Thea Belle at 5 Months

So when I went in for Thea Belle's 4 Month doctor appointment (which was actually her five month appt.) she weighed an inexplicable 2 ounces LESS than she weighed at her 2 Month appt and yet grew 2 1/2 inches longer. The doctor was mystified. So anyway, she is now officially 14 lbs. 3 ounces.  This puts her in the 10-25% -- for whatever that's worth.

 

  

Dietrich is 38 inches tall and 35 pounds at his 3-year mark. He can make a one-handed slam-dunk in the new basketball hoop. He can sing the alphabet and count to 15 by himself. His favorite color is green. He loves short sleeves and shorts (in the middle of Minnesota winter) and can dress himself.

Home

I just found this this afternoon...if you haven't seen the original by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes it is worth watching it first (down below)...you'll appreciate the cover better...

Trying to Give Atticus a Piano Lesson

So Atticus wants to learn to play the piano. And I want to teach him. And I know how to play the piano. And we have a piano. One problem. I have 2 other little people who also want to learn to play the piano. But they are not in the same developmental stage that Atticus is. So our piano lesson was very short and disjointed and involved lots of "It's not your turn yet." "Wait just a couple more minutes..." "Please don't touch the keys yet, okay?" and so forth... And despite what I saw as a colossal failure of a lesson, the next day, Atticus went up to the piano and showed his dad where middle C was and then proceeded to name the other keys on the piano by their letter name. So, there you go -- though I still have no idea how I will be able to give him actual constructive lessons, my son is very smart and might learn it anyhow.

Isn't this awesome -- I hope they always always always love making music together this exuberantly.

Three Men & a Little Lady

First of all, this was a day I was able to have 15 minutes of actually enjoying my children. When I was a little kid I have this totally amorphous memory of laying on my bed and a soft sheet being thrown up into a sun-filled room and it gently floating unevenly, lightly down over me...like it was kissing my cheeks. I don't know if I did this for myself or if my brother Aaron and I would lay on my bed together or if my mom did this. But I loved it so very much. And I wasn't a child who liked to sit still for very long. Anyway, since Atticus was a tiny baby this is a game I would play with him...and each time a baby came along, we would include him or her in it. As you can probably guess, the boys play a wild version of it involving kicking and punching which is generally subdued and sometimes banned by their mother who tries to protect the littlest ones and also hates getting hit in the legs...but sometimes they play peacefully for 5 or 10 minutes. And everyone is happy. And I look happy and at peace -- and my kids know that I love and like them. This is good.

Secondly, when I was a girl, I saw the movie Three Men and a Baby (and then Three Men and a Little Lady) approximately 327 times because my grandma loved Tom Selleck and I loved my grandma. (I also saw an unearthly number of Magnum P.I. episodes, in case you wondered.) To this day, I think about that mural that Steve Guttenberg's character painted in the foray of their 80's-cool apartment. And I think Mr.Selleck is still a pretty sexy dad-aged guy.

This one is probably my favorite -- because Thea Belle doesn't look so worried (-:

New Year's at My Folks

These are the first pictures of my dad and Thea Belle together that have turned out...Hooray!

 

 

This is the second time during our Christmas week that the kids were able to go to one of these fun blow-up jumper places. At the Johannsens, Nancy's friend Annette Dane dropped by to give all the boys (including cousin Max) a pass to the jumper place in Des Moines. So we spent Tuesday morning having fun there. And then we drove to my folks Wednesday afternoon and went to the jumper place in Dubuque on Thursday morning with their cousin Clark. It was a birthday party for Dietrich -- My mom brought cupcakes to celebrate after eating lunch there. I think these places must be like the Pump It Up place in the Twin Cities but it was a first for my kids and me. Thank you!

The boys and their cousin Clark watching a movie together

 

Christmas celebrated on New Year's Eve Morning

Thea Belle & her cousin Felicity in the matching dresses my mom made for them.

My mom wonders why there aren't more pictures of Dietrich with Thea -- well, for one, he always makes a face like this. Secondly, for some unknown reason, he almost always ends up making her cry. I am not sure what to do about it. Anyway, here's an attempt to get a photo of them together.

Clark and Lincoln taking a bath together

New Year's Eve was fun -- All of us with Jon and Robyn and their friend Tiffany watched the entire season of a show called Sing-Off where a capella singing groups compete for a cash and record-deal prize. It was a neat program -- especially with no commercials and the judging comments skipped. Though we were surprised to find Ben Folds as one of the season's judges. Hm. Anyway. Brad and I also liked that the contestant groups all seemed kind to each other and genuinely cheering each other on. My dad made his awesome strawberry-lemon icies for everybody and then to end the year we listened to some of our favorite music from this year's music finds.