She's nearly always impressed these days. And squirrels.

First pb&j. First driving lesson from brother.

Kids utensil bouquet. She's impressed by awesome things.

Little d's baseball skills.

Stuff she is less than impressed with? Little d's tea party skills.

Otherwise known as "let me take the tea and you can have....

A spoon."

Little d also made a new friend today while on a walk. Channeling his inner Astrid :)

At this point he got too close for my liking and we ran away from him. I love a squirrel from afar but when they start to inch close and we have no food to share, I get a little nervous.

"In summer"

Made popcorn with this nut today and he sectioned some of it off to save for his friends to eat at his birthday party.

In July.

Have I mentioned he asks me almost daily if it is summer yet? Always before he breaks out into olaf's classic "in summer!" Song complete with dancing.

It snowed yesterday and this morning he asked me if it would be Christmas soon. Oh this poor boy has so much to learn about Ohio.

Vampire teeth and auditions for preschool

(Disclaimer: I wrote this post a week ago.forgot to publish till today whoops)Guess we should have named her AnnaBELLA... Girl is officially sprouting vampire teeth. Terrifying but lovely.

After months of paperwork, waiting, and finally an official interview, little d is officially going to be a preschooler this fall! He will be doing a district run special needs preschool where half his class is special needs and he is one of the peer models. I was super nervous that with his craziness and not listeningness he wouldn't pass but I suppose he's smart enough that they took him anyway!

Celebratory buckeye pie. We were under the impression that the preschool would be at the elementary school down the street but it turns out it is a good 15 minute drive. But it's four days a week for  nearly three hours so as long as I can manage to get little a down for a nap that means I can have two hours all to myself. Of course now this also means I've started looking around/perusing for some kind of flexible part time job... All this spending has got me feeling all sorts of guilty.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy grocery shopping, paying the bills, etc because it makes me more aware of what we are spending as a family but man! I just feel like all I ever do is spend spend spend and I know mr d feels the same way. I mean most things are necessary and justifiable but health insurance at $500 for the extremely healthy three of us is really driving me nuts recently. We still pay 50% of any doctors bill and having paid it for now three months, I'm gonna have to say id like my $1500 back. Don't even get me started to what that amounts to in a year, or I will completely lose it.

So that takes me back to wanting to do something part time but of course all my hobbies: running, working out, cooking, sewing, art, etc or even just stuff I happen to be good at are all money suckers, not exactly anything to help pay the bills. While we manage along just fine on what mr d makes, I can't help but think I need to find something just in case, to add a little more insurance in case something expensive/emergency does happen.

Anyway. I'm thrilled little d got into his preschool. Even if it does mean one more expense for us, judging from today he is more than ready to step out on his own and grow a little.

Three little kittens and a life hack (self cleaning oven!!!)

Lately I have really been feeling like my heart is full. But mostly my lap.

What our playroom really needs is a mommy chair... A comfy couch that looks like my lap because these kittens would have a heyday crawling all over it like a jungle gym. How do I know? I just have an inkling about stuff like that.

(When I stand up they all act like, "what do we do now?!")

The playroom is finally starting to get some use. I say that because big brother usually needs an entire acre to feel like He has enough space to kick a ball, run around, etc. His sister on the other hand is more than content to play with her toys. It's refreshing, and nice when he goes down for quiet time to spend some time with her. Most days I feel like all I want is some alone time so I nap them simultaneously in the afternoon, but lately I realized that staggering naptime allows me more time with baby girl, just the two of us, and I can still get some time alone.... Just not the full 90 minutes or so :) worth it. Also much easier to do now that she's not permanently attached at my hip.

She's so strong! Just like her mama.

Calf raises while watching puppies outside.

The fine art of hammering. She may not really be able to play ball but she can be coordinated when she wants to be!

Also growing hair: she's been hard at work on that since I gave her the memo to get it long enough for me to put in a hair clip before nursery. Six months , girl!

And while it may not seem like it here, I've been trying to not worry so much about snapping pictures, especially when we are with friends or family and to just enjoy myself more in the moment. It's not easy because I am so worried that I will forget these moments,and I do try to post all the photos I take here or on Instagram but there are certainly ones worth searching for the phone to capture.

Love her photobomb almost as much as his sweet smile:

It's nice to have someone who will happily finish off my apple core.

This was probably the craziest thing to ever happen to me in my short mothering life. I explained to little d that while I will eat any vegetable on the planet pretty much, and love 99%of them, there is one I absolutely refuse to eat or make anything with and it happened to be in my can of soup tonight--PEAS. Well apparently little d took that with a grain of salt because he said I don't like celery but you like celery. You don't like peas but I love peas! And popped them in his mouth like candy.

Awesome! Yup, my child, my own flesh and blood, just called peas AWESOME. Mind blown. I guess I will have to add peas to the list of plants for our garden... Yeech.

One last thing: self cleaning ovens. I have never had one (we had yet to live in a home less than 75 years old till we moved here) and THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!! I only scrubbed the oven with oven cleaner like 4 times since moving in and then I discovered the self cleaner and have been blown away. Someone recommended I leave the pizza stone we use every week in there and I did and PEOPLE!! I tell you that stone was crusted in black and brown and it's like new!

My life has officially been hacked. I will never manually clean my oven or pizza stone ever again.

My DVr is full and my blog and housework and sleep are in desperate need of attention

Now you know why.

Nearly 45 months separates them and yet they are nearly inseperable. Photos taken almost a year apart!

Best brothers, visiting grandpa and puppies!

It is fun at mealtime to see littled share his food with sis.

He told me sis needs a water bottle like his for her birthday but in pink.

One of our nice days last week when he decided midway through our walk that he was too tired to ride a bike and told me I could ride it and he could push sis. 

Playing at our neighbors backyard.

Then the next day at grandpas.

Drawing Donatello for grandpa.

And of course trying on his glasses ;) love visiting him at work.

Sunday he buttoned his shirt all on his own... Because "my friend sawyer from the gym in Massachusetts showed me how".

It was deceptively nice looking outside. We went for a walk and lasted five minutes.

Little A was cold enough she even kept her gloves socks shoes blanket and hat all on which is probably a new record.

Graduating her to a bit of a more toddler seat... High chair was getting a little bulky in the kitchen for my liking.

Visited grandma Joanne yesterday and when it was time to pack up (so much like mama it scares me sometimes) he insisted on carrying all the toys by himself. Can you tell he goes with me on all my shopping trips? 

Then to the pet store after dinner with uncle Dk.... Little a was in heaven!!!!

It was like she had never seen a dog before, much less a whole slew of them!

And guess who made a new best friend in tucker?? Littled couldn't stop loving on him and telling us how he was really a ninja turtle.

And a week without papa wouldn't be complete without some indulgence.