2010 by the numbers

Emergency room visits: 3
Surgeries: 3
Pounds of furniture moved (approx.): 8,000
Loads of laundry: 412
Family vacations: 1 (yay!)
Adults-only vacations: 1 (double yay!)
New cousins welcomed: 2 (just in time -- welcome, baby Leigh!)
LEGOs stepped on: 357
Clothing items sewn or repaired by Yami (min.): 10
Airplane rides: 2 (Mike and Liam)
New pets: 1 (but he's a doozy!)
Teeth lost: 2
Teeth gained: 11
Trees chopped down: 1
Trees planted: 1
Easter prayers interrupted by one of our children screaming "Dragonoid!": 1 (thankfully)
Works of art shown in galleries: 1
Photos taken: 1,658 (not counting all the ones I deleted right away)
Blog posts: 82 (including this one)

I'd say it all adds up to a pretty good life. Here's to more great things in 2011!

timber!

We almost made it to Christmas without one of the boys/pets pulling down the Christmas tree. We were so close! But this morning, Henry managed to walk (!) off by himself just long enough to get behind the tree, give it a shove, and send the whole works crashing to the floor. There were countless ornament casualties, though Max was very pleased that the candy canes seemed to have survived unscathed. We've got a lot of work to do to replace everything (including the fake tree, which was probably in its last year of service anyway), and the plans for next year will definitely include a barrier. Look, but don't touch, kids!

The boys reenact the scene.

The survivors.

at klaudia's gymnastics meet, henry shows off some moves of his own

anatomy of a tantrum

Henry objected vigorously when I asked him to act as the scale model to show off the new bed, though he eventually grudgingly relented.

this is not what it looks like

Charlie is amazingly patient with Henry, and lets him pet (read: smack repeatedly) him all the time. This picture looks pretty scary with the teeth and all, but really Charlie was just getting ready to lick Henry's hand (lots of food residue lives there, no matter how hard we try).


They're just two friends, forever separated by a gate. But at least they can -- and do -- pass each other things over the barrier. Henry offers toy cars, pacifiers, cups of milk, and, of course, his dubious affections. And in return, Charlie offers squeaky toys, hanks of rope, and plenty of slobbery kisses. Just the other day, I caught Henry sharing his Oreo cookie with Charlie over the gate, and I couldn't decide which sound to make: aww or eww.