A hole in my heart

My great-aunt Joan Williams died this evening of an apparent sudden heart attack. She's pictured here in 2006 helping Jack peel some boiled eggs at her home in Austin, Nev. that she shares with my Uncle Poncho. Her impact in my life was profound. Her unconditional love, love of God and ability to listen were wells from which I drew strength more often than I can say. She was a woman who gave strong hugs, who had a cheerful demeanor, a love of fashion and a love of jewelry that might just border on obsession. She was a busy body who's concern for others could make her seem overbearing, but in truth, it was just her way of trying to make things right in the world. A mother of two boys, grandmother to seven, aunt to many, loved by all.

I can't even begin to jot down the stories of my life with her in it. I think of her and I see Puppy the Chihuahua, Buick vehicles, Siamese cats, JEWELRY, the forever diet, my first trip to Lake Tahoe, staying at their house before my first night in my new college apartment and she and Poncho insisting on taking their old TV so I wouldn't be lonely. Black pearl graduation gifts from 8th grade on. Sleepovers during basketball tournaments in Smith Valley. Late night visits. Perfect nails. Loving family history. The coffee ladies. My family churchgoing buddy. Piano. Her great pride in being taller than me sitting down.

Oh, there are so, so many things. It makes me cry to sit and think of all the moments we had together, and how living across the country tempered the contact.

But here is something I know: "And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." Doctrine & Covenants 130:2

I will miss you more than you know, Auntie Joan. Godspeed.

A genuinely marvelous day

And you thought your house was a mess. Happy children, happy day and I have a bright orange, waterproof hunting coat to call my own. (And a bread machine, he didn't totally go off the deep end.)

I'm not sure what made this maybe my best Christmas ever. I just know that as I sit here tonight, I am happy. I'm not sure if that has to do with brainwashing my kids over the last month into repeating the angel's praise to the shepherds, "Peace on earth, good will to men!" Or their random attachment to the not-quite popular Christmas hymn, "Far, far away on Judea's plain" which they and sang to me-- while giggling -- on their way to bed tonight, their not quite in tune "Glory to God!" mingled with the "tee-hees" of a happy day. I'm not sure if it was the week I spent preparing for the day, up well past midnight to make sure things were clean and tidy, presents wrapped, dinner prepared. I just know that today was magical. Every part of the busy last two days went smoothly, from getting to the city in time for the annual radio show, to the kids actually enjoying their radio time and not melting down, to getting ready for Santa, to making sure I could put Christmas lunch on the table at 1 p.m. to help the older kids meet their other obligations. The exhaustion was worthwhile, the joy genuine, the gifts loved, the feeling of giving priceless. The happy relief of a successful and wonderful day is met with a great desire for sleep...but also to sit, crochet and watch "The Christmas Story" for the first time. I know, I know...but it's on the DVR and that's where I'm headed now. Cozy fire, the vestiges of presents still strewn about. The love of our Savior in my heart. Joy to the world, indeed. "Let every heart prepare Him room!" Merry Christmas!

Favorite toys I would recommend for your next birthday/Christmas:

Robbie is hard to shop for. However, the little ball popper thing has been a source of amusement for all my kids all day. Unlike most ball spinner thingies you can take the balls in or out. you can watch the balls go around or open the door and let them fly. Seriously. All of them. All day.

Jack: The Bat Cave by Imaginext. Finally a toy that doesn't break in the first five minutes. Solid plastic, a million different little cool "look what this does" parts...an elevator, windows that open the works! Batman, Robin and the Batcycle. All of them loving on it all day!

Ellie is so smitten by the jewelry box with the traditional ballerina dancing to "Swan Lake" she made short work of finding every piece of jewelry or other treasure she had and then carting the box around all day (wearing a Cinderella costume...). Jack was so taken by Ellie's adoration of the box, he asked if he could keep some of his "collections" in it. Jack's "collections" are mostly comprised of rocks, twigs and dried leaves. I suggested we find him his own box.

Victory was there for the taking...

...at least that's how Bob describes it. "It" being the fact that in less than a month, we managed to get Ellie weaned from her Binky and Robbie to sleep in his own crib. That's right, I bit the bullet and waited for the wailing, screaming and tantruming to begin at bedtime three nights ago. That lasted for less than 2 minutes and he hasn't seemed to care a bit since. I was hesitant to declare victory, but it's been three days and the kid even took a NAP in there today without a fuss. If I had only known how easy this all would be...

Tales of a housewife #1

There are times when no matter how badly you want to sort the laundry piled on the living room floor, you will just have to stop and clean out the refrigerator and put an end to the mystery smell that has plagued the house for a couple days. These are the times, indeed, that try a (wo)man's soul.

Things I'm mulling over...

(at left, Robbie and I in Utah at BYU...I swear at some point, I will post pictures from that trip...)

1. Why would I rather blog, read blogs or wander Facebook aimlessly than clean my house or do dishes, the ignoring of which leaves me up later than I need to be and makes me more exhausted than necessary? Furthermore, what do I need to do to get my favorite people to update their blogs more regularly? On this point, I thank Emily and Natalie for giving me something to regularly stalk.

2. When will night after night after night after night of hunger convince my children that they should just EAT DINNER? Seriously. If I were the type of mother that gave them snacks before bed or caved to the whining and gave them a different dinner (which I have NEVER done) I'd get it. But I am as consistent as sunshine in the desert on this one: No eating=no dessert or snacks. And still, nightly I have to listen to MASSIVE whining at the table and then MASSIVE whines of "But I'm sooooo hungry!" It's getting pretty frustrating. Lately, (after reading "Parenting With Love and Logic") my response has been one of empathy and "I'm so sorry. I know what it feels like to be hungry. Maybe tomorrow you will decide to eat dinner." No. Doesn't work. Every night, even on nights when I make something they SHOULD like, the result is the same: no food in little Lonsberry stomachs. Tonight's rejection: Grilled cheese. Seriously, I can't win.


3. I get next to no time anymore to watch TV...we're talking Wednesday night when I fold laundry. So, what I choose to waste my time with is precious. And I know 98 % of my dozen readers will not care about this, so skip to #4. Anyway: WHY OH WHY Heroes are you messing with us? I don't even have time to go into all the things that annoy me about this season, but I will briefly hit on a few. A. I need Peter to have all his powers back. Otherwise, there is no balance to Sylar and he can't B. Bring Nathan back from the dead. Has everyone forgotten that Nathan "dies" every year and is saved by either Claire's blood or by Peter's blood because he has Claire's power? HELLO WRITERS! Why suddenly does this trick not work? C. Butterfly effect. Where is cool future Hiro with the samurai sword and scar trying very carefully to fix the past? Why is present Hiro wandering all over time, fiddling with things, and nothing in the future is really changing? D. Doesn't psycho Samuel realize that all he is doing is making a Sylar buffet? Finally, E. Where is Mohinder? And that's all I have to say about that.


4. I need to make more time for exercise. I am a nicer, happier human being when I do. In fact, after a particularly bad day of dealing with my own hormonal shifts, Jack looked at me and said, "Mommy, I think you need another run on the treadmill." He's right. I'm trapped in that cycle of exhaustion, busy, hard to find time to exercise, so I'm even more tired even though exercise would make me feel better...rinse, wash, repeat.

5. A story Ellie told me the other day, that has me wondering if I'm raising a little pack of story tellers: "I had a bad dream last night. I was snuggling with Blankie when I heard a noise outside. It was dark and creepy, but I got up and went out into the creepy night. I was very cold..." I think the story continued to spin and spin into something about a monster, but I just remember thinking she was using some pretty powerful descriptive words for someone who is not yet 3.

6. I spent $250 on Shutterfly Christmas presents this year so everyone better darn well like our Christmas card and any other thing they get with pictures of my children splattered across it.

7. I need to start letting Robbie cry it out in his crib. Neither Bob nor I actually care for our current co-sleeping arrangement with the Baldy Bed Hog, but neither of us care for the hours of screaming that come with the crib. (We are accidental co-sleepers...trust me...) Bob is in Utah this week and every day, I swear that this is the night it starts, this is the night that little Robert goes solo. I'm three nights in to caving to peace, stress free bedtimes and a cozy, warm bed buddy. ARGH!!! I need a backbone!

8. I have been singing the praises of JC Penny's lately. Seriously. I have had a nightmare time finding AFFORDABLE pants long enough for my blasted 36" inseam, especially ones that stay long enough after washing. Enter a helpful Facebook hint and the discovery of A.N.A long and EXTRA long pants and trousers. On sale for $25. I bought five different pairs and am seriously, loving life sans high waters. They make the pants in every length and in reviews, really short people praise the petites as being really short and tall people praise the talls for being really tall. LOVE IT!

(If you are male, stop reading here.)

9. PMS: I am opposed. (I suspect my husband and children agree.) That's all I have to say about that.

10. Seems like I should have 10 things to make a nice, rounded list, but really, I guess I just ought to go do dishes. Drat.

I am glad for many things

...especially this crew. Happy Thanksgiving!

Binky update

Two days in and not a word. Not a peep. Not a temper tantrum, a crying spell, a whine or a whimper. It's as if there never was a binky. It was so effortless, I'm slightly concerned I caused her some mental trauma. The only thing she said yesterday over and over was, "I'm a BIG girl" as if she were trying to convince herself of the fact.

If I had known it would be this easy, I would have done it a long time ago. Although, I confess, it is very strange to see her all the time without it or to not be chasing a binky down for bedtime. She also seems to have transferred whatever she needed the binky for into extra snuggles with me.

Life is not so bad post Binky. Not so bad at all.

Bye Bye Binky...I hope

In the 1,029 days Ellie has been on the Earth, she has NEVER gone to sleep without her Binky. Until tonight.

Because today, the Evil Mommy character decided the Binky was not going to go by will or by gentle means.

Cold turkey is our only hope. I hope.

After ignoring suggestions of the Binky fairy and snipping the end (her solution to those problems is to ask to go to the grocery store to buy a new one. She isn't stupid...), I managed to wean her down to just nap time, bed time and the occasional "you're stressed so go sit in your bed and use your Binky" time. However, in our recent trip to Utah, she became a screaming, crying Binky addict again. Rather than wean again, I just decided to take it away.

Holy. Crap. What. A. Day.

Toddler detox is no fun. There were tears involved....both of us. Jack asked me to give her her Binky after listening to her scream for 10 minutes before bed. After 30 minutes, though, she gave up and passed out, whimpering. I cried for the poor thing. It wasn't like it was fun watching her beg, plead, scream, demand, whine and sob. Hopefully, this two to three day and forget about it thingy will really work.

So, above is what I hope is the LAST picture of her (with my mother, Sissie, and step-dad, Ruben) with a Binky in her mouth.

Fingers crossed.

Autumn, thus far

Picking out pumpkins out at the Elliott's, the church trunk-or-treat, Stokee Farms. In other words, we've been having serious fun trying to enjoy the outdoors before Winter hits in full.


Making applesauce and apple cider. Sorry, forgot to take pictures on cider day and of the days and days we spent picking out, but it was fun. I'm a bit worn out on applesauce. The children, however, are not. I have two more five gallon buckets of apples to do and then I'll be done. 40+ quarts on the shelf for winter. Who knows how many quarts were consumed before I could get them in jars.

And of course, leaves. Naturally at the Bacon's because they have a better tree.

Halloween

I'm behind. I still have stuff from summer I'd like to get up here. However, I present with limited interruptions from myself Halloween.



Sophie had her second soccer sectionals game on Halloween (what were those Section 5 people thinking...) so Bob was MIA for Halloween, which he was sorely upset over. However, he called in reinforcements in the form of Hannah the Clown (can you tell she's taking a stage make-up class?) and her boyfriend, Michael, to help me take the munchkins out. I like the one-to-one ratio when wrestling kids down the street. They pretty much made the evening for us! Jack wanted to be a ghost, thus Robbie became a junior ghost. My mother sent Ellie a Sleeping Beauty dress-up gown a few months ago and there was never a doubt of who she would be on the big day. I was actually cool with our absolute lack of creativity this year.

Typical evening, freshly carved pumpkins, walking in the cold, cider and donuts at the fire hall, haunted house at the Allegiance Inn...





...and candy, candy, candy, candy...


...which except for M&M's and homemade white chocolate pops, Ellie seems to not like. Interesting.

Just 44%

Can you tell I'm a Western girl, captured to the East via I-80 with friends in Michigan and Virginia? I thought so.

Get your own map Create'>here.

My work cut out for me...

I'm trying not to laugh over Jack's family prayer tonight because it was irreverent. However, it was also honest and very funny.

Jack praying:

"Heavenly Father thank you for this day. Thank you for (Mom, what did we do today? Me: We went to church.) Thanks that we could go to church (softly mumbled, "even though it was boring"). Thanks that I could go to Primary (softly to himself, "because that's the only part I like.")

Anyway, he continued, but I was trying not to laugh out loud at his absolute honesty. Part of me wondered where I went wrong in his dislike for what he this morning called "the long hour" (ie., sacrament meeting. Before church he asked if we couldn't just skip "the long hour" because he doesn't like it.) On the other hand, I was proud that he can at least talk to me about what he likes and doesn't like in life.

Unfortunately for him, he has a LOT of "long hours" left in life.

Thoughts on this? Should I already be having to drag this kid to church? Am I in for a fight or do I laugh this one off? Because tonight, seriously, I'm laughing...

...the gleam in your eyes...dadadada

I just think she's cute. Nothing prfound to say, she's just got funny, wispy sometimes curly hair. She never stops talking. She loves to do whatever it is Jack and Ben are doing. She's always on the hunt for "the perfect apple from the tree." She walks around singing the theme song from Sleeping Beauty and when people ask her her name she says, "Sleeping Beauty." No surprise what she'll be for Halloween. She uses very dramatic language, like, "this is my most perfect flower I ever found. Ever." And there you have it, Ellie in a nutshell.

Who knew...

...that of all the books I've read my kids lately, this one would make all three of them laugh like crazy. Animated reading style helps. Happy library find. Must on our Christmas book list.

MIA for a good cause

Poor blog and poor six of you who read it. It has languished in its outdated state as I have worked like crazy helping finish up a HUGE church service project. I just haven't had time to do anything except that service project. Don't even ask how my house looks. So, despite the fact I plan to backdate a bunch of posts, including our first camping trip, I'm going to bore you with service project details.

Actually, I was going to bore you with details, but I think I'll make it short: Basically, my enrichment committee (Rachel Howells) and I spent four months planning a service project to benefit Livingston County Social Services Foster Care and Adult Employment divisions. It started out as us looking for a way to get rid of some fabric lying around in a church closet and ended up as a quilting, box decorating, hygiene kit party with two other churches and a stay-at-home mom's group. Needless to say, as I was the one in charge (what WAS I thinking) it was pretty exhausting, mostly because I did a lot of outreach to other groups under the theory that together we could do more than any of us alone. (see http://www.grsserviceday.blogspot.com/ for all event details.)

Um, it worked. Sat., Sept. 26 we had 50 people show up (that's good for a service project) and we completed 170 hygiene kits (120 for LCSS and 50 extra for the local food pantry), decorated 46 "life boxes" -- boxes of scrap booking supplies, toys and books given to foster children when they enter foster care to help them document their stay -- and tied and bound 13 of 31 donated quilts. It was just an amazing day with such a wonderful, enthusiastic spirit and I was so grateful to see several months of hard work pay off so sweetly. I'm still a little stunned that it worked, to be honest with you. At the end of the day, we could control how much product we produced --and that we met our goals was due to the mircale of generosity and months of hounding people for donations -- but had no idea how many people would show up. To have 50-- fifty!!! --come was just a thrill. People are already bugging me about when we're having another day to tie quilts. Rachel and I just need a couple days...maybe a week or two...to breathe and then we can think about quilting again.

Huge thanks to Rachel for all her work pulling the quilt project together. She did this with a brand new baby and three little boys to deal with, and this project would not have happened without her hard, hard work. I think her kids and mine deserve some sort of treat for quasi-absentee mothers...seriously, those kids were saints, especially the night we had all seven of them at the church until 10 p.m. setting up. Also, thanks to my friend Tammy Hainey, who runs the Livingston County Mommies group. She took complete control of the hygiene kit project, which was a HUGE weight off mine and Rachel's shoulders. Her creative budgeting and hard worked saved us money and did a great deal of good. Plus, her organizational skills are unmatched.

And, so that's what I've been doing for the last couple months, especially September. I've got a lot of stuff to back date, so stay tuned! Picture at top is of me with the first real quilt I've ever made...if my "making it" means I cut and sewed the top together. :)

Tammy and Tricia ham it up and help make quick work of the hygiene kits.

My good friends Mareva Baldwin and Jo Pfaff can be seen picking out decorations for life boxes.

'

Ladies tying quilts, hard at work!

Oh the places they'll go!

I was clearing the dinner table and baking cookies. I walked into the kitchen and moments later returned to find:

Note to self: Do not leave an climbing, curious 1-year-old unsupervised.

Because I clearly didn't learn my lesson, I went to get another load of laundry to add to the to-be-folded-tonight pile and I found:

So behind on so many things I want to post in this blog. For now, this little glimpse of my baby and laundry piled to the sky will have to do.

A daring move.

I let Ellie wear panties to bed tonight. I'm praying like mad that tonight isn't the first time in a month that she wakes up wet. Good girl, Ellie!

Why I love August

A garden in ruin, thank you wood chuck. Decapitated broccoli and cauliflower, a mysterious destruction of one pole bean plant, but not another. And a days happy harvest.

I don't want to start out whining, but I'm going to anyway.

That little devil.

That evil, awful, covetous little animal.

I'm sorry, but I think there is plenty of food in this town for a woodchuck to munch on other than my broccoli. I mean LOOK at it. Broccoli plants are supposed to be (and were) tall and leafy with little broccoli growing protected in the crooks of the stems. Now where will the broccoli grow if they grow at all? Why on earth did the woodchuck eat it from the top down, do the same to the cauliflower but also pull their roots up, steal my ONE ripening tomato and nibble off one side of the brussel sprout plants? Does it have a gas death wish?

I can't really do anything about it today. We live in a village, so we can't just shoo it. We borrow the plot from a neighbor who isn't using it, so we can't just go make whacky changes. (A friend just sent me a message via Facebook and told me to try moth balls. Tomorrow, I'm moth balling the whole lot. Not that will save my broccoli tonight...) But that ends the whining.

Anyway, since I discovered gardening and gleaning and all that grand stuff, August has become my favorite month. If you want to eat your own preserved food any time later this winter, August is the month to think about it. Right now, I'm freezing beans every day. I will probably be doing squash and trying something with beets.

But my favorite August activity thus far has been blackberry picking with my kids. We have been stalking blackberry bushes, getting enough each time to make a small batch of jam. (And I am a quasi giddy idiot over that jam. Don't stop by unless you want to fondle the jar, admire it's beautiful color, etc.) The kids LOVE berry picking. We've been going every couple days. I drive very slowly, with Raffi singing his silly songs on the radio, letting them sit in the front seat so when they spot a bush out of all the brambles along this particular road, we can all jump out and pick. It has been so fun and so rewarding. The berries are delicious, organic and free. It teaches my children the origin of food and that you can survive from the land in a pinch. It also teaches them that while the grocery store has food of all stripe year round, there really is a time and a season for all things.

And it gives them happy summer memories and jam for the cold winter days to come. :)

What I learned in the last two days

1. Potty training is possible. I'm happy to announce that Ellie is potty trained. A dash of sibling rivalry for the toilet mixed with a bit of maturity, loads of praise and of course, five Polly Pocket Princesses (in order, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White) and she gets it. No accidents in five days. Tells me every time and she's been dry through the night for a week. Fare thee well diapers...for her anyway...

2. Childproof caps should really be labeled "child resistant but barely." All I have to say is if my 1-year-old can wrangle the lid off a bottle of infant's Motrin with no effort, the caps should be rethought. Fortunately, there was only about two doses left in the bottle and he dumped half of it on his shirt, but I called poison control anyway. They were oddly nonchalant. He's fine. In fact, he was particularly happy all yesterday.

3. You should never ever pre-judge what you will or won't do as a parent. Because right now, I am drowning in Disney Princess love (which I actually think is kind of cute) and managing a budding Transformer addiction. Fortunately, I lived in the 1980s with a brother and cousin in LOVE with Transformers, so I'm a bit more up to speed on the whole Autobot/Decpticon battle than your average housewife. My mistake was letting Jack know I knew anything about Transformers. Now, he follows me around asking who is who and what is what and geeze Mom, could you make this guy back into a plane? (Sure, right after I change Snow White's dress for the fourth time.) My children were never going to watch TV and they were not going to be given toys marketed by major movies/TV shows and they were going to play with very charming and educational wooden toys. Yet, here I am. Oh well. They're happy.

4. I hate quilting. Alright, hate is a strong word. But I thought I learned my lesson in 1997 when at the University Ward in Reno, Nev. we made quilts for a year as part of a stake requirement for a humanitarian project for Kosovo. After about 10 quilts, all we would have to say was "quilt" and the young ladies would RUN away from any Relief Society project. Here I am 12 years later -- having sworn off quilt tying, I might add -- at the helm of a massive RS project that includes making quilts. As we are looking for volunteers to piece together fabric that had been collecting dust in our church closet, I offered to do NOT ONE, but TWO. Quilting requires a great many talents I do not possess. 1. Infinite patience. 2. Time. 3. Insane attention to detail and last, but certainly not least, 4. Math. It should not take a woman three hours to plan two quilts, measure fabric and cut out 44 perfect 8x8 squares. OK, maybe it should, but I would prefer not to be that woman. I'm the person who sits with a calculator and a pencil and a piece of paper with my tongue sticking out going, "OK, um, area=length times width. hmm. but there is no way I need to cut out 300 squares." And then an hour later I realize, "Oh, wait, I need to divide that by 64 square inches, not 8 inches. How silly of me." Honestly, I am a JOURNALIST (or was) NOT a math goddess. However, in the spirit of service and trying VERY HARD to conjure up the mental image of a foster child loving these quilts, I press on. And as I was a foster child for a brief 5-month period of my life, it is not hard to imagine the quilts being loved. I will prevail.

5. Women can do hard things. (PETA fans please stop reading here.) I was putting my baby down for a nap today when I heard knocking on my door which I simply assumed was Ben Bacon trying to find Jack. Turns out it was his mother looking for help getting rid of a bat hanging in the doorway to her baby's room who she was trying to put down for a nap. I walked outside just in time to see Kelly and Patty, her best friend who lives down the block, wielding shovels and staring at the road. They pointed to the still-moving but not flying bat. Honestly, they gave it a chance to fly away and its odd behavior of keeping daylight hours and refusing to fly led to the use of the word "rabies." With a cat, two dogs and 12 children between the houses at the time, the bat earned a death sentence. We mulled over what should happen to this bat, hoping for someone to come speeding up the road and end its (and our) misery. No such luck. I offered to put it in a bag and just let it die (not nice, but not bloody, either.) "No, the best thing to do is kill it quickly," Patty the brave one said. Kelly and I knew we couldn't do it. So, Patty piped up and said, "I've had five children. I can kill a bat." And though she was a nervous wreck (and Kelly and I just babies about it) she whacked the bat. It was then properly disposed of and we had to explain to some weepy girls why letting the bat hang around was probably not the brightest idea. Women can and did and will continue to do hard things.

Even quilt.

Happy 1st birthday to Robbie!

July 27, 2009, Robbie's 1st birthday. He seemed to really enjoy being the center of attention and Jack and Ellie fought over who got to help with what. All in all, a great day!

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Love, Robbie

Allow my mama to translate:

My mom just let me bang on the keyboard without complaining. She said it was important to let me express myself on my birthday. Let's see. One year old. I'm feeling it. I'm kind of figuring out this walking stuff that everyone else is doing. Daddy says everyone gets to be bipedal at some point, so I'm trying to keep up with everyone else in the family. But why does Jimmy walk on four feet? Will he be lonely when I give up crawling all together. Hmmm.

I don't remember a lot about my first few months, although Mommy says I was a very good new baby. She says she wished she would have had this blog for when Jack and Ellie were smaller. All my milestones are recorded here and she just has to remember theirs. I'm a lucky baby. She must love me more.

(Mama's note: That isn't true. I'm just a poor journaler and for some reason, this works for me.)

I'm not really sure what my name is, but in the past year I've answered to any/all of the following: Mouse Bread, Small, Smally, Robbie, Robert, Robert H., Little, Teensy, Tiny, Buddy, Little Buddy, Baby, Sweet Boy, Robin, Ribbit Robert and although I think my mother HATES this one, Baby Bob. People said that a lot when I was first born until her temper tantrums stopped them in their tracks. I love my mommy. I love her so much that when I was six months old, I decided she couldn't live without me sleeping right by her side. I convinced her of this through an entire month of screaming and sleeping for 15 minute snippets until she carried me to her bed and now it's our bed. I know she loves to have me there. I'm very warm and snugly and I smell very nice. She doesn't mind being squished to the edge of the bed every night or having me wake her up at 5 a.m. because I want to eat. She loves me.

(Mama's note: I do love him. I will love him even more when I figure out how to get him to sleep in his own bed without the incumbent HOURS of screaming. He is warm and snugly. But so is his dad, and I can warm my feet on him. Can't do that on the small model.)

We had a few rough months where my mommy was not happy that I had problems going poopy. Really, it wasn't fun for me either. We got to see lots of doctors and eat lots of different foods, but fortunately, everything seemed to work itself out. I finally started gaining weight and my mama and daddy are very very happy that I've worked myself into the 10th percentile for my weight. What? You think that's small? Well, three months ago, I wasn't even on the chart, so 10th percentile is pretty good, thank you very much.

I like to do all sorts of things. Play in the dog food for starters. I like to pop a piece in my mouth then throw hand fulls of it in the water and then splash it all together before my mama catches me. I like to pull all the pans and lids from the cupboard and bang on them. I like to throw things. My binky, my toys, my food off my high chair. Jimmy always looks so hungry, and I really, really want to share. I love to eat watermelon and noodles and oatmeal. I love the feeling of mushy food on my head, which brings me to my lack of hair. I'm not really bothered by it, but my dad is quite worried that I will never have any. I guess I have some because people are always asking what color it will be. My mom says something about "Maybe blonde, maybe strawberry blonde." I don't really care. I will just be excited not to have to wear the hats she always sticks on my head. I like to eat the dirt in the garden, although mama always gets upset at me when I do. I like to jump on the trampoline with Jack and Ellie. I like to steal Ellie's binky. That never makes her happy. Jack is very nice and kisses me all the time and calls me a cute baby. Until I knock his towers over or wreck his train tracks or get into his crayons.

Lately, I've started to figure out this book thing my mama does. Bedtime is not just about screaming. If I'm polite and grunt and hold it up, she will READ me my favorite book, "Baby Einsteins Touch and Feel Baby Animals." I love that fuzzy yellow chick and that prickly hedgehog. I can make all sorts of sounds and my mama loves my funny laugh and the funny noises I make deep in the back of my throat.

(Mama note: Honestly, I wish I could figure out how to post videos, because that sound is hysterical.)

And today my mama and daddy gave me this amazing sweet stuff. They call it cake. I didn't really know what was going on. We had some sort of noodle for dinner (Mama note: Baked ziti and watermelon, his favorites.) and I was happy to play. I wasn't too happy when they put me back at the table, but there was a cake with a frog on it and a fire stick. I tried to grab it but my mama grabbed me. Then Ellie and Jack helped blow the candle out and I grabbed it and no one stopped me. Oh sweetness! I cried when mama took the candle away, but then she gave me a piece of cake and I forgave her. Amazing. I want more. Now.

I don't get the tearing paper off boxes bit, but Jack and Ellie were excited to help. I was excited to go to bed and be done with my first year.

The question is, what can I get into tomorrow to kick off year two?

(Mama note: Anything he can. What a super cute, bald, smiley little kid. So glad Heavenly Father whispered to me when Ellie was two-weeks-old that there was a little boy waiting for me. My life wouldn't be complete without him.)

Notes on weekend: check and double check

* Feeling a bit sorry for my kids. They're on their third random infection in three weeks, this time, hand, foot and mouth disease. We've been to any number of places in the last two weeks where we could have picked it up, and sadly, where we could have passed it along before I figured out that those little bumps on Jack's knees were not bug bites. I've already called all my friends and apologized in advance in case their kids get it. In taking the kids to the after hours clinic in Geneseo today, we discovered the HF&M on both the boys and that Robbie had a double ear infection. At least that explained why the poor baby has spent the last three days screaming non stop. Felt like a bad mother that I brushed it off as teething instead of excruciating ear pain. We had planned to celebrate Robbie's birthday today (Sunday) so the girls could attend. However, not having had HF&M, they opted to (wisely, I think) stay away. So, Robbie will be having small just immediate family on his actual birthday. Hopefully, the are all on the mend now.

* Two major bone headed moves in less than 24 hours. We saw a woman we know out for ice cream the other night. She looked like she had something under her eye. I looked TWICE and finally told her. I was trying to be polite. My new rule is look four times and be sure it IS NOT a mole before embarrassing myself. Secondly, even though I have a good 32 years of experience in the sunburn department, at an unplanned pool party Saturday, I doused my kids in sunblock and THOUGHT I'D BE OK as I spent two hours (unwillingly) in the pool with them. Hello, genius. I have a personal SPF of 1. I have scars -- mental and physical -- from bad sunburns of yesteryear. I NEED SUNBLOCK. Did not apply. Paying the price. Ouch.

*Bob's on vacation this week. I think he has grand plans to do some writing, but frankly, I hope he sleeps the whole time. He is so sleep deprived, I'm always afraid he's going to fall asleep behind the wheel one day. So, I hope he just hangs with the kids, exercises and sleeps. I may resort to subterfuge to get him to do so. Our only grand plan for the week is one day at Seebreeze. Other than that, sleep, Bob, sleep...

* My camera battery is dead and Bob's memory card is full. Sorry for the lack of photos.

A little homesick

One of the fun things about being on Facebook is the opportunity to keep up with/find old friends. And by old, I mean people from the middle school days and farther back. Fun fun.

This photo was pilfered from the Facebook account of "Old" Joe Dory. That will distinguish him from his son, "Little" Joe Dory. They both fly planes, so it's easy to confuse them.

Anyway, I've known Joe my whole life. And for as long as I can remember, he has loved to fly. He has this fun little yellow plane that he just tools around in. Today, he posted this shot of our hometown on his Facebook page. I'm from rural Nevada. I'm not exactly sure where he found a spot flat enough to land, but this is from a hilltop overlooking Austin, which sits at 6,500 feet elevation in a little canyon. It isn't much, just a speck on Highway 50 with probably no more than 300 people on any given day. My great-great-great grandfather was an Italian immigrant chasing gold who saw a better life in being a merchant selling stuff to miners. He landed in Austin, via San Francisco and Virginia City, met my great-great-great grandmother and they set about populating Nevada. My branch of his decedents stayed in Austin. The rest are around the state and beyond and the Maestretti family has a big reunion for the whole extended clan every year.

These hills used to be covered in pinon pine (you are staring at a picture of the middle of the Toyiabe National Forest. Don't laugh.), but a fire in 1980 destroyed a lot of the trees immediately around the town. And in Nevada, trees don't just pop back up.

Anyway, lately I've been a little homesick. I attribute this to Facebook since even Austin itself has a Facebook page where someone has been posting pictures of all the fun little town things like Gridley Days and the Fourth of July events. It's a nice way to see how people at home are doing, but it tugs at the heartstrings a bit. Living in New York with three small kids doesn't make going West a very easy or affordable task anymore. I haven't been home since 2007, and really, since 2002, I haven't been home but for once a year. I miss the sunsets and the smell of sage after the rain. Horseback riding in the mountains and pine nuts in the fall. I miss my grandma's shady yard and her apricot tree. Well, I miss everything about my grandma, but that's another story. A dip in the tiny town swimming pool. My family, the living ones and the four generations buried down at the cemetery -- one of my top 10 favorite spots in the world. Sigh.

So I guess I'll just thank Joe for this nice picture to remind me of where I'm from and that, yes, even Nevada can be beautiful. And since I'm stealing his pictures anyway, I'll post another one to prove that a) Joe likes to fly, b) he'll do it in any weather, and c) I miss the mountains at home and this is a nice shot of them.

Squidy and Squirty

Two neon Squid diving toys: $1.08 after taxes.

Three hours of children entertained by throwing the toy squids into the pool and wading after them: Priceless.

Of trails, black raspberries and children

Jack remembered, and I didn't.
The raspberries. Black ones that grow wild along the trail. I've been taking him raspberry picking since he was en utero.
"Let's go for a hike," I said, "on a new trail for you guys." I wanted to take them to Hogsback where they could jump over tree roots and see the beautiful Letchworth gorge from a different angle.
"No, mommy, let's do the raspberry trail," Jack said, pointing to the tall grassy trail that leads from the Mount Morris Dam to Al Lorenz Park in Mount Morris proper.
I stood there by the pond where we had been looking in vain to see a frog, impressed with his memory. It's been such a cool summer, so un-summery, I seem to be forgetting everything we usually do. Or, it's just my memory loss in general. I used to have a great memory. Now I walk into rooms and have to stop and ask myself over and over what I was looking for. Jack can be my replacement memory.
I fished a 2-cup tupper I happened to have in the van, put the baby in my Baby Bjorn carrier -- the same one that held Jack and Ellie on their first berry picking adventures -- and we set off. Hiking with a 2- and 4-year-old is not an experience in distance. It's simply an experience. One with discussions of butterflies, why we can't reach the black cherries, what kind of animal poop that is on the trail, why the tiny, round, red berries are very bad for us.
And then it's the find. Jack the raspberry scout and Ellie the raspberry picker found them, a small bush about 150 yards in. And then another bush and another.
I have lots of memories on these trails from my five years in New York.
When we were first married, Bob and I ran these trails together. He showed me what, at the time, was the big berry bush and we sat and talked and ate the handful of berries we could find off it. I love to glean and wanted enough to make jam, but the birds and deer and perhaps other pickers beat us to them. Over the years, that bush has been crowded out by other bushes. Other black raspberries popped up, though.
The first time Jimmy ever ran away from me -- one of the three times he thought he could catch a deer -- was on this trail. Jack in the baby carrier and I paced the trail for an hour waiting for him to come back. He did. With his ear pinned to his back by stickers and every other burr you could imagine plastered to his coat. He's much more mellow now as a five-year-old, content to run the trail and happily tag along with us in his favorite element.
So many other walks. Crunching leaves in the fall. Berry picking every year.
Now these are Jack's memories, July picking with Mom and Ellie and Robbie and whomever else comes along. Today, he was Mr. Let's Find Another Bush. Mr. Come On You Guys Are Walking Too Slow. Mr. Mom Didn't You Pick Everything Off That Bush Already.
Ellie was eager to pick, but as I hadn't planned on it, we weren't properly dressed. Black raspberry bushes bite. And after a few pricks, she was very wary, although she tried multiple times, very gingerly, to pluck the sweet berries from their thorny homes. That left me picking (also not properly dressed.) Berry picking is a job best done in Kevlar. Long sleeves, pants and shoes will do in place of that. Without that though, you just have to be very, very careful about what you touch. And you have to stare in frustration at the ones you just KNOW you could reach if only. I have a few splinters to remove because I was too eager to get just that berry over there. One more, kids, one more and then we'll walk.
I had to put poor Robbie on the ground several times to keep him from getting kissed by a thorn. He was more interested in eating the berries, though. Of all of them, he came home looking like he'd been in a war with red juice smeared everywhere.
We picked and walked. Picked and talked. Soon, an hour had passed and they were picked and hiked out. They are small. We made it all of probably a half a mile.
But what a great half a mile.
They were eager for the van, water and a snack for the ride home.
I thought we should just eat the berries.
Mr. Memory remembered that last year, we made them into smoothies.
And when we came home, he marched to the cupboard and pulled out the smoothie maker.
Naturally, that is what will happen to this two cups of tiny, black berries.
And for one moment, they will make their own summer memory. Milk shakes or smoothies with their own berries. A real taste of summer.
And for me, a fantastic memory I hope to keep.

Addendum:

How children eat black raspberries. Jack and Ellie, politely in a milkshake, spitting out the tiny seeds as they go. Robbie, picking them up and mashing them all over his head. Nice.

I've been reading again...

Food for thought: "We have the illusion of consumer freedom, but we have sacrificed our community life for the pleasure of purchasing lots of cheap stuff." Tod Murphy, owner of Queechee, Vermont's Farmers Diner, quoted in Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

I have a lot more thoughts on this book, the concept of local consumership, clean eating, etc. but suffice it to say, this sentence sort of sums up my thoughts. It also begins to explain my hatred for my toaster, but that's another story...

funny thing I want to remember

After a couple late nights celebrating the Fourth, Jack woke me up this morning with the following:

"Mom, there's a problem with the sky!"
Me, grumbling: "What, honey?"
Jack: "Well. There's no clouds. Or sun. Just blue, blue, blue."

Problem? No way. I'm thinking: FINALLY!

"Uh-oh."

Recently: Jack is into science experiments, first up: cornstarch goo and baking soda volcanoes. A cheap slip-n-slide made Park Day at or house super fun. Robbie can climb. Ellie loves her umbrella. The seven Bacon and Lonsberry children take over a sandbox. And see our garden grow...sort of..some sun would help here...

* Robbie dropped his binky today. As I stooped to pick it up I said, "Uh-oh." To which he responded, "Uh-oh." Does this count as a word, I wonder? He does say mamamama and dadada, but I'm not sure those really count. Uh-oh seems intentional. He kept saying it all night to rave cuteness reviews. Sadly for him, though, I also let him cry himself to sleep tonight. He is rough to get to sleep and...well, let's just say his sleeping issues are an entire post that I don't have time to write. This week I regain control!!! I hope...

* Ellie's potty training is SUPER improved. I think her polly pocket princess love has overwhelmed her. I made her a super cool sticker chart and we got some princess stickers and she is doing great! Every time she goes potty she claps and says, "I'm going to get Cinderella!" After several frustrating weeks, she finally earned enough stickers for Sleeping Beauty, and I think she is going to get Cinderella MUCH faster. She even insisted on wearing her panties for her nap today. I'm pretty excited. If nothing else, by using just a diaper a day, I'm saving money! On another note, I cannot be the first mother to LOATHE the shoes that come with these princesses. My heavens, what a waste of time and plastic.


* Jack seems to have gotten over his pink eye fairly quickly and whatever his cold was that knocked him down for a day or two. He was in swimming lessons, which we couldn't attend, but I just had him moved to a different class. He starts again next week and he's really excited!


* Bob is off to Utah for 10 days. I'm hoping to survive.

Notes on a day #6: Lame mothering edition

You know it's going to be one of those days when:

* You get to your son's first swimming lesson and realize his dry clothes and towel are neatly folded in a bag on the kitchen table 10 miles away. Nice.
* You get to your son's first swimming lesson 10 minutes early only to find out you were actually 10 minutes late. Even though I had on every conceivable calender scheduled "11:50 a.m.-12:10 p.m." the only thing stuck in my brain was that the lesson started at 12:10. Jack had nine minutes of his 20 minute lesson today. So, he got kicked out early and had nothing dry to wear. Thankfully, I always keep a blanket in the car. Just in case.
* You decide that your 11-month-old is responsible enough to feed himself a fruit cup and are dismayed when he rubs it all over his body. Because I didn't have 20 minutes poolside to feed the baby, I drained his peach cup and gave it to him while I drove home, hoping he would just dig in and eat. Lame. Move. Peaches head to toe and everywhere in between.
* You beg your 2-year-old in panties to use the potty and when she refuses, you think she must be OK. Potty training is the pits. Not three minutes later, a puddle appeared on the floor of the Dollar General where, ironically, we were buying stickers to put on the potty chart. "Mommy, I need to go potty." Frustrated, "I respond, "You just did, honey, I'll clean you up when we get to the car." "No, mommy," she says, "I need to use the potty in this grocery store." Frustrated, I respond, "It's too late." As we're walking out, I realized she added #2 to the puddle while we were standing there. My not listening cost Ellie a positive potty moment. Growl to me.

At this point, you throw in the towel and say, "Who wants ice cream?"

Finally, I got something right.

mobility +

Around 3 p.m., Tues., June 22, Robbie let go of a chair, giggled, and took four steps toward me. And he cut two teeth the night before -- which naturally explains his crying all night, but not the walking. No, the walking is just, um, the next step. It's exciting to watch him grow and go, but a a little sobering to ponder where the last 11 months have gone.

Be careful what you watch

No sweary-swearing on my blog. Sorry, it's so puritan of me, but I had to modify the promotional photo to the left. You see, as a fan of "The Biggest Loser" and someone who loves the idea of dancing (tried to get Bob to take lessons once. Total disaster.), I was intrigued by the idea of a show about people dancing to lose weight.

I am, after all, looking for summer laundry folding viewing material.

But come on, "Dance Your A*% Off?" Kind of coarse with tacky costumes, friends at Oxygen.

My advice, if you're looking for a summer show: Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency. I know I wrote about it a week ago but since then I actually had a chance to watch a full episode and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it! I guess I'll take my "traditionally built" with a little bit of African wit and wisdom this summer over whiny, fluffy folks mobile in spandex. Please join me.

The Princess and the Pee

Ellie recently, getting dirty, playing, loving her binky, helping Grandpa with the power drill, crafting with Jack and dancing. Ellie is always dancing.

My Little Ellie Bean is on my mind tonight. Maybe it's because she is proving to be a challenge to potty train or because she has become extremely verbal and just comes up with some zingers ("Binky, you stay right here while I go play.") Today, she woke from her nap to find it raining outside. I came upstairs to see what she was mumbling about. She turned, looked at me, tapped her window with her finger and said, "Mommy, you need to make this rain stop. Right. Now." I know I'm Mom and I'm supposed to make everything just happen, but yeah, I'll get right on that, sweet girl...

A few months ago, Ellie decided she wanted to use the potty. I don't think I was exactly ready but I jumped in to help her learn. Now, she is dragging her feet and no amount of enticement seems to be helping: Sticker chart, M&M's, a Poly Pocket Princess hanging out in it's box in the kitchen that she desperately wants but not badly enough to potty for it. Begging, pleading, sitting and reading "I Spy" -- the normal ones and the Princess variety -- books to her in the bathroom. Not working. Totally open to ideas. Today's score was Princess panties: 0. Ellie: 4. That includes the loss of the Princess Jasmine panties about a foot from the toilet. Doh! I'm starting to think she's trying to see how many princesses she can wear in a day.

Don't get me wrong, she's headstrong for sure, but she is tons of fun. Yesterday at the grocery store, I could hear her giggling loudly from the car attached to the front of the cart. I could also hear Jack saying, "Stop it, Ellie." I inspected and found her with her arms wrapped around him saying, "I love you Jack, hehehe. I looooovvveee you." It was sweet, but Ellie has long thought herself to be funny. There is no doubt in my mind she found something to annoy him that she knew she couldn't really get in trouble for, and she pursued it with vigor.

Just like wrestling in the last couple days. She intentionally tackles Jack, who isn't a fighter, and holds him down until he fights back. Tonight, he finally caught on. Go, go my little fighting girl!

Now, if we can just channel all this energy and enthusiasm for life to the potty...:)

Wow, boy, need a diet?

To recap: between Robbie's six and nine month check ups, he gained four ounces. This begat a couple months of specialists visits and special diets and much stress and worry.
A month ago, I threw all the very expensive medical advice out the window and gave the boy some string cheese. And I poured myself a glass of milk.
We're pleased to report between May 11 and June 11, young Robert gained 1lb, 9oz. Allow me to do the math: That's a hair more than six times the weight he had gained in the previous three months (maybe five. I can't remember at the moment how much weight he gained between four and six months and that's where his weight really stopped...). He's actually looking a little chubby to me.
And if you've read this far, you clearly care, so...he's also off the laxative. All systems go and we couldn't be more thrilled!

The No. 1 Ladies rule!

Alexander McCall Smith and HBO seem to me to me at first, to be odd bedfellows, but as I have time to think on it, the pairing may be brilliant.

McCall Smith writes fun, smart, clean books and HBO produces fantastic material but is known to sort of sex things up a bit. Despite what HBO could do with McCall Smith's material, I'm excited and optimistic about my latest television find of last night, a new series based on McCall's Smith's popular book series "The Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency."

I stumbled on to the show Saturday evening while looking for something to watch while folding laundry. Typically, about the only time I have to sit and watch TV is when I fold laundry, so the end of the TV season is always sad for me. What, oh what will entertain me as I fold, fold, fold?

I have read all the Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency books, and it's interesting to see characters constructed in your mind suddenly in the flesh. I so love the books, I couldn't help but watch and think, "Well, that's now how I pictured her."

American actresses fill out the two female leads in the story set and filmed in Botswana, Africa. Jill Scott's Mme. Ramostwe was too young and uncertain of herself. She lacked, I thought, the wisdom, wit, self confidence and courage of her book counterpart, although they did manage to make her "traditionally built." She is softer and more self conscious here. Mme. Matuska was too pretty and her glasses too small, although I thought Anika Noni Rose nailed her uptight, bossy persona otherwise. And Mr. JLB Matekoni was, again, younger, more talkative and demonstrative of his affections than in the books. Mr. Matekoni and Mme. Ramostwe's book relationship is very sweet and reserved, but in my 1/2 an episode, they shared a kiss, held hands and said, "I love you!" Considering what HBO could have done, I'll get over my shock and accept their happiness. They've also add a character, a "flamboyant hairdresser," named BK, who wasn't in the episode I watched but could be an interesting addition. The Botswana I saw in my episode seemed a bit more American than I would have figured, but the other trailers I've seen fit more the image in my mind from the books.

Despite those criticisms, I so enjoyed watching the show last night and I'm looking foward to seeing how this group of actors continue to bring to life one of my favorite series. I don't know how many episodes are on board (there are 11 books in the series, which is actually news to me since the 11th just came out. Yet another thing to be excited about!) but I will be DVR'ing all of them. And finding something to fold my laundry to this summer is, well, precious, don't you think?

I wish I could figure out how to post videos on my blog, from my desktop or YouTube, but I've so far failed every time. So, see a trailer for the show here and a CNN interview about the making of the show here.

The show airs Sunday evenings. Don't know what time!

Notes on a day #5, the Lucky Me! edition

Frequently my notes on a day follow a really long or really amusing day. Not Saturday!

* I got to take Ellie and the boys to Ellie's little girl dance class. I love seeing her so girly and happy!
* Sophie watched all three kids so I could get away for a couple hours for a haircut and a trip to Wal-Mart. Who knew that could be so rejuvenating?
* I got the best haircut I've had in years
* Jack was an angel today. He threw no temper tantrums and did everything I asked of him. This follows a day where the melted down over the simplest requests, got in trouble at a church event for calling people "poopy heads" (????!!!!) and topped off his day by cutting through his seat belt with a pair of craft scissors. Seriously.
* They boys and I searched the garden in vain for a seedling then gave up. Instead of cleaning or cooking, I laid on the trampoline in the sun while they played around me.
* And finally, not to tempt the fates at not giving me another great day, but...the dishwasher WORKED. In my first outing to Lowes, I found the right attachment for my sink (it's portable, pushes around the kitchen). It was the most amazing thing! The kids were astounded! "Mommy, where did you put our plates? What is that noise? Can we help?"

Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky me!

Notes on a day #4

Dirt washes. However, I'm not sure I'd anticpated Jack, Ben and Ellie's trip to the "mud store."

* Things I had not planned to do at midnight or anywhere near it:

1. Blog, but seriously...

2. Clean pink Nesquick powerded mix off the floor.

3. Clean pink Nesquick powerded mix out of the dog's food bowl.

4. Clean pink Nesquick powerded mix out of the dog's water bowl.

5. Clean pink Nesquick powerded mix off my broom and dustpan.

I would like to thank Daddy Lonsberry for astutely suggesting that our children could not watch another episode of "Charlie and Lola" without their own pink milk. Why should Lola and her mommy have all the fun?

* At some point in the last two days, I should have realized the importance of umbrellas. No really, if getting drenched in 15 seconds during yesterday's downpour taught me nothing, it's that rain gear is a must. The first time I left a store in Henrietta and it started raining, fine. Grab the umbrella. The second time I left the umbrellas in the van someone should have questioned my judgement. But the third time...honestly, the third time was at 7:30 p.m. at Wegman's in Henrietta with all three kids strapped into one of their amazing three-kid mobiles and God just turned on a faucet and said, "Haven't you learned anything today?" No, but I'm willing to bet my children wished they could have looked like they did yesterday instead of sitting and waiting for me to (again) find a stranger to watch them while I dashed to the van.

* My grocery store is better than yours (unless you live in New York, at which point you also can choose Wegmans and it's just a matter of who's location is better.) Wegmans is amazing, from their roomy eco-friendly shopping bags to their fresh out of some faraway garden produce to the natural food section and weird olive bar to the children's playroom in the new amazing Henrietta location. Too bad we found the playroom on the way out. My children wanted to stay at the grocery store and play. Who'd have thunk those crafty Wegmans would come up with a way to top the free cookies?

* I'd like to thank my friend Emily for the free portable dishwasher. I'd like to be more excited over it, but I'm holding back. I don't want to get my hopes up over not spending hours doing dishes daily just to have them dashed. At the moment, the diswasher attachement and my sink are not compatible. I'm trying new parts, but well, it's a process. Keep your fingers crossed.

* My garden is planted. I am weeks away from not buying a veggie all summer. Well, if all this rain didn't wash my seeds away. Drat. Didn't I learn anything?

Potporrui...

I'm so behind in blogging to all 10 people who read this, even in my blog's forum as my quasi journal, that I don't know where to begin. So be forewarned: This is journal-ish stuff I've been wanting to get down. So, how about I start with my main picture here: I love buying my children pajamas. I don't know why, but I love to see them in cute, clean PJs at bedtime. And while I'm certain there are better things to spend $10 on, I love Old Navy's PJs. So, here are my munchkins in this year's new summer selection. Enjoy.

My sister, Mary, is here for two weeks. It's been so wonderful to have her company and extra hands with the kids all day long. I feel very, very spoiled. My mother bought my kids a trampoline for Christmas and we just got it this week. (late order...). Mary helped me tidy up my tiny backyard (I had room in one corner for a 10-foot trampoline. That pretty much ate up the available yard space...) and then she helped me put it together. What an arm work out. The entire set up was a breeze except for those blasted springs. Just as my arms gave out from pulling and pulling (and realizing we'd made an error in placing one of them and had to undo some work) Bob showed up and being, in his words, "a monkey using tools" he figured out an easy way to undo and finish the springs. Thank goodness. Our children, and the neighbor kids, LOVE LOVE LOVE the trampoline. Thanks Mom!

I'm grateful to have good neighbors with children for my kids to play with. Jack and Ben Bacon, who is 1 month and five days younger than Jack, have sort of become one little boy running between our two yards. They love nothing more than to spend as much time in a day outside digging worms, inspecting bugs, building sand castles, riding their (matching!) bikes and now, jumping and wrestling on the trampoline. Ben's older brother, Jesse, 7, and sister, Lilian, 9, provide the extra set of eyes for the little ones and are excellent wagon-pullers, as you can see. I have the best neighbors! And I'm so happy it's warm enough for my kids to be outside, playing, inventing, running. Now, if I could just find a way to get them to keep their shoes on...

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I drove four hours to Ogdensburg, NY to visit my college friend, Amee (Thompson) Longbottom for her baby shower. Her husband is an Episcopalian priest and is in charge of a parish there. They have a lovely home next to the (huge) church and are expecting their first baby any day!!! Rob and Amee made us feel so welcome during our four-day visit and the kids just really enjoyed themselves. Having access to the church's swing set and Father Rob's playful ways did not hurt anything. I was glad the kids traveled so well and enjoyed the trip and I really hope having three screaming kids around the house wasn't too traumatic for idealistic first-time parents. :)

Robbie and I spent last week visiting various lab sections of the Galisano Children's Hospital at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. All the tests came back negative for why he isn't gaining weight or pooping...no cystic fibrosis (thankfully!), no thyroid issues and his stomach is a champion emptier, thank you very much. At his nine-week check up with our family doctor, for whom I have a love-hate relationship, we spent almost an hour (he with a full waiting room) discussing Robbie and all his issues. We decided, and Bob and I had discussed it at length before-hand, that for the next month, I'm going to eat whatever I want (yes, this means milk!) and I'm just going to try to give Robbie some cheese and LOTS of other food to see if a) he really has a milk protein allergy and b) to see if we can get him to gain some weight. Since the boy gained two ounces in the last two weeks (compared with three ounces in the last three months) I figure we really have nothing to lose. I will probably supplement his diet with formula and I've just been feeding him like crazy.

In other words, after months of stress and doctor's appointments and worry, I've decided to ignore all of them and go with my gut, which tells me he will pull through this. If I'm wrong, I haven't jumped too much back into the land of eating dairy, just a little milk and cheese, so I'll be able to cut it out with ease again if it doesn't work. So far, he isn't fussy and even seems to be, ahem, pooping a little better--even considering he's on a laxative. How's that for too much information?

Finally, Jack lately has become an arts and crafts fanatic. A couple weeks ago, the kids got in some trouble for not cleaning up. Also in recent months, Jack and Ellie have been getting up very early before me, running downstairs and turning on PBS kids because I'm sleeping and can't tell them no. (If I were more clever, I'd hide the remote, but I'm not that smart...or, I don't mind them watching "Martha Speaks" and "Curious George.") The night they got in trouble, I told them no TV until all the messes were picked up. The next morning, I woke up to the following scene:

Jack woke up and being very obedient, did not turn on the TV. He did, however, raid his craft supply drawers for just about every craft object in the universe to make this little piece of artwork which I think I will keep forever. Lately, he's really been into layering things and mosaic type art. He found an egg carton and glued a bunch of stuff on it. Glued a toilet paper roll vertically to a drawing he did. Speaking of drawings, he colors/draws about 10 or 20 of those a day. I'm not sure he exactly has artistic talent, but he makes up for it in enthusiasm! He's such a funny kid! I'm thrilled to be his mom!