Consolidation

This is how we spent our Saturday afternoon.


Converting the nursery back to it's original purpose, housing both of our guys. Luke is getting a bunk-mate, and Joseph is no longer taking up residence in the spare room with all of our leftover, rag-tag college furniture.


We have no idea how this is going to go since they've spent the last year and a half having their own rooms. Not that they spend much time at all in those rooms. They're basically just used for pre-bedtime book reading and sleep.


But that's the thing. They've had no one to wake them up in the middle of the night with the tossing and turning and grunts and whimpers. Joseph has occasionally shared his space with Mimi, but I'm assuming she's probably a little more considerate of a roomie than an almost-2-year-old wild child.


We've tried moving them into the same room twice in the past, both times ending in major disaster. And when I say disaster imagine hysterical screaming and gnashing of teeth at around 3 a.m. Yeah, not pretty and I imagine somewhat traumatic for all involved. But this time Joseph has his full crib, not just a pack n' play. And we spent several hours playing in that room with both of them, letting them each get used to the new set-up.

I'm hoping this transition will be an easy one, but frankly, it'll be an Easter miracle if we make it through the night 100% peacefully.

Wish us luck!


The boys are 22 months & 3 weeks (almost) old.

Back Yard Bettering

In the interest of reviving this sad, neglected blog, I'm going to tell you about our super-productive week-end. Complete with pictures even!

Before getting into the productive stuff though, check out the boys' new toys. Their Grandpa Mac, who they lovingly call MAC!, brought these for them a few visits ago. They've been through each of his grandchildren and now it's the boys' turn to try to destroy them. Yay!


They're learning words like "gear shift" and "steering wheel" and "horn" thanks to this car. They love that horn.


Ok, back to the productive bit...

I've been in a crunchy kind of mood lately. And when I'm in a crunchy mood, Greg gets worried. It inevitably means he'll be roped into crunchy diy projects, projects like starting our own composting heap! Oh yes.

My grandpa used to compost. He'd dig a big ol' hole in the ground of his lush backyard and bury left-over food scraps in there. When it was full, he'd fill it in and dig another one. Since our backyard seems to consist of mostly rock covered with a smattering of dirt, we have to devise other means of crunchification.

After doing a bit of reading on the interwebz, I came across a remarkably simple set of instructions that involve a 30+ gallon trash can with lid ($15 at Lowes), a handsaw or serrated knife or strong pair of scissors and a drill. Oh! And a husband willing to manhandle all of these things so my nails remain intact.

First, use that handsaw/knife/scissors to cut the bottom off of the trash can.

Joseph, ever the helpful little guy, directing Daddy in his work

Luke, who is kinda in love with that swing, swinging

Back to little boy cuteness...

Gosh, being a mom is distracting.

Ok, back to productivity...

Next, take that drill and poke many, little holes all throughout the trash can to allow air flow through your compost heap.

Bored of helping Daddy so it's time for a few laps around the yard.
I love, love, love that look of determination on his face.

Luke, showing me his battle scars
Poor guy did a back flip off a ramp at our local garden center.
He landed on his face.
It was not pretty.
The battle scars, not his face. His face is always pretty.

This is why we were at the garden center.
2 tomatoes, squash, bell pepper, rosemary & parsley
Me = excited

Next day (because when you have twin toddlers, things always take 300% longer than you think they should)...

Dude. You missed a spot.

Yeah, Dad. HUGE hole. Right there. Between your legs.

::grumble, grumble::tyrants::grumble, grumble::composting::grumble, grumble::football...

In a few short hours (spread over a couple of days) Greg graciously finished the composting bin, and now it lives behind our storage shed.

We added leaves, some grass clippings, a bit of old potting soil and our first table scraps. Then we hosed it down a bit because it should be slightly moist (like a squeezed-out sponge), and we'll turn the pile to mix everything up at least once a month. (Table scraps should always be buried in the mix to minimize bugs.) And in 6-8 months, we should have a nice bit of compost to spread around our yard.


Delayed gratification? Yes, but I'm still happy we finally started doing something. Ideally, I'd like to have a few more of these to help deal with all the yard trimmings and autumn leaves that we obviously never bothered to rake, but we can see how this goes first.


Oh, and this is the reason we planted our container garden on Saturday night after the boys had gone to bed.

Dirt! YES!!!

Ok, Dad, now what are you going to do about this overrun containing wall?

From the mouths of babes, right?


The boys are 21-ish months old.

It's Not My Fault!

This is the reason my house is always so messy:




I thought babies were supposed to be afraid of these things! Instead, mine are obsessed with them. The vacuum cleaner lives out in the garage because every time it's brought out, the boys come arunnin'. As you can see, negotiating a good cleaning is a bit of a challenge. But it sure makes for a fun time, and how often can you say that about house cleaning? :)

A Little Yard Work/Play

Confession: Property values in our hood are suffering as a direct result of our front yard.

The weeds are out of control. Grass is almost non-existent. The soil is shot. It's disgraceful and needs a LOT of work. But until we have the time/cash/patience/plan to address it properly, we're gonna have to fake it, i.e. mowing the weeds and hoping they're green enough to pass and not tick off the neighbors.

Before that first mow, however, I wanted to take some time to pull dandelions, sticky weed, and spotted spurge. (Yes, I looked up those last two so I could give my enemies a name.) While I was hard at work, Greg earned his keep by entertaining the boys.


Luke was concentrating hard on those keys while Joseph got the tickle treatment from Daddy.



I love the look on Joseph's face in this one. So sweet!


Mama's turn to take a break.


FYI, keys are delicious.




We are soaking up this fresh, cool weather before it gets hotter than Hades around here. Why can't it be spring that last 6 months instead of summer?


The boys are 1 day shy of 10 months!

Snow Day!

It snowed here in Austin on the boys' 6-month birthday, but nothing like this!

Luke painstakingly chose the musical accompaniment so I will thank you to sit back & appreciate it please.

And it was just sunny & in the 80's two days ago! Texas weather is just awesome, isn't it. :)

I tried bundling the boys up & taking them outside so they could enjoy it first hand, but it was too close to nap time and they weren't having any of it. Plus, Joseph has a bad diaper rash now & is in a particularly foul mood. No frolicking in the snow for us! Oh well.

I did sit them by the window so they could at least check it out.



That occupied them for all of 3 seconds and then it was all oooh, look at this cord! and check out this metal lock thingy! and here's a window! let's SMASH it!





No appreciation for nature, these boys... :)

I could eat them.

My guys are 8 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old.

Let There Be Light!

One of the big problems with our house, as I've seen it, is the fact that our living room is so freakin' dark. It has 3 north-facing windows and one low window on the northeast corner that is partially covered by bushes, which means that not a lot of natural light is shining through most of the day. By the time the sun is even contemplating setting, we have to turn on lamps in order to see what we're doing. On cloudy, rainy days it's hopeless.

We were discussing the possibility of adding skylights when my uncle David mentioned the idea of solatubes. We'd never heard of them, but they sounded interesting so we went to check them out. They're basically these highly reflective tubes that run from your roof, where there is a transparent cover to capture light, through your attic and into your home. The cover on the ceiling is a diffuser so the light is spread throughout the space, rather than just beamed down like a spotlight. They actually transmit a great deal of light without much heat transfer, unlike with skylights. This also means they come with a nice tax credit. Bonus! They're fast to install and relatively cheap. After seeing them in the showroom, we were sold!

So here's a shot of our living room ceiling before...


And three hours later, voila!


We lined them up with the chimney, and at some point we plan to replace that ceiling fan. When we do, we'll also center it between the solatubes.

I don't have a good 'before' picture of how dark our living room used to be, but trust me when I say it was depressing. But check it out!


This is our living room now. The window shades were all closed. Plus it was a cloudy day so it'll be even brighter when our usual sunshine-y skies return. I love it! Huge, huge improvement to our lighting situation.

Thanks for the suggestion, David!



As I mentioned earlier, while holes were being cut into our roof and ceiling, the boys and I were hanging out in the nursery, which admittedly is not something we do often. It turned out great though because the guys were totally preoccupied with the novelty to do much fussing.

Oh, and they've now well and truly mastered the art of holding their own bottles. I'm over my sadness about it because it's actually quite awesome to be able to do stuff while they're happily sucking away.

Man, they look so long in these pajamas, don't they!

Joseph's even so talented that he can do it one-handed.


This boy is cute, but honestly he's also a little lazy. And necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, so he quickly figured out a way to feed himself no-handed. What a clever little munchkin!


Luke, on the otherhand, has the opposite issue. He'd much rather be using his time looking around, grabbing things, kicking stuff. When he eats, he has a tendency to flail and twist that bottle in his mouth this way and that. I don't know. Maybe it tastes better like that.


But enough about breakfast. Let's get back to playing!

Joseph, having a bit of a flat head, secretly envies
Luke's ginormous, round noodle.

The boys are 8 months & 6 days old.