Coming soon ...

... to a mail box near you. I can not believe I managed to get Christmas cards mailed out this year.  If you don't get one, please don't think we forgot you. Instead, just think about my horrible memory and lack of organizational skills, then forgive me and  send me an email with your address.

10 hands.

 

Number needed to give baby his first bath.

what you like madame ?

Waitress - her very favorite game at the moment. She particularly likes to tell us we can't have what we ask for. She pretty much serves only coffee and hamburgers! I enjoy her self dressed outfit, I think she's got most of the animal prints covered (the under shirt has zebra).

4 weeks

I'm sure if I were a better writer I could come up with something way humorous for these. But I'm too busy laughing at my little dude to even attempt anything. Can't believe you're 4 weeks old!

3 weeks

Sorry buddy, Mama forgot to take your 3 week pictures on the right day. And on 3 weeks & 1day, we were leaving for your first big roadtrip. So yes, I kind of just threw you on the rocker and snapped a quick pic. But look! I themed you up. Does that count for something? We had to document, no matter that Daddy and sisters were already in the car. Because you GREW SO MUCH. I swear you doubled in size overnight.

my helper

out and about

I think we've had maybe 3 days of sun since Fletcher was born, just gloomy around here. It's been raining so much our roof is leaking and the yard is flooded and all the water is messing with the cable and internet. Interesting times, for sure, because on top of having a newborn tyrant to deal with, I've had 3 stir crazy girls to distract with. I guess after awhile even puddle splashing gets routine. So last weekend when the sun was spotted  we hurriedly threw leftover turkey in the cooler and declared it a picnic kind of day.  Fletcher did not approve of the paparazzi lurking about, he's gotten pretty good at his "no pictures please"  gesture.

are you talkin' to me?

We're easily amused around here.

2 weeks

1 week

10 days late to the party

but well worth the wait!

s'mores

 Because I am a horrible Mom, I shot down any fall camping plans. But it turns out that really all they wanted was the chocolate and marshmallows.  Easy fix and a new fall tradition!

Something to tide us over

No, not a thing happening. But we do have a little news to share. It's definitely helping with the waiting!
Nathan and I certainly didn't care but the girls so wanted a little brother, glad we could oblige.

boo, no baby yet

but it was a great Halloween anyway .... we had a rock star, a puppy and one of the greek godesses (she never could quite make up her mind but the thought of a golden bow and arrow was tempting)

we missed you lazy sunday afternoons

It's been far, far too long since we've been able to enjoy a weekend. I'm not a fishing person (I expend my patience elsewhere) but I enjoy an activity that has Daddy doing all the work while I sit back and read!

cheap, clean fun

Shaving cream on the back deck .... keeps then entertained for at least 2 hours. And I like that I can sit on the other side of the sliding doors and just watch!

next month .... so nice to say!

How is it possible?

How could I have forgotten what it is like to have a toddler? And why, oh why, miss juju ? Why do you have to be so especially TWO?
When you wake me up by popping up an inch from face with a  a loud and cheery "time to get up" how can I not? And when you bring me a handful of toys and ask "you play with me mama?" - really, I how can I say no to that? Or when you jump out and yell "purprise", don't I have to give the obligatory hug that follows? I have no idea what I'm going to do with you come November. Because it's not that you are the rotten sort of two, it's just that you are so, so much of everything. And it's going to be mighty interesting to see how that mixes with a newborn

snugs

I was going to write something about her habit of having to rub bare skin but then I decided she doesn't ever need to know how I really feel about that. Let's just say that when juju needs cuddles she has to be touching bare skin so she can love and that she doesn't particularly care if the only place she can reach is your face - with her foot.

back to school picnic

 

So, how do celebrate back to school when you're not feeling good and while trying to be responsible about spreading  your germs around? You head to a state park and have a picnic dinner that you picked up from the subway drive through. You skip rocks and you roll down hills, staying out till bedtime because you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus!

It's that time again

Yesterday we had our first day of school. Meant to start last week but we had a delay with a curriculum shipment and then the older 2 got sick.  Of course Juliana had to wait a bit to come down with what seemed to be the flu (yes, the flu, in August!) so we again delayed a bit but I was tired of waiting. I'm not going to lie starting school with a sick 2 year old was not my best idea ever and neither was not checking that the drink at the table was water instead of orange juice or leaving an opened bottle of glue atop the science folder unattended. So yesterday felt exactly like the bottom row of pictures, except imagine you have a cold yourself(we visited a museum last monday and apparently it was a hotbed of germs).
I know everyone is always curious about what we do so I thougt I'd share, we tend to do a mix of different curricula at whatever grade I feel is appropriate. I'm toying with the idea of adding a couple of things but first we'll see how this goes.

• History - picking up at Greece 
• Science- new approach this year with premade lab sheets, previously Nate had been doing it but I needed something a little more um, non science person friendly so I could tackle it 
• Phonics. Handwriting and Math are done with workbooks from the same company 
• spelling
• grammar  - finishing up from last year
• Evie reading 

Appropriate, no?

I realize it's more a judgement on my parenting than her but it was still amusing that while I was making this outfit she was dumping out an entire jumbo size box of cheerios. And a carton of cottage onto the kitchen floor but I didn't document that.

Her better side.

Nothing to say, just sharing a prettier view of my for now baby.

my genius girl

Slight exaggeration maybe...  but this week she did figure out the potty thing all on her own. With the help of a few skittles. The bribery offer has been long standing but I certainly haven't been in a position to be proactive about it. I just threw it out there every now and then. And this week she decided to take me up on it. Smart girl!

no toys

This is how to entertain yourself when Mama hasn't unpacked your toys but has unpacked the art room. Note, it also helps to have a patient dog (yes, the same dog the neighbors think is vicious). And I have no idea what was up with that face, she was obviously telling me something and I either wasn't understanding or was telling her no. Possibly she was wanting another victim and I wasn't cooperating? Regardless it's a look I get quite often. She could learn  little about patience from the dog.

8... in pictures

Rosie's eating all the herbivores!

Overheard last night.

the summer of swim

Finally. Finally! I have children that love the water. Evie was terrified of it until she was like 4 and even as late as last summer neither one of them would really get their faces wet (although, Juliana as always been a water baby ). So finally, after many, many swim lessons and a whole lot of hotel pools this spring , the big girls are officially swimming(and real swimming not the doggy paddle they were previously calling swimming). Today is the last day of this round of swim lessons and we're debating more. They have had the best instructor this time and I've been so impressed with the whole program. If we do go another round it would be for stroke development, how cool is that?  However, none of that really has anything to do with playing in the baby pool on the deck...

6!

Look!

I have a computer that can talk to both my camera and the internet. Amazing! I'm not promising anything though - life is kicking my behind just right now ...

8.

It's true. In the midst of my blogging hiatus, somebody turned 8. I need to hunt down her birthday pictures as it's been so long they're not in my current folder! Life might be a smidge more difficult for her but she is my ever sunny child. Unlike a certain sister she never complains and if a whine is heard from her we know something needs attention. She is ever faithful to her favorites and ever so patiently waiting for those lessons and one of her own.  School is still the enemy (not necessarily learning though) but with the help of this mamas patience and Rosies peer pressure  I would say she's not too far off track. And we did finally find a book series to draw her, although why I ever worried about reading is a mystery (I'm trying to remember this about spelling!). It's an interesting road we're traveling ... a fine line to keep to as we enter these tween years. I'll admit I thought the whole tween thing was bogus but as always I'm having to alter my opinion. We've been accused of sheltering our girls and still ... things they are a changin, as they say. But with her? It's fun. A joy to hear her opinions  as we prowl the stores and witness the pride she find in accessorizing every day. She is an amazing help to me and any other Mama she happens to be around ...  she is so, so beyond excited about this new little one and is adamant that it's a boy. Her creativity is still endless and thank goodness she's keeping to her tomboy ways. I'm  sitting back and relishing the changes as my  horse loving, nature girl dons her gaudy shades of choice and finds her way.

The mess

Middle of our big maple gone. Any carvers out there? Pile of maple branches by the road.

Massive tree along edge of property fell across the yard and creek.

Pile of 5 or so downed trees. That yellow thing in the middle is a little tykes slide.

More trees in the creek.

 

Smallish tree in backyard.

We are so grateful everything fell away from the house!And really, this is so, so soooooo minor to what you see when you drive around. If you were comparing it to the mess left in a stadium, it might qualify as an m&m on the ground, or maybe a piece of salt off a pretzel.  Nothing really. All we really suffered was a few days of inconvenience.

I like to enjoy the babyness of her self comforting now. You know, before she's Rosies age and I have to yell at her to stop. It's nice to see the sweetness and not worry about the orthodontist bills.

Easter

I think I took more pictures yesterday than I have in the past 3 months combined. That's a good sign, right? This is just the basket portion of our day...

Goodness.

2 months? I can only say that I've just recently returned to land of the feeling alive... and that's the best excuse I've got. This shirt was one of Juliana's birthday presents. And if anybody can ever tell me how to get my flip software back onto my computer then I can also share the hysterical video evidence of the confusion involved in the gifting. The big girls thought she was a big sister merely because she turned two. Quite fun to inform them otherwise!

be loved.

Happy Valentine's Day!

continuing on a theme... 3 in one room.

A month or so ago we moved Juliana into the girls room. We finally put (almost all of) the finishing touches in there this weekend. Adding a crib and moving beds around necessitated quite a bit "stuff" rearranging and "stuff" putting away. The point? Well, their room is finally clean and pretty and they let me take pictures of them up there! These were all taken in a 15 minute span of them basically just enjoying their room and hanging out up there, no candy bribes, no melt downs,  and no pouts. Remind me to clean more often! And I just realized I didn't include the of stuff that needed so much work. Whoops. Right now, they love sharing a room, we'll see how long that lasts!

Finding three.

I come across three together a lot these days. Those two have always been good, patient big sisters but there is something about them playing together versus just juju being entertained, does my heart good I tell ya.

snow fort

Snow fort we made during the great snow this year. The girls were not interested in snow people making instead they wanted to build something. Which really meant that Daddy had to do all the work while they played and watched. I think he'd say it was worth it though!

Cookies. Eamon style.

We took the liberty of tweaking his recipe by removing the goldfish and adding some toe jam. The girls and I are in the kitchen nearly every day but rarely ever does Juliana get some baking time so this was extra special.

go away!

Please, can we have some sun again?

wait, whose birthday was it?

Snow storm birthday cake = use what you have. Angel food cake topped with 7 minute orange vanilla frosting.  Mmm, good. So glad I could save the day with my stocked pantry. I thought the girls were going to cry when we told them we couldn't go get  me a birthday cake but then they tasted this frosting. And all was well.

Are you there?

We are here. Just a lot going on. Messed up wrist for me ... makes it hard to use the computer. Training a puppy. And a toddler too. Guess who's more difficult? School is taking more work than normal. But really, if I'm honest? My absence might have a whole lot to do with the Kindle I got for my birthday....