Baby Bear will be at summer camp all summer and so she will not get to see our dog very much.  I told her that instead, she will get to have a pony for the summer.  I have been telling her that she gets a little horse called a pony for a few weeks.  She told me right away that her horse’s name was Karat.

I had to go work at camp for a pre-camp day for new campers.  I was able to bring Baby Bear with me so that she could see what camp was like so that it was familiar for her when we come for the summer as a camper.  She got to stay with me as the kids came though the art station.  Baby Bear was so excited to see her ‘friends’ (the kids).

This shirt was mine when I was little!

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“Last weekend was the Fun Fair. Mom was signed up to volunteer at the skeeball booth. When mom and me got to the skeeball booth, the lady who had been working there saw my mom and said, “Oh, thank God,” like she was really happy to see her. The lady left super fast and then Marcy’s mom, Miss Susan, came to help.”

“They started taking tickets from the people and then the lady in the knock-down-the-clown booth next door asked Miss Susan to watch her booth while she took one of her little kids to the bathroom. And then Mom was by herself for a little while and then the lady came back and said she had to leave because her kid had the diarrhea. Miss Susan was stuck alone in the clown booth and mom was alone at skeeball and there were long lines of people.”

“That’s when I came in and helped Mom and I took over one of the skeeball lanes. I took tickets and kept score and gave out prize tickets and handed out the little animal erasers to the kids when they missed and everything. And I did it the whole time. The balls were going everywhere and kept going off the lanes and under the booth and outside in the alley and we would have to go get them and do it fast. We were sweating from how hot it was outside so dad brought us ice drinks.”

“We worked for two hours and then another new lady came and it was time for us to leave and Mom said, “Oh, thank God.” It was great.

Last weekend Rob and I took the three kids who were at home with us (Hayden, Kellan and Riss) to the local forest preserve to look for morel mushrooms (Hayden as you can imagine, was thrilled!)

We didn’t find any mushrooms at the park, but on our way home we meandered through some of the back roads and found a train!  A local company has an entire engine and passenger car (fully furnished just the way it looked back in the olden days!!) parked right on some old tracks right on their property.

Too bad it was all locked up because the interior was so fancy and nostalgic!  I wonder if they let people go look inside during regular business hours?  It would probably be weird to just show up one morning and say, “Hey!  Mind if me and my kids get on board your train?”, but I sure would like to!

Tucked back there in the middle of the forest right before sunset with deer grazing all around, a gigantic train (even one with locked doors) is pretty magical!

“What are you crazy people doing in my bedroom?”

“We’re having a pillow fight. Is that all right, Mom?’

“Sure, Bob.”

“Good, because you know, in the olden days play-dates were all about pillow fights.”

“Wow, Bob! You’re doing the dishes? That’s so nice of you.”

“Sure, Mom. I’m just washing the tops though.”

Baby Bear just assumes that all screens are touch screens.  She has been able to talk to her grandparents through Skype since she was born and knew how to use the iPhone before she turned 1.

It just cracks me up with her vocabulary and she says the funniest things

She was playing with ‘her’ iPod touch and it was making clicking noises, so she said “Ema, I’m texting” (more…)

“Mom, I don’t think it’s right to eat animals or take animals out of their homes and then eat them.”

“It sounds like you might like to be a vegetarian.”

“Yeah, but why do they have to taste so good?”

“It’s like you’re inside my head right now. Would you like to try not eating meat?”

“Okay, but can I have cheese? What’s just a cheese-eater called?”

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“So, Mom? I decided my favorite city is New York.”

“That’s a fine choice. Why is it your favorite?”

“It has lots of buildings and restaurants and everything.”

“It does.”

“I’m going to live there when I grow up.”

“What will you do in New York?’

“I’ll live in a building and eat in the restaurants.”

“Nice. What will you do for a job?”

“Well, my band will play at night.”

“Okay.”

“And in the day I’ll make movies about monsters and maybe bears.”

We are FINALLY enjoying more springlike weather this week! I love these pictures of Thomas and Leila on the swings. It reminds me of Noah and Aidas on the same swings back in the day, when I had just started the daycare. And Thomas is SO busted here, eating one of the cookies that a close fiend made for us. Life is sweet! (more…)

So this being a new mommy is wild stuff. I’m doing things I had no idea I was capable of like exercising unconditional patience during teething & sleep-fighting tantrums. I’m pulling out all the stops to breastfeed (See The Best Damn Lactation Cookies You’ll Ever Eat.)

I’ve also now been relegated from watching popular adult shows like Breaking Bad on Netflix to Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba.
I think it’s safe to say life for me has changed pretty drastically. And as much as I miss my old wake up time of 10am- I am acclimating to 6:30/7:30am. (more…)