ye olde facebook statuses

Doing dishes at sink. Small boy saunters into room carrying a framed picture from my side table. Casually reaches up to grab a full cup of water off my kitchen table. Wiping up mess. Small boy is slapping the puddle happily. He smells suspicious. This is what I get for installing child locks on all my kitchen cupboards and drawers.

I appreciate that our crayons are non-toxic, but I wish they could be infused with essential vitamins too, since they are such a staple of our son's diet.

Theia just informed me that she is going to help "un-dust" the living room.

Until his bottle is safely in his hands, Emeth behaves as if he thinks I am just going through the motions of preparing it in order to taunt him. Crazy kid.

Eliza sneezed while eating breakfast, then came out with "Mama, I blessed my pancake right out of my mouth." (It was true, unfortunately.)

took Emeth outside today so he could get some variety in his diet. Dirt and a few rocks made for a nice change from the usual crayon bits and shriveled up peas from under the table.

Special brand-new-one-year-old accomplishment of the day: removing diaper and peeing out through the bars of the crib during naptime. (dec. 6, 2011)

Eliza just made me a card with a picture of a zoo on it. I asked her what animals were pictured. Without hesitation, she pointed to the animals and said, "This is a calliline, and this is a burkel." She's great :).

I challenge anyone anywhere to accomplish less in more amount of time than I can.

Pushing the screens out of every open window within his reach has become an important daily item on Emeth's to-do list

Theia: "Did Jonah have a wife?" Me: "I don't think the bible tells us whether he had a wife." Ingrid: "Maybe Mary was his wife!" Eliza: "No, Ingrid. Mary was *God's* wife."

Four long-haired females and hardwood floors do not mix well. Not to mention all the synthetic doll hair! It seems their are dustballs the size of Kansas tumbleweeds rolling through here no matter how often I sweep. At least there is one household member not contributing to the situation. ;)

One barbie shoe in the mouth, and one clenched in each fist. Emeth is very industrious about his little-brother-ly duties this morning.

Is listening to the girls one-up each other with tales of their "terrible dreams" from last night.

I question my effectiveness when I give Emeth my warning "no-no finger," and he playfully bites it.

I love watching babies express themselves pre-speech. Emeth waves his arms and yells at the top of his lungs (in a good way) every time a gust of wind hits him while we walk. He won't tell me verbally how that makes him feel once he starts talking, but for now I understand him perfectly, and I totally agree :).

Emeth is now saying three words: "Dad," "Dog," and "Duck." Never mind that all three are pronounced identically

Emeth apparently thinks I've become too relaxed during his diaper changes. A little reminder of the dangers of changing boys was in order.

Emeth is walking around the house, handling forbidden items, while sternly saying "Don't touch!"

Overheard: "Let's pretend Mommy and Daddy are going on a date, and Cruella DeVil is our babysitter."

Annoyance: When the erasers have been chewed off of all the pencils - even the unsharpened ones.

Theia to our dinner guests last night: "There's a dead pig shoulder in that - but don't worry, it tastes REALLY good."

Emeth is convinced that the bathroom is the most exciting room in the house, and nothing will persuade him otherwise.

February marks the beginning of my allergy season. Emeth is trying his best to imitate my uncharacteristically violent sneezes. He gets a kick out of them.

Still a little unclear as to why Ingrid thought it would be a good thing to throw Emeth's brand new sandals in the trash....

Heading out for a date, hear Eliza caution the babysitter, "you better not make us watch any adult movies while they're gone!" - We'll have to explain later that to Eliza, "adult movie" = "Secretariat"

Sometimes it's fun to switch on dance music in the car just to watch Emeth rock out the moves from his carseat.

Eliza's response when she went to greet Emeth after his nap and found his bedroom door locked: "Well, I guess we'll never see him again. Too bad."

Me: "Ingrid, why is this skirt out here on the floor?" Ingrid: "It just camed out by itself." Me: "You mean it just grew legs and walked out here?" Ingrid: "Uh-huh."

Theia to Eliza: (apologetically) Sorry, there's kind of a lot of dragons in this house." Eliza: (understandingly) "That's alright, our house is like that too."

Eliza is singing a very disjointed but mostly sentimental song, loosely based on "The Hokey-Pokey." Yes, it is as strange as it sounds.

Ye Olde Facebook Statuses

Eliza: "Mom, I need you to give me a big hug, because sometimes I get a little fussy if I don't get a hug."

Eliza just stumbled into the living room all bleary-eyed, proclaiming she wants to stay up, "...because we didn't even do school yet." But alas, school with a half-asleep four year old at 11:45 on a Saturday night was not on my agenda, so she was tucked back into bed.

This morning while doing errands the sky was very cloudy, but there were a few holes revealing a very vibrant blue sky, or as Eliza put it "Look Theia! Some of the clouds are showing the sky to us!"

Sometimes I hear myself talking to my kids, and I sound so... old

Ingrid (in an accusatory tone): "Mom! Emeth kissed me and hugged me! And then...and then...and then he pulled my hair!! And that wasn't very nice!"

 It's hard to concentrate on learning your letters when your little brother is trying to use your toesies as a teether. Poor Eliza.

(After catching Ingrid in the act of dunking her doll in my coffee cup) "Ingrid! Do NOT touch my coffee! - Ingrid: "I wasn't touching your coffee, Cinderella was touching it!"

"Eliza, it's time to stop talking and go to sleep." - (desperately) "But I didn't tell you enough things yet!"

Even though it's annoying, I still find it irresistibly cute when Emeth immediately dives under Ingrid's chair, searching for leftovers, the minute I put him on the floor after a meal. His manner is so intense, he is after the prize! I usually have to clean him up twice.

Eliza, picking up a garage sale item: "Ew, that bag smells yuck! That bag smells like a man!"

I just had one of those halo-ringed moments of parenthood where I happened to glance out the window and was completely arrested by the fact that the most adorable children in the world were out there, laughing and swinging on swings, in my backyard. I'm so blessed.

Eliza's first celebrity crush: "I wish I could marry Buzz." Yes, that would be Buzz Lightyear.

Pretty sure the bite marks on my shoulder will still be there by tomorrow, and Emeth's ears might still be ringing with my primal shriek.

Theia: "I think these pants are too small for me. They're giving me a pant rash."

Sometime I should record about 5 minutes of my daughter's make-believe play and write a fantasy adventure based on it. 5 minutes contain enough plot twists to fill a 2 hour movie.

After helping me with dishes for awhile Theia tells me "Mommy, you do such a good job of cleaning, I think I'm going to let you finish up here." I think I'm supposed to feel flattered.

I am having second thoughts about escorting my sister-in-law around the town. I may have four children, but the seventeen year old is not my daughter, thankyouverymuch miss hairdresser.

"Ingrid, are those panties clean?" - "Um, dey're a *little bit* clean."

Well, the morning started well, but I could have done without the episode that necessitated stripping the crib, sterilizing the bars, and giving the 9 month old a full bath, all before breakfast.

Emeth has discovered that standing up and clapping his hands gets him a lot of positive attention. I love it.

Eliza, at the dinner table: "Mom,  can we get another chicken that's dead and has it's head cut off?"
After that description, I'm not so sure I will want to get another whole fryer chicken anytime soon. Sheesh!

Few things make me feel more maternal than walking through the house at 6am, making sure all my sleeping children are properly covered.

Theia: "Mom, did you know that orphans can jump even higher out of the water than dolphins?"

I think Emeth is under the impression that I sweep all the food scraps into a pile in the middle of the kitchen floor solely for his personal convenience. *sigh*

Theia wanted to go see her little neighbor friend this morning. I explained that we couldn't, because her Mommy went back to work this week, and now she's in day care. Theia's response: "She goes to day care?! She's probably just playing with washed-up old toys who have no owners."
Can you tell what movie she watched last night?

After this day, I think it's pretty safe to say that Emeth is officially walking. (Oct. 22, 10 1/2 months old)

My kids are entirely too capable of making messes that only I am capable of cleaning up properly.

Typing has become a lot more difficult ever since Emeth ripped half the keys off my keyboard.

Would someone please tell the almost 11-month old that he is too young to be opening doors...

If only we could figure out a way for daylight savings time to benefit parents of small children.

I'm thinking about moving all of Emeth's toys into my kitchen cupboards, and all of my mixing bowls, food storage containers, and food prep gadgets into Emeth's toy box. I think that may be an arrangement more suitable for both of us.

Theia: "Mom, can you change Emeth's diaper? He smells like macaroni and cheese!" I'm not sure whose macaroni and cheese she is referring to, but I guarantee you, mine smells considerably better than Emeth does right now.

While my niece, Sydney, helps me organize her playroom, I ask her a question about a particular toy. She replies "That goes to my Rapunzel - No! Not that Rapunzel! My NAKED Rapunzel!"

Stuff I Made

These are some simple projects I did last week for two different birthday parties we went to on Saturday.

Frontier Vest

Apron with matching potholders

I didn't take the time to set them up for a pretty photo-shoot, so cell phone mediocrity is all I have to show you. They were both great projects for a novice sewer like myself to tackle. It's nice to make something for the 5 and under crowd, since they don't care if there's a dropped stitch or two. Especially when it's only meant for dress-up purposes.

I got the vest instructions HERE, and I modified a couple of different ideas from the same site for the apron and potholders. The apron and potholders are made from a thrifted set of placemats. I plan on making similar ones for our girls sometime.

I've been pretty busy otherwise, hence the absence from blogging.

It's a family thing

One of the greatest highlights of our trip was the almost daily riding that took place. Jessie's little sister, Joy, has two horses. She bought Misty several years ago, and discovered months later that Misty was with foal! What a deal - two for the price of one! Actually, it took Mom a little longer to be excited about that than it did Joy :). So now Joy has her hands full with training a headstrong two year old colt. We only rode Misty. Destiny, or "Buddy" as he is more often called, still has too much attitude to be a safe riding horse. But Joy is doing a great job with him.

Anyone who knew Jessie before we got married knows that horses were his all-consuming passion. He trained horses semi-professionally, and he regularly participated in competitive team penning (which he is very good at). If you told him then that less than 8 years later he would live in a big city, own no horses, and sometimes go for stretches of more than a year without even sitting on a horse, he would have laughed in your face.

Things weren't supposed to work out that way, but like most young people who are in love, we didn't really look very far down the road in regards to some things. When we got married he still owned the best horse he'd ever had, and I had bought a horse of my own in the hopes of becoming a better rider and sharing in his hobby. We were renting a little house in a smallish town that was on 14 acres of land, and our landlord assured us that it would be absolutely fine to keep our horses there. We had not been there a week before a tersely smiling county employee showed up on our porch and told us that although the land across the road was zoned agricultural, ours was not. We had 24 hours to move the horses.

Well, life happened fast, and after a series of temporary horse-housing solutions over the next 18 months, a pregnancy, a baby, a job change, a move to the suburbs, and another pregnancy, our options and priorities shifted so much that we felt we needed to sell Jessie's horse (My horse was old, and he had developed a health problem that had required his euthanization some months before). That was a tough day. Jessie had adopted a very pragmatic attitude towards the whole situation, but I knew he really hated to see his buddy go.

Someday I hope we can have horses again, or at least be involved with horses regularly in some way, but for now it is just a joy to see him combining his old passion with his newer, greater passion whenever he has the opportunity. And our kids love it, from the tallest to the smallest.

I feel much more comfortable riding now than I used to when we were dating. I wasn't afraid of falling off, just of looking stupid in front of Jessie. The comfort now is that after being married to me for six years, he's pretty much seen the full extent of my stupidity, and I can't hardly look stupider at this point.

 

Theia asked to ride every day, and when she did, she couldn't stop laughing. She was also very interested in relating to the horses in their pasture. Always the bossy big sister, she made it her personal mission to reprimand Buddy every time he put his hoof on the gate.

Eliza didn't want to go fast at first, but after she realized how much more fun it was than trotting, she was all about it.

Ingrid is another giggler. I could hear her gales of laughter from across the field.

And Emeth was just as delighted as he could be. He thought it was pretty cool stuff just sitting up there, but when they took off, he was in 9 month old heaven.

Cue "Man From Snowy River" music

I'm afraid that if I narrated these pictures, more than one person would be embarrassed, so I'll just let them speak for themselves.

 

He's pretty much a stud.

The Swing

I could sit on this swing for hours.

And this week I think I have.

Of course, its the best when you have a joiner.

 Eliza shares my love of swinging.

 It has been a wonderfully rejuvenating week.

Tomorrow we go home,

but certainly not before we take one last swing.

target practice

Theia is absolutely loving this vacation out in the hollers of Pennsylvania with Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Joy. She is spending most of the days out of doors, and is particularly enamored of Aunt Joy's horses. But earlier today she showed that she is still very much a city girl. She asked Joy about some gunshots she was hearing. Aunt Joy explained that it was just some people shooting at a target. She accepted that answer, but a few minutes later, after hearing the shooting continue, she commented "That must be a pretty big store!"

That's my little shopper.