He's growing up.

So, I put Caleb's name up in the kids' room and I put his mobile on his crib, but I had no idea how to get him to sleep in there without disturbing Emily's nighttime sleep.
Last night I put him in there around 9:30 and he went to sleep without crying. I fed him once during the night and he mostly slept until morning. We may be able to pull this off and slowly evacuate our living room of his stuff!
He is sleeping without blankets because it is getting warm here. It's raining right now, but the last couple of days have been pretty warm and super humid. Stepping outside is already unpleasant and I know the summer will just bring hotter, stickier days. I remember being so glad to escape the humidity when my family moved from Maryland to Utah when I was young. Now here I am again, stuck with humid weather for at least three more years! At least it is good for my skin and hair.

I love that Caleb is starting to cry less and play more. It feels like he is becoming more a part of the family!

And of course, Emily is always good for a few laughs. Joseph and I call this her "time out" picture because it looks like some sort of cruel and unusual time out punishment. Really, she likes sitting in little boxes and things so she did this on her own. You just can't tell by her facial expression that she's having fun! She may have realized this time that it looked funner than it turned out to be.

Supper Like the Good Ol' Days

We had some serious craving for Cafe Rio during the past little while. That was how we would splurge while we lived back in Utah: going out to eat at Cafe Rio and probably sharing a chicken salad. We live in Texas. While there's not much Cafe Rio presence, I expect we could probably find a TexMex place that would fit the bill nicely. Instead, however, we did some quick Googling and decided to try making our own.

We followed recipes from these two blogs:
favfamilyrecipes
hotoutoftheoven
The Cilantro-Lime vinaigrette was awesome (it's in the comments on the first blog).
I was amazed by the amount of garlic and cilantro that went into the production. We probably half a bulb (foot) of garlic and about half of the bunch of fresh cilantro. That was after cutting several of the recipes.
The chicken was wonderful too. The pico de gallo turned out okay (especially considering the fact that we used yellow onion instead of white). The beans were yummy. The rice was so-so, probably because we used a medium grain rice instead of long grain. I also improvised quite a bit.
If I were to judge the value of my time by minimum hourly wage, it would definitely have been cheaper to go to Cafe Rio (not considering travel costs). But I had a lot of fun putting everything together. On the other hand, it wouldn't be much more difficult or time consuming to make this for a dozen people than it was to make it for three. Then the economics would make a lot of sense. We'll have to set that up some time. It was pretty delicious. I'm looking forward to leftovers.

Caleb watched the ceiling fan while we enjoyed our dinner. He'll enjoy his portion, recycled, later on this evening.

Competition

Since Caleb was born, Emily's maternal instincts have really kicked in... for her dolls!
One day a couple of weeks ago I remember telling Joseph I would come help him in the kitchen as soon as I put Caleb in the swing, only to hear Emily yell, "No way!!" and run to put her doll in before I could get there with Caleb. Caleb had to make do with the bouncy chair that time. Now it is a common sight to see a doll or toy in every one of Caleb's seats - the carseat, swing, bassinet, and bouncer. Caleb often has to share space in his seat with one of Emily's dolls.
I've mentioned this before, but Emily has also decided that what Caleb gets to do looks like fun, so she gives it a try every once in a while. Since we pulled out the baby bath tub, it is a necessity for Emily's bath time too.

But she is the big sister and she knows it, so she reserves some of her maternal instinct for baby brother. When he starts crying she often runs to his seat or bassinet to rock him or try to shove his pacifier in his mouth. She adorns his arms with bracelets (teething rings). She has tried to change his diaper or clothes before and often offers him a sip of her milk. She really is a good and caring big sister.

A New Way of Thinking

I used to get really frustrated because I couldn't get anything done during the day with two babies to take care of. Here is my new secret to not being frustrated:

Don't plan on accomplishing anything during the day.

Count what you do get done as bonus and be grateful for it!

A Diligent Student

Our young miss Emily is very serious about study and learning. She has a particular fondness for "Hop op Pop". She laughs at the antics of the pup in the cup. She cries for Pat, who nearly sits on a cactus. She commiserates with poor Bill, stuck at the top of that remarkable hill. She clucks disapprovingly at the foolish team playing ball on a wall. She has learned a lot of important life lessons.
She's been taking some online and correspondence courses to work on her degree from home. She generally takes courses on the Wiggles, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Sesame Street. Although she has not gained full mastery of the alphabet and numerals, she has a healthy appreciation for them. She especially loves the number two. Whenever she finds two of anything, she announces it: "Two!" She also calls it out when I begin to count as a warning that she needs to be a little more obedient. That makes it hard to stay impatient with her.Mom and I are pretty secretive about what goes on in the bathroom. Emily finally got tired of waiting for us to give her "the talk" and found a suitable self-help book. It seems to have done its job. She successfully used the potty today. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing though. She kept on pointing and saying, "Uh oh!" We tried to cheer and congratulate her, but I think some of the more edgy details were omitted from her book and came as a surprise.
What a doll. She doesn't need any books to teach her about fashion.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

At almost 21 months, we decided it was time for Emily's first haircut. It was getting very shaggy but I've been afraid to cut it for a while because I see so many little girl bowl haircuts. Our girl may have ended up with one, but at this point the shagginess could only be improved upon.

Joseph did most of the work. I took a chop at the bangs, but that's about it.
Isn't she cute?
And here's the after picture. She has a swoopy wave that goes all the way around her head so it doesn't really matter how straight we cut the bottom, but I think it's an improvement.

Our First Family Picture

Awwwww...

Emily's Children

Emily's future children will be lucky if she loves them as much as she loves these guys.

cell phone pictures

I have retracted my vow to never go grocery shopping alone again. However, shopping with a 6-week-old and a 20-month-old requires that I use one of these monstrosities:

They're great because there's space in the cart for food since I don't have to put Emily in there, but they are so hard to maneuver! I swear these things are at least 10 feet long! It doesn't help that I can't see over Caleb's seat...

Here is a cute picture I got of Caleb and Emily at the picture studio waiting for our pictures to be ready. Caleb's catching up quick!
And here's a picture of Caleb and Emily in the double stroller. Emily loves it and wants to ride in it whenever we go outside. Caleb has a little trouble sitting up, so I just ordered an infant insert today. Hopefully I can resume my fun walks on the trail soon!

Sorry about the bad pictures - I don't carry the camera around with me all the time so these are pictures off my phone.

Photobooth

Alright now, the baby's fed and changed and rested. There should be nothing to stop us from taking a nice family photo. Climb on up here, Emily.

Can you smile too, Caleb? Awww.... cute. Emily, could you take your finger out of your mouth please? Good kid.

Oop. No, Emily! Caleb doesn't need any help smiling and he doesn't need your finger in his mouth! Now sit down and smile for the camera please.

Yes, yes, dear. That's the camera. Thank you, you're very smart. Now honey, momma's starting to lose her patience. Will you please sit still and smile for the picture?

I said sit down and smile for the picture! Great... now you've frightened the baby. Can you sing to him to help calm him down?

Umm... he can hear you from over there. You don't need to... oomf... Emily! Hold on! Ack, you're sitting on the baby! Watch where you're... We're trying to take a picture. We're just trying to take one nice picture!

Ooooor I guess we'll read the baby a story. Yeah. Sure. A story sounds like exactly what I wanted.