Another small space

I believe I have mentioned the fact my children love to squeeze themselves into small places for fun. (See yesterday's post on the half hour spent in the dog kennel.) This is Sam's new hiding spot. I think this might be his smallest space yet.

So - I figured there was no way he would make it in.
Okay.........maybe he'll at least get close.
Oh my goodness - he is doing it!
This kid has a future in the circus.

They went in there all on their own

I took the dog's blankets out of his kennel to put them in the wash. I walked back upstairs and this is what I found.They then proceeded to spend the next half an hour climbing in and out, as well as bringing as many stuffed animals as they could fit in for a little company. Sam also told me he thought is would make a really cool bedroom. Nice. Why do we even buy them toys if they are this easily entertained?

Cupcakes

Grandmommy sent the kids a package for Valentine's Day with all the supplies needed to make cupcakes. Sam and I went to work on them this afternoon while Sadie slept. (We did let her eat them, just not make them. Cooking with 1 toddler is chaos enough.....trying it with 2 would put me over the edge!)

Here are some pictures of our afternoon adventure!

Here is Sam dumping the water in.
A direct quote: "Hmmmmm....I wonder what 'gredient comes next."
Stirring it up
Sam filling the pan "all by myself." We started off with me doing with with some slight assistance from him. He talked me into letting him do it, and it took every ounce of restraint I had to be a nice mom and just let him make a mess of it. (I know many of you are wondering why that took restraint, given my general lack of concern about messes. For some reason, batter on a cupcake pan just irks me. It can be avoided. If you do it really well and don't drip at all when putting it in the liners, you don't even have to wash it. Did I just admit that? Anyway - I HATE scrubbing all those crusty bits off. Oh wait. I usually just leave them there until my mom comes and she scrubs all the things in my kitchen that need a good scrubbing.....)
Sam is very proud of his work. Notice all the drips that will be there for my mother when she comes. OK....maybe I will make a slight attempt to remedy that situation before her next visit.
The best part - he couldn't quite believe I was letting him do this!
I did good - tastes great!
Hmmmm....cupcake!
Sadie uses her tongue quite impressively to try to get all the frosting on her upper lip.
The "pig" face.

Granddaddy's Smile

Sam has Granddaddy's "Is this enough of a smile for the picture?" smile down pat.

Progress on another front

In addition to Sadie's progress in talking, there has also been much progress lately on the sibling front.

If I could sum up Sam and Sadie's transition to each other it would be:
November - month of being jealous of each other
December - month of tolerating each other
January - month of "I guess he/she is here to stay"
February - month of enjoying each other

They have become very sweet trying to comfort each other when one of them is crying (as well as join in with sympathy cries), and they egg each other on in finding fun things to do that Mom might not approve of. One night as they sat at the dinner table taking turns banging their spoons on the table and cackling with laughter, I had to remind Joe "This is what we have been waiting for...."

Here are some pictures of the two of them enjoying escaping Mom's picture taking.

half a haircut

Sam has been in desparate need of a haircut for a couple weeks now. Every time I ask him if he'd like a haircut, his answer is "Tomorrow." Well, today was the day I wouldn't take tomorrow for an answer.

We got halfway through and all of a sudden he informed me "I'm all done." This is what he looked like. As attractive as this look is, I did go ahead and do the other side.

Happy Valentine's Day (a few hours early)