Confessions of a would-be gardner

I spent a LOT of time nurturing the plant pictured above before a kindly neighbor let me know that my carrot seeds had washed to other parts of the garden during all the rains, and that this was a weed.

For awhile this spring, this was the greenest thing in my yard. The maple grove. Unfortunately, it was in the gutters.

There are times when I don't think I am "getting" this garden thing. Next year, CSA.

Addie Fest (Part 2)

Our Party Girl went to bed long before we got to presents. So we gathered at a local hotel to have breakfast with family and let her get a few gifts in before everyone had to leave town.

What follows is the true representation of the morning, nothing has been altered to protect the crying and the just plain cute . . .

Turning 1 is like a cloudy day, you have good news and bad news.

Happy First Birthday Adwen Kate!

Addie Fest (Part 1)

Addwen Kate is not a party girl. She cried through her first Halloween party, she slept through her first Christmas party and she was pretty uneasy during the 4th. We weren't sure what to expect at her 1st birthday party, but the pictures tell the best story. . .

OK, this one is just cute. I wanted to put one of the many (many) pictures of Sofia screaming (she just loves to scream), but when all is said and done, I had to go for cute.

The birthday girl was pretty happy. Mostly because I sat her next to Rob. Every time I looked up, Rob was giving my second born more hot dog. Hot dog is Adwen's favorite food (she takes to it like a professional eater). Hence we finally have a picture of Adwen, at a party, not crying or sleeping.

I had the perfect dress for the occasion all picked out, then Grandma showed up with an even more perfect dress (and one for big sis too). It was helpful to have a back-up though, as the intro of the cake led to a bath and wardrobe change for our birthday girl.

I am fairly certain I got all the rules for Bocce Ball wrong in my head, but the kids don't seem concerned about rules. You may notice a trend from a previous post, Annie spent a lot of time in the swing.

Reason #2 that Adwen enjoyed a party for the first time in her life. Kevin pulled out the crazy baby look (and I am sure he will appreciate me posting it here). This made Addie laugh out loud.

The moment of truth in a child's first birthday. Will she eat the cake, will she understand that this is good? You can never tell until . . . .

We may have a party girl after all.

Independence Day

Our star spangled baby waiting for her cousins to arrive.



At last cousin Annie arrives. Elspeth will NOT ride in her swing, but she loves to push Anne!

Sofia Mae shows off her mad skills at climbing on things we would rather she not climb. She didn't REALLY hurt anything on my watch, but more on that in a future post.

When we went for ice cream, Ella chose a Popsicle. I thought this was a great choice until I realized that Grandma Mamgu had "helped" her put hot fudge on her Popsicle.

Ella got to end the evening with sparklers that both fascinated and terrified her.

Game ON

What Adwen ate for dinner:

Entire hotdog (more than her sister)

water melon

graham crackers

6 oz bottle

What Adwen ate for breakfast:

An entire pear (and signed for more)

Cheerios

She is back in action and ready for her big birthday celebration. It is raining today but the rain is supposed to move out of the area tonight and not come back this weekend.

Here we go again

Hand Foot and Mouth has moved from the toddler room down to the transition room. Addie's room is on virus watch, and really no one holds much hope that it won't hit the baby rooms adjacent. Addie went to bed not feeling well, and woke up with a fever this morning. Not high enough for HFM, but its still early. This is going to be a great birthday BBQ if the birthday girl has a highly contagious virus.

A kamikaze bird flew into a power sub-station this morning. Thousands of people in our area did not have power. Yes, that includes us.

Innocuous, but Elspeth is a bear in the morning until she gets her first cup of milk, and we weren't opening the fridge.

Feeling lucky to be at work right now.

ER or Ice Cream?

I got the dreaded injury call from daycare. Usually they assure me that Elspeth is fine, but this time they wanted me to be prepared that she had bitten clear through her lip and that it was swollen and painful.

Our pediatrician wanted us to go to the ER, in case stitches were warranted.

Seriously, this was a missed call. When I got to school, I couldn't even find the place she had bitten through.

Jeremy and I decided to completely ruin dinner by taking her for ice cream instead of the ER.

Elspeth was an enthusiastic supporter of Plan B.