Taye

After donning his newly designed Peter Pan costume:

"I was just some guy, but now I'm Peter Pan."

Cover Girl

Before Mya was born, I decided to try cloth diapering with her, and I started looking around for the diapers I wanted to use. I saw some irresistible diapers in Katnappies' shop on Etsy, and bought the set. I loved them instantly, but had a lot of experienced cloth diaper users tell me not to commit to one style until after the baby was born, since you never can tell how they will fit.

Now that Mya has been here for a while, I can safely say they are still my favorites. I have slowly replaced my less favorite diapers with more from Katnappies. Kathy, the woman who owns the store, has been so wonderful. I noticed that Mya had some gaps at the leg in her bigger diapers, which fit better around the waist, and asked if she would be able to customize the fit a bit better. She readily agreed, and even sent me a free diaper sample of the new size, to see how it fit. After a small adjustment, I ordered a couple more from her huge selection of fabrics. They arrived today.

I tell you all of this for two reasons. First, if you are at all interested in cloth diapers, check out Kathy's shop - you will not be disappointed. Second, I decided to send her a picture of Mya in her new diaper, which of course led to an all-out photo shoot.

The drool is a nice touch:

Taye's Superpower

Daddy finished the laundry room closet yesterday (yay!) and while he was building, Taye took the time to show me his superpower.

I'm not quite sure what to call it - climbing? hovering? super-strength? He also showed off his other superpower - cuteness.

Can't argue with that logic...

Yesterday Darius was eating a shortbread Girl Scout cookie. If you don't know, they have the profile of a face on them. He showed it to me and said, "Mama, I told Daddy that this is like a guy cookie because it is a guy cookie!"

And a word from Taye; he came up to me carrying a valentine I made and told me, "Mama, nice making! I like your making."

A Rare Moment

Bowling

Today we met Jen and Curtis for lunch at Bertucci's. Afterwards, we all went down the street to go bowling. Darius, as you know, loves bowling. He was very excited. Jen and I were surprised at the change in the bowling alley, this place was dark, dirty, and slightly creepy when we were growing up. Now, it is psychedelic "cosmo bowl." I'm a bit surprised no one had a stroke from all the blacklights and strobes around. We had a good time, thanks to bumper lanes. I lost, by a pathetic margin, but I'm ok with that. :o)

Tours

One of the moms in our homeschool group was nice enough to arrange a fun field trip for us this week. We went to the new Public Safety building for a tour. We actually got the police chief to take us all aroundthe police and fire stations.

The holding cell was a fun stop for the kids. Nothing like handcuffs to entertain!



Without a doubt, the biggest hit was the toilet in the cell. The button to flush it was outside the cell wall, so the kids weren't expecting it when it flushed. Once they learned where the button was, it became a fun game.


When all the rest was done, it was time for the important stuff - the vehicles. Always a hit.


After the Public Safety building, we got to go for a tour of the Post Office up the street. Taye and Darius have an inexplicable love of the Post Office, so they were excited.

We had so much fun, I'm really glad we decided to join this group. Its so nice to have people around to share these days with!

Who the heck are you?

This has been on my mind for a while. I have this map thingy (official name) at the bottom of the page, along with a hit counter. Thousands of people have visited this blog, from all around the world, and I want to know who they are! If you read this, I'd love it if you leave a comment. (Pretty please!) You can keep it anonymous (or not), you could tell me what country you're from, how you found my blog, or just say hi! I'm going to keep this bumped for a while, so look below for new posts (you know, 'cause I'm updating so frequently lately).

Tagged Again

Jean tagged me for a game. The rule is to open your sixth folder of pictures, select the sixth picture in it, post and blog about it here.

My pictures are obsessively organized into folders, inside folders, inside folders, so I had a bit of a challenge doing this. I have a folder from each year from 2005-2009, and inside those I have additional folders for months, and then some of those have folders from special occasions. I finally decided to open the first folder in each year, and pick the sixth picture from that folder. So, I have for you a plethora of pictures. Come travel back in time with me :o)

2009:

This was just last month. Luis took the boys outside to play in the snow. He's a much nicer parent than I am in that way. Taye had just become obsessed with Frosty the Snowman and was so excited to make their own snowman. This guy stuck around for a long time. He has since melted, but Taye is confident he will be back. Its only February, so I'm sure he's right.

2008:

Last year, Tia and I got this brilliant idea to go out together. Luis, the boys, and I went over their house. We left Matt and Luis (daddies of the year) at the house with the four kiddos, and went out just the two of us. It was so, so, so much fun! We basically drove around for hours, talking and laughing, just like we always used to. Somehow we have always been able to have the best times together, even doing nothing. We took this driving over the Zakim bridge.

2007:

Here are the boys at the toy museum in Rochester. We drove out there for a weekend to visit some friends from our message board. We had such a great time. Taye, in particular, did not want to leave this giant train table. The struggle to move on was actually the inspiration for this train table!

2006:

This is big brother Taye on the day that Darius was born. He was hanging out with us at the hospital, playing with the Dorsey's and the new puzzle they brought him (which we still have). I can't get over how little he was, and a big brother already. It seems like such a long time ago, we have been through a lot since then.

2005:

Ah, I got to save the best for last. This picture is not actually from 2005, but from about 2001/2002. The folder I found it in was called "Happy Anniversary" and is full of pictures I used in a slideshow I made Luis as an anniversary gift one year.

The story:

The first year that I went to Peru, we had a party one night at our house for all our friends. We decided to put on a show for them, since they had been performing for us all week. That year there were 10 girls in our group, and only 4 guys. The girls decided to choreograph a dance to a Britney Spears song, but the boys didn't want to do it. They told us they'd come up with their own performance, and we left it at that. Well, they basically borrowed dresses, and danced around to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It was a big hit, and they got almost as many hoots and whistles as the girls did.

Fast forward to the next year, and our friends above (Renzo - Danny - Luis - Victor) told us that they had a show for us. They turned on some sexy Spanish song, and came strutting down the stairs in mens dress clothes. They paused on the landing that you can see behind Renzo and Danny's heads, and proceeded to perform a strip-tease. Meanwhile, Fr. John, the priest in charge nearly died of a massive heart attack. Underneath their clothes, the guys had on dresses, and when they got down to them, the music changed to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and they began skipping and prancing around. It was, without a doubt, my favorite performance ever. I would pay good money for a videotape of it, and am just glad that I at least have these pictures to hang over their heads forever. :o)

This was so fun. I am supposed to tag six other people, but as I've said I don't read that many blogs.

Rebel

Mya has heard all the warnings. She knows that they're "dangerous." She knows she could potentially wander just a bit too close to the stairs, and roll on down. She knows that she could even possibly reach the stove top and pull boiling stuff down on herself. Crazy Mya, she just doesn't care. Apparently, she trusts her parents to actually *watch* her effectively. Rebel.

Meet...

Baykah and Pint (sounds like 'pink' with a 'T').

We got this game from the Salvation Army the other day. The boys were nice enough to endure my one attempt at playing it the "right" way before they just grabbed handfulls of ducks and walked off. They have hardly stopped playing with them since. The other day I heard Darius telling Taye, "This is Baykah, and this is his friend, Pint." They have many adventures together, Baykah (a girl, btw) is always in charge of carrying the map, while Pint (a boy) seems to be a bit of a punk. Baykah also has a Mama, who is also named Pint (coincidence, I'm sure). There are also sometimes two little girls (or grirls, to be precise) who hang around, but they don't have names. Somehow, I think we will be hearing a lot more about these two in the days to come.

Knitting Mania

Ever since I started those pants, I can't seem to stop knitting. Shortly after I got the pants pattern, I also found this pocket gnome pattern from Dragon Fly's Hollow. Admittedly, the ones for sale in her store are much nicer than mine, but this was my first attempt.



This pattern gave me an idea, and I decided to make a doll with it. I basically just knit the gnome entirely in cream. I then went on to make some clothes for him. He is going to a little girl who we were matched with in a gift exchange. These pants are my favorites.



And in case he gets cold, he has his warm winter outfit.



I was also so excited to get started on some Picky Pants (or shorts, to be exact) for Tia's baby. She picked the prettiest yarn for them. It looks so much nicer in real life, it is like sunshine, the colors are beautiful. Anyway, I'm sure these will look much nicer on the real baby, but this will have to do for now, since Mya is too big to model these ones (*sniff, sniff*).


I have about a million other projects in mind as well...somebody stop me! (Not really, I'm having too much fun.)

Painting