Day 19: The Little Potty

I'm going to try to be on the lookout for signs of spring - even though it's 15 degrees below the normal temperatures for this time of year, and snow can still be found on the ground in many places.  In the meantime, here's Sabine's potty as of a couple weeks ago.  Earlier in the year I had a wave of inspiration about the whole potty issue (I was not having much luck getting Sabine to use it).  I'd been trying to bribe her with various things, yet none of them appealed to her. 

Finally I realized it had to be something that could be measured so she could see her progress over time.  She went for the sticker idea, which is great because I have millions of stickers.  I give her one each time she goes pee on the little potty and she gets to put it on the potty.  I think for some reason it matters that it goes on the actual potty and not like, her getting to wear it on her shirt or something.

It's been a few weeks since this picture has been taken and by now it's covered with stickers.  She's still wearing diapers a lot of the time, but more and more of them are staying dry.  I am just so ready to be done washing diapers, and they really stink now so it will great when they're eliminated completely. 

Day 18: Signs of Spring?

OK, so I sort of slipped behind in my daily photos...again.  It's really hard being pregnant, and having kids, and maintaining all the things I need to do during the day.  I'm just going to go ahead and continue the day count and ignore the fact that I missed a couple weeks because if I try to do it perfectly then I'll completely miss out on recording our days.

I thought it would be fun to have a series of spring photos; Signs of Spring.  I've encountered a glitch though...technically it is spring, but there have yet to be any signs to show us that it really is here.  Here's one thing that usually means spring to us:  Stella.

She comes back from her 'migration' each spring and then we know the seasons really have turned.  This year, not only did she come back a little early, but this is also the year that the snow hasn't wanted to go away.  The snow and Stella don't usually co-exist, so it was weird to have her around while the snow was still on the ground.  Anyway, here she is in her winter glory.  She wanted me to take a picture of her in her snow clothes to send to her grandkids in Florida.

Day 17: The Two-Straw Method

I bet you felt so sorry for Sabine in that last photo, so sad looking, waiting for her taste.  So I have to offer some resolution with this next post.  Eventually the fighting over whose turn it was become so bad, that I had to go get another straw and adopt the two-straw method.  They look like they belong on Happy Days.  Aww.

Seriously though, those shakes were four bucks a pop and I wasn't about to get them each one of their own.  Once you establish the "I want my own" precedent, there's no going back.  I hope this doesn't turn them to a life of anti-sharing when they grow up.  Forced into years of only getting half a serving, my adult children will go through life hoarding their food and hiding away stashes of goodies.

Day 16: Longing for a Sip

After West Virginia we hit Hershey, Pennsylvania and took a tour of Hershey Park.  Jacob got a milk shake in the food court and Sabine was sitting there patiently awaiting her turn.  They were so darn cute I couldn't help but take a bunch of pictures.

Day 15: Welcome to West Virginia

Later in the day, after leaving Virginia, we made a pit stop at the teeny, tiny West Virginia Welcome Center.  While we were there, I realized that it was a new state for Sabine.  Since it was her first time there, I decided we needed a good photo op.  I let the kids run around and stretch their legs; here they are climbing the rocks.

Day 14: Goodbye Pictures

Before we left on Saturday morning for our long journey home, we took come cousin pictures.  Here is everybody under 10 sitting on the front steps.

Day 13: All Done

l

We made ice cream later that night and when Sabine was finished, this is what she had to say.  She's using the sign for 'all done'.

Day 12: 2nd Cousins

This was taken in the afternoon when everyone was getting up from their naps.  Emma came in to help us wake up and get going.  Jacob snuggled with her for a while before she got sick of it and started to cry.  I love the pictures I took of them then.  I love Jacob's big lashes and Emma's big cheeks.  I actually think she looks a lot like her mother here.

Sabine keeps asking me if she held Baby Emma, and I'm pretty sure she did, but I guess I didn't get any pictures of that.  Oops.

Day 11: Puddle Jumpers

We took a walk in the 55 degree weather while visiting Baby Emma.  The kids were splashing around in the puddle and I didn't even have to tell them to stop or else they would freeze.  It was beautiful out, no jackets needed!

Day 10: Cinnamon and Sugar

This is the last donut picture.  They just made such good pictures.  Jenny doused them in cinnamon and sugar when they came out of the oil(?) they were cooking in.  She used Crisco, but my mom remarked that of course back when she used to make them with her grandmother, it was lard they used.  Mmm, mmm.

Day 9: Donut Holes

When you make donuts, you get donut holes.  They were really good!

Day 8: A Donut, a Mug and a Smile

I think that's how Dave put it when he was standing there observing Sabine.  We had just made donuts as our first big activity when we all got up for our day in Virginia.  My mom, Jacob, Sabine and myself made a trip to visit and meet my cousin Jenny's new baby, Emma.  We didn't get there until very late the night before because the drive took 10 hours, but the kids were remarkably good in the car so it actually wasn't the hell that it could have been.  Our visit was nice; I'll post more pictures as the days go on.

Day 7: Cracker Barrel

 

During vacation week we had a get together at Cracker Barrel with all the kids who used to hang out at playgroups, but are now in different schools.  Here's my kids and Beckie's kids out front as we were leaving. This was the day that I painstakingly gathered up all the barely-used crayons, putting one red, one blue, one yellow back in each box so that they wouldn't get thrown out when the table was cleared.  Jacob carried the crayons to the hostess desk for me and handed to the lady so she could put them back with the other crayons.  But instead she turned around and tossed them right in the garbage.  

I almost had a heart attack.

Does it matter to you if the crayons your kids use are sterile and have never been used before?  I can't figure out a reason why the hostess would have thrown the crayons out instead of just putting them back in the basket.  I've found a place where I can send my used crayons, so I'm going begin a project to collect as many crayons, that would have otherwise gone to a landfill, and send them in for re-use as well.

Day 6: Do you think it was his 100th day or something?

Ok, so I missed a few days, or a week.  I sort of forgot to take in account that we were going out of town for a while during vacation week.  So I'll just pick back up where I left off, there's no use trying to catch up on a whole week's worth of posts.  Now it's Wednesday again, so I can just pretend that the days in between didn't happen.

Here's a photo of Jacob with all the things he came home with on his 100th day of school!  Yippee.  Must they do this to us?  What do we need with all these stupid papers that come home everyday?  But seriously, this is not the kind of academic work I expect Jacob to be doing in school.  Putting 100 stickers on a sheet of paper?  A bookmark, a certificate, special 100 day glasses...I do like the school Jacob is in right now, but I don't think I'll be sad to have him move on at the end of the year.

Day 5: Stripey Jammies

Here's Sabine messing around in her jammies.  She thinks she's so funny.  These are my favorite pj's of the kids'.  They are organic cotton from Under The Nile.  Jacob wore them when he was younger, and someone else will get to wear them after Sabine.  I was planning to let Sabine wear these till they couldn't reasonably be fit on her, but now that I know they will be resurrected in a couple more years, I can let them go to storage a little sooner than I would have.

Day 4: Baby Mally

This is Jacob playing with our friend, Mallory.  Sabine calls her Baby Mally. This is the way Jacob was with Sabine when she was a baby, and I think it's so cute that he's this way with Mallory too.  He is really into babies, which is adorable.  I will be in luck come July.

Day 3: Which on doesn't belong?

Need I say much here?  This is Reggie, our one rabbit that has house bunny status.  He roams around the house, messes with the dogs, and goes to the bathroom in his cage.  Also, he doesn't chew stuff that he shouldn't, which is the main reason it makes it so much more difficult to let the others run around the house.  The other day I caught Reggie hanging out on an empty spot on the toy shelf.  Cute, huh?

Day 2: Valentines

 

So here I go with another round of pictures a day...I'm trying to decide how long I'm going to pledge to continue this stretch for.  I want to say until the new baby is born because I know that will probably be the last time I'm near the computer for a very long time, but that's almost five months away.  Maybe until I see the first flower sprout up from the ground?  We'll see.

Anyway, these are Jacob's valentines that we made for his school celebration.  No way was I going to buy them from the store. We try to make as much homemade stuff as possible.  I think they came out pretty cute.

I call this one 'Perfect Timing'

 

Sabine was struck earlier this week with the stomach but that's been going around.  She threw up four times over the course of a day or so, with each one being more severe or more hilarious than the one before.  The first two times were while she was in bed.  The first one was not so bad; I thought it could have been a fluke.  After the second, it was clear that she was ill.  This picture shows the aftermath of the third time.  She was 'home sick' for the day, but insistent upon going outside to play.  I told her she could not go outside to play because she was sick.  But she did not care, and without my blessing, began to get herself dressed for the outdoors.  

I was in the other room when I heard the suspicious sound, and came around the corner to see this.  Just as I was walking over to her, I saw Zach in the window of the front door; he was just arriving home for lunch.  I got such a kick out of his perfect timing that I had to take a picture.  I wouldn't have left her standing there like that if the camera hadn't been right nearby.  But it was just too funny because he could see for himself what it was like to be home with a puking kid.  And as an added bonus, he was there to help me clean it up.

Part of the reason I took the picture was so I could prove to Jacob that his purple lizard really did need to be thrown out (there it is in the middle of the throw up at Sabine's feet).  Anyway, her snowsuit, jacket, gloves and hat all went directly into the washer.  Her boots had a good wipedown and that mat had to be taken to the car wash.  Later in the day Sabine threw up for the last time.  She was behind the couch, but hanging off of the back of it.  Zach was right in front of her and she puked all over the back of the couch, including the back of Zach's head.  I am sorry I don't have a picture of that.

Anyway, this is day 1 of a new stretch of 'picture a day' photos.  Hope it didn't ruin anyone's lunch, but I couldn't resist.

Day 93: Apple Picking

We went to an apple orchard one day last week after school. Jacob was so excited to go apple picking; we go at least once every fall. We were admittedly going a little early in the season, but this year's crop isn't a great one and isn't going to last a very long time. So there were only one kind we could pick on that particular day. And the pickings were slim. We had to get creative and climb the trees in order to get any apples.

Zach was with us this year, and he's the one who actually started the climbing method. Jacob followed his lead. Click on the picture to see Zach in the tree...