Springtime Musings

My house has a great spring-time yard. In the summer, there is so much mowing to be done that enjoyment is overwhelmed by work (or by guilt from watching Ian work). The girls will probably love the fall, as there are endless piles of leaves in which to jump. I'm sure I will teach them this - since I am the fun parent. Its true; just ask Ian. He is usually anti-fun things like jumping in freshly raked leaf piles, or getting messy faces from spaghetti, or splashing in the tub, or playing in sand...I could go on.

But back to spring-time. I can't take credit for the wonderful spring yard. It was all done before we moved in. I can't even take credit for the red mulch which sets off the green and flowers beautifully...that mulch was purchased by Ian on accicident. But even if I can't take credit for the loveliness, I can enjoy it. This afternoon I spent about an hour pulling dandelions and these obnoxious purple things that grow all over my grass (for about four days our lawn looks like a wonderful meadow...then the purple flowers die and our lawn looks like it should be hiding some sort of avacado-green refridgerator, broken-down car up on cinder blocks, or at least a hill-billy with a shot-gun*). Now, there are times when pulling dandelions seems like work, but today was so nice out, with the sun shining and a warm-ish breeze, that today it was much more like play. It was the kind of day that made me think that I could/should pick up gardening as a hobby.

Now, I'm chillin' with some chilled iced tea (made yesterday via the sun - yum!), waiting for the girls to wake up. Since they started walking, they've become pretty good nappers. Which is nice - I mean, I LOVE hanging out with them, but last year, when they napped for about 25 minutes at a time on a good day, they made it impossible to do things like pull dandelions. While they nap, I thought that I'd share my good mood with all of you (a FANTASTIC way to avoid writing an Econ test, by the way). I can't send you all the flowers (first, they would die before they got to you, I'm sure; second, there just aren't that many); but I can try the next-best thing.

So, want to see a bit of my yard, but don't have the time for a trip to CR? I need break from just showing off my kids :-) Here, I'll take you on a tour:

Dwarf Magnolia - its best blooming year since we've been in the house.


These are naked lilies, they won't bloom until July, but when they bloom it will just be a naked stalk with a flower - no greenery...pretty neat, actually.


We have tulips all over the place. Not all are in bloom, yet, but I love the ones that are.

Virginia bluebells

I don't know what these are. But I think that they are neat.

Our Bleeding Hearts grow like weeds...pretty weeds, though...

And not just flowers: my raspberry patch is out with lots of new shoots! Hopefully it will be a knock-out crop with lots of berries for ice cream, muffins, salads, mmmmmm....

We planted some rhubarb last year. By the end of the summer, I was a bit worried, but it came back...

You didn't think I'd completely leave them out of a post, did you?

Cora's working pretty hard here to get that bucket pushed all. the. way. across the patio.

Evaline is walking up the stairs holding the railing - just like a BIG girl! Help from Mom? No thank you! Where did my babies go???

This was earlier this month...Cora's nose is all scrapped up from when she did a nose-dive on the Neilly's driveway. I blame Jenny. (Just kidding Jenny!)

*I hope that I didn't offend any hill-billies with that comment. As I was typing it, an old episode of the Colbert Report came to mind where he made a joke about people still making fun of hill-billies and how they were one of the last groups which it was socially acceptable to poke fun at. The comment was not intended with any ill-will, and I realize that not all hill-billies have shot-guns or overgrown yards. I'm really not someone who stereotypes. Really.

Happy Easter!!

Yikes! It's been far too long since I've posted. Nothing much has changed...except for how the girls have grown. I have GOBS of pictures that I may get around to posting at some point. And I have a few funny stories, I know that I do...but none are coming to mind right now. So...here are some pics of our Easter. I'm betting that Ian would like everyone to know that HE picked out the dresses.


For a wild comparison, check this link out after you've viewed the first two pics...


Evaline wouldn't sit still...




But Cora would...




They are both REALLY into "doggies" (du-gee) and "kitties" (keee) right now. They drove the Petersen's (Sr.) cat crazy on Sunday!

ALWAYS on the go...

If a REAL kitty can't be found, a play one will do...(the girl would NOT smile for the camera, though!)

Did I mention that Evaline wouldn't sit still?

Miss Cora, with her pretty headband. No hair, but a pretty headband does the trick!

Evaline and Daddy - pals once again (we've had a couple months of her being stricktly mama's girl. That got old pretty fast...but she eventually came out of it).

The Green-Eyed Monster is beginning to rear its head!

I didn't know that jealousy would kick in this soon. But at (almost) 15 months, here it is. It is a good thing that we have two of most things, because one always wants what the other has. Well, maybe not so much anymore - they might not want the same thing, but one exactly like it. They are ok with the other playing with a phone, a sippy, a favorite animale - whatever - as long as they have one, too.

The worst has come just recently, though. As seen in the last post, Evaline's hair is finally long enought to do up in super-cute pony- and pig-tails, complete with bows. Cora, however, still has nothing but glorified peach-fuzz. Something of which she has recently become painfully aware.

Last weekend, I did Evaline's hair:

(look at those curls!!)


And from the moment I started combing Evaline's mane, Cora fussed until she had her hair done, too. This is, apparently, a magic barrette that attaches itself to practically nothing.


Today, since it was Saturday and I had time, I decided to try something even more adventurous with Evaline...pigtails!


When Cora saw her sister she got VERY excited and LOVED it! Couldn't stop laughing. Until she realized that she couldn't have the same. I tried giving Cora a comb - one of her favorite toys, she loves to "comb" her own hair (aka, rub the comb against her head) - and she burst into tears, grabbed the sides of her head - right where Evaline had her pigtails - and just sobbed uncontrollably, until I took Evaline's pigtails out.


A little later Cora got very upset to see me wearing a headband. So I got another one of mine and cinched it with a safety pin to make it fit her, which she wore with pride:



Now, I suppose if I ever want to do anything to Evaline's hair again, I'd better get some super-cute, super-girly headbands for Miss Cora. Anyone know where I can get some? I've looked at Target and Walmart and am sorely disappointed with the selection.

I Love ONE!

As in the age, not as in "one and not the other." The past few months have been some of the most fun so far. I have loved every stage of these girls' lives, so I could really say this about all of it - but now I think that "fun" is really starting to outweigh the "work" part of having babies. They are very into exploring their environment - wherever they may be. They are also really becoming friends - occasionally (and I do mean occasionally) sharing what they have, or kissing each other when one is sad. They are learning and remembering all kinds of things - when the microwave dings Evaline will get our attention and run to the kitchen pointing at it, if I say their snack is in the fridge they'll run to it, if I say "where do we go to get a new diaper?" they'll run to the bottom of the stairs, then up the stairs and into the bathroom. (Did you notice that the verb I used repeatedly was "run"...yeah, there's a reason for that. Everything is at top speed these days.) Yesterday I noticed that Cora was "reading" in her nook (see below) and she was barefoot. I picked her up and asked her where her socks were, she climbed out of my lap, over to the armchair where she looked underneath and pulled out her socks. They are constantly amazing me. So. Much. Fun.

I realize that it has not only been ages since a post, but ages and ages since any photos...so...here's to making up for lost time! (and in no particular order...just how they randomly uploaded in to the blog - I feel like I have so little time these days, I'm just glad that I'm getting stuff up here....)

Cora's reading nook. She LOVES this little place, seriously, her favorite spot in the house. Ian and I can't wait to turn our old date spot (reading at Panera) into a family outing. I think this girl will play along nicely.


Cora the dare-devil!! Do you think I was sending mixed signals when I laughed, took the picture, then told her no-no?


Boxes are SO MUCH FUN!!!

Bathtime is SO MUCH FUN!!!

Ok, so the "see-food" in this picture is kinda icky...but...can you catch a glimpse of those curls?! To die for!!

Another thing I'm loving is the hair that is long enough to do something with...here is my Pebbles -do. She wouldn't smile, so this is the best that I've got - out of about seven tries on two different days.

The first time I let them up here to cook with me. We're making mashed potatoes and they are, once again, having so much fun!

And some a bit older - here's Cora and me at the Petersen Christmas

Bundled up to head out (I think this is Christmas day, too).

And Christmas morning! (notice the tree in the background - behind the baby fence)

Happy Holidaze!...um, I mean Holidays!

I think that Ian and I have officially earned our title of parents after the last week. We celebrated the week before Christmas with another first...our first vomit (and then, our second, third, fourth, fifth...and so on, about every 25 minutes for about five hours).



Some form of a stomach flu bug hit our house very hard - it began with Evaline (poor thing). She and I must have caught it at about the same time, because I had it within about an hour or so of her. Ian came down with it the next night as did my sister, Katie - who Evaline covered in projectile vomit...mere seconds after I handed her over - have I got great timing or what?? (I was paid back, however, when Evaline threw up later and with no vomit-catching-recepticle to be found within arms reach I substituted with my own cupped hands. That was something that I never saw myself doing pre-parenthood.) Ian's dad also came down with the bug, and also my brother, who is in town for the week from Nebraska. Apparently this thing was not only highly-gross, but also highly contagious. Cora, who must have some sort of freakishly strong immune system (something she did not inherit from her mother), because - although she spends most of her day sharing slobber with her sister - did not get sick.



But enough about that.



Christmas break officially began on Wednesday, and the rest of this week is full of family-fun! Then a full week off, with hopefully lots of time to relax and re-coup from one busy, hectic, but always entertaining year....although I have lots of school work to get done and Ian has a large stack of papers to grade. But...we are enjoying our time so far.

Good luck to everyone who has to travel - stay safe, and have a wonderful and joyful time with friends and family this holiday!

mmmmm....December....

Switching from bottles to sippies and real food has been much less of an ordeal than I had anticipated. I had visions of massive tantrums, eating strikes, you name it...but none of that has happened. There are, to be sure, times when the girls refuse what we serve - Evaline in particular - but they are infrequent, and usually undramatic. Previously, when Evaline didn't want something, or didn't want any more of something, she would drop it onto the floor. But she now will look at us, and sign and say "all done". So then we'll take the food away and she is much happier. However, if we leave the food in front of her for very long after she has announced that she is done, the food will end up on the floor. But we can't say that we weren't warned. :-)

Cora, always our sensitive soul, has some cute/interesting stories to share...although I'm not sure how funny they will be through this medium, primarily because I'm sure that I will waylaid and sidetracked and will have a difficult time just telling the story.

1.) Evaline likes to mess with the doors to the TV cabinet, and we try to discourage this. Not because it is necessarily dangerous, but because it has been extremely annoying while trying to watch TV (although we've changed some things...see the photos below). So we tell her "No". And since Evaline thinks that it is funny to test us (when we say "No" she thinks that it means to smile her devilishly cute smile and try again, and again, and again...and then to fake-us-out by pretending to do it and laughing), we sometimes have to say "No" a little forcefully. So, anyway, we told Evaline "No," and Cora's eyes welled up with tears. A little bit later, Cora went over, ever-so-cautiously, to look at and begin to play with the doors; and we said "Cora, no-no" very seriously, but not harshly. She turned and looked at us, her bottom lip stuck out and quavering then she burst into tears - no, sobs - and ran from the room. Evaline, standing nearby looked at her run off, looked at us, looked at her, looked at us, and then ran off to console her sister. Or to plot revenge.

2.) In a similar story, Cora was playing in the kitchen cabinet at my parents and somehow got a bag of chocolate chips opened (not a new bag, but one that had been secured with a twisty-tie). She guiltily brought the bag into the living room and my parents said "Oh Cora, what have you done?" And again, massive waterworks...obvious that she felt so bad for having spilt the chocolate chips. Evaline, however, wasted no time in racing to the kitchen to see if she could help clean up (aka, eat) the mess. Dad had to corral the girls while mom did the official cleaning up.

Related to chocolate chips (and the reason why the bag had ever been opened in the first place), this past weekend was a cookie-making-extravaganza over at my parents. My sister, my mom, and I made triple-batches of about four or five of our traditional Christmas cookies. A long day, but what fun! As you can see, this cookie-making tradition has been going on a LONG time..............

28 years ago, almost to the day...


and today (well, not today today, really this past Sunday). Not much changes, eh? I believe it is even the same mixing bowl...

In honor of the first snow fall...and what a snow fall its been!...here are the girls' winter outfits. Please keep in mind that it is extremely difficult to get a good picture of both of them at the same time. And please also excuse the awful picture of me... I wouldn't normally put myself on display like this, but seriously, could these hats (not mine) be any cuter??? By the way...I took the girls outside today, and they don't like snow. Not. One. Bit. Screams. Tears. (for about an hour afterwards from Cora, too)

Here is our naughty, naughty Evaline...playing with the TV doors. Maybe she thinks its OK to do because she gets her picture taken when she does it...Do you see that grin? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to say "No" like you mean it when you are greated with that grin??

Here is the girls' new favorite place to play. Its where our TV used to be...you can see their old favorite place to play here or here.

We brought one of our (four) sets of carseats into the house to re-size for winter coats before we turned their seats around (!!!)...the girls thought it was the best jungle-gym EVER!