I've mentioned previously how busy our household is and how the kids run in a pack now that they out number us parents. Well, I wish I could snap shot in time some of the funny conversations that take place.
Recently, Lil Sister (the 4 year old) was making pretend pizzas. Now these pizzas were entirely imaginary. She worked on pizzas for all of us and proudly presented her finished projects for all of us - imaginary, pretend pizzas with various toppings.
At my request she made her "pretend pizza" (aka air) for her brother and I suggested olives for him. When she told him what was on his imaginary pizza he refused to eat it saying he did not like olives. We all kept saying it is just pretend, imaginary, pizza but he still refused saying he did not like pizza with olives and to take them off. She went back and took off all the imaginary olives and presented him with a fresh pizza.
I just have to crack up at how involved they are in their imaginations at this stage. T absolultely refused despite it being an imaginary pizza where he would just bite into air.
Love these goofy kids!
Just a few of the projects I've completed in the past couple months...
1. Pink baby afghan with matching bunny lovey. For my boss' new and first granddaughter. As with many of my completed projects that I gift, I will hear and little squeal of delight upon seeing the item. This was no different except I was not expecting it from the big boss man. He's a pretty tender hearted soul so I should not have been surprised and I think he did not realize he outwardly exclaimed about the bunny.
2. Matching "peep" bunnies for a couple of little girls. Some friends came to visit from Iowa. I crafted their girls some blankets 2 years ago. They came to town without the girls so I had to send something back for them. The flower was just a way to bind them together. They are meant to come apart and be separate.
3. Bucket of balls. I thought this was cleaver to gift our grand nephew on his 1st birthday. He comes from a long line of golfers. This was all my own idea. This did not come with a pattern or any Pinterest inspiration.
4. "Misha" doll for a special friend who broke her arm and had to have surgery. I made the doll in her image and named it after her. I even added a removable bandage for when she gets the cast off. She seemed excited.
5. Minnie Mouse headbands. Our friends from the zoo photos are headed to a special place where they will get to see Minnie in person. Their mom found these headbands on Etsy and I used it to make my own pattern and craft a set for her girls. My daughter was my model. She hopes we can go to the land of Minnie some day and she can have one of these, too.
6. In the mean time, to appease her wishes, I have distracted her with a "Frozen" dress and am in the process of finishing up her Wonder Woman doll (it is still without hair and a face but she already loves it so much she is sleeping with it).
7. Apple cozy. My colleague that I share my office with literally eats an apple a day. Every time I see her at the office which is rare because we work opposite days, she has an apple with her. I made her a "cozy" so her apple could be carried and not get bruised. T loved it so much he requested one to wrap his egg for an "egg drop" project he had at school. I made the handle detachable so she can attach it around her purse should she want.
I recently published "Resemblance Revisited". In it I compare photos of the kids all wearing the same outfit.
Now for a comparison of the two girls. I think resemblance is the key word. They definitely come from different molds. Baby is about a pound heavier and a month younger in the photo compared to her older sister's photo. Plus, Baby's head is also in the 50% whereas her sister's head ran in the 10-12% so the hats are not the same either. Lil Sister is just tiny and petite whereas Baby is, at this point, not. Baby also has much fairer skin and lighter eyes - both tough to note in the photos.
Baby is against the pink blanket background and Lil Sister is against the multicolored background. (Isn't that a lovely afghan?. I cannot believe it is the only photo I have of it since I never photographed it as a completed project before mailing it away. Sigh - that was a labor intensive project.) Speaking of afghans, I have one more completed and another two nearly done for competition - one which has been in the craft process for several years now. Photos when they are done.
Certainly the two girls also have different personalities. Lil Sister was truly the easiest baby EVER. She barely cried and was so mellow and easy going. Baby is pretty labor intensive by comparison and VERY vocal. She has quite the cry and even her screams of joy are enough to make her siblings cover their ears. Genetics is so interesting to me.
The big similarity - happy babies with faces that just melt my heart (and Dada's and Brother's, too). Love these girls. Sorry, Big Brother T - I don't have a baby sister photo to put up for comparison but if I were to post of photo of Baby in your old PJs we could pretend it is you since she looks so much like you as a baby. We've even slipped a few times and called her Baby T.
So, I am way behind on blogging. I put much effort into a guest blog post that I believe will be published very soon. Since then, spring hit and when you are a health care provider in an allergy and asthma office, part time becomes 3/4 time. I am still only working 2 days but this past week my extra time at the office was like a whole other day.
Plus, we had T's surgery - it went fantastic. His surgeon did a beautiful job. He marched into kindergarten when we returned to school and proudly showed off his "perfect belly button". He is not shy about sharing it. The hospital treated us beautiful and we had lots of friends who showed support and concern. He even had a couple school friends who made him books to read while he recovered. I may have written a little "Plants vs Zombies" guidebook for him as well. He took all his "plants" and the surgeon loved them so much she requested a "peashooter" for her little one.
Spring break blasted by so fast - with T's surgery I don't remember much else except a trip to the zoo with my friend who also has 3 kids. We only lost one of them twice. Pretty much controlled chaos when we have our 6 kids together. I have found that I feel more at ease around other families with at least 3 kids. There is just a level of chaos that I hesitate to cast upon others unless they are used to such chaos. My mom stayed all last week with us which is such a treat for the kids. She is doing much better but still not where she was previously. She did help me quite a lot with her calming presence. Plus, she is a world class baby whisperer. Even she was blow away by the energy level needed to take care of my pack. (Hubby and I refer to them now as a pack.) Mom had three kids but she raised them in two waves - my brother and sister were out of the house by the time I came along.
Work for both Hubby and me has been quite busy. Hubby's new job is awesome but his account is very demanding and we both work super long days last week. Last week I kept my two day schedule but I was away 12 hours both days - it was the first time I had been away from Baby for such an amount of time.
Last weekend was Easter and we had a great time attending church and also our grand nephew's first birthday party. We also did "un-Easter" baskets. We have opted out of the whole Easter bunny thing. We are fine with Santa but my parents never did the Easter bunny so it was nothing I grew up experiencing. The kids collected rocks for their baskets and on Easter morning the rocks were cast aside to view the miracle of the resurrection. Instead of a perfect body they found gifts to represent the risen Christ. The kids loved it and both said they were not the least bit sad about the Easter bunny. They enjoyed hunting eggs several times, too.
I have also crafted a few items in the past few weeks. I still have a couple of afghans that I am determined to finish. As with many of my crafted afghans, it can take me years to complete them. I have one that I've been working on for 3 years. Baby's is 95% done - just the border left and I started it about a year ago. Lil Sister requested a Wonder Woman - it is completed except for a face and hair. She already loves it so much she has been carrying it around hairless and faceless. She has already requested a set of princesses from Frozen. I did finish her Frozen dress, though.
T has two t-ball games per week, Lil Sister has ballet (recital this May), and they both have Spanish lessons, too. All these activities means we are pretty much busy most nights of the week. We still try to eat as a family but sometimes it's in a hurry. I know it will get better as t-ball winds down. Plus, school is winding down which we are all very sad about. I cannot believe my little guy will be a big first grader and oh how I will miss being in the kindergarten class. I adore T's teacher and her helpers, love his little classmates, and just love teaching art. My last big art project turned out so much better than we could have hoped. So great, the teacher hung them on her bulletin board. I'll try to put up a photo of the milk carton bird houses.
So there is the update. I will also update the kids blogs this week, although, this week could end up crazy so it may be next week. I have a great tale about Lil Sister's best tantrum ever, lots of photos of our super smiley baby who does not sleep after 5 pm, and t-ball photos of T.
For now, just some zoo outing photos thanks to my friend KN and a few extras of Baby because she is just at that super cute stage and I cannot resist her big grin. P.S. I would truly love it if T married the little girl he is kissing in the photos. I already want to adopt her. When she comes to hang out while her mom studies she's totally my little pal. Both my grandparents had arranged marriages so I'm not necessarily opposed to it!
More to come...
