Holy Moly. It's been a while, huh? So long I'm not even sure where to begin catching up. So maybe I won't catch up. We'll just start where we are.
Which is: back in the USA, homeschooling, getting settled, bustling around for the holidays, and always...always...trying to catch some extra zzzz's.
Now, don't get too excited about me being back here...I'm still trying to carve out my schedule and work in the me/writing time that I need to have. I'm also working on a laptop with a bum space bar and a mouse button missing, which is a recipe for early onset insanity. But I'll get it fixed and I'll keep you posted.
In the meantime, I'm wishing you all the best in 2011!!!
12.29.2010
Let's See If I Remember How To Do This...
9.20.2010
In Case You're Wondering...
We packed up and moved out of Kiev a little over two weeks ago, and flew 3 hours, then 11 hours, then 1 hour to Colorado. We're trekking around Colorado, Utah and Idaho until the end of this week, when we will return to semi-real life in Virginia.
We are having fun, haven't had too much jet lag, all caught and got over head colds, celebrated my birthday and Aunt JoJo's birthday, and are now having fun with cousins and lots of wide open spaces and blue, blue sky.
As far as the blog, I'm thinking through some changes while we're playing and I'll try to get back online and let you know what's up as soon as we've "landed" toward the end of this month.
Happy Autumn!
8.12.2010
The Jane: One YEAR Old!!
Another month slipped by between posts. Good thing I have a baby to document, or this blog would be completely dry, huh?
We celebrated Jane's first birthday on Monday and she is delightful. She gives kisses, has lots more smiles for everyone these days, and is walking everywhere.
The tutu is officially outgrown, so we did her photo shoot in the adorable outfit Aunt Lesli gave her when she was born. She's growing into her princess queen status quite well.
Happy Birthday to my spicey little girl! We love you, Jane.
7.10.2010
The Jane: Eleven Months Old
I think I caught a lot more expressions of Jane's personality with this month's photo shoot. It was a lot of fun.
I got a little creative editing photos, and was rather pleased with this black and white that I made.
I can't believe there is less than one month left of her first year.
::sniff::sniff::
7.09.2010
Just a Moment
A sudden awareness of fairly prolonged peace and quiet jolted me this afternoon while I was checking my email, and that familiar "uh-oh" feeling when things have been too quiet for too long spurred me into investigating, dreading what I might find...
6.21.2010
Spring Reading Thing in Review
Wow! I can't believe it's been three months since I started my Spring Reading Thing goal. In some ways, March seems a long time ago. And in others, time has absolutely flown by. Summer is upon us!
My original goal for this spring was to read books (about one a week for the twelve weeks of the challenge) with one stipulation: each book had to already be on my bookshelf. No buying books to read! (We're moving at the end of the summer and our books take up about half our household allowance in weight already, I'm pretty sure.) So I combed my shelves and made a list of the ones I've been meaning to get to - some for a really long time - and made my reading goal list.
But here's the thing: I did read a little more than a book a week, AND I didn't buy any new books. So I mostly accomplished my goal, right?
In case you're interested, here's what I read from my original list:
Special thanks once again to Katrina at Callapidder Days for hosting the Reading Thing! It's been great.
6.14.2010
Just for Total Random
Charlie turned three over the weekend.
He was born three. years. ago. Man.
The main thing that I want to say about him is that I adore the way he says "orange:" it's "oh-zenj." Oh-zenj juice, oh-zenj slices, oh-zenj crayon. I will personally maim anyone who tries to teach him the "right" way to say it. I am that serious about him not growing up. Got it?
And now here's the total random part of this post, because I'm skipping to a different child. But maybe it is not totally random because I have mentioned the color orange already, which provides the perfect segway to these photos, taken about three years apart.
Henry three years ago, on vacation at the beach:
And Henry, this year, on vacation in Portugal:
We have found that Henry chills out best on an orange couch with electronic entertainment. It gives me hope that there are some things that babies don't grow out of.
Also kinda makes me want to buy an oh-zenj couch, so Charlie can tell about it and Henry can veg on it with his Fringies, forever if he wants to.
So, this post was brought to you by the number three, the color orange, and the Mom who doesn't want her babies to get "so big."
6.10.2010
The Jane: Ten Months Old
In fact, because of her social skills, we had to move her crib out of our room to the room down the hall because she would wake so frequently in the night and want to snuggle and "talk" and generally waller with me. I would try to nurse and she mostly just wanted to "hang." She learned really quickly (with not too much crying at all!) about just sleeping at night once there wasn't Mommy right in the room to chat with or screech at, and we are all better rested.
And because she has her own room now, our bedtime ritual has gotten a little more structured and I spend some concentrated time with her before putting her down, singing and rocking. She sings along! I love it! She will lay on my chest and hum herself to sleep while I sing. She really likes singing and last week also started humming really loud when we sing hymns in church. It's truly delightful.
One thing I haven't documented before about Jane, is that a big eye watering yawn or a big sneeze make her smile and give a little sighing laugh when she finished with them. It's like she's proud of it, or it cleared her head or something. Also hilarious to see and I hope to catch it sometime on video.
Another interesting thing about her is her propensity for chewing on furniture. It's a little like the little girl in Series of Unfortunate Events - biting is her talent. One of her favorite methods is to pull one of the kitchen chairs around to the front of her high chair and just chew. She also likes the corner of one of the drawers on our coffee table. Um, yeah...
She continues to be a real Mama's girl, but will now play and love on Dad, which is very cute, and rather savvy, of her. Although she very clearly has moments when she only wants Mom, and she calls me by name in a low repetition: "Momomomomomomomomomomo..."
She has a definite screech button and knows how to use it. She knows how to get someone to come running to put her brothers in check. This morning she did it and as soon as she was in my arms, she leaned forward a bit and started yelling at Charlie (the offender) right along with me.
Jane and Charlie have a bit of a love-hate relationship, usually love, sometimes very, er, fierce love. I like to watch them together. It's going to be a fun dynamic in our house...
Yesterday, we received a great package from Aunt Joeli that included the most precious assortment of tiny bows and barrettes and headbands, so Jane is now accessorized. Boy, are we going to have fun!
So without further ado, here are the official tutu-fied pictures of Jane at 10 months old:
(The next one is unfortunately without Grandma's quilt in it because Jane crawled off, but the look on her face is how she stopped and looked at Charlie, who was throwing a fit because he "never gets to be in pictures!"...Classic.)