I miss my boys. That is all.

Baby Nico

So I feel like it's high time I posted about my new little nephew. Despite mine and Max's disbelief in my last post, Nicola did indeed come that Friday, May 21. He was born at 12:12pm weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces of pure perfection. Here's him getting a bath at the hospital.



In order to avoid bring a toddler to the hospital during quiet hours, Max and I were able to go and visit later that afternoon. Unfortunately, Max fell asleep in the car on the way there, so it wasn't until the next day that he really met his brother. Well, he did wake up while we were at the hospital but remained completely indifferent until the next day.



Honestly I just can't get enough of this kid. I could seriously hold him forever and never get tired of it. Thankfully, Jackie and her little family was staying with us before they moved to Oklahoma so I was able to get plenty of Nic time in. I just love squishy little babies, and he's the sweetest, cutest, squishiest there is.





And here are my sweet boys. They moved to Oklahoma yesterday and the house is way too quiet. I just miss them so much.



But Heavenly Father knew I was going to miss them and blessed me with some tender mercies my last little bit with them. The night before they moved, Jackie handed Nic to me after he ate and I promised I'd give him back when he was hungry again. But this sweet boy just slept in my arms for hours and hours, which is something since he seems to eat constantly. Then that same night as I was getting into bed, Max, who's been sleeping in my room, woke up with a bad dream or something and came and slept in my bed with me. Then the next day I was able to prompt him to say "I miss you" and "I love you" in his sweet little voice. In addition I was able to hold Nico again for ages while his eyes were open and looking at me. I just love them.
My biggest fear is that they'll forget me as they go traveling around the world with their parents. I am blessed though for the time I've had with them. Especially to have been so close to Max these past few years. We're pretty much BFF. I can't wait to see them when we come visit in August.

Adventures in babysitting

So this morning my very pregnant sister is at the hospital most likely having a baby. He's been close for a few weeks now and there have been days where we thought for sure he was coming. Despite my mother being at the hospital with her, her midwife saying to come to the hospital instead of her office, her contractions becoming more painful, the fact that she's already 5 cm dilated, or that her husband's plane ticket is already purchased for him to come meet their son, I guess I'm just a little hesitant to say he's coming for sure. I understand little Nicola's coming today, I just don't think it's sunk in yet.

So anyway, while Mom and Nanna are at the hospital, I get to watch Max. He's my favorite boy in the whole world and I'm happy to have some more time with him before he moves to Oklahoma. Well, on this particular morning, I left him watching Dora in his undies to go take a shower. After I was dressed I went down to check on him, and there he was in his undies in front of the tv. Only, while I was indisposed, it seems he took himself to the potty. How could I tell you ask? Well, it was evident he had some trouble putting the underpants back on after going to the bathroom. The poor child had stretched one of the leg holes over his little hips, while his legs found their way through whatever available holes in the underwear's design. But there he was watching Dora the Explorer like nothing was wrong. I just love my little man.

Though I think Max is just as skeptical about the arrival of Nic as I am. I asked him if he was getting a brother today, and he most determinably said no. His mom will just have to prove us wrong. In the meantime Nick Jr and some Apple Jacks are turning out to be the perfect recipe for a good morning.

"One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is total idiocy."

And

"Painging is at once 'intrinsically capable of giving form to our best, most human, most humane qualities' and 'total idiocy'."

Thank you Gerhard Richter for your words of wisdom.

Knock-Knock jokes

Knock-Knock jokes usually aren't funny at all, but I came across this one on a friend's facebook page the other day and thought it was terrific. Here it goes,



-Knock-Knock
-Who's there?
-You know,
-You know who?
-Yes! AVADA KEDAVRA!!!

Bahaha!! I just thought that was terrific. You know who, Voldemort, get it? Anyway, this has nothing to do with anything that's going on in my life right, now, I just felt like I should blog again, but didn't want to go into the epic blog post that is coming soon. And when I say soon, I mean probably in a week or more when classes are over. But maybe I'll get bored one day and displace my desire to not work on a project into a desire to blog or spend irreplaceable hours on the internet.
It's been know to happen. So until then, Buenos Noches.

Paige-a-rooni

So for the past few weeks I've been all-consumed with myself. Literally. In my painting class we had an assignment to paint a self-portrait, and not necessarily to just paint a literal representation of our face, just a self-portrait however we interpreted it. I did choose to paint my face, but part of that was a desire to academically paint a portrait with oils, which I had never done before. But regardless, this painting was the hardest thing I've ever done. We had weeks to work on it, and I sketched, and planned and thought, and filled up pages and pages in my sketchbook trying to settle on a composition, on an idea. I did want to simply paint my face, but beyond that I didn't want this to be an academic painting. I wanted to paint me. Which ultimately happens no matter what you paint. It's impossible to no put yourself into your work, but regardless, I wanted there to be more depth and meaning than the paintings I had done previously for classes. So I over-thought it to the extreme. So finally, a week before critique I settled on a composition. It took blocking in a few different ideas onto the canvas to get there, but I made it. So that week, literally all I did was paint. Every night I was up until the wee hours of the morning working on this stupid painting. I skipped classes the day before and the day of the critique in order to complete it to a point where I felt comfortable showing it. So anyway, I just wanted to show all 8 readers of my blog what I did. Because I am proud. It still needs work, but I'm happy with how it turned out.







So if you'll notice, the last photograph of the painting I have eyebrows, while the other ones don't. So as I was driving the painting to school a week ago for the critique after feverishly painting for a week straight, I realized I had forgotten to paint eyebrows and proceeded to burst into hysterical, crazy-person laughter. But at this point I said forget it and kept driving. So then that day we didn't get to my painting, we ran out of time, but again, even with time to add eyebrows I decided to leave it as is. But then this afternoon after I took pictures of the painting, on a whim pulled out a brush and added the eyebrows. I still don't know how I feel about them. Anyway, so this is my work, and hopefully I'll stay on top of things and at the end of the semester I'll keep all 8 of you updated on what else I do.
The end.

P.S. I realize my hair isn't actually that red. I really did try to match my hair color, but this has happened in every single self-portrait I have ever done. I think subconsciously I just think my hair is redder than it is. And I think I'm ok with this.

New Friends

So my sister Jackie has this knitting book full of these funny, quirky, creepy dolls you can knit, and I'm obsessed. It's the perfect, fun, quick little project for me. They're small enough that I can finish them fairly quickly, and interesting enough that I don't get bored. So meet my new friends.
This is Sean.



And this is Perry.


Aren't his dimples adorable.
So as you can see, I have a thing for gingers.