Eva loves yogurt

Well actually petite Eva just loves to eat!
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a bit of chocolate

Eli definitively has Jamie's sweet tooth. The below pick captures the little man's love while eating a dessert crepe that Jamie made for dinner tonight.

While dinner was being made Eva decided to chill on the play kitchen's oven door while she watched us in the kitchen. 

1st prayer

Elijah and I are down for the count with the stomach virus. But... the bright in the gloom is that my Elijah said his first prayer. I heard this in a little voice from the couch, "Jesus please healing Mommy." The sweet thing is, he was feeling miserable himself and prayed for me.

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Tea, please...

To celebrate Mom's 60th birthday, I took her to the St. James Tearoom when she came to visit Albuquerque.  I had never been there before, but had heard rave reviews from many of our friends. Sure enough, it was magical, like stepping back in time!

We were shown to our private "nook," a room straight out of Agatha Christie.  We half expected Miss Marple to show up and offer to "pour out" for us. Of course, we had to take a peek around the building, seeing other corners and rooms dedicated to other authors such as C. S. Lewis, Jame Austen. and Kenneth Grahame (Wind in the Willows.)

They decorated our nook for us as it was Mom's birthday.

The china setting was beautiful, and at first we were a little overwhelmed.  We found ourselves speaking in hushed voices, unsure of how to behave! We had a personal server who explained each tea she brought in to us.

Each tier of our tea stand was a different course, each served with a different type of tea.  We had a savoury course served with a pumpkin pie spiced black tea, a bread course with the most delicate and fluffy scones we'd ever tasted, and a sweets course with a pear green tea.
At first glance, we assumed we'd be hungry after, but as it was, we got more than our fill, and took some things home!

We were served the most delicious pumpkin pie spice tea, and pumpkin spice eggnog, which was so amazing it was like drinking pumpkin pie... Mmmm...

Some day I hope to be able to make scones like this, fluffy and light... I'm dreaming of them. We had two kinds, cream scones and butternut squash ginger scones. They were served with clotted cream and lemon curd.

The sweets were delicious. We had opera cake, lemon tart, and a florentine.

By the end of our nearly two hours there, we were laughing and indulging, and having a wonderful time. We decided this should be something we do again, perhaps next time Mom is in Albuquerque. Next time we'll wear our fancy hats!

The other side of the fence

Elijah has learned how to pull over the chairs to the wall to see what's happening on the other side. The home behind us is owned by a family with three girls who do a great job talking to Eli. The dad is actually a co-worker of mine that I work with regularly. Eli likes to check regularly to see if the girls are out back (he even checks it at 6:30am in the morning when he wakes up). On another side they have been working on a home construction project that he has pulled up another chair to watch the dad work.

Of course Eva likes to watch her older brother and his antics and longs for the days when she can climb up there as well. 

making rainbows

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Sometimes I look over this blog and think, "Well, this doesn't exactly reflect my life..." There are holes.

For one, major events are missing that we just haven't blogged.  We have pictures from THREE family reunions that we were able to attend this summer (on our crazzzy roadtrip). Those pictures never made it up because we took so many, and haven't waded through them to get the best ones, yet!  We haven't posted on my brother's wedding in Wheaton a few months ago, sadly because those pictures were horribly and irrevocably corrupted on our SD card. (If you know David at all, you know what a shocking tragedy this is!)

Another reason is that it doesn't capture the blah moments.  The times when the minutes are crawling before naptime. When I realize I haven't spoken to another adult all day long, and I am so incredibly lonely. When I cannot bear to play another game of tractor, or worse... the new game, "baby." The times in the day when Elijah's in time-out and I have three minutes to breathe in and out before I tackle the never-ending job of parenting again.  When Eva is shrieking because she wants food and wants it NOW or is infuriated by the baby gate blocking Life's Great Adventure, the stairs!!  And those moments happen a lot in a day.

We don't blog much about the challenges we face, either.  One of those is that David has to travel much more than either of us would like.  He doesn't like being away from us, and I hate it when he's gone.  I get so lonely, especially at night when crazy fears keep me awake.  This has been a such a struggle for me, and an area where I just need to grow up and face that this is going to be something we are going to have to live with. I am working on my attitude of thankfulness for this.  Yes, he travels, but it means he has a job, and a good one. He can see new places, gain new ideas, meet up with people, we appreciate him more...

It doesn't rain much in ABQ, but we had a gorgeous rainbow the other day against the spectacular Southwest sky.  I didn't take a picture of the rain, but I did of the rainbow.  I guess the rain is assumed.  Forgive me for attempting to be poetic after a day when I went through more baby wipes than should be thought possible, but this seemed significant. To have a rainbow, we need rain.  And yes, I take pictures and write up the rainbows, but maybe I need to take a few more memories of the rain. Or run outside to see if we can see any rainbows.

Today, with David gone, the kids and I are making rainbows. We are starting little traditions to do when we are Daddy-less. Pajamas and a TV show before bed is a favorite, and now each trip, for one of the nights he's gone, we got to the Flying Star Cafe. This place is lively and buzzing with conversation enough that kid-noise is not noticeable, yet has a coffee-shop vibe that is relaxing to me. They specialize in amazing fresh food, as local and organic as possible, yummy for me, and also make the world's best Mac'n'Cheese (or as Eli calls it, "cheesy pasta.") It is very important that my little dinner dates enjoy their meals. As a treat, Elijah and I will share one of their crazy-rich and delicious desserts (so far I've let him pick, and he usually goes for as chocolatey as possible... German Chocolate Cake, chocolate eclairs, or Rio Grande Mud Pie...) and we'll people-watch the people watching us. My favorite part about this place is the cafeteria style, in that we've already paid, so if I need to make a quick getaway with misbehaving little-squirts, I can. Haven't needed to, but it's a relief to know I could!  I've gotten more savvy each time we go. I now know if we go right at 5pm, it's relatively empty and the cashiers can carry our trays for us! I know we can sit by a fountain with smooth rocks that Elijah likes to examine (and occupies him well!) I've learned that my teeny-squirmy girl can wriggle out of ANY commercial high chair, no matter how tightly she is strapped, so I bring ours and keep her contained!  It's little, but it's a start.  We'll work on coming up with these little "traditions" and keep focusing on appreciating.