Dude likes his ketchup

This picture is a couple of weeks old (as you can tell by his longer hair)... been meaning to put it up but kept getting busy. Note: 2nd birthday is Saturday! Woo-hoo!

Video: Onion du Jour

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. Graham spends a good amount of time with me there, helping to make breakfast, dinner, or lunch. This morning we made eggs with onion and mushrooms. He is turning into a little chef.

After we ate, Graham decided he wanted to cook some more. He went to the cabinet and pulled out a pot and some lids. Then asked for (demanded) the leftover, raw onion. Then he pointed and pointed at the salt, "SAL!" until I handed it to him. He poured some on the onion. Then I picked up the video camera.



After the video ended, Graham wanted to add colored sprinkles to his onion. So he did. Then he took a few more bites of the onion. Kiddo apparently likes raw onion. (Hey, it's supposed to be high in vitamin C!) At the end of his cooking extravaganza, we ended up with this:

Then we (I) swept.

Love,
Mama Chef & Toddler Chef

Best grocery cart ever!

Not to sound like a grocery store snob (though I am, it's true), but I'm not the hugest fan of our local big box grocery store. But they have this one compelling feature you see—their super awesome grocery carts for kids. Honestly, it's the #1 reason why I ever go to said monster grocery store. Otherwise it's just too difficult to get through a grocery store trip with a toddler without A) a meltdown B) a temper tantrum C) him sampling every food straight from the cart (or right off the shelf).

So I think of these grocery carts as nothing less than miraculous. Put the kiddo in a TRUCK! Buckle him in. Let him DRIVE! Mama pushes the attached cart from behind. Brilliant!

Bye-bye curls...

I always thought that moms who cried when their kid's hair was cut for the first time were being a bit silly and overdramatic. But this morning, two weeks before my "baby" turns 2, we snipped off his white-blond curls and I couldn't help but feel intensely sad. Strangers stop us frequently to say how much they love his curls. "Don't ever cut them—they won't come back," they tell us. We loved his long hair. We'll let it grow long again. But, it was starting to stick out in all kinds of funny ways and fall into his eyes.

So, we took the plunge. First we were going to take him to Kids Hair and get it done "right" by the professionals. But they didn't open until 11 and we got antsy. So we took matters into our own hands (without much of a plan, I might add).

We put on his art smock and turned on Sesame Street to distract him from the scissors coming at his head. (He still did not like getting his hair cut.) I started the cut, but Jeff was being a backseat hair cutter and didn't like the way I was doing it. So I handed over the scissors with a pout and let him finish. (I'm not sure I'll ever let Jeff live down the look of Graham's bangs now! A better picture to come...) Watch the transformation unfold, from baby to big boy. Sniff, sniff.

Before

One side lopped off. Graham pouting!

The method: distract with Sesame Street (Abby and Elmo learn to ride trikes!)

There it goes... one side short, one side long. 

Our last view of those adorable curls!!!

New short boy hair...

Gorgeous baby curls gone bye-bye. 

(You could practically make a toupe out of all this hair!)

Happy, huggy friends!

Graham and his sweet friend, Annabelle.

Finger hats!

Graham's favorite way to eat raspberries... top his fingers then pop 'em in his mouth!

I love raspberries!!!

More chicken! More chicken!

That's the refrain I've been hearing from Graham at night or before naps over the last two days. The chicks have been staying at our house, bringing with them their chirps, cheeps, and escape attempts. (Really, they're so close to flying out now!)

This time, without other distractions, has helped Graham embrace this whole chick adventure. He loves petting them now and calling them by name (mostly Annie and Moontha). He points at certain chicks and commands that I pick them up so he can pet them: "Uppie, mama, uppie!"

We're also talking about chickens in general more and more. Our visit to the Minnesota Zoo farm babies exhibit found us in a barn with both adult chickens (many of the same breeds we have —beautiful!) and chicks, too. Graham had a ball climbing behind this big wall of chicken paintings and poking his head through. Hello my little chicken!

We've also been reading a few library books with chicken characters. Our favorite? "Chicks & Salsa," all about chickens on a farm who get tired of their feed, so they sneak into the garden, pick tomatoes and cilantro, make salsa, and have a fiesta! On other nights they sneak out of the coop and make enchiladas. Somehow they also manage to find Mexican costumes and musical instruments. Heh.

Chick-chick-chickens!

That's right, we got chickens! Along with two other families (including a total of five kids), we are now the proud parents of backyard chickens, a growing trend among urbanites like ourselves. Two chickens per family for a total of six chickens, with the purpose of them being for eggs and fun for the kids (and us...).

Our friends Christine + Micah will keep them in their backyard in a chicken coop that our three families are all pitching in to build. We'll all be sharing responsibility for caring for the chickens. We're calling it a family chicken co-op. Joanne even started a blog for all three of our families to contribute to, detailing our adventures in chicken raising and joint-family gardening.


We picked up our 1-day old baby chicks earlier this week! They'll live inside, under a heat lamp for the next few weeks until they're big enough and hardy enough to be moved outside to the coop. The brooder where the chickens are currently sleeping, drinking, eating, pooping, and growing is portable, so while they're still cute, small fluff balls, we'll rotate the chicks at each of our three houses so each family has some time with the chicks. After 2-5 weeks, the chicks will move outside to their new home — the soon-to-be-completed chicken coop! For those who really want to geek out and see pictures of the different breeds we got, here's more info on the types of chicks we got: a Golden Wyandotte, a Buff Orpington, an Araucana (which lays BLUE eggs!!), a Rhode Island Red, and two black and white Barred Rocks. We wanted a good old-fashioned white chicken but none were available!

Can you believe this? Bring on the fun! Here are some photos from chicken pick-up day on Tuesday. As you can tell, Graham really isn't sure yet what to make of this whole chicken thing...

Video: Eskimo kisses

Possibly my favorite video of me + G ever. Taken a week or so ago.