Around Here: Week 21

Giving... haircuts to all the men in our house.  The twins both opted for fresh, short (!) summer cuts, but before I cut Jack's he wanted to try and put it in a pony tail. I was dying as we put it up. Hilarious!

Enjoying... sunshine & heat & all the blooming flowers.  Josh has been working so hard in our yard, eliminating bushes & weeds while feeding & watering all the grass & plants we want to stick around.  I am so thankful for his never ending effort in the yard.

Nearing... the end of baseball season.  We have so enjoyed watching our boys' skills improve, and they've enjoyed games & extra time with dad & after-game treats.  That said, we are all ready to have our week nights back and to enjoy some quiet evenings after the chaos of work and school and games and life everyday.

Losing... Wyatt after the twins' game Monday.  He'd been playing at the park, well within my view, when I started chasing Carly in the opposite direction. By the time I corralled her, Wyatt was nowhere to be found.  All the parents on our team waited, helping us look and keeping an eye on Carly so I could wander around the ball field, screaming Wyatt's name.
I guess he had gotten confused and headed to the wrong field with players in black uniforms.  Thankfully a girl had noticed him looking lost and asked if he knew where his mom was. He told her didn't, and she enlisted her mom's help just as Josh walked over and saw Wyatt.  Those five minutes took at least a decade off my life, and I have honestly never in my life been so terrified.

Humidifying... the room Wyatt & Carly share in hopes that it will help their coughs.  Every time Wyatt gets a tiny little cold it develops into a cough, and this one is no different. I am hopeful he'll get fully well over the weekend. Poor guy!

Receiving... an award at MOPS. (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers, a place where mama's in our town meet twice a month to spend time together, get to know one another & encourage each other.)  Let me set the stage:

I don't put Carly in care at MOPS because it's her nap time, she's a bit cranky, and honestly, I just hate leaving her. So I don't.  So she'd been in her stroller, snacking & playing for about an hour and a half as I visited with my table mates, when I decided to let her wander around for a bit. I was following her as she weaved between tables when they said my name: "Shelly!" Everyone was cheering, but I had no idea what the award was for. I stepped forward & walked up to retrieve my shining gold trophy when my phone started ringing.  Apologetically, I said as I answered, "I have to answer! I have kids in school!"  Sure enough, as she handed me my brilliant, golden prize, I heard in my ear, "Hi, this is the secretary at school. I have Logan in the office," and with that, I stepped away from the fanfare of the award ceremony & finished the conversation about what was wrong with Logan.

Then I quickly gathered my things and was about to leave when I admitted to my friend Christine that, embarrassingly, I didn't even know what my award was for.  She stopped for a second and said, "Multi-tasking.  Your award was for multi-tasking."  I laughed out loud, hard, at the timing of the call, the baby I'd been juggling on my hip, and the irony of it all.
So there you go.  Shelly-the-multi-tasker.  #nailedit

Reading... Into the Water, Anne of the Island, as well as Stone Fox after finishing The Here and Now yesterday.

Planning... to read: The Tailgate & The Mountain Between Us next week.

Making... rhubarb pie for the first time. And from scratch! It was seriously the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, and I am so proud of myself for nailing pie crust on my first try!

Looking forward... to a weekend full of company.  Josh's parents, his brother & one of his sisters are coming, as well as my sister & her family.  I am in mad-frantic mode trying to get the house ready for guests, while my kids are compiling lists of all the things they want to do when Grandma & Aunt Roxanne are here.

Feeling... inspired by this quote from Instagram.

"Come to me whole: with your flaws, your scars and everything you consider imperfect.  Then let me show you what I see.  I see galaxies in your eyes and fire in your hair.  I see journeys in your palms and adventure waiting in your smile.  I see what you cannot: you are absolutely, maddeningly, irrevocably perfect." 

-@arianapoetess

"Around Here" from Wyatt's Point of View

One day last week I let Wyatt wander around in the backyard with my real camera around his neck.  He took some really amazing pictures.  I loved looking at our life from his point of view.

***

PS- Wyatt thought it was hilarious when I put on his Mater socks for a joke.

Silly boy!

Carly at 16 months

My girl, my sweet girl, is 16 months old today.  I am sharing a boat load of pictures because:

She's adorable

and

because Grandma's. ;)

I take a lot of pictures every week so I have a lot to choose from for my weekly "Around Here" posts.  Well, all the ones I don't use have to go somewhere! And for the months of April and May, the ones of Carly will go here.

I've mostly child-proofed our main living quarters (kitchen, dining room, living room), but not completely, so Carly still gets into our DVD's and our family games.  Lately I tell her if she gets in her games then she's going to go in her pen. (Remember the bright colorful gate I bought for her first birthday?) She gives me a very sad look, then walks away, sulking, from the games. It's pretty funny.

Carly continues to learn more signs. 

Currently she knows:

more

all done

water

wyatt

jack

logan

mommy

daddy

crackers

cookies

milk

wait

toothbrush

help

goldfish

eat

bath

kitty

Carly signing "please

Carly signing "up"

Carly is my girl. She'd pick me over Josh or the boys for the most part, which is a nice change from Wyatt who, at this age, adored Josh.  I am still nursing Carly and don't have any plans for stopping.  I think that if I knew we were having one more baby, I might have a stronger desire at this point for quitting and having more freedom and "getting my body back"... but since she's our last, I am in no hurry to quit breastfeeding.

She is very smart.  I can talk to her, using full sentences, and she will obey.

For instance, I can say, "Carly get me the towel off the floor," and she'll hand it to me. 

She'll clean up her toys, put the remotes on the table or find wherever she left her water bottle.

She is teething four molars, one is nearly all the way through,

and she has eight other teeth. Four top, four bottom.

She loves brushing her teeth, standing on the stool and tapping it on the sink like a big girl.

She also loves reading and being read to.  

She'll grab a book and then bring it to you.

Then she'll pat on your lap like, "Pick me up! I want to sit there!"

Her favorite books are David books.

My favorite is when she takes a book to her big brothers & they scoop her up for a story.

Carly sleeps with a taggie, and some quiet piano music playing in her room, along with a fan. She doesn't sleep with a blanket yet. It just makes me so nervous!  

When she wakes up, she finds a taggie to carry out with her, and she prefers to be held for a while after waking up. She doesn't like to be set down right away.

She still naps twice a day most days, with her better nap being the morning one.  She wakes up around 6:30 with her brothers (sometimes earlier) and then goes down around 9:15 after we've taken the boys to school.  She wakes up between 11 and 12 and goes back down around 1 or 1:30.  

I think this summer her schedule may naturally shift as we won't have to work her naps in around school drop off & pick up. 

She loves bath time.  She enjoys them alone, or with one of her brothers.  Her favorite thing is to fill those little toys (see the crab above?) with water and to squirt them. 

 Carly knows all her facial body parts (eyes, ears, mouth)

 And Wyatt taught her to "beep" her own nose. So every so often she'll touch her nose and say, "Meep!"  

 Carly is a real trooper about living her life in the stroller.  

She and I walk the boys to and from school everyday, which means we walk there & back, and there & back again. Four times in total.  As long as she has a little snack pouch full of Kix or Cheerios or Goldfish, she's a happy camper. She likes to bark at the dogs we pass and see all there is to see. 

She is also in her stroller for baseball games & practices because I get so tired of chasing her and missing the action of the games. Thankfully she mostly doesn't mind, unless she's tired. 

 Carly is the apple of everyone's eye around here, and she is really a huge sweetheart. She'll often give snuggles and hugs unprovoked, and you can bet that every time you ask for one, she'll give you a sweet little pat with her hand and lay her head on you.

 Even though she's sweet, and at times very girly, she is also very active, and won't be stopped when it comes to something she's put her mind to.  So when she wanted a nerf gun that was in the bottom of this tote, she found a way to get it. 

 She still loves shoes.  And these Saltwater sandals are both our favorites. 

I recently went through her summer clothes.  

I can't wait for her to wear all her rompers & tiny tank tops!

 Carly found her Cabbage Patch wig the other morning and she wanted it on. Still cute as a button in it!

 I started singing to make her smile, and she signed along with me.  

"Itsy Bitsy spider" of course.

Also, I love her new princess pajamas so much!!!

 I pretty much love all her clothes so much.

I mean, how cute are these little bohemian shorts from my sister?!?

 She's our sweet sunshine girl.

 And everyday she's getting "so big", as she tells us.

I'm so grateful she's our fourth because I truly do know how fast the time goes.

I'm cherishing every minute, every stage, with her.

***

• link to the twins around 16 months, for comparison (holy moly, Carly looks like them!)
• link to a post about being a working mama when they were 16 months (such heartbreak!)
• link to a sad, sad Logan when mama went back to work after summer break :(
• link to Wyatt at 16 months (we were weaning from breastfeeding at this age for him)