Fishing Fun

My plan of more frequent posting hasn't panned out - maybe because we've been too busy with the fun of summer! Early in the summer we took the girls on their first fishing trip with my parents. "Trip" really just means a short drive to Tilles Park, which has a great shady pond with many ducks and geese to keep us entertained.

My dad talked through all of the steps of preparing your rod with Reiley. She was very serious and concentrated on the whole endeavor. Reiley really wanted to catch a fish and wanted to ensure that she was doing things the "right" way.

Ainsley sat in the chair and spent about 90 seconds jabbing the water with her pole before she got up to chase the ducks around. And just where did the gals get their awesome camo hats, you may ask? My dad (who works in sales) picked these up from a client and deemed them as the perfect fishing hats. The girls loved them!

Here's Ainsley with some of our duck friends. This might have been about the time that Ainsley decided that the ducks were a little too friendly for her comfort. Unfortunately, Mommy (ever the animal enthusiast) made the mistake of encouraging the girls to feed the ducks their leftover bagels when we first got to the lake.
That may have been why the gang of ducks and geese trailed us the entire time. Reiley was unphased by the distractions and waited for a bite (with a few near-catches) for two whole hours! I was pretty impressed with her patience. We didn't get a catch on this outing, but we learned what fishing was all about.Sawyer took a little snooze during the trip, and then played happily on the blanket. He loves to be outside!

"God, are you there? It's me, Ainsley"

We love us some prayin' in this house. We say two kinds of prayers at dinner to reflect our different spiritual upbringings. We start with the tradional Catholic mealtime prayer, and then say a "holding hands prayer" where we go around the table and anyone who wants to say something to God says it. Ainsley's been listening to us do this for a while, and has recently wanted to join in. Reiley has a variation of the same prayer each night at dinner, which typically includes "people who don't have food or a place to live", the summer edition of "people who don't have air-conditioning", and general thanks for whatever fun thing she did during the day.

A few nights ago, when it was Ainsley's turn, here's what happened:

Ainsley: " (eyes closed, head bowed) Dear God, thank you for bringing me my delicious apple juice...(looks up, eyes open) Did God bring me my apple juice??"

Me: "Well, no, Daddy brought the apple juice to the table, but God made the trees where the apples grow, people pick the apples and make them into juice, we buy it at Trader Joe's, and Daddy brought it to you"

Ainsley: "God made the trees?"

Me: "Yes"

Ainsley: "The apples grow on trees?"

Me: "Yes"

Ainsley: "Oh," (head bowed again) Amen.

Baby Love

Sawyer and I have developed this fun little game over the past few weeks. I give him a kiss on the cheek, and he grabs my face with his two chubby little hands, gives me a really wet baby kiss, and laughs. I LOVE it! I wanted to see if he would share some love with a baby too. Here are the results (try to filter out the far-too-enthusiastic Mom-talk from yours truly)

Update and New Strategy

My current blog strategy is clearly not working. The purpose of the blog is to keep family and friends near and far updated on our happenings since work, the kids, and life in general make me a HORRIBLE (really despicable) email and phone communicator. Phone messages get forgotten, accidentally deleted, or written down on a piece of paper that gets recycled when I try to declutter. My email box is currently at 300, kids at times have been known to hit delete while my inbox is open, and I'm sure I've accidentally coded a friend's email address as a spam source. I thought a blog was the answer. My problem is that I save blog ideas thinking I'm some sort of paid blogger who is followed by hundreds of adoring fans waiting for the next installment. Though that would be an awesome job, I don't have it, and I think all of you mostly want to see pictures of my kids and less musing from me:-). So that's the new strategy: put up pics when I've got them and limit the words.

Here's an update on our latest happenings:

We got to meet Cousin Lucy! Kevin's sister, Kathy, has (clearly) the most adorable 8-week-old baby girl. She was in St. Louis for the past three weeks and we got to spend lots of time fawning over Baby Lucy. Holding her, singing to her, bouncing her, and loving on her A LOT. It's so fun to have a cousin! I loved having Kathy here to be one of my full=time "Mom friends". Chatting while nursing our babies together, watching the other girls run around, indulging on afternoon coffee to keep ourselves awake - so great! Now that she's back in NYC, we'll have to resume our afternoon Skype sessions (maybe drinking coffee simultaneously:-)).

Reiley has been spending the last few months starting her first season of softball. Here she is sporting the much-too-large uniform with matching visor. I'm very proud of her because playing in full-sun, heat, and humidity is NOT her forte, but she's been a trooper. She's declared being in the field as "pretty boring", and her favorite part is the snack after the game. Though she does say that batting and running the bases is "pretty awesome."

Dance class resumes this month, and her summer camps at her soon-to-be Kindergarten, Shining Rivers Waldorf School, will be starting in a few weeks. She's growing up!

This picture of Ainsley explains it all. She is in a fantasy world at all times. It has been months since she will willingly respond to her actual name of Ainsley. We've all gotten in to the habit of asking her "Who are you being," in fear of the rage that will ensue if we call her Ainsley. She will play any animal or human character she creates, but typically for a maximum of 15 minutes. She and Reiley are often partners in pretend play until the fighting starts over who gets ownership of a pretend character (Madeline, the Angel Gabriel, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, are hotly contested alter-egos). Ainsley is certainly entering the age of 2.5-year-old independence, but she's still very affectionate and always a hoot.

Sawyer turned 7 months old this weekend and he is seriously this happy 90% of the time. Full-time sitting up seems to have made him even happier. He will play contentedly with all of us around him for sometimes up to an hour (silent thank-you prayers are being sent up often)! He's still very big. At this 6 month appointment he was 21lbs, 3 oz, and he sure seems heavier every day! He loves to laugh at his sisters and be outside.

Obviously, I'll need to work on limiting the words

"Sawyer Got Baptismed!"

This was Ainsley's jubilant exclamation after we finally had Sawyer baptized last weekend (at nearly 6 months old - he could have sat in and filled up the baptismal font:-)). Older babies can also make ridiculously silly faces at the priest during their baptisms, which is humerous for all. I think God smiled too.

Sawyer's godparents are Kevin's brother, Mike, and his wife, Kali. My dad served as the reader, Kevin's mom read the petitions, and Kevin's dad sang a special prayer. It was such a blessing to have our family surrounding Saywer as we asked God to lead him through this life.

I have found each of my children's baptisms to be profoundly powerful because it allows me to reflect on the importance of motherhood, and the overwhelming responsibilty God gives us to help shape our children into loving, compassionate, and moral individuals. It reminds me that the repetitive tasks that fill my days of caring for little children (diaper changing, feeding, laundry, song-singing, scrape-kissing) are a reflection of the care that the Father gives to me. Through these tasks, I show my children how to love and care for others, and to be loved and cared for in return. I am comforted knowing that though the days are long and the appreciation is unspoken by little voices, God sees and knows the weight of the work I am doing. May I strive to meet His expectations, and never underestimate the impact that the seeming minutia of my days can make.

5 months old!

Sawyer turned 5 months old this week and is still a happy, smiling baby with some new skills. The one Mommy is most excited about is that after a month of VERY hard work, he's able to put himself to sleep at naps and at night without being upset! I understand if anyone wants to punch me in the face, because that's how I felt with my first two kids whenever anyone talked about how well their baby was sleeping. More accurately, I wanted to punch them in the face, and then kick them off of a cliff. However, with my logged years of lost sleep with the other two, I feel like I can legitimately brag. (Obviously, now that I've uttered the words, my luck will change!)

He's still pretty content to mildly push up during tummy time, but he has rolled over a handful of times. Though he is in no way trying to use it as a means of locomotion. He's also found his toes and loves to play with them during diaper changes. He's doing lots of cooing and screaming and laughing, particularly at goofy games the girls think up for him. I think we're just a few weeks away from solo sitting, which is sure to bring more fun to the sibling dynamic. It seems like the past month has been so tiring working on his sleep, and now that he is sleeping more, I have much more energy and am really enjoying his pudgy, funny, giggly baby self.

Here's some game playing with coos and goos:

They're Watching You!