Wild Child

My baby girl, the heart of my heart, my beautiful daughter.

This week you have taken about 10 years off my life.

You are so very different than your brother.  So different.  He was (is) a cautious watcher, who weighs his options and observes life around him. 

You my dear?  Dive face first into everything you do.  Both literally and figuratively.  I believe your personal motto is "Go hard or go home".  Which is also different from me since my personal motto is "Stay fancy, ya'll". 

Can I just tell you how many times you've scared me this week?  Saturday night we went to Walmart.  I know.  Big plans there.  I had you up front like always, and you were sitting so nicely.  I turned to the side to grab a can of icing and when I turned back you were sitting on the handle of the cart, feet in the seat, talking to your brother (in the basket) like it was no big thing.  Visions of you falling backwards onto the cold hard tile consumed me as I snatched you up lightening fast.  I placed you back in the seat properly, and confined you with the buckle (side note, not once did I even have to THINK about buckling Luke in.  Just sayin).  We continued shopping for a few more minutes, making our way to the rotisserie chickens.  Again, I turned to the side to pick one out, and I turned back just in time to see you topple into the basket, backwards.  See, the buckle created a pivot point so when you tried to stand up all you could do was go back.  I didn't know what else to do but to carry you, squirmy-almost-30-lb-girl, around with one arm while trying to push the full cart with the other.  Shopping didn't last too much longer after that.

I say NO!! more times in one day than I ever thought possible, and I can't count the number of times I have dug odd objects out of your mouth.  Nor do I care to recount what those odd object were.  I keep a pretty clean house, so I'm not really sure where you find it all.  And for all of your meddlings, you aren't even all that crazy about it.  You're attitude is so calm and chill, with looks of "Heck yeah I'm 15 stairs up when I'm not supposed to be here at all.  Whatevs."  Case in point: Bubba reads while you pull everything out of the pantry while I cook dinner.

But that face.  How can that face do anything but kill me with cuteness?  I love you.  I love you a thousand times over.

And not to leave Brother out, Luke got a hair cut this week.  He's so handsome.  And funny as all get out.  Last night we had small groups at my house.  He and Dakota were playing in his room, when all of the sudden he comes running up to me and askes if they can build a forest.  Unsure of what that meant, I asked him to tell me how he would build this forest.  "Wif polite words!"  I told him if he could build a forest with polite words, he was more than welcome to.  Come to find out he meant "fort" instead of "forest".  But I was okay with that too. 

We've been taking time for the little things.  Funny faces.  Science experiments. 

 Sunday afternoon we went to watch a friend play hockey.  A good time was had by all.

Luke enjoyed running up and down the stairs with intermittent shouts of GO! and Evan just wanted to follow him around with occiassional shrieks and clapping.

And me?  I spent most of the weekend cleaning before everyone came over on Sunday.  I took an hour and a half on just the kitchen so pretty much I'm never cooking again.  I also finally, after a long break, finished that hoop for the bedroom. 

I haven't had anything in my Etsy shop since I've started working because I don't have time to get the sewing machine out anymore, but this was all hand sewn- not nearly the mess of the baby stuff like before.  Whatddaya think? Could I put this kinda thing in there?  (obviously I'd put a little more effort into spacing and stitching than I did here.  This is my bed room wall.  Me and my hypothetical cat are the only ones who will see it.)

Summer fun

You know it's been too long when your mother asks you if you've given up writing. 

I didn't give up writing.  I didn't even forget.  I just got lazy.

 But I'm here.  And I've survived the last couple of weeks.  I guess I should say lazy in writing over the last couple of weeks.  Because those two childrens up there do not allow for a lazy life.  At. All.  Those pictures were one day when I came home from work and we got a little silly with my phone. 

Last Monday something really exciting happened.  For us.  Not for our neighbors.  I was getting Evan in the bath when Dad came in (he was over and about to start mowing), asking me about fire extinguishers.  I looked at him suspiciously and asked why.  BECAUSE THE NEIGHBORS HOUSE WAS ON FIRE, THATS WHY.  Like, for real life on fire.

There were 7 fire trucks that zoomed in front of my house within two minutes, along with multiple ambulances, police officers, and fire chiefs.  Luke was beside himself with excitement.  I got Evan out of the tub and we stood there for a few minutes watching all the action until I realized how smokey it was for her and I made her wait inside.

She wasn't thrilled with it. I can just hear the whine coming from that face.

One day while Mom was watching the kids, Luke convinced her to let him try out his bike some more.  Don't ask me why he's wearing long sleeves in 100+ degrees.  Kids has a mind of his own. 

Mom sent me the picture and said it lasted all of 3 minutes.  He just can't get the peddle thing down and is over it.  But of course Sister wants to do what Bubba is doing.

Mom said that she will probably learn to ride a bike before he does. 

Let's see...what else.....what else....

Tee ball has come to an end.  Luke did so much better than I expected.  I am so proud of him! His last game was on Saturday and every time he went up to bat he hit the ball on the first time.  Although, he got into this funny habit where he would "dive" for the ball all dramatically when playing outfield- way after someone had picked it up- and would lay there until one of the dads came over and patted him on the back.  Then he would just go back to playing like nothing had ever happened.  So not only do we get our Saturday mornings back, but we get our Thursday nights as well.  Although, I know two little people that have enjoyed the playground after practice each week.

She climbed up there all by herself!  SUCH a different kid than Luke.

Speaking of that boy, he's really enjoyed using my phone to take pictures.  I'm talking close to 200 pictures that I've deleted over the last few days. Sometimes he gets good ones....

Every now and then he gets himself....

But mostly he takes pictures of giant unrecognizable blurs.  Which is odd because one of the few things my house is lacking is blurs.

We've also gone to the pool a bunch.

Luke has learned how to float on his back.  Evan has learned that I keep 4 spare paci's in the diaper bag.  But that girl loves the water.  She is FEARLESS.  She thinks it's high-larious to stumble around the baby pool and dive face first into the water.

And I've done okay too.  Thursday was my ninth and last anniversary. It made me wonder how I'll deal with August 2nd from now on. Evan got a virus for a few days, which happen to coincide with Mom, Dad, AND Ashley being out of town.  Luckily, God proved true when He chose my friends.  I got an email from a good one saying if I needed anything to let her know (and she didn't even know about my family).