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Monday, August 19, 2013

Kids say the darndest things...

Maggie will turn three next Wednesday (the 28th).  I've mentioned to Stephen my desire to capture how she expresses herself these days.  It's not enough to document what she says because how she says it is just as important.  Video might be necessary.  She uses her hands, head, and eyebrows to show you how serious EVERYTHING is.  Everything has a little extra emphasis these days.

No video today, though.  Just a few moments that have made me chuckle lately as opposed to making me frustrated.  These days it's about 90% frustration and 10% chuckles.  

One day the four big kids were upstairs playing dress up.  They had come down once to show us their getups and shared that Schroeder was D'arcy's prince and Julian was Maggie's in their charade.  I went upstairs twenty minutes later and the situation had fallen apart.  Maggie shared in the saddest way, "Mommy, no one will marry me!"  My heart broke a little for her until I remembered it was all just a game.  I hope she never has to feel that way as an adult.  

She's been big into giving me makeovers lately.  I sort of chuckled the other day when she asked if she could.  She said, "Makeovers aren't funny."  No, they are very serious.  

She came into my bathroom wearing something ridiculous and announced that she was a "style girl".  Are you seeing a theme of play?  She spends several moments every morning observing herself in the mirror in our room.  

She has been dressing herself lately, and I have to consistently ask her if she has put panties on because she tends to forget that detail.  She doesn't like that question and told me the other day, "Mommy, panties don't go with this dress."  I'm determined to convince her that panties go with EVERYTHING.  

One unrelated moment from Schroeder.  He and Maggie were eating lunch in the kitchen the other day.  He was telling her that I had gotten something out of the refrigerator.  He said, "Do you know Mommy keeps saying it wrong.  She keeps calling it a fridge instead of a REfridgeERATOR.  Pshhhhhhhh (insert ridiculous sound and eyeroll)."  They both began laughing at my stupidity.  











Monday, August 12, 2013

She's reasonable.

This is the adjective I came up with to describe Penelope the baby.  It occurred to me the day after we took our canoe trip.  Maggie and Penelope stayed with my mom for the day.  Penelope had, probably, three bottles while she was there.  Which took her total bottle intake to maybe seven in her lifetime.  Seven over two months time.  
Well, the day after, Penelope decided that she preferred the bottle to nursing.  She was content that day until I tried to nurse her.  Then she would pull her head back and scream at me.  I put a pacifier in her mouth and she was content again.  This girl did NOT seem ill. She was just being totally unreasonable...a lot like her older brothers and sisters.  
This situation reminded me of her first thirty minutes of life.  She pretty much screamed the whole time and could not be satisfied.  I finally got her to settle down after a half an hour and until the nursing fiasco at the two month mark she was remarkably....REASONABLE.  
She has great expectations about how often she should be held, sleep, and eat.  She tells me fairly nicely what she wants and then when I deliver she's cool.  When you live with a daughter who is on the cusp of being three, reason is highly appreciated.  
We worked through the problem which equated to me saying, "No, you may not switch to a bottle" and after 5-6 fairly resistant feedings she got the point and returned to her normal reasonable self.   
I'm so loving watching her grow.  She is cooing, grabbing hair and blankets, kicking toys, and straining to pull her head off the ground.  We are slowly turning super flexible infant days (where she cat naps all day wherever I am) into the beginnings of a daily schedule (she is still taking naps downstairs, though, in her little bassinet in the living room).  I'm also so sad to see her itty bittinessfade away.  She's the last tiny baby that will be mine.  





Is it weird to take pictures of your friend's house?

Well, every time I go into Julia's house (my neighbor and good friend), this view makes me super happy so I took a picture.  Merlin completes it.  Oh, and did I mention that she has a bee hive in her backyard, and we got a jar of the first batch of honey.  I think that's pretty neat!




School started!

A couple of years ago, before we moved downtown, I wrote this post about wading through school options.  Today, (okay, it's been a week now) I dropped my first grader and fourth grader off for their first day of school, and I realized how thankful I am for the school we ended up at.

I love that they'll go to school there until high school.
I love that it's small (about twenty classrooms for K-8).
I love that most of the neighborhood kids attend the same school.
I love that the older kids get opportunities to lead and mentor the younger ones.  (D'arcy was excited to think she might get a chance to be Schroeder's reading buddy next year.  But she said he might get chosen quickly because he was so cute.)
I love that it sits right downtown (minutes from our house) and they take numerous walking field trips around the city.
I love that it's diverse.
I like that school supplies get shared by the whole class.
I really like the international baccalaureate curriculum they use.   
I like that they don't receive letter grades but that their report cards assess very specific skills in each subject.
I really like the balanced schedule so we get 8 weeks for summer and two for fall, winter, and spring breaks.
I like that school doesn't start until 8:50am.



Many moms shared with me years ago that they prayed each year, for each kid, where they should go to school.  This sounded super exhausting to me...to be reconsidering school options each year!  Without discounting their approach, that just wasn't for me.  I would definitely reconsider my choice if my kids were experiencing significant difficulties at school, but, thankfully, they haven't.  And I look forward to sending Schroeder to school #2 next year.  Sooner than later, I'll have a kindergartner, second grader, fourth grader, and seventh grader to drop off at the same school.




AJ & Christina got married.