Juliet: the big girl

For the past several months we've been trying to take away Juliet's pacifier.  (She calls it her "sassy" so I will refer to it as that from now on).  A combination of Joey and I being softees with our youngest child, Juliet throwing MAJOR tantrums in her bed and refusing to sleep and an intense desire of every family member to silence her whining on car trips this effort is taking a lot longer than it should.

 This past week as I listened to her tantrum in bed it struck my how much harder this is going to get when she is out of her crib in a few months and we're all already overwhelmed with moving and speaking a foreign language.  I realized that this HAS to get done and SOON!  As much as I'm not ready for my baby of all babies to grow up, I'm digging in my heels.   A month or so ago I began explaining to her before every naptime and bedtime that she is now a "big" girl, no longer a baby.  And babies use "sassy's", big girls do not.   It seemed to be helping until I needed her to take a nap, caved a few days in a row and put her to bed, like a little angel with a pacifier bobbing up and down in her mouth.  Grrrr...!!  I'm sending her unclear signals! For the past couple of days Joey and I have been laying on the "big girl" talk thick.  Today she found a "sassy" on my desk and popped it in her mouth.  Joey's hands were full when he passed her on the way to the kitchen so he just made a simple comment rather than pulling it from her mouth, "Juliet, you're a big girl!"  Low and behold, a few seconds later she toddled out of our bedroom, curls bobbing, left arm swinging, right arm raised with the pacifier in hand and marched right over to me.  With a very satisfied look on her face she said, "I big girl!"   How cute is she???!!!  Of course, I laid into her with kisses, giggles and praise and can't keep the adorable image of her walking so surefooted across the living room out of my mind!!  (and why would I?)  If only I had video taped it!!  Man, we love that girl!

xoxo
Ash

Happy (35th) Birthday Daddy!!!

I'm not very good at birthdays.  

At least birthdays for anyone but my kids.  But, considering we had only 2-3 hours of preparation for it this little family party turned out pretty great but mostly because of the company!

 We had my fairly new trusty birthday chalkboard table cloth that came in handy for decorations.  

The kids got to personalize their own "placemat".  Here's Georgies' (with my help...requested by throwing a small tantrum).

 We had Daddy's favorite Dinner:

Garlic Chicken Teriyaki Pasta

 We had the last minute genius idea to put our "Why We Love Daddy" messages inside of 4 helium balloons.  We went outside and he started popping.

Brace yourselves kiddos!!

Isaacs message:  "I love Daddy because he's funny"

Georgies' message:  

Juliet's Message:  "Daddy, Isit, Geogie

My Message:  " 

 The deliciously decadent, very sinful, 

oh so yummy chocolate birthday cake that Daddy requested!

 Make a wish!

That cake stared back at us in the fridge for almost a week, dwindling, dwindling, sliver by sliver eaten mostly by moia!  And boy was it worth it;)

Happy Birthday, Joey!  I am glad that you're in the world and that you are mine!!

xoxo

Ash

Gaga Came To Town

Gaga came to town and stayed for 2 weeks.  What A TREAT!!
Mom put in a lot of time helping me on these dang shelves. 

 I worked her crazy!

 But we pay in snuggles!!

Here they are doing Juliets favorite Gaga past time:  

Dancing to the She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain You Tube video!

 It was sad to say good-bye.  

And although we look happy here, tears were shed in mourning.  Isaac cried himself to sleep, literally on the night that she left.  Gaga says she did the same.  Man, we hate how big the world is sometimes!!  

Thanks for coming Gaga!  We love you!!

xoxo

Ash

The Boy

That's some hair, isn't it.  Bed Head.  And Isaac has it every morning.  His pillow is one of the luckiest in the world.  It has so much to play with at night;)  

For the past couple of weeks I have become keenly aware of how grown up this boy is.  He goes for bike rides by himself in the neighborhood, likes to spend time alone in his room from time to time and hangs out with his friends for hours at a time in the front and back yard and could care less to hear from any of us during that time. Our house has kind of become the neighborhood hang out and all the boys and girls on the street are constantly running in and out of it.  Isaac, sometimes politely and sometimes agitatedly, asks them to help clean up before they go or to please play outside because he has things he needs to get done in his room!  But most of the time (95%) he plays with them.  They shoot guns, dress up in Ninja gear, fight with light sabers or swords and play with his somewhat large collection of Hero Factory guys.  ("Isit's guys" as Ju-B calls them).  He looks after his sister and if ever I need something done or some help with her I can ask him.  If it's something that doesn't involve helping with Juliet he often complains but despite his reluctance he always gets the job done.  

If he's not playing outside he has his nose in a book or has commandeered my Ipod touch and is sitting on the couch seat in his bedroom often with Georgie looking over his shoulder.  Sometimes he reads 6 chapter books in a week.  And sometimes he reads two.  We try not to make reading something of pressure.  He genuinely loves it.  

He and Juliet have a special bond.  There's a real selflessness to Isaacs love for his youngest sister.  She's far enough away to not be of any competition to him.  In every interaction it is obvious that he absolutely adores her.  He sees the humor in her baby-ness right along side me and we have a lot of fun laughing at her together.  He reads her stories at bedtime and she just sits there, contentedly nestled into his side.  Every time I have to cut those two off.  I think they would go on reading for hours.  It's cool to watch.    

The other day I began to notice how often Isaac wants to be a part of Joey and I's adult conversation.  We came home from being out and Georgie and Juliet took off to play.  Joey and I began talking about the people who were interested in buying our home and other uninteresting business stuff.  Isaac stayed around and just listened.  I watched  him get excited when we did, talking about selling the house and the benefits that we would see from that.  Last night he lingered at the dinner table longer than usual listening to us talk about the news or something similar to that.  He's curious.

He still snuggles, hugs, kisses and wants our attention, all of which I am very grateful.  In so many ways he is still such a little boy.  And in others he's very much grown up.  I think there's a fight in him to be both and he's still not exactly sure how to manage the controversy.  I see that fight in him. 

He'll be 8 years old in about a month.  And while it seems like ages ago that he was a baby it feels as if I haven't soaked it in enough...like so much of his growing up has slipped between my fingers.  He's our oldest so in so many ways we anticipate his aging, always looking forward to "next".  Because of that, maybe I've missed some of the "now".  For what it's worth and your reading this when you're 45 someday, know that we love you.  That you're a very sweet, thoughtful, complicated, intelligent little man with a very big heart.  You desire to be good, successful, happy, kind and loved.  I hope you know that you are!

xoxo

Ash/Mom