Jared, Alice, etc.

This Little Lady Kills Me

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:50:00 +0000

Sylvia's pickings for the day

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:49:00 +0000

Flower Child

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Mother's Day: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Mother's Day was so wonderful unlike last year. I mean it was understandable, and I don't blame it all on Jared. He was pretty exhausted, well we both were last year. It had been years since we each had gotten to sleep through the night. On Sunday I reflected back upon the year and realized that I had a year full of Mother's Days. Jared gets up with both children in the night...and had done so for countless nights in the past year. There was a patch when Sylvia wouldn't respond to me at night (post weaning.) A couple of months ago she was so mad that it was me instead of Jared (he had the flu and was throwing-up in the bathroom) that she whipped her head back and smashed it into my face. We have remedied this problem and she will now let me comfort her in the middle of the night. However Jared is the one with greater patience and I think he's basically decided on his own that he is more pleasant on sleepless nights than I am.

Jared puts Finn to bed every night and gets up with both kids at the crack of dawn every morning while I get up and run or go to the gym or sleep in (on Sundays.) I mean, he never gets to sleep in. The poor guy. He often puts both kids to bed when I go out with the girls or get errands done. He takes over at 5:45 pm every day when he comes home from work. Sometimes whisking the children outside so I can have a moment of peace. Yup, I've got it pretty good.

The eggs he made me on Sunday were so good. Now I grew up to be a scrambled eggs snob. My mother would slowly cook them until they were nice and perfectly fluffy and of course you always add cheese. None of this whipping them together in a bowl first...they just turn out mealy. Jared makes 2 things in the kitchen really well, oatmeal and scrambled eggs! I often think that he would be a great baker because he's so precise...but it's kind of my territory and I can be quite possessive of it.

Both children are so in love with him and I don't question why. He is the best father and most incredible husband. He just gives gives gives all day long to all three of us. I love him so so much!

Mother's Day: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:46:00 +0000

Why is this Mother's Day much better than previous years? Because I felt special all day. Even when I was doing the dishes and Jared said "you shouldn't be doing that" I just loved that he said that because he knew that it was a special day. I was greeted to the morning with smiling faces, breakfast in bed and balloons galore! I still had to clean up throw-up (Jared did the dirtiest part) and deal with tantrums, but I'm so delighted that I am a mother and am really enjoying these two little rascals right now. They say and do a million funny things each day.

After church and naps we road our bikes to a nice area for a picnic. Finn found a million caterpillars and Sylvia pet about 50 dogs that were passing by and picked 100 flowers (her two outdoor obsessions.) If we had a yard full of dogs and flowers Sylvia would be entertained for weeks! Imagine all of the dinners I could get cooked. But there would still be the challenge of how to keep Finn from taunting her or sitting on her.

The trailer is now used to tow picnic supplies since a stupid squirrel chewed through the bottom of it, I'm going crazy not being able to pull the kids around in fear that they might fall through.

This photo might come in handy someday when Sylvia is a teenager.

Finn got a pair of red crocs from his cousin and now he wears one of each.

I just love Sylvia's new little yellow crocs. She will only wear them now.

After 2 1/2 years of nursing that's about as much cleavage as you're gonna get.

Taking off.

Line

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:06:00 +0000

He's still at it.

PARADE

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Flying By

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:03:00 +0000

It really seems as if time is flying by. I can't believe it's May. These past few months we've spent most of our time riding around on our bikes and landing at different parks. The weather has been so nice. Finn is a pro now on his scooter and can even scooter all the way to Trader Joe's which is almost a 2 mile round trip. Just yesterday Finn decided he wanted to officially be rid of diapers. Jared and I had a formal plan to start on Saturday but Finn jumped the gun and so far he's been doing pretty well and gets excited about the possibility of peeing on a tree at the park.

Sylvia says a new word everyday. But still "no" is the dominant one. She will even say "no" for "yes", then we'll say, "Sylvia, if you want something you say yes," then she'll yell out "YAAAA....SSSSS." It's pretty hilarious. The headbutting has died down. Sylvia does throw more tantrums than Finn did at this age. I don't know if she's learning from Finn or it's just her personality...she is a feisty one though, however is very playful and cracks us up. Especially when we ask her where her nose is and she slyly tries to get her finger up your nose and then mischievously giggles. She also likes to squish my boobs sometimes when I'm holding her. She thinks that's also hilarious. She definitely has an opinion about things, like which shoes she wants to wear. Sylvia will read along with you when you're reading, repeat what you say, and snuggle with anything on the page that might be furry, like a dog, or even try to grab things off the page. It cracks me up.

Finn and Sylvie often like to play together, however Sylvia knows how to taunt and tease Finn. I love when Finn tries to help Sylvia take off her shoes when we come home, or even put them on. We went to a Stanford baseball game one evening last week and Finn packed a little backpack for Sylvia with her water and hat in it. Then he got frustrated because she didn't want to wear it. These two are becoming good little buddies. Today Sylvia was pulling me and saying (well I understood her) "go wake up Finn." She hates being awake without him, unless it's a 6am with her one love...Dad.

The kids and I spend most our time at the park me pulling them in the trailer behind the bike to a many different parks in our great city meeting up and so many friends that I have here.

47 Junk Drawers

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:56:00 +0000

For my birthday (way back in February) Jared told me that I could finally get this old apothecary drawer furniture piece that I had my eye on for over a year. I love it! And it's so handy, I immediately filled up all the drawers. In addition he also sent my card in the mail which was the most thoughtful gift because he knows that I LOVE to get mail!

Happy Holi

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 03:08:00 +0000

We made it to Happy Holi this year. But almost didn't. I guess it has gotten really big and it sold out. We usually just got tickets the day of. I got online to check the price (double what it was last year) and yelled to Jared, "OH NO, IT'S SOLD OUT!" My eternally optimistic husband replied, "Lets just go now and I bet we'll find some." Well we ran into a nice lady who had extra tickets that were actually 1/3 of the normal price. SCORE! Sylvia wasn't as delighted with it this year, even in the little kids area. (She wouldn't leave Jared's side...but what's new.) However, Finn was having a ball! He loved his freedom of running over to the table to get colored powder and then throwing it at us. He also loved chasing us around with his water gun. And I ran into my friend Sarah again! 2011, 2010, 200?

Flower Child

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:55:00 +0000

I love my little flower child

Sick

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:53:00 +0000

Puddle Jumpers (divers)

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:53:00 +0000

The first week in April we got some rain. This means big puddles. The kids put on their new boots and we let them loose. They were drenched by the end.

Nature Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Flower child

Rolly Pollys

I love these two

Goofy Kid

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:44:00 +0000

or KIDS

Rock-a-bye baby

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:01:00 +0000

I also got the kids a little rocking chair. Sylvia likes to rock her doll.

Just waking up.

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:29:00 +0000

No we were not all dressed up in ugly pastels. I just can't bare to put a little boy in pastels. I wore a hat as usual, but we didn't get a family photo. However I did get a very cute photo of Sylvia in her yellow tiered dress before church. On Saturday we went to a friends house a couple of blocks away who had a beautiful yard and was generous enough to let us use it for a little Easter egg hunting. A few of my friends and I wanted to do our own to prevent our children by being bombarded with a mass amount of candy so we filled our eggs with minimal candy and little fun toys.

Growing Butterflies

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:15:00 +0000

We've been growing butterflies. We ordered some caterpillars online and then we sat and watched them eat and get bigger. We had 10 total and 9 made it. I saw one of the caterpillars not move for about a week and assumed that it didn't survive the journey to our house. Then all of a sudden it started crawling around, but was still small and the other caterpillars were already so fat. Well I think it gave up after a while. Eventually you see them forming their cocoons. We actually got to watch that happen. About a week later you have butterflies. We let them go in our backyard. It was magical.

Sylvia did it.

Come out little butterfly.

Sibling Love

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000

I wish I could say they were like this all the time.

Rainboots

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Ready for rain...

or a fire.

A Place to Sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:49:00 +0000

I bought this little doll cradle for Sylvia on Etsy a few weeks ago. She loves it, well Finn loves it even more. He's taken it upon himself to make sure the doll gets plenty of sleep.

One evening while eating dinner Finn starts going "wah wah wah" and running to his bedroom. He came back after a few moments "The baby was sad but I put it back to sleep."

This is what I found later...with the sound machine on. This doll was well taken care of.

Devious

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Sometimes Finn builds towers...

and Sylvia knocks them down...

then Finn gets so sad and frustrated...

so I get Sylvia distracted with trains...but she always comes back...and she knows what she's doing wrong.

Out with Jared

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Jared and I need to get out again. It's been almost a month. We've mostly just had home dates lately. I guess we've been pretty busy and getting a babysitter around here you have to plan WAY ahead. We went to go see the 5 animated Oscar shorts about a month ago. I finally wore this outfit that I've seen all over and have been wanting to copy. Herringbone blazer over stripes. I added the yellow sweater because it was a chilly night and my latest obsession of bright lipstick.

Out with the girls

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:51:00 +0000

going out with these ladies...

sometimes requires blue hair.

Number 2 is a nose picker

noreply@blogger.com (Alice) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:26:00 +0000

the first time I saw Sylvia pick her nose I was rolling on the floor. to see her little finger stuck up her tiny nostril just killed me. i couldn't help but laugh. of course this encouraged it and now she does it for the reaction. sometimes I'll hear Finn yell "SYLVIA STOP PICKING YOUR NOSE!" this is coming from a little man who always asks for a kleenex. he gets grossed out easily. but isn't this just a hilarious sight? she always has been very good at getting her finger into small holes, like sticking the little people on her fingers.