Lately

As the weather's been getting warmer, we've been spending more and more time outside with the kids...and doing a bit of yard work. Last week we spent most of Saturday cleaning up our front walkway and the huge dirt mound next to it. In doing so, we dug up a ton of earthworms which the girls quickly adopted. They made a home for them in an abandoned flowerpot and happily filled it up with fresh soil and a little bit of water. After that they kept digging around looking for more worms.

At the end of the day, they left the worms in the dirt filled pot, went in for a shower and bed. The next day they dumped them all out to check on the "little wormies" to make sure they were happy. After each worm was checked over, they put them back in the pot with even more dirt and water and went about their day.

We worked from home on Monday with the windows open to enjoy the beautiful weather. I glanced up and saw some birds dive bombing the ground. I got up to see what the crazy birds were up to. A couple of them were happily taking a dirt bath in the dirt mound we had smoothed out. It needs grass seed, and we've bought the seed and all, but by the end of the day we're too lazy to even spread seed around. Anyway, the tiny birds were rolling around in the dirt and shaking and flapping away. The others were still divebombing and all of a sudden I saw their target...the flowerpot of dirt and "little wormies." EEP. I left them to their lunch, but later on the ride home from picking up the kids I told Stasa and Lexi about the birds and their worms. Stasa was outraged and insisted that the worms were in the pot to be safe, not for birdies to eat them. When we got home she made a huge sign that said "NO BIRDS ALLOWED." She told me that her pot of worms is not a bird restaurant and she wanted them to know they weren't welcome. Sorry, birds. You're on your own for food.

A room fit for the girls

Stas and Lexi share nearly everything and had been spending almost every weekend night sleeping in each others rooms. We finally asked if they wanted to share a room, of course they exclaimed YAY!!! So we took the plunge and decided to create a fun girl room for them to share. I had originally planned to put the room together over a few months and move them in right before summer, but then Tom suggested we get it done in a weekend, so get it done in a weekend we did. Luckily all of the stuff from both of their rooms coordinated so we just repurposed nearly everything.

And look how cute it turned out:









Some of the details of the room:

Party like a rock star

Ever since our little man was born we've called him Tommy and Tom and the girls often sing part of The Who's Tommy to him. So when it came time to start planning Tommy's first birthday party I immediately knew I wanted to do a rock n roll theme. I originally wanted to get him a Tommy shirt, but actually get around to looking for one until the week of the party and by then all I could find were $25-40 shirts and really, does a one year old need a $40 shirt for a one-time wear? Thankfully we already had a few different classic rock band shirts for him and eventually settled on Led Zeppelin. We kept the decorations simple with black and silver/grey streamers and balloons and tablecloths. I made a couple of faux speakers with boxes and black tablecloths. I had bought the girls some punk rock gloves and wound up repurposing the cardboard hands from the gloves to use as sign of the horns decorations. ROCK ON!



It's hard to see in that pic, but I made a birthday banner using a tattoo-style font.



I also printed out a bunch of classic rock album covers to hang as decorations.


As for the birthday boy himself, well, he felt like being a true mama's boy that day and broke down every time I left the room without him. But you know what they say, it was his party and to hell if he wasn't going to cry if he wanted to.


He knew *just* what to do when it was time for cake and grabbed his cupcake and focused on (somewhat) quietly eating it. I say somewhat because he would pause, look over and cry, then go back to his cupcake. Rinse and repeat. He finally calmed down after gifts were opened and settled on playing with a sturdy box one of the gifts came in.




Happy birthday, Tommallama!
Now. His first year well check.
Stats:
24 lbs, 87th percentile
31 1/8" long, 92nd percentile
19" head, 96th! percentile

He checked out well and wound up with three vaccinations and one prick to check his hemoglobin. Turns out his iron levels are still on the low side, so he'll be getting a daily vitamin with iron and we'll recheck him in a month. He's also had a newish development which seems to have happened overnight. He's been taking steps here and there, but not really walking - just cruising around. But this week he's just walking all over the place. I'm sure it won't be long until he's keeping up with his sisters.