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Zigging and zagging

Baby Plum used to look just like Little Elvis did as a baby. But a few weeks ago, Baby Plum started zigging where Little Elvis zagged.

Baby Plum after a delicious meal of butternut squash and applesauce.
Little Elvis after a meal of carrots and something green. The eyes are definitely different, and possibly the head shape.

There's no doubt that Little Elvis has his Daddy's eyes. Baby Plum looks like he might get mine. He looks a lot like me. A lot. I have some baby pictures of me and of my father. The resemblance is pretty amazing.
Here are our boys side by side. This was Baby Plum's first time sitting up in a shopping cart. Little Elvis enjoyed sitting with his brother, and Baby Plum enjoyed trying to drink Little Elvis' lemonade.

They have their mommy in them...

It seems like it was another life, but I used to work in news. I worked in television and online news, and for the most part, I enjoyed it.

My parents couldn't understand why. We rarely -- pretty much never -- watched the news when I was growing up.

Around here, we don't watch the evening news with the boys. At least we didn't. But lately, Little Elvis has had us tune into "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS.

You read that correctly, our three-year-old wants to watch the stodgiest of evening news shows.

He will sit through the whole hour (playing and eating and NOT letting me turn off the TV) just to see the last few seconds of the show. Little Elvis loves the "Viewers Like You" and the "Thank You" graphics that PBS flashes at the end of every show. But he especially likes them at the end of Jim Lehrer's show.

Little Elvis is also really into a spelling phase. His favorite words for us to spell? Broadcasting, Education, Tree, Thank You, Corporation, etc. All phrases that he's heard at the end of PBS shows. The tree is the tree in the Department of Education seal that they show at the end of PBS kids programs.
Not one to let this newsbug pass him by -- Baby Plum has developed a big interest in newspapers, specifically their taste. If he's within about 2 feet of a book, magazine or newspaper, he will grab it and rip it and put it in his mouth.

My newsy little ones. Maybe they'll start their own newspaper when they're older. Bob's brother did this and I attempted one when I was probably 9 or 10.

More kitchen pics and green giveaway!

Here are some more pics of our kitchen.

We're trying to make it as user friendly for our family as possible. There's a knife magnet hanging on the wall, so little fingers can't reach them. We also got a curtain rod and S-hooks that I spray painted to match the cabinet pulls. I hung our prettier (and bigger) utensils.

On the other side, we hung up our potholders. We put another curtain rod on another wall to hold dish towels.
This is the glass tile backsplash we put up on the wall with the sink. I decided to hang our prettier coffee cups here to save space for all of our ugly travel mugs.

I still need to caulk around the top of the tile. I chose a gray mortar and am hoping that was a good decision. This is that Home Depot glass tile that they put in EVERY ad. I've seen it several places and they all have white mortar. Maybe I'll be more confident once we redo the countertops.

The green website that I write for is hosting an Earth Day giveaway -- a free, all natural, soy candle. Please visit and enter! You just have to comment.

Looking for buddies

How can you not love this little boy? I find myself wondering this most days. He's sweet, very loving, funny and loves to play just about any game.

He's also not shy, for which I am so thankful. (He inherited my aversion to sleep and most veggies, but not my shyness.)
And he wants friends to play with. When we first moved here, we were so excited to see all the play stuff in the backyards of the houses behind ours. So was Little Elvis.

Once the weather finally got warm enough, we were able to meet the families. Most of the children are older -- 6 and 5. The youngest is Little Elvis' age. She is shy and does her own thing.

The older kids were nice at first, but now they are mean to him. They exclude him, won't play with him, and the oldest will come to the fence and taunt him -- saying that he can't come over and play.

I understand that he's a good bit older, so playing with a 3-year-old probably isn't that fun. But is it necessary to be so mean? Little Elvis will go to the fence when he sees them and ask if he can come over, and then cries when he's rebuffed and it breaks my heart. Cracks it wide open.

If we do go over (which I avoid as much as possible) they won't play with him, and run from him. He thinks it's a game, and doesn't usually notice their rebuffs.

This happens with my cousin's kids as well. They are older, 5 and 7, and the little boy is so mean. We didn't have a family birthday party for Little Elvis because I couldn't take him being so mean to Little Elvis on his birthday.

Hopefully it's just an age difference, and by the time he's old enough to understand what's going on, they'll be more inclusive.

Until then, we're going for walks to look for other buddies, and playgroups at the park. And Little Elvis is waiting for Baby Plum to get big enough to play.
I hope they'll be inseparable, but kind to other kids who don't have siblings or are younger.

Oh, Baby Plum!

Baby Plum is 6 and 1/2 months old now, and it's high time for an update about our funny, demanding and very loud little boy.

He's a thumbsucker. He's been putting the thumb in or near his mouth for a long time now. We assumed it would be a constant thing as he got older. It's not always in his mouth, but it does find it's way there several times a day. Notice something else about this picture? He's taking his diaper off.
De-diapering is something that happens a lot. As you can kind of tell in this picture. He usually just undoes one tab. But somehow he managed to take the entire diaper off this afternoon.

Not only does Baby Plum like to de-diaper himself, he also loves diaper changes. He always has. When he first started giggling and cooing, it was during diaper changes.
He now has two teeth! I tried to take a picture, but it's much easier to feel them than it is to see them. He's nipped at me some, but seemed to get the message that it would not be allowed when I closed up shop.
We've been working on sitting up. He wasn't that into it at first, but he's starting to see the benefits of sitting up. Look at those little rolls! He's pushing 20 pounds at this point.

Here's a happy picture with Little Elvis. Sometimes the sight of his brother makes him bawl. Other times it makes him giggle. Little Elvis is ready for a playmate.

Some other fun tidbits:

Baby Plum makes Wookie sounds. At least I think it's Wookie. It's a mixture of a very high-pitched squeal with a purr. He's been a screecher for a while now as well. He does it when he's happy and when he's mad.

He's really enjoying solids now. He'll eat most things, but fruits are his favorites. He's been getting a lot of applesauce this week.

Baby Plum is also at the hugging stage. He'll grab onto your neck when you pick him up. I love hugging him, and getting a hug back.

So many stages are my "favorite" stages. The hugging stage is definitely one of them.

The tooth has arrived!

Baby Plum is the proud owner of a brand new baby tooth! It finally poked through sometime this week.
He's shy about showing it off (and I haven't really tried to take a picture of it yet!)


I think we may be more excited than he is. He hasn't bitten me yet, and he's still stuffy and cranky at night. Maybe another one is on the way? Mommy wants him to sleep better, so if there is another one, hopefully it will pop through more quickly.

It's a Monday

It's a Monday, and I'm in a mood. Instead of venting, I thought I'd share cute pics.

"Take my picture with the clock!"

"Look at these cool hands! They are so neat!"

And... some shots of our almost sort of complete kitchen!

Little Elvis shows off our newly painted drawers with new handles.

And our new back display space. This was a bank of cabinets. We took off the doors, painted the outside of the cabinets light gray (to match all of the other cabinets) and I painted orange on the back panels for an accent color.

Bob re-wired and installed the cool new lights (which we bought several years ago). Bob got to pick out the border and I thnk he did a good job.

Why yes, the walls are a dark blue. When we do stuff, we like to do it big.

We plan on installing a new, extended countertop under this area to give us some island-type seating. We're thinking of painting the rest of the cabinets.

We've done more since I took those pictures, and discovered that I'm fairly talented at installing glass tiles!

Focusing on this has definitely picked up my mood some.

Hope you all have had much better Mondays!