Monday, May 30, 2016

We spent the afternoon at Grammy and Grandpa’s house for Memorial Day.  The pool is a little chilly this time of year, so only the kids were brave enough to take a dip.  Miss Selah June starts swim lessons tomorrow.  Today was a nice test of her current attitude about the water.  She seems to be interested — wants to splash but doesn’t want to fall in.  I think it’s a good healthy respect for the deep blue waters.  Maybe this will turn into a healthy and happy enjoyment of them over the next several weeks.

It’s crazy to see all the kiddos lined up together.  They are getting so big!  Jules wasn’t there today.  He was taking a nap at home with his dad.  But Satie and Winston and Sebastian and Liam were all excited to see each other.  Liam had a t-shirt with a little chicken and a magnet.  “Chick magnet.”  And he kept trying to tell jokes.  It’s hilarious.  He blows the lines, and Sebastian blows the response.  Knock knock jokes at 4 years old are complex conversational jigsaw puzzles that end up in unintended giggles all around.

Selah June is beginning to use abstract concepts to accurately describe phenomena.  A few days ago, she really started calling things “fun.”  And it’s not the same activities.  She correctly observes that things that make her giddy are “fun.”  And she assumes that they are “fun” for all the rest of us too.  It’s adorable.  Today, the “fun” thing was listening to the wind chimes on Grammy’s back patio.  She watched in awe and then broke out into dance — a free-flowing body movement that totally captured the feelings of beautiful wind chimes.

She also expressed sincere concern for Sky on Paw Patrol last night.  Sky got caught in a blizzard and fell out of the sky.  She hurt her paw and got stranded.  We almost had to turn it off because SJ was really upset.  Eventually Sky was rescued, but it was a little touch and go there for a while.

And last but not least, we enjoyed a ton of blueberries.  Abigail brought a whole bag full, and then we picked them in Grammy’s backyard.  Selah June LOVES her some blueberries.  I’m sure her poop will be blue tomorrow.  Knowing my luck, it will all come out on Carrie during swimming.

Saturday May 28, 2016

ive been wanted to take Selah June to pick blueberries.  Ab asked me to go a few weeks back, and I couldn’t break away from work.  Jeremy has been watching the website of the local blueberry farm to see when the next round of berries became ripe enough for the owners to open up the farm for picking.  This morning, we checked, and they were open!  So we called Grammy and Grandpa to see if they had an interest in going with us.

They gave us big yellow buckets when we got there.  A full bucket constituted a gallon – $12 of berries.  We very optimistically took 2 buckets with us but soon realized that we’d be lucky to fill up one.  Part of the issue was berry bushes with lots of unripe berries, but part of the issue was a little Selah June who really liked to eat the fruits of our collective labor.  She was eating those berries as fast as the four of us could pick them.

it was only after she had stuffed herself with berries that she willingly carried a bucket and gathered handfuls of berries collected by each of us.

Friday May 27, 2016

This little bear went to “Satie’s house” all day for a very fun-packed time of playing outside and watching lots of Paw Patrol.  She didn’t sleep well Thursday night, and she certainly wasn’t going to make up for it through a good nap at Satie’s house.  There was too much opportunity for fun (and treats!!)!!!

By the time I got off work and made it over to the house, she was fading into a royal mess of a Selah June.  She was sooooo tired.  I eventual gave up on trying to console her little self, and we put her in the car for the trip home.  Within seconds she was asleep.  I hadn’t even left the driveway.

Jess and I visited with the car running and let her take a cat nap.  We decided to try to do dinner.  She did get in about a half hour nap, but she was still a little crazy cakes.  At one point I. The restaurant (in between boatloads of ranch dressing), she got upset at Jeremy and screamed at the absolute top of her lungs.  It was LOUD and sounded just like a police whistle.  Everyone in the restaurant stopped in disbelief.  That sound came out of such a sweet little girl??  No way!  Jeremy popped her on the leg, and she clawed his face off.  It was an extreme state of exhaustion.

We are definitely staring down the barrel at 2.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Selah June spent a wonderful day outside playing in her blue plastic pool, drawing on the patio, working on shapes and colors, and taking in the sounds of nature.  We heard all kinds of noises today.  In particular, we were fascinated by the sound of a police car and an airplane, the metal garage door behind our house, and a distant train.

We also demanded to have access to a hot chocolate K-cup.  So, since Daddy wasn’t home, of course we tried it out.

Thisnwas her slightly blurry face while she said “cheese” for the camera.

And then she gave me this face….  priceless.

Monday and Tuesday, May 23-24, 2016

Mommy took a breather…..

Sunday, May 22, 2016

I know this looks like she is a child golf prodigy, but it’s actually the ash tool for the Big Green Egg.  She’s a chimney sweep prodigy.  Get it right!

We’ve been working on our name.  She now latches onto one or the other of her names.  Sometimes it’s “June!” — as she says really quickly with little fishy lips.  Sometimes it’s “Selah!” and no June.  Give us a week.  She’s sure to be telling strangers on the street her name in multiple languages.

This is my attempt to cover up a dead patch of grass left by a stack of concrete pavers originally purchased for our makeshift fire pit.  They didn’t move from the back patio after Chris built the stone fire pit.  Now that we regularly have to have the house “show ready,” that stack of pavers and its underlying wasteland just won’t do. Selah June loves the flowers, but they need SO MUCH WATER!!!!!

We spent Sunday afternoon outside using our “colors” to draw all over the back patio.  We drew the sun and rain clouds, owls and birds and cats and dogs.  We wrote 1, 2, 3 and spelled out our names.  We drew plants, mushrooms and flowers and leaves.  It was great fun and led to us wanting to color on the brick wall and the white door and the furniture.

She decided she needed to lay down on the neon owl I had just drawn on the concrete patio. The result was some kind of tribal war paint.  She’s ready for the hunt.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

We took Selah June on a family adventure to the Orchestra Olympics down at the Seanger Theater on Saturday.  Ab was the “reporter” for the olympics during the concert, and all of the little ones were there together to watch the show.

Before the concert, they had rooms set up for the kids to try out all of the different families of instruments.  There was a room of stringed instruments and a room of woodwinds.  There was a room for the brass instruments too.  And then there was the percussion room.  It was a CRAZY place, full of maddening drumming by wild children armed with mallets.  Selah June loves to drum, and it was even a little much for her.

After the percussion room, we made our way to the art table.  You could pick out stars and stickers to put on your paper.  It was a little too grown up for her.

We found a great spot up front in the concert hall to see all the instruments and watch Aunt Abigail in action.

Satie and Winston insisted on sitting together.  They were in tears until we found a way to make it work.  Bastian, on the other hand, was perfectly content sitting on the other side of Grandpa.

Selah June hung in there for a good 40 minutes, and then she started to get a little stir crazy.  Grandpa held he on his lap and did his magic.  She settled right down while he patted the rhythms of the music on her belly and whispered in her ear.

After the show, we all walked and walked and walked back to the cars in the parking lot behind the theater.  Little Miss wanted to walk on her own, of course.

We celebrated at Wendy’s over chicken nuggets and fries.

May 16, 2016

What do you call the outfit that your toddler refuses to keep on?  The nonesie.

We really wanted to have our breakfast outside.  You see how that went.  Like manna from heaven…

May 15, 2016

We changed out of our dress before ever leaving the restaurant.  There was no way that ranch pool in her lap was coming anywhere near the car.  Do you like the nice little wife beaters I made out of hand-me-down onesies with long sleeves?  They’ll do the trick in a pinch.

She was a crash out before we ever made it home.

And then we woke up and had to spend some quality time outside.

Here she is doing a little lazy Sunday afternoon resting face-down on the back patio.  Just a baby and her Lego blocks.

Selah June has discovered her favorite condiment, and it is RANCH!  She shares this trait with Sebastian Jones who must have ranch dressing with everything.  We’ll see if she develops his love affair with Ketchup as well.

At Jason’s Deli all she wanted was to dip crackers in ranch.  Poor Dad could hardly watch.