blast from the past

More Nina!

At Benjamin's bday party at Bogue Falaya. It involved water guns, water balloons, jump rope, pizza and cookie cake. One of the best little bday parties ever. Juju got right into the mix.

more from sunday

Nina and Elise after the show

Flowers and necklaces were gifts from Miss Kit

Nina's teacher, Miss Kit. Like Kai, Nina is so shy with adults!!! Argh!!!

After the show, red rose from Tibo, lily from the yard, daisies from daddy. She was thrilled.

Another special Nina day

Nina's indoor picnic (rained out). The kids sang some beautiful songs about continents, "hello" in different languages, neighborhoods, and they closed with "you're a grand old flag". Nina had been singing these songs for the past few weeks so I loved hearing all 20+ kids sing them. After the performance, we went downstairs for our picnic. Nate was able to take a few hours off, Nina was thrilled. The night before while we were laying down she said, "Mom, is daddy really coming to my school tomorrow? He's never been to my school!!!!!"
We're moving on to Christ Episcopal pre-K in the fall. I'll really miss Covington Montessori. I love the method, I love the peaceful manner of Nina's teachers, I love the school, I love that it's just 3 blocks away. She could stay there, but I think she's ready for a new environment. I'm trying not to think too much about it, don't need any more sadness or reflection these days.

Cinderella

A few pictures from Nina's recital on Sunday. She was a pumpkin, along with six other little precious girls. They joined bluebirds, flowers, mice, cats, and ponies on the stage with some truly amazing high-school-age ballerinas. It was an amazing performance, I was so impressed. Worth the hundreds of dollars (gulp) we spent on ballet in the past six months.

"popsicle!"

Julian hears me opening the freezer now and thinks it's for his popsicle...every day.

First, Nina tried out her ballet costume. Secon, she models her favorite tennis outfit, which is actually a WI Badgers cheerleading outfit from Lisa and Katie. And below is her new favorite swim suit, she's so excited to have one "with underwear"!

fun weekend

A few weeks ago, we spent saturday at Art at the Park, Christ Episcopal's school fair. Kai and Nina spent most of the time bungee jumping (above, waiting in line) and Kai easily scaled the rock wall a few times. We met Tibo, Matt, Laure-Anne there as well. Kids tried their first Coca-Cola, Nina danced her booty off with little friends from her school.
The next day Nate took Nina and Kai to a little school carnival down the street from our house. The first picture above says it all. They loved it.

pictures from Sunday

Nate took Kai last month to a Hornets game, so this month he took Nina to Disney on Ice. They met Sara and Tibo for beignets at City Park before the show, and had lunch at Whole Foods after. Nina told me her favorite part was the technicolor-blue snow cone Nate bought her.
So I had the boys all day and it was great. Went to the lakefront to play at the park, where Julian preferred looking at water and birds to the playground. Took them to Barnes and Noble. Kai picked out a book called Timmy Failure and read the entire book in one day. A quick $15. While Julian napped Kai and I played baseball, ate lunch, and read together. Fired up the hottub for the kids at night. Although the pool was only 72 degrees, and the air in the 60s, they swam in the pool as well.

poetry day

I love Kai's school.
Friday was Poetry Day, each child had to pick out a poem and recite it in front of parents/grandparents/peers. There were probably 20 adults in the audience. Kai chose a pancake poem by Shel Silverstein, and for his prop he brought a stack of bisquick pancakes that I had made that morning. He did a great job. He was very nervous but had a big smile on his face and had fun with it. The kids also each had to go up to the board and recite a little descriptive thing they had written about a color. I was so proud of all of them, and they were so proud of themselves. Julian enjoyed it too.
Darn computer won't let me upload the video right now. Maybe it's too big.
Kai also took part in the 1st grade musical a few weeks ago. Each first-grader had a line. Kai was so nervous...said the most embarrassing thing in the world is to have to stand up in front of hundreds of people and sing. They had an option of wearing a costume...a favorite storybook character. So we made Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I told Kai that if he was nervous he could just wear the mask the whole time, and he did every time they had to sing. It was very sweet.
Nina is so great. She wanted to make a costume too so while Nate and Kai were working on Greg, she made her own almost entirely by herself.

Just can't keep up

So many things I want to remember about Julian, this beloved third child that had made our life more beautiful and more chaotic than I ever could have imagined.
He's developing his language in leaps and bounds now. From his first word, "tickle", he's progressed to say "coffee" (which sounds like "caca") and "cracker" (which also sounds like "caca"). He says Kai and Nina ("kaa" and "nana"), and lately he's finally saying "mama" after calling me "dada" for a very long time. He says "mud" and "bampa" for grandpa and "ka" for cat and "na! na! na!" for nurse (which he's still doing and boy it's going to be hard to wean this one).
Most days we drop Nina off at school, he's in the jogging stroller and she sits in front of him, dangling her long-and-getting-longer legs off the front. Just a few weeks ago he was trying to pull her hair and bite her back. Now he tries to hug her. He adores her. He gives her lots of hugs these days. Also adores Kai of course, with whom he loves to wrestle in his crib almost every morning. So after we drop off Nina we run to the river, where we throw sticks and rocks and watch the "bubbles". Sometimes we go to the little playground there. Sometimes he climbs on the top of the picnic table. It's a great little routine. He runs around for 30 minutes and then we jog back. That will soon end as the weather becomes unbearable, but now it's perfect. Lots of cardinals and squirrels to see, he loves the birds and just loves looking at everything. I think he may take in more of his surroundings than the other two. Likes just looking.
I also want to remember about these days my mornings with Kai. He's my alarm clock at 6 AM, give or take 5 minutes without fail. He comes to my room, we go to the couch and sit mostly quietly. He likes to burrow into the cushions, I call him my little hedgehog. Sometimes I go sit on the deck while he swings on the rope. Julian has been sleeping later since daylight savings began, so I get this special time. (Nina and Nate have to be woken up at 7...and yes, she's still coming to our bed...I love it, Nate gets legs wrapped around him and pushed out of bed so he's not a fan of this routine).
Julian loves to run to pool pump, where he knows he's not supposed to be, and push the buttons for the heater. Loves to try to climb to the treehouse. Loves to try to get into the poolhouse. Loves to climb up into his water table. He is a climber. A hitter. A thrower. Little redhead has a temper.