Getting Along

The girls have been getting along better lately. Sophie's learning (sort of) to share better and acting as my little policegirl, I often hear, "No, Ivy! We don't eat keh-ree-nans!" (crayons) and she's always trying to feed her stuff, "Here, Ivy - want bite? Es good? You like it?" That one gets tricky because Ivy still doesn't have any teeth. Luckily she gums like a champ.

Here are a couple pics of them in Sophie's chair. The light was behind them, so I edited them to death trying to get them lighter. I love their faces in these.

Tricky

We've decided that Ivy is our fearless, adventurous one. I've mentioned before how she throws herself over the edge of the couch/bed/stairs, being saved by mom or dad grabbing her foot and pulling her back up. She always finds herself stuck in awkward places and positions, too. Lately she loves exploring underneath the kitchen table. Lots of things down there to munch on, I'm sure.

Even keeping her clothes on straight is a struggle. (These were taken on two different days.)

I'm Pretty Sure Our Pens Walk Around

. . . because we try really hard to keep them out of reach. Sophie scribbled on the wall a few weeks ago, and the other day she stood next to it and said,

"You color on wall -- Mommy's pen. Are you crazy?"

(pointing to the scribbles) "That's crazy!"

Sidenote: She meant to say, "I color on wall . . ." She's still sorting out first person. What a confusing thing for a toddler.

Unrelated photo, I know. Check out those Daisy Duke's. They're actually Ivy's shorts. She got soaked at the park last month, so I put them on her and they fit her little bum. They're 3-month shorts. And they fit both girls. They definitely didn't get that from me. (Thanks for the idea, Heather!)

Santa Cruz

We went to Santa Cruz, um. . . two weeks ago. (I'm in the middle of reorganizing my photos, and also trying to decide what I want to use as a photo editor. iPhoto doesn't do collages like Picasa, so you get full-size pics of everything this time. Lucky you!)

It was the first trip to the beach for us this summer (actually I think it was the first day of autumn), and the weather was perfect. Eighty degrees or so with lots of sunshine and a slight breeze. We'd also never been to this particular beach before. It's only an hour or so away -- I'm sad we didn't discover it sooner!

View of the boardwalk.

Sorry, Ivy.

Steve's attempts at building a sand castle were futile.

No, I wasn't posing. Steve stood there and kept taking pics of stuff, so I started to ignore him. Oh, and Ivy refuses to keep anything on her head. She ended up falling asleep like that on my lap -- even when a few waves soaked us with ice-cold water. Not a peep out of her.

I'm leaning toward iPhoto because of the zit it let me erase in this photo. It was right between my eyes, but you'd never know.

Settling In

Here we are at the beginning of October. It seems like fall came suddenly overnight (Thankfully. I hate 90-degree weather in September. What IS that?!), and Steve just started his last year of chiro school. After a week out of school, we're all back to the grind.

There have been a few things that I've needed to do lately that have finally gotten done because of certain other events happening.

For example, my kitchen floor desperately needed a mop job, the sheets needed to be changed on our bed, and the bathroom wanted to be scrubbed. Thanks to someone (um, me) dropping a mug on the floor, shattering it to bits, the floor got mopped. Thanks to little Ivy, Miss "have to relieve myself as soon as my diaper comes off", who piddled on my bed and the bathroom rug (twice in about three days), the sheets got changed and the bathroom finally sparkled. Just in time for Ivy to leave more deposits during bathtime that same night, much to Sophie's dismay.

Another catalyst happened on Saturday. My poor laptop started making funny noises, and because I had had two hard drives crash in the last two years (one of those times I lost everything on it), I frantically began updating my back up hard drive.

I'd just received the check in the mail from the contest that I won, and had pretty much decided I was going to get a digital SLR camera with some of the money. As I was transferring files over, fed up with my "frankenstein" laptop (although simultaneously grateful for a husband who knows enough to replace pieces of a laptop instead of chucking it and buying new ones all the time), my plans suddenly change.

"That's it. I'm getting a new laptop."

I mentally mull over options for a new laptop, feeling frustrated at all of the grief I've had with my old ones, and decide that I'd been burned too many times using a Microsoft OS. (Windows 7 is supposed to be decent, but that may be due to the embarrassment of Vista. "Luckily" we've been running XP this whole time.) I'd just received a big chunk of cash, and my laptop was perhaps hours from its last breath.

"What if I got a Mac?" I said to Steve.

"A Mac?" He thought it over for a few seconds and said with a curious glimmer in his eyes, "If you got a Mac, I would support you."

So I got an iMac. Tuesday morning. The transition has been great, for the most part. The biggest project will be transferring all of my recipes from OneNote to MacGourmet, but otherwise I'm a happy camper.

Ok, that's an understatement. (And absurd because I hate camping.) I'm totally, completely in love. I want to give her a name.

Welcome to our family, Ingrid.