VBS

This has been Vacation Bible School week at church. While it is fun and fulfilling, it's also tiring!--so I'm glad it's over. I've had the VBS music and video at home for several weeks, and Lucy has learned all the words and motions. I let her come in to the opener with me each morning before she went to the nursery.


[Ignore the loud-singing kid and the girl in the swimsuit (today was "get wet" day and no one had reminded her to put clothes back on)!]

Here's a shorter video that was actually during the program (love how little she looks next to everyone else):



And we stopped to smell some flowers on the way back to the car today:

The park

I took some pictures at the park this evening. I wanted to capture Levi now loving the swing, and Lucy was being a ham. :)

Levi laughing in the swing:







Nate and Lucy having fun:

Love this

Jon's mom got this book for Lucy a few months back. I love the illustrations so much that I had to post them. Aren't these sweet? (I didn't post the whole book, but each page is really cute.)

Stressed out Mama

I keep telling everyone that the transition from one child to two was most difficult for me. While I do believe that was true logistically, I don't ever remember feeling this stressed out and crazy. The stress, though, has less to do with the fact that there are three kids and more to do with their ages and stages. It feels like all Nate and Lucy do is fight. I've been talking a lot with them about having a kind heart toward one another (instead of just saying, "Stop taking toys! Stop yelling!"). Nate has been having some trouble obeying at school. I have my own theories on the causes of his misbehavior, but ultimately there is no excuse and he should be obeying. This causes me a lot of angst, as I'm trying to find the right way to discipline for things I myself don't witness but still want to discourage (that is a whole different post). Lucy is in the middle of being very two. Everything feels like a fight with her, from putting on clothes to the carseat to juice. Levi is in a fussy stage (teething? reflux?) and is still not sleeping through the night. I started giving him his Zantac again last night; I had stopped giving it to him about a month ago because he didn't seem to need it anymore and I hate putting medicine in his body anyway. But perhaps his fussiness is the reflux returning. Anyway, yes I'm feeling stressed and a bit overwhelmed.

In the midst of all of it, though, I keep trying to remember what everyone tells me: I will probably miss this stage the most. Nate says the funniest things. Lucy is maybe the cutest 2 year old I've ever known. Levi is so pudgy and squishy. If they all would just be quiet! :)

Lucy's first trim, in pictures

Before




"Oh, this will be fun!"




"Wait. You didn't tell me about this cape thing."




"I have decided I am not a fan of haircuts."





"I can't believe you made me do that."




"I guess it wasn't that bad."




No worries--the curl is still there. Here's Lucy today, "washing dishes."

Colossal waste of time

... but lots of fun!





Here is the website where you can make your own.

I should clarify that Nate, Lucy, and Levi aren't themselves a waste of time. Fiddling around on the above website and making different color/pattern/font combinations was. :)

Tidbit

Lucy and I were rolling our cool glitter ball back and forth. She asked who gave it to us, and I said Mimi did. I wanted to see if she remembered that Mimi lives in Virginia, so I asked, "Where does Mimi live?"

"At home," she answered.

"Yes," I agreed. "And where is Mimi's home?"

"Far away," Lucy replied. :)

Toy storage

I made these fabric buckets (using the idea from here) to replace our overflowing toy basket in the living room area. My first attempt, the "baby" bucket, ended up looking a bit too "reusable grocery tote" to me, so I made some changes to the top and the handles for the "cars" bucket. I plan on making at least a couple more (one for balls, another for books).

Language list

It's lists like this that I never want to forget. :)

Lucy's pronunciations:

pancakes: "pampakes"
ponytail: "tonytail"
snack: "nack"
Levi: "eevi"
lunch: "yunch"
toothbrush: "beebrush"
nothing: "nuffin"
bother: "bodder" as in, "That bodders me!"
pat: "pap" as in, "I wanna pap Levi's back."

"Home again, home again, jiggyjiggy jog!"

We were talking about names the other day. I asked her what hers was. She replied, "Yucy." I asked her what my name was. She thought for a second and said, "Miss Katie."

Seven years

I haven't had time for many substantive posts lately, but I'm sure no one blames me for that. :) I wanted to spend a few minutes, though, posting about my wonderful husband, since our anniversary is today.

He works hard and commutes each day to provide for our family.

When I call him at work "just to say hi" and see if he's coming home soon, and he hears unhappy chaos in the background, he tells me, "I'll leave right now."

When he can tell I've had an especially tiring few days, he suggests I take a book and go to Starbucks for an hour or two on a Saturday while he stays home.

When I come up with a hair-brained idea (like "I want to get a toddler bed for Lucy this weekend and put her in it even though she isn't yet 2"), he lets me run with it (instead of telling me it's probably a bad idea, which it might be).

He doesn't complain--ever--when I spend an entire evening after dinner at the sewing machine.

He is calm, patient, and slow to anger.

When our kids have a "sick episode" or sudden injury, I freeze, but Jon has the "parenting reflex." He jumps into action with towels, buckets, wipes, whatever the situation calls for.

No matter the type of day he has had, he always plays "ticklefest" with the kids when he gets home.

He is our kids' favorite person in the world.

And he's my favorite person in the world.

Happy 7 years, Jonathan!

Here is the most recent picture of us. The only other one I could find was when I was still pregnant with Levi!