Caspian's Big Boy Bed

But first, fuzzy peach blossoms. I am intensly proud of my orchard. We have a shot at getting some fruit this year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Caspian transitioned to a big-boy bed without a lot of warning. It was K's call, and it was sudden, and though we had the bed and the mattress, we didn't have the bedding, so he's been in a motley mismatched set of everything-- including several pink baby blankets-- for awhile.

No more!

Behold, blue flannel with snowmen and a sunny duvet, courtesy of Nonni (as are Annaliese's flannel blue sheep in the corner.) Between their tricked-out beds and the Princess Castle in the corner (courtesy of auntie Caitlin), these kids have a really nice room.

Adjacent to the parents for yelling. Elephant humidifier for their wee noses. Desk for their crayons, and currently, handfuls of muesli.

Bookcase full of books and stuffed animals.

They also have a ladybug who projects stars on their ceiling at night as well as a "celestial body" nightlight that shines a very accurate picture of a planet or the moon (honestly, I don't know).

I am lucky to have them. And they are lucky to sleep cosy in flannel, surrounded by gifts from family and friends.

It is garden time, and spring time, and I'm finding it's a season that brings out the best in all of us. The kids are happier-- why? Older, playing outside, I don't know. I'm more patient; it's easy to engage with the kids in doing something when it's seeding tomatoes, or planting a rosebush. At this very moment in time there are two fresh eggs, nestled in premier potting soil, sitting in a flowerpot outside. K's always a great dad, but he too seems inspired by the weather, taking the kids on monster walks, from the house to the lumberyard to the store, stopping to talk about what they see, instead of popping them in the car. And our house is lovely-- windows and doors open, fresh air flowing, shining in the spring sun.

Everything is just nicer.

My pansies survived the winter and have come back beautifully.

Plum trees are budding out. Peach trees are about too.

Yesterday afternoon I started dinner before the kids got home so everything was easy to assemble. We had frittata (with our eggs) and baby bella mushrooms with baby garlic, fresh ciabatta, and a spinach, strawberry, and toasted walnut salad.

Today it's raining and we're all end-of-the-week grumpy so I think we might have apple pancakes for dinner.

On that note... have a good weekend!

Spring is Here

And I have the open windows, daffodils in a vase, and budding fruit trees to prove it.

Off to get the bebes and stay outside.

Excuses, Excuses

Work, travel to DC, home again home again.

With presents for my babies.

Annaliese donned her-- yellow butterfly hairclips and a pink embroidered Ecuadorean dress-- immediately.

Caspian shared his bowls with his sister cos he's nice that way.

They fought over the non-pictured but totally awesome monkey backpack though.

Whatev'. Nice to see my babies.

Blogging, gardening, parenting, sweetheartin' ... resuming NOW.

a brief whine

It has been a llllooooonnnggg week, one that sucker-punched me. I was all like "yay! no one's sick, no one's traveling, and it's 70 degreees!!! weeee!"

And then Tuesday, I sent Jessica, my manager, home because she was sick.

It is Friday.

Haven't seen her since.

And when Jessica doesn't work... I have to. Which has meant for this week of glorious spring weather, I have been in the store, gazing out, for 13 hours a day. I trudge home in the dark and kiss K and tell him how amazing he is for solo-parenting and then he leaves to work on his projects.

I am very tired, and more than a little lonely.

But hopefully, Jessica will be back at work today. Which means that after 6 hours here, I will be able to LEAVE.

Which is good, cos it's my sweetie's birthday!

He's turning 30. Big things are planned. Keep posted.

Cue Exhale.

It is becoming abundantly clear that

1. I am driving my nearest and dearest nuts by my focus on the store and

2. There is always something at the store driving ME nuts. (All legiitimate, I assure you. Current crisis? Personnel.)

Conclusion?

I should close the store, get pregnant, and try to be a professional writer again.

Just kidding.

That makes me want to die, a little bit.

Conclusion instead is to practice mentally walking away when I am not "working" and remember to focus on my nearest and dearest.

Which, when they look like this, isn't so hard.

These kids are so damn cute and growing up so quick my heart nearly stops at least once a day.

Yeah, you. You are the cutest damn thing I have ever SEEN. GOLLY day little boys are sweet. You like hot tea and good soup and carbohydrates of all kinds (just like your MAMA) and you are sleeping, for the 4th night in a row, in a BIG BOY BED AND YOU ARE KILLING ME KISS KISS KISS.

I would like to post a picture of Annaliese now but she was being all posey for the camera and squinching her face up like a chipmunk and it doesn't capture how little girl she is, with her cat purse slung over her shoulder and her accessories du jour donned (sunglasses, backpack, pearl bracelet, and red pen that hangs on a necklace string). Suffice it to say that she basically rocks and doing ordinary things with her is really fun now. Like taking walks, or going to the doctor, or... anything. Last Thursday she came to work with me and she was great.

K. (like a retard) asked her on Sunday if she would like a little brother, and she said, "Nooooo, I HAVE a little brother." And then he (TEMPTING THE DAMN FATES I TELL YOU) asked if she would like a little sister instead. And she said, "Noooooo, silly, I AM the little sister."

Well said, child, well said.

That being said, this picture makes me giggle.

End on a high note.

B.T.C. pics

check here.

i have given up on waiting for my new signs to be hung. it's been two+ weeks. here ya go, people.

We Went to the Zoo today.

And we had a really nice date last night.

But given that Caspian's been keeping everyone up all week with his bottom molars arriving and K is down for the count AGAIN, I am too pissy to go into the good things.

The washer broke. We got pooped on. (These two facts do not coexist well.) I drove to Oxford at 75 miles an hour today with a grimacing Annaliese in the back seat. Then she puked. K. went on a three-day business trip AGAIN. Then he came home grumpy and sick.

But! The weather is beautiful-- think first signs of spring-- and the kids are Alright. Caspian's basically talking, if you take the time to converse with him. He gives beautiful wet kisses over and over again. Annaliese says things like "Mommy, cars eat chickens when they're hungry," and her favorite song is Swing Low, Sweet Chariot which makes me feel like an accomplished mother.

I really enjoy NOT having an infant. There are still tantrums, and whininess, and clinging, but the desperate tunnel days of infancy are behind us, and man, it feels good. We're finding our rhythm as a family; K and I no longer have to cram every minute of relaxed time into the hours after the children are asleep. The golden days of them feeding and entertaining themselves while we sleep in on Saturdays are beginning to take the shape of someday possability.

I like 2011. Knock on wood.

Annaliese, in her new tutu, wearing her boots because it was raining and she refuses to let her dancing shoes hit the ground anyhow. She carries them in her ladybug bag and only after she has hugged her best friend Maddie BrockBrock and exchanged compliments on tutus will she plop on her butt and extend her foot for ballet slippers.

The kids now having matching dinosaur PJs, which I LOVE. Sunday morning: cereal, pjs, and Bob the Builder so I can have a quiet cup of coffee. It's a trade I can live with.

Lounging with the bebes, watching something or another, loving how they cuddle with me now.

In another year, people are going to think they're twins. Caspian's still 4 inches shorter but he's within a pound and a half of Annaliese's weight and growing like a weed. I kind of think of them as twins, though 17 months is not Irish-twin territory. There's one on my right and one on my left and it feels right. The urge to have another baby hit hard 6 months after Annaliese's birth, but we're 19 months in with Caspian and while we haven't totaly ruled it out, both of us shake our heads when it comes up.

Plus a rash of people have gotten pregnant lately. And the thrill of it Not Being Us is pretty heady.

I wonder if that will change.

Anecdote

Caspian calling "Mommy" from his room. I go in, say, "What?" (He'd dropped his pacifier.)

Annaliese says, "Brother wants you to spank his butt."

"Really?"

"Yes." Pause. "I don't want to be his best friend."

Kid better learn to talk soon.

New Year, Same Old

Maybe that's our New Year's Resolution? To resist the temptation of change and just stick with what we've got-- renovations, cars, kids, business, garden-- for a whole solid year?

I guess.

We'll see.

For anyone making New Year Resolutions out there....

Buy from independent stores. Eat locally produced food. Walk the walk. Real people are trying to make real livings doing something honest, and if we don't support them, they'll stop.

Just sayin'.

Finally

First, Quebec City pics here.

Greetings from Quebec City

Other than K asking me to speak in French as we wander around, and I'm all like "HONEY I DON'T SPEAK NO FRENCH," we're having a pretty story-book time. The story? Mommy and Daddy get to DO WHATEVER WE WANT!

I feel like we just robbed a bank and got away with it.

It's 2011. Annaliese just turned three. Caspian is doing GREAT. But home life aside, it was reassuring to jump in a car alone with my husband yesterday and spend 7 hours getting to a city made of stone above a river and finding out that kids, chores, life aside... we're still the same kids we always were, packing cold pizza and going on a road trip.

Of course, we are now staying in a suite in a fancy auberge complete with soaking tub, rainfall shower, duvet, and Bose sound systems. Age has SOME benefits :)

White Christmas

It really happened.

I know, I know, the East Coast was paralyzed. But here in Mississippi, a little girl and her awesome auntie suited up and went out into the snow.

The snow was gone by the afternoon, but the snowman stayed on our porch for days.

I feel about 100 times better this week than I did last weekend. But even in the midst of blah-ness and the sore throat, watching my kids with eliza and nonni was awesome. It's an amazing thing, the ability of the extended family to take the new children of the next generation-- ones they had no part in creating-- in as their own.

It was super. Thanks, family!

Man, I can't believe I was sick on Christmas.

It made for a less whimsical fun time than I was hoping. All the ingredients were there-- my family, a frickin' GREAT Christmas dinner, even snow! A white Christmas in MISSISSIPPI!-- except good health. A lesson to appreciate the rude good health I usually have.

Pictures to follow.

This weekend

Adter the day of illness for me and between the morning and evening illness of K, we burnt leaves.

It was fun.

LIFE IN A NUTSHELL

K was gone and now he is home. The difference is that life is sweet when he's around; when he's gone, it's more of a drudge. (It must be love!) (Ya think?)

Some difficult store things going on that have resulted in me losing /firing a vendor. It makes me a little sick, really. I want to help people's businesses, not hurt them. But, of course, I had my reasons, and they're pretty compelling. But still.

Running my own business has been like a personal improvement course: I can't procrastinate, I can't let things slide, I have to have difficult conversations. For someone like me who hates it when people don't like me... it's been an education.

And Christmas is coming. My family is coming. The third year my mama and sister have trekked down to Mississippi, and I'm so glad. It wouldn't be Christmas without them. And this year, for the first time, we have TWO little kids who know what's going on. We're excited. They're excited. Annaliese has been going around saying, "Jesus's birthday is coming!"

So. We're doing. And vacation, our first-EVER, in 2+ weeks.

So much excitement.

Thank Goodness for Family Day.

I haven't been such a fan of these past three weeks. K's been traveling-- every week (in fact, he's gone again, until late Wednesday night.) I have had to work late at the store more than I like. I have a stomach bug. It's really cold. I found out today one of my main highlight vendors has begun selling her bread at the PigglyWiggly.

So thank goodness for Family Day, otherwise known as No-Work Day.

We take naps in shifts. We eat pancakes. K. makes dinner. We watch a movie, paint, stay in our pjs, have a dance party, read books, take mutiple baths.

It acts as a balm for the week that came before and a brace for the week to come.

And it's important to my little family, so we keep it as sacred as we can.

Happy Monday!

so what did y'all do?

we had lots of maple-syrup-sodden crabs (TYPO! BUT heh!) for breakfast.

decorated.

goofed around.

(they don't make $6 strollers in blue.)

lit our christmas tree, hung it with round ginger cookies, our small precious pile of ornaments, some lights.

goofed around some more, then took a nap.

lots of fun. this is going to be the best Christmas ever. I can feel it in my bones.

It's Wednesday

And K was home for a whole day before departing to Chicago, which means

1. I have to do all the dishes

2. I have to do things like get up early and lay clothes out and forego showers to leave the house only 20 minutes late

3. I don't have anyone to give me kisses and build fires

and 4.

I have to wash all the dishes.

I am officially TIRED. Busy, in a good way, but TIRED. I'd like a day off in an empty house to plant the rest of my bulbs and putter a little. Take a nap. But it ain't happening.

But! December 1st! In a little over a month I am going to both have a three-year-old AND be on vacation with my sweetie husband! How seriously rad is that?

It's nice to have such a full life.

Now I'm going to make a cup of coffee.