Why moms go deaf

Every week Isa goes to a friend's house while I'm in the office. Every other week I return the favor and watch my friend's boys (ages 5 and 2.5) while she's working.

They are wonderful little guys and the three kiddos really interact more like brothers and sisters than just friends a this point. It's an amazing arrangement- free childcare for both of us and a day-long playdate for the little ones.

Anyhoo.... Here is a snippet of how a good day looks- and SOUNDS- when they get together. This particular afternoon, they were giving a performance and I was the audience. It was followed by a parade which was pretty much what you see in the video, just done walking around the house. Oddly enough, despite the decibel level, this sort of child noise doesn't bother me nearly as much as electronic toy noise.

Got Hair?

Everyone knows that Isa B sure does!

When I met her at the ripe old age of 6 months, she already had enough hair for little tiny ponytails on the top of her head.

Within a few months, it was long enough to all go into two ponytails.

Now it's long enough to all go up in a big, poofy ponytail on the top of her head. When I make the effort to braid her hair after putting it in two ponytails, the braids are nearly 6 inches long. When I comb it out during bath time, her wet hair reaches down to her waist! (I have a picture of that somewhere, but can't find it....)

And what does all this hair mean? Why- LOTS of hair accessories, of course!!!

Today I decided to re-organize them and was shocked at just how many she has. There are:

56 plain barrettes

41 fancy (bows, twirly ribbons, etc) barrettes

9 headbands

15 rubberbands with fancy ends (plastic balls or flowers)

15 terry cloth bands with attached bows

7 butterfly clips in assorted sizes

(And a box of tiny colored elastics for braids- too numerous to count!)

Here they all are:

Now where in the world am I going to put them????

And the Bad Blogger Award goes to....

ME!

5 or 6 weeks since my last post? Seriously? I hate when huge chunks of time simply fall away without my noticing them.

And the saddest thing is that there really isn't a compelling reason for the silence. Well maybe there is. Life here continues to move along at about the same pace. I am a big fan of stability and routine but it admittedly doesn't make for the best blog material. There were days I wanted to pull up the blog and thought "but what am I going to say?". Taken as a whole, our life is pretty mundane. Perhaps I ought to just post a single funny Isa quote each day. Because there are always entertaining things coming out of her mouth!

Probably the only interesting that happened in the last month was that we kicked the Find-A-Preschool campaign into high gear. Isa was on the waiting list with 1 preschool, I applied to another (haven't heard back), and a third flat out said there would be no morning openings. It wasn't looking promising. Luckily I belong to a Yahoo group for parents in my neighborhood and got a post about a new preschool opening up. The provider was doing part-time daycare but as her daughter was now 2 1/2, she was planning to transition into a preschool. I immediately responded that we'd love to come have a look. The visit was a huge success. I really felt like we were old friends just having a playdate with our children. And so I jumped at the chance to reserve a spot for Isa. It's truly ideal- easily within walking distance of the house, from 8:30-12:30, and only 3 days a week (which had proved impossible to find in our neighborhood). And, the preschool is starting up on April 9th! In the very near future I'll have free time 3 days a week and I'm just not sure what to do with myself.

I have taken barely any photos in the last couple months, which is really pathetic. And, as it is already past midnight as I type this, I'm not going to take the time to load them from the camera and then onto the blog tonight. But I promise it won't be another 6 weeks before I get them up. :)