overheard.

Everett:  What are you going to be for Halloween, Dad?
Nate:  A vomit janitor.

In case you were wondering, we're still sick.  Nate is the last man standing.

irony.

Saturday we took the kids to OMSI, where learned lots of interesting things about the human body.

Monday I found Ingrid had been sick sometime in the night and then went back to sleep. Awful. Today, her flu found me. Nate texted en route to dinner to tell me that they were heading home. Claire was sick in the truck.

The ladies are down.  Grossology indeed.

ru.

You won't hold hands.  The idea offends you.  You understand but don't say much.  Yet you are my best communicator at this age.  I've started giving you "crib time" for screaming.  If tell you that you're going to have crib time you shake your head "no" vigorously.  

I've never had an 18 month old without being in the early stages of pregnancy.  I like that you get to be a baby for a little while longer.  But I've done this before and even though you'll still snuggle in and let us hold you for a few minutes, it's not long and you're off and running.

embracing the camera.

Every year in August, I print and bind our blog into a blurb book.  It is cool to have all of my words and pictures in one place for the kids to someday look back through.  As we looked at the finished result, I realized that there was a serious lack of me in the pictures.  I was better at getting in front of the camera when it was just Claire and me.  I'm going to make steps to take more pictures of myself, so that the kids have a record of this tired woman who loves them like crazy.

I don't want to wait for the right hairstyle or weight to get into the picture.  And it could be years before the dark circles under my eyes disappear.  I love this picture because it looks so much like one I took with my big girl when she was this age.

And you, Ru.  You are changing before my eyes.  You don't speak much, but you'll say, "I ME!" when we ask your name.  And yesterday, you said "cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese." over and over.  In our mostly dairy-free house, you were thrilled to get a little cheddar.

bittersweet.

Ingrid lost her lovie and I'm feeling sad.  She has graciously agreed to stay a baby for a bit longer and is even stroking the back up bunny's ear against her nose.  I think she's humoring me.  She knows I'm not ready to let go yet. 

This week, I told a friend that unless Ingrid expressed verbally that she was ready to potty train, I wasn't going to start that madness.  She is my last baby, I'm in no hurry.  That very day she marched up to me and pulled at the front of her very wet  diaper with a look of disgust and attempted to rip the thing off.  She also added some grunts and noises for full effect.

Things are changing.  My boy is making leaps and bounds and is writing his name.  My big girl needs a bigger bike.  My baby is barely a baby any more.  I want to freeze them right where they are so I don't miss anything.  And yet.  They keep going.  And growing.  Two mornings a week, both of my big kids are at school and Ingrid and I look at each other like, "This is really weird.  What are we supposed to do now?"

In August, we surprised the big kids with a trip to Disneyland.  We left Ingrid at home, knowing that if we waited for her to be big enough that we might miss the magic for the other two.  I'm so glad we went.

“Life sneaks up on us every once in a while and gives us something we didn't ever know we wanted, and lights within us a love we didn't even know existed.”
― Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

bunny love.

We lost her bunny today.  And I am so so sad. The bunny that goes everywhere.  The bunny that she rubs against her nose for comfort.  The bunny that just this morning, she cuddled on my lap and rubbed against MY nose as a way of melting my heart and saying, "I love you."  This bunny:

I've never had a kid as attached to a lovie as this one.  We sent Nate and Grandpa all around town retracing my steps to try and find the bunny.  After an hour of attempting to get my easy girl to take a nap, I loaded the kids up and retraced my steps myself.  No bunny.

We have had a second bunny around the house for some time.  We've never needed it and she doesn't care for it.  The back up bunny is an exact replica of her bunny minus 18 months of dirt and sweat and love.  Big brother and Big sister were happy to attempt to dirty up the clean bunny so that Ingrid might accept it as a cuddle partner.

She was not fooled.  And this mama is not ready for her to give up her lovie yet.