September 14

When I saw the forecast for today, I knew it would be the perfect day for apple picking. After the girls took their naps, we headed out to a local orchard. It's small, and not organic, but hey - it's close! And our little ones don't need a huge orchard for apple picking. Really, I'm pretty sure they'd be happy with just one tree. (Note to self: plant an apple tree in the back yard.)

I thought Daisy's apple-picking outfit was particularly funny: purple striped top, purple flowered leggings, Spiderman socks, and silver dress shoes. That girl.

Chris gave the kids a quick primer on which apples to pick and which apples not to pick, and even quizzed them a few times. Both were fast learners!

It really was the perfect day for apple picking!

Lily participated from her perch on my back. We tried to get her to pick a few apples off the trees,b ut she was only interested in patting them.

One of the orchard workers snapped this family photo for us. Funny to think that next year at apple picking time, there will be six of us! (Note: Caleb really wanted to go blueberry picking instead of apple picking. When I informed him that the blueberries are ripe in June, not September, he was pretty sad. I promised him that we could go blueberry picking next year. That will make baby Yoey about 3 months old? We'll see if I have the courage to take a 3-month-old blueberry picking in June.)

I'm pretty sure Chris is Superman.

Except that he encouraged Caleb to wear sandals and socks today. So maybe he isn't Superman after all.

Running down the aisle!

This girl is a fast runner, too!

No running for us - I don't think Lily would like all of the jostling!

I'm 16 weeks pregnant today. How about that baby bump? It certainly is bump-tastic. None of my regular pants fit, and I hate all of my maternity pants, which poses quite a dilemma. A person needs pants!

After we had picked five pounds of apples, we headed over to the play area. Caleb loved the ride-on toys!

So did Chris! 

Lily, however, was unimpressed. Probably because she was ready for a nap.

Yep. That's the man I married. The father of my children. Is there any hope for us?

(He actually figured out how to pedal that little tricycle around like that!)

I tried to take a picture of all of the kids together, but Lily just screamed. I think she didn't like the feeling of the straw on her bare skin. 

Or she was tired.

Or she just hates having her picture taken. 

But look at that grin on Daisy! And look at how handsome Caleb is!

Now that is sweet. I hope Lily always knows how much her brother and sister love her, even when she's being unlovely.

She may have hated the straw on her bare skin, but she loved the rocks!

And Daisy and Caleb loved the slide!

I can hardly believe that is my child. He has gotten so brave! Last year he would have been much too terrified to attempt climbing up the slope with a rope.

Eventually, this girl decided that the big kids were having all the fun. She left her rock bed and crawled right over to the stairs that led up to the slide. Then she began climbing up the stairs! I love how determined she is.

I used the moment as an opportunity for Family Photo - Take Two. Caleb and Daisy were on board.

Lily? Not so much.

September 13

I worked the ACT this morning, so Chris handled all of the parenting duties. He took a few pictures on my camera, and even took all three kids to the Butterfly House! What a man!

This photo of Princess Daisy was one of the gems on my camera today. I love that girl's spunk!

After I returned home, Daisy went down for her nap and Chris took Caleb and Lily outside to play some baseball.

Lily didn't understand the whole baseball concept, and really just wanted to snuggle Daddy. I don't blame her.

Caleb, aka "Love Machine", was all about the baseball. I came out to watch as Chris threw pitch after pitch to him, and Caleb kept hitting them. Better than the hits, though, was the grin on Caleb's face as he hit the ball. He loves playing baseball, and it does my heart good to see my little guy looking this happy. He was also particularly happy because I got out all of his long-sleeved shirts yesterday. I packed them up in the spring because they were taking up too much space, and he thought I had taken them away forever. When I "gave them back" to him yesterday, he was ecstatic!

Lily and I sat on a blanket and watched for a while, but then the girl crawled off the blanket, across the driveway, and down the sidewalk to catch a ball of her own. She wanted to play baseball, too! Chris gave her a bat, and tossed a few pitches at her.

Lily and Caleb were thrilled when one pitch actually bounced off her bat. She'll be playing baseball soon enough!

September 12

We were feeling a little frisky after dinner tonight (it is Friday, after all!), so Chris and I decided that we should have popcorn and a movie as a special treat. As we discussed our plans, we used the age-old parenting technique of spelling out our ideas. 

It turns out that trick won't work for much longer. Caleb heard us spelling and was instantly interested. He couldn't figure out what we were spelling when he heard us say the letters, but as soon as I wrote "m-o-v-i-e" on a piece of paper, the boy got to work sounding out the word. And he did it! It took a little bit of help and prompting, but he was able to read the word on the page! 

I suppose Caleb's reading skills are the equivalent of Lily's walking skills right now: slow, hesitant, and with just a shaky step or two at a time. But I have no doubt that now that it's started, we'll see both begin to blossom quickly. How exciting!

In order for us to watch a movie, though, Caleb and Daisy had to agree on one. Chris and I could only laugh as the situation unfolded. Caleb wanted to watch Super Friends. Daisy wanted to watch Cinderella. Chris and I reminded them that they needed to agree, so they might need to compromise. I reviewed all of their options with them; Daisy suggested Frozen, and Caleb suggested Super Friends.

Then Caleb suggested Super Friends and Daisy suggested Veggie Tales.

Then Caleb began crying and screaming.

Apparently one of our children understands the concept of compromise, and I can't say I'm surprised that it's our middle child. Such is her lot in life. Eventually, Daisy suggested Veggie Tales one more time, and the two settled on the story of Minnesota Cuke. After I popped some popcorn, we were all happy campers!

September 10

Lily practiced some walking today, and though she didn't do much, she is already noticeably better than the other day when she took her first steps. Of course, the moment I got out the camera to take a video of her walking, she quit. She has recently become fascinated with the camera, wanting to see the pictures I take and take pictures herself. Now every time I get the camera out, she stops what she's doing and tries to play with the camera.

So it goes.

I only ended up with one picture of Lily reading a book:

The girl is totally into books right now, especially ones with pictures of babies or cats. She doesn't have the patience or self-control to sit through a book with the big kids, but she loves reading her little books!

I've been thinking about Lily's language development lately. She seems to be on a very normal/high-normal track, and has picked up several new words in the past week or so. Still, it's nothing compared to Caleb at this age. However, Lily has been getting really frustrated with her inability to communicate lately, and has been doing a lot of screaming. 

If she wants something? She screams.

If she's down from her chair? She screams.

If I gave her the wrong thing? She screams.

I totally understand that she's screaming out of frustration because she can't express what she wants, but still. I am tired of being screamed at! She knows several signs, but refuses to use them. Instead, she prefers to grunt and scream. It's really unpleasant.

But, for posterity's sake, here's a list of Lily's words at just over a week shy of 14 months old:

cat

dog

dad

bye-bye

hi

eye

up

uh-oh

tickle

pat

duck

quack

woof

more (very occasionally)

Caleb (she calls him "Bub")

Do you notice anything conspicuously absent? Like, perhaps "Mom"? 

Girl doesn't say it.

I thought I heard it a few times, but it turned out she was saying "more".  *sigh* Some day. 

In the meantime, I'm actually pretty pleased with this list. I'm sure I'm missing a few of her words, but this list has 15, and the expectation for a normal 14-month-old is 3-5 words. They say at this age, a baby's words are normally "Mom", "Dad", and something simple like "ball". So Lily may not say "Mom", but she does say "tickle". She's clearly a prodigy, right?

September 8

I promised I'd be better about picture-taking, so here I am, with pictures from my real camera! How about that?

Lily has been working hard at standing independently, and now can even get to standing without pulling up on a piece of furniture. Such a big girl!

Things I love about the picture above:

cuffed jeggings

the perfect little curls of her ponytail

that shirt!

the car in her hand

those little toes

She climbs up onto this bench about a million times a day. At first I was nervous every time she got on it, but now I realize that the girl knows what she's doing. She can even get down all by herself.

Oh, and she waves at every single car that drives past. Often, she says, "Ha!" or "Bah-baaaa!" 

Lily kills me with her cuteness!

Not to be outdone... 

This picture is so perfectly Daisy. Spunky, mischievous, and sweet. Goodness, I love this girl! At lunchtime today, she walked over to me, said, "I haven't had a hug yet today!", and climbed into my lap. She was absolutely wrong - we had actually already snuggled several times today - but I wasn't about to argue with her. I take any snuggles I can get!

Then we started playing, "How big is Lily?"

Lily has finally figured out the game, and she loves it.

Even more exciting than "How big is Lily?" while standing independently? This girl took her first steps today! While we were getting ready for baths, a diaper-clad Lily clutched a stuffed dog to her chest and took two little steps toward me. She did it several more times; no more than three little steps at a time, and always while holding the dog close. 

Hooray, Lily!

September 7

I'm finally getting caught up from the past week of non-blogging. Dear Readers, I hope you'll forgive me. I promise to do better this week!

It was a great morning today. Instead of leaving for church late, like we normally do, we actually got out of the house early! There was even enough extra time for Chris to stop on the way and grab a chai tea latte at Starbucks for me. What a good man I have!

After church, it was so sunshiny and beautiful that I knew we couldn't go home. Instead, we stopped by the grocery store and picked up some meat and cheese in the deli, and some day-old bread in the bakery, and had the makings for a picnic. 

Chris took this picture of Lily while I took the kids back into the grocery store to use the restroom. She didn't eat that whole apple herself, I promise. I always take a few bites out first, then hand it to her.

The park where we were married is on the way home from church, so we decided to stop there. The kids were so excited! They were even more excited when, as we ate our lunch, my mom came strolling down the sidewalk. Grandma makes everything more fun!

After our picnic, we fed the day-old bread to the fish. The little fish jumped and leapt, often splashing us with pond water. We were also thrilled to discover two giant koi fish in the pond!

Can you see us feeding fishies in the shade of the tree? I wish I could crop these photos more, but cell phone pictures don't take very kindly to too much fiddling.

Mom helped Lily feed the fish, and she was totally engaged. Eventually, Lily realized that if the fishies were eating the bread, she might like it, too. After that, she ate every other piece that Grandma handed her. (Girl has been eating everything lately! Last night it was the cat food.... and the cat litter. Ugh.)

We enjoyed every last drop of the sunshine. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon!

September 6

Today was the day of the garage sale. It was supposed to be sunny and beautiful, but instead it was cold and rainy all day. Amber and her kids spent the morning with us, and Amber made a killing at the sale! Catherine and Mary also made a pretty nice profit on their cookie stand.

While I manned the sale, Chris played Mommy and was responsible for feeding and tending to our three kiddos. He did a great job!

After everything was over, Lily and I both took naps and Chris took the big kids on a bike ride. He texted me this picture:

They had so much fun! I love that we live close enough to the lake that we can go play whenever we want, and I love how happy Caleb and Daisy are there. I also love the sunshine and blue skies and cooler weather! Maybe Fall is actually coming?

September 4

I know. I am seriously slacking on my blogging. 

In my defense, I've spent the past few days preparing for a garage sale. It's a lot more work than I remembered it being! But the garage sale is over now, and I'm playing catch-up. Hopefully I can be more proactive about taking pictures  this week!

In the meantime, I'm posting retroactively.

On Thursday, my excuse was that Caleb had school, Daisy had preschool, and Lily and I had MOPS. It was a long day. Plus, Chris had a networking event after work, and would be home late. Plus, I had a chiropractor appointment.

Luckily, Jenny agreed to come over and watch the kids so that I could go to my chiropractor appointment alone. They were so excited to see her!

When I returned home, not only was everyone still alive, but all three kiddos were in their jammies. What a good auntie she is!

I walked into this scene, which melted my heart:

Caleb was "reading" his library book to Jenny. He's long done this with favorite books, but it was the first time I'd seen him memorize so much of a library book that we'd only had for a week. I'm so proud of this little guy - he'll be really reading soon!

September 2

It was a lovely evening tonight, so after dinner I suggested that Chris take the kids out on a bike ride. As soon as Chris started arranging the bikes, though, things fell apart. Caleb wanted to ride his bike *with* Chris, not ride in the trailer with Daisy as Chris pedaled the bike. 

Chris was hoping to cover some distance, so clearly that wasn't going to work. Caleb settled on riding his Tag-along bike, but that meant that Chris could only ride with two children, not all three. As Caleb fussed and Chris stressed about how to solve the dilemma, I came up with a solution: I would ride, too!

Chris ended up riding with Lily in the baby seat up front and Caleb on the Tag-along behind. I towed Daisy in the trailer. I was really rusty and out of shape, but we had so much fun! As soon as we left the house, I began lamenting that I had left my camera at home. Luckily, Chris had his cell phone. It turns out that he's pretty good at taking selfies while cycling!

You can see almost four of the five of us!

Thank goodness for flat trails! Caleb was really excited that I was riding with him.

And there's Lily, up front with Daddy!

I'm hopeful we can go on many more family bike rides together this fall so that I can get in shape before my belly gets huge and I risk losing my balance and tipping over!

September 1

We finished our Labor Day weekend with a trip to the Botanical Garden for their annual Japanese Festival. The weather looked iffy at first, but it ended up being a perfect morning for the Garden!

As we got things together for our adventure, we entertained the kiddos by letting them watch Lily's first year video. All three were totally engrossed, and I was overwhelmed by how much my children love each other. It's pretty spectacular.

Then, it was off to the Garden!

Things I love about this photo:

1. Caleb's getup, which includes his skeleton shoes, mismatched socks, plaid shorts, Wisconsin Badgers t-shirt, striped superhero cape, and Batman fedora. Pretty snazzy.

2. Sweet Lily wrapped up on my back. We got to the Garden a little bit after her usual nap time, so she totally missed her morning nap. But I kept her up on my back almost the whole time, and she was happy as a clam! She reached out to touch plants and smell flowers, and leaned to see things when she couldn't quite see over my shoulder. So much better than a stroller! (Though we totally brought the BOB along, just to carry the big kids and all of our stuff.)

We stopped to watch a martial arts performance, and Caleb used my ring sling as a blanket on the wet grass. As soon as I compared the fighters' sticks to light sabers and their robes to Jedi robes, Caleb was enthralled. (Personally, I found it to be a bit dull.)

Of course, we had to feed the fish. Today was the last day of the Japanese Festival, and the fish are in the Japanese Garden, so they've probably gotten more food over the past three days than any animal should ever have. And yet, they still gobbled up every little pellet we tossed to them!

Don't worry, Mom. They were nowhere near falling in. I promise.

We made our way around the pond and stopped for a photo opp of Daisy, sitting on the Daisy sculpture. I just realized that this is probably actually supposed to be a cherry blossom? That would make more sense in the Japanese Garden. Regardless, we've always called it a daisy, and we try to take a picture of our Daisy on it at least once a year. She was pretty eager to have her picture taken this time!

Then, Chris and the big kids tackled the zig-zag bridge. Last time we came to the Garden, it was without Chris. Caleb wanted desperately to do the zig-zag bridge, but was too scared. This time, he had Daddy to hold his hand and he dominated that bridge!

Notice Daisy barging ahead, and Caleb hesitantly trailing behind Chris, clinging desperately to his hand.

This girl. Seriously.

I met them at the other side, and Daisy was grinning a grin that almost split her face. She shouted, "We did it, Mommy! I was so brave! I did it ALL BY MYSELF!!!"

And she did. She didn't hold Chris' hand at all. I love her indomitable spirit!

We made our way through the vegetable gardens (oh, how I wish I could grow vegetables like those! Maybe someday I will be a better gardener. For now, my garden doesn't thrive. It merely survives.) to the kids' pet raccoons.

Daisy told us ahead of time that her favorite was the one standing up, and his name is Racky the Raccoon Who Loves Bananas. She immediately ran up and hugged dear old Racky.

Caleb's favorite is named Bubbles, because he has a bubbly tail.

And then we visited the sheep. Caleb always claims Daddy Ram, and won't vacate him for anyone. He insisted today that he couldn't share his ram, because the ram's name is Caleb, too.

Daisy promptly named both little sheep "Daisy". I suppose she wins.

On our way out, we stopped to watch this adorable little man in velcro shoes and sweatpants perform some top spinning tricks. He tried so hard to entertain the crowd, but his accent was so thick we could only understand 25% of what he said. It didn't matter, though. Look at Caleb's face: he was enthralled.

We stayed longer than we intended, and were so exhausted as we headed home, but we had such a fun adventure! Then we spent the afternoon cleaning out the garage. So it goes.