Firsts.
Franklin had two firsts today. first, weirdly, is that I found his first mole, a little one on his left side jawline. not monumental, I know.
and second was that his first tooth poked through this morning. let me just say that the other two got their teeth much more gracefully and with less fuss. not that they did it with ease, but way, way better than last night. let’s just hope he doesn’t start biting. only 19 more, so help me!
Sometimes we do crazy things
No pictures, but things i need to remember, and maybe even share.
Zola is sleep-deprived, yet hilarious. She still tries to love Franklin to pieces, namely by biting, pinching, bonking, squeezing, etc. It’s killing me since I can’t leave him alone without fear of retribution. But, like her mother, she has the “foodie” gene. She can smell a disk of Trader Joe’s hand ground dark chocolate and know what it is without being told. She will also sit in front of my spice drawer, and one by one, open every jar and smell it and put it back. I’m sure she’ll dump one someday, but it’s hard to pull her away when I love what she’s doing.
Franklin still isn’t sleeping through the night, but he’s absolutely wonderful. He smiles like nobody could ever be sad, he still has no teeth, can move by rolling, and loves to play with toys – my first kid to really like stuff. His favorite is my water bottle. He’s huge – at four months was 97th for height, 90th for weight, and 95th for head in percentiles. He turned 5 months yesterday and I wonder where the time has gone (aside from protecting him from his crazy sister).
Silvester had his first day of kindergarten a few weeks back. It wasn’t what we’d hoped for him. We had also had some problems with choosing a school, having to change at the last minute. That problem was compounded by all of us (but Matt) getting Cryptosporidium from our short trip to Yellowstone last month. I spent three weeks sanitizing clothes and changing beds. So, for a number of reasons and after much careful thought and prayer, we’ve decided as a family to homeschool this year. He is thrilled with it except for when he doesn’t get to play with friends frequently and when I don’t have a plan, but, oddly enough, it has brought a great deal of peace to our crazy home. But today was “Talk like a pirate day” and we did a pirate worksheet, and played pirate math games, and read lots of stories. He rode his bike around the back field a million times while I timed him, and quite honestly, I think I’m a better mom when I can say yes to things. Tomorrow we’re going to create a calendar to countdown to our trip to New England at the end of October and talk about Autumn. The basement is our classroom, and we’re still looking to fill it with useful things – we want a play kitchen, some beanbags for reading, a bulletin board, and maybe a rug for sitting on, but we have a great little kids picnic table, and a shelf with bins full of some crafty things and puzzles and games, and we’re going to figure this out.
Matt was gone half of last week and a few days from the week before for work. I do believe one of the days he was gone may have been my low for mothering, but we’ve since recovered and that is a great thing. Matt also decided that he was going to turn the Attic into useable space. I am baffled at how much we can store up there (baby clothes are a killer to store!), and how it just might be the thing that allows use to build that extra bedroom in the basement.
I’m still experimenting in the kitchen. Our garden bounty is not overwhelming like it has been in years past, but I’m still forced to be creative. Tonight I made Sage’s carrot butter – YUM!, and broiled some cherry tomatoes with herbs to make was sort of turned into a tomato jam. We’re also experimenting with making our own kefir – the kids love it, so i need a cheaper source. I need to get some sleep now. We have much to do tomorrow!
Yellowstone (Part 1 of some)
We went to Yellowstone two weeks ago. It may have given us cryptosporidium and a nasty two weeks afterward, but i think it was worth it. I have a bajillion pictures, but here are a few of my favorites from one of our outings where Silvester found a frog. And by the way, he got to be a champion at catching butterflies and dragonflies (some by hand) on this trip. He’s a natural naturalist!
Catching up on June
June was a very big month. We had visitors – my dad and Matt’s parents. The kids had swim lessons. Silvester had day camp (thus the green painted face). Franklin hit the big two month mark – 14 lbs and change and 24.5 inches – both 90-95th percentile. Matt had a birthday. Zola put her plastic ninja to bed in a pea pod next to the sink. Franklin had his blessing day and I found a “few” cars in the couch (it has three layers of lost – these were the first two.Matt’s awesome parents built a great deck that we’re still trying to figure out how to finish – there just aren’t as many hours in the day as I could use. We also had dangerous outdoor meals (or so I can figure, based on the helmet). Zola played soccer (the hat, mittens and blue ball were her self-designed uniform and I just about died laughing when she showed me she was a soccer player). We went up to Red Butte Gardens for youth Conference.
I love all of my children, but it seems Zola is the easiest to take pictures of. Deal with it.
The rest of May at large
There is everything in here and you may find yourself viewing these for the next 45 minutes to get them all in. Zola quit taking naps when Franklin was born (and fell asleep all over the place – one time I gave her a napkin and she cuddled right up with it). Silvester lost his first tooth just before he turned five. He also liked taking pictures of our garden. Zola’s fashion sense is still developing. Franklin was very, very little. Now he’s just little. And if you look at the rain pictures, you can see that one child is very sober and one is less so. And all of the pink little girl shots are from Hannah’s (our friend Erika’s little girl) birthday party where the dress code was only wear a tutu, but all the girls managed to dress alike, hair and all. And Zola wakes up with an awesome rat’s nest in her hair every morning.
For Today’s viewing pleasure (from my birthday)
Silvester’s Graduation from Preschool
It had to be one of the cutest events of his life. If I was more savvy, I would post all of the videos, but maybe I”m just selfish and keeping them to myself. He was darling and wonderful and remembered his part and we’re proud of him. We also loved his teacher. And we love that he got to sit next to Chloe who was one of his best school friends. And if you look closely in one of the pictures where he had is blue cap on, you can see that he was a bit misty-eyed. When I later asked him why, he said he was said because he loved learning and he was going to miss it – not his friends, but learning. I think his friends may have been part of it, more than he was willing to admit anyway. And there were some lighting problems and camera issues, so forgive the fuzziness…
Silvester’s birthday at Red Butte Garden
It seems a tradition for us to go to Red Butte for Silvester’s birthday – yes, back in May. Maybe it’s because it’s the first time the weather is good, or because we love it, or because it typifies Silvester in so many ways. I’ll let the pictures talk since I’m far enough behind that we might need them to each say their own 1000 words if I’m going to every get caught up.
Today
Today is actually not my birthday, even though WP says it is. I am writing this on the 13th, so we’ll see what it actually says the date is. But, today was an especially good day. Matt took the day off work and we took the kids on a “stay-cation” sort of day. We got up late after a miserable night and I was so tempted to call the whole thing off, and how blessed we are that we didn’t. It was the kind of day summer memories are made of.
We started the day by going downtown. We parked right by the Brigham Young Park and Matt taught Silvester about Water Striders and he was thrilled. Zola jumped off everything and we learned that my old boss Eldon Cannon was still in charge of grounds at the Temple and associated properties. We then went to the Church Administration building so we could go up to the top and look around, something I’d never done but heard about many times. The view was marred by lots of smoke in the air from a Tooele fire, but it was still lovely. Sister Richards (whose husband is the current president of LDS Business College) was wonderful to talk to and we laughed and joked while Matt tried to show Silvester the peregrine falcon perched on the Temple spire. We saw a park north of us that I didn’t know existed where Heber C. Kimball and several other pioneers were buried and now I want to go and explore it.
We then went on a tour of the Lion House – a first for everyone (I think I went when I was 12 or something, but I don’t remember much). I was only mildly annoyed that the sister missionaries kept referring to how lucky we have it with “McDonalds” and I was thrilled to tell them I’d never taken my children there. We went and moved the car (2 hour parking), had a mish-mash picnic on some grass, it started to rain, and we walked over to the new City Creek Mall where we again had so much fun. I don’t know how they did it, but it feels like the outside and the inside flow together and it’s hard to know where one starts and the other ends. Silvester kept being excited about finding water striders everywhere and the trout in the creek that goes through the mall and the fountains and the splash pad and Zola climbed all over everything until we had to force her into the stroller – which she DID NOT LIKE. She never does. She’s a willful soul these days, enough that I am not sure I’ll be able to raise her so very well by myself. She may need to be a village child, if you know what I mean.
We walked back through Temple Square after that, the kids were thrilled to see the temple, and the fountains, and the flowers and nobody wanted to go home, but we needed to move the car, so it was just that time. Franklin was a wonderful baby the whole time,napping in the Ergo, nursing when we had the chance to sit down, giggling for the cute ladies who found him so beautiful – he really is and I owe this blog some photos, but all in time.
We stopped at Costco and bought our first television as a married couple, nothing fancy, but exciting nevertheless.
We went to the Garden after that, just to water a little and weed a little and check things out, and the kids played on the playground, and the storm blew in, and we all picked raspberries just as the rain and the wind picked up, and then we came home.
After getting the kids to bed, Matt and I heated up leftovers and he made juice with almost everything in it (I am aware that it had at least the following: pineapple, plums, oranges, carrots, celery, ginger, garlic scapes, apples, lime, and kale. And it was good.) We were able to sit and talk and not worry about the pile of dishes in the sink or the jobs we hadn’t done or the messes about us.
Sometimes I think we wish everyday could be a day like today, but that’s not realistic, and if they were, we wouldn’t hold the memories of days like this so dear to us. Silvester even said it was the best day ever
Wow. Life is REALLY loud.
Life is crazy. Three is crazy. Franklin likes to cry and hates his carseat making for an AWESOME combination as we drive the 30 minutes each way to and from summer camp this week.
This is a brief recap of one drive home: Yesterday as I drove with my three home from summer camp, I wondered how all moms of multiple children are not certifiably insane as Franklin (8 weeks now) screamed the whole way home, the Zola felt the need to mimic him, and the summer camper, Silvester, competed with both from the very back of the van to try to tell me what he did at camp, and a half hour later I wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.
Today is Matt’s 34th Birthday. I feel like a miserable wife since I haven’t imagined what he might want, bought two random things from REI, and mostly made him a vegan “ice cream” cake, but it’s not done yet and hopefully will magically get done by tonight, not to mention the dinner I still have to make. And now Zola is watching Sid the Science Kid (which is an awesome episode about backyard camping!) to keep her entertained while I recover from today’s drive home from camp – equal parts screaming. I can’t leave her with Franklin or she’ll eat him, so she needs distractions. If she didn’t eat him, she’d poke his eyes out, break his wrist, smack him around, or put stickers on his eyes – all of which she has tried doing at least once.
I have actually put ZOLA in the Ergo (front baby carrier) while I carried groceries, the backpack, and Franklin’s bucket inside from the car. It will calm down in about 20 years, right? As long as I have a target…
I know I’m doing everything I can these days, and trying to even document it with pictures I haven’t posted, and that just has to be good enough. I’m going to go chop some veggies for Matt’s birthday dinner – calzones! Yay for easy dinners – bucket of dough, saute some veggies, throw the whole mess on the grill! And that’s all. Someday I might post pictures.
Give More. Take Less. Be Happy. 
