Questions.

Sam has been asking questions lately. Deep, philosophical questions. Like, "Mom, why do we use the words we do?" Or, looking at grandma's house "Mom, why are those two brown houses squished together?" (I'm assuming he was referring to Great Grandma's apartment, but who knows!). Most of the time, I try the I don't know, but that doesn't always work. Today, he asked "Why do we call it die when people die?" "When will I die?" "What does it look like when you die?" This line of questioning led to a conversation about how when you die your body stays here and your spirit goes to heaven, and ended in tears "But I like my body!!! I want to stay here on earth!" Sigh.

The funniest conversation lately started "Mom, when I get older will I still like the things I like?"

"Well, Sam, I hope when you get older you like more things. Like beans, for example"

"No mom, I mean will I like dinosaurs and dragons and skinny things (his own animal category, that includes sharks, snakes, lizards, eels, you know, skinny things)."

"Yes Sam, I'm sure you will."

Cousins

I know, it's been like 3 days since I've blogged. And, I should have continued my every day streak, I have so many pictures I need to put up. I just wanted to take one minute to post these pictures of the Weir cousins. We tried. We really did. But Scott was sleeping, and Katie was unhappy, and, well, Mara was in New York. So this was the best we could get.

Personally, I think it's funny that Katie was so sad. It's just the age, we'll look back and laugh at this picture when she's a sweet cooperative four year old:)
Good looking bunch, huh!

10 Months

I've been taking so many pictures and blogging so much lately, I have neglected to journal about Max now that he's 10 months.

Well, as of the past few days, he is now a FAN of self feeding. Which means, baths and 20 minute cleanups after every meal. I used to think Sam was a mess, I'm not sure if he actually got cleaner or if he's just clean in comparison. I gave him a plate with diced strawberries on it for lunch yesterday. He just hugged it. He would pull it up to look at it, then hug it again (it did have jungle animals on it, thanks kelly!). I don't think he quite gets the concept.
He has 3 teeth and several more swelling to come in. He hasn't been too happy about it.
As of yesterday he is now officially scooting. It is most definitely bittersweet. I mean, he has to move eventually, his girl cousins are way ahead of him. But I really liked that I could just sit him on the floor with toys and he was happy. Oh well. He must grow up. And I really did enjoy it while it lasted.
He will pretty much only cuddle and nurse with me in the early mornings now. I try to savor the feel of his tiny little body snuggling mine. They get big so fast!
He's a great sleeper - as long as there is a crib and 2 pacifiers handy... one for the mouth, and a spare for the hand. That way he can plug himself back up when he needs to.
Pretty sure that between me and his big brother and sister, this little boy gets plenty of attention and love every day!

Spaghetti

Do you remember that Shel Silverstein poem? Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place, up to my elbows, up to my face? That's kind of how our day was yesterday. Pearl has made some goals this summer, and one of them is cooking once a week (she came up with that one on her own, I suggested the knitting and reading goals).

This week it was fresh pasta. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I suggested that meal. I think next week I'll teach her how to open a bag of frozen orange chicken from Trader Joe's.

We did have a good time, and we learned things like keeping our hair back instead of rolling it into the dough. Important life skills. We also learned about how garlic is bitter if you let it burn (don't worry, it turned out just fine. I was just trying to explain how you have to have everything ready before you start cooking).
She insisted it was a dinner party. Since she only wanted to invite the in-laws and the cousins, I agreed.

Funny Pearly

I think I'm addicted to blogging this week. Apparently.

Anyways, I recently took pics of just Sam, and Max gets pictures all the time. It was time to update Pearl. My friend Phani came over, and we both took pictures of our girls (you can see some of hers here) Pearl is getting harder and harder to photograph. She is usually very cooperative, but I think she probably gets tired of me telling her not to do her cheesy smile. So, she decided to get silly on me instead.

But that's ok. I love seeing all of her funny faces. And, it didn't stop me from getting some good ones of my pretty pretty girl.

Random

I have taken so many pictures lately you would think my trigger finger would be hurting. Though that's not the case (I keep taking more, pretty sure it's not going to stop any time soon... still have like 3 shoots to blog...), my disk space is rapidly disappearing...:)

Here are some other favorites I took last week, I needed to get them on the blog so they would be in the family album. It's a good thing I have so many willing subjects (at least, they don't really know they don't have a choice:)!

Fun fun fun!

Baby Brother

My baby brother got married this week.

I still remember him as a baby. I was almost 10 when he was born. I remember how excited I was when Mom went to the hospital. I remember coming home from school and begging to hold him, and how happy I was when he wanted to be with me.

I remember when he was 9 or 10 and I was home for a bit and we would watch Power Rangers together. And now he's married. He was the last one, and it's been 5 years since the last sibling got married, he's been waiting for a while to join the club:)

Then he brought Roxy home. We realized pretty quickly that she's pretty much perfect for him, and we're so happy to have her in the family. Now we can have an even number at the adult table for Thanksgiving - which makes Peter very happy, I'm sure.

At the wedding, I followed Sara around as she took pictures. Not the whole time, as I was commandeered to take pictures of the babies, and had to spend some time making sure Max and Mara both got their naps. So, I didn't come out with very many that I liked. Which is ok, because Sara's are simply amazing (check out the Sara Weir Photography link for the real deal). In fact, once I saw Sara's, I was almost embarrassed to put mine up. Who wants to be compared with a pro? But, I figured, humility is most assuredly something I need to improve on, so here they are. It's good for me to have something to aspire to (as long as I don't start spending thousands of dollars on equipment, Jared thinks it's good for me to have something to work towards).

Helps that the couple is so adorable:) Love you, Peter and Roxy. So glad I got to take away such a great souvenir of your special day!