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?)

Sometimes...

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

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

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.

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.

Pinewood derby

Wyatt had his first Pinewood Derby tonight.  It was my first Pinewood Derby too...  Wyatt's car was/is pretty sweet.  He made it with help from Will, but not much help.  Wyatt designed the car and Wyatt's scout leader and Will cut the wood for the car (totally appropriate help).  Wyatt did the sanding and painting.  Did I mention he and Will did all of this the night before the car was due for design judging?  Nothing makes a car fast like procrastination.  

The Pinewood Derby was fun.  I really didn't know what to expect.  I think my older brothers participated in this Boy Scout tradition but I was probably too young to notice.  We have a big group of scouts here.  Most of the boys have older brothers who were there to cheer.  The atmosphere was a great mix of friendly-competition and accomplishment driven pride.  There were many heats.  They ran the races with the aid of some computer software that figured out the speed of the cars and made race heats with cars that were more compatible with each other.  Each car raced several times and I think each kid ended up winning at least one heat.  Things were a little crazy so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on.

Wyatt's car ended up being one of the faster cars on the track.  I think he ended the night in the top 8 of 20 or so racers.  He also won second in a design category.  We were all pretty proud of him.

And now, a bunch of pictures only I care about seeing...

Colter, being excluded from the sawing and sanding action.

We got to the race super early (we are never early for things...) because Wyatt's car was a little under weight.  Wyatt was kind of nervous.  We didn't have a way to test the car out on any kind of track just our table.

Adell got tired and bored.  To entertain herself she flipped the camera on my phone around and took about  50 pictures of herself making silly faces.  I kept this one.  

Wyatt's super-proud-face after winning his first few heats.

Can you see his face?  He is pumped!  I think his car won this heat too--I cannot remember.  

Colter knows how to clap.  He took his job of cheering the racers on very seriously.

A happy kid...with graphite stained fingers.

Where'd my baby go?

Colter just a couple of days old.  Maybe not the best picture of Colter?  It is getting late...I am tired and cannot see the thumbnails of my photos very well.  I think he is adorable.  

Oy!  The baby is 10 months old!  I am going to try and write this post without a lot of moaning and crying.  I really think it is a good thing that babies grow up.  There are so many cool and cute things they can do as they get older.  But newborn baby is my favorite age and stage.  It will always be so...I do not have a newborn baby any more...and that makes me a little bit sad.  (Not sad enough to have another one though!)


Colter is all kinds of mobile.  He can crawl like a champ and pulls himself up to standing on everything.  He loves to push laundry baskets, kitchen chairs, doll strollers, the recycling bin, pretty much anything that will support his weight while walking.  He is not a big fan of holding my fingers and walking.  I am endlessly thankful for that!  Having a child who can walk but refuses to do so without holding your fingers is my least favorite baby stage.  It is a back breaker!

We have tiled floors in most of the living areas in our house.  These tiles are freezing cold--year round.  Colter has learned how to do a perfect bear-crawl if he doesn't have any pants on and wants to cross the tiled floor.  I'd put a picture up but he really only bear-crawls when has no clothes on and I am trying not to put neked pictures up here.

With his crawling he can get into every thing!  He finds the most wonderful--er--gross things on the floor and puts them right into his mouth: dirt, hairballs, toys, dropped food...yuck.  He has also discovered the toilet as a plaything.  Just last week I was helping Adell finish up her potty routine all of a sudden I looked down and Colter was just about to dive into the toilet bowl.  He is some kind of toilet ninja!  He wasn't even in the bathroom with us, he just appeared out of nowhere?!

He loves to be outside (eating whatever he can find).  He loves family hikes and walks in the stroller.  I wish we got out more for his sake.



He knows how to blow bubbles with his drool, give zerberts, and make loads of spitty mouth noises.  He is also a fantastic mimic.  He likes to "sing" when he hears music, "yell" when he hears cheering and "laugh" when he hears a joke.  He recently learned how to "dance" by watching all the girls dance around the family room one day.  He stomps his feet and wiggles his bum with the biggest grin on his face.


He is a great sleeper!  Inconsistent night time sleep is one of the few things I do not like about newborn babies.  Colter is probably the best sleeper we've ever had.  He goes right down for his naps and sleeps through the night.  The above picture was taken at church in a rare moment.  He never falls asleep outside of his crib, even in his car seat he will fight sleep until we get him in bed.

He has figured out the "Daddy's home" routine at our house.  I should really do a separate post about this family tradition.  Will has done it with the kids forever.  As soon as he walks in the door he hollers out "Estoy-ah-kee!" (I am spelling phonetically there, it is a spanish phrase and I have no idea how to spell it.) meaning: I am here.  From all corners of the house our kids come running for "jump-hugs".  They line up and race across the entry way, flinging themselves into Daddy's arms.  Colter gets all excited as soon as he hears Daddy call out.  Colter crawls into the entry way and watches the other kids.  Once it is his turn, I help him walk over to Daddy and jump into his arms.  Colter loves it.

He just learned how to sign "finished" when he is all done eating.  I've been working on this with him for a couple of weeks.  He just got it a couple of days ago.  (My kid is a genius...)

Happy 10 months Colter William.  You are so much fun!

**post edit** Colter also has four teeth poking through his gums!  The first two (on the bottom) showed up just before he turned 10 months old.  The second two (on top) showed up less than a week later.  It is sweet to see those little baby teeth smiling out when he gives us a grin.

5K

I don't run, even for my life.  I have friends and family members who are big time runners--not me.  My lack of running skills aside, our family attended a 5K fundraiser last weekend.  Will and Wyatt ran the full 5K.  Lorien and Clare ran a smaller fun-run.  I walked most of the 5K with two ladies who out walked me by a long shot.  It was a chilly but sunny day and we all had a nice time cheering each other on.  Will got second place in the "running while pushing a stroller" division (he pushed Adell and Colter in our double stroller).  Wyatt got sixth place for kids his age (under 12).  Clare stood at the finish line waiting for each of us to cross.  Cheering her guts out.  I didn't finish the race, I was too pooped (and more than a little embarrassed to be the very. last. "runner" in the race).  So I cut across the park and didn't go through the finish line.  I felt bad for leaving Clare in the lurch.  She would have waited for me until the sun came down.  

Clare is in the red and pink stripes running with her friend, Clara, in the red.

Dave ran the fun-run pushing an umbrella stroller and then ran the 5K--pushing the stroller!  Way to show us all up Dave.

Go Clare, go!  

What dreams are made of

We got a package in the mail today.  It was heavy.  When I opened it up I cried with joy.  Two big tubs of  Marshmallow fluff!!!  I couldn't believe my luck.  My sister sent two tubs all the way across the country. This stuff is awesome, magical and delicious.  We had peanut butter and fluff sandwiches for dinner, epic.  For some reason fluff is not available in stores here in California (it is fat and cholesterol free--for crying out loud!).  A facebook friend told me she can get it in Japan, where is the justice in that?  Oh well, for now, we are well stocked and loving lunch time.

Thanks Jennifer!

Sugar and spice...

We got to have Sadie over to play this week.  The girls were adorable, dress-ups were a must as was a proper tea party.  The last time I set up a tea party for Adell, Colter was 4 weeks old and I had to let him scream his guts out while I helped Adell and Clare have tea.  Calmness and patients was the rule at this tea party (almost).  Both of the girls wanted pink-every thing (cups, spoons, bowls etc.) so a few arguments were had.  Both of the girls wanted to know if the party was ready yet...every seven seconds.  I had to wash all of the tea party dishes because they were nasty.  I think both girls would have enjoyed tea (hot coco) in dusty/slimy dishes but my conscience wouldn't allow it.



They really are very sweet friends...as long as we have two pink every things around.