Turkey Jerky

Yo! Been a long time since I blogged (this is Eric). Anyway, summer is approaching and the Hill family is very much looking forward to it. Wanted to write about our recent trips to Target and how we can no longer exit the store without Logan saying "Turkey Jerky." He loves the stuff and it's so darn cute hearing it that I had to write about it for posterity. Even though I claim to be a vegetarian, anyone who knows me knows that I have a hard time turning down jerkied meats. Well, now I have an excuse to indulge in the MSG wonder known as Turkey Jerky. It's a great treat to keep Logan busy in the car when he is fussy too. Although I guess it is sort of a choking hazard. Anyway, hearing a two year old repeat turkey jerky about a hundred times doesn't really get old.

The elusive "R"

Yes, I'll be glad when Logan can pronounce his Rs. Since I know that may take some time, however, I guess I'll just have some good laughs at his r-less words. It's amazing how some words transform without the R sound. For example, this weekend, we were sitting down to a yummy breakfast of waffles. Logan was happily picking at his food with his fork. Before too long, though, one of the pieces of waffle refused to stay on his fork, and, exasperated, he said, "Mommy! Fork...this!" You can imagine how that sounded without the R--it's funny enough with the R in it!

Viking!

So our neighbors gave Logan a hooded towel for his birthday that is just too cute. It's themed from that movie How to Train a Dragon, and so it's viking themed--the hood has a helmet printed on it with two little terry cloth horns sticking out of its sides--pretty funny. Tonight Logan walked out of the bathroom with his viking hood on, the towel wrapped around him, and as we were helping him put his jammies on, we decided to see what entertaining things we could get him to say. He stated with glee, "I'm a viking!" and "I pillage the village!" Luckily, I stopped myself from saying the other famously rotten thing vikings are known to have done--boy, would that have been an awkward sentence to have resounding from my two-year old's mouth...

baby and coffee in tummy

Hi, it's Carly! So, it's been a long time since we've posted an entry...a really long time. It's not that we haven't had anything to blog about or that we've meant to allow this blog to drift off into cyberspace, but life has been pretty hectic with the school year winding to a close and papers piling up in my bag. I think I'm handling the stress so much better than usual this year because I know I'll soon be starting such a long break from school, what with my taking a year's leave next year. I'm really looking forward to having a year with my three boys (because how could I neglect to count Eric in that number? Ha!). Who knows? Maybe I'll like it so much that I just won't go back.
Anyway, since we've last written, lots of things have happened. Back in April, Eric and I had different spring breaks, so he went to Philadelphia to visit Kevin and (perhaps more importantly) to climb the "Rocky stairs." Kevin was, as expected, a gracious host, and Eric had a wonderful time. I went to visit my family while on my spring break and took Logan along, of course. Lo and behold, Eric got bored...which is never good news. He completely gutted our bathroom, which we had been planning to do over the summer, but Eric upped the stakes by starting it one week before the day we were going to celebrate Logan's second birthday. Long story short, we're now enjoying a newly finished bathroom--it looks great, and Eric did a fantastic job. Logan loves taking a bath in the new tub.
Speaking of Logan, he's been cracking us up on an hourly basis. And when we're not cracking up, we're either enjoying some cuddles or pulling our hair out. These days we've been trying to warm him up to the idea of having a baby brother around. I've ballooned quite a bit in the past few weeks, and the other day I was driving home from work, with Logan in the back. I had my hand on my stomach, and he said, "I want baby in tummy, too!" After having a good laugh, I explained that scenario probably wasn't in the cards for him.
Today, on the way home, I decided to stop for a decaf mocha frappuccino, my favorite guilty pleasure of late, and I got him an apple juice. Now, Logan loves coffee. Since I drink decaf now, I give him the occasional sip from my mug without feeling too guilty about it. After all, my grandma used to give me little servings of the real stuff when I was young, and I can't have been too stunted by it, being 5'8'' now. Logan sees what I have to drink, and he says, "Mommy, I want decaf!" Too funny, right? What two-year old asks for coffee, let alone decaf. I wonder what his preschool teacher is going to think of me when he asks for a cup of joe at snack time? Nah...
Well, we hope this blog finds you all well, and I promise to be more diligent about posting more often (especially for you, Adolfo)! :)

Splendid Sunday

This weekend was a nice one. Leah and Josh invited us over for Indian food (tiki masala, but they made tofu masala for us), and I decided it was time to try my hand at making samosas. I've never made a pastry crust of any sort, so making the samosa dough was an interesting experience. Turns out, you have to knead ghee, clarified butter, into flour. And then there was the stuffing...Eric was hovering over my shoulder, demanding that I make a batch of samosas without onions. He absolutely hates onions, but they were the base of the stuffing, so I left them in when he became distracted by the TV....He later admitted that he will eat onions if they are caramelized...Little by little, I'm winning him over to the wonderful world of onions. Amazingly, the samosas turned out pretty well, so we enjoyed a pretty fantastic dinner with some great people.
This morning Logan woke up at 6:15 for the second day in a row, but we made up for the sleep deprivation this afternoon. Logan woke up early from his nap, but still wanted to cuddle, so Logan and I stretched out with Eric and enjoyed a nice nap. It was a splendid way to spend a Sunday. Hope your was much the same.

Waiting for Spring to Come

I don't know about you all, but we're all getting a little bit eager for the icy patches of snow to melt and warmer weather to appear around here. This week we've even been pretending that it's warmer than it actually is. Bundled up in our coats and hats, Logan and I take our daily after-school stroll to the end of the block and back. He loves to pick up handfuls of snow and throw it in front of him, watching it smatter across the pavement. "Bwoken!" He says with satisfaction, and then scoops up another handful.
Our walk was really a temptation today, because it was 45 degrees--a veritable heat wave--and Logan was determined we would walk to the park down the street and play. We made it halfway there before I started to wimp out from the cold, though, of course, Logan did not, and I carried him kicking and screaming back home.
It's supposed to be in the 50s this weekend, and I'm so looking forward to some warmer weather.

Terrible Twos

Logan's nearly two now, and within the past week or so, he's really started to act his age. Usually, it's pretty funny when he asserts his personality, but today, with the second day of minimal napping and late bedtimes, it can be rather painful. As soon as we got home from school today, I had the pleasure of making dinner with the little tike hanging on to my leg while he was screaming random words. "Banana!" Thinking he wanted a banana, I peeled one and offered him a piece. "NO!" And he threw himself, kicking and screaming, in a fit of rage on the floor. This pattern continued through dinner, until it seems he finally started eating well. I guess all of the screaming he did helped him work up an appetite.
After dinner, he asked for apple slices, so I put those slices in a little bowl. What does he do? Throws them on the floor. I thought maybe he was just doing the aforementioned banana thing and rejecting what I had given him. Turns out he wanted the apples; he was just really against the whole bowl thing. After I had washed off the apple slices, he gathered them up into his fist and made his way into the living room to munch them whilst watching World News with Daddy-o.
This weekend was filled with funniness as well. Logan prefers to drink out of a regular glass now, and instead of drinking milk out of his sippy cup, he wanted milk from my glass. He took quite a few swigs and then put the glass down on his high chair. I said, "Hey, Logan. Can I have my milk back?" He replied, shaking his finger at me, "No, no, Momma! MY Milk!"
Sometimes Eric and I just laugh, and sometimes we look at each other and ask, "Why are we having another child again?" Oh, yeah. We're having another baby in August, blog-readers. But most of you already know this. :)
Well, I'm off for now...must...grade...more...papers...