Around the house

Some of my favorite pictures are ones from around the house. The little moments that are best described with a quick click of the camera.

I love it when they read together.

Family home evening game last week: sword fighting on the Wii. It is WAY more fun to watch Jay and Rose try to figure out how to play than to play myself. They chop and move in the funniest ways. Sword fighting is awesome. Rose even won one round!

It took a bit of coaching.

Fort! We got a Craigslist treadmill a few weeks ago, and Jay and Rose are putting it to good use. So is Jeff--he gets up and runs before school most days now.

The treadmill doesn’t add much to the décor of our basement room, but that’s to be expected.

Layne is so much easier now that she’s used to staying at our house for a few hours each day, and also now that her teething has let up a bit.

She’s reminding me how to baby-proof…

She loves to stick her fingers in the air vent and pull it out of the floor. My feeble tape barricade only lasted so long. We didn’t have central air when Jay and Rose were crawling-toddling babies, so this is a new one for me.

I made my first batch of SOUP this season last weekend. Those purple potatoes were tasty.

Longest carrot ever.

Jay and Rose are very close to the same size. They fit the same size of clothes, but I buy size 5 for Jay and size 4 for Rose to account for growth.

Being a kid is hard work.

Sidewalk chalk on the driveway. I adore how they always sit so close, side by side. Buddies. Rose reveres Jay, but tries not to show it by always picking the opposite of what Jay wants—if Jay wants milk, Rose wants water, etc. But she still copies him in most other ways. Love.

Layne wanted to draw with chalk too, but Aunt Shaina was too strict.

Snuggly bottle moments are new to me because my babies were fed in the natural way, ha ha. I can’t quite figure out how to hold the bottle, the baby, and a book all at once though. Plus Layne is strong, heavy, squirmy, and just a month shy of turning one, so I’ve been teaching her how to hold her own bottle. Poor girl, at our house she gets treated like the third child. I don’t want to over-intervene. I still love to squish and snuggle her soft little sweet cheeks every now and then though, I promise!

Aw yeah, success! I had to go get my book at bottle time one day, so I set Layne and the bottle on the floor while I quickly dashed out. When I got back, she was trying to drink the bottle sitting up, so I simply tilted her back and when the milk started coming out, she went to town. I only had to point the bottle upwards once or twice. Weehaw, Layne!

Yum. Pumpkin oatmeal muffins and over easy eggs on a bed of lightly wilted spinach with a little cream cheese and parm meling on top. Laaaaa! Dinner-breakfast nirvana, although the muffs turned out a tad on the dry side. When Jeff has parent teacher conferences till all hours of the night like he did this week, the kids and I have breakfast for dinner. They even ate some spinach (fresh, not wilted) and got green drool on their chins, Hulk style.

Those EYES. Last night we had Layne during dinner, so naturally it had to be SPAGHETTI NIGHT! What is it about babies and spaghetti?

One sock on, one sock off, homemade blue towel-bib, booster chair on the floor, spaghetti everywhere. I love letting babies have at it.

As I was typing this post, I heard some wildly happy noises coming from Layne’s room (it’s our third bedroom, and it’s got our crib in it, so it’s basically hers). She had just awoken from her nap and I gave Rose permission to go in the room.

A cozy way to end a long chilly day: 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, a drop of vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon mixed into hot milk, with a heap of whipped cream and cinnamon on top. Don’t forget the blanket and the book or an episode of Eureka on the side.

Fall is the best season.