Is that Spring I smell??

March is always tricky. I always expect it to be getting warmer but no, its technically still winter:( However, we've had a few days of rain rather than snow, and jackets rather than heavy coats, and I am starting to see those little "nubbers" (whatever they're called) on the tree branches so I KNOW Spring is a-comin'!

I celebrated my 28th birthday last weekend. Nothing spectacular about turning 28, but it was a great weekend! Ted and I had a romantic dinner date, and then met some college friends afterwards. It's funny how our conversations have changed over the years. We all have kids now and it seems like that's all we talked about! It's hard not to:) And sorry these pictures are weird...Ted's phone camera is messed up!




Jude's obsession with trains has reached new heights. Most conversations revolve around trains, of course. He carries a train with him everywhere he goes (the past few weeks, the lucky train is James) and sleeps with them. He feeds them snacks and "snuggles" them and punishes them when they're bad. He pushes them around on the floor for probably all but 30 minutes of his waking hours. Sometimes, when Ada is napping, I'll sit down with him and say "Let's talk. What do you want to talk about?" Silly me. "Trains, Mom." When he wakes up and I go into his room, he tells me that while he was sleeping he was thinking (dreaming) about the trains at Gramp's house. He shouts "Choo Choooo!" in my face every 10 minutes. We watch You Tube videos of a random train chugging through Scranton, PA probably 5 times a day. He learned about clouds at school this week. He made a picture of a cloud and I asked him what he knew about clouds. "Uh, they are in the blue sky. And trains come out." "You mean rain?" (laughing at mom for being so ignorant) "No...trains."
Conversations like this happen frequently:
"Mom! Mom! Hey Mom! James-I mean Thomas-I mean James, he goes so FAST! And there's SMOKE, and its like ppppsssshhhhhh everywhere, and real LOUD, and the TRACKS, but its dangerous..Mom?..Mom!...and then Thomas-I mean Gordon-look out for ice! He got stuck in the middle and then CHOO CHOOOOOOO!"
Ted and I chuckle when we say he has a one TRACK mind:)

Baby gates are up for Ada. She crawls super-fast and pulls up and cruises laps around our coffee table and is generally VERY pleased with herself! Her new favorite is chewing on wires and cords, so I've trained Jude to alert me when she starts going for one. ("No Ada, that's not FOOD!")




Work has gotten really busy these past few weeks. I'd been freelancing pretty regularly the past several months but wouldn't call myself busy by any means. Then suddenly, lots of opportunities showed up at once and I've gotten some regular work for 2 different local magazines covering food and restaurants, and some other projects too. Ted even made a website for me! It's going to take some schedule-shuffling to get this all figured out, but I'm excited about it. I used to head to a coffee shop for a few hours when I had a deadline, but now Ted and I are going to have to figure out a way to build in some extra time for me to work every week. These babies are definitely my number one job, but its still really exciting to be making some money and doing it in such a fun way--writing about food! I'm really lucky.

This week has been a little bit reflective too, because its the week we came home last year from Bolivia. There were so many questions in our heads then and I remember wondering what things would look like in a year. Well, this is what they look like, and I couldnt have asked for anything more for my family.