Hair

Will's got the cutest little school-boy haircut but getting a good picture of him is like trying to photograph the Loch Ness monster. Will, show me how you brush your teeth!

Look at these eyes folks! As I've said from the beginning - those eyes are going to get him IN and OUT of a lot of trouble. (Attn Will of the future - ignore that last sentence and don't get in trouble to begin with.)
Will's latest obsession is all things robots. This robot will shoot you with it's yaser. Will has a problem pronouncing "L's" right now. My favorite is when he comes over to me and lovingly asks if he can sit in my yap. giggle giggle

Reina's locks are growing. She has much more hair than Will had at this age. It's also thick and has a little bit of curl. She clearly needs a mom equipped with a comb but if anyone has seen me lately, they'll understand that combing is not real high on my priority list.

Whatcha looking at mom? Never seen a baby with a full-size spoon shoved in her mouth?

And you are??? This is her regal, dismissive look and reason #5,342 why we shouldn't have named her QUEEN.

This is Reina's version of peek-a-boo. Close enough.

Okay, photo session is getting borrrrring.
Take my chupee and get that camera out of my face. Woman.

Finally, have you seen those Your Baby Can Read commercials? Well, my baby can read upside down and backwards!

Too tired for anything but photos with pithy captions

It's been a long week here at the Pauley household. Reina had ear infections. Will barfed twice at our friend's house while we were there for dinner. Glenn barfed at our house a few nights later. Reina had a tummyache/earache/personality disorder that resulted in her requiring my constant company from 2 a.m. until dawn last night. I'm sore from doing exercise videos. The wind is howling and there's not enough chocolate in the house. But we've got pictures of kiddos.

Reina's new favorite place to play? Her brother's room. Lots of little tiny toys, perfect size for jamming in your mouth. All sorts of stuff that's usually off-limits when he's in the room. "No no baby! That's my _______ (insert name of toy that is rarely played with until Reina finds it interesting)!" It's a picture of the elusive Will Pauley! He got a haircut about 30 minutes after this picture was taken. It was much needed. Reina's new favorite toy? The toilet. Hours and hours of enjoyment. Here she is reenacting what her Dad did all night. I don't think he had a smile on his face though. "What do you mean I don't get to splash my fingers in the water? It's so fun! Mom, you are so boring. Whatever."
Special thanks to Pop-pop and Grandma Hansen for coming to the rescue today. They took Will to lunch at Old McDonald's and took Reina for the afternoon so that I could nap and maintain some sense of sanity while Glenn recuperated from all the barfing. Love you guys!!

Girls' weekend in Phoenix ... and more sickness

Aunt Vicky, her friend Christine and Reina and I made a quick trip to Phoenix this weekend to run another half marathon. Aunt Vicky has a bad leg injury so she ended up shuttling Reina around and Christine and I ran the race. There are very few highlights to report from the weekend - besides the weather. Let's just say that you know it's going to be a long race when you get to the start line and realize that your Ipod's battery is dead. So instead I'll memorialize the trip with a quick picture of Reina. This was the point in the weekend where we all sat around topless watching tv .... okay so maybe just one of us did that. The ibuprofen bottle is mine, too.

Back on the homefront, Glenn played nursemaid to Will with the help of visiting Grandpa and Grandma Pauley. Will added a double ear infection to his cough from last week which made for a long weekend for his daddy and heaping helpings of mommy guilt for me as I left for Phoenix. Everyone survived and Will is feeling better. Reina now has the ear infection, which was very generous of her brother to share. This was one of those instances where I was hoping for ear infections because the alternative was a newly developed personality disorder for my girl.

Here's a quick pic of Will from happier times.

Sick day

It's a sick day at the Pauley household. Pretty much every virus known to man is currently floating around Will's preschool and when he went to bed last night with a fever, I thought it would be a wise move to keep him home today. He's got a bad cough (again) and is obviously feeling a little droopy since I was able to take a picture without him running out of the room. But other than that, he seems to be doing okay. Let's hope the rest of family stays that way!

Stand-up Girl

You want pictures of Reina standing up? Don't believe that she can do it? Well, here you go!

Reina loves these stairs. She hasn't quite figured out how to go up them (yeah!) but she'll stand there and go sideways until she gets frustrated with the lack of of forward movement. This is my current favorite outfit of her's (yes, Vicky. It's pajamas. But it's been too cold and she looks so cute!). Anyway, every time I get ready to leave the house with her in this outfit, she either spills something on it, poops enough to fill up one of the stripey legs or pees on it. Maybe she's trying to send me a message - "Mom, horizontal stripes make my butt look big."

Reina has also decided that the dishwasher is super fun. All those sharp things to play with and dishes that make loud noises when they hit the floor. Good times.

Finally, Reina tried to taste a little freedom today. It was the first day in a long while that was actually warm enough to leave the front door open for a few minutes. Reina couldn't resist the big window and view outside. She happily played with the door until I started to feel self-conscious about the heating bill and cruelly shut it down.
Stay warm out there!

Stuff that really should be in their baby books

1. Reina can now pull herself up to a standing position. Whether it's her crib, the baby gate or our sharp, pointy coffee table, the girl loves to stand. She also claps along to Patty Cake, sways back and forth when someone sings or there is music on the tv and waves bye-bye (about five minutes after you've said "say bye-bye" several times.)

2. Reina and Will are playing together more and more. Well, maybe the term "playing together" is a little optimistic. Basically it involves Will working on something, Reina racing over there, Will yelling "No no baby that's mine!" and Reina sticking as many of the toys in her mouth as she can. But every once in a while, they both sit in the same place long enough for me to get a picture.

3. Will's new favorite phrase is "Right, Mom?" As in, "We don't shoot guns at people. Right, Mom?" "If I'm naughty, I get a spanking. Right, Mom?" I love how he's bypassed 'mommy' and gone right to 'Mom." What's next, Lucy? Hey lady?

4. Will has a new best friend. His name is Buzz Lightyear. I wasn't paying attention this summer when Toy Story was on sale. Now it's "in the vault" or whatever term it is they use to make buying kids movies really tough. Thanks Pixar. In the meantime, we've borrowed the video from Heather's House of Movies. Thanks Heather!

5. Reina loves to walk around while holding on to our hands. She's getting steadier on her feet and she's quite proud of herself. The biggest problem is that now she likes to stop and play with stuff while she's walking around but she doesn't want you to stop holding her up. So basically, she wants a little servant to follow her around, help her walk, and find interesting things for her to mess with. We'll be advertising that job vacancy soon. Anyone interested? The salary is weak and the supervisor is a tyrant. But it's good, steady work. The supervisor is pretty darn cute too.

On a non-baby-book-related note, I made Sauerbraten and Spaetzle for New Year's Day dinner. It was good but I'm a horrible dinner organizer. The sauerbraten was done about 30 minutes before I even started the spaetzle. I totally forgot to cook anything else and I spent about 10 minutes fishing giant lumps of flour out of the gravy. Yum.

Sauerbraten:

Spaetzle: Kitchen aftermath:

Happy New Year!!