First Hair Cut for the Little Lady

I feel like at some point I turned around and Harper became a proper kid.  I don't know when it happened, but it did and I'm still in a small state of mourning over the whole thing.  But she's so bright and rather stubborn... more so than I ever thought possible for one so young, but in her defense, she's got to fight for her own with Em and Coop as her siblings.  As usual, her poor little mouth has gotten 6 teeth in the last three weeks with another two coming any day.  And, for some reason, teeth mean hair and Girlfriend has grown enough on the bottom half of her head to drive this mama mad.  She wants to do everything her sister does, which includes getting her hair combed in the mornings, but each morning her fine feathers have a full amount of lint as well as tangles.  Harper can't understand why it hurts, nor does she grasp that adding yogurt to the equation at breakfast will make it worse.  So I decided it was time to take the plunge.  Today, after naps, I grabbed the largest strawberry I could (to distract her), the scissors, and a chair, deeming it Family Hair Cut Day.  Harper, of course, was first up.

 I really don't think she was too impressed by the situation.

 But seriously, she has a mowhawk from her cowlick and fuss beneath that- I was over it.

 When it came time for the actual cutting, it didn't take her long to realize that she did NOT want whatever was happening to be happening.  The face just kept souring until she was finally trying to bit her way out of the chair- no exaggeration.

 But with a little help from Daddy, we managed to get most of the longest feathers, er, hair under control.

Nope, it's not straight.  No, it's not even and no I did not intend to have layers, but there they are because she is her own person and you do what you can.  But, in the end, I have a PICTURE of the FIRST haircut, I did it, I have the cuttings in a ziplock baggie, and I'm thrilled by that!

A Friday...

It was a Friday.  Sometimes, that's all I can say about Fridays.  I don't know why I look forward to them so much since Saturday looks very similar to the other 5 days of the week, but for some reason, the knowledge that I've made it through another week is an accomplishment in itself.  Today was packed with laundry, dishes, cleaning the kitchen and the floors, then a project for the garden.  The kids LOVED the project for the garden.  I have a women's thing at church tomorrow, which means Todd is on his own with the kids for most of the day.  Because I know my husband and I know my children, I've set out some things for them to do together, one of which is to plant our garden.  So today, we made markers for the various plants.  It involved rocks and paint and more paint, and my kiddos.  What could possibly go wrong with my throw-happy nearly-3-year-old, paint and rocks???

 My mommy instincts told me that the amount of actual painting I was needing to get out of my kids might be too much, so we made it a party and invited some neighborhood reinforcements.  Between the four kiddos, they were able to paint the 12 rocks we needed before attention spans wore too thin.

I think I have the cutest painters in the world.

Seriously, even with eating his paint (yes, eating) I still love this face with his crocked smile and goofy, asymmetrical eyes.

 These were our final products.  We will soon have markers for all the plants, but I wanted to let some of the paint dry just a bit more.

 Our "To Do" list was still long though.  Todd hasn't been able to find his keys, so we needed to get new ones made, and we needed some things from the store and the hardware shop.  After naps, it was off to the shops to get all those things off our list, and because they're so cute, and it's been so hot (two weeks ago we had snow, it's been summer weather all week, go figure) I figured the kids would like a springtime ice cream for the walk home.  Todd will be home soon, dinner and baths will be seen to, and then it will be time for the kids to go to bed.  Friday isn't over.  I'm tired and I have paint all over my arms and legs, but its a Friday... a very good Friday.

Crafts, Naps and Paint

For some reason, life seems to have run away from me.  Harper is 16 months in a few days, Cooper's 3rd birthday is in less than a month, and I have no idea how that happened.  The kids and I have been working since the beginning of June to finally get the house "put together."  I have friends who will paint before they move into a place because they know exactly what they want:  where the furniture should be, where the pictures should be hung, and all those details.  I, on the other hand, have to live in a space for a while.  It drives Todd mad when he comes home to find every piece of furniture has been rearrange, replaced with something he didn't know we had, or out in the garage.  He does love how clean things get in that particular room after said event, but with our crew, the immaculate room never lasts that long.  This holiday season will mark 4 years here in South Africa for us, and almost 3 years in this flat.  I figured it was time to buck up and take the plunge.  So, right before we left, I had Todd put six nails in the wall.  Most of them were for wall hooks for backpacks and jackets for the kids, but I also hung a picture frame that I'm in love with (gotta love dumpster diving windows out of someone else's trash to hang on your wall!).  

When we got back from the States, I decided to take it one step further and PAINT.  I know, crazy, huh?  I painted Cooper's room, painted the girls' room, and painted the downstairs, well, one wall.  In order to paint, we needed to make a trip to the paint shop, where Cooper wanted a totally typical blue (yeah for easy!) and fought that Em was set on Pepto-pink.  I'm not into pink in general, and the thought of walking into a room that made me think of Bazooka Bubble Gum was just too much.  So we worked it out and got a lavender.  Not a huge fan of that either, but what can you do?  I didn't think it was a battle really worth fighting, so purple it was.  The curtains we brought back with us, which are supposedly "black out" are an aqua marine blue.  I thought they were that lovely blue that girls clothing has and is just a great, vibrant color.  Turns out, it's more marine than aqua and so we struggled to get things to match the now purple and aqua-marine color scheme. That was the point where I realized I'd need to start making things.  So I bought fabric and then realized I had no idea how to sew a blanket or quilt.  Lucky for me, a friend just had a baby and I made this one for him, and learned just about every quilting mistake possible along the way.  Now, I'm working on Harper's, hopefully with less drama the second time around.

Em loved helping me pick out the fabrics, and then arranging these into the baby quilt.  She dutifully sat by my sewing machine as long as I'd let her to put the pins in the pincushion.  It was during this time when she told me she wanted butterflies in her bedroom.  Great.  Another thing to work on.  Okay, butterflies will be there, somewhere.  Promise.  As soon as the quilt was done, I started work on other things for the girls' room.  It's taken nearly 3 years, but I finally amassed enough Crayola Crayons to do a project I've been itching to do for a very long time.  

With helpers in tow, we went to the shops to find the frames we needed, then the paint and the ribbon and all the rest.  I let both Em and Coop help paint (one for each girl) until I discovered blue on my dining room table.  Not a happy mom moment.  Then, they were relegated to just watching, but they got really excited every time I "cut" a crayon into pieces.  The hot glue gun was another first as I used to only bring it out while they were sleeping.  Coop loved to see the glue "change colors" as the wax melted with the glue. Amazing how easily amused he is.

All these projects would be picked up as nap-time started and would continue until disaster happened, like blue paint on the wood table.  For days on end, Em would rush down the stairs after waking up to see what we were going to do next.  It was rather fun as that's the closest thing this stay-at-home mom gets to a kid excited to see me.  

Then one day, as we were wrapping up all the projects and things were slowing down, I went to do some laundry and came back in to the house to find Em like this.  I guess she'd woken up from her nap too early because she wanted to do something with me, but the lure of the warm sunshine was too much for her.

I love this face, all sweet and innocent... and not asking 437 questions all at once!  The weather has been getting warmer and warmer and that always signals that it's time to head outside, into the garden and get some Vitamin D into us.  We're all excited to plant our garden, go out without seven layers of clothing and not be cooped up inside.  I hope things will settle into a pattern soon, but if the last 3 months are any indication, this hectic-busy schedule of chasing two pre-schoolers and one toddler might be our new 'normal' for a while... not sure I'm ready for so little picture taking and blogging and story telling, but I'm loving all the things I can do with the kids at this age, and every now and again, I'm reminded that even the incessant questioning isn't as bad as I think.

Harper, Oh Harper

To say things have been crazy around here since we got back would be an understatement.  Life, with all it's pre-school activities, restocking shelves, painting dressers hot pink and toilet training woos seems to just happen.  I've been so busy, and yet, looking around the house, I have very little to show for it.  The kitchen is a disaster, I haven't mopped the floors in 3 days and there are no less than 4 loads of previously folded laundry strewn across the living room 

You see, Harper has a vendetta against folded things.  In fact, she seems to have a vendetta against MOST things these days:  getting in the car, noodles, her brother, dogs, food without dirt on it, milk, naps, walking in someone's arms... the list really does go on and on.  I know she's cutting a tooth, but for Heaven's sake, that girl seems angry at the world most of the time.  So, I did what I do when I'm having a bad day and trying to remember my sweet child hidden under the thick layers of grime, dirt and tenacious independence.  I grab a camera, clean them up, and snap some pictures that remind me they're still my angel... somewhere in there!  

 She flat refused to look at me for a full 20 minutes here, but I still love this shot of her trying to show me her belly button... which I didn't ask to see.

 I love this face so much, I got it in black and white...

 And color.  That, and I only got a few usable shots and I'm still trying to convince myself.  Guess I needed extra convincing when I uploaded these.

 Each time a new kid is born my Gramps makes a wooden rocking chair.  I love Harper's.  It's actually my favorite one because it's so sweet and so beautifully made with this precious heart cutout... which Harper likes to stick her hand through... and then get stuck.  Yeah, I didn't get a picture of her screaming but it did make me laugh!

Forgot About Me

I was recently emailing with our new LINKS missionary president.  We've never met before, in fact, I've never even been to her state, but through emails we're getting to know each other.  Todd directed her here for pictures and what-not of the kids and I received an email that basically said, "I feel as if I know your whole family, their hobbies, interests, personalities, but you seem to always be behind the camera!"

I was sitting at the kitchen table late this morning, after cleaning for what felt like forever, trying to get a handle on the coming days and the food the family will need.  After 11 days back, we're officially home... which means we've eaten all the food friends brought by for us because it takes a while to get "back home."  While in the States, I was given a few new cookbooks and I've been itching to try some of the recipes.  I sat down, with my handy helper and new hoard of recipe cards, to see what looked good, what looked divine and what had ingredients that I could get or at least substitute for.  That's when it hit me, I really do forget about myself sometimes, just as my new friend said.  I think it happens to all of us at some time or other, and to varying degrees, but this is my attempt to remember.  Remember what, I'm not exactly sure, but I love baking, I love blogging and I love taking pictures, so in the time it took me to drink one glass of orange juice, I was able to write this random bit, take a picture or two, and dream of wonderful things to cook.  Someday, soon I hope, things will be back to normal- I'll be able to find my kitchen counter (and my carpet for that matter), I'll be blogging and writing routinely and it won't feel like such a guilty pleasure, but for today, this is as good as it gets... and this picture of Coop was too cute to not put into the public domain!

Fiesta

Wednesday was Em's official birthday.  We spoke at a church a fair distance away, and so we wanted to do something "special" to celebrate her birthday.  What we came up with was going to Chevy's, a local Mexican restaurant.  The best part of Chevy's though, is that they have this great tradition of gifting a sombrero on a birthday person and the staff sings a cute little song.  Em loved her hat.  

 She also loved her special strawberry smoothie.

 Between the drink, the hat, and the endless free chips, I thought she may never want to leave!

 As a parent, I was a bit concerned that having a birthday away from all her friends was going to be a bit of a let down for Em.  This face, however, showed me that even just family can still be great.

 After the two-hour drive, we got into the town a bit early and decided to explore a bit.  We found a fabulous park and Em had such a fun time.  She kept showing off her "happy" shirt and new shorts to all the park attendees (thanks Auntie Kim!).

And somehow, we even managed to get a single picture of all three kids, looking, smiling and happy... and then somehow managed to delete the original image from the computer and camera.  *D'oh!*

Paper Airplanes

Last night we all got back to 'the farm' and had a bit of time to kill before bedtime.  The kids are feeling much better (although not 100% yet) and thus had a bit of energy in them.  I was watching them play when this face made me go in for the camera...

 And then I was blessed with this one...

 And Cooper, who needs a hair cut, was as cute as they get with his BIG TRUCK up and down the grass.

 Poppy was just sitting with me when he had a 'great idea' which the kids agreed was indeed a great idea

He pulled out some paper and made paper airplanes.  

Cooper loved sitting in his lap while the plane was thrown and then running across the lawn to get it and start the whole process over again.

I don't know when he started to think this is a "smiling face" but somewhere along the way, he got that idea in his head.

 Em decided SHE needed to personally throw the planes, but didn't want a flight lesson on how to launch them.  My independent one...

But even she loved chasing after the fallen aircraft to have it be thrown again.  I can't believe how grown up she's looking these days...