Now with video...

This is just for you, Mom.

We have a walker!

Gabriel finally decided to start walking today. At 13 months he definitely is walking sooner than Frejya did. Hooray for my big boy!

When did she grow up?

I've been going through some old files on my computer and came across these ones of Frejya. I miss her being so little.

Park day!!

The kids and I spent the afternoon at the park yesterday. I love watching them play together and the park is one place where the big age difference doesn't even seem to matter. They both love the slides and the swings and the sand (because who doesn't love the slides and the swings and the sand?!). They had so much fun together.

And then it was time go home. Gabriel REALLY didn't want to leave.

Weekend highlights

So this was the second weekend in a row with a sick kiddo. This time it was Frejya. She came home after school Thursday and said she had a headache. And being the great mom that I am, I totally didn't believe her and thought she was just trying to get out of doing her homework. Two hours later, she had a fever of 103.4. Guess I was wrong. Luckily the fever only lasted through Saturday and she never had any other symptoms. I'm hoping we're done being sick now for a little while. Gabriel still hasn't gotten back to a good sleep schedule from when he was sick a couple weeks ago so mommy's tired.

Frejya being sick did have a plus, though: I got a 4 day weekend. I didn't get to leave the house much Friday or Saturday, but it was actually really nice to be home with the kids. I am always amazed at how much messier the house gets when we're home. You'd think being home would mean we have more time to clean, but that pretty much never happens. I always end up frantically cleaning everything Sunday night (Monday night in this case) so that we start the week with a clean house.

Went to a baby shower Sunday. Had to sit with a bunch of strangers for 3 hours. Otherwise really nice shower I guess.

I had a super fun day thrifting with the girls on Monday. The best part is I brought home 14 shirts, 3 pairs of pants and a jacket and I only spent $30. Can't beat that! The worst part was that lunch took over 2 hours and I was starting to think we would be stuck in Mimi's Cafe forever. Slowest service ever! Good thing I was there with good friends but the slow service and the text messages from Gabe saying the kids were both screaming majorly stressed me out. Of course by the time I finally did make it home, Gabe and Gabriel were napping peacefully and Frejya was snuggled up on the couch watching tv.

And because I like posts with pictures and am pretty sure most of you probably just want to see the pictures anyways and don't care about all my rambling, here you go:

Just to clear the air

My kids don't really hate each other. I promise. As a matter of fact, they spent lots of time spinning together in the spinning chair yesterday afternoon.

(And apparently Frejya's straight edge now? I'm not sure why she has big X's on her hands)

Guest Blogger: Frejya

MAMA COOKS!?

My mom is not the best chef in the world. Especially with Gabriel around. Gabriel is such a whiner.[shhh]

MY DOG IS SO DUMB!

Have you ever seen a dog do this? Probably not. My dog does weirder things all the time.Also, she sleeps on the wall.

POOR BABY [not]

Poor Gabriel [not]. Gabriel is one of the most annoying babies in the world! [When he gets older don't tell him I said that!]He doesn't like me at all. Poor Gabriel [not]

Happy Valentine's Day!

In the spirit of the holiday, I thought I'd share some loving moments with you:

As we were about to feed each other cake at our wedding...

Gabe: If you smash that cake in my face, I'll punch you.

Me: Same goes for you.

On an almost daily basis:

Me: You never let me hug you. Don't you love me?
Gabe: I married you, didn't I?

As I tried to cuddle with him on the couch last night:

Gabe: Get the hell off of me! Your hands are freezing!

We're so romantic. Love you babe!

The family that fishes together...

We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and took the boat out for a last minute fishing trip after church. Gabriel got to play with Grandma and Grandpa for the afternoon and Gabe, Frejya and I got to spend some quality time together. No fish were caught (maybe I'm bad luck?) but good times were definitely had by all. And as evidenced by the last two pictures, Frejya and I didn't think it was all that warm out.

And then, because I have absolutely no willpower and I skipped lunch and thought I might starve to death, we went home and ordered pizza. So much for not eating out. But we have to live a little even while on a crazy budget, right?

Boys will be boys

It's crazy to me how different boys and girls are right from the start. Even with all the girl toys lying around, Gabriel is already super into typical boy stuff. He loves playing with his fishing pole and throwing his ball. And he especially loves cars. He can spend forever pushing anything with wheels around the house. Screw the baby dolls that all his little girlfriends are playing with - this boy is a little man-in-training. He can even fish while riding a bike.

Cloth diapering update: I found a downside to cloth diapering. I'm still totally loving it and not switching back anytime soon, but having to rinse diapers in the toilet made Gabriel actually notice the toilet for the first time. So now anything he can find gets thrown into the toilet. And sometimes big sister doesn't notice there's something in the toilet before she uses it. So then mama gets to fish stuff out of a toilet full of pee or worse. Not fun!

Update to yesterday's post

Gabe: You really let Frejya wear that to school?
Me: You checked the blog!!
Gabe: Yes. You really let her wear that?
Me: It wasn't that bad. You should have seen the outfit before she covered it up with a sweatshirt. It was awful.
Gabe: I can't believe you let her wear that.

Gabe actually reads my blog! Yay me!!

This...

Is what I am up against every morning. I'm a firm believer in picking my battles with my kids and their outfits have never been something I've worried too much about. But that doesn't mean I don't cringe sometimes (or every morning) when I see what Frejya has dressed herself in.

And back to reality...

What a fun weekend! Parent's Night Out was a success and Super Bowl was super fun. The kids didn't watch the game but they did watch the half time show (forgive the crappy picture from my phone). But most importantly, I survived a whole weekend of cloth diapering. And now I'm convinced that I've made the right decision on this. I love them! I definitely am having to get used to changing him more often because they don't hold as much as disposables. But I managed to get through a whole day at church and then at the in-laws with no major crises. And I've even gotten through two overnights with no leaks. So I consider it a very successful weekend. The only major incident was that a crayon somehow ended up in the washing machine so now I have some melted-on blue color on my pretty diaper covers. Because of course it didn't stick to any of the actual diapers - just the much-more-expensive-to-replace covers. Oh well. That's life with kids I guess.

I just love this picture

Plus it sort of sums up how I feel right now. So much to do today to get ready for Parent's Night Out at my house tonight.

On a side note - Frejya looks so old to me lately. When did she grow up? She learned how to straighten her own hair using my flat iron and has decided that she wants her own for her 9th birthday. She also wants an American Girl doll, so she hasn't completely grown up on me yet. But seriously what 8 year old wants her own flat iron?

I hate my dog

I honestly don't think there's another dog on the planet that sheds as much as my dog does. Gabe's been brushing her everyday and we still get this much hair off of her. Dogs are so overrated.

Am I crazy?

I just might be. I've decided to live poor for awhile to build up our emergency fund. And I mean poor, poor. I'm pretty sure Gabe thinks I've lost my mind, but he's been totally supportive so far (maybe I really have gone crazy and he's afraid to disagree with me?). So here's what I've done so far: canceled our Blockbuster membership (easy to do since our store's closing), canceled our home phone (who still uses a home phone anyways?), stopped eating out, started clipping coupons, started baking all our bread. And now here's where it starts to get a little crazy: I've started making my own household cleaners and I'm switching to cloth diapers. Now I get that lots of people cloth diaper normally but to me it's huge. And I've gotten really into it. And Gabe is totally not on board yet. I figure the worst that will happen is I'll change all the diapers and Gabe may use disposables when he has Gabriel. But it can't be that bad, right? I'll get back to you on that...