BUS.

Edie has found her voice! She's clearly John's sister, infatuated by buses and really all vehicles. This is but a small demonstration of Edie's vocabulary, since by filming her, I outraged her older brothers who felt far more worthy of documentation. They were wrong.

A walk: Lake Conestee Nature Park

On Saturday it was rainy and cold, so we put Oscar and John in strollers, and Edie in the backpack, and went on an urban exploration of campus a la Pokemon. Eric and I both caught Wailmers! Oscar and John are getting very good at using our phones. 

Then on Sunday it was beautiful, so we found a new park just outside Greenville that had zero waterfalls, but plenty of herons and turtles and snakes. 

Forced family fun is the worst

Goofy herons in their nests

Turtle power

Edie walked for about two minutes and then we all had enough of that.

But she really liked helping push John in the stroller! What a tall girl!

Cheeseburger!

When we got home we realized the bush out front was blooming, and John had to investigate.

It smells great!

ketchup ice

Edie's latest favorite to soothe her gums and soul. How did we know this was the thing? The deep intuition of parents, that's how. Also known as, "Never Doubt Me Again!!!"

A few photos

Edie posing

What do you do with a pound of boiled peanuts? Make dip! Or give them to Oscar and Edie, they can't get enough.

Can you find the Oscar? He's camouflaged as his sleeping bag/the ocean!

Can you find the John? He's camouflaged as Oscar!

My lap quickly gets full - and look at that side-eye! 

 We found this handsome fellow at the Botanical Gardens on Sunday. He was surrounded by (human) admirers.

 Two skinny-minnies can share the stroller!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Edie and John were both sick today, but I took John in to school just to drop off the cards he made. Oscar had his cards too, and came home with a shoebox stuffed with candy! I could smell all the glick as soon as I opened his backpack.

I am very proud of my boys for working so hard on making 20 cards each!

Phone blogging

is the worst!!! It almost works so well and then fails at the last minute... maybe I need to buy an app instead of using freeware.

Edie allowed me to distract her with a slice of chocolate cake this morning, long enough that I could sweep the hair off her eyes. Then when I got out my phone to take her picture, she cheesed the biggest cheese. I've never seen her do that before!

Eric's in NOLA for the annual convening of wizards (should be covening, to imply the presence of witches). This weekend was cold, so we boiled some peanuts and baked a little chocolate cake, yum!

I have a new strategy/mantra for single parenting, which is to try to be gentle. Good success so far! Somehow gentleness seems achievable when kindness seems impossible. Maybe it's because I'm used to being gentle when dealing with things, where kindness would be too anthropomorphic. Or maybe it's because you can be gentle and also be irritated or even made without cognitive dissonance. We'll see how it goes....

Edie, social climber

It's just a fun evening activity for her!

But before climbing can begin, the chair must be put in position. Watch Edie take it to exactly the spot she has in mind - the long way around.




And now that it's there, watch her ignore it completely!

Oscar's artwork

Oscar brought this home today. On the left, non- fictionary: a turtle swimming in the sea. On the right, fictionary: a cat tail, chicken body, and Oscar head!

Eric and I found an amazing book at goodwill today, about a lion named Johnny who reads a book about a wicked baby lion named Oscar P! So weird and meta in its own right, let alone that the names are so perfect.

x

The day after Christmas

I know, it's already February, but it is still so amazing to see these pictures of so many people behaving themselves! (mostly) This was Christmas part 2 for the whole family = 25 people! 11 young 'uns, 14 adults.....plus a dog, whew! I like counting how many people are in each picture, and seeing how the composition keeps shifting.

I have actually been working at work, when I haven't been home with sick chillens, so blogging can only be sporadic for now. But the most important updates are: Edie is happily walking into her new classroom now! She's moved up to be with the one-year-olds, and actually spends most of her day with them and the two-year-olds. And, naturally, she is now very communicative: up, cat, down, shoe, sock, lamby, night-night, bye-bye... She has been insisting on clearing her plate after dinner these last few days, and she is tall enough to put it up on the counter all by herself! (That doesn't prevent her from carrying the plate vertically, or upside-down, but she's a good eater so the mess is small.)

And second, last weekend, Oscar read a whole book to me! An Ant and Bee book, and they are loooong. Soon enough he'll be reading all on his own. On Wednesday we went to the library together before picking up John and Edie, and we got him his own library card. Ah, the thrills that await! He picked out "Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice" and we've been listening to the wack audiobook in the car, so I think he's pretty keen on this whole library thing.

John is already anticipating his birthday, for which he has requested a strawberry rainbow cake, not chocolate. I will happily oblige.

Wilmer, Jean, John, Oscar, Henry, Edie, Casper

Harvey and Edie, in a chair she acquired all for herself

Oop! Wilmer, Penny, John, Oscar, Henry, Casper

Danger girl was always climbing up on stuff.

Lessee...Nolan, Elizabeth, Penny, Casper, Annie cheezing (caught!), Jean, Rachel, Sawyer, Wiley and Jean biting Wiley's arm (caught!)

Kids' dinnertime was a huge success! Everyone ate! Going clockwise from the bottom left corner we've got: Marjorie, John, Harvey, Henry, Oscar, Woodrow (and Rachel), Penny, Casper, Edie, and Jean's fuzzy head

 The post-presents aftermath was awesome!

John and Wilmer spent some time together in a not-a-box

Edie said Hi to Sawyer, or as she says, "woof-woof!"

Phew!