Home | Thanksgiving visit to Duke Gardens

You don't mind if I play a little catch-up, do you? I had already edited these photos* and hated not sharing them. We're looking forward to a replay in just a couple days when we head to Cincinnati! But this time Uncle Kurt will be there! Wahoo!

*Photos taken by Cody

Art | Look-alikes

A friend (our talented photographer!) posted a link to these photos by Francois Brunelle on Facebook, and though it's not the type of thing I normally share, I couldn't resist. I love these pairs... the top with their distinctive chins and sympathetic expressions, and the bottom with their grandfatherly, laughing eyes. Photography fascinates me, and something about this subject is so intriguing. As I scrolled through the photos, I couldn't help but think wistfully, "I hope these people are best friends. They must be!" It's funny how we feel that things, which look similar, must have something in common and must be intertwined intimately.

Enjoy this beautiful Thursday!

Seb | My sugar cube goes potty

I told Cody this morning, after giving Seb yet another treat for peeing in the potty, that Seb was going to turn into a sugar cube. He so wisely responded with, "Yes, but a potty-trained sugar cube!"

I have such an astute husband.

I think that waiting to potty train until Seb was 2 1/2 was the best idea. We have been doing a mix of diapers and underwear, which I've heard a lot of people say is a bad idea, but at least for these first few weeks of training, I think it's worked to our advantage. It has allowed Seb to gradually get used to the idea of going potty, and not have to worry about it constantly. However, even when wearing a diaper, he's been telling us that he needs to go! I'm so proud of this little guy. This morning, thanks to Cody's diligence, we had a major breakthrough with Seb (I'll leave it to you to guess what that means...), so he got a big treat. Which meant that he got to open two of his Christmas presents! Cars underwear and a wooden fire truck.

Seb says, "Potty training is exhausting, guys."

Textile | A few shops

 

Lovely things are happening over at Fable Baby, Belle Fleur de Lis (she just opened her shop!), and the pop up shop, Fashion Loves People.

How are you approaching gifting this year? I have a weakness for giving gifts, so I have to work really hard to reign it in. This year we're giving a mix of homemade items, food, and a few other simple gifts to our family and a few close friends. I just have to keep chanting in my head, "simple. simple. simple."

Am I the only one with this problem?

Top photo: Belle Fleur de Lis pillow
Bottom photo: Fable Baby sweater

Mama | The picture I would have put with my last post

This was my crazy life last night. Really, I share it more for posterity's sake than anything else. I mean, how ridiculous is this?! But you know what? Someday when Cody's done with school and is a top-notch, published and graying professor, and when our kids are all grown—and my house is immaculate (ha!)—I'll look back at this time as so sweet, and charming, and perfect for what it was.

I know I will.

P.S. Thanks for all of your photo space suggestions!

Home | Just words

Hello dear friends,

You may have noticed that I haven't been around lately. It's for a rather silly reason. You see, I ran out of space to upload photos, so I have to figure out if I want to upgrade, or how to upgrade my space, so that I can continue to post photos (and I have sooooo many!!!). Any easy, inexpensive solutions to this?

Until I figure it out, I thought I'd jot down a little of what's been going on around here. Right now Cody is holed up in his den working on a take home final. We just got Seb to bed—at 10:45 gahhh—and I'm about to get back into wrapping gifts. I have a decent amount of wrapping and gift-making to do before we travel home for Christmas, but I do so enjoy it. If only I had more time! Man, one thing is certain: finals with one child is hard, but doable, but finals with two children is a whole different game.

Each day I pump myself up to do all the cooking, cleaning, christmas planning, and child-care so that Cody can spend oodles of time studying, and then it becomes very apparent, very quickly, that it's impossible to help him as much as I did the last two semesters. Bruno is very clingy, which is very sweet, but also makes it difficult to keep things together, and Seb engaged, without help from Cody. He's marvelous though, and has willingly and joyfully sacrificed a lot of study time to help me with the boys. I'm certain that all the other Div. students would be shocked at the amount of time he helps me, despite the work load that he has. Cody always says, "Mary, I'm going to help you as much as you need, because we have to trust that God is going to take care of us, and help me finish my work." And you guys... Cody hates it when I brag about how well he does in school, but you should know, he does really well. In fact, I had Cody proofread this post, and he said I needed to take that part out. But I'm not going to!

So basically, I'm very thankful for him these days, and thankful for a lot of things, really. Cody was hit by a car while riding his bike to school early Tuesday morning, and came out with only a few bruises and other minor injuries. Praise God.  Our neighbors came to the rescue, barely awake, and watched our sleeping boys while I drove to pick up Cody. They then went to the store to get some big bandages and antiseptic ointment for a cut Cody got on his leg. We are so blessed.

In other news, we started potty training Seb on Saturday. We took today off because with the number of accidents he had on Saturday, we felt it might not be such a good idea to inflict that on the nursery workers. Tomorrow we'll start again, and I'm excited to see him tackling and mastering this new skill. I've been so hesitant to start because it's such a scary thing, and in so many ways, diapers seem much easier than having to race your kid to the bathroom at the mall, and clean up accidents in the grocery store. But maybe I'm being a little dramatic about what happens during potty training? We shall see, won't we?

Bruno is nearly 6 months old, which means that I really need to start him on some solids. I have been dragging my feet on this one basically as much as I have with the potty training. I mean, can't I just exclusively breastfeed this kid until he can eat a burger? The truth is, just in the last few days, he seems a little hungry after each time I nurse him, which means that he would likely benefit from a little something extra. I dug out my copy of Cooking for Baby to get me geared up for the baby food thing, but sadly, it didn't work. You know what I think would work?? A food processor! Making baby food is the worst without a food processor.

Also, I'm going to start writing. I have an idea for a book. You probably won't hear a word more about it for at least 5 more years, but suddenly I have this excitement and eagerness to do something I've been dreaming about doing since I was a kid. You know the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer was always, "A writer."

Maybe this is the beginning.

In conclusion, life is hard and life is exciting, but God is faithful through all of it, and Advent is here. Isn't this season glorious? We are so enjoying singing Away in a Manger and Silent Night to Sebastian before bed, and Cody and Seb sing the most adorable Jingle Bells duet.

Who says you need photos for a blog post, anyway?