Raising Cubs in a Campground

I added the 23rd Psalm to this image of Julia for Kate Mcrae's Curls for Kate site, but I can't help but post it here for Stellan too. So many of us are praying for Stellan, his family, and his doctors - they need it now more than ever before.

This portion was written back in February. Everyone says that childhood flies by. In an attempt to freeze time or at least capture a slice of time, I spent a few days in January looking at my children and the things associated with their lives at this stage that won't always be that way. Before I kn ow it, it will be a real bus that takes them to school, not just Sam' s toy bus that he's been obsessed with lately. I hadn't taken the time to get all the photos in order until today. Brittany asked for ideas for a blogging carnival and I immediately thought of this post. Now that it's been almost a year since I started this and some of these little things aren't part of our lives anymore. They might not be the most interesting photographs, but for me when I look at them I'm instantly transported to the that time in our lives. They are the little things that make up our days and freeze the kids developmental stage for a moment. Thomas toothbrushes... Stuffe...

During the summer (when these pics were taken) we spent part of Mondays making bread in an effort to eat healthier and save money . I wish I could say I kept up with that tradition, but alas, I've returned to buying bread from the store. (We still make these muffins though.) Without any good way to store the loaves they were getting moldy too fast and I've yet to figure out a way to slice the bread so I can use it for sandwiches. It probably has something to do with the recipe I use, but I don't have a bread board either so I can't use a recipe that requires kneading. Does anyone have a good sandwich friendly no-knead recipe? It was fun while it lasted and I think the kids got a lot out of it. They practiced taking turns. They worked on motor skills when they dumped the ingredients. They learned that you have to work for what you want. They practiced their math skills. They learned to be patient. They learned that things you make yourselves always taste better. If y...

I'm not the only one embracing babywearing* during International Babywearing Week. In the last two weeks Julia's dolls and stuffed animals have benefited from her emerging mothering instincts. She pats them on the bottom, covers them with blankets (hankies), and sways back and forth. She also cooks them meals in the play kitchen. It was just about this age that Sam's love of trucks, trains, construction vehicles etc. took off. It is so sweet to see where their interests develop. When I was a child I was always playing "House". Either with my sisters, my cabbage patch kids, my My Little Ponies, or with my LittlePeople. How fun it will be to do it all over again with my daughter. * There are companies that sell toy slings, but a simple dishcloth does the trick at our house.

That's all that separates my 2 year old from my 4 year old. One and a half pounds. Sam (with shoes on): 38 pounds. Julia (without shoes on): 36.5 pounds. No wonder my arms feel like jelly after carrying them at the same time!

Julia's latest word isn't really a word at all, but the slang word I apparently use quite a bit. This morning on the way home from dropping Sam off at school... "Julia, would you like to watch Winnie the Pooh when we get home?" "YEP!" Winnie the Pooh it is then.

Steph over at Adventures in Babywearing has been sharing sweet and heartfelt posts about her life as the mother of 4. I found her blog when I was a new babywearer two years ago. I didn't wear Sam, but I'm making up for lost time with Julia. I put her in my Kangaroo Korner sling the day she got home from the hospital. (This photo was taken at the Minnesota State Fair) (I started this slide show a year ago with photos from my other computer and never got around to finishing it.) Now at two, she asks to get in the sling. She takes naps in there when we're out in about. MckMama can vouch for me on this one as I arrived to visit her after Stellan's birth with Julia zonked out in the sling. Without a doubt my sling is the most important piece of baby gear I've ever had. I love the feeling of having my baby so close. She loves feeling safe and secure. From 8 pounds, 14 ounces to 36.5 pounds this has been the perfect sling for me. I'm all for trying new things...

Today is a good a day as any to talk about the heating issues we've been dealing with. When else could I throw out the following info? Our house was not 80 degrees on Saturday afternoon. It didn't get that hot despite having 6 windows open. We didn't have to bother our landlord on a weekend. We didn't have to turn off our heat even though it was in the 20's outside. We don't have to wait three days for the replacement part to be shipped. It is not 52 degrees in the house when we wake up in the mornings. (We can turn the heat on for a couple hours at a time but then have to turn it off or the radiators will overheat.) We escaped the hot temps in our house on Saturday by dropping the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's and went out on a date. These things did not happen while we were out: I did not drag my hubby into BabyGap just so I could see in person the cute outfits Brittany was talking about in this post . I wasn't subjected to 5 minutes of profanity...

Freedom - I went downstairs to let the cat out and feed him his breakfast this morning an could not find him anywhere. Brian searched. I searched. I searched again. My mind started racing through all the senarios...was there poison in the basement that we didn't know about? Is there a hole somewhere that he got out through (would help explain the mice getting in!), was he stuck somewhere? Finally I went outside and sure enough, there was the cat, trotting up to the front door to get his breakfast. Fresh Air - We have radiator heat in this house and so far it had been working just fine. I'm bracing myself for the day our built in china cabinet doubles as a freezer. Until then we are experiencing the opposite problem - it's flippin' HOT in here! Two mornings in a row we've woken up in hot, stuffy rooms. The termostat is set at 67, but it is 76 in here. I have always struggled to breath in hot air. Maybe there's a nurse or a doctor out there who could t...

Here's the rest of the snowman we made this morning. You can see a close up of the head in the post below (minus the pine needle hair). Bearing no hard feelings after his night in the basement, Houston stayed warm on my shoulders while the kids went sledding. Both kids, but Julia especially, liked adding snow the snowmen. Over and over again Julia would get down bend down and pick up snow to add. Once we pulled out the sleds Sam was done with snowmen. He tried all variations of going down the hill. Feet first, on his belly, and my favorite as a kid - on his knees. It wasn't really that cold out (I didn't have socks on inside my boots and my toes were plenty warm), but hot chocolate seemed appropriate with snow piling up all around us. I didn't get an argument out of the kids. :) We had a snack and watched Jack Frost ( after the part where the dad dies). While it might have been nice to sleep in this morning it was also nice to have the house cleaned, two snowmen bui...