Stick with me; our camera's broken. What at time in life to have a broken camera! Our kids change every day! I'm shopping for new one, so you'll have updated pictures soon.

I wish I had a digital recorder to capture the hilarious things Anali has started saying. This week, she's getting closer to sentences. Our pastor is preaching on Jesus' "I am" statements of recent. Anali must be taking God's own syntax to heart, because she's started speaking "sentences" with subjects and "to be" verbs, but she's leaving off the object, or THE POINT, of the sentence. She'll say "Ani, too, is..." or "That truck is..." and leave it at that. It gets me every time. I keep wondering, "What? What is the truck?" It's fun to see her express what's on her mind. It will be more fun when that expression is fully coherent.

Recently, we've been enjoying new activities. She's taken up painting with watercolors, and she's quite good for a toddler. She can even make circles, which is a big accomplishment, I assure you. All I've been studying about literacy for my Masters is making me thoroughly enjoy Anali's emerging literacy skills. I have to make myself not document every minor stage of her reading and writing development.

In the meantime, if I could only document the other things. She'll be two in June and I haven't put a single picture in a single album for her, except to send to family. My friend Michelle made me the most precious scrapbook for her and I'm so indecisive about what perfect pictures to put in it, it's still empty (Forgive me, Michelle. Then, come HELP ME!). I write sloppy notes in a ten-cent spiral notebook, thinking I'll spend one day transferring all of my notes to a lovelier journal I bought TWO YEARS AGO!

Asher is six, no, SEVEN weeks old now. Let's just say he's developing. I'm not really sure what he's doing, but he's growing - BIG. He makes googly eyes at me and smiles with his whole face, though his lips only turn up slightly. He really responds to Anali, who loves to get right up to his face and exclaim, "Hi! Hi, Ash! Hi!" or say very matter-of-factly as I change his diaper, "Yellow poo-poo. Yellow poo-poo" or "Penny, out! Penny, out!" to which I have to remind her, "No, sweetie. YOU swallowed the penny, and I hope it's already out!" Not real sure when it came out, but after TWO WEEKS of scavenging through her diapers with popsicle sticks and Ziploc baggies, I gave up looking. A metal detector at the doctor's office said, "Yep, it's there," but not 30 minutes later, an X-ray revealed, "Nope, no penny." I'm thinking it's a miracle; Brandon thinks she never swallowed it. She had better have swallowed it, or what was the two weeks' diaper diving all about?

Ahhhh, motherhood! There's really nothing danty about it. But every day, I look at my kids and think, "Man, I LIKE YOU. And I'd like you even if you weren't mine!"

Gotta get the whole-body shot!

Anali had adored reading lately. She cuddles with books as if they are teddy bears. She'll get out of bed and get a pile of books and entertain herself some mornings. I like those mornings. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever!

When the Boppy Comes Out: Beware

Brandon and the Kids

Is it just me, or is nursing time full of danger? Anali, 21 months old, is not disobedient, and she is not unwary. She is a thoughtful and responsible kid. YET, suddenly, I find myself praying for a protective bubble to surround her when I'm nursing Asher.

In the past week, she has swallowed a penny; found her fluoride drops, opened them (despite the security cap), and sucked on the dropper like a lollipop; and found a pencil in a drawer, run with it, tripped, and nearly poked her eye out. Two of those three she performed just this afternoon. I am beginning to feel like a neglectful mother. How do moms-of-two-or-more do it? How can I keep her safe AND feed my son?

I try to keep her in my sight and read to her or draw flowers for her on her magnadoodle (which is probably being recalled as I write), but then I forget to pay attention to Asher's nursing and I can't tell if the little lad has gotten enough to eat, OR, as was the case, also today, the magnadoodle and/or book is thrust through the air and lands on the baby's head.

Anali seems to be adjusting beautifully to having her little brother around. She runs to get him his blanket or his Soothie. She tries to share her crackers. She lays beside him and coos at him as she sees Mama doing. She is still greeting him every morning with her precious, squeaky, "Hi, baby Ash."

Perhaps, all of this endearing behavior is masking how she really feels: "PAY ATTENTION TO ME." Moms-of-two-or-more-children, is there ever a night you go to bed without feeling you've overlooked something, or someone?

Doses of Motherhood

These are the precious moments of staying at home with two children.

Happy Nap!

Baking with Mama. Next to making coffee, baking is Anali's favorite kitchen activity.

Then, the not-so-precious moments...that tend to happen one right after the other...if not simultaneously.

We saw a lot of this this evening (I really shouldn't complain, since it doesn't happen that often. Maybe that's why it's hard when it does.) . My face mirrored his after the third round.

This is Anali coloring cute little faces on her fingers. Cute little faces she stamped on the counter, her shirt, the couch, and so on.