What Was That Word Again?

Our LIttle Buddy Anderson

Sharing a Hug

Sharing a Pancake

These two are only 6 months apart, but Lennon is so much bigger. We're looking after Anderson right now while his mom goes to work. He's a little bit scared of Shelby. It seems to be getting better though. Mia loves him and he goes to Mia often to ask her to hold him which has prompted Lennon to ask Mia to hold him. Now that is a pretty funny sight. There is probably only about 10 lbs difference between Mia and Lennon and she has been trying to hold him lately. She said something about how tiny Anderson was and ever since then Lennon has been letting us all know how tiny HE is, not to be "out tiny-ed." The boys get along pretty well. Anderson is about the easiest kid I could imagine taking care of. He is super sweet and calm natured and pretty much does whatever he is told without complaint. I think they are going to be good buddies.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK ATTACK!

WISHING YOU A HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

FROM UNCLE SHELBY, AUNT JENNA, MIMI, ENNIN AND MICKEY MOUSE,

TO OUR MOST FAVORITE LITTLE JACKSON IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!

Smolak Farms Peach Festival

It's a pretty rare occasion when Shelby and I get to do something alone with Lennon. Friday night Mia spent the night with Chloe, so Saturday morning it was just the three of us at the peach festival. We had a great time despite the outrageous heat. Well, for here it was hot. It was probably 90 degrees. Lennon's a pretty fun little dude. His favorite part of the day was feeding the farm animals food. We probably went through 5 dollars worth of quarters buying the feed for them.

There's not much better than a nice fresh, sun warmed peach.

That "Mickey Mouse" face paint cost 2 bucks. Lennon doesn't look too impressed.

Tasting his first apple cider donut (hold the cinnamon and sugar) It's a Smolak Farm tradition that was too good to pass up. (Don't tell Jenna.)

Daddy and Lennon feeding the sheep

It looks like such a peaceful scene, and yet it's just moments before the rabid goose bit Lennon's hand.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY SHELBY!!!

We just had an awesome day celebrating Shelby's official entrance into adulthood. The kids and I got up and hung around a while letting Shelby sleep in until his desired wake up time of 8 30 or 9. We cooked him breakfast and got his gifts all set up on the table. As soon as coffee was ready we headed upstairs to wake him up with a Happy Birthday song sung mostly by Mia with the occasional "Happy Birthday, Cha cha cha!" from Lennon. After breakfast and gifts we went out to Barnes and Noble, or according to Lennon "Barm an Nonle" for coffee courtesy of Jessica. The kids played with trains and checked out books right up until lunch time. While Lennon took a nap Shelby did some more work on the tree house and Mia played with Ella and Diva. At one point they went so far back in the woods they couldn't hear us calling to them and it had us all pretty terrified for about 5 minutes which felt like 15. Finally we grilled some yummy Brazillian meats that Walderi bought for us and ate outside somehow escaping the rain that was forecast for the whole day. All in all it was a really nice, relaxing day. I hope Shelby enjoyed it as much as I did.

At bedtime Mia said we were the best parents in the whole world. She wanted to pinky promise about it and she insisted on pinky promising with Shelby first because it was his birthday. She's pretty sweet. Thanks to everyone who called and setn Facebook messages and cards and made Shelby's day extra special. We love you all!

Shelby took this picture of himself at the exact minute he was born 30 years ago.

Mia sharing her mp3 player with Lennon in the car. He was extra thrilled because he was also sitting in "Bonka boo tar teat" in "Bonka boo Mommy's tar" (car)

Lennon was getting a pretty big kick out of pulling his shirt over his face this morning.

Mia and Lennon posing in front of Shelby birthday gifts before we went to wake him up.

Construction Zone

Shelby's most recent work of art

Understanding Lentronics

Most people that hear Lennon speak have a hard time understanding him at first. Amy thinks he has his own language. Here are just a couple helpful hints when communicating with him.

Remember that in Lentronics:

With words ending in -er, you should pronounce the end of the word -ee

Any word that begins with an S or and F, substitue a T

L's are silent

Ex: Stroller -- Toadee

Fire -- Tiedee

Flower -- Taadee

Pacifier -- Patadee or Tatadee

Color -- Tudee

Downstairs -- Downtares

Little -- Iddo

Aapee -- wrapper

aaadee -- ladder

tooooel -- tool

Tun -- Fun

Tunneeee -- Funny

And of course, the ever popular water --adoo

He is totally obsessed with The Backyardigans right now, much to my pleasure because I LOVE that show, and his favorite line to quote is "Tyone tay dat not tunnee." (Tyrone says that's not funny.)

Random Stuff

Shelby and Mia read some books that Granmommy bought for Mia a while back a couple days ago and it inspired them to create some art of their own. Here are a couple of Mia's best.

This one is called "dizzyish"

This one is called "shapeish"

Mia and Lennon just hangin' out together on the Elmo couch.

Mia proudly finishing the ride back up the hill after a day at the Breakheart beach.

Lennon insisted on bringing "swimsuit doggy" to the beach with us. We decided to just let him take the dog in the water because it was so important to him. We just washed it when we got home. And it did seem to bring great amounts of joy to him getting to actually swim with Swimsuit Doggy.

Lennon "smiling" in his favorite green boots. He wears them rain or shine.

Lennon decided that Mickey Mouse and his other toy doggy needed breakfast. He set them each up with chairs, plates and napkins before he would sit down to eat his breakfast. I couldn't get him to cooperate for a picture, but as usual Mia was more than willing to smile for the camera. She's such a sweetie.

Long Ago...

Background info: Our dishwasher is exposed on one side and we keep saying that we are going to buy something to cover it up, but have yet to do so.

Mia: When are we ever going to get something for the dishwasher?

Shelby: (sarcastically) Oh, about the time you graduate from high school.

Lennon: Daddy gadate high kool?

Mia: Daddy already graduated high school. About 12 thousand years ago.

Shelby: Actually, it was only 12 years ago.

Mia: Well it seems much longer than that.

Little Kids, Big Subjects

Mia's friends, Ella and Diva are going through a difficult time because their parents are splitting up -and not being very friendly to each other either. It has caused her to think about matters that I wish she hadn't had to think about yet. Today she was asking me some questions.

Mia: What did it feel like when your parents divorced?

Me: Sad.

Mia: When did it happen? Were you sleeping when it happened?

Me: Well, it doesn't really happen like that. It's not that fast.

Mia: Who did you live with? With your mom mostly or with your dad?

Me: First, I lived with my dad mostly and then later I lived with my mom mostly.

Mia: What did it feel like when you had to leave your dad?

Me: Sad. Okay, how about a chocolate dipped banana?

Mia: Yea!

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Lentron

Lennon is trying his hand at knock-knock jokes. So far, he's only got one and he usually tells most of it himself without interruption.

Lennon: Knock-knock. Who's there? Papa.

Me: Papa who?

Lennon: NANA!!

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Lennon: Ennon unts be a pink pirate. Pirate say ARRRRR

The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away

After a weekend full of giggles and snuggles with Lennon he had one of the worst days in a long time today. Everything was a tragedy. A meltdown around every corner. It was horrible. He freaked out when he woke up from his nap to Shelby instead of me. He freaked out when we changed his diaper. He screamed when we wouldn't give him more cheese instead of the dinner he was served. He had a complete fit when we had to wait for the squash to cool off before we made the blueberry lemon muffins out of Deceptively Delicious. Mia had her first day of theatre camp today and then spent the rest of the afternoon with Miranda so at least Shelby and I could give Lennon our full attention, but tomorrow and the two days after that I am keeping a friends little boy to make some extra money so I am hoping and praying that Lennon wakes up on the right side of the bed tomorrow. I sure do love him, but it sure is exhausting trying to stay calm all day when everything that comes out of his mouth is a screech or a demand. Let tomorrow be a better day!

Silly Silly Silly Little Mia Pie

Lennon's Photo Shoot with World Famous Photographer Mia Francis

Showing Tsi Tsi he can make a tunnel

Reaching for the camera

I think he's holding her sword in this one

Not even real photographers can pull that awesome of a smile out of him. He thinks Mia hung the moon. He repeats almost everything she says and always wants to play with her. I think he has gotten more use out of her Barbie house than she has.

Sailors, Sun Dresses and Swords

Mia woke up this morning in a piratey mood. I came in her room to find her decked out in her pirate clothes, playing a pirate cd as loud as her pink, hello kitty cd player would play, sitting at her vanity applying glitter to her face. After Miranda showed up we decided to make swords out of cardboard and cover them with tin foil. All the kids thought the swords were awesome except for Lennon who didn't really seem to notice. Later, Mia had on her new yellow sun dress that is a repurposed adult skirt that was given to me a while ago and she was brandishing her sword. I just had to get a picture.

Blibbidy Blab, Blah, Blah, Blah

Tawdee --color (as in he wants a color bath. we have these bath tablets that color the water. He usually wants pink.)

Also, Bianca told Claire today at the park that she wanted to marry Lennon. She wants him to give her a really big, sparkly, pink ring and she wants to give him a big sparkly, red ring. Claire and the kids are leaving for Oregon for three weeks in the morning and Walderi is leaving for Brazil for a week on Thursday, so we will be all alone in this big house for a while. To make matters worse, Shelby is leaving for New York on Friday morning, so all weekend the kids and I are going to be all alone. Sad face. Next week Mia has theatre camp all day from 8 30 until 2 30 and I'm keeping one of Lennon's friends during the day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for a little extra cash, so we'll be pretty busy. The next week though, Claire and Amy are going to be out of town. I'm not sure what we're all going to do that week. Anyone have lots of extra frequent flyer miles? I'm sure the time is going to fly by. After all, most normal people don't live next door to a friend they can spend almost every day with without going crazy. We'll manage. I think it will be a nice break for everyone. Each day that passes brings us one day closer to Mia starting second grade. I wish every day that I thought I would be a better home school mom. I just don't think I'd be as good as I would want to be without putting all kinds of crazy effort into it. I'll just have to see how this year goes. I'm also waiting to see how Claire does with home schooling Mateus. I think that will give me a good gauge of how I would be. We have similar motivation levels.

Birthday PIcs: Part II - The Beach

Lennon reluctantly about to share his tiddy taat towel with Bianca

These two babies absolutely LOVE the water. They are fearless.

Mia showing she is king of the mountain. The first thing we did when we got to the beach was build this little pool for the babies to play in so we could relax on the sand for a while. It turned out it was a major hit for all the kids.

Mia and Mateus showing off some of the seaweed they found. They thought it was pretty funny because they eat seaweed from Whole Foods.

Lennon "tiimiieen" (swimming)

After a long day at the beach these two cashed out in the car on the quick trip home. Luckily it wasn't too hot that day, so we were able to let them sleep in the car for about another twenty minutes after arriving home.

Mia made Lennon this cozy little bed after we got home. He was more exhausted than I've ever seen him, but still in a really sweet mood.

Checkin' out his awesome Elmo "tuptakes"

Long Awaited Birthday Pictures:Part I

Night before baking his special request strawberry Elmo cupcakes. I used the same recipe as I used for Mia's cake, only this time I did it right and they turned out super yummy, even without sugar!

These two LOVE helping in the kitchen.

The happy family, birthday morning.

Just lookin' cool in his truck from Gaga.

Mia giving her baby brother a birthday hug. She gave him that white stuffed dog as a birthday gift. She has loved it for a long time and decided she wanted to pass it along to him. He's also checkin' out his tool kit that came with his truck.

Lennon specifically wanted to go to Pignones for breakfast. What did he want? A cheeseburger of course. Here he is pioneering eating cheeseburgers with a fork.

A birthday kiss with Daddy