See Your Memories, Sept 2016

Facebook just sent me one of those "See Your Memories" notifications.  In it was a link to this post: Shine on You Crazy Diamond. Reading through your comments on that post gave me blog guilt.  I'm sorry for my absence! I feel bad that I've written less about my children this past season because I will have less memories to revisit.  Time is steadily slipping away and with it the little things.  I never recorded catching LouLou expertly applying deodorant.  I didn't write about the time I bet against Silas by offering him $5/lap at the fundraiser expecting him to quit after two laps and then he ran 29 laps. I've caught Philo's army crawl on video but don't have a context with the rest of the family.

(Why the George W Bush face?)

Blogs are an inefficient medium.  You have to put more effort in to write, remember, associate, and explain. Instagram is so much easier because it takes two seconds.  Facebook easier still, though status updates have become article sharing opportunities. But Instagram doesn't tell the story and facebook isn't very linear. So I'm going to play a bit of catch up as a gift to my future self.

 Hello, future self!  I'm proud of you. You're keeping everybody alive. You're working three days a week teaching college. Silas can almost read. Philo is a cuddly baby who doesn't push out of your arms. Mimi is your right hand woman and she loves playing American Girl Dolls.  Cubby is in second grade and into Harry Potter.  You are really busy but very fulfilled. You're worried about getting the downstairs remodeled (not happening yet), and Philo eating things off the floor.  You're challenged by keeping the house clean because holy crap 7 people are messy (especially toddlers!) You're working on money management because holy crap 7 people are expensive. You're obsessing over Camille having her first baby.  You've just completed project lose a bunch of weight. You need a new personal goal. 

That is what's up. Here's what it looks like:

 

Lou is two. She has unicorn shoes and lots of feelings but few words.  She's a late talker. She has great fine and big motor skills. Lou and Philo share bottles and food.  BL could play outside on the trampoline all day long. She's discovered how to open all iPads and phones and find the games. I do not like nor allow this. She loves baby dolls right now and loves to feed and diaper them.

 

 

Mimi is getting really tall and she will not let me brush all the way through her hair. She has lots of friends and a few crushes. We love her teacher this year and Mimi is challenged by the amount of homework each night. She just started an Aerial Arts class.  She is still cooking with me all the time and getting really good at it.

 

Philo, 8 months. Don't you just want to eat him up? I love this age of babies.  He's sleeping pretty well but wakes up at the crack of dawn. Everybody adores him. I think he's about to get his top teethies. Mimi tried to take him to school with her last week and made it down the block. I love when he follows me around the house doing his army crawl. My heart bursts with love every time I see him or just think about him.

Silas likes friends, ice cream, his Ipad, and Philo. In that order. He's doing well reading Dr Suess. I especially like Silas in the morning because he's the first kid up and very cooperative.  Si is going through an easy phase, bless him.

  A week ago Silas offered to be the waiter for my book club. He set the whole table with China and dressed himself in a suit and tie.  He ushered people in and then served them food and drinks.  It was adorable.

 

Jude, pictured here on his birthday wearing one of my flip flops because he cut his foot, is having the time of his life.  He just started cub scouts with all his best buddies.  He goes to skateboarding class on Saturday. Last week he started his orthodontic treatment and he feels very proud of his appliance.  The ortho said that while he was putting on Cub's expander he was the toughest most stoic kid he's ever worked on.  Jude is going to be baptized in two weeks.

And here's me this week holding baby Lorenzo:

 

I am continuously trying to get pictures with everybody in them.  I like to see them in reference to one another.