Baldy

Madelyn's 3-year photo shoot
The girl who's never had a haircut and the boy with no hair.

a little laugh

Why the blog doesn't get posted more often...

This is what walked down the hallway after my last post.

You can safely assume he will have far less hair in our next post.

Great.

Just in time for Winter.

Beautiful Light

When we are fully in Summer the sun does not shine through the glass in my South window.  It's too high in the sky.  So even though I grieve the end of Summer, I am once again in love with Fall, and all it's colors.

September 22, 2011:  18lb 8oz

Successfully reaching out and grabbing!

Last night we introduced Seamus to the jolly jumper.  Luke is thrilled with the new activity.  Seamus is thrilled to have Luke's attention, and hasn't noticed yet that he can bounce; he just spins in circles watching Luke and laughing.

Carrot Cookies

Took a chance (as per my usual unashamed experimenting on guests), and made carrot cookies this morning for my first play date with a new friend (for the record, I would play with my friends if any of them showed any interest, but mostly "play date" means that our children played together).  Not sure if Sam was just being nice when she said they were good, since this was our first "date", but her kids ate a couple each and Luke ate a couple and I ate (!) five (but are we really surprised, or just saying we are to retain our dignity...and am I using the royal plural to avoid admitting that it's ME, only I, who ate 5 cookies?).  Yes.  Ahem.  They were quite good.  The recipe is from Simply in  Season, the carrots are from my garden, the orange was sitting on my counter for at least a week already (poor lonely soul), the vanilla was the last in my cupboard and needs to go on the grocery list, and the appetite for sweets was born in me.

Here is the recipe:

1 C butter (softened)
3/4 C sugar
beat together with electric mixer in medium bowl

1 1/2 C raw carrot (shredded)
1 egg (beaten)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
add and mix well.

2 C flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
sift together into bowl and stir together. Drop by teaspoons on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in preheated oven at 375F for 10 min.

The recipe says "Optional Frosting" but I say "Necessary and Delicious Frosting":
Mix 1 cup powdered sugar and the grated rind of 1 orange with enough orange juice to obtain spreading consistency (was the juice from half of my zested orange).  Spread on the cookies right away because if you leave this in the bowl it will turn icky and hard, but on the cookies it turns into a nice glaze-ish sort of frosting.

YUM!

Our Family Photo Out takes

Seamus Holds On

like a scared kitten.

PHOTOS!

Here are the photos I just couldn't resist taking with the digital camera over the last few weeks.  These are photos that I wanted to see right away - call it impatience, it is what it is.  The film I've taken has yet to be developed, and I think I'll be so broke after getting it developed that it will be the last film I use for a while.

Don't miss Luke's quotes at the very bottom, collected over the last couple days.  I get such a kick out of that guy.

First day of preschool!!  Wednesday Sept. 14, 2011.

I'm experimenting with adjusting the color levels manually to make the photo look vintage.  It's kinda fun!  Still not sure how I feel about mucking up perfectly good color in a photo to make it look old, faded, worn.  But it's amazing how it changes the feel of the photo.

I let the neighbors water the flowerbeds one day several weeks ago and it got a bit out of hand when ALL the neighbor children wanted a piece of the fun.  Many toes were squished, pants and shirts were sprayed, and most of us ended up wetter than we intended.

Luke has discovered a new storage space for his race cars.  I heard him shouting, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" and found him trying to slide down the stairs to the basement with cars in his gitch.  I'll be lucky to have grandchildren at this rate.

The harvest.

An ordinary moment.

Laughing after Luke gave him a raspberry

Luke says:

Your hands will be full so you should put Seamus in his bouncy seat.  

Why will my hands be full?

Oh, will you read me a story?

Seamus is my brudder, and I'm his big brudder, and Linus is my brudder too.  We're free (three) brudders.

I will just walk home, only it's a rather long way.

*with his underwear pulled down over his head and his eyes peering through the leg holes*

I'm gitch-man-superhero

I wish I had a ship and my Dad and I could have swords and we would push that Pirate Hook off the ship with a mighty splash.

I just thought it would be a good time to be upside-down.

Say hi to your big bruver, Seamus.

No.  I'm his big brudder.

I'm gonna sword fight.  Oh.  Hm.  Maybe I need a sword.

What do you want for breakfast?

Peanut butter and jelly.

Peanut butter and jelly is not a breakfast food.

In the morning it is.

What it takes

Making salsa:

Picked tomatoes

Brought up jars from the basement

Started a load of laundry

Filled up Luke's swimming pool

(Luke watered the "quilted flowers")

Washed tomatoes

Doused tomatoes in boiling water

Peeled tomatoes

Fed Seamus

Crushed tomatoes

Chopped Peppers

Chopped Onions

Chopped Garlic

Chopped Jalapenos

(Luke says Halloween-yos)
Thanked God for my food processor
Photographed the mess

Added spices

Added salt and sugar

Fed Seamus

Boiled lids

Made chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough

Heated jars

Began cooking salsa

Realized it was lunch time

Warmed up leftover pizza

Lay on the couch for five minutes

Ate leftover pizza

Cleaned up lunch dishes

Read Luke a story

Ate one cookie

Put Luke down for a nap

Ate five chocolate chip cookies

Cut a vinegar container into a funnel

Poured all my morning's work into

5 1/2 jars

Stared at jars disappointedly

Only 5?

Piled dirty dishes in a tidy looking stack in the sink

Stared at jars chagrined. 

Huge shrug.

Sleep complexities

Seamus is a delightful baby, so content and predictable.  When he's tired, it's obviously naptime.  And when he's hungry, he lets me know.  He has a rhythm a little more like mine - a very loose routine that can bend and flex to suit the day's waves and upsets.  He makes it pretty easy on me.  So why do I keep thinking I should get him on a routine? 

I put Luke on a nap routine very early, and taught him to sleep in his crib.  He didn't sleep through the night until 7 months, but his naps were at ten a.m. on the dot, and 2 p.m. - no exceptions!  If we were late getting him to bed, or weren't at home, we had a massive melt-down on our hands.

Seamus has been wonderfully non-scheduled.  It's so easy to get up and go whenever we need to.  He just goes with the flow.  Nobody has given me unwelcome advice about scheduling your baby.  Nobody has asked questions like, "Why's your baby so grumpy, doesn't he get enough sleep?"  No.  Seamus is happy, smiling; and when he's not, it's only for a short time until we fill up his tummy or clean his bum.  He's easy to please, everyone who knows him agrees.  But still, I feel like I should be organizing, scheduling, taking control.

At the moment Seamus is sleeping.  He cried for 20 minutes.  I soldiered through those twenty minutes like a sleep-trainer pro (except for my own tears of course), and now he's asleep.  Normally during afternoon nap I lay down with Seamus and Luke sleeps in his own room.  Today I wanted to stay up.  Hence the crying.  Have I done the right thing?  Do I really want to train him to sleep only on his own?  Do I really want to lose the snuggly baby who will fall asleep in my arms whenever he's tired?  Do I want so badly to be in control of his nap patterns, that I'm willing to give up the happy-go-lucky baby who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old, and lets me drag him around any time of day or night?  I'm not so sure.

Being a mother is full of these internal struggles with external effects.  And sleep?  It's a minefield of emotions, "should"s, head knowledge and hormones.  You'd think with #2 I'd have it figured out, eh?  Nope.

Fill-Um

I have challenged myself to use my film camera, and though I have finished nearly three rolls of film in two weeks, I haven't had it developed yet so there's nothing to show you!  I have about nine rolls of black and white film sitting in my camera bag that are way past their expiration date, hence the challenge.  There's also the simple joy in the anticipation of getting the film developed.  And the surprises when you see photos you forgot you took!  When I have them developed I will have so much to share with you, but for now you will have to share the anticipation with me (and you may just get a little more writing with a few less photos).

Happy birthday to my Mom, yesterday. I wish I lived close enough to give you a hug on your birthday.  I guess I'll have to settle for hearing your voice, and you'll have to settle for a goofy, out of sync version of "Happy Birthday to You" over the phone.  Love you so much.

A little bit of fun

On the ferris wheel at Tinkertown.  This was one of the boring moments when we were parked waiting for people to load and unload below. 

Picnic lunch at St. Vital Park, just the four of us.

Luke: "Why's the water shooting into the air over there?  Can I go splash in it?"    Derek:  "I don't think that's a good idea because if you went in there I'd have to go in and get you and those geese and ducks have been pooping in the water an awful lot." 

Behind the wheel.

Three of five cousins.

A preview of Derek's trip to Toronto.  He left Wednesday and got home yesterday.  While he was there he visited McMaster and Toronto School of Theology to do a little reconnaissance on their PhD programs.  This is McMaster University.  Details to follow.