Playing Catch Up

"Playing" hardly seems like the right word. More like "desperately attempting to" catch up. However, with my babies being the ages that they are, I need to keep my expectations low. At least, that's what I'm being told. Luckily (for me), I am not feeling super guilty about the catastrophic condition of our poor home. I have been doing fall yard work the last couple of weeks, and thoroughly enjoying myself. I am 10 trees and 3 shrubs from being done for this season. I promise I will post on it.....which you can definitely count on, because I am exceedingly proud of my work :) All that to say, things will get back to normal *snort* after I am done with my gardening extravaganza.

On to my cutie bears....

My baby. My happy boy. My Chase. He's so awesome. I love him. I know I am waaaaay biased, but he is the bestest baby boy of them all. Such a cutie. He is doing all of those heart-melting things that make babies such a joy. He has started belly-laughing, blowing raspberries, baby-talking, and, as always, HUGE happy-pants smiling.

He also does what is pictured below, which I am at a loss as to how I might describe it. It is very funny, however. I love it.

He still rolls all over the place, and he cannot be put in his swing anymore because he tries to ninja-leap out of it (even when buckled into it) whenever I put him in it. Anybody need a super-awesome baby swing? I've got one. *sniff* It (almost) makes me very sad that I am officially getting rid of things permanently as Chase outgrows them.

Instead of the swing, he has graduated to his exersaucer in the event that Mommy needs to put him down and attempt to get other things done. I imagine that he will be sitting up soon since the activities of Big Sister 1 & 2 have become increasingly and incredibly interesting.

And speaking of Big Sister 1 & 2, they have been keeping Mommy all kinds of busy.

I made some "sinmin wolls" the other day. Brooke does not seem to understand the concept of cooking right now. To her, it is just some heartless thing Mommy does that prevents her from instant gratification. Very traumatic. She stood like this for 20 minutes. In between swoons, she wailed, "Pwweeeeeeeese! Waaaaaaant soooooooommmme!"

Brooke has officially been named (by me---and a few others) the Dunham family piece of work. It is extremely precious and hilarious. Here are a few pictures that show her piece-of-work-ness. Below she is embracing her inner mermaid as she flip-flops on the coach with half of her mermaid princess outfit on (the top half, if you were wondering).

And here she is eating some pizza ala chipmunk cheeks, with a typical Brookespression.

Her vocabulary increases with each week. It continues to surprise me with when she walks up to me and asks for a cup, or a specific food item; or when I ask her something, and she responds in such a way that it could actually be called a conversation. She might be my "precocious" one, Lord help me. I actually thought for about 5 seconds that I might start potty-training her, then I laughed at myself and bought tons of Brooke-sized diapers to prevent myself from doing anything stupid.

I love my little bug. She is so precious. I have worked so hard to make sure she doesn't feel like a "middle child," I think I might have created a bit of a stinker. Good thing for me, stinkers are my favorite.

Last, but certainly not least, is Anna-girl. And "girl" is right. She is NOT a baby anymore. Wow. She is my little girl. I have started cutting out some of her afternoon naps since she does not seem to need them. So, she has spent a lot of time with me while I have been doing yard work. I really love this time I get to spend with her one on one. But, I will say, she asks many, many, MANY questions. Did I say many? I meant many. Many. Lots. Yeah. Therefore, I have many *sigh* new opportunities to be more patient. Here's a snippet of conversation:

"Mommy, what are you doing?"

"Digging a hole."

"Mommy, now what are you doing?"

"Still digging a hole."

"Mommy, what's a hole?"

"It's a, well, um, it's aaaaa......a place to put a plant."

"Mommy, what is that?"

"A shovel."

"What's that?"

"A plant."

"What's that?"

"Dirt."

"What's that?"

"My sanity."

"Mommy, what's sandity?"

Anna did enjoy playing in the dirt with me, so much so that I got her a pair of Dora the Explorer gardening gloves. She has used them for many things, including picking persimmons off our tree and squishing them into a huge mess.

On one occasion we found a woolly worm. I tried to get her to hold it, but alas, she would not. This is the closest she would get to it:

I guess bugs are not her thing. However, she was very interested in the bug's well being. She was very concerned when I returned it to a tree. "Mommy, he'll get cold."

She still loves her dance classes, driving her little Jeep, playing outside, and all things Disney princess. If it has a princess on it, she wants it. She and Brooke have begun playing with each other almost constantly. That makes me so happy. I want my babies to be good friends.

I so enjoy Anna's company. She is such a sweet little girl. I love her so much.

I love all 3 of my kids more than words can express. The last year has been very challenging for me as I have been trying to get the hang of caring for 3 young kids;

but if anything, I have been playing catch up just enjoying and treasuring these times with my precious babies.