a whole lot of blabbing about a couch

A close up of last post's cuteness. By the way, this is Dane with the glasses on. He's a little bigger than Alec, but in the last picture it looks like he's way bigger. He's not. I'm just a horrible photographer and I took the picture at a weird angle.

Here's Reid giving kisses. Seriously, it's...all...day...long. He sometimes won't leave a room without kissing his babies goodbye. I know, I know...it's cute. But there are a few times (of the daily hundred kisses) when I would like him to knock it off. (That's Reid kissing Dane above)

These two are really sweet best friends. When we put them in the bassinet, they're always next to each other. But they very quickly manage to squiggle themselves right up against each other. This picture has Dane on the left and Alec on the right. I think the attempt at a good photo previous to this one was with a flash, so Alec is making a "what the...?" face.

We moved into our new (in 1962) house last Saturday, and I am in love. I told Erik that my soul knows that this is my home. I'm really happy here. Erik owned a home in Tucson before we got married, but this is my first time as a homeowner and I just love it. Erik and I are trying to meet in the middle as far as decorating goes. Or, rather, Erik is trying to reel me in. That happens a lot. It's our give and take.

I found this couch on craigslist (a new obsession, searching for cool mid-century furniture at a good deal) and we pick it up tomorrow. I can't wait. I think my style is pretty vintage-modern-eclectic anyway, but I think it only makes sense in this house. I just can't picture a huge, overstuffed floral sofa in our 1960's ranch. House pictures to come, promise. Unless you'd like to see lots of pictures of boxes. Didn't think so. Rad couch, right? It's going to go in the living room (the room with the piano). This house is just over 1900 sq. ft., including a room that was the garage and at some point was converted to living space. That's very common where we are in California. The weather is so good that no one really needs a garage for that reason, and most of the homes in the area are 60's homes that are usually 1500 sq. ft. or smaller so homeowners convert the garages. We didn't look at a single home that had an actual garage. Weird, right? It's not so bad without a garage except that our house is swarming with boxes because we don't have a garage to stash them in as we get through them one by one.

Here are some cute Valentine's ideas, just for fun. I found them on the purl bee and I think I'm going to send Valentines this year. What a fun treat, to give/get Valentines as an adult.

And lastly, check out my sister's blog. I've been rudely telling her how her blog desperately needed help (I was rude about it, which is not nice, but seriously...it did). I'm now a contributing author and I posted some links to two great videos. Please go watch them. They will make your day. Nay, they will make your month, which is also to say that they just may be the best thing to happen so far in 2009.

Oh, and a HUGE thanks to all the good advice about managing the toddler/new baby situation. I'll be coming to the booth again about Reid's "food on the floor" situation, so get your thinking caps on.

Reid, don't touch the babies.

Reid desperately wants to play with the babies. So far he's only allowed to give them kisses on the top of their heads, so they get LOTS of kisses. A few days ago Reid was playing with his Mr. Potato Head (a favorite Christmas toy) and came over to me with the glasses on. We both giggled and giggled (it's so fun to see him make jokes and understand when things are funny). A while later I went to check on my sleeping babies and this is what I saw.I made sure to get a picture, then Reid got in trouble (meaning, he got a very stern look from mom and lots of "no no...the babies are sleeping"). Speaking of, how do you discipline a 20 month old? He's 99% very sweet with his brothers, but when that 1% shows up, he's a little rough. So far Dane has been hit on the tummy and he bit Alec on the foot. Although not very hard at all either time. I think he's trying to play with them, but regardless, he knows he's not supposed to bug them. So, ideas? I'm not really into the spanking thing, especially since I don't think that's a good way to teach a little guy not to hit. Supernanny is big into the time out thing, has that worked for any of you? I'd love some advice. In the meantime, I hope this little post can curb your "cute babies" cravings. I'm working on finding more time for Emily things, but my time is pretty filled up with baby things. And for now, that's just fine.

I'm good at pretending.

This is the quilt that I am currently pretending that I'm making. I NEED to find some time to make it in real life (instead of just in my head), because it is just so, SO wonderful. I just have to make it. I love Anna Maria Horner. And I love that she's crazy talented and accomplished...and she's the mother of 5 (soon to be 6) children. I love that she's following her dream and bringing her kids along for the ride rather than doing it at their expense. Check out her blog, you'll be inspired.

I'm also currently pretending that I have Tess's hair. Did anyone see Tess of the D'urbervilles on Sunday? We don't have our TV hooked up to anything but our DVD player, so I didn't see it on PBS, but the website has it available to watch. I give it an "eh" so far. But I'm a tough critic of the "Victorian Era novel turned into a movie" genre. Mostly because I'm obsessed with them all. Want a good recommendation? Try "He Knew He Was Right". On second thought, I'll talk about that in a whole separate post. It was thought-provoking. In the meantime, go check out Tess. I give the hair two thumbs up and the jury's still out on the rest of the movie.

Hit the fan.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to stop saying crap so much. It's a gift for my mom, really. But, if I were to say crap, I would only say it to explain that "it" has hit the fan. I'm pretty sure that's the right expression here. Doesn't it mean that things have unraveled? That things have gotten crazy? It does? Then, yes, that's right. The crap has hit the fan.

My mom and dad left on the 29th, leaving Erik and I to man our three kids on our own. We've employed a zone defense. This past week Erik only worked half-days the first three days and then had a four day weekend. Thank goodness too, because I really needed to be eased into reality. The reality is, is that there are more babies to hold than I have arms to do it. I have, however, gotten better at the tandem nursing business. (Which, if you ask me, should be an Olympic event. I understand that for modesty's sake that it's not, but believe me, it's just as difficult as a triple axle-double loop, I'm pretty sure.) In fact, just this week I was able to put on Reid's shoes whilst nursing two babies at once. So, while it's a skill with a very limited use, I'm happy nonetheless that I'm mastering skills such as that.

So, tomorrow I enter the real world. Reality. Things like: grocery trips where I maneuver two carts-one full of kids and one for food, managing all three while at the Dr. for Alec, taking care of household problems like how I've run out of clean underwear, and maybe-just maybe-make dinner. Erik and I really, really enjoyed having my mom here and all the wonderful meals that she made. Now I need to remember how to cook after my two month hiatus. Plus, as an added dimension of tricky, I need to figure out how to be reconcile my eat-meat-very-sparingly-atarianism (which is actually just a fancy way of saying that all I want to eat anymore is smoothies, bread and cheese, and beans) with the husband's habit of eating like a regular person. We'll see how that goes.