Nesting In Progress

The nesting instinct has been so strong over these summer months, and I wonder if it's because we were in the middle of moving around the time of Oona's birth and I didn't have time or means then to relax and 'fluff my nest?'

I've been enjoying the hard, rewarding work of making this house feel like "us." Almost every surface of the house has seen a fresh coat (or two, or three) of paint this summer. I doubt and second guess every decision we make when it comes to design and decor, but as autumn creeps up on us, I feel like we've made some good progress. Heck, considering we only just moved in at the end of March and have three little children to provide lots of distractions, we've made HUGE progress! It's starting to really feel like home, and that's a great feeling.

25 / 52

Portraits of my children once a week, for a year.

Olive: Painting is her favorite.

Silas: Not the most flattering picture, but getting any picture of this 2 year old on the go is hard these days.

Oona: Constantly on the move. If she's not crawling after me as I go about my business, she's trying to break my toes with her walker. But really, 7 months is such a fun age - so much personality shining through.

First Week of Kindergarten

This has been a weird week. An exciting week, a quieter than normal week, a having-to-get-up-too-early-every-day week, and a kind of lonely for mommy week. Olive finishes her first week of kindergarten today and she has enjoyed every second of it! I'm so proud of how maturely she has handled herself with such a big adjustment. She is overflowing with excitement about every detail about her kindergarten class, and I'm thankful that she comes home eager to share all that excitement with Matt and I. 

This little lady is so strong, beautiful and brave. I'm so thankful and blessed to be her mom!

I Can't Sleep

My big girl, my firstborn, my baby always - I'm dropping her off for her first day of kindergarten in about 5 hours, and while she's sleeping soundly upstairs I'm pacing the living room and blogging at 2:30am. (Never a good idea.)

I know, I really know she is going to love school. It's a great school, she's a bright kid and she is so ready for this adventure. But tonight every time I close my eyes all I see are visions of Olive as a baby. Wasn't she just a baby a minute ago? I can still see her in perfect detail as a baby if I just close my eyes and remember, and every time I do it hurts in the most bittersweet way, because I simultaneously feel so proud of 5 year old Olive and yet tonight I kind of want baby Olive back.

Now, to try to grab a few hours of sleep or go sob over her baby pictures? Maybe I'll just go get a head start on packing her lunch instead. :)

24 / 52

Portraits of my kids once a week, for a year.

Olive - enjoying her last week before becoming a full time kindergarten student.

Silas - demands me to take him to the beach every single day, and throws a big ugly fit when I say no.

Oona - she's a skilled crawler now, and is getting really good at walking in her walker. This kid likes to move.

Peeks of the Past

^ My Mom's mother, Betty. I miss her. ^

^ My Mom's father, Bob. So handsome. ^

^ Four of Mom's older siblings. ^

^ Bob, Betty and their brood. Mom's on the far right. She's the 6th of 10. ^

^ Mom's the baby in the last picture. Oona looks so much like her, I think. ^

I asked my Mom for some old family photos recently because I want to make some engineer prints to hang up in our house, and I get so caught up in looking at all the photos from my parents' childhoods. It's such a weird phenomenon, seeing their images from a time when you didn't even exist. I sit and look at the pictures and wonder what kind of kids my parents and their siblings and even their parents were? One thing I know for sure is that they were awfully cute, and it just absolutely delights me looking at baby pictures of my mom, aunts and uncles and seeing Olive, Silas and Oona's resemblances!

Family

Two weeks ago, my whole family drove up to see the kids, Matt, Grace and I. It was the first time we had ALL been together in a really long time (I flew out to meet the gang in May 2013 to celebrate my siblings' college graduations, but Matt and the kids weren't able to accompany me, so this was a really special occasion getting to be together!) 

I loved getting to take walks around Holland with my parents, eating my Mom's cooking, staying up late laughing with my sisters, going on a dune hike with my brother, and most of all: watching my parents enjoy Olive, Silas and Oona. It was a good visit.

I have been missing them all like crazy since they left. One upside, though, is my youngest sister, Holly, got me hooked on Snapchat while she was here, so we get to "see" each other several times a day (usually trying to outdo each others' most unattractive faces, ha!) 

Olive Meets Her Teacher

Today Olive's Kindergarten teacher made a house call to meet the family. She brought a new student survey to fill out with Olive and the conversation went a little like this:

Teacher: "Ok Olive, I'm going to read these questions out to you and you can tell me the answers and we'll write them down -"

Olive: (Silently grabs pencil and starts filling in the answer to the first question on the survey, which was "what's your favorite color?" She wrote "red.")

Teacher: ....."Well, alrighty then. Olive, how long have you been reading?"

Olive: "Just a lot of days."

Teacher: "The next question is what's your favorite food?"

Olive: (Writes "plantains.")

Me: (Silently choking on coffee, because this kid has tried plantains ONCE and she was not exactly what I would call a fan.)

Teacher: "Well that's different. Um, let's see, next question... If you could choose a pet, what you pick?"

Olive: (Writes "goldfish.")

Teacher: "I like goldfish too. Now, 'what things do you like to do?'"

Olive: (Writes "Read. Swim. Do Coloring.")

Teacher: "Well we're going to get to do a LOT of reading and coloring at school this year!"

Olive: "Will we get to do some fingerpainting? She (pointing accusingly at me) never lets me do that."

Teacher: "Well, I'm sure we'll get to do some fingerpainting at some point this year."

Olive: "That's good!"

Teacher: "Last question Olive. What things do you NOT like to do?"

Olive: (Considers question seriously for several seconds before solemnly writing "be selfish.")

Teacher: (Clearing throat.) "Well, that's an admirable quality, Olive."

(At that point I had to step in the kitchen to laugh, because - seriously, this kid! She's ready for kindergarten, but the question begs to be asked - is kindergarten ready for Olive?) ;) 

The Hangover

My kids' faces up there pretty much sum up how I feel about this week.

Not only are we still feeling grumpy about having to say goodbye to my parents and siblings this week, but...

I'm desperately trying to get my house, kids and life back on track after about two straight weeks of company, too many late nights, too much fun, too much ice cream and not enough sleep. I think at this point I've realized I'm probably never going to catch up, and I'm trying to be cool with that, but seriously *yawwwwn.*

I missed Oona's 6 month well checkup...for the second time. I'm pretty sure I'm our doctor's favorite person.

I did remember (in the nick of time) Olive and Silas' first dentist appointments - which happened at the same time. (Silas did a major poop right as the hygienist called us back, in case you wanted to know. And he bit the hygienist's finger. But hey, no cavities! *Happy dance!*)

I've got an ear infection. Whomp-whomp.

^ Even Oona's got a vacation-hangover. ^

Livin' on too much coffee and a prayer over here, and hoping things start getting easier once Olive starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks and life is forced into a more structured routine. 

Oh, and here's a "meh" photo of the cruise ship that docked in Holland last week. It wasn't quite as impressive as the mega-yacht, but it was still exciting to see.