the ball machine

Last time Will and I played with Play-Doh (does anyone else say the last part like Homer Simpson in their head? no? okay, me either) he made a couple interesting things. He asked me to roll his massive mound of dough into a ball. I did, then handed it to him. He promptly stuck his finger in and made a big hole.



"What are you making?" I asked.

"This is a ball machine," Will said.

"What's a ball machine?" I asked.

"It's a place where you go inside the hole and lots of people are inside and playing games." Will poked his finger in the hole, presumably to demonstrate people going inside to play games.

"That sounds fun," I said.

"And also, there are dinosaur monsters in there. They're going to eat the people playing games."

"Um...what?"

"The dinosaur monsters are going to eat the people playing games. Like this. RAWWRRRRRR!"



"That sounds less fun, Buddy," I said.

"It IS fun. IT IS FUN, MOMMY."

Then he made a snowman.



The holes in the middle aren't for bowling, they're his buttons. Duh.

February 20-26, 2011

On Sunday, Evie ate this wire thing.



Will rode his bike with his buddy Connor.



Except Will didn't really. He fell once on it like, a month and a half ago, and he's been scared of the bike since then.

On Monday, Laurel had the day off for President's Day. Will read some Curious George. (Not Washington.)



Evie decided to take her look in a new direction.



And she ate peas. DO NOT TAKE PEAS FROM HER.



Look, Will can make an angry face too.



Cute.



We also took an epic walk to the drug store and back.

On Tuesday, we went on another walk.



I love how chilled out Evie is in the swing.



Also, there was jumping:



And this:



And more jumping:



On Wednesday, there was breakdancing on the chair.





On Thursday, Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill came down for a visit.

On Friday, the kids played with the grandparents. I failed to take any pictures.

On Saturday, Lorne got up very, very early and went to Boston for a conference. Later that morning, Will and I made some marzipan brownies. They were tasty.



Then Will and Evie and I went up to Gramma Jo's for a family get-together.

the shitty playground

There are three playgrounds within a pretty short walking distance of our apartment: the one we usually go to, the one that is identical to the one we usually go to but farther away, and the shitty playground. I usually avoid walking anywhere near the shitty playground because Will always wants to stop to play there.



The shitty playground consists of a couple old plastic slides, a crappy sandbox, and an unstable jungle gym. There used to be a really old, sun-bleached plastic playhouse with some doors and windows missing, but that's gone now. Something must have happened to it to make it too shitty for even the shitty playground. I refuse to believe that someone stole it. Not because I have any sort of faith in humanity and think people wouldn't steal from children or anything like that. It was just too shitty for anyone to bother with.

Will always insists on stopping to play, but then he inevitably asks me lots of questions that I can't answer. Things like, "Where are the swings?" "Where are the other kids?" "Where did the sand in the sandbox go?" "Can I climb that thing?" Wait, I can answer that one. No. You cannot climb the rickety deathtrap of death.



A few days ago, on our walk, after Will went down the two slides a couple times and tried to play in the crappy sandbox, we headed to the playground we don't usually go to because it's a little farther away than its identical twin. But we got there and there were kids everywhere. We're lucky to find a couple kids at the playground we usually go to. Not only were there kids everywhere, there were kids Will's age. He didn't have to lie about how old he was to get them to play with him.



The other parents came up and introduced themselves to me. Everyone was so friendly. "Oh, are you new here?" I explained that we usually went to the other playground, and asked if there were usually this many children at this playground. "Oh yeah, we're all usually here between four and five." I've decided that both the shitty playground and our usual playground are shitty playgrounds. From now on we're going where the kids are.

Evie + solid foods

= LOVE.

We started solids with Will when he was ~5 months, but held off with Evie for a little bit longer, mainly because she had a variety of mild colds from Thanksgiving until she turned 6-months-old at the beginning of February. We wanted to make sure that she wasn't reacting badly to anything we tried her on, so we wanted the sneezing and runny noses to go away first.


Mmm. Cardboard.

Her first food was brown rice cereal. It tastes kind of like cardboard. (We tried its white rice cereal counterpart when Will was starting solids, and it tasted kind of like paper.) Evie loved it though. The following week she tried bananas. She loved them too.


This food is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Two nights ago, Evie tried peas for the first time. Plain old steamed peas that were then pureed with breastmilk. We were a little concerned that we'd given her banana too early, that she would then reject the less sweet vegetables. But she did not. She ate. And ate. When Lorne stopped feeding her to take a bite of his own dinner, she stared at him with her little furrowed brow, as if to say, "Dad, there are peas in front of you. Why are they not in my mouth?"



After I made the peas I put them in a bowl with a lid so we could refrigerate them and feed them to her over a couple nights. When she'd eaten about half, Lorne put the lid on the bowl. Her little brow furrowed further. Then, when he stood to get some more water for himself, he grabbed the bowl and put it in the fridge.



Evie's eyes widened in horror and opened her mouth to emit a shriek. A very loud, very shrill shriek. The sort of noise you would expect to hear after someone had been told they would never see their family again. The sort of noise I might emit upon being told Gretchen beat Mondo on Project Runway. Then her little face crumpled and she cried.

So I guess we didn't need to worry about the bananas ruining vegetables.


You won't take my peas away from me if you know what's good for you.

February 13-19, 2011

On Sunday, Will dressed up in his train conductor gear. We're still trying to figure out how that darn whistle works.



He's got the pez figured out though.



Evie built some stuff.



And also wore the conductor hat.



You're so funny Evie.



Hey. Who're you calling funny?



On Monday, we celebrated Valentine's Day with:

1. Heart-shaped peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.



2. Valentines from the kids + Lorne to me.



3. Valentines from the kids + me to Lorne.



Will determined the placement of all buttons, though I glued them on. He also picked out the ribbon and asked me to tie the bow, and then told me where it should go.



Will also pretty much told me what to do with the one from Evie. I think he designs quite nice Valentines.

4. Skeptical looks from Evie. She's not sure about this whole "Hallmark holiday" thing.



5. Smiles from Will. He's on board. (He may also be smiling because we watched Finding Nemo for the first time and he loved it.)



On Tuesday, Will was blurry.



So was I.



On Wednesday, we wrote the b-sides that made a small portion of the world cry.

On Thursday, Will and I went on our long walk, and Will decided he was four.

Then he took a bath. Evie tossed ducks in for him.



On Friday, I made a delicious cake.



On Saturday, we played with play-dough.


This is a snowman.

Evie snuggled with Lorne.



We had a dance party.

February 6-12, 2011

On Sunday, Lorne turned 31! We celebrated with French toast.





On Monday, Evie looked upon me with disdain.


Why do you keep pointing that thing at me, Mom? Come on.

On Tuesday, we wrote the songs that made the whole world sing.

On Wednesday, we wrote the songs of love and special things.

On Thursday, we wrote the songs that made the young girls cry. We wrote the songs, we wrote the songs.

On Friday, Evie got a piggyback ride.



And Will got hot chocolate.



On Saturday, we took lots of pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

Will found Lorne's spare glasses.



Evie found the blocks to be shocking!



Will contemplates frosting.



See more of them here.