My Life: The Second Week of January

kids and food

I really miss writing.  I miss it in a way that I can't really even put into words, which is kind of funny.

I love the photo at left; Benjamin finds multiple uses for everything around him.  This creative kiddo not only colors with his crayons, but he also uses them to build fun, colorful shapes.  He was quick to tell me circles are not available!

Anyway, in an attempt to capture the fleeting moments of this beautiful life of mine, I am half-heartedly blogging tonight as the house sits... relatively quiet.

Why half-heartedly? My heart is with my kids - both of which are a bit under the weather and thus, not sleeping well.  My heart's with Dave too - he worked himself to death at the gym, so he crashed early tonight.  I worry about all of my people.

As for the sickies, my sweet little Benjamin just woke up screaming (night terrors) with a bloody nose.  He's battling a nasty, double ear infection and the poor kid has been fighting sleep the last few nights.  He keeps saying his ears hurt.  I suppose it's nice that he's able to actually communicate that; the last time he had an ear infection (he was plagued with them between the ages of 1 and 2), we never seemed to know that he was in pain.  After a quick trip to the doctor, he is dosed up on Zithromax and Ibuprofen, as well as some pain-numbing ear drops.   I hope that he can get some rest.

The days move along steadily, with a well-known rhythm.  We wake, eat, clean, play, go to school/work, nap, eat, clean, play, sleep.  Life is on eternal repeat, with few things to break up what can be a very monotonous existence.  Nonetheless, there are little moments that make each day different and special - I just have to be aware and 'in' those moments to see them.

My partners-in-crime

Although Benj is rough with Emme, they seem to get along quite well.  Amongst the frenzied playing and occasional fisticuffs, there are sweet moments where Emme will run up to him and put her head against his shoulder, kind of saying "I'm here - how's it going?". And then I'll turn around later, seeing Benj giving her a kiss on the forehead.  He's also become a big fan of random hugs for me; not gonna' lie - I love it.

A Boy and His Trains

Benj is still over-the-moon in love with trains.  He's got a whole bin of Thomas tracks, cars & engines.  He has a multi-colored wooden engine & cars.  And he has a set from Target (no name brand) which he calls his Jillian & Janaya trains (they gave him a gift card for his birthday).  However, his most recently acquired one is probably his favorite because it's self-propelled.  He sits and watches it go round and round and round.  It's the set that Santa brought... after the first set broke on Christmas Day.  This is a set called PowerTrains, which are battery-operated.  (Bottom R picture is him showing me where he bit his bottom lip: "Hey mom, take a picture!)

 

In addition to trains, he digs car.  Car 37 (below), courtesy of the checkout line at Fred Meyer, is his current favorite thing.   He also does a mean Harry Potter (wear mom's glasses) impersonation.  As a quick aside, the doctor's office did his stats yesterday: 3'9" (45") tall and 47lbs!  Growin' like a weed.

Emelia Alexis: our little spitfire

Our sweet baby girl.  But oh boy, she is definitely Miss Independent - and quite the sassy little thing these days.  Lately, she always seems to be walking around with some kind of purse/bag/backpack slung over her arm.  She just transitioned from a bottle to her dearly beloved pink sippy - and eats like a horse.  Favorite food?  Mac & cheese.  She'd eat it by the truckload, if we let her.  She is game for pretty much any food (except for tonight's steamed broccoli), but LOVES milk, yogurt, any kind of pasta, eggs, toast, peas, mandarin oranges, bananas, kiwis, and anything with sugar (shocking, right?).   

Besides time with the kids and Dave, I've been trying to cook more frequently AND healthy (whole foods, predominantly).  Obviously, the pictures below don't all fall into that healthy category, but they are all old goodies that I've recently revisited.   I had to make my go-to pasta salad for a funeral, making extras for our dinner that night.  Forgot how much I love that pasta salad.  The ice cream pie is a throwback to the B&R days - grasshopper ice-cream pie.  Made it for dinner with the missionaries and it was as good as I remembered.  The last pic is my effort to make pizza on Pizza Friday, rather than running up to Dominos.  The whole wheat crust and homemade sauce both turned out great and everything went together fairly quick too.  The bottom is a Hawaiian-Bacon pizza and the top is a Chicken Sausage, Onions and Green Pepper pie.  It was a good night for dinner at the Goodwins!

And that, my friends, is my "second week in January" update.  Hope to keep this writing thing going... as long as I'm not too sleep-deprived from writing until the wee hours for each post.