Spring Has Sprung

Well, except for yesterday, when it rained and was a bit cooler, this past week has been full of 85-degree days, blooming trees and flowers, and birds and bees. Don't even get me started on how many bees, wasps, and hornets are around. Ugh. At least the bloomage is beautiful.

However: it is humider than I ever imagined, than I actually thought it was possible to be. And...we have also been introduced to allergy season! Wednesday when we went outside there was a fine green dust all over everything, signaling the release of pollens of all varieties into the open air and through our sinuses. Oh well.

Since this is the first week of just me and James at home post-doula workshop, and since we are besieged by allergies, I haven't really had time to take many pictures, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get caught up from the times when we couldn't post because our internet hated us. So here you go:




As you can clearly see, James' general attitude when we take a walk and he DOES consent to being in the stroller is definitely one of command. No leisurely sitting back and watching the world go by for this little dude...he has to make sure we stick to the path HE wants us on! =) His take-charge attitude is fine with us as long as he stays on top of his piano practice:



And oh, how good this picture from about a month ago looks after a week of horrible humidity:


Welcome, Spring! And goodbye, Winter!

We're going to miss you, lack of humidity and pestilence!

Peace and love, till next time~

....and now for someting a little different.

Well, Susan was gone all week at her training seminar, so it was just Me (Dad) and the boy this week. I'm not much of a blogger.....so I'll get right to the pics:
James on the swing


Jamesy helping mop the floor

James on the slide....this one scares mama a bit.

Because we should all do our part...

So today, in our ongoing attempt to get James to eat anything that is actually baby-sized (such as applesauce instead of an apple) we tried mashed banana. He wasn't having any of it, as usual, but when we gave him the regular banana (under careful supervision, of course), he perked right up. In this picture you can see his "man, these people are SO SILLY!" face as well as our current highchair arrangement...



We also went to the St. Patrick's day parade downtown, and managed to stay almost an hour, but eventually had to leave because I stopped being able to feel my face. Not good. But hey, at least I wasn't wearing a kilt!

And then it was time for the crowning glory of the parade, those paragons of virtue and pillars of the community, the Knights of Columbus. I think their float says it all:


Ah, such a noble cause. Help handicap children today! Or....don't....

In fact, please, for the love of all that is holy, don't handicap our children.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our Friend Malachy

So, one of James' friends here in Raleigh is a little guy named Malachy, and we've finally gotten a couple of pictures of them together. This weekend, several of our mom friends (and the babies and daddies as well) all got together and had a big picnic in the park. It was beautiful! James was really tired out but still managed to play with Malachy a little bit:


And then today James and I ended up having Malachy over for a playdate while his daddy had to go to the dentist...good for us, bad for his daddy! And let me just say here that Malachy is about 6 weeks younger than James--but you'd never guess it from his aggressive socializing:




James wasn't too sure he liked Malachy's brand of chill but he eventually got used to it...and remembered that, unlike Malachy, he could crawl away!


Life was good once again.

No, actually, we had a great time with Malachy today, aside from the fact that he wanted to eat James...we had a good walk and the weather was beautiful and one man commented on my handsome twins! The weather has been amazing here lately and we have been going outside every chance we get. James has likewise been trying to walk by himself every chance he gets. No real success yet but he can stand up by himself for quite a while. After Malachy went home, Olivia came over for awhile and he totally showed off his mad standing skills for her. She was duly impressed but kicked his butt at crawling.

Peace and love, till next time!

Links

Hey...I'm working on getting the link list set up for our page....putting up not only advice/comfort pages that I go to a lot (such as Mothering Magazine or Hathor the Cow Goddess) but also funny blogs of people I don't know and (sometimes funny) blogs of people I do know.

If you have a blog and you read ours and you think I should have linked you, then leave a comment and I will! I tried to get everybody.

If you find a great webpage that you think we would benefit from hearing about in some way (especially if it makes us laugh...see the above about funny blogs....) then leave a comment please!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Ben and James....James really enjoys taking naps in the sling, even if he doesn't like them anywhere else! ;)



More James pictures and such to come in the near future. Love to all!

Sooner Born and Sooner Bred

Okay, so here we are in the Land of Crawl, trying to keep up our promise for a weekly blog update. We finally got our pictures off the cameras and so have a few for your viewing pleasure. The above is Jamesy trying on his daddy's winter hat and being a great little Oklahoma fan! So cute. Also, there is this:



James looks so chubby in his photos sometimes! Seriously, in real life he is just not that...cheeky. Nor, for that matter, does he normally seem so...bamboozled. But we enjoy the photo nonetheless. And my mom was here a couple of weeks ago, unexpectedly, because my sister got sick during her visit. But luckily, James still managed to milk it for some quality grandma time. See?


James is crawling all over the place now. We have not been able to put any videos on here yet, but maybe someday...like by the time he's walking...which will be any day now, as he can already pull himself along surfaces such as Daddy's legs or the couch. Still no teeth, but we are starting to have "meals" that involve something other than milk, and he is getting so big I can hardly stand it. Any day now, he'll be heading off for college...and probably he'll want to go to UT. Sorry, Ben!

Love to all, until next time~