three

Little man is THREE.

He does not want to be potty trained.  But he does want to eat candy.  Working on reconciling those two...not producing results yet.

"Actually."  He's turned into an opinionated near-preschooler.  If he doesn't agree with you, he uses the word "actually".  Actually it is.  Actually I am.  Actually I do not.  Actually.  Actually.  Actually.

J's thoughts on garbage collection.

"Why do we go to bed everyday?"
"So you can grow big and strong."
"I am big and strong."

He currently has a thing for salad with Olive Garden dressing.

He still sleeps in a crib and sleeps well.  We own a twin sized bed for him, but I'm in no rush.  Typical bedtime is around 8:00 and sleeps almost twelve hours.  Daily nap is 2-3 hours, but happening closer to 1:30 these days.

We had lunch alone while the girls were off playing and I asked him about what we'll do when they are at school all day again.  His response: "I don't want to talk about it."

He's taking a gap year this year, and I'm sure he'll be spoiled rotten in the best possible way.  We'll have lots of quality time to do fun things like read or go to the park or watch too much IPTV in pajamas.  And time for boring, but necessary, things like run errands with only one child in tow.  He'll start preschool after he's four and kindergarten when he's six.

He collectively refers to his sisters as "The Girls".

Madeline can put him to bed.  Completely.  She reads to him, sings to him, tucks him in, and shuts the door.  He absolutely loves it.

Beloved Blue Monkey is still a daily staple.  Never sleeps without him.

Favorite toys: Anything with wheels.  Especially garbage trucks, dump trucks, trains, and mail trucks.

Nicknames: J, JW, J-Dub, Bubba

Favorite foods: Salad, strawberries, chips, yogurt, banana, fruit smoothies, "clusters" aka Honey Bunches of Oats, milk "in a baby cup"

This time around I feel more acutely aware of the passage of time.  In no time at all he'll be off to school, and I'll be thinking about heading back to the workforce.  I cannot believe how fast these few years have gone.  We're nearing the end of the babies-n-diapers stage.  In another week, I'll have two in elementary school and just one left at home.  There certainly were some long days in the mix.  I'm still not entirely sure that I'm bringing all of my sanity with me to the next stage.  But it's been a fun ride, and I'll miss the sweet moments of it.

Here's to being three!  Let's have some fun!

lunch today

One of those days when you can't decide:

Lunch on the rooftop terrace?

Or a cozy corner booth?

as of late

Madeline and James building a sofa-cushion fort and Audrey spinning around the living room.  For a moment I thought I should be doing something other than sipping a coffee and watching.  But I let the thought slide away and enjoyed the moment.

Pinterest at its greatest.  Each girl had an idea of what they wanted for Valentine boxes.  We found pictures and crafted away.  The perk of having an over-supply of scrapbooking papers and stickers and a January snow day.

As Audrey geared up to her birthday...

Me: Thanks for getting your laundry put away.  I appreciate it.

Audrey: Yep.  That's what five-year-olds do.

I'll take that.

Amidst the noise of everyday life, I've always needed an afternoon quiet.  When he worked from home Darrin joked that he wasn't supposed to talk to me from 1:00 to 3:00.  It wasn't a joke.  Two years ago I gave up my daily Days indulgence and I've taken to leaving the tv off and enjoying the silence of the house during rest time.  It's never two hours long anymore, but I'm also not in the swings of infant vs. toddler vs. kindergartener vs. parents exhaustion.  But it's still a few moments of glorious silence.

We've been making it outside more and more.  Swinging, throwing balls, digging in snow (as available), and running in circles around the driveway are James' favorites.  Madeline has started joining the neighbor boys in shooting baskets and seeming like one of the bigger kids, although she still loves to play pretend with the girls across the street.

Sometimes I see glimpses of the life I once knew before kids.  The other day James was still napping and the girls were across the street playing.  I was home alone with dinner cooking and no chores (that I wanted) to do so I sat down and read a book.  It's bittersweet.  The feeling that it's going by so fast, yet at times not fast enough.

Oh, Deer!  It's Valentine's Day! But it took me an extra month to post a picture of it.

that time she broke her arm and we told her to shake it off

We won't soon forget Audrey's fifth birthday.  

As she tells the story, she and her sister and her cousin were looking for Cheerios under the sofa.  It's a good start to a story.  

After some sort of "being silly" and perhaps a push, Audrey fell off the ottoman.  Less than two feet tall and on the carpeting.  

She cried and carried on and complained that her wrist hurt.  But nothing was swollen and she passed all of our preliminary finger-wiggling and hand-squeezing tests.  So she rested in her room and then Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa convinced her to join the party for cake and ice cream.  

She was up a few times in the night saying it hurt, so I made an appointment for the afternoon at the pediatrician and sent her off to preschool.

As we were heading to the pediatrician I still doubted there was a problem.  She was completely fine at lunch, and the only complaint she really had all day was that it hurt when she got dressed and put her coat on.

Right off the pediatrician noticed that her elbow was slightly swollen.  We never really considered that as she only complained of wrist/forearm pain.  She actually wondered if Audrey had pulled her elbow out of socket while trying to stop her fall as she was carrying her arm as a child would with nursemaid's elbow.  The ped ordered xrays and there was a small crack in her radial head.  They sent us home with instructions to ice, rest and take Tylenol and referred us on to the orthopedic surgeon.

One more appointment for the ortho to review the xrays, and here we are today with a splint for three weeks.  

And full cabin-fever energy.  Nothing stops this girl. 

make that a grande

Hey blog. Welcome to 2016.

My new fav corner of the house. It used to be "the butler's pantry". But since the butler is me and I like coffee, I'm rebranding it "the coffee nook".

My very sophisticated Mr. Coffee and Aldi-brand fair trade coffee in an old Trader Joe's canister live there.

Quotes to get me going with joy and humor.

Plates painted by my grandmother to remind me to be kind and grace-full.

Starting each day with coffee and inspiration.

new lens

I bought myself a new 50mm lens for my birthday.  It was shockingly inexpensive and I love the pictures it takes.

Could also be that the photographer took a great intro class and now actually knows a little bit about what the camera does.

It seems like every weekend as of late has had us saying that this really is the last one.  The last nice weekend before winter hits.  

So this weekend took us to Jester to play at the playground and play with my new lens.

I've been a habitual hurry-upper my whole life.  Always excited for the next season.  Ready for the next adventure and the new freedoms and responsibilities that each stage brings.

Yet looking back, I'm always nostalgic for the seasons gone by.

There's been something about this season of parenting that makes me want to stay right here.  To dwell in this moment.  Maybe it's that my baby is no longer a baby.  For the first time I'm getting to truly enjoy having a toddler.  Without also having a newborn baby or a swelling belly.

All three of the kids are at fairly independent stages.  Able to do some things on their own without my constant supervision and assistance.  *Breaths sigh of relief.

Maybe it's because in some ways I can already sense the end of this season.  Once all the kids are in school, I'd love to return to teaching full-time.  And I know I'll miss these not-so-lazy, but not-so-rushed, days of the stay at home life.

So here we are.  Taking in deep breaths.  Running through open fields.  Climbing to perch upon tree trunks.  Discovering the world.  

Enjoying this season today.  

storm shelters

Hello to the four people who I think actually still might read this or have me on their Feedly.

Nice to see you again.

So a recent conversation about nursing strikes {the breastfeeding kind....'cause every talks about stuff like that...right?} had me looking back on when it happened to me.  And I remembered that I had put something on the blog about it.

And then I was looking at some other old posts and enjoying the cuteness of time gone by.

And then one of my few, but faithful, readers sent me a text about my neglected blog.

So here I am!

During yesterday's afternoon storm, Madeline was scrounging in her room to collect "all the things that make her happy" so if our "house blows away" she still has them.  Then the storm passed quickly and she had all of her stuff piled up and the kids made forts in my crafting area and occupied themselves all afternoon and evening.

They did some reading and some watching shows on the computer.  And they were generally cute and cooperative.

So much so that I actually sat down and read a chapter of a book during their waking hours.

This seems like a major milestone to me.

So I took some pictures.

Hope to be back again soon.  :)