fat babies and future fiddlers

So Etienne will kill me for posting these pictures someday- if he ever looks at this blog, but he is so hilariously fat and greedy right now. I think he would eat all day if I let him. I caught him porking out on graham crackers while I was getting his bath ready the other night.

"Mom, leave me alone, I like being fat."

"But look, I can suck it in if I need to, so what's the problem?"

James, on the other hand, is getting longer and skinnier every day. I can't believe he will be three soon. Lately he has been getting into daddy's violin case, which is a big no no, since violins aren't quite as sturdy as, say, the piano that he climbs and bangs on all day. Steve brought home one of his old kid violins from one of his recent trips to France, so he let James have a little try on it last night. He was pretty excited, but the whole under the chin concept only annoyed him....


so they tried it mandolin style which was a lot more fun.


How early is too early too start lessons? I, for one, am not quite ready for a three year old scraping away at a fiddle.

I thought this was cool. I found it on Dolly's blog- I guess we are due pretty near each other, so I don't need Moriah for a partner in gestation this time. Oh, and I guess this is an official blog announcement, although I suppose most people already know we are expecting in September- it is definitely a girl this time- I can feel it.

Etienne moves at last

So Etienne has been very laid back about the whole crawling thing-- well, maybe completely adverse to it would be a better term. After much delay, he finally pulled himself together at eleven months old and came up with this ridiculous shuffling  scoot.  He gets places however, but only if really motivated(ie. a piece of apple on a string). I have tried to tell him that a regular crawling stance would probably be easier on him, but he won't listen. Ah well, it sure makes us laugh.

Getting to know the cousins

One of the most difficult parts about living in Tennessee is of course being away from family. That is why I took the opportunity to go back to Washington for almost a month this Christmas, and that is why I haven't blogged in so very long. It was a different Christmas, and difficult in some ways. Steve's mother passed away December 23rd, which meant an unexpected flight to France on Christmas day for Steve and all the repercussions that a death in the family inevitably cause. While he was gone, the kids and I spent a very quiet time at mom and dad's, watching the rain, visiting with family and just generally relaxing and being cozy. Steve was back by New Years Eve, and we had a great party with many of our good friends and family. The last week that I was there, I spent at my sister Aubree's where we endeavored to live in harmony with seven little children. It worked quite well, for the most part, and it was great to let James get to know his cousins better. He is getting to the age where he remembers them, so that is fun. Leaving was tough, but we are heading back there this summer for Darcee's wedding, so it wasn't such a long parting as it could have been.
So we have been settling back into life here, working on our house, starting up lessons again, and generally waking up from vacation mode. The pictures below are just a few mementos of Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas

We tried to take our family picture on Sunday. Last year we took it with the Bonds help, and for some reason (Walmart?) They turned out pretty bad so we took our own, just setting the timer, sitting James on our laps, and saying cheese. Presto. I remember Moriah saying that it was a bit harder to get a good shot with two kids, but I didn't know how true that was until Sunday afternoon when Callie offered to take it for us. I have created a little slide show here just to show you what a long and arduous process it was. I think we took almost 60 pictures before we got one that was halfway decent, and Etienne isn't even looking at the camera.

Christmas pictures

So thanksgiving was a while ago

I just thought I would post some of my Thanksgiving shots here, since it has already been two weeks and Christmas is rolling nearer at breakneck speed. We had a wonderful time at Jackie and Chris's where exciting things happened like my sister Darcee getting engaged. But of course that is old news. It was a new experience for me to be cooking or doing dishes almost 24-7 since we were feeding 12 adults and two children every meal, but it was worth it. It is a good thing that I love to cook. Jackie showed off some of her new bread making skills, and between all of us, we pulled off a pretty tasty Thanksgiving Meal.
I think the best part was coming into the living room at intervals and seeing about six people at the same time, absorbed in their laptops, updating their facebooks to each other. What a technological age we live in.
We played some great games to that made me laugh so hard that my whole body hurt, and I was sore the next day. We also had fun touring various areas of St. Louis including an amazing mozaic filled cathedral and the arch. Joe proved to be a treasure with his Starbucks discount. Not only did he provide us with coffee beans for the whole week, but he bought us all drinks twice; even James, who was ridiculously proud to be drinking out of a cup like all the big people.

halloween

So we had our little annual halloween party at Sarah's on Wednesday. It was really great- good food and fellowship, and of course who can resist all those little kids (ten kids three and under this year) dressed up. Steve and I really tried hard on our costumes this year. In case your wondering, I was a 'black eyed pea' and Steve is 'french onion soup'. I know, real creative huh? for all those Les Miserables experts out there, James was supposed to be little Gavroche, but for those who weren't savvy, we called him a street urchin. He was pretty upset when Steve took him outside to smear dirt on his clothes. Apparently he got used to the idea because he tried to do it again the next day, and he looked a little confused when I yelled at him not to get his clothes dirty. Poor kid.
We have had Moriah in town this week, which has been great. She left this morning and I don't envy her the 15 hour drive. it was good to see that James had no forgotten them yet, but now we will probably go through withdrawl again. Ah well.