oh my

tayloe was midway through singing his abcs to thomas for the 10th time when i realized i should video tape it. he doesn't actually finish, but you get the point. (l m n & o are actually one letter, did you know that?).
you should see him do it all the way through . it's quite a performance.

today

dear boys,
there's a chance you'll someday ask me what we did the day barack obama was inaugurated. there's a greater chance i'll tell you so many times over your lifetime without you asking you'll know so well what we did that you'll think you actually remember it.
just in case, though, i thought i'd write it down.
we skipped pbs for a day and went straight to cnn. we watched the crowds and excitement in dc for a while. you guys played and dad and i talked about how thankful we were that we got to spend saturday night in dc and share in the parties and excitement and stay at the amazing mayflower hotel.
daddy had to leave to catch a plane for LA so we kissed him goodbye and decided we should stay in our pjs and keep watching until the president spoke.
tayloe, you loved the band music and you instantly recognized 'rock bama' when you saw him. when george bush was leaving the white house, i said, 'there goes george bush' and you said 'mama, what's george bush doing?' i told you he was going home to texas and you said, 'ooohhh, bye bye george bush' which made me laugh a lot so you kept doing it over and over. i took a few pictures of you and thomas on the couch watching it all on tv.
when president obama took his oath, i cried. tayloe, you asked me what was wrong and i told you sometimes when people are very happy, they cry.
thomas you napped, drank milk, sat in my lap and chewed your fingers. i think you had a very nice time.
we all liked watching the helicopter take george bush away, though admittedly for different reasons.
after obama's inauguration speech, we turned off the tv, got dressed and went to the childrens museum. tayloe you had a great time playing with the trains and the ball machine. thomas you sat in the sling and took a little nap. afterwards we went to mcdonalds for cheeseburgers (i had a salad) and then because it was a special day and we wanted to end it on a sweet note we split a milkshake.
a chocolate one of course.

a boy in a dress

i'm too lazy to download my own photos, so i stole these from my sister in law mary's facebook page. thomas's christening last sunday was just beautiful. true to form, little tayloe stole the show. midway through, he decided that he did in fact want to join us at the baptismal font so he got up, walked up the aisle & up the steps dragging his blanket behind him. crowd slayer.
thomas found it all so riveting and great he fell asleep and stayed that way until tim patterson dabbled cold water on his forehead. then he cried.
thomas is 4 1/2 months old today. he's getting stronger and stronger. he drools a lot and loves his right index finger - he chews on it all the time. so i guess he's teething. he had his first rice cereal this week and i couldn't believe - COULDN'T BELIEVE - how he gobbled it up. he loves the stuff - opens his mouth as wide as he can when he sees the spoon coming. he's incredibly sweet and laid back. he sleeps from 7 until 530 or so in the morning and did it on his own - no sleep training, no cry it out, no nothing.
absolutely nothing bothers him and he's still so soft and downy and sweet. in the last month, he's started kreening to see t2 and responds with lots of smiles and coos to the sight of him or the sound of his voice.
i can't wait to watch him grow up, but i'm also a little sad that every day he leaves a little bit of infanthood behind him. i always thought it was a little cuckoo that mothers called their youngest children their babies well into adulthood, but now i get it. i sometimes wonder how on his wedding day i'm going to be able to just sit there and watch him pledge his love to some other woman without standing up and shouting, 'BUT THAT'S MY BABY!'
no. i won't be that mom. i just make a scene with all my weeping. and then i'll steal their first born.

january

this is thomas' best, 'i don't know mom, am i cute? face.' sweet marshmallow, you're precious. and so's your bro.
oh january. the never-ending month of dreary cold gray blah. mucky murky dark dank january. luckily february is right around the corner. so we got that goin for us.
i guess it's fitting that we're knee-deep in control crazy twoness. to save ourselves, tayloe and i decided to step off most of the time because nothing will make you lulu like arguing with a two year old over who's going to let the dog out. there are maybe a handful of things we stand ground on and most of those relate to safety, personal space and sleeping and eating.
that's why when t2 started refusing to eat at the dinner table and telling us where he wanted his plate (oh no he didn't) and everything we said or did to change his attitude failed, we pulled out the big guns.
bribery. the cold, sweet ben & jerrys kind. oh the power i feel knowing there's a pint of willie nelson's peach cobbler in the freezer.
i'm not even sure tayloe got the concept of sweets and desserts until last month when i started running out of creative things to do on rainy days and resorted to baking. turns out, december had a lot of rainy days. we made a lot of cookies.
with the promise of dessert, he's peacefully eaten most of the food on his plate at the counter for four nights straight. to sweeten the deal, i got him a new truck placemat. tonight he was so full he didn't even finish his dessert.
i know it's not about winning and losing, it's about compromise and teaching and taking it all in stride and BLAH BLAH BLAH.
I WON. i love it when i win. i'm going to gloat. nah na nah na na nah. I WON I WON I WON I WON.
for now, at least.

it was great

the holidays were awesome. the best two weeks ever. we ate great food, opened lots of presents, saw everyone we loved, spent tons of time together and laughed a lot. best of all we were in our very own home (with beautiful new windows).
and now, i'm ready for spring.