Camp Postscript

How Could I forget? For Bud's 6th birthday earlier this month, Wombles gave him a soccer jersey for La Furia Roja. That's right--Spain. He was SO EXCITED. Apparently it's a big deal to wear soccer jerseys to camp. You get a "call up" and get to go down front, where everyone tries to guess which team your jersey is for.

Not too hard to do when his read ESPAÑA across the front, but fun nevertheless.

Now generally, you wear the camp t-shirt. But this year Bud wore his special jersey every single day. Five days. I'm doing camp laundry every night to get Pixie's t-shirt clean, so that's fine. What killed me was when he got up Saturday morning, saw his Furia Roja "kit" (he's calling it that) in the laundry, and was upset that it wasn't clean. For him to wear again on Saturday.

I let him wear it dirty.

He did not, however, wear it to church on Sunday.

Camp!

Oh, how we love camp. Love. It.

Love how the College has some of the best day camps around; love that faculty kids get half off tuition; love that we can walk there and back and that check-in is about 100 yards from J's office door. Love that I get quality two-on-one time with Nutmeg and Wombles.

Love. It.

This year Pixie and Bud doubled up and did Sports Skills camp at the beginning of summer and each picked a sport-specific one last week. Bud did soccer (super duh) and Pixie chose tennis.

Last year we encouraged her to do soccer instead of tennis. We thought she'd be bored. Also, as she's had very little, ah, opportunity to work on the kind of coordination required we thought she'd be really frustrated. She asked again this year and we let her go for it. And she had a blast. Shows what we know. It reminds me of last summer at the fair when she really wanted to ride the big, grown-up swings. We thought she'd be terrified, but eventually let her on. And on again. And burned through some batteries taking photos of her gleeful, smiling face. You hink you know a kid! ...part of the fun of being a parent. Apparent.ly. Heheh.

I mostly got goofy grins in the camp pictures. After, Bud asked me whether I could make this face:


He's learning all sorts of things at camp! Besides this face, he's brought home some interesting/annoying mouth noises (I am reminded of my brothers drumming on everything, with their hands, for a few years--a constant beat going on. And how it drove Dad crazy at the table. Yeah, it's kinda like that).

And, next time you talk to Bud, I encourage you to ask him about the real life sewage monster that lives beneath Santa Barbara. And about James, who was never heard of again, although his goggles were left behind.

No, I don't actually encourage you to ask him about that.

But we all had a great camp week last week!

Six Months Old

Yes, I'm aware that we're only three days away from Nutmeg's Seven Monthaversary (Mesaversary, in our house). What better time to finally put up some six month photos than right before she turns seven months, and on THE DAY SHE BROKE HER FIRST LITTLE TOOTH?!?!?

I was sitting with her on the sofa today singing a song (which I was inventing on the spot) which included a line about her little gummy grins. No joke. I ran my finger over her little gums, like I ran them over her cheeks when I was singing about them...only, on her little gummy gums I felt something sharp and pointy! Aaaghhhhhh!

And I immediately started crying the way I can only assume every mama does when she finds the first tooth on what may be her last baby. Waaaahhh! [I can assume this because I am the picture of normalcy, right?]

And then I went outside to interrupt the water-fight-in-progress and show it off to the other four. So exciting! Nutmeg's getting a tooth!

So, to celebrate, I'll post a few photos of her at 6 months. I won't post any of Wombles, as I see now that I accidentally posted him at 6 months in the 5-month post. Oh, well.

Here's Nutmeggie:


People are constantly coming up to us and saying that she seems like such an easy baby. I agree. We've had a fussy baby, and Nutmeg is not one. While no baby is a breeze, some are more easygoing than others. I have to make a special effort to spend special time with Nutmeg--because she's generally well pleased to amuse herself playing with toys, rolling around after them on the floor, or bouncing in her exer-saucer. That's one reason I was inside singing to her and reading her books during the epic water fight. That, and it's just not a good idea for noncombatants to hang around a war zone...

She loves to explore toys with her hands and mouth, and is on the early end of enjoying the "I'll throw it down and watch you pick it up" game.

I'll note here that that game is MUCH more amusing now that there are three siblings dying to pick up the toy about one hundred times in a row. When I had to pick it up myself, not so much.


Whenever she sneezes, she immediately giggles about it. It's really cute.

She can't crawl yet, but she works to get toys.

I had about 15 photos I wanted to post, but I'll limit myself. I'm just really enjoying getting to know her little personality and want to keep each picture that hows a different facet of that.

I'm also trying really hard to avoid using the flash when possible...but this month it wasn't working for my point-and-shoot. She was moving a lot. Even though it's dark, here's a shot of Nutmeg as we often see her:


And again, with the flash:


She's very willing to be pleased, which is an incredibly endearing trait at any age, but perhaps especially in one who can't yet clearly communicate preferences. We love our Nutmeg! Happy Half-Birthday!...

Climbing the Walls

Literally. Just sayin'. He does this for fun.


By the way, one of his weekend chores is cleaning the door frames! Haha. Lovely, dirty peanut feet.

Five Month Onesie Shots!

Look out. I'm sentimental.

Nutmeg is so ready to engage everyone socially, and so good at entertaining herself, too. She's kinda like Mary Poppins like that.


When she's grumpy, often eye contact and chatting is enough to cheer her up. She's such an easygoing baby. (Of course, once you walk away, she starts grumping again). For example, right now she's carrying on a conversation with the rocking chair. She's kicking it, and it's rocking. She coos and then laughs. It's pretty cute. I'm going to have to go pick her up and steal those coos for myself!!

On her actual Five-Month-Day, Nutmeg had just completed her first cross-country flight. She did a great job! I had been quite stressed about it, as usual...

And as usual, God took such good care of me. Traveling was a delight. Not just the two flights, but also the car drive down to my parents' with my sister, her husband, their daughter, and their two dogs.

Not being sarcastic. It was AWESOME.


Did you know that if you have an iPhone you can FIND THE NEAREST CHICK-FIL-A and also AVOID BAD WEATHER...while you're driving?!?

I feel like I'm one of the Jetsons. Only the Jetsons didn't have Chick-fil-A, so I'm even better off than the Jetsons. Only I don't have a jetpack, so maybe we're even.

Where were we? Five months.

So anyway, I took the pictures when I got home a few days later.




And, she learned to grab her feet. She really got into grabbing her feet. Peanut. I love peanut feet.

Bud and Nutmeg, keepin' it real with the "I'm five months old and I love my feet. Plus I know how to grab them" thing.

No smiles from Nutmeg this month. I mean, during the shoot. I'll let Wombles carry the smiles:



In half of his 5-month onesie shots, he's smiling, grinning, and looking to his right. Why? Because I had help in cheering him:



Speaking of smiles. Oh, my word. Pixie! I miss your sweet little baby teeth. Where did my four-year-old go?!

Off to snuggle every snugglebuddy in sight,
H

PSA #5

My kids have a great dad. I mean, a GREAT one.




Do you have any idea how wonderful that is for me?

Her Hair Cracks Me Up

That's all. This morning, she was recovering from a bow-hawk. She also has a fairly serious mullet. How soon should I cut her hair??