When you're educated at home...

...you can wear whatever tickles your fancy that day! (This was Tuesday's contribution to fashion).

I wanted to give a special shot-out to my mom for helping so much with school/baby things lately. Up until a few weeks ago, I was barely having to leave the house with Lollypop, because Mom was taking the older two everywhere for me. It was nice being spoiled! But I finally manned up and started handling things myself. :-)

However, school field trips are another matter. We are blessed to have a very active, very busy homeschool group. There have been a couple of events lately that made me nervous; dealing with all the kids was going to be tough.

But, at the corn maze last Friday, Mom held the baby in the van for four hours straight while I walked around with the older ones. Yesterday, she held and fed Lollypop for five hours during our Fall Festival party, so I could be outside with the kids.

That's huge!

Thank you so much, Mom, for helping me educate the kids by being a support system. It means more than you know!

Mallory, BFF Spencer, and Poodle at the Fall party

For the Beehive

I know, right?!?

No, I didn't take this one.  I wish I had!  Stacey Williams took this totally spectacular picture of Tooter at our homeschool group field trip to a Corn Maze/Ranch this past Friday.  I had to share it because photoshop is usually involved in this cool of a photo.  Yet, this is what came out of her camera!  Extraordinary picture.

Anyway, I'm joining a ceilidh at The Beehive, so here's my most recent favorite poem.  I never would have read this one if it wasn't for the booklist at Ambleside Online.  I'm not really a "poetry" kind of person, (my degree is in math and my art preference is ballet), so I took notice when this little poem tickled my fancy.  May we all find a little Fairy Bread this week!

Fairy Bread

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Come up here, O dusty feet!

Here is fairy bread to eat.

Here in my retiring room,

     Children, you may dine

On the golden smell of broom

     And the shade of pine;

And when you have eaten well,

Fairy stories hear and tell

Punkins and Princesses and Spiders, Oh My!

Oh, Halloween.  That much discussed "holiday" that brings bags of sugary diet-busters into one's home each year.  Oh how amazing it is to show up at a neighbor's house, cheerfully utter three magic words, and receive some tiny treats that make little ones giggle with excitement!  Back in my day, of course, there were always those cool houses that would give out popcorn balls - remember those?  Can't do that in these different times, but we have our memories.  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to make my kids some?

ANYway, little Lollypop (you know, the one we used to call Sparkie on here) was a punkin, but she didn't actually join the intrepid trick-or-treaters.  It was a bit chilly, and we didn't want the wee girl to be uncomfortable.  Besides, it's not like she has any idea what's going on.  Really.  So, MooMoo "had" to stay at our house with her so I could go out for a little bit with the other kids.

Poodle was Princess Aurora, something she had spent months saying she wanted to be.  (Whoever had the genius to market all these Disney princesses the way they do now wasn't paid enough for his or her idea.  I'm just sayin').  Tooter was Spiderman - or as he says:  "SpiderName!  Scawy!!!  He kept that fabric mask on for a great deal of the evening, which surprised me.  And they were so glad that their sweet cousin, Audrey, was able to go around with them.  She had a blast as Princess Audrey and was amazed that people kept giving her candy!  Brilliant!  Every time someone would tell her she looked beautiful, she would make this low and slow bow that was so cute.

We managed to keep the busy candy-seekers from eating too terribly much of their loot, but they did sugared up a little bit when we all got home.  Poodle quickly changed into her pj's, and Tooter shed his spider skin pretty quickly as well.  But Princess Audrey reigned through the whole evening!

The next day, we went to SueSue's house after church to visit with some family who hadn't had a chance to meet Lollypop yet.  Aunt Jennifer loved and snuggled on her as she likes to do with these babies. 

And Robert and Megan finally got to see her as well.  Lollypop flirted her little heart out with Meggie - loved her!  And Mr. "I'm not good with babies" was a natural with her.  He snuggled like an old pro.

It was a fun, good weekend - although I'll admit to being tired when it was all done.  One might say that I'm getting o-l-d.  One might be correct.  ;-)

Sharing

I hesitate to share these pictures, because I genuinely do not want to be "that Mom". I don't want to violate the rules that Jesus Christ set forth for us in Matthew 6:1-4. But, because a friend (thanks Kat!) shared this idea when her daughter did it, the thought was put in our hearts to do it ourselves. That's why I'm going to share this with all of you. Because I'm glad someone told us about the idea.

I'm ashamed to say that I don't think I would have come up with this idea on my own. But it was such a great experience. The original idea came from Bridget's 6th birthday party, when she had her guests bring food donations for a local animal shelter, instead of bringing presents. (As you know, between parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, kids get a LOT of birthday presents right there!). I talked with Bear about doing something like this for her big birthday party, but instead of the animal shelter, we could collect food donations for a new food pantry that a local church in our area had just opened months before. After she was assured that she would still get presents from us and her grandparents and her aunts and uncles (she IS only 6, after all.... presents on your birthday are just - well - important), she really looked forward to her friends bringing the food donations.

We went a few days ago to deliver the bags of food to this new Care Center. Like I said before, it was a special experience. Especially because Poodle was allowed to help stock the food on the shelves! It was a really beautiful way to cement in her mind what she was doing and had done. The people volunteering there were as kind as they could be, and the whole process was truly a gentle one. I'm so glad Bear was willing to do this. We were blessed to be a blessing, I hope.

And even NoMan got in on the act - although he didn't really know what was going on. He just wanted to be like Poodle.

Two Months

Sweet Lollypop!

You are two months old today, and oh, how fast the time is flying by.  I am holding on so tightly to each minute with you.  Yet the days still zoom past me like a teenager in a Mustang.  I think about things like that in only 4 short months, you will be trying solid foods for the first time, and I want to beg someone to slow down the spinning earth.  But, that can't happen.  So we will just continue to try to enjoy every minute.

You are such a happy, precious little girl!  Despite what seems to be reasonable, you laugh already!  It's not a regular laugh, but more of a burst of sound when you are smiling and looking at something that pleases you greatly.  Like Daddy's face, especially.  Poodle and Tooter are always good for a smile from you also.  And when you catch Mommy's face in a mirror (which you just began doing), I get a huge grin and even a "laugh" myself.

Your head control is getting better every day and your hand control is starting to seem a tiny bit more "on purpose".  You are beginning to grasp with your hands and my hair is usually the victim of the random grabbing.  You LOVE to eat, as evidenced by the multiple chins ::grin::, and you get downright tickled sometimes when you get settled in to eat.

You're sort of hit-and-miss with a pacifier, and will suck on your fist sometimes instead.  You've been a good girl at church so far, and love to hear the congregation sing.

You have days when you won't nap correctly for love or money.  But, like Daddy reminded me, you may be like PoodleBear, who never could nap very well when she was working on a new "trick" like sitting up or walking, etc.  We can't figure out what tricks you could be working on at this age, but maybe it's nothing more than you're starting to recognize your family, and you just can't sleep because of it some days.  :-)

Although, most nights are wonderful.  You wake up only to eat and then you go right back to sleep.  Of course, you ARE getting to sleep with Mommy.  So that probably helps a lot.

People ask who you look like...  we like to say that if you put Poodle and Noman in a blender, what would come out would be you.  You have pieces of both of them, but like PopPop insists, you just look like our sweet Lollypop.

We love you honey and can't wait to see what the next month will bring!  (But please, can't someone slow down time a little bit?)

For Grandmother

Jmk's grandmother is having a birthday next week, and I wanted to get a picture of SueSue and the great-grandbabies for Grandmother. Here's what we got. It's so sweet!

Where oh where have the zoo monkeys gone?

They're still here!!!

No, really. I can barely get pictures off of the camera these days. The blog is seriously suffering. Shoot, I don't know how in the world I'm going to find time to actually get the photo albums made for the grandparents this year. Yikes.

But here are some new pics to help everyone keep up with the fast-growing weed that we call our baby.

I guess if we were going to mail out a birth announcement, this might be the picture that we'd use. These days, with blogs and Facebooks and emails, there's almost no need for a picture laden birth announcement other than for tradition's sake. Jmk took this one - she was a couple of weeks old.

Poodle with two of her friends at her birthday party a couple of weekends ago. This is Spencer and Lydia. Darling girls, both of them!

Poodle and Bridget, at the party. B is the daughter of my sweet friend Kathleen. We don't get to see them enough, but the girls have fun when they do get to hook up!

Tooter, right before being tossed in the air by Daddy. Yeah, he didn't have any fun at the party. Not at all.

See, now, if I were cool and knew some basketball terms, I could add a witty and sports-themed caption to this picture that would brilliantly describe what he's doing.

But I'm not. And I can't.

My poor mother and sister are cringing right now. They both played basketball. I embarrass them.

Audrey loved this car. Loved it. It was the bomb.

A reminder why I call them monkeys and this place the Zoo. Ahem.

The week after Poodle's party, the Toot man and I weathered a horrid stomach virus and then I developed mastitis. Loads of fun. This was followed by Jmk's birthday last weekend. We were tired from either being sick (me) or from taking care of sick people (Jmk). So there wasn't a whole lot of celebratin' going on. But Lollypop did don the onesie her sister wore 6 years ago.

(unfortunately, I was a day late getting it on her, because the sieve that I call my brain didn't remember the onesie until the day after his birthday. Bad wife).

We tried to get them in a similar pose, because the sisters have moments of looking like twins. But we couldn't do it this time.

The beautiful Aunt Amy with Sparkie. This little baby was all snuggled up and soooo comfortable!

I know we've always said Poodle is a mini-me to Amy. And she is. But, MAN, is she not a mini-me to Sue Sue in this picture??? Wowie.

Buncha gorgeous girls in this picture!

And now, just some more pictures of the wee'est one, a.k.a. Lollypop. Or Sparkie. I just love her smile. :-)

Her eyes are still developing their color, but they are looking like they're going to go blue like the other two. She's also going to be all squishy like the other two were as babies as well. Love me some fat babies!

This is a little lovey brought back from Scotland by MooMoo and GaGa. It's as big as she is!

Last picture, and I'll probably disappear for another two weeks. :-) I start so many fabulous posts in my head during the day, but none of them make their way to the computer. You'll just have to believe me that I have brilliant and witty things to say. You believe me, yes?

Oh! And one more thing! Lollypop has laughed. Seriously. I know a 6-week old baby shouldn't, wouldn't laugh. But Jmk was talking to her the other night and blowing in her face or something like that, and she was grinning at him.... and he gave her some big eyes... All of sudden, she let out this blast of sound with an open-mouthed, squinted-eye, joyous smile, and I would put money on that sound being a laugh. I'm just sayin'.

Six Years

Sweet Poodle girl,

Six years ago, you began your journey in this world and in our hearts.  And this past year has been so many things for you!

You finished kindergarten at home and you have begun first grade.  Although, if you were in "outside school", you would have started kindergarten this year.  Which is mind-boggling to me and your daddy.  It's hard for us to believe that so much time has passed already!  You're reading now, and always asking how to spell this word and that word.

You went into the garage a few months back, got some of your daddy's tools and took your training wheels off of your bike yourself.  And you are riding that little bike like a pro!  It's actually time for us to go and get you a slightly bigger bike because you've gotten so tall.

You love to "cook" and you are always wanting to help in the kitchen.  You can make pancakes from scratch all by yourself, as long as you have help with the hard things like cracking eggs and pouring milk into a measuring cup.

You've made some wonderful new friends over the past year, and your BFF Spencer is just as precious as she can be.  Watching you two together is like watching peas in a pod.  We are excited that she can be at your party that's coming up!  Yep, you're getting a "real" party this year because you've turned six.  It's a big-deal birthday, so you're getting to celebrate in a big-deal way.

You've started taking ballet, just once a week right now, and you are enjoying it so much!

You are still very, very much into Princesses and Barbies.  Pink is still your favorite color and Lollypop and Tooter are still your favorite playtime partners.  You love to draw and create things, and you are always busy.  And, of course, you can still talk to a brick wall and make it talk back to you.  You still say "kittnens" and "mittnens" and I don't care to fix it yet.  You've lost two teeth now, and are busy growing up entirely too fast for the comfort of your mom and dad.  You love going to church and your favorite song is Amazing Grace.

You and Tooter both think that a meal at CiCi's is the greatest food ever, and you love getting to go "piddle" at stores.  (Going shopping, for the rest of us).

You can pick the healthiest foods when you get to choose whatever you want to eat.  "Brown" bread, cheese, and olives - for example.  But you love your chocolate cake and ice cream and bubble gum too!

You're still a girly girl through and through.  But you can hit a baseball in the backyard hard enough to make your Daddy duck.  You can rough and tumble play with Tooter one minute, then come in and put on a princess outfit the next minute.

Your laugh - your deep belly laugh - can make literally anyone laugh along with you.  And the sound of it is better than any symphony.

Most importantly, you love the Lord.  And you are learning more about Him every day.

We love you so much, Bear.  And we love watching you grow and learn and become the person that the Lord wants you to be.  You are our Precious Poodle and the day you were born was the day we became parents.  You changed our lives forever!

We love you-
Mommy and Daddy

Four Weeks

Sweet Lollypop,

You are 4 weeks old today, and already you are a how-did-we-live-without-you fixture in our lives. You have started lifting your head up already and can even turn it from side to side at times. You love to eat and you love to be held, but you do *not* love the hiccups which you get all the time.

Your older sister and brother ask to hold you all the time and will even argue about who you "belong" to. Tooter is so gentle with you and when he rubs your head, he treats you as if you were made out of the most delicate china in the world. Poodle can not seem to get enough of hugging you and kissing you and wants to see your eyes all the time.

You've been to church two times already, because Poodle just could not wait to introduce you to everyone at church. But, your MooMoo has made it possible for me to keep you at home pretty much the rest of the time by taking the other kids to all the this-n-thats that they have going on.

You smiled for the first time about a week ago, and of course, it was for Daddy! And that will be one of many gazillion smiles that he will get out of you. But just a couple of days later, I got a smile of my own, and it was as glorious as the morning sunrise.

You've had your two week checkup with your pediatrician, which went quite well and we discovered just how well you really were eating. We are still amazed at your dark hair, even though your eyelashes are so blond, as your eyebrows seem to be. We're still not 100% sure what color those beautiful eyes of yours will be, although we are seeing some light blue from time to time.

Sweet Sparkie/Lollypop, we have lived a lifetime in the past four weeks. And yet, it's hard to believe the time has passed by as quickly as it has. It is like we've been in a dream-state, yet the hour to hour of daily life seems really quite normal. I was overwhelmed for a moment today when I looked at you. To know that you are really, truly our baby daughter - our baby girl forever and ever - choked me up just a bit. The journey to meet you was so unlike what we ever had imagined. But God's blessings have been rich along the way. His love has been unfaltering. And you are the bundle of sweetness that I will tuck in beside me tonight as your precious Daddy and I retire for the evening.

We love you sweetheart.

Three Weeks

Thanks to my mom taking Tooter with her when she picked up Poodle for ballet, I had a few quiet minutes to organize pictures this afternoon.  Here is our Lollypop at  one week and three weeks and still sweet as sugar.  And why no two week photos?  Photos were taken, of course.  But just not with the picture quilt.  (Thanks to Susan Pilgrim for this beautiful quilt!!!)

And, story about the teddy bear in the 3 week picture.  His name is Fuzzy Wuzzy, and Jmk's dad bought that when he found out that Jmk's mom was pregnant with Jmk.  They gave Fuzzy Wuzzy to us when we were pregnant with Poodle, and he is a very special bear!

And, here are some other photos:

One Week

Three Weeks

One Week

Three Weeks

Neighbor visit

Our sweet next door neighbor came by to see Miss Sparkie yesterday after church and lunch, and she took the cutest picture of Sparks and Poodle.  Thought I'd share since I've been so remiss about putting up new pictures of the wee'est one!

She also got one of our resident hambone who totally posed for this picture.  He's such a poser.
;-)

Website update with Labor Story

The website has been updated! See the previous post for the address, if you don't remember it.

But, here's the very condensed version of the labor story, for those who don't want to read the whole thing:
Water broke Friday afternoon.
Contractions never stayed in a productive and consistent pattern.
Twelve hours into labor, I finally decided to get an epidural so they could turn up the pitocin "full blast" with the hopes that I could finish dilating and avoid a c-section.
Shortly thereafter, Miss Sparkie entered the world!

The biggest problem, according to the OB and the labor nurse, was Sparkie's position. She was posterior and didn't turn during pushing at all. She was born "sunny-side up". ::shrug:: Oh well! I am actually very glad to be able to understand labor from both sides of the field. Epidural and no-epidural. I can pro and con both ways of giving birth, and I'm grateful for that. I hope it will help me to be more understanding and helpful to others who are making the decision as to whether or not to have a completely natural birth.

Here's a little picture for you. Tooter took this one! I didn't crop it at all. I let him play with the good camera, and you could see how pleased he was with this one when he got finished. Good job, little man.

Happy Two Week Birthday Little Miss Sparkie!