Party in my crib

This is post #1 in my new blog series. It's 10:24 pm. which means I need to be quick because I need to be done by 10:34 pm. Ok, here we go.

Last week the side of William's crib fell off, literally the whole side fell off, just before his nap. I suppose he may be ready for a big boy bed complete with some pillows and a big cozy comforter, but naptime on Friday afternoon was not when I was planning to start making the transition.


On Thursday night, Patrick and the boys were playing upstairs running back and forth between the rooms. At one point someone or something ran into the side of the crib knocking some kind of important plastic piece off. Important as in apparently responsible for holding the sliding side of the crib on. Patrick thought he fixed it. However, when I slid the crib down on Friday to lay William down for his nap, the side popped off. I was able to prop it back up and crossed my fingers that William wouldn't move in the slightest bit so as to touch one entire side of his crib. I wasn't so lucky and when he rolled into it, the edge popped out and he fell through. When I tried again to prop it up I pulled the entire side off.
I then proceeded to pretend that everything was normal, all the while the side of the crib was missing and William was looking at me with serious confusion and doubt in his eyes. When I said goodnight, tucked him in and left the room, the party began. Stuffed animals, books and toys were all invited. William was all over his room inviting everything to join him in his crib. In exasperation I called Patrick for ideas. (Remember, this was naptime and I wasn't ready for the big boy bed at 1:00 pm on Friday afternoon.) He suggested the pack-and-play. I'm jealous that I didn't come up with that brilliant plan on my own.
Again, William looked at me with serious doubt and confusion. Seriously mom, a pack-and-play right next to my crib? What about the party?


But he slept. And when he woke up, he and Henry stayed in his room and had the party William had been planning.

Series of ten

In ten minutes I can,
empty the dishwasher while simultaneously popping a bag of popcorn (I just did this),
start a load of laundry and pick up the playroom (while I'm down there anyway),
believe it or not, do my hair and make-up, if crunched for time,
make a pan of Kraft macaroni-and-cheese (although not the Spongebob kind, that takes 13 minutes),
brew ten cups of coffee on my new (and most loved appliance ever) Keurig coffee maker (I've never actually brewed ten cups in 10 minutes, but in theory one could at one minute per cup),
jog a mile on the treadmill or
do a ridiculously ab busting workout by Cindy Whitmarsh that I have free on demand,
watch "Hot Topics" on The View,
peel potatoes, roll out dough, start dinner.
There are plenty of ways I can put ten minutes to good use.

Today it occurred to me that maybe if I gave myself ten minutes, just 10 minutes, to update my blog maybe it would stop feeling like such a daunting task and would become something I would just do. Ten minutes wouldn't be enough time for me to over think every picture I post or over analyze every word I type. And maybe, just maybe, I would do it and it would even be fun.

So here it begins, my new blog series. A series of ten. Ten minute posts. Just a quick post with some quick pictures and quick thoughts.

What can you do in ten minutes?

Invincible summer

This is a post I've had in draft mode since June 7! I drafted it just weeks after the start of Henry's summer break from preschool. I think I never posted it because I wasn't quite pleased with the pictures and wanted to add more.

Clearly, it's not summer any more. I saw on the local news just a few nights ago that out of the 28 days we'd had in October, we'd had 18 days of measurable rainfall. It feels like this rain might never end and I wake eager every morning hoping to see the sun, even just a splinter of sun breaking through the clouds. Just yesterday when it felt like the gloominess might never end, I remembered this quote:
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." -Albert Camus
Here are a few snapshots from our early days of summer. If this wasn't good enough for me to share in June, it's sure looking really good to me now.
Invincible summer.


This week we welcomed J u n e and welcomed summer. There was lots of
s u n s h i n e so we spent most of our days outside playing.

Our week was filled with:
riding bikes, sometimes just around the block and other times to the bakery for a huge, iced s u g a r c o o k i e.
88 cent ice-cream c o n e s at Baskin Robbins (also just a bike ride away).
sliding, swinging, climbing, dangling and just-plain playing at the p a r k.
splashing in the b l u e-plastic kiddie pool.
running through the sprinkler.
f a r m i n g for a day.
sniffing freshly bloomed peonies.
eating picnic lunches o u t s i d e on the deck.
making sand castles and digging in the d i r t.
grilling cheeseburgers.
playing with friends.
mowing g r a s s.
popsicles on the front porch s w i n g.

when the hulk comes out

Henry is going to be the Incredible Hulk for Halloween. The Hulk is his favorite superhero because he's green. Other than his Hulk pj's, I don't think Henry has ever seen the Hulk, whether on tv or in movies or comics or books. He just loves him based on the fact that he's green. This is the first year he has been very sure about what costume he wanted for Halloween, therefore my first year without having any say in the matter. While I thought I'd be sad not being able to choose something cute like a puppy or silly like a hotdog for him to dress up as, I'm actually most excited this year because I know he is so thrilled to dress up in this Hulk costume of his own choosing. Gabe is also dressing up as the Hulk, (a total fun coincidence that both boys chose the same costume) and Dan found these Hulk smash hands on Craigslist and picked up a pair for Gabe and one for Henry, too. They complete the costume perfectly and Henry loves them. Actually, we've all been having lots of fun with the smash hands here at home.


Henry took the rest of these pictures,




hahahaha! There's a little Hulk in all of us!

The pumpkin patch

Last week Henry's class took their first field trip. They went to the pumpkin patch. It was the perfect fall morning. Sunny and cool, but not rainy or freezing cold. It was Henry's first field trip and my first as a mom. I definitely proved to be a newbie.
See this tractor pulling away?

Well, I'm not on it. And I'm the only mom who's not on it. Ok, there was one other mom who stayed behind, but she meant to stay behind, she was feeding her newborn baby. I was caught up in the moment of Henry's first field trip and my joy at being able to be there with him and wanted to capture his first time on a hay rack ride on his first field trip,

and his first time on a hayrack ride on his first field trip with all of his friends from school,

and while I was so busy capturing these moments, the other moms were busy climbing on board the hay rack and snuggling with their preschooler. Still clicking away, I barely noticed the tractor starting to lurch forward. And before I could jump on or scream "wait for me!",

they were gone.
I missed the hay rack ride and I missed the actual pumpkin patch where the pumpkins grow and the picking of the individual pumpkins. But I did get lots of pictures of the back of the tractor as it drove away. Ha! The good news is that Henry was completely unphased. I worried as I waited in the pumpkin barn that he would feel abandoned. He seemed to not even notice that I wasn't there as he proudly plopped his pumpkin in my lap when they returned. Maybe that was more sad? No, I was glad.
Each child got to choose and pluck his or her very own pumpkin from the vine to bring home. They also watched a movie in the pumpkin barn while sitting on straw bales about how pumpkins grow all while eating freshly popped popcorn.




There was also a play area with hay bales the children could climb and different bikes and tricycles for riding.

At the end of the visit before everyone left, we took a class picture, including both Miss. Jill and Miss. Marcia. I love how small and sweet all of the children are.

And these of Henry and his friend Logan. They're up to something.

bff

It's good to have a friend to walk through life with.

William knows the value of a true friend. He loves this little friend.
They've been best friends since
yesterday just before bath time.

But today they've been inseparable.



Something I absolutely adore about William is how much he loves comforts and comforting things. He loved his pacifier (more to come on the past tense of that statement), he used to love to sleep with a blanket but now he needs all three of his Amy Coe chenille blankets to sleep, he loves his baby (a crazy frizzy-haired underwear-only wearing beanie stuffed baby) and now he likes to sleep with his baby and all of the rest of his stuffed animals. When we leave the house he usually has his hands full and sometimes his pockets stuffed with things; be it Little People farm animals or tractors or board books. Now he loves his Curious George. George came to school today when we dropped off Henry and he came on a walk with us this morning. George is the only reason William agreed to wear a hat on this chilly fall day; he put his on first so William agreed to follow.

the carousel

Most children beg their parents for a chance to ride.
Please
buy
me
a
token.

Not William.
He felt more like this about it.

For most children I think the carousel looks like fun and music swirling around. For William I think it looked more like terror and vicious animals and dizzying blurs.

He was relieved to be off and have that awful sight at his back.

I love this picture and the way he is walking with purpose, away from that terrifying blur and not looking back.
My mom and I took William to the zoo while Henry was at school on his last day. We thought he'd enjoy the carousel, so I splurged on a token. How awful of me to keep snapping pictures as his terror unfolded. I just didn't want to forget that frightened 18-month old face or his deep gratitude to have his feet back on the ground again.

nathan's first birthday

I love a birthday party. I love planning them as much as I love going to them. I love a theme spilling over into all the party details. I love the children's games and little goodies. I love the brightly wrapped gifts, tasty cupcakes, punch and ice-cream. I love the smiles on the faces. The laughter of the children. I love the helium balloons-even though Patrick insists they are the biggest waste of party spending, I learned from Holly that no party is a party until there are bunches of balloons.

Patrick's nephew Nathan turned one in August. He is the youngest Vance grandchild, but only for a few more weeks. Jeff and Sarah's baby girl is due at the end of the month. Lindsay threw him an adorable monkey theme birthday party; she and Matt call him "monkey". She made banana punch, monkey cupcakes that were actually banana bread muffins with chocolate frosting (yum), and had lots of (those party defining) yellow and brown helium balloons. It was the day after we came home from Hawaii, a simply beautiful warm but not too hot day at the end of August. Though we were a little dazed and jet-lagged, the boys absolutely loved playing with their Vance cousins. All of them were there, there's 6 total. Clayton, Haydn, Isaac, Caleb, Hannah and Nathan.