EvY at HomE

I am a Type A person 100%. Sure there's a bit of lazy in me but I like working, I like being busy, I like to do things. Right now though I am fighting the feeling like I have a bunch of unfinished things to do: a half eaten lunch, half drank cup of coffee, half read magazine, half finished journal entry, half written blog, half finished house projects. If those things stay half done for a half a day or too, what's the big deal right? Then why do I feel like I'm failing at something? I need to keep telling myself that my only job right now is to take care of myself and the kids. If Alice wants me to sit while I was hoping to finish dusting the office then... I should sit. If Wally insists on being held the whole time while you're trying to make dinner well then... put him in a baby carrier and chop some broccoli. Matt's been doing a mountain lion's (what's bigger than a Lion?) share of work around here as always. We trade off on kid duty and try to let on...

I owe you springtime around the farm pics, here's three.

I'm gonna give you a little day in the life style breakdown of what it's like with two kids and two parents being home so this is a day where no one is outnumbered and yet I still feel like I am sometimes. Wally is eating just about every two hours round the clock. Sometimes I get three hour stretches at night but mostly I'm on nursing duty every two hours. That's an exhausting existence for any nursing mother. Being on duty pinned to a baby with your boob out for 1/2 an hour at a time every two hours is not the funnest way to pass time. I'm glad I am able to nurse and I'm glad my baby is eating and growing and I know time passes by and I'll miss this magical time but still... tiring. On this particular Sunday I had been up twice that night with him after the 2am feeding we were still mostly up for. And then began the rest of the day. 7am: I heard him fussing but since I'd fed him at 5am I felt it was way too soon and let him fuss a little more. 8...

There's pretty much only one thing I make that all of my family eats together and that's pancakes. Alice and Matt don't eat eggs, Alice doesn't eat... anything but veggie bacon, and Matt can't have regular donuts so making vegan pancakes is the only thing we can all share. Over the year or so that Alice has been eating actual food I've perfected the tools and technique for pancake making. First off they have special plates  I serve them on. I bought them forever ago from West Elm who was doing a collaboration with my maybe favorite New York City institution: Fishs Eddy . They make my beloved Sawlt and Peppa shakers, a collection called " Brooklynese ". I want their cake trays, I want their pretty much everything. For accoutrements we have whipped cream, maple syrup, agave syrup, vegan butter, and regular butter. Like I've said, feeding a vegan and a toddler: tricky. Now we come to the essential tools of pancake making like a large two burner gr...

The first name of our son has been a back and forth between Matt and myself since way before Alice was born. Everyone throws around names when they think about kids and we never agreed on a name except a few. In fact Adam and Vincent were top contenders and my sister Liz, not on purpose and unknown to her, took both for her son. So we have spent the past 8 months back and forth back and forth over the name. Every name I'd hear that sounded good I wrote down in a list. Girl names I had a billion but boy names oof. Tricky! I had one name and only one name on my list that I took seriously: Walter. After my hero and a man that feels like he's practically part of our family, Walt Disney. Uncle Walt. I have a framed photo of him in my office and my sister Mary once posted it on her instagram "Walt Disney made it onto my sister's family photo shelf. I guess because he technically did help raise us." Matt wasn't wild about the name and I kept saying we can call...

Here's some bonus pics of the kids' room since I have my sister's fancy camera. Okay so here's where the glider ended up which was a great spot, it's all nestled in the corner. The one thing that was problematic was that I like to have a nightlight here for when I read to Alice before bed but there wasn't an accessible spot to have a lamp sit so... we hung one on the wall instead.   Predictably the lamp is from Ikea . We have the identical table lamp version in our bedroom and I'm a big fan. They're really pretty lamps. They even have the cord wrapped in b&w. Mari, the only one in our family with legit artistic ability, made the one for Alice and made this Buzz one for the boy. We called him Buzz in utero but now that he's out, we've been calling him Wally. Such a colorful bookshelf of things. We're trying to get Alice to be into the Wall-E movie so she can pronounce her bro's name. So far it's working... kinda...

Okay so here's how we combined the clothes and organized for two kids. In the closet, which tough luck Wally those floral bins are staying I put out the "outfits" for Wally. You know... onesies and pants. Though while we're home he lives in zip up PJs there are a few "outfits" for when we go out in public. You know, eventually. I think another week and I'll feel comfortable. The bottom two shelves of this hanging thing has the onesies and pants. The rest are Alice's. And there's three shirts hanging. I assume I'll use that little plaid shirt for easter. And hanging here is the Matt collection. Frankenstein jumpsuit, Misfits button-up, Ramones onesie, skull bib, and knitted booties that Matt wore when he was a baby... (Alice did too) Up here are the shoes that were neutral enough to pass along to Wally. The castle is one of my prized possessions. It's actually a piece of the old Disneyland parking flags. We've been Dis...

Since the kids are not sharing a room yet, we wanted a space for Wally that would serve as his "nursery" while Alice enjoyed her room all to herself since she naps and sleeps so well. And since this is the crucial nursing all the time to fatten him up stage he couldn't be too far from momma so he's in our room. The setup is organized but by no means "pretty" or "styled". It's completely utilitarian. Oh that bed. Once in awhile when Matt and I are both sitting on the bed, reading or on our phones, Alice is either on an iPad or "reading" a book and I'm nursing Wally I tell him "Know what I love other than you and our kids? Our big giant bed."  At the foot of our bed I had Matt setup the third of our bouncy swing things. The mamaroo is in the living room, we have a swing in the office, and this one. We only owned the mamaroo, the other two are loaners from my sister. He'll sleep here sometimes and sometimes in his b...