SHARON AND PAUL VISIT

My sister Sharon and her fiance Paul came to visit us this weekend.  Virgina was loudly showing off her gorgeous fall weather, I had roasted a bunch of vegetables for next week's meal prep, and Sloane had recovered from her fever, so by the time they came in on Saturday night, I was ready to party.

And by party, I mean have an early dinner out.  That's what a party is when you have kids! Hey, and i'm a-ok with that. 

We tried to go to Lunch and Supper, and I was really excited about it, but we got there at 5:30 thinking that was an early enough time to get a spot at this tiny place and we were totally wrong. It was packed! and the wait was going to be 45 minutes long.  There was a lovely statue of a pig that Sloane sat on while we considered the pros and cons of waiting 45 minutes for a table with toddler and an infant, and decided to move on.

It ended up being a night of walking around Scott's Addition neighborhood and getting a feel of the place. We used to live in this neighborhood and it was only after we moved that all these great places popped up - Lunch and Supper, Lamplighter coffee shop, Urban Farmhouse, Flying Dragon, En Su Boca, Ardent Brewery....all within walking distance of where we used to live! The same thing happened when we moved out of Church Hill, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happened when we move out of the north side.  

We had a drink at Urban Farmhouse and ended up eating dinner at Buzz and Ned's.  I enjoyed both the food and the conversation, and Logan enjoyed that time by sleeping the whole time in the Ergo - I love that thing!

It was beautiful out on Sunday, and after a breakfast at home and a stroll around the seminary campus, we took further advantage of the sunny weather by tramping out to Carytown, one of my favorite places in town.

We visited World of Mirth, which is such a fun store to explore, especially with kids, and then we made a little stop at Rocket Fizz, a retro candy store that I hadn't been in before. It's filled with old school candy and some new school ones (like green tea flavored kit kats!) and it was a feast for the eyes. 

It's hard to peg down my favorite store in Carytown, but Luxor Vintage clothing is definitely up there. It has such amazing things, it's like traveling back in time and being able to go through the personal items in a person's life. 

After a couple of hours, we said goodbye to Sharon and Paul and returned home. When we pulled up to our house, Sloane sighed, "Mom, I had such a great time." 

!! 

I absolutely love having my sisters visit!

SHARON'S HANDMADE WORKBOOK

My sister Sharon made Sloane the most beautiful little workbook, and I wanted to share the pages here. I had told her that Sloane really likes doing worksheets to practice her numbers and letters, and so she made this for Sloane to work on. I love the colorful cover and all of the illustrations. Isn't it beautiful?

Sharon left the last page of the workbook blank, and Sloane filled it up with her own creation (on the right).

Thank you Sharon eemo! 

THINGS THAT I AM REALLY ENJOYING ABOUT SLOANE THESE DAYS

I am enjoying Sloane so much these days. Especially as she gets older, I love that anything I think up to do, I can take her along with me!

 Here are some of the things that I'm enjoying in particular:

1. She is a wonderful older sister.

I'm constantly impressed by how loving and kind she is to Logan.  Logan can't do much right now, but Sloane tries to play with her, make her laugh and is constantly giving her kisses. She readily volunteers to put Logan's pacifier in, get her blanket, and comfort her. She tells me that she will share all her toys with Logan when Logan is ready to play with them.



2.  She loves stories.

The thing that she says the most consistently these days is, "Tell me a story!" She loves being read to and wants us to tell her a story at all hours of the day.  If we need to snap her out of a bad mood, a story will do it.

We visited the new library at Libbie Mill and it's funny how excited we both were about it.

3. She loves doing her school work and working on her letters and numbers.

Krystal, our daycare provider, is wonderful at working on letters and numbers with her, and she remarks at how much Sloane loves working on it.  At home, she will often say, "Mom, I need to work on my letters," and will sit in front of her pad, writing the alphabet over and over again.  This here is when she wanted to write down all the characters from Peter Pan. (She wrote the names on the left and then wrote her name with extra letters on the right with a purple crayon).

4. She loves to draw.

When she gets into it, she can draw for hours. It feels like a privilege to have front row seats to such creativity. She comes up with funny designs and I like listening to her explanations of things.  One day out of nowhere, she started drawing these people. She will draw a photo of our family over and over again, and she also recently has been drawing scenes from the Peter Pan story: Captain Hook and Peter Pan fighting on the pirate ship, Wendy, John and Michael flying, etc.

5. She is a wonderful conversationalist.

How amazing is it that i can sit around and have interesting and funny conversations with someone that came out of my body and is now her own little person? We can have conversations where I can actually get to know her better.

Lately, when I tell her something that she knows, she says, "I know, mom" just like teenager might.

Sometimes i ask her to say certain words just because i want to hear how she says it. Like the word helicopter; out of Sloane's mouth, it is: helitopter.

Also, i can't believe how adorable her voice is.

6. She enjoys a good twirl.

I remember I used to love twirling in dresses with my sisters when I was younger, so it's fun to see how gleeful Sloane gets when she can twirl in a dresses. I like to take pictures of it so i can show Sloane how cool it looks. 

7. She has so much joy.

The other day she saw a flock of geese flying overhead. She gasped, clasped her hands together and yelped for joy. I saw her small body fill up with pure wonder.

She loves making "jokes" and remarking on things she finds silly. We are listening to a lot of Winne the Pooh these days and she finds much of it hilarious.

Her thing right now is to say something silly and say, "I'm just kidding!" or "I'm just joking mom" and laughing heartily.

Even doing the most ordinary of things is great fun with her around. 

8.  She takes care of her animals.

All of her animals have names, and she takes turns taking good care of them: taking them along on car rides, putting them down for a nap, telling them stories,  reassuring them, etc.

9. She has a great imagination.

She often has imaginary animals, specifically kittens, running around the house that she takes care of. She also has an imaginary friend named Dora, and the stories here get elaborate.

The picture above is when she dragged around these two carts full of blocks, saying that they were her dogs. She took them to the park, fed them food, and reassured them when they were scared.

10. She is always up for an adventure...

and she loves to cuddle at the end of the day.

I am the luckiest!

LOGAN AT 4 MONTHS

Everytime I look at Logan these days, she reminds me of a little baby bear. It makes me laugh and she is always smiling and laughing back. I love making her smile, it feels like an addiction.

I'm savoring all the babyness of her - the tiny hands, the smell, the baby chub and the way she feels in my arms. I love that she is gaining heft and getting stronger, like she wants to sit up all time and can do it by herself sometimes, and I'm so proud and happy but there's also a little voice in the back of my head that says, "it's going by too fast" and I hang on to that moment of beholding her with all of my awareness so I can slow it down and appreciate it with every cell of my body.

There are days when it's really hard to leave Logan at daycare and walk away. But I tell myself that even though it sucks sometimes, it helps me appreciate her all the more in the hours I have with her in the mornings and evenings. I'm trying to teach her how to sleep continuously through the night but for now she is still waking up wanting to nurse and even though it's hard because of how tired I am, I even appreciate those times because it allows me more bonding time with her. She probably feels the same. 

That hair! It's getting longer but it's slowly starting to fall down. No more electrocuted baby hair, which is a little sad. Sloane loves rubbing her face through it, as if her hairs are soft feathers that you are meant to brush over your face. 

Sometimes she has these facial expressions that Ken and I die over. Kind of like this one, where it's as if she is a much older person giving us a "hey there" expression with a tiny baby face. It's the best.

Everyday, I feel extremely lucky to have her in our lives. When I hold both Logan and Sloane in my arms, I feel like the most fortunate and wealthy person in the world. 

Here is a little video clip of Logan laughing with Ken, he can always make her smile and talk. Sloane is saying "kiss her" here because Ken does this thing where he smothers Logan's cheeks and neck with kisses and it makes her giggle hysterically. Sloane loves seeing that. 

GANGS OF MID-ATLANTIC

Ken competed in his first crossfit competition this past weekend with a team from our box and the girls and I went to go cheer him on.  There was another team from our box that also competed and it was great to see them work their butts off, and it was awesome to do it with all the people who came out to support them. It was exciting! I took some footage and Ken made this video to capture the day's events.

OVERCOMING THE DARKNESS WITH APPLE DUMPLINGS

 

This past Monday, I got off work and walked out to a darkening evening sky. By the time I picked up the girls and got home, it was pitch black outside and I could feel it -  like I was slowly sinking into an deep dark ocean. It's a familiar feeling that I get around this time of the year, and I mentally counted the months that we had left until we would see sunlight during this evening time again...5 months. Ugh. "Mom, it's so dark! It makes me tired" Sloane said, and I had to agree. It makes me sad to think of the few hours that I have with my girls at the end of each day being in darkness, but that is what I have to work with. "Isn't it exciting Sloane? It will be dark like this because it is getting ready to be winter. Maybe we can see the stars come out earlier."  I took a deep breath and started thinking of things that I could do with Sloane that didn't require sunlight. I want to spend intentional time with her each day if possible, especially during the months where it's so easy to go into autopilot mode during the work week. This week I decided it would be making apple dumplings.  Or hand pies. We called them dumplings because it is so adorable hearing Sloane say that word.

She was excited to help and she was able to do most steps by herself with my instruction . She could roll out the dough, cut the circles, and sprinkle the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over the apple. She was also meticulous at brushing each one with the egg wash; I was impressed. 

 They turned out so good I ate mine and also the one that Sloane had designated for Logan. And it was so easy, that we made them again a few days later. 

Here's the basic recipe, if you're interested:

 Roll out a puff pastry sheet to about 1/4 inch thickness, cut out 8 circles (we used the mouth of a cup), and place 2 thin apple circle slices on four of the circles. Top the slices with a spoonful of brown sugar, sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a pad of butter. Place an unused circle on top of each mound and seal the top and bottom together by imprinting with a fork. Brush with egg yolk, add some more butter pieces if you'd like and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cut three vents into each and bake in 400 degree oven for 18 minutes. 

We are definitely going to make more of these this winter. 

NEVERLAND PARTY

Halloween was extra special this year. If you're going to dress up, why not dress up as story-book characters with your friends? I feel like we cracked the code with this thing; it was so much fun we want to try to do something similar each year, with a different book as a theme.

I read a short version of the Peter Pan book with Sloane earlier this year and she instantly started pretending she was Tiger Lily, and then we pretended to fight as Peter Pan and Captain Hook with baguettes as our swords. Needless to say, the excitement and build up for this party was monumental in our house. She asked me everyday for the Peter Pan story and once our friends decided what they were going to dress up as, she would list them to me confirming that Simone was going to be a mermaid, Os was going to be Peter Pan, Elijah was going to be the crocodile, Eden was going to be tinker bell, etc. 

It was so much fun planning for the party too; it was hard to tell who was more excited about it - us or the kids. 

 I posted a video I made of it here, but I wanted to share some of the photos I got too...

Sloane said her favorite part was digging for treasure and of course, flying. 

OFF TO NEVERLAND! (VIDEO)

We threw the kids (and ourselves) a Neverland themed party for Halloween this past weekend and it was glorious fun. The day after, Sloane recounted all the characters and events, begged for more Peter Pan stories, and I could hear here saying, "He can fly! He can fly! He flew!" to herself all around the house. Here's a video I put together from the party, enjoy!