Monday, April 29, 2013

Clickety-Clack-Clickety-Clack...

Our family train just keeps truckin' along here.  Lots of little things have happened that I don't want to forget but don't really need a big long blog post of their own.

So, if you are interested in a couple of small stories--read on.

Colter is becoming a little smarty-pants.  He is working hard to figure out the world he lives in.  He pushes the experimental limits of "cause and effect" by dropping a variety of objects to see how often we will pick them up and give them back.  (Apparently, we will do this endlessly...because he drops things endlessly.)  He is also learning about gravity and its effect on his body, ie: falling over when trying to walk and nose-diving out of the stroller when Momma didn't buckle him in right away.  (I feel terrible about that last one.)  He has become very attached to a blanket Grandma Judy made for him.  He loves to rub it against his nose when he needs some comforting.  A couple of days ago I put his blanket in the wash.  When I was switching it over to the dryer Colter saw what I was doing.  He pulled himself up to standing at the dryer door and nearly fell in trying to pull the blankie out.  He was mad when I shut the dryer door without giving him his blankie.  Colter also took his first steps last Saturday (4/20/2013)!





Adell has developed some attachment issues lately.  She cries uncontrollably when Will leaves for work in the morning.  She doesn't want to me leave her side--ever.  When I have to drop her off at a friends house for a play date or babysitting she is an instant puddle of tears.  We made the mistake of watching Kung Fu Panda 2 for our family movie night last week.  If you haven't seen the movie I'll just spoil things now for you, the main character was adopted as a baby.  The movie uses flashbacks to show the story of this baby panda being abandoned by his parents.  The parents are doing it to save the baby but Adell doesn't get this concept.  She fully understands that the parents put that baby panda down and walk away...forever...  It has been a rough week of explaining: "Momma and Daddy would never, ever, ever leave you alone...or Colter."






School is out soon.  I need to figure out how we are going to spend our summer.  Like every other break from school we don't have big travel plans.  I hope we will get some small adventures in but mostly we will explore our area and try not to kill each other.  Lorien starts middle school in the fall...I have a panic attack every time I think about it.  She is getting too grown up!  She has friends with cell phones and wants an Instagram account...I don't even have an Instagram account?  It wont be long before she is too big for shoulder rides from Daddy.  (And maybe he is looking forward to that day?)








Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Sometimes...


I walk into the little girls room and discover play time has gone badly for one of their dollies.







Wednesday, April 17, 2013

How did this happen?

I went to college in Boston.

I met my husband in Boston.

We had our first date in Boston.

We lived in the burbs of Boston for the first 4+ years of our marriage.

Lorien and Wyatt were born in Boston.

We went to watch the Marathon every Patriot's day.

My heart aches every time I flip on the news and see the coverage of the coward's actions on Monday.  I cannot imagine what would cause a person to harm innocent people in the hopes of getting their message across?

I cannot believe a little boy died in this mess.

I've kissed my kids a million extra times and prayed my heart out for Boston.  This kind of thing makes no sense to me.  I am going to go and kiss my kids again.

2 year-old Lorien at the Boston Marathon in 2004


Lorien and Colter 2013


Monday, April 15, 2013

Spring Break Slows


We don't really do whole lot of traveling.  Maybe we are just a big bunch of homebodies?  Right now, the kids are pretty happy to just stay at home when there is a break from school.  Except for going to Hawaii--they always want to go to Hawaii.  Some day?

We did not go to Hawaii for our most recent break from school.  No, we just stayed home and enjoyed the lack of schedule.

We discovered a new game: BananaGrams.  The big kids are pretty good at it and Will always kicks my butt.


Colter loved having all of his siblings around all day.  He was taken on lots of walks in the wagon, perfected his peek-a-boo game, learned some wrestling moves and tried to pluck out everyone's eyelashes.

  

We made a trip out to a local park with some friends.  We'd never been to this park before!  How have we missed it for so long?  The park is up on a big hill--the views are lovely--and it is windy.  Coolest of all, there is a BMX bike track.  Lorien and Wyatt (on their non-BMX bikes) raced around and around the track, working hard at being reckless.  




  
                                       Can you see the bike basket on Lorien's bike?  Yhea, she is pretty hard-core.


Our darling Clare turned seven years old!  She was not happy about having her birthday during spring break.  She sure does love school.  We tried to make it up to her. She picked tacos for dinner, had a sleepover with her cousins and a family birthday party.  The cousins were so sweet, they took her out for ice cream and picked flowers for her birthday.  Lorien took charge of Clare's birthday cake.  She designed and decorated the cake...it was very pink.



We did make make one trip to the beach.  I told the big kids to take their swimsuits if they thought they would be getting in the water.  They assured me that they would not be getting wet--too cold!  We were there for 10 minutes before Clare was soaked head to toe.  To tell the truth, Clare is the biggest chicken when it comes to water.  She doesn't even like to dip her toes in the waves.  It is a comfort to me when we are at the beach, she is the one kid I never worry about being swept out to sea.  This trip, however, Lorien talked Clare into coming down to the waters edge to jump over the waves.  Two waves, two jumps, all was well--on the third wave Clare lost her balance and a fourth wave was quick on the heels of the third.  Clare was soaked--and terrified.  I hadn't even spread out the beach blanket.  The big kids were not far behind her.  Their saltwater soaking was more intentional but just as frustrating since they didn't wear their swimsuits.






Colter really loved the different textures of sand.  



Spring break brought on the blooming of all the trees in the neighborhood.  I spent the week sneezing and being generally snotty.  The kids went outside one morning to shake some of the petals off "the pink tree" in our back yard because it looked like snow.  When gently shaking the branches within their arm's reach didn't make a blizzard of petals they decided to get a broom so they could whack the branches a little higher up.

Can anyone else see the disaster waiting to happen?

Lorien took one big swing before Wyatt decided she was terrible at clubbing trees.  He stepped in to take over the arbor beating right as she took her second pinata-busting swing.  Thankfully, Wyatt's arm was not broken but it was one-heck-of-a-walloping.

Can you see him doubled over in pain?  Why isn't his mother out there to comfort him?  Because someone has to take pictures...




Will spent one afternoon hitting practice golf balls with Wyatt and Clare.  No one got hit with a golf club or any of the golf balls--also no windows were broken.  Success!


Wyatt had to finish a local history project over spring break.  One afternoon while he was writing about the responsibilities of adults and children in the pioneer era of our area he muttered "If the kids had to do all the chores, what did the grown-ups do?"  I told him the adults did chores too...he did not look convinced.



Easter was the last thing to happen during our spring break.  We went over to Dave and Angela's house for Easter dinner and an outdoor egg hunt.  We also played keep-away Adults vs. Children--because nothing says "Easter" like hip checking your nine-year-old son to keep him away from the ball.








Friday, April 5, 2013

Mike, I need your help...


Erin, Erin!  Go get Mike and make him look at my blog!

Never mind...I'll send him a message on Facebook.

I bought this super-cool dresser on craigslist this week at a yard sale price:


Isn't it beautiful!!!  I am so in love with it you'd think it was my sixth child.  Seriously, Will has heard me gush over this dresser every night since I bought it.  Usually, we spend our pillow-talk time discussing the children and our days--not so since this lady moved into our garage.  We've been all "dresser-talk"...well, I've been talking--he's been listening.

I have been hunting for a dresser with this shape for five years (I do have a life...that is why it took me five years).  It is wicked old and I want it to function like an actual dresser.  So I am going to need to fix a couple of drawers and replace the bottom pieces of each drawer.  I also want to paint the exterior -is that a criminal confession since it is wood?

Anyway, my brother, Mike, (do I need all those commas?) has a little wood working hobby.  He has made some beautiful stuff and I think he could be the voice of wisdom I need to start this project.  I don't want to ruin it.

Help me Mike!

PS: I am going to be working on this dresser this weekend...NOT cleaning out the garage...despite how cluttered that space is...I'll also be ignoring all my other children.