Priorities? I brought home a ton of work to do this weekend and it's 11:45 Sunday night and I haven't touched a bit of it. And I'm in meetings all day all week so I don't know when I'll get caught up. Seriously, I'm only 4 weeks into the new job and I think I must be 4 weeks behind. But what am I sitting here doing? Editing pictures and blogging, of course. Because the public has a need to know (and see) what's been going on.

There were some comments after the last post about the home-made passport photos. Just so you know, anyone can take their own passport photo, as long as it meets all the specifications about proportions and everything. But I didn't do it myself because I'm cheap (although it was only 20 cents vs. $8), I'm just really vain and didn't want to carry around another horrible mug shot for 10 years. So if you take it at home, you can re-do it as many times as you want until you get a shot you like. This was the final choice out of about 20 Sean shot...

We took the boys to the neighborhood park on Friday night (so Hayden could practice baseball before the big game Saturday). This won't mean much to most of you, but the light was absolutely perfect so I of course chased Trevor around with the camers while he was playing. I rarely show him in black and white, because you miss the blue eyes, but I thought he looked sweet this way...

Saturday morning, the Cubs had a game, and of course Hayden's fan club was there waiting eagerly for us to arrive. They've made it to every single game before we have.

Hayden demonstrated his skills (which if you notice, don't include really fast running). But according to him, he "smoked one into the outfield." I enjoy watching him celebrate every time he crosses home plate.

I took Trevor for a haircut today. As we were getting ready to go out, Hayden kept asking where we were going. I avoided answering for a while because I knew he'd want to go with and it's hard enough to take Trevor for the haircut and then drag him grocery shopping, let alone bring Hayden too. Finally, he wore me down and I said "We're going to the store." His response "Are you going to sell my brother to someone?"

Where do these ideas in his head come from?

Today was a big milestone in our house and Trevor graduated from the crib into a toddler bed. For those of you who are wondering, yes he's still in the "nursery" and hasn't graduated to a real room yet. But he was pretty darned excited to have the new bed.Hayden stopped running for a millisecond and decided to act sweet for me. But it only lasted a millisecond so I had to act fast...

The new bed experience was the big adventure for the afternoon and Trevor already showed us how to jump on it and climb over the rails. Hayden tried to demonstrate the true purpose of the bed, lying down and resting...

Hope that satisfies your curiousity for now, because I'm exhausted and it looks like it's going to be a LONG week. So I'm going to give my bed a whirl.

Things we don't know how to answer with a straight face:

Hayden to Sean: "Daddy, what are these squishy things?" (pointing to his own nipples)

Hayden to Sean: "Daddy, what do you think about Mommy without her clothes on?" (yes, he's probably too old to be seeing me in the buff)

A picture...

I can't figure out how to update the picture on my profile, so I'm going to have to post it here to see if I can link back to this spot. Sean had to take some home pictures of me for my passport and the boys decided to climb on my lap for a shot or two...

By the way, I realize I've been behind in posting, but I was traveling this week and couldn't get my laptop to connect from my hotel. There are tons of updated baseball pics on the link at the right if you're interested.

The plates...Last Friday was Sean's parent-helper day at Hayden's preschool. If your parent-helper day is the last day of the schoolweek, you have to bring the kids' plates home to run through the dishwasher. There are 16 plates total, 4 of each color (red, blue, yellow, and orange) of Ikea plastic plates like these:

Somehow, we lost one of the plates and so we only had 15 plates. Each plate has a child's name written on the back and we wanted to figure out whose plate was missing. We only had 3 blue plates. So Hayden says "My plate is blue, Jackson's plate is blue, Nathan's plate is blue, and Thomas' plate is blue." Lo and behold, we had blue plates for each child he named except Nathan. We decided to test this plate memory a little further. What color is Amelie's plate? "Yellow"...Correct...What color is Rachel's plate?..."Orange"...Correct...and so on and so forth until he had correctly told us what color plate every single child uses. Why in the world would someone know what color plate each of his 15 classmates uses? I had a very good memory when I was younger, but this kid blows me away. Need to take the little Rainman to Vegas to count some cards at the blackjack table.

Easter, etc...The boys had a fun Easter. It wasn't really tradition in my family to hunt for eggs, I think due to the fact that my mother forgot where she hid an egg one year until it was really rotten and stinky (yes, we hid real {hardboiled} eggs, not candy-filled eggs). So our tradition was more around hunting for your well-hidden Easter basket full of goodies.

Hayden found a long-awaited video in his basket, along with some pajamas, toys, and a tiny bit of candy. Trevor found a new bunny to love. As if the nighttime routine wasn't getting ridiculous enough. Put him in the crib. He says "Bo-Bo", and you give him the pacifier. He says "blankie" and you cover him up. He says "blankie" again and you give him a blankie to hold. "Ernie" and you hand him his Ernie doll..."bird"..."panda"...now we've got a bunny. It's like being a surgical nurse. "Scalpel"...."Retractor"..."Ernie"..."bunny"...

He found another type of bunny to hold also. The purple peep bunny...

And then he found out the purple peep bunny wasn't as cuddly as the brown bunny and would be more lovable in his tummy...

My big boys both wore their suits for church. How handsome...

And the little guys got a trip to Hermann park in the afternoon. Peek-a-boo through the portholes of the boat-like playset is always fun...

And yes Vito, my kids were wearing fleece pajamas earlier because it's colder in Houston than in Budapest. But at least we can get all the peanut butter we want in our grocery stores and there are no wild boars in our neighborhood (although the guy across the street did murder his roommate and live in the house with the rotting body in the trunk of the car in the garage for 6 weeks, and was let out on bail to come back home, but it's not a wild boar).

Embarrassment...My son has finally reached the age where he's starting to say things that embarrass me in public. Anyone have any advice on how we're supposed to react to these situations?

In the grocery store, Hayden sees a man with about half his face covered in a large dark birth mark.
Hayden (loud and clear): Mommy, what does that man have on his face?
Me: A birth mark, kind of like the mole I have on my arm. But it isn't nice to shout out when somebody looks different from us.

In Nordstrom, after almost running into a man while acting wild in the store:
Me: Hayden, be careful.
Hayden: Why, because I almost knocked over that OLD man?
Man (about 45 I'd guess): I'm not THAT old!
Me (sheepishly): Sorry.

In the bathroom at the movie theater:
Me: Wash your hands.
Hayden swipes his hands under the water
Me: You need to use soap Hayden
Hayden (loud): But that lady didn't use soap Mommy, she just ran her hands under the water.
Me: You just take care of yourself and never mind what anyone else is doing.

It's obvious we must be due for some long talk about manners, but I'm not sure it would even make a difference. He's just at that curious, running-commentary-on-everything-I-see stage. So I'm not sure I can really reign him in, so if you see us on the street, run and hide or my son be sure to point out your most embarrassing feature.

Scary Bunny?

We took the kids to the mall yesterday for the traditional picture with the Easter Bunny. We called ahead to make sure the bunny wasn't on a 2-hour break (like last year when we showed up) and they said they'd be there all day, no breaks. Of course when we showed up, he was on a break (gets pretty hot in that suit apparently and he needed a "health" break to cool off). But the kids were pretty well behaved while we were waiting:But when it's showtime, we get the classic toddler reaction from Trevor. Notice him hanging from Sean's shirt on the left side with the toddler death-grip:
Nothing would calm him, so the only shots we got were of him screaming his head off:

Hayden, meanwhile, continued his loving relationship with large costumed creatures (so far, he loves Chuck E. Cheese, Chicken Little, Mickey Mouse, and the Easter Bunny). Afterwards, he said "Trevor shouldn't be scared of the Easter Bunny. He's really soft."

We took the kids over to the Williams' Tower Water Wall afterwards and let them run around for a bit. Trevor ended up with a skinned nose and skinned knees, but enjoyed himself thoroughly. You can see both boys below with their feet off the ground as they play a little chase:

Trevor tested his balance walking down a ramp into Sean's arms. He wanted to do it over and over and over again:

Hayden got the lecture about how he's older so he's supposed to behave and listen to Mommy. This actually led to me being able to get a single picture of him almost sitting still:

Finally, I turned the timer on and tried a family shot:

All in all, a nice day.

Catching up a little...I'm really behind in pictures, but here are a few. There were many bittersweet lunches in my last few weeks at the old job. I actually think I may be burned out on eating desserts! Does that seem possible. But Michele made sure I was never alone for lunch in my last weeks and tried to make sure I never spent a dime.

Birthday lunch with the girls:

Cake at home with the boys. I know you wish you could have a cool tiara like me...

Lunch with Logan (yes, Michele even came on her day off):

A few more of Logan because the dimples are too cute:

Another lunch with the girls. Getting sentimental with Michele...
Getting silly with Shelley...

Last day lunch with Michele and my pal Buck. One of us has had too many margaritas in this picture. Hint: the person who only has 4 hours left in their career throws caution to the wind. Poor Buck is sober and will be left behind to fend for himself in the hell I used to call my job.

OK, that should do it for now. T-ball pictures are updated and can be accessed with the link on the right side.

Good things, bad things...The grass is always greener on the other side, but after one day on the new job I have pros and cons to report:

+ Took only 12 minutes from my garage to the parking lot
+ I've been assigned a "buddy" to help me get oriented. Isn't that nice?
+ The cafeteria will make pasta to order. I had penne with broccoli and mushrooms today. Yum!
+ They seem to have some degree of confidence in me and actually have high expectations that I'll make a contribution to the group.
+ They had some study done that shows the group is understaffed relative to other similar groups. So no plans to chop heads anytime soon.

- I was very busy today and it doesn't seem like I'll be able to keep up with all my internet surfing during regular business hours.
- I'm in a cube for the first time in my life.
- Cube life means I can't make smoochy talk (or yell at) my honey-man during the day. I'll have to convert to this ridiculous instant messaging that's all the rage these days.

Well, that's about it for the day 1 report. Except I don't know what I'm going to do with all my freetime that used to be spent commuting. Maybe I'll actually have to feed my kids something non-fast food once in a while.