Future Chinese acrobat

I think the picture speaks for itself.

Funny enough, he seems to have been working towards this his whole life:

Three years for Sammy!

(Cue music for "Sunrise, Sunset")

Is this the little boy I carried?

Is this the little boy at play?

I don't remember getting older, when did he?

When did he get to be a beauty?

When did he grow to be so tall?

Wasn't it yesterday when he was small?

Sunrise, sunset.  Sunrise, sunset.

Swiftly flow the days.

But seriously.  Our little Sammy is growing up!  He's silly, bouncy, grumpy, happy, belligerent, flexible, diaper-change-averse, loves playing bumpies with his cars, cuddly, affectionate, strong-willed (or is that stubborn?), independent, funny, strong, and playful.  We love our Sammy and wouldn't have him any other way!  Happy birthday, Samuel!

Some videos

Elinor babbling at the camera.  She's usually much, much louder.

Sammy being... well, Sammy.

Flowers for Mother's Day

I made these last week. They weren't for anyone in particular, so I ate most of them myself.  :)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life!

Happy Star Wars Day!

And May the Fourth be with you!

A few things to note:
* Turn the volume up and enjoy this lightsaber battle with real sound effects from Darth Sammy!
* The right motivational sound clip is all you need to turn a battle in your favor.
* I sort of can't get enough of that Charlie-Brown-esque dejected stance from Darth Sammy as soon as he's beat.  Awesome.

Goons! and other assorted thoughts

I present to you Isaac and Sammy, the two silliest goons that ever lived:

Sammy the Monkey strikes again!  This time, on his all-too-willing older brother.

I love the expression on Sammy's face: "Just give in to the embrace..."

Sometimes you just have to give a big flourish.

Sometimes you just have to fall asleep mid-flourish.  Being a Monkey is tiring business, after all.

And sometimes, you just have to be sweet.

Speaking of sweet, I finally caught a bit of Elinor's crinkle smile on camera.

Like the Star Wars themed outfit?  The cuteness is strong with this one!

And this one!

Aaaand this one!  (He was very proud of his caterpillar project.)

In other news, Elinor is 7 months old now... and she's starting to crawl.  Sitting?  Not so much.  But she can get from Point A to Point B like a crazed zombie caterpillar - partly scrunching up on all fours then launching herself and partly lunging like she's hungry for brains.  It's... cute?  Yes.  It's cute. 

I've decided to start making all our bread.  We just bought a fancy grain mill to use on our food storage wheat, and I figure it's time to start using it.  I'm pretty good at making bread now, but I've always shied away from making our everyday sandwich bread because I hadn't found a good enough whole wheat bread recipe.  Well, my friends, the search has ended! I'll give it a go and post the recipe if it pans out.

Where did April go?  How did we get to the end of it so soon?  Oh right, we were all sick through most of it.  Blerg. Well, happy to be on the other side of it now. 

We bought some plants for our potted garden a few weeks ago when the weather was nice. Two days later, the weather decided to punish my optimism with several hard frosts. And snow.  The more delicate plants - the basil and tomato - didn't survive, but the rosemary and thyme did, and even my mint rallied after I removed a few frostbitten leaves.  Here's to hoping the weather does as it should from here on out, because I'm anxious to fill in those sad bare spots with new plants.

Buying a house is tough business in this just-recovering market when you're dependent on a loan.  We've been looking, and it's been a very *educational* experience.  We had one offer accepted and then fall through because the house appraised way lower than the offer amount and we couldn't/wouldn't pay cash to make up the difference.  Apparently, many homes in the area are still appraising low, even though demand (and accordingly, asking prices) is increasing.  We're on our second accepted offer now, and we're hoping this appraisal (scheduled for tomorrow) comes back more favorable now that several other properties in the area have sold at above the appraisal value.  No wonder one feels more grown up when one buys a house - there's so much to learn about the whole process! I'm throwing out terms like "underwriting" and "comps" and "seller disclosure" like it's nobody's business - no, not even yours. 


And that's about it.  Wait -

NOW that's it.

All about Isaac

Ah, Isaac.  Our firstborn, our eldest.  I can never quite get over how much I love him.  He is a dreamer.  He creates things based on his daydreams.  He takes an hour to eat his dinner because he is so busy imagining stuff and telling us about it all, or else telling us all manner of bad knock-knock jokes.  You know, the kind that don't actually have a punchline?  He revels in projects of any kind.

He is thoughtful in every way: offering words of encouragement to me when I'm having a bad day or drawing cards, writing notes, and even making "useful" gifts for love ones. One of his latest inventions for our benefit was a 2-dimensional spider trap made from construction paper and a few random scraps that he'd found lying around.  It was basically a maze meant to confuse a spider beyond all hope of ever exiting this diabolical trap.  Genius.

I've probably said it before but I'll say it again:  Isaac is the best big brother any mother could hope for.  He adores his younger siblings and serves them non-stop, even without being asked.  He's one of the few people who can cheer Elinor up when she's upset, and he regularly makes her laugh like none of us has been able to thus far (I'm not bitter or anything...).  

Isaac is a budding photographer.  He has his own little camera to fiddle with, but lately he's been trying his hand at using Mommy's big camera:

 

That last one had him in stitches.  Nothin' funnier than your little bro's butt in the air!  He also takes videos with his little camera.  It's hilarious to listen to him narrate each clip like a grown-up.  I'll have to post one of his videos one day when I actually take it off the camera.

He loves pajamas, and I mean really loves them.  He tells us so all the time.  "Mommy, I just really, really love being in pajamas.  They're so comfy!"  Not the warm kind, because he instantly overheats in them, but short sleeves and/or shorts just make his day.  He's also a homebody.  He protests going on errands because he "just likes how comfy it is at home" and can only be persuaded to come along if I promise he can get right back into his jammies the moment we get home.

Isaac's stomach has the unique ability to magically and completely empty upon bedtime, leaving him in a state of near starvation despite the fact that we just gave him a large snack immediately preceding bedtime.  It's a scientific marvel.  Really. 

Favorite shows: Rescue Bots (the preschooler's version of Transformers), Phineas and Ferb, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars Angry Birds, and Ni No Kuni (a Studio Ghibli video game that we're playing).  Favorite food: soups (who knew?), chicken and dumplings, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, fish and rice, biscuits with jam, all sweets, and all breakfast fare.  

And that's our Isaac!  It's been fun highlighting each child this week.  I love itemizing exactly what I love about what each is going through developmentally at the moment.  We love how unique each of our children is - we learn and grow so much as their parents, and there's never a dull moment!