and then he walked

This was on the 29th - 16mo to the day.  He walks more now, but still mostly crawls.

frosty mornings

The little boys are up to all sorts of togetherness.  I hesitate to imagine the mischief they will create in 2014 (remember when S&P were these ages?!  eep).  And Noah is getting stuck...everywhere these days.

fluffy for now

Adam has decided that he'd like to keep his hair "fluffy" for now and got a pass from the last round of haircuts.  We compromised on only trimming around his ears.  He looks like a wayward dandelion, I think.

Isn't that bus photo a riot?!  I was taking pictures of Noah in this perfect light a week ago and turned around to see him.  He found the missing school bus - but lost all of his clothes on the journey.

He's a constant companion, my little middle man.  He helped take care of Paige and she settled quite a bit with him there to share books and blankets and lots of hugs.  On Thanksgiving he was going up the stairs to play and called out, "Good luck, Mommy!  Good luck cooking!  Come play when you are done downstairs.  I will wait for you."  I love eating lunch with him.  Picnics everyday, he wants.  With the chill they're indoor picnics, but we have a fortress in the breakfast nook so that works out just fine.

a week to not repeat

Our Paige spent some time at Children's Hospital this week.  She came home Tuesday night and her week has been full of couch time, medications, and lots of rest.  She is on her way to a full recovery and we are so thankful.

dusk

Sometimes Seth is a little hard to read.  He's past the overt stage of childhood that includes a lot of autopilot parenting.  You know.  It's eight, he's crying - time for bed.  She's climbing into her booster - snack time.  His teeth are chattering - bundle him up.  He already has experience, expectation, and emotion tossed into the mix.  And while it certainly can be obvious what is going through his mind and heart, it isn't always.  So I asked afterwards, what he thought.  He got to play enough, really liked playing games, wished we would have cooked together more, loved the ocean, thought Noah was too noisy in the morning, and thought Epic on movie night was awesome.  He wanted more popsicles, warmer water, more bubbles, more books, more time.  And wished he didn't still need 11hr of sleep, and that he could've had fewer showers.

He finagled his way to fun, coached Paige out of mischief, played in the sand with Adam, sat with Noah in the morning.  He flashed a lot of grins, shed a few tears, laughed himself silly, and delivered a few "oh maaaan"s.  It was a pretty sweet trip.

daytime

Paige pretty much had a fabulous time.  She doesn't have the staying power for sand castle building, so she went for walks and frolicked and shell collected instead.  She colored and read with me during quiet times and organized many games whenever she was inside.  Go Fish, My Little Pony, dominos.  She was never far from her beloved Poppy and it's incredibly sweet to see the two of them together.  There were movies and books and snacks and places to go and she was a happy girl.  She played all day and it was so nice that she was tired in the evenings (always better to skip nighttime mischief).

She did tell me a few days ago that she very much did not enjoy being in the car for so long, and that "we will need to go to many beaches, all over the place, so we can find the closest."

daylight

Adam had a rough start to the trip.  He threw up a couple times on the way there and was pretty puny for the first and second days.  We think he was carsick - looking down while coloring - so we made sure his eyes stayed level or above on the way home and he was fine.

He still loves to be outside.  Mix that with books and Handy Manny on Netflix (best. show. ever.) and you have a happy boy.  There was beach time each day, pool time, naptime, a walk here or there.  He colored, built, snacked, and shell collected.  One morning there was even a bulldozer and scooper right out front, working beachy magic.