Highlights

I’ve never been a regular blogger, after all I am so far behind, but now I’ve become one of those people that lets the most recent post sit for months and months, and every time you stop by to check and see if there has been an update, it’s the same old story.

So, without trying to catch up on the past 4 months of family activities with individual posts about each event, I’ll try for some highlights.  It might inspire some follow up later.

There were three birthdays:

Henry (who already got his birthday tribute blog post here), though the actual celebration took place a few days later so why not flood your eyes with more cuteness:

And since the turkey climbs out of his high chair the second he is buckled in, I held him in my lap while he ate the proverbial “messy” cake. 

Elise was next—turning 4:

More mermaids.  I’m not kidding when I say that is all they have asked for for every holiday since they could talk.  Ariel, Ariel, Ariel.  My cousin Chelsea would disapprove. 

I mixed it up with a big set of fairies this year.

Also, just for the record, we went to the pool for her birthday (a familiar theme), and that is why I am dressed in sweats with wet hair.  I’m pretty sure I was still wearing a wet swimsuit underneath too.

And don’t forget Dave.  36:

Grasshopper pie birthday cake.  or something.  And those were the only candles I had left in the drawer.

Somewhere in there was a visit from Julia and Ian:

Oh, and you’ll never believe what we finally got to do after being married 10+ years:

Never mind the pyramid in the background.  Notice that there are NO CHILDREN clinging to us.  THANK YOU COURTNEY!!!!

Then it was March:

“look, my mom finally bought me some shoes and let me walk around outside for the first time!”

 

The girls first Legos:

and yes, there was another unauthorized hair cutting incident. I’ll let you guess who and where.

 

 

More Henry shenanigans.

Then some family pride as I brought down an old lady in the jousting ring at mother/son sports night. 

Old lady’s name shall remain undisclosed.

And the beginning of our deforestation project in the backyard. 

That gets us through March I think.  I’ll have to dedicate another late night to April and May.

when I was one, I had just begun

Happy Birthday Henry!

We survived the first year.  As an added bonus, we didn’t have to call poison control or visit the ER.

Today was an early release day for the big kids.  I girded my loins and took them all to the pool.  By myself.

Henry had SO MUCH FUN!  I even had fun. Until the sweaty part at the end when all 5 of us were in a family bathroom showering and trying to get dressed without anyone’s privacy being compromised and children were dropping snacks on the bathroom floor and trying to pick them up and eat them again and dripping their wet bodies all over dry clothes and Henry was trying to climb out of the stroller and crawl on the wet floor and there were 5 bags and a double stroller and 5 people all in a 8 x 8 space that had a hot steamy shower running for 20 minutes straight.  Other than that it was loads of giggles and squeals.

I wish I could have gotten more pictures, but I had 3 non-swimmers and only two hands.

Technically we didn’t really celebrate his birthday with gifts or balloons or cake and candles, but the pool was party enough for him.

Saturday we are planning to be a little more celebratory, including some carefully selected and cleaned, then festively wrapped hand-me-down-toys from basement storage.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!!

 

Roll that pumpkin down the hill…

It’s time for Halloween.

(If you don’t have the “Elmo says Boo!” album, I highly recommend it.)

The last 2 years of Halloween memories have been sucked into a swirling vortex of memory loss.  Last year was wacky because it was on a Sunday…I somehow managed to not get any pictures of the girls in their costumes.  Dave and I were trying to recall what happened  when finally it dawned on me, oh, I was pregnant.  Of course.  Holding a camera and carrying a baby in utero are mutually exclusive. 

The year before that I think someone had Swine Flu or H1N1 or something.  Is that the same thing?  The details are fuzzy.

So as October approached this year I resolved to do better for my children.  Decorate.  Carve pumpkins.  Eat candy.  Boo people.  Dress up.  Lofty goals.

Normally Halloween is my favorite holiday, but my perpetual state of exhaustion is enhanced during holidays.  So here we are in 2011, and I can check the pumpkin carving off my goal sheet (and decorations,  as evidenced by the photos).

Yes, Henry needs a haircut.

 

A quick update from the land of perpetual babies…

It is hard to believe, but Henry is 7 months old. Surely we should be finished making payments to the hospital by now. 

He is crawling everywhere and of course everything goes in his mouth, including legos, polly pockets, and collections of dust/lint/hairballs from the broom. He is pulling himself up on furniture, causing squeals of delight for all audiences. We are slow going introducing solids as his milk protein intolerance is still causing him problems (he got a hold of a cup/straw with milk in it and chewed on it for a few minutes, then had hives all down his chin and neck for a couple hours). He loves sweet potatoes, cheerios, and oatmeal with pears. He even had a delicious selection of pureed vegetables and beef for dinner the other night. Mmmmmm, smells the same going in as it does coming out.
I am still enjoying a dairy free diet, which includes 3-4 peanut butter sandwiches a day and various taco, fajita, burrito arrangements sans cheese and sour cream.  And lots and lots of sorbet.
I already emailed this video out, but in case you missed it:

summer wrap up

This summer was very hot and dry

Sometimes it made me want to cry

We visited parks and pools and such

We ran through sprinklers oh so much

Too hot to wash and cook and clean

We ate out a lot, always caused a scene

Dave traveled to many a far off place

A rocket launched his hardware to space

The minutes dragged, we counted the days

“Mom, I’m bored,” a regular phrase

Lunch and recess, friends to play

We love school! Hip, hip, hooray!