Sophie's Haircut

You've all seen those little girls who took scissors to their own hair.  Now I have one of my very own.  This past week when Heather and I took our girls to the Academy of Sciences, I didn't really think twice when the girls brought scissors in the car.  We had about an hour's drive and the girls seemed so happy in the back cutting out little shapes and coloring.  It was a happy car ride with little to no complaining.  Heather and I chatted the whole time.


There was one moment when I peeked at the girls through my rearview mirror and noticed little Sophie holding the scissors.  She was slowly opening and closing the scissors and she looked a little bit like she was in a trance.  I had the passing thought to ask her to give them to me, but quickly forgot since I was concentrating on the tricky roads of San Francisco and also enjoying my conversation with Heather.

When we arrived at the museum, I went to get Sophie out of her carseat, when she announced with great satisfaction, "Mommy, I LOVE cutting my hair!"  She had the biggest grin and was so proud of herself.  I took one look at her and gasped.  She had been sitting back there just snipping away at her bangs.  When she saw that my reaction was not a happy one, she burst into tears.  And then I felt awful, since I imagined it would be a letdown to think you've done something really fun only to find out that you've done something naughty.

Oh well - she's three, right?  I'm already laughing about it.

I went on vacation and didn't even have to go anywhere

This past weekend Heather and her cute little five-year-old Chloe came to visit us. We had an amazing time! Luckily, she already blogged about it here, but I'll add a few more fun pictures! 

 Emmy and Chloe loved playing in the rain!  I had to explain to Heather that since we don't get any snow here, we make the most of a rainy day and love to let the kids splash around outside.

 The kids took these pictures of themselves.  They were laughing HYSTERICALLY. 

 Little models posing at Stanford's fountain

 The beach at Fisherman's Wharf.  Suddenly, the weather was warm, the water was clear, and the kids were perfectly content to dink around in the sand.  Ryan took his first taste of it!

 Sophie wanted to buy this giraffe at the California Academy of Sciences SOOOO bad. 

 The girls loving their candy at the Sugar Shack - when I asked Emmy where we needed to take Chloe, this was her request.

Friends Forever!!  Isn't Heather so cute?  After they left our house felt so quiet and boring.  Even tonight (two nights later) Emmy was being grumpy and Sophie said, "She wishes Chloe was still here!"

My Little Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day

Whew! What a morning! Somehow I managed to scrape together a happy valentine's breakfast for the kiddos (thanks to frozen abelskiver's from Trader Joe's which taste pretty much as good as homemade ones!) and now I'm taking a breather before I attack the dishes - we still have some left over from last night's dinner.

Matt takes Emmy to school in the mornings and about thirty minutes after he'd left, he realized he'd forgotten something, so he came home to get it. And this is the scene he came upon:

Me still in pajamas, using the restroom, getting a bath ready for Sophie while she stood at my feet peeling her clothes off, while also holding Ryan in my lap trying to grab anything he can.

Not the most romantic picture for your sweetheart to stumble upon, but he smiled and said something about how amazing it was that I could be doing three things at once. "This is motherhood," I said and was even a teensy bit sad that it would be too weird to take a picture of myself in that moment.

Romance takes on a new meaning when your life is full of baby food and finding bugs and learning to read. Romance to me was when last night I was too exhausted to do anything but sit in bed and Matt brought me an ice cream sundae, then brought me my tooth brush, a cup to spit in, a glass of water, my contact lens case, and then tucked me in for the night at 9:30.

So there you go - a sink full of dishes, a five year old who threw a tantrum this morning because I put the powdered sugar on her plate before she could do it herself, and a lot of laundry. But I'm happy and in love with my very own valentine.

It's going to be a great day.