Swings

This week the AC is out in the playroom.  I'm really REALLY hoping that tomorrow when the service tech comes, he will say it is an easy fix and that it won't take six weeks like last year.  That unit had to be replaced, and this is now just a year old, so fingers crossed on that.  Luckily this summer has been a bit cooler than last, and it's actually more comfortable to take the kids out in the mornings instead of trying to herd them in the living room all day.

My kids have friends here this week, so even though we're officially full numbers-wise, it's two eleven year olds, a seven year old, and a six year old along with the regular roster of infants and toddlers.  That makes life infinitely easier for walks!  The big kids are super helpful.  Anna stayed home with the three youngest while they napped, and the rest of us headed out.

I'm sure we look like quite the spectacle marching down the street.  At least today nobody stopped to ask me if all nine of them are mine.

We have to cross a wooden bridge over a little creek to get there, and we saw a mama duck with four ducklings.  I think listening to all the kids quack at the ducks was my favorite moment of the day.

The swings were largely a success.  There's just one baby swing at our park, but it's pretty wide and has leg holes in both sides, so I set two of them in there back to back and it worked nicely.

Vanellope cackled like a hyena the whole time.  I love when the wind gets in her hair.

Mr. Flynn enjoyed himself immensely too.

 Miss Olivia, somehow managing to still look shy even while laughing.

Mufasa! King of all he surveys.

And then.  Then there was Maid Marian.  I know that child loves her some swings.  I've seen facebook posts that her mama puts up with all kinds of smiles and swing loving.  That was not the case today.  She freaked out and acted like it was the worst and scariest thing that ever happened.  I even tried to sit on the big swing and hold her and go very slowly and she still was having none of it.

So we decided at that point it was time to head out.  On the way home it was hot and my kids ran Olivia and Vanellope through our neighbor's sprinkler.  They laughed so hard!  It was really fun to see.

Then we came home and Anna said we smelled like sunshine, which is her way of saying we've been outside and smell like stinky puppy dogs, but still, it's the nicest way I've heard to describe that particular smell.  Lots of fun!

Park Love

One day last week it was not very hot (or so it seemed to me from my air-conditioned house) so we ventured out for a walk.  Now that I've settled into keeping five, only one has to actually walk, and my kids are there to take turns holding hands too so it makes it really easy. 

Usually Alice walks.  Duchess and O'Malley like walking with her, until they get tired of answering all her questions.  Then she helps me push the stroller and tells me things for a few minutes while their ears rest.  :)

I still am not entirely sure why I love pictures of kids walking so much, but I continue to take a ton of them and they make my heart squish every time.

We walked around the block and my kids were bugging to go home.  I had the brilliant idea to stop at the park instead.  The Merrybabies stayed in the stroller and I alternated between pushing it up and down the sidewalk in the shade while pushing the swings a few times.  It was a nice change of pace.

The blue swing, OF COURSE.  Alice's love of all things blue borders on obsession at the moment.  Duchess loves that about her- makes them kindred spirits.

Remy, serious and pondering as usual.  He's such a quiet little guy most of the time.  "Are you having a good time?" I ask with a big smile.  "Yes." he tells me very emphatically but with no smile.

Duchess and Perdita working through the mechanics of the big girl swing.  Didn't last very long but it was cute.

We only stayed about ten minutes and then we all were very hot and tired.  I walked back home pushing the quad stroller and herding Alice, who was dragging behind and wanting to sit down.  Finally I put her on my shoulders so I could walk faster.  I'm sure I looked like a crazy person, pushing the huge stroller and holding on to Alice with my other hand.  She didn't trust me a bit and was quite sure I was going to let her fall.  She kept putting her hands over my eyes so I had to stop and adjust.  We made it almost a block before she begged to get down.  So I put her in the stroller and gave Perdita a chance to run.  Girl can book it with the promise of ice water and Mickey Mouse.

It was so fun!!  But I don't think we'll do it again until October or so.  The back yard is about all we can handle these days in the heat.  :)

Playtime

There's not been anything especially new or exciting the past couple weeks- but every day is fun.  We've been working with Mr. Potato Head more lately- they are all enjoying it a lot, even Merryweather, who can sit up on her own for a couple minutes now.  She's been thinking she's one of the big kids now that I have Merida.  It's really amazing how fast kids get skills.  She loves to sit in the living room with a bucket of toys to practice her grabbing and sitting.

And really, Mr. Potato Head just never gets old.  We spent a large portion of the morning discussing body parts and making real faces and silly ones.




Alice is convinced that she is Doc McStuffins. It pleases her greatly. She wore that stethoscope all morning.



Merryweather watches the boys with wide-eyed interest.  They move too fast to even take a clear picture.

I also was able to take them out a couple days last week in the new stroller.  I love the view both looking down and looking out.  :)  My kids are teaching the walking ones what to do.  (I used to call my big kids the walkers, but after the Walking Dead I just can't do it.)  Only as far as the next mailbox if a big kid is running with you, otherwise stay with the stroller.  Freeze your feet when a car comes.  Don't touch dogs.  All that good stuff....

Alice, on her way back to give me a high five.  Mater and O'Malley stomping acorns up ahead.  All is right with the world.

Baby toes!  Best thing ever.

And as previously mentioned, here's Merryweather hanging out in the living room with her own personal toys.  She's getting pretty good at the sitting thing.

One of the most fun things about Mr. Potato Head is trying to wear the glasses on your own head.  It never works well, but it continues to be super cool to try.

Friday Focus: Alice

Miss Alice is quite the big girl now. She's been walking for months, so for her that wasn't really the defining factor. Not sure what it is, but all of a sudden she's one of the big kids and not one of the babies. She wants to be in the thick of things, whether that's on top of the table or exerting her dominance over Perdita. :) This picture totally cracks me up. They were both having a great time. Perdita was smiling until she heard me say "excuse me young lady!"  And then they both looked at me like I was crazy.

 

She climbs like a mountain goat already.  She's so tiny and yet so nimble.  I think she's got the perfect build and temperament to be a star gymnast if she decides she wants to do that.  I could totally picture her on the uneven bars or doing triple flips off the beam in a few years.

When we celebrated Songkran she wasn't sure at first if she wanted to get wet or really get involved in any of the craziness.  It took her a few minutes of watching before she made a decision.

Then she realized mud was a good thing.  She splashed and played and let people throw water at her.

She's got the most infectious silly grin.  I love listening to her laugh.

Alice's mom is very generous about sharing things with us that they've outgrown at home, or things that Alice isn't using.  It's funny though, seems like the last few things she's brought over because Alice won't play with at home- those have become her favorite toys here.  I'm not sure if it's just the comforting feeling of recognizing stuff from home, or maybe things look a lot more interesting once you have to wait in line to play with them.  The cup she drinks from every day here is one from home that she threw on the floor and wouldn't drink from.  The girl's got herself some strong opinions and isn't afraid to let us know, even if they change daily and are based on location.  :)

Gems of Wisdom

"Aren't I sweet? I am sweet to everybody! Except people at the store, because they are just annoying."

"My mommy and my daddy are BEST friends!!" (made me all warm and fuzzy. so cute!)

"No, you can't hold my baby. She doesn't like monsters!"

I need a tape recorder to just carry around all day. Some of the really good ones have left my brain. Right now they're currently obsessed with "Baby Stephanie", who is a large rock living in my backyard. They're very gentle with her- rock and hold her and kiss her. It's one of the strangest games I've seen in awhile, but they all love it. They fight over who is going to hold her and whose turn it is to wheel her around in the carriage.

And I have to put this picture up even though it has nothing to do with anything- it brightens my day. Hercules for some reason woke up extra sweaty the other day and all I did was smooth his hair up instead of down. Definitely did not expect it to stay like that on its own. :) He's a good sport!

Summer Lovin'...

I carried a watermelon last night. It was heavy and as I was staggering up my walk to the front door I actually said out loud to myself that I was carrying a watermelon. Too bad I can't dance like Jennifer Grey. But yeah, I found a huge one that could accommodate our newest baby girl and so I snagged it. My husband still shakes his head and says I'm stealing their dignity and what do their mothers think?!?! They pretty much all laugh and say they can't wait to see the pictures. :)

Here's history on me and the watermelons. And the pumpkins. It makes me so very happy. I'm not quite sure why.

So. Here is my new itty bitty. Is she not fabulous?

Duchess and O'Malley are smitten with her. They keep trying to talk me into having another baby, and then I think they realize they like this one enough to just keep. So then it's "Mama? I weewee (really) want to be a big brudder. Why does her mommy have to come get her?"

Honorary big brother here. Available for permanent status whenever her current family is done with her.

For the blog I'm going to call her Perdita, the cute momma dog from 101 Dalmatians.

I put the watermelon outside in the yard for a few minutes with suran wrap around it to warm it up. A friend suggested it last night and I don't know why I haven't thought of that before. Warm and slimy is preferable to cold and slimy, yes? :) Then we set to work.

Ready to go outside. I have crazy eyes here because the shot before this one had closed eyes and I was trying to open wide this time. It's not really maniacal glee like you might think by looking. Perdita is happy in her towel, blissfully unaware of what's about to transpire.

Hmm... what have you people done to me? I am unsure about this...

I usually don't get full shots since modesty on the internet is an issue, but she behaved herself in such a ladylike way here that I get to show off her legs too. :)

She really did pretty well- most of the pictures are a variation of this. She's not exactly excited about it, but she's not screaming either.

My sister came over with her even smaller baby girl to use the other half of the watermelon. She was not so calm and serene about the experience. In fact she thought it was pretty terrible.


So she sat on her mama's lap for a minute and sucked her binky to feel better. And then she peed in the watermelon.

After that she felt better and was willing to let us take some more pictures where she wasn't crying.


I think it wasn't until we were back inside and ready for a nap that the enormity of the morning caught up to Perdita. She looks rather shocked, don't you think?

All In My Head

I have written so many witty and cute blog posts lately. In my head. Too bad I haven't gotten over here to actually type them. I'll see if I can get something besides the Friday Focus done each week. Not to mention I've been backdating those as well. Need to catch up!

We celebrated Songkran back in April and it was lots of fun. I did put the pictures on our facebook page but I haven't done any discussing. Besides the fact that playing in water is super cool, I really enjoyed learning a bit about traditional Thai customs from Kanga.

Oh! One of our favorite books right now is Llama Llama Red Pajama and we read it at least four times a week. Right now it's the featured book at Kohl's, so you can get it, another Llama Llama book, or a stuffed llama for only five bucks. I'll probably be heading over this week to pick up a few for my birthday present stash- I recommend you all get one for your kiddo if you don't already own them- Anna Dewdney is a genius and the stories are awesome.

Anyway. I do have fun posts on individual kids rattling around in my brain- they've done some crazy hilarious things lately. Off to download pictures and see what I can done while lunch cooks. :)

They Call Them Stereotypes For a Reason

So this morning I took six kids out in the yard: Tigger, Chip, O'Malley, Aurora, Bianca, and Stitch. The others were sleeping, helping with lunch, or finishing up Go Diego Go. :) I gave them a choice today and not everybody picked to go out.

They swarmed out in a herd and all ran for the balls. We got a bunch of new ones recently that are still very exciting. O'Malley asked me if I'd throw some practice pitches for him to hit- he is Big Stuff on the t-ball team. And within five minutes, the three boys ALL had bats and balls in their hands and were mesmerized by the game, even 13 month old Tigger who is still in the drunk stagger stage of walking. He screamed when anybody came close to his bat and just stood there SO happy. Meanwhile, all three girls had put their balls into shopping carts or baby carriages and were wheeling them around the yard and ignoring the game.

I'm all for kids choosing their own play topics, but it's kind of funny to me that for the most part it seems like this stuff is hardwired.

Friday Focus- Stitch

Stitch does not enjoy opening her eyes for pictures lately. But she very much enjoys hunting for spring eggs.

She finds many and she is highly pleased. :)

Did I mention she likes to eat? On Monday I was making baked french toast and it was taking a little longer than she felt was reasonable. So she had two bowls of rice chex while she was waiting. When the toast was done she had two big bowls of that too, with cut up strawberries and several glasses of milk. She was really annoyed with me when I told her she couldn't have any more because she was eating so fast some of her friends hadn't even finished their first helping yet. Then at lunch she had SIX bowls of the chicken soup that everyone loves. Granted they were kind of small bowls, but still. Six. Usually the first thing I hear from her when she walks in the door is, "I so hungry!! SO hungry!!"

mmmm.... cookeh.... i can haz cookeh.....

We got a sit-n-spin finally! I've been wanting one for awhile to go with the letter W. Because that makes perfect sense, right? :) We had a big discussion this morning about it to explain it- we're going to put it inside a big box and let them spin around in there and pretend they are in a Washing machine. Hence the W. But we did talk about S also. Plus I don't have a box yet. She got about half an hour to work with it all by herself today before the other Pink Ladies showed up and she was super excited.

I took video of her spinning and I waited seven hours for it to upload but alas. Blogger hates me. I give up.

She's making some progress in the potty training area. Aurora's mom brought an incentive chart and some stickers and it has worked wonders for both Stitch and Silvermist. Aurora could care less, really, but the other girls are in love with the idea of getting Aurora's stickers before she can do it herself. Mostly she's still in the sitting and not producing anything stage, but every now and again she does earn a sticker. :)

Friday Focus- Roo

I am so proud of Roo. Since I last had the Focus on her, she has done SO many new things. She really just doesn't let her difficulties stop her. People used to think that she was a lot younger than the other Pink Ladies, but it's becoming obvious that she's two just like they are. :) Definitely some sassy attitude and backtalk going on in that department, much to her momma's dismay. Her vocabulary is getting quite extensive, partly thanks to Ms Julie at speech therapy. You gotta work hard for a lady who says eating a ring pop is therapy!!

They've been doing a lot of work on strengthening the muscles in her mouth so things like milkshakes and lollipops are actual exercise- helping her form her lips correctly and not drool and stuff like that. It's fun to get to spoil her a bit too. She's drinking from a straw consistently now and the first time she realized it was fun was because I let her drink my strawberry shake. :)

Roo has received an official diagnosis of cerebral palsy in the last few months, which allows her to get more equipment at school to help her out with various things. The therapy ladies are currently working to figure out which type of trainer will assist her best in learning to walk. This one was the first one we got, and they've since decided that she's a little too advanced for it. It makes her sit down more and they think she can focus on standing and stepping a lot better with something else. But here she is trying this one out. She was not too excited about it at first.


She definitely wants to stand though. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She's got a death grip on the gate, and she did fall straight over like a tree after I set the camera down, but she was excited to stand there!



She's having a great time painting and doing art with the other girls too now, and constantly wants to go outside. She doesn't care if she gets dirty or if bugs bite her. She just wants to be out there doing everything she can physically do today, while figuring out how to do something ELSE tomorrow. I love her spirit.

As soon as the back door opens, she is out like a shot. Doesn't care about skinning her elbows on the porch or getting muddy or the fact that she can't climb up the slide alone yet. She can reach the handle of the stroller to push the babies around and she has a BLAST.

Roo's acquired an annoying repetitive habit that we have to fuss at her for constantly, just like everybody else. :) I think she digs it. Just grins when we drag her away from the fridge OVER and OVER and OVER. Now that she's learned to open it and get her milk out of the bottom shelf, she spends half her life refrigerating my kitchen. In a weird way I like that she's getting in trouble. She's decided she's going to stand up for herself and do what she can do. And she'll go far.


Oh, and during our Big Red Barn work this month, I was noticing that she was doing weird sounds for some of the animals and mixing them up, so I asked Kanga. Turns out, the way to say "pig" in Thai sounds just like "moo". Awesome. I guess that's the downside to being bilingual. I kept thinking she just wasn't getting it, but actually she's getting it in TWO languages and trying to school the rest of us!

WHAT?!?!-ermelon

We have done Tigger a grievous wrong this morning. At least that's what he told us in a number of ways- the screaming and flailing and trying to flee the scene, the spitting up at every opportunity, not to mention peeing all over Kanga as she laughed at his discomfort tried to see to his needs. I thought O'Malley was angry when we did this to him, and yes, he was. But the wrath of Tigger is fierce to behold as well.

You see, most days he loves his mother. He is content to fall asleep in her arms and all is well with his world.


This morning he got here, had breakfast, and was undressed...


only to be thrust into a warm and slimy place with sun in his eyes where life was unsettling and bad.

Clearly we are evil and must be punished. His mother's clothes are now in the washing machine due to their sogginess from various body fluids. He had a quick bath to get the juice off his backside and then finally I think we were forgiven.

He's currently sleeping peacefully in the living room. I expect him to be sacked out awhile; he's had a rough morning. :)