Life with girls....

Yeah for the blanket sleeper!

2008-11-14T18:31:00.001-05:00

Tara and Anna 1108
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Kept the stripper in her clothes so no midnight baths and sheet changes! Yeah!

If she figures out how to work the zipper I guess the next step is duct tape til she is ready for night training.

Joy, we've reached the stripping phase.

2008-11-12T22:42:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week Tara decided she would inform us when she needed a diaper change by removing all her clothes. This was taken to a new level tonight when I went to try and convince her to go to sleep and stop jumping in her crib to discover a soaked pillow and sheet with a happy but naked toddler. Fun!

Sooooo, I guess we are ready to explore potty training, but it seems she didn't get the memo. We can't start til after we get back from her grandparents house for Thanksgiving. I don't know about you but a 13hr one way drive is not where I want to explore this new experience with her.

So lets hope I can keep her clothes on her without anymore accidents til after the holiday and then we if she is willing we can work towards saying goodbye to diapers.

Holiday items coming to my Etsy shop

2008-11-07T22:05:00.001-05:00

Holly Berry Ponytail Holders
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Find this holly berry ponytail holder and other holiday themed items made from Polymer Clay at Polymer Posies on Etsy. I'll be added more in the coming weeks.

Today is election day in the US.

2008-11-04T09:16:00.001-05:00

Democratic or Republican, if you are registered to vote go out and make your voice heard.

Lollishops coming soon.....

2008-11-01T20:50:00.002-04:00

I'm very excited about a new venue I will be selling through later this month/beginning of December. Lollishops is all things girly and frilly, victorian and primitive. A juried site that will sell a variety of goods from dolls, jewelry and accessories to vintage and supplies. To find out more information please check out the Lollishops blog!

If you are and artisan or vintage seller who thinks Lollishop would be a good fit for your business, you can pre-apply here! When you apply if you could mention my name as a referal I would appreciate it. Just put Blue Lady Studios down on the application. :)

Lollishops has a soft/beta opening scheduled for November 15th! You can find Blue Lady Studios making her grand opening appearance on or around December 1st! Hope to see you there!

Kimberly

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T20:46:00.001-04:00

Ghostly images!
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Hope all you ghosts and goblins had a great Halloween.

Our house was home to a vampire/witch, a butterfly fairy princess, a good old fashioned princess, and a That 70's Dude.

It only took Tara a couple houses to get the drill, door, candy, thank you, door, candy, thank you. She was even saying Trick r' Treat by the end of the evening. The girls had a blast and came away with a nice big pile of candy. Even Tara got around a dozen or so items that are safe for her to eat which combined with the skittles I bought her will keep her in candy for quite awhile.

Another Halloween down and the start of the Holiday season is upon us as we prepare of Thanksgiving then Christmas!

Ok, I think I am done with cold weather,

2008-10-30T13:12:00.002-04:00

Granted it hasn't gotten too terribly cold yet, and today was the first day I went out to frost on my car, but still I'm over it. It's going to be a long winter.

Rice Krispy Disaster.

2008-10-29T21:55:00.003-04:00

So the plan was to make rice krispy treats for Anna's Pre-K class. No problem. Being the crafty Mom I try to be at times I planned to make them in a fun shape. I already did pumpkins for Katy so I was going to do something diffent. Witche's Hats. Black is near impossible to get from food coloring so I was going to do purple hats with green trim in the form of yogo strips.

Well, I don't know if it was the generic rice krispies or the stuff not wanting to cooperate but I couldn't get the stuff to stick together for the life of me. I tried for a good 20 minutes before giving up on the hats and thought, I'll make little purple snakes, but that fell apart too. So after 40 minutes of wrestling with the rice krispies I surrendered and pressed them into a cookie sheet.

So Crafty Mom failed tonight. They are sweet and tasty and that is all the kids will care about, but I still wish the cute little hats I had pictured in my head had been able to materialize.

Relieved to report that Zoe only has a kidney infection!

2008-10-27T15:45:00.003-04:00

Three weeks of antibiotics and she should be fine. We were worried about out girl.

Naptime. I miss you already......

2008-10-27T13:48:00.002-04:00

Tara is slowly giving up her naps. She has been down to just one nap for a very long time now, but she has always loved her after lunch nap. That is changing. More times then not in the last two weeks she has simply talked to herself and her plush companions for two hours rather then sleep. She is still in a crib and while capable, has shown no desire to get out for now. I am sure she will soon seek freedom from the boredom of her room as she is no longer snoozing.

I'll miss you naptime. You were a good friend.

The waiting is the hardest part.

2008-10-27T10:48:00.001-04:00

The Vet feels there is something going on with our Zoe girl's kidneys. He think either a kidney infection or kidney disease based on what he knows so far. The kidney infection is preferable as it is easily treated. The other.......

Well, we really don't want to think too much on the other.

So we wait for a phone call and hope for good news. I hate waiting.

Costume shopping is finally done! Sort of.

2008-10-26T18:25:00.005-04:00

Tara was so easy. I picked up two cute costumes at Target. Showed them to her, she grabbed one, hugged it, said thank you and put it next to her. Done!

Her sisters are another story. Anna wanted to be whatever Katy wanted to be. Katy didn't want Anna to be like her. Then Katy couldn't decide what to be, but she was certain it was not at Target. So we were left to this weekend, the weekend before Halloween and if they didn't find anything at the Party Store they just were out of luck.

So we were steeled for another, there is nothing here I want to be or worse a case of I want to be this, that and this all at once(one idea batted around was a spider-bird-fairy-princess) and having to try and talk them down as with various things going on we are not in a position to spend $40+ per kid for a cheaply made costume.

So with grandparents in tow we entered the store and were pleasantly surprised as each daughter rapidly selected what they wanted and the good clerk behind us, picked right up and requested the sizes we needed before we had to ask.

Anna happily received hers and this is where the kink came in. They were out of Katy's. So back to the wall o' costumes. After much discussion, an agreement to still buy vampire teeth and to add a broom to the list we selected a second choice and made our way to check out. This should be the end. But two broken brooms and no vampire teeth suitable for a 6yr old who will want to take them out fifty times a hour we left with me knowing I'd be looking for these items later this week.

To top it off though. I discovered after we were home with our non-returnable costumes that Anna's was not the right size. She fits, but barely. I'll be waffling tonight on wether to leave it since it does fit if a bit snug, or bite the bullet and hope the store has a larger size that I'll need to take in.

Decisions, decisions.

Eggless Pumpkin Pancakes

2008-10-26T17:55:00.002-04:00

Tonight, I just didn't want to make what I planned for dinner. So I decided to experiment a bit.

It turned out better then planned and the older girls had not only seconds but thirds.

I took the basic bisquick recipe and went from there. I am not the best when it comes to measuring so you are forewarned.

2 cups of bisquick
1 cup of milk
around 4 tbs of pumpkin puree
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice(I just kind of shook the container til satisfied but 1 tsp sounds about right.)
1 tbs of sugar
1 tbs of brown sugar

Mix and make as normal. This makes a thick pancake batter due to the puree, but ours turned out nice and moist.

Anna has declared these the best pancakes ever (at least til the next pancake meal), and wants to eat them every night. Not so sure about that, may get a bit tired of pumpkin after awhile. :)

Ok, well that didn't go quite as planned....

2008-09-03T20:40:00.002-04:00

As has been mentioned Tara has a variety of food allergies. Besides the big ones, she had a few mild reaction allergens(rice, chicken, turkey). We had been given the go ahead to reintroduce these items this past winter but decided to hold off.

Now Mike's latest visit to the Dr included a request that despite his daughter's meat restrictions that he needed to look at added more fish and chicken to his diet and to cut out ground meat/pork and stick to lean red meat. Ok, so we made the decision to add chicken back hoping to avoid separate meals for Mike and/or Tara.

Test night was last night. She devoured her chicken and quickly asked for more. This was supposed to be one of her allergens that causes some itching at worse case. So it was quite a surprise when her face turned bright red moments after getting her second helping so around ten minutes after her first helping. A quick dose of benedryl and taking away her plate she was fine, but confused why she couldn't have more of the yummy chicken.

Guess we'll give it a week or two and try rice which shouldn't be a problem as she has had a few things with rice flour.

Looks like turkey is still off the menu for Thanksgiving.

Happy 'Happy Day' Baby Girl!

2008-08-29T23:48:00.001-04:00

Tara's Second Birthday!
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

My baby turned two today! A happy but bittersweet occasion as my final baby gets a wee bit older.

Quotables from Anna......

2008-08-27T18:31:00.001-04:00

Katy is reciting nursery rhymes. Current one on her play list, Hey Diddle Diddle. She had just got to the end with the fork running off with the spoon and went in search of a fork and spoon. When she found one of the many tea party forks she turned towards where her sisters were playing and we hear:

Anna: 'I can be a spoon, my head is kind of shaped like one.'

And so it begins..............

2008-08-27T15:56:00.002-04:00

The second day of school and we have our first birthday party invite. May the festivities begin!

:D

One more baby leaves for school.....

2008-08-27T14:44:00.005-04:00

My middle girl Anna had her first full day of school today. She started Pre-K yesterday and so now I am the mom of two school age kids.

The house is really quiet without Anna. Unless pulled into playing with Anna, Katy all in all is a pretty quiet child. Turns out Tara is much the same, content to look at books, watch her shows and play dollhouse without much fuss.

Tara is missing her sisters though, she has called out to them several times today. Wondering where they are and asking if they are hiding, then wanting me to help her find them.

I should be reveling in the quiet and the ability to get a bit more work done during the day, but am finding myself with a lack of motivation. Guess Tara isn't the only one who will have to adjust to the new status quo.

As for the big school girls, they are loving it so far. For Anna its a big new world and she is enjoying having others to play with and getting to try new things. Katy just loves to learn and so school is one of her very favorite places to be, though she was disappointed they didn't get to do any math on the first day. She hopes they will do some today. She must get that from her Dad! :)

Just your friendly neighborhood glass inspector,

2008-07-30T17:16:00.001-04:00

Praying Mantis 3
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Literally moments after the glass repairman moved my van back into place after fixing the windshield this little lady/gent popped up onto of the car and proceeded to climb all over the new glass. We joked that s/he was inspecting his work.

Katy and Anna were positively fascinated and wanted to bring it inside. The girls who freak out if a fly is within 10 yds wanted to take the pretty green bug for a pet.

What a nice surprise...........uh, yeah.......

2008-07-30T17:13:00.001-04:00

Bad day for the car
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

So Monday night Mike goes out to retrieve our IKEA purchase from a couple days prior and as I'm looking at the car, I think it looks just a wee bit off. A couple, no, couldn't be, must just be the dark playing tricks, I open the door to confirm that yes, my rear view mirror has fallen off taking a large chunk of glass with it. Joy!

Today, the very nice glass repairman came out and installed my new windshield so she's all fixed. Which leads me to my next blog post.

National Zoo on Caffeine and Sheer Will Power

2008-07-22T11:22:00.002-04:00

National Zoo
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Two recommendations, do not try to do the Zoo in the middle of July or after a night of little to no sleep. Little would be me, no would be Mike. As often happens with our little family, nothing goes quite as planned. After arranging to have last Thursday off to make up for working that previous weekend we were going to get the girls out of the house and take them to the Zoo. The plan, to get up around 6:30 and try to be at the Zoo when it opened at 8am. Simple, easy, I had snacks packed, breakfast was to be on the go, we'd be there early enough that we'd eat lunch on the way home.

Then a simple fix at work turned into a 24hr haul at work as Mike got home Thursday around 5am, about 24hrs after he left for work the previous morning. He collapses on the couch that I am not occupying and we try to catch a bit more sleep. Apparently the girls internal clock knew about our original time frame because they awoke us at 6:30am ready to get going.

Two sluggish parents attempt to get up, get people dressed and ready to go. We end up not getting on the road after gas and caffeine for the adults til around the time we had hoped to be at the zoo.

Add in a few wrong turns even with GPS Navigation, we get to the Zoo a bit after 10am. Not realizing there were two more parking areas we sought out street parking and ending up adding an extra mile round trip walk to our journey. This is where the recommendation to not head out to the zoo in July comes in. It was hot, very hot, and while the zoo had cooling stations every tenth of a mile, the streets leading away and to did not. Also, if you are tired and overheated, don't go into the Amazonian exhibit. When they say its muggy and hot, they mean it. :)

The girls though, were happy, excited and enjoyed themselves immensely. Well worth the trip in the end. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueladystudios/sets/72157606276848876/

I wonder how I'd do with actual caffeine in my system?

2008-07-22T10:49:00.000-04:00

Created by OnePlusYou

Eggless Cookie Experiments

2008-06-12T11:26:00.002-04:00

So I've been testing out eggless cookie ideas/recipes.

When Tara was first diagnosed with her allergies we mostly stuck with the expensive boxes of mix. Those often contained rice though and the taste was a bit granular.

So I looked at my alternatives. Ener-G egg replacement was out, the stuff works but leaves a chemical taste. Ground flax see was another option but no, not for cookies.

So I went for the bananas.

If you love the taste of bananas this is the option for you.

Take your normal, well loved chocolate chip recipe and instead of eggs mash up 1.5 to 2 small/med bananas. A little banana gets you a dense cake like cookie, larger amount gets you a thin batter that makes a crisp but chewy cookie.

These are a big hit, but I decided to try out pumpkin as I was a little burnt out on the banana.

2-3 tablespoons of pumpkin puree for the egg worked really well. I threw in a dash of cinnamon for the hell of it. Mike says he could definitely taste the pumpkin but I didn't really notice it. They tasted like typical chocolate chip cookies to me. The girls love them so they passed the big test.

This fall I may skip the chocolate chips, up the pumpkin and throw in some more cinnamon and ground cloves for a really nice spice cookie.

On the list for future testing: applesauce!

PCAGOE May Floral Challenge

2008-04-30T14:25:00.001-04:00

PCAGOE May Challenge Entries
Originally uploaded by divadea

Vote for your favorite floral entry at pcagoe.com from May 1 to midnight on May 3. All voters will be entered in a random drawing to win a prize!

Working, working, working

2008-04-16T20:59:00.001-04:00

working, working, working
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

The purpose of posting a picture of my wall. To keep me motivated, hopefully to get these projects done while working on Blue Lady stuff and taking care of the girls. I've finally gotten the front room(aka Mom's Art Room) painted. Now I need to finish it up by painting the stairwell and hallway. We're going from a mocha color to Navajo white. Not pure white, a bit of color, but it lightens that room up nicely and since I spend a great deal of time working in that room its a good thing. As you might have noted, my girls have been using the hallway as an art gallery. Featured in this show is Katy's Picaso inspired painting.

Yes, the artwork will go back after the paint dries!

So this weekend's task: To paint the hallway. (Yes, Mike, this means I've decided to postpone the bathroom.)

Such a cute face, such a pity she's a toddler....

2008-04-08T11:56:00.001-04:00

Tara
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Slipping away are the days when I referred to my youngest as the good one. Sadly, I must report that at one and half years of age she is turning into a toddler.

Yesterday my middle girl, Anna comes to me as I'm working online and tells me there is a funny smell downstairs. I'm assuming some little one needs a change. Turns out there isn't anything funny about the smell as I'm greeted to this awful acrid burnt smell, I think it must be the furnace and turn it off, verify that the house is not in fact on fire and settle in to air out the house and call the heating company to check it out. An hour or so later the smell is still there, seems to be getting stronger, I'm about to call the gas company or the fire department when I decide to check the thermostat one last time before we leave. Its off, but the dial on the box next to it is set to 70.

The old baseboard heating sytem is on. The baseboard that my couch is sitting against, is on. A quick visual check shows nothing burnt, so the smell was most likely a couple decades worth of dust inside the unit burning off.

So I had two suspects, Anna knows better then to mess with it, Tara on the other hand is delighting in her new found height and abilities to get into things she should not so it is over. I must face the fact that my baby, my youngest is a toddler.

The question isn't what can't she eat, but what can she?

2007-11-26T12:56:00.000-05:00

My youngest Tara has always had issues with eczema, we planned to get her in to see what was up the first of the year since it had not cleared up on its own like her sisters. That timetable got pushed up when a week ago when her lips quadrupled in size after eating fish sticks.

Today was the day, she got tested for a bunch of things. The good news is that she is not allergic to dogs or cats so Zoe can rest easy and Anna's wish for a kitten can still be something to hope to have one day.

Milk, soy and wheat all came back clean which is a sigh of relief.

The bad news is Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Egg, Fish, Rice, Turkey(the irony of it being right after Thanksgiving is not lost on me), Chicken.

Peanuts, Tree Nuts and Fish are total bans. The others are to be avoided for the next month and she will be retested.

Anna, the peanut butter addict is not taking it well, but I am on the hunt for Sun Butter in hopes of giving her a Tara friendly alternative.

I can only hope she grows out of most of these, though peanuts and fish are likely for life.

Apparently we are going to have a lemondade stand....

2007-09-17T09:39:00.000-04:00

At least according to Anna we are.

All weekend we have been deluged with requests for the ingredients and a box so we can make the stand. Anna would throw into conversation how it was so hot, perfect for a lemonade stand. Don't forget the juice, we need sugar for lemonade.

Her great-grandmother suggested to her that we could have a yard sale and she can sell her lemonade. Later I suggested to Mike that she could sell her kitchen while hawking her lemonade. :D

So thanks Nickelodeon for showing my 3.5yr old how to make lemonade(Yo! Gabba Gabba!) and then telling her how to sell it(Max n' Ruby)!

It that time of year where every commercail becomes a coveted Christmas wish...

2007-09-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

Anna's wish list so far is comprised of:

An Island Princess Barbie
A My Little Pony Baby that lays on its back and bats at toys hanging from its play mat
and last but not least and surely not to remain last for long, a Little Tykes Kitchen with flashing lights.

To the last item I asked her:

'Don't you already have a kitchen in your bedroom?'

'No.'

'No?'

'It's for sale.'

'For sale?'

'Yup.'

~lol~

I still don't see any new kitchens in her future but I give her an A for effort.

Things I learned while laying carpet tiles.....

2007-09-02T09:05:00.000-04:00

-When the calculators say you need 10 boxes and you decide you should order 11 boxes to cover all your bases, you should really order 12 boxes.

-Remember that carpet doesn't magically adhere to the floor and that carpet tacking strips will be glued and nailed down into your concrete subfloor. After 20-30 yrs wood and glue do start to melt into concrete apparently.

-Poles in the center of your living room are a royal pain in the ___ to cut around.

-You can lay the tiles down without removing all the furniture in a room. Do know that this will add lots of time to your timeline.

-If you think you're going to do it in one night, stop, laugh and add two days. We started Thursday after all three girls were in bed and we still have some edging to do.

It looks great and I might actually be willing to tackle another room with carpet or laminate, but not til I can bend over without pain again.

And my littlest baby turns ONE!

2007-08-29T22:26:00.001-04:00

Tara First Birthday!
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

A year. A whole year has gone by since her arrival. What an arrival it was. Tara apparently had a lot of room inside, as I was carrying too much fluid so when my water broke we ended up with a prolapsed cord. I was rushed to the OR where two hours later I awoke to the news that I had a very healthy, very big baby girl with a head full of hair.

That has been the most trouble she has given us since then. She is our happy girl. She just goes with the flow, a nice trait to have in a house with two older sisters.

Apparently though, she isn't a cake person despite the pictorial evidence. Her first piece of cake/cupcake on Saturday she devoured. She inhaled the ice cream she was offered. Today she was given a big piece of butterfly birthday cake and she tasted it, then left it on her tray. Both similar vanilla cakes, vanilla icings, just not interested in the cake. She did inhale a pile of peas with some biscuit and sweet potatoes a couple hours later so in the end, I'd rather have a girl who loves her veggies then one who will only eat sweets! :)

Happy Birthday Pumpkin!

We love you!

My first baby is off to Kindergarten.....

2007-08-29T22:13:00.001-04:00

Katy's first day of Kindergarten!
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Katy started Kindergarten this past Monday! My oldest girl is officially off to school. Last year I was impatiently waiting for my youngest baby to arrive, so I was more relieved to see her off to preschool then sad. This year though I am missing my girl.

PCAGOE August Ocean Challenge

2007-08-26T10:11:00.001-04:00

PCAGOE August Ocean Challenge
Originally uploaded by blockpartypress

The August challenge for the Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy is up and ready for your votes. Our theme this month was the ocean! Just go to www.pcagoe.com and you can place your vote for the piece you feel best captures this month's theme. All voters are entered into a raffle for a prize package put together by our members.

She walks!

2007-08-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

Finally! She's only been thinking about it for a month and a half.

After weeks of standing up in the middle of a room to clap her hands, get everyone's attention only to plop on her bottom and laugh as if she just told the world's greatest joke, Tara finally took her first steps last Thursday.

Yeah!

Amazon just charged my cc!!

2007-07-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Now why would someplace taking my money make me happy?

Why, because it means that they are taking a pristine copy of 'Harry Potter Deathly Hallows' and putting it in a box for me!

Why yes, I am a geek. ~lol~

Is it Friday yet?

2007-07-10T15:09:00.000-04:00

I just need the week to go by a bit faster.

I hate waiting.

I can't wait to get these,

2007-07-09T15:21:00.000-04:00

I finally, finally ordered fabric to make Tara's quilt. For each of my girls I have made them a quilt, hand pieced and hand quilted. It takes around six months all told, I don't have six months til she'll need it so I cheated. I got charm quilt packs instead of cutting it myself. It actually is one of the most time consuming and annoying parts of the process. Well, binding is, but cutting is a close second. :)

Congratulations Phillip, enjoy a few weeks freedom before responsibility comes knocking!

2007-06-19T22:46:00.000-04:00

Just a quick shout out to my baby brother who graduated high school this weekend! Making me feel quite old as I approach 32 and a daughter starting Kindergarten this fall. :)

No home repair goes unpunished....

2007-06-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

We have this little issue where if we fix something in the house something else must unexpectedly break, which of course is either inconvenient or costly. If it can be both inconvenient and costly all the better.

This weeks example. A $13 trip to Lowe's for a toilet valve cost us just under $900.

Eek!

On the upside, the plumber complemented Mike on the work he did with the valve replacement. :P

Woollaby settling in!

2007-06-06T21:34:00.002-04:00

Woollaby settling in!
Originally uploaded by blue lady studios

Isn't he cute! I usually don't buy anything frivolous but he makes me smile and he's purple! The girls think he's tops too! To see more cute critters and other art pieces check out the etsy shop I bought him from www.beastlies.etsy.com .

It's here, It's here!

2007-06-05T14:16:00.000-04:00

And its not the new phone book!

The last day of school is tomorrow! A fun filled day of running around playing games outside, to be followed by a sugary filled lunch/end of school party, a mini assembly and that is it. Katy is out for the summer, three kids at home all day, everyday for two and a half months. JOY!

Will I have the last shred of sanity I retain now by the end of August? Time will tell.

:P

We have teeth!

2007-06-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

Well, more like a tooth, but she's working on the others! Finally, the first one is through. Hopefully, this means I'll get a bit more sleep for awhile. :)

Hope to have photographic evidence soon!

Should I be concerned that my middle daughter has an imaginary Mom?

2007-05-30T22:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read that correctly, she has an imaginary Mom. She asked this Mom a question today, which I answered. I got told right quick, 'No Mom, I'm asking Mom.' She proceeds to point to thin air. Oh, ok, so sorry. ~l~

After that I listened to her ask her new Mom all sorts of questions. Giggling in response, telling her she's wonderful. I guess an imaginary Mom who says yes to everything is better then a real Mom who won't let you jump on the furniture, have any snack you want, or make a cage for your baby sister out of a pile of pillows.

Oh and Ischa, the evil imaginary friend who gets Anna into trouble, her speech has improved and she has recently been revealed as Isa the Iguana from Dora the Explorer. I knew that sweet little lizard had a mean streak in her. :P

One more note about Anna. She has a new excuse for bad behavior. It is all my fault, Dad's fault and Katy's fault. Why? Because we won't let her go to school. Sibling rivalry/jealousy pops up once again. She's not very happy that we don't except that as a good reason to misbehave.

Thankfully, that excuse ends in just one week, at least til school starts up again next Fall.

I have a reader.....

2007-05-28T22:44:00.000-04:00

My Katy is reading! She still needs a bit of help when she reaches new words, but she is able to sound out most words with just a little encouragement from Mike. I knew she had been improving by practicing the word books that she would bring home from school, but I got to hear her read along with Mike the other night a brand new book from the library. She read most of the words with little to no help.

Words really can not describe how proud we are of that little girl.

Going cruising.....

2007-05-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

Tara just loves to cruise. All along the couch, the chairs, she's happier trying to play with the toys on her ultra saucer from the outside, then sitting in it. She has become quite comfy with letting go while standing so it is just a matter of time before she is walking. I figure by the time we are heading to my youngest brother's graduation Tara will be completely independent.

Mike discovered today just how fast she can be. He had left Ms Tara in the middle of what is a good sized living room, walked up three stairs to the kitchen, went to replace the trash bag, and was being called by the other girls to inform him that Tara was near the stairs. No way she is that fast he thinks, so a moment later he is being informed that Tara is upstairs. He turns to find a very happy little girl smiling and waving at him from the top of the stairs.

I warned him, but now he knows I'm not making it up. ~l~

I love You Tube!

2007-05-18T15:28:00.001-04:00

So I am trying to teach myself to knit. There is so much really lovely looking handspun, dyed and painted yarn on Etsy that I would love to have a use for it/reason to buy. So I got a book, a pair of needles and a couple skeins of nice but cheap cotton yarn. The book is useless. The tutorial I found online was good for the casting on stitch, but the pictures from that point on looked like they were taken from space. Then I remembered You Tube. Two minutes later I had watched a very concise and visually easy to follow tutorial on the knit stitch. I may actually be able to do this! I flunked out on teaching myself how to crochet. Then again, I didn't have You Tube and video tutorials, so maybe if knitting works out I'll try using my crochet hooks for more then clay.

Its been a long week,

2007-05-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

Mike is working a bit of overtime right now and so of course its the perfect time for kids to get sick. This time the littlest one with her first major cold. She's had the sniffles once, but this is the first one that has really knocked her down. She wants to be held all the time, doesn't want to go down at night til she passing out on me. So not much done this week, not much remembered this week either. :D

I am currently being entertained while Anna pretends she is going to bed, at the beach, while having a tea party and going to a birthday party. Yes, all those things are going on at the same time. Katy has one imaginary friend, this friend has two younger sisters and a mom and dad. Anna has a gang of friends. Every other day she adds a new one. Some are fun like Orky the penguin and Lemon. Then there is one who has had to be banished back to wherever imaginary friends come from on occasion. Ischa(its a made up name, I don't know if I'm spelling it right, :) ), is a trouble maker. Whenever Anna does something she should not, its Ischa who tells her to do it.

I'm not sure if its cute or scary. (lol)

What a nice quiet day......

2007-05-13T23:48:00.000-04:00

I had a very lovely, but quiet weekend. Well, as quiet as it can be with three little ones at home. I received several lovely cards and a gardenia plant that is smelling better everyday as I impatiently wait for it to bloom. Mike took both Anna and Tara out on Friday so that I had the house completely to myself for two full hours!! Saturday, I enjoyed a quiet day with one of my very favorite meals for dinner.

Mother's Day itself started with homemade French Toast, followed by my gift from Katy. A pretty picture of a teapot she made in preschool. It came with a packet of lemon tea which I will gamely drink tomorrow morning before she heads off to school. You see, I really do not like lemon in my tea. I will drink it for her though, she was too proud of her gift not to. No one says I have to fill the cup to the brim. Midday had me off in search of something to wear to my youngest brother's graduation next month. A task that isn't that fun being only 8mths postpartum with a complicated cesarean making weight loss a slow, slow process. I did find something pretty so it wasn't as painful as I feared. :)

Dinner of shrimp and steak rounded off my evening before it was time to get the girls off to bed.

Now, all the girls are finally to bed, so I should do the same!

Hope everyone's Mother's Day was as lovely!

What's that you say Tara, you have a Mother's Day present for me?

2007-05-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

The other day I was on the floor with the girls. Letting my youngest Tara crawl around me, and play with whatever she could find that was safe to pat, chew and toss, when she crawled over to me, patted me on the leg and clear as day said, 'Mum.' What? Did you say Mum, Mum? Really, Mum? I tried very hard to get her to say it again, but nothing. I was sure at this point I was making too much of it and she had accidentally stumbled on that sound since she had been experimenting with buhbye for a couple days before.

You see, Katy's first words consisted of owe(Zoe), Da(Dad), Hi and Buhbye. Anna's were the same except for the order was slightly shifted. Mom/Mum was WAY down the list. So I've been waiting for Tara's first words with hope that I would rank in the top ten this time. ~l~

Fully aware that I must have misheard in my desire to hear her say my name, I told Mike about how I had to have misheard her because she did not repeat it at all the rest of the day though she was quite happy to say Buhbye, attempt Hi when she greeted her Dad and will wave at anyone willing to indulge her.

Then Tuesday night as we are all piled up on the bed in our bedroom, reading stories and trying to get the girls ready for bed, Tara with arms wide open lunges at me with another loud Mum! Mike heard it, I'm not hearing things, she said Mum! So I may not be her first word, and if you count the breathy, elongated Hi, not her second, but I rank top three! The best Mother's Day gift I could get!

It wasn't a fluke,

2007-05-10T11:17:00.000-04:00

she is off, she is gone, loving the freedom of self mobility. I know I've went through this twice before but I just find it amazing how fast a baby can move on all fours. One moment you are putting them down to finish something that literally takes two seconds, but requires two free hands and then look down to find they are across the room about ready to pounce on a piece of fuzz tracked in by the older kids.

Crawling is not enough though, oh no, we added sitting on our own just after we started crawling. I guess getting up once we are at our destination isn't so hard after we've mastered moving. Then once we got ourselves seated, we realized that there is stuff higher then we can see and we must see it. So we have also mastered pulling up to a standing position. We do not have balance mastered yet so most often it results in returning instantly to the seated position. Her sisters were up and walking by 8 and 9 mths so if she keeps trying I should have a fully mobile baby by June/July. Heaven help me.

And so it begins......

2007-03-21T12:03:00.000-04:00

She did it. It was awkward and she lunged once up on her knees instead of picking her leg up to move, but she did it. Not just once, but a good 30-45 minutes before she became too exhausted to continue. Tara's reward for all this hard work, one of her most favorite things in the whole world. A remote control. Truly her father's daughter. :)