Monday, August 31, 2009

New beginnings

I have so much to chronicle.

Ellie is crawling all over the place and has finally started to enjoy eating table food. Well I say "enjoy" loosely, it means really that she tolerates it, gets that it should be something she puts in her mouth and not some foreign object that will be projectiled out all over me.

Luke is starting to put sentences together: "Mama, backhoe is hidin." I love that he knows what a backhoe is but cannot for the life of him say "construction trucks" that comes out as "dung gun gungs".

He immediately removes his shoes when he get in the front door and wants his baseball cap hung up on the hook. Everything in it's place you know.

And! He pees in the potty nearly every night.

They are growing and changing and so am I.

I just submitted a little essay to a writing contest. I'm sure it's more amateur than anything but at least I challenged myself and did it. I also have taken on another challenge. A triathlon. Yeah, you read that right. It's next July, I have time and I thank Amanda for the push.

We never stop growing, there's always something new around the corner and regardless life is too short to sit idly by. Regret be damned. Ellie isn't going to just sit on the floor wondering what it's like to be mobile so I'm not either.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

The irreverent 'rents are we

His hands were covered in pizza sauce, her face was barely visible through the apples and apricots strewn from ear to ear, and there was me and John between them playing referees.

I had made homemade pizza, Luke's favorite and Ellie was armed with two jars of Earth's Best baby food. Easy night, peaceful meal we thought. Most nights Luke picks at this or that, sometimes he'll lap it up (french toast, spaghetti, couscous, avocado, quesadillas and mac'n cheese are always homeruns), and some nights he takes one look at what I have served before him looks at me like, "are you friggin kidding me?" scrunches up his nose and hands it back. Tonight though he knew it was pizza and couldn't wait for it to be ready.

We had worked all day cooking food for the week, cycling the laundry, and organizing some kitchen cupboards as they took simultaneous 4 hour naps. Of course it felt good to get some much needed work done but once we were ready to take a break they woke up, so onward to dinner it was. John started Ellie off who repeatedly would hit the spoon with her flailing hands sending the strained food in the air, hitting the wall, her face, and all over her lap. The more he tried the more food went everywhere but in her mouth, so we switched, I fed her and he entertained Luke as the pizza cooled.

We cut strips of pizza for Luke, of course, just the way he likes it. Ellie ate and played and we danced between them. Luke decided the pizza was too crusty and was done with it after only a few bites when he started handing his saucy strips back to us, nearly landing them on the floor as Ellie hacked and coughed like a degenerate trucker.

We were tired, our kids were playing us like fiddles and we just wanted 5 minutes to eat in peace. John leaned in with a wink and said, "You know these dinner guests really suck."

We cracked up and couldn't stop laughing. They're lovely, beautiful children but sometimes you just gotta tell it like it is.