May 5, 2012
April, Come She Will
Our April was bookended by two trips to Western Pennsylvania. At the beginning, we received word that Tim's grandma had a heart attack, and that we should come up to see her. We spent a long weekend in a cabin we rented in Pittsburgh, along with Tim's immediate family. We all got to be with grandma, and spend time with each other in the cabin. It was Easter weekend, and everyone worked to make sure that the kids had some bright spots in the midst of a serious trip, like an Easter egg hunt across the cabin.
Three weeks later, we got the call that Great-Grandma had passed away. We were blessed by her long life (97 years!), and are so grateful that the kids had the chance to know her. They both loved to snuggle with her in her comfy brown chair. And Elanor especially loved talk-time with Great-Grandma: they would chatter away happily together. We always joke that Elanor is like Great-Grandma in her talkative nature, and Ian is more like Pap (doesn't say much, but when he does it's either straight-to-the-point or hilarious).
deux bebes , family | By Tim and Jo | 9:03 PM | Comments (2)
April 13, 2012
Portrait of an Artist as a Very Young Man
Ian loves coloring and drawing right now. This really started about six months ago, with his train track period. Originally, he would draw the train tracks and ask me to draw the trains, but he's moved on to creating his own trains, mostly in the Thomas tradition. He also likes drawing tracks on huge sheets of paper, lining them up, and creating layouts that would cover most of our kitchen floor.
Here, he combines his love of drawing with his love for puzzles. The picture has gaps in it, and the missing "pieces" are scattered around the rectangle.
Of course, every artist needs a dark side, right? Ian went through a time period a year or so ago where he would have frequent nosebleeds, and he still worries about them. Here's his expressionistic self-portrait. Perhaps we could title it "The Bleed" in homage to "The Scream"?
This was a day long project, in his abstract style. He took a huge piece of paper, and with a pen, drew overlapping squiggles all around it. Then--for hours--he painstakingly colored in every space.
Speaking of abstract, he also went through a stage of creating his own connect-the-dots puzzles with dots and numbers scattered across a page. He would get really confused, though, when he connected the dots, and they didn't create an object.
And finally--on a cheery note--I complete fell in love with his multi-story bunny house.
| By Tim and Jo | 2:25 PM | Comments (2)
January 12, 2012
Twee twinnyness
I miss the December Photo Project and its encouragement to post every day. But I'll see if I can keep some of the momentum going. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks of the kiddos. Their distinct personalities often come together to create a sense of equilibrium (except when they don't).
Since we got their bunk beds, we don't have nearly as many of these sleeping moments. But they "camped out" at their Pap's house on our post-Christmas trip.
Snow!
While in Pittsburgh , they fell in love with Eat'n'Park's smiley cookies--both in edible and Christmas display forms.
And what's more twee than a snuggle?
deux bebes | By Tim and Jo | 10:52 AM | Comments (1)
December 24, 2011
DPP 23 & 24: Treats
Gingerbread pancakes on gingerbread plates in anticipation of the big weekend.
And I have fallen completely in love with Trader Joe's puff pastry. Cream cheese & dark chocolate croissants, and almond & marzipan croissants for today's brunch with immediate family.
Merry Christmas all!
December Photo Project , cooking stuff | By Tim and Jo | 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2011
DPP 22: Christmas lights
December Photo Project | By Tim and Jo | 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2011
DPP 21: Playtime
Kids were quiet and let me sleep in this morning (ya know, 8:15ish--nothing I would have considered sleeping in pre-kids, but pretty great at this stage).
Now, just a few months ago, that would have meant that I would have woken up to some kind of devastation, probably involving massive quantities of spilled food and/or something sticky.
At the lovely age of four (oh yes I love this age, yes I do!), I woke up to their cleverly constructed Chuck E. Cheese redux, with games (crawl into the sleeping bag!), a hand stamp (an old container), and a box of prizes (turn in your ticket for your choice of "beautiful, scary, or funny" prizes, aka, their little toys).
And when it started raining outside, it magically transformed into Noah's Ark, saving all of our lives.
Best of all, when play-time was over, they cleaned it up (with a few nudges from mama, to be sure).
December Photo Project , deux bebes | By Tim and Jo | 10:38 PM | Comments (1)
