I don't a believe a single one of these pictures is well-lit, deliberately composed, or even perfectly in focus. That's the state of my life these days! But I'm happy to have pictures of these little moments, all the same. So here are a few good things happening around here lately!
1. Clementine got this little bunny dress for Christmas. Really a present for me, of course, so I made sure she wore it on my birthday. Note her admiring look at Gussie (who is looking rather grown-up, next to her)
Funny little poppet!
2. Gus wrapped in his "cow-dinal" blanket
3. A new way Clementine likes to sit (she's a little sick here, poor lamb)
5. Whaaaat is going on with these cords? Someone plugged them all in…to themselves?
6. Drawings by Ziggy. I love this one of a football game, with its spectators floating gently above their seats, the player looking sideways out of his football helmet, and the sober referee.
I love his emergency vehicles, too. He was so pleased to find out the letters he wrote actually spelled "ambulance" (I guess he just copied it from somewhere?). These remind me of the detailed little cars and trucks Seb used to draw when he was little!
7. I was re-stuffing a pillow with down from…another pillow. If you follow me. And the down was flying everywhere! Clementine liked it so much! She thought it was hilarious!
8. Clementine riding on some thing her brothers built out of Tubelox
9. Clementine ringing a bell
10. Daisy being climbed on by two babies
11. Another trip to the children's museum for Teddy's birthday. Forgive the repeat pictures, but I just don't get tired of Clementine putting the balls into the tubes! She doesn't get tired of it either.
It was a fun visit and everyone was having a good time. Daisy delighted the boys by playing Construction Man with them…
Clementine played with the stove…
Goldie had picnic after picnic (shopping for her food at the grocery store between each one)…
Ziggy got SO BRAVE and climbed up all around in the little beehive playground. When he came down after the first time, he was glowing with pride over his accomplishment. I loved watching him (and a good thing too, because he wanted me to see him do everything!).
So all was well until suddenly…
Clementine got so sad! And she was inconsolable! Sad in the chair!
Sad on the horse!
Sad in the car!
And just the saddest that I gave her a chicken! Poor baby! So that told us it was time to go home, and we went.
But first we had Birthday Lunch at our favorite place in Salt Lake that has 99-cent bean burritos! That cheered certain people up considerably.
Malachi came upon him in the midst of the chaos and asked me what was going on. I told him, and Malachi said, "Hmm, Seb sewing? That's kind of out of character." Then he thought for a minute and said, "On the other hand…Seb setting his mind obsessively on some strange new challenge and suddenly deciding to master it no matter what it takes or how crazy it seems? That's actually perfectly in character." Yes. Yes it is.
And indeed. By the evening he had made this quite delightful furry sweatshirt, a Valentine's gift for his friend Charly.
13. Little Gus. Normally I wouldn't take pictures in church, but he was so sweet and serious, holding up his visual aid in singing time, I couldn't resist taking a quick snapshot of it. I love that little Sunbeam!
Here he is perusing the instructions to something…
Riding on a scooter the little boys built…
And showing off his scraped face a few days after he fell into a bush.
14. Junie on the roof! Just because she wanted to. Funny girl.
15. A picnic! The first day of the year it's been warm enough. It wasn't VERY warm, but warm enough.
16. We're having a unit on Books and Printing, and we went to a Printing Museum where they have a working replica of the Gutenberg Press. It is awesome! The lady giving us a tour let us try everything…from pouring liquid metal in molds to make pieces of type, to actually printing pages of the Gutenberg Bible. So interesting! We loved it.
The page we printed, honestly, wasn't very good. Some parts were too light and other parts had ink blots. I guess there is an art to it!
17. More birthday festivities for Teddy. Eight years old!
18. And birthday pie for Sam. Clementine greatly enjoyed blowing out the candles—so much so that we had to light them more than once!
19. Sober marshmallow-carrier. She gets things out of the pantry and carries them around possessively.
20. She also plays with things as if she's a little girl!
21. Teddy got glasses, to the great relief of all…he had been squinting at everything for months, and asking everyone what time it was even when there were clocks everywhere. Hooray for his world being in focus at last!
22. Valentine's Day. Lots of bunnies for me!…
…and a tree full of pigs for Junie from Daisy! Lots of other cute valentines I didn't get pictures of, too.
23. Seb went to the Sweetheart's Dance with the aforementioned Charly and had a great time.
These "urban skyline" sorts of pictures are popular these days (Seb said the parking garage was completely packed with other dance groups, ha ha)
24. Seb has also been participating since his freshman year with this cute project where a group of boys get roses for all the girls at their school on Valentine's Day. It's really sweet. They order thousands of roses (someone has a wholesale connection) and strip them of their thorns and put them in little water vials the night before. Then they get up early on Valentine's Day, put on their suits, and go to school to hand them out as everyone arrives. Seb has loved doing it every year.
Afterwards they usually head over to Target to give out the leftovers to shoppers there, and this year they also went to a Senior Care Center and took flowers around to the rooms. Seb came home pretty affected by just how happy the residents had been to get flowers and a visit. One man had cried because Seb looked so like his son. It was so cool to see Seb get a chance to look outside of his own life and connect with someone else!
Someone took these pictures of them; I'm not sure who.
A pretty great group of boys!
25. And last of all…our yard has been full of robins the last few days! Dozens of them! So Spring must not be TOO far away!
I think I began reading your blog when Teddy was the baby. My how time flies! These things were not dull at all. Your sad Clementine at the museum reminded me of how when I'm out in public and hear a crying baby, toddler, or child, I think, oh oh, someone's tired, time to go home. It's a pretty reliable signal. Your children are so creative! You've given them the gift of freedom from criticism to explore their talents and build their skills. Good job, Mom!
ReplyDeleteThat bunny dress is the dearest. And I honestly can’t believe Seb made that sweatshirt! The neck and sleeves? Very impressive. I love the giving of roses so so much. And I love robins coming back. And my favorite thing in this post might be the bunny birthday party someone drew.
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