Thought I wasn't keeping a blog anymore? Well, you're just about right. I started working (some) and found out just how difficult-- nay, impossible!-- it is to keep up with the laundry, shopping, personal grooming, sleeping, not to mention breathless mommy-blogging that is my suburban life. I've got a two month backlog of photos and irrelevant details with attendant whining to catch up on, but today I just wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to my sweet, ferocious little boy Calvin who is now two years old. That picture was taken today at nursery school and this Friday we'll do our family celebrations.
This morning when I told him how happy I was that he was turning two he said, "No! I NOT being two!" And that about sums it up for Calvin lately. He lives to refuse. But then he'll also have his moments of rapture, like when I first see him in the morning, when he just holds my face in his hands so that our noses are touching and says, "Oh, Mommy... I miss you."
It's really weird that I'm looking at a picture of other people celebrating with Calvin today when I was here working (mostly) and fretting (a lot). On balance, we're doing all right although the shifts have been bigger than any of us thought they would be. Home cooking around here often looks a lot like a delivery box of pizza. And the socks you're wearing today just might be the socks you wore yesterday... and the ones you'll wear tomorrow, I'm not making any promises on that.
A thousand more postings to come soon. If I can get some sleep tonight. But we haven't forgotten our loyal, our passionate, our few fans of ChickpeaCentral and how much we like being connected to you all through this quaint medium.... Stay tuned and please email and call us. We miss you!
You all just go and look at the lambs and the giant turnips again-- I'm gonna test drive this baby.
I took my four year old to the face-painting booth and I got back... a teenager?
Doesn't this look like the sweetest little Halloween costume? So did we. But he refused to wear it on Halloween. He'll be the fire chief when he's good and ready. But lack of a costume didn't stop him from collecting candy. 
Audrey and Mom work on her sparkly tights, drawing comets and meteors with glitter paint.
The shooting star was Audrey's idea (inspired, we think, by TMBG's "What is a shooting star?") and Mom spent most of a day stitching the hat together. Compliments (and tooth-rotting treats) collected all around the neighborhood. I just have to say that I am lucky to live in an age where you can google the words "shooting star costume pattern" and bingo! there it is. (Thanks, Canadian Living magazine!) All I had to do was print the PDF, spend nearly $70 at the craft supply store, and then hand it all to my mother. (Thanks, Gramma Jean!)
All right, Mom? Got my lunchbox for school, but I can't find my other cuff link. It's the first day of preschool, I just don't want to look like a tool. Audrey says no on the purse... is it the color? I can do the black if you think the pink is too over the top.
First morning of school, Fall 2011. No, the camera's not out of focus-- Kris looks like that all the time now.
Audrey's Fourth Birthday Pancake and Cupcake Breakfast. Because who doesn't want candy sprinkles at 9 o'clock in the morning?
No, honey, I'm fine: I just want to crouch here and hold onto the wall for a second. 
Hi, customer service? There's a problem with my order. This box is full of children.
Thought I wasn't keeping a blog anymore? Well, you're just about right. I started working (some) and found out just how difficult-- nay, impossible!-- it is to keep up with the laundry, shopping, personal grooming, sleeping, not to mention breathless mommy-blogging that is my suburban life. I've got a two month backlog of photos and irrelevant details with attendant whining to catch up on, but today I just wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to my sweet, ferocious little boy Calvin who is now two years old. That picture was taken today at nursery school and this Friday we'll do our family celebrations.