Round Up

I anticipated things would slow down a bit after a recent work milestone, but instead the hectic nature of things keeps tick, tick, ticking along.  Work is still busy, kids are still busy, life is still busy.  I continue to over commit myself--somehow I managed to get myself roped into serving as vice president of the elementary school PTA for the 2013-14 school year.  The work for which, of course, starts now.  I know, I know.

Things will slow down at some point.  I hope.

In the meantime, Norah has been working with Bubby in the garden.  They planted basil and a few other herbs, tomatoes, banana peppers, and eggplant.  It is going to be an interesting harvest.

Lou continues to be a bruiser.  He gets put in time out almost every day at school for pushing or dog piling another kid.  He plays rough and loves to wrestle and while certainly the aggression is sometimes out of anger and/or frustration, more often than not it is because he's just trying to play. Norah and Reid are his usual targets.  Shockingly, he (knock on wood) is always gentle, loving, and kind to Baby Camilla.  He brings her toys, tickles her feet, hugs and kisses her, and generally wants to love on her all.the.time.  I think he legitimately really likes her but is also smart enough to know that the first time he dog piles her will be the last time he dog piles anyone.

When Norah was an infant, BVZ went to see his mom and sister and they saw the Pageant of the Masters in Orange County.  He wanted to bring something back for Norah so he got her a shirt from the pageant.  A small.  He figured it might be a little big but she could grow into it.  It has been in her bottom drawer for four and a half years.  It finally fits.

My car has a high backed booster for Norah, which is basically a five-point harnessed car seat for big kids.  It has a 100 lb. weight limit, which means that she will ride in it until she is old enough to ride with nothing other than a seat belt (probably about 10 years old).  She has the same seat in my mom's car since Bubby picks her up from school three days a week.  She has been tall enough for a booster for many months now (there's no back and no harness, you just use the regular seat belt), but just cracked the 40 lb. weight limit.  Most of her friends are in boosters--apparently this is a frequent topic of conversation at pre-K--and she is horrified by the idea that as long as she is in mine or Bubby's car she will ride in the car seat and not a booster.  I say too bad, so sad.  My compromise to her was that we would get a booster to have in case of emergencies and if she rides in BVZ's car (which is exceedingly rare), she could use it.  We drove around the block with it the other day and you would have thought the kid won the freaking lottery.

Later she admitted that her seat in my car is more comfortable and she likes the cup holder.  Suck it, booster seat.

These are the proofs from Norah's pre-K graduation photo shoot.  They are ridiculously cute and despite my proclamation that I won't be taken advantage of by the money making bonanza that is school pictures, I totally ordered a set.

Norah goes to bed in her own bed every single night.  Every single morning she wakes up with me (either in the master bedroom or in the spare bedroom if BVZ is snoring). We aren't really doing anything about it right now, it doesn't bother either me or BVZ and we are both of the mind that there will be a time when she wants nothing to do with us, so we are savoring it for now.  We have talked a lot about it with her and she says that she wakes up during the night and goes to the top of the stairs.  If she hears us she goes back to her bed.  If she doesn't hear us she knows we've gone to bed and she comes to find me.  She says that when it is dark and quiet she doesn't like to be alone.  I can't really blame her.  The other day she convinced Lou to lay down with her.  It lasted about 15 seconds.  

There is a great blog floating around called Reasons My Son is Crying.  Check it out, it's funny.  There are so many photos of Lou that could be on the site.  Like this one.  He's crying because the sidewalk is "bumpy."

Sidewalk chalk is a big after dinner event around here.  Our driveway is a swing one, meaning it's on the side of the house rather than in front.  It is a great place for chalking, riding bikes, and general mayhem and it's somewhat protected from traffic in the street.  Norah did this totally on her own the other day.  See why I don't care that she won't sleep in her own bed?

I refuse to pay the gas bill that it would take to heat the pool, so we are waiting until the water is warm enough from the sun (we checked tonight and it's really close).  I will however, heat up the hot tub, and we spend a lot of time in there.

Louie was really sick last week with his 800th ear infection.  I took the day off from work to take him to the doctor and give him some TLC.  Bubby came over to watch HGtv while he took a nap, I picked up Norah from school, and treated her to an afternoon movie and ice cream.  We saw The Crood's.  It was crazy fun.

The kids have been using my phone to take selfies.  They are cute, but they can take 100 photos in about 30 seconds, so I go through and do a lot of deleting.

It's also warm enough to get the sprinklers out.  The other day Reid and Lou had a great time.  Lou is really coordinated and can easily take his clothes (and diaper) off himself.  He's going to be such an easy teenager.

We had a low-key mother's day.  Breakfast at home and then a fun lunch with everyone at Bubby's house.  BVZ took Norah and Lou to Target and let them pick out whatever they wanted for me.  Norah got me a lovely sun hat that I plan to use all summer.  Lou got me a king size tootsie roll.

Norah also did a drawing of us jumping rope together over a rainbow.  It's awfully nice to have someone like her around.

Camilla is fat and happy and so cute.  I love having a baby around that I don't have to feed or be around at 3:00 am.

I give Lou a hard time because he is in fact a monster, but he's also incredibly cute and sweet and lovable.  He talks so much these days, in complete sentences and can articulate full ideas.  When I tell him I love him he tells me, "Oh, I love you so much!" If he seems me hugging Norah he comes and throws his arms around us and yells, "group hug!"  He asks to snuggle all the time.  He sings lots of songs, mostly theme songs to television shows, and tells knock-knock jokes.  He has a great sense of humor--his days as the class clown have just begun.