With Mommy

No School for Sam + School for Mommy + Mommy needs to pump = shaving cream on the table for entertainment.

After the first time with me she was desperate to be anywhere else while I pumped.  "I HATE the sound that thing makes!" 

You and me both, kiddo!

Commute

I leave work at 3:40 and arrive home around 4:40.  Lots of car-time with various children, depending on who gets picked up first.

Hey baby!

Whenever the weather is nice enough to be outside, I'm guaranteed a car-nap from this one!  Dimensions is amazing!!

Charlotte

Her outfits just kill me!

Typical cue that she's tired...

Bubble

Someone learned a new trick!

POP!

Budding artist

She got some great inspiration from Bob Ross

Valentines

This year I had a random moment of inspiration, followed by a weekend of enough energy and managed to put these together with the girls.  It helped that Sam could man the glue-gun, Charlotte could stuff balloons and put on stickers.  We really need to get a working printer again, though!

Hershey Kisses are in the balloon! 

My other minion who helped write all 200  labels!

Super baby

Add caption

Videos

Just old videos that I've re-discovered!  Samantha was so SMALL!  

Boardgame night

Jeremy and I have started putting on a family board game night at the church.  It's so fun!  

Also, we quickly realized that most people do NOT, in fact, have 40+ boardgames...

Here was a hilarious one- MimiQ!

Go Big or Go Home

On the 13th Genevieve figured out how to sit herself up.  And crawl.  And cut her 3rd tooth.  

But she was MUCH too busy to care about Mommy and a picture to commemorate the events!

She's now a pro.  24 hours later and she's crawling and sitting up like the's been doing it for months.  This just baffles me.  We had to work SO hard to get Sam to do this and she figured it out.  I was getting worried and trying to remember how it went down with Charlotte.  Note to self- chill.  Babies really do just "figure it out!"

Charlotte's New Name

She and Samantha came running up and Charlotte said between huffs of catching her breath, "Hello mommy.  I'm not Charlotte, I'm Cassie Sophia Tiara."

Ok then.

Whiteboards

The family- even those in heaven

Monster

Jeremy got an echo dot for Christmas.  Charlotte drew "Alexa" here.  She's part of the family now.  The girls love chatting with her and asking her random things that Alexa usually can't answer.

Took me a second to realize what the spots were :)

A Rock

Remnants of Samantha's time at Dimensions...this made it to our bathroom clutter.

10 Years

Jeremy and I got to spend a quiet evening and morning together, pretending to be parents of one child.  Strange how much easier the third child is by themselves than the first was by themselves!

She got lots of extra attention from strangers and fell in love with my water bottle.

Seriously, she would NOT let go.

Grins at dinner!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Arkansas 2016

Somehow, although I uploaded all the pictures, I forgot to post about Arkansas last August!

Arkansas Part 1
Arkansas Part 2
Arkansas Part 3

Snacktime

"Oh look!  Theeeeeeeere's the hula-hoop."

Looking for Archie

A friend recently sent me something and changed our world. 

Well, first she sent me this and I was all, "meh, not Samantha."

Then she sent me this one and I was all WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!?!?

(she got them here, btw)

I gave them a shot.  Before I made a grocery store trip we did 15 minutes of vestibular input.  Then we were off.  She was off medication.  She was going to be hungry.  Her sister was tired and coming to.  

That would normally would have been a recipe for disaster.  

But I thought- go big or go home!

It. Was. Amazing.  

By allowing and feeding her need for being UPSIDE DOWN or sideways and hopping non-stop, she was able to be close-to-typical while at the store.  I was in tears the rest of the weekend.  Tears of relief to finally have SOMETHING new to try.  

Over night our world changed.  I googled.  I read.  I bought books.  Specifically these two:

Things are by no means easy, but we have a direction to go in.  I feel I better understand her.  Understanding is so so so so life-changing.  I'm not so frustrated with ever interaction.  And I'm able to laugh and see the funny side of her.  Like how she gets ready to go to the grocery store:

She was still sliding all over the store, but was able to find Archie without announcing it to the rest of the store!

Kids say

August:

After working the 9th grade retreat for two days Samantha kept asking if I was finished welcoming "those men". Took me several minutes for me to realize she was talking about the FRESHmen

"I think I have a disease."

"What do you mean? What kind of disease?"
"One that makes me leave stuff at people's houses. I do it ALL the time."
-samantha

"hello there sir...well, there's head lice in the family..." Samantha to the stranger using the dryers next to us at the laundromat...pretty sure I should have brought Charlotte instead..

"can I hold Genevieve?"
"Can I go play on the swing set?"
"Can I go down the BIG slide?"
"Can we go skating?"

NO! You have a broken arm!!!!! Why does she keep forgetting this?!

September:

Me to Jer about my day, "x happened and... it totally hit the fan."

Charlotte looking up at the ceiling, "What hit the fan, mommy?"

C, "mommy, my head itches.."
Heart skips a beat and I reply, "really? Do you think you have bugs again?"
"Yeah. Can you comb my hair?"
"You think I need to comb your hair again?"
"Yeah... And while you do it, can I watch a show on your phone?!"

I swear, they'll do anything to get a screen fix! Little junkies..

October:

"it just wasn't the same here, mom, without you and your harsh voice."

-samantha

"daddy, I miss the yelling. You don't yell. You just raise your voice."

-Samantha while I was away

Samantha got a set of books from a dear friend after she broke her arm. We asked her to write a thank you. This was her first draft. She insists that she likes them now, it was just her "being honest" as to her first reaction. She was commissioned to do a nicer one

x

Goodness this child. Yesterday, I gave Samantha a list of her options for the day (she was grounded). Today I found this lying around... She thought I wouldn't be able to read it because she wrote it with her left hand... Little does she know the high schoolers I teach.

These sentences brought to you by the 21st century!

"Sam, try this sweetened homemade whipped cream with fruit!"
"No thanks, it's not my thing. Can I just have an apple plain?"
"How about these crackers with cream cheese!"
"Um... OK..*eats 2 bites* I'm done with these, can I have the bag of carrots?"

The child we are trying to fatten up has the wrong taste buds!

-Signed, the salvating nursing mom who is trying to lose the baby weight

 Samantha reads a lot of comic books, especially Baby Blues. Recently she's taken too SAYING things like, "sigh" and "groan" when she's upset or disappointed. The newest one has me in stitches. Jeremy has heard her SAY, "giggle giggle snort" when she's laughing

November:

It's OK to enjoy (just a little bit) Samantha's despair at not knowing who Jer and I each voted for, right?

Jeremy "woah. The Verizon black Friday deal has a Google Pixel for only $10 a month."

Me, "whats a Google Pixel? well, you just called and saved us 40 a month, so we could work that in if that's something you'd want."
*30 seconds later*
Jeremy, "OK, it's $** shipped, we have to pay taxes up front. Happy birthday and Christmas to me!"
Me, "😳 oh, so we're doing it then?"
Jer, "you said we had room in the budget! No way was I going to wait for you to change your mind!"

December:  

"Mommy let's hold hands while we are going down the stairs so you don't get lost..."

-Charlotte

"Charlotte, go ahead and start eating!"

"But mommy, I didn't PRAY yet!"

I put another tradition into practice this year that I learned from the Foley's (and thought was so odd when I was young)- the girls got each other things in the house already. C helped "fix" a favorite toy of Sam's (put in new batteries), C and S dug through the baby toy bag and picked out toys for G that she's never seen before and Sam wrapped up dark chocolate for C. The girls are so excited!

Discovery of the day- Genevieve is terrified of car washes.

Someone wasn't taking Time-Out seriously

Feburary:
Twice now I've put both girls in time out and they could only get out when they gave each other permission to do so. Attitudes changed instantly. How can we apply this to politics and foreign policy???!!