Who needs clothes?

One of my children's little quirks is that neither of them like to wear pants (trousers) or shoes and socks. While I do make them wear clothes in public it is impossible to make them keep them on at home. They seem to be completely unaware of the role that clothing has in keeping them warm. Peter refuses to wear coats and sweatshirts as well. Even when I wrestle them into warm clothes to go outside the take it all off as soon as they can. Is it any wonder they are sick so often? It isn't as cold here as it is in other places but I wouldn't go outside barefoot! Just don't be suprised (or offended) if you come to my house and my kids are hanging out in thier undies.

Here are the boys in their natural habitat:

This is Peter happy as a little clam barefoot in February. Notice those poor little red toes.

This is the part I don't understand. I thought it was cold just being outside with no pants but Peter actually wants to stand in cold water, outside in the cold, with no pants.

Here is an updated picture of Collin's eye. As you can see it is healing nicely.

Politics

I just found a fun quiz. You answer 11 questions and it tells you which candidate most fits your views. It is a day late but still fun.

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

Enjoy!

Pink eye

Collin somehow managed to pick up pink eye last week and give it to his brother. We have been quarantined for the last week waiting for their eyes to clear up and I am once again reminded why I love preschool so much!

We went to the doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics, as it turns out, Collin is allergic to the most common eye drops (Peter is not) and was prescribed an ointment. I really thought that the ointment was going to be a huge pain to administer but quite surprisingly it has been much better than the drops. First it only needs to be used twice a day rather than every three hours for the drops. Second, it is nice and thick so that when you put it on the inside of the lid it actually stays there. The drops run right out especially when the child is not happy about the drops being put in his eyes. If you have the option get the ointment for your kid.

Goodbye Car!

About six years ago when we first moved back to the US from England we bought this little Ford Escort for less than two grand. It has been a really good car and has served us well. It has had very few major problems and has gotten very good gas mileage. Recently it reached 200,000 miles and failed a smog test. We heard about the program here in California that pays $1000 to retire older, polluting cars. We looked at the current value of the car, the cost to get it fixed so that it would pass the smog test, all the other repairs that the car needed and the guilt I would feel selling an unsafe (bad breaks and cracked bumpers and bald tires) and slightly scary car to some poor student. So we decided to retire the car. Des was very sad to see it go. It has been his car and I think he is a little embarrassed to be driving a Buick (my Bonnema gave us a Buick to use that is much safer and has much lower mileage) but I think he will learn to love those nice soft seats and the enormous trunk.

We let the boys play in the car after Des had cleaned it out.

Here we are waiting for the people to come and take the car.

Goodbye Car!

Haircut!

Peter's hair has been getting really long. He hates having his hair cut so I usually only cut the back and around his ears. It got too long for that so I pulled out the buzzer and very quickly cut his hair. Here he is before:





And after:

Collin has been pretending to be a cat lately. He found the baby leash that I bought right after Peter was born and he loves to wear it and be lead around the house.

Bookshelves

Yesterday I got tired of seeing this:

So I went and bought some wood and built this:

It needs a few supports in the back and sanding the edges wouldn't hurt but not bad for a couple hours. I also made these felt eggs. I saw some online and they looked like fun. They were really easy to make. I put one in an old plastic Easter egg and the boys are having a great time with it.

Art and Crafts

As a Christmas present for a member of my family I asked my uncle if he could make prints of a couple of my great grandmother's paintings. He is an artist, an inventor and generally a genius. The prints turned out so beautifully that I thought I would post a picture here! They turned out so perfectly - I actually kept the trial copies, the duds - they look great!




I was about to write that because my next class (Anatomy) doesn't start until the end of the month I had time to catch up on my quilting. The truth is that my dear friend Care is pregnant and I lost track of time (and her due date) and was shocked to learn on Wednesday that her baby shower was on Saturday. I panicked and rushed to the fabric store to buy fabric. I had the monkey squares but nothing else. That night I cut the fabric and pieced the quilt top and the next night I bound and quilted it. That's right. A two day baby quilt that I absolutely love and if I didn't love Care so much would have kept.





After I finished the monkey quilt I figured that since I had my machine out I might as well finish the Christmas quilts that I didn't have time for before Christmas because of that lovely trip to the emergency room. Just in case you think that I am really great or something I should mention that the small wall quilt was supposed to be Amanda's Christmas present LAST year. In truth I am a horrible friend. And Amanda, I mailed it yesterday, Merry Christmas!