swim lessons

Ivy and William just finished swim lessons for November. Winter swim lessons are the best.

Ivy practicing floating with a life jacket.

William learning to float. (William is great at everything else, but cannot float. It's kind of hilarious. When he flips onto his back he goes rigid and sinks. I think he is very brave because he keeps trying, despite all the water up his nose.)

visitor

This is my sister with my nephew (looking good, guys):

They're visiting from Michigan and came to spend yesterday afternoon with us.

It mostly consisted of her patiently helping me deal with children/housework/homework/church stuff/dinner. I am not an easy person to visit. You should know this in advance.

It was still really wonderful. I love my sister.

good times.

IN RELATED NEWS:

well, hello Daniel:

and in other (non-related) news:

These two will not stop bickering and fighting today so let's take a moment and remember they are not all bad OR ARE THEY:

eh, they're pretty cute, I guess. Maybe I'll let them out of timeout after all.

reader

(These are old pictures. I took them at the beginning of September and forgot they were on my camera.)
(Before we get started, how cute is Charles?)

William has been learning to read. He loves it. He especially loves to read to Charles, because, he tells me, Charles is his favorite, he loves Charles more than he loves the rest of us. That's a direct quote, by the way.


I told him it was okay to love everyone the same. He said, Okay, I love my whole family the most. But maybe I love you guys half as much as Charles?

I can live with that, I guess.

this is halloween (halloween, halloween)

(We're going to pretend like I didn't disappear for two months, and just get back to business, okay? okay.)

kissie cheeks

First Day of School

Michael is a huge ball of excitement and nerves right now. Last night on the way to back to school night he suddenly exclaimed: "I'm so nervous!" He couldn't settle down to sleep at bedtime. This morning he talked compulsively, smiling and fidgety. I took him to the bus stop and waved goodbye and realized I am nervous, too.
But just look at this handsome first grader. How could his year be anything but wonderful?

cake

Yesterday was my Grandma's 94th birthday. She has good days and bad days, so my mom wanted to do something low key to celebrate. I made a cake:

(I want you all to know my dad teased me mercilessly for taking pictures of my cake. I was like, Whatever, Dad, that cake is amazing and the internet needs to know.)

(You're welcome.)

My mom brought down cupcakes for the kids so they could blow out individual candles.

It wasn't a very long party. It gets too noisy and worrisome for my Grandma. She feels more secure at home. I'm grateful for every opportunity my kids have to be with her. They won't know the amazing person I knew, but that they love her at all means something to me.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.

I should learn to garden

Flowers on my table in the morning always make me feel optimistic about the day.

solids, pt. II

Ivy sat and watched while I fed Charles. She watched while I talked to him and made faces, and while I wiped him up and cleaned the table off. Then she decided she wanted in on the action.

"Do you want some more to eat, Charles?" she asked. He didn't say anything. She took that as an affirmative.








So she made him some Chicken Pot Pie Soup, using a baby spoon and a sippy cup.






And she tried to feed it to him.






Unfortunately, Charles didn't much care for Chicken Pot Pie Soup.






But she persevered, as one must when introducing new foods.





The end.

solids: a pictorial

This morning I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and feed Charles some real food. By real food, you understand, I mean pureed organic apples, not, like, a steak. I mean, I know his appearance is misleading, but Charles bulked up on nothing but breastmilk and ... breastmilk. It was his superpower! Then at his six month checkup I discovered he had actually lost a couple of oz since May, and I decided it was time to get real and feed that kid some food. Then I put it off for a week. Then I tried to remember to buy baby food everytime I was at the store, and that took another week.

But finally we reached today. I had both food and hands with which to feed him. I sat him in the high chair and said, "Charlie. You're going to eat now."

"I'm going to put this in your mouth, and I really think it would be in your best interest to keep it there."





"Okay. Let's do this."

...

the end.

baseball wrap-up

Michael did Coach Pitch this summer (which, for those who may not be familiar with little-league-talk (like myself earlier this year), means the coaches pitch to their respective teams).
These pictures have been sitting in my camera for months.
Because I am tired.
And also lazy.
And also I broke my toe last month. Did I mention that? It has seriously impaired my ability to do things, like upload pictures and not eat chocolate.
But anyway. Baseball. It was great.









































I didn't realize until the first practice that I had placed him up a year, but it was fine. He's a pretty good little player.













































Batting was definitely his favorite. Of course, since most kids didn't really have the coordination to consistantly catch with their mitts, batting was everyone's favorite.









































I love how nonchalant he looks in that last picture.
Just hanging out on first. What up.




He's already talking about next year.