Dentist surprise

This post isn’t so much about the kids’ visit to the dentist – which went well, but more about the surprising thing that happened in the waiting room beforehand. 

The dentist we take them to has a very small waiting room, maybe 5-6 chairs. I was on one side with Bea and my husband was on the other, opposite me, and Lucien was like the triangle point away from us in the tiny kids area (which is actually just 3 puzzles with missing pieces). Lucien was trying to do one of the puzzles when the woman next to him leaned over to help, that’s when he noticed her. She was older, and had a giant gash on her forehead with stitches and a black eye. 

“What happened to your head?”

My husband and I looked at each other, you know the look, like “oh shit!”

The woman told him that she fell on her carpet, a bit coldly because, I think, she was unsure of where it was going next. Lucien then asked if it hurt and she laughed and I was able to breathe. He kept asking her what happened next, and she told him all about her ambulance ride, her CT scan…and wouldn’t you know that at one point, he reached out and touched her arm and said “that must have been scary for you, I’m so sad you hurt your head.” 

I think that’s when she fell in love with him. 

By the time her husband came out and it was Lucien’s time to go back, they were fast friends. When she left, he again told her he was sad she was hurt and that he wanted her to be better. She had cartoon hearts in her eyes. 

It surprised me because he’s six. He’s active and seemingly doesn’t seem to pay attention to anything, yet he’s so empathetic. I hope he doesn’t lose that as he gets older. 

Insect Safari

My class was cancelled this past Saturday so we took the kids to a local state park where they were having an “insect safari.” Basically it was a nature hike for an hour where a park ranger gave them butterfly nets and little boxes to trap insects and other crawling bugs. 

At first Bea didn’t want to do it, but then she caught a really big katydid and got way into it! Lucien, of course, was all in from the get go. I think he was a little too intense for the park ranger, who was an old lady, but by the end of it she seemed to have warmed up to them. 

   
 
We ended up going to buy the kids some butterfly nets on Sunday – they’re a buck at Five Below, the only place I could find them! I can’t wait to take the kids back out to find more bugs. 

Rainbow loom crazy

My kids spent a few weeks at a summer day camp this year and while at day camp, Bea learned about rainbow loom bracelets. 

She is obsessed. 

I bought her a kit, and plenty of extra pink elastics, and she has been going to town every day making bracelets. She had me look up new techniques for her and I found this fishtail thing. I started it and tried to show her how and she said “that’s good mommy, now you finish it!” 

  
That’s my bracelet. Bea didn’t like it because the pink quotient wasn’t high enough. 

And not to be outdone, I taught this fellow how to make the fishtail bracelets and he’s making them!

  
That’s some concentration. 

So, here’s the weird thing though – they don’t wear them!!! Bea puts hers into a purse, and Lucien’s are in a pencil case, and they constantly count them and bring them everywhere – but never wear them. It is so weird. 

Birthday girl

Bea had a birthday this week, she turned 6. She has been excited to tell everyone about it. I’m finding it hard to believe that our tiny peanut is now a leggy six year old. 

We kept it fairly low key for her birthday. We went to lunch and ice cream, then she had swim later that night. I’d say she had a good day because she didn’t stop smiling all day long. 

   
   
I couldn’t help taking a picture of her at swim, I’m so proud of how well she’s doing! Lucien is doing well, too – he’s just in a different class. 

Summertime

Summer is usually a pain because it involves a lot of my husband and I trying to figure out how to keep the kids busy. 

Any ideas? 
Anyway, this year, they went to camp for a week. They would come home and fall asleep by 7pm. INSANE! They loved it so much they’re going back for three more weeks – thanks to two very generous grandmothers. 

We’ve been keeping them busy in other ways too. I spent about 4 days combing out Lucien’s hair – he hates the comb, and putting his hair into two strand twists. I loved it and thought he looked adorable, but he wanted a haircut.    

Do you think he’s into his haircut? 

The kids also have been working on their fort making skills. They built this epic one the other day. Well, Lucien built it and Bea kept saying “I love my new apartment” and “I can’t wait to decorate my new place!” Then they gave me 40 cents and two frisbees as rent. Hahahaha!    
What have you been doing for fun this summer? My next post is about what I’ve been doing besides school. 

Five years ago today

This happened: 

   
 
Now they’re more like this: 

   

Even though they can be aggrevating, I think Jeremy and I lucked out and got two pretty amazing kids.  

Neighborhood welcoming committee

 
My (absolutely adorable) 6 year old son loves playing outside. He loves riding his scooter up and down the sidewalk on our block. 

He’s super friendly. I think he knows more of our neighbors than I do. He has a big, genuine smile for everyone that walks by and a big kiss for every dog that comes by. 

The other day he and Beatrice hugged our mailman and Lucien told him how much he appreciated getting the mail. The mailman gave him & Bea two rubber band each.

Flash forward about a half hour, some random mean looking teen comes walking by and Lucien ran over and said “here” and put one of the rubber bands on the kid’s wrist. I wasn’t sure what the teen was going to do, but he just smiled and said thanks, then Lucien said “if you don’t like the color, you can paint it!” The teen didn’t laugh at him and just told him it was a great idea. 

Then today while we were in the garden, Lucien made sure to talk to each and every person who walked by our house about our garden. He also had a conversation about dog birthday parties (??) with one of our elderly neighbors. 

He’s totally a one child neighborhood welcoming committee. He is the complete opposite of me. I think we really hit the jackpot with him (and Bea). 

New clothes for B & L

I finally got my sewing machine up and running this week. Thankfully school hasn’t gotten to be too busy yet so I was able to get some sewing done for the kids, including a shirt I had cut out and pinned for Lucien but before we moved last spring!

Here’s Lucien’s top, it’s the Charlie Tunic from Made By Rae. I like this pattern (and the dress version) because they’re easy! I also modify it where I don’t put in the buttons. The main fabric in this is wax cloth that my husband bought for me when he last went to Gabon. The coordinating fabric is vintage that I found at a tag sale last summer.

I wasn’t sure at first how they’d go together, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I’m also pretty happy with Lucien’s crazy toothless grin! (Side note – he lost his tooth last week in the middle of the night, and couldn’t find it! Like it’s somewhere in his room, but we haven’t been able to find it. Maybe he swallowed it, but the night he lost it, he says he dropped it between his bed and the wall, and we woke up to the sound of him pawing at the wall to get it back – freaking out the that tooth fairy might not come. It was crazy!)

Anyway –

For Bea, I made a twirly skirt. I didn’t use a pattern, I just measured her waist, then doubled the measurement – so 22″x2 = 44, then I measured the length and added a couple inches to account for the hem and waistband, it was 14″. I just cut a rectangle from the fabric and sewed up the side, but instead of zig zagging the seams after sewing them, I did French seams instead. It took about 30/45 minutes to make, the longest part was putting the elastic in the waistband.

First, Bea didn’t really want to pose – she wanted to twirl around…but she picked the fabric, it’s Alexander Henry from Joann’s maybe a year or so ago. I think I might make her some more and add some mini pom poms to the bottom, I think she’d like that.

Fashion Friday

Fashion Friday is a weekly series in which I will highlight some of my children’s outfits.

Bea is wearing some princess chic. Her cape is from her Granny, the Barbie princess dress is from my mom. She has on bumble bee striped tights from We Love Colors, I think these are her favorites because she wears them all the time! She’s also wearing her gold boots, from Target.

Lucien is wearing a jacket that his Granny bought for him last year, I don’t know from where but it must have been popular because 4 other boys at his school have the same one! Hahaha! His sweater was thrifted, he said he wanted to wear it because my mom wears argyle. He calls it his “grandmaman sweater.” The jeans are Tommy Hilfiger, but thrifted and the boots are Target.

I added a couple of my outtake pictures because they’re so cute.

Wordless Wednesday: Miss Josephine lets kids play with her (finally!)

* side note – Miss Josephine is the one who had been taking medication to calm her nerves because the kids made her too anxious and a bit snappy. We took her off the meds after about 9 months, and I think that with the kids gone most of the day (she’s home alone with me & our other dog & our cat) I think that’s helped a lot with how she deals with the kids. She lets them pet her now. She even played fetch with Lucien, which a year ago we’d have thought impossible. I’m mentioning all this just so you know that dogs can change for the better, with a lot of work.