We're super! How are you?

Atlanta weather is completely strange. After what seemed like perpetual cold, we had a 60 degree day today. Linden and I spent the afternoon in the park, pulling the wagon around. She is absolutely obsessed with dogs, our own included. On a day like today, the park is full of dogs and their owners. Linden was bound and determined to kiss EVERY ONE.
"Mommy, kissy dog-dog? Kissy? KISSY?? MOOOMMMYYY!! KISS-SSYY DOG-DOG??!!" It was the neverending refrain of the afternoon. Some dog owners were happy to let Linden slobber all over their pooches (and vice versa), some warned us to steer clear. Luckily, everyone was amused at the little pigtailed kissy-monster.

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day we joined our friends the Millers and the Frilingoses for breakfast at West Egg. We had a great time!

Erin and Rybolt at our HUGE table.

All the stinkers: Baikal, Rybolt, Eli, Linden, Jack and Paul

Eli worked hard on a coloring page. Serious business.

Paul

Jack and Tim count pencils. Paul had the right guess!

Linden's 21 month check up was this morning. Healthy and smart, she's 28.2 pounds, 35.5 inches. She took her immunizations like a champ, too. Way to go big girl!

I have mentioned this before but it never ceases to entertain our kids: the patio in our backyard often gets clogged after a hard rain. The kids think that the giant puddle it creates is the most fun feature of our yard.
Now that Linden is old enough to enjoy it, I like putting them in slickers and rainboots to see what they'll do in the water and mud.

We are at the park every time the weather is within a decent range (and sometimes when it isn't as proven by the day we went to the park during Snowpocalypse 2011--desperate times). It is crazy to think of how many pictures I have taken of my kids at this park over the last five years.
I'm pretty sure this was the first one, April 2007, Eli was 6 or 7 months old.


Last December, I took advantage of a beautiful day to take a few of both kids:

You may have heard that we had a little snow "event" in the beginning January. Now, I am a native Atlantan and I've lived through a few little snows but I've never seen anything like this. The Yo-Sims were trapped inside for along long time but we managed to have a great time. Here are a few shots of our exploits.

It snowed while we were asleep!!

Daddy and Eli doing a little pre-emptive shoveling. It didn't work. We still had a skating rink in the backyard.


And then there were cookies, of course!

Everyone helps



Decorating and eating!


These pictures don't really tell much about the fun we had outside, sledding, snowball (ice ball, really) throwing. We also made box forts inside, had dance parties, read lots of books, watched lots of movies, played lots of games. The ice storm was an inconvenience, for sure, but we ended up having a really good time and spending a lot of quality time together.

Enough about the rugrats!

I have been given the generous gift of a three-month sabbatical this summer, May-July. The family and I will be traveling around, visiting people we love. While we do this, I am going to be working on a photo project about people's hands, the Eucharist and how we respond tot he call to "be the hands of Christ" in the world.

I am also running the San Francisco Marathon on July 31.

What?!?

Back in October, I injured my knee. Not too bad, nothing to worry about, but I did have to take some time off of running. I just started back in the last couple of days (great timing, the weather has been atrocious) and so far, I feel pretty good. I've had two 30 minute runs. On one hand, I am so glad that I was able to do those two with no pain. On the other hand, I am so aware of how far I have to go. I've run a half before and that was a big milestone, but a marathon? I am terrified that I'm not going to make it and at the same time aware that I am so stubborn that I'll kill myself trying.

In another couple of months, I am going to start a sabbatical blog that will tell stories of our travels and will serve as a journal of my marathon training.

Rats! So much for blog-a-day February. I can't believe I already forgot one!

A recent conversation in the car.

Eli: Mommy, I am the handsomist guy in the whole world.
Me: Oh? Really? I think you're pretty handsome. But there are other handsome guys, too.
Eli: Nope, I am the handsomist.
Me: How nice for you. Who told you that you are the handsomist guy in the whole world?
Eli: No one. I just looked in the mirror.

Eli had an awesome birthday last September. It is absolutely shocking to me that he is 4 years old. At his request (with some prompting, if I'm honest), we had a pirate birthday party complete with a treasure hunt and a pirate ship cookie cake. Pictures are saved on a hard drive somewhere. I have no idea if I'll ever find them again.

The truth is I love putting together birthday parties for my kids. I really enjoy thinking about the possibilities of party favors and games, decorations and cakes. I think kids' parties can do things that grown up parties can't, like request their guests to dress up in pirate gear! Arrrgh!

In an effort to recycle, I figured Eli would be a pirate for Halloween a month later. The costume was already all put together. Easy-peasy, right? Kevin had the great idea to make a parrot costume for Linden so she could be the parrot to his pirate and they could ride together in the wagon at the neighborhood parade.

Well. Eli saw Linden's parrot costume and decided that he actually wanted to be a parrot instead. So I made a second parrot costume, in a larger size.

Then Linden screamed her head off when we tried to put on HER parrot costume. So we put her in a tiny little pirate dress with Eli's big hat. and Eli wore the big parrot costume. She was the pirate and he was the parrot. It was strange but it worked. Every one was happy.

(thanks to the Millers for the photo.)

Aaaaaaannnd... We're back!

It has been a long long time since I posted on the blog. It is both hard to keep up and hard to quit. I'm going to try a blog-a-day February and see if this is worth keeping up for a while longer or if I need to find a way to archive what I've written and close it down.

It is totally impossible to summarize the last six months. We've had all manner of holidays and birthdays, trips and celebrations. I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks working on some back logging of the last few months, hopefully recalling some of the really funny stories these amazing and lovely kids have provided for us.

The short version of the last few months is this: we've got an amazing, wonderful and abundantly blessed family. We are totally smitten with our kids and we're in a sweet, sweet time of life. The grownups in the house are working really hard but we love our jobs. It is bittersweet because working away from home means that we're not at home to spend every moment with Eli and Linden, but the time we do spend together is really charmed. It is a good life. I look forward to documenting more of it.