He’s done

Here they are. I think I need to poke at him a bit more but I have to think they make a pretty cute couple

Crafting

Ok. So I am getting into Christmas crafting again. — well at least for today that is

I felted up a little gnome lady with a mushroom cap (one lucky blog reader will be getting her for Christmas

She is even cuter in person… Tonight I plan on making her a little gnome man. And well– here is another project I am working on.

And Drew and Phoebe also did a few crafts today. But I have to keep a few things secret, now don’t I?

Today

We woke up to a tiny tiny bit of snow. Drew was thrilled to shovel it. Let’s see if he is so excited in march…

And today we pulled our dried popcorn off the cob. We will pop it for movie night tonight (snow white and the seven dwarves)

And here is my sweet baby kicking in her brand new legwarmers. It feels so good to have finished them– and they just look so cute!

Lucky seven

Yesterday we read the enki version of snow white to introduce the number seven. Today we drew it out. We have been doing this for each number — reading a story and then drawing a picture from the story– also drawing the number and a symbol to represent it.

It took Drew a few tries to form a seven– and the rainbow is such a great representation of seven

Here Drew drew the seven dwarves, their seven beds and the seven mountains the Queen had to cross.

Andy is out of town (well he gets back tonight) and my two days solo went well. We took care of the neighbor cat today and then took a very long walk. We also ran a few errands in town. I really wish I did not have to drive anywhere. Hadley gets so upset in the car. And I just do not know how to fix it. I just want to fix it.

Tomorrow we will read a story for the number eight. And I hope to do a little more crafting for Christmas presents. I fear I may not be able to do so many crafts this year with Drew and Phoebe while juggling our little baby. But I know you will all understand. And I can imagine we will not head out to Benzie for the craft fair — because it is just so long in the car for Haddie. I keep thinking next year will be so much better. All the way around. Yes I am really looking forward to 2010 and everything that it holds.

Typical late November day

I made homemade chicken noodle soup this morning and I had Drew and Phoebe help me a bit. In one of my cookbooks it suggests using lasagna noodles and cookie cutters to make fun shapes in the soup. The kids were more than happy to help

And then we went to the beach! Yep the beach.

The water was cold, but the air was wonderful.

Here Haddie is getting her first fistfuls of sand. “oh mom can I eat it?!”
“next year baby, next year”

I have a lot of children

This is a thought that hits me about once a day.  Oh boy.  We are really parents now.  I can wipe a bottom, talk to an insurance agent and burp a baby all at the same moment (I know this because I did it yesterday) Before Hadley I was used to two bodies going in different directions, at different speeds, and with different objectives.  But it was always linear in a sense.  You could  draw a straight line between them (I am speaking a little metaphorically… hmmm… seems the lack of sleep has me in a bit of deep thought)  But now we need to triangulate.  And while Drew and Phoebe seem to be polar opposites at times– I dont know how I will get to know Hadley if she falls somewhere in the middle– or heaven forbid if she falls outside of the realm I know. 
Andy and I have decided she is our last baby.  And as much as Andy may not want this disclosed on my little blog… we have the surgery scheduled in two weeks.  He is nervous, and rightly so I guess, although it is a really common procedure.  But a small part of me wonders, just wonders are we really done with babies?  Mayyyyyybbeee…. we should just hold out…. Maaaayyybbbee… there is room for one more somewhere down the line.  But of course I have not bridged the topic because I can imagine it would not fly.  A friend of mine said (after having their third baby) that her husband proclaimed that if they had another baby, it would not be his.  And I bet I would get a similar response from Andy.  Hmmm. 
Part of me thinks I could do it all over again — mostly because I was able to have her naturally.  I am so grateful for the way she came into this world.  (I am working on her birth story, but it is proving to be much harder to write than I expected– so many deep emotions to work through) But a good part of me knows we should be so thankful for three healthy babies considering the condition I get in pregnancy… and considering our luck so far.  I also know that having a baby does disrupt the family unit… shakes us up a bit… takes attention from the big kids and that is hard for everyone.  It has been joyful to bring Hadley into our family, but also everyone has had to compromise at times.  And I don't know that I want that to happen again in our family. 
So I think I have talked myself through it a bit.  And I know we are done, a complete family of five.  So in about three years when I get all sad that I will not have any more babies– please remind me of this post and of how I really do have a lot of children.
I wanted to post a cute picture of all three kids– but everyone is hungry– and tired of waiting for dinner as I write and revise this post– maybe after baths I can get them all to smile and sit still

And here are a few cute pictures of Haddie on her belly (and by the way — she is soooo close to rolling over!)

old mother raincloud

Today it is rainy… and I have been waiting for a rainy day to read the Enki story for handwriting.  Drew makes some of his letters from the top down– but still a few from the bottom up– and this story plays with that concept.
"Little r rushes out of bed and ripples and rolls and romps out into the sky. With a rumble and a roar, she races right down to the ground.  But she hits so hard that she bounces right back up"
The story also weaves in a bit of science
"Old mother raincloud sent out all her children.  She's faded away and the sky is turning blue.  The great golden sun is calling her children; they rise from the earth as the fog and the dew"
Tomorrow I will pull out our felt board and I am curious as to what they will create from the story. 

After we read this story we started making our first Christmas gifts for the year.  Soap … soap and more soap.  It was a little tricky to work with, but lots of messy fun nevertheless.   

Big swim!

The grand total… 42 laps! Wow. I’ll let you know how late he sleeps in tomorrow!

And he won a remote control submarine. So cool

Here is a really funny picture of Phoebe. — she wondered why it was not filling up?!