Miscellaneous Somethings on a Sunday Night

Nora is learning new words at a fast and furious pace lately. Some of her latest include "sah-we" (sorry), "bay" (bread) and juice (er, juice). She calls my dad, "bakka," but looks at you like you're crazy if you repeat the word back to her. Must sound like grandpa in her head. Add these to her current repertoire that includes such old favorites as boots, milk, walk, okay, hot and no, and she's quickly becoming a petite master communicator. Owen often quizzes her by asking her to repeat words after him, and though I'm amazed by some of the ones she gets right, it's also funny to hear something like "lion" come out a "shiz ne ma."

Tonight, about an hour after bedtime, I went upstairs and noticed Owen's bedroom light on. As I got to the top stair, it quickly turned off and when I went into his room, I discovered him laying in bed with stickers all over his face, which he pleaded with me to leave on. Oh-kay...

It's a landmark weekend in our household. For the first time, we have a brand new couch in our living room. As in, it's our first new couch ever. It's weird to think that, a week before my 36th birthday, I'm just now getting a new couch, but first we were poor and then we had a baby who threw up on everything, and then another baby, and suddenly it's a decade later and we still have a hand-me-down in our living room. They were fine hand-me-downs, but it was time (especially considering our son's recent foray into couch arm art with a black marker, a transgression that resulted in his first real punishment ever -- no art supplies for a week. The fact that he's in school all day with access to a limitless supply of taxpayer-funded crayons and markers probably dampened the verdict's impact somewhat, but hey, we did our part.)

Today, we went bike shopping for Owen's first two-wheel bicycle (with training wheels). He was riding them around the store like he's been doing it for years. Then he wanted to try out the four-wheeler in the display nearby. Ah, no. Nora had four-wheelers on the brain, too, and hopped right up onto the Barbie four-wheeler on display. Seriously, a Barbie four-wheeler?! (and for the non-parents out there who may have never witnessed these things, they are $300-400 electric, pint-sized four-wheelers...you know, because kids need these kinds of things).

Watched the movie Once, which I would recommend to anyone. What an unassumingly beautiful and wonderful picture.

We have a busy week ahead. Parent-teacher conferences, two birthdays, two birthday parties (one for Owen and one for his classmate who was born the day before him, and at the same hospital. That they ended up in the same class at a southside school is just one of those weird coincidences that makes Milwaukee seem not really that big), cookies and cupcakes to make and a whole crapload of work-related shenanigans. I'll be happy for Friday, which I'm taking off to spend with my birthday boy, who has the day off of school.