LATELY on instagram

(1.) Hubby's chalk portrait of the kook. (2.) The little man loves the wind in his hair. (3.) Shopping with the fam for my birthday. (4.) The duck fountain wasn't running so it became a toddler ride. (5.) I was living with the cracked, mute iPhone 4 for almost a year and finally got the iPhone 5! It's a whole new world. I can actually see what things look like on the screen now. (6.) The kook was scooting around on this giant rubber ducky at World Market while fanning herself with a pen fan and looking through a toy gun like a telescope, all the while making siren noises. I was cracking up. (7.) Our first baby-less date in 2 months! It was very much needed. (8.) The kook is constantly building things. She showed me this house she made and I was seriously impressed. (9.) The little man's squash face. (10.) Kale-Mango-Coconut Water smoothies at Whole Foods. We both loved them. (11.) "Don't worry mom. I'll put some on your face too." (12.) A gorgeous evening chasing cats and kicking a soccer ball. (13.) Little drummer boy. (14.) Building towers everywhere. (15.) Baby dedication at church. We dedicated both of the kiddos to the Lord and had our families there to support us. (16.) Waiting for dada to make dinner breakfast burritos. (17.) She's kind of cute sometimes. (18.) The little man pulled himself to standing this last week. Every time he does it I almost have a heart attack and hubby and I spot him until he's done. He's definitely not stable on his two feet yet. (19.) I did it. I decorated for Christmas. (20.) If she's not building, she's lining things up. This girl has a future in architecture.

INSTAGRAMS & WORDS

Things have been crazy around here lately, but really, when are they not? I have a 7 month old and a 2.5 year old (...aaaaand as I type this I see the boy has lodged himself under the TV console - don't worry - I saved him). The miracle cold-busting juice turned out to be just plain old juice. What a disappointment. The cold took us all down one by one, but somehow the hubby managed to avoid it. That was lucky for him because he had wrist surgery days after the cold struck. So now we are all well and he has an arm in a cast and is home for a couple of weeks to (excuse me while I pull a shoe out of the boy's mouth) heal and get off cloudy pain meds. We have literally (any Parks and Rec fans?) been in sweats every day for a week- oh, nope! I can think of a day that I wore an actual out-on-the-town outfit all day.... before changing into sweats for my post-kook-bedtime relaxations.

The boy is getting more and more frustrated as all he wants to do is scoot around the living room but is blocked by the kook every minute. Poor guy. He's going to have to learn some defensive moves to use against the big sis. He is saying "dada" all the time and trying to participate in conversations with baby jibber-jabber. I love it. Unless I'm really tired and he's decided 1am is play time and he's jibber-jabbering my ear off.

The kook is getting kookier by the day. Oh my goodness. I don't know where she gets her kookiness from. Except I do. Guilty. Sometimes she'll do things and hubby will turn to me and say something like "well, she's with you all day". Yes, I know. Sorry, child. You are kooky for life. There is no escaping it. Today I was watching So You Think You Can Dance with her and she started doing the most awesome dance moves. Between my affinity for SYTYCD (hello, longest acronym ever) and old musicals, she's going to pick up some interesting techniques. I can't wait to get her into jazz or tap or ballet or all of the above someday in the next few years. Lately she has been into pretending her blocks are ice-cream and fills her ice-cream up at our wall heater which she has decided is the ice-cream machine. I've also caught her talking to her goldfish Dorothy like Elmo and the kids do in Sesame Street. "Hi Dorothy. This is how I play!" Every day she is crazy hilarious, and tries my patience like no one else.

This last week I did my first at-home shellac mani and pedi, rearranged some living room decorations that were feeling stale, and started hand-stitching some hanky and doily curtains for the kitchen. It's always nice to acknowledge that I accomplished some little things that I enjoy in the midst of cleaning up toys and dishes non-stop. With my shellac mani, I can do as many dishes as I want and not worry about polish chipping and peeling off in a day. Yay for things that make mom life easier!

(You can find me on Instagram as heidijo. My photos are set to private but if I can tell from your photos that you aren't a spammer or a creeper, I'll probably let you follow.)