Our Family Project

Maryanne's newest skill is sitting. She loves it so much ... and it doesn't surprise me at all. She's still a little wobbly on her own, but she can sit by herself for several minutes before she gets tired and flops over. I tilted the seat in the swing up and now she loves to play with her toys. I also tilted the bouncy seat up so that she could sit up better. She decided it wasn't enough, so she sat up in the seat. I left her like this for a while and then I heard her whining a little bit. When I turned around she was falling forward ... having leaned forward a little bit too much ... and she couldn't sit back up! She's just so determined to make sure she's a sitter now.

Have you see these contraptions of geniusosity? (I know that's not a word, but I like it anyway.) Maryanne loves this little thing ... I put a peach slice in it and she just went to town. It is the greatest thing ever! One more thing on my list to help her stay happy when we go to see Phantom!

This picture is blurry .... but she's still so cute! The other day I left Maryanne with Jon for four hours so she could get used to taking a bottle, or a cup, or a medicine dropper, or even cereal. Actually, those are all things that Jon tried using to feed her because she wouldn't take the bottle. And, she wouldn't eat from any of those either. Not even cereal! This got me really worried because I am supposed to leave her for about six hours on June 6th. We got tickets to see "Phantom of the Opera," and the last time the show was here we had tickets but didn't get to use them. I really don't want that to happen again, so we've been trying to wean Maryanne from nursing, just a a little bit so we can go to the show without worry. So, while I was out on Saturday I called Jon and asked how things were going. When he told me that he'd tried just about everything and she wouldn't eat (the whole while I could hear her crying in the backgroun...

Last fall our friends introduced us to the The Settlers of Catan board game. And, it has become an obsession of mine. I seriously love this game. I love that it requires strategy. I love that it's a different board each time. I love that Eliza and Kate can play it with us despite the 10+ years note on the box. I love that Jon likes to play as much as I do. I'm not the only one that loves to play this game. Eliza is always asking if we can play. And, inevitably, our little five-month-old plays with us also. She loves to sit on our laps and help hold our cards. And, she does a pretty good job at it too. Isn't it cute? We're teaching her in her youth to strategize and play everything to her advantage. Watch out everyone ... she will totally be a force to reckon with!

Eliza chose to have a cooking birthday party this year. We did this for her sixth birthday, so I guess she enjoyed it since she wanted to do it again. It was a lot of fun. When her friends arrived they picked out an apron (you can see a glimpse of Eliza's on her lap) and put on a hair net. I made the aprons for the girls and was going to make them each a chef hat like the one Eliza is wearing, but I ran out of time. So, I thought it appropriate that the birthday-girl got the only chef hat. Anyway, I didn't get many pictures because, well, I was running the party. So the girls got their aprons and washed their hands. Then, they went to the first cooking station: cookie mix in a jar. They each made a jar of cookie mix to take home. The recipe was on the wall and they just had to follow it. After that, they went to the kitchen table and assembled their lasagnas and their salads for their lunch. While the lasagnas cooked we played "Pin the cherry on the ice cream sundae"...

On Mother's Day Adam gave me a musical card. The song was "Hangin' Tough." But, when we got home from church he tried to tell me that the song was saying "Bad Mom!" Then Andrew came by and told Adam that it really is saying "Bad Dog." I thought it ws pretty ironic that Adam originally thought it said "Bad Mom" on Mother's Day. But, after Andrew's intervention, I couldn't get on video the original phrase Adam sang with the card. This'll do.

Music is in my family's veins. Seriously. It's even very apparent when our children are babies. When my mom was here to visit she watched Maryanne for me and couldn't get Maryanne to go to sleep, even in the swing. Then, she remembered that this was my family ... so she turned on some music and Maryanne promptly fell asleep. Another example is a time when Maryanne was crying so loudly because she was hungry. She also happened to have a wet diaper. While I was changing her she continued to cry. Then, I started to sing the diaper-changing song (one that I made up years ago). Instantly she was quiet and started to smile at me. So, it's no surprise to me that when Jon started playing the piano with Maryanne on his lap that she reached for the piano and started to push the keys down to make her own music. I think this is how all of our children started out ... playing around on the piano with their daddy.

I've been absent for a while. Only checking in when I can. We haven't had a consistent connection to the internet for a while now, so it's been hard to update despite all the pictures I want to post. In addition to that, I wanted to change my layout and do things to my template that I didn't know how to do. So, learning to do those things and doing them also has made it hard to check in. But, rest assured, I'll be updating a little bit more now that everything seems to have slowed down a little bit. I can't wait to show you what my latest project was (another reason I've been absent).

This little boy has been a challenge for us recently. It seems he is a very determined (meaning stubborn) boy. He only wants to do what he wants to do, and sometimes no amount of coercing will get him to do what needs to do. It is a huge contrast between Eliza and Andrew. Eliza is a "rule-follower" no matter what. She gets it from me. Jon and Kate are more alike in that they will change the rules if it helps to get something done easier or faster. Andrew just throws the rules out the window. And, it can be really scary. Example: Today I was thoroughly engrossed in fixing a problem I created (don't ask, I won't tell) and I overheard Adam ask Andrew where Maryanne was going. Now, I had last placed Maryanne in her swing and I could still hear the motor going; so, I just figured they were role-playing or something. When I turned around, the tray on the swing was up and the swing was stopped (even though I could still hear the motor running), and Maryanne was gone. So ...