New Glasses

I decided to go with Penn Avenue, and they were having a buy one get one half off sale so I bought two!

Left: Olive stripe Laura Lynn
Right: Crystal Burgundy stripe Nicky

(Wow, the Nicky pair and higher angle takes 5 pounds off my face.)

Snowy morning Samagrams at Storytime

(I tried to put up the cute hood but he hates wearing anything on his head)

Sunbeam Story Time

Jack came home from church brimming with excitement to share the story they learned in class (called Sunbeams).  It's a familiar story, but with extended edition directorial cut.

Cause I'm a womaaaaaan

Look what I did during naptime:

Ben kindly entertained the kids/put them to sleep while I changed out the faucet in the hall bath.  Not only was it ugly, Jack couldn't turn it on by himself.  Every single time he washes hands, I thought "Man, I need to replace this faucet so I don't have to get off my butt."   It's finally done after 8 months of procrastination. This is why we knew not to get a fixer upper when we were shopping for a new house.  We don't roll that way.

There were some hard to reach nuts and bolts corroded stuck.  I started to distress.  Then I sliced those suckers off with my Dremel tool.

There were leaks all over when testing.  But then I brought back my dialysis plumbing skillz, ID'd the culprits and wrenched the crap out of them.  (Good thing too, because my next troubleshooting step while hooking up in the ICU was to say "Screw it" and make a fancy drip catcher out of an eye-shield mask to guide the water down a drain.  That's only a good a few hours of treatment while I monitor for flooding.)

W-O-M-A-N!

Home improvement

We had our trees trimmed this week. They look so much better (and safer).

Hunt for glasses.

I've been shopping for months for new frames. After two rounds of try-ons from Warby Parker and browsing Target, I ordered a third round, as well as try on kits from three other companies. WP started a trend and now there are are at least a dozen copy cats. The problem is now that I like too many of them . . .

Weekend with the Grands

One of my best friends from high school, Jenni Case, got married last weekend.  This was quite momentous.  Jenni has had, I think at least 14 proposals?  That I know of at least.  So I had to be there to meet the man who finally won her heart.  I was able to visit Grand Junction for the reception, and got to fit in a lot of grandparent time over the long weekend. 





Dad started showing Jack some simple magic tricks.  Jack was astounded!


Jack made them reenact the snowman scene he did in drama class last week. 


Sam had his first solids that week (see pics of that at the bottom).  My folks enthusiastically offered him more meals.  It's fun for them to be able to feed him, especially since he practically refuses bottles now.  He ate banana and oatmeal and drank water from a cup.  The faces he pulls here are from first trying them.  After a few spoonfuls he was happy to eat more. 




Jack and I made Valentine owls.


The beautiful bride and groom!


It's so nice that I can see these girls again for for our big life moments.  Kristin is expecting her third baby (a girl #3) and I just had my baby to show off.  And of course, seeing Jenni in a white wedding dress was amazing.  She looked so happy, I'm so happy for her. 


The reception was at a fun park and after the formalities they inflated 5 bouncy castles and the giant slide.  Jack exclaimed in wide-eyed wonder "This place is AMAZING!"


After church Sunday, trying more food.


Sadly Mom got a flu bug.  Dad had double duty entertaining.  I felt bad that we were having so much fun while she was suffering in her room.  At least it was a quick one.  We were able to visit in the morning and play a little more.  The drive home was lovely and the boys were well-behaved.  I have two really great kids. 


Sam's First Solids
I hadn't posted these photos yet, so let me squeeze them in.  Mushed bananas were received with unsure faces, but he ate a tablespoon full, so they must have tasted good :-)

Dramatic Arts

(I don't know what is up with youtube's audio this week.  A lot of videos are flaking out.  You can turn up the audio on each one as it plays.  Sorry if you have a hard time hearing these.)

What a busy week!  Jack started drama class yesterday at the rec center.  He's going to LOVE it.  He's so into pretending lately.  He told me they pretended to be snowmen, that some kids were snowflakes and he was a stick, like this [lies on floor with arms pressed to sides].  I snickered inside, singing to myself and everybody's saying 'I feel the snow!' 'I feel the cold!' 'I feel the air!' But I felt nothing.  He told me they didn't do any Curious George, which the class was billed as being about.  I told him we would ask his teacher together next week.  But she sent out an email today about the class so I was able to read the schedule to him.  The email is so cute, I thought I'd share it with you

Hi! The actors did so well in class yesterday. They are so sweet, energetic, and creative. It is going to be a fun session! 

Yesterday, we did several activities to get to know each other and to get used to acting in front of each other. We readied our actor's tools: imagination, voice, body, focus, and playing space by doing several drama exercises. 

Starting next week, we will continue doing drama exercises to develop fundamental acting skills and we will play act Curious George stories. I will be bringing in costumes and props for the actors to use. Here are the stories we will be acting:

1/21 - Curious George Goes to a Costume Party

1/28 - Curious George Makes Pancakes

2/4 - Curious George and the Firefighters

2/11 - Curious George's First Day of School

2/18 - Curious George Goes Camping

2/25 - Curious George Visits A Toy Store

3/4 - Parent Sharing - Story TBD

Please remember to have your child use the bathroom before class. 

Thank you!

I love how collegiate the course material sounds, until you get to the reminder to use the bathroom.  Actually, many grown-up activities could use that reminder too.

Today was ballet class again.  Ballet and drama overlap for two weeks.  Today they added a new move to their repertoire.  These are chaines turns:



And this is how you introduce a three year old to chaines turns:



I had 1 1/2 hours after class to get him lunch, give Sam lunch, change everyone's clothes, and pack up to drive to Bailey for musical rehearsal.  This was the first dance rehearsal of the year.  The number will including dancing with canes, which got Jack very enthusiastic.  He watched me working it out at home the night before, and I caught him copying.  He counted along and actually is doing moves from the piece.  Mostly he wanted to wave sticks in the air as long as he could, and I let him so long as he didn't hit anything. 


My favorite part of the rehearsal was when I said "go upstage" to the dancers, and Jack called out to the leads who (correctly) stayed downstage that they need to go upstage too!  He totally knows his stage directions.  Amanda kept Sam and Jack happy for the duration, allowing a successful start to the show (at least from my end).


No videos of Sam, hmm?  Well let's fix that.

Sam is 4 months old

Look who is a third of a year old already!

Sam is all about the mouth.  Everything goes in the mouth.  Especially fabric.  He loves to gum on my scarves and sweater sleeves.

I was bit several times last week.  I wonder if teeth are not far away.  He's super interested in watching me eat.  I got the go ahead to start solids when we feel like it. 

He's a rolly polly guy, mostly side to side.  We need to work on tummy time more, but his pediatrician said he's doing fine. 


He's still topping the charts on growth!  27 inches, 17 pounds 12 ounces today. 


His hand-eye coordination is getting really good.  He can take out his pacifier and put it back in. 


See?  (He succeeded, I promise.  About 2/10 times he gets it right).


He also started conversing in earnest this week.  All day long (if he's not moaning) he's cooing, trying out his voice. 



He likes to watch TV (grrr) and listen to stories and talk to the baby in the mirror.  But his favorite entertainment? This:

Goofing around

So glad my washing machine is on the main floor

It's only 1:30 in the afternoon and we are on blowout #4.



I hate diapers.  Some grad student needs to solve this engineering problem for us. 

On the other hand, it gives me more opportunities for baby belly admiring and neck tickling.

Family of Four

Can you believe we didn't take a picture of just the four of us together since the hospital?  Since I had both boys in nice sweaters (adorable, yes?) I had to take the chance before we bundled up to go to church.  Sure, they are blurry and poorly lit and from the end of my arm, but they exist!













(More outtakes on my flickr stream, up on the right hand side)

Fresh Snow

Samagram!