Weekend Fun

Here are a couple pictures from our weekend. We took the boys out to dinner on Saturday night. They LOVE going out and are super well behaved! They felt like such big boys sitting in booster chairs at the table and having plates just like Mommy and Daddy. We had such a great time - we are so glad they enjoy going out!

I Love Being a Mom!

Tonight I received my very first kiss from my sweet son. Patrick has not shown affection that way before and it was the sweetest thing in the whole world. Completely made my day and overwhelmed my heart til I thought it would burst! I have the greatest sons ever - I am so blessed.

Some New Pics

Calvin's favorite color is still yellow - he can't get enough yellow things! He picks out yellow books, yellow cups, yellow balls, and yellow toys. Very funny!

Patrick has been increasingly cuddly which is awesome! I'm absolutely loving it!

The are both looking so grown up these days! They amaze me everyday!

Valentine's Day

Let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of this holiday. BUT we did have a very nice evening. In the interest of saving, Andrew and I decided that we would not exchange gifts and would not go out to dinner. Instead, we put the boys to bed early, I cooked dinner, and we watched a movie. It was so relaxing! Andrew's gift to me was cleaning up the kitchen.

Our menu was: Best Ever Chuck Roast served over rice, green beans with bacon & onion, fresh rolls, and for dessert we had shortbread with raspberry almond filling garnished with raspberries, almonds, and chocolate almond sauce. All in all, one of our favorite Valentine's Days ever! How did you celebrate?

BTW, quiz results will be coming...I'm sure you've all been waiting and checking daily. :)

Quiz

Here's a little quiz:

1) What's your favorite sport to watch?
2) What's your favorite dessert?
3) What current celebrity would you most like to meet?
4) When did you last eat at a restaurant? What restaurant?
5) What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
6) What is the most recent prank you pulled?
7) Where was your best vacation? Who were you with?
8) What is one of the grossest (is that even a word?) things you have ever done?
9) What fashion do you wish would come back?
10) Would this quiz be complete without a #10?

I'd love to see your answers - just leave them in the comments. What does this quiz tell you about yourself? Stay tuned to find out...you will receive a personal e-mail or comment explaining the results. :) Enjoy!

Favorites?

Calvin has a favorite color. This surprised me! He insisted on having that color of ball in the bath tub and even traded the red one to Patrick so he could have his favorite. I thought that was interesting but didn't think too much of it until dinner time. I gave him his clean sippy cup and removed the old one from his tray...he threw a fit! So, I took the lid of the old one (the same color as his ball) and put it on the new one and he was happy. And I decided that 1) he isn't color blind (not that I really thought that anyway), 2) he really is very particular (we've seen evidence of this before but this confirmed it again), 3) he cares about interesting things (colors at 21 months?!), and 4) he has good taste (it's a really nice color). What color do you suppose it is? :)

Patrick is also particular - about what he wears. His favorite thing is to be allowed to pick out his own clothes from the closet or at least to have a choice between two things. If I tell him to go and pick his clothes, he heads to the closet and searches for whatever is on his level, chooses what he wants, brings it to me, and sits down so I will dress him. You can tell when he feels well-dressed because he will beam from ear-to-ear and look down at his clothes. He loves to be complimented on how nice he looks. Hmmm...I wonder if his clothing interest will last.

Music

Patrick recently came up with this music seat/stand for their keyboard - such creativity! Both boys thought it was really great! I'm hoping they will take after me and enjoy playing the piano. We plan to have them take lessons for at least a couple of years - when they are old enough, of course. In the mean time, we have made sure they have lots of instruments, listen to plenty of music (varied from nursery/kid's songs to classical to pop), and endure our singing to them daily. Hope it works!

The Peugeot N Jooy

It was just about a year ago that I wrote about my new dream car. Actually, it was exactly one year ago. I guess February second will be my yearly car blog post :)

As is often the case with such finds, I have no idea how I found this site, and this car. It is not supplanting the Veyron as my ultimate dream car, but I have found myself thinking about it ever since I saw it this afternoon. According to CNet News, Peugeot has a design contest. The winner will get to see his or her design not only created as a full-scale model, built by Peugeot and debuted at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, but also integrated into an Xbox 360 video game!

The “N Jooy,” pictured at right, is one of ten finalists in the Peugeot contest. It was designed by Wesley Saikawa of Brazil and was inspired by old Formula 1 cars.

So anyway, it initially appeared to me that the “wheels” are actually spheres. My first thought was that this feature would make it extremely maneuverable – in theory, it could travel in any direction. But as I was driving home, a number of questions arose in my mind, and I can’t figure out how it all works . . .

Well, I just found another page with more pictures (click on “The 10 Winners”), and this one where the designer explains it. I don’t think English is his native tongue, as it doesn’t all quite make sense. But it does explain some of the questions I had. Cool!

Pippi

It's been awhile since we have said anything about our dog, Pippi. She is doing well overall, is finally housebroken, and loves her new family members (especially since she gets lots of extra table food - the boys think it is hilarious to give her food and we don't always catch them in time). She is, however, extrememly dramatic! She hates the cold weather and doesn't like to go outside when there is snow on the ground. Yesterday morning, Andrew took her out before he left for work. I was watching out the window as she pretended that each of her legs, in turn, was injured. First she held up the back right and hobbled around, then the back left...you get the idea. She did NOT want to stand out in the yard to relieve herself. She is such a drama queen - which brings us to a very high ratio of dramatic to not-dramatic in our household!

Toy Bins & Cheese

Overheard in the Falk house: "These toy bins are way more fun as seats - who needs to pick up the toys anyway? We're just going to get them ALL out again - why can't Mommy understand that? We show her every day!" :)

Calvin and Patrick are definitely realizing what the camera is for and have very different responses. Calvin has started giving us cheesy looks such as the one below. Patrick stops doing whatever and looks unsmiling at us - also demonstrated below. All of that is making for some interesting photos. We are working hard to take candid ones before they realize and pose themselves.

One of the Cheesy Looks

The Stoic, Obliging Pose