Thursday, June 26, 2014

After lunch




  It's almost 2:30 and we just finished lunch.
Summer days are just like that sometimes. 
Last night we saw Tarzan at the Muny.  It was a late night so we've been moving extra slow today. 
No complaining here.
After lunch we tried every flavor of popsicle in the box.  We all agree, red is best.
VBS seems to be going well. My favorite comment came from Eleanor on Tuesday night.  One of our friends who is carpooling with us read a Bible verse he had written.   He told me he'd forgotten to write down a period.  Eleanor said, I don't really think periods belong in the Bible.  I think only exclamation points should've been used because everything God did is just exciting and amazing!
Oh, to keep that fire lit!


Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Our big kids

Yesterday Lucy said something that made my blood turn ice cold in my veins.  When I heard it I audibly whimpered. 
In response to something she didn't understand Lucy said, "what does that mean?".  
Immediately one of the older girls yelled-- well who taught her that?!   
We were all mortified.
Could it mean the end of our favorite Lucyism?  Would we no longer hear, "what mean that?". 
Sigh.  Deep, deep sigh.
It seems more and more every day our baby is a big girl.
Just last week we passed some empty train tracks and I said  " no chooo chooo today!".
Lucy responded "Mom, you're not riding with any babies.  It's a train."
No babies.
Further evidence of that exists tonight.  All three kids are at VBS.  They don't let babies go to VBS.
While my heart is a little heavy at just how fast my babies are growing, I'll be honest it's also pretty fabulous! 

No one naps around here anymore.
Everyone is toilet trained and sleeps through the night.  All night.  All night.  All night.
I'm just going to write that again...All night.
Sometimes everyone sleeps until 8:00 in the morning.  
We can go out to eat.
They can all get themselves dressed.
We can go to movies.
Everyone can carry on in conversation.
They all play together.  As in they enjoy playing the same thing. 
I don't pack any special equipment when we go out. 

I loved those babies like crazy.  
I really, really loved living with babies.
But guess what?
I'm just as crazy about the big kids and
I really, really love living with big kids.
It's pretty awesome how this is working out so well.




Monday, June 23, 2014

She's still talking to us....

We survived gymnastics camp and our Eleanor is home!  She's the same sweet girl she was before camp so I guess I didn't damage her too terribly by making her stay.  After several pretty sleepless nights I slept like a log last night and woke up feeling great so I guess there's no long term damage to me either! 

All three girls are at VBS this week. Which means that from 6-8pm this week Kevin and I have some free time.  Tonight we went for a run.  It felt so funny to run together!  It's always kind of a puzzle figuring out when each of us will be able to exercise.  He runs too fast for me and I was out of breath the entire time but it was still fun.




Friday, June 20, 2014

Learning

 

I dropped Eleanor off in Columbia for her first camp away from home.  It's not going great.  After the first day she wanted to come home.  My heart wanted to race down I-70 and pick her up.  My head told me to stay put.  
Oh heart, oh head.  

Today is her second day.  I've intervened some.  I've helped her develop action steps.  I've told her she cannot quit.  I've advocated for her where she will not.   

 In retrospect I'd do a few things differently if I could.   I'm kicking myself over a couple of missteps but mostly I'm learning.  Never ever be afraid to learn.   Which means struggle will be a part of the process.  I can't teach it if I don't mean it and I don't mean it if I don't do it.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Week 3



Well, Father's Day was not quite what I'd hoped for.  Though Kevin did get a nice long bike ride we didn't take him out for lunch or take a hike in the park.  Instead we worried over Eleanor who had been up all night with a terrible toothache caused by an abscess tooth.  Poor baby girl.  Sunday afternoon the swelling was so bad the dentist did an emergency tooth extraction.  
Happy Father's Day!  
We did celebrate with my dad that night with mashed potatoes and a trip to Orange Leaf!


My dad took the older girls on an adventure to the mall with their cousin Bella on Monday so Lucy and I visited the zoo.  The chimps and orangoutangs were out and Lucy was overjoyed.  I was reminded of a post I did in 2009 of a trip to the zoo with Eleanor. Did you realize how much they look alike? 


We've still been reading and just enjoying hanging out.  


I went to the Muny last night to see Billy Elliot and it was outstanding!  I was out until almost midnight which was not outstanding.  I do not love late nights.  I did love getting to spend the evening with two of my college roommates though!  11 years ago a group of us had season tickets to the Muny, college seems like a a million years ago, season tickets to the Muny seem like a half a life time ago! 


Summer is still great!



Friday, June 13, 2014

What a week


We have been living in summer perfection this past week.  
The kids have spent their days swimming, reading, watching a few movies and moving however fast or slow they choose. 
One afternoon was spent searching the neighborhood for a lost kitten in hopes of claiming the reward money.
While this afternoon the kids have had a very successful lemonade stand with our neighbors.
I've planned nothing.
Nothing.
I'll dig into my bag later in the summer when lazy days aren't as appealing and temperatures soar.
For now it's summer perfection.
















June is definitely putting the hard sell on us for favorite month of the year.



Thursday, June 12, 2014

It took 3


If we'd only had two children the list of things we'd have missed out on as parents is literally endless. 

Extra joy! 
More laughs!
So much happiness!
The experiences!

Just this week number three cut her own hair.   
Emma  and Eleanor  never did this.  They didn't write on the walls or jump out of their cribs or fill the baby pool with mud.  
Every single day with Lucy is new.  
As if she were trying to prove the point of this post (which I most certainly did not discuss with her beforehand) in the little bit of time I've been typing this, Lucy chucked a blueberry muffin over the front porch railing into the yard. 

Lucy (dressed in a pink leotard and a bike helmet) takes a bite of a blueberry muffin the girls made- "YUCK!  TERRIBLE!  DISGUSTING!"
Throws muffin into the yard with all of her might. 

Me-  "Oh, Lucy!  Let's not throw food into the yard."

Lucy- "I sure wish I was an animal.  A horse.  No a dog!!"

Extra joy!
More laughs!
So much happiness!

Our lucky number 3






  

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

A gift

This morning when we arrived home from swim team a smallish truck was parked in front of the house across the street.  Two men were beginning to load up the heap of trash, which don't forget included a couch, some mattresses and a few chairs.  Though I was thankful, it seemed clear to me that this was going to take more than just that truck.


  What happened over the next hour and a half is nothing short of a miracle.  They got every last piece of rubbish into the back of that truck.  Those two were masters of space.   We were so impressed


and nearly mesmerized by their work that we thanked them with a box of Girl Scout Cookies.  

Tonight, as the girls put dinner away and the refrigerator being the impossible puzzle that it always is, began to confound Emma, she said "I bet those guys never have this trouble with their leftovers".  Really, we are still amazed.












Tuesday, June 10, 2014

5:15 Tuesday

There are five little girls sitting at my dining room table making Father's Day cards and eating peanut butter crackers.  
It's storming!  
I'm sitting on the front porch with a book and my laptop and Iron and Wine.  The front porch,  aside from this 


is my favorite place in our house this summer
Can you believe that pile of junk?  Our neighbors moved over the weekend and these are the goods they didn't find the need to move.  I really tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and hoped some sort of junk removal company was coming to collect it all.  
No one has come.
Except the city inspector, who was not happy.
I didn't call the inspector, though I did think about it.
He said I didn't need to, he'd had plenty of calls.

I am really enjoying the pace of our summer.  Though it's been pretty rainy, it hasn't really bothered us.  So much reading.  And playing.  Plus one really ok batch of blueberry muffins.  We'll try again soon.

Yesterday Eleanor helped Lucy make a bike trailer for her baby doll.  So when Eleanor was invited to play with a friend Lucy naturally wanted to ride her tricycle instead of walk to drop Eleanor off.  Who could blame her for wanting to try that contraption out on a real ride! Since we had no time constraints the answer was an easy yes.  She pedaled her little legs so hard all the way and on the way back we made a little pit stop at Parker's Table.  We really needed a couple of pieces of chocolate after all of the biking.



Friday, June 6, 2014

So far

summer is lovely.  
We've been just the right amount of busy, which means not too. 



We've made the pool and our libraries regular hang outs and some of us have even gotten tattoos.




About a month ago, in anticipation of summer  I reinstated daily chores.  Smart move.  Both of the older girls have 2 daily chores.  Things like dusting, cleaning the bathroom, carrying down laundry, wiping down the cabinets, etc.  Besides the help around the house I find a lot of humor in the entire endeavor.  Today Emma told me that Eleanor had done such an outstanding job on the main floor bath earlier in the week that she was just going to skip it.  HA!   I showed her how the bath might actually need a little attention, including shaking out the bath mat and hanging it on the line for a bit.  And pictured above you see why morning chores make me chuckle all day long.  I only wish I'd seen her hanging that mat up.





Tuesday, June 3, 2014

This Summer

This summer I've chosen a motto to live by...

"Treasure the doing a little more and the getting done a little less."

It's paraphrased from the Anna Quindlen piece Good Bye, Dr. Spock.  Which if you haven't read, you should.  By the way, Anna Quindlen's blog happens to be down right now, which is why I've not directly linked to the piece.  I know nothing at all about the blog which I linked to, in which the piece is also posted.  Just an FYI in case that blog includes some terrible advice or something!

I've typed this message up and have it hanging right above my desk.  In the short week I've had it there I've reminded myself of those words over and over again.  Eleanor has even memorized it.  I can literally feel the words slow me down, and focus my attention.  Pretty much everything can wait. It's summer.



This picture is just beyond fantastic.  8:30 am, Monday morning.  Lucy has Teddy tied to an ottoman, which she carried from the living room, while she's happily washing her car.  She'd already been chasing bunnies around our yard, trying to catch them with that white basket behind Teddy.  This is one of Lucy's biggest goals in life, to catch a bunny.  She will stop at nothing and is not above using trickery and carrots.  Someday I will catch her in action and will  record it for you because it will be one of the best things you've ever seen.  

The Doing.  

Monday, June 2, 2014

Whooppee! Summer!


It's off to an amazingly awesome start!