Randomocity

Yes, here we are with another post of random stuff! This last week has been rather low key. Monday and Tuesday were really great weather days, and we enjoyed playing outside both days. That's hard to remember given that it's now Saturday night and it's been raining since Tuesday night! Great for the grass and flowers...terrible for the cabin fever with little kids.

We have some stuff up in the attic of the Lodge that has never made the move to the house. The kids and I went on a hunt Monday and found some treasures to bring home; a few stuffed animals, some books, and a gift Amelia received when she was three that I had stored away, because she was three. Here it is...

A real makeup kit, made for little kids. Right on the package it says Ages 3 and Up. At the time I didn't feel real good about giving a three year old free rein with no less than 10 eye shadows, nail polish, body glitter, and lipstick. Something told me it wouldn't be a good idea.

**FLASHBACK**

Here she is at three, after raiding my purse.

So, now that she's a very mature, capable 5 3/4, I thought it would be okay to let it come out of hiding.

Notice we're on the back porch. I mean, Amelia's Outdoor Beauty Salon.

She has lots of customers.

The final result. Gorgeous, dahling.

Anyone remember Glamour Shots? If I ever get the scanner going I'll humiliate myself by posting a Glamour Shot of myself. It's to die (laughing) for.

Elizabeth is now nearing 10 months old (on April 5th), and is making some developmental leaps forward. Crawling isn't one of them yet, though she's trying. She also cut a top tooth this week, and now makes a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard teeth grinding noise.

I'm okay with the not crawling thing, once she starts that things will be a lot harder for me! I can put her down in one spot and she does manage to scooch forward a few inches at a time to get ahold of things that look interesting to her. More than once she's worked on moving some furniture.



"Let's see, it needs to go a little more to the right, over there...."

"Perfect!"

Tuesday we had playgroup at the Cleveland Park. The kids call it the "blue park," because the slides are blue. As opposed to the orange park (in Clermont) or the green park (in Helen). The details we adults miss.

Intense concentration is required for sliding, lest one face plant at the bottom.



Elliott, just hanging around.

When Amelia got this shirt from Mimi and Papa last year she asked me what it said. I told her and she said, "Why isn't it easy being a Princess?" It's not hard for her!



Kyndal and A.J.



One of the best things about the blue park is the baby swings.

Elizabeth loves them!

Prepare yourself for what happened Tuesday night at dinner. Lately our biggest peeve with Avery at meals has been that he perpetually puts his right (non-utensil) hand in his food while he eats. This week he graduated from his high chair seat to a booster seat at the table with the rest of us. In the other chair he tends to fly under the radar since he sits off to the side, and I am always focused on the others. (No burping, sit up straight in your seat, don't dunk your quesedilla in your drink kind of stuff.)

Here's proof of that lack of attention. I hear him say, "My hand's yucky..."

Apparently he thought it would be a good idea to use his face and head as a napkin.

He's crying because he got in trouble, since we tell him 437 times per meal not to put his hand in his food. I took him into the bathroom, ready to hose him down in the shower, then I thought, "Get the camera first."

The most disturbing thing to me about these photos is how much he looks like the Heath Ledger version of the Joker in the latest Batman movie. Yikes.

Wednesday morning I got up to the sound of a steady rain. Macy D., one of our music minister's daughters, usually comes over for a few hours first thing Wednesday mornings before gymnastics, to watch the kids so I can go to the barn. A homeschooler is a treasure! There was no riding for me since it was raining, but I did get some time to clean the barn since we have Open House on Sunday. I enjoyed myself completely. Weird, huh?

Thursday we stayed at home (it was still raining), did school, laundry, the usual, while the kids questioned me no less than 40 times about when we would go somewhere. Their dreams came true when we went to the Davidsons for dinner.

Friday- More rain! I had a hair appointment, but aside from that we were home yet again.

And now for more randomocity, pictures taken this week.

I love my toes!

Especially after a bath, they're just so...clean!

We have a sign language book that demonstrates some basic signs. Amelia and I were looking through it this week and the sign for dog includes a finger snap. She finally learned how to snap this week.

And she was proud of herself! Most firsts are big deals for little kids. We've had a few houseflies making themselves at home lately, and she killed one with the fly swatter this week, and said, "My first fly!" So I wrote it in her baby book.

Another first, which we've been working on the past few weeks. Elizabeth is starting to feed herself.

Mastery of the "pincer grasp" with a piece of cheese. (It really is a baby milestone, or so the experts say.) Ah yes, I remember my first pincer grasp. On James. We'll leave it at that...

So what's going on here?





Dinner table antics. Everyone has to practice their stupid human tricks. And everyone wants to be like Dad. Try it...

First raise the right eyebrow...

then the left. It's not as easy as you think. I personally can only do the left, and forget switching rapidly back and forth between the two.

Amelia can pretty much do it.

We're encouraging lots of practice, since it's so much easier to learn things when you're young. You just never know when she may need to pull this out at a party or something.

Mwahh!

Here's the kind of stuff I find around here all the time. Apparently even stick horses with no chance of a belly or digestive tract need something to eat. Green construction paper, in this case.

Elizabeth is making efforts to crawl, she just doesn't quite have it yet. She pushes herself backwards and gets stuck under furniture.

"Help me, mom!"

"I give up! Who gave me this woman as a mother? Put down the camera!"

Many rainy days in a row inspire creativity, such as dumping every toy bin so everyone can have a boat/bathtub/elevator/you name it.



Here they're playing "boy in a bubble," or something.

"Yeah, I'm the boy in the bubble. What you lookin' at?"

I found this darling new sister when I came upstairs earlier. Gotta have the blackmail shots.

Like this one of Shannon, taken when he was the same age as Avery is now. (Let me preface it by saying he did this himself.)



Good stuff!

Well, I'm out of pictures, and I'm trying not to look at the clock in the bottom right hand of my computer. If you don't know what time you went to bed it's like you really got 8 or more hours of sleep, right? Good thing I only blog once a week or so...

'Night!