roll over, roll over

Jeff's watching Million Dollar Baby in the other room. I had to leave because I'm such a wimp. I told him to call me in for the happy ending so I don't expect hear from him anytime soon.

Today we got our carpets cleaned by Teri-Towel. The guy who did the actual cleaning was a zealot, but I forgive him because we're happy with the results. He did a pretty good job of removing over 5 years of stains from a certain dog, spilled food, a certain toddler, etc. with minimal chemical solvents. Apparently these solvents make the situation worse because they attract dirt. We got the carpet cleaned just in time, because Ruby G is starting to roll over. Her brain still hasn't figured out what her body's doing because she's pretty surprised when she manages to roll from her back to her tummy, but at least she's pleasantly surprised when it happens.

Read, set, go!

Argh, what am I doing wrong?!? Why does it work sometimes and not others??

Ruby with a disapproving-old-lady expression.

Ditto for Levi, back in the day (at 6 months).

TIMMSL explained

Jeff's threatened to create an entire blog on the topic. Let's just hope that a list on this one (see right column) will appease him. One of Jeff's greatest pet peeves is technology that doesn't do what it's supposed to do. A co-worker of his has aptly labeled him a Luddite. Whenever it's time to get another gadget or piece of equipment, Jeff spends hours online scouring product reviews and evaluating his options. Then he devotes another chapter of his life to combing through Craigslist and ebay listings for a good deal. He only plunks down his hard-earned $$ on something once he's convinced that the amount that it'll improve our quality of life is greater than or equal to the amount of money it costs. End of story right? Alas, no. Depending of the vendor's return policy, we live in limbo for the next 30 to 90 days as Jeff takes his new baby for a spin. If the product falters, I have to prepare myself for yet another monologue that begins with, "This is my life...." Now think on the black & white scenerios you've seen in the commercials for any as-seen-on-tv gizmo and you get an idea of what Jeff's like in these moments. I'm looking forward to when the kids are old enough to pull some weight around here and replace me as his audience.
Enjoy this pic while you can because I'm not sure how long Jeff will let me keep it up.

Boy Wunderpantz

Harriet & Jeff's New Year's Resolution for 2008: Get a picture of ourselves onto this blog.

In the meantime, this one of Levi is classic. Nothing beats watching a toddler run around the house with his toy hammer in nothing but his big boy underwear. Of course, Levi insisted that his "hat" cover his eyes. Where's the fun in being able to see where you're running (at full speed)? Yes, he's wearing underpants now. No, I haven't given up on potty training (although I'm perpetually on the verge of doing so). No, he hasn't mastered the potty yet. Hence, the long pause in blogging. My new position as Director of Waste Mgmt is all-consuming. If I'm not following Levi around with his potty or doing some emergency carpet clean-up, I can usually be found washing yet another load of laundry. Oh yeah, I can't forget Ruby's diaper needs either. (Heavy sigh.) The potty has occluded all normal daily life.

Boy Wunderpantz says that the Rubes can't be his sidekick until she gets the hang of tummy time. She's working on it.

Ringing in 2008

Jeff and my celebration of the New Year was utterly quotidian. (I learned a new word the other day.) There are a couple precious hours each day when the kids are out and we finally have some time to not think about them. On this New Year's Eve, Jeff decided to use this time to take a long hot shower and I took the opportunity to space out as my breastpump droned on. Suddenly I heard some yelling and a lot of noise from the neighbors. Jeff hopped out of the bathroom to see why the kids were crying and looked pretty confused when he realized that they were sound asleep. Then we looked at the clock. Ohhhh yeahhhh, it's the New Year or something. We had a good laugh at our lameness and turned out the light. Another rowdy night at House Hayes.