There are moments in life I wish I had a photographic memory. Tonight it was a video camera memory. Or the ability to blog directly from my brain. Ears -> brain -> blog. That would probably be dangerous.

“Let’s play a game I made up called Rich and Poor,” said Lex in the tub tonight. “The person with the most toys is rich and the person with less toys is poor.” They both agreed to the game and quietly divided up all the toys floating in the bathtub. When there was a clear divide between them Lex counted up the toys. “I have nine toys,” he announced, “and you have four. That means I’m rich.” Eve agreed and declared herself poor. I waited for a moment to see where this was going, noticing that they didn’t seem phased to be rich or poor. Nor did they assign a goodness or badness to either word. Just words. After a moment Lex said, “Ok, now the person who is poor gets more toys,” and began handing over his toys to her. :) They took turns handing toys back and forth to each other, stopping to count each time and decide who was rich and who was poor. After a few turns Lex noticed that each time he added up his toys and her toys he came up with the number 13, so it must be a math game. He likes math games. They continued playing the math game for a few more minutes and then got out of the tub.

I asked him where he heard about rich and poor and he said he just made them up. Doubtful, but it’s fascinating to see and hear the things he comes up with. I never know if it’s from school, classmates, books, etc. Definitely one of the more interesting parts of parenting. :)

Instead of taking off diapers and PJs, Eve decided to dress up at 6am to do some baking…

I took photos of Eve...

What a smile for 6am!

Then Eve wanted to take a photo of me. That's as good as I get at 6am.

Then Lex wanted in on the action. Here's his picture of Eve.

Final shot, by Eve.

What were you doing at 6am?! :)

We went mountain climbing today. Really, seriously. Jim, Julie and Molly were in the area celebrating their 10 year anniversary (congrats to them!) and we met up at the base of Mt. Cardigan. This is our second time climbing and my second time being totally under-prepared. Sigh. We all had fun anyway. Bundled up as best we could (it was chilly at the bottom and COLD at the top!) Lex and Eve made it all the way to the top with the promise of exploring the fire watch tower at the top. Sadly the fire watch tower was closed today! Maybe for the season, who knows. So we spent about five minutes at the tip top, rearranging clothing for better bundling, snapping a few quick picks, then back down we went. Good times!

Lex led the way up.

Look at this path we climbed!

Snack break on the way up.

See the fire watch tower way up there, on the bald top of the mountain!

We made it!! And yes, that is a towel around Eve's neck. I have one too. Like I said, I'm always underprepared for this hike! It was COLD and windy up there!!

Snack time on the way down.

Cute kids. Eve making her angry face (just to be silly) and Lex about to hide because I brought out the camera!

Guess what we did after the hike? We went to a birthday party! The second week of school Lex came home and told me about his new friend Calvin. That weekend he was disappointed because the two boys had arranged a playdate but I told him the grown-ups need to coordinate. I sent a note home with Calvin and never heard back from his parents. Imagine our happiness when we received a birthday party invite this week. Lex picked out a present (which was a big hit!) and wrapped the present himself and was super excited to go to the party. They held it at the playground and it was lots of fun. Running, jumping, eating cake and candy. Fun, fun.

I love the Lex doesn't need fancy paper or expensive cards. This his how he prefers to wrap presents.

Eve and the girls

Lex and the boys

I love this picture.

Eve takes a turn at the pinata

Haha... Lex and his friend checking out their candy score from the pinata. They got a lot of candy!

Partygoers (I think this was supposed to be invited partygoers, but Eve snuck her way in too).

A fun and busy day. Can you guess what the best part was? They were both fed, bathed, and in bed asleep by 6:45!!

Since we’ve decided not to have another baby I’m going to sell our baby stuff. This has been a tough process, but for the best. I thought I’d post here in case anyone needs anything or knows anyone with, or having, a baby.

View list sorted by category: http://tessa.datdec.com/forsale.htm (includes photos and details)
View by photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/tessa.johnson/BabyItemsForSale?feat=directlink (includes details)

PS. For those of you who gave us things, know that it has been a hard task to assign dollar values to treasured memories. I had a friend laughing at me when I was almost in tears over a snowsuit.