We have an ornamental plum tree in our front yard (our only tree, actually -- isn't that sad?) that blooms for about 4 days each spring. Squonk took a picture of me in front of it in 2003 while I was pregnant with Ragnar, and then we've taken a picture of me and the kid(s) in front of it each year. This wasn't easy this year -- Ragnar does *not* smile for the camera (he smiles often and enthusiastically, just not on command), and Janders is teething and in a mood. But this was the day that we could do it, so we did the best we could. Here's the whole progression of pictures for you, the first four combined (2003-2006), plus 2007-2009 separately.

A quick post (maybe more later to tell you all where I've been / what I've been up to the last month or two). But for now, since Squonk is waiting for dessert and a movie with me, here's Janders during and right after her bath tonight. As you can see, she's having a great time.

Favorite Ragnar Riddle (tm) today: "I am a school thing, and you stape with me. What am I? A stapler!"

Second (distant) favorite: "I am an animal. I live in North America, and I live under the ground. And I am furry. What am I? A mole!"

Today Ragnar and I went to play on the school playground behind our house. The best part of the playground these days is the big US map painted on the blacktop. Ragnar, Janders (in her Baby Bjorn carrier) and I had a great time running to, jumping and stomping on various states. Then Ragnar noticed that some kids had been drawing on the map w/ chalk, and he insisted we go get our chalk and draw on the states too. So we did, starting w/ pluses (what the other kids had done), then adding the first letter of the state's name, then doing "mixed up state names" (anagrams w/ a letter missing). This was a lot of fun. We also looked for animals in the clouds, and then he played in the sandbox. A lovely afternoon. After dinner, he played a computer game where you build towers, then insisted on building ornate towers w/ blocks (something he never wants to do here). During his bath, we discussed what we would do before bed. "Let's read 'Ten Minutes to Bedtime' in the chair, then do an I love you hug in the bed, and then say goodnight," suggested Ragnar. And so we did. All in all a lovely evening. I hope I can remember this when intensive potty training starts tomorrow. I'm so NOT looking forward to that.

And how is Janders, you ask? She's awesome? A big 16 1/4 pounds as of 8 days ago (so probably over 16 1/2 now), 75th percentile for height and weight. The doctor said she looked great. She's still very smiley, grinning whenever you grin at her. She's now spinning herself around in her crib, getting very good at picking up objects, and enjoying swinging in her swing and taking walks in the baby carrier. Here's a picture of her from 2 days ago, in a rare moment of actually happy tummy time (tummy time is one of her least favorite activities):

Today Ragnar and I were busy, busy, busy. We started the morning making Easter cookies -- butterflies, bunnies (running bunnies and bunny heads), and eggs. Ragnar helped me push down on the cookie cutters and supervised the placing of them on the cookie sheets. Then, after they were baked and cooled, we frosted them together. He helped squeeze the ziplocs into which I'd spooned colored frosting. He decided we should make musical instrument noises as we squeezed the frosting onto the cookies -- "ping," "tweedle-dee-dee," "oom papa," etc. It was hysterical.

Then we made traffic light cupcakes. Ragnar helped spoon in batter (red, yellow, and green) for traffic light cupcakes, and I used the remaining batter to make a bunny cake complete w/ ears and a bow tie. I didn't frost it, because Ragnar doesn't like frosting. So instead, I made a bowl of raspberry lemon frosting which I'll put on the table next to the cake so people can add their own frosting.

Then, I asked Ragnar if he wanted to make placecards for Easter with paint, stamps, or stickers. He chose stickers, and I cut up some construction paper eggs for Ragnar to stick stickers on and write people's name on. These looked lovely, and we'd done five when he decided he'd rather paint them. So he started painting eggs, and Ragnar announced he was going to paint Africa. His exact words were "I'm gonna paint Africa just like the paintbrush does" (does rhymed with "sues"). This actually makes sense if you know the context. Andrew's favorite movies these days are the Disney True-Life Adventures, which are actual footage of animals in various locations around the world. The movies always start with a cartoon paintbrush painting the place where the movie takes place, and African Lion begins with the brush painting Africa. So that's what Ragnar wanted to paint. He painted 9 eggs with Africas, including a few rainbow Africas and a multicolor Africa.

Here's the results of our flurry of creating today:



I also got the seeds started. No soaping, sadly. There are only so many hours in a day (or so many hours I can stay awake).

Ragnar: I wanna do a riddle. 
Me: Go for it!
Ragnar: I am an animal, and I live in the savannah, and I have the letters B, E, A, R, Z. What am I? 
Me (feeling confused):  A bear?
Ragnar: No, a mixed-up zebra! Let's do another mixed-up savannah animal riddle!

And he proceeded to do riddles for mixed-up leopard, cheetah, and elephant. I did one for lion.
 
A  nice evening. Squonk went to services, and Ragnar, Janders, and I hung out together, watching a bit of Walt Disney's Bear Country (an old True Adventure animal video), playing a bit of Up to Ten (if you have a little kid and don't know about Up To Ten, check it out! It's wonderful), playing Cariboo & Hullabaloo, and reading stories together. It was my first evening putting both kids to bed by myself, and it went delightfully well. I have great kids. 

Tomorrow: easter egg cookies from Cooking Light (the dough is in the fridge now), and some kind of egg placecards for Easter dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house if I can figure out what Ragnar & I can do for them. Oh, yeah, and more traffic light cupcakes, and some time, I hope, I hope, I hope, a chance to play with the new soap frosting recipe from WholesaleSuppliesPlus since the last of the ingredients for it arrived today. Oh, yeah, and I have to start the seeds for the peppers and tomatoes. Sigh. Probably I won't be lucky enough to find the time for all of that though...

One of our favorite authors, the wonderful, wise, funny Terry Pratchett, has a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. I can't tell you how much this depresses me. My grandmother died of rapid-onset Alzheimer's in 1996; it was the most awful thing I've ever experienced.

Pratchett has donated 500,000 pounds to a British Alzheimer's research fund, and fans of his have begun a campaign to match that donation. You can learn more at http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/.

Here's Janders & Squonk modeling their matching "Big Daddy" and "Daddy's Little Girl" sweats from my parents:




And here's Janders showing off her new sunbonnet, which is WAY too big for her.

Here's Janders posing in her bumbo seat (TM).

Ragnar & Janders & I were hanging out yesterday morning due to Ragnar's day off school for MLK day. I showed him the new Color Wonder markers & paper I'd bought (that stuff is really cool -- the markers don't show up on anything but the special paper, so you can't make a mess of yourself or the table, etc.), and he decided to draw a picture for me. Here it is. The blue items are awake bowling balls, the yellow one is a giraffe with a long neck, and the pink thing is an elephant complete w/ ears and trunk. Although I chatted with him while he was drawing and suggested the ears for the elephant and giraffe, the drawing is 100% Ragnar's. And I'm super proud of him for it, especially given that only a month ago the only drawing he did was scribbles and "lighting" (zigzag lines). 

We were reading What Time Is It, Mr. Crocodile? earlier, and I asked Ragnar what one of the monkeys was doing. "Riding on an asterisk," he replied. The monkey was actually riding on / swinging from a ceiling fan.