67% Occupancy Rate

As we recently mentioned, we needed to get a new carseat for Clara. We were a little concerned they wouldn't fit, so today Meghan took them to the highway patrol and got them installed. Though it wasn't easy, the trooper did get them all installed, so that is great news. Now we have three in the back seat of our car.  Tomorrow we need to be able to take Clara in the car, so today I got the straps sized correctly for her. Joshua wanted to be part of the fun, so he casually lounged in his seat while I got Clara's seat set up for her.

More

I have not really taught my kids baby sign language. I am not that type of person even with one kid, but with two I think it would definitely be too hard. Joshua can talk now anyhow so it isn't an issue. However, he does know the sign for "More". We think the Becks taught him this because we aren't sure where else he would have picked it up. It's really cute because everytime he asks for "More" (which is a word he knows), he also does the sign for it. Here he is requesting more peaches. The only bad thing is he is a little confused about what "more" means. He thinks it means that he would like "some", either as a second or first helping. So a fair amount of the time he asks for more when he hasn't had any and I have no idea what he wants and I ask him what he wants more of and he just says "More". So it can be a guessing game, but usually it's not too hard to figure out since he has a few favorites and is also open to suggestion.

Fringing Again

Although Meghan and I went to the Kansas City Fringe Festival a couple years ago and the several years before that, we weren't able to go last year (although it was because we were lounging in Hawaii and Vegas, so that wasn't a bad alternative).  This year we squeezed in the chance to go to one day of the festival, which was today.  We went to three different shows in three different venues, one of which was really great, and we then went out to eat at La Bodega afterward.  It was a really fun day, and hopefully we can do it again next year.

Good to the Last Drop

Joshua's a little more picky with food than he used to be, but some things never change, and ice cream is one of them.  Tonight we had homemade ice cream for dessert, and Joshua wanted to get every bit of his so much that he turned his bowl completely upside down.

New Haircut

Today I took Joshua with me to get his haircut when I went to get mine done. Jason had previously been taking him to a barber shop and they did a good job, but Jason just doesn't have the time to bring him on a regular basis as the barber shop's hours are limited. Last time he tried bringing him to Great Clips, which is where Jason goes, but it didn't turn out very well. Christa did an excellent job on his hair. She point cut it so that it could be shorter, but still keep his curl, and gave us some products to try too. As always, Joshua was pretty somber during the cut, but he seemed happy enough with the experience. And he got a fun kid cape, which he seemed interested in.

Delight with Dog Water

Terrence and Natalie have yet to master the art of getting a glass from the kitchen cabinet, filling it with water, and drinking out of it.  As a result, they're currently getting their hydration via a bowl of water on the kitchen floor.  Joshua has always been interested in the bowl of water, and we usually have to move it up to the kitchen counter when he's playing nearby to keep him from splashing in it, spilling it, and trying to pick it up and carry it around.  Recently we decided to make an effort to teach him to leave it alone, and we'd made decent progress in that area.  However, we now have another crawler in the house, and she happens to love water and especially the dog water bowl.  As soon as she sees it, even from across the room, she'll turbo-crawl straight there.  Usually we'll notice and pick it up in time, which makes her cry in sadness.  Today, though, I was distracted, and both kids made it to the bowl and started playing in it.  Before I moved it up to the counter, I snapped this picture of the two of them enjoying a quick forbidden splashing session.

In a Box

I am not a big fan of infant carriers as I find them heavy, unwieldy, and my kids hate them even though I see all these other kids who are just totally content in them, so not sure if ours is uncomfortable or what. They are really handy for the first couple of months when the baby sleeps so much, but it has been quite a few months since I have carried Clara anywhere in hers so we decided to upgrade her to a convertible car seat. We also plan to use the carrier for the new baby and, since our car is not huge and it is very difficult to fit three rear-facing carseats across one row in most cars, we wanted plenty of time to get the carseats installed in case we had to exchange one for a different style to make them fit. So today Clara's new carseat came. Joshua always gets really excited about packages even though they are rarely for him and today was no exception. And he actually got to play with the box for awhile, which he really enjoyed. Unfortunately, being empty, it wasn't quite sturdy enough to jump off of, which is his favorite thing to do, but he still had plenty of fun getting in and out of it and hiding in it.