Grandma's Birthday

 My grandma turned 84 in January, and we celebrated with two low-key birthday parties.

My uncle put the candles on the cake so as to not make Grandma feel self-conscious about her age.

Grandma received a present from a "friend" at church--someone whom Grandma has done a lot for and who acts ten years older than grandma even though she is younger. When Grandma opened the present, she found this "portrait" in a frame. "Eeeee," she said. "Is this really what I look like?" We laughed and laughed. I said, "If one of your grand or great-grandchildren drew this for you--" and she said, "I'd hang it up in the living room for everyone to see. I might hang this in the garage." It didn't even make it there. It's in Grandma's room facing the wall.

Seahawk Fever

Number one reason why it was the perfect time for our family to move to Seattle when we did? SEAHAWK SEASON! We watched the games at my sister Sarah's house, decked out each week in our best blue and green attire. We even wore blue and green to church on the Sunday of the NFC Championship and Super Bowl Sunday (see "Go Hawks!" post from January).

For one of the games, Sarah bought cupcakes with blue frosting. Netty had one. Or two. All over her body.

"Why won't anyone come near me?"

Braylin and Atticus on Super Bowl Sunday--I love these boys!

Sarah's Family's Half-Time Shot

Our Half-Time Shot

Another Snow Day

 A few weeks ago we had another snow day--the second since we moved to Washington! This time the snow was much deeper and the roads were slicker. Church was cancelled. And Netty and I were sick, so we couldn't even go out to play in it.

It was oh, so tempting, too!

How I miss the days of being sick of the snow...

Ferberizing Atticus, Part One

Too many long nights in a row and a trip down "Memory Lane" that is last year's blog post about Ferberizing Netty led me to my big decision that it is indeed time to Ferberize Atticus as well. I prepared myself. I kissed my sweet baby. I told him he was a good boy. And when I put him in the crib and tucked him in, that little twerp put his head down and was silent. He had one little bout of crying but didn't even make it through round 2 before putting himself to sleep.

And I had the gall to be emotional about not rocking him to sleep.

"Go Hawks!"

Over the next two weeks, our primary focus will be teaching Netty to say this. In case your Facebook news feed hasn't been filled with Seahawks propaganda, the Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl! Jon and I aren't big football fans, but that has started changing this season. We went to my sister's house yesterday after church for the big game. I debated how "12th Man" we'd be for church, and decided to just go for it. So we pulled out our best blue and green. And after my cousin posted to Facebook that her son was going to church in his Seahawks jersey ("because babies can get away with it"), we decided to let Netty wear her Seahawks dress. We received many compliments. 

My 12th Men

Go Hawks!

The Girls

Tech Babies

While at my aunt and uncle's house for a party, Netty started watching her favorite show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, on Papa's laptop.

Yesterday evening we were trying to keep Atticus awake so he would go to bed at a decent hour. Before long, we couldn't keep him awake any longer. He fell asleep for an hour and then woke up for two more hours. Jon and I turned on MASH, and Atticus was immediately enthralled.

Johnny Jump Up

Atticus is too young to be a copycat. Instead, Netty wants to do everything Atticus does. Often we have to make Netty give toys back to Atticus that she has taken away from him. So when we got out the Johnny Jump Up and put Atticus in it, Netty thought she needed a turn.

Atticus wasn't sure about the Johnny Jump Up at first.

Once it looked like Atticus was having a good time, Netty decided she needed a turn as well.

"So, what am I supposed to do in this thing?"

"Yeah, this isn't fun."

Brother and Sister

Having two babies is hard, especially because they are close enough to be practically twins, but different enough that they each present me with different challenges. But what makes it all worth it is how much these two kids love each other.

When we were still in Rexburg, Netty started to take interest in Atticus, and it mostly started when we decided to bathe them together.

 Just a few nights ago Netty threw a fit and I couldn't realize what she wanted. She was trying to pull Atticus off of my lap, and I thought that meant she wanted me. Finally, after enduring a few slaps to the face, I realized that she didn't want me--she wanted Atticus. I set her in my rocking chair and put Atticus on her lap.

It was exactly what she wanted, and Atticus was happy too.

I hope they always have this kind of bond.

When my days get difficult, sometimes the only thing that holds me together is seeing these two kiddos together.

This is how a typical day at our house goes:

Don't Eat Pete!*

*Old pictures

For Family Home Evening one night we decided to play "Don't Eat Pete."

Netty was very good at the game. She shoveled the M&M's in her mouth as fast as she could.

"Mmmmm!"

Diaper Genie-ing*

*Old pictures

Since I was pregnant with Netty I had been debating whether or not to buy a Diaper Genie. I had heard both good and bad things about them. After Atticus was born, our kitchen garbage can was always overflowing with diapers every day and the entire apartment started stinking. All I said to Jon was, "What do you think about this?", and the next thing I knew, we were at Walmart pricing out the Playtex brand versus the Arm and Hammer brand. The new routine of emptying the Diaper Genie was exciting to Netty.

Queen of the Diaper Genie - The empty refill container made a great crown.

Helping - Taking out the final bag was serious business and hard work.

... Hard work that is better left for Daddy.