Just another weekend...

First, a few old videos.

John has figured out the dropping-things-on-the-floor game. Also he says, "Dop!"


John sang to his pear at dinner one night.


Oscar has started reading along with most things, even when he doesn't quite remember the words.


John is trying to earn his credentials as loudest boy in the world. Watch how he cleverly covers his ears before yelling.


And now some pictures. John woke up from his nap yesterday and watched some Octonauts with Oscar for a minute. I only give you the best of the best.

John found himself a new pacifier. Caught!

I was bold and whipped egg whites and made buttercream to create this three-layer pecan sponge cake with chocolate frosting. 16 eggs! No one will eat it with us this afternoon, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. I hope we don't hurt ourselves...

Eric entertained Oscar this morning while I was busy with frosting by taking turns with the body crayons. I'm not sure who looks scarier!

John has 1 top tooth now, with three others almost there, and two more bottom teeth almost there. Nevertheless he's mostly cheerful. I think he expresses his frustration by yelling, and there's plenty of that!

Make me a pizza!

For dinner on MLK Jr day I made what the cookbook called "cheese and spinach pancakes" but are really more like crepes with a béchamel sauce. But, it is an English cookbook so maybe they preferred to translate it.

Then on Friday Eric and Oscar made a pizza!

John rampaged on the floor while the pizza was constructed.

Then I got my diploma in the mail! It's hanging on the fridge for now.

Starry starry nights

Elizabeth got me some excellent books for Christmas- one is a candy cookbook, the other is a memoir/cookbook by the same lady. And in the memoir was a recipe for fancy little chocolate cookies. I tried making them last. Ugh the and they turned out great, with one little mishap.

Don't let go while you're mixing!

The finished items. Great with all beverages, except maybe orange juice.

Yesterday Oscar was being a troll, so I sent him outside and he stood by the door and tortured John, who wanted nothing more than to go out in the cold with his big brother. Then Oscar came inside and watched a moomintroll movie, which he liked so much that he asked to immediately watch it again. (It was the super-strange cartoon one.)

Oscar was light enough to stand on top of the snow crust where the snow is usually in the shade. This gave him confidence in roaming further in the yard, and as soon as he got to a sunny spot, he sank in to his knees. This reminds me of when we were little and Louie's yard was untouched, and Mark convinced me and Annie to carefully shuffle out to the middle of his yard without breaking the crust, which we did. Then he went back inside for the camera and left us out there for hours and hours. And we couldn't move or we would break the crust and it would be ruined! The picture was supposed to look so crazy, like we had been dropped in the middle of the yard out of nowhere. But it takes a keen eye to observe the lack of footprints around us.

Anyway, I have strong feelings about crusty snow, and maybe one day Oscar will too.

Poor ice cubes!

Here are some pictures of Oscar and John being silly. We finally remembered to put John in the big pot to see how he fits!

Oscar fed John about five bites before John realized this was wrong and refused to eat any more from him.

But, even though Oscar seems so nice and normal, last night he couldn't go to bed, and even woke up in the night crying, and cried a little before breakfast, because his ice cube had died. He woke up John too! This morning he found the melted ice cube in his cup and threw it in the toilet, and then was extra sad. Poor ice cube, poor Oscar.

Valentine's day came early

Most be warm up there

cleaning up Eric's phone

We have more pictures of everyone enjoying christmas candles; Oscar enjoying his new coloring book; Oscar at the construction site at school (which everyone likes to look at) (Oscar kept the banana sticker on his forehead for two days!); Oscar in the new Weed Molecular Biology lab; and John enjoying the Mardi Gras caterpillar very much.

Just some cozy Xmas outfits

Ps John is standing himself up all the time now. Look out Oscar! The potential to get in trouble will get so much higher.

Also John says Hi.

Hattifattener

This morning Oscar is a hattifattener, he says "Don't you touch me, I am spikes!" And "lectricity!"

He hasn't fallen on his face...yet.

Oscar demanded that we take a picture of John too.

Oscar's pink cake

All he asked for was pink cake, so like a fool I got strawberry cake. It tastes just like strawberry syrup. Oscar liked it ok! He especially liked it with the chocolate frosting Eric brought home when he grabbed someone else's groceries by mistake.

In case you can't tell from the picture, it is neon pink.