I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
Jul 5th, 2010 by ECM
Another tooth popped through yesterday morning. That’s three teeth in a week, if anyone was counting. (Tommy didn’t have that many teeth until he was seventeen months old.)
Elizabeth is handling it like a champ, though the 4 am tylenol wakings are starting to get to me…
Jul 2nd, 2010 by ECM
It’s been an eventful week for the Little One. Last night she woke us at 1 am with shrieks, so we weren’t surprised to find her sixth tooth poking through this morning. Tommy and I decided to cheer her up with a little tea party with Betsy, George, and Lucy.
Jul 1st, 2010 by ECM
The kids were very relieved that we brought their car with us to PA (it was such common neighborhood property in Chicago that I think they worried I’d leave it with Clodagh or Juliet). Now Elizabeth is pushing it all over the front yard!
Jun 30th, 2010 by ECM
Tommy and I started homeschooling today. Lest you think I’m a crazy intense homeschool mom, let me reassure you that we’re just getting our feet wet. Back in Chicago, I got asked several times a week where Tommy was going to preschool this fall. I’m not really ready for him to go to preschool (he’s just 3 for crying outloud!), so I decided we’d work up to doing maybe 20 minutes a day of “school” this fall so that I could get an idea of whether homeschooling will work for him. I was thinking special art projects, a bit of pre-phonics, Bible memory (which we’re already doing), and some French (though he wants to learn Greek…weird kid). My mom sent Tommy a letter this week where she had him find all 26 letters of the alphabet to win a sticker prize, and he LOVED looking for the letters! So I thought I’d make up a couple “worksheets” where he could do the same thing and color on them and feel grown-up. This is what we did today. He read off all the letters to me, then I had him circle all the As with a red crayon and the Bs with a green crayon. Then he was done. Five or ten minutes, but he LOVED doing “school” with me, and now I can tell people, “Preschool? Oh, we’re doing that at home.”
Jun 29th, 2010 by ECM
After much fussiness over the weekend, Elizabeth’s fifth tooth came through yesterday. Today we can see a bit more white. Maybe having more on the bottom will compensate for her crooked top teeth…we’re already saving up for braces!
Jun 28th, 2010 by ECM
Today my new friend Brea watched the kids for me all day while I ran around and did a bunch of random errands, like dropping off the rest of our broken-down boxes at the city recycling center so as not to overwhelm the recycling trucks. God is so good–I already have friends here…friends who bring you meals and watch your kids. We still have a lot of work to do, but State College is starting to feel like home.
Here’s the office, which we haven’t really tackled yet…fortunately, it must be ready for the boys and Cammy this weekend, so it will not look this awful much longer.
And here are the kids outside. (Informal poll on the watermelon outfit–I think it’s cute; Derek doesn’t. Who’s right?)
The things little sisters put up with…dead dandylions and such…
Jun 26th, 2010 by ECM
Kristen and I have made a pact to train for a 5K together this summer. Not sure if we’ll actually do the same race together since we do live several hours apart, but the goal will give us something to talk about besides kid poop and teething. Derek’s first response to this news was “You? Run?” followed by uproarious laughter. I am not exactly known for my athletic prowess. But if Kristen can do it right after having a baby, I can do it in this high-energy post-nursing stage, right?
I’ve found my tennis shoes and printed out a training plan…please check up with me and see if I’m sticking to it.
Any other moms want to try to lose that extra baby weight be cool and sporty with us?
Jun 25th, 2010 by ECM
Jun 24th, 2010 by ECM
Time for some kid pictures, huh? I fished out the camera today to prove that Tommy and Elizabeth are alive and well. Guess what–there were moving pictures on there! Here we are, saying goodbye to 2915 W Rascher Ave:
I swore I wouldn’t do this until I was sure, but Tommy is officially potty trained. He’s been doing pretty well for about a month, but he has stayed dry during naptime and overnight since Sunday! It was really a grandparent effort–my parents did a lot the first week in May while we were down there, and Derek’s parents finished off the job the first week in June while he was with them. When I’m ready to train Elizabeth, I think I’ll just send her to see her grandmas for a month instead of spending a year and a half being frustrated. Tommy is VERY proud that he uses the potty by himself now, and he is also picking out his own clothes and getting dressed by himself (though he still needs a little help getting his shirt over his head).
Our Little One has started standing on her own! She was doing little 5 second stints, then yesterday I put her down on the grass and she stood there for about a minute. She swayed back and forth, squatted down, clapped her hands, and stayed up until her brother knocked her over! I seriously need to get some footage before she starts walking. She has also mastered going down the stairs backwards…as many of you know, I was very nervous about all the stairs in our new house, but she started working on it in Detroit and is an old pro now. She’s most proud of her “shoes” that she gets to wear out of the house since she’s cruising everywhere now–she’ll pick them up and try to put them on her feet if I don’t do it fast enough.
Jun 23rd, 2010 by ECM
Okay, we’re winding down now!
I can’t wait to take the kids back to Ostia someday…
(See? I’m standing on two thousand year old mosaics!)
and our tribute to the Romantic poets…Derek hangs out on Lord Byron’s doorstep…
…and across the street I channel my inner Fanny Brawne (so glad we watched “Bright Star” this spring!) and mourn the early death of John Keats in front of his house…
None of my sunset pictures really turned out, so I’ll end with this one instead:
