Making Love

She already knows everything.  In her words, her brain is full and there is no more room to learn anything else. She's pretty sure she is smarter than me now and she might be right. She recently taught me a little something on making love. I know someday too soon I will deeply miss her innocence, and her simple, literal understanding of her world. I hope she never loses the way she questions everything and tries to solve every problem with a complex plan.

"Mama, the thing is is I am all out of love. Because I used it all in our cookies when we put extra, extra love in them. But it's okay because we can make more love." she blurted out at me rather randomly.

"How do we make love?," I asked cautiously. (I am sure in many, many years down the road when we talk about this topic the tone of the conversation with be so, so different!)

 "Well, the ingredients we need to make love are vanilla, sugar and salt. We mix them up together and put it in the fridge. After one hour in the fridge we will have more love. So it'll be okay, because we can get more love today we just have to make it." Frantically she urged, "Come on let's go. Let's go make it now so I can get more love, before the whole world is out of love. "

Addi mixing up some love. 

Later that day Addi used her freshly made love to make muffins. She was sure to add "extra love." My sweet girl, just your presence fills my world with so much extra love I practically burst.

Bath Time Loves

These two munchkins are constantly embraced in some sort of hug or kiss, even during bath time we are feeling the love between them. 

Washing sister's hair!

Her, "Really, mom?" face!

A Snow Friend

  I think of the four-wheel drive, cold mornings and frosted windows. Daddy just sees endless mounds of heavy snow he will repeatedly move from the driveway and side walks, because in this part of the world the snow doesn't fall and stay put. It blows around and mounds up over and over again. But in Addi's world when she sees new snow starting to fall and blow she imagines her new snow friend just waiting for her. When the new snow finally warmed up enough to stick we rolled our new snow friend to life. Addi created his happy face with rocks and a carrot and gave him arms of sticks. She wrapped his neck with a scarf and covered his head with a bucket. Landon mostly tried to figure out why his hands got so cold when he took his gloves off!

Why is it as adults we loose the ability to see the magic that can be created from nothing more than air and water? 

Big Town Getaway

Weekend getaways need not be fancy to be effective. Just getting out of the same 'ol routine for a couple days is refreshing and energizing. The kids and I spent the weekend in the big town just up the road while Daddy attended a conference. We swam, spent lazy mornings watching cartoons, did a little shopping and had a couple amazing dinners. All the traffic and buzzing, busy people made our little town feel so warm and peaceful.

18 Months

Walking and teeth --- these words pretty much sum up the past several weeks.

He now is closer to two years old than one year old. He is so cool, so much fun and so, so special. I practically burst with pride. I feel so blessed that I was chosen to be Landon's mother. He makes every moment better. And these eyes ... these eyes melt me every day!

In less than two months his eight teeth have doubled. His mouth is full of teeth, including many molars, and he has been trying new foods. Although all meat still makes him turn up his nose and shake his head "no-no,  he loves being able to eat popcorn with Addi on movie nights.

One day he woke up and decided that walking was the only way to travel. He hasn't looked back since. He even has two speeds, walking and bruised (that's when he tries to go faster and ends up falling, with a bump and bruise!) He loves to pick out his shoes in the morning. It is a decision he puts much thought into!

He loves to give kisses. Big open mouth kisses to me, and sister and daddy. Kisses to his baby, his Kya and Mason and his stuffed pets. His new thing is to crouch at the top of the stairs and shout, "Daaaad." He waits for Dad to answer and then he giggles. When he hears the garage door opening, he knows daddy is home and he starts clapping and yelling, "Daaaaad." He loves Facetiming with his cousin Ellie and Auntie Sara. Every time I get a phone call he pulls the phone from my ear to check if he can see Ellie!  He is signing "more", "eat", "stinky", "all done", "open", and "please" consistently. Landon's most favorite thing to do is read. His new favorite book is Addi's giant, super heavy world wildlife encyclopedia. He points to every animal (of every single page of the 250 page book) and says, "What's this?" He imitates many animals, including the elephant, gorilla, wolf, snake, dog, cow, lion, horse and fish. Although, he doesn't have many real words in his vocabulary (more, this, that, mama, daddy, sis, what's this, nite) he communicates effectively but grunting, pointing and signing. Plus Addison reminds us, "I speak baby."

All his teeth are sweet teeth! The kid loves sweets! 

He has adopted several of Addi's babies as his own. He kisses them, hugs them, rocks them, wraps them in blankets
 and feeds them. 

Up early. Hoping Daddy takes him skiing. 

Just getting a drink! 

Landon and his friend, Danni. 

Even Super-boys get sleepy. 

Baking bread. 

Climbing. Always climbing. 

"What's this?" Reading his favorite book, Wildlife Encyclopedic. 

Howling in his wolf towel. 

So big in the booth. 

"What's this?"

I Need More Hours

I'm not special. Every mommy, working or non-working, in the history of the universe wishes they had more hours in the day. Juggling what needs to be done for my family and what I need to do for myself is a tough balancing act, for me and all mothers.

An amazing sky on our drive home from gymnastics. 

                               {And some people in my life have the nerve to ask what it is I do all day long.}

I have so many things I have to do to care for my family --- endless dishes, dusting, vacuuming and sweeping mounds of dog hair, laundry, meal planning, dinner making, bill paying, and grocery shopping. I have so many things I choose to do --- help Addison with music practice, sell my knitting, enjoy special alone time with Landon, bake goodies, take Addi to gymnastics, continue to pursue photography, read, keep my private journal, write my blog, go to yoga and take and edit photos. I have many, many more things on my to-do list and it seems I may never get to them --- regularly volunteering at the animal shelter, attend a photography class, plan a vacation, get into the field on a wildlife biology project, endless DIY craft and home projects, Landon's first year scrapbook and our family 2012 digital scrapbook, etc. etc.  There just isn't enough hours in the day. There may be a part time job in the works also (I am very excited and very, very nervous!), so when will I get it all done? Never, probably! But I continue to chip away a little bit at a time.

I have been really missing my blog. I have several half finished Christmas posts that may sit undone for a while longer. There are only a couple hours each day that Landon naps and I have been spending that time fulfilling Etsy orders. I have been getting about one order per week. It feels really good creating things that make other people happy. I hope to start concentrating on nature-inspired pieces. But that takes time to create, uninterrupted, alone time and I rarely get that. Someday!
                                                                         
                                                                                       :::

Addi continues to work very hard in gymnastics. She loves her coaches. She practices constantly at home, eager to show them each week how well she is doing. She watches the USA gymnastics team on YouTube, she watches TV in the splits, she does more handstands in a day than anyone else, ever!, she uses the edge of our bathtub as her balance beam and my new couches as her tumbling mats. In class she often works out with the older, more advanced kids.

She continues to love preschool and music class. At the first of the year she moved up a level in music class. She is now a Blue Bug! 

Back to school in her new boots and backpack that is half her size!

Blue Bug! Yay!

Landon is marching all over the place, exploring and discovering. He loves walking around outside and goes out of his way to find snow to walk on.

Daddy Turns 31

Addison could not wait for Daddy to get home to celebrate his birthday. He had barely walked into the door and he had his present and card on his lap and she was singing happy birthday.

It was a very low-key celebration. We had pizza and Grandma Marcy's triple chocolate cake for dinner. Landon thought the new boots we got for Daddy were really for him and he also tried to eat the number three candle!