New Pictures

Sorry about the long wait. It seems like life gets busier every day. Also, I've been reading a couple of good books lately which takes over computer time.

Not too much news here. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Helping Mom fold laundry


The downside: I had to sweep up and throw half a box of cereal.
The upside: It's probably the healthiest cereal available, and she loves it!




Showing her muscles!

She's even got the "stoned" look for her rock star impersonation.

A Day in the Life

I used to think it would be easier to keep a clean house being home all day long than it is being gone at work all day. Silly me.

For you dads-with-stay-at-home-wives out there who sometimes come home and wonder (silently, of course): "What did she do all day?" Here's an example of what may have happened:

Mom needs to get the dishes (or laundry or something of the sort) done. But in order to do so, Baby needs to be occupied or she will be yanking on Mom's pants, begging desperately to be held or played with.

So while Mom does chore #1, Baby keeps busy by emptying the kitchen cupboard:

When Mom is done, she now has a new mess to clean up. (Lest you think I'm a terrible disciplinarian at this point, remember that this baby is not old enough to properly clean up after herself...yet). So - while cleaning up said mess, Baby happily occupies herself by emptying her diaper bag:

While Mom repacks the bag, Baby moves onto yet another cupboard in the kitchen:

Finally, Mom gives up on cleaning for a bit and does some work on the computer (posting a blog, for example). During which time, Baby does this to the office:

And after a full day of cleaning, the house is in about the same state as it was at the beginning of the day (if not slightly messier). Keep in mind that this is only a partial picture, leaving out preparation and clean up of meals, reading and playing with the baby (when she might even play with actual toys).

Still...as frustrating as some days can be, I wouldn't trade this job for any other in the world.

Fashion trends

The other day I was taking Elena for a walk when a woman spotted us. She stopped to say, "Oh cute!" or something to that effect. Then she asked me, "How old is he?"

Now I can kind of understand thinking Elena is a boy since she has short hair and all....but she was wearing this. With the hot pink hat.

The funny thing is, this isn't actually that uncommon (although it's usually men who are colorblind or completely oblivious to anything clothing-related). People have thought she was a boy when she was dressed in a variety of different dresses - some of them completely pink.

So I have a question for all of you moms out there who have little boys. Is there some new fashion trend that I'm unaware of? Is it becoming popular to dress your boys in pink and purple flowers with ruffles along the neck? If that's the case, I suppose I won't even need to bother buying new clothes for our next child if it's a boy.

Family Fun

Since I last wrote on here, we all went on our first sailing trip with my Uncle Paul on his sailboat, Break Wind. It wasn't too windy so we just sailed slowly across the lake. Elena enjoyed it for the most part, although she was desperately trying to jump into the water for much of the ride. Afterwards she was able to swim on the beach for a bit, which she loved. She had no fear and scooted out (walking was too hard with all the rocks) until the water was at her chin level.

The following weekend we had a family reunion on my dad's side of the family. That's the biggest side of our families. For those of you who know Seth's family - yes, it's even bigger than that. I'm the youngest of 40 cousins. There were about 130 people there (and I'd guess at least 1/3 of us were missing). It was a lot of fun for us to see so many family members again; and Elena, of course, enjoyed being in a huge crowd of people to entertain. Here's a snapshot of us standing around - the kids were all running around playing so we weren't able to get a whole group shot. If you look in the lower left corner, you can see Elena putting herself through the hole of a bean bag board.