female pattern baldness

Anja and I are both balding. Although Anja was born with a lot of hair, a bunch of the front and top fell off after a month or two. Now the hair has fallen out of the back part that touches the ground when she's laying down. She has this weird patch of hair at the top/back where a lot of men loose their hair and another stripe at the nape of her neck. It's a great look for spring. You will see it on the runways soon!

As for me, it seems to be the time when my hormones again make my life unpleasant by dislodging any hairs that didn't fall out over the past year. Gross. If you are visiting our house in the near future, please don't look at the tub drain!

whoosh!

What is up with the weather this year? It's freezing, then warm, then torrential rain, then hot, then rain again... I know this will be a real shock, but all these temperature changes, in combination with my germy kids, have resulted in me getting sick yet again. A week ago, we had a nice, albeit sleepless, weekend in Vermont, and upon returning to Boston I promptly got sick. I'm still under the weather (which is flooding rain, so being underneath it isn't all that great) but improved enough to complain about it.

In what feels like a lifetime ago, we were in Vermont skiing in t-shirts. Nate had a blast skiing on his first real hill, and was most excited that he not only snow skied, but water skied as well:


We also introduced Bumpa and Anja. That guy likes babies!!!

funny kids

Nate told us, "In very warm places people live in mud huts. In very cold places, like the North End, people live in snow houses called igloos." Although the weather patterns have been very odd this year, I hadn't realized that different Boston neighborhoods were experiencing such different weather phenomenon.

This photo of Anja is so similar to this one of Nate, and a little like this one (at the bottom).

it's raining it's pouring

We have had the weirdest weather recently. As you probably know, the weekend was filled with torrential rain that flooded the east coast. We actually weathered the weather quite well with only a little water in our basement. We did have a problem with our back door, however, and the water was pouring through the door (no, not under it, but through it.) This is prompting us to put renovating the back room of our house much, much higher on our list of priorities. In contrast, the past few days have been amazing - sunny skies in the 60s. Absolutely beautiful!

In addition to the woes of flooding, multiple days of rain turn our already high-energy three-year-old into a stir crazy monster. We tried to keep him occupied as best possible and took our final trip of the season to our local ice rink. Nate did GREAT and even skated on his own for a bit. And he said his favorite part of ice skating was falling down, which he is quite good at. We also spent some time pretending to be Kipper in his paddling pool (in our case, the bathtub).

Anja could have cared less about the rain, but seems to be enjoying the excersaucer. We're having trouble getting her to nap in her crib and/or pack and play, but she seems to find the exersaucer and the floor quite comfy. Whatever works!

34

Thad turned 34 again this year, and for his birthday he got a cold. Here's to 2010!

ode to the exploding diaper

Anja has an explosive poop at least once a day. She is definitely our little Super Pooper. My apologies to ABBA...

Anja's a super pooper
The smell is gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue
Like I always do
She's feeling like a number two

I was sick and tired, it's true
When I called you last night with the scoop
All she does is eat and sleep and poo
Wishing every poop was the last poop
So imagine my panic to hear it coming
Suddenly I feel a roar
And when I open up the snaps
I'm shocked and almost hit the floor

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Leaks are gonna find me
Yellow like the sun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Smelling, not much fun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She has an exploding bum

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
The smell is gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Like I always do (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She's feeling like a number two

Facing diaper mountains that transcend
Anything you could conceive
Part of a cycle that never ends
Once again she's got poop on her sleeve
There are moments when I think I'm going crazy
But it's gonna be alright
Everything will be so different
When wipes clean up this awful sight

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Leaks are gonna find me
Yellow like the sun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Smelling, not much fun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She has an exploding bum

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
The smell is gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Like I always do (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She's feeling like a number two

I hope I'm there when you arrive
The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive
Despite the poop way up her back
And on her feet
The trouble is tomorrow it will all repeat

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Leaks are gonna find me
Yellow like the sun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Smelling, not much fun (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She has an exploding bum

Anja's a super pooper (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
The smell is gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
Like I always do (su-pa-pa poo-pa-pa)
She's feeling like a number two

what?!

We are making our way through the five Ws, moving out of the "Why?" stage and into "What?!" Nate probably asks, "What?!" a minimum of twenty times daily. For me, it's far more wearing than "Why?" At least our Why conversations seemed to have a point, even when I could no longer answer the question.
"Why is the sky blue?"
"It has something to do with the wavelengths of the light reflecting off particles in the sky."
"Why are there particles in the sky?"
"Because little bits of things break apart."
"Why?"
"Over time things wear away and some stuff gets loose in the air and it floats around up there."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Because."
"Because why?"
"Uh... just because."
"But why?"

On the other hand, the Whats are just irritatingly redundant.
"What would you like to drink?"
"What?"
"What would you like to drink?"
"What?"
"I said, 'What would you like to drink?' Would you like milk?"
"What?"
"Would you like milk?"
"Milk?"
"Yes. Milk."
"What?"

For no apparent reason, when Nate says "what?" he uses a very similar intonation to The Office rap about Scranton. It's almost as if he says "whot?!" So now after the third or fourth "whot?!" Thad will chime in with, "the electric city!" This has turned into our own annoying version of Who's on First:
"What would you like to drink?"
"What?"
"What would you like to drink?"
"What?"
"The electric city!"
"What?"
"The electric city!"
"What's the electric city?"
"Scranton!"
"What?"
"The electric city!"
"What?"
"Scranton!"
"What? What's Spranton?"
"What? The electric city!"
"What?"

It's far more amusing when Michael and Dwight do it...