Long overdue family update

A typical weekend breakfast

I didn't mean to neglect my blog for this long!  It's so hard to find time for writing, and especially for posting pictures.  Sometimes I think about it, and then when I see how messy the house is and how rowdy the kids are, I think, oh, never mind.  

But I do want to update on what my kids are doing, if for no other reason than so I can remember later.  Here's what's going on with each of my kids, and me and Jordan too while I'm at it.


Suzi:

The older she gets, the more fun we have.  If it weren't for Ivey and Robert (well, mostly Robert) I could sit and read to her for hours on end.  She is also starting to read on her own now!  We are going through our collection of First Start Easy Readers and, increasingly, she can read through them with little to no help from me.  It's usually just help with a tricky word here and there.  She continues to enjoy art, singing, and acting.  We got the Les Mis soundtrack and she sings along with several of the songs in the car.  Her favorite is "Castle on a Cloud," but she also enjoys "Master of the House," which is funny to hear from her.  I love to take her rollerskating.  When we first took the girls over the summer, she was so nervous and didn't want to leave the carpet.  Now she takes off on her little black and blue skates with the light-up wheels, pops up on her toe stops, and scoots around at homeschool skate socializing with her friends.  I am bursting with pride and have given her the roller derby name R.L.  Bustya.  She says she wants to join the team when she's 18.  I hope she doesn't change her mind because with those long skinny legs and 13 years of skating experience, she would be so fast and awesome!  Below, Suzi is directing a doll choir.

Ivey:

Cuddler supreme and big sister extraordinaire.  She plays with her little brother, who adores her and always wants to know where Iyee is.  She works at her desk we have set up for her at the end of the counter, and enjoys drawing with markers and using tape.  As for homeschooling, she's mostly been joining in with me and Suzi when she feels like it in between playing.  She has attended the Tri-Art shows with us this year and she and Suzi are taking a drama class together again this winter.  I am helping her learn to write her name.  Increasingly, though, I am realizing that I need to start having more special Ivey time.  She loves to sit and have stories read to her.  I think I'm going to use the Oak Meadow Kindergarten curriculum for her when we start school next year.  She'll be four in August.  Like Suzi, she can dress herself now.  Her style is more practical and a lot less snazzy than her big sister's.  Her current favorite activities include playing dress-up as a princess, fixing her own hair, and working at her McDonald's cash register.  Oh, and jumping on the couch.  She hates taking a nap, and it's sometimes incredibly hard to get decent food into her.

She is quickly getting taller!  Time to buy her longer pants!

Robert:

Robert's big news:  The other day he decided he was ready to start using the potty!  We'd tried it out a few times before, just sitting him on it first thing in the morning or right after a diaper change, with mixed results.  Usually he just sat on it for a second, then got up and said "done!" and the potty was still empty.  But this time he said "nee potty, Mom," and sat on it and peed!  Then today, for the first time, he sat on it and pooped, too!  I can't tell you how happy I am.  He is now wearing the cloth training pants, and has only been wet once since this morning.  I know we are still far from being done, but that's okay, we've begun.  Yay.

He has his own little bed now, but he rarely sleeps in it.  Robert loves to cuddle.

Other than that, Robert sings loud, nonsensical songs and is talking up a storm.  Cute little sentences.  Here's a bit of Robert-to-English for you.

Nee yight on! -->  I need the light on!
Yight off!  -->  Now let's turn it off!  (again and again and again)
Wah dow, Mom. -->  I want down, Mom (from the highchair).
I wah dee daw!  -->  Hold me up so I can ring the doorbell before you shut the door!
Nee booboo side!  -->  I need to nurse!  or  This side is empty, now I need the other one!
Is yock, Mom.  -->  It (the drawer to the McD's cash register) is locked, Mom.  Open it?

There's so much more, but I can't think of it all right now.  There's this hilarious song we heard at homeschool skate and he and Ivey both sing and dance to it.  Robert's favorite place to play is in the toy kitchen, or at the Cinderella hair care vanity that Ivey got for Christmas.  He even enjoys pretending to put makeup on Ivey's Rapunzel styling head.  He seems to have a love for shoes, always wanting to put his own on, and mine on me.  When I get a fancy new pair, he likes to look at them, and the other day he stole (borrowed?) a little board book about shoes from church.  He still enjoys babbies and other classic toys such as the little wooden pound-and-roll.  Also, balls of all sorts.  We went bowling in January and he was fascinated with those big heavy balls he couldn't lift.  I loved him right away, of course, but Robert is developing this awesome personality and, despite making me very tired, is more and more fun to be around.

Jordan:

Recently learned how to tie a bowtie!  I think he looks so cute.

He is working and taking one class towards his degree, and the other day he got his motorcycle permit!  We are going to buy him a motorcycle soon to replace the car he's been driving, which is the 13-year-old Corolla I got when I was in high school.  It's badly sun-damaged, and to get out he has to roll down the window and open the door from the outside.  The interior is shot.  He is always the one in the family to say "it's okay, I can wait and get my (whatever he needs) later," and he definitely deserves a motorcycle!  We will be buying one soon, shortly after he takes the three-day motorcycle safety class at the beginning of March.  I'm excited for him.  Other than that, he is working on a couple of projects such as putting a fire pit in the back of our yard.  Because he is an amazing dad and spends so much time with the kids when he is home, he doesn't have much time for himself.  I'm trying to work on that.  At least now that my parents can keep Robert more often, we have a bit more time for dates and things we can do together!


Me:

At Jordan's cousin's wedding in January

Still doing roller derby, now with a renewed determination because there is an invitational bout coming up next month that I'm hoping to skate in, and to do that I need to pass assessments.  I'm getting close!  Sometimes I get so stressed out, but overall I love staying home with my kids.  I love homeschooling/unschooling and am so glad we chose this path.  Sewing and making crafts for profit is currently off my radar, as I've just been too busy, but I have enjoyed some volunteer crafting.  I'm doing a lot of the decorating for my high school reunion that's coming up in July!  I'm also becoming more involved with our church, and looking for ways I can craft to help others.  I hope to someday do craft fairs and make custom items, but right now I'd have to give up something else I love to fit that in.  I'm trying to find the time for running again, because I'd like to stay in shape and it also helps with my skating.  Life is busy!

They are wonderful.  I love it when they all play together!

That's all for now.  Hopefully it won't be over a month before I get to blog again!

My Mosa

Four random things for the fourth:

1)  Suzi picked up some seed pods in my parents' yard and took them to my mom, wanting to know what they were.  My mom told her, in her southern accent, "those are mimosa seeds."  While we were over at their house yesterday, Suzi came running up to me with a little bucket of seed pods, and proudly told me "these are Grandma's mosa seeds!"  Because, see, they weren't mimosa seeds.  They were my mosa seeds. Giggle.

2)  Kids' Halloween costumes.  I have it all figured out.  Now I just need to get started sewing.  Suzi wants to be a bat.  Easy enough, that's just a black outfit with awesome wings on the arms and a hat with bat ears.  I asked Ivey if she wanted to be Ponyo and she said yes.  I'm a little unsure about sewing a red Ponyo dress.  Might have to get some help on that one.  Then I plan to use orange hair chalk to make her hair look like Ponyo's.  She is going to be adorable!  And then yesterday it hit me that with his hair short, Robert looks a lot like Harold of "Harold's Purple Crayon."  So, basically, I'll just need to hand him a purple crayon on Halloween and he'll be all set!  I might try to find a little blue outfit for him if we don't have one already.  Also, Jordan said we should probably just make him a pretend crayon out of cardboard.  He's probably right.  Otherwise little Harold will be coloring things purple wherever we go.

3)  Life is so much easier when the dining room table is clear.  It's usually buried, but today it's clean and we've been homeschooling at it.  I think I'm going to start clearing it several times a day, even if I have to dump the stuff somewhere (anywhere!) else.

4)  Bike riding has finally clicked for Suzi.  She's still using training wheels and probably will be for a while, but she has such a good time and I'm sure she'll progress to two wheels quickly now.  I'm not sure which she is fonder of, the bike itself or the Buzz Lightyear bell we got for her.  She rings it at cars, and also calls out greetings such as "hello, friendly cat!"  Have I mentioned she wears black Converse All-Stars while all this is going on?  I can hardly take the cuteness.  Seeing her ride her bike makes me so happy.

NAK: A Robert update

I've had this blog since 2007 and have never done a write-every-day-for-a-month thing, so I thought maybe I'd do it now.  Also, this blog has been rather neglected as I've tried to also post somewhat regularly on my homeschool and derby blogs.  I'm going to try this and see how it goes.  Not exactly sure what I'll write about every day for a month!

Today, I'll start with Robert.  I've been meaning to post about him.  He'll be 18 months old next week--one of my favorite, yet one of the most challenging ages.  His haircut has really grown on me.  Now, instead of a bunch of curls and wispy hair in his eyes, the first thing you notice is his big, sweet eyes.  It also looks very blonde since the big haircut.

Bouncing at a friend's house

He's using more and more words and phrases now.  The ones I can think of right now are Mama, Daddy, shoes, cookie ("cook-cook"), water ("wa"), "I want," yeah, no, and outside.  And then there are my two favorites:  "thank you" and "ruff-ruff!"  If he hears a dog barking, he barks back.  I love it.  Oh, and he also says "boo-boo."  That's when he wants to nurse.  He was nursing while I typed a lot of this.

Since it's been warm anyway, I've hardly put shoes on the boy until recently.  He loves to wear them and holds his little feet up for me to put them on him.  With his cute little Skidders shoes on, he spends a lot more time running around with the big kids.  When we go to the church for our homeschool co-op, I take him out of his car seat and just put him down to let him follow his sisters inside.  On the playground, he runs around and climbs the structures.  He looks so proud when he gets to the top of something.  We took the kids to the zoo yesterday and he had a great time looking and pointing at all the animals, and then playing on the playground.

He loves Daddy.  On Friday he stood on our love seat looking out the front window, asking me questions like "Daddy?  Is Daddy?  Daddy ha?"  Poor little guy.  I totally understand.  I miss Daddy when he's at work too!

He can be a pain in the butt as well.  He pours drinks in the floor, pulls out items from drawers and cabinets I really wanted him to leave alone, and doesn't do much napping except for when he's nursing or being held.  Jordan has the golden touch for putting him down so he stays asleep, and getting him right back to sleep once he wakes up.

He doesn't watch movies like the other kids (and the dog).  He much prefers climbing on things and just generally wreaking havoc.

Oh, little troublemaker Bob.  He's my constant companion.  The girls go to Grandma and Grandpa's house regularly, but Robert runs them ragged and they can't handle it.  Except for once or twice a month when they keep him for just a couple of hours for me to do something like take the girls to a Tri-Art show that is only for ages three and up, it's me and Bobber.  Together.  All the time.  It's not always easy.

He's so sweet, though.  I love him and am still so happy he was our big surprise.  I think about nine months or so in the future, when he will be a little more predictable and will probably be learning to use the potty, and my life just might be evening out a bit.  It helps get me through the tough days of nonstop messes and having to be on constantly, watching and intervening and never getting very much done.  It lets me enjoy the sweet toddler cuddles and cuteness of now, knowing it's all a season.  A wonderful, messy season.

I'll try to post every day this month.  Sometimes it's hard to find a minute to concentrate.  There may be a few days I write two sentences about how tired I am and hit publish.  Oh well.  Doing the best I can!

Beauty school dropout

Thank God for weekends. Jordan is home from now until Monday morning!

Things have been hard around here lately. We don't have any serious problems. We are all healthy and happy, but just tired. I won't bore you with the details, but it's basically so many messes. They are made mostly by the three- and one-year-old children, with the two dogs as their sidekicks.

The Mess of the Week Award goes to Ivey, and it happened yesterday. My friend Megan and I were sewing at the dining room table, and Suzi was with us. Robert was happy in the jumperoo. Ivey was playing quietly. Yep. I should've known!

Suzi went in the living room and caught Ivey in the act. I heard her shout the words no mother ever wants to hear: "Mom! Ivey's cutting hair!" Ivey tried to hide (meaning she lay down in the floor and closed her eyes) as Megan and I stared at all the blond hair in the living room floor. She had cut her hair and Robert's. I thought I might faint and sat down for a minute while Megan swept up all the hair and tied up a little curl of each child's hair with ribbon. Jordan came home for lunch because I needed moral support and told Ivey she shouldn't cut hair. She told him "yeah I should, it looks beautiful." Remember how in Sleeping Beauty they rounded up every spinning wheel in the kingdom and destroyed them all? We are basically going to have to do that at our house, but with scissors.

Luckily our awesome hair stylist worked us in that afternoon, so Ivey got a cute pixie cut, and Robert now looks like Caillou. It's a shame I don't like Caillou. Every time I look at my baby boy, all I can think of is that theme song! But the good news is that now I can stop wondering why on earth Caillou is bald. It's probably because he cut his own hair and had to have it buzzed.

I love Ivey's new pixie cut, and more importantly, so does she!

Curls! I miss those beautiful curls! But he's probably more comfortable now.

Robert can walk! (with video)

June 24, 2002 - Jordan and I meet in the bowling alley at college orientation.

June 24, 2012 - Our third child walks!

If a psychic had come up to us in the bowling alley that night and said, "Ten years from today you will be married with three children, and the baby will take his first steps," I wonder what we'd have thought. It's pretty cool to think about. We had no idea all the wild awesomeness we were in for, or even that we'd be experiencing it together. It's a good thing we exchanged email addresses!

Robert is 14 months old--a couple of months older than the girls when they first walked. He still prefers crawling as his main mode of transportation, but he can walk! As you can see from the video, he's pretty excited about it, too. Yay, Robert!

Pajama Party Academy - my new homeschool blog

On Robert's birthday

I haven't had much time to blog lately, but right now Jordan has taken Ivey and Robert grocery shopping and Suzi is still asleep. I am enjoying a cup of coffee and a few minutes to blog before our busy day begins! Here are some things that have been going on here.

1) I started a new homeschool blog, Pajama Party Academy. I plan to post at least once a week on what we have been learning, and maybe twice with posts about our favorite materials and specific experiences. We are still just getting off the ground and I wanted to document our journey.

2) I am just about to open a Hyena Cart shop to sell my baby cocoons and other upcycled wool and cashmere crafts! I will probably only stock a few items at a time (see #1; I'm busy) but I love making things and I'm excited to get them online into a shop finally. I'll post the link in a few days when it's up and running.

3) A quick Robert update: He has four teeth now and they are adorable, especially the top two. He's not walking yet, but he's cruising the furniture and trying to pull all our stuff off the tables. The other day he walked pushing a little wooden chair all around the living room to keep his balance. Here he is eating his birthday cupcake. He was baptized on Easter. The pictures from that day are mostly on my parents' camera, so I'll have to get them later.

4) Ivey. I think it is safe to say now that she is done with pottytraining. Yay Ivey! Lately she has enjoyed singing, visiting the pool at the Y, and doing homeschool and art alongside Suzi. She even joined in with the six-week drama class that only Suzi was going to take, so now Grandma takes both of them to it each week. Sometimes I think Ivey likes it even more than Suzi does! I've noticed that we need to put extra effort into helping Ivey feel involved. With the oldest homeschooling and the youngest literally screaming for attention, it's an easier mistake than I thought to not give the middle child enough of our time. She has a wonderful personality though, and I love spending time with her. Here she is with her Papa (Jordan's dad) on Easter.

5) Suzi seems to be enjoying our homeschooling. Our new approach has been better than anything else we've tried. She still loves making things and wants to be an artist. Lately, she's also been into putting on puppet shows. She makes the stage with a chair and a blanket and then we all watch. She lets Ivey hand out tickets. She loves swimming at the Y and we want to get her into swimming lessons soon. Also, you know what's funny? Right at the start of spring, Suzi suddenly started wearing dresses again. She told my mom she wanted one, and my mom bought it for her. I was shocked. Nothing too frilly, though! Here she is with both Grandma and Nana on Easter.

That's all for now!

Bobber: Nine months old

Robert has changed a lot since my last post about him!

1) He's eating now. We usually give him YoBaby yogurt, applesauce, or sweet potatoes from Jordan's family's farm. He eats at least a half a container of yogurt in a sitting. He also eats Cheerios. I bought a container of puffs from Earth Fare, but he actually seems to prefer the (off-brand) Cheerios. Fine with me; they are cheaper anyway!

2) He still wins at hair, and we are still not cutting it. It's wavy and sticks up in the front. I love how even if you brush and slick it down, it pops back up. It reminds me of character out of a Dr. Seuss book.

3) Robert is not crawling yet, but he can scoot across the hard floor quite well. What he lacks in coordination he makes up in upper body strength--reaching and pulling himself along with his arms. He spends most of his play time on his belly, scooting around and looking at toys. If he sees someone or something he wants, you see that excited look in his eye and then hear slap-drag-slap-drag-slap-drag as he inches along the floor to get to it. He also loves to find small things in the floor to try to eat. He loves to sink his gums into a good book. One of his favorite hangouts is under his sisters' table because there tend to be crumbs there no matter how often we sweep. It drives me nuts. He gets plenty of floor time now, though. Just today he figured out how to pull up on a chair to his knees!

4) He still loves to cuddle, both with me in the rocking chair and in the Ergo with Daddy. Oh, and also in bed at night. It doesn't matter how asleep he is. He can tell you've put him down and will usually wake up crying if you do. Jordan and I take turns cuddling with him at night. He gets passed back and forth several times, since he still nurses regularly at night and I'm the only one who can do that. Sometimes I just want to sleep without him, but usually I don't really mind. I know I'm going to miss all these cuddles when they're gone!

5) Even though we tried putting him in the tub with his sisters to play and get washed, he continues to hate being in the water. Shower, sink, tub--one is as repulsive as the other to Robert. I feel so guilty washing him, but it has to be done occasionally! I'm too embarrassed to say how long we've let him go between baths.

6) Robert is still sporting a gums-only grin. People keep suggesting that he might be teething, but if he is he has yet to get a tooth to show for it. I love his toothless smile though! It's precious!

7) We took him to the doctor December 28 for a checkup, and while he is doing great, he is a lightweight. He has fallen off the chart a bit since we took him at a few weeks old, but the doctor wasn't that worried. He told us to encourage more solids, and we are (see #1). The same thing happened with Suzi at this age.

8) I can't remember exactly when it was, but Robert learned to say "Mama" at least a month ago and is now saying "Dada" too. He currently says "Dada" more often, but when he is hungry or wants to cuddle and I don't pick him up fast enough, he calls for me. Mamama, uh Ma-mahhhh!

Cuddle King. Sweetest boy ever. I heart my Bobber!

Suzi: Little girl, big imagination

So here is the long-awaited Suzi post.

Oh, Suzi, my firstborn. If ever there were a lesson in learning to discover your child, and not try to mold them into a preconceived notion, Suzi is it. And I am so glad.

The day of our mid-pregnancy ultrasound, Jordan and I invited my parents along to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. When the announcement was made, I said "YYYYES!" I envisioned a future of teensy jewelry and little pink baby shoes and a lavender nursery with lots of pink stuff in it. I thought of all the girly stuff I liked as a child and dreamed of sharing it all with my daughter.

Her first Halloween we dressed her as a tiger, but I tied bows onto the ears so people would know she was a girl tiger. We dressed her in frilly dresses and put bows in her hair for a while. But soon she started to develop her own unique fashion sense. She wanted to wear pants, not skirts or dresses. Nothing too girly. Eventually she began requesting clothes that were boy-ish. She finds fault with so many girls' clothes, even the shirts and pants, that I sometimes just buy boy's stuff for her. This Halloween she asked me to make her a Musketeer costume.

While most little girls pretend to be the mommy or princess, Suzi is the daddy or the prince. She puts on a deep voice, brandishes a play sword and hums dramatic music as she rescues Ivey from a dragon. She watches Tangled and assigns Ivey the role of Rapunzel. Suzi is "Flem" Rider (Eugene). And the best part of all this is that she's a good actor. She commits. She took a drama class recently and I think she might grow into it and want to be in some plays when she's a bit older.

She makes herself costumes. Rain boots are a staple, whether she is playing Santa or a prince or several other things. She ties a scarf or playsilk around her neck and calls it her tie. Sometimes she wears long ties, and sometimes she prefers a bowtie. In fact, on my crafting to-do list is a set of bowties for Suzi. Her favorite plaything is the basket of dress-up clothes we keep in the bottom of our hall closet.

Suzi's other main interests are drawing and writing. I started her out on Oak Meadow's kindergarten curriculum. We did a letter a week with review weeks every three letters. The thing is, Suzi already knows most of the letters and is itching to spell words. My mom works with her when she's at her house, and Suzi will take off on her own, writing a bunch of letters and a few short words in her free time. After learning that tricky Z, she can write her name. Her other favorite words to write: Ivey, toy and "at" words. My mom made her a little book of words ending in "at." Once when we were in the dollar store she begged for a Toy Story word search book and we bought it for her, figuring she could at least color in it even though it was really for an older child. Instead, she took it and began copying the words out of it--long words--and then asked us what she had written. She loves to write the word sister. I think for her official kindergarten year of homeschooling I am going to use the Oak Meadow science, math, health, and other activities we haven't done yet and unschool/supplement if necessary for reading and writing. If we let her lead the way, we'll be fine.

Sympathy note for Ivey, who had bumped her nose on the stairs. Suzi asked us how to spell the words.

What perhaps stands out to me most about Suzi is her love for creating. She draws constantly, and if she sees me taking something out of a box, or throwing something away, she will ask if she can have the item being discarded. She dresses her stuffed animals and herself in scraps of wool left over from my sewing projects. She turns cardboard boxes into cars and all sorts of things. Every day at least once I hear, "can I have that (thing going in the trash/recycling)?" It can be my spaceship!" Or a car, or a present, or a bed for Shroom, which is another story. On Christmas Eve, all by herself, she drew everyone a doll or a toy soldier, folded them up and asked me for the materials to individually wrap them. She is so thoughtful and loves to bring joy to others with her art.

For Grandma - a toy soldier under a rainbow

The flip side? She has never gotten excited over being led through a specific craft project or helping in a prescribed manner in the kitchen. She'll do it, but she much prefers to do her own thing and that has taken some getting used to for me and, even more, for my mom. Who doesn't want their little granddaughter to don an apron and spend some quality time learning Grandma's favorite cookie recipe? It's okay, though. Her imagination, individuality and natural drive to create are going to take her places. With Suzi, my most important role is to protect and nurture these gifts. Doing a better job of that is one of my goals for the new year.

That curly little head is full of beautiful ideas just waiting to be born.

An Ivey update

Our sweet Ivey is about two years and three months old.

1) She talks a lot, quite clearly, but still has her own cute little way of saying certain things. It's a bittersweet feeling for me when she learns to say another one of them correctly. In the past month or two she started calling one of her friends "Chawis" instead of "Kess." A couple of my other favorites: Ponyo is her favorite movie, and she sometimes says "I'm Sos-cake!" (it's really Sosuke, pronounced Soskay). One of her favorite phrases from Toy Story is "evil doctah porkchock!" The girls have a Seven Dwarves set they play with at my parents' house and at some point Ivey learned to cross her arms, frown and say in a deep voice, "I'm gwumpy." Oh, and granola bars (which we are having for breakfast this morning!) are "L-bars." But my absolute favorite right now is what she says when she wants someone to go away and leave her alone. She made it up herself, and says it in her meanest, roughest voice: SMACK OFF!

Ivey and her Ponyo doll I made

2) Between Suzi and Ivey, there's hardly a meal I can fix that they'll both eat. They both love cheese, noodles, apples, grapes and dessert. That's about it. I'm hoping Ivey's pickiness is just a short phase! It popped up around the time she turned two. Previously she was our child who loved to eat lots of different things.

3) Ivey's been keeping Suzi up at night. We put them to bed together, and then we hear Suzi saying "Aah! Ivey! Quit poking me!" Some nights we have to let Suzi sleep in our bed until they both fall asleep, and then we move her back in with Ivey. It's getting better, though, because Ivey misses Suzi and wants her to stay. It's sweet.

4) My favorite qualities of Ivey's are her strength and determination. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to stand up for herself or do something difficult to get it. The persistence that sometimes inconveniences us now will someday serve her, and others, well. When I envision her at 20, these are the qualities I want her to keep.

5) She will drop what she's doing to feed the dog, get me a wipe and diaper so I can change the baby, or turn on the music for Robert on his Jumperoo. She also picks up toys pretty well when asked. So helpful.

6) I should have mentioned it sooner, but we stopped breastfeeding. I guess it was around 25 months, when it seemed she had forgotten how to do it correctly and rarely asked anyway. After she'd gone a few days without asking I started offering her a book and a cuddle instead. She occasionally asks to nurse still, but I decline and she is okay with that.

7) She is really good at doing a fishy face. None of us can do it like she can.

She puckers up, and then...

Smack! Fishy kiss! I love those fishy kisses.

(Plus, could she look any cuter in those piggy pajamas?)

8) Ivey loves to cook. She whips up delicious pretend dinners for us in the toy kitchen and brings them to us to eat. The names are never anything we can understand. When she sees me making something in the kitchen, she is quick to offer her help. I daydream about someday having a child who wants to cook us dinner.

Ivey's Halloween costume. She wanted to be Dixie the Dachshund (our dog who lives with Grandma and Grandpa)

She came downstairs like this one day, looking like she was wearing a crinoline slip under her dress. Turns out it was a tutu.

Me and Ivey working side by side on crafts and drawing

A post about Suzi is coming soon!

All about Bobber

Robert in the gnome hat I made him

Ever since I started this blog when Suzi was a few months old, it's served as a baby book for my kids. But Robert is my third child and I've really slacked off on keeping up with his milestones and things! It's hard to find time to blog, especially now that I'm also into Facebook and just discovered Pinterest (which is fantastic by the way). So anyway, today I thought I'd write a Robert update. He just turned seven months old November 9th.

1) The first week of November sometime, we gave Robert some mashed up sweet potatoes (from Jordan's family's farm--yummy). He smushed them around with his hands and when we tried to put them in his mouth he was like, you guys are so weird! That's what milk is for! However, he will happily gum down a large apple slice or carrot. Fine with me. We'll try again soon.

2) Robert wins at hair. It is curly-wavy and long on top. Jordan says we'll have to cut it soon, but I say NO.

3) It's like I hadn't noticed that Bobber is no longer a newborn. He nurses all the time like he's a newborn. And he wants to be held all the time like he's a newborn! But yesterday I had a Norwex party and my friend brought over her sweet baby girl who is about three days younger than Robert. (Robert liked her, by the way! And she attended his birth, as her still-pregnant mommy came as a midwife apprentice. Cool, right?) Well, Terri was all over the place, crawling, sitting up on her own, pulling up on furniture. Robert does none of these things. He can sit up, but every time I try to sit him in the floor he straightens his very strong legs and makes me lay him down instead. I decided that maybe I haven't given him enough floor time. A rowdy two-year-old sister running all around will curtail that pretty quick. I'm going to start encouraging him more.

See? A happy baby boy sitting in the floor, right? About two minutes after this pic was taken, he reared back and whacked his little head. Which required nursing and cuddles. He does this regularly, and then the next time I try to sit him in the floor he is understandably skittish.

4) The boy loves to cuddle. He has started to spend somewhat reasonable amounts of time out-of-arms in the Jumperoo and even sometimes on his belly scooting around in the floor. But he prefers to be cuddling, especially if he is nursing and cuddling. I like it too. Our cuddling time, when he falls asleep, is my Facebook/Pinterest time. He also loves being on Daddy's back in the Ergo. And guess what? Mommy loves that, too. Soooo much.


5) He hates baths. Screams through them. We usually take him in the shower and just wash him as fast as we can, poor guy.

6) No teeth yet. It's no big deal; I just thought I'd make a note of it so we can remember later.

7) Bobber is not a big guy. Kind of medium, I guess--we'll find out his weight when he goes for his checkup sometime this month. His friend Baby Crayon who was born several months later is about his same weight. I held Crayon the other day and it feels so strange, because he feels about Robert's size but just sits there when you hold him. Robert flails his arms and legs and tries to leap out of your arms or stand up in your lap.


I love this sweet little boy. In the next week or so I'll try to get updates posted for the girls!

We are not bored.

(It is never boring over here.)

I didn't mean to neglect my blog for so long. We go through seasons of energy and perseverance, then seasons of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. Right now we are trying to work our way out of the latter. It's just kind of hard to clear our physical and mental space for homeschooling when I haven't had time or energy to clean properly and all the toys have been dragged into the floor and Robert is crying to be picked up. After days like that I just haven't felt like blogging.

So, since it's Saturday and Jordan is currently walking Robert around in the Ergo, I thought I'd post a quick update and lots of pictures.

Let's start with Suzi. We are enjoying homeschooling, although I am still getting used to it. These photos are from last week, which was B week. We read Goldilocks and the Three Bears, did lots of butterfly stuff, and also talked about the number 1.

(She made this butterfly, which has extra-large antennae, for Aiden)

(We are so happy to have friends to share our first homeschool year!)

This past week was supposed to be C week but it was a total bust. We got frustrated and stressed and are going to start over fresh Monday. And we can do that. If we did one lesson a week with no breaks we'd be done by the end of April--way early. Suzi is also doing soccer with her friend Aiden. She likes it better than dance, and I feel good knowing that no one is going to spring a frilly tutu on her at the end. That's why she quit dance.

Ivey has been spending her days joining in with our circle time and other homeschooling activities. She loves singing songs and doing the motions, maybe even more than Suzi does. When I sew, Ivey likes to sit by me and cut up scraps that I give her. She says "I sewin'!"

Yes, I'm a little proud. Ivey is still working on her potty skills, but we're almost there. We love listening to her talk. One thing she's said for a while: I will ask her to do something, like come sit on her potty, and she'll say "Tan't!" and go on to explain the important thing she is so busy doing, like making coffee in the toy kitchen. She makes us lots of pretend coffee, knowing we need it.

(Ivey loves her little friend Evie)

(She loves to pick up little rocks to carry home. Ha ha. I made her put this big one back.)

Robert. Bobber. The sweet boy is not at all fond of being put down. Never has been. He can play in his jumperoo now for a few minutes, and will play on the floor on a blanket for a little while. Usually just until Ivey comes over and invades his personal space by poking him or rolling up against him. Which I'm pretty sure turns him off to being put down on the floor to play the next time. (See why I am frustrated?) He is not yet sitting up on his own, but we have been able to put him on our backs in the Ergo (where he falls asleep). I can get a little relief this way, do some chores while he is safe and happy. Here he is at his first Clemson football game. Jordan was so happy.


Jordan, by the way, is working hard. Being awesome as always. Wants to get a motorcycle soon. He is taking two classes this fall in addition to working full-time. Luckily he just made it through a stressful period at work, the start of fall classes. There's a lot for an IT guy to do around that time!

And me? I've been loving my serger lately. I have mastered cleaning, oiling and threading it and have sewn a bunch of projects. There are half a dozen in my head right now that I want to do. Maybe I'll get to some of them today. I crave order and space but can't seem to get it. A garage to store a few things would be so amazing right now. But the good news? We are getting hard floors in our living room and dining room! Beautiful bamboo ones, probably, and you have no idea how happy I am to be getting rid of this terrible, horrible, no-good, very dirty carpet. Next weekend! I will do a more detailed post with pictures of my sewing projects later.

So that's what we're doing around here! Now I'm off to clean, sew, and enjoy the weekend with my family. Hope you're having a good one too!