What?

Josh: Howie, what's your favorite animal in the zoo?

Howie: The poo.

On The Move

It's official... this guy is mobile! He's crawling and doing headstands and trying to figure out how to stand up. It's so funny to me how different he is from Howie at that age! Justice is already creating the need for way more babyproofing than Howie ever has in his whole life. I'm so curious to see how he continues to develop and what kinds of things he'll enjoy. So far his favorite things are taking whatever Howie is playing with (much to Howie's frustration, usually) and exploring dusty corners of the house. Makes for LOTS of sharing/kindness conversations and I've also developed a new zeal for cleaning!! Yay!!

A Sweater For Howie

The Goal:

The Progress:

We've got a back and a left front... working on the right front, still have to knit sleeves and the collar and then sew it all together! Knitting this sweater has been such a fun project this summer. Thankfully it's still infernally hot so I've got some time to finish before cool weather sets in. Once it's done Howie's other shirts and sweaters are going to mysteriously disappear so he has to wear this every day. You only think I'm kidding.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Vampire (Warning: this is gross.)

OK, not to go back to Twilight, but sometimes I really do feel like a vampire. Does anyone remember the part when Edward has to bite Bella and suck her blood or else she's going to die? He knows he's going to love it so much he doesn't know if he can quit and then she'll definitely die? Anybody with me? (If you haven't seen Twilight, don't bother... you can still follow what I'm saying.) Here is my point: having eczema is a lot like being a vampire.

This outbreak was several weeks ago now and I'm much better, but there is nothing that feels better than scratching the heck out of this skin. It's like you don't even know how bad it itches until you start scratching, and then it just feels so good you get shivers and you have to keep scratching until it's just bad- everything is oozy and raw and cracked and bleeding and swollen and then you're sorry that you started because it's going to be days before you can touch water and bend your fingers without wincing. If you don't want to get to that point you have to just leave it alone and never touch it, because if you start, that's most definitely how it's going to end unless you have some serious self-control. That's why I feel like Edward: if I start (scratching mind you, not sucking blood), I have to keep going. Stopping before my victim, my own skin, is dead is next to impossible.

We're Still Alive

This summer has been just craaaazy!! Technically we're in St Louis this summer but actually we've been in Branson, Peoria, Lynchburg (Virginia!), Peachtree City, Augusta, etc. You get the point... we've been traveling! It's been lots and lots of fun! But my blog has definitely suffered as a result of the craziness. This pic is just to whet your appetite for the jillions more that I have to post. Howie just celebrated his big old 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago!! Right now I need to go to bed because kids are merciless in the morning... they don't care when you went to bed. That's why coffee is sooooooo my BFF. Anyway, all that to say, more pics are soon to appear. For now, take a peek at some oldies but goodies below.

Strawberry Picking, and Eating (Obviously)

Back at the end of May we went to pick strawberries at Eckert's, and it was a blast. We ended up picking 17 pounds (most of which went into the freezer for later)!! Howie loved running around and pulling the strawberries off the plants, and Justice was truly in paradise... strawberries are one of his favorites and there he was, completely surrounded on all sides. Believe me, he enjoyed himself. The pics say it all. You will be shocked to know that his clothes actually came clean. That's the power of Shout gel, people. (How funny is his shirt? One of our dear friends from Augusta sent that to him. HA!)

Serious Mom Moment

I dashed to Target all by myself this morning (woohoo!!) to grab a couple things, one of which was a CD player... I'm not totally sold on the ipod dock, which we've had since we got married. There's something I still like about having the actual CD. Anyway, I digress. We've wanted to get a CD player for the boys' room for a long time, so today was the day. I got back in the car after finding having great success in Target and started driving home. The only approved radio stations in the car are NPR (90.7 for all you locals) and occasionally ESPN (101.1) if something interesting is happening in sports or of course if it's football season. I feel like I'm constantly reminding Josh that NPR is really the only approved station, lest he radio surf and settle on some elevator music or something. But when I left Target it was 10:44, the last part of the 2nd half of the Diane Rehm show. I love Diane Rehm, but I usually only love her from 9:00-10:00. (This is an aside... I tell time by what show is on NPR. Neil Conan? Oh, it must be between 1 and 3. The last part of Morning Edition? Oh, it's almost 9. Gotta love having that adult voice talking to me throughout the day.) Anyway, as I was saying, Diane usually talks about some book in the second hour that I'm not interested in, usually fiction. All that by way of setup for this story. Yeesh. So I was driving and since there was nothing that I wanted to hear on the only truly approved radio station, I let whatever was in the CD player play. Turns out it was Cookie Monster singing "C Is For Cookie." Somewhere in my subconscious I just sang along with Cookie Monster. Only after the song finished did I realize there were definitely no kids in the car and I guess I just listened to that song for me. But not only did I listen... I liked it. Sigh.