Slumber Party

It's been a quiet day. Alice had her first day of preschool. What a joy for all of us! This is the first time...ever...that Alice has seen me come to get her and actually *ignored* the fact. Ha ha ha! As we walk to the car she sighs, "Can I stay at preschool forever? I want to go where Mrs. Strom goes." Then she literally mopes around the house like I've never seen her mope before: listless, slumping shoulders, and a sober look on her face.

Of course, the moping may have something to do with her late night last night. Bobby had a meeting so I get her ready for bed while holding Robert. She's a bit sad for the final "good night", as always, but she perks up and asks if Robert can stay with her this time. I think about Robert's usual evening fussiness and how much I don't want to bounce him around the house all by myself that night, so I consent to an experiment. I tell her he can stay as long as he is happy. I put him on the bed right next to her and leave the room. That is 8 o'clock.

Bobby comes home at 8:30...the kids are talking, laughing, and reading stories.

Bobby and I chat about a few things that we don't normally get to talk about. It's a fulfilling discussion that brings me peace. The kids keep playing.

Bobby and I both get ready for bed at 9:30...they are STILL having a great time. Not just Alice, but Robert, too! He's cooing and smiling and watching Alice do whatever she does. She stays on the bed right by him the whole time. Half the time, she doesn't even involve him in the conversation, but he still finds her absolutely fascinating. This kid LOVES Alice.

9:45, Bobby asks how long we should let this continue. I smile. I'm curious to see how long it can last. Heck, I certainly can't entertain the boy THAT long. He might have been up this whole time fussing at us, anyway. And at least we got a good stretch of uninterrupted adult conversation out of it. I say, leave them be.

About 9:55, Alice lays down, pulls the covers up to her shoulder, and turns her back to Robert. She's still talking, but her eyes are closed. He starts to get nervous. He squawks a bit. I come in and get him. Alice doesn't hear me, apparently, because 5 seconds later she bursts into tears, "I wanted Robert in my room!" True to my word, I put him back. Squawking doesn't technically count as unhappiness. She sits up again and reads him another book, but the story is full of yawns.

At 10:04, two whole hours after I initially leave them alone together, Alice lays down again to sleep. Robert squawks. She doesn't do anything. He squawks louder and whinnies like a horse and squeals and makes bubbles but Alice doesn't respond. Then he starts to cry. Alice yells, "Mom, he's crying!" and that's my cue to take him away. Both kids are dead asleep within 10 minutes and the whole house is dead asleep in 20.

A curiously entertaining and educational experiment. Let's see if she asks for Robert again tonight. Hmmmm.

By the way, Alice's preschool teacher Mrs. Strom is just right for Alice. Just right for me, too. She won our love and trust early on during her summer home visit. I can't really explain why I like her so much beyond this feeling that she's a rich soul. Does that make sense? She's focused and calm with the kids. Not affectionate, but deeply caring and respectful. It's calming to be around her. I feel she's in control and comfortable doing her work. Alice is in good hands.

Family photos (a la Alice)

Dazed

 Smiley

Silly

Needs more focus

Monarchs and Hornworms

Due to my, uh, casual approach to garden work this summer, I've been growing quite a few caterpillars: monarchs on the milkweed and tomato hornworms on the produce. It's also been a banner year for spiders. Alice now uses the term "heeby-jeebies" on a daily basis.

As we clear out the brush in and around the garden, we find these caterpillars. I feel a pang of sadness every time I rip out a milkweed plant. I think of those majestic, migrating butterflies searching endlessly for a place to rest and lay eggs *sigh*

But when I find a tomato hornworm, like Alice has in the photo below, it's a totally different feeling.

They're usually too big to squish (I don't like the popping sound), so I furrow my brow and curl my lip in disgust before gently placing them far, far, far away from anything even related to the tomato family. Find something else to eat, you pretty worm. This one that Alice is looking at, however, has a story to tell.

See those little white fuzzballs hanging off of him? Mwah ha ha haaaaaaa. Certain death. All natural, too. Those are cocoons housing the pupating larvae of a parasitic wasp. The mommy wasp came by some time ago, stung the caterpillar to temporarily paralyze it, laid a few eggs inside him, and flew off. The eggs have hatched inside the caterpillar and feasted on his guts. When big enough, the wasp grubs chewed through the caterpillar's skin, made a cocoon, and will soon mature into adult parasitic wasps. The fact that this caterpillar has three cocoons on him and is still moving around cheerfully tells me the grubs didn't do much damage...this time. There's always the hope that the wasps he grew will come back to raise another generation.

So, well, I was thrilled to find this particular caterpillar in my garden. Now to look up ways to attract parasitic wasps...

Susan's Sunday Summary

What a week! Here are a few pictures I took...they're a bit random...just little things I want to remember. I tend to leave the camera at home for the big things like Preschool Open House, swimming at UIAC, and a church potluck. Oh well.

We made waffles one morning. Bobby dropped one in the sink (d'oh!), so Alice broke it up and threw it out front for the birds and rabbits. This squirrel happened by while Alice was napping, so I snapped a photo to show her who ate her waffle. Squirrels aren't nearly as cute as a bird or rabbit, but she was pleased anyway.

A fun lunch, inspired by this Family Fun magazine idea. Raisins and tomatoes make the face, carrot greens for hair, cheese ears, and Cinnabon cereal crowns (Alice's idea, of course).

Four cubic yards of shredded mulch from the Landscape Recycling Center (one of my new favorite places). They delivered it to our driveway. I was a initially disappointed that four cubic yards didn't look more impressive (this is the equivalent of 6-8 trips with my friend's pickup truck), but now that we're halfway through the pile, I'm starting to wonder if it's regenerating itself when my back is turned.

The mulch is part of a landscaping upgrade/overhaul we're applying to our property. It's time to make things look nice again. I'll post pictures of the finished project, including a snazzy new set of garden paths.

Friday afternoon, we had Mrs. Rogers and the Jarvi family over to make butter cookies. The kids were outside only a few minutes before this happened:

Yup, they're all chest deep and fully-clothed. Admittedly, neither of their moms was surprised at this outcome. We had plenty of time to dry off and play before the ward potluck. Caleb got brave once the other kids were inside changing.

 
Well, I'm off to move more mulch around. It's looking great! I might just have to have a croquet party to show it off (when it's done).

Hot Dog

Sometimes Alice surprises herself with her own creations. She doodled for a minute and then exclaimed, "Hey look! A hot dog!"

Yeah, I'm in love. I love this piece so much that I'm tempted to immortalize it in needlepoint. Go, go Soule-Mama aspirations!

Decatur Zoo

Bill and Kristin invited us to meet them at the Decatur Zoo this weekend. It's a pleasant little place with cheap sno-cones, a carousel, a train, and a great, big playground. We didn't happen to get any pictures of ANY of those, despite them being Alice's favorite parts. There were animals, too, but the kids weren't so interested in those features :)

Checkin' out the emu:

A wallaby with a baby in her pouch:

Being silly:

Being sweet:

Date Night

Sorry it's sideways. Alice tells me, "This is Mommy and Daddy on a date before I'm born. I'm in your tummy. You has the long hair. And the words are what you did."

Hmmmm. She was listening all the time.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

I promised last week that I would post the pictures and videos from our trip. I don't really have time to talk about all of them, but here they are. I will try and explain as many as I can though.

Three generations or Robert Evans.

Just having fun.

Helping make dinner.

Our Family



Alice Gets her finger and toe nails painted for the first time.






















Lots of fun at Yellowstone.




















Lots of fun with Cousins and Family.

We also had a lot of fun this week. We went to the zoo and many other things, but I don't have much time to explain all of it.

Romper

While in Utah, I sewed this romper/outfit with my mom. It's my first successful venture sewing with knits. I've got a couple other cute fabrics to make a few more. Don't know when I'll get around to them, but at least there's this one and the confidence to try again :)

Nanny Patter Macker

This is Alice's first painting that isn't a colored mass or a face. All of her paintings have objects and stories, of course, but this one is actually recognizable. Media: Crayola finger paints and recycled office paper. Alice's description of her work:

"It's a Nanny Patter Macker. It's a race car. It goes very, very, very fast on fast streets. Sometimes there are bumps and those are houses (giggle). I put a key in the holes and a lady on it."

Happy Birthday

I'm not one who likes to make a big deal over my birthday. Something about "Hey you, celebrate my life!" just doesn't appeal to me. I do, however, enjoy the excuse to spend time doing things I wouldn't normally do. Once I figured that out, my birthdays went from embarassingly awkward to delightfully subtle and fun.

So here's how the day played out...

Early awakening. Young children don't sleep in unless you need them to wake up early :)

Quick breakfast. Halfway through my bowl of cereal, I remember it's my birthday. Ha! Bobby heads to work and the rest of us settle into the morning routine.

I release myself from chores. Woo hoo! I load the dishwasher just for fun. It's all about the mindset for me, really.

Alice and I play and clean the house a bit while waiting for friends to pick us up. I prepare a tasty pasta salad with all of my favorite ingredients (whole wheat pasta, artichoke hearts, olives, edamame, fresh tomatoes, and italian dressing). I hang the birthday banner I made (repurposed placemats and fabric from Goodwill)

There's a knock at the door and I'm expecting Marianne, but it's a flower delivery! My parents-in-law have sent me flowers, which is surprising in two ways. First, I am reminded that gifts can accompany birthdays (this tradition fell by the wayside soon after we married...we're not a gift-giving kind of couple). Second, I suddenly realize how much I was secretly wishing for someone to send me flowers from The English Hedgerow. I dance around the house all morning.

Our friends arrive and we head out to the local children's museum. We play a while. We run into other friends there. The kids get tired/hungry and we meet back at our house for lunch. I enjoy my tasty pasta salad with someone who actually enjoys all of my favorite ingredients, too. Woo hoo!

The kids stay and play all afternoon while my friend performs a serendipitous service for someone else. The kids play so well together that I get some thinking time to myself. I also clean up the house a little more and get to tinker on some of my projects. Bobby brings home dinner from Holy Land Mediterranean Grill (lamb kufta kebabs, shawerma, and heaps of biriyani rice). I highly recommend Holy Land to all who live in the area. Here's the menu.

After dinner, we tidy up the house one last bit before friends arrive for a little dessert party. We prepare Curtis Orchard fresh apple cider slushies, roast gigantic marshmallows over charcoal, and munch on Ashley's unforgettable molasses spice cookies. We chat until the kids get tired (sensing a theme here?) and call it a night.

Just the kind of birthday I like :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Sorry about the missing posts the past few weeks. We have been on vacation. It was a long vacation visiting most of our family out west.

We flew through the Detroit airport. But the bad weather in Detroit that day shut down the airport for 45 min. This delayed our flight in by about an hour, but our flight out was about 4 hours late. I really love how the airlines do it with delays, They don't actually mark a flight as delayed or even give any hint that it might be delayed until the plane has already missed the original time, and then they only updated it once, which turned out to be way off. However, there was a very nice guy who works for the airline that helped us out deciding if we had any hope of catching the last flight from Detroit to SLC that day. He was very confident that everything would be delayed and we did manage to get to SLC, just at about 2 AM. We spent a long time in the airport there.

Here is a tunnel that runs under the runway between the terminals. You cannot hear it but they are playing music that is synchronized with the walls.

Once we got there we visited just about everyone. I will be posting more pictures soon

Pre-Reading

On our last trip to St. Louis, we stayed the night in a motel. We got there when it was late, so Alice didn't have a chance to look out the window until the next morning when she said:

"Hey! I see a sign!"

Being the ever-diligent teacher of pre-reading skills, I quickly responded, "Wow, Alice! Which letters do you see?"

"Ummmm...H...O...O"

(I groan in anticipation)

"...T...E...R...S. What's that spell, Mom?"

I smother a laugh with the most nonchalant voice I can muster, "Hooters."

"What's Hooters?"

"A restaurant."

"Can we eat breakfast there?"

Bobby and I jump up in unison: "No."