The Toby crawl

nine month Toby

(Picasa made these handy tri-photos, so I'ma use 'em.)

This has been an especially eventful month for our little big guy. In the past week or two alone, he's started crawling hither and yon (and he's darn tootin' pleased with himself), pulling himself up on the furniture, eating more solid food, pulling the leaves off my potted plant, waking only once in the night for four nights in a row (up until last night, but we won't talk about that), taking a bottle on occasion, banging on the piano with gusto, looking excitedly at picture books... The boy is busy busy busy. He's got things to do do do. A very fun stage, but also? Much exhaustion.

Baby woodchuck

Such a little sweet, he is. It's hard to believe he's been out about as long as he was in now! We are blessed!

Iris' fifth birthday survey

Iris' fifth birthday survey--

1. What is your favorite color?
"Purple."

2. What is your favorite toy?
I: "You know." Me: "Your new baby Elsa from he Wards?" I: nods

3. What is your favorite fruit?
"Watermelon."

4. What is your favorite movie?
"Thumbelina"

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
"Sandwich with strawberry jelly."

6. What is your favorite outfit?
"I can't guess. I wear most of my clothes all the time." (I can attest to this by the size of her daily laundry pile.) "But the one that I wear most of the time is my black and white striped pants and this blue dress."

7. What is your favorite game?
"Can I pick Playmobil? The Mary and Joseph Playmobil. That's which one I like the most."

8. What is your favorite snack?
"Popcorn."

9. What is your favorite animal?
"Horse!"

10. What is your favorite song?
"let it Go." (breaks into song) "Let it go... Turn away and slam the door... Let it go...
"When are you going to ask me my favorite flower?"

11. "What is your favorite flower?" I: "Iris."

12. What is your favorite book?
"Elsa book."

13. What is your favorite sport?
"What's a sport?" (explain to her the meaning of sport) "Dancing!"

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
"Play at the play set."

15. What is your favorite drink?
"Milk!"

16. What is your favorite holiday?
"Christmas. And Easter."

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?
"Baby Elsa."

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
"Marshmallow cereal!"

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?
"Chicken. And baked beans."

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?
"I want to be a teacher."

21. What are your favorite hobbies?
"I play games, and I read books. I don't do anything else."

22. If our house was on fire, and you could grab only one thing, what would it be?
"My Elsa doll and my baby carrier." (Her Elsa doll in the carrier counts as one thing? "Our house would never be on fire though, right, Mama?" "I hope not."

Happy fifth birthday, Iris!

Iris' birthday celebrations started on Wednesday, when she had a few friends over to play. That morning, she woke up, all smiles, and asked me, "Do you know why I'm so excited?" "Is it because your friends are coming over to play?" She smiled real big and slyly answered, "Not thaaaat." "Is it that your birthday is in two days?" "Noooo." "Is it that Mrs. Haun is coming to our house?" "Yeeeesssss!" Mrs. Haun was Iris' Jr. Saints teacher this past year. And Iris was beside herself that she was actually coming to our house (along with her four young daughters and a couple of other families). They had a swell time, flitting about the yard, playing with the kitties and on the swingset.

Today's festivities began shortly after 6, when the birthday girl came in my room, all smiles, ready to start her day. Around here, birthdays consist of sweets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a lot of doing whatever the birthday girl or boy wants, and today was no exception. She selected Marshmallow Mateys (knock-off Lucky Charms) for breakfast, after which, she opened a gift from Mom and Dad (a baby carrier she'd asked for a long time ago that Mom got a long time ago off of Craigslist, although last week, she gave her favorite, only, and armless baby doll to her little sister), and a gift from the Wards (a Baby Elsa doll, which truly saved Mom and Dad's gift!). I made her requested chocolate cupcakes (after Mike made a quick trip to the store for eggs), took Athena to the vet (she's had a limp for the past couple of days but was also overdue for vaccines and such), and after I returned home, I loaded the kids up to make our Friday meal deliveries. We had half the number today and only short visits, and I had told the kids we'd get Culver's for lunch. And custard. We picked our food up at the drive-thru and took it down the road to the "roly-slide park," where the kids had a little time to play before it started to rain.

In the afternoon, the babies napped and the big kids played. Though, obviously, she was having a lot of fun, as Iris also fell asleep on the couch for some of quiet time. After quiet time, we Skyped with Elizabeth, and Iris got to open another gift from her- a Sleeping Beauty Lego set! Mid-Skype (or mid-internet issues), Grandma and Grandpa showed up, and then it was show-them-everything-new-since-we-last-saw-them-three-weeks-ago time.

We had our usual pizza night Friday, followed by chocolate cupcakes with ballerinas on top (bought two years ago for A's birthday that were never used), and movie night (Iris' choice: Thumbelina). All in all, I'd say she had a very special day full of fun and love.



some phone pics from the past couple of weeks-- Happy fifth birthday to our Snuggle Russie, big sister extraordinaire, little sister extraordinaire, always eager-to-please, super-imaginitive, contagiously happy, sweet-as-can-be Iris! What a blessing you have been to us over these past five years!!!

Memorial weekend visitors

This spectacular crew visited us over the holiday weekend. As always, it was therapeutic and refreshing to play and run and share good food and laughs and parenting/life stories with our friends, not to mention baby smiles/cuddles. Those two are so sweet (Toby was very excited about them). It was kind of yucky day on Sunday, but the sun popped through the clouds on Monday, and Mike found a sprinkler in the garage that we didn't know we had. The first unofficial day of summer calls for water play!

Coincidentally, this very week last year, we were also hosting our long-time friends, but they were coming from Pittsburgh. Jonathan decided to squeeze in a spur-of-the-moment job interview in Milwaukee, and we are so happy with how that turned out!

Come, Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

The kids' artwork was featured on the Children's Rosary blog a few weeks ago-- http://childrensrosary.blogspot.com/2015/04/pentecost-through-eyes-of-child.html

May you be filled with the Holy Spirit this Pentecost!

It's a great day for marriage!

Wishing a happy 37th anniversary to my wonderful parents. And a happy 6th anniversary to my dear sister and brother in law! And blessings on many more years together!

(May 20th happened to fall on a Saturday in 2006, and it was a contender for our wedding day as well (no reception venues). Wouldn't that have been outstanding?)

Tuesday evening

Just killing time on a beautiful, brisk evening between karate and Rosary/Mass. We are blessed!

bring on the barn cats

We've had the barn kitten itch for a while now. Last week when we visited our friends, they said they were hoping to find homes for their somewhat unexpected litter, so we jumped right on that. Today, while Abigail had horse-riding, we made the short trek to their house to pick up a little boy, Smokey, and his sister, Indiana ("Anna"). Smokey is a little lighter with more stripes, and Anna is a darker, more solid grey but with a white muzzle. They are little grey furball dears. And very sociable, since they've been handled since they were new. They're about eight weeks now and just weaned from Mom. Right now, they're sharing their quarters with Fanny and Felix, who seemed excited, if anything, about their new pole-barn mates. They both tap-danced on the old desk thing that's out there (which we set up the kitties' bed inside), and much to Opal's consternation, Felix tried to squeeze himself into the kitty carrier (he didn't quite fit).

We've been heaping extra love on Athena and giving her little doses of the kittens' scent on fabric (and keeping her confined in the garage/breezeway), so as not to spring them on her all at once. I'm not hopeful that she'll be a fan of them right off the bat, but we're hoping they'll at least learn to get along with each other in time.

We're collecting quite a menagerie out there. I think we've got our fill of animals for a while now!