My Three Valentines

Aren't they cute? For those of you realizing that I said 3 valentines and noting my dear hubby's conspicuous absence from the above photo, no need to worry about marital discord in the McEuen household. Scott is not -- and never has been -- a believer in V-Day, so it's not something we celebrate as a couple.

So instead, I spent my Valentine's Day making cupcakes for Evan's preschool class. Fresh strawberry cake with whipped cream cream cheese frosting, one of the best frostings ever. I may, or may not, have licked the frosting bag clean when I was done frosting them.

The hearts are fondant and I piped in the names of each of the kids and teachers in Evan's class. (Clearly I need to work on my piping skills.)

Fortunately, there were enough cupcakes left for each of the boys to have one after dinner as well. Evan and Caleb decorated theirs with these little heart-shaped flags that came with the cupcake cups. They were much more impressed with the beauty of their flag-draped cupcakes than they were with my fondant attempts.

Evan and Caleb (what am I going to do with his hair?!) being very proud of their design.


And clearly enjoying the end product.

Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the Ash-Man enjoying his 1/2 a cupcake (which he kept referring to as a cookie -- what does it say about my parenting skills that he can only say about 10 words, but cookie is one of them?).

But here he is in the bath (another of his favorite words) afterward. And no, that is not poop floating in the background; it's an overturned purple duck. Just in case you were wondering.

Asher is 1!

Er, ok, so he turned one three months ago. We were still at our short-term rental house then and life was particularly crazy, so no blog post until now. I made Asher a cake in the shape of an airplane and a little smash cake as well. It's funny, I spent way more time on the big cake, but I think the smaller one, which I frosted and decorated in 5 minutes, looks better.




As soon as Asher saw that cake, he knew he wanted some, and he half-cried, half-whined and did his patented hand-waving technique (see video) to ask me to please give him the cake immediately, thank you very much. But then as soon as we started to sing to him, he stopped abruptly, looking very confused about what on earth we were doing. (Again, see video.)



(Or, if that's not working, try pasting this link into your browser:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53322490@N05/5275839267/)

Once he eventually got the cake, he rather liked smashing and eating it.


Asher was very lucky to have his Aunt Michelle come for his birthday. He had lots of fun opening his presents and playing with his new toys.


Asher (a.k.a. Ash, Asher Baby, Ash-Man) is an adorable, cuddly mama's boy who seems to be personally offended by attempts to make dinner or do the dishes, at which point he decides he must be held or the world will end. He took FOREVER to start crawling regularly (even though he knew how to do it) and nearly drove me to the brink of insanity from about months 7 to 10 wanting to be held constantly. Then he figured out he could entertain himself better by crawling and life for everyone has been better since. Now, at 15 months, he is really starting to walk and is so proud of himself! He even applauds his own efforts. He love crawling up and down stairs, and -- after a few falls of varying severity -- is quite good and amazingly fast at going down them. He loves to mimic (talking on the phone, writing with a pen, combing his hair, etc.), "help" load and unload the dishwasher, hang upside down, put small objects into and out of larger objects, and push things around the house (push toys, chairs, baskets, the kitchen garbage can). He does not like having his diaper changed, getting dressed, having to stay in his crib for more than about 30 seconds after he has woken up, or being ignored.

He talks in his own very authentic-sounding baby language and loves to growl (something he has done since he was a small baby, when he sounded quite a bit like a baby dinosaur). He also says mommy and daddy and, quite recently, hi. I think I've heard bath in there a couple of times as well, but it's hard to be certain. He's a fairly smiley kid, but is not easily amused and doesn't laugh much. He's definitely his own little person, one who we think is pretty great!

It's been a long time....

I am realizing that this will be only my third post in 2010. Yikes. That's pretty pathetic. (And as a side note, it's amazing how fast time flies, because it doesn't seem like it has been that long.) Perhaps the truly sad thing is that I often think of things that I would like to write in a blog post, but then I never actually do.

We live in a house now. It has a backyard. And a garage. And a deck. With a grill. We're surrounded by trees and you can't see our house from the street. My kids are cute and drive me crazy. Right now Evan and Caleb are being superheroes. They just saved me from a tornado.

Every fall since Evan was a year old, I have taken pictures of the boys in the leaves. Here are this year's pictures.

All three boys:


The Ash-Man in all his adorableness.


Caleb and his crazy hair.


Evan. Look at those dimples!

A Surprising Announcement

At least it's surprising to me. No, it's not what you're thinking. I am not pregnant. Scott got a job and we're moving!

Now, most of you probably have no reason to be surprised by this announcement, but if you're really on top of our life plan -- and you should be because it's an exciting plan -- you know that we were planning to be in Boston for another year-and-a-half while Scott finishes his PhD at MIT. But then, a few months ago, Scott received an unexpected email about a possible job opportunity that he was highly qualified for because of research he did for his Masters degree. In our consideration of the opportunity, we learned of a little-known MIT policy that would allow him to work full-time while simultaneously pursuing his PhD. Even better, he was able to align his PhD research with this job opportunity, effectively killing two birds with one stone. We received final approval from MIT this week, and so we've decided to take the job.

The job is for a small company recently acquired by GE and located in Northampton, MA, which is about 2 hours west of Boston. It's a beautiful area (as you can see from the top photo), and Northampton manages to have simultaneously a quaint New England feel with a vibrant -- even alternative -- lifestyle.

It seems like a fun place. We're excited about this opportunity -- I'm especially looking forward to having a house with a yard -- but we're also very sad to be leaving Boston. We've had a great experience here and have made good friends. Two of our three children were born here. Boston has been good to us.

At George's Island


Checking out the fort at George's Island


Throwing rocks in the water at George's Island


Scott and Evan at a PawSox minor league game


The adorable Asher, who likes to show off his tongue


The 'Bub enjoying the game


Evan and Caleb at the zoo

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear family and friends,

We hope you had a merry Christmas! This is the closest we're going to get to sending out a Christmas card this year -- and possibly ever.

The last year has been a good one for us. We've enjoyed having family visit and visiting family. The boys and I got to travel to Utah and California in the summer to visit grandparents and cousins. Scott and I also had a wonderful, no-kids trip to France and Spain. It was awesome! (And we owe a big thanks to the grandparents -- both sets -- and Shelly for making it possible.) Scott passed his Qualifying Exam, we added a third little boy to our family, and Evan started preschool.

We continue to live in Boston while Scott finishes up his PhD in mechanical engineering. He decided on his project earlier this year and will be developing a needless injection device. He spends the vast majority of his time at school -- in class, being a T.A., or researching in the lab. We see him some, but not as much as we'd like. What little free time he has, Scott spends reading Presidential biographies, running/biking, and hanging out with his doting wife and children.

The last year brought many changes for me as well. I had our third child in September and left my job as an associate at Ropes & Gray to stay home full time with our three boys, who keep me quite busy. The transition to being at home full-time hasn't been -- and still isn't -- easy for me, but I know it's where I need to be right now. I have managed to squeeze in a little work as a contract attorney, though. In my spare time I like to pass out on the couch, read my latest book club book with Scott, sleep, and go to the grocery store without any kids.

Evan turned the big 4 this year. He's in preschool for a few hours each week and is loving every minute of it. He also got to take a sports class earlier in the fall, where he was able to try playing several different sports. He especially enjoyed field hockey, but was disappointed they didn't do any bowling. He talks a mile a minute and is endlessly full of questions. He aspires to be a garbage truck driver. In his spare time, he loves to play with trains, ride his bike, play with his brother and BFF Colby, and build lego towers.

Caleb is two and really working on his talking skills. He is an extremely happy child and ridiculously cute. He wants to do everything himself and can hold his own against his big brother. His big accomplishment this year is learning to be comfortable in nursery. He loves to play with trains, do anything Evan is doing, throw and kick balls, and watch Curious George.

Asher is four months old. He's smiley and sweet, but not sleeping as well as we'd like. He's quite the mama's boy already and is very much doted upon by his older brothers. In his free time he enjoys eating (as long as it's not from a bottle), sleeping, sucking on his pacifier, playing pat-a-cake, looking around, and watching his mobile.

We hope all of you felt the peaceful spirit of the Christmas season and enjoyed time with friends and family. And we wish all of you a wonderful new year, full of renewed hope and promise.

Love,

Scott, Maren, Evan, Caleb, and Asher

Happy Birthday, Evan!

It's hard to believe that my first born is already four! After witnessing his friends' birthdays and Caleb's birthday (and having some memory of his own birthday a year ago), Evan was so excited for his birthday. I even got it together enough to throw him a birthday party, the first one I've done for any of the kids. My parents and in-laws were coming into town for Asher's baby blessing the weekend of Halloween, so I thought I'd kill three birds with one stone and have Evan's party be a Halloween party the day before Halloween. At Evan's request, I made a train cake.

(I made it a haunted train cake to go with the Halloween theme).

He also begged to have a pinata for his birthday. He was so cute about it and I have such fond memories of always having pinatas at my birthday parties growing up, that I just couldn't say no. I missed out on the Halloween pinatas, but I was able to find a dinosaur one at Target that went well enough with the Halloween spirit.

We invited all the kids from Evan's Primary class and they all had a great time hitting the pinata. Ultimately, though, Scott had to do the honors to actually get any candy out. Here are Evan and Caleb going at it with my fondant rolling pin:





And here's Asher enjoying the party with Grandma.

And a slideshow of photos:


Evan had a great time at his party and is already talking about next year's birthday. A week after we had his party was his real birthday, and he got a balloon, cake (much less elaborate than for his party) and presents, all of which he was really excited about.

Cake
Presents
Riding his new bike.

Evan really is quite the kid. Most of the time he's happy and helpful. The rest of the time he's doing everything within his power to drive us out of our minds. He's always full of energy and is endlessly curious and inquisitive. He talks nonstop. He loves to tease and be teased. He loves trains (still), garbage trucks, and excavators. He loves wrestling with his daddy. Evan is such a good big brother and loves to play with Caleb and to pat Asher on the head. If Asher is crying, Evan often tries to help him feel better. I really can't believe what a big boy he is. (Big enough that Scott and I can no longer say things around him if we don't want him to hear and internalize everything we say.) We think he's pretty great! He brings great happiness, joy, and excitement to our family. Happy birthday!

Caleb Turns 2!

Hard as it is for me to believe, Caleb turned two today! We celebrated by playing at the playground this morning, getting balloons, and then ordering pizza for dinner, followed by cake and present opening. Unfortunately, between taking care of Evan and Caleb and nursing Asher a good fifteen times today, we didn't quite get to the cake and presents until a little late.

And I didn't have time to work on the cake as much as I wanted, so of course I was unhappy with it, but at least Caleb's an easy boy to please when it comes to cake.

He didn't much like us singing to him, though. He was all smiles until we started to sing and then he got this look on his face:

He was pretty excited about all his presents, though not as excited as Evan (who is also nearly beside himself with excitement for his own birthday in a couple of weeks). I found a fabulous deal on a wagon at a Mothers of Multiples sale that was one of Caleb's presents tonight, and he refused to go to bed until he got a ride in it.

Caleb is such a vibrant, happy boy. He calls himself Ca-bub and always wants to do anything Evan is doing. He's incredibly cute and sweet with his baby brother. He loves throwing and kicking balls, swinging at the playground, his blankie and (sadly) paci, Curious George, trains, playing in water, and giving big hugs. He hates getting dressed, not getting to do things himself ("doing it" he says whenever he wants to do something by himself), and not getting his way. He's also getting to be quite the chatter-box. Caleb brings such joy to our home and we love him so much!