Another mohawk

Here's Molly's shampoo head.

Another haircut

It was time for another haircut for Elijah. He knows the drill now, and is pretty good for haircuts. He still objects to the water at the beginning, and having the scissors too close to his ears, but he generally does very well.

The mop before we started. Wow, this kid has a lot of hair!

Hair wet, snacks at hand, watching Cars - he's ready!

All done! I went pretty short this time - he's already been getting a sweaty head at gymnastics and the park and it's not even warm out yet! It should make washing his hair a lot easier too - it takes an awful lot of water to rinse shampoo out of hair that thick.

Molly sat in her seat and had a snack and watched the show, and will proudly tell you that she got a haircut too, but I didn't cut hers this time - she didn't need it. One of these days (or years) the top and sides will catch up with the back; until then I guess I'll just trim the back when it gets scraggly and not worry about the rest of it.

Little fashonista

Molly has recently decided that she should be in charge of picking out her own outfits. Some times she thinks that what I pick out is just fine - other days she is quite determined to have her own way. On Thursday she wore an orange dress with red flowers with some pink-striped tights. I was a little horrified about that one, but it turned out to be kinda cute. Maybe she's better at this than I am! Here is what she came up with yesterday:

She just wanted the Minnie Mouse shirt and the tutu - I asked her to add some pants.
Molly is growing out of her shoes and into the next size. She is very excited about her new shoes, but often decides that they aren't comfortable after a little while, so there has been even more shoe-changing around here than normal.

These are her new shoes - Bobbi got them for her for Christmas. Cute!

More playing

Just a few more pictures of playing outside this week.

Running up and down our hill - challenging in her rain boots.

Elijah built a nest (or, made a pile of mulch) and he is sitting on his (imaginary) pretty egg.

At the park.

Ice cream

Yesterday we had a fun day. It was pouring rain and kinda miserable out, but we still had fun! I got to have a yummy free breakfast at Starbucks - courtesy of their Free Pastry Day and a gift card for some coffee. (It was fun for me - the kids didn't care too much!) Then we went to a play date with a couple of moms and their kids from church. Elijah and Molly had a blast playing with their friends, and it was really nice for me to get to hang out and chat with my friends. After nap, Patrick came with us and we all went out to Ben & Jerry's in Newport for Free Cone Day. Yes, we stood in line in the cold and rain for the third year in a row. But the line moved pretty quickly this year, and we all enjoyed our ice cream - even Elijah! Both of the kids chose strawberry, which I think was why it worked out so well this time. Elijah was still a little put-off at how cold his ice cream was, but he managed to eat most of it, and even told me that he liked it. Molly loved it. She sat in my lap in the doorstep of one of the neighboring shops (still closed at this time of year) and polished off that little cup of ice cream like a pro, saying "I yike it! I yike it!" ["I like it"] every few bites. I am sorry I didn't get pictures of them all decked out in their rain coats and boots and their faces covered in pink ice cream - I accidentally left the camera in the van, a few blocks away. Going back for it in the rain? With Molly? Nope. Oh well. It was nice to have Patrick with us, but I think it was a bit much at this point. He's staying put in bed today - a lot less pain that way.

Pictures from this week

On Tuesday we finally got some sunshine here, and we had to get outside and play. It was still very, very wet out, so our time was mostly spent digging in the mud and splashing in puddles. But we got to be outside, and the kids had fun!

Splashing!

Rain boots were necessary!

Yesterday we went to the park, which was fun. It was very busy though, and just keeping track of both kids was a full-time job, so I didn't get any pictures. Today we went out to play again. It was much drier, but the kids still found plenty of mud and mulch to dig around in.

Sick baby dinner

Molly enjoying some ramen and crackers last week when she was getting over her stomach virus.

Mohawk!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love Ireland. I've been there twice, and it is still at the top of my places to visit list. I don't love corned beef, or cabbage, or green beer, but I do enjoy St. Patrick's Day anyway. I'm not sure how my Scots-Irish ancestors would feel about celebrating the holiday, but I choose to just roll with it in my own way. =)

Molly is looking very orange in the top picture (not to be political about it - I do not have political views on the subject, just happen to be of Northern Irish, protestant heritage!) because she was wearing this cute shirt before she had diaper leakage issues. Oops. And that's the only green one she has. She was very sad to have to take off her "cwover" shirt.

A Munchkin and this week's news

On Wednesday, Patrick arrived back at home from a conference in Chicago and the kids and I drove home from our visit to Pennsylvania. On the way home, Elijah started throwing up. So we stopped for a while. I was hoping that he was just car-sick and that it would pass if he got out for a while, plus Molly was DEMANDING pancakes. We pulled off the highway and the right at the exit was a gas station/convenience store/diner. It was the perfect place to stop - we got Elijah all cleaned up and got him some juice and Sprite, and Molly got her pancake. Getting out of the van didn't stop Elijah's sickness though, so I prepared for future puking as well as I could and we set off again. It was a long trip.

Elijah continued to be sick through the night, and in the middle of the night Molly started throwing up as well. On Thursday the kids slept in and took good naps, and eventually felt a little better. They ate a sick kids' dinner - ramen noodles, saltines, and bananas, and actually kept it down.

On Friday at noon, Patrick had surgery to repair a hernia. It went well and he came home by dinner time. By the time the kids went to bed he was in a lot of pain, though, and it was a long difficult night for him.

Saturday morning I took the kids and met Jackie half-way between our houses at a random Dunkin Donuts. When we got there, Jackie and Lily were waiting for us with Munchkins to share! Elijah was not sure about them because they were chocolate, and Molly was not sure about them because Lily gave one to her (instead of Mama) ... she just sat there and looked at it in her hand for a long time.

Elijah went home with Jackie and had a great weekend there. It was such a big help to only have one kid to take care of while Patrick was feeling so terrible.

On our way home from taking Elijah to Connecticut, Molly finally decided to try her Munchkin. I encouraged her to take a bite, but she just popped the whole thing into her mouth. It was too big for her to chew once it was in there (she couldn't even close her mouth over it), so she just sat there for about 10 minutes, looking at me like this:

"Really, Mama? What am I supposed to do about this?" She finally chewed it up and got it down a while later. I was laughing so hard. Poor Molly!

Molly had a second round of the stomach virus over the weekend, so we were just hunkered down here - Patrick watching movies in bed, Molly watching Elmo and drinking juice downstairs, and me trying to tunnel out of the mountains of laundry that we've collected - traveling for most of last week, then all the puking, and then more puking, plus many days of rain + wind, which at our house means keeping towels packed around the front and back door so that all the water doesn't come inside - so lots and lots of wet towels.

Patrick is getting better and better every day. He's still in pain and pretty tired, but so much better than he was a couple of days ago. He's keeping busy with lots of movies and comedy while he's stuck in bed. Here's a pretty fruit arrangement his coworkers sent to him the other day. Cool, huh? And yummy, too!

At Bobbi & Papa's house

Last week the kids and I went down to Pennsylvania while Patrick was away at a conference for work. We really enjoyed spending time with Bobbi and Papa. The highlight of the trip for Elijah was that Papa took him to a huge train and toy show in Lancaster - he was in heaven! We also got to spend a fun day playing with Diane and Rylee and Brynn. It was a good trip.

More catching up

Elijah loves to help me make things. Recently we made a dirt cake for Patrick to take to a work event. Elijah was quite impressed with the part where we whisked the pudding mix into the milk. He also loved helping me put the gummy worms in. When we were finished, I offered to let him lick the spoon. He made a horrible, grossed-out face and said, "I can't eat that!" (Was he disgusted by the similarity to dirt, or just that it was chocolate? I don't know. He's so finicky about chocolate.) He did want a gummy worm, though.

Didn't he do a good job making it look like wormy dirt?
The cake was a big hit when Patrick took it to work.

Elijah and I have been reading a special book at nap time recently. I've been thinking that he might be ready to listen to longer books, so we got out Buster Bear, the first of the The Bedtime Story Books series. My brothers and I grew up loving these books, because my dad grew up loving them, and then saved them and read them to us. When we all grew up and ebay came along, we were able to find the last few books in the series that Dad was missing, and then Patrick and I started working on a set for us, too. Elijah has been enjoying the book, and it's nice to have some special time every day that is just for the two of us.

Elijah's first chapter book!

My funny little valentine

I'm just catching up with some February pictures of Miss Molly. We found out that we were going to be having a little girl in February two years ago - which was apparent when I got out the fun clearance clothes (that she is growing into now) that I bought for her the spring that I was pregnant. Everything is pink and covered in hearts! =) There was also a pair of PJs with a little pink tutu - and she loves it. She is just obsessed with wearing dresses and skirts these days, and she asks for that little tutu all the time. She also spends a lot of time every day changing her shoes. What a girl! Of course, she spends the rest of the day playing with trains and cars, so I think she'll turn out pretty well-rounded.

Reading

Valentine girl!

The pink tutu.

More valentines.

First she put on her black shoes (as soon as she got up - still wearing more heart-covered PJs). Then she took them off.


Then she wanted her boots.

And then the black shoes again.

And she has to do it herself.

Ready for her weekly visit to Daddy's office - wearing the black shoes.

Never mind, she wants the boots instead.