???????

This entry is about nothing.

I have a lot of pictures to post but we just put the kids to bed and I'm completely deflated. I have nothing else to offer. I'm about to flop on a soft surface and stare at an inanimate object. Like the ceiling. I might think, I might not.

I'll write more....someday.....

Happy Max. Happy Wolf. They have Popsicles.

Max's Popsicle goes bye-bye. He is now mad mad mad max.

and he only gets furiouser and furiouser. Until he tumbles backward in a fit of sugar-rage. We all retreat to the other side of the room until he chills out.

Friends

When we lived in Glen Ellyn we were part of the greatest small group in the world. I know I've gone on and on about them before. We left Chicago right about the time that everybody started having babies (not because of that....).

Steve and Teri are fantastic. Its almost impossible to tell, as we're sitting there talking to them, that they are a decade younger than we are. They are both so grounded and so intellectual and so interesting and interested.

They also have 3 kids! Wow!

Ava(5), Lucy(3) and Simon (a little over a year).

(they came and visited us for a day, hence their presence in our house)

Steve and Teri both grew up in-and-out of the Philippines where their families were missionaries. They are returning next year to do their own work. (Steve just turned in his doctoral dissertation. I know! At 27! With 3 kids!)

Teri is my kind of girl!

(Remember the baby shower invite I did with her all decked out? I know I've posted it before)

The kids were great. Too bad I didn't get anything but the backs of the girls' heads.

I am in love with Simon. He is the sweetest cutest thing.

In other news, Max is all over the place. He isn't crawling. IN fact, I'm not sure how he makes it across the room but he does when I'm not looking.

And the Wolf is still working on the dance moves.

The Diet

So we have 5 more days left on this 21-day detox diet.

I have to say that the first week was awful. I was in A MOOD.

No caffeine. No massive jolts of sugar. No peanut butter. No bananas.

But somewhere right around week two, I stepped on the scale and suddenly it all seemed reasonable.

Now I'm flat-out enjoying it.

Fruit and protein powder smoothie for breakfast.

Lunch is the big meal. Fish or chicken with brown rice and a huge bowl of veggies.

Snack- apple with almond butter.

Dinner.....pulverized soup. And then NOTHING ELSE.

I feel real, genuine hunger in the evenings. But I'm starting to like it because I know its eating away at my excess fat reserves. That's whats doing it for me. That and the drastic reduction of sugar in my diet.

I think I'll stick with this for a while. I'll still do some oinking out on weekends. I'll still eat candy every now and then. But during this phase in my life, when I have babies and can't spend an hour working out everyday, this is good for me.

I feel good.

Me and the Wolf circa 2010.

HELP!!!

I am at the very very very end of my wits.

Max has been getting fussier and fussier.

I took him to the doctor and she said he looks fine.

No teeth coming in.

No infections.

No hernias.

But this is what I have from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes down.

Unless I am holding him and doing something interesting enough to distract him, he is crying. Our house is like a clip from The Godfather (which I can't stand to watch because there is a screaming baby in nearly every scene).

I don't know what to do except join him.

Disarray

With this blog, all my pride is swallowed and I reveal to you the true state of my house.

Our king sized mattress has become the dining room bed.

The boys wake up and watch Dora whilst reclining on our pillows.

At first we were trying to get Max to sleep through the night, so we stuck him in a separate room. That worked so we then moved him to Wolfgang's room, but kept the second room open. Just in case there was a middle of the night scream-fest that wouldn't end.

In the mean time, we do a lot of playing in the empty room.

We TEAR IT UP!

Check out the awesome headboard. Randy and Robin (Cathy's husband) refinished this old beat-up bed they had in the warehouse.

Now all it needs is finials! And a frame! And some box springs! And the dining room mattress!

We have fun in here, though.

If Daddy is in the room, Wolfgang is laughing.

At anything.

And Everything.

He is a big-time Daddy's boy.

The Maxter-pants sits around and plays.

Look at the back of his head! How cute is that? Love those ears!

He chills out in his big, fat diapy.

I don't think Wolfgang has chilled out EVER.

Just look at him going to town on the harmonica.

Relax, dude!

I was trying to shoot bubbles. They didn't show up but I'm liking this unfinished painting with my hat hanging there in front of it. It gives a totally wrong impression of my style.

Ni-night by the pool

Stacy's House

A friend of mine in Lubbock gave her living-room set to her newlywed daughter. She needed new fun things so she emailed me and said, "Got anything?"

Last time I went to Lubbock I stopped off at her house and we played with fabric for a while. Then she said, Ok. Go for it.

I picked out some fabrics and emailed this to her.

I know, in your mind you're saying, I thought you were doing this for her, not you.

It is so me.

If I were to order a dream sofa, I would use all of these fabrics. These are my favorite colors.

It was easy.

So I designed a sofa, chair and a half and then we did the cutest little burlap chair in the world.

It arrived at her home week before last. Tell me she doesn't have the cutest home ever.

The sofa is all squishy and downy. The fabrics are soft and totally hard-core. Those babies aren't going to wear out.

Look at that cutest-chair-in-the-world!

There are 7 different fabrics on the sofa. All different textures. And check out the killer mini-ruffles. Not too frilly, but enough to be awesome.

My favorite is the cherry-blossom, of course.

Camera shot

And check out the cool post office piece she got in Canton.

So fun. I get to design stuff for the store all the time, but rarely for real live people who love funkiness.

Thank you Stacy!

Sleeping during church

Check out my little Maxter-pants snuggling with a dolly in the crib at church.

He was conked out.

The first week is the hardest

7 days down on our 21-day diet.

In honor of my cravings, which, among other things, include hamburgers and cake, I have posted a picture of a hamburger cake.

Looks disgusting, no?

I would totally devour the entire thing if I was in the same room with it! I'd plant my face in the center and start chewing.

We finally got a scale and I officially weigh at least 10 pounds less than I did 3 weeks ago.

(Yes!)

So I am on the right track. No cake face-plants for a while.

Maximus

He is 6 months old today. Fwew. Got the hardest part of baby-hood over with. Now he is fat and cuddly and talky and rolley.

There are so many sides to the Maxter of Disaxter.

He sits in rapt attention any time I put Dora on. He smiles and squeals and sits on the edge of his bumbo in anticipation of the next song.

There is his intellectual side, demonstrated here by his Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Sometimes the Maxterpants just wants to cut loose and wear his swim diaper on his head.

Here he was bouncing so violently in his bumbo that the swim diaper took on the shape of the pope's hat. Wolfgang couldn't control his laughter.

I really need to start taking pictures with my camera. Either that or get a better phone....(yes!).

Various things

We started a detox diet today. I've never willingly dieted before, but it is now time. I have baby-weight to shed and ailments to cure and bad habits to break. I wish I loved healthy food but I don't. I love hot dogs. And butter. And funnel cakes. And cokes. I could live on breakfast food. Bacon, eggs, pancakes. Or really just pancakes. Or really just butter....

So this diet terrifies me. 21 days. A smoothie in the morning, a light lunch and pulverized soup for dinner. All within a rigid menu of items. Thank you Lord for letting me marry a man who knows how to make ANYTHING taste good. He can work with lentils.

Aside from that, big changes.

We are trying new beverages.

Perusing new literature.

Poor Wolf has been hitting things left and right. No matter how many obstacles we remove, he always finds something the collide with. Its an uncanny talent.

All he wants to do is "Wun!" and "Jup!"

"Mommy, Mommy, Wun!"

Its really a fast stumble across the living room, but he can do it.

Most of the time....

This little shiner was given to him courtesy of an end table that we put in our room. Right now its the ONLY thing in our room besides Max's crib. And Wolf's eye met its corner. My heart stopped.

But nothing daunts him. He has the best attitude in the world.

And afterwards, he is back to his old quirky self.