Buddies

So many fun things going on around here all the time!  And as usual, life goes by too fast to blog as often as I'd like.  In the world of 140 characters and soundbites, an actual blog post is harder to come by.  I have been trying to post photos and little snippets on the fb page more often, so hopefully that's at least something.

Maid Marian has graduated.  We got some cute pics of the big girls together on her last day.

Pearl and Bubbles are both almost/mostly walking!  There will be days where they both still crawl a lot, but they're up on their feet and trying and it's super cute.  Makes me happy.

Mowgli and Baymax are either home for summer or part time, just depending on the week.  (Mowgli is here today though and he's rocking the man bun which is SO FUNNY!!  He keeps moving and I can't get a good pic of it though.) It's odd to just have one full-time boy here.  I end up calling him Little Dude a lot.  Cinderella has started calling him that also.  She can't say his name very well and I think Dude is easier.  He needs a blog name.  Little Dude makes me think of Ratatouille, but I've already used Remy for somebody else and Linguini just doesn't seem awesome.  Still thinking on it.  He's a sweet kiddo- needs a good name!

Cinderella and Violet are best friends these days.  Whenever C gets up from her rest, the first thing she says is "Where Violet?  Up nap?"  Yesterday I had to tell her Violet had already left.  Oh, the big huff and the stink eye I got from that one!  "HMPH.  Violet bye bye?.... HMPH.  *big sigh* Where Pearl?"  At least she's willing to play with the other girls when Violet isn't around.  :)

Today I put them down for a nap in the same room for the first time.  They were both yawning and staggering around.  Somehow they found a second wind and had Dance Party Central instead of sleeping though.  After an hour of hoping they'd settle on their own, I went in with my stern face.  It's time to lay down and rest.  No more jumping.  They were less than thrilled.  But I think now they finally are sleeping.  At least I don't hear squealing and giggling like a slumber party anymore.

Cinderella is very quick to throw her buddies under the bus when it comes to who made the bad smell.  If she's clean and I ask who pooped, she'll back up to me and stick her bum out so I can check to be sure it's definitely not her.  If she's the culprit, she immediately tells me, "VIOLET POOP!"  Which is pretty much code for "it's totally me but I don't want to admit it."

She also thinks she should sit with Anna all the time, now that Maid Marian is not here to fight for the space.

Whatcha doing?  Email?  Looking at cute pictures you took of me?  Can I take another selfie?

Pearl is in the giggliest stage right now.  It's fabulous.  You just look at her and she busts out laughing.  She and Bubbles are both giving really good hugs these days too.  So much fun.

We have a new little girl who started this week- she's about the same age as Pearl and Bubbles.  Such a dolly girl.  She has Disney princess eyes- the kind I used to say nobody in real life actually has, because they're so big and wide and pretty with gorgeous lashes.  I take it back that no real girl has those.  I love them.  SO cute.

She's very smiley for us except when we try to take her picture.  :)  I haven't gotten very many happy shots yet, but she's a cheerful one- settling in and getting to know us.

Next week we have a teeny new bitty girl starting too- I can't wait!

Eating the Good Stuff

Right now Russell and Pearl usually split a jar of food for breakfast.  Anna fed Pearl this morning but Russell fell asleep in his chair eating kix, so I didn't get to give him his official breakfast til he woke up.  I got his out of the fridge and started feeding it to him, carrying on my running conversation like I do.  "Look Russell!  Yum!  You're eating pineapple, pear, and avocado."

"WHAT?!? That is so weird," says Anna.  I ask her if she even read the name of it this morning, since she was the one who got it out to feed to Pearl.

"No, I just checked to see if it had acid and that's all."

"Wait.  Wow, that sounds awful.  Like we drug the babies!  Oh no!"  Silly things make us laugh, and it's yet another example of something that is totally normal in this job but would be extremely odd in another setting.  Pearl's been having a little trouble with citrus lately and so we check to see if there's added citric acid in the jars.  There wasn't, by the way.  

I'm having trouble getting pictures on here lately, which is part of why I haven't posted in so long- I like to put them up.  Too many posts with no pictures make me feel like it's just Too Long: Didn't Read.  Also I've been busy, and also lazy.  Let's just be honest.  Anyway, I'll try to be better with little anecdote stuff, even if I can't figure out the picture issue for a bit.

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!

Mawwiage Is What Bwings Us Togevah Today

So I realized I didn't have a blog name for Assistant.  She says she wants to be Anna from Frozen.  I think my family is the last in America who hasn't seen the movie yet.  I had to ask which girl that was and she said, "not the one with the powers.  The one who gets engaged to a guy she just met."

Which is funny because she just got married after a rather short engagement.  Some of us went to the wedding.  It was really pretty.

Vanellope in her fancy dress, checking out Anna's fancy dress too.

My Duchess was a junior bridesmaid and had her first updo.  So SO cute.  It was freezing cold and so she borrowed a suit jacket from Vanellope's daddy.

Merryweather and Aurora with Mama and Auntie Doll, and me and Duchess.