Give Dad A Hand

It looks like he's gonna need it.

With J doing his very best grumpy face for the camera.  And Baby B pulling R's irresistable hair.  Somebody's ALWAYS doing something they shouldn't around here.

R is drumming on K's bum.  And Shaggy looks like he's either drugged or about to fall asleep.  Maybe both.

Too bad it takes a bum drum to get such a great little smile out of R.  And a head swap to get B looking the right direction.  Made ya look twice, didn't I?

But these two were picture perfect.  During this particular split second, anyway.  And they have the same eyes.  In this particular light, anyway.  Amazing green eyes.

Happy Father's Day!  May he get helping hands whenever he needs them.  Which will be every second for the next 17 years, probably.

Baby Steps

It's official.  We have a toddler on our hands.  10 months is simply too early to walk, in my opinion.  But she has other ideas, apparently.  Her baby steps are becoming steadier by the day.  Her adorable crawl is seen less and less frequently.  She has actual bruises on her bum.  Which are doing nothing to deter her.  I imagine the bruises are caused by her relentlessy rambunctious antics in the bath.

She's got a voluminous vocabulary of three words.  Dog.  Book.  Hi.

There's just no keeping this girl down.

Especially when we hang her from the clothesline.

But she does a pretty good job of  getting herself up.

The current method of staving off her pre-bedtime fussiness is to strip her down and let her wave her clothes around.  It never fails to delight her.

Grass, however, does NOT delight her.

Nor does being delayed when she wants to be picked up by the AllSpark.

That would be me.  The AllSpark.  That's what Shaggy and the kids call me whenever their care of B is not good enough for Her Royal Fussiness.  When nothing but the source of all goodness (again, me) can ease her pain.

She's a handful, though not nearly as much as she used to be.  She delights us.  We adore her.  Such a beautiful symbiotic relationship.

Toothless Wonder

J has been eagerly waiting for his first tooth to fall out.  Most of the kids in his class have long since lost several teeth.  Even his permanent tooth grew impatient. (You can see it half grown in already.)

He tucked the following note under his pillow along with his tooth.

I poold my tooth and it came out!  it is amazing!  This nite I think I will be happy!

And he drew a little frame around where he was going to place his tooth.  Before going to bed he asked us all the questions he could think of about the tooth fairy.  He was excited about the prospect of two shiny new quarters.  But he did NOT like the idea of the tooth fairy taking his tooth away.  So he put a big X through his sweet little note and wrote a different one on the back.

sory.  I relly want to ceepe it!  cose I want to remember wen I was 6 years old and soon going to turn 7 yers old.

So he ended up with two new quarters and an old tooth.  Which I will now be stuck with.  What do you do with old teeth?

Sibling Power

Only children undoubtedly get more time, attention, and affection from their parents.  This is a good thing.

But kids who don't have the luxury of growing up as only children are privy to the awesome power of siblings.  Sometimes that power is like a hailstorm that beats you down.  Not very fun or photogenic.

But sometimes, the power of siblings is like sunshine.  It creates life and warmth and wonder.

Those are the moments I love to capture.

J and R playing peekabo at the park to cheer up a cranky baby. 

J giving B what he calls a 'happy ride' on her little scooter.

K presenting a cake she made to congratulate S.

R and Baby B giggling together.

Beautiful moments.  Beautiful, indeed.

Flautist in Training

I'm proud of my girl and all the hard work she's put into music this past year.

I would like to brag about how exceptionally gifted she is and how she never forgets to practice and how she was hand-picked to participate in the district honor band.

But I can't.  Because she's just a kid.  And she often forgets to practice, even after I have reminded her.  And while her skills are certainly improving, I can't claim that she's ready for Julliard quite yet.

And while she WAS hand-picked to perform with the honor band, it wasn't in the traditional sense of the phrase.  It went more like this, "Raise your hand if you want to be in the honor band."  

But she did great.  And hardly made any squeaky sounds during the show.