The Zoe and Silas Show

Derek worked the evening shift yesterday and the day shift today. The kids and I went to the gym first thing this morning. And then to the Farmer's Market, And then to Kaylan's birthday party (an hour away) at Chuck E Cheese,  where we spent 2.5 hours. After the party we met up with Derek at the space on our way home. The phrase "crash and burn" would be an understatement.  Photos coming soon.

3/21/12: Big trouble first thing this morning. They had somehow pulled Silas' crib over to the window from the middle of the room, alongside Zoe's crib, and this was the result... Zoe knew I was mad, and she kept saying over and over, "Momma happy? Momma happy now."

Speaking of art projects, I went nuts for V-Day this year. We made cards for all 3 sets of grandparents, my sister and her husband, as well as cards for Derek and Julia. I did different things for each one, but the cutest thing I did for the last set was tracing one of Silas' hands and one of Zoe's hands on construction paper. I cut them out, flipped the hands upside down and intertwined the fingers, making a heart shape. Then I picked out photos to put in the middle and cut them out in the shapes of hearts. As I was cutting out the last photos after work on the 13th, I was totally over it. Hard to believe that I didn't take pictures of any of the cards before we gave them away! But, here are the projects we started in EI on 2/3 that inspired the flurry of subsequent projects, along with the card we gave Derek. That, my friends, is a lot of love.

Several of my CHB friends were attending the Psychiatry summer picnic on Thursday night and since it was being held at a park close to our house I decided to crash with the kids. S&Z are walking  and listening to instructions pretty well these days, so I decided to park and let them walk to the picnic area instead of bringing the stroller or wagon. The picnic was fun! There was fresh squeezed lemonade and lots of good food, Some of our friends were there! We got to see Elliot and Nathaniel, And Stefan, And Wally the Green Monster showed up too! Zoe wanted nothing to do with him, But Silas went over to say hey. I ended up pushing our departure too close to bedtime. Both kids had complete meltdowns and I ended up seriously regretting my earlier optimism of not bringing the stroller... Alissa Westerlund   was publicly humbled tonight. At a hospital event. Past bedtime. One.parent+two.toddlers.tantru ​mming. Far from the car with no stroller or wagon to mov...

Unfortunately, Zoe inherited the Scandinavian straight hair from my mom's side of the family. I would love to keep her stylin' with a pixie cut, but the maintenance it would require at this stage of the game is not really manageable. Derek has actually started cutting Silas' hair, but we're not sure how that would work out with a girl. So we ended up deciding a few months ago to let Zoe's hair grow out. As her bangs are getting longer, we're struggling with how to best keep them out of her face. And for those of you who know and love Zoe, you might be able to guess that she's not the most cooperative toddler with having her "hair done". We've tried barrettes, Cecilia did a special Mother's Day hairdo when she visited And headbands, We've had the best luck with the headbands. Eventually, though, she pulls things out of her hair within a little while and she ends up looking like this. Today we decided to try pigtails. ...

Some of the experiments you try as a parent work, and some of them do not. Today's "nap experiment" was an epic failure. Let me explain... S&Z take one nap each day. They eat an early lunch and then play for awhile longer before becoming crank-meisters and going down for their nap around 12:30. On average they sleep for 2 hours - sometimes a little more (Silas' preference), sometimes a little less (Zoe's preference). Yesterday they took a 3 hour nap because they've had pretty bad colds this week. That should have been a sign that experimenting with the schedule today in order to accommodate a daytrip to Ipswich was a bad idea. One of my best friends, Timery, moved to Ipswich this fall . Now that we live only 75 minutes apart, we try to see each other 1x/month. We take turns with who visits who, and usually it works out pretty well. Now that we're down to one long nap per day, however, making this type of daytrip is a little more complicated. I de...