Wombles

I missed a post about Wombles' fourth birthday. But today, nearly a month later, he had his 4-year-old check-up. He was AWESOME.

He always is.

He had two shots, and is by far the bravest of the three "bigs" about that. He barely sniffled. And he took them so calmly, squeezing my hands and looking the other way...at the lollipop jar.




He chatted up the doctor:


Dr: "What are you going to be for Halloween?"
Wombles: "A blue ninja named Jae." (and on, nonstop, re: the ninjas, for a long, long time)

Dr: "What do you like to do with you mom?"
Wombles: "Play GAMES!"
Me: (inwardly): Is now when I worry about the ethics of stacking the deck in CandyLand? So that I lose...quickly?


Dr: "What's your favorite food?"
Wombles: "Pepperoni PIZZA!"
Bud: "What about strawberry shortcake?"
Wombles: "Oh, YEAH!"
Bud: "He actually has lots of favorite foods."
Me: (inwardly) C'mon, his favorite foods are all fruits! That's what he eats! Won't somebody PLEASE bring up in front of the doctor that we call him fruit-bat at home? NO? Thanks a LOT.

Dr: "What do you like to do with your dad?"
Wombles: "Play checkers!"

Dr: "Can you jump? Good. What about hop on one foot?...the other foot?"
Me: (inwardly) "Can you stop hopping? Please? She knows you can do it now."

He aced his hearing and vision screenings. And he gave the required sample-in-a-cup.

HE'S GROWING UP!




This afternoon, he may or may not have had a tantrum that included ONE of the following*:

• I won't eat broccoli!
  
• I'm running away to live at the Joe-Joe's factory!
  
• If you put me in time-out in my bed, you have to make it. AND pay me.
  
• You're not my mother. You're just an ORDINARY WOMAN!

Can you guess which one it was?


Good thing he's pretty cute!

Reason #8,412

HE loves ME.


I am spoiled. Big time.
We all know it.
He brings me tea in the mornings.
Every. Morning.
And by "morning" what I really mean is usually before I get out of bed.

And by "tea" I mean PG Tips.

He makes me want to get up and get going.
That may be part of the plan. We do have four children who like to get up early.

This is a man with a sense of humor.

The kind that comes in with steaming hot tea and whispers, "I'm sorry. I went to make your tea and we were all out of PG Tips. I had no idea we were so low!...but I thought maybe you could make do with Fortnum and Mason?"

That is wrong on so many levels:
(1) sorry
(2) went to make your tea
(3) responsible for keeping up with the Tips
(4) "make do" and "Fortnum & Mason" in the same sentence


But before I can even respond, he says, "Don't worry. I've already ordered more PG Tips. It should be here day after tomorrow. And I've signed us up for a subscription, so it'll be automatically delivered from now on..."

Oh, he makes me laugh! And happy to get up in the morning.

Nine Months of Nutmeg

Oh, Nutmeg. What did we ever do without you? And what a splendid ninth month you had!



This month you became a maniac for cheerios.
You outgrew everything but your 12-month clothes.
You pretended --for a few days--that getting up at four a.m. was the new black.

You enjoyed playing peek-a-boo.
Your two bottom teeth really came in.
You fought to hold your own spoon at mealtimes. I finally gave you your own to hold while I fed you.

You learned to sit up all by yourself. Without falling over.

Congratulations! It's a whole new world!

This is not the most flattering photo, but it may end up being the last to show her gummy upper gums:


The past few days have been a little rough as far as teething goes, and I expect her two little top "teefies" (it's a technical term) to break through any day now. I don't know whether I'm hoping they will or not...I will miss the gums...but not the grumps.

And this? We love this look. It usually means she's heading for a sloppy, drooly nip at whoever's nose she's aimed at.

*Baby kiss incoming! Repeat! Baby kiss incoming!!*

I would like to say that almost all of the photos I took on her ninth mesaversary were smily ones. I think this had something to do with it:


We love our Nutmeg!


I would also like to point out that she is currently only 9.5 months old. :)

Another Sixty Seconds

It's Fall Break for the College and so for us, too. It is hard for me to "cancel" school but the holiday HAS been on the calendar, and I thought it would be good for us to all have a little break. So, no school today.

As I was cleaning up from breakfast, I looked around and here's what I saw:



Mwahahaha. Yes, children. I *guess* you can read, since it's a HOLIDAY...

They think it's the biggest treat to get to stay in their jammies and read. Which is great--it's a two-way treat!

Of course, the recent post notwithstanding, they weren't ALL reading:


Nutmeg was doing that, which led to this:



And to be fair, an hour later Bud's the only one still reading. Wombles is having Thomas the Tank Engine demolition derby in his room, and Pixie's outside catching lizards. Nutmeg is allegedly napping.

And I'm off to laundrify and other productive things. Happy Columbus Day!

Nutmeg Wants to Read

Hmmm....I'm bored. Happy, but bored. No cheerios, lint balls, or play-doh on the floor for me to chew on, soooo.....maybe a little reading?




What's here on the shelves?...To Market, To Market? Eloise in Paris? ...Please don't make fun of my bald spot. It's growing in rather nicely, I think.



Sandra Boynton books are always a good bet. Mom likes the rhymes. Maybe this one?...It's lacking that...that certain something, though.


That certain...



That certain flavor.


Mmmmm. Perfect. Thank you, Auntie M and Songbird!

Sixty Seconds

During school this morning, I thought it would be fun to take a photo of everyone within one minute. So I did.

Here's what I found:

Bud, Doing Math




At which point I had to capture his hair forever

Pixie, practicing piano--music is one of her major subjects this year

Wombles, playing with cars. Vroom!




Nutmeg was sleeping. Or pretending to.
Happy Middle-o'-the-week!

Pixie's Ideas

It's early. It's Monday. J has left for work, and the kids'll be running in any moment now (they are not allowed to come crash the party until 6:30am).

I was looking through pictures, and found this one:



Pixie likes to make the world more beautiful. She often has good ideas. I'd like to be the kind of mom that helps her to track those down and make them happen: the kind for whom saying, "Sure! Cut the rose off the bush. It's perfect for your horse!" comes naturally and easily. I'm not yet there.

Here's another one:


It just reminded me of how interesting Pixie can be. While this snail race hasn't happened yet, she got this idea into her head and made the race"track." We do have plenty of snails lurking in the rock border of our garden.

I'm kinda hoping that she remembers this, and we get to take a break from school today to go watch the snails careen crazily across the paper. Staying in their proper lanes, of course.

And I'm kinda hoping I can be the kind of mom who can take a break for this sort of thing to happen. Today, anyway. You know, baby steps.

She's really fun, this one. And look out. She's full of ideas.


What are you doing today?

Off to my teacup,
H