The Tree

Ever since the tree guys came and prepared our tree for it’s imminent demise we’ve been getting comments on how it looks like a giant piece of broccoli or a tree straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.  It was so tall and they trimmed all but the top branches so it did indeed look funny for a few weeks!

On Tuesday they came back to finally take down the rest.  It was so interesting!  I didn’t watch them the first time so I’m not sure if they did this same stuff before, but the girls and I found the process fascinating. 

At first the guy was just up in the tree with a few ropes helping him stay there.

Which looks a lot scarier if you can see that he’s 80 ft. in the air!

We have quite the pile of branches and debris in our front yard!

After he got most of the branches and didn’t have anything to hang onto he got into his bucket.  This is what I found so interesting…since the tree was in between two sets of power lines and mere feet from our house they couldn’t just fell it.  They had to take it apart piece by piece.  The lines were so close they couldn’t just drop the pieces…they got to zipline down into the yard!  Extreme sports for trees!  I thought it was HILARIOUS!  T didn’t find it so amusing, but I laughed every time I saw a piece of tree come careening down. :)

The guy was using short ropes with clips and would hook it to a piece of tree, then he would clip the other end to the main rope they had strung up.  The other end of the main rope made a Y at the end with one end tied to the power pole and the other end held by two workers who kept it tight.  The guy up in the tree would cut the piece down and it would go zipping down the rope to the bottom where it would be unhooked by the workers on the ground and tossed into the pile.  Pretty neat!

Here’s a video I got of the last big piece to come down.  They did a great job not making too big of a mess or hitting anything…with this one exception.  I just happened to get on video the one time they hit the house (well, the roof of the porch).  It didn’t do any damage, but you can hear the thunk on the video.

Can’t you just imagine the tree saying, “Whee!  Look out below!” Haha:)

We went out on their lunch break to survey the progress.  T explained to the girls how the tree rings tell you how old the tree is and since the ridges were deep enough to feel I went and got some paper and let the girls do some shading.  Then we did the asphalt, the sidewalk, some large rocks, and some plywood to compare the textures and patterns.

Stump farm!

T got a picture of the huge stump that was the last piece of the tree.  Apparently some guy in town makes bowls out of stumps that big?  Although I don’t know if it will work for him because it was apparent why the tree was dying. You can see the whole middle section is brown with little tunnels where some kind of insect was destroying the tree from the inside out.  In any case the guy came and got it early this morning.  It was probably 3-4 feet in diameter and ten feet tall.

Here is the leftover tree stump.  It’s hard to tell but the edges of it are all at the edges of the picture.  I stuck my foot in to show how big the base of the tree was.

You can see all that brown rotting tree powder that looks like dirt.  It’s kind of sad that such an old tree had to come down, but I’m glad we were able to get it taken down before it fell on our house!

Farewell old tree!

Wordless Wednesday

Laugh With Me!–Part 17

I haven’t done one of these for Bug in a long time, so here we go, back from January…

January 4th

We have tried to explain time zones to her and she knows that people in China sleep while we are awake and vice versa.  I thought she had a pretty good handle on it when one day she burst into the room with the light of revelation on her face and excitedly told us, “Chinese people are nocturnal!!!”

January 30th

We were going to town to do some errands that day and when we stopped to pick up Noni at our usual spot Boo said she had to go to the bathroom.  I looked around and decided to try the Taco Bell.  Noni got S out and headed toward the building but they were back a few seconds later.  Noni opened the door and explained, “They’re not open yet.” (it was 9:30 in the morning).  Bug chimed right in, “Bummer dude! I was planning to get a burrito!”

March 9th

K and Mama were playing follow the leader.  They were going all around the house when K sat down and made a pretzel-ish shape with her body.  Mama laughed and said, “Mama can’t do that kind of thing anymore honey.”  Bug stood up and said encouragingly, “That’s okay, Mama, you’ll be able to do it when you get to heaven!”

March 15th

We were riding in the car when Bug randomly piped up from the back, “There’s gonna be a party at the mountain where the dinosaurs are distinct!”

March 17th

We were in town and heading to Target. Bug told T, “Daddy we are getting popcorn at Target.”  He asked, “How are you going to do that?  Do you have some money?”  She looked at him like he was being silly, “No!  You’re going to pay it!”

April 1st

K: “Mommy can I play on your phone?” Me: “No, go get dressed.”  K: “Yes Ma’am.” (head hung low) “Even though I’m discouraged.”

April 16th

Boo was being grumpy.  Bug said, “I have a good idea.  How bout we go to Walmart and we leave her here with Izzy?”

April 23rd

She asked me if we could go somewhere.  “Maybe.” I offhandedly replied.  She gave a cheer and booked it towards the door. “Hey, hey!” I stopped her, “Maybe doesn’t mean yes.”  K: “What does it mean?”  Me: “It means maybe we will and maybe we won’t.”  She looked at me thoughtfully, “I want maybe we will.”

:)

My Little Ballerinas

The girls finally got to go to their first day of dance yesterday!  They were so excited.  We had to get some beginning of the year pictures.

Bug has been watching the video of the end of the year show and practicing moves like the older girls.  She loves to do “teenager moves” as she calls them.  We started off with a dramatic pose.

And then moved into something a little more lighthearted.

She actually does a pretty good job capturing the positions. :)

Sisters!

Boo’s first day of dance!

“Sometimes I feel shy.”

But oh so happy to be big enough to dance! “I yook so pwetty in my baw-wey costume!”

They were so excited to see Miss K!

They ran over to the mats to show her the new moves they’d learned over the summer. Bug can do a somewhat imperfect cartwheel…she’s getting better at it everyday, and Boo can do a pretty good somersault!

Can you tell she’s a wee bit excited? :)

Checking themselves out in the mirrors. :)

Yay for dance class!

They had a great time and came home all ready to show us their moves.  I asked Boo what her favorite part was and she said, “Doing the macaroni!”  I heard the Macarena playing when I came to pick them up so I think that’s what she was talking about.  So funny! :)

Chapter Books

A few months ago my friend Rachel posted a list of must-read chapter books for kids.  Before that it hadn’t occurred to me to read them to Bug. 

I started with the first book that Rachel recommended, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Bug has been hooked ever since.  We have two books going at all times: at nap/rest time she and I read one together, and at bedtime she and Daddy read one together.  She LOVES it!  We’ve already made it through a good dozen books.  She and Daddy are fond of the Boxcar children, and are on their third or fourth one already.  

She also likes to read them on her own.  I thought I’d better get a video of her reading one because I think most people don’t believe me when I tell them she’s reading chapter books at the age of 5.  I figure when she gets older she’ll think I am exaggerating too so I wanted to document some proof. :)  I was just looking through old posts of Boo’s babyhood and came across the video where she was sounding out sight words at the age of 2 1/2.  Reading is just one area she’s always excelled at. 

This first video is her reading to Peanut. :)

But Peanut didn’t much care for it so we tried again with me holding her instead.

There is a downside to her ability to read.  When I am reading I have to take extra care and pay attention, because it’s pretty annoying to have a five year old correcting your reading skills. :P Sometimes when I read too fast I will read something like “they have only” as “they only have” and EVERY time I make a mistake like that she pipes up, “No Mommy! That’s not what it says, it goes like this…” and then she re-reads the whole sentence for me. 

There is also no skimming, which I like to do when we are late getting to bed but I promised them one book.  I am only able to skim if it’s only Boo that I’m reading to. 

The other bad thing is I can no longer change words out to make them more kid-friendly.  There are several “bad” words that we don’t say in our house: stupid, dumb, hate, and boring (that one just irritates me personally).  So normally I just interchange these words. Tigger is especially bad about saying he “hates” stuff and I used to just say things like, “Tiggers don’t like messy rooms!”  But now I get a head whipping around to face me, “He said hate!!!” and then Boo chimes in, “We don’t say HATE! We don’t say HATE!” and we end up with a 3 minute interruption on the subject of how it’s not a very nice word, etc. etc.

BUT the fact that I can ask Bug to read Boo a book to keep them quiet when I need a few minutes is very very nice, and I really am glad that she’s reading…it makes my homeschooling job a lot easier!  We are going to be focusing more on reading comprehension this year since she’s already doing so well. 

On that subject, we haven’t started school yet because I have my classroom all planned out in the breezeway but we’ve been waiting for two weeks now to get carpet ordered.  The carpet in there is old, ripped, and smells like animals.  I finally got a measurement scheduled and she’s coming tomorrow so hopefully we’ll get it soon.  Bug and I are both eager to get going!

P.S. Peanut had her best night of sleep yet last night!  She went five hours between one feeding, four hours between the next, and then slept another two hours, not starting her day until 9:00am!  Sooo nice!  I’m hoping she keeps it up!

Porch

Once again T and his dad spent a busy weekend working on the house!  I keep telling myself that one of these days we are going to be done, but that day never seems to come. :)  We ARE almost done, but it still seems like there is a lot of work to be done.  At least it’s all small stuff now.  Staining the porch, landscaping, etc.

The porch has been on for a while now it was just waiting for a railing.  I was thinking the railing would just be functional; I wasn’t counting on how cute it would be and how much it would change the look of the house.  I absolutely LOVE it!  It turned out a million times better than I even imagined!  It makes it look like an old farmhouse.  Love. Love. Love!

Grandma let Peanut spend some time in the fresh air.  It has been SOOO nice lately!  I thought summer was over but we have been in the mid 80’s and the forecast says we’re going to stay that way for a while.  I’m loving it, and so do the girls!

 

Peanut spending a little time with the girl’s favorite neighbor. :)

Bug helping…actually she told me she was making a doll for Boo.

I feel like I didn’t get too much done this weekend while the guys were working so hard.  I did clean the kitchen, which is a bigger task than it sounds like because we manage to make it look like a hurricane comes through every 24 hours. :P 

T gave me the gift of letting me sleep in on Saturday morning!  Once I nursed the baby at 7:00 he took her out to the living room and let me go back to sleep.  So nice! 

I forgot to mention on Peanut’s one month post that the girls have been so sweet about playing quietly in the mornings.  It’s so nice that Bug can read now because she will go into Boo’s room and read to her for a while or play with her. 

Peanut has been starting her day somewhere between 7:15 and 8:00 every morning so normally they are just playing while I’m nursing, which is nice because she’s already starting to get distracted while they are in the room.  This morning she woke up at 6:30 so since Daddy had an early meeting I fed her, put her back in bed and put a pillow over my head until she woke up again at 9:00.  It was nice to get some extra sleep.

Here’s a little video I got of Bug and Boo playing in Boo’s bed (through the monitor).  We bought a video monitor with some of the gift cards people gave us for Peanut and it is so nice!  I really like it. So much so that we went and bought an extra camera for Boo’s room.  She is very good about laying quietly in her bed after naptime…sometimes for up to an hour, but she gets grumpy if you wake her up too early so it’s nice to be able to see when she is really awake.

I also forgot that I was going to write down a few facts about Peanut’s first month.  I got an app called iBabyLog and it keeps track of everything you could possibly imagine.  I’ve only used the nursing, sleeping, diaper changing, vaccinations, and Dr. visits features, and for that reason I can see that in her first month of life I nursed her 222 times, and that she has had 240+ diapers.  I say + because on those occasions when she used a diaper within minutes of it being freshly changed I only recorded the first one. I think her current motto for life is, “In one end and out the other!” :)

Here she is enjoying a little playtime on the beautiful little quilt that Auntie Diane made her, thanks Auntie Diane!

We’ve got a busy week ahead: dinner with friends, Awana or “wana” as Boo calls it, and the first day of dance class.  That was supposed to happen last week but there was a string of wildfires that swept through the area and the firefighters had to borrow the building where dance class is held so it was cancelled.  Boo was SO sad!  I told her and she looked away for a second.  When she looked back she had tears streaming down her face!  She cried for almost ten minutes!  Poor thing.  She was so looking forward to it.  Thankfully she only has a few more days to wait and she’ll finally be able to go.  I’ll be posting pictures of that later in the week!

One Month

I can’t believe Peanut is a month old already!  She is growing and changing so much already!  She has already lost that scrawny newborn look and is starting to fill out.  I just started taking the newborn clothes out of her dresser because they are already getting too small, although she is swimming a bit in the 3 months. 

I weighed her today (by weighing myself and then holding her) and it said she was 10.2 pounds!  I did it twice to make sure because I was surprised she’d gained that much!  I also measured her and got 22.75 inches!  If that’s true she’s growing like a weed! She is also getting faster at nursing which is nice for me.  Instead of eating for 15-20 on each side she has been doing 8-12.  I was worried that she wasn’t eating enough but obviously that’s not a problem!

She is still doing great, and is pretty easy but for some reason our night sleeping has taken a turn for the worse.  Up until 3 weeks she was waking up to eat every 3 hours during the day and at night she would go about 4, but then she switched that so that now she will go 3-4 hours in the day but at night she wakes up every 2.5-3 hours to eat.  Frustrating. It’s been exhausting because we are only getting 5-7 hours of broken sleep at night. I am a person who needs 8-10.  I’m definitely ready for her to start only waking once to eat at night (S was at this point)!  If she stays with the Babywise plan we have a maximum of 5 more weeks before she starts sleeping 8 hours straight at night.  I’m counting down the days! :)

She is just like her big sister Boo as far as car rides.  The minute we start driving somewhere she falls asleep, even if she was wide awake when we got in.  That does make it nice when we need to get somewhere since she rarely cries in the car, and will sleep until we stop even if she’s way overdue for a feeding.  Her sisters like to hold her hands when we are in the car since they are three across and stuffed in their like little sardines.

She still sleeps pretty much all the time so we haven’t seen much personality yet although her expressions are pretty darn cute.  Bug and Boo love to hold her and give her lots of hugs and kisses.  They are doing great with her and are very gentle.  I think it helps that she sleeps so much so I’m able to give them lots of attention during the day, and still do all our usual routines.

I wanted to get some pictures of her today on her one month birthday, but this morning she was NOT happy about it.

“The indignity.”

“Just let me sleep, Mom.”

I put her down for a nap and tried again at her next waketime.  “Yay! I feel much better after that nap.”

“Now slow down there people.  We’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

“Power to the babies!”

“No pictures please.”

“Whoa! WHAT was that?!?”

“It’s more amusing over here.”

“Okay Mom, just get the shot.”

“Are you done yet?”

“Seriously? You’re still taking pictures?”

“Well at least you got rid of that sticker that keeps falling off.”

It’s so fun to watch babies grown and change.  We can’t wait to see what she does in the next month!

Baby Pictures

I’ve been feeling a little guilty that we didn’t have professional pictures of Peanut done like we did for the other two girls so I’ve been taking lots of pictures of her. We are planning to go get a family picture done, but for now these are the ones I’ve taken.

This is my favorite and the one I used for her birth announcement.  Love that little smile!  She was only a few days old when I took this.

I took this one when Mama was here one day.  I love the contrast between baby’s and great-grandmother’s hands.

Baby in a basket. :)

Noni took some pictures of us one day too.

Love those tiny toes!  Her whole foot is smaller than Daddy’s thumb!

Sister kisses.

My sweet girls!

I was playing around with some color on this one.  I really liked the picture except she kept tucking her lip in and nothing I could do would make her put it out normally. :)

Hopefully she won’t feel too slighted to only have pictures taken by us. :)