free

YAY! I'm 3 months old!

E' LOVES to talk, baby talk! I wonder what she's trying to say?

boy is it hard to take the picture you imagine you'll be able to take. They just don't cooperate and stand where ya pose them... that blanket on the floor kept moving (right?), and the sun moved just enough to cast shadows all over, and sweet E' discovered she could grab her shirt and pull it back and forth

they were all smiling for the camera... then baby E' got all excited about her hands (which she notices from time-to-time throughout the day) and she fell over in the thrill of it all... while B forgot all about me saying "smile for mommy" and stared at the neighbor walking outside the window... and i didn't notice til after I gave up and hit the camera button anyway, that the carpet was peaking out from beneath the blanket on the floor :0)

I tried to explain Independence day while dressing the kids for church Sunday morning. We had such a busy week that I somehow managed to miss the opportunity to do an independence day learning unit with them last week. So... when I laid out all red, white, and blue for them to wear and J' noticed and asked why, I found myself trying to give an abbreviated explanation, "Well, today is Independence Day and that means..."

All she caught from my brief comments was the word "free," which in her vocabulary refers to things that don't cost any money. "Why am I free?" she wanted to know - as if that's a bad thing. I loved the opportunity her confusion afforded me to explain freedom in Christ, freedom to worship in our country, and the rights and privileges of living in the USA (all on the level of a 2 to 4 year old audience).

Sadly, her statement reminded me again of the hard units I will have to cover in the future; teaching my children about slavery, civil rights, and the full meaning of freedom as black men and women in the USA. I wish their heritage and history didn't include such ugliness. When they are old enough, we will teach them about those dark and horrible parts of black-american history so they will understand the responses they will receive from some in the world later in life. It will be compounded by the persecution they encounter for their faith in Jesus Christ. But there is one difference: their faith they will choose (boldly and proudly), their skin color (or that of their parents and sibs in the case our fairer-skinned kiddos) they were simply born with.

making squinchy faces (E was DONE with picture posing for the day)

[DOUBLE-CLICK ON ANY PIC TO SEE A FULL-SCREEN SIZED VERSION]

sum sum summer time

Yep. Summer is here. We're doing our best to enjoy the hot days and warm nights :0)
(Oh, how I wish I loved the heat like my younger sister P' does!)



We tried a blow up pool! That was fun (and more work than mommy thought it would be, but daddy was excited for them to have some new kind of fun and THEY DID! YAY DADDY!) We let it dry after two days of splashing fun and then brought it in the house where they played in it in the middle of the living room floor for the rest of the week. It has now been happily deflated, folded, and stored back in its box in the closet til the next time we loose our minds and think, "what fun... we'll let the kids splash a while." This will require forgetting the joy of inflating the thing (hint of sarcasm intended). :0)

We went to a wedding -- here's mommy and company all dressed up (the last wedding we went to, I posted a pic of the kids with daddy, so we'll trade this time)








Risky Business (remember that movie? all I recall is that scene where the dude was dancing around in his underwear, socks, and a dress shirt). After the wedding, B' took off his pants and ran around in his dress socks and shirt for a while. Hee hee!

We cleaned out some old files and in proper mommy fashion I saw all those paper shreds and thought... oooh FUN! SOO.... we emptied the toys on the floor and filled the toy buckets with paper shreds, pulled out toy shovels, and made a rainy day go away! Afterward I thanked the Lord countless times for the blessing of having a vacuum cleaner!
Those shreds were EVERYWHERE.

We had a painting day. We learned the difference between watercolors, and acrylic-type paint (textured). They had the best time painting and filling our art-clothes-line from one end of the twine to the other with pictures of all kinds of things. I love how what looks to me like a random mess of smeared paint colors looks just like a boat, the sky, or a house to them. I loved this activity -- all indoors -- out of the heat! Praise the Lord for air conditioning! Did I mention it's HOT outside. :0)

Pretty lady!

B' on the "rocking cow" that Auntie Pamela brought for baby E'. Since she's still too small, B' is enjoying the cow for now. :0) Notice his beloved cowboy hat is on!

HAPPY START TO SUMMER!

time flies...

Wow... E' is ten weeks old! Time sure flies when you're having fun (or when you have a house full of toddlers)! Please forgive me for not posting pics more often. She's growing so fast! Here are some recent pics (double click on a pic to see a full-screen version)...

look at my long feet ;0)

excited wiggles

I'll stop crying as long as mommy keeps looking right at me

daddy gave me a bath in the kitchen sink

precious naptime sleeper
(she sleeps better if she feels cuddled by either arms, a blanket, or a couple of cuddle buddies)

E' can kick and wiggle, turn from her side to her back, and scoot towards you somehow (This happens when she's in bed with us because I don't feel like waking up to put her back in her own bed after deep-night nursing. We've never seen her do it, but she can find a heat-source fast!)

She can smile and coo (such sweet baby talk!). She's just starting to try reaching for things but she gets distracted when she sees her hand in the air and ends up just touching her face or watching her arm move around (hee hee!).

Best new thing: E' started laughing last week! Nice gurgly, drooly, smiley, giggles! PT and I will do just about anything over and over again just to delight in the sound of her little laugh. The bigs love it too. They try all sorts of antics to see if they can persuade her to giggle.

I'm so smitten! She's simply gorgeous! I might be just a bit biased though ;0)

OH the SMILES!!!

Look at that smile. The last couple of days E' has mastered the knack. She's smiling in response to our smiles and our laughter. I LOVE it!!! Here are a few I actually managed to catch before her curious blank stare took over (which she gets whenever she sees the camera instead of my face).

kicking and smiling

with big brother N' in the church's red website footage chair

smiling after a diaper change -- she likes the cloth diapers -- now if she'll just get a little more thigh chunkiness so leg-hole leaks are less likely :0)

here's my best attempt at capturing her dark gray eyes with the camera

birthday boy

B' turned two the last week of April! Nope, we still didn't have a big party - we just celebrated with us and Nana (my mom) after church the day before his bday. We'll save inviting friends for when he's 5 and mature enough to appreciate it for more than a half hour :0).


He's such a big boy! He's talking more and more everyday; impressing us with new phrases we didn't think he understood yet. He's already wearing 3T size clothes!!! He's tall for his 2 years and stocky too. He's not chubby though -- he's solid muscle with the strength to match. If only he knew how strong. When he runs to hug my leg, I have to brace for impact! And B' continues to be all heart. He lays on your lap, pats you (more like a smack) to make you feel better, and asks "wha's madder?" if you stop smiling. He has a serious throwing arm and can't wait for daddy to walk in the door after work so that he can grab the nearest ball and yell "daddy catch!" Apparently this game is no fun with mommy who only catches the ball 50% of the time. B' prefers a good catcher on the other end of his throws ;0) He'll say, "mommy missed. Sokay mommy," while looking oh so sad for me. (He says "sokay" instead of "it's okay.") Hee hee!

He's really gifted in the area of hand-eye coordination. He has a great arm for throwing the softball, kicks the soccer ball hard and straight, and is working on mastering a nice football toss. So far basketballs and golf balls (they have some wiffle balls to play with) are mostly used for playing catch. He naturally keeps his elbow up and uses his whole arm to throw; follow-through and all. Not bad for what comes naturally - we haven't taught him.

basketball goal bday gift from nana-- a great alternative to playing catch 24/7 AND he's learning how to dunk and how to shoot :0)

B' is wonderful. It doesn't seem like two years have passed already! In honor of his love for sports balls, I made him a sport ball cake :0) Fun! It was super easy. I skipped being artistic with frosting this time and just printed some clip art onto white cardstock on the printer, taped toothpicks to them like signs, and stuck them in the 8" round layer cake which was small enough to fit on a regular plate. YAY! Benjamin named them all for us: "soccuh ball," "football," "bay ball," "badket ball." I love what they come up with when they're still acquiring language!

Thank you Lord for blessing us with this soft hearted, strong handed, amazing little boy!

one month old

tiny toes!!! long, skinny feet!

I've been having so much fun watching E' change and grow, that I've neglected to stop and post some pics so you could share the JOY!

She's almost 5 weeks old as I post these pics. What's new:

• E' weighs about 9 lbs now! Wow!
  
• She can hold her head up and look around
• She has started to smile (yes, social smiling, not gas)
  
• She started cooing last week. She concentrates really hard and gets her lips pursed into an "oo" shape, then she'll finally get a tiny "ooh" or "aaah" out. So CUTE!!!

E' on her first stroller walk

meeting my Uncle Joey!

Uncle Joey was "stuck" in town when his connecting flight to a business meeting was delayed. E' thought Uncle Joey was the BEST! She smiled and cooed and stared and finally... fell sweetly asleep in his arms :0) What a fun, unexpected, wonderful time. The kids all thought Uncle Joey was fabulous. I love him too! Thanks Lord for such a great blessing!

Booties my sister Wendy crocheted for E'.

Wendy crochets a lot: blankets, granny squares, bun covers (she has girls in ballet), doilies, scarves, purses, grocery bags (as if I'd ever put groceries in it 'cause it's gorgeous). Anyway, she said she just thought she'd try a pair of booties! Talk about a FABULOUS first try! They are sooo adorable and they don't fall off either! I wish you could see the tiny green crocheted rosettes that button the straps on. I couldn't get a good in-focus pic of that detail. TOOOOOO CUTE! She also made a lemon-yellow pair for her.

wide eyed (with some baby acne)

I can't seem to capture it in a picture, but E's eyes are still dark gray, with lighter gray edges on the borders of her irises. All our kiddos have had some unique eye color for the first few weeks of life and then at some point their eyes have shifted to brown. N's eyes were the most fabulous dark, forest green color for the first few weeks of his life. J's were light brown. B's were gray. And in all three cases, we woke one morning to find their eyes were suddenly plain old brown ;0). I'm hoping E's eyes stay gray -- just for fun. But, if they turn brown she'll be just as beautiful!

pretty in pink

I love all the ruffly edges on this outfit! Pink is not my favorite color, but E' looks super sweet in pink, so I'm thankful for the zillion pink things that we have in the baby buckets from when J' was a baby. Of course, if you let me tell it, she looks good in EVERY color :0) What can I say, it's momma love!

two weeks

Wow -- two weeks went by REALLY fast! I intended to post pictures every few days since I certainly had the camera close at hand... but there are so many little cuties to spend time with and I'd have to take five or six seconds to turn the computer on in order to post something ;0) .

Look at all that hair. It curls up on the ends when it's wet, but goes straight again as it dries.

itty bitty E' and a 4 lb bag of sugar... just for scale :0)

E' is such a sweet little lady! We're having tons of fun watching her grow and watching the kids love on her! They all think she's fabulous! She's starting to get a baby double chin -- too cute!!! B' wants to hold her every time someone picks her up. He says, "Look at her?" and "hol' her? hol' her?" which gets louder and more insistent if no one hands her over fast enough. He jumps up on the couch, puts a throw pillow across his lap, and waits for you to lay her in his arms (which is really laying her on the pillow, but we won't tell B' that).


E' has such delicate understated features. She reminds me of a china doll. It'll be such fun to watch her grow and see if she stays dainty and slight or if she changes completely. What a wonder.

Here are some more pics of our youngest... what a JOY!

snoozing in mommy and daddy's bed

sunbather

(we always have a little jaundice to feed and sunbathe away)

they love to gather around the swing and talk to E' the minute I put her down