Baby Mine

It is amazing to me how much all the kids love Topher. Maybe it shouldn't be so shocking, but they all genuinely want to hold him or kiss him or play with him pretty much all the time. Even big, twelve-year-old Peter is, thankfully, not too grown-up to come find Topher and kiss his forehead or scoop Topher out of his car seat when we get home from an outing, just to hold him and make him laugh.

I hope they never outgrow the affection they have for their baby brother.

Twins By Choice

The Cake is a Lie

Bryan had a birthday last month. The most exciting thing that happened that day was this cake.

For those that don't know (which is probably all of you) this is a replica of a cake from a video game called Portal. Bryan specifically requested this cake, so we made it happen.

It's a black forest chocolate cake with cherry and whipped cream filling, frosted with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings. I made the components, Bryan built it. According to Bryan and the kids, it was delicious and super sugary.

My birthday gift to Bryan was funding a trip for him and the four older kids to see Incredibles II. They had lots of fun and Topher and I chilled at home.

Happy birthday, Bryan!

All the Sleep

This little dude slept through the night from Saturday to Sunday! He had a hard time going down, so I expected to see him again soon when I put him in his bed at 9:43 on Saturday night. He woke up at 6:23 on Sunday morning! Of course, I jumped out of bed at 5AM to make sure he was okay and only slept fitfully after that, but it was better than not sleeping!

I don't expect this to happen again anytime soon.

Man to Man

Love Hurts

Sometimes the hardest part of the day is protecting Topher from Sophie's affection.

Ye Olde Bookshoppe

Did you know that we live within driving distance of the oldest bookstore in the United States?

True story.

Happy birthday, America!

The Big Girl

Sophie finally earned her big girl bed! She loves it.

And the girls love that it's big enough that they can both snuggle there.

Rollin' Along

Bryan goes back to work today. He's been home on parental leave for the last six weeks. It has been heavenly having him here. The kids and I are all going to miss him during the day. I hope we're all happy and coherent when he gets home this evening.

As a final adventure, we went to the park on Saturday to ride bikes. This might not seem like a huge deal, and it probably wouldn't be, except that before Saturday Peter was our only child that could ride a bike. Actually, before last week, Peter was our only child that had a proper bike at all. Sophie has a balance bike, and it's great, but it's a touch too small for her, so it doesn't count. The cub scouts were supposed to have a bike rally for the pack meeting last week, so, after planning to for ages, we finally got bikes for Cooper and Phoebe.

And then the bike rally was cancelled because of rain. It was actually a blessing, because Cooper would have had to walk his bike since he couldn't ride it. Saturday was supposed to be insanely hot, so we got to the park extra early.

Peter zipped around the parking lot, biking/walking trail, and fields. Sophie alternated between propelling herself on the balance bike around the grass and playing on the playground. I passed around water and sunscreen and carried a sleeping Topher in the Baby Bjorn. And Bryan taught Cooper and Phoebe how to fall off their bikes so they wouldn't be afraid to try pedaling, then he moved on to the actual riding.



Cooper focused, listened, and worked hard. By the time we left, he could ride around the fields. I was impressed with how quickly he picked it up. Here you can see Peter and Cooper in the distance, both rolling along.

Phoebe had a harder time. She's usually a quick study, so when something takes more than one or two tries to learn, she tends to fall apart. She did a decent job of learning to fall off the bike, after much murmuring. That's as far as she got though, so we'll need to find another time for her to try it again.

We finally left when the kids were so sweaty they looked like they'd had showers.

It was a good morning.

Instant Best Friends

On Sunday after church we had a lovely visit from my friend Liz and her two daughters. Liz was part of the epic MBASA book club that I was in while Bryan was in grad school. She was a good friend and we've kept in touch. I was delighted to get a message from her last week saying that she was visiting family near enough to come see us and asking if we were available. Of course I said yes!

Her younger daughter Adelaide and Sophie were born the same year. Sophie loved that she had someone just her size to play with. In fact, Sophie shared our riding horse on wheels with Adelaide, but was quite upset when her older sister Zara rode it. I asked Sophie what was going on and she said, "She can't ride it. It's only for little blonde girls." So I guess Adelaide's blondness earned her points as well.

Zara and Phoebe are only a week apart in age and they used to play together during those MBASA years. Neither girl remembered the other, but by the end of the reunion they had each pledged to be BFFs, were planning future visits, and were terribly heartbroken to be parted.

Phoebe was so sad in fact, at Zara's departure she dressed herself in black and announced she was mourning.

Seriously.

Thanks for visiting Liz! We loved it and looked forward to seeing you all again.