What They Said

Kateri: "Suh-bashchin, I just love you sooo much!"

Sebastian: blank stare

Me: "Kateri, I think I'm going to have you help me clean the bathroom today."

Kateri: "OH!! THANK YOU!"

Kateri: "I want to sneegle." (snuggle)

Chiara in the sweater Mom knitted for Kateri when Kateri was this size

Sebastian: serious face, looking around expectantly, "Tiger Coming."

Chiara's signature look: sucking on her lower lip

In the quest for any cause to not take a nap:
Sebastian: From the guest room, which is next to the room Kateri was napping in "K-beer, K-beer, where are you?"
Kateri: inarticulate mumbling
Sebastian: "Huh?? Huh, K-beer??"

*5 minutes later*
Door-creak
Sebastian: peaking his head out, "Bashy awake! Bashy wake up!"
Me: Nice try! Back to bed!

Too much?

Sebastian: Putting all of his crayons into Kateri's crayon box, "There ya go, K-beer!"

Kateri; "Oh, Bashy! You are SO kind! Thank you, Bashy!"

Kateri, singing to no-one in particular, "I love my grandmas!"

*Clark meowing downstairs*

*Kateri brings the kitten upstairs*

Me: "Kateri, what were you doing downstairs?"

Kateri: "I just cooking him."

Me: Serious mom stare

Kateri: nonchalantly, "I just cooking him in the oven."

Me: facepalm

Pat's set up for the kids before he left for work (everyone was still asleep)

Me: Being the tickle monster, "I'm coming to GET YOU!!!!"

Kateri, grabbing onto Sebastian "Save me, Suhbashchin!"

Sebastian: Blank Stare

Kateri: (to me) "He is the prince. He saves me."

After I served some lunch, which included carrot sticks

Kateri: "I loooooove Garret. I love talking to them sooo much."

Me: "What?"

Kateri: "Carrots!!!"

Mom loaned me this book which had apparently been used as target practice

Me: "Kateri, where are you?"
Kateri: "I'm here!"
Me: "What are you doing?"
Kateri: "I'm hiding from you!"

Many Micro Updates: A Bakers Dozen

~1~

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!

Kateri will rush next to Chiara, and shout, "Mama!! Sisters! SISTERS!!!" She loves this song, even though the only line I know is the very first one!

Chiara admires these colorful warm and fun socks from Mihi. You did a beautiful job yet again, mom! Thank you so much.

~2~

I just love these pictures of Chiara~ the angle is so cute. (It also reminds me how I need to paint my windowsill. Can you believe anyone would ever willingly chose to paint their windowsills that barf-brown color?)

Was there ever a cuter nugget?

~3~

Aunt Mimi recently gave Sebastian an awesome fire-fighter suit! I don't have a pic of him in it, but I do have one of Kateri:

Ready to go into action!

~4~

We went camping a week and a half ago, and some of it is best unremembered haha, but we survived and the kids really had fun, in spite of the rain! 

Proof we brought our pop-up somewhere! 

We learned a few things, and went again this weekend and it was such a fabulous time! And it even rained. I will post more pics when I can!

~5~

Aunt Mimi also gave the kids a dinosaur egg, and guess what came out!

Stegosaurus!!!

Who has been much loved and played with, these kids are so enamored of dinosaurs these days.

~6~

They love reading, and occasionally will even share a book! 

Photographic evidence that it CAN happen

~7~

Mormor gave Kateri these special knives for Christmas last year, and they have been very popular. Kateri (and Sebastian whenever he can) will clamour to help me cut, dice or chop whatever I am cutting chopping or dicing!

Kateri is getting a little better at her methodology! Now we just have to work on pulling back all that long hair when you are anywhere near food!

~8~

The other day, Laura and I decided to make a huge batch of relish using Aunt Betty's secret recipe. We had no idea what we were getting into. We chopped lots of peppers, onions, and tomatoes.

So many, that they didn't fit in the gigantic pot.

Aunt Betty generously dropped everything she was doing (and she was in the middle of making muffins!). She brought us another pot and a bunch of canning equipment and know-how we didn't know we needed. Mormor~ that was such a huge gift! Thank you so much!! 

After quite some time, we had the finished product:

And they turned out quite well!! Mom also did about 5 million things to help out with that production, as did Jeanne. Whew, made me understand why canning was such a big production back in the day!

~9~

One of my favorite things in the morning is the sunlight streaming in.

~10~

Another thing I have been doing a bit of is water color. It is so relaxing and so wonderful to be able to make something that is "done". (unlike cleaning, folding laundry, etc)

~10~ 

We have been working on getting the garden ready for fall, and I have a LOT more work to do in that regard. We also have A LOT of gladiola bulbs. If you want some, let me know, I need to get rid of a lot! 

~11~

We went to a farm with some good friends and my dear little goddaughter Adalyn one weekend. It was such a beautiful day! The kids loved seeing the animals, playing on the playground, and making new friends. 

~12~

Thanks to Tom's inspiration, we had to make this chocolate mayonnaise cake for Our Lady's birthday earlier this month. 

~13~

We are also doing a little bit of school this year. Kateri really loves it. 

Sebastian really loves putting the purple glue stick on everything! 

Anyway, that is it for now, whew!! 

Crazy Clark

So we got a cat.

Actually, he is a 3 month old kitten. Jeanne convinced me to get him using all her power of persuasion and manipulation! 

Just kidding. We found more mouse droppings in the garage, and the drowned mouse in the back yard, and Pat has seen something scurrying about in the garden. The icing on the cake was when I found yet another deer tick on Sebastian. According to an expert Pat heard, those small rodents are the main culprit for lymes disease, so we got this cat to help take care of that!  (Many thanks to Jeanne who made it possible and helped me in many and innumerable ways!!!)

So, you see, this is a WORKING ANIMAL.

Behold how hard he works!

We named him Clark, after one of the streets that Wrigley Field is on. (Notice a theme in our animal-names? There is one other street Wrigley is on, so that means I can convince Pat to get one more animal. Of course, his name will be Addison, after Addison Street). It is OK for a working animal to be named after a road. After all, Pat knows someone who named his two kids after the streets Wrigley field is on! So you should be thankful, Clark!

Working hard yet again:

As aunt Betty says, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Kateri and Sebastian certainly work hard to test Clark's patience. He has been thrown, sat on, held, hugged, dragged around, pulled by the tail, and generally manhandled (we are working on this! kids are somewhat learning and getting better) and has never once scratched. I almost wish he would!

I even once found them in the downstairs holding him under the running sink-faucet covered in hand soap.

Halfway through the drying process

They accomplished that in about 30 seconds. (Giant face-palm)

They definitely deserved a good scratch! But he never gave them one.

Somehow, this cat still really really likes us, and even seems to like the kids. He doesn't even go running ever time he sees them. In fact, he is incredibly affectionate. If I'm reading a book to the kids, he climbs up on my shoulder, purring like mad. 

He prefers to have your undivided attention.

Me, trying to read a book:

Even though he will be an outdoor cat (hopefully soon!!), I think we will have to let him come inside so that he can have plenty of "people-time". 

And, on a completely and entirely different note, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something to read. It is especially insightful if you read it after reading "With God in Russia".

The Change of Routine that has Changed my life!

Well, at least changed it the past two days!

The other day, I was telling my mom about my challenges getting the evening routine under control. It has been impossible to get these kids to bed before 9 pm, is that terrible or what? So my mom gave me a great suggestion: have the kids bathed and changed into PJ's before Pat gets home! 

This has always seemed an impossible task (she mentioned it once before), but we decided to try it anyway. I even tried bathing all three at the same time. Don't try that one at home, folks. Chiara made it crystal clear that she was not a fan of that idea. Can't say I blame her, considering how Sebastian felt it was his duty to provide a constant stream of water on her head. Other than that, it has been such a huge improvement the 2 days that we have done it, I am determined to keep it up!  

In their PJ's before dinner: SCORE! I think part of the reason this is so helpful is because it forces me to better plan ahead for dinner. It also relaxes the kids so they're in better moods come evening, and much more prepared to settle down as opposed to getting more and more wired, which is what usually happens. Makes for a much more relaxing evening!

And, of course, crazy Clark has to photo-bomb the shot! 

Thanks a million for the tip, mom!

Chiara's four (and a half) month photos

I got these a couple weeks late and on the phone, but at least they're here ;-) 

She is such a dear four month old, although i think she has just started teething . . .  To which I have to say, "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!!!" as our favorite children's book pirate is wont to exclaim!