Killer Smile

Just look at that sneaky little smile. I still can't believe I made another one of these little creatures! She was so cute and cheerful this afternoon and I was just so enamored! She was cooing and smiling and giggling and jumping. What a precious little gem. Little girls are just so fun!

I think my favorite part about being a mom right now is just listening to Avril and Lexi talk to each other. Lexi sits and giggles and coos while Avril coos right back and talks to her the same way I do. It's enough to make your heart melt.

Birthdays

Well, today is Derek's birthday. The difficult thing for me is, first of all, how do you handle the Sunday birthday? It tends to be a bit difficult to celebrate ON the day, but at the same time I hardly think it should pass unnoticed--even if it had been celebrated the night before. I've decided to go ahead and make the day special (i.e. he's king of the world today and picks his meals), but all the hoopla happened last night. Plus, let's be honest. How much of this celebration was for Derek and how much was for Avril? She opened at least half of his presents and extracted far more enjoyment from his helium balloons than he did. Did I expect anything different? No. In fact, I really played to her enjoyment!
Furthermore, Derek is a riddle wrapped in an enigma when it comes to birthdays. Two weeks ago, I suggested we attempt a SuperBowl birthday party. He seemed to like the idea, but when I mentioned it again a couple days later, his interest had decidedly waned. So I asked if he would prefer a small get-together. He perked right up. Then he decided he probably needed to study. This Thursday, two days before the party was potentially going to be held, he still hadn't decided on a guest list or if he even wanted a party. He finally made up his mind. Yesterday. At noon. So of course I wanted it to be special and fun and have good food, so I rushed to the store and got a bunch of stuff for hors d'oevres and what not (the MOST delicious bruschetta recipe--- if you ask me, I'll get it to you), chips and salsa, the classic chocolate pudding cake, dip brought by the only friends who knew in advance. Luckily his two single friends had no plans and showed up for a short time. But the two couples I talked to could only tentatively agree to come--- neither did. Next year, I'm throwing a surprise party.

Sisters

Avril absolutely adores Alexandria. She always wants to hold her ("Mommy, I wanna hug Baby Lexi!") and take care of her. She's started "showing me" how to do things, like put her in her swing and in her cradle. I love it. You might notice that she's not actually wearing a shirt in this picture. Yes, Daddy took his shirt off to get a back scratch/rub and naturally, she quickly followed suit.

Getting Big

My little girl is getting so strong and so cute. I love watching her grow and learn every day. She's so charming and smiles and coos like nobody's business. I love being a mommy.

New Fun Stuff

BEFORE AFTER
(You can't see it very well in this pic, but there are subtle 12in stripes in the white)
Ok, so we've got so much going on right now that I'm on a super high. I FINALLY finished painting Alexandria's room and it is ADORABLE! I absolutely love it. It's very simple and clean, but with the furnishing and decorating plans I have, I'm pretty excited. Especially when I think back on how ugly it was before. I also replaced the ugly yellow curtains in our basement with some pretty red tie-up shades and we put in some shelves, too, so we actually have space on our tables to work. It looks so much nicer and cleaner now. And can I just say how much I love the miracle of the caulking gun? Lexi's room looks so much newer just because of it! Zan's coming at the beginning of March for a week to help us finish painting our house. It'll look so much better! I'll definitely post before and after pics.

Plus, the day I've waited for two years for finally came about three days ago: the release of the World of Warcraft's expansion pack: the Burning Crusade! We'll talk about my addictions to that in another post, though.

AND we finally got our brand new beautiful computer. According to Derek (not sure how accurate this is, but this is what he gave me) we custom built a $3000 computer for $1500. Yes, you read that right. Even if $3000 is an exaggeration the comp we have is still worth more the $1500. It's so nice to have two computers as well. Now I can get done all my business and Derek can still study and do what he needs. And of course we can "quest" together.

So, yeah, things are going pretty well right now. How do we do it? Well, we're up to our eyebrows in debt! Woohoo!

My Little ... Triplets?

Both Baby Milktoasts get to do everything Baby Alexandria does.

Welcome to The Essential Zickgraf

So you'll never have to go another day without a good, fresh helping of Zickgraf. Well, let's be honest, we may not always be fresh, and we might not be on daily, but we'll be the ever-nagging presence in the back of your brain. As author of this blog, I, Tasheena will range largely in subject matter, from family news and bragging about my gorgeous, sweet little girls, to philosophical, religious and political subjects, to more light-hearted matter (videos such as the classic "Self-smarted" and "Love You Tender"). Derek, my counterpart in this harebrained scheme of a family we like to call The Experiment, will likely seldom write in this blog, though he may surprise us all. And with that, we'll launch into a fresh new year, full of new hopes and dreams and goals to better humanity (or at least get a good laugh over it).