Summer Memoirs

berry picking

sleeping in undies

splashing in the kiddie pool

patio drinks

eating fruits and veggies fresh from the garden

Ceiling fans. God bless the ceiling fans!

visiting family and friends

long daylight hours

homemade (and otherwise) popsicles

overdosing on vitamin D = everybody in a good mood

playing OUTSIIIIIDE

BBQing

weddings

local, fresh food/ Farmer's Market

taking the dogs swimming at the river overflow

long weekends

using the wagon and/ or watching Laura skip down the sidewalk ahead of me

family bike rides to go get ice cream

corn on the cob

fireworks

going to the park

grubby fingers and toes

And in the blink of an eye, it's over.
Happy Equinox!

Squirrel Week

     We are still plugging along with our afterschooling, trying to follow the preschool's weekly themes. We have done a week 'About Me' and on 'Apples' since school started, and now this week, 'Squirrels'.

graphing nuts... Laura loved it!

Working on her squirrel project :)

     I actually didn't have a lot planned for our squirrel week, but we took a couple books out of the library on them. One was a combo story/ fact book, so while we were reading it, I randomly decided to get Laura to tell me her favourite thing from each page as a way of reinforcing her learning. I wrote all the things down on slips and got her to help me pick out squirrel pictures to go with them from Google images. I wrote the captions she picked out (had to prompt her to fill in some context for a few of the sentences, but they were mostly all her). She is learning to practice her writing, too, but it would have been way too much to get her to write them all, so she just wrote the title on the poster. She enjoyed using the photo cropper to cut the squirrel pics down to size (again had some help making sure they were lined up straight). Trying to organize the poster was trickier to get her involved because it was a little too much like a craft at that point (which is not her strong suit -she is so not into crafts/ design/ aesthetics). I was trying to find a balance of teaching good design yet letting her have creative input. I kept most things where she said she wanted them to go but spread one or two  out so it somewhat evenly filled the board. This project was much more 'schooly' than I ever intended to do with a three year old, but it was fun, and I think she is happy with the end result. :) I am excited for her to get to show to it to people and see how much she can actually remember and explain to them. :)

All done!

     Also, sort of related, we have decided to switch Laura back down to two days of preschool a week. I was missing her while she was away! And we are trying to save up to take the girls to Disney World for Rachel's second birthday. :)

It Still Hurts...

     Most days I am okay. Good, even. But now that several of my friends have/ are on their third child, emotions begin running deep again. In particular, those who have their third child while their eldest is still three. These families are my trigger. I still long for a three-child family, so badly some days. And for whatever reason, the very closely spaced siblings are what make me mourn our loss the most. My realistic self tries to tell this part of me that life would likely have been utter chaos for us, and not in a good way. I mean, I'm sure we would have muddled through, but it wouldn't have been pleasant. So, it seems illogical for me to feel this way. But, regardless, this is how I feel.

      Anyway, after having a rough day with yet another pregnancy announcement, I unfortunately stumbled across these absolutely gorgeous paintings. Generally, I wouldn't describe myself as an art appreciator, but these caught my eye. I followed the link to her facebook page for the one of the woman in a hospital bed. After reading the comments and interpretations of that piece, the tears began to flow once more. This piece obviously resonated the most with me and my birth experiences, and I realized how starkly contrast that piece was to most of her other home/ water birth pieces, and yet again how absolutely robbed I feel of that experience, and the potential to ever have that experience again. 

Anyway, I guess that is everything in a nut shell. Hasn't been a great night. Although, the one ray I do have is that at least now I feel like I just need to cry about these things as a form of release instead of nearly drowning in a depression type wave. I think that's a step in the right direction.

The Chop

Dear Hair,

I love you. I really do. But... you are just too much. There is too much of you. And we have been trying and trying to work out our issues together for a long time, going and getting thinned... and trimmed... and thinned some more. But you keep growing back, seemingly even thicker than before. And it just isn't working for me anymore. Now that the hot days of summer are over, and I have less of a need to throw you into a ponytail, I think, for the time being, it is best we go on a break. Perhaps after having some time apart, I will be able to reconsider our relationship.

AFTER

BEFORE

Love,

Me

Laura Love

     As of last month, Laura is three-and-a-half now. I am happy to say the Terrible Twos seem to be well behind us, and really only lasted for about the six months between two-and-a-half and three. I must say I am really really loving age three. More than I ever imagined I would. Before I had kids, I thought babies were my favourite - age one, when they start to walk and talk. And while I did quite enjoy that year with Laura, I think three has surpassed it.

• She is funny. So, so funny. She makes me laugh every day. And, she is learning to laugh at herself, too, which is awesome. 

• She doesn't need to be supervised for every second of the day, and can engross herself in play for a Mommy-can-actually-get-something-done amount of time.
• She is so easy to parent and get along with now, but not in the submissive/ obedient way you always think you want your kids to be before you have them. In the we-can-communicate-about-our-problems-and-sort-them-out-together way. Because she is definitely not submissive. And I love that about her.
   
• She has matured so much in the past few months, and is visibly learning to manage her emotions better than she ever has.
   
• Yet, she still maintains this absolutely incredible innocence. She is so beautiful. A few examples:

• While playing a game, she ends up getting all the pieces she needs first, and wins the game. But she has no concept of winning and losing. I tell her she wins because she has all the pieces. She says, "Here, let me help you." And proceeds to get me the rest of the pieces I needed.
• While walking back from the park one day, we happen upon a small clump of those little yellow flowers (birdsfoot trefoil) on someone's lawn. Laura stops to look at them, and then stand in them. "I like them," she giggles, "and they like me."
• We walked to the library almost every week this summer, and Laura loved to skip ahead of me singing, "You can run and run as fast as you can - you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

• Not only is she so beautifully innocent, she is also becoming so much fun to actually do stuff with. Like play games, or go on day trips together, or work on her workbooks, or read (she has sat through two chapter books in the last week!)
• And she is so imaginative now - she has conversations and role plays with her stuffed animals (or inanimate objects, as they may be), and her favourite thing to do is to 'talk guys' (aka she pretends to talk for one of her stuffies, and I the other) which we do every night before she falls asleep.  
• She is a wonderful and beautiful big sister now, trying to engage Rachel in play she knows Rachel is interested in, singing her songs when she is upset, and trying to help Rachel or assist me in our every day tasks. Adorable. 

She is just so lovely right now, and my love for her continues to grow deeper than I ever knew it could.

First Day of School!

Laura will be attending another year of preschool, three mornings a week for a 2.5 hour program.

First day of school dress made by Grandma

    The more I look into sending her to elementary school, the less I think that I want her to go there. I always wanted to be a Stay At Home Mom because I wanted to raise my own kids, and though I never planned to continue to stay home to homeschool, that attitude is transferring. I guess that might seem counter-intuitive since we send her to preschool, but... preschool is only a few hours a week and school is... a lot. I don't want my children's best hours spent away from home and us spending the majority of our time together rushing to get ready/ fighting/ enforcing bedtime, etc. And, more to the point, I'm not convinced school is the right place for Laura (or a lot of kids, for that matter). We haven't made up our minds one way or the other yet, so will see how this year goes, but I'm glad we took the opportunity to experiment with it before sending her to real school.

Below is an (incomplete) little tally I've been keeping about the pros and cons of homeschooling.
Feel free to weigh in.

PRO:
learn subject as interest shown, sticks better
safer
tailored learning
no schedule/ relaxed schedule
best hours of day with kids, less fighting/ rushing out door/ being on time
less sick?

CON:
socialization
immune system
variety of learning experiences
miss out on school experience in general (I loved school)
miss out on opportunities for teachers/ coaches/ others to influence positively (and negatively)

Everybody's Getting Hitched!

We attended two lovely weddings over the past two weekends - one was Josh's cousin's and one was my cousin's.

Josh's cousin's wedding was a beautiful backyard wedding at the bride's parents' house.

Laura in front of their water feature. So pretty.

Ceremony

Recessional

Our fam :)

Preschooler dance party :) <3

Laura wanted to dance with 'the princess' before we left

Burlap wreath I made them

And this weekend, we attended my beautiful cousin's lovely wedding. The girls didn't come with us, and it was our first time leaving Rachel over night - but they were both champs! Rachel had a much easier time than Laura did her first night away from us. 

Here comes the bride! (We were almost late and almost missed her!) 

Sealing the deal :) <3

Reception Room. So pretty.

Introducing the new couple. Such a pretty pretty bride.

Cousins <3

I just love weddings. Cliche, I know. What can I say? I'm a feel-good kinda girl.

Congrats to the newlyweds! Here's to happily ever after! <3