Busy life with two kids - in photos (by necessity)

Wow, it has been over two months since I blogged about Daniel's birth.  In that time he has grown a ton - he is topping the scales at 13+ pounds nowadays, and is in the 90+ percentile for height and head size.  He is a big baby.  His schedule is getting better, as he is sleeping more at night and is more alert during the day.  Rachel recently decided that he is a "keeper" (though I don't think that Northwestern hospital has a return policy) so he must be getting cuter.

Things are obviously busy around the house - as anyone who has/had multiple kids can attest.  Rachel has to work hard to keep up with the laundry, toy pick-up, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and a thousand other unheralded mommy duties.  I am in a rare mid-winter stretch of 5-day weeks at school, getting up early to prep for classes and coming home to play with the boys in the evening.  We are going to bed tired and the free time is at a minimum - but it is a fulfilling life.

Since our family guests have left, the basement has transformed into a nice play area - Andrew enjoys blocks, balls, and his play kitchen.  He will spend hours "cooking" as he takes out his play food and makes various concoctions for us to try.

His new favorite is to approach us and ask, "Mommy, play?" or "Daddy, play?" as he cocks his head and gives us a cute look.  Very manipulative.

  

Winter has almost gone, but the snow held off to the last few weeks.  Andrew finally donned the snow suit twice recently so that he could play in the snow.

 Rachel got stir crazy last week, so she took the kids out in the wagon despite the elements.  Don't worry, Daniel was sufficiently bundled to sleep the whole time.

In the living room, Andrew has his train tracks to play with - so that he can play with toy trains as he watches the big trains roll by in the window.  Notice the new rug?  A recent purchase, as we are trying to add some decor to the house.  Several things finally went up downstairs in the play/TV room, but more work needs to be done in the living room.  We have some chairs on order to add to the furniture, which should arrive by the end of the month.

As far as home projects, I did fit in a couple of things just to take a break from the everyday chores.  I painted our entry door (the interior only) a bright yellow with brown trim.  It used to be off-white, so this brightened things up a lot.

This weekend, I finished some shelves in the corner of the unfinished part of the basement.  There was a massive pile of junk there, so hopefully this will start a process of organizing down there.

Spring break will be after Easter this year, instead of before (as it traditionally was) so there are still 3 more weeks left.  No plans yet for what we will do.  Any suggestions?

-alan