Summary Snippets

• Friday Focus has gotten away from me once again.  I have the best of intentions but life gets in the way.
• Miss Merida is gone.  They did a two week trial at her new school, just to make sure she was old enough to run with the big kids and the new schedule.  I knew she'd have no problem, and I didn't really WANT her to have problems, but I was still really hoping she'd come back at the end of the trial.  But of course she's gone for good.  Makes me happy she's doing well but I'm still sad.
• Merryweather is even more sad.  She's the only one up some mornings now and she kind of wanders around looking for a playmate.  We're working on trying to do some more big kid stuff for her but so far she's not super interested to do it by herself.
• We have some sweet new friends!  I need names for them still, but we have a new teeny one and a one year old who's dropped in before but is now full time.  They are settling in nicely.
•  



• Bernard's last day is today.  He's off to join his big brother at that school now that he's turned one.  I can't believe how fast the time with him went by!
• The parents of the new little one use an app called Baby Connect to keep track of what's going on with her and they added us to the account.  Instead of writing on the whiteboard, I log her activity on the ipad and they can check it from work and see how her day is going.  I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it turns out that I really love it.  It's fun to already know how she slept, and see when mom pumps so I can work on getting her to eat near the same schedule.  Mom and Dad like being able to see how her day is going in real time.  It's got places to add as much or as little as you want- you can track moods and activities and food and poop and sleep.  I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. 

• We've got two more new ones waiting to join us- one in August and one in January.  We got to meet our August arrival this week.  She's just a couple weeks old right now and is so snuggly and cute!
• Anna and I are seriously thinking about celebrating half Christmas next Wednesday, just for something fun and different to do.  If you come in and the decorations are up and the music is playing, just roll with it.  :)

Caterpillar on the Wall

We've started The Very Hungry Caterpillar again. This is one of my very favorite units to do, and I don't think we've ever done it with a group who's overall as young as this one. (Here's an old post with some of the things we do with older kids.) There's definitely a lot of modification and repetition, but they're enjoying it.

Sometimes I read them the actual book, but most of them are still at the super grabby stage.  Since the book has so many holes cut in it, I'm afraid it will get ripped during a group reading session.  More often, we use the pointer and the class set of pictures that I have on the wall.  (or off the wall, since my sticky stuff is dying and the stapler won't work on that kind of wall.)  Merida and Merryweather go running over there as soon as I pick up my pointer, and they can show me the moon and the egg.  Every time I say "he was STILL!  HUNGRY!" we make silly faces and they laugh.  It's fun.

So far the only things I've sent home are the little paintings, but we have done a couple other crafty items.  Here's the class caterpillar, who currently resides on our wall:





Each kiddo colored a body section and then we attached legs. They had a good time coloring!

Merryweather, taking the job very seriously.

Mufasa and Flynn were both a little shocked that I actually let them touch the crayons, I think.  Look how proud Flynn looks.  I had to sit right there and make sure they didn't taste them, of course, and their finished product doesn't have a lot of real coloring on it, but they really enjoyed the process!

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.

Be My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!  We spent yesterday and today getting little cards made for the parents.  I'm a sucker for footprints and I figure I can't be the only one.  Most of our people are too little to color, but it's fun to paint their feet so they can make a card.  Families love it.

 Merryweather went first and thought it was the funniest thing.  She laughed the whole time and then I had to do everybody else on the sly so she didn't help WAY more than I needed.

Mufasa was pretty chilled out the whole time- he let me do it without any protest but thought it was a little weird.  He stayed still though so his footprints came out really clear.

 Miss Merida's foot, making a cameo appearance.

 I had to practically hogtie Maid Marian to keep her hands off her feet.  She wanted to eat the paint SO BADLY.  I needed about six more hands for this job, especially since Merryweather snuck up behind me and grabbed the paintbrush off the table.  She dropped it in my lap and I still have red paint all over me.

Then she got all kinds of offended that I wouldn't let her grab the rest of the supplies so I had to console her before we could carry on.  I love the way Maid Marian has her foot stuck straight out and is still staring at it even after I washed it.  She can't quite figure out what I did to her.

While the littles were napping today I took Merryweather and Merida to eat lunch with O'Malley at school.  The weather hasn't been nice enough for a walk in forever and they talked and laughed the whole way there. 

 I got wise in the afternoon and put Bernard in the jumper to do his painting.  He decorated the floor while I went to get the wipes.

He had a good time too.

Last but not least was Vanellope.  (I watched Wreck-it Ralph with my kids again tonight and she's so great.  Big smile, sassy little attitude, makes you happy.  It works.)

She put up with the first foot, although she let me know she thought the whole thing was weird and possibly a little scary.  We didn't take pictures of the second foot.  Girl got angry.  :)  But they all turned out really cute.  Happy Valentine's Day and I'm sorry if there is a little paint left between your kid's toes tonight!

New Post! Dance and Sing!

I'm pretty sure I've already used every single post title I can think of.  Clearly I've not been in a blogging mood much lately either!  We are still here!

There are five full-time kiddos here these days, with two more either three or four days of the week.  Also, once a week my neighbor's twins visit.  So we have five, six, seven, or nine just depending on the day.  I'm really enjoying it.  It's definitely busier than it has been for the past few months with just three or four, but the kids seem to be getting a kick out of the interaction and it's fun to stay moving.  Merryweather and Merida are running all over the place and everyone else is scurrying to catch up.

Maid Marian and Mufasa, just hanging out and shooting the breeze.  Notice he has her sock in his hand- he took it off her foot and then was trying to figure out how to get it back on.

On an unrelated Mufasa note, the girls are all obsessed with his hair.  They love it because it feels so different from theirs and they come by to pet his head while he's playing.  He lets them.  It's super cute.

Look!  Food with a bowl and a spoon!  This makes breakfast look more successful than it was- the bowl frisbeed off a few minutes later and then she stuck the spoon too far down her throat.  But hey.  We make the little progress, one day at a time.

Maid Marian is really exploding on her gross motor skills these days- she's getting pretty good at sitting up by herself for a few minutes at a time and loves to play the piano.  I really hope this piano never breaks.  Duchess got it for her first Christmas, so it's 10 and I'm sure they don't make it anymore.  Every kid I've ever taken care of has LOVED it.

 My Tuesday twins.  I can't think of a good set of Disney names.  Tweedledum and Tweedledee is the only thing that comes to mind but I don't think that's very complimentary and they're really sweet boys.  :)
What's a good name set I could use?

Pictures are kind of biased toward the Maid this post, but I couldn't leave this one out.  So flippin' cute.

We also have a new three month old little girl who is amazing and delicious.  No pictures allowed of her, but I'll come up with a name for her soon so at least there will be stories!

Just Wait a Sec, It'll Change!

So here I was, keeping a couple babies by myself, then all of a sudden Melody left to go spend her days with Grandma, a new little girl started, and so did my assistant!  Now I'm back to two grownups in the house and working on ramping up to keeping more kids again.  We've had several interviews this week with SUCH sweet families- would love the chance to take care of those boys.  They are fabulous, and as an added bonus it would be nice to balance out the estrogen overload we've got right now.  :)

One of the boys just turned two, so I'm rethinking the "infants only" thing.  With two adults here, a split age group works really well and it's likely that we'll move the graduation date back to age three.  I miss Remy, Alice, and Perdita!!  Darn.  But I hear wonderful reports from their new teacher and I know they're doing well.  These last few months just didn't work for me to have everyone.  I'm really hoping that now things are settled down- the kids I have plan to stay awhile, Assistant and I are happy and onboard, and a few more are in the wings.  All is well.

Aurora dropped on in Fair Day when her kindergarten was closed.  Merryweather really enjoyed having sister around for the day, and they all had a good time.  I don't usually get to post anything of Merida at all, so I'm happy to have this one that completely hides her identity and still shows her playing.  She's got the MOST awesome laugh- it's very low and throaty for a baby, and she was laughing and having a great time with this hat.  Fun day.

 Maid Marian says to you, "blah."  She is such a laidback and easy baby- just hangs out and learns how to use her tongue.  :) 

And here's our newest addition, as yet unnamed for the blog.  She's made a quick and smooth transition into hanging out with us and is a joy to be around.

I am very much enjoying this season!  Fun and happy kids = happy me.  It feels very different to not be on the move every minute like I was when I had older kids.  Now we lie on the floor a lot and build block towers for each other to knock down, and we chase balls around and take things in and out of boxes.  However, Merryweather is quickly approaching complete mobility, and even without walking yet she's doing this:

It'll be no time at all before we're back to art projects and outside time!  They grow up so fast.

Babyland

It is very bittersweet to have all my big kids gone.  I know they were ready and needed more challenges and are going to have a fabulous time at their new school.  I also really do like having a tighter age spread and doing only baby things- I feel like I'm able to focus more closely and serve my babies better when I'm not trying to do preschool at the same time.  I miss my big ones though.  Merryweather is my oldest one now- I've got nobody here who walks or talks.  It's such a big change from just a couple weeks ago.

Here are a few pictures from before Alice left.  I made green smoothie for breakfast one morning and she and Merryweather both liked it.  Kinda surprised me- I was expecting more fuss about it, but they sucked it right down.  It actually is pretty good- for sure the only way I'm willing to eat spinach or kale.

Then we walked over to the elementary school to have lunch with Duchess.  Now that I have a new quad stroller, we can actually get inside.  The last one I had was about two inches wider and it wouldn't fit through the front door.  Super annoying.  Now we can travel!!  My kids are always so excited to see the babies, and they like it when I bring them cookies too.  I figure I better do this while they still are happy to see me, right?

I packed a lunch for Alice so she could sit with Duchess like a big girl.  She was pretty impressed at the time, although later when I asked her if she'd had a fun day she told me no.  :)

One of Duchess's friends fell in love with Merryweather and kept her company while Alice was busy eating.


And here is Melody.  The Disney reference is a little more obscure, but in the sequel to the Little Mermaid, it's Ariel and Eric's daughter.  This satisfies my silly rules, since she remains in the mermaid universe with her siblings, and it's pretty close to being a merrybaby too. Close enough anyway.

What? I wasn't gonna touch the baby, I promise!

Maid Marian has slept a lot this week and I haven't gotten too many good pictures of her yet, but I'll put up some more of her soon.

And as far as updates on getting help, my friend is ready to give two weeks' notice at her job as soon as I need her.  If I stay by myself, I'm comfortably full- I have three full time babies and a part time.  If I get two more babies who want to start, then I'll bring in help.  I'm just having to play it by ear and wait on the phone to ring.  :)

Show Off Day

Ms Mimmie did a show off day this week for the parents to come and see what we've been doing in class.  Predictably, some of them were reluctant to show off and spent the time huddled in mom or dad's lap.  I took a bunch of video and pictures today during class to try to get a more accurate representation of the day.  They all love it- it's really fun to see them marching around and blasting off. 

You can tell the minute Remy sees me filming him.  All moving stops immediately and he just stares at me suspiciously.

Some more fun blasting off shots.  This whole month they've been grooving to the space music from an old Mother Goose Time theme.  It's actually one of my old CDs.  I ripped them all to my iTunes and gave them to her so she could use them in her classes.  The kids are somewhat familiar with the songs since they hear them when we play music during meals and it's been fun to keep the same theme going all month.

Merryweather wanted so badly to be dancing with the big kids.  She was singing and kicking so much that Mimmie decided to give her a turn with the log roll.

SUCH CUTENESS I CANNOT STAND IT.

Catching Up

All the tutorials about blogging always say that you should never start out a post with an apology for how long it's been since your last one.  So I won't apologize.  But I'm thinking about it.  It's been a month!  I haven't even done Friday Focus or anything.  Oh well... real life is happening, and I guess that's more important than documenting it.

My Merrybabies are getting so big.  They're sassy and fat and happy and oh my I love them.  Merida is actually shaping up to be a possible redhead, I think, although it could certainly change.  She doesn't have a ton of hair yet and it's still in that state where it could go either way.  She's gotten super smiley lately and is a joy to be around.  She's rolling and scootching a pretty good amount these days too and sometimes is five feet away from where I laid her down in a pretty short time.  Pretty great for four months old!  Her grip is amazing too.  I can't find the post, but I know I've talked before about how if you take something from a firstborn, they may cry, but they give it up easily.  A second child knows from day one that the older sibling will try to take stuff away and they hold on TIGHT.  We refer to it as the second child grip, and pretty much every second child really does have it.  Well.  Miss Merida is a third child.  The other day I went to pick her up out of the exersaucer and she lifted it off the floor with her.  The girl is serious. 

Merryweather is a champion sitter and loves to play the piano.  She doesn't care much about rolling just yet- she might do it once if she feels like it, but at this point she would rather use her newfound loud and shrieky voice to see if I will bring her things instead of working on getting them herself.  Can't say I blame her much on that count.  It gets quick attention and it's easier.  :)  My current favorite thing about her is her fierce love.  When you pick her up, she lunges at you with both arms, wraps around your neck and hugs you tight, all while trying to kiss your face ferociously with her wide open drooly mouth.  It's sometimes a tiny bit startling, but it is very awesome.

Only two weeks left before Mater and Lady go off to their new school.  It's definitely going to be different.  I've already started rearranging the playroom a little and trying to figure out the best toys and space for my new crew.  Well, not new, because I don't have any new ones starting right away, but it makes it feel all new whenever I add or subtract anybody from my mix.  I got a new braided rug for the playroom and Mater spent a lot of time diving onto it and rolling around today.  It was pretty cute.  I'm glad they are enjoying it- I love it.  Makes it seem much more cozy and we spent most of the morning all lying on it and playing.



Remy has learned to take off his pants.  He takes them off sometimes during his nap, and most days I can tell they've been off because they're a little twisted, but it's not too bad.  The other day though, he was magnificent in his inability to fix his drawers.  It made me laugh a whole lot and then he got his feelings a little hurt.  Lots of pant-fixing and hugging after this shot.  :)



Ms Mimmie is still coming every Friday and the kids are really enjoying tumbling time with her.  I think she wants to do a showoff day soon so all the parents can come watch.  Should be fun.

 They're doing pretty well at sitting in a line and waiting for their turn.  Sometimes they wander, but they're getting the hang of it.

And not to be left out or undone, Alice and Perdita love my Viking hats.  They call themselves "Fakings" and they run around wearing hats.  Perdita usually makes me sing songs about it too.  And when I took this picture I may possibly have been wearing the tall pink hat from Duchess's Mad Hatter costume.  Maybe.

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.