happiness is...

sitting in a dusk-darkened nursery holding your sleeping baby while sipping a glass of red wine.

mama. hand.

i took the boys for a walk this afternoon since there was still a half hour until dinner and i was running out of ways to be entertaining. plus hugh loves walking around the neighborhood pilfering flowers.

i mentioned the pilfering and collecting, right? because after a couple of blocks, he'll have picked 2 dandelions, a stick, a stalk of liriope and other assorted flowers and detritus. i always end up his pack mule, carrying the bounty.

towards the end of our walk he starts grabbing at the wilted assortment in my hand, but never grabbed anything and was just getting frustrated. i finally asked "hugh, just pick something, what do you want??"

"mama. hand."

getting my ducks in a row

huh. it's been awhile. there's even a whole new human in the house, henry.

time has flown in more ways the me just not updating. hugh starts pre-school tomorrow. how, exactly, did it happen that i have a child that is now old enough for pre-school? can't figure it out, but there it is.

in an effort to save time and space and to keep up to date, here's the latest on the two (!!) boys in a handy bullet-point list:

hugh

* still loves balloons and flowers. he can identify verbally the following: sunflowers, day lilies, zinnias, puff balls and tulips.
* loves, and i mean loves, bleu cheese. kid, you're two years old, from whence the exotic tastes? nevertheless, he asks for it a couple of times a day so i have a feeling that the artisanal cheese shop will be seeing quite a bit of us.
* his obsession with wearing pajamas and only pajamas is slowly waning. i just figured out today that he calls all pajamas 'red cars' after one of his pairs. must be some hugh-specific shorthand.

henry

* loves being naked. no, seriously. take the kid's clothes off and he giggles and smiles.
* still can't figure out how to burp on his own.
* has the cutest bald spot on the back of his head.
* loves to snuggle. unfortunately, he also likes to be held upright so the snuggling often results in a sore and tired upper arm from holding 15 lbs. of baby.