like to call her, Caaaaahhhht.  And now it becomes obvious why the boys' chairs are so often in need of vacuuming.

Father and Sons 29/365

Chris was reading to Thomas while Sam sat quietly at the other end of the sofa.  Then Tom got rambunctious and jumped down, so Chris switched to reading to Sam.  Obviously this didn't entirely meet with Tom's approval although he was laughing hysterically the whole time.

Laughing Sam - 28/365

Sam is such a ham sometimes.  He actually WANTED me to take his picture.

Art - 27/365

The boys looooove to color with their crayons.  It is a close second to eating the crayons.  I've had this sheet of cardboard on the coffee table in our playroom for a couple of weeks now and it is getting to be time to replace it, but I didn't want to do that without first documenting.  Future Picassos?

Through the Door - 26/365

I've been wanting to take a shot like this for a while.  Still not exactly what I want, but closer!

Silhouette 25/365

I was going for a silhouette here... and failed... but with some post processing, it's not too bad.

Post-Nap Hair 24/365

Exhibit B as to why the boys need haircuts.  Eeesh!

Experimenting with flash in these, bounced off window, flash comp +1

And because these are too funny not to share... the boys followed me into my room, I then went to their room and called them in to get dressed.  They came in looking like this.  Sam proceeded to carry his downstairs and schlep around in it periodically throughout the day.  Goofballs.  Good thing I have a second pair.

Dancing Tom - 23/365

Cheating a little bit here with a video, but I'll post a picture I took today of a recent crochet project as well.  Now, with their theatrical debut, Thomas and Samuel, dancing.  The real music was Abba from the soundtrack of the musical Mamma Mia, but unfortunately it was too close to the camera and sounded terrible.  These kids crack me up, and good grief, Thomas has got some stamina!




And now the picture... I just love the neat look of a tight crochet stitch.

Snow - 22/365

We currently have about 20in of snow on our back deck.  Today when I was looking outside I noticed that there were drip marks in the snow (from the roof) and that they formed long tunnels down into the snow with ice all around the rim.  This was taken late - after 3pm - so the light was terrible.  I may try to take a better shot tomorrow in the sun.

Post-Nap Dance - 21/365

Tongue - 20/365

Not much to say about this one, other than that he is a riot.  Natural light for this one, ISO 500 I believe.

Self Portrait - 19/365

Now my belly will never be flat.  No, it more closely resembles bread dough, and Thomas loves to poke at it.  Carrying two babies totaling 14lbs 14oz will do that to a person.  But still, I am happy.  The boys are more than worth my "fluffy belly".  But today, something amazing happened.

I suddenly looked down and realized that I could tuck in my shirt and actually look pretty good!  For the first time since before I got pregnant, over two years ago.  Not only that, but I actually NEEDED to tuck it in because my jeans are too big. 

To understand the enormity of this change, a "before" picture.  This was taken the day before I gave birth to my boys, at 38wks.  I was measuring 52wks at that point.  Sam was on the near side, weighing 6lbs 14oz and Thomas was on the far side, weighing an even 8lbs.

Time for a Nap - 18/365

Thomas pulled the blanket off of a chair and made himself comfortable.

Time for a Haircut - 17/365

Exhibit A as to why the boys need haircuts.

Family Time - 16/365

Today we had a nice visit with my parents.  They came over to see us and had a great time with the wigglers, including reading to them.

This was shot at ISO2500 because my flash was low on batteries and was taking too darn long to recycle.

Then, later in the afternoon, I was attempting to take some pictures of Thomas in my craftroom turned playroom.  Set him up with some blocks, but forgot that my camera was downstairs.  Ran to get it and of course he was totally "over it" by then, but I thought this block arrangement deserved documentation.  It pales in comparison with his wooden block work, but still fun.

Corner Time - 15/365

Well we finally took down the Christmas trees today.  Yeah, we like to cling to Christmas 'round here.  Taking down the tree meant that I could give the boys back their play area at the end of the living room.  They wasted no time in pulling it apart.

 
And then Thomas started jumping around to test out the padding.

Eesh, we really need to paint the living room.  The walls are currently the paaaaaaalest shade of blue in existence.  Meaning they photograph as cement grey.  I'm thinking a nice pale camel color would be nice.  And Chris might be right about the whole needing curtains thing.  I'm not really a fan (don't block my light!) but man, those windows look bare.  Funny how you notice things more when you're staring at pictures!

Bed Time - 14/365

I wonder if I'm the only one who forgets if the sheets on the guest bed are clean?  Not being sure, once again, I had to make up the guest bed this afternoon in preparation for Chris' parents spending the night.  Naturally the boys wanted to be involved.

Baby Owen - 13/365

Today I was so happy to be able to visit my friend and her newborn baby boy in the hospital.  She's allowing me to take his newborn pictures next week but for now I just took a few quick shots.  He is so adorable!

Snow! 12/365

It started snowing here in the wee hours of the morning, and was still snowing after 6pm, with 19in and counting! 

Here is Thomas looking out at the snow this morning.

We took the boys out for just a brief outing before lunch and they were less than impressed.  This was snapped with my old Fuji P&S.

REVIEW: The OneStepAhead sling bookcase

It seems like most of the people who will be reading this blog are fellow Mamas, so I thought it might be nice to do a review every once in a while, of things that I have found particularly useful for my boys.  Having two of the same age means that things get a double workout!

So here we go...

I love onestepahead.com and have bought a few things from them, but this is probably my favorite so far.

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=536401&cmSource=Search

In the beginning, I just had a low basket in the livingroom where I would put all of their little boardbooks.  It worked okay, but it was pretty small and of course they loved to just dump it over.  I considered getting a regular bookshelf since they have a nice bookshelf in their room, and I love it.  Unfortunately what they love is pulling every single book out and watching it fall to the floor.  I was hoping to find something that would discourage that particular activity!

A friend mentioned this bookcase, and I decided to give it a try.  It holds a lot more than you might think and for some reason doesn't seem to inspire the need to dump the entire contents!  I have the books layered three deep in most places and they are still easy to pull out and put back in again.  It's also pretty easy to stagger things so that you can see a little peek of most of the books and find things easily.  The bonus is those great storage bins below!  I had been using two smallish baskets to hold some of their loose toys, but again, the urge to dump them was great, and I was constantly picking them up or twisting my ankle on block-booby-traps.  They rarely pull the new bins completely out, but they are able to get into them pretty easily, and I can always shift toys around so that if they start getting bored with the things that are out on the floor, they can get a "rest" in the bin while something else makes an appearance.

The other great thing was the ease of assembly.  I had the whole thing together in under fifteen minutes, and it is STURDY.  I almost went all StepfordWives and ironed the canvas slings, which would have added some time, but Chris gave me a funny look when I mentioned it, so I decided to let the books remove the packing creases, and it's worked.

Hope this helps someone out there looking for a good space-efficient storage solution.  I'll add that it also looks great!

Post-Nap Happiness 11/365

Samuel doesn't always wake from his nap so cheerful, but today was a good day!

My Shadows 10/365

This is pretty much how the days go.

Prep Island 9/365

Train table, or kitchen set prep island?  You decide.

Favorite Toys 8/365

Since Thomas and Samuel were little, I would sometimes take pictures of their favorite toys.  I thought I might forget what they'd loved so much at the time.  So, following that habit, here are pictures of three of their current favorites since Christmas.

First, their loveys.  Tom's is on the left and Sam's is on the right.  They each have THREE under the theory that I'd be able to wash them, and still not have to run around searching for the remaining one.  Of course that hasn't stopped me from having to run around searching!

 

Next, their FAVORITE new toy... well, representatives of them... pots and pans for the kitchen set I built them over the summer.  They LOVE them.  They play with them constantly (along with the fruits and veggies, seen yesterday!) and I seriously think I have a couple of future chefs on my hands.  Thomas is particularly obsessed with cooking and will drop just about everything to watch Chris and I when we're cooking.

Lastly, something I didn't think they'd be so wild over, but they are constantly telling me to empty the bag of them so they can play with them... bristle blocks.  I had no idea they were even still around!  Okay, so perhaps they didn't make the model shown below.  There's a chance I'm rather fond of them myself.

And, because Thomas was just so cute playing with this quilt...

Trouble at the Farmer's Market 7/365

Let's just say that the boys really love the break-apart fruits and veggies they got for Christmas...