Friday, July 29, 2011

Me too, Mama!

He's got his paper, he's got his pencil, and he's wanting to do some schoolwork along with his Sissies! Gotta love it!

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Magic Place











 My friend Jennifer's house is magical, really and truly. And its not just this house, (thought the giant trees, big fields, nearby horses and cemetery and big tree house don't hurt) it's wherever she is. The wooden toys, the gnome house, the bunnies, the room for imagination to grow, unfettered. Plus a few light sabers. The girls always love to go there. Rajah, Jennifer's firstborn, is Seleia's oldest friend. She loves him ("He is so kind") and always looks forward to their time together. The girls make themselves right at home (perhaps a bit too much, but at least they clean up after themselves?) and always can't wait to return. It seems so many places we go, public or private, children are overwhelmed with the electronic, the noisy, the over-stimulation and go, go, go-ism of modern society, and I have to admit that I love that my children's favorite places are places that they can make their own adventure. Places that they can just be.

By the way, Jennifer has a craft book for children being published August 1st. Prepare for a shameless plug coming soon.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Flamingoed





The other morning our resident flamingo enthusiast (that would be Amarra for those of you who might not be in the know) was all a flutter.  Our neighbors lawn was incredibly...pink. I called my lovely neighbor to see what the dickens was going on over there, and was informed that they had been "flamingoed". A local church youth group had the most creative camp fund raiser I'd ever heard of. There was a number you could call to pay to have someone flamingoed. The flamingos would then reside at said house for two days before heading off somewhere else. (There was a sign in her yard along with all of the birds explaining why her lawn was suddenly covered in them. We debated calling to have our own yard flamingoed for the kids, but weren't sure how A would handle it when the two days were up.) "The first thing I thought of", said lovely mom neighbor, "was Amarra. Would the kids like to come over later and play with the flamingos?" Well, umm, yeah!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ten. Months. Old.





I am so. in. love. with this little man. His smile, his laugh...the way he brightens up every single time he sees me. That his favorite things are books. The way he adores his daddy and has a special, though different, relationship with each of his sisters. That he loves spicy foods. The way he sings to me, as he was during our little dance party above. His personality is so much larger than life. I can't imagine our lives without the blessing that is Dashiell Monroe. And I can't believe he's ten months old! That this time last year no one was sure he'd make it to birth!

Dashiell is determined to stand up unassisted, but doesn't make it more than about a second. He walks very well if you hold his hands, and is ever so proud of himself. So far, Dash has seven teeth, and within about a week or so we'll see three more. Of course, he is a fast little crawler. He is learning the no-no's around the house (and that the pots-n-pans cabinet in the kitchen is the one cabinet he gets a green light on.Woohoo!) Yesterday I had to give him a bit of a lecture..."We don't bite, Dashiell.  You hurt Mama when you did that and earlier you hurt sissy when you bit her.  That is not nice."...and he actually lowered his head while wearing a look of shame...twice...and then looked up at me with a beaming, "But you adore me because I'm so cute and you could never stay mad at lil' ol' me", look and actually batted his eyelashes. I am in so much trouble.

I genuinely loved the time that I had with the girls as babies, but having had all three of them within 37 months made things a bit more interesting. Now I get to be so much more relaxed...everyone else is potty trained, for crying out loud. (I can just hear Seleia's "MOmmm!" when she reads that.) I'm having so much fun with little man.

I'm thankful every day.

All On Her Own

My little Elora is getting so big! Last night I heard squeals of glee followed by some sort of giddy exclamations about a tooth. Lo and behold, Miss Elora had pulled out tooth #3 all on her own! "I did it all by myself!! It didn't even hurt or anything!" (Some of you may recall, we had to force the first two baby teeth out a bit as their grown-up replacements were growing in behind them.) We got out the ritual tooth pillow (mine from when I was a little girl) and Elora put the baby tooth ever-so-carefully into the pocket and tucked it behind her pillow with care. Then she turned to me with a reminder, "Now don't forget to be the tooth fairy tonight, Mama."

(I didn't forget.)

Monday, July 18, 2011

What We've Been Up To












Summer, sunshine, picnics, parties, friends and fun! I know I haven't posted for a bit...we've been busy! When you live in the Northwest, summer is oh-so-short so we try to take advantage of every minute. Dashiell has really been becoming his own little person...it's so bittersweet! Whenever he meets people his own size he never quite knows what to make of them, and it's quite entertaining. The girls have been a bit spoiled....a super slide at this party, a bounce house at that one, etc. And have you tried the gelato at Costco, of all places? A. maze. ing. (And truly, I'm a gelato snob.) Oh, how we love to go outside and play!