Busy time, new gig

So I haven't posted in forever, and now I have a new place to write-- my sister's blog. She is in the ICU waiting for a new pair of lungs and she has asked me to keep her blog going while she is unable to do so. I'm going to have to try to be better about posting to make good on my promise.

So visit me over there:

exhortationofthedawn.blogspot.com

or on her Care Pages:

www.carepages.com/carepages/SaranWrap

That's NOT what I said....

Gote: Daddy, we had wild rice at school and it was really good. You could make wild rice!

Me: You bet!

I got out the rice cooker. Made it as a side dish for dinner that very night. I wanted her to see I was listening, and responsive to her requests. I wanted to make something she would eat! She was telling me what she wanted, and I was going to provide it. I even kept it simple and added only butter and a little salt so it wasn't all gussied up. I put all the food on the table and we sat down to eat.

Me: Here's the wild rice! Enjoy

Gote: No thank you. I don't want any.

Me (dumbfounded and a little frustrated. No, very frustrated): But you asked for it? Why don't you want any of it?

Gote: I SAID you could make it. I didn't say I wanted to EAT it.

She had a point. (I have a feeling she will use this on me again. &again&again&again)

Don't call it a comeback.

Our tub has a faulty drain plug. It is very slow, but one minute you have a tub full of warm water, the next it has substantially dropped and you are looking around trying to figure out why you are cold. Luckily for the kids, the armada of bath toys tend to ameliorate this problem. This is what I feel like happens to each day. I wake with the Bean (who makes a pretty loud alarm clock) rush to get Gote out the door for her very early school start and clean up the mess/dishes/clothes that seem to explode around the house each morning. Then *poof* I'm in the chute of lunch/nap/bus arrival/fighting kids/dinner/bath/bed.

I dread 11 am because it means the day is gone. How bizarre is that?

So I'm trying to make a schedule. For the day, for the week; for my sanity. I have always known staying at home with the kids would be a HUGE challenge-- I'm trying to not let it beat me, but some days it does. Perhaps I can work in some time to blog... It will be like talking to another adult during the day, right?

Oops. gotta run, I've taken too much time to post. Crayons are being eaten.

Baby steps.....

Ok. So I am a bad blogger. Most of my friends can tell you that I am a horrible pen pal as well.

So baby steps.... I'll upload some photos of our wee lad and our girl wonder. Then perhaps a little text later.

Bean, I am your father.

Ready to go home, Bean is dressed in the latest newborn fashion, the gourd hat. Seen on babies in the swankiest maternity wards this fall. You go punkin!

In his bean onesie, hs looks like a cross between a Jedi Knight and Sacthel from Get Fuzzy.

Gote meets Bean.

This was big sister's visit to the hospital.  We had a little pizza party and introduced the new siblings.  Grae has been waiting and waiting for Bean to arrive and now that he arrived she was a little confused about who was still mommy's tummy.  It took a little while to get her comfortable around the squirmy squeaky baby, but when it was time to head home for bed she wanted to just spend time with him and hold him.  

I don't think she fully understood the whole relationship between the Bean in the belly, and the Bean in the bassinet.  She even seemed a little surprised when I told her Mommy and Bean would come home from the hospital the next day.   

First Bath

This picture does not do it justice, but this is our little Hellboy.  He was blue when he came out, and by nightfall he was bright red all over.  This was his first bath.  I kept wondering what other colors he would achieve (unfortunately, he added yellow to his colorwheel later in the week....)