Ivy version 5.0

Ivy is 5 months old. She is exponentially more aware of her surroundings, and discovered the skill of keeping herself awake to enjoy our company. So this last week we finally started letting her learn to go to sleep on her own, and she's done marvelously.

I feel like a new person now that I can set her down for a nap without worrying that a sudden noise (like Calvin dumping thousands of legos onto the hardwood floors or Bryn conducting an imaginary fish symphony) is going to wake her and ruin her schedule for the rest of the day. If anyone wants to know more about our process, I'd be happy to share.

*Note the cute little fat dimple on her elbow in the top middle photo.

Me Like Giggles

 

He's trained

The best part was he tried- and sort of succeeded- to sit down like this.

Just how big was that home-grown tomato?

*No photoshop or editing was used in these pictures.**

**Okay, maybe just a little in the second photo.

It was a real nice clambake

Every breath you take, every move you make

This is the neighbor's antisocial cat that watches Ivy through the window by her changing table. It totally creeps me out, especially since we saw it wandering through our backyard with a large rodent (squirrel?) hanging limply in it's jaw.

*No photoshop or editing was used in this picture- I took it through the window, and that's Ivy's reflection.

Drumroll..........Magic Show!!!

While Peter was sleeping this afternoon, the kids and I made a movie akin to the old movies I grew up making with my family on a Video8(?) (what was that, Dad?- think dinosaur/early prototype of a home video recorder). Grab some popcorn for this one:

A Pictographic Journey: How we got from point A to point B

Note: The last picture was taken by Calvin. As I swooped in to rescue Ivy, he swooped over to the tripod to snap a shot. You can see my hand in the photo.

Side note: this picture was on Karen's blog today. Could these boys be related?

The Second Shot Heard 'Round the World

We puttered around the Old North Bridge and the visitor center's extensive and blooming grounds. Bryn made patriotic statements about the brave Colonials and trash-talked the tyrant British the whole time.

Bryn and Calvin raced to and fro on the paths and flew up and down the numerous hidden stairways. It's a good place to lose a kid, and if there happens to be a large river nearby, a good way to induce an adrenaline response.

Here is a video of our kids warming up for a race:

Captain's Log: Stardate -313318.03576864535

Ivy learned some new tricks this month. She decided she'd had enough of playing the contented baby bit and shook things up by cutting a tooth and swinging toward nocturnalism. Once the jagged little thing was in she started behaving better. I started her on rice cereal last week. It's a bit early, but every night at dinner time she stared and salivated at our food like a starving castaway. So far she likes it, but only if I let her have a hand on the spoon while I feed her.

Calvin has discovered his "fast," and the only way to get him to perform menial tasks such as teeth brushing and putting on pajamas is to race him. Before said races he performs all manner of exercises (jogging place, pushups, etc.), and then he's off like a shot. His preferred form is flailing every party of his body for added speed (including his head).

Bryn started Kindergarten. She declared after the first day, "Well Mom, Kindergarten was a success." More importantly, she has a new career plan. She announced to us that when she's older she's going to become the Queen of Spain, so she can TOTALLY RULE and charter a voyage to Saturn to discover a new planet (in the spirit of Columbus).

I recently discovered a local indoor soccer pickup league that starts in November, which should be fun. I'm also reading a digital photography book and trying not to covet nicer cameras (come on y'all, stop putting such beautiful photos on your blogs). I successfully took all three children to the zoo this month by myself, and was so thrilled with the results that we went straight to the store. Let's just say that was a bad idea and leave it at that.

Peter is wrapping up his summer stint as a professional and heads back to school this week. He is not taking classes this semester in hopes of making headway with his dissertation. He borrowed Kit Kitridge: An American Girl from the library (for himself) and found himself on the verge of tears a couple of times, and the themes continue to haunt him. He said I could put that in the blog, so go ahead and give him a hard time about it.