I’m thinking about becoming a recluse.
Some days it just seems like it would be easier. We went out
for a walk today with two friends and their kids (3 moms, 3
tots, 3 babes) and it was nice… mostly. Lex and Eve were both
sans naps, but that was the only way I was able to get out of
the house. I tried for an hour to get them to nap, but when my
friend called to see if we wanted to walk I gave up and headed
out. I figured I’d just get them extra tired for an early
bedtime. Instead the final leg of the walk involved me carrying
Eve and chasing Lex then forcing him into the stroller with Eve
precariously balanced in my arm. He was exhausted and sooooo
dirty! We picked up Alan and our shiny old car (got the Saturn
serviced and cleaned and boy is it nice now!) and headed home.
Bath was crazy, dinner was short and crazy and bedtime was long
and drawn out with lots of tears from both of them. So much for
an early bedtime! Days, naps, and bedtime usually go smoother
when we don’t go anywhere further than the yard. Now that it’s
summer maybe I’ll just be a serious home body and give up the
little remaining social life I have…. hmmm… that might put
a damper on my Pampered Chef party plans though! :)

Pics: (ok, the batteries in my camera
were dead so I wasn’t able to take any real pictures, but just
close your eyes and visualize these two scenes I would have
captured)

1 – Lex, in his
orange long sleeve shirt, blue jeans and matching hat and
Crocs, holding hands with Josie in a pink dress and blond hair,
holding hands with Dylan in shorts, tshirt,and a baseball cap.
The three of them walked, ran, and played like this for several
minutes. I was behind them and it would have made a really cool
picture.

2 – Lex and Josie sitting in
our double stroller with the giant flexible sun shade pulled
down over them and just their little blond heads poking out the
top. Lex had it tucked under their necks like a blanket. Very
cute.

We had a really nice day today. The
weather was beautiful and we spent most of the day outside. My
wonderful husband took care of my outdoor “honey do” list. We
got the back deck (almost) completely cleaned off, the garage
cleaned out and organized (yay!), stakes in the garden, the
slide up on the new, hand-me-down playset from our neighbor and
lots of other stuff. The kids played outside, neighbors came
and went, etc. It was great. Lex is also super helpful and
carried stuff for Alan, watered the gardens for me, and more.
We are very lucky to have such helpful, sweet, well behaved
kids. We will be ending the day with take-out from Lui Lui’s
(yummy!), ice cream and a movie :) Overall a pretty excellent
way to spend the day :)

We worked hard
all day and didn’t have the camera handy, but here are a few
that were worth hunting down the camera.

Lex with
a makeshift stool to play with the light switches. We had a
mini-rave in the garage for a few minutes.

Eve has
taken a liking to all the ride-on toys we have kicking around.
She’s at the age/stage that she can get herself going backwards
but not forwards yet, so she spent awhile backing out of the
garage and crashing into the cars in the driveway. Then I’d
pick her up (bike and all) and bring her back into the garage
where she’d start the process over again.

We had a nice day today. The Pampered Chef
party went well and I bought stuff, of course. I’m even
contemplating hosting one. Think that’s insane? Today’s party
officially “closes” on Wednesday, so I have to decide by then.
If I do it I want to be sure my friend gets the proper credit
for it :) I kind of like the idea of it, and getting together
with friends is always fun, but there’s that awkward sales
pitch part that I find a little off-putting. Anyway, we’ll
see.

I got done early enough to head
over to the birthday party too. That was fun. It was a
beautiful day and there were lots of kids. We dressed Eve in a
party dress (well, a dress anyway!) and they had fun with the
other kids. My two were the youngest ones so they mostly
watched the other kids, but I think everyone had fun. Then we
played outside here for awhile with the neighbors. Now I’m
wishing Lex would fall asleep so I can finish vacuuming :) Alan
is outside finishing the lawn mowing. We’re a wild and crazy
bunch, eh? We might even top off the night with some fake,
dairy-free ice cream Alan got at the Co-op the other day. Slow
down!! ;)

The Lilypie ticker says Eve is 1yr, 1mo,
1wk, and 1 day today. That’s fun :)

Sorry for the lack of substance lately.
I’m sure I’ll be inspired again soon. We have a busy weekend
coming up. I’ll be attending my first Pampered Chef party on
Saturday. That’s how you know when you’re officially a grown
up! While I’m there Alan will be taking the kids to a birthday
party. Sunday we are hoping to do some yard work. There is a
lot to be done before Lex’s party. Of course the weather is
supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend, so we’ll see how
much yard work actually goes on. We’ve had a nice week of
sunshine and lots of outdoor time. Eve now fully enjoys the
outdoors and often brings me her shoes and asks to go out.
Anyway, they are both up now so I should put this away. I’m
hoping to pop them in the stroller this afternoon and take them
for a walk. After baby turns 1 I think you’re no longer allowed
to use the term “baby fat” unless you’re talking about fat on
the baby! So I gotta get me some exercise :)

I’m uploading some
videos too, so keep your eye on the movie bar down the side
there.

There’s nothing like a child’s laughter.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnXdgFsRdZM]

PS. I forget to
give Alan props for the video :) I think I was sleeping that
morning.

Sorry for the lack of posts these days. We
haven’t really been doing much. Lots of outdoor time, playing
in the yard, replanting the garden, building a compost, etc.
This morning we went shopping to use up a gift card from Eve’s
birthday. I don’t normally take them anywhere that I need to
browse, but I was feeling brave this morning. It was
interesting. I had my first real “run in opposite directions”
experience :) Lex likes to move but is good about staying where
I can see him, but I put Eve on the floor and she was gone!
Like the wind! I went chasing her down the aisle, she looked
back, saw me coming, started giggling, and went faster :) She
was almost running! Crazy monkey. We all had fun anyway.

Here are a few pictures from the last few
days. I’m also working (trying!) on updating the photos site.
More later.

Lovely
ladies

Lex has
become very independent lately and most days gets himself
dressed. Some days he does better than others. This picture
cracked me up because he has both his shirt and pants on
backwards.

We went
to Billings Farm on a chilly, rainy afternoon. It was fun. I
love the colors in this picture. Eve found her hat in the car
and put it on, over her hood. I thought it was cute and left it
there :)

Dinner
after the farm. Eve and Caitlin had fun together. I think
Caitlin was hoping for another pretzel
there.

I took a
bunch of pictures of Eve in this cutie new diaper (it has a big
pink heart on the back!) but none came out as good as this one.
You can’t really see the diaper, but she’s adorable
anyway.

Later
that day. I decided to put some pants on Eve, she decided she
needed a hat, and the two of them were playing in the
kitchen.

Snack on
the porch this afternoon. Eve dove face first into Lex’s bagel.
He seemed more interested in her pears. Everyone was
happy!

Thirsty
girl

I just
thought this was cute. I love the hats and
poses.

Finally, I wish I had a camera this
afternoon, after snack (above). Lex asked if we could walk to
the end of the road to see if there’s any snow left. There used
to be a huge snow bank that he played on and for some reason
that came to mind and he asked to go. So we did. Eve was
sitting on our red, plastic push car (that Lex got for his 1st
bday) so Lex pushed her, at full speed, down the road to the
cul-de-sac at the end. We played for awhile and when it was
time to go home Lex decided he wanted to ride too. He sat in
the little car and I put Eve on his lap. It was adorable. He
wrapped his arms around her and away we went. I was half
expecting him to get bored and push her off, but he didn’t. He
held on securely all the way home and they were so happy. It
was adorable.

Happy 13 months to the little girl today.
She is smiley and “talking” up a storm these days. She’s also
cutting two more teeth (either side of her top front teeth) so
the fact that she’s smiley and happy most of the time just
shows what a mellow girl she is. We went grocery shopping today
and she was smiling and saying “hi” to everyone we passed. At
one point I put her down and she was giddy to be walking around
the store by herself. She even started walking along with
another family and the kids in the cart thought she was
adorable. I, of course, took her back pretty quickly :) She’s
getting better with signs and recently started doing
“butterfly,” “more,” “down,” and… I’m drawing a blank at this
late hour. She’s also trying really hard to make words and can
say an almost understandable “down,” “more,” and “hot” (just a
few from tonight). She’s mastered the word and sign for “hat”
:) She has also recently mastered finding and putting on her
own hats, so you’ll frequently find her by the door (where we
keep a bunch of hats) selecting one and then wearing it around
for awhile. She needs to grow some hair to keep that head warm!
:)

I didn’t get any good pictures of her
alone today, but here are some of the two of them in matching
dipes and playing on the bed.