Spoon Me!

I love watching kids learn to eat. Shoving food in their mouths - even yogurt - by the fistful. Spaghetti sauce from ear to ear. Oatmeal becomes a hair product. And every meal requires a bath immediately after. The dogs love it too but for different reasons.

So we just got rid of the last of the formula and the baby bottles, which was kind of a sad moment for me, and now baby girl has decided she's ready to use her spoon. Judging by the amount of yogurt on her face (Tagg calls it a yogurt goatee) and chest, I'll get to savor the food discovery dining disaster era for a little bit longer.

craft day

It was a hot, rainy, humid day today so Tagg spent a lot of time making stuff. First off? Raiding mommy's jewelry-making stash (back in the day, before I had kids, I used to make these really cool rings with wire and beads. They were awesome.) He decided he wanted to make some necklaces for mommy (how cute is that?!) so he picked out the beads and actually threaded them all on the wire by himself. Pretty amazing. Just had to help him wire the ends together to close them.

He was so excited to show me his creations, and insisted on putting them on my wrist himself. One is Lightning McQueen (the red one, duh) and the other one is "bwack beads." They're both a little more bracelet size than necklace size and a little big at that. If I ever gain a buttload of weight they'll be perfect! But they are, by far, the best jewelry I've ever received in my whole life next to my wedding ring.

His other project? Painting. I have always loved Tagg's paintings. There are a lot that I've kept because I want to frame them. Someday when I have a bigger house where the walls aren't full of family photos and stuff. His pictures always seems to have some deeper meaning than a sub-three-year-old should be creating. When he finished this one, I was like what is it buddy? "It's the ocean, mommy. It's water." Of course it is. And it's gorgeous.

I figured since it was technically a present for us, we'd put one of our anniversary pictures in it and let him keep it in his room. Although I'm kind of bummed. I LOVE this frame!

Green Thumb

About a month ago, Tagg and I decided we were going to grow some stuff. I had all these empty planters sitting beside the garage in the driveway, a sad tribute to the plethora of plants I've managed to kill over the years. It seemed like they needed a purpose again. So off we went to Home Depot and picked out some plants and seeds. Let me just tell you. If you haven't ever taken a 2 1/2 year old to a rack of seed packages and said "let's pick out some things to plant," you're in for a treat. Based on his choices we'd have little planters growing corn on the cob (can you picture a big ol' corn stalk in this pot?!), pumpkins, and chamomile. I did not know he was a tea aficionado. I, on the other hand, was determined to finally grow a functional herb garden so we also had oregano, basil, tarragon, thyme and coriander. Plus a couple of tomato and pepper plants, and a few strawberry plants.

We got our plants tucked happily into their new homes. Tagg was a big help with the dirt and the shovel. He was trying to bury the plants more than anything but hey...that's kind of the point, right? A few days later he planted the herb seeds and a couple of zucchini plants with Nana and Papa. We water the plants almost every day and check their progress. No plant fatalities yet, I'm happy to report.

Tagg is always genuinely amazed every time we peek under the leaves at our tomatoes he says, "Look Mommy!! They growed! They growed!" Thanks to Tagg's green thumb, it actually looks like we might have some fresh tomatoes this summer.

I Scream, You Scream...

...we all scream for ice scream! Well, Tagg just concentrates on eating, licking, devouring it. With serious enthusiasm. Tagg really digs his ice cream. (Who doesn't, right?) But really...the ice cream won out over pizza. And the water? Never had a chance.

*Please don't judge the nutritional content of this meal. We were at the zoo. I did not realize that packing a lunch was the only way to avoid over-priced crap-tastic vittles. Note to self.

This is a face I'm not looking forward to seeing in his tween or teenage years. I would like to think he's pissed about the hat, but he was the one who demanded to wear that hideous thing. Stupid Disney Pixar Cars empire. It's killing my...I mean, Tagg's...fashion statement.

Summer Lovin'

 It was such a lovely weekend. Perfect weather, perfect days, perfect kids. It seems like now that summer is finally here we're trying to pack in as much fun as is humanly possible. Hey, what do you expect? It's practically July and it just barely got warm!

 It was summer solstice on Tuesday, the longest day of the year, which means every day from here on out is a little bit shorter and soon it will be winter again. How depressing. So we're doing as much as we can outside, in the sun, with the flowers and the water and the butterflies. And the baseball bat. Why is she always carrying a hammer or a bat? This dainty little flower with beating devices.

Sloane and I put on our sundresses and our hats - gotta protect her lovely skin so she doesn't end up with all the skin damage mommy has. Although, I have to admit...I do love a good summer tan. It makes me happy. Don't tell Sloane I said that.

Sloane has always been photogenic, since day one. But in order to get the full toothy grin Scott did the most ridiculous spaz dance behind me while I snapped photos. It's nice to know he's got the giggle-making skills but I can't imagine what the neighbors thought.

Our little princess. Somehow after climbing up the slide (yep, the big one), tightrope walking on the little picnic table and attempting to scale the ladder she had lost a shoe and ended up with grass stains on both knees. Better than band-aids, I suppose. How cute is that dress? It's a Wal-Mart special. A place I swore I would never shop at until I had kids. I bought it at the end of last season and couldn't fathom how she would ever fit in it. A year later...perfect. And it was only like 4 bucks! Take that, bargain shoppers!

Our little dimpled devil. Tagg got a new t-ball set and he's figuring out how to bat. It's pretty cool. It actually shoots the balls up in the air so he can practice hitting them. Once he figures out that he doesn't have to actually chase each ball after he hits it, it will probably be a little more efficient but he has about as much fun running after the balls as he does trying to hit them.

This is one of my favorite Tagg faces. He looks like he knows everything, and then some. Like deep in the mystery of those cool gray-blue multi-faceted eyes, there's this old soul who's just waiting for you to figure it all out.

And, when you don't, you get this face.

We are loving this summer thing, and loving these kids most of all!

"I just have to run naked."

It finally felt like spring for the first time all year and Tagg was a little fired up about it. Well, let's face it...we all were! Scott was working on some sprinklers and the next thing you know, Tagg is buck naked in the backyard. Naked as a jaybird. Naked as the day he was born. We tried to get him to put his clothes back on to no avail. He looked at me and said, very seriously, with a little head bob for emphasis, "Mommy, I just have to run naked." And off he went.

There is something so pure and joyful about little kids and sprinklers. That something so simple can spawn such big smiles and high-pitched hysterical giggles makes me envious. I want to run naked in the sprinklers in the middle of the day and think it's the absolute coolest thing in the world. Not worry about how I look or who might see or that it's a little cold or that it's just not the kind of thing people do. Just care about the fact that it's a warm day and the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming and there's WATER just misting from everywhere solely for my enjoyment. That is just one of the millions of reasons kids are amazing. They make you appreciate all of the little things about life that are such miracles.

I asked Tagg how good his day was. "This Good!" That's the best.

And the vinca is blooming. Pretty.

So happy summer is here!

Happy Anniversary!

10 years and still smiling!

 10 years! That is something to celebrate, right? Hell yeah! So we went to Cancun for a week, no kids, all-inclusive resort with a hot tub in the room that was couples only (not going to lie, that was a little scary...does that mean swingers?), no kids. 

Cheesy? Cute? I'm not sure but I kind of like it.

That was a tough choice to make, because we love them so much and a week is a long, long time. But it's important to make sure we focus on ourselves as a couple, not just as parents. We both think that's pretty important for a marriage to last. Let's face it. We get pretty wrapped up in life and juggling work, home, kids, family, friends, health, and the 80 bazillion plates we have to keep spinning on a daily basis. We know that we make a kick-ass relay team and partnership but sometimes it's tough to hang on to those first new-love, mad about you, romantic things you do and feel all the time.

For the record, we actually did walk down the beach.
A lot. But not in color-coordinated or nice outfits.

So the kids had to suffer through a week with Grandma and Bompa, and their favorite aunts and a slew of friends who came over for playdates. I suspect they had more fun than any normal week! As a matter of fact, we were told not to call them after about the first day because every time we did they remembered we were gone (yep, until then, out of sight out of mind!) and freaked out. Nice.

Nice air, right! We'd seen all these other couples kind of
hop in the air and we were like, whatever. If we're going cheesy,
we're going big!

We've never been to Cancun, but it's really pretty. The beach is much more gradual than Cabo or Vallarta so you can really wade out in the ocean and play, which we loved. The weather reports before we got there said 87 and thunderstorms every day. Every single day. Reality? It rained pretty good one day and one night and the rest of the time it was beautiful! Hot and muggy. But totally sunny and perfect.

Scott pretty much only had t-shirts on the trip so I got him
something nice to wear at the gift shop.
Can you see where the inspiration came from?
After this photo, he was known as "mannequin guy."

This was by far one of the most relaxing vacations we've ever had. Usually by day five you're like, what?! it's only been two days! Not this trip. Two days felt like five and the week was lovely. We had $1500 of resort credit so we did zip line, horseback riding, an epic spa day (which happened to be the only rainy day...score!), a lobster/steak candlelight dinner on the beach, and a jet boat ride thing - and still had money left over. So we got the photo package. Bear in mind, we had been hanging out in our spot at the infinity edge pool all week, looking at the beach, drinks in hand, mocking the yahoos doing all the exact same dorky poses. And all of a sudden, we were the dorks.

I read 3 books and 2 magazines in a week. Probably more than
I've read in a year. Even Scott read a book. Monumental.

We took a tour of Moon Palace which is a huge resort about 20 minutes away. We did the typical timeshare spiel. Painful but...while we were there, Scott won us a free trip for another week at any resort by matching some random number to the last 4 digits of his credit card! All of the people were stunned. Apparently this does not happen very often. Love him!

Scott celebrating his win at the only "swinger" bar
we found in Cancun.

We met a bunch of very cool people at the resort - Brett and Carrie, a funny brash couple from Texas who introduced us to some hideous beer, lime drink called a chulato and helped us convince unassuming folks that we were polygamist couples (many stories stolen directly from Big Love); Jimmy, an almost-40 unemployed muscle-head with a big laugh and a full back tatto and Kaitlyn, his sweet 21 year hottie girlfriend from Indiana who could do more shots than anyone we've ever seen (Scott owed his only hangover of the trip to Jimmy); and, Danny and Michelle, a cute couple from London who taught us how to play a new card game we call "Danny is a Shithead". And there was the weird older Harley-riding couple where the lady got those little braids and beads like the little girls get put in her short dishwater blonde hair and seemed to be everywhere we turned up.

The view from our room which came complete
with a huge jacuzzi tub and full bar.

After 10 years of marriage, I am happy to report that I am still fully, completely in love with the most wonderful guy. Scott is the most amazing man and I'm so lucky that we took the leap a decade ago. He continues to inspire me every day with his joy of life, his patience, his good nature and positive attitude, his desire to help others, his propensity for saving (senor cheapskate strikes again), and his all-encompassing big-hearted love of me, life, family, everything. He is such a great dad, too. I kind of knew he would be, but when you see it in action, every day, it's really a miracle. I'm not sure I knew that this was where we'd be 10 years after our wedding but I think this is it, but even better.

One of many self portraits.

One of many water volleyball games.

Lobster and steak dinner on the beach. Thanks hotel credit!

The lobster dinner was lovely. But the scenery was better.

Rocking the pink helmet and pink skin for the zipline.
Not a good day to have an epic sunburn on your ass.

They should give you this much safety gear for marriage.

The crazy jet boat ride. This thing went like 80 miles an
hour and stopped on a dime. Sometimes right before the shore.
Very fun!

Our perch at the pool.

It snowed the week before we left home and rained
the week we came home. It seems that the snow
followed us because no matter how we changed the
settings on the camera, the flakes were there
in spite of the fact it was a lovely, dry evening.