Stuck inside.

Poor kid just wants to get out there and roll in all that snow, and throw a snowball right back at his big sis. Makes me kind of hope he's walking by the time it warms up around here, just so he doesn't miss out on all the fun.

Forty-six months.

Ron says only Mama would know she's forty-six months today. Probably so. I can't explain how much I love this picture, how it completely tells the story of her at forty-six months. And how I feel the color picture is so so different from the black and white.

In color, it's Saturday morning and the weekend morning movie is over and she's just telling stories and we're all swirling about in our paths of breakfast and run and dishes and up and down the stairs, and I happen to look over at my self-contained little child and see the beautiful tulle and curls and of course bare feet in February! In black and white it kind of catches my breath and I know that twenty years from now I'll be transported back to this morning when I ran to get my camera and saw you there on your table in front of the window, swinging that little dolly on the strings of the shades, completely in your own world. Completely. You have so many stories to tell.

Two months away from four. You love clean pasta, red peppers, waffles + plain yogurt for breakfast, dessert, suckers from Daddy's work, scissors + tape, art, school, books, Laila. You have rediscovered your love for WordWorld and still love Dora and Diego. You love the weekends, you love movies, you love hot hot baths. You can't wait til spring. You're planning your birthday already. You are fun. You are smart. I am proud of you. I am so lucky you're mine.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Do you see why we call him Bozo or Crazy Hair sometimes? I should really refer back to Alla's pics from her first year because she was off-the-charts crazy hair. But for a boy who doesn't have much hair anyway, this is Crazy. 2. My son is going on two hours for his afternoon nap today. I scrapped a page, uploaded and edited some pictures, and am now working on this post. Holy good use of my time.

3. Yesterday Alla told Ron that for S week at school (they are currently on Q week, she's just thinking ahead), she wants to bring his screwdriver. This was prompted by his having left it on the counter after installing some more cabinet locks. It's an electric screwdriver so he obviously told her that wouldn't be a very good idea but maybe she could take one of his smaller ones. She then said she wanted to get her own screwdriver so that she could, and I quote, "Screw. With. Daddy." Her emphasis, not mine. We about died laughing.

4. We're late-lunchers around here. It's rare that we get to the lunch table much before one.

5. Taken at her request at the lunch table yesterday. Muffin Tin Mondays are still going strong around here.

6. At Target on Sunday, I poured my coffee beans into the grinder, only to discover that someone had left theirs in there, un-ground, and walked away. So I had to grind some of theirs into another bag, and then randomly decide it was time to stick mine in. Only my bag started to overflow, so obviously the first bit in there is that other person's coffee and who knows what it is. Darnit. I think I need to just get my own grinder.

7. Speaking of coffee, after reading the recent issue of Consumer Reports, we switched to Eight O'Clock brand coffee. I'm liking it better than the Archer Farms stuff at Target.

8. My little baby will be TWELVE MONTHS OLD in three weeks and two days. I cannot handle it.
9. We made coconut macaroons this weekend. First off, they are divine. Second, they are easy. Third, they lose their outer crispiness in a tupperware overnight, and are therefore best fresh out of the oven. Only downfall is how many the recipe makes. So invite some friends who like coconut and bake up a batch!

10. Took the kiddos for a run this afternoon in the double jogger. It was 38. It was lovely!

Eleven months.

Buddy, that is exactly the face I am making at this milestone: the how-in-the-heck-have-you-been-here-eleven-months-look. At eleven months, you are just as enjoyable as you were on the day you were born, and just as amazing to hold and to love as you have been all these 337 days.


You speak: hi, mama, hi kee (hi kitty), hi dada, moh (more)

You sign: all done and more

You go to bed between 6:30-6:45pm and wake up between 6:45-7am

You're really getting into walking with your walker (thanks for that, Sara, the kids have now both loved it) - no more push-walk-walk, just walkin'

You can put the balls in the slot and then reach down and grab them and do it again

You love your lovey enormously

You give sweet sloppy kisses

You no longer bathe with the big blue bathtub

Your poor little legs and elbow-pits are forever red, enflamed, and itchy due to your eczema

You love to eat: sugar snap peas, pumpkin, roasted sweet potato with olive oil, salt + chili powder, O's, pears, apples, bananas, rice cakes, muffins, and my oatmeal in the mornings

You love to look out the window, and I love to imagine all the things you will do out there when it's warm, when you're walking; it will all be brand-new to you!

You've become quite the mama's boy (which I adore)

We love you, Buddy.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Fair warning: this is a no-picture post. Posting pictures requires having the time to upload and edit them. Haven't had that kind of time this week yet.

2. On my nightstand: a penny, the 3 books I read to Fisher after he nurses every morning, a couple of Alla's drawings from December to file in her fourth-year scrapbook, and the two [fake] fish she asked me to babysit.

3. Watched Gone Baby Gone Sunday night.

4. Still full from all the Valentine's cupcakes. In my hunt for a wonderful fish birthday cupcake idea, I checked out Hello, Cupcake from the library - yum, yum. For Heart-Day we ended up with chocolate cupcakes and Almost-Homemade Vanilla Buttercream frosting.

5. So excited about friends' new babies.

6. How about Northwest Airlines starting up their peanut service again? Like I needed one more reason not to fly. Ever.

7. We have a serious plain yogurt addiction in this house. Alla and I have been through 4 pounds of it in 9 days. I'm very distraught that it's now gone and it won't be topping my oatmeal in the morning.

8. Fisher is a big fan of sharing my oatmeal with me.

9. At 11:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the parents wait for the preschoolers right outside their class. It doesn't matter if Alla is the first one to come out of the room, we are still always the last to leave the parking lot. That's because when she comes out, school bag in hand, she has to take all the stuff out of her school folder to show me, right then. Mommy there's something amazing in my folder! I think - when that little girl comes out in red pants, a yellow shirt, and a new haircut, shouting unabashedly about something amazing - that she's amazing.

10. We went outside after lunch today, the last warm (38 degrees) day on the forecast for awhile. No coats. Pants, socks, and a onesie for Fisher. Alla took her socks off and walked all over the remaining ice.

Friday Five.

1. Alla got a little surprise Wednesday evening: a new dress and tights to wear to her Valentine party at school Wednesday.2. Love the windblown effect. I ordered that. 3. Homemade valentines were handed out to her classmates. I guess you can't see the best part here, but she watercolored in red and pink, then punched hearts out of that paper, then glued the hearts onto the pink printed BE MINE valentines, and then wrote her name on each heart. Too sweet.

4. What she looked like when she left for her party! Sunglasses from the goodie box at the dentist this week.

5. Right now she is with Daddy at his work, where they show FREE movies once a month. He wouldn't tell her what it was this time, kept it a surprise. I think she's probably beside herself that it's "Move It Move It The 2." Can't wait to hear all about it when she gets home in a few...

Happy Valentine's, Friends! What surprises do you have in store for your little ones?

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Letting the babe go diaperless before bathtime. If you knew Alla when she was a baby, you might be thinking this one is not quite as rolly-polly. You'd be right.2. We've read Emily Brown every night since we brought it home from the library. I love it when, every few months, we happen upon a book like this, that absolutely entrances her.

3. When Alla was a baby, we napped together a lot. There were more naps together than apart, which was pretty much the case well beyond age two, and this, of course, can be attributed to how much she nursed in those first years. Fisher hasn't been a comfort-nurser from day one, and for him sleep and nursing have always been highly separate. It almost has to be this way with baby number two (and beyond, I would imagine), because you just can't ignore your firstborn for hours on end while you sleep-nurse with the baby. But it also means that, except for those early days, when it was safe to let him nap wherever he fell asleep, and sometimes, then, when I laid down right beside him, I'd pick him up and lay that newborn baby on my chest - except for then, he's always napped in his crib, not with me.

4. On Sunday, he decided to throw his lovey out of his crib repeatedly, instead of actually sleeping, so after more than an hour of this, we decided to throw in the towel on an afternoon nap for that day. Rare for this baby. But, I was treated to a sleeping babe at my side after he finished nursing, and I would have left him there to get at least a little rest. But, of course, when you have a big sister, she comes in and squeals at you and you wake up a wee bit disgruntled and out of sorts.

5. The last I see of her on nights when it's Daddy's turn to take her to bed: head on his shoulder, Laila in hand. 5. The kid loves to brush his teeth. Or chew on the toothbrush, I should say. Speaking of teeth, the three oldest Killins' are off to their semi-annual dentist appointments in the morning.

6. I don't think I quite have enough pics of his baby buns-huns.

7. I just heard that postage stamps are going up again.

8. Eagerly awaiting our Adele CD from the library.

9. Eagerly awaiting news of the newest Laughrey.

10. Lastly, I leave you with this hilarious, super-quick snapshot from this morning. We're getting ready to head out the door to take Alla to preschool. I leap over the gate to go start the car, leaving both of them upstairs for a second. Alla is Valentine-ing with a black permanent marker, Fisher is vacuuming up breakfast from the floor with his fingers. I get to the garage door when I hear Alla exclaiming about something or other, so I leap back over the gate to check. She just keeps motioning about marker on a face and I don't see anything on her so I check Fisher, and sure enough, he's all markered-up. I'm pretty sure I conjured up the most shocked face I could muster because Alla immediately burst into tears. Hopefully I surprised her by grabbing my camera instead of getting angry. Poor Fisher was subjected to some pretty serious scrubbing. But we made it to school, early for a change, no worse for the wear.

He hearts pears.

You'd think that with such intense scrutiny, he'd figure out not to eat the core, but by the time I set my camera down, half of it was gone.

Love his little one-handedness.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. The best way to jazz up a can of soup (I've been relying on Campbell's Select Harvest - various chicken varieties) is to add half a diced chipotle pepper (I keep them in the freezer). Add a can of garbanzos, an extra can of broth, some peas, and, really, whatever else you have on hand - delish. Then I pop two corn tortillas into the toaster for a few minutes, eat those up with salsa and avocado (because I share an avocado with Fisher for lunch), and that's lunch!

2. Fisher's regular living room routine: crawl over to the [play] kitchen, pull out the sink and throw it on the floor, throw blender on floor. Dump all kitchen play food onto floor (this is like a hundred pieces of food). Eat that stuff for awhile. Crawl over to [kiddie] table and knock both chairs down. Toss onto floor whatever items were on said table. Go back to play food and continue eating.

3. Alla does her paintings and then says, "Gorgeous!" Indeed, my love.

4. She knows all the words to the song "Sister Suffragette" from Mary Poppins, and I must really get this on tape because not only does she change to her British accent for this, but she of course makes up her own words, which is just delightful.

5. Fisher must throw his lovey out of his crib at least three times per nap (and I must retrieve it) before he just lays down already and goes to sleep.

6. He signs "light" and "all done."

7. We had 40+ temperatures this weekend. We were practically sweating. We went out for a nice family walk to the stream, where Alla and Daddy "hiked" down the stream a ways, while Mama and Fish meandered up the hill quietly spying on little birdies. He was later entranced by an airplane.

8. The poor baby is so sheltered, I don't think he'd every really seen (or at least noticed) a bird before. Now that he's to the stage where he can and wants to notice and learn everything, it's freaking winter and we're trapped inside. A lot. His whole world consists of our house, the post office, the library, and drop-off/pick-up at Alla's preschool. There will be a lot to see in 2-3 months when we thaw out.

9. Fisher has a new hole in his gums this morning, so I'm guessing tooth number EIGHT will be arriving shortly. Boy wonder.

10. Alla is "recovering" from a bad case of impetigo, which, incidentally, she had in the same spot when she was 5 months old. Last week she curled up in her favorite spot, my rocking chair, with some baby blankets (hers from Gramma and Fisher's from Megan), and I asked her to show me her beautiful eyes. She's not hiding her "ouchie" here, she's just doing her best not to smile. Lucky for me, her eyes give her away. Mama always knows when you're smiling. And because today has already been draining and kind of exhausting already, I think it will be great fun if I go and find that 5 month picture.

Ah, yes. Here it is.

A little sunlight.

I may have mentioned the lack of light in most of our house. I'm pretty sure that, as a result, perhaps as many as 75% of our winter photographs are taken in my bedroom, on my bed. Best light in the house. Even on days when the light is harsh, you just kind of chase it around, hoping you can get it to aim right into a pair of "coffee eyes," as Alla says. Winter memories are made here. Our first year in Minnesota, Alla still in diapers, still napping on my bed. We'd sometimes spend the rest of the afternoon there, sometimes still in jammies, sometimes making videos of new songs she'd learned: Twinkle and ABC Song with sign language.

Last year, she was napping in her big girl bed while we waited for Pondegore to arrive. She napped and I napped, trying to position myself on the bed so that as much of my body as possible could be warmed by the sun. And then, when she woke, spending the rest of the afternoon there.

We still sometimes spend the rest of the afternoon there. Or, at least until you can no longer contain a ten-month-old on a bed.
Oh, and sometimes we call him Bozo, because, really, look at that hair.