Around This Place

 That boy just makes my day. Every day. Those cheeks, really, just need to be kissed and loved and focused on completely. He still wakes up every three hours to eat with a few five hour stretches every so often. But he's starting to do better about his awake time being during the day and not at ten o'clock at night so thats nice.

On Tuesday we went to the Treehouse Museum with our new year pass (that I am loving! Thank you so much to Sterling's fam!) and Ruth just loved it. Will slept the whole time in his carrier, so it was really nice for me too.  We went again with some friends on Wednesday, and Ruth played so hard she was completely worn out for her afternoon nap. That afternoon I met up with my sister to go on a walk and ran into my 10th grade Honors English teacher---the man who made it possible for me to get a 5 on my AP Eng test without even trying (thats right, everything I ever learned about English was in 10th grade. Eleventh grade I skipped and took AP Eng, and learned pretty much nothing except maybe practiced writing essays while being timed. Although some of that credit definitely has to go to my sister Andrea who has edited my papers pretty much my entire existence.) He was my favorite teacher of my entire life. Except maybe my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Stremick, at Longfellow Elementary in North Dakota. I was in love with her. Anyway, it was crazy to see him, and he was floored to see I had two kids---said it made him feel MUCH too old. He took a class from dad at the same time as I was in his class, and he used to say my grade depended on his, and I just laughed and told him HIS grade depended on MINE. He would find other books for me to read when I had already read the assigned books. So nice to not be bored in an english class. I also won the laws of life essay contest that year because he made me enter. ANYWAY...after that flashback. On to my adorable kidlets.

I should have been cleaning bathrooms this morning, but instead I made play dough for Ruth and we spent the morning playing with it. I have several recipes from when I worked at a preschool, my favorite uses kool-aid packets, but I didn't have any, so I did the lousy kind. It was still very fun, and I don't think Ruth minded a bit. Reminded me that I have the recipe for volcanoes, and I want to make one now with Ruth.

That rolling pin was my Grandma Olive's. I love it.

I got this little apron for her a little while ago from kid to kid for super cheap. My mom always had a couple of kid-sized aprons and we pulled them out every once in a while and had fun helping mom while wearing them. I don't think its as cool for Ruth though, cause I don't wear on apron on a regular basis for her to see me in it, and want to wear one, ya know? But she still likes wearing it. Play dough is definitely a bit old for her, but as long as I made things and handed them to her so she could destroy them, she had a good time.

Our life has been pretty laid-back and wonderful lately. Will is the perfect cuddliness, and Ruth is so much fun and I love that she's picking up new words every day. Countdown: Fourteen more days of this semester! And Sterling did FABULOUS on his test last Saturday (He was super concerned, turns out the teacher accidentally put in test questions that were from material they haven't covered yet, so once those questions were taken out, he was rockin' it.) and only a few more tests and assignments, and we have an entire summer off of school!!!!! Since he went to school last summer, I am really happy about this break. We stayed up 'til midnight on Tuesday to sign up for his last semester of classes and we were able to get all the upper division credits he needs to graduate ONLINE, so fall semester he'll be able to be around and babysit and hopefully spend more time with us! YAY!