In the genes

Looks like the Muzzey engineering gene has been passed on in full force to Mabel.  Lately, she has been asking about how things work or are put together.  "How did we make this?" is a common question. (We will work on grammar later.)  It started a couple of months ago when she rolled under Sam's bouncer chair on her back like she was getting ready to change the oil. She wanted to see how the straps that hold the middle portion were connected.  She moved on to telling me how things are put together.  To make the bouncer chair "we put these things into these and then put this over that..."   You get the idea. 

When I picked M up from school on Monday her teacher, Rebecca, was telling me how Mabel constructed a door to their play structure all by herself.  She took an extra large scarf and put it through some small holes on either side of the entrance and held them there by putting clothespins on the other side so the scarf wouldn't slip back through the hole.  Rebecca said the only guidance M got was to maybe use a smaller scarf because there was so much fabric.  The construction portion was all her.  By the time I got there all the kids were making doors.  It was pretty crazy.  And not very surprising given her lineage. 

Carnivore in training

When I was pregnant with Mabel, I had a very strong meat aversion.  Just seeing the stuff made me sick.  I ate fruit and veggies (and ice cream) pretty much the whole pregnancy.  With Sam, all I wanted was meat and spicy food.  There was a month where salad actually had a horrible aftertaste and I couldn't eat it.  Also, I couldn't get enough spicy food.  There were times where it was as if my brain and my taste buds were disconnected and my mouth would be tingling with pain, but my brain didn't seem to register the heat.  It was pretty crazy.

That said, Mabel loves veggies and it is hard to get her to eat meat.  I was pretty sure when we started feeding Sam that he would love meat and spicy food given how things went during the pregnancy. 

As you saw in the video in the post below, the acorn squash wasn't a huge hit with Sam.  The pears we have him after that got the same reaction. That night we gave him grilled chicken wing meat. Oh. my. goodness.  He was basically throwing his face at the table to get more. It was insane.

The next day he got banana - eh, raspberry - eh, blueberry - eh, and grilled flank steak.  Again...oh. my. goodness.  He was crying when we weren't feeding him fast enough.

Seems as if the pregnancy was a good predictor of the kids' tastes. 

Sam's first food

Today Sam had his first taste of food. Like Mabel, the first thing we offered was acorn squash. Which went over just about like it did with Mabel.

Smiling

Sam is one smiley baby. Mabel had her great laugh, but was more apt to stare things down.

10 year kitchen

One of the many things we liked about our house was that the kitchen had not been redone - which meant we could view it as a blank slate.
The eventual dream kitchen is going to be monstrously expensive, take a long time to do, including moving a half-bath, new floors, structural work, etc... It also won't be something we will be excited the kids - and soon enough their friends - beating on.

So, tired of the current kitchen with its especially limited counterspace and questionable/beaten down storage, we are going to do a "10 year kitchen." Less-expensive cabinetry, re-use the current range, no moving walls, better storage, a sink that we don't hate, a disposal that works, bring the microwave and toaster into the kitchen from the mudroom.
The new fridge, which we hope to carry over to the dream kitchen, arrives this weekend, but I (likely) won't start ripping things out until we're through the holidays. I have a couple other projects to finish first.

NOTE FROM KATE:  Dad - you are NOT permitted to do any work on this kitchen or to encourage my husband to rip anything out while you are here for Christmas.  No no no.  

Here is what we currently have:




This is what we'll be going for:

Pictures

I just uploaded a bunch of photos from my cell phone so now there is much more of the brood to enjoy!!

                                                                          Smiles

                                                                         Kisses

                                                               First meeting

                                                                           Pig

                                                                        Taste

Roll Over

Sam rolled over today!!

He had been working on this right before bath time when he was lying on the bath mat naked.  Tonight, while I was running his bath water he rolled right on over.  But that wasn't the end of it.  As soon as he did it he started screaming bloody murder.  He basically scared the crap out of himself by being successful.  He screamed his scared scream for a solid 3 minutes.  Now, I know 3 minutes doesn't sound like a long time.  But look at your clock right now.  Time the next 3 minutes and imagine a baby screaming the whole time.  It might as well be forever.  I was doing my best to console him, but I have to admit the occasional chuckle slipped out as I was trying to help.  Silly baby.