Two Big Kids, One Little or Two Girls, One Boy

Just wanted to write down a few bits....

Two Big Kids and one Little is : 2 adults each trying to help, console or demand a child does their homework- using the internet with them, teaching how to tell time. And the soundtrack to the homework hour is a 2 year old demanding your attention in any way possible, playing a paper guitar, and grabbing the dog's tail.

Two Girls and One Boy: is "hey, let's make cookies!" followed by 2 girls screaming. Grabbing stools and claiming firsts. Then a boy jumping in "I'll help." But Mom saying "Hey, Logan, can you just lick the dough in a few minutes instead?" because 'taking turns' has begun World War 3! Good grief, "my turn, she had two turns!" Uhm no she did not, you just took too long with your turn! Good thing there is a third kid- he was the one who noticed the dog lunge for little sister's dinner!

Two sisters is one little sister getting mad that big sister turned away from her and lays on top of her. Grabs her hair. Hangs on tight and laughs. Ouch! Little sisters need to learn the hard way that time outs end the fun sometimes!

Three kids is lots of pots and pans all over the place, more food, more spills, more needs, more love.

Three kids is packing lunches and running out of bread by Thursday so you make pasta on  Thursday night specifically to put into Friday's lunch!

Three kids is adorable outfits and Spiderman roller skates and puzzles with big bird that you remember, dig up, and sigh and shed a tear remembering your older children and how much they loved the same thing so many years before.

Three kids is a back door covered in coats on hooks and still kids saying "but, I don't have a coat!" when the weather changes and we're leaving the house for school.

Having three kids is overwhelming and awesome!

Peacocks and Back to School

The obsession with peacocks is strong. It started when we visited the zoo awhile back and the peacock looked right at Venice, spun around and opened its feathers. Oh wow Venice talked about that for a long time! "We went to the Zoo and the peacock looked at me and opened his flowers!" She has loved peacocks since then and when on our Seattle vacation, we visited a farm in Issaquah. There were many peacocks and often had open feathers. They also didn't seem to run from the people as often as the ones at the zoo. They even encouraged us to take some feathers home with us that had fallen off the birds.

So yesterday we went to the zoo and the banter was again all about the peacocks. My favorite was "Mommy, sometimes I am a peacock. Sometimes when I am asleep I am a peacock and I go to the zoo and see the other peacocks. Mommy, 'member when I saw peacock open hims fea-ders?" She brought her toy peacock to show him and unfortunately the peacock just hustled away disinterested. Poor Venice, she was convinced he would love her toy.

We're back to school! Phew we survived summer! And the anxiety and preparations leading up to the first week back. The first day or two were not too bad except getting used to the new routine. Logan's in 5th grade and suddenly he has a host of passwords to remember, Jorge found himself downloading software onto his laptop and troubleshooting. He typed a whole paper only to have the computer completely delete the darn thing when I tried to send it to print. Mac and Dell don't like each other right now. We for now- we email and print from Mac, and maybe get a little printer for Logan's Dell.

We also jumped into Soccer for Logan (woohoo!) and Sylvie was able to get herself geared up emotionally for gymnastics this summer (hell yeah!) and she's been rocking the back walkovers. She practices often which really helps her skill level, and I think it revs her up and settles her down all at once.

Late August/ Early September have been pretty school-focused. Venice is so cute lately, we are really enjoying her personality. She's really FUNNY! She keeps us laughing. Always making faces. Sylvie's my fashion rockstar. Always so vibrant and full of life. Logan finds joy in the daily fun stuff like spray whipped cream. My office was super busy last year and all of the projects are being built so we are getting a chance to see them- which is just thrilling. The photo of the kitchen in a photo studio/ gallery that we helped design. I was invited to a gallery event and it was a bit nerve wracking chatting with strangers, but fun to see the space.