Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Terrific Two's



You know the age: suddenly they know more than you, have an opinion about everything, and don't need help with anything. They are the world's best clothing stylist (camo, plaid, and stripes: yes please!), and the rules of time and reality no longer apply to them (yes, I will take 15 minutes to put on my shoes, and yes, I can breathe under water in the bath tub.) While it can be a little frustrating (especially if you are the 5-year-old big brother), I find this age to be both delightful and hilarious.

As part of his 2-year-old liberation strike, Titus has come up with a handful of catch-all phrases that he sprinkles into daily conversation, regardless of whether or not they fit the context of what is going on. They are: "d'ever I want," "not AT ALL," "I can't whistle," and my personal favorite, "Mommy's in charge!"

For example:
You: "Titus, how old are you?"
Titus (sadly): "Um... I can't whistle."
You: "Oh, ok. But how old are you?"
Titus: "Um, Moses do whistle but I can't whistle. Not AT ALL."
You: "Cool. But how old are you?"
Titus (indignantly) "Ine two-anna-haff d'ever I want!"
Charming.

The other day, after sitting down at the table and surveying the brussel sprouts and chicken I had made, he said emphatically, "I don't like this, don't have to eat it d'ever I want. Mommy's in charge!" (Unfortunately for him, the last part of his argument trumped his first two points.)

Or how about this:
Titus: "There is two Lego Lands!"
Moses: "No there aren't. There's only one Lego Land."
Titus: "No Moses! NOT AT ALL! There is two!
Moses: "Titus, that's silly. There's only one."
Titus: "Moses! There is TWO D'EVER I WANT! MOMMY'S IN CHARGE!"
I mean, sheesh, don't bring me into it...

I'm sure there will be plenty more silly two year old themed posts coming up. We have a chatterbox in the family. D'ever I want.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Happy Memorial Day



Interesting to put the word "happy" in front of a day meant to remember those who have sacrificed on our behalf. Now that I have kids, I appreciate more and more what our service men and women do for us. To live in a country where my children are generally safe and can believe what they think is true is a huge blessing that I often take for granted. Both my grandpas were in the military, and though neither one liked to talk about what they saw or did in the Second World War, I know that they endured terrible things so that their two great-grandsons could run around this beautiful place in safety. Thank you to all the men and women serving our country, both past and present. Thank you for living the "military life," moving from place to place, not knowing what your life will be like 2 years from now, being ready to go anywhere at a moment's notice. Thank you for giving your limbs, your peace of mind, your lives, so that the rest of us can enjoy freedom in this wonderful country.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Custom Bib



I just finished my first custom bib order - this one was made using the cutest kite fabric. The customer was attending a baby shower where each guest was supposed to bring a bib for the mom-to-be, who would then guess which guest gave her which bib. My customer was a Theta with her friend (Thetas are the first ever Greek letter fraternity for women), so she wanted there to be kites on the bib, which is the symbol for Thetas. I learned a lot from this order and had so much fun making the bib - what a special gift! To order your own custom bib, go here.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A Happy Surprise

A few months ago we took in four chickens that had been being mistreated by a friends' neighbor. The poor chickens were super thin and had been kept in wooden boxes separated from sunlight and each other for who-knows how long. We isolated them from our chickens (to make sure they didn't have any diseases) and started nurturing them back to full chicken-health. After about a month they stopped being scared of each other, and after another month they stopped being afraid of us. A month after that they started laying eggs (they hadn't been able to do that due to malnutrition and lack of sunshine)! We became pretty attached to them and they seemed to like us, too. They like to follow us around the property and have become pretty tame. Sadly, two of these "crazy chickens," as we call them, got eaten by Bentley, as you can read about in other posts. Then, it seemed that the remaining red hen lost her mind.

It started when she failed to come home at sundown. One of the things that makes chickens easy to raise is their instinct to roost at night, and their tendency to return "home" around dusk. Every night all my hens make their way back to the hen house and are roosting on their rails when I come to tuck them in (I don't really - I just close and lock the door to keep raccoons out). So when the crazy red hen didn't come home one night, I thought maybe she had been eaten. However, about a week later, I heard a huge chicken ruckus in the pasture, and that crazy bird came bursting out of the long grass clucking and flapping her wings like a maniac. She charged around in circles a few times, then took off in a different direction, not to be seen again for another week. The second sighting was similar to the first: she came streaking past me flapping her wings and making all sorts of weird clucking noises, then charged off into the pasture again. I figured she had simply gone nuts - not totally surprising given her past life and the fact that our dog ate two of her best friends. I hadn't seen her for another week and just assumed that she was passing her crazy days out in the field or that some predator had finally carried her off.

Well, today I returned home after getting 3 root canals (yes, you read that right) and stopped into the hen house to quickly fill up the food canister. There, eating comfortably and looking perfectly sane, was my crazy red hen! I said "Well, hello! Nice to see you back home!" She looked at me, swallowed, took a step to the left, and this is what I saw:



FOUR BABY CHICKS!!!! Baby chicks that didn't come in the mail - baby chicks that one of my very own chickens hatched by sitting on a secret nest of eggs for 3 weeks! I am absolutely thrilled! I don't know if I've ever been more shocked - we don't even have a rooster (and in case you are wondering, yes, you need a rooster to get baby chicks. Chickens are just like us: they need to be, um, married in order to have babies, if you know what I mean...) I am trying to remember if we killed Roostofferson less than 3 weeks ago. If not, perhaps one of our neighbors' roosters did the honors. Anyways, we have quadruplets! How very exciting!

I am off to research next steps. I can just picture my stupid dog snapping each of those little babies up like fluffy Twinkies. I've locked the door of the hen house so they can't get out, and am working on building them a little home of their own to be safe in. I'm so happy that Crazy Red Hen felt safe enough with us to bring her babies home. And happy that I'm not the chicken mommy this time - real chicken mommies seem much better cut out for raising chicks. :)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Color-In Books



Remember my post about the painting my sister-in-law made with Moses? Now your kids can paint with Cindy too! Well, not with her, but they can color or paint some of her super cute illustrations: she's come out with a "Color In Book!" Every picture in this book is super cute and my favorite part about it is that the pages are made of thick sturdy paper that stands up perfectly to water colors or other paint. I get so frustrated when Moses and I color in his dollar-store coloring books and the ink bleeds through the page (or next several pages), making the pictures on the other side invisible and unusable. These pages are meant to be removed and displayed after they've been colored. Wouldn't one of these make a great gift? Cindy is so talented and has such a fun kid-friendly style. I'm planning on getting several of these for my boys. Hop on over to her shop to check it out (along with all her other beautiful work!).

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

To do:



Um, yes, this is a stack of freshly cut quilt pieces waiting to be sewn together atop the new Anthropologie catalogue. My purple toenails are already drying, there is a fresh jug of iced tea in the fridge, and the boys are asleep. I've got a pretty nice evening lined up for myself...

Monday, May 2, 2011

Tie wrap-up

OK, now to take pictures of the boys in their ties. Titus, smile!



No, silly! Not like that! Open your eyes and smile!



Titus, when you smile you have to keep your eyes open, OK? Ready? Smile!



Hm, not quite what I had in mind. Maybe if I get in the picture with him. Ready, set, smile!



Smile!



Smile!



Oh well. (The boys looked really cute in their ties.)