top 10 - the guthrie addition

I sat down to peruse my year's worth of pictures and was struck by how many self-portraits Guthrie has taken on my iphone this year. Like a billion. Generally I don't know she's taking pictures, but then notice the memory on my phone is getting a little small. I love it though- it's like a little window into her secret life. Goofy secret life that it is. 

and my favorite -- Happy New Year from Guthrie!!

vacation prep, or not.

I had this little post all planned out for today about how organized I am for our vacation here in a couple days. How my shit was completely together and tucked neatly in a compression sac all ready to camp. All these cute little crafts and busy bags for the kids for the next 2 weeks. I even had a Pinterest Board dedicated to it. Well, my shit? It is not together. Not one bit. It's strewn about and I'm two seconds away from curling up in a little ball in the corner with a blanket and sleeping for a solid 15 hours.

Guthrie's iffyish on the mend. A trip to the ER on Wednesday due to abdominal pain and she was so lethargic and dry heaving for a good 4 hours a day, conservatively. Zofran and a popsicle along with her first opportunity to pee in a cup and we headed home. Man that Zofran really perked her up. I think she'd been at the tail end of whatever she had, but just was not able to shake it. Yesterday was spent resting and not puking so a definite improvement but then last night a weird rash appeared on her feet.

Back to the Dr. today for steroids and a possible diagnosis of HSP, or maybe not. It definitely sounds kind of frightening, but our Dr. armed us with what complications to watch out for while we're on our trip and wished us well. If it is HSP then we've got a few more weeks of symptoms, although I'd count the last week as one big symptom. Vacation might be a little lower key than we expected. She's scheduled to have her physical the week we get back from our trip and I'll request a follow up UA just to make sure her little kidneys are a-ok. In the meantime, it's good we're going someplace where she'll need to wear socks and long pants because her feet are creepy! That's probably not so nice to say about your daughter is it?

My thought this afternoon was that I don't think I've been this exhausted since I had a newborn. I was unprepared for the lack of sleep, emotional stress combo that having a sick kid caused. I have a new and profound respect for parents with ill children. I know part of it is that this week I was also gearing up for this big trip, but I can't blame that entirely. And I can't count how many times I was thankful for not working.

At our nightly dinner time Thankfuls both John and I were thankful to hear Guthrie's little voice chatter on about something entirely inconsequential. I don't think we heard her talk for a solid 5 or 6 days. We missed her.

So, instead of starting to pack tonight we're watching The Princess Bride and eating popsicles.

It can all wait. I don't think we'll be getting too much sleep tonight given the steroids, but we've got a day and a half to pack up our stuff and get everything done. It'll get there.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me it will be from the mountains!

first day of school 2012

 Guthrie

 Grade: Kindergarten
Age: 5

School: Home

Outfit: Drop waist dress of hot pink and white stripes with floral skirt ruffles. Rose accent on the shoulder (her favorite part). Black capri leggings only decided on halfway through pictures because it was chilly. Gold sequin sparkle shoes.  (outfit was chosen with so much care that she wouldn't lay out her clothes last night for fear Dad would see them and not be surprised at breakfast this morning, hence a mother's obligation to record and describe it perfectly.)

Laithe

 Age: 2

Grade: most pre of the preschool

School: Home

Outfit: Favorite firetruck shirt. Khaki shorts. Crocs, no back strap. The cause of much frustration.

 

 

 

possibly my favorite picture of the day.

their juxtaposed expressions pretty much sum them up.

and the day went accordingly!

mama's got her hands full!

wonderfully full!

check out our past years first day of school pics -- can you believe how little she was that first year?

2011

2010

2009

peer pressure

G: no, give me your arm! i promise, it'll only sting for a little bit.

L: NOOOO!

G: come on, i'm serious. 

*silence*

L: What the?  pfft.

in 15 years i'm pretty sure this will be the sound of Laithe's first tattoo.

****

for the record, i still have no idea what that was about, but apparently it did only sting for a little bit. 

knock, knock

Knock-knock
Who's there?
Car
Car who?
Guthrie.


I know. Awesome isn't it? Laithe made it up.  Told ad nauseum and it's slightly less awesome.


I texted Melissa, after about 20 minutes of said knock-knock, that it would be funnier if I were drunk.

She said it probably wouldn't help much.

She's probably right.

In other news, Laithe sat on the potty.

This is a huge improvement over throwing the potty across the room don't you think?

But then he peed on the Hungry Hungry Hippo game.

You win some you lose some I guess.


Guthrie's best yet knock-knock:

Knock knock
Who's there?
Cash
Cash who?
Where's your nuts?

It's good puns are semi-lost on the young.

a pile of dirt

One of our favorite family stories is of when I was a little girl and my parents were doing some landscaping. They had a huge (to my eyes at least) pile of dirt delivered and it became the best backyard play space a kid could ask for. My trusty yellow dump truck and I spent hours and days digging.

Eventually the dirt was used for it's purpose and I was back to my regular yard.

The next gift giving holiday I asked for a pile of dirt. I didn't get it though and I was always disappointed.

***

Guthrie loves this story. Loves it.

Guess what she got me for my birthday?


A trunk full of dirt and mulch.


She is so thoughtful. We are so very lucky to have her.

she walked in a preschooler and walked out a kindergartener

the 2011-2012 school year is over.

well, it will be later tonight after the school picnic.

breakfast this morning was a bagel (i believe my children have had Panera three, no four, mornings in a row. yay post-Memorial Day weekend kitchen!) and no pictures were to be had until someones blood sugar went up a tad.

it was a nice car ride. unless he's beating up on her - and still sometimes even then - Laithe looks at his sister like she is THE coolest person on earth. sometimes i'll admit to doing the same.

and then we arrived at school, tummies sufficiently happy so that I could snap a few photos in front of the school.

and then I did the last drop off for my preschooler.

Goodness.

 I have such a mix of emotions about the end of this school year and all of them strong. All of them from a good place.                                                                            
and just in case you were wanting to see how the year has grown my girl.

 

First and Last Day of School 2011 - 2012 

and as for her Kindergarten journey . . . 

well, next year will be different for all of us. 

first though, summer!

advent

Our yearly advent calendar has been met with some, well, um, disappointment by Guthrie this year. To the point that I reminded her two days ago that little elves have ears and are observing her disgruntledness and may not be back to fill the calendar! It's been a good lesson for me not to get too attached to things.

The best though was on the 2nd when I'd stuck 3 new tubes of watercolors in. "Oh Laithe it's just paint," echoed throughout the house and has quickly become our new favorite saying for anything.

However, she quickly changed her tune when I introduced her to wet on wet watercolor painting. I followed the prep-tuitorial at Magic Onions and she created a couple of paintings. The best part was hearing her describe what she was painting while she was painting it. It went from a raspberry garden to a pirate ship to a picture of her family. I sat next to her for part of the painting while I knitted to answer any color mixing questions, but I tried to be as hands-off even in my compliments as I could.

I think we were all pretty impressed with her creation. Oh Laithe, it's just paint indeed!

Five.

Happy Happy Birthday my dear Guthrie!

You are five years old today.

That seems impossible in both directions - it seems like just yesterday I found out we were expecting you, but I cannot, for the life of me, seem to remember life without you. In many ways you have defined this family, your brother is certainly also doing the same, but I think there's something about a firstborn. About how the three of us worked hard to create our family.

I keep typing and deleting and retyping and I'm just going to leave it with this:

I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. You've completely cracked my heart open and because of that I can love the other people in my life so much more deeply. Thank you.

I am so very, very proud of the person you are and the person I think you're becoming.

You will change this world, I am certain of it.

Happy Birthday Guthrie