Art playing with a train at Barnes and Noble.

Today we had a LOT of people over for brunch. 18 people! 21 in all, if you count Ben, Art and me. 22 if Lewis counts as a person, even though he is very small. It was 100% Minnesota-dwelling Parker and Garvin attendance, plus two boyfriends and one Chicago-dwelling Parker. Not bad!

Ben made eggs for everyone, including two Poblano and Cheese quiches (homemade crust, too!) and an enormous spinach and three cheese egg scramble that my aunt Nance said were the best scramble eggs she ever ate. I set the table and nursed Lew.

Yes, it actually snowed yesterday. Further north it snowed more than foot!

This is our attempt at a blog product placement. I hope Verizon sends us a check.

Having Lewis home has been great, but it’s also been hard on Arthur at times. He doesn’t know how to say how he feels so he shows us in the only ways he knows how. Like throwing a tantrum over a lost marble. Or wanting to be cuddle more with Mama. Or, as in the above photo, refusing to put on (or take off) clothes. Tonight we tried to get some pajamas on him but he just refused. So we let him sleep in just a diaper. He woke up chilly an hour later and asked for clothes. It was a good lesson for us to just go with his flow, and a good lesson for him that it can be cold sleeping without pajamas.

For anyone out there who's wondering, the Garvin boys are all doing well.  Lewis has been having bouts of fussiness, but a lactation consultant diagnosed the potential cause of his gassiness over the phone and I will try some things this weekend to help him.  Art is slowly adjusting to the new house dynamic.  He is dealing with disappointment a little better each day – fewer meltdowns over things like changing clothes or food falling apart – and he is always coming up with the funniest things.  He's a comedian!  He sings the ABC's and sticks in a "Papa!" here and there ('A b c d e f g, h i j k l o n o PAPA!') and is just funny.  Yesterday I was reading a magazine on the couch and he came over to me with a 30" window blind box saying, "I'm going to read this big, loooooong book!  It's a Eiffel Tower!"

The oldest of our family's Garvin boys, Ben, is also doing really well.  As many of our friends and family know, Ben was named Minnesota Photographer of the Year by the MN Press Photographer's Assocation.  That's one no-slouch acheivement, Ben!  Not only that, but one of his photo stories won Best in Show, in competition for the honor with another one of his photo stories!  GO BEN!

Lew had an especially cranky day and needed to be held for most of it.