Hair.

I've decided that it's kind of lame to not use my kids' real names here. Nobody even calls Milo "butter bean". I did for a little bit, and still do but not very often, it never really stuck. We still sometimes call Amelia "Peaches" but it feels kind of fake whenever I type the nicknames. So they're Amelia and Milo from now on.

And Amelia (at age 4 almost!!!) just had her first haircut yesterday! I gave her the choice of going to a salon to have it done or have me do it. She chose me, so yesterday I plopped her down in front of Peep and started chopping. So far the only picture I have is this one from my phone.

And she has school pictures today, so I'm excited to see how they turn out. Now if only I could get around to doing something with my head of unruliness.

Cheer up, damnit!

How can life possibly be so dreary when I hear things like this...

The other night as I was tucking the little girl into bed, she says "you're a really good mama".

Then tonight as I was beating myself up for tossing together (another) lame-o dinner, I said to her "We're going to have some leftover chicken salad and a lettuce salad" to which she replies: "Two salads???!!! What an awesome mom!"

Oh my.

(Photo from shutrbugr.)

Oh dear, oh deer, oh dear.

This is what you get when you type "sad deer" into flickr's search. That and dead deer on the side of the road, but I don't feel dead quite yet, just "blah". I suppose I should give proper credit, it's from tortevogel's photostream. I don't know that person.

But it's what I feel like lately. In a funk. A sad funk. And it makes me even sadder when I think of how badly I've been neglecting my blog. Poor bloggy. I like this blog and I'd like to think it's something I'll be able to keep up. I'd been doing fairly well for a while, but now I fell into the sadness funk and the blog seems to have taken the brunt of it. And I really have nothing to say today, other than "I suck at keeping this up". I do have a few posts that I started and just left as drafts, because I do have things to say usually, just not the motivation to put them here all edited and pretty with correct spelling and ample sarcasm. I'll work on finishing those posts this week and publishing them.

Baby books.

Butter Bean and I enjoyed a little bit of one-on-one time. I read him a book, I think it was the first time he's ever been read to on his own! Very cool. I didn't feel like I had to read it at a preschooler level and he followed along. He really looked at the pictures I pointed to and was pretty much enthralled; much more so than when he just happens to be on my lap when I'm reading to Peach. It's so much fun to watch his development!

The Peach Blogs

fifiugtu amelia ryyrytgrtryrtrhijyhsahayafafagfsagshdgdhdtgdhgtshsg iruryhruryurrhueyeyeyet

uyewywywtwyeteye6yteuyy6eyetyeyftgdtdhdytryeyetefeytwetwdways3 AHGSWT5WREWRWE65TWRyeteeteeytrtrteyrerye657fg7gfuy6frfh6trb fcjmfhfhfgfkjfgfjhfdgdhdgeueyeuedteyeteytetreyetetrreryrtruyrtyryrurtyrutyt7uttyty57yyry

kiuyydidyteujey7eiryeurytriurtihtr476ft487fyttytitytuty cjdhgfhfdyfgfgtfg


(This is the pic she picked out to post up with her story... Kate, can you tell we miss you guys??!!)

Somewhere in this world...

..... a pig sprouted wings and is fluttering around ever so gaily among the butterflies in a dewy green meadow filled with daisies and tulips. And in the underworld, the little demons are enjoying a rare treat of popsicles and ice cream cake. Because.....





Butter Bean is napping. All by himself on a bed. And it's been like 30 minutes! Insane. This child sleeps great at night, but daytime sleep is a whole other story. Usually it's just ~15 minute cat naps in the sling or in my lap, and if I attempt to put him down at all, he either wakes up immediately or sleeps for about 3-7 minutes before he's wide awake again. I'm guessing it's because he did end up getting the cold his sister has, but still. It's nice for a change. And what am I doing with this precious time? I'm on the internet of course. I can hear my mother's heavy sigh now. "oh, Jackie..."

And now I hear a wakeful babe. It was fun while it lasted.

Easter.

pics coming soon...

Not. Go. Ing. An. Y. Where. To. Mor. Row.

Or the next day, or the next. Suddenly the Peach is sick. Again, poor thing. This has got to be literally like the 8th time for her this season. And it seems like we've been driving here and there (looong trips mind you, not just local errands) visiting these people, picking up that person, dropping off this person. Just simply too much for a 4 month old. And unfortunately Butter Bean is not one of those babies who is lulled to sleep by a moving car. In fact he hates it. And it's only getting worse, because each time we have to drive somewhere for longer than like 10 minutes he starts to get annoyed of being in the car seat, cries, then cries harder each second that I don't rescue him from the Car Seat Of Doom. Driving back home from the mountain Easter Sunday, normally about a 1 1/2, sometimes 2 hour drive, took FOUR HOURS. We stopped five times in between hungry baby, sad baby, preschool-sized bladders, angry baby, etc. So now he pretty much associates the car seat with being neglected by mama and being miserable, and I dread any trip in the near future, even those to the grocery store. We have one trip to do for the weekend of April 5th-6th, but maybe by then we'll have done enough short in-town driving that he'll somewhat calm down about the car seat thing. Also hopefully Peach will be well again by then. Also I hope Butter Bean doesn't get sick. Gah!!! Suffice it to say that it will feel good to stay at home tomorrow and not have to get in the car at all.

Snowy foggy heart.

Spring is officially here, but I'm not so thrilled about it. Bizarre, right? I took this photo out the bedroom window March 14th, thinking it would probably be the last real snow of the season. It was sort of bittersweet.

And now it's seventy-something degrees outside and I'm resenting it. I'm in a hole-up-and-eat-soup kind of mood and I want more snow. That way I have a good reason to do nothing but eat soup and bake bread and do art projects with the kids for an entire week. Spring means all kinds of nice quaint sunshiny-warm things like flowers and birds and baby llamas and what have you but it also means spring cleaning and yardwork and baring skin.... Aha! There it is folks. Quite possibly a major cause of all this nonsense. I'd love to go tanning and get a pedicure and a massage and be all like "Spring, you don't intimidate me! Tell that bitch, summer, to bring it on! I'm ready for swimsuits and sandals and shorts and tank-tops and baby llamas!" But the truth is, bouncing back from this second baby is proving to be a lot more difficult than it was the first time around; physically, mentally, and emotionally, and of course they all sort of play off of one another and it becomes a vicious cycle. I guess I'm being pretty vague here and really it's just a vent anyway so I'll go ahead and wrap it up and spare both my readers a self-pity sob story. I suppose there's hope when I get to wake up and hang out with these sorts of cuteness every day...

I guess sun isn't all that bad.

Sometimes it's so hard, but...

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy. . . practice compassion. - The Dalai Lama