Awww, family.

Gotta love 'em.


Thank you to the somewhat inept photo studio lady at Sears for capturing this precious moment. :)

Three-plus hours of TV and it's not even 10 AM.

So as it turns out, not just the blog is vomiting today. Sick kid, chance to stay home and get caught up on everything, right? So here's some stuff-age, but really, I don't have pictures of anything but mundane activities, so they'll have to satiate the rabid grandmas everywhere (or at least in two places) that are hankering for some cute kids.

My life looks a lot like this - Harper jumpy jumping and Frankie eating. The kid is a bottomless pit, with a special affinity for the PB&J.

I got myself an ultra-fancy Beco Butterfly baby carrier last week. I've wanted one since I had Harper, and since we probably won't have any more kids, I decided to splurge and spend the big bucks (luckily these hold resale value really well, so I was able to convince Juston that I needed it.) The thing is amazing and very comfortable and since it holds kids up to 45 pounds, Frankie was my guinea pig. (He only weighs 32 pounds, but whatever.)


This is the reason I'm considering adding a hose attachment to our kitchen sink. Self-feeding rears its messy face!



Instead, there's a nightly bath at our house, where Harper gets all new-baby-smell fresh each night. Last night, Frankie joined in on the action, complete with bath ducks for all. Can you say 'blackmail'?



Other news...um, I'm still working three jobs (one freelance writing exhibits for Turner, one drop-in childcare - can't beat free half price on my days off and since I only work one day a week, that leaves most of 'em!, one teaching) and that keeps me pretty busy. The 5k in the heat wasn't too bad, I even got a decent time considering I hadn't run outside in weeks. The race this weekend is going to be so crowded (upwards of 55,000 people) that I won't be able to do more than a steady jog even if I wanted to go faster. My dog is a fleabag and our house is a wreck. We're not doing anything for the 4th of July, but our trip to Dallas is soon! And I'm considering chopping the hair off; this 'long hair' stuff is for the birds, I tell ya! That's life, what can I say?

Blerg

That's the sound of blog vomit.

It's been busy around here, again, as usual. I haven't seemed to have my camera handy lately, either. I've been working my little heart out; it's the 'three part-time jobs' time of year when I go into summer overdrive and think that I can do it all! I'm also having an identity crisis as I realize that my kids are gonna go and grow up on me and then what am I going to do with my life? Do I go back out and try my hand in the corporate world or do I keep on 'winging it' with the kids and the part-time work and the community stuff? These are all rhetorical questions, by the way.

In other news, there's really no other news. Harper has two teeth, which means that I've slept so awesomely, if your definition of awesome is being woken up about four times a night and waking up at 6:30 AM after about six total hours of sleep, maybe less. It's a good thing I have the cutest baby ever; cuteness is a survival tactic when mom is in crazy no-sleep mode. Frankie is unusually precocious and active, but we're finding ways to siphon off the energy with swimming pools and trampolines and child labor-like activities. (It's too bad we can't find a way to siphon it off into some sort of money-making endeavor!) Juston continues to toil away at the Willard House. Oh, and it got robbed! Yeah, we should've seen that one coming a mile away. Luckily the damage was minimal and some pawn shop is now in the possession of a really nice tool belt and air compressor. Kindezi stuff is in full-on mode with teachers starting next month. I'm also training for a 10k. I can run the distance, no problem, but I'm afraid that if you factor in running outside when it's a billion degrees with 100% humidity, there's a chance that I might pass out and get trampled by the 54,999 other runners (okay, more like a few hundred as I'll be behind most of them with my solid 10 minute mile. I just can't compete with those "I can run 6 miles in 25 minutes" show offs.) But hey, nice strong legs!

One day, the future will arrive. And with it, pictures. And possibly a vacation to somewhere. Or not.

Delicious!

Actually, I figured out what the internet *really* needs and it looks like this:

It's almost as if we're living the National Geographic Channel right here in the West End.

(P.S. My videos are in HD and I'm too lazy to change their size to fit in this window, so to get the full effect, you can click on it and watch the video over at YouTube.)

Kidlets.

After propping her up, I was able to step away and snap this picture of Harper in a sitting position, which she held for a good thirty seconds on her own. She can get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth, but she'll be darned if she's going to sit up on her own.


Earlier, Frankie told me he didn't like the baby. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to hold her. Huh? The reasonings of an almost four-year-old child, I suppose. So I let him. What started out as this:


quickly devolved into this as Frankie realized he didn't have a prayer holding something that is half of his own body weight:



For the record, Harper weighed 15 lbs 11 oz as of last week. Frankie weighs 32 pounds as of his sedation dentistry today. Yep, Frankie went in for sedation and had six, count 'em, six cavities filled. He was only supposed to have three filled, but since he was already under, they did some extras that they found while poking around in there. We now have to hold him down and floss his teeth nightly, which we've been doing for six weeks. It's not pretty. I'm also going to swear off anything gummy for that kid as apparently they aggravate cavities and he has two more forming. What is up with his mouth? He must have decay forming in his spit.

Other than highly-involved dental procedures, our lives are pretty boring. Since there's no preschool, I spend my spare time entertaining a preschool-age child who is highly social and needs almost constant interaction (usually while carrying a big baby in a sling.) When I'm not doing that, I'm grading papers - or feeling Harper's gums for errant teeth that have decided to poke through the surface (for the record, we're still at one, and that was as of yesterday.) Juston spends his time watching movie trailers while rendering video clips at work, yippee. Things are holding steady, but it's getting kinda dull. Ideas of how to 'shake things up' are duly appreciated. Ideas on how to get a full night's sleep are also greatly appreciated as I haven't had one of those in several months.

Oh, and did anyone notice that the baby has HAIR? Frankie was totally bald until well past age one, so this is an unexpected surprise. I think it's also high time that we dressed Bridget in another costume and took some pictures; that's what the internet *really* needs.

um, creative...

Frankie 'performs' for his last day of Creative Movement. He loves his dance class, which is essentially pre-pre-ballet for three and four year olds. In this clip, he twirls, sashays, and bifs it. Next fall when he takes the class again, I will definitely make him a cape because who wouldn't look better sashaying with a cape?



(Please ignore the part at the beginning when Harper tries to eat the camera. Eating anything she can get in her mouth is her new favorite pastime.)