Still loving the trampoline

Variations to Andrew's daily trampoline comment:

"It's a nice day to have a trampoline" and the other night when we were jumping as it was getting dark,

"Mom...mom...it's a nice night to have a trampoline."

Pretty in Pink

Oh am I glad to have a girl!! It was actually overcast this morning so I opened the side of Natalie's closet with the long-sleeved shirts and she immediately picked out her shirt for today. I've just been laughing every time I look at her today because it is too cute.

This one is for you, John

The kids and I picked John up for lunch yesterday. The kids were squirming in their seats, kicking their legs, grinning from ear to ear and squealing when they saw him come out of the building toward the car. It was so fun--for me and for the kids. It felt like I was somehow cheating by getting to see him during the day.

I had my camera and took a few pictures. John gave me a look and teasingly asked if I was taking some pictures for the blog. Well, so be it...this one is for you John ;-)

As long as I'm on the subject, I just have to say how amazing John is and especially how great he has been since James has appeared. He is so great with the kids. They just love him. Natalie cried after we dropped John back at work, "Daddie." He calls to check in with me and make sure we are making it through the day ;-) and he has even made an effort to get home earlier. Yea! That one is my favorite. He is always so even tempered and can make anything fun. I am so grateful for him!

Three's a crowd

You may all be as surprised as I was to discover that you really can fit three car seats in the back of an Escape. Whoever thought I would be drooling over a minivan!!

Famous Quotes

Andrew has said to me at least once every day this week while he is jumping on the trampoline,

"Mom, it's a beautiful day to have a trampoline."

It has already been 6 weeks!

James is 6 weeks old as of tomorrow. I can't believe it has been that long. I really should have it more together by now! He is a great baby. He sleeps from about 9 or 10pm until about 5 or 6am (sometimes he gets up at 3:30, dang him). I don't think he could do much better than that at night. He is starting to give us little smiles...I LOVE it!! He is a very sweet baby. He just keeps gaining weight too, which has not been the norm with my others. It's nice not to have to worry about whether he is getting enough to eat. He makes cute noises and seems to do really well with going along with the flow.

I had to get a few pictures of him in white and khaki to send to my mom for the Rowberry christmas card, so here he is. Poor third child--I just don't seem to catch him on camera as much as the others.

A Trampoline!

Well, we had a great surprise yesterday. John's mom, who is the BEST garage sale shopper out there, called yesterday morning and wanted to know if we were interested in a trampoline because she had found one at a garage sale, with a net, for $50. Of course we were interested! I was hoping to somehow talk John into the expense of getting one for Christmas and wasn't too sure about how much success I would have. Suzann was able to talk the price down to $40 and we now have a trampoline! And actually, it turns out it is an early Christmas present to the kids from John's parents.

The kids are so excited and have been jumping at every chance they get. Andrew went with John to pick it up and he said, "Are we taking the trampoline to my house?!" He couldn't believe it. Natalie keeps saying, "Jump, trampoween, mom." And I must live vicariously through my kids these days because it's fun for me just to watch. I have gotten on a few times, but man, am I out of jumping shape! Gotta work on that.
(For all of you photographers out there--sorry about the bad lighting and inability to catch motion with my camera--but you get the idea ;-))

Trip to the Park

So, I have been easing back into some of our normal activities. Things like going to the store or to the park (walking there) are a little bit more tricky with 3 instead of 2 in tow. Last night I took the kids to the park by myself for the first time. I guess I should clarify. I have taken the kids to the park, but we have driven. Last night was the first time I braved a walk with all of us.

Andrew took to the sidewalk on his 3-wheel scooter, Natalie pushed herself along on her little push and ride racer, and I pushed James in the stroller. We got there in great form. The park in our neighborhood is several streets away, so we get to cross a few streets and then we turn down a sidewalk that runs right through the park and down to the playground.

Andrew was doing great on the scooter. He would mostly stop at each corner and wait for us to get there before he crossed the street (the push and ride racer was a little slow ;-)). He scooted on ahead to where the path down through the park started. And when I say "down" I mean it is a pretty good little hill for a few feet. So Andrew disappears down that path before I had arrived--I was a little curious of what I would see when I got there. I don't think he has ever really tried to "scoot" downhill before. As I came up on the path, there he was, pushing that leg as fast as he could to keep up with the downhill speed, but still on the scooter and looking like he was in pretty good control. He was so excited that he had done it when he got to the bottom of the hill, but it kind of wore him out I think. He wasn't really able to scoot the same after that ;-)

Natalie had given up riding her bike because even with pushing with her legs as fast as she could, she wasn't close to keeping up with Andrew, so she was standing and pushing the racer from behind when she got to the path through the park. She hit that hill running and those little legs were just flying as she raced down the hill. She had a hard time keeping the bike on the path and was going everywhere at top speed. I just laughed and laughed as I watched her. It was just such a great show.

We got to the playground and had a great time and then it suddenly was dark...and the sprinklers came on. So we headed home, back the way we came. This time Andrew wanted to ride the racer Natalie came on and she wanted to "push" the scooter. This means she was down almost at ground level, pushing on the place where your foot goes. Not very fast, and hard to keep the scooter going in a straight line. I tried to help her and she got very upset "Help you! I do it" So there we were in the now very dark park, literally inching along, and the sprinklers are on. Suddenly I realize that where I am stopped, waiting for Natalie to make any progress at all, is right in the path of the arching sprinkler. There is nowhere to go. I throw myself over the baby so he doesn't get wet and take it in the back. It was a good shower. Still laughing, I try to help Natalie again, but she still insists on doing it herself. Andrew has ridden the push and ride ahead, he's terrified of the big sprinklers. Meanwhile, a new set of sprinklers turns on, right where Natalie is. I race the stroller and James up on the path to where Andrew is, then hurry back to Natalie who is now crying because the sprinkler got her pretty good. Now she will let me help her. Yea!

I pick her and the scooter up and head back to the stroller and Andrew. Luckily the stroller I had has a huge basket area. I put Natalie in there for the ride home and carry the scooter. Andrew of course wanted in the basket too and we tried to fit him in, but he's just too big, so he got to ride home.

We finally made it home--I bet it took us almost 30 minutes just to walk the few streets home. In fact I talked to John on the phone just before we got doused by the sprinkler and he was leaving work. We didn't get home much before he did!!

I can do anything you can do...

I took the kids to an open gym at Rolly Pollys last week. I used to take Andrew and now take Natalie every Thursday morning. It has a long trampoline, a pit with big foam squares to jump into, balance beams and "courses" set up to crawl up, down, around, in and out, swings and bars to swing from. It is a lot of fun. So last Wednesday I took the kids to play there for about an hour. They had so much fun. Andrew had not been there for at least 7 months and he was just going nuts running from thing to thing, swinging, jumping, going down the big blow up slide they had set up. Natalie was having a great time also. She would kind of go more slowly from thing to thing after Andrew had done it. Her favorite thing to do was swing from the trapeze bar.

When I take Natalie on Thursdays she insists on holding my hand when she walks on a balance beam. I have tried to get her to do it herself--I can tell she can--but she wants to hold my hand. When we went last Wednesday, Andrew jumped on the balance beam and walked across it by himself. Along comes Natalie--I held my hand out for her to grab. She wanted nothing to do with that. She said, "I do it." And insisted on doing it on her own.

What an insight into that little person. As soon as she saw Andrew do it without help there was no way she was going to be needing help. She was going to do it herself. Determined, competitive...watch out world!!

Fun with Painting

Last week it was cool enough (meaning under 100--we're still in the 90s...help!!) to go outside and paint. The kids had such a great time and I just got a kick out of them in their smocks. They were so cute. Andrew was into painting blocks of color--red in one spot, blue in another spot and no colors overlapping. Natalie was a little more free with her expression and more social as well. She started painting on her side of the easel and ended up painting with Andrew. And she had no problem painting blue on the black or red on the yellow, much to Andrew's dismay.

Andrew was narrating the whole time: "Great job Natowee." "Great job painting." "No, no Natowee--don't put red on the blue." "I doin' great, mom." "Don't get de paint on de gwound, Natowee."
Natalie's side of the conversation was something like, "Oh" "wow" "I do it" "Oh, yeah." "ok"

It was pretty funny and I just loved hearing his mostly positive reinforcement of her. Warms a mother's heart. So does this shot of Andrew without his pants on under his smock.