yawn

baby legs

Have you seen these? They are the best. And there are hundreds of patterns. Very useful and very sweet.

shades of Huntleigh

Please note that in order to wear the shades, they must be upside down.

eggs-ellent!

I was the dummy...

...who took my children to the Zoo yesterday. I have never been to the Zoo when it was that busy. Why would I even think about all the schools that are on Spring Break right now?! But I promised my child that we could go, since I forced her to sit through a photo shoot for Lucy's birth announcement (which was nearly impossible...trying to be the photographer and the mother: "Huntleigh, kiss Lucy. Okay, not like that...Okay, now do it again! No, again! Okay, don't squish her. [Insert little scream from Lucy.] Oh Lucy....Mommy is so sorry. Huntleigh, sit still. Sit still. Please cooperate for mommy. [Here began the bribing] If you sit still, then you can have a lollipop in the car and we can go to the Zoo." and so on and so forth. It was quite the exhausting process. For these kinds of things I would highly recommend hiring a photographer, but my favorite one does not live in StL, so I had to make do.) Anyways, the Zoo was crazy yesterday, and the train wasn't running, and there was a ton of construction happening at the Living World entrance. But we did see a fair amount of animals and had fun while it lasted.

in with the new

That's right. We said goodbye to our lemon of an Audi and didn't even shed a tear. Now we have two big SUV's in front of our house. They're both big and they're both black. I know that our neighbors drive by our house and go, "Yep. Those are the Republicans in the neighborhood." Just watch out world. It will only be a couple more years before Josh and I are both driving Suburbans. They might just kick us out of the neighborhood at that point.

Celebration at Blueberry Hill.

My Irish loveys.

an uncooperative Irish girl

pedaling

"that's silly!"

this is my two-year old

Dear Huntleigh,

Oh my little bird. You are now twenty-eight months going on eleventeen. I look at you next to Lucy and see how you became my big girl in just a short blink of my eyes. At the end of my pregnancy I spent some months mourning that you would no longer be our only child, and now that Lucy is here, I see that her presence makes you even all the more amazing and wonderful. You have welcomed Lucy into your home with such love and openness of heart that sometimes I am wowed by your maturity. This doesn't mean that I trust you alone in a room with her just yet, especially when I walk out for a mere moment and come back in to find you smothering her in the baby papazan. I know this is a lovingly innocent smothering and I appreciate that. You begin almost every day by telling me, "Mommy, baby U-cy is so cute." You already don't remember life without her and someday soon, you'll discover that she'll have become your best friend.

You were playing playdoh the other day and making quite a mess of it. I found myself growing very frustrated with all the playdoh on the floor and as I was cleaning it up, I kept sighing. You could sense my disapproval and said, "Mommy, please kiss me." So I stopped sweeping and kissed you on your sweet pink lips and then you said, "Rub your nose on my nose." Your nose was runny, but we rubbed noses anyways, and when you felt my approval return, you said, "I got boogers on you!" and we laughed and laughed. It was exactly what I needed and I think that somehow, you knew it. I realized, yet again, that I often have very high expectations of you and for that, I am sorry. Mommy is learning alongside you and I need to exercise more grace with you. I think this may be something that you and I will struggle with much throughout your life because you are my firstborn daughter and I will want to perfect all of my imperfections through you. For this, I will probably need to ask your forgiveness time and again and I can only hope that this will make our relationship stronger instead of making it suffer.

You love the story of Jonah and the Big Fish, as your children's Bible entitles it. You can pretty much recite the whole story with us and you love to make the big "Gulp" noise when the fish swallows Jonah and the "Puh-tooy" noise when the fish spits Jonah onto the beach. Last week you were willing to let us vary the Bible story, so we read about Daniel in the Lions' Den and you told us that the lions didn't eat Daniel because "they like strawberries." Daddy replied with, "Yeah...and hamburgers," but I found this a very interesting theological perspective on Daniel, seeing as I had never considered the lions to be vegetarian.

You are very particular, needing all the foil on the top of your yogurt cup to be peeled off (I don't blame you) and telling us "I don't yike this song" when you want us to skip to the next track or "I yike this song" when we've skipped the tracks we don't like. You can sing almost all the words to the Alphabet of Nations song, which I find to be impressive, seeing as you really don't know what you are singing about...."Qatar, Russia, Suriname, Turkey, Uruguay, Vietnam." You love the Veggie Tales song: "Baro-me, Cere-me, Gotta be, beggie tale" is your rendition of the more accurately pronounced, "Broccoli, Celery, Gotta be, Veggie Tales." I ask you to sing it when I want a really good laugh and I think it is funny every time. You can count to eleventeen, and then some. You recognize quite a few letters: A, E, H, L, M, N, O, Q, T, V, W, and X. You love to sing Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Go Tell it on the Mountain, and the Alphabet. But my favorite is when I hear you singing Jesus Loves Me to Lucy.

Togetherness is a big theme for you. When Daddy is around, you really like to do things, "All to-geh-her." This now includes baby Lucy. I hope your desire for togetherness never really goes away.

I love you so much.

Mommy

flare

Red. It's the color to which I am drawn when it comes to decorating. I love it. But not too much of it. Just enough. This fabric was purchased to reupholster my couch and the reupholsterers came to pick it up on Friday. It's going to be my first grown-up couch. I'm working it in to the splash of Asia in my house. Come by to sit on it.

two months

big girl bed

So Huntleigh's big girl bed has been in her room since we switched the rooms earlier in the fall, but we wanted to be careful not to force her into it, especially with the baby coming and all. We thought that maybe simple exposure to it would encourage her into the bed at some point, and it really paid off. On Tuesday night, she laid down in her big girl bed and we nonchalantly suggested she sleep in it...and she took us up on the offer. She slept the whole night through. She didn't even try to get out. I mean, doesn't she know the freedom she could be exercising? I guess we haven't hit that stage yet. I did go upstairs, though, to find her wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses. We got the tricycle the next day as a reward for this milestone.

it's sunny honey

Well, I just have to say, it's about time we have this kind of weather.

milestones

My parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary a month ago, and Josh and I gave them a dinner party last Saturday evening to honor them. It was an evening full of yummy food, excellent wine and laughter...the kind of laughter that old friends have with one another. These are the friends who have walked through life with my mom and dad, and who love them well. I want those kind of friends when Josh and I have been married for that long. I think everyone ought to have friends like that.

painting project

daddy is home...

and it's unanimous: life is right and good when there is not an ocean between us. we're so glad you beat the snow. there's been a lot of smiling around this house today. and the kitchen counter is full of empty coke cans again. we love you!

seriously?

Sunday with Scott