Rainyness

On Saturday morning, we woke up to rain and an email that soccer was canceled. JP ran off to swim practice at 6:30 anyway, because he's crazy, and I got to laze about in bed listening to the rain drops patter on the skylights in our bedroom roof until the kids woke up and joined me. The rest of the weekend vacillated between lazy, productive, snuggly, and happy- often all four at the same time, and the rain didn't let up until late this afternoon, just in time for JP to do yard work and me to be lazy a little while longer.

Claire, modeling my shoes after work on Thursday

We took our annual family pictures Friday morning. I like to time it in the Fall- close enough to the kids' summer birthdays to count as their official portraits for whatever age they've just turned, and not too far before Christmas because I'll use that picture on our cards. It's also supposed to be cooler outside, but Friday wasn't cooperative on that front (or any others). As always, I spent hours mulling over outfits as soon as I booked the session, picked out one or two immediately, and then left the rest until the night before. Late Wednesday night found me chatting on the phone with my friend K as I wandered around Old Navy armed with a coupon and the dress I'd bought for myself 4 months earlier (my outfit always gets picked last and I'm almost never happy with it; this year, I picked mine first- I'm the only one who really cares anyway), searching for a shirt for Landon. The mission was successful and purchased on clearance. The actual pictures did not go so well. After telling the photographer I hoped to get a few casual shots of the kids, "because they love each other so much," they of course spent the next 45 minutes refusing to touch, play with, or otherwise acknowledge their affection for each other. Affection which immediately resumed when we got home that afternoon:

besties once again now that it's just mom with the camera and not someone
we are paying money to capture the sibling love and sweetness

Claire didn't leave the house all weekend. I ventured out for some grocery shopping (in pouring rain, joy), and JP ran out to grab the few things I couldn't get at Trader Joe's (SO happy one of those is finally in Texas and two miles from me!), dragging Landon along for moral support, but the Bear did set foot outside. Frequently on our laps, always within 2 feet of Landon, she was in excellent spirits all weekend. Nothing makes Claire happier than having her whole family in one room all day all the time. Sometimes she'd just look up and smile, like yes, this is how it should be.

how she emerged from her room post-nap on Saturday;
the purse was filled with extra necklaces and two plastic dinosaurs, just in case

The kids played a fancier version of their usual "camping" game. Most weekends it's just nap mats and water bottles in the middle of the floor, but the extended housebound nature of this one required a full-on tent, plus pillows and blankets. I was happy to oblige. They spent at least 6 hours in and around this tent over the two days, playing happily. The details are sketchy as we weren't invited to join them. So often JP and I would turn to each other, practically bored of our exclusively adult company, and say, remember when we had one kid? Yeah, this is so much easier.

zomg mom, kids only, no pictures

I ordered the kids' winter coats on zulilly about a month ago, getting what looked to be nice warm ones for less than $20 each. They finally arrived today, just in time for our trip to Colorado to visit my sister (14 hours in the car each way with a broken DVD player, because we like to do things the hard way), and Claire wore hers all weekend.

me, in my gross post-barre, pre-shower glory, and Claire, my adorable pantsless Eskimo baby

Seriously, all weekend.

what temperature is this room?

I spent most of my lazy time indulging in my love-hate relationship with Shutterfly and their photo books. I spent WAY too long on them and I can't say I enjoy the painstaking process I always turn it into (the perfect background, the extreme customization, the rotating of one photo 5 degrees more to the right, oh yes perfect, wait no, one degree to the left, okay, now which color should the text be?, etc.), but I do love love love the result. I re-read the kids' books all the time and they are frequently in their stack of bedtime reading requests. I'm about halfway through Claire's, with Landon's still to go. I give them to the kids each year for Christmas, so I have to get cracking. I also read the first 1.5 books of Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers series, which I'm LOVING, and I now blame everyone who's recommended them to me for keeping me up way too late last night.

Speaking of, I have a few more chapters to read in #2 before I can catch up on all the sleep I lost last night finishing #1. Happy Weekend everyone!