On Saturday, Gracie held a great party to celebrate her 4th birthday. We hoped to get better pictures, but someone (Henry) woke up from his nap still very tired after a long week of no naps and spent most of the party drowning in a sea of unbearable whine.
There was a pinata that everyone took a swing at (except Henry, who cried that he wanted a turn then refused to take one).
I spent my time playing in the water table and getting eaten alive by bugs.
Grace had the coolest birthday cake. Mama's best memory of her birthdays as a little girl involve beautiful barbie cakes like this. She was very pleased to see this cake.
There were five older kids and three little brothers and sisters running around. It was a mad house. Henry, of course, didn't handle it well, and spent the whole party demanding that mama stay with him at all times.
Here's the big moment.
I didn't mess with the big kids' table. I found this Bumbo seat in the corner of the kitchen floor, climbed in and proceeded to eat 4 slices of watermelon.
Audrey held out for some strawberry cake.
Later, the rest of the kids cleared out and we stuck around to pay for a little while.
Henry finally stopped whining and started having fun. He decorated his balloon with a sticker face then teased me with it.
Finally I got one of my own.
Gracie's grandpa showed me how to bounce the balloon and I had a good time trying it on my own.
Lately, there is only one place I want to be: at the table. It's always covered in fun stuff, like craft and art supplies, or toys I'm not supposed to be touching. Plus, everyone else is always sitting up there. So every time someone forgets to push a chair in, I head straight over and climb up to see what kind of trouble I can cause.
On Friday, mama let me stay up there and play in the crayon box and the pony beads because she was trying to paint with Henry. And that is trouble enough without a screaming 17 month old who wants to get her way.
Henry was working on a special present for his best bud Gracie.
Mama was a little stressed because the art project required 18 different paint color changes, juggling two picture frames and a hair dryer that Henry insisted on using to help speed the drying process. And it just occured to her today that she just should have put down an old table cloth.
Once I started trying to eat the beads (I swear I played appropriately with them for a half hour), I was banished to my high chair to play with my little people.
Here's the finished project. One for Grace and one for Henry.
This weekend, mama was talking to Henry about how he was going to a new school at our new house. He explained that he didn't need a new school because he already has a school. Mama said that his school was going to be too far away. Henry thought about it and replied, "But Gracie won't be at my new school." This alone is what is really tearing mama up about moving. We have some really good friends here in Winston and we're going to miss them a lot.
Mama tried to liquidate a few art projects last week, but Henry found them in the trash can before she was able to sneak them out and restored them to the table. The snake- which periodically gets a little more color.
And this cool 3D Car Movie poster. Henry colored it all by himself then shellacked it with the glitter paint brush that was included in the kit. The glitter glue is about an inch thick and permanently sticky. Thank goodness Henry saved it.
Here's a video of me feeding myself with a spoon- sort of. Check out those looks I give mama when she has the gall to suggest eating with my spoon instead of my fingers.
We didn't know what an accomplished guitarist papa was until he started playing a family favorite. Henry sang and I danced. Put mama on the spoons and we've got a family band.
Henry has lately become very aware of music. Though we have some CDs of indie artists singing kids songs in a fashion tolerable for adults, we spend most of our time listening to music that mama and papa want to hear. Henry surprised mama yesterday by singing the full chorus to the song "Spaceman" by a band called the Killers. Don't worry, despite their deplorable band name, the song isn't inappropriate, although mama and papa will be screening their music from now on. Henry can also sing "Yellow Submarine" and "Ring of Fire." He learned "Ring of Fire" at school during circus week. Didn't you know Johnny Cash was singing about baby lions jumping through flaming hoops? Hopefully mama can get a video of it soon, because it is pretty cute.
UPDATE: Mama here. I didn't want to admit it, but we found this picture of me at one year, and there's really no denying that June and I are related. Check it out:
Papa here. I took the following picture of June just this evening and was struck by what I perceived to be the strong resemblance between the Bug and a certain other Mme. Turner. For her part, Mama is skeptical. What does everyone think, particularly those who know what Becky looked like as a similarly-aged stinker? Grandma Seibert--whaddya think?
Aunt Girl, you'll be glad to know I finally fit into the shoes you got me for my birthday.
And they are adorable! Every morning (after I put on my jewelry), I go straight to the closet for my pretty pink shoes.
I'm not so sure about the socks mama picked out, but who cares as long as I can look pretty.
I tried "double shoeing" it with mama's new Birkenstocks that she got on Ebay. ($20 for a pair of $100 brand new shoes! She hasn't stopped talking about them.) It was so cute that I clearly negated the "no shoes on the carpet" rule and wear these shoes nonstop until it's time to go to bed. It's driving Henry crazy.
At lucnch, I decided my bottle wasn't good enough and demanded to drive from mama's gym bottle. I didn't feel like eating much today, but for the first time in known history, I pushed all of my torn up sandwich into the cup holder, instead of throwing it across the room as hard as I can.
Now that I've stopped throwing food, mama says maybe she'll keep me after all.
Here's more pictures from my camera. The vast majority of them are big white over-exposed blobs, because I'm still learning not to take pictures from a distance of 2 inches. But some turned out.
These are my words. Every night, papa and I sit down at the computer and work on the finer points of phonics. I've got "oo" down, but "th" words are giving me a hard time. Maybe it's because I can't pronounce "th". Once we're done working on sounds, papa gives me 10 words that I have to read on my own. If I get all 10, I get an extra story before bed. Sometimes I get 3 chocolate chips.
Here's a picture of papa. I'm getting better at standing back.
The first picture of just mama and papa that has been taken in a long time, since mama is always the one taking pictures. Time for a hair cut, mama.
I dabble in self portraits. This is the first one for my facebook page. Mama says all the teenagers take their own pictures.
GG got mama a box of kids craft ideas, and I decided I wanted to make this snake. We cut it out so when you lift it up in the middle, he's a big twirly snake.
I gave him 3 eyes and an orange tongue.
I'm getting better at pictures of myself.
Here's mom again.
And Gracie and I making necklaces.
We want to give a special public mention to Aunt Girl. She's really got what it takes to be a teacher because on Tuesday night she very enthusiastically talked to me on the phone for over 20 minutes while I played out the episode of Bob the Builder where the ever technologically-impaired Bob can't get his phone to work because he held it upside down. I tried this out on Girl several times and it never got old. And Aunt Girl played along the whole time. Thanks, Girl.
Yesterday, Miss Becky was hit with the painting bug and wanted to paint 3 rooms in one day. Mama told her to bring Audrey and Grace over so she had a chance of accomplishing that goal.
All four of us played very well together. We tried to occupy the same 4 square feet for the whole play date. We didn't fight, but did manage to dump every single toy and scatter them around the house.
I got a little thrirsty, so Audrey tried to help me out with my bottle.
Mama got this big bin of beads for $3 at a garage sale and it has paid for itself many times over. Henry made 2 necklaces and Gracie made four. It kept them busy for an hour. We were all so good, mama managed to make a cassarole for the freezer, a loaf of banana bread, and supper while we played. Can you please come back again?
This is our last post... until Uncle Kevin and Aunt Elizabeth update their blog. Natalie, Oliver, and Tessa, please update your blog! We hate to punich everyone, but mama is suffering from severe withdrawal.
This weekend, I helped clean up around the house by doing some vacuuming. then I trashed the place again.
Mama wants to know, does everyone else's house have a one inch layer of magnet, coasters and other small toys? They're my favorite toys. Today I spent 15 minutes placing a button in different rooms of my doll house. It's gotten so bad recently that I need to wear Buster's boots to slog through the mess.
Last night, mama and Henry celebrated summer with some sweet corn. Henry was refusing to eat supper until he saw the ears of corn.
He ate two ears and even some chicken.
This morning mama was outside talking to our neighbors when I wandered off. They could see me sitting behind a bush, so they didn't bother me, because I wasn't running into the street. When mama fished me out, she saw I'd been digging a hole in the dirt. This picture doesn't do much justice to my filth, but make sure to zoom in on it so you can see how covered I am.
Here's a shot of my fingernails (after washing). Mama tried to clean them out, but I threw a big fit before she could get under my fingernails.
Finally, here's a funny story about Henry. This morning, Gracie came to pick him up for school. They were strapped in the back seat of Miss Becky's car when they drove my a rabbit that had met its demise in front of our driveway. Gracie told Henry "Look at that squished bunny. It must be a dog toy." Henry responded in a matter of fact way: "That's not a toy. It ran out in front of a car. It's dead Gracie." Apparently, Gracie was lost for words. What a realist Henry is.
Today, mama decided to take June grocery shopping before lunch. Bad idea. June spent the first 10 minutes scarfing down cheerios, then cried the rest of the trip. And if you know mama, she is not the type to end a trip because of a grumpy kid. She says she came to the store for a reason and is not leaving until she gets her shopping done, so you better not throw a fit to leave, because it's not going to get you anywhere. She did however resort to opening a box of crackers, which June held in her sweaty little hands as she cried. Mama even bought a new nuk, but Juner wouldn't take it. She cried all the way home and fell asleep as soon as she got her blankie.
She slept for 3.5 hours and woke up in a slightly better mood. The snake wrapped around her shoulders seemed to help. She didn't eat lunch and refused to eat supper, so we decided that she must be coming down with the cold that I have. Mama is so pleased because her pants become the most demanded tissue in the house. Well, when we're not using them to dry our hands.
June had a quiet evening reading books with papa.
I ate a good supper, even though I declared that the raisins in mama's dirty rice were dead and "I don't eat things that are died." (Please don't tell me where hamburger is from.) Because I ate a good supper, mama let me have a fun dip we've been saving since Seibert vacation. That ought to indicate how often we eat good suppers in this joint.
It took a lot of concentration to dip all that fun.
When I decided I coudn't get any more off the stick, I went straight for the plate.
The finished product. The plate was so clean from licking that papa could have just put it back in the cupboard.
Here's a little treat. When Evie was a baby, she amused the whole family with her "How big is Evie" routine. She was a natural. Mama tried it for a while with me, but I was always too busy parking cars to try. Today, she tried it with June, and even in her compromised state, June was doing it after one try. Girls are such show-offs.
If you can't understand what I'm saying in the video, I'm asking mama if the storm is going to be over soon so we can go to the pool. It storms here practically every afternoon. Mama loves a good summer storm and they usually blow over quickly. Mostly, they ruin my chances of going swimming. Yesterday mama and I went by ourselves. I'm really starting to like the water. I was jumping in off the side of the pool so high that I went all the way under water and didn't care too much.
Henry finally stopped whining and started having fun. He decorated his balloon with a sticker face then teased me with it.
