For Christmas this year we ‘gave’ my dad a coupon for 6 months of snack delivery service. I had looked at some online and then being stupefied by the prices decided that we could do a homemade version instead (which included many disclaimers, such as might not actually provide a snack, or it might be late). But indeed we did provide a snack each month, during said month, even if June’s snack was delivered today. This morning we made rice krispie treats, using the old style recipe that includes a whole stick of butter. The kids were excited to help make them. We left half plain, dipped a quarter in smashed (by Ewan) peanut M&Ms, and then dipped the last quarter in chocolate and put sprinkles on them because my girls like to put sprinkles on everything.

We almost live in the city, we’re only two blocks from Cambridge. But with three kids, we eat A LOT of food and this has become closer to a weekly rather than monthly trip for our family.

Last week I took a break, since my camera was ‘on break’ at Nikon. But we’re back in action now!

Camera still broken, really low quality this week. But funny story to go with it at least!

Ewan has been working on using the potty these days when I’ll let him. Clear difference between child #1 and child #3, I was leaning on #1 to use the toilet, #3 has to yell at me to let him use the toilet because I’m sick of sitting in the bathroom waiting through it all 8 times a day. I’ve got stuff to do man! Here in this picture he’s decided that BeBe (he pronounces it bay-bay, meaning baby in spanish), his doll sitting naked on the couch is using the ‘toilet’. The ‘toilet’ being the globe. Then he tells us that his doll pooped, so we’re all giggling about how BeBe has pooped on the world.

Josie had been reading a Fancy Nancy book to Celia, Ewan had been carrying his baby in the baby carrier that is attached to his waist.

Last weekend the girls were inspired to set up a lemonade and cookie stand. The one from last year stands out positively in their memory (at least Josie’s). This year Celia needed to earn some money to buy herself a princess dress (because Mommy doesn’t buy those). I’m sure you’ll be seeing some more photos of that coming. She had most of the money but needed another $10. Josie is always interested in making more money, although isn’t one to spend it. She bought herself a dress too, but she had enough money already, this was just icing on the cake.

This year unlike last year, we bought the lemonade (Costco organic, well reviewed for those curious) instead of making it ourselves, but Celia and I got cracking early in the morning to make the cookies from scratch. We calculated we’d need to sell more than one batch of cookies if we sold them two for 50 cents, or we could try to charge more and might not sell enough. Celia opted for selling larger quantities at a lower price point. The weather was good, so after spending several hours baking, we headed down to our primo sales spot right on the bike path, near the dog park, and the soccer players. The girls agreed in advance they’d split the profits (once they paid me back for the supplies).

Lemonade was also 50 cents a (10oz) cup. Apparently the market supports a price point of $1 per cup because probably 75% of people buying paid us that much. The lemonade sold well, although not quite as fast as last year because it wasn’t quite so hot outside. We spent about two hours and in the end they made $34. The cookies were a tougher sell as a lot of people on the bike path are rather health conscious (they are out exercising after all!). Celia did well though making sure people knew we had homemade cookies and we sold about two thirds of them.

Then in the afternoon we moved our sale to my parents driveway in Lexington for an hour. We were all set up and had more goods to sell, so they invited us there. They promised thirsty bikers stop in front of their house regularly as it is at the top of the hill. Sales were drastically slower here but we discovered a different demographic that was very susceptible to ours sales tactics: guys out biking with girls they were looking to impress. What better way to show you’re a kind and family guy by stopping at some kids lemonade stand to support them! We also had one car even pull a u-turn to support the girls. Celia lost interest really quickly into the efforts in Lexington and went to play in the pool and Josie joined her before too long but overall they made out really well, even if they did squeeze their grandparents for money for their goods. I insisted that as the prime worker I deserved some free refreshments.

In the end they spent $27 on ingredients and made a profit of $34.25. Celia learned a lot about sales tactics and both practiced their customer service (like not putting your finger on the inside of the cup or spilling the drink on your customer). I remember why I only agree to do this once a year. Maybe next year we should sell pretzels instead, salty not sweet.

Ewan is quickly approaching his two year old mark and has become quite a little boy, no longer a baby, despite what Celia may call him. He is off and running with big plans for his every moment. These days he’s constantly telling us what happened previously, what’s going on now, or what he wants. He mostly tell it in one word story lines and you have to guess the rest. Like “Park! Dog! Ball!” if we went to the park and played with a dog with a ball. He also has created his own joke as he tries to copy his sisters knock knock jokes. Here’s how it goes:

Ewan – “knock knock”

You – “Who’s there?”

Ewan – “Ahh Oooo”

You – “Ahh Oooo Who?”

Ewan – laughs hysterically, not understanding that he hasn’t finished the joke yet

Ewan always wants to be in motion, inside or out, generally out. He loves to play with all kinds of balls, from basket balls to base balls to bouncy balls, throwing, kicking and shooting. He is also very much in love with his bike and has learned how to glide on it already picking up his feet once he’s got some speed and balancing. He’ll play by himself for a little while, but each sport and game only lasts a short time before he’s onto something new. At the playground he’s climbing, jumping and swinging around on everything he can reach and he loves to dig in the sand.

At home inside he loves to dance around with his sisters. He wears the tutus, dresses and ballet shoes along with them dancing to the Frozen soundtrack. He commonly asks for Elsa and Anna by name and can point them out on all the products that you find around.

The last month around our house has been particularly exciting because they knocked a house down on our street and are tearing up Mass Ave. to rebuild it. So we’ve been watching all the huge trucks knock down the house, destroy the road and reconstruct it from the foundation up. We have spent many hours over the last few weeks sitting on the ground across the street from the house watching them work, digging, pouring, nailing and sawing. They’ve just put the roof on, and all the walls are up so I imagine it won’t be so exciting to watch much longer as they’ll be doing mostly inside work. But every couple of days I have to chase Ewan down the street to get him back when he decides he wants to watch ‘house’ instead of doing things like taking Celia to school.

With Ewan’s increased vocabulary he is very fond of telling everyone what he wants and what they should be doing. He’s very picky about who changes his diaper and puts on his shoes or cuts his pancakes. Sometimes we can oblige, and sometimes we can’t like when he wants his diaper changed by daddy during the day while Jordi is at work. He’s figured out some great stalling tactics along these lines.

At home he’s always very interested in what I’m doing and he loves to sweep and cook along side me now. He wants to stir, pour and measure. I can set him up for a good ten minutes of play by giving him two water cups, water and a rag to clean the spills while he practices pouring the water from one object to another. Also during quiet times he loves to sit with us all and make art with stickers, crayons, and markers. He just gained the dexterity to get some stickers unstuck from their sheet himself. Once he turns two I’ll start to teach him how to use scissors. He is very pour of his art work and immediately demands that it be put on the wall. Often though he comes along and deconstructs it later.

• Size/weight: 24 month clothes, need to weigh him
• Favorite food: breastmilk, cheese, pasta, blueberries
• Favorite toy: balls
• Favorite book: A Birthday For Cow (or he calls it ‘toot!’ because it’s the first word in the book)
• Favorite activity: throwing and jumping
• Sleeping: bedtime ~8:45; one short nap at 1:30; gets up 7am
• New skill: Riding the balance bike
• Teeth: 17 and more coming
• Vocalizations: Using two words together and telling stories

This year, Josie has been taking ballet classes all year long and this past weekend had her first ballet recital. She was a sailor in as part of the story “The Happy Prince.” Yeah, we had to look that story up too. She had a good time and was very brave performing, even though it was past her bedtime! Celia and Ewan came to watch her and support her as well and they were great, Ewan loved to clap and even watched the first half quite attentively. Josie had worked hard and knew her steps, these pics are from the rehearsal as that’s when we were told to take photos. I hope she was smiling for the real thing, but we were a bit far back to be able to tell. It was so much fun to see her up on stage, she went for it with gusto!

Again, big camera is broken. 🙁 Someone under 2 may have yanked it onto the floor and now the shutter and focus won’t work properly. But I caught a single shot of their team work striving to pop this old balloon. It didn’t end up working, but they had fun trying.

Well the big camera is broken, so the phone photo will have to do for now. Hanging out at my parents place having fun with the pool on one of the first hot days this year.