Hometown Parade!
My girl being goofy… look at that smirk!
Annual Cousin photo!!
And the paparazzi…
Foxtail… good fun! (Waiting for fireworks)
My sis taught me how all the cool girls are posing for photos these days… (she knows all the hip stuff)
It may have rained…
What.A.Super.Great.Day.
We are hitting the road tomorrow. Jack.
And I want to call everyone Jack the whole way. Just cause Silas Robertson does and he makes my sides split. So it’ll be funny if I do it too right?
I have to say, it has been really REALLY good to be in one place for several months. Is that a long time for us? Ha!
We are leaving Colorado to drive ‘round the country (part of it anyway) and visit with lots of folks that we love and share about all that has been going on and what we’re doin’ now! But then we get to come BACK to Colorado and live in the same house again. That’ll be nice. Real nice.
Just to be sure, earlier today my boy H asked me “When we come back we’re gonna live in the same house, right?” By golly Jack, yes we are!!! And I’m happy to say it’s true. I also have to say that I don’t blame him one bit for checking on that small fact. The boy hasn’t had a normal life…
As I run around the house packing and sorting and getting life in general order, I think maybe I missed packing? The last time we packed it wasn’t so fun. That incident was a little on the rushed and stressful side for my liking. But this is a month long road trip and I’m kind of looking forward to just having what I can fit in our suitcases comes bursting out of our minivan. However, ask me again how I feel about the roadtrip after I’ve been driving through Kansas in the middle of the night with a jet lagging husband, two kiddos and a lil’ baby for twenty-four hours.
Or don’t ask me. Yeah. Better not ask me. I might have lost my positive outlook by then Jack and I’d hate to be a downer.
We’ll see.
Bring on the open road?!
This morning the windows are open, the breeze is blowing and the music is turned up during breakfast.
Sweet N looks out the windows… “I feel like the trees are dancing!”
I love it. I feel like they’re dancing too… my man comes back tonight!
When my kids learn to draw, they apparently perfect one picture before moving on. You can see my son’s budding art here, where he perfected his drawing of him jumping into a pool. I adored those pictures then and I adore them now.
Well, after reading ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ (interesting book if ideas are applied in moderation) I wondered if I stopped praising Sweet N for page after page of scribbles that she presented me with, would she actually start drawing something? I couple times I just said “N, you can do better than scribbles silly girl! You are three years old!” and sure enough… she did better than scribbles.
Thank you Amy Chua.
Next comes violin.
Just kidding.
This may be her very first 'actual drawing. It’s definitely much more than ‘twibbles’, as she would say.
And soon after…
People! With legs! And Hs and Ns. And I think that might be a little pink baby? Not bad!
In this collection she is clearly refining her skill and her art form.
More independent shape studies here.
And just like her brother… I get the same drawing again and again and again! And you get to see it 25 times, aren’t you lucky?!
She can always tell me exactly who these people are! And I promise everyone in her life does NOT look like an alien, contrary to what these may lead you to believe.
I wonder what it is about humans from a preschoolers perspective that makes us have necks equal to the size of our bodies (or no necks?), eyes as big as saucers and straight mouths. As if this girl never sees anyone smile?
Oh my word I love these pictures so much.
They just keeping coming. They are literally all over the house every day.
Some of them have suns in the corner. That’s nice, huh?
They also get delivered up and down the hall. Folded up and placed in envelopes if it’s a good day.
Wait! This one has arms! Coming from his/her ears? Well, it’s a start…
Oh I love my girl. What a joy it is to watch my precious child grow and learn.
I run across lots of tiny reminders of where we have come from when I go about my daily life. Small leftovers. Remnants of the past. They are pretty silly really, but in any case I will share…
Cheap African pain-reliever. I always carried a bit in my purse and just finished up my last ones recently.
This is my keyboard and mouse that Mikey gave as a Christmas gift just a few days before we started packing. It has arabic script on it and I like that. And this pen is also floating around my house from the hotel that we’d go to to enjoy a coffee and the view.
Thyme I brought back in a re-purposed baking powder container. I went through baking powder like a mad woman in Africa and re-used these containers all over the place. I like that I still have one or two.
Bookmarks from regional gatherings.
My silly plastic plate that we used after almost every meal to slice and share oranges. I brought it back. It has so many memories of sitting with my family around our lil’ table.
A bottle cap from a glass soda bottle that was often served at celebrations. My kids would gather them off the dirt and sort them and play with them. They were little treasures. I just can’t bring myself to throw this last one away.
A date Mamoul cookie. I’d buy these in bulk and pack them in the kids lunches often. One snuck it’s way back hiding in a lunch cooler. Now it sits in my cabinet and I should eat it. But I can’t.
My trusty metal cup that I used daily on that side of the globe I now use daily on this side of the globe. I’m attached.
And lastly, a note from my staff that they gave me with a gift as I was leaving.
I appreciate my little reminders…
Today after her nap my baby pulled her baby positioner out from under her bum and was chewing on it. Whaaaat?
I don’t know how she did it but she was pretty happy with herself.
My littlest girlie has been in training for several nights to learn how to roll from her back to her tummy. She’s been ready to roll on her own and the training paid off! She did it! Unfortunately, her faithful trainer (my Mom) was out and didn’t get to see it.
Sorry Mom, that made me sad. Why didn’t she wait for you?!
Here’s the flip!
All the way over, but stuck on that silly arm!
She worked hard to get that thing free!
She did it! Makes her Mama so proud!
Big Sis was also rejoicing. And lookin’ stinkin’ cute today, as usual.
Big brother too. He adores his baby. And I adore him.
Lil’ A done wore herself out. I flipped her back over, she kicked around some and then she had a nice snoozers right there in that spot.
It’s the little things…
