Everybody's Awesome

Let's start with why Martin's awesome.

Tonight I was telling him [again] about how glad I am to be reading the SouleMama archives because she seemed so much more REAL before she was famous. I was telling him about how she was featured, with a few other "crafty mamas" in the first issue of Mothering that I received in my subscription--which I gave away and kind of regret. I was saying how in that article, it pictured her "studio" and how immaculate it was, and how it was very cute and amazing, but it was also very.... chic? Clean? Professional? Anyway, I admired it, but it wasn't exactly my style. However, in these archives, which I'm reading like a book (currently in November 2005) she has just gotten her own room in her house, to make her craft room, and she pictured it from all angles, and it is SO much more real, and SO much more like something I would create. Fabric, papers, patterns, STUFF, shoved into wooden milk crates. Stuff hanging from everywhere. Clutter and a look of chaos masking the organization that lies beneath. It was perfect! Her room looked so different in that magazine article.
Okay, so anyway, while I'm actively telling Martin all this, he gets up and goes to the computer. Ugh! Isn't he listening to me?! So I keep talking, sort of, and wait awhile and then go over to the computer to see what he's doing that is so much more important than giving me full attention....

...and there he is, ordering the back issue off the Mothering website. What a swell guy! And handsome too!

Now let's move on to why these two chipmunks are awesome. They PLAY together!! And they do the funniest things, together and separately. I think they had three baths today and will need another tomorrow morning because Anja went to bed with the shampoo still in her hair (more to explain that later) and Greta found some mashed potatoes left on their low table. They have so much fun together and I LOVE it that they are so close in age. It was definitely, definitely, definitely worth the hard first few months. Just like everyone said! But now I can't decide if I want to have a hundred more children, or just stick with these two because newborns take up a lot of time and energy and I don't want to miss any of their funniness!

Like putting potatoes on each other's head!

The daffodils are blooming!

And Anja is awesome because of her amazing style. She's been wanting to wear this fleece polka dot jumper that's too small for her for days and days. And she has a matching shirt that she makes me put on Greta. And she cries if I don't do it, even though the reason I'm not doing it is a perfectly good one--like that they were smelly so they're in the washing machine. She'd been digging them out of the dirty clothes hamper for days and today when she went to get them and the hamper was empty, she actually cried. It was kind of sad, but at the same time, I couldn't stop laughing!

The final awesomeness I'm going to advertise tonight is that of my neighbor, Kelsey, and her roommates. THEY BROUGHT US YUMMY TREATS. They are these amazing shortbread pie slices that are covered in icing. They are almost as addicting as making fabric cards! It was good to finally meet Kelsey's roommates, and I really like Kelsey, and we are SO lucky to have her as a neighbor, because, if you have ever driven through our neighborhood (quickly, with the windows up and the doors locked) you know that we could've gotten any number of real whackos to move in next door. So we are very lucky! And I know, I know, it's Lent and here I am rambling on about these desserts. Do you want to hear about how I was eating spoonfuls of chocolate icing out of the container for lunch today? No, that's right, you don't. If you're on Facebook, I'll just refer you to my status today, which read, "I think I'm failing Lent." And it's true. I'm trying to do well with my sacrifices, and maybe in some areas I'm succeeding, but in others, I am definitely not.

Our neighbors are also awesome because they didn't appear to judge us when our children came out from their baths full of curiousity and nakedness. They also didn't seem to judge us for letting them STAY naked. And pee on the floor. I explained Greta's mongolian spot and while I was doing that, I wondered if it wouldn't be better parenting just to put some clothes on her, or at least a diaper, but I never did! Because these were REAL PEOPLE visiting me, people who are NOT family members! You'd better believe I'm not leaving the room when I have an opportunity like that!

In other news, the girls and I took a long walk today and Greta actually stayed in the stroller the whole time and only cried for the very last block before home. She is sooooooo bad at taking walks. It's a shame, because Anja LOVES them and begs me all morning for a "gawk" and when I say "after lunch" she goes to the pantry and starts getting stuff to eat, even though it's only mid-morning and 35 degrees outside. Hahaha! She is so cute!! But Greta just wants to walk herself, on her own feet, and that'd be fine except that she's so slow and she falls down a lot. So not only would we not get very far, but her pants would all have holes in the knees too.

Maybe she'll get over it and learn to think of the stroller as her princess throne as Anja did... until Anja discovered the joy of riding on my back in the Ergo! ("gack! gack!")