If you ever want to have a wonderful day sing Skidamarink A Dink A Dink around Juliet.
Juliet likes to make herself cozy when she plops down on a couch and demands that someone read to her. It's very fun to read to her, she has plenty of people happy and willing to meet her demands.
But sometimes I can't find her anywhere and I have to yell "Juliet! Where are you?!" I can hear some giggles when I say this but where my baby is remains a mystery.
Where is she? Where is the baby?
She recently discovered how child locks work. Pray for us.
We like to have hot cocoa when the kids come home from school and mostly it's a good idea but sometimes it is a bit tough for Juliet.
Like when other people take the bag of marshmallows so they can have a couple. Apparently this is unacceptable.
Bradley is laughing in this photo because I was literally squealing with joy over how cute Juliet was in her little white boots.
We had a bit of snow just before Halloween which was very exciting. I'm going to have to get better snow gear for Juliet now that I've seen just how determined she is to be in on any play time in the snow.
She stayed out there just as long as the big kids. I kept on having to run back into the house to grab more warm clothes and hats for her and the other kids. Snow much fun!
Shopping with Juliet is one of my favorite things. She's a big help at Costco, she demands to get down and push the cart and she gets quite the reaction when she does this.
She gets quite the reaction from me when she does this. Apparently Bradley taught her to fetch. Delightful.
Sweet Layla having a cozy nap on a cold day. Spoiler - there will be few pictures like this for the rest of the winter. We got desperate and shaved them to get rid of the fleas.
Juliet has been potty training herself. It's going great, we think she just about has it all down.
She also gives the big kids rides on the office chair now although Patrick thinks she could step up her efforts.
She mimics everything now and we love getting her to say words.
Christmas gift catalogues came and the catalogues may be almost as good as Christmas, the kids get so excited to go through them and circle anything and everything that looks good.
Juliet is lucky everyone adores her, sometimes her cuddles can be a bit much. It's amazing she knows her name, we all call her something different. Nathan calls her Munchkin, Bradley calls her Little Miss, Eleanor calls her The Baby Menace, Patrick calls her Yuliet, and I call her Juliet.
Nathan carved pumpkins with the kids. Eleanor's expression here ...
And now Bradley.
As with most things, Juliet was desperate to do what the big kids were doing.
She LOVED it.
Everyone was happy to have Juliet help them scoop out pumpkin guts.
And then she was very excited about eating the toasted pumpkin seeds ... until I figured out she was just sucking the salt off of the seeds and hoarding the seeds themselves while shoving more pumpkin seeds into her mouth. I finally talked her into spitting them out and I think she had about 20 pumpkin seeds stashed in her mouth. Oh this girl.
Completed pumpkins! The kids did most of the carving work on their own, although Patrick got a bit of help.
I renewed our membership at the Museum of Prairie Fire and Juliet was delighted and amazed at our first solo outing there.
The mystery drawers were a hit.
As was climbing behind the area that was only enclosed on three sides. Who on earth designed this thing?
Juliet liked scoping out the pumpkins outside and Eleanor helped me get her to practice talking some more.
She and Addison are such buddies. They had a great time testing out all of Addison's fancy Halloween decorations.
Busy at play in our backyard.
Juliet likes to push the kids on the big swing and tries to hang onto the side of it like they do.
The big hill behind our house. This is such a great place for kids.
It was chilly but nice and I'm a bit hardcore about everyone getting some outside time every day if it's at all possible so Bradley got to read on the deck.
Who couldn't adore this face? No wonder we're all so crazy about Juliet.
Hugging fish from the game Let's Go Fishin'. This was on the day I discovered Bradley wasn't going to be in the gifted program at school (which he had unofficially been in the year previously) because he had gone from the 98th percentile in math to the 69th percentile on the standardized test each year. His teacher sprung this on me during the conference - I immediately asked if Bradley had been able to do something like play games on his computer after the test was over and was told yes, this was probably the case. Sigh. Come on, teacher. You're killing me here. Of course he sped through the test as quickly as possible in order to get to screen time.
I adore this picture.
For the record, Eleanor is in the gifted program. Her teacher conference was wildly different than the boys' conferences which were both basically "doing great academically, would probably murder me for tablet or computer time, complains when assignments are 'wrong' and not to their liking." Eleanor scored fully double for whatever it is they use to calculate your reading level and was very high in math as well. She helps her teacher and her main problem is she needs to be more assertive and realize how excellent she is at everything. Real feedback I got from her teacher. And it's funny because I said I didn't care about my kids being in the gifted program, but it turns out I do care, mostly because Bradley should be and was a little moron and breezed through the test in order to get more screen time. They did all sorts of fun and interesting extra activities last year, Bradley loved it. And I credit our ridiculous library habit for the kids' reading levels. There are so many amazing books out there and I don't see why we shouldn't check out as many of them as possible.
The Museum at Prairie Fire told us they were having a Halloween event which turned out to just be one piece of candy out of a bucket when we showed up. But the big kids hadn't been there for ages and it was an excuse to wear Halloween costumes so we had a blast anyway.
Tea parties continue to be a highlight of museum trips.
The whole crew building dinosaurs.
We also took advantage of the nice weather to do the fun run at the school. It was meant to be done independently at the time of our choosing over the long weekend because of COVID.
Eleanor barely survived running three laps around the school because running is hard and then she ran around the playground nonstop and taught Juliet to hang upside down.
Fun run cool guy.
Official fun run picture.
We came home and watched a spooky show. It's so fun to have Juliet make it through some shows now, the kids love getting to cuddle by her.
Ridiculous cats. They love evening cuddles.
Cute crew playing Cheerio tic tac toe at breakfast.
Bradley's friend Caroline gave us one of the trendy decorate your own sugar cookie kits which was rather fabulous and fun for my poor children who are used to slumming it with homemade cookies.
Patrick practicing his new song on the piano that Bradley forced him to learn. Juliet is such a mimic.
Halloween was beautiful and windy and we started the day with a Girl Scout Trunk or Treat.
Eleanor with Daisy and Cate. There was a ridiculous amount of candy at this event, every kid's bucket was filled to overflowing including poor little Juliet. I ended up having to carry her bucket for her, it was too heavy.
And then this is the best group picture we managed to get of our crew for evening trick or treating. Juliet is staring at our neighbor Addison who is dressed up as a character from the horror movie, The Purge. Juliet is holding the kill bat. Yay ...
More Juliet and Addison time. More kill bat for Juliet.
We had quite the setup outside. It was a nice night and Nathan put a TV in the back of the minivan so the kids could play video games and watch Scooby-Doo outside. Bunches of friends stopped by. This was the end of the night where we cuddled up with blankets and an outdoor heater and watched shows until late. I don't even know how much candy the kids ate. No one threw up so we're calling it a success.
These kids are so used to fun time outside, especially now that it's the only way to get in friend time because of the pandemic.
But sometimes your best friend is a sibling.
Bradley is so sweet with Juliet. He loves it when he gets her out of her crib in the morning and she cries and clings to him rather than coming to me. I get it, Bradley caters to all of her whims!
Friend time on the swing in the back. Nathan does crazy things and I can't believe kids like it.
Eleanor got to go to a Girl Scout fishing event with Nathan. We were hoping it would make her more excited for fishing down at our lake but apparently the verdict on fishing remains the same: boring.
I've been loving taking Juliet on solo outings to the park while the kids are at school. I can't believe how easy it is to take just one kid to the park.
She will sometimes do the slide on her own but she still prefers to have me go with her most of the time.
She remains obsessed with hedge apples and throwing them into the creek.
We took Addison with us to the school playground one day. Addison is amazing with Juliet, they're such great buddies.
Eleanor was getting ready for school one morning and I told her I thought it might be a bit cold and wouldn't she like to wear a nice fur scarf? She and I both thought this picture was hilarious and amazing.
Then off to a park outing with my little Juliet buddy.
She knows Eleanor's winter unicorn winter hat is fabulous and thought perhaps I could give her a ride in her toy wagon.
Lucky Layla getting some much needed attention from Juliet. She tolerated this much longer than she should have.
Being around Juliet while she's eating can be quite the treat. We discovered that she's obsessed with garlic butter.
And she's definitely really for sure eating a cookie in this video. I can't watch this without laughing.
Eleanor is on a bit of a sloth kick thanks to her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. McAtee, being very into sloths. So we got matching sloth themed Christmas dresses for the girls this year.
Juliet has discovered the art table and it's practically impossible to keep her away from it now. Lucky thing she has nice Bradley to help her out!
Juliet discovered baby Yoda thanks to the Target gift catalogue and was instantly obsessed. We hear a lot about "Yoya" now and she loses her mind whenever we go shopping at Target because there are plenty of Yodas to look at.
I took four children into the toy aisle at Target and despite things like this happening, managed to leave with zero toys but a very long wishlist. These kids are so good,
Nathan has been working from home here and there and it's so weird that he wants to go into the office ever, I don't understand why he thinks it's harder to be productive at home.
We had to hang out at my parents' house for a while when we treated our house for fleas one weekend. The kids said yay to shows and grandparents!
The kitties were shut in the basement bathroom while we were gone. Our poor traumatized kitties have been giving us lots of snuggles lately.
Here is proof that Juliet fits in perfectly with the rest of the kids - one and a half years old and she already likes to climb trees.
Hanging out at the school playground during Eleanor's Girl Scout meeting. Her troop is so fantastic, they've been able to do a lot despite the pandemic.
Hot cocoa after school is always a popular decision, regardless of whether or not you've been to school that day.
Sweet Patrick agreed to take a picture of himself wearing his fancy shark tooth necklace from Mabel's birthday party. However, on his way to wildly running over to me for said picture he managed to fall and bash his head on a barstool. He recovered enough to take the picture. Oh Patrick.
In case you want to know what life is with Patrick, he and Bradley found some awesome toy swords the other day and Patrick announced: We're going to fight with them!
Me: No, you're not.
Patrick: No, we're going to sword fight.
Me: Still no.
I don't know what it says that a sword fight is in a different category than regular fight and he thought that was somehow better. And to be fair, if this had been outdoors I probably would have been okay with whatever but this was in my living room.
With all the flea stuff going on over the past month I've been cleaning out everything and found baby aviators for Juliet that had been a gift when Bradley was a baby. Turns out aviators are cool for forever.
But then I sadly lost the baby and couldn't find her anywhere.
More hiding. She did all of this herself.
Juliet has a few favorite words. She says, "okay" to everything and often in the morning if I leave her in her crib too long you can hear her yelling "hey guys!" And when we go to the park she generally yells "bight!" and buries her head in my neck while I carry whatever assortment of gear she has demanded we bring along with us. The best part is that it's generally not even that bright and sunny when we're there, but it was once and the sun was bright in her eyes and she remembers.
Checking Layla's belly for fleas (it has been a tough month for both kitties and everyone else involved with flea treatment) and she stayed this way afterward.
We finally called in the professionals to treat the house but realized that was only half the problem, we needed to ensure there were no fleas on the kitties when they came back into the treated house ... so we shaved them.
Poor shaved kitties. This photo made the Christmas card.
Meg wanted to go out on the deck but I was rather concerned about her doing so with very little fur on a cold day, so I lent her Juliet's vest.
Turns out Juliet is not a sharing girl and she was rather furious that a cat was wearing her vest.
No! No!
She got her vest back and had a lovely time on the swing with Addison.
And getting a piggy-back ride. I guess it's not a surprise that she's such a fan.
Juliet is also a terror with a foot stool. She knows to carry it over to the pantry because that's where all the good stuff is.
Don't worry, I generally find her and get her. So many shrieks of glee.
Nathan working from home. No idea why he keeps saying he has to catch up on some work in the evening ...
I'm so proud of this, we decided to take a picture of the kids in their new Christmas jammies before anyone ripped or stained their new clothes.
And Grandma Colleen and Kerry came out for a visit! Colleen brought a fabulous Halloween bingo game that helped teach phonics, we were all big fans.
Juliet says she is very good at phonics.
Kerry got lots of Juliet attention. I was so worried at the beginning of the pandemic that grandparents were going to miss out on all the cute toddler Juliet moments, I'm so glad we've been able to get in some visits.
Balloon fun!
Cuddles and girl reading time.
Reading time for the boys.
Juliet has loved graduating from board books to more "real" books. Honestly we would have done it a lot sooner but she's my only child who would rip pages so we had to keep all the books we cared about away from her.
New cool plane arts and craft project.
So many arts and crafts while Grandma is visiting, it's rather lovely for all involved.
And everyone was so busy and having a good time I was able to sneak upstairs and read a good book and cuddle with a very lonesome Meg kitty.
Nathan took everyone to the park and they got a very authentic park experience with my children. Climbing the slide is the only thing they care about at this playground.
This is an amazing video because they're all on the slide and no one is fighting.
Bradley and Patrick were excited to show off our new favorite board game, Zombie Kidz Evolution.
And Grandma helped make a very festive front window covered in paper snowflakes.
Bradley invented a turkey board game and everyone was eager to help him test it out.
Juliet came down one morning and snuggled in close to Kerry and had a lovely time being read to until breakfast.
Piano performance time. Could have been calmer without a baby helper.
Grandma brought some fun new books, Bradley was a fan. It was a lovely visit!
Juliet is so ready to ditch her crib and have some sister sleepovers.
But it's Patrick who has been getting sleepovers in the meantime. I don't want to say the kid can't hang, but I keep walking in and finding him asleep next to a very alert Eleanor.
He goes so hard, even staying up 30 minutes past bedtime is too tough it seems.
Another day, another park outing with my Juliet. I just get to relax while she does the work now!
It's difficult to swing while holding a giant airplane but where there's a will there's a way and there's no shortage of will with this sweet girl.
I love this picture. Cutie climbing on the rocks.
And then climbing a tree with her Bradley buddy!
Here is Nathan with three shaved cats. We're very sad we had to shave them going into winter but we have been getting amazing cuddles every night. Although Meg has gotten fairly aggressive about getting under blankets in order to stay warm. She slept under the covers between my legs until 5 AM the first night after we shaved her.
Grandma Kathy is so wonderful about reading to Juliet and The Spooky Old Tree is one of Juliet's favorite books now.
Drawing with chalk outside. They were playing hopscotch.
Because of Juliet's baby Yoda obsession we have started watching The Mandalorian because that's the show he's on. She loves it and it really elevates the experience of watching a show when there's a baby yelling "Baby Yoya! Hug him!" and air hugging towards the TV.
Shopping at Target together. She desperately wanted to get this teddy bear and I desperately wanted to get it for her, but we have so many stuffed toys at home I just couldn't. She did get the chocolates she's holding though, we made cookies!
And then joy of joys, Uncle Daniel and Aunt Stephanie came to visit for Thanksgiving which meant Juliet got to see cousin Katie!
There is a rather mutual obsession between these two, it's adorable to watch the buddy cousins in action playing together.
And then we go home and Juliet gets herself cozy to read in my bed all by herself, because that's what the big kids do and she pays attention to everything.
I also was on a rather long phone call with a friend the other morning so a bored toddler had to take matters into her own hands and she found the television remote and somehow managed to put on a Lego movie for herself and get cozy under a pile of blankets on the couch. I was duly impressed.
A friend down the street dropped off some old lunch boxes for my kids and Juliet was delighted to get to use a big kid lunch box that day.
She's getting pretty great at talking! She has quite the admiring audience whenever she'll repeat words.
Reading with Grandma and Katie!
How adorable is Bradley in his basketball uniform? He's been doing so well on his team, we're really proud of how well he is doing on trying new skills and meeting new people. He didn't get to be on the Stanley team because I registered him very late, I wasn't sure we were going to do basketball at all during a pandemic. But then in-person school was going really well with basically no one getting sick so I figured we'd go for it. He's been really into sports this year, it's been so fun to see.
Fun Bradley story: he came downstairs the other day as I was doing a rather vigorous pilates arms workout and said "Wow, Mommy, you're strong! ... Were there ever female barbarians?" I don't know why barbarians are his term of choice but we had a fun discussion about warriors and I was very proud that my 8 year old thinks I'm strong.
Eating popcorn and probably watching an episode of the Mandalorian together. Patrick really liked it when Yoda ate a frog.
We decorated for Christmas just a little bit early this year and that's when I discovered that Patrick has a new photo face that I call "teen heart throb."
Another heart throb Patrick picture.
Bradley was quite proud to put the star on top of the tree.
More Juliet and Katie time. Katie and her parents are staying here for two full weeks, there's been loads of quality time for these two.
High-fives are hard, especially when it's only Katie who is interested in doing one.
Park time with these two was amazing.
Juliet and Katie are so crazy about each other. I'm told Katie tells herself stories while going to sleep and there are often quite a few "Juliets" one is able to catch amidst the toddler babbling.
It wouldn't be a successful trip without a picture of Katie sitting on Juliet.
When they showed up and Bradley got his Uncle Daniel fix.
Matching dresses!
Cute Bradley with the toddlers.
Museum pics.
We got out Nathan's beard ornaments the other night and Juliet was at first rather distressed and shouted "No!" and pointed at Nathan a bunch.
But then Eleanor tried them on and I laughed a bunch and took a picture and Juliet became intrigued.
Well, and she needed some wild horsie rides from Bradley.
And lookie what happened here. Juliet has had beard ornaments in her hair as hair clips every day since I got them out.
Wearing beard ornaments at Museum of Prairie Fire and looking adorable while doing so.
This was a cousin outing and they had so much fun together. They're quite the duo.
Eleanor remembered that we had a table blanket fort that my mom had made and asked for it the other day and then she and Patrick had a campout in it.
The next day I invited Katie over so she could play with Juliet and Grandpa brought her over and had a rather fabulous game morning with Bradley.
Meanwhile, Katie made friends with kitties. She insists on calling Sookie "Boo-Boo kitty" after her kitty who died recently. It's so sweet and a little sad.
Another sleepover the next night, this time with all three kids.
Reading to the littles, it's been really fun having Juliet enjoy books that the big kids like too.
But sometimes it can be a bit much to have Juliet involved in reading time. The big kids are such good sports, they just laughed a bunch.
We got some official Thanksgiving photos of the matching girl crew.
Grandchild photo! It was amazing that we got one that looked as nice as this, getting a picture where you can see everyone's face and most people are smiling feels like playing whack-a-mole.
Grandchildren with grandparents.
Dinner photo
And playing in the basement together after dinner.
Nathan decided to have Eleanor take a picture of us after we got home because we are cute too.
And a selfie with our sweet Eleanor! Happy Thanksgiving!
And to end the post - good news, Patrick and Mabel are officially in love and are going to marry after high school and live in my basement. Good thing we're all big Mabel fans around here.
