An Artist is Born

Matthew got a hold of the camera today. Among the 64 pictures that he took we have 24 different angles of the TV plus...

...Matthew...

...his feet...

...and if you can guess what this is, you get 100 points.

Also, these are some pictures hanging in our upstairs hallway seen from Matthew's perspective:

So, what do you think Uncle Jacob, do we have a budding photographer over here or what?

So Exciting

I'm published! I submitted an article to our (unofficial) local community news website and the administrator not only accepted it, he changed my user status to "publisher" so I could continue to contribute articles. So cool!

Okay, so really it's not that big of a deal--not much different than blogging, but I just came up with this idea and couldn't get it out of my head. So I took the plunge and spent the whole day on it and now there are pigs dying all over my kitchen and laundry room. Poor pigs.

I'm not going to post a link to the article because that would give away my location--gasp! But I'll say that if you know the name of the community we live in type www, dot, that name, the word "daily", dot, com in your browser and you may just find it.

Tee-hee-hee, I published today.

A Beccapack

A couple of weeks ago, I brought some cookies to a neighbor and plopped Becca in the fabulous sling my sister, Tori, made for me.

I didn't want her to fall asleep so I put her facing forward with her little legs folded up inside. And this is a typical expression for her. We call it the "Brian scowl" because she looks just like her daddy--although he doesn't really scowl that much it just looks like him for some reason.

You know your house is a mess when...

Maggie looked around this morning and asked, "Pigs are dying, Mom?"

I guess I didn't explain it well enough the first time. This is probably going to be one of those phrases that become part of the family vernacular, huh.

My Weight Loss Program

4 kids who keep me so busy I hardly have time to eat.

4 sets of stairs in my house that I climb up and down all day long.

$4 per gallon gas that gets me out of the car and walking.

4 million things to do that keep me running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

At this rate, I'll lose these last 25 lbs. of baby fat in, um...4 months?

Babies, It's Their Job

Last night, Becca woke up at about 2:00 a.m. which is pretty normal. I fed her, tucked her back in her crib, and went to bed. A few minutes later, I remember hearing her cough and thinking she probably spit up and I should go put her binky back in, then I have vague memories of some lady and a house and I don't know what else, and the next thing I know I'm startled awake by a frustrated, "Waaa!" Yeah, I fell asleep instead of plugging Becca's binky in and she was WIDE awake.

How can you tell when your baby is hyper? Breath, breath, breath, breath, kick, kick, kick. And she'll catch your eye and break out in huge grins and start telling you how grateful she is that you rescued her from her awful boring lonely crib, "a-goo". And you can't help but smile groggily back because even though you're so dead tired at 3:00 a.m., she's so dang cute.

So I brought the super awake Becca to bed with me because I was very sleepy and I didn't know what to do with her. She woke up Brian and we had a good laugh at her antics, even if it was a groggy half-asleep laugh. After laying on my chest for awhile hiccuping, kicking and staring very hard at the alarm clock (which was the only exciting thing to look at glowing bright red in a dark, quiet room), Becca finally started to get a little fussy which meant she was ready to be wrapped up tight in her blanket, fed her binky, and tucked in her crib. And she went right to sleep. Hallelujah.

She woke up at 6:30 this morning to eat again. And after I tucked her fully fed, soundly sleeping little body back in her crib, I started up my day getting Nathan up and ready for school, gathering and sorting the mountains of laundry that I'll have to wash and fold today, and just generally planning how to get through the day without getting too far behind--and I thought how nice it must be sometimes to be a little baby. Because, oh I'm so sleepy and I would love to go snuggle up in bed, too.

From Their Point of View

Nathan made a Father's Day ribbon for Brian to wear that says, "Best Dad 1st Place".

We're wondering who the second place Dad is...?

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My neighbor's daughter threw her mom a surprise birthday party the other night. Afterwards, Matthew asked if he could have a surprise party for his next birthday. He was disappointed when I pointed out that it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he planned it.

But I promised to throw him a surprise birthday party someday in his life.

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This morning I told Maggie we needed to clean up her toys all over the family room.

She asked, "So pigs don't die?"

At first I was confused and then I realized "pig sty" sounds like "pigs die". I explained. And then we cleaned up and saved the pigs.

Motherhood Math

food poisoning (me) + nursing infant + whimpering 6 year-old with a painful ear infection = the night from hell

Thank goodness for Brian. If it hadn't been for him, we might may not have survived the night...or the day today.

Becca from Matthew's Perspective

Becca's head bops around sometimes when she's propped upright--she is only two months old, after all. But Matthew doesn't believe that it's just weak muscles...

Matthew: "Becca likes to hit people with her head, huh Mom."

and then,

Matthew: "I was teaching Becca "yes" and "no", Mom. And I asked her if she wanted to lay down and she went like this [drops his head forward] and so she said yes!"

That's one smart two-month old, if you ask me.

Happy 2 Months, Banana!

11.9 lbs. (75th%), 23.5" (90th%) !!!

Becca Banana (also known as "Becca with a Ree in front of it" as Matthew once explained) is the sweetest, happiest baby to ever join our family. She sleeps 6-8 hours straight every night and when she does wake up to eat, she goes right back to sleep. She loves to sit in her swing or bouncy chair as long as she can see other people around her. Mostly, she loves to snuggle. The kids all fight over who gets to hold her and plug in her binky--especially Matthew and Maggie: it's almost become a war between them, who is the best big sibling.

Zoo Fun

Matthew filled his jar up with kindness rocks this week so we took a little trip to the Hogle Zoo yesterday in celebration, his choice (for the record, Nathan took us miniature golfing last week as a result of filling up his own kindness jar).

Becca chilled in her stroller...

...Maggie played tag with the meerkat...

And Nathan and Matthew commandeered the camera for the day.

That's a penguin...or his feet, anyway.

Maybe Nathan took this picture, or maybe Matthew took a photo of himself.

Finally, I took the camera back because I was sick of listening to the arguing (it's MY turn!), also I didn't think we really needed a picture of every single animal--or their habitat--in the zoo. (This is a reticulated python--it was HUGE! or as Maggie said of the elephants, "Hooge!")

The Boys' Bedroom

After minimal tears and arguing over which books would go on whose bookcase--and after I had only explained five times that it didn't matter which shelf the books were on because everyone could still read them regardless--Nathan and Matthew finally got their books, treasures, and trophies arranged today. They each have a tall bookcase, a desk, and a little shelf over their bed. I'm hoping that'll provide enough storage and display space for all their stuff for at least a year or two. (I forgot to take a "before" picture of their room--they had stuff carefully arranged all over the floor and their beds...the problem was it never stayed carefully arranged for very long and they ended up walking on legos and sleeping on trophies.)

Nathan's shelf is the one filled with Star Wars Legos and Matthew has all his soccer trophies on display. I'm thinking we need a big capital N and M above each boy's bookcase to label them.

In which I reveal my true character...

After three days of working on it (on and off because I'm lazy), I present to you......my newly organized pantry.

Yes, we eat a lot of cereal. Brian keeps us well stocked by shopping cereal sales regularly. And yes, the entire bottom shelf is filled with art supplies. I figure if I stock a wide variety and make them easily accessible, my kids might actually use them instead of spending their life playing video games (the boys just earned the new Lego Indiana Jones game by helping Grandma Swings move several loads of rocks and we haven't seen them for two days).

My favorite part of the pantry? The labels. Oh, I'm such a geek. My house could be a total nightmare disaster area but as long as my closets are organized, I'm a happy creature.

I'll let you in on a secret: that red bowl on the top shelf is full of candy left over from various birthday parties and such. It's NOT labeled because it would be empty in a couple of days. But Maggie--the candy and gum bloodhound--has already discovered it.

Big Sisters can be SO Helpful

Last week I switched Becca from her bassinet in our room to the crib in Maggie's room. For the most part, it was a pretty easy transition but we're still experiencing a few problems. It's not that Maggie resents sharing her room with her sister, in fact it's the opposite. Maggie wants to be right there actively sharing her room...resulting in the beloved baby sister not getting as much sleep as she wants.

Last night Maggie was upset that I didn't let her stay in the crib and "snuggle with Becca" after she kissed her baby sister goodnight at bedtime. And this morning, when Becca was peacefully napping in her crib I heard over the baby monitor, "Mom, I found the wipes!" And because I didn't respond immediately--being downstairs in the laundry room--Maggie just kept charging around their bedroom, busily unloading the packages of wipes out of the bulk box, yelling at the top of her (considerable) lungs, "Mom, I found the wipes! Mom, I found the wipes! Mom...!"

And then as I'm charging up the stairs in a desperate attempt to quiet her before it's too late, I hear, "Mom, Becca's crying!" Too late.

You know, if there were a two-year old running around my room yelling while I was trying to take a nap, I would feel like crying, too.