Big blues

Our watermelon-stained face, picnic-loving, summery 2-year-old.

Video: Ciao Bella!

Watch out, girls!

G-Man is 2!

It's been a whole week since the Grahamster turned 2. We thought it was about time to post pictures of our celebratory day. He blew out his candles with gusto and immediately took to his new "BIIIIG!" dump truck. He is all boy!

xoxo,
A + J + G

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!)