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.

More notes

Yesterday afternoon as I sat on the couch, Bernadette asked me why I was sitting down.  "My feet hurt," I said.  She knelt down and started prodding them, asking if it hurt in such and such a spot.  Then she put her ear to my right foot and listened.  "What are you listening for, Bernadette?" I asked. "The baby," she said.  "Yes, it's definitely coming down."

Isaiah this afternoon: "Kateri is a sack of sugar.  I am the cake."

We love Mo Willems, and of his Pigeon books we own Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and The Pigeon Needs a Bath!  Tonight Kateri was pulling the picture books off the shelves and chattering to herself.  When she found Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, she sat down on the floor and started turning the pages, saying, "You need baff!  Take a baff, Pigeon!"

Dangling

Happy baptism anniversary, Bernadette.

Notes

Quotable Bernadette as we leave KC:
"There's the sleeping place," in reference to the hotel we sometimes use near Paul and Liz's house.

"The skyscraper is bent over," in reference to a crane, butnot immediately clear because the downtown skyline is also in view.

Building block towers with Kateri is more an act of rebuilding in the face of an ongoing earthquake.

Kateri pulls out the play utensils and we pretend. Me: What are you eating? Kateri: Gum. Me: With a spoon?

Car seat modifications

Bernadette sets it up her own way.

notes

Sunday, doubting my parenting skills after acts of great impatience on my part: I blow bubbles and three girls 4 or younger think the world is magic. Monday, expecting to have my license revoked after losing my temper and yelling too much at one of the kids: We toss pine cones and rocks into Big Indian, ripples from the splashes and the wind colored by the setting sun, and three kids 6 and younger think the world has never been more fun.

Horses

August showers

Fighting fires

Italian tastes

Summer!

Assembly required

Somnolent

Old-school slide

Apparitions

Girl 1

Pasta!

Or, as Kateri calls it, "potta".  Or just "pot."  Whatever it is, she can't seem to get enough of it.

Nightgowns

Direct from Yonkers and Grandma Anne.

Birthday boy

Isaiah turns 6.

The saw is noisy

Words of wisdom

During our religion lesson last week, I was teaching Isaiah and Bernadette about the four evangelists.  After showing them the symbol of St. Matthew, I asked, "Who do we know whose patron saint is St. Matthew?"  After a pause Isaiah exclaimed, "Daddy!"  "That's right," I said.  "St. Matthew has the special job of praying for Daddy because he's Daddy's patron saint."  Bernadette added excitedly, "And yours is St. Mama!"

Isaiah, while listening to the Beatles:
"Love is all you need.  Well, except money."
(During "Love Me Do") "You can't make someone love you just by asking."

Isaiah: "If Snow White had run all the way out of her stepmother's kingdom, she would have been all right.  The Queen only asked the mirror who was the fairest in the land."

Story time

Coming soon to ESPN

Isaiah, after he, Bernadette and Kateri chased the fowl from the yard and back toward the barn: "I was enjoying the sport of turkey rounding more than I've enjoyed anything else."

At rest

Princess Bernadette

Bernadette is 4!

Fashion tips

"What's the point of having a nice shirt of you don't wear it?" -- Isaiah discussing the dinosaur shirt from Pete and Magda that he was wearing

Hats

Parents overhear the darnedest things.

Isaiah: You are a beastly girl made of bacon!

Bernadette (calmly):  I am not.  I am a woman.

Visitors

The turkeys wander up to the front porch to say good morning.

New spectator sport

Construction worker

notes

Bernadette: I have butterflies in my eyes.

Kateri: I wan' kraken (she's asking for a cracker, not the legendary sea monster -- we hope!).

Kateri: I wan' oatmeal mama, and coffee.

Playing car in the living room (I lay on the floor, the kids sit on my tummy and pretend to drive until I dump them off. First we drive to Colorado to see Daniel and ski. Then we drive to New York to see Pete and Magda and play. Then we drive to Yonkers to see Grandma Anne and make cookies (activities and destinations provided by the Bernadette and Isaiah with enthusiastic support from Kateri). Then we drive to Grandma and Grandpa Carr's ... (not sure of what we'll do there at first) and watch cartoons.

Fair

Construction team

Sacked out

Vance's meadow softball

Colorado

House work

Happy munching

On Saturday night in Kansas City, Bernadette and I went on a date while the rest of the family was at a barbecue.  When we ordered our pizza, the man at the counter gave Bernadette a free chocolate chip cookie.  Dinner, for her, consisted of bites of pizza alternated with bites of cookie.  Midway through the meal, she paused and told me with a big grin, "This is happy munching!"

Decked out