Monday, April 18, 2016

Our week

Our week can pretty much be summed up in this fb post:
This morning, after a night of throw up on top of a week of colds, I was trying REALLY hard to be positive. Even though our dryer has been broken for two months now, (lets not even talk about my landlord) at least I can do thirteen loads of laundry in two hours at the laundromat. And even though our microwave is broken, at least I can make soup for my sick kids on the stove. And even though I can't teach piano cause of sick kids, at least that means I get to cuddle them all afternoon. Until...I just found spilled water on our food storage and it's soaked into and wrecked the shelf itself, and every single cardboard box. Luckily, the food inside is still good--I just have to write the box instruction onto each bag. But man...the positivity just went all out of me. ‪#‎iloathemylandlord‬ ‪#‎sickkidsistheworst‬ ‪#‎moldinmiami‬

And that's pretty much how the week went. LOTS of throw up. LOTS of laundry. LOTS of laundromat visits. LOTS of canceling of playgroups, piano lessons, etc. And one whole day that we spent entirely in pajamas and watching tv. Ruth is still concerned about that. She continues to bring up the fact that nobody got dressed and how unhealthy it is to watch that much tv (she is normally allowed two shows a day. One when they wake up and I'm getting breakfast ready, and one when the other two kids are napping). Which reminds me, I told her we were making Chex muddy buddies today and she asked if it was healthy. I said no, but that it was okay to eat treats as long as we only had a little bit. So then I was dishing a portion into bowls for everyone and she goes "Not too much mom! It's not healthy!!!" Oh man. Haha.

In-between all that craziness and sickness though, we did get outside a few afternoons and enjoyed the Miami sunshine. 

This girl. Her cheeser. And her LONG legs!!! She has toddler legs now and not baby legs and I'm dying inside thinking about the whole thing. 

That hair. That's what it does when it gets long. We buzzed it yesterday and it was the VERY FIRST TIME in Will's entire life that he didn't cry and totally freak out. We totally bribed him. But it was also such an amazing feat. Proud of you, buddy. 
She often gets frustrated with that little car. I guess carrying it around is easier?!?! 





Oh that little crazy, demon, sneaky, mischievous little child. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Ruthie was mid-dressed this morning and I had her smile so that Molly might be convinced to smile. It didn't work for Molly, but that adorable little scrunch-nosed smile of Ruth's turned out adorable.
We put curlers in Molly's hair and it was ADORABLE! She was not a fan. I put this blurry photo in specifically because of how her lips are forming the word "NOOO!" because it is classic Molly.
Those eyes. Oh my little elf, your eyes are SO gorgeous!
This little man got a new shirt and tie a couple of weeks ago and then a new haircut this weekend. He looks like such a little missionary!!

Molly still wears size 12 month bottoms. Which means that with all this summertime heat, I went to pull out her summer outfits and put away her leggings she's been wearing the last few months. I had a HUGE bin of size 2T summer clothes (mostly handed down from Devaney to Ruth) and the shirts fit Molly great...but the pants won't even stay up if they're rolled twice. And then her 12 month outfits from last summer are a lot of rompers and things that make her legs look ridiculously long and skinny and immodest. So I finally got a couple of 12 month shorts to wear with some of those 2T tops. Crazy, crazy Molly.
For a few months now I have been doing a little rewards system with the kids. There's a permanent marker line on a mason jar and they had to fill up the jar with beans to that point and then they'd get a prize. It takes a LONG time to fill up a mason jar with beans. They usually got about ten beans every morning for getting dressed, brushing teeth, making their beds, saying their morning prayers, etc. Then throughout the day I'd say "If you guys can clean this up in sixty seconds, you can have TWENTY beans!" and they'd all go a little crazy. Haha. It had some good days, some days where it didn't help at all, but after SEVERAL months--those crazy kids finally filled up their bean jars! Will was behind Ruth (she's such a great helper) but filled his up by not crying during his hair cut. Hallelujah that was amazing. So the original plan was to let them pick out a book, but then Will had his heart SET on this Thomas the Train shirt at Kohls. So we headed to Kohls and I told him that was a fine choice. Until he realized it was pajamas, and then he was having a rough life. Haha. But they managed to pick out a few things anyway. Ruth picked out an umbrella and is still exceedingly happy with her choice-funny girl. Will picked out a Melissa and Doug's wooden pizza, complete with toppings you can take on and off and a pizza cutter to break the pieces apart. They have played with that pizza NONSTOP since Saturday. All three of them ADORE it. 

We have a system when going on walks/walking to the pool in our complex. They can walk to the next white line on the ground (stop sign) then they have to wait for Molly and I so we can all check for cars. Good thing there are a ton of stop signs in our complex.


This was my attempt at a picture of all three. Molly was NOT having it.
These two crazies are the greatest. 

When I asked Ruth to smile for the camera, I got a LOT of dancing.




And a final photo of Molly pushing her baby around. She is obsessed with babies, carries them around EVERYWHERE, feeds them, rocks them, pats them to sleep, but especially she loves pushing them around in the stroller. All over the house. I love her little mothering spirit SO MUCH.

She's also a little crazy. It's another reason why I love her SOOOO much.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Sunday Walk by the Canal

There's this beautiful bridge over the canal (that runs all throughout Miami and is the reason traffic is so bad---you can't take back roads because the canal cuts you off) that we always drive past and say "We should go on a walk there sometime, it's beautiful!" but never have. Until this Sunday. To be honest, our destination was Matheson Hammock, but there was no parking available, so we just kept driving down Old Cutler Bay Hwy (gotta love Miami!). It worked out perfectly and was such a nice afternoon!
Oh to have a yacht in your back yard!!
Ruthie and Will watching the boats. A little fishing boat and a bigger boat went underneath the bridge while we were observing. You should have seen Will's excitement as he watched it disappear from one end, ran to the other side, and saw it again! HAHA!


Definitely worth visiting. GORGEOUS!



Sterling took about fifty of these. Hey, at least you can see my hair growing out! (which kind of makes me want to immediately chop it. I really need to take a course and learn to cut my own hair. That's really just the crux of the matter.)
Fountains are so beautiful!
And this girl is SOOOO cheesey!
We walked past a park and while we normally don't allow parks on Sunday--it was just so beautiful, and breezy, and EMPTY and we had never been there before, we let the kids check it out. Definitely worth visiting again!

This is my absolute favorite. They played this game the ENTIRE time. Ruth and Will yelling through the tubes at each other. They had fake names and everything. I was DYING.
Those two. And Ruth's crystal light mustache. :) My heart just warms up looking at them.
I went through a big cleaning purge the other day and cut off quite a few of my old jeans. I saved a couple. But really, we'll be here another three years and I wore jeans about fourteen times TOTAL in the past two years. I also tried to cut back on my hoodies. I got 11 down to 7. Good, no? I have a big bag to hand down to the nieces this summer. So that's good. I cut off two pairs of jeans, threw some in the niece's bag, and still have about five pairs. All from high school. That's kind of ridiculous. I kind of feel like wearing them nine years means I deserve to just throw them out and get new ones. Except I LIKE all those old jeans!!! Also---notice my new muscles from my gym classes? No? Yeah, neither does Sterling. He laughs at me every time I try to flex. But HEY I did over FORTY push-ups today. So take that.

And that, my friends, was our incredibly beautiful Sunday walk. Which was prefaced by a two hour nap while Ruthie watched VeggieTales and we all slept. The day ended with ice cream, Mario Kart, and popcorn. I don't think Sundays come much better than that. 


OHHHHH and the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF OUR WEEKEND---JENNY CAME HOME ON SATURDAY!!!! We got to FaceTime with her after a quick dip in the pool with daddy (it was a little brrrr, luckily Sterling was there to play with the kids while I chickened out) and it was so awesome! I wish we could see her right now, but I am SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED for this summer and spending time with her! We love you Jenny!!! And so did Paraguay!