A giant photo dump.

Noah with some wiggly kids the day before he left. I swear he's wearing pants.


The thrift store had an unexpected gold mine of child-sized glasses. Don't be fooled by the face; Jim actually loved his.


Lottie being intrepid at the playground.


Jim successfully uses playground equipment while Lottie looks on in admiration. Or confusion. One of those.


Another day, another playground. Jim orders ice cream while Lottie mutters nonsense.


Lottie is nobody's fool. She always counts the currency before handing over the goods.


Wouldn't you do the same with a customer that shifty-looking?


On his own, Jim is free to try out the bigger-kid stuff.


He's always ready to take baby sister for a spin on the bumblebee, though.


Lottie's happy to take over the work for a bit while Jim takes a breather.


Dismay at being left on the bumblebee all by her lonesome.


Fortunately, Lottie has been watching Ben Hur and knows how to channel her rage into strength.


Actually, she's stronger than you'd think. Look at her dangle on that bar!


A very proud baby.


Gratuitous post-shower baby butts as they preen in front of the mirror.


Lastly: Dress-up!


Lottie twirls to model her finery.


Meanwhile, Jim puts the finishing touches on his city. No game of dress-up is complete without a box village in which to wreak havoc.


Jim tries to interest Lottie in bringing victuals to the hungry townspeople, but she's not having it.


I apparently had my own role to play in the drama, but I'm still a little spotty on the details.

A Boy and His Rhinoceros

Once upon a time, I went off to college and was given a little stuffed rhinoceros to keep me company. I named him Henry Proboscis. Now Jim has discovered him and taken him for his very own. He calls him Henry Kobonksis. Please take a moment to consider how adorable that is before reading on.

Last night we had a rather lengthy discussion about Jim's new pal (who Jim informs me is kind of a real rhinoceros and not just a fake one or a baby one). Apparently, he likes vegetables and frequently throws vegetable parties for his rhinoceros friends in our yard, but they all have to hide when I come around. I foolishly asked where such large creatures could possibly hide in our yard, and received a scathing "Up in a tree" for my reply. Fortunately, Jim hastened to assure me that no harm would come to me if I found them. "Don't worry, Mommy," said he. "Henry Kobonksis is just a nice rhinoceros."


Is it still a creepshot if it's my own kid snoozing with my old stuffed animal?

Weekend conversations.

A Conversation with Jim:
(Lottie begins to cry suddenly behind me)
Jim (sounding concerned): Mommy, why's Yottie cryin'?
Me (slightly distracted): I dunno, Jim, she's probably getting hungry.
Jim (contemptuous of my ignorance): No, she's not hungry! I just hit her with my shoe.
Me (unsurprised): ...

I'm not sure why he asks when he already knows the answer better than anyone.

A Conversation with Lottie:
(Lottie points to random body part)
Lottie: Owwie! S'ooch it?
Me: (complies)
Repeat. And again. And again.

So what're the kids so pleased about?

Looks kind of suspicious, no?

Fortunately, Jim is ready to help Lottie model the damage:

Remind me not to turn my back when Jim's got a dry erase marker within reach.

Finally!

Due to circumstances beyond our control (laziness and procrastination, mostly), our garden got off to a late start this year, so it's been a long tedious wait for it to actually start supplying us with food. Jim especially has been immensely invested in checking every single day (often two or three times) to see if there's anything ready yet. But the wait is over! In the past week, we've had yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and okra all big enough to pick and eat.


Jim with his harvest basket.

Jim's favorite activity in the world is now harvesting the garden, which involves going out with an old Easter basket and collecting everything that seems remotely edible. Here's what we found yesterday:


Yesterday's harvest. Three kinds of cherry tomatoes, three kind of peppers, two over-sized cucumbers, and enough okra for me and the kids to eat for dinner.

Fortunately, he's more than willing to eat everything except the cucumbers. Out of that pile, we ate the tomatoes and one cucumber for lunch (he insisted on having half the cucumber on his plate but wound up giving it to me), and I fried the okra for dinner. Lottie was a fan. The peppers are probably going to travel to North Carolina with us this weekend, along with a few eggplants that ought to be ready tomorrow.


Bonus: Okra flower! I keep telling everyone how surprisingly pretty okra flowers are, so I figured I should show proof.

A brief update with no pictures.

My title is descriptive, non?

Anyway, I'm a blogging slacker, terrible daughter(-in-law), lazy chronicler of family life, and all around awful person deserving of the worst kinds of flagellation.

*ahem*

Be that as it may, here's an update on how we're all doing, from smallest to biggest.

Lottie: Continues to be tiny. As of 01/16/2015, the day after her first birthday, she weight 17 pounds and 13 ounces (6th percentile) and was 26 inches long (~2nd percentile, but the doctor thinks she's probably a little taller than that). She's apparently quite a lean baby, which is funny because her cheeks are still all chubby and chipmonk-like. She signs and says ten words: Mama, milk, all done, water, kitty-cat, cheese, banana, cracker, more, and shower. She's not walking yet, but she crawls like nobody's business, and she can stand on her own for a long time and likes to walk while holding hands. Personality-wise, she's a bit of a delicate flower. She's very happy and jolly if people are talking to her, but takes it quite personally if you ignore her for even a second, and she wails if she feels slighted. If Jim speaks harshly to her, she sobs like she's been beaten.

Jim: Is huge! He's almost 35 pounds now. His vocabulary is great, and he likes to add little accents now like "oh man." He also likes to be very descriptive. It's not that he doesn't like peanut butter (although he really, really doesn't); it's that peanut butter is "so yucky and bad and awful." Preschool is going well (email me if you need a link to the preschool page, which is probably your best bet for reliably updated pictures of the boy), and he'll be starting Pre-K in the fall. His academic skills are right on track or a bit better than average, but what I'm really excited about is his constant improvement in social skills. He's still rough, crazy, and boisterous, but he gets along very well with other boys and always has a pack of friends to play with at school or at the playground. Girls still tend to find him a little alarmingly wild, though. He's already signed up to play soccer this summer and is terribly excited about it, and we're thinking about swimming lessons, too.

Leah: Is...normal! Not much to report. I'm writing a lot of freelance stuff to earn my keep, and I'm baking a lot more than is good for anybody. Most recent project: Shaker Lemon Pie, which includes the rinds and all. It's delicious stuff, I tell you, but Noah's not a fan. I've also been running a lot to train for a half-marathon in Columbia in March. This morning, actually, I ran a local 5k race and beat my old record with a nice shiny 31:27! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's terribly exciting, I assure you.

Noah: Is turning into a total meathead! Okay, not really, but he's been hitting the gym a lot (partially because he likes it and partially because Jim adores the childcare there). Aside from that, he's been massively into computer things. Surprise surprise? Maybe not, but he's gotten to do more computer-building than usual, so he's a pretty happy fellow. He's also looking forward to a potential deployment this year, so we'll all see how that goes.

Okay. That's where we all are. I'll see if I can update with pictures soon, but seriously, you know how this goes. Be happy there's a post, okay?

Artistic tendencies.

Jim's art has been getting increasingly involved. Here are a few he did this morning while I was cleaning the kitchen:


A dinosaur I made him, but the rocks, trees, and purple volcano (or so he tells me) are his own addition.


A Christmas tree with decorations.


His own rendition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There's a caterpillar, a whole bunch of various foods, a green leaf, a cocoon, and a "beauuuutiful butterfly."

For good measure, let's see Jim describing his caterpillar picture. Fast forward to 1:30 if you just want to see his victory chant.