Amelia

This morning, walking back from putting William on the bus, Amelia skipped ahead of me. Take my picture on the step today she sang. She ran and plopped herself down on the front step before I could reply.

My heart sank. Gemma needed a new diaper. The camera was inside. The to do list was long.

The look on my face must have said it all. My sweet girl reached into her pocket and said, "Here mom! You can use my phone."

Out her pocket came a red plastic cell phone.

I stood dumbfounded. Amelia hopped up on the front step and then instructed:

Open the phone and then push the sheep button first, then press the yellow button with the cow.

Then she said "cheese" and waited for me to take the picture.

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Amelia had her first day of preschool this week. With William starting almost 3 weeks ago, she has been impatiently waiting for her turn.

She was thrilled to finally wear her new shoes and be off to school like a big girl. I did take her picture on the front step (which i believe prompted this morning's request) but only with our big camera. So, those may be coming in the next five years or so. No promises.

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Amelia started ballet last week. I was pretty nervous about how it would go. If you hadn't picked up on this, Amelia can be....stubborn. If she decides she is not going to do something, she is not going to do it.

Luckily, this was not one of those things. She went, she danced and she had a wonderful time. No reservations, no shyness or refusing to participate as my imagination had predicted (and with a new set of ballet shoes, tights and leotard, I'm already invested).

Again, pictures are on the big camera.....for another day!

Sent from my iPhone

12 weeks old

Gemma is now 12 weeks old! Here she is wearing a 6-9 month outfit - shouldn't it look a little bigger on her? As a backdrop, we used my old holly hobby sheets from when I was growing up! Do they match? Is it my favorite? No. But it got the job done for today.

Gemma is so fun right now! She has discovered her hands this last week. She has been batting at things for weeks now, but suddenly she is grabbing at things. She is grabbing and capturing things in her hand. And she knows that she is doing it- and she is very proud!

We have laughing and cooing. We have smiles- those big, gummy grins that melt my heart. This week she also added in holding her own hand to the equation. So very sweet!

This has been a very long week. A very, very long week. Hopefully next weekend we'll have a little more time for our photo ops!

Issac

The remains of hurricane Isaac met up with us this morning at the bus stop. William insisted upon the umbrella because "he couldn't go to school wet!".

According to the forecast we are looking at a predicted forecast calls for rain in the neighborhood of 8 inches.

Reading to my sister

This boy sure does love his little sister! For now at least. When she starts getting into his stuff, he might feel differently!

After school one day this week, he decided Gemma needed some storytime while I tried to get dinner moving in the right direction (towards the table).

A Day Off....

I am back at work this week, teaching an almost new batch of GED students.  I was looking forward to today very much as a breather to catch up before the long holiday weekend...

Catching up didn't happen, but here is a taste of what I did do.....

6:40 - William stumbles in and goes to the bathroom. With the light on and door open.I wonder, why oh why doesn't he use the bathroom right next to HIS room?

6:42- William attempts to have a conversation with me about something and is unsuccessful because I am tired.

7:00 - my alarm goes off

7:02 - I go to the bathroom all by myself in my bathroom to the relaxing sounds over the monitor of William and Amelia fighting over something.  From the sounds of it, this will be a fight to the death.

7:04- I go to investigate the fight and learn that the cars were fighting with each other, not the children.  You know, for pretend, Mom.

7:05- Grumpy over waking up to fighting.  Pretend cars fighting.  Make breakfast for kids.

7:30 - Clean up after breakfast

7:35 - Chase kids into clothes, brush teeth

7:40 Pack up library books for trip to library. Chase books from behind beds,under couches, etc

7:45 - Get myself ready for the day...except clothes.  Because the baby is sleeping in my closet.

7:50 - Quick pick up of the house - we have a Parent Teacher coming to meet with us at the house.

8:00- Lunchbox into backpack, realize club forms are due today, look for checkbook

8:01 Looking for checkbook

8:03 Call John re: checkbook

8:05 Looking for checkbook

8:06 Write note to teacher, chase kids into shoes

8:12 Out to bus stop

8:15 Put William on bus

8:16 Gemma wakes up

8:18 Change diaper, help Amelia on potty

8:20-8:45 Feed Gemma

8:45 Attempt to dress Gemma and pick up toys at the same time.  It doesn't work.

9- 10 Meet with early Childhood Education Teacher regarding Gemma

10- Chase Amelia into shoes.  Gemma poops, change poopy diaper

10-11:15 Storytime at Library

11:15 - go home to pick up food for a friend who just had her first baby.

11:35-12:30 - drop off meal, delight over new baby (Feed Gemma while catching up with friend, I do love to multitask)

12:45 Fix Amelia and me lunch, pack William's lunch for tomorrow at the same time

1- Sit down to eat my lunch

1:12 Baby crying

1:12-1:15 Jiggle baby on my leg while I try and finish eating.

1:15 - Feed baby, convince Amelia to finish her lunch

1:40- Gemma asleep while playing on floor - will she stay asleep if I put her in her crib?  Answer: yes.

1:50- Amelia watches Sesame Street (Netflixes instant) while I pound out a 35 minute workout on our elliptical trainer AND squeeze in the world's fastest shower. Sesame street is about 50 minutes long...that should tell you what kind of shower it was.

3pm- John is home.  His first question: Did you call about that _____________?  Nope.  I didn't.

3-Baby awake, feed baby

3:30-4- dinner prep

4:20 William arrives home

4:20-5- empty lunch box and fill it up again, look over school papers/notes/projects/etc

5-5:15 dinner prep

5:15-5:40 eating

6pm-7pm Amelia starts a ballet class! Feed Gemma

7:15-7:40 Kids bath, teeth brushed, ready for bed.

7:40 revisit the highlights of ballet

8 Read books.

8:20 Big kids to bed

8:25 Collapse on couch

8:45 Feed Gemma

9:20 Gemma to bed

9:20- John and I try and catch up....

9:25 Gemma is not asleep

9:35 Gemma asleep

9:35 -10 Attempt to pack family up for traveling and have conversation with husband.  Mission not accomplished....tomorrow is a new day!


So after finally squeezing in a ten minute conversation with my husband, he went to bed.  This left me to blog about our crazy day AND finally have a moment of peace to prepare lessons for work the next morning!  I finally fell into bed around 1:30...with tasks still unchecked off my list.  Someday I will be caught up again....or at least less behind, right?

William's First Lost Baby Tooth

This morning William decided he could not eat breakfast because his loose tooth hurt. So Mom attempted to remove it, but was unsuccessful. When William got home from school we decided it was time for that loose tooth to come out. He was a little hesitant to let Dad near it, preferring Mom to look at and touch it. Dad did get one time to touch it and was able to push it back (William was too smart to fall for the trick where he pushed it back himself that always worked on his Dad). The next time that Dad was able to get in there to look, he yanked out the tooth. William had quite a funny surprised look on his face.

Canoe time

This weekend was the big race our family usually helps out with as a fundraiser for a clean water non profit organization. This year, we had huge voyager class canoes for people to paddle in.

The kids were SO excited about getting a chance to be in the big boat. I was pretty nervous, but strapped up the life vests and away we went.

The highlights:

William was thrilled about how "easy" it was to paddle the canoe and about drove me absolutely crazy repeating over and over how it wasn't hard at all to paddle. And really it wasn't that hard to paddle - especially when you DIDN'T EVEN PUT YOUR PADDLE IN THE WATER! Or when you wave it around and whack your poor mother in the head and wiggle around so it feels like the whole boat is going to tip. Special thanks to the teenaged boy who sat next to William and put up with his constant stream of chatter and wayward paddle without dumping into the river.

Asian carp- we were paddling along and William was asking his 94737372829th question when 6 fish leapt out of the water about two feet away from my head. Canoes, you may know, are low on the water. They were WAY to close and I was not happy. But, how can I complain? It was my idea to take the kids out on the water....

A big thanks to the kids and my great husband. Our family carted just about everything in the garage down to the riverside at 10am and then stayed all day until we packed it up again at just before 7pm. In the rain. The kids were awesome and loved it- John was super supportive, even though I know this is far from his cup of tea!