My little beast turned five months old yesterday. And if you are curious, she still is not sleeping more than a few hours at night with any consistency. *yawn*


Aunt Katie crocheted her this headband. Harper looks cute wearing it, even though she was emphatically not loving the photo shoot.


My big brother is the best! (However, she should probably be concerned. He loves to be pushed on the swings at the playground, why wouldn't Harper want to be pushed - hard - in her baby swing?)


And I am too tired and behind on grading to give you anything else.

Seriously, I mean it...

Guess who didn't want his picture taken at Kangazoom....


And guess who didn't want his picture taken while gardening....


When I turned my back, he literally tried to drown all of the seeds that we planted. He was convinced that they were 'thirsty.' Maybe a gardening miracle will happen anyway.

Pug dogs in the springtime

They molt. Like crazy. Like after her shower, there was enough hair that there might as well have been a dead rat in my drain. It's like a little pile of Bridget-love!

Hippies in the Springtime

Frankie's preschool + spring = all of the earthy, granola-y goodness you've come to expect. This presentation was a big deal, with parents enacting 'Mother Earth', 'Father Sun', 'Sister Rain', and 'Brother Wind', all nourishing a seed. Each child was given a peat pot, a seed was planted in it, and then it was presented to each entity while a song was sung that described the process. Afterwards was a 'potluck', complete with hummus and sunflower seeds. I don't think Frankie will even touch hummus, honestly. Apparently a kid in his class has a hummus allergy, but how do you find out these things? Do you even know a three-year-old that eats hummus?

Anyway, I digress. Here's the video:



For what it's worth, we really do like Frankie's preschool and he's thriving there. He loves to work in the 'garden' at home and is very interested in planting vegetables this year. Stuff like this is just so foreign from my childhood experience that it makes me scratch my non-hippie head sometimes.

Belly Laughs

Sometimes big brothers beat you up (there was an incident today, but he was upset far longer than she was over it.) And sometimes they make you laugh. I've tried and tried to get her to laugh like this, but no one makes her laugh quite as much as her big bro. She always gives him the biggest smiles, too. Sometimes momma feels a little shafted (I do feed her in the middle of the night and all), but it makes me happy that they have such affection for each other. My kids are pretty awesome. :)

The Kindezi School

Most of you know that I'm on the founding board of a charter school called The Kindezi School. Today, the school was officially approved by the Georgia Board of Education, meaning that it will open next fall. It's unique model proposes six students to one teacher, a ratio that is virtually unheard of in public schools. Our kids will attend the school and I'm really excited at the prospect that such a small ratio offers; they will have an individualized learning plan and be taught in small groups. Their strengths will be challenged and their weakness aggressively addressed. I'm very excited and I am optimistic for the future. :)

Oh yes, we did.

This one is for Grandma Chrys. We like to call it 'pink vomit' or 'pink cupcake.' You pick. :)


Nom nom nom....

Floating Head

Yet another one of Frankie's masterpieces.

The View From (down) Here

Frankie's photography. He's using a candy-red Polaroid iZone camera on the lowest setting. Basically, it's a glorified piece of plastic with a lens, but he loves it. There will be no 'headshots' of the adults because something about the height and angle from which he takes pictures magnifies all of the extra chins.

Frankie set up this photograph and took a picture of it while I was distracted doing other things; he was so proud of himself.

This is the "Harper's been up about every 1.5 hours at night for the past few weeks and I'm behind on grading and should be doing that instead and I was on my feet all day with the kids and the dog's been eating toilet paper and it actually snowed *again* this week and student recruitment is really ramping up for Kindezi and I'm pretty involved with that and I'm planning another neighborhood egg hunt and I'm too tired to think straight" post. Just look at the pictures, smile, and nod. One day, when I get more than three consecutive hours of sleep, my blog quality may or may not improve and maybe I'll be able to take photographs that are actually in focus.

P.S. Miss Baby is now 4 months old, weighs 12 lbs 9 oz with a wet diaper, is a baldy balderton, a drooling monster, and talks up a storm. I still can't believe we have her in our family - in a good way, of course. :)

I tried, right?

I attempted to take a pictures of both kids together. Sure, they are both looking sort of at the camera and no one is screaming, but it's not exactly deserving of a spot on Grandma's fridge. (So it made it on the blog instead.) Maybe the good folks at Sears will have better luck when I get around to taking them there.

Misuse of goods.

Not baby wearing - dog wearing!


Bridget - not so much a fan of this arrangement.

P.S. I'm a lady of few words lately. I find this even when talking to people; there's just not a lot to say at the moment. The drama has died down and we're just living from day to day.

Wiped.

She has this uncanny ability to sleep anywhere, which she will undoubtedly lose by the time she turns two and it reverses as she decides she will no longer sleep at all. So sleep, baby, sleep!

Photogenic Frankie

Juston took these pictures a few weeks back. It took me this long to get on his computer so that I could share them with the world!

What is up with this winter?

So all of you folks in the midwest are going to think we are wimps, but it snowed again. And when it snows, everything shuts down. Traffic on Friday night (when it was actually snowing) was so bad that it took me almost an hour to go 4 miles and Juston and I ended up dropping Frankie off at a friends' house up in town and going to the movies (Wolfman! Yes!) so as to not have to drive home. By the time we left midtown, there was no one on the roads and the snow was still coming down hard. We got probably three inches, which is pretty significant. And then, Saturday morning, we went outside to play. :)

The house on Grady Place:

Well, Frankie finally got to wear the giant coat I got him last year on extreme clearance.

Making snowballs.

Check my flow.

Bridget, expressing her feelings and firmly planted next to the back door.

Yeah. This hat is a great hat, but not such a good look for me.

Ice skating in the driveway.

Ice from a bucket in the front yard. Yep. It was cold! Juston also wants me to point out his nice PartyLite hoodie. He does freelance camera work for them and sometimes gets free stuff. Can't knock free, especially when it's lined and warm.

They cancelled church 24 hours prior to church, which was a bit too early as all of the roads were cleared by Saturday around noon. So we got a guilt-free day off. And the best part is, it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, which means another day at home. Hooray. I'm developing some serious cabin fever; now that the cast is off, I'm ready to go!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Harper loves you.

The Harpinator

Ridin' in the car.


Hangin' on the floor.


Sittin' in the saucer.

Extraction

Waiting in the doctor's office for our xray results.


Good news, the cast is coming off! Onto the table...


Covering ears because the saw is loud...


And here we go!



Cracking it open - like a nut.

I wonder what's in there....

Legs!