Flower Market 2010

Okay, so it has been over a month since I posted. We're busy people!  But actually the reason is I lost my camera charger. And by "lost" I mean it wasn't right beside my camera. And when something isn't exactly where it should be I use that as a pretty just excuse to procrastinate because finding the charger wasn't on my to-do list -- blogging was!  And this ridiculous rationale is exactly why I never get anything done.

But I digress. Flower Market - now 2 weeks ago - was once again a highlight of the spring. Only this year there wasn't a monsoon the day before so we enjoyed it sans muddy shoes and feet. Ah, the small victories.

MORE snow

So after the initial dumping of 2 feet on the ill-equipped streets of Wilmington, on Wednesday we got another foot or so. Here are some more pictures - it's been pretty fun but after 10 days of it we're ready for a nice warm rain. No suck luck though - we're instead supposed to get another 3 or 4 inches tomorrow!

Other than snow, ice, and a little too much time inside with the kids (one word: Candyland), there's not much to report. Last night we went to a friend's for Game Night and had too good of a time, meaning a very hungover Valentine's day today. But the day started with red velvet cupcakes and ended in deep dish pizza, so no complaints! Tomorrow I'm off for President's Day and plan to spend much of the day getting ready for Riley's first birthday party. It's hard to believe this time last year I was 38 weeks pregnant!

Bear Royalty

 














Unless you've been under a rock you know Delaware and the rest of the mid-Atlantic got buried in snow this weekend. Our official totals are around 21", but there are some serious drifts so in some places it's up to my waist. And that's the last time 21" and my waist will be in the same sentence.

Anyway Gabe has his first slumber party on Friday when our neighbor's kids spent the night. That plus all the snow day snow play has given me plenty of pictures to post, so I uploaded the slide show to Flickr. Enjoy! Oh, and in case you are wondering, it's not a snow cave, or a fort, or a tunnel that Gabe and Ryan built, but a BEAR CASTLE. Grrrr....

Latin Fusion

We tried this new Mexican place near our house tonight, only to learn it was not "Mexican", but "Latin Fusion", which means "overpriced Mexican" in Spanish. The food was delicious, though, and Riley got to try plantains, avocado, refried beans, some weird cheese, chicken sopa, sea bass, blueberries, and french fries - and of course she loved them all! This girl will seriously eat anything. And tomorrow I'm going to try hot chili peppers just to prove it! Meanwhile Gabe was impressing our teacher-turned-waitress with his "panish", words like pappas fritas, sopa, pollo, and trinkle. Vamanos!

Milestone #2

Riley has tooth #3! Her first two are on the bottom, but #3 is a fang on top. This is seriously NOT a good look. For her sake I hope more come in soon!

Milestone

After showing no interest in stairs for...ever, Riley boldly followed her brother up an entire flight of stairs today. And I fear this is the beginning of the end.

Funnies

Had a few great Gabe-isms so far this weekend that I had to share:

1 - I've been out the past 2 nights with friends, so Gabe asked me at lunch today "Mommy, are you going to eat dinner with your friends tonight?" AHHH, THE GUILT!

2 - Ryan was working on the ceiling fan in our room and told Gabe he needed to figure out how to fix it. He left and then came back with his toolbox, and Gabe asks "Are those tools you use to figure it out with?".

3 - I put him down for a nap this afternoon and we talked about the different things he could dream about: the waterpark we went to yesterday, Dora, big boy school, etc. "No", he said, "I want to dream about my mommy, because you're the best mommy in the whole wide world." Then after big hugs and kisses he casually mentions,"I'm still hungry. Can I have a treat now?" Guilt, innocence, flattery -- this one knows every play in the book!

Goat

Little Riley is 11 months old now - amazingly - and is quite the eater. She loves pasta, vegetable soup, brownies, apples, and pretty much anything else she can get in her mouth. Her absolute favorite thing to eat, though, is paper. Newspaper, junk mail, pages from books and magazines, subscription cards, toilet paper, napkins - you name it and if it's made from wood pulp our little Rooster considers it a delicacy. Which makes our mess of a house the #1 Supreme Buffet!

The big news though is that Riley is walking! If taking 2-8 steps a day is considering "walking", that is. Then again, if my mixing up a box of Kraft mac & cheese is considering "cooking", then Riley is indeed walking! Mazel tov!

In other news, we have a new nanny Rebekah and she is fabulous! I came home to this sign the other day - a great welcome home! And proof that he indeed gifted! At this rate he'll be updating this blog in a few months - so watch out!

Oh Christmas Tree

Happy New Year! We rang in 2010 all a-snooze (like all the Who's) but we hear there were a lot of good parties for people who can stay up that late!

This year we made our annual trek down to N.C., and then to Florida. The trip was quite interesting to say the least, and perhaps best expressed in a short quiz:

Which of the following happened to the Welshes on their Christmas trip?

a - US Airways lost their luggage
b - An ice storm caused a 3 day power outage, so there was no heat, water, phones, or power at the Garland house for Christmas
c - The power outage made us unable to charge our cell phones, and there was no reception anyway, so we missed the calls from our angry neighbors when Maggie howled all night in our absence
d - Riley woke up 3-5 times each night because she was so excited to be bunking with Mommy and Daddy e - Kerry got a stomach bug in Florida
f - We got into a fender bender on the way to the Fort Myers airport g - All of the Above

"G"ee...I wonder which it was?

But in the spirit of optimism, I won't dwell on any of these but just post a few pics to debunk the myth that one needs electricity for a great Christmas. After all, if Mary and Joseph didn't need running water in the stable, then neither do we!

Let It Snow!

Along with the other 50 million people in the mid-atlantic/northeast U.S., we got a TON of snow yesterday! On the downside, all our plans were cancelled. On the upside, we had a ton of fun!

Swiper No Swiping

If you're familiar with Dora (and CAN I PLEASE HAVE YOUR LIFE if you aren't), you know all about Swiper, The Sneaky Fox. He basically takes things Dora needs for her adventures, and is a terrible influence on impressionable 3-year olds. Second only to Grand Theft Auto, which is why Gabe only plays that on weekends. Anyway, Gabe has taken to "swiping" things around the house, and hiding them in sometimes obvious but usually not-so-obvious places. This is the reason I'm late to work most days: when I spend 10 minutes looking for a brush only to find it in Gabe's underwear drawer, it's understandably difficult to get out the door. At least it's a more clever excuse than being hungover again. Anyway, I was pretty darn amused to find our Christmas stockings had been swiped today. Here are some pictures of the empty mantle and where I discovered the stockings later!

Earache

Poor Gabe! Last night we went to Longwood Gardens to see the lights and trees, and Gabe was cracking us up the whole time. Every tree was a "red Eiffel Tower!" or a "yellow Eiffel Tower!", instead of...um, A CHRISTMAS TREE! But then about an hour into the trip Gabe started complaining that his ear hurt. We thought it was the cold, so we went inside the cafeteria for a snack. Once inside he started crying, and once he started no amount of distraction (including a Santa cupcake with sprinkles) would make him stop. And when her big brother cries, Riley can't help but join the choir, so we got the heck out of there and high-tailed it over to CVS for some emergency Motrin and headed home. I spent the night going back and forth between Gabe's bed and mine (every 3-4 hours as the drugs wore off) and then today the doctor confirmed the obvious: ear infection. Any parent with a kid in day care will be shocked when I say this is our first ear infection, so now I know how lucky we've been! Anyway, yesterday was also Gabe's Christmas program at school, and it was ADORABLE. When I figure out how to upload video from our video camera (and not my phone) I'll post it but for now here are some pictures!

The forecast for the weekend is snow and more snow, so should be a low-key few days at home. Wish us luck!

Ho Ho Ho!

Sorry for the long overdue post! We have been predictably busy since Thanksgiving, with lots of work craziness, parties, events, and...well, life. Speaking into Turkey Day, here are some pics! Gabe & Ca-Ca making a gumdrop tree! And of course I have some funny stories to share!  

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  We were reading one of MANY Christmas books last week and Gabe was looking for elves. I wasn't sure if he knew what elves were exactly, so I asked him if he knew what elves looked like. "Of course I do" he replied, then ran to the refridgerator and took off the "L" magnet. HILARIOUS.
• Today he was drinking milk out of a new Santa Claus cup, which Ryan hadn't seen before. "Gabe", he asked, "what is that your milk is in?". Exasperated, he replied "It's a cup, Daddy".
• Gabe was playing with some sticky play-doh like stuff and threw it up to the ceiling, where it stuck. "Look!", he said, "it's a magnet!".
• Allegedly, Gabe knows the words to "Jolly Old St Nicholas", a carol he's learning for his school program. But each time he sings it he gets stuck on the "Don't you tell a single soul..." line. "Why can't we tell a soul?" he'll ask. "WHY? Is it a secret? Why is a secret? Why?" and so on FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES. Once we get past the inquisition, we try to get him to sing the rest of the song. "What song? We're not singing, silly!"

And now for the best part. For the past week Gabe has been entertaining us with the Christmas songs he has been learning at school for his little Christmas program next week (a first! We are beyond excited for it.) This is the first time I've posted video and I'm not sure it will work right, but give it a try. It's worth the trouble!

Welcome, November! (Part Deux)

This is the update I wrote but never posted 2 weeks ago:

So far November has been a much better month than October. Not only have I not turned another year older this month, but the weather has been fantastic - it's the fall we never had! This weekend we took the kids to a couple of fall festivals, but first Gabe and I went on a date to have pancakes. Now my dad usually takes Gabe for pancakes at McDonald's, so he warned me that we better not go to McDonald's or Papa Jack would be sad. What a considerate little guy!

On Sunday we tackled the leaves, leaves and more leaves on our tiny little property with the help of our church youth group (their fundraiser = our cheap labor!) and then Gabe and Ryan hit some "super pitches" in the park. All in all a great time - and now, back to the grind.

And this is today:

NOVEMBER SUCKS. Between the four of us there has been a very sick person in our house for the past 2 weeks, and now the kids have largely recovered but Ryan and I still have a hacking cough which we cleverly use to keep each other up at night.

Gabe is better physically, but the whining and sulkiness that seemed sad and thus okay during a high fever have gone to battle with the non-stop coughing for chief irritant in our house. Today he threw himself in the floor and cried for 10 minutes when I was brazen enough to ask him to put on his pants. To go see Dora. At a local toy store. How abusive of me!

Riley on the other hand, is getting more fun by the day. She is crawling at record speed and has a magnetic attraction to electrical cords and outlets of all shapes, sizes, and megawatts. She also has 2 very sharp teeth and is an adventurous eater - this week she tried pickles, broccoli and rice, mandarin oranges, and french fries. Yep, I know feeding a 9 month old french fries is pretty white trash of me, but not to worry - I only do it in public to attact maximum holier-than-thou-mommy scorn. And it works like a charm!



 












Quote of the week: Riley was singing loudly (is there any other way?) during one of Gabe's precious hours of TV. "Mom", he said, pointing at Riley. "Can you put her back in your tummy?"

Veggie Tales

Greetings from warm and rainy Wilmington! Ironically the warmest day we've had in a while (75) and it poured all day. But that's okay because we hung out all day at home, doing a lot of nothing...but also a lot of laundry and cleaning out of junk. The major outcome of all that is I finally have a home office! And while its not the coolest space, it was crafted entirely out of stuff in storage so didn't cost me a dime. Yay for recession-era decorating!

Riley-Roo is quite the oinker lately. If you met her younger than 4 months you'll recall she was a scrawny little thing, and now that's she's eating 3 squares and about a gallon of milk (formula) a day not even crawling and jumping in the bouncer can burn off the calories. Welcome to my world, girlfriend.

Gabe, meanwhile, is OBSESSED with the game Uno. And we're encouraging it because if all else fails, knowing how to play cards can always put food on the table. He started out with Thomas the Train Uno (same concept, fewer cards) and has now graduated to the real thing. And when we're not playing, which is rarely, he is counting cards, sorting cards, reading his fortune - who the hell knows - but there are Uno cards everywhere. Its kind of like the dog hair in our house, but easier on my clothes.

Some recent pictures: