Lately...

Maddie had a few friends over to play the other day and her new dress ups got some good use. At one point during the play date I overheard Maddie ask her friend, "Don't you love to play with me, Sammy?" 

• We are all a little under the weather around here (insert hacking coughs) so our MLK holiday has consisted of grocery shopping and taking naps. But hey, Ryan has the day off so groceries and naps is just fine with me. 
• Speaking of grocery shopping, I made my way to Trader Joes this weekend. Have I mentioned how much I love Trader Joes? My current favorite products are their Spicy Chipotle Pepper Hummus, freeze-dried banana chips, and Candy Cane Joe Joe's (Oreos with candy cane bits infused into the creme center---currently on after-holiday clearance!). 
• Like many of you, I have recently become acquainted with Pinterest. While it can be overwhelming at times, there are also tons of great things about that lovely virtual pin board. Aside from being a great place to find and organize new recipes, one of my favorite things so far has been the link I found to homemade laundry soap. Seriously, 9 months worth of laundry soap for less than $20? And it took me about 10 minutes to mix it all together. I can even take Ryan mocking me for it ("You made your own laundry soap?!? Now I know what to tell my co-workers when they ask how we survive on a resident's salary with three children...'my wife makes her own laundry soap'"). I don't think I can ever go back to expensive laundry soap again...Here's the link.
• A friend and I recently started a weekly play date. We rotate between our homes and our kids run around like crazies for a couple of hours in the afternoon while she and I work on a different project around the house. For example, I hosted a couple of weeks ago so she helped me reorganize my spice cupboard. The next week it was at her place and I helped her put all of her Christmas decorations away. I seriously look forward to our time together each week because it's win/win all around: the kids are happy because they get to play with their friends, we're happy because we get to catch up and chat for a couple of hours, AND we get to accomplish something while doing it. Not to mention that it makes the witching hours of the late afternoon fly by. 
• I have been thinking a lot lately about school for my children next year. Kindergarten for Isaac and preschool for Maddie (Should I send her or keep her home?). Our neighborhood school seems wonderful. It was the main reason we chose the neighborhood that we did and I have heard nothing but positive reviews from parents. That said, there is also a Magnet school that I am really interested in because it is dual language--both Spanish and English. Speaking to my children almost (but not quite) exclusively in Spanish has been something that I have really enjoyed. It has also been a bigger sacrifice than I ever thought possible. I fear that if and when Isaac starts school, his Spanish language skills will plummet because he won't have me yapping at him all day and all my hard work will be for not. Putting him in a dual language program would do wonders for his bilingual abilities. We are going to tour the school later this week. If we do like it, we can apply and our application will be put into a lottery. Who knows if he will even be accepted. Weighing the pros and cons of each school is concerning me more than I thought it would. I used to think those parents who worried about where to send their children to school were a little bit crazy. Now I'm one of them.

Ike on a nearby trail riding his new bicycle. The weather was unseasonably warm this day. When it's not 60 degrees outside we have a little bike path set up in the unfinished basement where the kids love to ride, often for hours at a time.