"Squeaky" Clean

So we had a mouse last week....gross. It probably sounds naive, but I think it really was just one, and we caught it.*** Needless to say, it has definitely motivated us to be cleaner around here. I wish I could say I am a great housekeeper and that the mouse incident was a fluke, but we had it coming. I get so tired from running around with two (messy) boys, and so the last thing I want to think about at the end of the day is cleaning up. Maybe I shouldn't admit that. But just so you know, I get inspired to be a better housekeeper reading some of your blogs! So keep posting all about your immaculate homes and I'll be motivated to keep ours just above a level of pure squalor. :)

Benjamin also helps motivate me to keep things cleaner by making the filth blatantly obvious (so I have to clean it!). He likes to decorate our tub with his crayons and color the water. He thinks shaving is pretty fun too.

Alright, so I can't blame the mess entirely on the boys. I encourage a lot of it. Here was our silly Valentine's Day project. Kind of tacky, but that's what makes Valentine's Day so fun!

Benjamin got a little carried away. Poor Peter! Benjamin loves him to death.

On a completely unrelated note, I finally cut Peter's hair this week. It was driving me crazy with long patches on the top and on the back of his neck, but rubbed off on the top, back and sides. I kind of felt guilty cutting off his newborn hair, but he looks tons better now! He is changing so much day to day. He is already accurately grabbing at my food and hair and everything else within reach. He really, REALLY wants to eat food. He won't be four months for another week or so, and his four month check-up is a few weeks after that. So we'll see. I might just start him on rice cereal without the doctor's "go-ahead." I still think it was ridiculous how Benjamin's old pediatrician had us to hold off until 6 months because she was worried that he was too fat.

Peter is also getting close to sitting up on his own. Benjamin sat early (at 4 1/2 months), and I think Peter might just do the same. I borrowed my friend's Bumbo seat (no, we didn't buy him a pink one) and he loves the new view. I've also put him in Benjamin's old exersaucer a few times, and he likes it.

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day. I did--I have three cute boys. We went to a dinner at Paul's boss' house with a bunch of his international co-workers, and had a good time. We took Benjamin and Peter, and they did really well. We didn't get to bed until 11:30 p.m. though, so as you can imagine, 11:00 church the next morning was interesting.

Since we were going to that dinner on Valentine's Day, we celebrated early on Friday night, and Paul made a delicious Masala for dinner. He also got me a gorgeous herb planter! It's going to have to sit in our family room though since our kitchen is north facing, and never gets any direct sunlight. For breakfast on Valentine's Day morning, we made smoothies and blueberry waffles. I made a scavenger hunt and a nice card for Paul. This was our fifth Valentine's Day together!

*** Paul's side note: We found an ingenious idea on the world wide web of how to catch a mouse with a toilet paper tube, a bit of bait, and a trash can full of water. I felt triumphant for days afterwards despite the lump in my stomach reminding me that I drowned a mouse. It's better than sticky paper though, right?