He's Back

1:30AM

I hear shrieking and crying. I fly out of bed and find Mia sitting on the toilet in the bathroom at the top of the stairs. She looks terrified. She can't catch her breath she's crying so hard. I try to hug her and ask her what's wrong. She won't stop straining to look over my shoulder, crying, "he's back!", "he's in the house!", "he's here!"

At this point, I'm getting concerned. Is there an intruder in the house? I look over my shoulder half expecting to see someone at the bottom of the stairs. I turn back to Mia, "what's wrong? who's in the house?"

"A BUG! A BUG! HE'S IN THE HOUSE!"

It's going to be a long summer.

Charming

Tonight, after games of 'William and Kate', 'Butterfly and Toad', and 'If You Give a Butterfly Some Nectar', Zoe and Mia invited me to visit the Hugs and Kisses store. Delicious!

PS: I should have known that somehow, by sheer osmosis possibly, Zoe and Mia would catch on that there was a royal wedding today. The very thought that a woman became a princess today has them both completely enthralled.

"Pet" and Planting Round Up

We have a lot of Spring time, pseudo-pet and gardening activity going on. Here's the run down:

Ant farm. Creeps me out but the kids love it. The ants live in this gel substance that provides all their needs so there's little to do except watch them with a magnifying glass. The tank changes colors which is cool. There are about 30 of them in there.

"Puppy Fish". This is the second class room pet we've agreed to take care of. The school kids named it "puppy fish". We have to keep it alive for two weeks before returning it. We had a very close call Sunday when an unnamed child dumped nearly an entire container of fish food in the tank, but it wasn't anything that a handy helper at Petsmart couldn't help us fix. The water is cloudy, but I understand he'll be fine until the school takes him back Wednesday and changes the water again. Fingers crossed.

Wilma. Our dove in the windowsill. We can't wait to see her eggs hatch. As seen in a prior post:

School chicks. Both Zoe and Mia's classrooms at school will be hatching baby chicks. We've agreed to go to school during "off times" to turn the eggs so they are evenly rotated.

In various tiny planters around the house, we have zucchini, onions, carrots, tomatoes, and lavender. This planter is one of my favorites. It has a little cardboard slide that can be removed so you can see the roots, etc. underground. Hard to see in this photo.

Wilma

Several years ago, when Zoe was just born, a couple of doves built a nest in the window sill outside her room. They were noisy and I was unhappy about their ability to wake her up. Little did I know what a sound sleeper she would become.

This time, when a dove set up shop outside the window of Zoe and Mia's room, we were all excited. We call her Wilma, and we can't wait to meet her baby(ies) when the time comes.

Elastic

My world is cracking open and expanding once again.

I've felt this way before. At work. When Mia and Sophie were each born. It's the sensation of everything shifting and pulling away in to new nooks and crannys to make room for something new.

It's usually positive, challenging, exciting.

At work, I thought I knew what "busy" was for me, and I set my boundaries around those limits. It wasn't until I started experiencing some dramatic role changes that my world completely reorganized and my definition of "busy" changed drastically. It wasn't bad. It was exciting, and it upped my game at work in extraordinary ways. It forced me to grow and expand.

In the midst of that work life, Zoe was born. My life unzipped and made room for all the changes a baby brings. There were choices and I stopped traveling as much, but mostly I felt as if my life expanded, and I had more room. Part of the time and demand shifts that occurred then included the death of our cat Franklin. Expand. Contract. Like taking a deep breath.

Then, when Mia was born and Sophie after that, I had the same feeling of my universe opening up to make more room. It was like my arms and legs just got longer so I could hug three kids at once and have them all sit in my lap at story time. And, our dog Chloe died during that time. Expand. Contract.

This week, when we realized that Aimee (Ruth's daughter) was going to need emergency surgery, I had that feeling again. As Scott and I juggled work and our three kids, we took turns making sure someone was always with Ruth and Aimee, cooking meals, etc. They too are part of our family.

When I was talking to someone about it, they remarked that it all sounded very stressful. But, it's not. It's really not at all. Our lives just expanded. They will contract again when Aimee is released from the hospital, hopefully today.

And so it goes on and on. We're very, very lucky.

Sophie - Thirteen Months

We've rounded the corner! You are more and more a full-fledged, opinionated and active little person. This month you can stand independently. You are much less cautious about it too. You used to stand, look around, and then very slowly lower yourself back to the ground. Now, you are happy to stand up, bounce a little, and enjoy the view from up high. You are also 100% aware of your surroundings. Nothing gets past you. As a result, you are often wanting to eat whatever your sisters are eating, play whatever they are playing, and talk whenever they are talking. Lucky for you, they continue to enjoy playing all together, and the tend to include you in nearly all of their activities. They are also fiercely protective of you and if anyone is eating a food you're not supposed to have, they'll be the first to tell them not to give you any yet.

You are still a champion nursing partner. We are down to four nursing sessions a day. You have meals and snacks and drink breastmilk from a sippy cup too. You're taking two naps a day still as well. I hope the morning nap lasts a few months longer, but it may fade out sooner. We'll see.

You mimic people all the time. Sometimes, your mimicking is spot on and it sounds like you're speaking. The other day when I said "up" and you repeated "up", I knew we were getting very close to a little language burst.

You still have the myoclonic jerks from time to time when you get excited or are eating. They make me a little nervous, but the doctor said it was common for them to last about a year in children who have them.

You spend a lot of time at the park in the swings or sand, going to music or story hours, and generally crawling around and chewing on things. You are pretty much teething all the time now. It thankfully hasn't disrupted your sleep too much though.

Happy 13 months Soph!

We love you!

Mom

Passover - April 2011

We hosted sedar this year, and the kids were really excited. The girls helped with the preparations, and watching their experience of the holiday reminded me so much of how I remember Passover as a child. They spent the entire afternoon asking, "is it time yet?" and "are they here yet?"

I even brushed off my mom's old stall song which goes like this: "Sooooo, we walk down the street and we look over here, and what do we see, we see...nothing! So, we walk down the street and we look over here, and what do we see we see...nothing!..." It actually has a catchy tune and some hand motions which work for, well, all of five minutes to distract the bored and eager.

Once the service started, they were hopping in their seats, ready to eat and ready to find the afikoman. I remember as a child the service lasting forever and seeming like it was lasting forever and a day. I think our service lasted five minutes, and they acted like we were waiting for the earth to rotate on it's axis.

They loved hunting for the afikoman. As soon as dinner was done, it was time for a full-on, traveling passover puppet show which moved back and forth from inside to outside in the backyard.

Here's Mia waiting in the wings for kitty cat's entrance.We had a great time. This was my first time hosting Passover Sedar and I was a little hesitant about it. I'll happily try it again.

Second Sunday - April 2011

Scott volunteered to host Second Sunday for our Milk Mom's group to help celebrate my upcoming birthday. It seemed like everyone had a good time. I know I did. Thank you Scott!

I love you.

Laurie

More photos are at our Kodak Gallery site.

The Osherow Family Visits

We were so happy that Barry and his family decided to come for a quick trip to DC. Barry and Scott have been friends since practically birth, and he is a wonderful friend to both of us. The kids had sight seeing time together as well as some down time and they all got along really well. Dex kept referring to Sophie, Mia and Zoe as 'his girls' and he didn't want to leave 'the girls' whenever it was time to go.
Come back soon!

Party Time - Aimee's Sweet 16

It's been a long time in the works, but finally, it was time to celebrate Aimee's Sweet 16! Aimee is Ruth's daughter who has been with our family as a nanny for nearly 4.5 years. This party initially was intended to be a Quinceanera (a special celebration in Bolivia for 15 year olds), but the clock kept ticking and it ended up as a Sweet 16, which is often the case from what I understand. It was well worth the wait!

Ruth did a spectacular job planning every last detail. The party was called for 5PM but as is the custom the festivities didn't begin until 7:45PM. We were prepared for this and the kids held up great. Ruth and Aimee named us as Padrinos which meant that Scott had the first dance with Aimee after her grandfather and then they called our family up to talk with us. We understood zero of what they said however. The DJ was incredibly loud and it was all in Spanish. I'm hoping they said nice things though.

Zoe and Mia were about to burst with enthusiasm for all the special rituals and dances they planned to see, and they weren't disappointed. Congratulations Aimee! You looked like a true princess. And, way to go Ruth for putting together and amazing event.

Getting ready and preparing to dance the night away.Snacks before leaving were key. We never even saw the food at the event. I don't think it was served until after 10PM.Ruth greeted every guest. There must have been over 300 people there. They were still arriving when we left.

While waiting, the girls spent most of the time putting on shows and dancing. Scott and I spent most of the time trying to prevent them from toppling the cake. I'll try to describe it but I really needed a picture to do it justice. There were probably 10 cake rounds on various pedestals with staircases connecting them. Dancers dressed in identical outfits as the real dancers were on the stairs, and there was a mini-automated waterfall underneath the towering structure which probably stood close to 2.5 feet tall. The cake table was decorated with little colored rocks and fake jewels which were simply irresistible to Mia. On the very top was a large princess doll with butterfly wings and a pink dress just like Aimee's.

Aimee, waiting in the wings with the 10-12 other dancers in a separate room for her grand entrance.

Cherry Blossoms 2011

Sometimes it's warm and sunny during the Cherry Blossom peak at the tidal basin, and sometimes it's not. This year was chilly and windy during much of the peak time. The flowers were still beautiful and the kids loved running around the field. This time last year, Sophie had just been born. What a difference a year makes!