Since Josie Was Born – Month 2

True stories of Josie’s 2nd month of life, not in order of significance…

Halloween pictures get better with age

We had a wild Halloween in a torrential downpour. Trick-or-treating still happened and was memorable and fun.  Baby Jo and I mainly hid in the van. Boo-ritos at Chipotle still happened.  Pumpkin painting happened but ended in tears of frustration from the kids because the paint I bought to use was awful on pumpkins and we had too many potential painters and too few helpers. One of those would-be helpers made a half dozen bread spiders for friends. And then my kids cried because I didn’t help them paint. Perhaps a bad call.

I did paint poor Caitlyn’s pumpkin with a big beautiful rainbow and “love hearts” after she went to bed that night and the squeals of sheer joy the next morning were off the charts. If I had just thought to bottle those sounds up and sell them, we’d be set for early retirement.

Zero pictures were taken of my kids in costume… until December when I whipped out those costumes again and took the photos. Yes, I did.

Don’t look too closely.  He’s wearing a Christmas present shirt from Grandma in that “Halloween” photo.  Ha!

Side note: I recently checked a book out from the library about personality typing your children so you can understand them and nurture them better. It turns out I have an extrovert and an introvert (can you tell from the picture?) I’m learning lots of less-obvious and very helpful stuff about them as well. Scott does lots of “Continuing Medical Education” as a doctor and we try to do the same as parents. We’re sort of writing our own handbook on each of our kids as we learn.

I say “sort of” but I actually have a physical book where I write down for each child our insights and bits of understanding as we get them. I often need reminding of the things I already know, so when I come up against a challenge with a particular child I can flip through their book and say “ohhhh, right!”

Zoos are best when wet

We headed out for the Portland Zoo. which is no small feat these days.  Getting everyone fed, pottied and loaded up for an hour long drive plus a packed lunch and a full day out of the house always takes longer than I think it will! We finally, finally pulled up to the zoo just a few hours before closing time after spending our sunny morning getting everyone ready to go… and this is what we saw:

We had a little “We’re Oregonians” pep talk with our kids and trooped out to enjoy the cold, grey and wet afternoon.  My philosophy with zoos is actually to go in a variety of circumstances because different animals are active in different times and temperatures. On this day, we saw cheetahs up close and personal who were also getting out of the rain and the hippos were in fine form.  We froze solid right as the zoo was closing, so the timing worked out fine!

Thanksgiving without turkey or glitter

Thanksgiving began with a freezing Turkey Trot. Caitlyn and Daniel did the fun run and only one of them cried.
Mackenzie ran the 5k with Scott while the rest of us wimped out and watched from the car.  That trooper of a kid ran a personal best and came back all grins.

Caitlyn sported an impressive hot chocolate unibrow from her celebratory drink after the fun run.

Our friends of 9 years drove out from Bend, Oregon where they live now and they spent the night.  They have three kids who line up well in ages with ours. As if all that weren’t enough, they homeschool and inspire me so it was a treat to spend time together.

No turkeys were harmed to make our feast but plenty of innocent mushrooms returned to the earth which gave them birth. Yum.

Our traditional Baked Alaska with Sweet Potato Ice Cream was a kid magnet.

Extra merengue is just one of Scott’s tickets to our kids’ hearts, but it’s a powerful one.

I’m not a crafty mom so once a year I rouse myself and make a point of doing some sort of craft for Thanksgiving.  The trouble is, it looks less “crafty” and more like “Anne-y” every year.  This year? The Mayflower was built. I think I’m going to change the verbiage of the tradition for “craft” to “create something”. That way I don’t have glitter-related guilt.

Mackenzie built the ship herself, following a picture she found of a similar ship.

Yes those sails out of copies of the Mayflower Compact. We homeschool and sometimes I can’t help myself.

And? No younger siblings knocked it down! Yes, we are in a brief but magical phase right now in our house… though three puzzle pieces were eaten (truly consumed) in the month of December.

A Spiral Fracture of the Fourth Metacarpal

The short story: That’s Scott’s hand…

The long story: We have a heinous driveway. It’s long and steep and can be quite slippery with rain, snow or ice. Scott went down to get the mail and garbage can and did not fall on the treacherous driveway. He did, however, fall on a patch of ice on the sidewalk he hadn’t noticed. Ouch.

It’s the second broken bone of his life and both were spiral fractures. Beans don’t do half jobs!

(As I write this, he has it out of a splint after 7 weeks and is now headed to physical therapy for it.)

The Christmas Tree of Humility

Christmas trees bring a beautiful smell into a home, and a reminder of the wonderful season of Christmas. This one also brought a heaping dose of humility.

We ventured out as a family to cut down a tree, as per tradition, and I was all geared up to be saw-wielder. Scott was one handed and I’m a capable woman!

It was much harder than I thought and despite my best efforts, Scott’s one hand came in… handy. But we got ‘er done and on the top of the car.

What we didn’t do was get a small tree and we sure should have. Our vaulted family room ceiling tempted us again and we succumbed.

We bought a big, gnarly stand this year but it was immediately apparent when we arrived home that we would need a third helper to get this tree set up. It was between 10 and 11 feet tall and we wanted it to be rock solid in the stand (after two years of leaning trees…)

Thank goodness for selfless, capable friends who have chain saws and great ideas. Scott and I could not have done it alone!

Snow Play Without Snow

I said “yes” to getting out all the snow clothes and bundling the kids up for a romp in the last of the fall leaves.

The stars aligned this year and I have awesome warm coats, bibs, hats, and boots for my three bigger kids. But this was close to snow as we got until January.

That look! I’m so glad I wasn’t blessed with boring kids.

And Josie?

Josie spent her second month of life on earth keeping her brother in line. Ha!

She also had to get ready for her baby blessing in church. Here she is in a quick snapshot I took of the “whole outfit” complete with bonnet and cardigan:

We went with just the dress on the big day, and she was calm and content during the blessing. Yay!

She is a sweet, smiley baby who is such a fan of snuggling and prefers to be where the action is. Luckily there’s usually plenty going on at our house!

The photo above wasn’t posed. It’s just life for a fourth child!