Welcome!

 

Welcome Matthew Stephen! Born early yesterday morning, 3:55 am. 7 lbs 3 oz, 19.5" and perfect! My heart is so full. Will report more soon! 

Catching Up (Again)

Goooooodness, where does the time go? I'm sorry, I'm always saying that. But it is always amazing how much can go on in between the time I update this little blog. And it is important to me to keep up with it. So here's a quick tour through recent goings-on, based on what is on my camera roll. 

Rainy season has arrived. A couple weeks ago, before it turned cold, the kids dug a gigantic hole in the backyard. Really impressive. Lots of mud. Patched up now. Fun while it lasted. 

 

This girl can talk me into anything, including the purchase of this large bag of play balls. 

 

How did I miss mentioning that my big girl turned EIGHT at the beginning of the month? 

 

She is growing into such a lovely young lady and makes me a very proud Mommy. 

And then there is my handsome boy, looking very grown-up in his own right with his earth tones and the hat I made him last Christmas. 

Oh, and here's one of the things he really wants for Christmas: 

Which is a problem given my dislike for gigantic plastic toys, but he keeps mentioning it so Santa will consider. 

 

Have I mentioned C's love of painting these days? She gets her paints out almost every day. Needs a little help but not much. Knows all her colors. Likes to paint "moons" and imitates the little brush-spinning motion I do when I paint them for her. 

Back to A, who had two baby teeth pulled on Friday. They weren't coming out on their own though the adult teeth had cut through. She was a trooper and handled the whole thing very well, with the help of just a bit of laughing gas. I was very relieved it was a good experience for her. 

I've been spending lots of time lately making lots of lists, menu planning and to-do's and grocery lists. Humphrey likes to help. 

 

Feeling huger by the day and crossing things off my list like a crazy woman in hopes that I can feel ready for baby. I'm kinda hoping he might come at the end of this week so I can be home next week to enjoy TG and my parents' visit. I'll keep you posted! 

And in closing, this great picture Don took of W and C, on a walk around the neighborhood last Sunday in between bursts of rain. Love, love, love. 

Pardon the short sentences; seems to be how I am thinking these days. Busy, lovely times and so excited for our next big event! Till then! 

Weekend Walks

 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of joining Caroline on a brief walk down our street. She brought her purse and pushed her stroller full of...phones. Or "iPhones" as she calls them all. I'm not really sure what this says about any of us; we really aren't a very techie house and I don't think I use my own phone all that much. But my, they learn so young these days. This collection of hers consists of a few actual talking/musical toddler phones, a defunct remote control, and just about every ancient cell phone Don and I ever had. We've kept them all because they are always everybody's favorite toys. 

 

Of course it got a little challenging when C got a call halfway down the street. 

Today we took a late afternoon walk at one of our favorite local parks. 

It was chilly and fresh and lovely and just what we all needed. Top notch weekend all around. 

Halloween and Beyond

Well, fresh off the thrill of finding an app to quickly edit photos on the iPad so I could blur out the identifying details on the above picture, I am finally ready to catch up a bit with Halloween and the last week or so. Shall we? 

 

Sunday before Halloween the big kids and I carved pumpkins. We didn't do this last year, somehow, so they made sure we didn't miss the chance this year. I have to say, I was impressed with how well the two stuck with the project and even did a fair amount of the cutting themselves. 

 

C earned brownie points by mercifully staying busy on her own and out of the way; there wasn't enough patience in my jar for a pumpkin-toddler-sharp-object mess.  

 

And I'm glad I took a picture of the finished pumpkins as soon as they were done because I have NEVER seen jack-o-lanterns decompose so quickly. By Halloween night they were all filled with at least an inch of fuzzy mold and had to be carried to the compost with rubber gloves and the help of a bucket the next day. It was disgusting; even the warmth of South Carolina didn't take down the carved pumpkins as fast as the dampness out here did. 

Anyway, Halloween itself was a rainy, low-key day at home. Amy kept hoping for something more festive but hey, there were decorations and a few trick-or-treaters and I made pizza and it was all very nice. We did our own trick-or-treating the previous afternoon, downtown, as all the shops and restaurants were participating in trick-or-treat on Main Street kind of thing. That turned out it be great fun and far better than wandering around our sketchy neighborhood in the rain on Halloween itself. As for those costumes, Amy made up her own Forest Queen persona and happily for me she put together the whole thing from dress-up stuff we had, without needing me to make or do anything. Score! William made a last minute decision to be a ninja but thanks to amazon prime we were able to pull that off for an easy $14. Caroline, like all my kids when they were under two, wanted no part of a costume or ears or anything, but did pick up on the whole trick-or-treat idea and marched along happily. Good times. 

Oh, and the big kids also did a lot of their own decorating, which I thought was cute, especially since I'm really not all that into the holiday myself and have just a few token decorations that I trot out each year. William made the green ninja for the wall, and the pumpkin, and Amy painstakingly spelled out Halloween in little bits of paper. 

And on Halloween night itself I surprised the kids with a big wad of glow sticks which we played with in the mostly dark living room. 

So, that was that. Now I'm really happy to be in November and less than four weeks from my due date! I'm trying to check things off my list at a steady rate so that I can feel "prepared" when baby boy decides he's ready. I can't wait to meet him! My biggest worry is logistics with the other kids, especially C who doesn't sleep, uh, independently very well and is rather solidly joined to my hip most of the time. My folks are coming out for almost two weeks around my due date (and Thanksgiving, yay for having family with us for a holiday for once!) but a part of me kinda hopes to have the baby before then so I can just enjoy their company. Ah well, it'll be what it will be. 

One last thing before I wrap this up - got the kids' school pictures back today which turned out really well. I'm pleased with the one I took of C, too, and I had fun looking through the accumulating years past as I put the new ones in the front of the frame. 

 

For A and W this year's is the bottom right. Can't believe how grown up they both look! For all the candid, daily pictures I have of everybody there is still something special about the yearly 8x10 to really put all that growth and change and memories of different states and schools in perspective. What a trip. 

And that concludes this longer-than-I-intended post! Happy November!