Babushka and Paint

When Grandpa Gary saw Baby in her little head scarf he immediately called her "Little Babushka."

Check out her shoes—tee hee!

One morning Grandma Judy came over—can't remember why now—and she was wanting to do something fun with the kids so she decided to teach them how to use their water color paints. It was so cute watching her with them.

They loved it and wanted to do it the rest of the day.

It's times like this that I realize how blessed I am to have a mom like mine. She would always sit down with us to do things. I remember her making clay and then she would teach us how to mold things. She would teach us how to draw and how to color in the lines. She even taught me how to make a sand castle in our dirt pile. She taught me how to play with my trucks and my horses. She also taught me to use my imagination and to value my brothers and sisters.

My mom molded much of what I am today—I like to think that, maybe, I am a little like her.

Baby Stats, Tubes-n-Wagons

- 9 months 5 days- 16 pounds (10th percentile)
- 27.3 inches long (25th percentile)
- Overall 10th percentile
- a herniated belly button (no worries--she will most likely grow out of it)
- developmentally delayed by 3 months in all areas but speech and social

It's a punch in the gut, but I'll get back up and move on. She is doing well, I just have to keep my head up.


I took Baby and Sister on a walk with my friend and her kids and I needed a way to keep Baby upright in the wagon... float tubes are great! Tee hee!

The tube was a perfect fit for a very happy little Baby! She grinned the whole time!

A Spider so BIG it took the "SIMMON" to kill it!!

Ya.

I was leaving my physical therapy appointment and thought it would be really nice of me to clean up after my kids had ransacked the place.

I pick up the box of books and ... "plop." No, seriously it "plopped."

It was one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen.

I began to shreek and shutter. We were all ladies there, the physical therapist was not there and his sub is a girl (shout out to Kim!) so we were passing the buck as to who was going to step on this quarter-sized arachnid!

I left before any straws could be drawn.

But, then, the assistant, Britney and the head woman, Kim, come walking out with a cup, "We have decided it is too big to squish on the carpet in here so we are bring it out here and we are going to put it under the wheel of your suburban."

First I am thinking,"You were crazy enough to pick that up in a cup?"

Then I am shuttering, literally, because I am  hoping I don't feel the bump when I back up over the thing!

They calmly place the oversized spider behind my back wheel (thank goodness because I would never have had the guts to "climb" over it if it were anywhere near my door...) and then they back away... 10 feet... did they think it was going to squirt that far? My mom was there too (she is going to physical therapy for her shoulder surgery) and she backed away with them giggling at how far away they were.

As I back up I called out the window...

"Is it dead?"


P.S.
I looked up pictures to post so you could see what kind of spider it was but I got the heebie jeebies looking at a hundred spiders on my screen so you will just have to imagine it...

PIctures at Grandma Lynne's

Words cannot express how much
I love these pictures of Brother
being the best big brother ever!!!

My inspiration for the day...

Motherhood:-An-Eternal-Partnership

funny words

Sister:  "Dad! Dad! A muff! I saw a muff!!! Dad!!!"
Marc: "You saw a mouse?"
Sister (louder): "A MUFF!"

Marc and I start to giggle as she says it again.

Then I remember the moth I saw in the hallway earlier this morning... "A moth?"

Sister:  "Ya, a muff!"

Other Sister words:
shacktow = trackhoe
treller = trailer
Twister = all paint horses or male horses (Twister is the gelding we sold a while back)
he = she
she = he
Rachael = Mom

And the best one:
I was telling someone how she calls our suburban a persimmon. She piped up, quite loudly, "No, a simmon!!" Still funny. I guess persimmon was getting to hard to say every 5 seconds when she sees a suburban on the road!

So we have graduated from this:

...

to this

First Campout

Seriously, this is the cutest thing ever. Our three kids in the tent coloring with each other...

It didn't start off this way, though. Let me start at the beginning:

So, I thought I would be this amazing wife and mother and go get our campsite all set up and saved while Marc was still at work. I mean, how hard can it be. The kids can sit in the car while I set up our easy-no-problem Springbar tent... right...

I get up the canyon and see that at the opening there is a trailer parked off to the side but, our favorite campsite is still available. This nice old man is chopping wood so I stop and ask him if it is alright if we drive past him to get to the back camp spot. He obliges as he smiles at me and all my kids screaming in the middle seat.

Yes, screaming. I don't know exactly what set them off, they just had had it, I guess.

So, after fourwheelin' it through what seems like a ravine I make it to the spot. Let out the kids and Baby is sweetly sleeping in the car... until Brother walks over and "helps" me by getting her out of her car seat.

Uggh!

OK, I can do this... remember... I am super woman.

So, I set Baby in her carseat near me and try to keep a watchful eye on the other two while I try to remember how to set up our easy-no-problem Springbar tent...

I realize that I don't really remember how to set up our easy-no-problem Springbar tent and start to panic a little because I really want to impress Hubby about how amazing I am. Well, in the middle of me carefully unfolding everything and situating where everything is and Baby is crying I realize that Brother and Sister have disappeared...

"Brother! Sister!"


"Bro....."


"What mom? I was just by the road watching for cars."


Oh, OK, no problem---well, that's not exactly what I said, in fact, it wasn't even close.


Needless to say I had to come up with a way to keep them close so I figured Brother could help me set up our easy-no-problem Springbar tent. That way Sister would stay close.


So I get the stakes put in and start to assemble which bars go where.... hmmm... which bars go.... where..... mmmm.... I think these are it.

"OK, Brother hold tight to this pole while mommy gets the other pole up on the other side. In fact, if you need to you can lean back."

There's nothing like the image of a bean pole holding up a tent pole... I am laughing just looking back at how hard he was trying to hold that bar tight for me. I still had the image in my head as I raised the other side of the green tent when suddenly Brother's side went limp and I hear a "crack."

I walk over to see Brother laying on the ground with a tent pole in his hands and a worried look on his face, "I tried mom. I was holding really tight."

We both started laughing when we realized how funny it was. Then I started to panic knowing that my days of wonder woman had quickly come to an end. So we picked up the tent, put it back in the "persimmon", piled the kids back in, four wheeled over the ravine, waved goodby to a confused old man and headed down the canyon with Brother and Sister crying because they really want to go camping and Baby finally sleeping—probably because their cries lulled them to sleep.

But, the final act of the day was when Marc became Superman. Fixed the tent pole and we went at 8pm that night to go on our short little campout... aw... Marc you are so sweet.

The kids loved it. I made peach cobbler in the dutch oven while the kids hung out in their pajamas in the tent. They were so cute.

And this is the same place that Sister had her very first campout...if I was really cool I would get that old picture and post it... oh well... I'm not cool.

Anyway, I had to post these pictures of me and Marc because it makes me laugh so hard. It was pitch dark and the camera would flash a red light and then a bright flash. Marc could not keep his eyes open. We tried many times...

What's the Dill Bill?

I don't know why I just asked Bill that question. Maybe it is because I just got done reading a rhyming book to Sister. Anyway...

This is the reason for the post:

That is dill.

Like for dill pickles.

My dad brought me a FULL GARBAGE BAG this morning.

Mmm, nothing like the smell of dill. Really I am serious here. I love the way it smells. Even early in the morning it was still a welcome smell for my nostrils.

My dad told me to hang it upside down in my garage till it dries.

Now it smells like dill and tires in there, oh, and if you are close enough to the saddles you can add horse to those smells too.

My fingers smelled like pickles for a good couple hours after, even with a good scrubbing. (Maybe I wasn't  trying that hard because I kind of enjoyed it... )

And yes, I think I will be able to share some... just maybe... unless I actually get about five bushel of cucumbers to pickle this year... na! I think I will just share the wealth. Thanks, Dad! Love you man!

Many more posts coming. I am way behind. I just had to share the "dill."

X Shmecks

Fragile X or not, Baby is doing some great things that are right on target! I am so proud!

A couple of night ago I heard Baby laughing really hard and came to investigate what Marc was doing to get her to laugh and this is what I saw.


Baby laughing in mirror from Rachael on Vimeo.



Then last night I got her doing this. How cute is that! Seriously! She is only 8 1/2 months old!


Baby Dancing--8 months old from Rachael on Vimeo.

Ears, Indians, Sparklers and Chores

Baby ended up with a double ear infection. I was just thankful that it wasn't RSV. I finally took her into the doctor because she was getting worse and I wanted to be able to catch it early. He checked her out and said she "Has two unhappy ears." So after a week of anitibiotics she is doing much better and almost back to normal. At the appointment she weighed 15 pounds 11 ounces. She is my chubbiest baby. She doesn't weigh a lot, but she is, what I like to call, fluffy!

Sister still keeps saying the funniest things but, because I am so behind in journaling/blogging I am forgetting what they are... hmmmm. I'll have to think harder.... later...

Independance Day weekend was fun-filled. Marc was on call and only got called out once. We took Kirsten and Jeremy with us swimming on Saturday. We went on a picnic in the park next to the pool first. There was an Ellis Island rendezvous/re-enactment going on there. It was very cool. We didn't take the time to really check out all the stuff because we wanted to get our swimming in. Where we sat at the park was right next to a guy who was dressed up as a Mohican Indian. He was authentic from his shaved head and mohawk right down to his loin cloth... ya... loin cloth. Needless to say I'm glad we didn't sit too close.

Brother is VERY intrigued by American Indians and kept watching this guy. I told him to go up and say "hi." He got right up and walked over to him (well about 10 feet away) and put his hand up to his wide open mouth and began patting it while hollering "indian style!" We all sat in amazement, slack jawed and trying to hold back our laughter. The "indian" ignored Brother as if he were just some twerpy kid, so Brother continued on with this until he finally heard us all calling him back. He was quite disappointed that the "indian" didn't engage in his fun. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

I did get a picture of what Baby did with the Cheetos.

Swimming was a bit chilly because of the breeze so Skinny Little Kirsten (as we all lovingly call her)was freezing and spend most of the time trying to warm up in the sun. So of course Jeremy was there and Brother was right beside him and then Marc joined in.

Brother put this lovely Spider Man towel on Jeremy to keep him warm.. I thought it was funny so I took a picture. Kirsten, obviously approved.

Baby zonked half way through.

Sister was just enjoying being there. (OK, so not really, she was C-O-L-D)

I wish I would have gotten a picture of Brother going down the twisty slide at a turtle-like speed... funny.

Marc took Jeremy on a tour of his work place. On our way out he wanted to stop and show us the local wild life preserve....

a killdear decided to nest right there on the gravel so someone sprayed out the area and put down cones. So funny!

Here is everyone in the "Persimmon" looking out at the bird.

Then we came home and BBQ'd with our backyard neighbors. After we got our kids to bed we came back out as just adults and roasted marshmallows, made s'mores and talked till late.

It was a beautiful sunset so I made Marc take a picture from the front porch.

Sunday we went to church and afterwards went to my mom's for a hot dog roast, fun and socializing.

Funniest part of that night was the humongous sparklers my mom and dad had found at my grandpa's house. They were, basically, duds—but, still very entertaining!

Brother loves Doritos...

Check out those sparklers! And Baby is just enjoying the show.

LittleB and Sister are having a ball on the trampoline! And then they had more fun on the swing.

Chelsea took good care of Baby. She is has on of her own on the way! Yay! She's 15 weeks!

Monday we continued the celebration with our backyard neighbors again and added another family and my parents to the mix. We BBQ'd, played in the pools, jumped in the bounce house, had a water balloon fight and I made 3 dutch oven peach cobblers. Wew!
(I don't have pictures of that but hopefully I will get a few from my friend...)

Brother is such a big helper. He has had to help me a few times with Baby while I am running around trying to get things done and Marc has his hands full with Sister. I got cute pics of him feeding her for me. He has also been unloading the dishwasher all my himself by utilizing a step stool for the higher stuff. He really is a go-getter! I am so proud of him. Today I got pictures of him and Sister doing a different job. The dishes weren't clean yet and they wanted to play outside and I told them they had to do their jobs first so they cleaned the counter and table. I had to take pictures of them working as a team.

Yes, I know he has his feet on the counter, but, hey, I wasn't going to complain. I just thought it was quite funny.

Front page of the Newspaper!

I got a wake up call from my mom this morning, 8:05am to be exact.

She told me that there was a newspaper article on the front page talking about another family who has 3 Fragile X Kids. It's a great article with some beautiful pictures! Read it here.

I love my family. They are always so interested in anything Fragile X. What a great support group I have.