Thursday, May 24, 2007

Crunch Time



April and May are simply crazy for moms. I don't remember them being particularly crazy in that period of time when I was an adult - no longer a student - but not yet a parent.

For parents, you basically take a deep breath around spring break, dive into it....and surface for air the first week of June. Agree? Spring Break, Easter, Mother's Day, MY Mother's actual birthday, field day @ the elementary school, shop for teacher gifts, Spring Programs, Spring sports - WHEW! So it is May 24th....the last day of school for the boys...and I can see the light...


Justin has graduated Kindergarten. I now have a first grader. Who wears a size 3 shoe and tends to get a bit sassy in the mouth. We took him to Cracker Barrel after the celebration and Carleton got him a Mav's jersey. Pretty sure it will have holes worn in it by August. He told me on the way to bed that he plans to wear it tomorrow. We are really proud of him. He had a great year - lots of maturation. Not the best picture, but it was hard to get good ones in the crowd. I just concentrated on watching.



Collin finished up the year @ Presby as well. He was blessed with the world's most amazing teachers, just as Justin was three years ago. He had a wonderful year and loved every minute. He is such a cutie - very into the weather right now. I believe I've mentioned our crazy spring. This morning, as we were heading to school, he looked at the overcast sky and announced "These clouds aren't headed to our beach (we are going on vacation next week), they are headed to the Northwest part of China" and proceeded to climb in the van. A&M has an excellent meteorology school. The top picture is the boys with the preschool teachers. They are amazing.


Blaire, Blaire, Blaire. She's a happy chunk. She is on a good routine. Not sleeping through, but sleeping longer....2 or 3 am. She's into her food more now. I believe she'll be moving to her big girl carseat this weekend. At 18 pounds, I can't say I get much use out of the infant carrier any longer.


And here is the girl. Post-bath glee:


And I'm going to print this and carry it to dispel the disbelief I'm met with when I tell people she's in a size 4 diaper @ 6 months. "No she's not!". Oh yes, she is. You can reach up and pinch that booty on your monitor, but it's much more fun to squeeze in person. I really could eat this little girl up with a spoon. And I propped her there on the stair. She did not get into that position on her own. She fell over shortly thereafter! :)

Mother's day

Mother's day was wonderful. Justin made a poster that says "I Love You". It's still hanging in the kitchen....just to remind him that he loves me as we readjust to life together EVERY DAY now that school is out. At the ripe age of 6, he no longer thinks I know everything...and doesn't think all my "great ideas" for activities are always great. I can't sell Kroger as a reward any more, for some reason.

Anyhow, we went to a very snazzy brunch after church at a new restaurant in town with a trendy chef. All the food was excellent. A Mimosa for mommy and three perfectly behaved children. It was everything a mom wants! And we came home, put everyone to bed and Carleton and I proceeded to watch a marathon of "Deadliest Catch". As I said, the day was wonderful. We haven't wasted an entired day on marathon in ages. I didn't even do laundry. We were lazy, lazy fools. Hope to do it again on Mother's day 2008!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Six Months....gone by so fast!




So my girl was six months old yesterday. How did that happen? It seems she just got here!

We had her appointment today....sister was 17lb 15oz (90th %) and 28" (off the charts). So she's growing JUST FINE! She's proving to be a different person than the boys, much more laid back physically. The boys at this age were chomping at the bit...trying to figure out how to coordinate each limb with the others in a general effort to get SOMEWHERE...Blaire? Not so much. She's cool with her sitting.....chewing on her toes......and when that gets old, fussing so mommy will pick her up. She's not in a hurry to get anywhere...and as Andria told me today, "That is your gift from God after the other two!". Amen.

We started rice cereal tonight while we all ate dinner. Blaire could not get enough and was quite ready to take the spoon herself, thank you very much. I wasn't as ready as Blaire and got teary...but I guess she'll move away from home eventually, so I have to start with these baby steps.

Here are her six month portraits and some shots of her eating tonight. Not to neglect the brothers, they are in swim lessons this week. They are fish. No....fish are quiet. What swims well but is still loud? Elephant seals? Anyhow....they swim like fish. Day two of lessons today and Collin swam the width (not length) of the pool without assistance. Yea!









And the food pics....have you seen a baby get this happy over gruel?




Just give me the spoon!

Big brother helping out:


Love to all -
K