Playing with hats

Dressy

Cute things

Bernadette flipped through our story Bible, pointing out pictures of Jesus.  Even in the Old Testament, she found pictures of Jesus.  (Who knew?)  When she was done, she started pulling other books off the shelf, checking the cover art.  "Jesus?" she said.  "No."  And the book went into a discard pile.  Next book.  "Jesus?  No.  Jesus?  No..."

To kids on the playground who talk to Bernadette, to an old lady at the Y who stopped to tell us how pretty Bee is, Isaiah has this to say: "She's mine!"

After I explained to Isaiah that we shouldn't get too close to the geese at the pond because they could bite us, poor Bee could no longer take a step in any direction without her brother stepping in front of her with his arms outstretched, warning her not to get too close.

Isaiah has a friend at the Y, Dylan; they have fun together, but they also get into quite a few squabbles.  Yesterday Isaiah informed me, "Dylan screams at the Y.  He talks in a different manner than me.  We play on bad terms some of the time."

After we found out the baby is a girl, Isaiah decided he wanted a brother instead--actually, ten brothers.  "At my birthday party," he said, "they could all run around driving trucks and asking for food.  And we could name the first one Pete and the second one Peter."

One morning, as we snuggled on the couch, Isaiah told me, "I love you so much, and Daddy so much, and Bernadette so much."  "We love you so much, too," I said.  "Who else do you love?"  A thoughtful pause.  "I really like Pete.  He's a good guitar player, and he's my uncle."

The little girl

purse, flowered dress, monster truck

Watching boats

Newburyport, Mass., with Rod and Martha on a beautiful day.

Mother's Day!

 Part of Mama's card.

 Mama's cheesecake.

 Lunch

 Aunt Magda

Uncle Pete

Hockey game

 The Zamboni!

 The ice.

The family.

Isaiah

 With Sofia, whose first communion was the reason for the party.

A boy and his flowers.

Bernadette at play

 With her favorite ball (a mini softball)

 With a balloon

Exploring the fashion possibilities of a jump rope.

Watching geese

 Rockwell Park on a weekend afternoon.

Notes

Bernadette rewound her internal spring overnight. Watch her go!

Wocka, Wocka Wocka! Bernadette shouts after "The Muppet Movie"

Isaiah's description of the sky on an overcast afternoon: "It's one big cloud all stretched out like a ton of freight trains in a freight yard."

Ready, set, go!

Quotes

Isaiah, while scrambling barefoot up the slide: "This is hard for me because I am feeling my age.  I'm not young anymore."

A few minutes later: "Mama, I touched a little orange caterpillar!  It did not do me harm."

After kicking his little sister in a moment of pre-bedtime frenzy: "I thought it would be funny, but it wasn't."

Bernadette's first clearly distinguishable full sentence, uttered Friday morning: "I want some butter!"  It was followed up throughout the weekend by variations, including, "I want a cookie!" and "I want a balloon!"

Asleep at the wheel

Isaiah crashes on the couch, mid-book.

Taking her baby to bed

Bernadette has been tucking herself in, although she still wants Mama to help put her to sleep. She also enjoys (sometimes) tucking her doll in.

Racing

 Sending cars down Dad's improvised racetrack.

Singer song writer

Isaiah the lyricist composed about 15 songs in 15 minutes in the car tonight (lyrics usually one line repeated, melody remarkably unchanged from song to song. A snippet of the creative process.

"This one's about buses and trees, city lights and cherrypickers."

and

"That was a silly little song but fun."

And there was this exchange with Marian:
"Do you know the one about Shumpty Dumpty," Isaiah asked.
"Do you mean Humpty Dumpty," Marian said.
"No. Shumpty Dumpty sat on a fence," Isaiah said.