A little song

While mom's away

Socks of mud. Gloves of mud. We played in the pit that will soon become our lagoon. It's got about a 12-inch mixture of water and silty mud at the bottom right now after we pumped another couple of feet of water out. Was quite the messy fun this. Amazing how transformative a coating can be. As Isaiah pulled his coated hands and forearms from the muck, they had a sheen that looked like super hero gloves and dripped in such a way that you could easily imagine super powers attached to them. Then there was this exchange:

Isaiah: Bernadette, let's fight.
Bernadette: I don't want to fight. I just want to put my mud gloves on.
Isaiah moments later a he plants his fists in the softened bank: Daddy, I'm boxing the mud.

Notes

I ask Bernadette if she's going to tell me a bedtime story. "OK, but it's scary," she says. One of the characters was named Foo Foo Fluff. A side note about the young storyteller: Sometimes she lapses into song or makes noises where you'd thing she was going to use words. There's a bit of nonsense, but I love it.

The young Mara:
Likes: mama, nursing, sleeping, snuggling, any combination of the above, Isaiah's singing in the car.
Dislikes: silverware clattering on plates, diaper changes, kittens (competition for food; just kidding; who hates kittens?).

Thinking about going rodeoing. Just got pajamas on an uncooperative 2-year-old.

Some discussion of the blood mobile today as Grandma was making brownies for the people who donated. Isaiah's theory was that the blood is squeezed from dead enemies, while Bernadette was concerned about spurting when the needles are removed and whether the people who give die.

Isaiah's prediction after the first soccer practice: By the timetbe game is over, the whole team will be on the bench.
Me: Why.
Isaiah: Too many penalties.

Isaiah: Did you know nature is a hotel?
Us, puzzled: What?
Isaiah: Well, from the perspective of animals.

As I was saying

Who's happy here?

The model and the milliner

Bernadette created a hat for Kateri using two hair bows and a coaster.

Point goes to the kid.

Even with many reminders, it has been really, really hard for Isaiah to change his habit of leaving the bathroom door open while he uses the toilet and then shutting it as he leaves (sigh!).  One day I said in exasperation, "I don't understand why this is so hard for you to remember!"

"That's because," he replied calmly, "you're not me."

Moments with Mara

When his baby sister cries in the car, Isaiah starts singing at the top of his lungs. (Favorite selections include "Life is a Highway" and "I Wouldn't Have Nothin' if I Didn't Have You".)  It works.  Whether she is comforted or stunned, we can't be sure.  At any rate, she's quiet.

Apparently, Mara played her first game today.  She was lying in her bassinet while I was washing dishes, and suddenly Bernadette cried, "Mama, Mama!  She's playing with me!"

"Really?  What is she playing?"

"She's playing hands!"

"Oh.  How do you play hands?"

"You just hold hands."

Rainy day

You've been turned into a toad

Thank Pete and Magda for your new hopping legs and bumpy skin. They outfitted the girl.

Big sister

Awake

First car ride

Morning

Princess, robot

Morning nap

Alert

Toes

While Marian and Mara rest

Lady of the lake

Thumb

Sometimes you have to poke yourself in the eye to suck your thumb.

First soccer game

Isaiah, red shirt, green shorts

Soaking up the world

Sisters

Mara Joy

 

    Mara Joy Friedrichs

    7:19 p.m., Sept. 12, 2014 at home

    7 pounds, 9 ounces

Elton John day

Who needs TV?

Watching a summer storm. (Bernadette appears to be fishing for tote bags.)

Big Indian

Ripples on a fall evening

Potty time

Kateri remembered to grab her magazine before sitting down.

art, not artifice

Kateri coloring: remove all the crayons from the box and redistribute across the floor.
Kateri painting: mash brush into watercolors; mash brush onto paper. This is no delicate flower.

No baby yet

But Kateri is trying the new stuff out.