Happy Birthday Bean!

I'm three years old already? That's CraZy!!!
I agree little girl, I agree. As a good friend of mine says, "the days are long but the years go fast". You are such a gift to your Daddy & me! We love your silly songs, your tender heart, your inquisitiveness, your high-as-only-dogs-can-hear squeal, your "pirate wink" and the great big hugs you give. We pray that God creates in you a soft heart, that you will seek His will and that you will grow to be a woman of grace. We love you Luca Bean!

The Birthday celebrations commenced with cake-baking. Luca tasted the batter and pronounced it "yummy" so we moved on to icing. Luca tasted that too (just to be safe).

Then she added the sprinkles (polka dots or stars were her options, she chose the "poke dots").

I practiced writing her name and of course this one turned out much better than the one on the cake...

...Luca didn't mind and ate them both.

All in all, we were happy with the finished product!
The taste and the candles are the important things anyway...
And when you get to have pink & purple layers, maybe even the taste doesn't matter so much.
In the end, i think she ate more frosting than cake!
Daddy brought Luca flowers...this is extra special to me because I remember a rose my Dad brought me on my 4th birthday. Luca was thrilled too!

Luca's favorite food is (are?) mushrooms. Seriously. A plate full of sauteed mushrooms is her idea of the perfect meal. On pizza, she'll eat the mushrooms off and then ask for another piece. She's a great little eater, for example, this phrase has actually come out of my mouth: "Luca, I want you to have two more bites of chicken and then you can have more vegetables". I laughed at myself after that one. Suffice it to say, I knew what she wanted for her birthday dinner...

Her present from Mommy & Daddy: A shiny red soccer ball!

Keeping Cool

This summer has seemed more than usually hot to me. This may have something to do with my hormones and their recent fluxes. In any case, we're big fans of water around here. At first it was just a lowly sprinkler which Luca would wander through or use to fill buckets and then she'd gleefully dump cool refreshing water on her shoes, some bugs, the car and Madi. (Madi found this hilarious so no foul). And a few times even I got doused.

And then one day at Target, I spotted this pool for the bargain price of $9.95.
SOLD.

And so began the many afternoons of splash parties. Court lounged poolside in his "chaise" and I sat on the kitchen stool (so that I could keep my feet in the water) and occasionally splashed him. The girls kept busy with buckets, the slide, a strainer and one very cute elephant watering can which to the best of my knowledge, has really only ever watered children and pavement.

(Very impressed with my little pocket Sony camera for catching these water droplets!)

Court showing his muscles.

And then, Daddy took Luca to a real swimming pool. Our neighborhood pool has a fantastic "spray-ground" for younger kids complete with a wading pool and water slide. The first few times this is where Luca reigned but on our last two visits she was digging the "big" pool too. We may have to sign up for some swimming lessons next summer!

Court slept in the shade, utterly unimpressed by the spray-ground. He wore his swim shorts but since he never peeped he missed out.

Next year!

Time Flies

Looking through old pictures (comparing Luca & Court) I stumbled across this trouble-trio from December of 2008. Luca, Isaiah & Miya, friends from the start!

And still trouble. Don't let them fool you with their sweet smiles.

July, 2011

Court Sounds

This is naptime. He was supposed to be exhausted and asleep as soon as I swaddled him. I guess he had other ideas.....


Court laughing makes me happy.

Court also enjoys shrieking, shouting, etc.


This is his newest thing...growling. (Please excuse the blurry picture, I had a setting wrong.)

Four Months Old!

I cannot believe that the first third of my sweet little boy's first year is gone! He is such a joy in our house. Here's a peek at what he's been up to:

Holding up his head like a rock star. Court loves his tummy time. When he fusses (or just for the fun of it) we throw him down on his blanket. He's already scooting his way across the floor!

Oh my goodness, I could just eat him up! We're practicing sitting...

Luca has begun the time-honored tradition of including baby brothers in the game of dress-up. He doesn't seem to mind as long as nothing interferes with the finger chewing. He is BIG into chewing.

Taking a snooze. He is less of a napper than Luca was but being that he's so happy, we're ok with that.

Is there anything cuter than baby toes? Court is a great shopper and with his carseat cover on he can catnap in peace.

Luca thinks being able to do anything with Court is a big deal. Even just sitting.

Sibling Storytime. Isn't it great that Court seems to be actually invested in this story? Luca "read" the whole book to him three times.

The girls helped me wash the truck while Court watched. He enjoys sitting up so that he can see all the action. It was such a beautiful day!

Hanging out on Mommy's & Daddy's bed is a favorite thing to do.

And, lest this blog should give the impression that we lead a storybook life with nothing but happy, perfect children: There was a day this week that was so full of stomping, whining, crying & disobedience that a certain Mommy broke. At that point, a certain someone was sent wailing to their room to stay until the whining stopped and the Mommy regained her composure. In all honesty, that took almost 45 minutes. And that's when the Mommy found this:

Around here we like the Anne of Green Gable's quote: "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it"

And more importantly:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Metamorphosis

Did you ever hatch a butterfly as a kid? We did. A few times. Here, Zach & I are watching as our Monarch dries it's wings. Circa 1987

And this guy, if I remember correctly, turned into a giant brown and red moth. Isn't he huge?

I vividly remember the first time I followed the journey of a caterpillar into a butterfly so when we found a tiny green caterpillar among the carrots in our garden I was really excited! One of Luca's favorite books right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle so she was happy to help keep the jar full of fresh greens. Here's Luca (a little under the weather, those red eyes!) holding our "big fat caterpillar!"

(You know how Mommies sometimes call children by the wrong name even though they know it's wrong? Well, at the end of this video you will hear me clearly say "caterpillars can swim". This is false. :) What I was trying to say is "caterpillars can climb" but those neurons misfired. Luckily, I don't think Luca was listening.)

With the help of google images, I was able to determine that our little guy would grow up to be a black swallowtail. (I was delighted. I had wondered if we were just hatching a little gray moth!)

The cocoon. (Isn't chrysalis a much finer word than cocoon or pupa? Alas, thanks to Eric Carle, every time I tried to call it a chrysalis Luca looked confused and corrected me. "Mommy, this is a "coon""

Beautiful!!! (We missed it for the pictures but several hours before hatching, the cocoon became transparent and you could see the black, blue & orange of wings.)

Hatched!

This experience had Joe and I both thinking about the intricacies of creation. What actually happens inside that cocoon? And how can that be anything but God? Wow.

And just for good measure: Luca as Eric Carle's caterpillar at the zoo...

...and a beautiful butterfly!

Random

We have a sandbox on loan for the summer and Luca is logging hours in it. She loves and is always completely engrossed in her "work".


Court watching Luca eat ice cream, she tried to share but Mommy said no.

Silly Face

Mohawk!

He can fall asleep anywhere. The girls and I were building block towers and knocking them down all around him. Court was watching us but in the middle of the chaos he crashed. We cleaned up, had lunch, I Vacuumed and still he slept.

This video makes me smile. Especially the part where Luca is just sure her eyes are "green like Mommy's", she looked in the mirror. I guess our mirrors are malfunctioning because your eyes are most definitely blue sweet girl!