June 6

It has become increasingly clear that Caleb and Daisy are both ready to start giving up their naps. Caleb still eagerly naps for two-three hours each day, but when we put him to bed at 8:30 he has trouble falling asleep. Daisy, meanwhile, takes an hour or two to fall asleep at naptime, if she falls asleep at all. So today, I decided to bite the bullet and not put them down for naps.

They loved it, and it wasn't as terrible as I thought. Both kids chose to "rest" in the front room instead of napping.

Caleb may have actually slept for about thirty minutes while he listened to music on the iPod.

Daisy sat on the couch and played with a doll.

And Lily?

She proved to me that she is truly mobile, using a combination crawl/scoot to get all over the room. I didn't put her in front of this window, but she clearly wanted to be there.

She was quite pleased with herself.

While the kids rested and Lily explored, I finally scrubbed the kitchen floor. With all the house projects, I kept putting it off, but it should have been done long ago. Remarkably, I got the floor 3/4 done before a child interrupted me!

After dinner, we decided to celebrate Caleb's first week of "Sillygarten" by going out for ice cream.

When we arrived at the ice cream shop, Daisy was sound asleep. At 6:15. Poor kid. Maybe she's not ready to give up naps?

Caleb wanted to eat his ice cream by the river, so we walked there.

His ice cream melted the whole way. He didn't mind.

Daisy wanted "turquoise" ice cream, and was disappointed that there was none. We were able to appease her with some rainbow sherbet.

And Lily? 

I wore her on my back, but she saw my Rocky Road cone and kept squawking and fussing and wiggling until I gave her some. 

We figured out a great method: I held my cone up over my shoulder, and she buried her mouth and nose in it and slurped ice cream out of it. It was surprisingly effective, and shockingly messy. Lily didn't mind.

June 5

Oh, Daisy.

We had a playdate with one of Daisy's favorite church friends this morning, and she refused to play for the first half of it. Instead, she picked some long stalks of grass, put them in her mouth, and pretended she was a cat.

Eventually she was willing to play, and we all had fun.

We joined our neighborhood pool this year, and signed both kids up for kickboard lessons. Tonight was their first practice, and as we loaded stuff into the car (we grilled dinner at the pool while the kids were practicing), Caleb and Daisy got out their bikes.

Walking his bike up the hill, wearing rainboots and carrying a stick. That boy.

Oh, Daisy.

Wearing only a bathing suit, hoodie, backpack, and jellies.

Kickboard practice was so much fun! Our friend Landon was there, and Caleb was a little fish.

Daisy, however, struggled. This was as comfortable as she got, and soon she began shrieking. In her defense, it was cold, the water was colder, and it was an hour past dinner time. But she didn't do so well.

But Caleb? He rocked the kickboard.

Daisy only wanted to be in the kiddie pool, so her teenaged, volunteer coach went with her. It was really very sweet.

And Lily was either on my back, or playing happily with a wet ball. During the day, she is the most delightful baby. Nighttime has been a different story lately. I'm praying that she'll actually sleep tonight. I feel like the level of sleep deprivation I'm experiencing is nearing torture levels. Three more weeks, and then Chris and I are going to work on night weaning, with the goal of getting her to sleep through the night by her first birthday.

Oh, Daisy.

June 4

Boy, this whole "Practice Kindergarten" thing is eye-opening! 

I am shocked at how hard it is to get Caleb dressed, breakfasted, and out the door on time every morning. With preschool, it was never a big deal because it didn't start until 9, and if we were running a few minutes late, it didn't matter. But with Practice Kindergarten, Caleb has to be at his elementary school to get on the bus at 7:40. 

7:40!!

Add to that the fact that if he misses his bus, I have to drive him 15 minutes away, to a school whose exact location I don't actually know, and get him to Lord-knows-which classroom. So missing the bus is not an option. Also, every morning this week I've had to wake poor Lily up to put her in the car so we could drive Caleb to the bus. 

So. Mornings have been really stressful lately. I have absolutely no idea how working moms do it; by the time I'm dropping Caleb off, I'm seething with frustration at him for being soooo sloooow and engulfed by shame at myself for being so frustrated. 

But the bright side is that for real kindergarten, Caleb's bus stop is two houses down the street, and the bus comes at 8:30. I can do 8:30.

The other bright side is that the girls and I have been finding lots of fun things to do while Caleb is at school.

Today, while Lily napped, Daisy and I made Lemon Chia Seed Muffins, Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, and Cookie Balls (with almonds, instead of the cashews this recipe calls for. Chris can't do cashews.). So far, we have 8 days worth of breakfast in the freezer. It's pretty satisfying to look in the deep freeze and see all of those bags of baked goods, each one promising a stress-free, cooking-free morning...

Daisy is totally into helping me cook right now. She wants to do it all herself, and she has definite ideas about wearing aprons and standing on chairs...

But the real reason Daisy wants to help?[ 

Sampling the goods. That girl is such a stinker!

After we squeezed lemon juice for the Lemon Chia muffins, we had an extra lemon. Daisy juiced it to make herself some lemonade!

Later, while the big kids napped, Lily practiced her standing on the porch. 

Isn't that mop of hair hilarious?

After steadying herself with both hands for a while, Lily pulled back to one hand and one finger,

And then just one hand! What a big girl! These developmentally-appropriate gross motor milestones are so foreign to me; I'm pretty sure Daisy didn't do this until she was well over a year old. I love it!

June 3

When Chris and I discovered that tonight was Superhero Night at the ballpark, we decided to celebrate Father's Day a little bit early by taking the kids there. It was Lily's first Cardinals game, and we had so much fun!

We stopped at STL250 birthday cake #7 for us. Caleb was unimpressed. Daisy was too busy enjoying the ride in the Ergo that she didn't care about the cake. (Daisy was in the Ergo because we parked far enough away that we doubted Daisy could walk it fast enough, I had Lily on my back in my new linen wrap, and Chris had a backpack full of our dinner to carry, too.)

She may be three now, but she still loves to be worn in the Ergo!

Superhero Night meant a few things:

1. We got some awesome superhero shirts.

2. The kids got Cardinals capes.

3. Fans were all dressed in their superhero best.

4. Costumed superheroes were roving the stadium for photo opps.

The game started right around dinnertime, so we got there early and ate a picnic dinner. We also had time to pay our traditional visit to Fredbird. 

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Aren't they cute?

Happy baby, in our new linen wrap. I'm getting the hang of it! Tonight I put her up in the wrap three different times, and I feel like I'm gaining confidence and ease as I continue to practice.

Lily gobbled up some yogurt, and an apple, and part of a gluten-free PBJ. Girl was hungry!

Caleb and Daisy were thrilled with their new capes, delighted to be at the stadium, excited about all of the superheroes, and amazed that they got to eat real sandwiches for dinner!

Caleb met Iron Man.

I love the skeptical look on Caleb's face.

We also met a kind of creepy Superman.

Caleb loved his cape. He kept pulling at the sides to make it billow as he walked.

We stopped for some batting practice,

And Caleb found a giant fan and discovered that he could "fly"!

*sigh*

Happy early Father's Day, indeed.

I just can't get enough of those two in their capes!

We got to our seats just in time for Kolten Wong's grand slam, which was awesome but also meant fireworks. The kids hate the fireworks at Busch Stadium. Eventually they got over it, though, and much later Caleb stopped covering his ears.

We sat in the bleachers this time - my first time ever in the bleachers - and we loved it! I am definitely a bleachers girl from now on. They're perfect for the little ones!

Lily loved her first Cardinals game. She also loved that apple.

More fireworks???

Why does Lily look so happy and I look so frazzled? Girl was hungry, so I chose to nurse her right there instead of traipsing all over creation to find the First Aid station and nurse her in one of their booths. It was the most public location I have ever nursed a child, but we rocked it.

Happy girl!

She stood like this for a good fifteen minutes.

The kids had second dinner.

And I got to kiss this handsome guy - on the Kiss Cam! It's long been a life goal of mine to be on Kiss Cam, and it finally happened! It was awesome, especially because at the time of our kiss, Lily was on my lap, Daisy was next to me, and Caleb was next to her. Chris and I had to lean across all three children for our kiss!

Also awesome was that at least five friends of mine were at the stadium and saw us on the Kiss Cam, as well as one of Chris' co-workers.

We ended up staying until the bottom of the fifth inning, and left while the children were still happy and cooperative. It was perfect.

On our way out, our last superhero sighting of the night was Captain America. Caleb gave him a fist bump.

Super Caleb, under the Arch. He asked me to wash his new shirt so that he could wear it to "sillygarten" tomorrow. When I suggested that he could tell his classmates about the game during sharing time, he said, "Good idea, Mommy!" 

I love that boy.

On our way back to the car, Chris snapped this selfie of him wearing Daisy in the Ergo, me wearing Lily on my back in the wrap, and Caleb (who didn't want to be in the picture!) in the bottom corner. What a fun, fun night!

June 2

Oh! I just noticed that this is my 1500th blog post!
That's right. Over the past 4 years and 8 months, I have written 1500 blog posts. I'm not sure if that's awesome or insane, but either way, I'm claiming it.

Caleb started "Practice Kindergarten" today, and I was really hoping to make this morning easy and stress-free for him.

Then I ended up sleeping until 7:14, and I had been hoping to leave the house at 7:20. Lily was still asleep, and Caleb and Daisy were still in their jammies. Oops. Luckily, Chris had fed the big kids breakfast, so he woke Lily and changed her diaper while I got myself and Caleb dressed. We rushed out the door, and got to the bus stop right on time. *whew!* Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Despite our chaotic start, Caleb wasn't nervous at all. He did great!

My silly boy, on his way to "sillygarten".

We just bought his muscle shirt the other day, and he was so excited to wear it for the first time. What can I say? I have a patriotic boy. I also have a bruised boy; I helped him with his bath tonight and was shocked at all the bruises peppering his little body! I hope the sillygarten teachers don't think we're abusing him!

While Caleb was at school, Lily napped and Daisy and I made three dozen muffins. I'm trying to stockpile breakfast items so that mornings will be easier for the next three weeks, and for when Chris goes off to banking school in August.

I had to wake up poor Lily again to go get Caleb, who didn't have much to say about his morning. He did mention that his teacher looked like Princess Leia, that the bus driver told them to all sit down because he didn't want anyone flying around, and that he sat next to a boy who was "silly, just like me!" But that's all he would share.

Remarkably, all three children napped at the same time, and I was able to take a short nap, too. It was beautiful.

Then we played in the water. 

Lily looks serious about her water play,  until you pan out and see that the scene really looked like this:

Ha!

And Daisy... well, she was being dramatic. 

She stopped crying right after I took this picture. Apparently she knew she was being ridiculous?

We put all three kids to bed early tonight, so hopefully they'll be more cheerful in the morning.

June 1

We had such a fun evening playing with friends at a barbeque, but somehow I only managed to take one picture today. (I know - it's happened a lot lately. I need to stop being lazy!)

That's my friend Sara's baby sister Mary, holding Lily. 

I didn't take pictures of sweet Stella, or Caleb and Daisy playing with Carter and Cooper, or the kids getting soaking wet, or all of us sitting around the table on Travis and Jessica's patio, or the baby birds in Jessica's hanging flower basket, or the fact that I didn't have to hold Lily all evening, or Daisy running back to hug Carter one last time... but all of those things happened, and it was lovely.

Now the children are to bed much too late, and Caleb starts "Practice Kindergarten" in the morning!