23 months!

(Confession: I took this picture on Monday morning, when the boys all insisted on getting into Linus’s crib and were being unfathomably adorable.)

23months

Oh man. 1 month til we have 2 year olds. Gaah!

But my gosh, this is a fun age. Every day, they come up with something new, whether it’s telling the cat “no!” or telling Daddy to “shhh” or dancing or hopping or hugging. It’s always pretty darn cute.

I know it’s going to get harder. It seems like on a certain message board I frequent, all anyone can talk about is how hard x age is. But no one ever talks about how fun it can be too, and how rewarding. And how the fun totally makes up for the temper tantrums and the pushing boundaries and the frustrations and the whining. Or maybe I’m just being optimistic. After all, I’ve heard 3 is harder than 2.

But I’ll bet it’s more fun too.

Click!

For no reason other than to get me a little higher than 99th. It’s embarrassing. All ya gotta do is click this little button:

Thanks, yall!

Nablopomo huh?

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So I’ve decided to take part in this thing I’ve seen before…Nablopomo. National Blog Posting Month. Yes indeed. It just means I have to post every day this month. I think I can do it. You think I can do it? I’m not saying you’re going to get really long posts every day, but you’ll get somethin’.

I still have so much to post about from the weekend. Like Halloween! And it’s November 3, so if I don’t post it today, it’s going to start looking pathetic soon. No one wants to hear about a holiday too long after it, right?

Fortunately, I don’t have a whole lot to say, other than we had a lot of fun. As with Boo at the Zoo, Miles and Linus wore their hats and Oliver politely declined.

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The hatless one declines to give five:
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Nevertheless, it was fun. We walked around the neighborhood with friends and trick or treated. I think trick or treating has to be the best thing about being a parent. You remember how sad it was when you got to be too old to trick or treat, right? Well, have kids and you get to do it all over again! At least until the kids learn what’s going on. I wonder if next year I’ll be able to get away with it again? Hmm. I guess they’ll want to do it next year. Anyway.

Sunday morning was picture day! My most awesome wedding photographer, Sandra, came over with a friend to take pictures of the boys again, and it definitely wasn’t as easy as last year. Oh man. The boys, they were not very cooperative. Not to say they weren’t cute, but they were not following direction very well. (I sound surprised, right? I prefer to think I’m just overly optimistic about their direction-following ability.)

Fingers crossed we got something for a Christmas card. The thought of doing this again makes my head hurt.

I guess we could use a picture from last year. It’s not like the boys have changed much or anything….
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So much to post about, so little time…

This is definitely going to have to be broken up into several posts, if only to not send everyone into a post-induced stupor of boredom. (I’m so self-deprecating, see?)

Let’s start with Friday. Friday was exciting because Oprah gave everyone half-off shoes at Payless! Yay Oprah! I don’t watch your show, but I appreciate your power! I got the boys six pairs of shoes, a pair for me, and a new purse. Sweet!

Lookie at the cute shoes that the boys will be wearing for the forseeable future:

In between the trips to Payless we dropped the boys off at my ILs so they could watch them while I…

…rawked 13.1 miles! (That’s the word Kristina and I coined. Run + walk = rawk.)

(Yes, you only get a small version of that picture. It’s really bad.)

I am pleased to say I was not last. I was 1314th, but that was out of 1,379 people. And that may not sound great, but considering for the first few miles, I (and a few other women I met up with) were last, that’s not bad. (But a 75 year old man did best my time by an hour. Hmmm.)

We started out walking, but that was actually very painful. I started to develop blisters on the bottom of my heels, so I had to run, just to take the pressure off. So we walked a block, ran a block, walked a block, ran a block. Before we knew it, we weren’t last anymore. Whew!

At about mile 9, I needed to run more (for my heel) so I left the other ladies in my dust. Ha ha, only kidding! But I did take off so I could run a little more. I pulled out my iPod to listen to the music I’d thoughtfully picked out (and purchased) for the race, only to discover that I didn’t sync the *%$#@ thing, so the only music on it was horrific German progressive rock from the ’70s. (George had gotten a hold of my iPod, you see.) So as it turned out, I carried around the stupid thing for 13 miles for nothing. I’m sure if I hadn’t had that extra three ounces, I would have gotten a better time.

Ha.

Anyway. I finished in 3:06, five minutes slower than my previous slowest time, but I was fine with that. Remember, I really didn’t train for it. I am quite pleased that for the last five miles, my pace was in the 12 minute/mile range, which is really good for me.

So now, what’s next? I want to do a 2 mile race in City Park next month, and then I’m thinking of trying again with the Mardi Gras Half Marathon in February.

Woo!

Slight update to the look

I don’t know how many people read this through Google Reader or Facebook or whatever, but if you read it by actually, you know, coming here to the blog, then you might notice I’ve given the header of the page a little facelift. By adding some completely random pictures.

The family picture up there is from when the boys were three months old. We just don’t have many family pictures, but I do like that one. But yesterday a friend of a friend posted this one on Facebook and I swiped it so I could post it here.

Family pic

Yes, it’s true, 80% of us aren’t looking at the camera. George is giving Linus bunny ears. Oliver’s eyes are glowing eerily and he’s stuffing Kix in his mouth. Miles and Linus are sucking on their “uh-oh”s.* But dammit, I only have one and a half chins in this picture, so I consider it a winner.

This weekend, we’re having a photoshoot with one of my favorite photographers ever, our wedding photographer, so I’m pretty sure we’ll get something where my chin isn’t all red and all eyes are their proper color, at least.

*cute story, for real…Miles and Linus, the only two who still use a binky sometimes, call it an “uh-oh” because when they started throwing them out of their cribs, we’d say “uh-oh!” I think they thought we were talking about the pacifiers, not realizing we were actually commenting on the plight of a binky overboard.

Much better!

Last night, we only had to get up once, for Oliver. Of course, I’d prefer we didn’t have to get up at all, but you can’t win ’em all. I feel like a new woman today! It didn’t hurt that Oliver was being v cute and talkative while we were giving him his breathing treatment. And that he went back to sleep with no problems afterwards.

Am v excited because this weekend, we’re having pictures taken. I think I timed the pictures right, for the day after the half-marathon. Surely I’ll lose 50 lbs on the course, and therefore will look awesome for the pictures. Failing that, I plan to hit the mall to find a black shirt that makes me look decent. (Or, as Kristina and I called it, a “magic shirt”.)

The boys will look cute no matter what. I ordered some long-sleeved white t-shirts with tie appliques from Etsy, that I think they’ll wear with jeans.

And now, I’ll close this post out with some random pictures from the weekend, taken on the ferry.

Miles:
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Oliver:
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Linus, giving Daddy a kiss. (When you say “give me a kiss”, most of the time, they just tilt the top of their head toward you, as if to allow you the honor of bestowing a kiss upon their head.)
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My kids are weird.

Specifially, Miles and Oliver. For the past two days, they’ve been strangely obsessed with the Elmo Potty Time DVD case. Yes, the case. Not the video or even the shiny silver disk. The case.

There have been more tears shed over this dang case in the past 36 hours than I care to recall. It would be nice to think they’re going to take the initiative when it comes to potty training by carefully studying this DVD case, but I kinda doubt it.

Please, help me understand my odd children. I mean, Miles literally has not let it out of his sight since yesterday afternoon. After he somehow wrangled it from Oliver at about 5 pm, he held it while he played, while he ate, almost while he bathed (I made him put it down while he had his bath. Were it not for the hypnotic pull of the bubbles in the bathtub, he probably would have remained unbathed), and while he slept. Yeesh!

T minus four days and counting…

I know I signed up for this half-marathon a while back, but it only really occurred to me the other day that I was going to have to walk (and run a little bit, just so I don’t get left behind and someone will get to see the back of my shirt) thirteen (point one) miles in just a few days. Hmm.

Thirteen miles is actually kind of far. Especially since I started thinking about the route. It goes all the way up St. Charles Avenue to Audubon Park, around Audubon Park, and then back up St. Charles. And that’s not the whole thing! St. Charles is a long road, people. But at least it’s very scenic. There is that.

And even though it’s not advised, I’m bringing an iPod and planning on filling it with good stuff to listen to (not very loudly, of course. So I can hear the cars honking behind me to go faster!) Some music, some podcasts. I’d really really love to listen to a Bill Bryson book, (he’s my favorite author) but I don’t think that really has enough “oomph” to keep me going. I think Beyonce might be better.

Any suggestions on what I should listen to, musicwise? That will keep me motivated?

Busy weekend

We did so much this weekend! I’m going to make this a picture-heavy post. It was a rough morning involving breathing treatments and wheezing, so I am not really wanting to type much.

Friday night, we went to a party at a friend’s house. It was outside, in their backyard, so the boys were freaked out. (It was a bit dark for them.) Owing to the fact that I had two boys on my lap, no pictures were taken. Thank goodness I have friends that brought me a glass of wine and some chargrilled oysters. That made up for it a bit.

Saturday, George and I took the boys to the children’s museum. It was fun, except for the moment we realized the wagon was gone. I found it a few terror-filled minutes later. Some kid must’ve taken it and then abandoned in in another part of the museum. Kids love that thing.

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Oliver

Linus and Linus

Daddy and Linus

Saturday night, we went to a dinner party at a restaurant that George’s parents had.

Sunday, I took the boys to the aquarium to meet a friend with her twin boys. That was fun! Except for when I pulled Oliver away from the Nemo tank. That was not fun.

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One of many meals of chicken fingers the boys had over the weekend.
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And then Sunday night was Boo at the Zoo. The boys were monkeys. I was a bunch of bananas. Oliver refused to wear his hat. Ah well.

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The end!

Uh oh.

So it seems I have a little gang of thugs. A roving band of bullies. Ack! How can it be so?

Apparently one of the boys gave another kid a black eye yesterday. How can a not-even-two year old give another kid a black eye? I don’t know. I’m guessing it was an accident, though. Apparently there were no tears shed by either party, which I suppose is good. Or kind of chilling. Hmm.

And it was over the sandbox. Really, how cliched is that?

Just look at this face. So sweet! So innocent!

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(Not that I know it was this one, but since they all look the same…)

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I should have lots of cute pictures after this weekend. Much is going on. Parties, costumes, etc. Hopefully the boys will actually wear the hats that go with their monkey costumes, otherwise they’re just going to look like kids in brown jumpsuits. Hmmm.

Ask and ye shall receive

I added some more versions of yesterday’s shirt to the shop. On these, the design’s on the front, not the back.

Here’s a twin version:

And a triplet version:

They also come in tank tops and short sleeved shirts. If you want it on a different style shirt, just let me know.

In other news…I reached my goal! Thanks to a high school classmate. Woo hoo! That’s not to say you can’t still donate. Of course you can!

In yet other news, I finally got my battery charger for my camera, so now I can update that post from a couple of days ago. But George said not to, so I’ll just post the picture here.

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(Well, not exactly a reinactment, I think Miles is standing next to me, begging for the camera.)

Speaking of begging for the camera, I really should write to Canon. I’ve had my point and shoot for a year and a half now, and for the last year or so, the boys have been obsessed with it. I can barely pull it out without one of them pleading for me to give it to them. If it’s in my purse, they’ll find it. And therefore, my camera is usually full of pictures like this:

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(very Blair Witch-esque, eh?)

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They love to push the lens back into the camera. They love to smear their dirty little fingers all over the lens. They love to take 100 pictures in a row of the insides of their nostrils. They used to be partial to eating it. And this camera has held up to it all. Bravo, Canon! (Now will you send me this lens for my DSLR?)