this week or so in pictures

cool ornament from my aunt roshanna!  she always sends the best gifts!

i suppose it's been almost two weeks since my last post...i have totally lost track of time between working 7 straight days and the busy christmas workshop waiting for me the few hours here and there i am home.  i finally had two days off and my fingers have been feverishly busy on the needles in spite of the hopelessness i will finish gifts in time for christmas.  my work is really cut out for me, but we will do what we can.  the kids seem to somehow understand the demands of this task and have for the last few days been remarkably self sufficient and exceptionally "gentle" with these projects when they become interested.  i still do love knitting, but i'll be relieved when i can do something additional with my down time!

anyhow, other happenings this week.......

the kids are still incredibly cute with fat faces that i eat morning, noon and night.

she might have a future in cage fighting.

bean is getting really interested and actually quite good at tidying up.  she loves putting dishes in the sink and dishwasher, wiping up spills on the floor, and loading/unloading everything from her bookshelf to toybox to dresser drawers.  it's the reloading that's really impressive...her dad and i have not yet developed that trait.  she's becoming very interested in helping with reese too, changing his diaper, wiping him, washing his hair...while this usually makes him physically uncomfortable (a lot of soap in eyes), he relly enjoys the attention.  she also started saying "puppy" this week, which is pretty cute.  we're so excited about her becoming more resilient and easy going about her sleeping habits as well.  she'll basically sleep 12 hours straight from when she goes to bed, takes one solid afternoon nap without a fuss, and really shocked us for the first time in her life the other day when she fell asleep in her stroller around nap time, woke up, and went BACK to sleep in her crib for a real nap immediately thereafter.  her refusal to do so the previous 1.5 years has ruined more outings and entire days than i care to mention.  a few nights ago she hid her pacifier somewhere during one of her organizational frenzies and then went to sleep without it no problem, so we never attempted to retrieve it.  just like that.  amazing.

 today we bought her first pair of winter boots, which are big and rigid and clunky, but will soon become necessary once this big scary winter rears its ugly head (for now, we're still enjoying a sunny 50 degree day here and there, see below).  she was stumbling around like a drunk astronaut and needed a much larger and cornerless space to explore, so we set her loose to terrorize the 15th floor...

 the big boy is, well, a very big boy.  every time we make him a larger and larger bowl of cereal, we say to ourselves, we'll save part of this for next time.  and then he finishes it.  without pausing.  i don't know if we're better baby food chefs this time around, but he also eats anything we put in his mouth without so much as an inquisitive look.  hopefully he'll remain such an unfussy eater.  he seems to be doing better with his naps now that we're paying more attention to them.  and, i noticed this evening he's sprouting his first tooth...david couldn't believe it since he's only 7.5 months old, and i reminded him that the average age is 4-6 months, which must mean a fair number of babies are born with teeth since bean was toothless until month 16 or so...

and aside from knitting and working, we HAD to take full advantage of the beautiful weather...yes, these photos were taken just this past monday!  finally got back out to northerly island.  this is the view of the city, my favorite, that i've mentioned before here.

dad made us this delicious stew with gingery greens that we all enjoyed for dinner over some kalinga rice:















and we received "fresh food fast," a vegetarian cookbook by peter berley that we're REALLY excited about.  big plans for this book that we'll talk more about later.  for now it's time to rest up for the several hours of power knitting ahead!  see you in 2012!