Spicy, spicy!

I finally finished painting my new spice cabinet that Mo and Nana made for me for my birthday. The spray-on chalkboard came out great! Patrick and I have been enjoying leaving chore lists for one another. Thank you so much Nana and Mo! It's so nice to have all my spices in one place and off of the fridge (where they were collecting a lot of dust) and out of my cabinet so I have room for other things. I love it!


The spice cabinet looks almost full already, but that's just because I have (for some reason) two jars of cumin, two of curry, two of parsley and three of chili powder. I guess when your spices aren't organized in one place it's easy to buy something you already have!

Crawling to Glory

The eternal question in our house is, When will these boys ever walk? Or even, when will they crawl? Both of them have been getting their knees up under them occasionally, but they don't seem to be too serious yet about actually moving. Sam does like to stand though, so maybe he'll skip the whole crawling thing altogether...



Here are the boys hanging out in the box that their diapers came in. I haven't done a plug for 1 800 Diapers, so just to get it in--it's GREAT. You order online, they're cheap, and shipped free straight to your door. And they sell wipes and formula, too. It's like Christmas! Well, sort of...

NANAMO!

We had a really great time with Nana and Mo. The boys thought that they were HILARIOUS. What with the boys dissolving in giggles when Mo would blow on his ginger beer bottle, or Nana playing the grunt/shrug game with Sam (the rules of which are pretty elaborate--you grunt and shrug, then I grunt and shrug, and repeat... repeatedly...). Eli apparently thought this game was so funny, that when he woke up that night crying (probably because his sixth and seventh teeth were coming in) and after I had picked him up and comforted him, he was lying in my arms with his head on my shoulder. As I'm sitting there wondering if he has fallen asleep, all of the sudden he gives a little grunt, then "heh, heh, heh, heh." Huh.

A Couple of Little Punks

Nana and Mo came to visit this past weekend, and since the boys were looking a little shaggy, we decided they needed to be cleaned up a bit. They actually did very well with the clippers--only a few complaining protests and some "what are you doing back there" glances behind them--but mostly they were glued to Baby Einstein. I think their haircuts turned out great, but Nana is just hoping that their hair grows out before her Christmas pictures have to be taken (some have suggested that we take our Christmas pictures now!). You can see the before and after pictures here for Eli and below for Sam...






Pretty cool!

A couple of pairs of parachute pants and these boys would fit right in in the 80s! (Of course Sam might have before his haircut--I think that he was working his way to a Flock of Seagulls 'do...you can't really tell in this picture, though, just trust me...)

I don't think the Naval Academy will be letting Sam in any time soon (well, at least not for seventeen years or so).

Eli Plays the Crankmeister

We went for a walk on Sunday to a little lake nearby our house. Annie had the greatest time swimming in the sub-zero degree water. The boys were all bundled up for the trip, munched on crackers, and came back in the greatest mood (it was a great day). Here they are blissfully making a tremendous mess with their zwieback toast. (You can tell that the boys have hat-head; their hair isn't its usually perky self...)


Well, we finally bit the bullet and got the boys larger car seats. Here we are enjoying them in our living room (don't worry, we will eventually be using them in the car).




Needless to say (as per the title of this blog), Eli has been a bit cranky today. Patrick and I have been saying all day, "Gee, Eli seems to be out of sorts today." So about three o'clock this afternoon I got around to thinking, hmm, I wonder what's wrong with Eli today? And I put my finger in his mouth and--lo and behold!--a TOOTH. That makes five for Eli. Five teeth and still has trouble sitting upright (I guess with that mouth full of teeth it's hard to hold that huge head up!). You can just see it in the picture, to the left of his two bottom teeth. Poor sweet Eli!


A little baby Tylenol, a teether (which he was obviously wanting!)...




...and the magic of Baby Einstein...




...and we are back to our usual selves! (Baby Einstein is the opiate of the masses in our household.)