Around Here

Why is your soccer playing crying, I asked Ellie. "She's not crying. She's sweating!" Ellie replied.


Open Refrigerator: Siren's call to a pair of babies I know. Because, you know, we never feed them. Savages. Oops, I mean, scavengers. Right.


Ketchup Block. What's that you ask?  Why, it's a large box of cereal placed between Ellie and the offender, her most dreaded condiment of all time (ketchup). Feel free to use "Ketchup Block" in conversation as much as possible: I feel strongly that it has a place in our cultural lexicon.


This weekend Leo discovered the Sunday "Funnies."


Harry hitches a ride. Those baby giggles, you should hear them. Best. Sound. In. The. World.

Threadless

I keep waiting to post these pictures for a time when I have a "real" post. Some kind of thread that ties everything together.



Sorry to say, this is not that post.

Because I realize that if I wait too long, these pictures will be outdated. And by too long, I mean oh, two weeks. These pictures are from just a few weekends ago, and I swear the babies already seem bigger and older now than they do here.



Harry is still a fan of Thomas and can usually be seen clutching one of his little Thomas trains. Recently he's discovered other vehicles: see above. Each morning when Leo's bus pulls up in front of the house, Harry greets it with unabashed enthusiasm, waving and grinning. Last week we he rounded out his vehicle collection with a miniature New York City taxi cab, thus adding a new word to Harry's vocabulary: "Ta-eee."



All hail garage sale season and a recent score: the Fisher Price Popper.


Best fifty cents I've spent in a long time.




Lucy is busting out with sentences: "I like that" and "I think so." (When she doesn't have a mouthful of ice cream, of course.)


I swear that Ellie made this exact expression at this age. I have to dig up some old pictures.


It's the old Sure, Mom. You want to take a picture of me? Picture THIS.

I'll give you two guesses as to who tends to be the messier eater of ice cream.

Happy weekend, all.

The Mother's Day Mother Lode

The questions started early last week.


From Ellie: "When is Mother's Day? When is it again? How many days?"

Translation: I love you and you will get lots of presents (I think?)


Saturday morning, Ellie greeted me with the following: "Today's going to be a real party for mothers! Hip hip, hooray!"

Do not ask me where she gets this.

At some point on Saturday I was dealing with a behavior issue of some kind and I grumbled about it (note to self: she listens to everything I say, you'd think I would remember this by now) and Ellie chimed in, incredulously, shaking her head: "Yeah! And tomorrow is Mother's Day!"

Early in the week, Ellie began hinting that she had something for me. For Erin.

I'll leave it up to you to decide who is who. Ellie gave us our cards the Thursday before the Big Day. Being five-and-a-half, she has very little patience (shock!) but in this instance it was endearing.

Leo pounced on me the second I walked in the door on Friday afternoon, to give me one of these. Like Ellie, he absolutely refused to wait until Sunday.

Again, this is impatience I can handle. What can I say? I'm flattered. Could it be that we mothers are...maybe...possibly, sometimes...doing something right?


This weekend Erin also introduced Leo to a new phrase, which I have to say I'm a fan of:
"Mommy knows best." He said it throughout the weekend.



As if that wasn't enough, Ellie made me yet another card on The Big Day. She had high hopes for the day.

And of course, Harry and Lucy could not be left out of the party.

Yes, signed by the babies themselves. Erin may or may not have helped. A little.

Throughout the day on Sunday, Ellie kept checking in with me: Are you having a good Mother's Day, Mommy? Are you?

Oh YES, I answered.

I meant it.

I have to say, Ellie's prediction?

Definitely came true. As I wrote last year, for me, Mother's Day can be complicated: simultaneously joyous (how could it not be? Four (!) wonderful little people). But it can also be tinged with some grief.


Not pictured: the best Co-Mom this Mommy could ask for: Erin (who was busy taking the photo).

But I can honestly say, this year, which included coffee served in bed by all four at 6:45 a.m. (yes, it was just as relaxing as it sounds), breakfast at the neighborhood diner at 7:30, Ellie's soccer game under a cornflower blue sky, a neighborhood walk with a serendipitous run-in with the Ice Cream Man (Ellie's been plotting this for weeks), backyard play (the water table thrills all, again) was the happiest Mother's Day I've had in a very long time. I'd venture to say, ever.

You know what else I love about Mother's Day? Wherever I went, if I had a kid with me? Someone wished me a "Happy Mother's Day." From the cashier at CVS to the random stranger standing outside Starbucks with a cigarette and a coffee. It was just sweet.

I hope yours was happy too.

Mother's Day 2013

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous...


Mama Erin, June 2011


My mom and me, Amsterdam, August, 1999


Grandma Jerry, March 2012


Grandma Linnea, May 2012


March 2013

...It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

Happy Mother's Day, to all the mothers in your life.

What Showers? April in Pictures

Turns out, you're never too old (or too big) for the water table. In other news, I think we're going to have a super fun summer in the back yard this year. No more, two kids, two babies. Look out world, four, fully (sort of/mostly) fledged kiddos!


Two guys at Five Guys.


And just a guy and a girl. Lucy's all, "Where's ma foooood?" Harry, meanwhile? Toy vehicle? Totally content.


In other news, I'm in love with my little bleeding heart plant. So perfect, it doesn't even look real. Swoon.


Speaking of love, these two were in lurve with this toddler sized playground they got to explore while Ellie was at swim class last week. Nobody yelled Harry! No ladder! Lucy Get Away From the Ladder! (The ladder on our backyard playground is way to high for them. Another year and they'll be golden).


But this little number?



A perfect fit.




As you can see.

Sunday morning jam sesh.

Rock on, weekend.

12

Twelve years ago, Erin and I took the leap. In a little backyard in Park Slope, Brooklyn.


Pictured here, almost twelve years and four kids later, I think we still have it.

If someone would have told me that day, what our future would be and how many wonderful adventures we would have?



I never would have believed it.

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."
-1 Corinthians 13

Here's to many, many more, Sweetie.

Fourth vs. First: Hair Edition

I could say a lot about the difference between your first and your fourth child. The other day, for example, I realized that now when I hear a crash, rather than rushing to see what I happened, I wait a beat to hear if anyone is crying before going to investigate. Mother of the Year? Perhaps.

Take first haircuts. Lucy (aka Baby #4), clearly needed one.


Many moons ago, so did Baby #1 (aka Leo). Sidenote: OMG his hair was gorgeous but OMG What Were We Thinking with that hair?

I clearly remember taking Leo for his first haircut. It was at one of those places that specialize in kid's cuts. A lot of pictures were taken (though curiously I can't seem to find any of them). There may have even been a video. Precious, first shorn locks were carefully and lovingly tucked away into a special "commemorative" envelope, sealed for posterity.

Lucy's first haircut? Let's just say it happened around 8 a.m. in our backyard on Sunday morning. I grabbed the scissors on my way out of the kitchen where I'd dashed to grab a bowl of Pirate Booty for the gang to share (what? Isn't that what you crave at 8 a.m.?). I managed to get Lucy to sit for a minute.

Before.

After. She seems pleased, yes?

For the record, I did save those little blond wisps and sealed them in an envelope. I wrote (with crayon of course, because it was there): "Lucy First haircut (Bangs), 4/28/13" (so I don't wonder someday why her first haircut was such a small little swirl). Because you know what? First haircut at Fancy Place? First haircut on the back deck? It's still important.

I may have taken off a bit more than I would have liked but it's growing on me. I look at the new 'do and think: Short and Sassy. Best of all it's out of her eyes. I was a big fan of the long bangs pinned to the side in a barrette. She...was not: "Don't want it! (pointed to adorable purple poodle clip) No!"

Anyway, the new cut seems to suit her. I didn't know someone under the age of two could actually strut, but Lucy can. And she does. Short and sassy, that one is. From head to toe.