around town

We had another really full day, but it was a good full. We actually made it to Mass this morning for the first time in weeks. I know I've got to get us there more often, as our days that follow a daily Mass have a certain ease about them... a pleasantness. If they haven't driven me crazy during the service. After Mass, Iris had a nap, I packed some fruit, veggies and sandwiches and we headed out with a vague destination.

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

We saw these guys.

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

And had lunch with these guys.

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

And even met up with these for some Razzy Freshness.

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Jack finally got to dig for dino bones at the museum. Though he was a mite disappointed that he "didn't find any scary dinosaur bones."

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Today was training wheels day!!! Though they weren't installed before bedtime, so tomorrow, we may have to venture to a trail or something with these speed demons.

Fun day-- and the kids were good. For what more can I ask? An afternoon nap for Iris, but I suppose then she wouldn't have had time to practice walking ALL afternoon, making her a certified pro. Certified by whom? Who cares? I'd consider this to be her first day of really walking. She's taken a three or four steps here and there before toppling for the past week or so, but she got the hang of it and was walking across rooms tonight. Very sweet. And today is her thirteenth month-day. I guess she figured it was time to get a move on. Shoot.

Yarn Along: sweet sweater dress cont.

From 06/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Still knitting away on this number-- it's such fun. Reading slowly and snippets of a few things-- Ice Pop Joy, of which I'm excited to start making use of for the kids on these hot summer days; Heal Your Back-- saw it at the library yesterday and thought, don't mind if I do. Sign me up! as my mom would say; How to Behave so Your Preschooler Will Too-- I've seriously got to stop picking up these parenting type books. With three pre-schoolers, one would think I'd have it down by now, but there's one in this household who keeps enticing me to these; and that same strong willed book.

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along. Gosh, I love her blog.

apology

Sorry to have offended anyone in the nail polish post. Just to clarify-- I in no way think my daughter like a "crack whore." That's just what came to mind when seeing all that mess- not a normal look for her, to be sure. I guess I just have a sick sense of humor.

exciting times in the garden

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/28/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

I picked the first zucchini out of the garden today. More will be ready in a day or two, as well as some of the summer squash. Everything else is well on its way.

CSI: nap time

When I was younger, I confessed to my mom, as if I'd been keeping some big deal secret, that I hadn't always napped during nap times, to which my mother replied that she didn't care. As a mother now, I can side with that mentality-- as long as they're quiet up there and giving me some peace from their needs, that's just fine by me. Why should I have had a reason to suspect Gail's near silence during nap time today?

This requires a bit of background. Yesterday, I had told Abigail if she was quiet during nap time (i.e., didn't keep crying out for me), I would paint her toenails pink. Sure enough, come post naps, I was applying "Candy-licious/Rose bonbon" (I guess they couldn't decide between those two names. Understandable.) wet n wild onto her piggies. And come bed time, I was taking it off, a choice she made after we made it clear that's what would happen if she continued to cry out without using words, a big issue lately.

I had to wake her up from her nap this afternoon as I had an appointment, and as I ascended the flight of stairs to the third floor, I could smell that terribly strong and familiar odor. There she lie, asleep, looking like someone had downed her with a pink paint gun. To her, my admonition of ever toying with the nail polish herself and my placement of it out of her reach atop Jack's tall dresser were only invitations to her to reapply the "megalasting" sticky polish all over the tops and sides of her toes. And legs. And lips (yes... sigh), *quilt, blanket, carpet, pillow and ottoman cover. When she was done, she tried to rub her hands, also covered with the stuff, together to get rid of the stickiness. What gets me is that she was perfectly at ease with this fabulous mess that she'd created to not even make a peep (not that I could hear on the monitor) and then to fall fast asleep.

From 06/27/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/27/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/27/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Since we had to head right out the door this afternoon, I didn't document her covered legs and hands. These photos don't capture the sheer amount of wet n wild, probably because most of it ended up on her. Since we had to head right out after nap time today, I didn't document her covered legs and hands. Three quarters of the bottle was emptied. That's a LOT of polish, friends. A LOT of polish.

*That quilt was in my room as a child. I just decided to put that on her bed yesterday for the first time, in an attempt to make what was previously Jack's room look more feminine. Alas! If I'd only waited a day!

new wheels

We scored some appropriately-sized and bikes off Craig's List for $10 each (they still need training wheels, but those are on they're way). We also got some helmets, which cost about as much as the bikes, but the bike steals made up for that. Abigail was so pickled about her pink helmet that she wore it during our Aldi outing yesteday afternoon.

From 06/26/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/26/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

You can't see it, but there's a huge smile on his face.

lake-side

It's been a while. Life takes over. We spent last Sunday through Thursday at the lake. We harbored illness, of which I hope we're almost over (I thought it was through until, while we were out trying to surprise my sister at the Pittsburgh Market yesterday- she wasn't there- Abigail got a fever of 103 and was limp as a pancake as I carried her the long walk back to our van). And we've been doing a lot of cleaning out/rearranging in preparation of repurposing some of our rooms, as we like to do. Fortunately, my back started to improve a lot last week, and I can now lift my kids again.

Anyway, our trip, through replete with wakeful nights and illness, was a nice diversion, as usual. We got to visit with Mimi and PopPop, Tay, and Heather and her crew of Olive and Zoe. We played a lot of games, canoed, got in the lake (though only maybe waist-deep-- we had seasonably chilly and dreary weather most mornings), went on many wildlife-filled walks (on the first night alone, I saw abounding deer, a black bear, and an otter making his way across the lake), and played at the park a few times. I also got in a jog on the 2.8 mile trail around the lake, trying to ease back into running a bit after my surgery and felt good.

I forgot my Netbook there and have been trying to get used to this Chrome Netbook, a temporary issue from Mike's work. I haven't had a whole lot of success uploading pictures, but here are a few until I have a full album.

From 06/20/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/20/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 6/22/2011

From 6/22/2011

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/21/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

step into my office, baby

My lower back's back at its cruel pestering. This time, it's bad. I can usually walk through the pain, straining to stand up straight and focusing on proper posture, and it'll be improve, but I've tried that, and it only seems worse for it.

I finally went to see a chiropractor, who came recommended by Kaethe (they met in MOPS). Dr Meeker is far, but I justified the distance by having a sitter on that side of town, and though fairly young, she turned out to be a very personable, knowledgeable and no-nonsense woman. Kaethe graciously watched all three of my kids plus her three while I had my appointment yesterday evening. Mike was able to watch them this morning while I went to have X-rays taken and this evening when I went back to have Dr. M do her back-fixing thing. Evening rush-hour = not the greatest time to be jaunting cross town via the parkway. Yikes.

From 06/17/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

The kids were fascinated when I brought these home and taped them to the window so we could nerd it up and have our own little biology lesson. Jack was excited. I mean, giggling the whole time excited. We'd been reading some old All About Me Disney books, and I think these X-rays really brought those home for him.

From 06/17/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

In the right X-Ray, my spine isn't nearly as curved as it should be (See lumbar vertebrae in the diagram below), so I'm told. I'm also told it can be fixed. I'm not complaining-- my mother-in-law has pretty severe scoliosis (an unnatural side-to-side curvature of the spine), which I'm sure makes day-to-day activities a real pain sometimes.

From 06/17/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

That darker-appearing vertebrae on the above picture (L4) is the main culprit and has me walking like Quasimodo with my right hip higher than the other. There should be a much larger space between the vertebrates as in the ones further up, allowing for them to adjust as I move and release nerve tension. But that one is twisted, tilted upward and grinds against the other two, and Dr. M showed me on the X-ray how, right now, there's very little space where nerve tension and fluid are normally released. And apparently, that explains a lot in terms of my hormones and cycle and such. Very interesting. I may just go into Chiropractic.

Hopefully, the daily dose of lumbar spine adjustments and electrode treatments will help get my back feeling normal again and my hormones back in check. I have another appointment scheduled for the morning-- at least I'm getting a lot of audio book listening in!



(Thank you, Mike, for being such a huge help to me and the kids and an all-around incredible guy.)

Yarn Along: sweet sweater dress

From 06/15/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

I'm knitting this Sweet Sweater Dress (a free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn) for Iris. I'd gotten some of their "Amazing" yarn a while back and finally decided what to make with it-- it's a self-striping yarn that's really fun to see progress. I'm still reading The Little Way of Homeschooling-- almost done-- it's such an inspiring read. Mike and I just started reading You Can't Make Me [But I Can Be Persuaded]: Strategies for Bringing Out the Best in Your Strong-Willed Child by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. I'm curious and hopeful to see whether this will really give us new insight into raising our obstinate middle child.

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along.

Water, parks, cookouts & amigos

Or, a recap of the past couple of days...

On Friday evening, we had to come up with some sort of water activity fast (our inflatable backyard number didn't seem as exciting after the possibility of a real pool) as the Wards' pool (which they'd invited us to earlier for our mostly-weekly pizza night) was closed because of earlier storms and power outages in the area, and the kids were psyched and ready in their suits. So we collected Mike from work and headed to Beechview's newly opened spray park.

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Notice Jack's T-Rex stance, which he kept up almost the entire time. I thought him rather like a Struthiomimis.

From 06/10/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Since our Friday evening pool plans fell through, we went there on Saturday evening instead. the Wards kindly let us come on some of their guest passes. What a great place! We were able to grill out and eat a delicious dinner there. The kiddie pool was the perfect depth, there were plenty of toys available for anyone to use, and there weren't many people on the gorgeous evening. Jack has asked us several times if we could go back there. Thanks again, Ward family!

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/11/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 06/12/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

We've got a climber :-( But still no walking. I keep rounding corners, and there she'll be, on the bench or on a chair. So when you see her next and her little head is covered with bruises, you'll be the wiser.

From 06/12/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

The kids pulled out a fun gift that the Cramers gave Jack for his birthday- a Play-Doh Creations kit, which they (and Tay) had a blast with this morning.

From 06/12/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

See our new-to-us piano in the background?! On Saturday, Mike and Tay went to help move the 450 lb. Kawaii that my old college roommate, Belinda, thoughtfully and generously offered to give to us (and move to our house in their moving truck). The kids have been excitedly plunking out ill tunes. Jack seemed elated when I mentioned the possibility of piano lessons to him, where he might actually learn to play intelligible songs.


And this afternoon after early naps, we headed to a park close to our friends', the Kubiluses, to meet up with them (Tom and Jess are Abigail's Godparents). I forgot the battery for my camera, so there is no documentation of the cute kids and fun time we had at the park and at the Kubilius' house for a cook-out afterward. Jack rode all around the trail at the park on Jonas' little trike with training wheels the whole time we were there and did great. The kids rode all around the backyard in all number of play vehicles, including Iris, who was all smiles inside the little coup. Once again, Jack thanked us for taking him to "this fun place" (the Kubilius' house) and asked if we would take him back some day.

From 06/12/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

I made my first peach cherry pie of the season-- It took the cake (or pie) for prettiest to date. 'Twas soooooogood.