First Day of School

I can't believe the Doodlebug is old enough to be going to school already.  I mean, look at this.  He's not a baby, or even a toddler.  He's an actual little kid. 

We weren't completely sure how he would do at school, but he loves it.  Craig dropped him off the first day, and the Doodle didn't even tell him goodbye, he just ran into the room and sat down.  (Actually, so did Franny-bug, and Craig had to drag her out.) 

Today the teacher said that the Doodle came up to her and asked, "Could you please help me learn to write my name?"  I think him being in school is going to be hilarious. 

They wanted all the kids to bring pictures of their families.  Sadly, I realized that the last picture we have of us as a family was taken when the Ladybug was about 6 months old.  So we flagged someone random down at church to take a quick picture of us as a family.  This was the only one where everyone's eyes are open and the Doodle isn't squirming to get away from me.

P.S. Franny's dress in this picture is one of my $2 thrift store finds.  Isn't it darling?

This Week

 Just a few pictures of my sweet babies from this past week, before I start back to school and no longer have time to share pictures!

Here's Ladybug in her play kitchen.  She was pouring water back and forth, back and forth.  She was totally concentrating and stuck with it forever!

My Doodlebug, excavating dinosaur fossils at the museum.

 

Doesn't he look...scientific?  He loves the dinosaur museum.  We got a membership for his birthday and I thought they would just want to go straight to play in the children's area, but they really want to go through the museum every time and look at all the exhibits.

I like to call this Frannybug's "Witchy Woman" hair.  Typical Frances here.  This girl is absolutely cracking me up. 

A perfect mirror?

 
One interesting thing about having a three year old is seeing so much of ourselves reflected back to us, good and bad.

Like when we overheard Atticus say "That sucks" this week when playing with his matchbox cars.  (Confession: Thank goodness Craig is a good parent, because instead of being properly horrified and giving him a talking to, I ran out of the room laughing.  Craig kept it together and had the "not a nice thing to say" discussion.)

Or when I was asking Atticus questions about a book he was trying to describe to me, and he got frustrated and said, exasperated, through clenched teeth, "I don't know, SWEETIE!"


But it's also a million other phrases and looks and actions that I hope reflect our better side, like when he shares the last of his snack with Franny, or when he pats my face with a hilarious, sincere look and says "I'm so proud of you, Mommy."  Or his sweet concern when anyone is sick or hurt.  And so, without saying it, he also reminds me to be on my best behavior. 

Farmer's Market Goodies

 So I have to post some pictures of the deliciousness we picked up at the Farmer's Market last week: sweet potato greens.  I had never heard of eating sweet potato greens, but it turns out they are pretty great.  They cook up like collard or mustard greens, but with none of the bitterness.  Yum!

All we did was sautee some onion in olive oil, add the stems and cook them for about 5 minutes until they were tender, and then add the leaves and cook for a few more minutes, until they were wilted.  If you happen across these, I'd definitely give them a try!

My regular weekly Farmer's Market purchase is a bouquet of flowers for a mere $4 from the adorable 8 year old Rachel, who handles the growing, arranging, and selling herself.  Aren't they beautiful?

And as long as I'm on the food theme for the week, I might as well show off my amazing husband's latest adventure: potato-leek soup in a homemade bread bowl.

He checked out this book from the library called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  It really does seem easy.  You make up the dough and keep it in the 'fridge, and when you want bread it takes about 20 minutes to let it rise and that's that.  The bread is delicious.   

I'm organizing my pictures on the computer and should have some more of the Doodlebug and Ladybug soon!

Transition

I was in no hurry to move Franny-bug to a toddler bed.  She was going down easily and sleeping through the night.  Therefore, had she been content to sleep in her crib until age four, that would have been fine with me.  Not with her, though, so here we are.  

We moved her about a week ago.  Overall, the transition has gone smoothly.  We put a gate on the door, and decided to follow the "room = crib" philosophy.  That is, we aren't trying to make her stay in her bed, we just shut the gate and leave her in her room like we would have left her in the crib.  If she cries, we come to the door but don't go inside.  She fussed a little while the first few nights, but now she just plays around, opens her door a few times, and then gets in bed and goes to sleep when she gets tired.  

The Big Girl Room:

 We found the toddler bed on craigslist.  The big bed belonged to her great-great-grandmother, and we are keeping it in her room as a spare bed for now, and she'll use it when she gets big enough.  It is nice to have in there to cuddle on with the kids while we are reading stories. 

My little Fashionista:   

 

Pretty much every day, Frances wants to wear some combination of this pink polka-dot hand-me-down jacket, plaid thrift store hat, and green froggy rainboots (not pictured).  I put her in this little red-shorts, white shirt outfit, and five minutes later, she comes into the kitchen like this (you can tell she put on the sandals herself).

I also wanted to post a few pictures of this cool free children's museum my friend Mendy and I took the kids to last week.  It was amazing.  They have whole little turn-of-the-century play town, with a dry goods shop, bank, jail, train station, and house.  They have clothes for the kids to dress up in and lots of props.  Here's the Doodle in the bank:

 

And Franny-bug enjoying some "lunch" with Renna and Regan:

Keep your fingers crossed for us that she keeps up the good sleeping!