Thursday, November 18, 2010

parties parties parties!

Fall is so far very full of celebrations. The last few weekends (and the next few, of course) have been back to back birthday parties for kids in both Wren and Jane's classes. And Wren recently attended her first (half) slumber party. Fun! and also BUSY.


But we love it. And I can always grab my downtime, since it's mandatory for Ben and me to sit down and be still every two hours. And then it's mandatory for Ben to spit up on me.

And it's also helpful to have a reminder about how fast this time goes by... like say seeing that picture of Jane's feet and being reminded of this one, when those shoes fit Wren, and she asked me to put a pink heart on them for her. That was yesterday, right?

Jane's most recent celebration was a gymnastics party, to which she wore this super sporty outfit:


Complete with her very beloved spider ring:


She swung, flipped, bounced...


and finally had an impromptu solo dance party during cake time.


I love my little party animal. Her endless energy will hopefully be inspiration to pull the rest of us through this season. I love love love Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there's no denying it can be tiring and somewhat stressful. Jane lives hard, plays hard and parties hard, and it's difficult to be worried about a to-do list when she ropes you for the fifth time that morning into her dance party.

And someday much sooner than I like I will be trying to talk Ben into those shoes, saying hearts aren't really so girlish, and look they're hardly even pink anymore! Just put them on for a minute so I can take a picture...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

At home with Ben

I love Fall, and it is especially wonderful when I have such a wonderfully snuggly baby to cuddle up with. There are a few downsides- the occasional screaming, the spoiled milk smell that gently wafts from every textile in my home, etc. But obviously, I find that the benefits far outweigh the downsides. Otherwise why would I keep having babies?


Oh right, because my friends bring me dinner for a couple of weeks. That is recompense that should not be underestimated. Also, the forced sobriety every three years ensures that I will yet again be a cheap date this New Years. It's time to party like a half glass of wine with dinner puts me to sleep! WOOOO!


Look at him. He's like "That's right. I slept for five hours last night. Go ahead and get your hopes up. I might do it again. Or, you know, I could take exception to that brussel sprout you ate and gritch and grumble inconsolably every 45 minutes. Who knows?!"


He's lucky he has such a devoted fan club. Jane watches over him, worries when he cries, sings and shushes him, and of course, asks to "pet the baby" anytime it would be most inconvenient to allow her to do so.


Overall she seems to be adjusting to the role of big sister pretty well. We've had our ups and downs, as she processes such a huge change. And Wren, in her typical introverted way, seems to be working through it in her own fashion. Mostly through childhood insomnia. Chase, an occasional insomniac himself, bought her a reading lamp and a stack of chapter books, and we're calling it fixed.

Putting yourself to sleep is a life skill. I am currently the one person in this family who needs no help going to sleep, but someday that will change. I will be sitting up worrying about curfews and boyfriends and girlfriends and sex drugs and rock and roll. These days I am going to be so grateful to have all these wakeful bodies home under this one roof, for this brief moment, even if sometimes it's easier to wish for a tranq gun and better aim.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

new fall hats

The girl's fall hats for this year are done!


Janey picked out her yarn color on a trip to the craft store, and we decided together that Wren would probably like the bright purple color the most. I knew I wanted to make a gnome hat for Jane, since she loved the little felt elf hat and it's not really suited for everyday wear. But the library doesn't have a copy of this book yet, and so I just sort of mashed together a few of the closest sounding ravelry patterns, and her blue gnome hat is what we ended up with.


Wren was adamant that she didn't want a "baby" hat, she wanted a grown up hat. I just cast on to more or less the size of her head and made a very plain purple/pink hat. Then I added a little flower, which was fun and fast, and Wren picked out a button to go in the middle and we were done!


I think that hat will always have a special place in my heart, since I worked on it while I was in prelabor, and for a while in actual labor with Ben. That's a contraction monitor on my giant pregnant belly, just under the yarn. And I'm probably listening to a nurse offer me some beef broth for the billionth time. Fun times.


Either way, the girls have hats for fall. Next up is poor Ben, who would be totally hatless if it weren't for the kind gifts of friends and relatives. The collection of tiny hats I knit for him is destined for the next pregnant lady I know who has a normal sized baby...

Monday, November 15, 2010

very belated Halloween


So I've been kind of busy, but I want to get back up to date on the blog, so I'm starting with Halloween. This is a picture of Jane practicing her patented "wink" face. We are pretty fond of it.

Sadly we didn't get any good pictures of Jane in her cat costume, but rest assured she was the most adorable (and fierce) black cat in the world.


And Wren in her self-designed and built butterfly costume. She built the wings (with help from Chase) and painted them (with help from Nana) and wore them proudly at school and church and trick or treating.


The girls both picked out "baby" pumpkins, and we talked about how next year, we'll need THREE tiny pumpkins!

We were out trick or treating on a friend's street until pretty late, and then were totally unprepared for the amount of kids in our neighborhood. We had a lot of candy and they completely cleaned us out! We had to hunker down with all the lights off because they just would. not. quit. I wanted to disconnect the doorbell.

And yes, I went to Target the next morning and stocked up on clearance candy. My stash lasted until last week, when the only thing left was Almond Joy (barf) and I gave those all to a weird friend who actually likes them. Overall, we had a great first Halloween as a family of five.