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Instead of wordless Wednesday, here is text-only Thursday. I sincerely hope it will be the first and only.

There are no pictures on the blog today because I have extended my amazing phone-losing skills to the camera, which became the latest object of mine to disappear on Saturday, April 21. As far as I can tell, it jumped ship somewhere between the nature center and home. We are looking into replacing it, but given what a major purchase it is, and given how reluctant a decision maker I am... It could be a little while.

It was a bit of a rough day, that Saturday. But it was an important day, as far as the parenting of Miles. That was the day I became persuaded that Miles really, for reals, needs to be able to sleep independently. (of course, this is not a new idea...)

That's not to say I didn't know it was ridiculous that my five month old can go to sleep on her own without so much as a lullabye, if she has to (but I do love to sing her My Lagen Love, and she loves it too), while my nearly three year old has a house-melting conniption if we leave him alone to fall asleep. It's just that the house-melting conniptions tend to wake sleeping babies, and frequently when he is left in his room, even in the absence of a HMC, he gets into disturbing levels of mischief.

Used to be innocuous things like putting all his possessions into the diaper pail or coloring on inappropriate objects, but on Saturday after 2 hours of nap attempt, I threw up my hands and did about 30 minutes of housework. All was quiet in the room, and I was hopeful... until I found he had unwound an entire cassette tape, run it all over his room like a spiderweb around various furniture, and completed the exhibit by wrapping the last of the tape several times around his neck. When I approached him, aghast, he only said, sepulchrally, "Mum. Yoot at my net-yace."

Sleep-train THAT.

Still, something had to give. So we began anew. To date, in the last week, last night was the first night in 6 days that he came into our bed during the night, and every night since Saturday he's fallen asleep without anyone in the room (except Monday, but he was comatose within 20 minutes; I barely had time to leave). So that's progress.

 Other news:

• The kids are adjusting nicely to their 3 days a week at Miss Jessie's house. Miss Jessie has been an exemplary care giver, convincing Miles to nap every day and Adele to eat more from a bottle than she's ever done before (sometimes up to 14 ounces during the day! which really helps her sleep at night). Miles comes home having played with friends, talked to Macaws, and learned a Bible story, and Adele plays and naps happily since her first day (in which she screamed non-stop).
• Adele has had exactly one illness, minus having had the sniffles a couple of times, and it was a teeny, innocuous and short-lived stomach bug. Day care has, thus far, not caused her to be sick with all 200 cold and flu viruses at once, as I'd feared.
• We are now within a week of the end of classes, and within two weeks of the end of exams. This means a great deal to our family.
• We're excitedly making tentative summer plans, such as at least one visit to Rochester and one to Maryland. 
• Miles has received his first acceptance letter. He will attend preschool next fall, though probably only for 2 days a week, due to our work schedule. 

I am impressed if you made it through this much text, unrelieved by the images that the modern mind craves. Please implore the fairies, on our behalf, to send us a replacement camera. Also, I could use some rain boots.

Adele: Five Months Old

And as rosy and merry a child as you could wish. 

 

 

Happy five months, my little posy. I love you more every day. 

Saturday Sponteneity

I frequently overdo it on the weekends.

As you all know, I work all week, 8-5. Our mornings and evenings are carefully structured (though frequently chaotic) ballets called "get everyone ready to go to work and daycare" and "have dinner and get the kids to bed and get ready for work the next day." At the end of each day, we maybe have time to watch an episode of Downton Abbey (love love love) before Jon pulls out his school work and I get my butt to bed.

On the weekends, I find it necessary to:

• enjoy quality time with my kids
• take the kids all the places I want to take them during the week (library, nature center, market, etc)
• Do the laundry, sweep the floors, straighten, vacuum, clean the bathroom, change the sheets... you know. Everything. All cleaning happens on the weekends. 

Far from being oases of rest from the workweek, then, weekends mean frenzy. You will not reach me by email on the weekends. You might reach me by phone, but be prepared to share my attention.

Captured by the nice people at Price House

Anyway. Story time. We made it to the nature center and the library on Saturday morning this week. When it was time to leave the library, I gave Miles his three minute warning, and then time was up, we were leaving. And, two-ishly, he collapsed on the floor sobbing "I'M NOT TIIRREED!!!!" 

At that moment, a Kind Lady approached and asked if I needed a hand with our books. I did. My son needed to be dragged/hoisted out of the library at the same time that my daughter was riding in the Moby wrap. There just aren't enough arms. Kind Lady walked me to the car and said, "You know, you're doing a good job. Sometimes they need to be carried, and I applaud you for it. My kids are 5 and 8 and they don't need to be carried anymore, but I think that's because when they were little and they needed to be carried, I carried them."

Besides being sooo grateful for the help and the pep talk (thank you Kind Lady!! Whoever you are!), I had three reactions to this.

1. OH NO, my kids will one day be 6 and 8. HOW WILL I CARRY THEM WHEN ONE OF THEM IS HAVING A TANTRUM?? I understand there are fewer tantrums among six year olds. I can only hope. 
2. I suppose she is saying that kids don't need to be carried when they get older because you established their boundaries while you were able to physically enforce them. She is saying that by carrying Miles today, I am teaching his future self that "time to go" means time to go, for realz, now. 
3. Then again, she might also be saying that investing the time in carrying them now means that they'll be more secure, more independent as older kids. They'll remember being carried and remember the love, and it will make them more willing and able to walk. 

Made for a pensive drive home. Miles was over it by the time we got outside, by the way.

Saturday afternoon, after the Naptime-that-wasn't, I decided that with weather like this I'd regret it if we didn't go for a walk. *Spontaneity* for beginners: We intended to be gone an hour. I still brought the diaperbag.

And it's a good thing, too. We ended up staying out until Papa got home, and then longer as Miles had made two new friends at the park and their parents invited us for pizza! We had so much in common with these parents, I couldn't believe we hadn't met somewhere before. Of course we had two common acquaintances; this IS Blacksburg, population: 30,000 when school is in session.

So we ended up staying at the playground and staying till quarter till bedtime. And I had my camera :-)

Adele in her Moby. She loves gliding around in there and looking down on her brother.

Mum. A complete maniac.

Miles will probably double the local population of dandelions this spring. He always has one on hand. Please no one tell him not to call them "sea lions;" I love it so much!

 

Adele's first park swing! She LOVED it!

                                          Both my kids in swings...

                                         She was solidly asleep in her swing within 10 minutes. You know I kept pushing that thing as long as I could manage it!!

                            One of Miles' new friends! A. is about a year younger than Miles...

                            It was adorable to watch them play house.

                          E. is a year older than Miles, so they're in order of age as well as height. They were totally bffs-for-a-day. Wish I had gotten the picture of E. and Miles holding hands running through the weeds after a ball. But then all my blog readers might have died from cuteness overload.

Miles seriously has only gone down this slide two of the times we've been to this park (he's normally scared of slides this big) and both times it was to show off for E. (he's played with her once before).

Overweening boldness! She was still watching, after all.

A seriously good time was had by all. And Jon showed up and we got to know A. and E's parents, who also have a 4 month old. A friend for Adele! And, the parents and we have a lot in common. So we have new friends. Bonus!
How's that for a full day?

Got our Allelulias back!

It has been a long Lent! We were so ready for some Easter cheer yesterday.

Storytime!
We awoke at 5 am on Easter Sunday, this time not simply to feed the baby or redirect the toddler back to his room, but to attend the Great Vigil at church, start time: 6 am!

...Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. It's an intensely beautiful service,  beginning with darkness, fire, incense, candles, plainsong, and a pageant! (I had big plans for photographing the whole morning. Alas, once again, I failed to hire a photographer for the event.) Yes, a pageant, children dressed as animals and symbolic concepts, sound effects, simple and lovely and, as always, I thrust my firstborn child directly into it. Like a donation to the church, which should surely be tax-deductible.

At rehearsal, Miles was a straight-up terror. That is all. When Easter actually dawned, however, all seemed on-track for full participation. He waited in the darkness with me, wearing his cow-helmet, supposedly prepared to perform his part of wandering, mooing, and hustling into the ark at the thunder sound-effect. At the last moment, however, when I nudged him after his cue, he began to SHOUT: "NO! NOO!! NO ARK! NOOO I DON'T WANT TO GO INTO THE ARK! NOOOOO!!"

It was epic. However, we had very good seats for the pageant and enjoyed church very much.

Jon caught a couple of shots of Miles on the way to get his Easter basket that make him look like a GQ model, according to Jon.

This little boy will NOT suffer to be called a baby, or even a little boy. If you ask him, you will find that he has become a man. A "BIG" man. Pretty good for 2 and a half.

Fortunately, this one doesn't mind being referred to as my baby. Adele was so mellow and mild and happy, this Easter!

He was actually saying, "See, baby sister, this a egg. A orange egg."

My little Easter Egg. I was trying so hard to get a picture that shows how gorgeous her eyes are becoming. I don't think either picture does her full justice.

March Madness (of another kind)

We are having a bit of a blogging slump. Sometimes one is swimming along gracefully through life, looking at the sky meditatively with each stroke and breathing rhythmically. Sometimes, one is dog-paddling for dear life. This past week or so has been a bit closer to that last end of things.

So we have no pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Grunert's visit, which is both shocking and ridiculous. They visited from Wednesday through Saturday and had a lovely romp with their grandchildren, also enabling Jon and me to go on TWO dates (TWO), one for fro-yo and one to see The Hunger Games, like everyone else in the world. And yet. No pictures.

No pictures of the gorgeous International Street Fair we attended on Saturday, with all the color, texture, and variety there. I wish I could have taken all of you with me to sample food from all over the world, hear music, see dancing, juggling and other cultural demonstrations, and learn about the diversity represented at Virginia Tech. But I don't even have pictures.

I don't even have pictures of Palm Sunday, in which I dressed Adele (and Miles) to the nines and we marched around the church with palms upheld. Heck, I couldn't even hold the prayerbook and hymnal, much less a camera.

We've had a daycare kerfuffle, you see. Miles and Adele have enjoyed being cared for in our home by dear Miss Caroline, but she had to move on (she's getting married soon, too!) and we have been through a couple of options and last-minute changes. This has stressed me out a bit, because if there's anything more mommy-guilt inducing than leaving your kids with someone else, it's fearing you won't be able to find someone to do it. It's no one's fault, mind you, just an unfortunate coincidence that led to a small frenzy.

Fortunately, we have found a wonderful in-home daycare, new to the kids, where Miss Jessie will be caring for the kids in the company of just a handful of other tots and several very kid-friendly animals, including two macaws!! I have it from Papa that Miles ran delightedly into her house today and didn't look back. We shall see how Adele responds when she wakes up in a new place...

In the meantime, a few shots of my treasures:

Everyone wants to take care of these two, of course. But not everyone can. They tried to raffle themselves off to the highest bidder, but I shut them down.
 

"What? I'm just holding her tenderly by the neck. It just looks like a hostage situation. So when am I going to get another cookie, again?"

"I guess she's okay, for a girl."

"But I'm still the favorite kid, right??"

"Okay. We can both be the favorites."

Anytime someone is in the market for childcare, this song pops into my head and plays on repeat. So I thought I'd give you the opportunity to join me in my madness! "The Perfect Nanny" from Mary Poppins. Enjoy!