Current conversation

Titus:  Here Isabele.  Here is a mushroom for you.  Do you want it?  It has sugar in it.
Isabele: no
Titus: Okay.  Give it back.  I'll put it away.  Do you want a hotdog?  I'll get one for you.
Isabele: (silence)

Now she is sitting on the floor by the fridge eating a hotdog.  Titus just got a yogurt out of the freeze (where he put it yesterday).
"Look mommy.  It's all melted and the spoon is stuck.  I left it in the freezer all day long and now it's all melted"
Guess it's a good thing I don't feel the need to control everything they do. 

Too long.

I guess August has been busy.  I've been doing some more online legal nurse consulting.  I enjoy doing it, but it sure uses up some time.  Isabele talks, real words, non-stop.  She and Titus are playing together more and more every day.  They also bicker a lot, but that seems to be pretty normal for their ages ....

Titus found my latest knitting project - a hat for Isabele, and somehow managed to put it on, and hold the 4 attached balls of yarn.  He was quite proud of himself.  And he didn't mess up the knitting at all.  I'm still a bit amazed that he didn't pull any of the stitches off the needles.

Oh - we are working on some outdoor improvements / changes in the last couple weeks.  Brian is building us a new deck.  He started with new steps / landing out the side door - the one we use the most.  Now he's working on the rest of the deck.  It looks wonderful already.  I'll post pictures when he's done.

I decided to bite the bullet and get the dirt to make the front yard into a garden.  We had all but 10 landscape bricks that we needed to go around the front yard.  They were in the back around the deck, but are not needed with the new deck design.  So, last Friday, we had 13 tons of dirt dumped in the front yard.  Another couple days, and I think I'll have it all moved to where I want it ...

Here's the picture of the dirt pile prior to moving any of it.

 Of course the kids enjoyed playing in it while I worked on spreading it out, and moving it to a couple other locations in the yard.

Upcycled and Recycled

I made this bag as a gift, then made the gift bag too.  Just because I find it interesting, I thought I'd list what was purchased and what was re- or up-cycled. 
The fabric for the wristlet bag - scraps from a couple dresses I made for Isabele last year.
The ribbon for the bag - old blanket binding scrap.
The buttons on the flowers - out of the button jar - where all buttons go when clothes are too yucky to donate.
Newpaper - An old The Paper.
The "tissue paper" - the unprinted side of a Wal-Mart bag.
I did purchase the zipper.
I did purchase the fabric for the flowers - fat quarters that I used about 2 inches of - lots more flowers to be made from those.

Just too tired.

We were over at my mother's on Sunday for lunch.  The kids went swimming a little and then ate and played for an hour or two.  Then the bugger ride home. 

Look!! We can both ride it mom!

We had loaned the glider bike to some friends to use with their kids as Isabele wasn't quite big enough to use it by herself.  She has grown quite a bit this summer, so I asked for it back the other day.  It was returned and is once again a favorite at our house.  Isabele can pick it up and get on it, and with shoes on, sit on the seat and reach the ground.  She can do 2-3 steps and then falls over.  Not bad for 21 months.  She prefers to straddle the bike and just walk.  Having watched Titus learn how to use it, I know she will figure it out.

Titus, of course, loves playing around on it.  

Isabele was playing on it and next thing I know Titus says, "Look!!  Mom!!! We can both ride it!"

Obviously, she's having fun with Titus "helping" her.

They are trouble.  Oh the things they are going to get into together.