7

Seven... Where does the time go? Happy 7th Birthday to my beautiful little V.  In seven years, our life has changed so much because of the amazing things you have brought into our world.  Not a day goes by that I am not amazed by you.  By your talents, your smarts, your fearlessness, your hilarious sense of humor, your positivity,  your incredible outlook on the world.  Thank you for making me feel so lucky everyday to be your mom.  I promise you, I will never stop trying to be the best mom I can be for you.

November Thankfulness

In the month of November we have always (as many of you also do) done a daily thankful post on facebook.  We started several years ago, thanks to my friend S, and it has become an annual tradition that I really look forward to.  As little V has gotten older, it has been great to see her perspective shift.  This year we are doing it a little differently.
Rather than posting it on facebook, where little V will never see it, we are making a wreath.  A wreath filled with leaves of thankfulness.  Every morning we each fill out our leaf for the day then pin it to the ribbon covered foam wreath.  The wreath is something that we all walk by several times a day and it serves as a daily reminder of how fortunate we truly are.

By Thanksgiving we should have an almost full wreath that we will set on our table, with flameless candles in the center and use as our Thanksgiving center piece.

full of wonder

Friday little V had the day off school.  We decided to have a relaxed day at home.  Little V suggested we stay in our pajamas all day and there was absolutely no argument from me.  We spent the day doing a lot but also doing nothing.  We tackled a couple home organization projects, did lots of laundry, and made a big dinner.  In the midst of all the relaxing busy-ness (let's be honest, you can't truly have a do nothing day with two children under the age of 10!)  I observed something truly remarkable between my children, they really love each other.  Of course they love each other, they have to right, they are brother and sister, but baby R was so much more content today just because little V was home.  They really enjoy each other.  Baby R is enthralled with every little thing that little V does, he wants in on the action.  And little V wants to include him in everything, she wants to make him laugh, protect him, and teach him things.  Of course I love my children, but witnessing the love between the two of them is remarkable.  I know we will have many (many) days of disagreements in our future (such is life, right?!?) but I want to always remember how they look at each other with eyes full of wonder.

The morning race

I am not a morning person, that is putting it mildly.  I'm really more of a don't talk to me, don't look at me, don't even think about joking with me kind of morning person.  Both V's on the other hand, wake up bright eyed and ready to tackle the day. (We are not too sure about baby R just yet, but it's looking like he takes after the cheery two.)  Because of this combination of 'attitudes,' mornings can be kind of interesting around here.  They usually go a little something like this...

The alarm goes off before the sun rises (why do we do anything before the sun comes up, who's bright idea was that?) and little V happily bounces into our room, "Mom time to get dressed," she says.  I sleepily follow her into her room, where I crawl into her bed and slide under the covers while she gets dressed.  Then I slide out of her bed and somehow find my way to the coffee.  We fry eggs or make oatmeal depending on the mood, make a healthy lunch, get the backpack packed, come up with a hair-do, make the bed, and brush teeth. All the while big V is on baby R duty, diapering and feeding. It is a carefully executed, highly choreographed routine that gets us out the door at precisely 7:25 every school day.  We must never be late, little V, at a young age, has learned the importance of not just being on time but being early, she runs on Lombardi time.  This routine will get her into her classroom at 7:50, allowing her 10 minutes to complete her morning work and squeeze in a little socializing before the pledge of allegiance.

But this morning there was a slight hiccup.  We had the duties at the house covered, we got out the door at the right time.  This was something we never saw coming... a train!

According to little V, it was the slowest moving train she has ever seen.  With every second that passed her voice got  a little more concerned.  It was as if with each passing train car I could sense her blood pressure rising.  "Mom, we are going to be late.  Can't you go around?"  Unfortunately, there is no way to get around the train, our only option is to wait it out.  We can handle this, "we still have plenty of time," I try to explain to her.  I feel her calm down as the railroad crossing lights stop flashing and we begin moving.  But it seems we are not the only ones affected by the train, the back up of traffic into school is longer than usual.  Oh no, here we go with her blood pressure again.  I guess it's not just her blood pressure, someone in a car somewhere behind us honks their horn.  And then, the moment I never saw coming, my sweet little V turns around in her seat and shouts to the car behind us, "I KNOW you are not honking at us! Get a grip buddy!"

I guess I better look online for a train schedule, we don't need that kind of drama in the mornings.

Needless to say, we still made it to school on time, I guess there was just a little less socializing this morning.

 

Halloween

I love Halloween.  I love the weather, the pumpkins, the spooky decorations, dressing up, and I love homemade Halloween costumes (shocking, right?!?). This is the first year I've had to come up with 2 do-able costumes, but I think we did alright.

A little imagination and we turned this...

...and this knitting project...

...into these!

A fancy flamingo & the old man from UP.

Hope you all hit the candy jackpot last night!

a Sunday from Scratch

As usual, little V woke me up, yes it was still dark out, but I got up without too much fuss.  Good thing too, as we let the dog out for his morning business we were lucky enough to catch a view of a shooting star.  "Quick, grab a jacket!" said little V.  Onto the deck just in time to see another one!  Talk about a great way to start the day.  With the coffee pot going and the pancakes being made, little V made her very own constellation book.  And so the day began...

After pancakes came the usual Sunday business, news, laundry, dirty diapers, more coffee, baby giggles, jenga, and a trip to the grocery store.  Little V was my sidekick and in the midst of all that we also activated some yeast, mixed the dough, and set it in the corner to rise for what would be a loaf of homemade bread.

Lunch, coloring, homemade pop tarts (can you say heaven?!?), nap time, baked the bread, roasted a chicken, a game of secret spies, made a pot of soup, folded laundry, played outside, watched baby R explore by the lake, had a glass of wine with big V as the sun set, enjoyed an apple-goodness desert, brushed teeth, read books, and bedtime for the kiddos.

Today was the best kind of Sunday.

Oh yeah, we made butter too. 

(Not even kidding!)

a Summer re-cap

Because this blog is a journal for our family life, and because so much has happened in the last few months, I need to take a minute to jot it all down somewhere.  So here is the cliff notes of summer 2012...

School finished for the year, the dance season ended and we headed to the windy city...

Of course, we had to go to the American Girl doll store.  (What a place that is!  Who knew dolls need skateboards, but thank goodness our doll got her hair done!)

We headed out to Camp for the 4th of July.

We hit the beach in Virginia...

baby R's first dip in the ocean!

We packed up all of our belongings and...

have settled into lake life.