August/September Nuggets

As this month rapidly comes to a close, I realize the waning days of summer are all too quickly behind us.  For the past few Septembers, the weather has been absolutely beautiful with cool mornings turning into shorts & flip flops afternoons.  Then, in the evening after the girls’ bedtime, we can open the windows and cool the house down again.  I love summer in Montana, but it is entirely too short.  Each day has to hold the memories of an entire week to make up for the long, slow, dark winters we endure.  Perhaps this is why I haven’t sat down to write much.  But tonight I decided it was time to catch up, back up all the photos off the camera and begin October with a fresh slate.  So with that said, here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks. 

My girls have such amazing blue eyes, sometimes the light is just right and I have to take a few random pictures to catch the beauty of them.  Everyone who meets the girls, whether it be a waitress in a restaurant or the older lady at the end of the block, makes a remark about their eyes.  Then they look at my husband and me and ask where the blue eyes come from.  We have done a little bit of research about the genetics involved in eye color, and by research I mean we’ve done a few searches on the Internet.  Turns out blue eyes are recessive.  Although my husband and I have brown eyes, we are both carriers of the blue-eyed gene.  Hubby’s family has a lot of blue eyes, his mom, his mom’s mom and dad.  Most of his grandparents’ offspring have the same eyes.  I on the other hand, have never met a relative of mine with blue eyes.  I am of Jewish descent and until we had kids with blue eyes, I was certain that being Jewish meant you had brown eyes.  Apparently not.  Someone, somewhere in my family tree had blue eyes.  What are the chances that two brown-eyed people would produce two blue-eyed beauties?  Not sure, but we like it all the same.

 

Little sis is a champion crawler, and at 14 months has proven that she is in no hurry to begin walking.  Big sis started walking on her own at 14 months and 4 days, so unless the little one has an amazing trick up her sleeve, she will be a little later than her sis at this milestone.  Not to worry, she gets into enough trouble on all fours.  I found the first pair of shoes that C.R. wore when she began walking, so for fun we tried them on a few weeks ago.  Little Boo looked so proud to be wearing shoes!  For someone who can’t go five minutes without yanking off a pair of socks or a hat, she wore those shoes (with a huge s*#t-eating grin on her face) for hours!  

The girls had an impromptu playdate with their new cousin, Smitty.  Smitty is a Boston terrier puppy belonging to my brother in law and his girlfriend, Mitten.  The baby was completely unfazed by the dog, he climbed on her, chewed on her binky, licked her, and generally made a menace of himself (as all puppies do) and she loved it.

One evening after dinner, against my better judgment, I took the girls to the library.  Since big sis isn’t napping regularly, the evening hours have become tricky.  Sometimes she reaches her breaking point earlier than other nights.  Luckily the library was deserted and no one had to witness the tantrum.  We managed to look at books for a few minutes and even check out a few before we made a beeline for the car and the refuge of our beds. 

The baby is finally big enough to play with C.R.  Now that the toys must be shared, a few more fights break out but usually they play together very nicely.  Although I'm sure there was a time that my sister and I played together like this, I don't have any memory of it.  These sweet sister moments are made that much sweeter because of this.

I made cupcakes for my birthday this year.  The pigs were supposed to be for the baby’s party, but it was so hot in July that I made an ice cream cake instead.  Three cupcakes didn’t make it to the party at my in-laws, their neighbor’s dog almost made off with one too.  They were cute.  I told myself it was practice for being a good preschool mom.  Who can resist a pink piggie cupcake?

Big sister apparently has a streaking fetish.  She insisted on dropping trou while she was playing in the sprinkler.  I am sure these pictures will embarrass the heck out of her in years to come, but I will remind her that as she ran naked through the yard, it was HER idea to take pictures.   Luckily her dad was there to back up my story.

My in-laws invited us to join them for a day trip up to Placid Lake.  The girls enjoyed the water and the company.  Me too.

 Big sis thinks that the baby is pushing Daddy into the lake in this photo.  I think she looks like a little explorer surveying the sea.

 Sister was thirsty after all that sunbathing.

When my dad was visiting for the baby’s birthday in late July, a plan was hatched to fly to Atlanta the following month and surprise my sister for her 40^th birthday.  Since my husband had to work, I took the girls by myself.  We arranged the flights so that my dad was there to help on one leg of the trip.  Without a job to return to, I had the luxury to stay for a good long time and we visited with my mom as well as my sis, her husband and two boys for almost two weeks.   The girls enjoyed playing at my mom’s house and with her enormous, silly dog, Charcoal.  It is also so fun to have my whole family together at one time.  It was only the second time all four grandkids were together, and as C.R. gets bigger and bolder, she has more fun with her rambunctious cousins.  

 Playing with cousins' hand-me-down toys at Grammy's house.  

 Making art with glitter glue and watercolors.  Mixed media, very sophisticated.

 Cream cheese face  

 Atlanta Aquarium with cousins  

Detour from the fish for a quick snack break  

This tank held "Nemo" according to my three year old.  "But, Mommy?  Where's Nemo's dad?"

Big sister started preschool when we got back from our trip.  She was very proud to have her very own backpack and was looking forward to playing with new friends.  Everyone told me I would cry when I dropped her off the first day, but I held it together.  She is definitely NOT shy and barely acknowledged me when I turned to go.  In fact, we had more of a scene when it was time to be picked up.  Other kids were running to their moms with open arms.  My kid screamed and said she was not ready to go home.  I have been trying and prying to get any little detail from her about school, but she has very little to say.  It is very weird that she has a life away from home that we know nothing about, but I figure that if there is something I need to know, Miss Wendy will fill me in.  During dinner the other night, she finally let loose with some gossip.  She told me that a little girl in her class made pee-pee all over the floor and another girl stepped in it.  Hmmm, not exactly what I was hoping to learn.

Like father, like daughter

When my dad was visiting this summer, he tuned up our bikes and replaced all the broken and worn parts so that we could ride them again.  We were inspired to pull our bike trailer out of storage and have since gone out on several rides with the kids in tow.  We are hoping to get out several more times before the cold weather chases us indoors.  Apparently it is a pleasant ride since big sis took the opportunity one afternoon to snag a quick nap.  Little sis didn't make a very good pillow and she kept trying to wake her up, but there was definitely snoring coming from back there.

This year was the 2^nd time I’ve participated in the Missoula Buddy Walk.  This time I brought the entire family.  Big sis was beyond excited to see that they had cookies for the kids.  We scored some new t-shirts and donated some dollars to the National Down Syndrome Society.  All in all, it was a beautiful day for a walk and we were excited to be a part of such a special event.

Last but not least.  The baby has been eying her sister's hippo chair for weeks.  Today she finally decided she was taking a turn.  Girlfriend knows how to kick back.

 

 Bye for now!