Am I back now?

(Above: Lena at the Public Gardens on a Daddy Sunday morning.)

Snapshot of this morning: Comfort nursing Lena (whose getting all 4 first molars at once) while holding a stability ball between my knees and bouncing Nico in time to Modest Mouse.

We've bee doing running around/gymnastics every morning. I wanted to take them to a gymnastics class that would have cost about $700, but fiduciary reality set in. The sample class taught us how to prepare for somersaults, cartwheels, and handstands. So we warm up every morning so Mommy won't hurt herself doing somersaults. They've really improved on the somersaults and love it. So maybe when we move we can join a real gymnastics class, maybe when they're a little closer to three.

I really hope to write more often. I think my descent into hippiedom is pretty interesting (to me, at least). I've stop using store brand face stuff, and I've bee doing an elimination diet to try to figure out the source of my acne--which today seems almost gone (2 weeks of no grains and three days of no dairy, except a little arrowroot powder and butter in some cookies I keep "forgetting" about and eating). My weight, however, is disappointingly stable.

They are great helpers. Nico loves to do it "myself"--particularly getting into her carseat, which is great unless we really have to go someplace. Lena talks all the time, especially as we're going to sleep. I should be annoyed, but it is so cute. I think Nico has all her colors down today, so Lena will probably have all hers tomorrow, or later today. They are very close developmentally, thank goodness. At first, every color was "BOO"! Then they got white. Then purple and pink.

Chris got mugged last week, so we've dropped our house dramatically ($40, 000--but everyone else is doing it, right?). The mugging happened three houses away. The girls and I were on the porch and the people who did it walked right past as I slowly connected that the person yelling was Chris. He had two black eyes and a swollen nose, but they didn't take anything material, and he now believes in arnica.

And on that note....