you have your good days and your bad days

This was a good day with Katie:



There was painting and gluing and coloring and fingernail and toenail painting and sidewalk chalk and story time and a two-hour nap. It was full of hugs and love.



It was a very good day.


This, however, was not a good day with Katie:



On this day there was lip gloss on my bedroom carpet and a pint of blueberries on the kitchen floor and purple marker all over her hands and face and ranch dressing smeared all over her hands in an attempt to remove purple marker and a paper shredder mess in the dining room and Sharpee on the kitchen floor.



This day was a little short on hugs. But I still love her. In spite of the naughtiness of it all, you have to admit, a day like that took hard work and a lot of gumption. It almost sounds made up, but I assure you it was very real. Very Katie.

I'll take her, good or bad.

my delicious shrimp

Hello there.

You are my little baby. My tiniest one. What do you think you are doing, learning all these new baby skills?

In the past week:

• I found you sitting up in your crib. Your face was a bit perplexed and scared at the position you had gotten yourself into all by yourself.
  
• You grew a tooth. You don't seem too happy about it, but are pleased to rub it on the tip of the sippy cup you've been trying out.
  
• You thrilled Joey when you pulled yourself up to your knees from a sitting position when he was playing with you in the basement. I don't know who was cuter -- you or Joey ecstatically yelling for us to come see your latest feat.
  

It's like somebody sent you a "grow up" memo and you are taking it seriously.

Don't you know you are my delicious shrimp? You are supposed to stay small for ever.

ship ahoy

"Isn't this a breakthrough that I'm a sailor? I sail?! I sail now?!"


Well, it wasn't Lake Winnepesaukee, but we went sailing.


We had a great captain.


An enthusiastic first mate.


A cute, blonde deckhand.


And a drooly, little stowaway.



It was like a vacation.


A vacation from my problems.

she drools

She drools a lot. All the time.



I love her soggy chin.

sister sorting

Yesterday the kids were getting on each other's nerves a bit, so I came up with a task to keep their hands and minds busy. I put a different colored flash cards on various squares of our patterned carpet in the play room. Then I gave Katie the wooden block bin, and Joey the car bin, and told them to sort their bins by putting the block or car on the corresponding block of carpet.

They busily worked until the task was complete. Joey excitedly came into the kitchen to tell me to come see the finished product. When I walked in the room, I noticed that Lizzie was not sitting where I had placed her by the pink Boppy pillow, so I asked Joey why he had moved her.



With his face all smiles he replied, "See mama, I put her on the pink square!"

weird start

Yesterday Joey's first grade school year started with a field trip to an organic produce farm. We toured the rows of veggies, held turkey chicks, saw wonderful sixty-year-old tractors, smelled some sweet lemon balm leaves, marveled at what Farmer Russ grows without the use of any pesticides or herbicides, and then went to Sonic for some burgers and a shake.