Nearly 5.

After taking pictures of Timmy, Birdie insisted on getting her picture taken. It took me several minutes to coax her into a natural smile; she's all about this ridiculous smile lately, but I love her real smile. I love seeing the gap in her bottom teeth from the tooth that never grew in. She is almost always happy unless her best friend at school won't play with her because if that's the case...watch out. This girl can give a mean stink eye. She has a school-girl crush on a boy named Liam. He's an adorable blonde-haired boy in her class that is perfectly respectful and helpful each day so I'll allow it. She drives me a bit crazy at school with her incessant pestering to move up to the best color (they use the dreaded color clip up/down chart), but I'm grateful that she is ever watchful and attentive to things I need help with in the classroom. She, following in the footsteps of her sisters, loves learning. We get home from school only to do more learning and reading each day. Some days it exhausts me, but I push through because I hate to discourage it. She is a quick learner. She's determined to learn how to tie shoes. She learned how to pump her legs on swings recently. She loves sticking her head out of the sunroof of the car. She almost always looks like a mess; her hair is constantly in her face. But she has the best smile, and it always shines no matter how much hair is covering her eyes.

I adore this little Bird. I love that she decides early in the day which name she wants people to call her, and she insists that people only use that name. She uses both Birdie and Felicity, although I think she uses Birdie more. I love that she loves me. She makes my world so happy.

Strawberry picking

So I basically live in a swamp. The humidity here is real and thick, and it sometimes takes my breath away. My hip has been injured for over a month, which has been extremely irritating because I was really ramping up my mileage, and now I'll have to start over once my hip stops acting up, but the hip injury has at least helped me avoid the terrible humid runs of summer. 

I'm sure there are a lot of advantages to humidity (I can't really name them at the moment), and I am certain that the biggest advantage is how great crops grow here. You can find anything you want here. When my mom was here a week ago, we drove an hour up to St. Joe, Michigan and picked red, ripe strawberries (please tell me you love that book as much as I do). It was a lot of fun. The kids even found frogs after strawberry picking and had a great time letting them hop around in their hands. 

So hooray for humidity when it comes to produce, but not when it comes to my body temperature.

4th of July Parade

We ate dinner with our dear elderly neighbors on Memorial Day this year, and during dinner they both mentioned how much they missed going to parades (it's just too hard for them to navigate the crowds and parking these days). Immediately I knew I needed to bring the parade to them. I reached out to neighbors and our neighborhood Facebook group but received little to no response. Discouraged, I continued asking and making plans, figuring everyone on my block loves my kids so at least we're sort of a parade if no one else shows. On Sunday, I split my family in 3 groups, and together we delivered 80 fliers to the families in our neighborhood with children. We received a bit more response, but it didn't feel promising. I really had no idea what to expect today.

I woke up this morning at 4:30am and couldn't fall back to sleep. Plagued with negative thoughts, I rolled out of bed and schlepped downstairs to workout before the kids woke up. I regrouped my thoughts during my workout and felt calm about the day. Fear is such a strange thing--sometimes it motivates me and sometimes it paralyzes me. I wasn't going to let it paralyze me today. 

At 9:45am, I began seeing people walking around the lake with their bikes and strollers and wagons. Two families even made floats. The parade was a success! The kids loved it, and I did too. I really feel a need to connect people in whatever way possible; I'm always looking for ways to get together as a family, as a neighborhood and as a community. I think there's too much negativity out there about the state of the nation, but the thing is, I think we're in much better shape than we all think. People do want to be together. They do want to support each other, even if they believe different things. And they do want to show up, even if they don't actually commit immediately.

I am so grateful for our neighborhood. It feels like a step back in time. Kids are always outside playing ball of some sort. My kids are nearly always at the beach, lounging in the sand. And there are so many people that walk together. It makes me happy! It was so nice to be together today.

Finally...snow.

Never mind the fact that I attempted to make dinner 20 times before I actually got it started, being interrupted to zip coats, force boots on feet, find matching gloves, and fix said gloves a million times--the kids had a blast in the little bit of snow that made it's appearance today. I, on the other hand, felt rather frustrated by all the interruptions until I decided to check on the kids and found them in a magical winter wonderland, even if it was less than an inch deep.

The kids rode down the driveway together on sleds, attempted to build a snowman but settled for a small snow "castle" instead, and threw snowballs at each other. I caught a few of their faces as they played, and even though dinner was on the table over an hour later than it needed to be, I knew it was important for them to be outside instead of inside on the couch watching "Nailed it," which happens to be their latest binge-watching show. The show gives me high anxiety because how could anyone make anything look so bad! It's on Netflix, and if you haven't watched it, try it. You'll see. It's painful. So I'm happy to report that I did my dutiful motherly chores by getting all these kids ready for the snow, and we were all mostly happy about it. There were a few face plants that made for some sad, red faces.

She's 6!

Six years ago, I faked my way into labor and delivery, and I'm pretty sure my OB just wanted me out of his hair, so he didn't call my bluff, and he started me on pitocin, which allowed me to push this blue-eyed beauty out within a few hours. Our lives were forever changed that day, and I'm so thankful that Elle is in our family because she has a way of loving me that no one else does. 

Elle is an excellent conversationalist. She can talk to anyone, and she usually does. I remember last summer when we went to a beach in Michigan one afternoon, and I couldn't find Elle. I started scanning the beach and found her talking to a woman with a metal detector; she ended up walking up and down the beach with her, talking with her the whole time (we did have a little chat after this experience about not leaving with strangers), but the lady was kind enough, and we all had a good laugh after.

Elle is so kind to others. Today when I visited her at school, I found her holding hands with a boy named Daniel. She has come home several days talking about him, so I assumed it was him without knowing him. Daniel is tiny; he barely reaches her shoulder. Timmy might be as big as him. She says that other kids aren't always that nice to him because he's so small so she has decided she will be his friend, and he seems to love it. He had a big smile on his face anytime she sat next to him. 

Here are a few other things I love about her right now: Elle gives the best hugs. She is almost always the first one up in the morning. She comes down at least once every night after we put her to bed. She is an avid rock collector. She still hoards everything. She is very smart and just started reading chapter books. She has a sweet voice (I love singing with her at night). She admires her sisters. She loves riding behind her sisters to school but always looks a little crooked because her backpack is so big. She loves cheese, pepperoni and crackers. She is excellent at coloring and goes a bit crazy if anyone colors in her books. She writes a love note to her teacher almost every single day. She still detests fruits and vegetables. She is impossible to calm down when she's mad. She wears a headband every single day. And she puts on the greatest shows with her sisters (mostly because they still boss her around and she hasn't figured out how to say no to them). 

I love Elle so much. I honestly can't imagine life without her. 

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't find her after school, which is really odd. We have strict rules about leaving our street without a companion and without telling me. She lost her bike lock somewhere along her bike route home and without thinking, she took off looking for it. Mya came in after a few minutes while I was making dinner and asked if I knew where she was. I told her that I knew she had her helmet on so I assumed she was biking in the neighborhood. Mya set out on her bike to join her but couldn't find her. She came home and told me, and I told her to enlist her siblings' help to look around the yards. No one could find her. At that point, my heart started to panic a little and I grabbed my keys and started searching the neighborhood. I nearly made it to the school and still could't find her. A police officer happened to be patrolling the neighborhood so I flagged him down and gave him a description of her and her clothing for the day and enlisted his help. We finally found her (not before my heart sank to my toes), and I jumped out of my car and hugged her so tight. I told her firmly but lovingly never to do that again because who would talk to me in the mornings and while I made dinner. I reminded her how much I needed her. 

It was in that moment (and really every other moment in between) that I realized how much I need her and each of my kids. They fill my life with so much love and light. 

Happy birthday baby girl!

Maize

Meet Maize Oliver

 Born: May 25, 2018 

Breed: F1B Goldendoodle (apricot)

Tim and I have been considering a second dog for over a year now, but we just haven't felt it was the right time to pull the trigger...until now. We knew we needed another doodle because neither of us does well with dog hair, so we started looking at our options. Once we saw a picture of this little guy we knew he was the one for our family, and we surprised the kids this morning with a trip to the farm to pick him up. 

Because we already have a Blue, it seemed appropriate to have a Maize (like the corn...not Maizy). I am more than a little nervous to enter the puppy stage again, but I'm hoping for a different experience since I don't have a baby crawling on the floor or swimming in my belly. We hope he will keep Blue young as he gets older, and we can't wait to see how he fits into the family. It's really funny because whenever the kids are asked how many people are in their family, they ALWAYS say 8...because Blue is basically a person, and he's an avid member of the family. I am certain Maize will ease his way in very quickly, and we are all very happy to be a family of 9 now. 9! That's just crazy.