Plotting

[Sinister voice off set] The guards stand vigilant as the giant baby monster lies in wait near the castle, silently and patiently planning his attack... as soon as he figures out how to use his arms and legs.

To be continued...

Good Thing Tomatoes Were Made on the Third Day

Last night when Jonah was going to bed, we were talking about creation. I was asking him to tell me what was created on each day. When we got to the fourth day, I asked him about that.

"Um... I don't know..." he said.

"Come on... It's your favorite thing!"

"Uhhhh...."

"Jonah. Your favorite part! The part you like the very best..." I was sure he'd say, "Sun, moon and stars" right away. The kid is obsessed with outer space to the extent that he usually adds, "...and black holes and galaxies and asteroids and planets and white dwarfs!" But this time when I mentioned his "favorite thing" all he could think was:

"Um... Spaghetti!"

Story Time

Foolishness Is Bound in the Heart of a Child

Jonah was putting away the silverware from the dishwasher. "Grr! Why do I have to do the silverware? I just only feel like laying around and doing NOTHING!"

Me: "Ah, yes, I know how that feels. But it is my job as your mother to purge that laziness out of you so that you become a hardworking man."

J: "No! My laziness stays in! It's in a special sack! It can never come out!"




M: Blink. Bwahahahahaha!

Taggie

I got crafty today!






What is it, you ask? Why, it's a Taggie! I will readily admit that I totally ripped off this idea. These things sell for 20-30 bucks on the Taggie website! I was skeptical when I first saw one, but when I saw how much my friend's baby enjoyed it, I realized it's a pretty cool toy. It's just a soft little blankie, 13 inches square, with loops of ribbon sewed in along the edges. The ribbons are all different colors and textures and babies love to feel them with their fingers and mouths. Mine has soft fleece on one side and a cute little stripe and daisy printed cotton on the other. I only used materials that I had around from other projects.

I'm inclined to save it for Evan for Christmas, but I think he'll be ready to enjoy it before then, so I probably won't be able to wait that long. It's such great entertainment for a little guy!

Motherload

I peaked into my pepper plants and found piles of these gorgeous red bells! It's the first time I've ever grown them, and I think I'm in love. I've let green bell peppers ripen to red before, but the usually don't make it that long. This is a variety I started from seed called "Big Red" and they're just lovely!



Now... what to make with these yummy treats?

Yum

It began like this:





And ended like this:




Organic spelt "crawly noodles" with Italian pork meatballs, my specialty pasta sauce, and ricotta cheese made with milk from my own goats. The meat came from our Amish neighbors, so the only ingredient that came from "afar" was the pasta.

The whole assemblage was mighty yummy. If I do say so myself.

Things That Makes Me A Little Nuts

~Evan has no "table manners" whatsoever. Does he smile sweetly and say, "Oh, thanks so much for the delicious milk, Mother dear"? Oh, no. He wiggles and squirms and kicks and claws and grunts and then complains if the milk is not coming out fast enough for his liking. It's a good thing the little ingrate is so cute...

~He also feels the need to stop nursing repeatedly so he can look around, preventing me from doing anything else while he nurses but latch him back on every 45 seconds.

~How does one small family generate so much laundry?

~Jonah wants to watch a movie. Jonah wants to play a computer game. Jonah wants Mommy to read to him. Jonah wants to watch a movie. Jonah wants...

~The houseflies.

~My to-do list is just endless, and my productivity does not seem equal to it. Also, the things I need to do don't seem to coincide with the things I want to do.

~It must be fall because the big, ugly, hairy, leggy, fast, yucky spiders are coming into my house in herds.

~Yes, that's right, actual herds of spiders.

~Evan woke up to nurse around 4:15 this morning. While he was nursing, he filled his diaper. He doesn't usually do that at night anymore, but once in a while, it happens. So I picked him up to go change him and I realized that he was a little... moist. So was I. And my bed. We were covered in poop. At 4:30 in the morning.

~Jonah wants to watch a movie. Jonah wants to play cards. Jonah wants to listen to a tape. But mostly, Jonah wants to watch a movie. Also, a glass of milk.

~I regularly dose my goats with supplemental copper. Opal takes it just fine, but Strawberry is wise to this, and even if I hide the her dose behind my back, she sees me coming and she takes off. When I finally catch her, she stiffens her neck and clamps her jaw shut and when I force it in her mouth anyway, she literally falls over on the ground and moans. It's not really that bad, but you'd think it were torture.

~Sometimes I put Evan in a baby swing that I was given. It usually keeps him entertained for approximately 6 minutes at a time. This swing has a feature where it can play little tunes (overandoverandoverandover). I usually leave that off, but of course, Jonah turns it on. It sorta makes me wanna puncture my own ear drums.

~Now the houseflies are crawling around on the rim of my water glass. Ew.

~I spend a good portion of my day trying to explain to Jonah how much time until whatever it is that he's waiting for. "How long until Evan's done nursing?" "How long until supper?" "How long until we go to the library?" "When are we going to go for a walk?" "How long until my birthday?" Etc. ad nauseum. Whatever my answer --"Pretty soon" "In an hour" " A couple days" "A few minutes" "Next year"-- he immediately says, "In a few minutes?"

~Obviously, I'm a little short on patience today. I hate days like this.


I should really go take out my bad-mommy-day on some houseflies.

Monkey Wrestling

In lieu of something more creative to post (sing it with me: sommmmmedaaaaaay my braaaaain will come... Hm. That sounded vaguely zombie-esque. Wait, I kinda feel like a zombie sometimes...), I will continue in my usual vein of posting kid pictures (and try to avoid the bizarro introspection like my last post... yikes).

(Also-- having white balance issues again. Makes me cringe, actually. Maybe someday I'll learn. Too lazy busy to try to correct them today. I really should have higher standards for this blog, though... Sorry if that's an insult to my readership. I don't mean it! Really!)


Hey guys, smile!




Evaaaan! Don't fuss! Look at Mommy!




Smmmmillllllle!






Jonah!!




Hey! Happyhappyjoyjoyhappyjoy! Lalalaa! Look at me! Smile! Okay, don't smile, but quit wiggling!


Laugh, or I'll bite your butt.



Sigh.

Ramblings

I think this happens to me every year.

A miserable summer cold, right during the last glorious days of summer.

I do despise summer colds. In winter, it's just par for the course, but in summer, it's just plain unfair.

Especially when there's so much to do AND my two little people are miserable with colds as well.

Ugh.

This morning, I watched Jonah and Evan play together. Really! It was adorable. Evan sat in his bouncy chair while Jonah piled pillows and blankets all around and on him, making a "rocket ship". Evan just watched Jonah intently and didn't seem to mind too much if his face was covered momentarily. He was just happy to get to play with his brother.

(And then after Evan went down for a nap this morning, I spent a good hour and a half soaking in my tub. I even used the jets. It felt reeeally good. Then I puttered for a while, and now I'm back to the couch with tea. Lots of tea.)

Last night, my feverish and mostly sleepless brain was filled with dark and distressing thoughts. War and suffering-- I kid you not. I even had a blog post all composed about it; you can be glad I didn't actually write it.

It would have been weird.

And really, I'm weird enough as it is.

But I was thinking of how sweet my life is right now, how much I'm blessed with, and how tenuous it really is. How easy it is when things are good to forget where our blessings come from and how undeserving we all are.

I tend to complain waaay too much. I really need to just soak up these lovely, peaceful days and enjoy every minute. There's no saying it will last.

I guess what got me thinking about this is a radio interview I heard recently (and my mind wouldn't let go of it last night, I guess). This guy was making the case that as a nation at war, most of us really aren't sacrificing anything for it. Yes, men are dying, but how does that hurt me? It doesn't really. In the past, it's always been the norm for the whole country to have to give up something --in the form of extra taxes or supply rationing-- to support the war. While having to do that would certainly make me pretty mad, I have to say he's right. But we're all so used to having everything we want that we wouldn't stand for it (but then, perhaps we'd all think twice about war!). Instead, we continue with our normal lives, and our country barrels along, racking up unfathomable debt. What happens when those debts are called in? It may very well happen, you know.



Well. That was a depressing tangent (and on a topic I usually avoid on this blog). I blame it on my snot-filled head.

Anyway. My point is that I'm thankful. Just thankful.

And now I will put you out of the misery of this rambling post by ending it. Perhaps I'll post a cute photo later.

It's All Relative

[For a point of reference in this story, Jonah calls Nathan's parents "Oma" and "Opa". Knowing that, you may now proceed.]


Jonah asked me, "Why do Oma and Opa do this?" and he touched the tip of his finger to his tongue.

I said, "Waaahhh...??!?" so he showed me. He picked up a book and when he turned the page, he licked his finger first. "Oh!" I said "That's to make their fingers a little sticky before they turn the page.

"We should start doing that!" he said.

"Oh, I dunno... I don't usually need to, so I don't think of it." I said.

"Oh. So, maybe when we're older?" he asked.

"Um, are you saying that only 'old people' do that?"

Jonah laughed, "Opa's not old!" he said.

"Oh, I see. That's good." I replied.

"Only Oma."




Sorry, Oma...

(But I'm pretty sure she must be the youngest "old" person I've ever met!)

Dream On

Jonah likes to tell me about his dreams in the morning after he wakes up. Often, he can't remember them, so he regurgitates dreams that I've told him. But today he seemed to remember his accurately.

He went on and on about his adventures as a pilot in blah-blah-blah model of jet. In the end, his plane was blown up, or crashed, or something. "But I had a glider and I FLEW away safe! And Evan was with me and he had a glider carseat* and he flew away, too, but I had fire to go faster than him!"

Well, I sure hope they were wearing helmets.



*Glider carseat! Heh!

Double Your Money, Double Your Fun

Photo shoots with kids can be, um... challenging.

I did one today in various stops and starts.

Invariably, one kid looks good, while the other...

...looks slightly scary.




Or somebody looks away right before the click.







Or, worse, the cats get involved...






And the whole session dissolves into this:







But sometimes, with adequate "spray 'n' pray", something kinda good happens...





But then I get all the photos loaded on my composhter and discover that I had the white balance set wrong on the camera and the kids look like they're freezing to death. Hello, post processing. What would we do without modern technology? (Film, paper, developing? You've heard of it?)

Little Sack o' Sugar

Two months old today! Two! Two months that have gone by in a blur so fast.

If you don't count the lack of sleep, this is bliss. Two little boys who adore each other* and lovely late summer days. I am able to get some things done again, though we haven't started school yet because I'm still a little behind, but we're looking forward to doing that soon. Jonah's going to love it. And Evan is so incredibly sweet, we just eat him up every day! He's a little night owl right now, which is frustrating, but sometimes he's even sweet about that. Last night he sat in his bouncy chair watching us freeze corn at 10:30 (as long as we were still up with him, we figured we should use the time). He seemed to figure out that he could get our attention by cooing, so he talked and talked to us while we worked. It's just so fun to watch these little guys grow and discover who they are!



*I was telling a friend the other night that it's a good thing that Jonah has some time to bond with Evan right now while he's sweet and not yet able to wreck all his stuff. Jonah's going to need to build up the love and attachment now to carry them through the destructo phase.

They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha HA!

We've been behind on the hornworm detail lately. My tomato plants are looking a little worse for the wear.





Some of those suckers are BIG. Ick.




Here. I'll give you something cuter, now that I've thoroughly grossed you out.





(The chickens had a tasty snack, by the way...)