Reference for Plymouth

In case you are curious about our trip to Plymouth, my post is coming at some point, I think.  In the meantime, just check out my sister in law, LeNan's post about the trip.  She took way better pictures than I did.  In fact, I don't think I even brought my camera now that I think about it.  Her blog is dustinfrancisfamily.blogspot.com 
More to come -

Getting Bigger Every Day

On bad days, I cannot wait until my kids are old enough to be reasonable with me.  Although, when I really ponder that one, I wonder how reasonable my parents really think I am.  On the good days though, which are many, it breaks my heart just knowing that each day my babies get older and bigger and more independent.

Mia is becoming so grown up.  I cannot believe she is just weeks away from being double digits - and all that goes along with entering that new era of childhood.  She is more and more aware of what she is wearing and has been spending an increasing amount of time gazing at herself in the full length mirror.  I feel very contented in our relationship lately.  She still seems perfectly comfortable talking with me about anything that is on her mind or what other kids are talking about without their parents ears to hear.  While it is certainly trying sometimes to face off with my confident, clever little girl.  It is also very rewarding that she isn't easily dissuaded from what she thinks is right and fair.  With the ever more difficult piano pieces her teacher assigns, there is always beautiful music flowing through the house.  

Lennon is becoming more aware of his skill at comedy.  He is such a little snuggler.  I especially appreciate it because he wasn't so fond of it when he was younger.  At bedtime, I usually lay down with him until he falls asleep.  That being said, he is usually fast sleep and breathing deeply within a 5 minute window.  Lately, he has been saying, "You can snuggle me as tight and as long as you want, Mommy!"  He still loves machines and science and baking and regularly creates his own recipes - some of which work better than others.  This week he made a gluten free strawberry oatmeal bar that actually turned out to be delicious!  We were playing with some fraction blocks that we had borrowed from our neighbor and I was explaining how two halves are equal to one whole.   He stopped me and said, "I know.  I understand math, I just want to play with these."  I'm always asking him to please not get any bigger and to promise never to leave me, just in a joking way.  Most recently, he decided he really needed to explain to me why that wasn't going to work out for me.  I really felt like he thought I was a pathetic little child who needed help understanding.  This is about how that conversation went:

Lennon: Mommy,  did your mom ever ask you to not grow up?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon: Did she or not?

Me:  I guess so.

Lennon:  Did she ever ask you to never leave?

Me:  Probably.

Lennon:  Yes or no, Mommy.

Me:  Yes, I guess.

Lennon:  Well, think back to that whole process of when you did leave her.  That's what I'm going to have to do.  That is what it will be like.

He certainly knows how to put one in ones place.

We are all soooo excited that Shelby is almost done with school.  As I type he is at class and after tonight he only has three more class meetings and will hopefully present his thesis project on Thursday barring any more emergency room visits.  We are all feeling a chaotic mixture of deep sadness and extreme excitement over our impending move further south.  I can't even really fathom how hard it is going to be, especially for me and the kids.  However, we are all looking forward to being able to spend more time with family.  The prospect of being able to own a home for less than $400k is also pretty cool, I must say.  

A couple of recent shots from a hike we went on 

Lennon in the Rockery at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

Mia, with our new downstairs neighbor, Holly, feeding the chickadees out of their hands

Easter Eggs a New Way

We tried something new this year with Easter Egg dying. I read about a great idea and everyone was into it so we did it. We made two colors of dye, blue and red, using purple cabbage and yellow onion skins. We were all really surprised at how deep red the yellow onion skin dye came out.

First, we collected flowers and leaves from the backyard

Then we laid the flowers or leaves across the egg and stretched pantyhose over each egg, which we secured with a twisty tie. I thought this was going to be difficult for the kids, but it really wasn't that bad. Everyone had fun creating different designs.

This is the eggs after we pulled them out of the cabbage dye, before we peeled away the flowers and pantyhose.

The final product. They turned out really cool. Everyone has a different favorite. A few of them cracked, I'm guessing from over boiling. I think we'll try again before Easter because everyone had fun and it was so easy. I want to find ways to make other colors of natural dyes. I was thinking of trying to find a way to make a yellow dye.

Not So Complimentary

Today I rhetorically asked Lennon, "How do you keep getting cuter?" I was not quite expecting the answer he came up with. He said, "I don't know. Probably, I'll start getting less cute, when I get really old. Like you."

Managing Without Our Girl

After settling in to Mia being away, we are actually having a really great week. Monday, we went to my moms group at church as usual in the morning. When we got home, Lennon played with Mateus and Bianca right up until bedtime out in the yard. The weather has been amazing this week and we've basically spent every minute we could outside. Well, except for Tuesday morning when I took Lennon, Mateus and Bianca to Chuck E Cheese in the morning. At school on Tuesday, Lennon was sent home with a project. He brought home Froggy, the class pet puppet. He was to take care of Froggy for the day and have his mom write down what they did together. I had promised Lennon a movie night while Mia was away, so we decided to go for it while we had Froggy to entertain. We rented Rango and Lennon got a tiny ice cream.

This morning we got up and went to the drive thru car wash which Lennon is newly obsessed with. Afterwards, we went to the zoo- with Froggy of course. Lennon wanted deviled eggs for lunch and I was hit with sudden inspiration and turned his deviled eggs into a little spring flower using celery, spinach and cucumber. He thought it was pretty cool. After I picked him up from school we went to the store to get stuff for grilling burgers in the perfect weather we're having. We got home around 4 and he didn't step foot inside the house from that point until just after 7 when he had to come in for a bath and bedtime. He and the Lima kids played with the hose and were all completely dirty and exhausted when it was time to come inside.

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but so far, he's managing just fine with his sissy gone for a few days. He has been adamant from the beginning anytime we say she's going for a week, that it is, indeed not a full week. She is going from Sunday to Friday. He has also suddenly rebelled against any book that rhymes. In his words, "I don't like trick books. Books that make you think it's going to be a story, but then it's just a poem."

Lennon's Lunch

LIttle Girl

Well, Mia's off to camp. I have been nothing but completely excited about her little adventure for the month or so leading up to it. She was thrilled about it every second since we told her about it. Now, six hours after hugging her good bye in Vermont I am having a bit of a panic attack. I just can't stop thinking about my precious, little, sweet girl, laying up on her top bunk that she picked out because she was the first one in the cabin, all by herself with no mommy to tuck her in. I was just looking at her today out there with the other kids and she is just so tiny. So, yes, technically she is tiny. At her physical Wednesday the doc told us she was in the 10% for weight and 20% for height. Beyond that though, she's so tiny. She's just this teeny little person with this great big heart and now she's all alone in another state. I am dying to talk to her and tell her I love her and give her a kiss on the forehead. But I can't. Not until Friday at noon. And let me tell you, I will be there, first in line when the clock strikes 12 this Friday afternoon. Lennon and I will be in the car heading to VT at 9 o'clock to give us some wiggle room on the time.

As I was leaving, I told her I loved her one more time and she almost looked embarrassed! She definitely wanted to get on with her camp experience. I'm so excited for her to have an awesome time, but it's going to be hard to not talk with her each day. I already miss her little voice so much.

Stupid Electronics are Ruining My Life

So, if you've noticed I've been a bit behind on my blog these days, you are not mistaken. For some reason the technology around me has decided to mutiny. Our camera, when it works, will not communicate with our computer, so I can no longer upload pictures from my camera to my computer. Hence, I have all but stopped taking pictures at all which means no pictures for the blog. And let's be honest here. No one wants to read a blog with no pictures. Also, Lennon found our old video camera and we charged it up and bought a new tape thingy for it and when it was all charged and we turned it on, it refused to believe that we had indeed placed a tape inside it. Lennon was beside himself with grief, but I think he will manage in time. Our computer is one glitch away from leaving us forever. We just dissected our old dvd/vcr combo to Lennon's satisfaction because it wasn't functioning anymore, but now the one we are using doesn't have a remote so we can't select anything other than whatever is the first choice up on the screen when you put a disk in. We also have this cool Planet Earth game that Lennon likes to play and we can't play it anymore because of the lack of remote to choose questions.

So, in case you have been wondering what we've been up to, I'll give you a brief synopsis. We haven't been up to too much really. Is that brief enough?

Here's the real deal. Mia is crazy busy. We've been doing a new curriculum called Moving Beyond the Page and it covers literature and science mostly with a bit of history here and there. That alongside the history and math we were already doing is pretty much filling up our school time during the week. She's been going once a week to a friends house for more in depth science experiments that pertain to the curriculum we are both using. This friends parents have tons of awesome equipment for the girls to use and it gives me some free time while Lennon is in school. Here's a sample of a week for Mia:

Monday: we usually take Monday's mostly off because I have my moms group at the church. Sometimes I send her in with some math to work on

Tuesday: Piano, school, lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and she has a 45 minute piano lesson.

Wednesday: Piano, school, music at the public school,lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and she goes to science at Anna's from about 12:30 until 3 just after we pick up Lennon from school.

Thursday: Piano, school, gym at the public school, lunch. Lennon goes to school at 12:30 and then I take her to her music class from 1:00 until 2:30 where she has voice lessons and works with an ensemble. The are working on a cover of The White Stripes song, Seven Nation Army and her teacher told me today he gave the instrumental solo to Mia in the middle of the song.

Friday: Piano, school, lunch. Sometimes we go on field trips on Fridays. We recently went on a great one at The American Textile History Museum. The first half they showed the kids all different kinds of traditional dress from around the world and had them locate the different countries on the map and then the kids all got a large paper doll and got to choose from several scrap bins to recreate the outfits for their dolls. If I could take pictures I would post how cool their projects turned out. Mia made a native American and Lennon made an Egyptian.

Mia is also currently in two book clubs at different libraries. She reads and draws and plays lots of music. Lennon wants to get back into gymnastics but I'm not sure how to fit it into the schedule. I am doing a bit more babysitting for my friend Sue's two boys these days which is nice financially, but hard on the schedule. We are having tons of fun and the weather has been pretty good this winter. We're all hoping for a bit more snow before all's said and done though.

It's a strange time to not have any idea what the future holds for us. I feel like packing, but don't want to be surrounded by all the boxes. I think I'm in a bit of denial. Each day that passes is a little sad as I think it will be our last "February 8" etc to be here.

My cell phone is also stupid.

As I don't have any relevant pictures to share with you, I will leave you with these four, somewhat randomly selected photos from the past. Enjoy.

Are these babies or giant rabid squirrels?

Precious little Mia in her Jackie O dress

Mia's first time fishing

Demented Batboy