Hat, Sock, Mitten, Cracks.

The Frog has recently developed a few new interests. The first being cracks. He likes to look in cracks in sidewalks, notice what's near the crack in the book, and the other day I heard him saying to himself from a different room, "stack. crack. book." over and over to himself. Later, I discovered this.

Which is a perfect segue into another new interest: using books as blocks instead of reading material. He most enjoys making "doors" and "houses" as he calls them. The main difference between the two is a house has a pointy top, whereas a door not need have any roof at all. (though it is allowed)

He also suddenly decided that he likes to wear hats on his head and socks or mittens on his hands. One morning he wanted to wear a pair of socks on his hands, but the sock he chose has no mate. (It's the one with the star. That's why he likes it.) So I suggested he wear a mitten on the other hand instead. This reminded him of his winter hats, so he picked out one of those and commenced stacking his books, however difficult, with mittened hands. Rest assured, his head didn't get cold, during this arduous task.

He didn't wear them all day (I think he got too hot) but the next morning, first thing, he wanted to put his garb back on.

First Harvest!

Because I do square-foot-gardening, that means I can just plant food and ignore it until it's ready to eat. Even so, I love to walk by and look at all the little leaves popping out of the ground. When I went to check on my little garden family yesterday, I couldn't believe it, but I already had ripe radishes! I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure I planted them about a month ago... (at least it feels that way).

The Frog got to taste his first radish ever:
he went back for a second :)

Another Nice Day!

The setup:

The results:

Two Toddlers for a Weekend

I had the privilege of watching my 14-mo old nephew, S, this past weekend while my brother celebrated his anniversary. I was a bit nervous about the extra child, but it turned out to be very doable and gave me a bit of relief for #2 coming this August. :) The Frog was really excited to have a buddy around, although he was a bit rough. Luckily, cousin S was a trooper and took it in stride... most of the time :)
This picture is not actually very representative of normal cousin S behavior. I was continually amazed by how clean S was when he was all done eating. This is mostly because S is completely content to let you feed him every bite, and he complies very well by opening his mouth as wide as possible before each one. I was kind of wondering if it was even possible for him to be messy, so I decided to let him have a go at the last bit of bean soup. Looks like he's not the "perfect" eater after all ;)
Cousin S absolutely ADORED the slide and kept himself busy climbing up and sliding down for quite some time. The Frog would occasionally join him.
Here, The Frog is putting a piece of ice through a small hole. As you can see, this was very exciting for both of them, and The Frog did this until it completely melted.
There was also a bit of dirt smearing...
Now that cousin S is gone, The Frog keeps asking about him when we get in the car and his car seat is gone. If we ask where S is at home, The Frog checks up in the room where he was staying to see if he's sleeping. Looks like we're going to have to plan sleep overs in the future! I can't wait :D

I just want to remember...

The Frog got to clean his first cake-battered spatula this weekend. Jay was appalled that I would let this occur so early in the morning, right after breakfast. (notice the pajamas)
Jay does push-ups every morning and The Frog has recently discovered what a fun ride it is!

Fun in the Sun

Before I commence with the intended post, I found this jewel on my desktop, forgotten and waiting to be added to a blog post. It's been awhile since I took this shot, so I can no longer recall why The Frog is naked, but I'm pretty sure he requested his shoes to be put on after the clothes were removed. He's become more particular about his shoes (and my shoes, for that matter), and has been seen wearing snow boots and shorts on more than one occasion.
We're finally starting to see some spring-like weather and today The Frog decided to experiment with water and sidewalk chalk. I wish this picture could more accurately depict his "wet waddle", but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. After deciding that he prefers drawing in puddles to dry sidewalk, he concluded that the best place for his chalk was inside his full watering can. Here he is toting them both:
From a distance, it looks like he has blue, mad-scientist eyebrows.

Hiding

The Frog has recently decided that hiding himself and other things is the new favorite indoor activity. Especially when he's being looked for. I am often greeted by little surprises everywhere I go- little toy horse in bed, cars behind sofa pillows, and even a little audience when I play the piano.
The other day, I went to get something from his room and I found myself struggling to open the door to his room because, what else? All of his stuffed animals were hiding behind his door.

Living Room Update

When we first moved in, 2 years ago (has it really been that long already?!) The former owners left a swag and throw pillows that matched their red/gold-swirl/crackle paint job above the fireplace. I had enough to worry about, moving into a house and owning no furniture and everything, so I left it. It didn't look bad. It was nice.

(Sorry about the mess. I'm surprised I took the picture like that...)

But I was having a really hard time finding chairs that would look good in here, for a price I was willing to pay. I finally found some chairs that I really liked, but when I got them here, they were a lot more orange than the picture. Still, I really like them and so I decided to finally make the room my own.

I used the stuffing from the old throw pillows and made some new (though I may change the one with the bow to have a slightly different look. Maybe more like this one)
I'm still not sure what to do with my looooong mantle. I'm thinking about some big bright flowers in the vases, but what to do with those candle sticks? Keep them? Paint them? Get rid of them? I'm not in any hurry, though, so whatever happens will probably happen accidentally. I'd love some ideas though :)

Happy Mommies' Day

love,

The Frog.

PS. In case you couldn't understand what he said at the end (with his tie clasp in his mouth), he wanted to say it "again!"

Maren's Baby Shower

I threw a baby shower on Saturday for my neighbor. How convenient that we live so close and are having girls so close together! I had a lot of fun planning it and preparing, but that will probably be the last shower I throw by myself, with so many people invited. I got the invites on clearance for a steal and then printed on them at home. I think they turned out so cute!

I probably spent the most time on making the food. My mini tartlets made a reappearance.
I got the recipe for raspberry lemonade punch from Martha and I think I had more comments about how good this was than anything else. I used pink lemonade powder, instead of regular, and I think it was a good move. Also, notice my paper circle garland, draped all over the table. A simple but cute touch- which is why I copied it from some other blog...
I decided to turn my triple-layer coconut cake with lemon curd and cream cheese frosting into mini-cupcakes, and I think the result was well received.
My neighbor last minute offered to make some pull-apart cheese bread, for which I am extremely grateful. I had planned to make these before I talked to her, but I'm not sure when I would have had time to do it and have them still taste fresh. I'd still like to try them sometime. They look so cute! I also served strawberries, fresh pineapple, watermelon and cantaloupe balls, brownie bites and cream puffs (both from Costco) and lemon-lime water.

Here's Maren with some of the goods :) It was so fun to see all the cute baby girl things, for me especially because I haven't bought anything yet. It will be really hard to restrain myself, I think.
There was another little boy, about The Frog's same age, who came (same name as The Frog!) and when The Frog saw him, his first impulse was to give him a hug. This picture was captured just after the hug and just before the huggee broke down into tears.
Here we are, preggo together, bellies touching :)

Special thanks to Kira who took all the pictures for me! I knew she liked doing it and that she'd do a great job!

It was so fun to plan a cute party, but I'm glad it's over. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of free time this week, and that's just fine with me.

The Big Boy Bed

Not a whole lot has been going on around here, as I've been getting over a cold and planning a baby shower. I keep forgetting to take photos, though I probably have ample opportunity every day. I had to put at least one of The Frog sucking his thumb and poking his belly-button. Lately he's been asking me to unzip his full-bodied pjs so he can touch his belly when he falls asleep. So funny!
So, I had a coupon for 20% to BabysRUs and decided to use it to get a new mattress for baby #2. (no name yet) I got a free toddler bed from freecycle and after having it sit in our garage for months, I decided to finally get out there and clean it off and set it up. I thought it would be good to have around so The Frog can see it and get used to it and we can start talking it up. I just KNEW that it would be a big pain to get him to stay in bed if not in the crib, and we'd need plenty of time to train him before we need to hand the crib over to the next one. The very first night I set it up, during our bedtime talk (I always ask about his day after prayers) I told him what the "big boy bed" was for. I could tell he understood by his reaction and the next day he asked to take his nap in it. I reminded him that the only way he could sleep in it is if he was a big boy and stayed there during his whole nap. Much to my surprise, he willingly did it! We did the same thing that night at bed-time and it worked again... however, we woke up at about 2am to a big thud and a crying little boy. He moves around quite a bit in his sleep and he ended up on the floor. After that, I couldn't get him to settle back down and he slept the rest of the night in his crib. Since then (it's been several weeks), he has taken one other nap in the bed, and all other attempts to get him to stay there have failed miserably. Anyone have any ideas?! I'm going to have to make it a huge privilege somehow, but I haven't figured out what will work yet. For now, he enjoys reading and playing on his bed and putting all his stuffed animals on there so they can take a nap. :)