James has some skillz!

James is drinking out of a straw MUCH earlier than either of the girls were.  Yay James!  He loves his sister’s straw cup, though he does end up dribbling out a bit here and there.  I think it comes out faster than he’s really ready for.  I love that he can sort of hold it himself.  He can’t do the tilting back to drink on his own so this is nice.

We pulled out rocking Tigger and James had a blast!

I like this shot because it shows how he was patting Tigger’s nose.

And James can now pull himself all the way up all by himself!  Here he is at Mamma and Pop’s.

He spotted my phone in my pocket (and he LOVES my phone!), and spent many minutes trying to get it out.

Success!

He’s so cute.  :)

Friday Friday

Poor James woke up with not a little fever Friday morning.  :(

It did not make him happy.  We spent much of the day like this:

Which is really not so bad, especially if you only have one kid.  Obviously I don’t, but my mom came over for a while in the middle of the day to help!  She took the girls to the grocery store, then came back and fixed us lunch!

The girls spent much of the day in Matt’s old t-shirts.  First they were playing “choir,” but then they did (as Joanna calls it) “If You Think You Can Dance.”

And one with the flash.  :)

Joanna’s lunch – Cheetos and bacon!

(Oh, not really.)  Mom made us chicken wraps (there was bacon grease involved.)  She let Joanna pick out Cheetos at the store.  There was also cantaloupe.  So… a lot of food groups were involved.  :)

And of course they had second helpings of Cheetos because Gran was in charge.

James wasn’t interested in much, but he did enjoy the very sweet and juicy cantaloupe.  In fact, I think it may have been the very best cantaloupe I’ve ever had.

When the little ones were napping, I ran an errand while my mom crimped Joanna’s hair.

Can she rock that 80’s do or what?!

Oh, and for the record, that boy woke up this morning (Saturday) completely fine with no fever!  His appetite is normal, and he’s been pretty happy!  He did say no to the morning nap, but he slept late this morning (as well as sleeping much of the day yesterday).  So WAHOO! that it appears to have been a 24 hour-ish sort of thing.

FOOD!

Yesterday we polished off some leftovers for lunch.  We had taco filling but no tortillas or chips or the like.  So I spread some of the mix (beans, turkey, seasoning) on a piece of bread and topped with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and picante sauce.  I left the sour cream and picante off mine because I’m not a fan, but Joanna and I both devoured the sandwiches! 

Taco Salad Sandwich, my new invention:

Last night I was going to just dump some ingredients in a dish and have egg casserole with maybe a smoothie on the side.  But I fried the bacon in the afternoon, and just kept thinking about biscuits and gravy looking at all that yummy grease.  :)

So I found a recipe for drop biscuits since I was not in the mood for rolling and cutting.  I used my whole wheat flour of course, and I subbed kefir for buttermilk.

They were great!

And here it a nice shot of me making gravy.  :)

It was really good too.  Oh yummmm! 

I plated everything and sat down at the table, only to realize I was 20 minutes late to a meeting at the church!  I had entered some kind of time vortex in my kitchen.  I grabbed a biscuit to go, but didn’t get to enjoy everything else until I got home at 9:30.  It was tasty reheated but I’ll have to imagine what it was all like fresh.  :)  I’ll bet pretty good since Joanna ate three platefuls, Natalie two, and James like a good hunk of casserole and two biscuits!  (Just a side note – if I’d been home I would have made them eat some fruit or veggies.  :)  It sure is fun when Daddy’s in charge!)

And because I ran out of the house so fast, poor Matt dragged all the kiddoes up to the church so I could nurse James.  Good Daddy.  :)

Ready for Winter

James got another delivery of hand-me-downs yesterday, and this little hat was tucked for the girls!  Natalie has really not wanted to take it off since then.

I couldn’t even convince her to leave it off when we played outside for a bit.

Because despite the brown grass and yellow leaves.

It wasn’t autumn yesterday.

Isn’t she the stinkin’ cutest?!

She likes the braids on the hat.  It’s kind of drape-y too, so she puts it on and says “I’m Mary” (as in, the mother of Jesus).  The girls like to put blankets on their head and pretend to be Mary and Joseph.

Musical James

Tonight I had James with me for a few minutes in Sola Gratia Rehearsal so I could nurse him.  After he finished he sat on my lap and watched and listened while we waited for Matt to come get him.  At one point, Meredith (our director) played a series of three notes I think on the piano so we’d know our parts.  In the silence after she played, James sang the notes.  It was really really cool.

Meet and Greet!

Today was “Meet and Greet” for School for Little Children!

We stopped off in Joanna’s room first.  (I know that’s not Joanna.)

He’s checking to make sure they clean under the rugs in his sister’s class.

There she is!

Then we stopped quickly by James’ room, but I forgot to take pictures.

Then we hit Natalie’s room.  It was very crowded in there!

Look at her little feet – LOVE ‘EM!

I’m so excited all the kiddos get to go to “school” this year!  Joanna is going to preschool Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 9-noon.  Then on Tuesdays she’ll stay until 2:30 because James, Natalie, and Ray will be in Mother’s Day out from 9-2:30.  I’m planning to sub at the school some, but I am hoping to have at least a few Tuesdays at home all by myself!

Although, I’m not terribly excited about how far apart all the rooms are!  When I pick up Ray, I’ll be gathering children from the far reaches of the church.  It’s going to be a good little workout for me and my double stroller/trolley.  :)

Sneaky

Sometimes I don’t know that my camera was messed with until I find these pictures on the card:

That cannot have made her eye feel good.