May 25

THE FLOORS ARE DONE!

Yes, there are still a million other things to do, including installing baseboards and crown moulding, but still. The floors are done. Hooray!

I had a headache all afternoon, and Caleb and Daisy didn't really nap, so it was all I could do to keep them entertained while Chris and Terry finished installing the floor. (Funnily enough, Lily napped for nearly two hours, despite the fact that they were hammering and nailing directly in front of her door. That child is a gem.) (She's also a gem because she has slept through the night for the past two nights. Hooray!)

Daisy must not have napped at all, because an hour and a half after I put her down for her nap, she emerged from her room wearing this:

As I took this photo, she was flapping her arms and singing, "Giraffe giraffe giraffeeeeee!"

I love how it's clearly too small for her, but she doesn't mind at all. 

I also love how delighted she is to be wearing it.

Caleb was pretty impressed, too. I am positive that Caleb reaaaalllly  wishes it fit him, too. Thankfully, he's been really mature about the whole thing.

Lily, meanwhile, happily splashed in her water table. 

Things I love about this photo:

1. Chubby baby thighs. And cankles. My daughter has cankles.

2. Diapers hanging in the sunshine in the background.

3. She is standing so well!

Then it was dinnertime, and Chris and Terry were still working. I put the kids in front of the TV to watch Veggie Tales, and popped Lily onto my back. I'm getting pretty good at getting her nice and high so that she can watch over my shoulder while I cook. The girl is so curious - she loves to see what I'm doing, and will wiggle and flop until I help her get a good view.

Fun! (This carry is a Knotless Ruck with my size 3 tablecloth wrap.)

I am seriously in love with wrapping this girl! 

I am also seriously in love with our new floors. I'm pretty sure our home's resale value just went up at least $10,000. Not even  kidding. (Not that we're going to sell it ever, though...)

May 24

Our new floors are 85% done! Hooray! Chris and Terry worked most of the day today, while I entertained the kids. We went to tumbling class, the grocery store, and the back yard. Caleb and Daisy watched all of Frozen - again. All three kids napped while the men worked, even though they were using the pneumatic nailer right in front of their rooms. Crazy.

Hopefully they'll finish things up tomorrow, and then we can begin the work of putting up baseboards and crown moulding, tiling the fireplace, installing an organizer system in the coat closet, replacing the shelves in the linen closet, touching up paint, reinstalling closet doors, hanging curtains, painting trim, furnishing/decorating the room.... 

Will we ever finish this project? 

Lily doesn't mind.

Lily never minds. How is this child so easygoing? (Most of the time. Not always. But most of the time.)

After dinner, the kids got to play on the new floor.

Lily was so excited!

(Chris was still installing some near the foyer.)

Caleb and Daisy put on socks and practiced sliding on the shiny new floor, and Lily watched with delight. 

I may have joined them for a bit of sliding, too.

 

I think it's fair to say that she loves it!

"Don't take my picture!"

Yay for new floors!

May 23

Flooring! Flooring! Flooring!

Our neighbor Terry came over at 8 this morning, and he and Chris began the process of installing our new wood floors. They are beautiful. Because we wanted to match the original wood floors in the rest of the house, we ended up buying narrow solid wood strips that require a nail-down installation. Translation: it took a lot longer to install this floor than it would other types of flooring. We had hoped to finish today, but after nearly 12 hours of work, Chris and Terry finished the dining room, which is half of the project. Perhaps they'll finish the hallway tomorrow?

My job for the day was to keep the children entertained and out of the way, and I think I did a fabulous job. Caleb and Daisy had gymnastics at the big gym this morning, and they had so much fun! Lily loved watching her brother and sister through the big windows. 

She stood like this for at least twenty minutes!

Caleb and Daisy's turn to jump down the trampoline into the foam pit. Do you love Daisy's leotard? Don't worry. There are a gajillion more pictures of her in it.

It's one of my mom's thrift store finds, featuring sparkly velour with a sheer skirt. Daisy wore it all day long, and pretended she was Queen Elsa from Frozen.

This girl is getting a cold, and must be growing because she has been so hungry the past few days!

While I kept the kids busy, Terry and Chris worked and worked and worked. (Sorry for the crummy cell phone picture. I'll never understand how so many people take such good iPhone photos, because mine rarely turn out well.

By dinnertime, this was their progress:

Terry put a mitered frame of wood around where our fireplace hearth will be, and was astonished to find that the hearth we had laid out a few days before happened to fit the width of the wood planks perfectly.

See? No extra cutting necessary. He says that has never happened to him before! I like to think that God was smiling down on us.

The boys kept working after dinner, and I kept the kids occupied. 

Goodness. Isn't she precious?

And how about this boy? He wore this getup (he is pretending to be Prince Hans of the Southern Isles) to the hardware store the other day, and out for a special treat tonight. I love it.

Daisy picked handfuls of clover and insisted that I make her more jewelry.

And Lily just watched from the porch, sitting on her wrap/blanket. She was feeling needy when I needed to make dinner, so I got out a wrap and asked her if she wanted to go up. I am not even kidding when I say that the girl's face lit up and she began smiling and kicking her legs. It's so gratifying to know that Lily loves being worn on my back just as much as I love wearing her!

Hopefully tomorrow will bring a post with pictures of my long hallway, finally covered in hardwood instead of that wretched linoleum! In the meantime, here's a video of what Caleb and Daisy did when we let them go into the dining room for the first time:

http://youtu.be/xfJQqS3mYT8

(For some reason, Blogger won't let me just post the video here. But it's short, and you get the idea pretty quickly.)

May 22

Not only is today my parents' 38th wedding anniversary (is that right???), but it was also a big day for another reason: it was Caleb's last day of preschool.

Since I'm the sentimental sort, I took some pictures just like the ones I took on his first day of preschool.

Just for fun, here's his first day of preschool:

And his last day:

(Those index cards on the wall above his head are all of the Bible verses he's memorized this year. I love it!)

First day:

And last day:

(I flipped this photo so he'd be facing the same direction; that's why the name on his backpack is backwards!)

You can tell how much he's grown by how small the backpack is in proportion to his body. It fit him perfectly when he started preschool, and now it's almost too small. 

Caleb was extra excited for a few reasons:

1. We were walking to preschool (which is exactly 1.5 miles from our house) instead of driving.

2. To celebrate the end of the year, it was ice cream party day!

Caleb and his friend Zachary (Caleb said today he's his best friend) were the first to get their ice cream. Miss Alyssa helped the boys, and you can see Miss Amy (who is still on maternity leave, but came for the party wearing her baby in a wrap) behind Caleb's head. Zachary is a year younger, so he and Daisy should be in class together next year. Daisy told Chris today that she wants to be Zachary's friend, too.

We were all so happy that Chris was able to take an hour off work for the party!

Daisy is so excited to be in preschool in the fall. This girl is totally ready.

Can you tell why they're such good friends?

Daisy even joined Caleb for his very last circle time at preschool.

All three of Caleb's teachers: Miss Christine (Miss Amy's sub), Miss Alyssa, and Miss Amy, singing "Goodbye Friends" for the last time.

After school was out, I let the kids run down the big hill outside the building and play in their hideout tree for an extra long time. Caleb has discovered tree-climbing, and he loves to practice.

I snapped this shot of Caleb, hiding inside the tree. It was overexposed, but I think it looks kind of dramatic like this!

And where was Lily the whole time? 

Just chilling in her wrap. I know. The poor girl looks bedraggled. I had to wake her up from her nap to come to the ice cream party, and she was sweaty and groggy. Then I wore her on my back (Ruck Tied on the Shoulder) for the party, and set her down while the kids played. I think she was still waking up!

I have so many other stories from today, but this post is already too long and I need to wash the dishes while Chris finishes painting the hallway. We're on track to install floors tomorrow!!!

May 21

My kids are getting bigger. 

Several things reminded me of this today; one example was lunch time. Lily was tired, so she needed tending while I prepared lunch. My big boy Caleb was such a helpful big brother! I put Lily in the swing, and he kept her happy until lunch was ready.

This is why people have big families. I'm pretty sure that once you hit three kids, it only gets easier. Unless you had all three at once, in which case life would be insane. But three kids who are all spaced two years apart? Perfect.

Another example of how big the kids are getting? Today I came to the shocking realization that, while Caleb is almost five and still needs daily naps, three-year-old Daisy may be ready to start giving them up. It's funny how every child is different, isn't it? I suppose I may need to become a bit more flexible about my hard-and-fast naptime rule.

For this reason, and many others, naptimes did not overlap today. That meant that Lily and I had some quality time together on the front porch while the big kids slept (or didn't; I can't really be sure what she did in her room while she was supposed to be sleeping).

Lily is really blossoming into a silly, sweet, happy girl. When the big kids aren't around to steal the show, she delights me with all of her milestones. She loves to hold my fingers and pull her up to standing, and she loves to mimic drawing with chalk and wielding a light saber. She also "sings" and bounces her little body anytime she hears music.

Then Lily went down, I made some almond flour chocolate chip cookies, and Caleb and Daisy woke up in time to eat cookies and milk watch a storm roll in from the front porch. After the storm passed, we splashed in the puddles and I made them clover crowns and jewelry.

King Caleb and Queen Daisy, with chocolate on their faces.

Flower crowns make me giddy; flower crowns on my curly-haired daughter make my heart fairly leap with joy. I think I may have to fashion a real crown someday and do an all-out photo shoot with her.

And my sweet, sweet boy. Chris and I agree that we've seen improvements in his behavior in the past few weeks, and I am confident it's because of all of the praying we've been doing. I know lots of you are joining us in praying for this boy, and we appreciate it more than we can ever express. Thank you.

May 20

This is me, writing a short blog post.

Caleb had his second-to-last day of preschool today, and it was bubble day. Fun! It was lovely out today, so after naps I cooked dinner on the grill while the kids played at the water table. Our friends Caleb, Hannah, and Andrew were over at the neighbors' house, so they came over and played with us.

Lily wasn't phased by the loud kids or being splashed; she was focused on the water. Also, isn't her puffy cloth diaper bottom hilarious?

After everyone dried off, we ate dinner al fresco. Lovely.

In house news, Chris should finish the priming tonight. Tomorrow night will bring painting, and hopefully we'll install flooring on Friday! Hooray!

May 19

Yesterday, I wrote that I'd be trying to keep posts light this week so that I could work on house projects. 

I think I'll start that tomorrow.

Instead of celebrating Do-Nothing Monday today, I promised Caleb we could go to the Garden. He starts "practice kindergarten" in two weeks, and it's all morning, all week, which means that he'll have to miss out on our fun morning adventures. And then he has a month and a half off before he starts school, and there will be no adventures, ever. I think that's the part of kindergarten I'm most upset about; our whole way of life is coming to an end, and it makes me sad.

So today we went to the Garden, and when he asked if he could bring his light saber in, I said yes.

Our must-see spots at the garden include:

the fountain

Sassy Girl

Henry Shaw's mausoleum (Daisy likes to peek in the windows at the sculpture of  the deceased Mr. Shaw)

the Japanese Garden (and koi fish within)

Dr. George Washington Carver

the raccoons

the sheep

the angels and onion balls

If it's a really great day, we'll visit the Children's Garden, too, but we didn't have time for that today.

I think I've decided that the English Woodland Garden is my favorite spot at the Botanical Garden. It's shady and cool, with meandering paths and a creek that is crossed by several bridges. Caleb really enjoyed dangling his legs over the edge of the bridge. (Hmm... wonder if Security Guard Grandpa would approve?)

Then we went to feed the fish. As Caleb and Daisy fed the koi fish, I noticed Lily straining against her stroller straps. She wanted to see the fish, too! So I popped her out and let her watch the fish. She's still a little bit young to feed them (she'd probably just eat the fish food!), but she enjoyed standing between her brother and sister and watching.

What a big girl!

Daisy climbed onto a big sheep all by herself, and she was so pleased!

Jedi Master Caleb (as he prefers to be called these days) wielded his light saber while he rode a sheep. I gave him strict rules about taking a light saber into the Garden: don't touch people, plants, or things with it, or I will take it away. He obeyed very well.

The last time we saw this cake, Caleb refused to be photographed with it. Today, he insisted that I photograph him with it!

Amazingly, all three children were awake when we got home. I got them down for naps, but naps didn't last nearly long enough. Luckily, I had some time to take pictures of Lily, because it's her 10-month birthday today!

Lily is wearing a romper that was Daisy's, and is sitting on a blanket that came from my grandma (my mom's mom). She's clearly unimpressed, and more focused on figuring out how to crawl or stand or something.

This picture? Pure Lily. Sweet, silly, and slightly mischievous.

Hi, cutie pie!

(Caleb was behind me, making silly noises.)

We see this look a lot. It's a curious, focused Lily.

And this is a girl who is laughing at her brother.

I know. It kills me. She was playing peek-a-boo with her blanket.

Then I tried something different with her hair, and it was too funny not to share.

Lily's 10-month stats:

Happy 10-month birthday, Lily!