Later that day...

...we had a photoshoot. I love this outfit on my long-legged (and long-torsoed) baby.
Raise your hand if you're cute!

Right answer, little man.

And apparently Lyds is an aspiring model. Isn't this pose just too much?

Funny little squirt. I don't think most models would consider scuffed-up knees and a shirt covered in chalk dust the height of fashion, but I'm pretty sure Lydia's happy with it.

Reason I am grateful for an easy-going baby #469

I can enjoy the nice spring weather with a two year old and some chalk...

...while my baby naps on the porch.

This is the life.

Nerd baby

We have been incredibly blessed by our friends, family, neighbors, and ward members. I have not bought a single thing for Rafe to wear, but he is a well-dressed little bud. This shirt makes me laugh.

I think it's pretty much a guarantee that our kids are going to be a touch nerdy. I figure we might as well embrace that and teach them to be proud of it from the beginning.

Super Lydia

I have no idea where she got it, but Lyds has started wanting to wrap blankets around her and say "Supergirl!"

Two's a fun age. I'm trying to enjoy every single moment.

Baby Rafe

Guys, this kiddo. He kills me. He's just such a sweetie.

Also, is R.G. a weird nickname? Vote "yes" or "no" or "Why'd you name your kid a weird name in the first place" below.

Easter eggs

One of my many faults is that I am not a tidy person. The 4 years of our marriage have been an interesting lesson on just how far I need to go in order to be considered a good housekeeper.

As a result, one of my many failings as a mother is that I have a really hard time letting Lydia make a mess. I know I should just breathe and let it go, but sometimes I just know that playdough's going to get ground into the carpet and I can't handle it. So I swoop in and interrupt her play to save me from cleaning.

So you can imagine how "excited" I was to dye eggs with Lydster. Nothing could go wrong here, right? We're just dealing with permanent dye and innumerable surfaces begging to get spilled on. But...we had a lot of fun. I tried not to be that uptight Mom and I think Lyds enjoyed it. Her face in this picture doesn't look very happy, but that's just because we told her to smile and she thinks this is what that means. Crazy kiddo.

She's a little person, so we only boiled 6 eggs for the occasion, and only dyed these three before she picked up the mugs and poured them out on our raggedy towel. It was a fun activity and she really enjoyed coloring on the eggs before we dyed them and putting stickers on them after. And then she dropped two of them.

Clearly a successful attempt at a fun family activity/tradition. Happy Easter!

Computer Repairs

One thing I love about Adam is his inherent curiousity about life. If he finds something he's interested in, he'll learn everything he can about it. He's also a doer, meaning that if he has an idea, he acts on it, instead of putting it off or making excuses.

For example, for Christmas, he built us two nice computers that we can do whatever we want on. He did all the research on how to build them and what works together, watched for good deals, and ordered everything.

And when one of them starts acting funky, he can figure out what's wrong and fix it. He's so handy.
He would also like me to mention that this computer is the first one he built and the wiring is much neater on the second one.

Our House

Since we're doing all kinds of adult things this year like having a second child and graduating with an advanced degree, we thought we'd add one more bit of fun to the mix. We're buying a little townhouse. This little townhouse. It's the same layout as our current rental, with a few tweaks that make it WAY better.

Dining/Living room without carpet! Yay!

Little kitchen with real tile instead of linoleum! 

Half bath with cupboards! 

Enclosed, carpeted, non-rickety stairs to the basement! 

Nice bathroom in the basement 

Drywall, carpet, windows that open and close, and blinds in the basement!

We lose a little space in the master bedroom, but we think it's worth it for the third bedroom! Both kids get their own room! 

 

 

This'll be Rafe's little room. Definitely big enough for a crib, dresser, and recliner. 

This'll be Lyds' room. Nice ledges on the windows for stuff. 

And a slightly bigger porch out back. Our realtor suggested getting a turtle sandbox for the kiddos. I might go for that.

Did you enjoy our little tour? I'm looking forward to the hard floors in the dining area, turning the basement into a den/playroom/guestroom, and the kids having their own rooms.  

Tricky Baby

"You thought you could get a picture of me smiling, eh? Silly Mom. Let me throw my head back so my adorableness is wasted on the corner of the room."

Big Girl

Guess who dressed herself today? What gave it away - the inside out dress, the one shoulder off, or the mismatched colors?

Happy Easter

I make no guarantees, but at the urging of several people, this blog may be making a comeback. Even more shocking, it comes new and improved with pictures of children!
 

I never said the pictures were good. Have you ever seen a baby with such a "meh" expression? I guess he was disappointed that his sister got all the Easter candy. By the way, that's Rafe. Welcome to the blogging world, little man!

Family Reunion

We've got mad hops!

I am an awesome wife

So...been awol for a bit. Nothing particularly unusual, so I'm assuming none of you are too concerned. Adam had some big Opera stuff going on and we had the Walton's over, and now it's just life these days.

When Adam gets home from performing an Opera, he is always STARVING. Apparently singing takes a lot of energy. The adrenaline kicks in and when he gets out (around 11pm), he mostly just wants a burger. We are trying to save money and eat healthier, so for his most recent Opera (Gianni Schicchi), I made our own drive-thru in our kitchen. Burgers and brownies in the middle of the night really hit the spot.


Mostly this is just a post to let you know that there is a new video link on Lydia's blog, and that I have some more posts scheduled for her blog every couple days for the next week or so, so keep checking back. Seriously, you can see her walking - it's ridiculously cute and quite reminiscent of a drunken sailor.

Iced In

We had heard that there was going to be a huge storm, but weren't particularly worried. How bad could it be, right?

Late Monday evening, lying in bed, Adam and I heard the rain start. The next day our whole world was neatly encased in a quarter-inch layer of ice. That didn't melt. These pictures were taken in the early afternoon and the icicles on every branch looked the same as they had when I peeked through the blinds to survey the damage on Tuesday morning. Apparently the Midwest knows how to do winter.

Of course, IU closes for NOTHING(!) so Adam still had school that morning, but apparently hell froze over because the university actually cancelled classes on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. We had a couple nice snow days. Today I finally felt like I could leave home and it felt freeing, to say the least.

Tomorrow is Adam's big Opening Night (Yes, those capital letters are Necessary). He's singing the role of Simone in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. It's his first role at IU and I'm abnormally excited about it - as if this were La Scala or something. I know he'll be great. Even when he just sings around the house I can tell that he has gotten so much better since we moved here (And he was already really good!). So...big night for Adam. I'm going to cook a favorite meal of his for dinner so he starts the evening out with the right foot forward. I'm thinking of even making an "Opening Night Cake" which sounds like a pretty good tradition to start. If you get the chance during the day, give Adam a call and tell him good luck or break a leg or something. He'll pretend to hate it, but secretly he's a big softie.

More Lyds Vids

Head on over to Lydia's blog for another video.

AWOL

I know I've been AWOL lately. Sorry. But there's a link to a video of Lydia on her blog. So that's something.

Lydia turned one!

I clearly should have posted this yesterday, but our little Squirt is a whole year old! See pictures of her birthday at her blog. If you need an invite, let me know in the comments or by emailing bonbonbassoon@gmail.com. Saddest thing in the world is that she got the cold that I've had for a week yesterday and was kinda sick all day.

Why I am not organized neatly

Have you seen the blog "Things organized neatly"? I can't help but laugh when I go on there. Yes, thing placed just so look nice and are pretty, but the only thing that comes to my mind is how much havoc Lydia would wreak (and how much fun she would have) if she encountered these collections.

She's my little Godzilla, leaving destruction in her wake everywhere she goes. Folding laundry is the most obvious example, but emptying the dishwasher and putting away her toys are also prime targets for her decimation. She sees piles of neatly piles clothes and laughs maniacally as she zips towards them, grabs several shirts, and flings them. So things take awhile to get done around my house. Cleaning up in the evening is the worst. I'll go to the bookcase to replace the volumes that she has spent so much time strewing about the floor. She might not notice while I'm lining those books up, but as soon as I move on to check the next tidying item off my list, she cackles on her way to put those books back where she wants them. Our CD collection gets pulled out of their slots, her toys and books are always all over, and her favorite thing to rummage in is the wastebaskets (what joy). I simply don't have enough arms or energy to keep things tidy. I cannot imagine what it will be like when (or if...) we have another.

See the little Destructomatic at her blog. Have I mentioned that I love her to pieces? It may come across like I would like a tidy house, but I'd rather have her.

I read a book!

I know, reading a book doesn't sound like an accomplishment, but I haven't had time to read and I haven't had anything I really wanted to read. But then I got a library card. Have I told you guys about the library in Bloomington? Awesome. The children's section has a play area with tons of toys that Lydia loves. The baby area is even fenced off so she doesn't get trampled by exuberant toddlers. SCORE! And their baby book selection is incredible. Lydia has started to like reading books (before it was more of a wrestling match to see if she would stay in your lap long enough to get through three pages) as long as they're interactive.

She likes to touch things, so anything that's got something to feel (Think Pat-the-Bunny, our favorite book) is great, but anything with flaps, like the Spot books, is awesome as well.

Also, she likes to turn pages (We just have to get it started for her) so we only read board books because she would rip normal pages. Anyway, we go to the library every week and get 10 new board books, at least half of which have to be interactive.

And then it occurred to me that there was a whole library there, not just the children's section. So, I placed a hold on "Catching Fire," book 2 of the Hunger Games series, which I had read the beginning of but not been able to finish. I was number 28 in line for the book, so I kind of thought I'd be waiting forever, but it only took a month or so.

Let's just say that I got the book one afternoon and had finished it by the next day. It was engrossing, but I have to admit that I was totally disappointed when I reached the end. I kept waiting for there to be something big to end it with and I feel like it ended before that happened. Maybe I was just so jaded by the people dying in the first book that the arena didn't give me that adrenaline rush I was hoping for.

Which is, I think, why I liked the first one. I'm not going to comment on it's merits as a piece of literature, but The Hunger Games was riveting. I couldn't put it down. And that's fun for me. I like when someone can tell a story in such a way that I care about the characters and want to give them advice about their life choices. Anyway, I've got a hold on Mockingjay (only number 33 in line!) so maybe that one will be more "exciting."

Have you missed the recent Lydia posts? Shame on you.