A New Kitchen

It's been a busy month or two.  The busy hasn't been so bad.  Sometimes you need that just as a good distraction for awhile.  My wife and I started a reorganization project and as part of that, decided to renovate our kitchen.  It needed it.  We hated it.  We decided to do this on an incredibly tight budget.  While still finishing off the last couple of things, I have to say that I am quite happy with it.

Really, though, why is a new kitchen so important?  I spend a lot of time there.  I love to cook.  My wife enjoys it too.  The kids like to help.  Maybe it's corny, but this was a big step for me in building that house I envisioned, and the family I pictured in it.  And as irritated as my wife and I can get with each other mid-project, we do these things well.

One of the first great moments in the new kitchen:  Isaac had to stay in the living room to clean up his toys so Avery and I went out to the kitchen to work on dinner.  We heard Mama tell Isaac he did a good job, then the familiar sound of little steps as he came out to join us.  Avery decided she wanted to go back in and see Mama.  But Isaac wanted her to stay in the kitchen, since he finally got to come out.  He was very upset, so Avery turned around and stroked his arm and told her "little buddy" that she wasn't going anywhere.  He stepped closer and leaned against her and the tears stopped.

Of course, then they proceeded to drive me crazy by playing with stuff off the shelves and asking, every two minutes, what we were doing.  Yeah, I loved it.

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Feelings

I've been feeling down lately.  It's the weather.   The holidays are over.  And it still feels like I have a hundred things to do.  The feelings are there every year.  I really do hate cold weather.  It has me thinking a warmer climate seems like a great idea.

It's time to take a break from those feelings.  At this very moment, I couldn't be happier.  I'm home from work.  I've started dinner.  The three greatest things I can imagine are peacefully taking a nap upstairs.  The cat's hanging out with me until they get up.

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Napping

I rarely get to nap.  The kids don't cooperate, I have too much to do, or my body just doesn't allow me.  Yesterday was the exception.  Devon left to go do some shopping.  I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and Isaac was already napping.  Devon had the brilliant idea to see if Avery would take a nap with me.

We went upstairs and she got ready and climbed into "Mama and Daddy's" bed.  She had two books with her.  She pulled up the covers while she waited for me.  I climbed into bed.  She mentioned the books.  I asked if she wanted to go to sleep.  It was about three minutes before we were both out.

I woke up almost two hours later.  Isaac was still sleeping.  Avery's foot was planted directly on my chest.  She was twisted around with the covers half off.  I pulled them up and let her sleep a little while longer.

The foot was fine where it was.

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Tea Party for Three

It was a combination tea and pizza party.  Avery was the host.  Isaac was helping.  I was invited.

Some nights, bedtime is fun.  Others, it's a chore.  This particular night felt a little more like a chore.  It was probably just my mood.  I was rushing through the process.  Pajamas, brush your teeth, let's go get a book.  Blah blah blah.  Then, Avery offered me pizza.

There are few things in the world I enjoy more than pizza.  Now, this was the plastic variety, but I've probably had worse.  It would be easy to just turn her down and say put the toys away.  But I decided it was worth a moment to sit down and eat pizza with the kids.

I got my pizza in a frying pan.  Avery and Isaac both ate theirs out of colanders.  I guess that means mine was probably greasier.  We drank out of tea cups, although I think it was actually coffee.  Avery did a few refills and talked about the pizza.  Isaac, seemingly oblivious got up and walked around, the way Isaac does.  I thought he had lost interest, before I realized he was returning with a bottle for each of us.  It was his contribution to the meal.  I think mine was a Coke.

I love pizza.  I love Coke.  And I'm a big fan of coffee.  Maybe they just knew it had been a long day, and I needed all three.

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Spicing Things Up

Last night my wife mentioned she likes cooking with me.  I didn't respond to her right away, mostly because I started thinking about how we used to do that more.  That, and I was really focused on my peppers at the time.

I love to cook with my wife too.  It's something we've done since the first time she came to my apartment.  One of the first meals was stir fry.  It was quite good.

We don't do it as much as we used to; the kids seem to get in the way of that one.  I hope we do it more.  It's probably the most peaceful and relaxing way I can think to spend my time.  And we're quite good at it too.

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The Little Things

Some of the little thing are hard to turn into long stories.  It doesn't make them any less important.

Watching CSI the other day Avery said, "He's dead.  Somebody killed him."  She's three.

This morning I walked into the kids' bedroom to Avery building our house with blocks, and Isaac yelling for Daddy to pick him up.  It was a perfect moment.

Devon suggested we make Jerk Turkey for Thanksgiving.  It reminded me, yet again, why I love her so much.  No, it's not just that we're both foodies.  She followed it up with a joke about jerking my meat.  But it's not just the sense of humor either.  She just fits perfectly with me.  That's the best way I can put it.

Isaac barely made a mess last night for dinner.  That's incredible.  He's growing up.  But not really.

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On the Floor

Every once in a while, I lay down on the living room floor.  It's not terribly comfortable, and sometimes I have to make room amongst the toys to find a spot.  Of course, there's one main reason I do this.  Climbing on Daddy is fun.

Yesterday, I laid down on the floor.  Isaac was busy playing with Mama, but Avery immediately came over and sat down on my back.  It didn't last long.  She explained that she was going to go get us pillows.  She came back with one pillow and a blanket.  I was told to raise my head so she could put the pillow down, then she immediately covered me up with the blanket.  She did the same for herself.  About this time, Isaac made his way over.  Ave immediately jumped up to make sure he got the same service.

Then, we all slept.

Okay, sleeping in our house isn't really sleeping (not in this context anyway).  It involves each of us making the sound "honk shoe" as though we're snoring.  This is what we did, for the next three minutes.  There are few things cuter than Isaac's newly discovered version of this phrase.  It's probably closer to an actual snore than any of the rest of us.

So, we slept.  It was the best sleep I had all week.

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