It's been awhile

Well, it certainly has been awhile since I posted. I doubt anyone bothers to even check in on the blog anymore! Sometimes it seems like everyone else has their muffins in the oven before I even get out the recipe.
Life here is busy like a blizzard. There is the press of constant change, and things to get done, but a feeling of being under a blanket and not being able to get anywhere quickly. And the work that just was finished is promptly being undone and, like the shoveling, must start again soon.
Isaac is 15 months now, running everywhere, and not in the least bit interested in holding my hand. He will hold on if he must, but for the minimum amount of time possible. Braeden was, and continues to be, an enthusiastic hand-holder, and sometimes won't move forward without his hand in mine. I have one wildly enthusiastic explorer headed for the road, and one thoughtfully cautious planner, standing still gripping my hand. It gets a bit tricky at times.
The kids are day and night in so many ways. Isaac is allergic to tons of things, most notably wheat and eggs (with a dairy intolerance). He LOVES food. He inherits my serious passion for eating. Only, there are so many things that he is not allowed to have that he howls in protest when he is not given a bite of something. He just knows he is missing out. Braeden has nary an allergy. His body easily tolerates anything that he deems worthy of crossing his lips. It just so happens that very few things make the cut. He is so particular that we were fine with him playing with Trival Pursuit pieces at 8 months old, because there was NO WAY that those puppies were going in his mouth.
Issac moves quickly and impulsively these days. He is passionate about dirt. For a long time it was part of his food passion, as he would eat any that he could get his hands on. Now he likes to sit, dig, roll in, lay on and, yes (still!) eat the stuff. He dives right in. Right now, Braeden looks at the dirt. He asks me where dirt came from, and why plants always grow in the dirt. He wonders why dirt sticks to the bottom of your shoes and if it has germs in it. He asks what it used to be before it was dirt. He is curious about it, but he is not interested in digging around in it... And so it has been with these two.
I love being a mother to these two. It is so interesting to have given birth to such amazingly different souls. I want to be more like each of them, and their contrast makes each of them shine. Today, right now, I feel so lucky!

Good morning photos

I have been sending David pictures of the boys each day that he's been gone. They are fresh from sleep and snuggly then. Here they are.

Sleep!

I haven't had much time to post lately... or, more accurately, I haven't had much mental acuity to post! Those living with small children will understand the bone-weary tired that comes with it. Isaac is 7 months old now, and still waking up several times a night. We have tried everything that we can think of. Just when we think we've got it everything breaks apart.
Today at Fred Meyer Braeden kept saying "this is my cheese. My double decaf cheese. Cheese is made out of a special kind of decaf milk." In my haze I just said: "Yep. That's right". I didn't even laugh!
To make things more interesting, we are remodeling our house. We love the changes that we are making, but everything is dusty and moved into unexpected places. Just when my brain only works on auto-pilot things are changing!
As you know, it all goes by so fast. I'll tell you, it better! :)

Happy Mother's Day

The night before Mother's Day I was really hoping for a little more sleep than usual. Isaac has been getting up at all hours for about a week, wanting me to nurse him back to sleep. I have been doing that but getting increasingly tired and desparate for rest. That night he woke up every 2 hours. He was unsettled and fussy and tough to soothe. It felt like I had just gone back to sleep when he was up again. Finally at 4:45 he woke up and I nursed him to sleep looking forward to a couple more hours of rest before Braeden got up. I set him down (ever-so-gently) in his crib and he woke up instantly and started crying. I started crying. Wandered back to bed where I fell face down on the mattress and cried. David gently went to get our sobbing son and let me sleep for a little while. When I got up at 7 Braeden was up and cranky (his sleep, too, has been impacted by this loud baby of ours...). Isaac (who is usually quite happy and alert in the morning) was very edgy and difficult to hold or soothe. What the heck? This can't be Mother's Day... I want a DO-OVER.
Later in the evening, after a difficult day or cranky tempers and lack of sleep (all around) I snuggled up with Braeden. No matter what the situation, Braeden is a champion snuggler. The best around. So we snuggled up on the couch under "orangie" (the mother blanket to his most precious of all loves, greenie). He was softly stroking my arm and he said:
" Mommy you are so pretty and I love you."
I said thank you and gave him a kiss. He replied:
" I told you I love you because it's Mother's Day. I love you."
I said, "Did Daddy tell you to say that?"
"No."

And David solumnly swears that there was no coaching involved in that interaction. I guess Mother's Day was wonderful. An to top things off... I got 8 (YES, 8!) hours of sleep last night. Ahhhhhh, motherhood.

Zen...?

Here you can see the object of my 6 month old's obsession. Zen, our much loved, slightly coddled, sometimes grouchy 5 year old pug. He has weathered the changes in our family fairly well, but I think Isaac will give him a run for his money. At 6 months old, somehow our child is already able to chase the dog. During his waking hours, Isaac spends considerable time contemplating Zen and how to acheive reaching him.