kitchen "help"

You can pretty much guarantee a tripling of your meal prep time with helpers like these. Good intentions. Easily distracted. (with the exception of David... he is a good helper)

projects

We're on March break here and the days are passing quickly. Today, in addition to watching it snow, we made a T-Rex and a pteranodon. So we can mark "made dinosaurs" on our Life's Accomplishments list.

p.s. yes, both boys needed to go to the bathroom when these pictures were taken.

march 12

March is broken.

36

That's me! It's my birthday and I'm in my mid-to-late thirties. Or 432 months. We had a nice weekend and a good day today. A birthday supper on Sunday with The Dhas family. Thoughtful gifts. Phone calls from family and friends who are like family. Chores done by Joe (he made beds, made everyone breakfast, and unloaded the dishwasher... this took pretty much the whole morning). Lunch with David. Nice weather. And a birthday day supper of pizza and key lime pie (that's what Inside Baby wanted). So happy birthday to me... 36 seems great.

(Annie enjoyed opening this box of ribbon about 8-million times. The reaction was the same every time. Wowee!)

(And important to note in the picture below: David is not giving the finger. He is snapping his fingers to get people's attention for the picture. Snapping. Not giving.)

And while Inside Baby may have requested the birthday pie, it was Annie who appreciated it the most. 

happy birthday grandpa!

a story of something nice

Good day, everyone. I had a doctor's appointment today to check on Inside Baby. My sidekicks Henry and Annie came with me to cheer me on and provide excitement if there was none happening otherwise. While my doctor got me all settled to listen to the baby's heartbeat, Annie and Henry busied themselves with some toys on the other side of the room... until that whoosh whoosh of the baby came loud into the room. Then Henry's head shot up and, with a big smile on his face, he rushed over to me and gave me a big hug. "Is that the baby?" he asked and my doctor said yes, that's the baby's heartbeat. Henry just hugged and hugged with a big goofy grin. Once Annie saw all the hugging, she came over to get some of her own. But I was so happy for Henry to be there and to hear the baby. He is constantly giving the baby hugs and smooches, so it was nice for him to get something in return. Later in the day when we picked Joe up from school, Henry told him right away, "Jojo! We went to the doctor and we heard the baby make a noise!"

Also, for the rest of the day, Annie decided that she, and only she, could love me and hug me. Is this unrelated? I don't know. I hope so. She would, pretty aggressively, push the boys away if they came within a two foot radius of me. Uh, so good luck, Inside Baby, with your big sister. She seems possessive.

And here is a picture of me, seemingly, ignoring her. And then a picture of how she solved that problem.

and even more celebrating

We needed supper and cake at home to make it official.