TwoBittyChickens

We're moving!!!

2010-04-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. But I'm moving the site! From now on, please head over to www.twobittychickens.webs.com to read all about us! There'll be a section just for photos, a section for scrapbooking stuff, and maybe some more stuff to come. We'll see. See you there!

xoxo

Happy birthday to Joel!

2010-03-08T22:58:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow Joel and I are going out for the first time in... I don't know. 2 years?! It's been FOR.EV.ER. Our neighbor is being generous enough to come and sit with the boys while we're out. Dillon will be asleep, but Noah will be up for a while when they're here... thank you Pam and Joel! (I know, weird that our neighbor's name is Joel too, huh? They have a son named Sam and there's another Sam next door... it's a street of themes!) We're going to go and see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at IMAX, and also out to dinner at our Hard Rock Cafe that's closing at the end of the month. This poor city, I hope we get some new life into it soon.

Anyway, here are some photos taken since my last posting! Enjoy! :o)

Our lovely plum tree in bloom. Isn't it pretty? Here's another one for your viewing pleasure.

Dillon and Noah playing on Noah's playmat. Isn't that just precious?

Dillon and his beloved sandbox. I think he would move in there if he had a mind to.

Oh sand is so fun! Mommy loves it when I push it into my belly button.

The sand truck, AKA 'cruck'.

And these, my friends, are photos of what happens when you THINK you've picked up every crayon before putting your 2.5 year old to bed!

That's it for now, I'll let you know how we liked the movie! So excited! :o)

xoxo

A blog is like mold.

2010-02-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

I've come to the determination that a blog is like mold. You decide to take a day off from cleaning it, knowing that you'll have to do a little more the following day. Well the next day, your kid throws cheerios inside of the cabinet and it takes you 3 hours to find all of them, so you say, well I'll just clean the mold tomorrow. I'll MAKE time to clean the mold. Because if I don't do it tomorrow, it's going to take forever the next day. The next day you decide that after holding a baby all day long and attempting to keep playdough out of your hair that you'd just rather have a glass of wine. The mold has waited this long, what's one more day? The next day you look at the mold and think, 'Holy crap, how did I let the mold get this bad?! This is going to take forever and I certainly don't have time to clean it right now!!!' And here we are. Spending some serious quality time with the mold. Er, I mean blog. :o)

So I've been pretty good about the photos, but not perfect. Hey, at least I'm taking them at all! So here we are, with all that I have up to today. We don't have today's photo just yet. :o) You'll have to excuse the fact that they don't look the same... I've been playing around with photo actions to see what they do. If you're interested in photo actions, www.myfourhens.com has a ton of great ones! They make it so easy to edit your photos in Photoshop or Elements, you just click a button and you have great looking edits. Anyway, here we go!

Noah does NOT like being wrapped up like a burrito! Unfortunately for him, it's the only way that he'll sleep. He isn't quite sure what to do with those hands of his, and they constantly wake him up.

One of those days! Incidentally this is the winery where we got married. Aww. :o) They really do have great wine though, and very affordable!

After our walk, Dillon decided to put every single item from his room into the stroller. I have no idea why, but it sure was funny to watch him try.

Dillon dragging Smudge around the house on Joel's jacket. BOY was that hilarious to watch! I can't believe the cat actually stayed on there, LOL!

Is that a guilty face or what? This was right after he dumped a cup of water onto the floor. On purpose.

Regan in the back of the stroller, where Noah lays (the underneath part... its hard to describe but this is what we have ---> http://www.philandteds.com/upload/index.php/push/47 and the baby is kind of 'under' the main seat).

Any guesses? This would be crayon that I found in Dillon's mouth.

And this is the next day when I found the crayons. Sigh.

Dillon playing outside as usual! :o) He can't get enough of the mud and muck!

What a funny picture of Noah. Its weird, because I don't think he looks like this at all! If it weren't for the fact that that's our carseat I wouldn't know who's baby that is. ;o)

Aww. Dillon and daddy. And pig. :o) He loves that pig. We have two, just in case something happens to the first one.

What a silly boy! He loves to sit in that toy basket. Of course the toys have to be dumped out first...

Okay not the best picture, I know, but this was the first day that Noah started actually trying to reach out for the toys! What a big boy!

My sweet little peanut.

Aww, I just love this one! Look at that cute smile on his face, adorable! :o)

Bathtime! I forgot how much easier it is to give babies a bath in the sink. I love that tub too, it's the Fisher Price one that's shaped like a whale. :o)

I cannot even begin to tell you how much Dillon loves this movie. I must have watched Monster's Inc 8,000 times in the last 3 weeks alone. He's starting to learn when certain lines are coming up, like when the Abominable Snowman says 'Welcome to the Himalayas!!!' Dillon will say it too, LOL!

Love the bananas! God forbid we run out, then I remember what a real tantrum looks like. Speaking of which I think we're out now... uh oh.

Noah, not happy about the fact that he woke up on the sofa. He's been sleeping in our room in the bassinet (well, in the carseat inside the bassinet), so he's not used to sleeping on his back. I'm trying to break him of that since at some point he'll need to sleep in a crib! We're actually moving him into his own bedroom today. They grow up so fast! :o(

PHEW! Thanks for making it here without passing out! Hopefully I'll be able to keep better control over this thing. I also need to make a snazzy new background now that VDay is long gone. :o)

xoxo

Smudge.

2010-01-30T15:52:00.001-08:00

Smudge is the best cat in the entire world. Even if you don't like cats, you can't help but like THIS cat. She plays fetch, rolls around, never EVER scratches or bites no matter how many times she's provoked, likes dogs and kids... well she pretty much likes anything. She hangs out with you while you watch TV. She does your laundry. Okay, she doesn't do laundry, but I bet she would if she had opposable thumbs! Her only drawback, you ask? She's a bit of a binge eater. She eats an obnoxious amount of food, and then pukes it up, preferably right on top of something that's hard to clean. Like, Noah's white rug. Sigh.

But still, you can't help but love this cat.

Frozen green beans... yummy!

2010-01-29T15:47:00.000-08:00

Every time we open the freezer, Dillon wants ice cream. His biggest decision in life is which kind of ice cream he wants. Now, don't freak out, because he only actually gets ice cream maybe once every 2 weeks, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't insist on having it every time the freezer opens. But today, I opened the freezer to look for something to heat up for lunch, and he picked up the bag of green beans! There was nothing on the planet that he wanted more than those frozen green beans. And, he wanted them as-is! No heating required! Talk about a quick snack. :o)

Have baby? Need playmat!

2010-01-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day that I've been able to take a picture of both boys together. Yay! Okay so they aren't the lovey, adorable photos that you would normally want of your two little lovebugs, and I likely won't frame them, but hey. It's a start. :o) Noah spent a significant amount of time on the playmat this morning. Dillon was obsessed with this thing when he was a baby, and I'm happy to see that his brother is following in his footsteps. It's the older version of the Baby Einstein mat... I'm pretty sure that there's a new one out now, but it has a star that attaches to it and it lights up and plays music. The star also has a somewhat creepy smiley face, but it seems to be a hit with babies! I only wish that the thing played music longer than 4 minutes at a time! Here is Noah enjoying the show, and Dillon rediscovering the creepy star.

Another big hit is the little red bird.

And these are so typical of Dillon. Can't you just see him giving some sort of political speech? Or maybe he's giving a talk about animal rights. "Fur is murder!" "Just say no to puppy mills!" :o)

Yes, I know the house is a mess. Don't judge me. Anyone who's ever had a 2 year old and a newborn will understand. Also please notice our lovely new bamboo flooring! We have about half of the house done now, and Joel is working hard to get to the hallway before he goes back to work. I'm looking forward to the day that I no longer have to look at concrete with leftover scrapings of porcelain tile! I'll post some decent pictures of the floors when they're done. :o)

In other news, Noah has, for the last 3 nights, slept for 5 hours at a time. Woohoo! I don't really know what to do with myself when I'm not waking up every 2 hours! The only problem is that Joel and I are so used to his screwy schedule that we're up until about 3am still, and Noah has decided that 6 or so is a good time to get up for the day. Yawn. But if that's our biggest problem in life, then life is pretty good. :o)

XOXO

Project 365... all the cool kids are doing it.

2010-01-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

So that I have more motivation to not only blog on a more regular basis (okay, so ANYTHING would be better than I've been doing LOL), but also to give me more motivation to take photos of the boys and of our home life, I've decided to *try* and take part in the biggest craze hitting the digi scrapping community (or maybe it's all over the place, but I've only ever heard about it amongst digi scrappers). A Year In Photos: 2010 is another Project 365 deal, where you take a photo per day, every day. EVERY DAY. That's a LOT of photos! And even though some days the photos might be kind of lame or mundane, the point is to take photos! Remember your kids on the day that your 2 year old threw the biggest tantrum of his life in Target (how I wish I had a camera when we were there!). Remember the day that the baby smiled for the first time, or had the biggest poop blowout of his life (although maybe you don't need to share that photo with the rest of us). And blog about it, too! That way you can keep track not only of the day itself, but also what special things happened that day, no matter how small and silly they may seem now. I can't believe that Noah is already 6 weeks old, but here we are, and in the blink of an eye he's turned from a tiny scrawny helpless little lump to a baby! Ack! :o) He's already holding his head up pretty well, smiling at things like lights and contrasting colors (and sometimes us if we're lucky), and cooing up a storm. Joel is going back to work on Monday, and I'm a little bit nervous about being home by myself with two kids, but apparently people do it all the time so I think we'll be fine. ;o)

I just made this decision to start P365 like, 10 minutes ago, so I don't have photos from every day in January. But I have a couple!

From January 14th:

Dillon being a ham, as usual. LOL! He sure does love his apples! I left this one in color because I thought it was cuter this way. :o) Everytime a camera comes out, he puts the silliest faces on. And don't even get me started on the apples... He has one, eats 4 bites, and decides he needs a new one. Sigh.

From January 15th:

What a big boy! Already holding his head up. :o) We had quite a few spit-ups during this little photo shoot, but at least I got some cute pictures!

And finally, our official DAY ONE. Which is really day 27. :o)

Noah just loves looking at the fish tank! I'm not sure what he can actually see, but we think maybe he's looking at the water coming out of the filter. It's more like a waterfall right now since we need to fill it, LOL.

That's all for today! Let's see how long I can keep this up! :o)

2009-09-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been horrible about updating our blog. In my defense, we've had quite a lot going on!

Dillon started school a few weeks ago, and so far he's having a great time! His class consists of 6 other kids from 2-3 years old, along with one of their parents (so, 7 kids and 7 parents total). He plays with the other kids inside for a while, has a snack, we do a craft, we sing songs and play little games. His favorite part of the day is when we go outside to play for 30 minutes or so at the end of the class. The school has different playgrounds for the different aged children, which is really nice. The toddler-kindergarden playground consists of a huge sand pile, a huge dirt pile, lots of toys (scoops, buckets, etc), a slide and swings, a rabbit (yes a real rabbit!) that the teacher takes out for the children to pet, and even a big chicken coup for the children to go in and feed and pet the chickens! The class is only 2 hours once a week (Fridays from 9-11am), but he still manages to completely wear himself out and get dirtier than a pig in a mud puddle. We're also meeting lots of other parents and children that are Dillon's age, which is great!

Joel is still working hard at Trader Joe's, still in training for the management positions. We're hoping that he'll get his promotion in the first quarter of next year!

Baby is doing well, growing like a weed. We have basically nothing ready for him, so hopefully the next 11 weeks will pass slowly... yeah right! ;o) I'm having a baby shower for my friend Megan in November, and we have TONS of stuff to get done before that happens, including setting up the baby's room. We're making progress, but it's not quite fast enough to keep me from panicking! :o)

I think that's all for now, I'll post some photos later on today once I get them off of the camera. Hope you're all doing well!

Birthday Boy!

2009-09-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well today was Dillon's second birthday! I can't believe that he's two years old already. Time really just flies by. It seems like he grows and develops so much every week, and at the same time it seems like he was just a tiny little helpless baby yesterday! Today we didn't do a whole lot, but boy am I exhausted. My parents were here, so Dillon got to spend the day with them as well. We made Sesame Street cupcakes (which he still hasn't eaten), went to dinner, and then came home and opened a couple of presents. And, okay, I'll never be a professional cake decorator, but the cupcakes sure are cute! He got a brand spankin' new tricycle, which is made completely from recycled material. So cool! And he got right on and started pushing himself around. He hasn't really figured out the pedals yet, but that's okay! He was scooting around the living room and just loving every second of his new big boy vehicle.

I also had a meeting this morning with the teacher and the other families at his new school program at the local Waldorf school. I'm not sure what we'll end up doing as far as education with him (or any of our children for that matter), but we love the Waldorf ideas and are starting a parent-toddler program on Friday the 11th, which is just once a week for a couple of hours. I think it'll be great to get him around other kids on a regular basis, and place him in a different environment where his mind and imagination are fostered. Of course either Joel or I will be there with him during this program, it's not one of those where you drop them off, which is really okay with me. I'm not quite ready to let him go yet, and I don't think that he's ready to be without us either at this point. I'll make sure to let everyone know how his first day of school went next week! :o)

Here are some photos from today, of my big boy! :o)

"Thank You"

2009-08-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dillon's newest and most favorite thing to say is 'thank you'. It's adorable, and sometimes has absolutely nothing at all to do with whatever he's doing. Sure, he says it when you give him something, or if you're about to put food on the table, but if he wants something that you have, he says 'thank you' and expects you to hand it to him. If his favorite show comes on TV, he'll say thank you to the TV. If you're eating something that he thinks he might want some of, he runs over to you, says 'thank you', and opens his mouth as wide as it can possibly go, like a little baby bird getting that nasty worm puke from it's mama! (yes, I know its nutritious, and yes I know the baby birds can't eat anything else, but you have to admit, it's still a little gross). It's just the funniest thing you've ever seen! I keep trying to take a picture of him with his mouth wide open and eyes squinched shut, but so far I haven't managed to capture the moment.

In the meantime, here are some photos from our week-long trip to Southern California in July, where my friend Becks took some adorable photos. It's too bad that Dillon refused to be sociable or look at the camera, but think of these as 'candid' shots. ;o) (these are all unedited, but still adorable! I might come back and edit them later)

We've joined the 21st Century!

2009-08-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this is our first post on our family blog page. Due to popular demand (haha), we'll keep everyone updated in one place on our goings on! And that place, is here. So come back for updates on my little chicken and his little chicken brother-to-be! :o)