Our strange cats

Here is Isabelle, attempting to get into Phil's olive jar from above. He has both of our cats eating olives. Pandora runs, when she hears him getting olives out of the fridge, to beg for them. If Phil doesn't get them out when Pandora decides she wants them, she will stalk him meowing, until he feeds her. What is wrong with our cats????

We will return

Sorry for the long interruption in posts. It's been a long 2 weeks of sickness, first in Matthew and now me. Aren't adults too old to get ear infections that don't want to go away? When I feel a little better this week, I promise to find something to post about. Till then...

All about Matthew

I've put alot of pictures on of Matthew and said a little about what he is up to, but I haven't said any of his catch phrases for a long time. He says alot of, "Ok, go ahead" "Yeah, me think so" "Me no tired" "Not naptime, no not naptime." He has worked really hard on toilet training this last month. He has started being able to tell me the words on each pg of his favorite books. (Some of the books we just got in the last week or 2.) Mom informs me this is a pre reading skill. He threw his winter coat into the wet paint, the last day of painting, and now has yellow on it I can't get off. He has been very, very active and cooped up with all the bad weather. He can put a 24 piece puzzle together by himself. He is very into "2v" as he calls it. I have to work hard to limit his screen time everyday. The TV did me a favor by breaking today, so he is very limited! Thanks to our generous cousin, Tiffany, he has a ball deciding which pair of shoes to wear everyday. (Thanks Tiff, I love watching him have fun with it!) Matthew used to be an extremely picky eater, but he's really started opening up and eating more food. It is so much easier to cook now because 90% of it he'll eat. He has finally cut ties with his apple juice addiction and moved to milk. For a little boy that used to be such a picky eater, this child has never met a flavor of candy he didn't like! At school he loves to push a baby in a baby stroller. This may seem like an odd thing for him to do, but he goes to school with 4 boys and 9 girls. 2 of the boys are babies, barely starting to crawl, so it's the in thing to push babies right now. And the boys all fight for the strollers too!

I guess that about summons up where Matthew is right now. He does so many cute things everyday I haven't bothered to remember to post them. I think I have the winter blahs. It keeps getting super cold and snowing, then it melts and it's super muddy, then it snows, then melts, repeat for the last 2 months. I hope by April it will be better consistently nice and we can go outside and RUN daily. Not to mention, flowers! Anyone else have the winter blahs? If so, I'd love to hear how you beat them back and have fun and inspiration.

Dining room progress

Normally Matthew doesn't prime in his pullups, but his paint pants where in the washing machine.

Here we are working hard. Not long after this it got to be such a mess we had to give up and leave it to Dad.

Finished corner. I can't wait to get the baseboards and door trim up!

Where did January go?

I'm helping Daddy paint!

Matthew the Indian on his swing.

Caring for a baby at school.

Matthew pretending he IS a baby. I'm surprised he didn't break this poor bouncer.


Where did January go? Well, since the last time I posted, I've had severe heartburn for a week, Matthew and I got the 24hr flu, we've hung out with Phil, and Matthew went #2 on the toilet for the first time. It's been a week. This is the 1st time in a week I actually feel perky. The weather has taken a nosedive again, but I'm still waiting for spring and the beginning of flower season. I have seen the tips of bulbs coming up here and there. I planted some earlier varieties, so I have no idea when they will make their appearance this season.

Phil has been hard at work painting the dining room and he has decided that it's too yellow. I predicted this and believe that it will be ok. It is a soft enough yellow that it's not going to scream NEON and GLOW-IN-THE-DARK. I can't wait to see it all done, even if it is too yellow for me.