Finally

Today is the kind of day I wish would happen every day for a work-at-home mom. Owen slept until 10 (score!). We hung out on the couch and watched only one movie while the baby ate. Owen and I made silly faces at the baby while she beamed, adorable!! Daddy came home and made "munch" (tomato soup and rice...yum) while I got a quick nap. After lunch I fed the baby while watching Miffy on the computer and sang silly songs. Got the baby to sleep in the sling, and then made green playdoh. Now she's sleeping on my lap, Owen's playing with the playdoh, and I'm working (well, and blogging, if you want to be exact).

Ok, now he's checking out silly faces in the mirror.

Hopefully we can swing a walk yet today. If I had gotten a shower today it would have been perfect.

Why didn't I think of this before

Two cups of chocolate chips is too much for one recipe. I'm an avowed chocoholic and I still think so. Why don't I use just half of the bag?

Also, Nestle chips are way better than Hershey's. Ghirardelli* is of course better than both. I need to discover some really good chips.

*Proof I'm a chocoholic...spelled Ghirardelli right the first time.

Chicken Juice

Owen started preschool at the beginning of the month. He goes 2 times a week and he loves it. So far his teachers love him, too. Every day when Cor picks him up, they say Owen did great. On Monday they asked Cor how we keep from constantly laughing. Apparently Owen cracks them up. He raised his hand during some sort of circle time and said, "I have a problem." When they asked him what it was, he said "I have a booger." Coming from a 3-year-old this is high humor. He was also telling them about Mythbusters and blowing up cars. They asked if we write down the things he says. I don't! I always mean to come on here when he says something funny but then I forget. Shame on me!!

At dinner the other day we were talking about tomato juice. Owen remembered what we had said about orange juice and said, "If you squish a tomato, you get tomato juice!" I was very proud of his reasoning skills. Then he said, "If you squish a chicken, you get chicken juice!" Um, yeah, I guess. Yuk, though.

He loves his baby sister. He is constantly touching her and kissing her. He is happy to run for whatever I need. He tries to calm her down when she fusses, "It's okay, baby Claire."

Owen has been trying very hard to read. He has a lot of words he remembers by sight, and he tries to sound out words. Today he spelled the word car by reasoning out the letters from the sounds. The daycare teachers think he's very smart. He enjoys making pictures, which are usually jumbled up letters. He likes to go for walks and play games like Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Candy Land, Candy Land Castle, and Cariboo. His favorite TV shows are Blue's Clues, Peep and the Big Wide World, Word World, Wonder Pets, and Mythbusters. Unfortunately he's watching a lot of TV lately, between me working and nursing the baby. He'd watch TV all day if I'd let him, but I don't. A few people brought gifts for Owen when they brought gifts for the baby and one person brought over the Jungle Book. He watched it for about 20 minutes before declaring it too scary.

He told us he wanted to be Batman for Halloween. We were both confused as to where he had seen/heard of Batman, maybe he overheard us talking about the movie a few months ago? Finally we asked him to describe what Batman looks like. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was enough to reassure us that he had never actually seen Batman. I managed to talk him into being a monkey instead.

One month

Little Claire is a month old today. She's been a very mellow baby, for the most part, only fussing when she's hungry. I love seeing the faces she makes, I'd forgotten how much fun a newborn is to watch. She's losing her dark hair. She eats a lot, it feels like constantly but I know it's not that much. It might be because I'm so afraid of a low supply I've been taking fenugreek, so that might be giving me too much foremilk, which doesn't fill up a tiny tummy as well. I've also noticed green poop and she's been a little fussy in the evenings lately (gassy?). Or, I could be overanalyzing the whole deal. She's still very tiny, barely getting into 0-3 month clothes. We've been using a fleece pouch, which I adore. As soon as we put her in it she conks out, all snug and cozy. Love!! She seems to be avoiding the worst of the baby acne that her brother had at about this time. She gets furious when she's naked but gets over it quickly. She doesn't hold grudges. We're swaddling her and she sleeps pretty well at night for a while, but then she starts to fuss so I give up and haul her into bed. She gets her snack and then snuggles into the crook of my arm. I think cosleeping is great for some people, it sounds so sweet, but I feel uncomfortable doing it, even if she is very cute and snuggly. I'm looking forward to getting a new cosleeper bassinet next week and hoping that will help.

Owen started preschool last week so I've had a few afternoons this week with just me and Claire. We have been able to have some nice naps together. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough one-on-one time with Claire but the problem has been my poor, neglected 3-year-old. I spend so much time on the couch feeding the baby and dozing that Owen has been watching way too much TV. Poor kid. We made it a point to get out this afternoon for a while, and he's really enjoying school, so hopefully it's not as bad as I think it is.