Ready for the Draft

Crit has been in need of a haircut for a while. It was very long on top and not so much on the sides. I didn't trust myself with scissors, but I remembered last night that we had clippers. We bought the clippers right after we got married when Mike started shaving his head. The only experience I have had with them is on Mike without an attachment, so I knew I needed an attachment. I looked through the assortment that came with the clippers and decided that a number 4 looked good. Having no idea what a number 4 really meant, I just went for it.

Crit and I went out on the back deck and I gave him his first haircut. I learned two things: 1 always start with a much bigger number than you think you need, and 2 never make the first pass from the forehead back--you're committed if you do. If I had known those two things, my son would not look like he's ready for boot camp. But it's summer, right? And it'll grow back, right? Right?

The Before.
This is his first Oreo a couple of weeks ago.
I don't know if any made it in his mouth.
Notice the flowing golden locks.



The After.
Does he look mad?
This is the amount of hair he was born with.
Maybe even less.

Random

Here is some random stuff my kids have been doing lately that I don't want to forget:

Ally is not my concise child. She never says, "Can I have an apple?" Instead she says, "Mommy..." then she waits for me to acknowledge that she has spoken, "I was wondering if it would be okay if I could get a red apple out of the fridge and you could maybe wash it and cut it up for me." Leave it to Ally to use as many words as possible.

It's weird, I know, but my baby has never wanted to hold his own bottle. I don't know if he's really stubborn or really lazy, but he'd rather lie there with his mouth open ready and waiting to be fed than do it himself. I added it up yesterday and I have spent roughly 600 hours feeding this kid bottles. So you'll see why it's such a big deal that he fed himself a bottle yesterday for the first time ever! Granted, I had to lay his head on the floor because he couldn't tip back far enough while sitting up, but we're making progress. Great timing, huh? It's about time to give up the bottles now.

Ally uses big words. Shocker, I know. She told us a few weeks ago that we are SUBSISTENCE farmers because we eat what we grow and don't sell it. She'll also tell you the meaning of the words ENORMOUS, INGENIOUS, BRILLIANT, UNACCEPTABLE, and ASSISTANT (which she pronounces insistant), and ANCESTOR.

Critter likes to go to bed. He rarely fights me at naptime or bedtime. When he's really tired he'll bring me his blanket and put his arms up to be held. Then he gives the look that says, "I can't take it anymore. Rock me for a minute so I can relax and then put me to bed. PLEASE!"

Ally's favorite TV show is Wipeout. Her biggest ambition is to someday be a "contestant on Wipeout" so she can "conquor the obstacles and win the qualifier to get to the wipout zone and win fifty-thousand dollars." I love Wednesdays because I can tell her all day if she isn't nice she can't watch it.

Crit likes to be in the laundry room. I have no idea why. If the door is open, he'll go in there just to sit.

Ally holds her scissors upside down. She tells me it's easier that way. I don't even know how to describe the way she cuts. It looks weird. And it kinda grosses me out.

Crit carries his blanket around where ever he goes. It is never in a different room and is rarely more than 3 feet away from him. He has recently figured out how to tow it around and still have full use of his hands. He bites it and holds it in his mouth. And because he doesn't want to trip over it, he puts a foot on the floor on each side and lets it drag between his legs as he walks around. I'd better wash it more often.

Both of my kids LOVE saurkraut. Yes, saurkraut. If Mike gets the bottle out, they are both right there waiting for some.

Ally's toes have straigtened out, but Crit's haven't. Ally's second toe always sat on top of the two beside it. If I straightened them out and put them where they belong, she'd yell and "fix" them back the way they were. Crit's not that crazy, but it's very noticable.

Ally has decided she is an artiste. That's pronounced ar-teest. Because she's better than a regular artist.

That's all I've got for now, but knowing my two kids, there will be more weird stuff soon.

The Garden

We (and when I say we I mean my husband) spent a couple of hours weeding the garden on Saturday. Our radishes are all out (we had hundreds of them) and now we are pulling carrots and picking peas.

This is a picture from a couple of weeks ago. Carrots are in the front, then peas on the trellises, then onions, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, and corn in the back. The really big stuff in the back is buffalo grass (too bad it grows the very best).

We picked a few carrots and they look pretty good for not having any room to grow (we planted them WAY too close together).

A couple of the carrots came out straight like this one.

But most of them were mutants.

One Year Stats

I'm a little late, I know, but here are my baby's stats from his doctor appointment last week:

Height: 29 inches (25%)
Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz (15%)
Head: 47 cm (50%)

The forward-facing carseat we put Ally in right before her 1st birthday is for 22 pounds+, so we haven't turned him around yet. Poor guy. I'd get really tired of looking out the back window all the time. He is signing "milk" and "more" all the time, though, so maybe he'll gain those two pounds soon.