Pretty much the only thing we did during my week off was swim. It was fabulous! Jack had a GREAT time once he realized he could float by himself with the help of a friend's floaty lifejacket thingy. Adi also LOVED the borrowed crab, which is actually the same one we had with Baby Max, I'll see if I can find a picture. And of course we know Maxo loves the water. Although he has no interest in learning to swim without floaties.

I'm happy to see that Jack is finally becoming interested in artsy stuff.

Although he has lost his marker privileges (this is how I found him after a nap the other day).

He's at a pretty messy stage in general,

because he thinks he can do everything himself. He wants to put his cup away, for example, and dump his cereal bowl out himself, but he leaves a trail of milk in his wake.

Which brings us to Big Deal Event #1. Jackie (and his extra large backpack) started preschool this week.

He's going to be in Max's class three mornings a week so he started this week with all of the other new students. Max was NOT happy to be left behind, and I'm very interested to see how things go when the boys start attending together next week. I anticipate a lot of bossiness. This picture is perfect - Max as leader of the pack.

Good thing we've been practicing on his trike at home! Jack had a pretty good first few days, but his teached said that he's shown his "resistant" side a few times (for example, having an enormous meltdown when asked to put away his snack dishes), so we'll see how things go. It's possible he's too little to start - he just barely meets the minimum age requirement (2 years 9 months) and is by far the youngest kiddo in there. He is however very excited to FINALLY get to go to Max's school, which we've been dangling as a reward for using the potty for a very long time. I'll keep you updated on his progress.

Big Deal Event #2. My sweet sweet baby girl turned 1!!!!!!! Those exclamation marks are about as much fanfare as the day received however, as I decided to wait to make her cupcakes until Sean gets home. In retrospect I should have put a candle in her breakfast or something, but at least our neighbor dropped off a present so there were a few minutes of celebration :-) She'll love that cupcake whenever we get around to it, I can promise you that!

I can't believe I did this instead of packing/sleeping! Good night, see some of you soon!

Great 17 hours! Puzzles,

spacy baby girl who was clearly thinking "why am I awake right now?",

some reading,

a Bakugan primer,

more reading,

eating,

and even a trip to Meijer :-)

Thanks for stopping by Uncle Cam!!

(Okay, we still bath them when I'm in school, but it's less frequent, not only because of time, but because they get a lot less dirty!)

(Will I ever stop being conflicted about going to school? I think it's the right thing, and I love it, but I miss being able to be with my kiddos during the day. Plus we're going broke paying for babysitters. And I don't even know what the end result will be - I'm liking my English classes way more than my math classes. Not good!! I do not want to put us through all of this if I'm not going to emerge at the other end with something income-able. Otherwise I can just join a bookclub or two.)

In five days Adi will be ONE YEAR OLD! How is that possible? I can still vividly remember the feeling of her being in my belly. And of course I very clearly remember her birthday. (Planning to go teach a class at the gym, luckily Sean forbade me. Handing Max and Jack off to Nic's Mama, apologetic because I wasn't sure I was actually in labor yet, less than three hours before Adi came out. My doula coming "just in case" an hour later. Pulling what was supposed to be my leisurely labor project muffins out of the oven as we left for the hospital. My water breaking in the ER lobby. Meeting my baby GIRL!!!!)

Adi is not walking yet, but she's "crusing" a lot, and yesterday discovered that she could use the boys' truck thingy as a walker.

She claps "more" and also makes the sign for milk. She REALLY loves to bounce and to watch her brothers. (Jack is really good at biking now! He can go around the block no problem although his trike is really inefficient.)

We've started doing some piano with Max. Like two minutes a night. The problem is that he thinks he doesn't need lessons because he can already play every song he knows! Max's best friend Nic from NC came to visit over the weekend, and the boys were more than a little bit excited. It was like no time had passed at all. (And really, I can't believe eight months have passed!)

It was Nic's birthday so we had a fun celebration. Adi got cottage cheese instead of cake but didn't seem to mind!

(he obviously isn't home to exercise editorial control!) and then later I was able to join them for one of my favorite afternoons ever.

Jack has been practicing so he can eventually join us. That boy is really growing up. He's in undies exclusively now and mainly accident free. He loves telling us what a big boy he is. He loves telling us a lot actually, he is a chatty, snuggly, sweet little boy. Most of the time anyway. And as you can see, Adi is also growing up. She even looks kind of big! For being in the 5th percentile that is. She drinks out of a sippy cup

and can pull herself up. (I cut out the part of that video where she was happily standing, and I plopped her down and made her cry, in order to capture the pulling up on camera!)

She's learning to sign "more" and "milk", and it looks like she's taking after both of her brothers in preferring clapping to the technically correct version of "more". In any case, it's pretty darn cute.

This is such a busy time for us. Thanks for still checking in, even though I'm not posting much.

Oh I almost forgot! We spent a great afternoon with Matt/Tony, Emily, and Liliana. Old friends are the best!