Happy Birthday Eli!

Dear Eli,

You made it! You are now 1. Oh, how I love you. You are a joyful little boy. You are happy, cuddly, smooshy, cute, mischievous, curious. You know which remote is the "good" one, and the telephone is so cool. Opening and closing doors is the best and it is even better when you can clear out whatever is inside that cabinet door. Nothing escapes the Eli taste-test. How else are you supposed to learn? Marbles, rocks, garbage, and sometimes you get lucky and it is an M&M.

I call you punkin, punky, punkin pie, marshmallow, scrubbers, squishers. You are perfection and we love you so much. Our family would not be complete without you.

Love,

Mom


















Blue Steel!

Black and White

I think one of the best qualities of children is that they only see in black and white. Period.

This became very apparent to me yesterday as I watched a heavily-edited version of "Troy", starring Brad Pitt. We have started studying Greece for our history unit, so I thought it would be a good idea if they watched some of the movie with me.

There was one little problem with the movie. Raef and Zach were obsessed with knowing who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. They asked me at least 30 times, and all I could say was "uuuhhhhh".

As the story unfolded, it was not so clear who was "good" and who was "bad". They were both, well, both.

On one side you have Paris (Orlando Bloom) who seduces a married woman, for whom the entire Greek army will go to war for and fight to the death, all in the name of pride. King Agememnon is a wicked, murderous Greek king on the other side. And then both sides keep doing things throughout the story that are morally reprehensible.

But, since Achilles (Brad Pitt) was the best looking guy in the flick, he had to be the good guy, right?

As long as you just forget the part about him going on a murderous rage AND beating up a woman, because his cousin was stupid enough to get killed in battle.


I am confused..."Mom, is he the good guy?"

My Tot

You Can Be a Lucky Winner, Too!

Feeling Lucky?

I happened upon this blog, so I signed myself up. Hope you'll play along.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year (hopefully sooner than later).
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? There is no catch.

** Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

My Crafty Side

I got ambitious this last week. Therefore, I painted my hallway cabinets blue with a dark glaze.

I got the hardware at Lowe's on clearance. That was so awesome.


Then I decided to sew myself a purse. I did get a sewing machine for Christmas, you know.

Let's Go For a Little Stroll

He loves the Lincoln Log roof sticks. He carries those things around with him all the time. Therefore, of course he needs one while he is doing a little bit of walking.

Lessons From My Kids

When I got home from my morning meeting today, Raef eagerly met me at the front door.

"Mom, I have a surprise for you. Look over there for your surprise!"

I looked on the bureau and there was a piece of construction paper folded up to look like a letter. He drew the folds of the letter and had Dad draw a stamp on it. It had to be a stamp of the bell with the crack in it, according to Raef.

He made sure to put my name and address on it. The "address" was my cell phone number. How cute is that?

When I opened up my taped up "envelope" there was a cute picture with a heart and it said, "I love you Mom."

I told you he has such a big heart.

***

And then I was rebuked by Zach today so effectively, to help me get a check on my sarcasm. As we were eating dinner, he reached for something and proceeded to dump his entire glass of milk on the table, into a steady stream that headed straight for my lap. I kept saying to him, "Thank you so much Zach. Thank you so much."

He had this look of consternation on his face. Finally he replied, "Mom, you are not really thankful."

Ouch, that one hurt.