They grow up too fast.

My sweet Mo has teeth. Two of them. I'm going to miss his gummy grin.

And ... now he crawls, too. ::: sniff :::

Esai's all potty-trained and dressing himself. He's so independent.

Ant's getting college- and military-recruiting materials.

They all have such bright futures. I'm so proud of each of them. I wish I could take a picture to capture every moment of their lives. Each moment is so precious ... so fleeting. Watching them grow, struggle, succeed, fail and learn is such a blessing.

Thanks, God.

In the interest of full disclosure ...

I'm a fairly open person. If I'm posting something here, I don't care who reads it. If I did, I'd put a password on this blog.

But in the interest of full disclosure, I'd like to mention that when you look at this blog ... I can see you. I have SiteMeter, which tells me who's peeking at my blog and how often.

Cabin fever!

Oh, how I loathe winter. Dry skin, viral madness, cold feet, ice (which broke my damn foot last week, thank you very much!), slush ... I could go on and on. But most of all, I hate cabin fever! It's not that we CAN'T go out ... it's just that ... 1.) coats are so bulky, cumbersome and annoying; 2.) sub-zero temps make me feel like I'll never be warm again; 3.) there's so many more free activities outdoors than indoors.

So, we've been fighting cabin fever here. Just a few things we're doing:

1. Indoor tag.
2. Crafts, crafts, crafts! I bought out the clearance section of Hobby Lobby. Sparkles, feathers, poofy balls, glitter ... you name it, we have it. Esai loves to glue stuff, and we have several Esai Originals all over our house.
3. Reading. Esai's always loved to read, so we've got most of our library memorized.
4. Trains. I'm the TrackMaster queen, lemme tell you.
5. Decluttering. It makes the house feel bigger when the clutter is tamed, so we're boxing stuff, labeling, throwing stuff out and cleaning.
6. Baking. Esai's learning all about measuring, mixing and cooking.
7. Tickles. Is there a better noise than a baby giggling? Yes. A baby and his big brother giggling together.
8. Hide and Seek. Matias and usually team up (at least until he's mobile).

I have to say ... I'm pretty proud that we haven't resorted to the TV to pass the time. We watch very little TV during the day. Esai watches a little "Dinosaur Train" on PBS in the morning, while I'm putting Matias down for his morning nap, but not much else. On a bad day, we might watch an hour of TV.

But, we are ready for spring ... so bring it on, please!

Where did THAT come from?

About two or three times a week, we go to Parents As Teachers playgroups. They're in different schools around the city. And every time we walk into a school, Esai announces, "I ate a bug!" I'm sure he's not swallowing insects each time we walk into the school, so I really wonder where that came from.

Happiness is ...

Esai waking up from his nap, bursting with energy and running into my arms with a huge grin, saying "Mama!"

Hearing Matias laugh when I kiss his belly.

Watching all three of my boys play together.

Tucking Esai in and snuggling him and he tells me "snuggle me bigger!"

Matias wiggling, smiling and practically exploding with joy every time I enter the room.

Ahhhhh ... I am blessed.