happenings

Winter seems to be dragging on at our house with no real end in sight. Each week seems like a repeat of the one before, and while routines are great, I'm starting to wish we had a new one in place. One that involved more time outside and less time bundling up to get there. We're doing our best to stay occupied while we wait for the seasons to change.

The past three weekends were filled with family time. Scott's regular Mondays off surrounded the President's Day observance, giving him three three-day weekends in a row. Nice. During that time, he was often found in the middle of our living room surrounded by toys and kids.

Morgan enjoyed Valentine's Day, and the special note she received in the mail from her favorite teacher at church. Included was a heart-shaped necklace that she's been wearing daily.

The long days inside have been hard on her. Either that, or she's finally realized how fun it is to push her parents' buttons! As much as we try to stay busy with play-doh and paint, with Candy Land and Memory Game, with the explosion of toys that was Christmas... it's sometimes not enough. Thankfully Andrew is growing quickly, and becoming more of a playmate to her each day.

Andrew adores Morgan, even when she's not her best self (see picture below). He watches her every move, and I'm certain, wonders how he, too, can jump around the room or run so fast. He is so incredibly persistent, it won't be long before his newest skills of rolling both ways will become trivial to him.

As of today Andrew has a matching set of bottom teeth. The newest can opener (as Scott likes to call them) has poked through, and Andrew continues to chew everything in sight to ease the pain. Morgan's constantly playing mother and can be heard saying, "Don't eat dat, Andwew" as he shoves another item into his mouth.

As for me? Well I celebrated another birthday, complete with flowers and Skype and well wishes for a happy day. I don't know what I imagined my life to be at age 32, but this is it! I'm living it! And thankful for all our blessings.

breakthrough

Andrew's first tooth has made an appearance!

For the last several weeks he's been teething like crazy, showing all the classic signs. I would check his gums daily, looking and feeling for little white ridges, and sure enough, this morning we felt his first tooth poking through.

Now hopefully our happy, fun Andrew will stick around more than the fussy, sleepless one we've been living with for the past couple weeks. Until tooth number two shows up, that is. I imagine it won't be long.

mom's salon

Scott's been voicing his displeasure lately with Morgan's hair. The longer it gets, the less style it has, and well, it bothers him that his little girl's hair looks so unkempt.

So I took it upon myself to buy our family a pair of shears specifically designed for cutting hair. And tonight before Morgan's bath, I decided the time had come. I grabbed one of Scott's old shirts while he set up the laptop. Morgan was the perfect client, sitting up straight and perfectly still as You Tube played shorts of Sesame Street and Maisy.

I undercut the bottom layer, hoping her hair would lay nicely. Fifteen minutes later, she was all set. Next time I'm thinking about experimenting with layers all around. There's really not much to it, cutting a straight line and all. And with Morgan's waves, it's hard to see any imperfections. Besides, you can't beat the price!