Loving my kids

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Meet Brownie.  Brownie is Brandt’s much adored animal that I purchased on a whim.  He (Brandt) was having a bad night.  Elena was gone.  He wanted to be with her, but he was stuck shopping with mom (me) and it threw him over the edge.  In a moment of weakness, I tried to make things right and let him pick out an animal at the Hallmark store.  It was a good investment.  His tears dried up, and he spent the rest of the evening hugging this guy. And chewing its nose.  And dragging it around on the grubby Goodwill floor.

 

Of course things are never that easy, and when Elena finally got to meet Brownie, she was less than pleased.  Because it is just not fair!  That Brandt got a stuffed animal! And she did not!

 

Since I am never short on “mom-guilt” I tried remedy the situation.  I gave her an incentive. Sleep in her own bed for five nights in a row… and I will buy her a stuffed animal to sleep with.  Like a trouper she attacked the incentive, she never missed a night, and five days later she was begging to go to the store for her own stuffed animal.

 

Well, in the meantime Madelyn had been born, and I, being one day postpartum, sent my mom with Elena to Target to buy a stuffed animal.

 

I prepared myself for an animal that I probably wouldn’t like.  Because naturally Elena would pick something that I wouldn’t care for.  Can you guess what it was?  Here’s a hint:  It is white.  With pink curly hair.  With lots of bling. And her own pointe shoes.  And a patch on her hind quarter that shouts: GROOVY GIRLS!

 

Elena had spoken and chose her very own ballerina-horse. I don’t want to be remiss, and not mention that it also whinnies when you press her belly.

 

Meet Lindia (lin-dee-uh) Yes, Elena is also in a class of her own when it comes to names.

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This horse has brought me so much joy.  I look at it and laugh.  I was never into girly-girl colors, I never played with dolls, and I hated carrying babies around.  And now I have a girly-girl daughter whose color of choice is always pink, her toy of choice is dolls, she would spend hours holding Madelyn if I would let her.

 

I am loving watching her being girly-girl.

August 09 035

August passed us by

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   For the last five weeks when I thought about posting for about five seconds, my next thought was, “Nope, I’ll go take a nap instead”.

If the wash is caught up, and the kitchen is cleaned, the baby asleep and the kids are happily playing, well, then I just want to sit and do nothing!  So I do.  And that ends my obligatory explantion on my lack of posting.

The biggest event was Madelyn birth on July 27.  She’s a sweet-heart, all cuddly, and loves to be held.  Madelyn (16)

My mom was here the week after she was born, throwing my laudry through the washer, washing my windows, keeping the kids out of my hair, making my meals, weeding the flower beds, and the list goes on and on.

I always love that first week, I just laze around and take it easy, hold the baby and sleep.

Madelyn (35)

I was prepared to have a huge adjustment and probably a mental breakdown too when mom left.  As always, it helps me to be pessimistic, because everything has gone much smoother than I expected.  Whew, PTL.

The kids love the baby, even Brandt, which is a surprise.  He loves her very much.  Unless he secretly hates her and that’s why he tries to smother her on a daily basis.

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Two weeks after the baby was born, Gene was gone, so Mom & Sherry came out to hang with me for the weekend.  Here is the whole motley crew, minus Madelyn.  We ventured as far as McDonalds in the whole two days they were here.

The rest of the time was spent drinking coffee, feeding babies and chatting. Mom kept trying to get work done, but

no, we weren’t to interested.  To get just this one picture took some doing. Just saying.

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 I took many many pictures of Madelyn and Ava together and yes, this is as good as it got.  Which is pretty bad I know. The middle pictue is Brandt and Wynn disrupting the photo shoot.

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GOOD TIMES!

We’ve had lots of family times this past month.  (Gene is ready for some friend time I think)

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Elena is now a photographer.  We take turns taking pictures of each other:

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We even got a day in at Cherry Crest with the cousins.  For Elena this is as good as it gets.  20 Cousins, (give or

take a few) a glorified petting zoo, lots of hay bales and farm centered activities, what could be better?

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Don’t tell her, but we’re gonna go again sometime this year.

Also this month my kids have developed an obsession for newspaper hats.  I have lost count on how many newspaper hats I’ve made for them.  Wouldn’t it be cute and funny to take a picture of them with their hats?

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 It was neither.

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