Kids are funny.

 We get a lot of this look lately.

I am having the hardest time getting Henry to look at me for pictures lately 

so I've been busting out a lot of my photography tricks to get a little bit of eye contact.

Before lunchtime today I thought I'd go outside and take a few photos of Nelle playing on this cloudy, muggy day as it's been a while since I shot in this light, plus she's almost nine-months and it feels like I haven't gotten any recent shots of her at this stage.  And she has a new trick...clapping.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I plop her down on her blanket, older brother is living up to his nickname.

 

Ham.

For the record, he's actually been quite sweet with her more times than not this week, and she could not be more infatuated with him.  

Although sometimes his glee comes on a little strong, and her tolerance wears a little thin.

He looooves squishing her cheeks.  Where do they get this stuff?

 

I'm so, so glad they have each other.

I have no doubt he will always make her laugh.

And she will always be there cheering him on.

Yesterday morning I found myself sprinting to our front door with Henry pittering and pattering behind me as fast as he could,
grinning ear-to-ear because...

...the trash truck was coming.  

You would think I had screamed, "Santa Clause!!" (or Willie!! because Henry knows way more about our favorite Wildcat than the 'ol jolly fellow)
the way he scampered to get a look at the almighty trash truck across the street.  

The things I find myself doing as a mother these days are in no way what I had dreamed up when Andrew and I prayed and wished and longed for the chance to do parenthood together.  They are hilarious, and trying, and exhausting, and belly-laugh good, and sentimental, and fulfilling,
and better than expected.

This week...

...Henry saw a school bus as we were out running errands. 
"Bus!" 
"Yes, Henry, that's a school bus."  
-pause-
"I wanna go school." 

Oh my gosh, my heart just broke a little bit.  Don't grow up so fast.  I'm not ready for you to do that yet.

...Nelle had her first ice cream cone.  Because she's eight months and should?  Or because that's one of the perks of being the second child. 
Your parents aren't quite the rule-followers they once were with your older brother.

...Henry asked me if I had a penis while we were at the pool.

...Nelle thought about crawling for a hot second, but decided she'd rather just reach for us to pick her up
because girlfriend is too precious to crawl right now.  Her words, not mine.

...Henry tried on my hot pink lipstick while I was busy feeding his sister.  

(And it was totally his color.)

...We went took Franklin to the vet for his check up and surely gave the vet tech a free dose of birth control with our own personal zoo in the 8'x8' exam room.  And hosted dinner with our neighbors on Tuesday night.  And went to Target.  And two banks.  And the park.  And the pool (three times!).  And pizza at the pool.  And a truck ride.  And to play in the fountains.  And on walks.  And cleaned the house twice, emptied the dishwasher five times,
and put away toys one billion times.

And we made it to Friday.  Friday evening with both kids tucked in tight even.

We've had our moments this week, and par for the course,
there have been A LOT of timeouts lately,
but this week I choose to remember all of this instead.

(If you follow me on Instagram, you caught a glimpse of most of this already, but if not, you can follow my little zoo @aliloureemoore.)

Happy weekend to all!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when the weather changes from summer to fall to (gasp!) winter and Henry can't dart out the backdoor on his own to explore our yard like he has all summer.  Our little sliver of the great outdoors has been his playground for countless hours the past several months.  

It seems impossible that in only a few short months we will be cheering for our Midwest holiday temperatures to get above 40 degrees...

not even half of what our highs are supposed to be all of this week in the middle of August. 

He has taken full advantage of learning how to twist the lock open past the click and has walked out on his own so many times that he's finally learned to (almost always) shut the door after him...usually dragging Franklin up from a mid-day snooze on the rug to go adventuring with him.  

At the end of the day when Andrew and I are picking up the day's worth of toys, one of us has to make it a habit to check outside too.  

For trucks and cars taken out to drive in the dirt.  For forgotten shoes.  For discarded bikes.  And the cup I've looked all day for.  

And a toy lawnmower stopped mid-push in the corner.  

He's lately been shoveling rock and dumping it in the mulch in the very corner of the yard by the gate which Andrew loves.  (Or not.)  

But better than digging in the ash on the back of our fireplace and covering himself in it and then coming inside.

Wild at heart, full of orneriness and life and vigor and joy.

As much as the orneriness drives me crazy day in and day out, it is one of the best things about our little Ham.  I couldn't imagine him any other way.

Earlier this week, one of Andrew's coworkers sent him home with the biggest zucchini I've ever seen 

so we decided to pay it forward by making zuchinni bread (for us and for him - what? my recipe just happens to make two loaves) 

from my mom's recipe while Nelle took her morning nap yesterday.

 

Or when she was supposed to be taking her morning nap.  

Woof, wasn't girlfriend's best day.

Or Ham's.

Or mine.

We pushed ahead anyways, determined to get the bread baked and practice counting with Henry while we scooped, and measured, and dumped, 

and stirred.  Try as I might, he just isn't into counting yet (or his ABCs for that matter...or colors...or more than two shapes).  

 

Counting is only used for 1, 2, 3 GO! and jumping into the pool, and none of that other stuff helps with playing trucks outside 

so it's pretty irrelevant to him right now.

He was frustrated when I wasn't letting him scoop and dump on his own, 

and I was frustrated because I knew we only had a matter of time before Nelle grew impatient waiting on us to finish up.

After one too many "no, myyyyyyyyyy turn!"s (no, miiiine) from Ham, I gave up, and asked him if he wanted to cook outside.  

In his world, outside is the ultimate.  Anything outside is better, even cooking.

 

My days sure seem like a lot of deterring, and refereeing, and time outs (a lot of time outs lately), and distraction, but cooking, particularly baking, 

is grounding and something that even when it's more work than it should be, is always worth the end result (and extra calories).

 

Sharing one of my favorite recipes - a great way to use up any monster zucchinis coming your way. 

 

 

Zucchini Bread

Yield - 2 pans

Ingredients:

- 3 beaten eggs

- 1 cup oil

- 1 cup packed brown sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 2 cups unpeeled, grated zuchinni

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 3 cups flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Grease two loaf pans.  Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Grate zucchini into medium mixing bowl.

2. Combine eggs, oil, sugars, cinnamon & vanilla with zuchinni.

4. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

5. In a separate mixing bowl, mis flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

6. Pour dry ingredients mixture into zucchini mixture, stirring just until all is moistened evenly.

7. Separate into baking pans and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of each loaf.

Enjoy.