Our Comedian

Howie cracks us up. All the time. He's been in rare form the last few nights at dinner. Here are the highlights.

We gave him some green beans to eat, and to no one's surprise, both of our boys are resistant to eating fruits and veggies, with few exceptions. Howie is also very particular about everything in his life down to the condition of his food.

Me: Howie, eat your green beans.

Howie: I can't eat these. They're missing their bodies.

When put like that I could see that some of them were somewhat squashed and malformed... wouldn't be a deterrent to most, but to Howie, the shape and appearance of your food matters, not just the flavor. Earlier that day he refused to eat some pineapple chunks because they "had holes in them."

Tonight I made pasta with bolognese sauce- this was my first attempt back in the saddle for cooking dinner, and I'd say it went fairly well. Josh and I have reflected on my complete lack of thoughtful cooking and food planning since April, when we started packing up our apartment in St Louis in preparation of moving. Our church has been so gracious to bring us many meals since we moved and Wren was born, but that's all done with now. Over these past months the kids have gotten far too comfortable with pizza, chicken strips, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc... it was time to bring that to a screeching halt and try to preserve their teeth and arteries in their tender age. Anyway I actually minced garlic today and did something more than popping a frozen pizza in the oven, and it felt good. Howie commented on how much he liked his dinner but then decided that he wanted to sit in Josh's lap and eat the spaghetti on his plate.

Josh: Howie, why don't you want to eat your spaghetti?

Howie: I just like yours. It listens to me.

Never knew that you need your food to turn a listening ear to you. And what exactly he was saying to it I don't know. But he makes us laugh a lot.

Learning How To Do Zone Defense

Josh and I are learning to transition from playing man-to-man defense to zone defense, and it's tough. We've had good days and bad days, but we're all adjusting slowly to being a family of 5.

I have had several outings with all 3 kids and they've gone fairly well, much to my surprise!! We've had a few near-disasters, but overall I'd say we're doing OK. The boys are obsessed with Wren... Howie's most common utterance right now is "Mama, I just want to kiss Wren up!!" It's pretty funny. Here are some pics.

Here we are, bags under eyes and all!!

The boys have had a blast cleaning up the aftermath of our October blizzard!!

Howie hard at work, learning how to write his letters. He loves his preschool! Josh and I can see all the ways he's learning and growing.

Our one Halloween picture! We were staying with a family from church on Halloween since our power was still out, and we got to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood! Howie was a fireman! And Justy was himself!! To no one's surprise, he refused to wear his horse costume. Funny to trick-or-treat in the snow!

Wren showing off her growing fat rolls at her 2 week check-up. She weighed in at 9 lbs 15 oz, a real chunker!!

Howie at his easel, creating all sorts of wonders. I think this one was a cow and then it morphed into a family portrait somehow.

Howie giving brotherly love... Wren is just thrilled

Daddy and Wren watch the World Series together- go Cards!! We were sooo excited!! So proud that earlier this year we were St Louis residents!

our sweet girl

Wren models the sweater I made for her- it's so tiny she'll be out of it in a couple more weeks!

proud big brother

Wren napping in her crib- we're having so much fun with all the pink!

Wren models her beautiful sweater from Great Aunt Martha

OK this is weird... I went to get acupuncture 3 times during the 2 weeks that Wren was due to come but just wasn't coming and in addition to acupuncture my chiropractor did something called "moxibustion" where he lit these little hexagons on fire and put one on both of my little toes. This was very weird. I came home and googled it and it's a Japanese thing that's supposed to increase uterine blood flow or something. Crraazzy!!

Wren is subjected to the dreaded tummy time... yeesh that head is heavy!!

The aftermath of the blizzard in our backyard... big branches just kept falling in the front and back. Today a big excavator and dump truck came to collect all of the branches in the street and the boys thought it was pretty awesome!

Daddy and Justy

More Howie and Justy love

How cute is this guy???

One more funny Howie story- a good friend from church brought us dinner tonight, which included chicken wings! The men of the family got excited. I ate one and thought it was a bit spicy, but good. Howie was eating some and all of the sudden he got kind of crazy eyes and his veins started popping out a little (if you know him you've probably seen it before) and he said "I need a drink!!! Daddy why did you move my drink??" I started laughing and said it was because his mouth was on fire, to which he said "Let me see- I don't see any fire." Hilarious.

New Jersey Throws Us Another Curveball

You may remember that we were welcomed to New Jersey by Hurricane Irene. That was really something. Our next weather adventure has been dropped in our laps. Snow in October. That's right... snow. We have been displaced from our home by power outage resulting from a crazy snowstorm that blew through Saturday and Sunday morning. We kept hearing crack and thud after crack and thud... trees that still had their leaves that were now cracking under the burden of heavy, wet snow. Our neighborhood seriously looks like the apocalypse was just ushered in!! Gigantic tree branches and power lines down everywhere!! We have had slumber parties the last 2 nights with gracious friends from church who didn't lose power. We returned to our house briefly yesterday afternoon and the thermostat was at 54. Chilly! We're hoping for our power to be restored asap but for now we're living out of our minivan (that was a scary statement) and staying with friends!! Pics to come when we dig our camera out!!

The Announcement Long in Coming... Wren Autumn Desch

She made it!! Wren Autumn made her appearance Sunday morning at 5 AM and what a gift she is. Being 16 days overdue she had plenty of time to pork up to a whopping 9 pounds and 22 inches long! We are grateful beyond what words can say and rejoice with great joy over this newest addition to our family. The boys are completely smitten with their little sister and now we're all just trying to make the adjustment to a new family member. (I have lots more to say but right now Wren and Justice are both asleep and Howie is at preschool, so I have "youshouldbesleepingrightnow" alarms going off in my head over and over!!) Here she is!

Still No Baby

We're still waiting. One week overdue and counting! I'm drinking all of the raspberry leaf tea I can stomach, hoping to schedule an acupuncture appointment, and walking here and there. Thankfully my sense of humor is still mostly intact, although if you could ask Howie and Justice if this were true they might tell you otherwise. This morning Justice was very upset with me that I wouldn't pour him his millionth cup of chocolate milk and it drove me to tears. What that mostly says to me is we need this baby to be born! (And Justice has a bad temper.) We'll keep you posted!

Saturday Morning in NYC

My mom, sister Marnie, brother-in-law Chris, and precious nephew Pax rolled into town Thursday night in anticipation of Baby Girl's arrival (due date yesterday, nothing to report yet), and we're sooo happy to have them here! We're hoping that our baby will appear soon but until then we're just having fun. This morning we hopped on the bus at the end of our street that took us into NYC. We joined the human throng in Times Square and hiked up to Central Park. We had a great time!! The boys would have loved just riding on the bus and coming back home. Howie's favorite part was definitely the bus but he did ask me on the way home if we could live in New York City. So I would say the morning was quite a hit!

Howie rides his scooter through Times Square- it's hard to see how this went very well judging from the crushing movement of humanity, but he managed somehow.

Grandma, Josh, and Justice pose with Mickey and Minnie! How perfect is this for Justice?? He couldn't bear to look away even for a moment.

Unsurprisingly, Justy managed to find a big puddle in a playground in Central Park and completely soak himself... then he headed straight for the sand area. Yuck.

Paxy scales the ropes in Central Park

Paxy and Grandma look at all of the horse carriages in Central Park

What a goofball!!

Photo with Woody!! Howie said to me, "I can't believe Woody is REAL!!"

Frappucino drinking in Times Square... seriously? Are we those parents? We are indeed.

It was a fun morning and we're excited to go back soon!!

I'm Raising A Real Man Here

Josh had a meeting at church tonight and was not going to be home for dinner. Seeing that I'm quite unmotivated to cook in my current state, I decided that the boys and I could just eat cereal for dinner and call it a night. The boys have always been fine with this arrangement, but this conversation tells me that everything is changing. Justice ate dinner happy as could be (sugar and milk are his two main food groups... frosted mini wheats? yes please! A veritable feast!), but Howie... my boy is becoming a man.

Howie: I like hot things from the oven for dinner. I don't like cold things for dinner.

Me: What?

Howie: I like hot things that you make in the oven, not cold things.

Me: Like what?

Howie: Uhh, like roast beef. Not cereal for dinner.

Yeesh.