mr. fix it

Today was at rough day. Ivar woke up cranky and it turns out it was contagious. We both needed a nap this afternoon and one of us was fighting this fact as hard as he could. We were walking in circles. Ivar didn’t know what he wanted. I didn’t know what he wanted. So we cried together.

Then the doorbell rang and my Uncle Carl showed up to fix our garage door. Uncle Carl was kind not to mention my blotchy face, and of course upon seeing another human to charm, Ivar turned to smiles. We followed Uncle Carl out to the garage. I don’t know if Uncle Carl had anticipated an audience to watch him install the garage door opener, but he had one. Ivar was entertained and I was relieved. I had him in the baby bjorn and after 20 minutes of watching parts sorted on the floor we had both calmed down.

Uncle Carl came to fix our garage door and for no extra charge, he fixed our whole day.

so sleepy

I am so excited about this warmer weather that has come our way. We've taken walks the past three days and I can't seem to get enough vitamin D. All this fresh air seems to be tuckering out our little man.

Happy Valentines Day!

Last week my sister posted pictures of her girls pouring over their valentines, and I was reminded of how much I love this holiday. I haven't ever really felt the need to get into the whole jewelry-fancy-dinner part of this day (though I wouldn't turn it down!), but mostly I just love the memories I have of a childhood filled with valentines days that were crafty and thoughtful.

A few favorite memories: Growing up, my mom would make an entire red supper with spaghetti, red jello, and food coloring in our milk to turn it pink. She decorated the table with a red table cloth, lit all sorts of candles and had small gifts for each of us. During my elementary years I would work so hard decorating the shoe box that would become my valentine mailbox at school. I loved either making or picking out my valentines and writing each kids name. One year I got DuckTales valentines that included stickers for me to decorate each DuckTales scene with before I gave them away. I loved those valentines! I also have good memories of the school valentines party and decorating my heart sugar cookie with pink frosting and sprinkles.

So after I saw Annika's post I decided it is time for me to take over these traditions for my own family. Naturally I enlisted my son and we got to work making his first valentines. I had wanted to make 20 valentines, but at 13 my little helper had enough and we had to cut 7 recipients from the list! So, if you think you should have gotten a valentine from Ivar, please count this post as good enough. I'm not into forced crafting with kids...

I hope you're Valentine's day is filled with love and a frosted sugar cookie.

learning how to share

Ivar gets his turn during the day. Toonces gets to enjoy the play gym at night.

smash journal

My friend Rene told me about this video on stacyjulian's blog. It's a new product, and I would imagine the person who thought of this smash journal and pen/glue stick is going to make a lot of money. It's not really that complicated or revolutionary of a product, but it seems so novel in this video! And so fun.

Enjoy. It got my creative juices flowing today.