Locks of Love, Finally

I have been talking about donating my hair to Locks of Love ever since Thanksgiving when Hollianne and Angela decided to straighten my hair for me. I hadn't straightened it for a really long time. When they finished and I could see how long my hair actually was, that's when I got the idea to donate it. But, everyone is busy and I have 2 little boys so I just kept not getting around to it. Then at Christmas time, both my mom and Cristina said that they would cut it for me, but alas, again it just didn't happen. My hair just continued to grow and be super long and massive. The situation was just never right - I needed my hair clean, straight (so that I cut keep more hair when measuring the 10 inches), and I needed someone willing to take the pluge with me and do the choppin'. Well, Brian has a friend whose just starting a photography business and was offering a good price, so we decided to have him talk family pictures for us. Brian suggested that I straighten my hair for the pictures so that we could have a record of how long it was before I donated it. So I did. Yesterday I washed it and straightened it and we got pictures taken (I'll post those when we get them in a couple of days - I'm excited to see them because I think they will be really good). Then today we went to the Bowles house for Sunday dinner as usual. And finally the setting was perfect. Hair clean? Check. Hair straight? Check. Daring person willing to hack off 10 inches of my hair? Check! Hollianne was there and when she asked if I was still going to donate my hair and I said yes, she got that classic, giddy Hollianne look in her eyes and I knew that finally the hair was coming off! She asked if I wanted to cut it right then and there and when I said yes again, she asked if she could do it. And I said, "go for it!" And go for it she did! She hasn't really ever cut anyone's hair before, but I was willing to let her try and it turns out that she did a good job. It's pretty short now that all is said and done, but I really like it. It feels so light and free. When we got home, I had to shower to get all the hair off, so I did it curly to see how it looked that way. I must say that it's much cuter straight. Good thing I got a Chi for Christmas! All I have to do now is mail in my braid. Thanks Hollianne for doing such a great job and for helping me finally donate to Locks of Love!

Both of These Look Familiar As Well

Here's Ollie rockin' down to a Metallica song with daddy. Now the reason that this looks familiar is because he was using a prop for a guitar. When I was little, my mom baby sat a little boy who had to have a "guitar" every time music came on. He would run around saying, "Where's my guitarh? Where's my guitarh?" That boy favored a triangle ruler, while Ollie is using a racketball racket, but it still just reminded me of that. Why the second picture looks familiar is much more obvious. Dexy has now joined the ranks of the Backyardigans lovers in our family. He thinks they are fabulous and of course, the rest of us do too!

Meal Time Helper

Oliver is getting to be a pretty good helper. He helps me put clothes in the washer or the dryer when I'm doing laundry, he helps get his clothes off and hands me the tubs when it's bath time, he helps get the chocolate mix when he wants "tata milk," and he's super helpful (as we have witnessed several times in the past) when it comes to making sure that Dex has food. Here's Oliver helping Dexy eat his applesauce. First he would feed a spoonful to Dexy, then he'd feed himself one. One for you. One for me. One for you. One for me. One for you. Two for me. They both ate a fair amount, emptying the bowl, and were quite happy with the feeding arrangement. But, Iguess that Ollie was still a little hungry because I opened the fridge to get something and when I turned around to put it away, he was helping himself to a stick of butter. I blame Grandma Oliver for this one - she once ate an entire sitck of butter as a little girl and must have passed the butter lovin' gene on!

I am Enrolling This Child in Gymnastics!

As soon as Ollie is old enough and I get the smallest amount of extra money, I'm enrolling him in gymnastics. He has amazing core strength, flexability, and a love of slightly dangerous things - it's a perfect fit. Watch this video of Brian and Ollie's new trick and you'll see what I mean. They call this one 'Ninja Boy.'

The Letter Factory Daze

Oliver likes to watch The Letter Factory. But, yesterday and today he really liked watching it. It had been a while, so when I put it on yesterday he got very excited. I set him in the comfy chair to watch and he pulled the blanket down and got all settled and watched the whole thing whithout hardly even moving. Then today we watched it 4 times! Even Dexy was entranced. My personal favorite is the picture of Ollie sitting on the Diaper Genie. He stepped on that tuberware bin under the table and then climbed up there all by himself, probably for a better viewing position. At least it's a very good, educational DVD so I don't have to feel bad about letting them watch it so much in one day.

This Looks Familiar

Dexy's new favorite thing to do is to pull open the bottom drawer of the night stand and pull all of the burp rags out and throw them everywhere. I know that I've seen this same sence before...it's coming to me...oh, ya - Oliver did the exact same thing at this age! He just did it with less hair (that was back when Brian was still obsessed with shaving Ollie bald; good thing that has since passed). What a cute Ollie flashback! And what a fun new skill for Dexy to enjoy! Little brother just like big brother - how adorable!

Too Cute Brothers!

Here are just some adorable pictures of the boys from the last week or so: having a good time in their tubs, after baths one night at the Bowles with their hair freshly styled by Angela, wraslin' while helping themselves to a sheet of stickers, and looking handsome after Church today.

Ollie the Escape Artist

On Friday, the boys and I went to hang out with Hollianne at the Bowles house. I told Oliver that it was naptime, but then my phone rang. I answered the phone and Ollie walked off to go do something. I figured that he was just going to start heading downstairs to take a nap. Hollianne was in the bathroom and I was standing in the hall just outside of the bathroom talking on the phone and walking Dex. I finished my converstation and hung up. Nothing seemed strange. Then suddenly, it seemed, in that quiet moment of me hanging up and Hollianne finishing up, we heard Oliver screaming. I went to go see if he had in fact gone downstairs, but as I got close to the stairwell I realized that the screaming wasn't coming from that direction. I heard him crying and yelling, "Mom, Mommy, Mommy!!" but I couldn't see him anywhere. It sounded like it was coming from the backyard, eventhough the door was shut, so I went to look if he was out there. And, sure enough, to my surprise I found him standing in the backyard, barefoot, in the middle of this patch of snow. Then Spanky went trotting by. I was holding Dex and in socks, so I yelled to Hollianne that I found him in the yard and she ran out to get him. He started mummbling something about freezing and cold through his tears. We figured that he had followed Spanky out the doggy door in the house and then through the one in the garage side door as well. He had walked around the side of the house, probably wanting to jump on the tramp, and then had stopped when he started trying to trudge through the snowy part without any shoes. It was so sad and pathetic to see him standing barefoot in the middle of the snow crying, and yet it was still a little funny. Dexy was smart enough to stay on the warm side of the glass! Either that or he hasn't yet realized how to escape. I'm sure that Oliver will be more than willing to teach him how!

These Videos are So Great

The first one is of Dexy. My Dex is 8 months going on 2 years. He is sure that he is big and is so anxious to be big as his brother, Oliver. A few days ago he just started clapping out of the blue. I hadn't been working on it with him or anything. I guess he just watched me and Oliver clapping and learned how all on his own. He is so adorable!

This second video is hilarious! Brian has recently gotten into Metallica. He has been listening to it a lot lately and singing it loudly through the house. Oliver, being the astute child that he is, quickly picked up on the feel of the song that Brian was singing when he got home from work and decided to join in. Brian says that it's Oliver making fun of his singing. Ollie has such a beautiful singing voice! This just happened at dinner time tonight, but Brian and I have already watched this video about 20 times and I had to post it asap - it's that great!

Bedtime Stories

We love reading bedtime stories together! Now that Dexy is starting to get into the whole stories thing, Oliver now thinks that he's old enough to do the reading. I love hearing him "read' his story. Ollie grabs the books from me and then Dexy tries to grab them from him. Then Ollie thinks that he needs all of the stories. Then they can't decide which one to read first. Eventually we get everything settled and worked out and we all have quite a pleasant time reading together.

Entertaining Ouselves

Yesterday afternoon Oliver woke up before Dexy, but Dexy sleeps in the main living area. Therefore, Ollie and I had to entertain ourselves in the back bedroom with the door closed. There's not a whole lot to do in there because I don't keep any toys or books back there; everything is in the main living area where Dexy was sound asleep. So, I took our portable DVD player, a Little Einsteins disc, and a few books back with me when Ollie woke up. But of course, that only lasted so long. Earlier that day, I had used my breast pump. Well, Oliver found some of the extra bottles in a box in his room and the only thing I can figure is he decided that he would try to express some milk himself. "Where does this thing go?" "Mayber here?" Not working so well, huh buddy? Fortunately, Brian came home for about an hour between jobs and then the real fun could begin. Ollie got to fly high (well, as high as he could in a basement with incredibly low ceilings). That only lasted so long, so eventually we just went out into the living room and let Ollie wake Dex up. It was after 5 by that point and I figured he needed to be awake anyway. But, we did a pretty good job of entertaining ourselves.

Look at This Big Boy

Dexy is just gianormous! I now find him standing in his playpen when he's ready to get up. He always wants me to help him walk everywhere (I really don't help him often enough). He pulls up on everything, even if it's not sturdy or super dangerous (like that darn, cast-iron stove - I hate that thing). He seems bored a lot! And now he's getting yet another tooth. His 5th tooth has already broken through and I think that actually, his 6th isn't far behind (no wonder he's kind of cranky and not sleeping well at night). That's why he has a binky in these two pictures. As we all know, binkies are disgusting according to Dexter, but lately he's started kind of liking one every now and then. He doesn't actually suck on it (that would be beneath him - babies use binkies, not big boys like Dexy), but he has does enjoy biting on one for teething purposes. Notice how in the last pic he doesn't even have it in the right way. He is now sitting at my feet crying. Must be nap time. Or time for more tylenol. Or both!

Eggs, Anybody?

We have been low on food for quite a few days and today we finally went shopping. I was so excited to have some food in our fridge. I brought all the groceries into the kitchen to put them away and told the boys to play out in the living area for a few minutes. I was almost finished, when Ollie walked into the kitchen holding something. He said, "egg, eggs" and handed it to me. And he was correct. It was an egg. In the moment, I had a sudden, horrifying realization - I had forgotten the eggs and left them sitting on the table. Ollie had been playing aweful quietly and I suddenly knew why. I walked out into the living area, knowing exactly what I was going to find - eggs, everywhere! And I was right. The egg that he had given me was the only one of it's brothers to survive the raid. Fortunately, we have been borrowing the Bowles wet/dry shop vac, so I just whipped it out and sucked it all up. Today, I was actually glad that this carpet is so old and disgusting. It made it so that I could just say to myself, "well, that's life; these things happen," take pictures, and clean it up without flipping out. Not such a good day for the eggs, but all in all not a bad day for the rest of us!

Snack Time

Dexy has very quickly learned that if he looks on, under or around the little table, he's likely to find a snack of some kind. Even if it's a little old or on the floor (yuck) he's all about the treats that Ollie leaves behind. Of course, his favorite (and mine) are the fresh goodies that Ollie shares with him right then and there. Now that he can pull himself up to stand right next to Ollie at snack time, he's getting more of the new snacks as opposed to old, floor crunchies (fortunately)!

Ollie the Frenchman

On Saturday night, Brian and I went out for sushi with Brian's boss and his wife. We hadn't been on a date in a really long time, so it was a great thing for us. We left the boys at the Bowles house (they are always so nice to watch them) and went off for some excellent sushi. The boys have tons of fun and are always happy to play there. Especially if Hollianne and Angela are around (as we've seen previously - remember how the stair sledding was their idea)! Well, they had some creative fun with the boys when they were there Saturday. When we came to get them, it looked like nothing unusual had happened. But, then they showed us these pictures.

First they helped him get into their mom's old school, decrative baby carriage.

Then they put Hollianne's black beanie on him and when it looked like a beret, they decided to just go all out and draw a mustache on him with mascara. He looks totally French. I laughed so hard as they laughed so hard while telling me the story of the night's many adventures! I'm so glad that they all like each other and can have such a fun time together! Maybe Brian and I should go on dates more often.

Is She Talking About Ikea, Again?!

Why yes. Yes I am. The designers at Ikea make products that are just pure genius. They are simple and practical inexpensive products of good quality. And they get kids. Our toddler bath tubs - Ikea, $8 each and the only place I could find anything like them. The little table and 2 chairs I got the boys for Christmas - Ikea, $32 for all 3 pieces. Our newest, fabulous Ikea purchase? These bibs. A 2 pack only costs $4. They are a fast-drying, easily wipable and yet still machine washable plastic bib with a crumb-catcher pocket and sleeves! Sleeves!!! These people are brilliant! How many times do you put a regular bib on a baby and feed them one spoonful of something, only to have them turn their head and rub their dirty face all over their shoulder? A lot! And I like to let my boys work on feeding themselves, so these were a must at our house. Between these wonderful bibs and my newest in-wash stain booster (Tide Stain Release; you just dump a capful in with the detergent and it takes out almost everything with no pretreating whatsoever), laundry is suddenly taking up way less of my time. Nothing like a good product to ease the load of a busy, tired mother!