Friday, August 26, 2011

The Kids of Summer 2011

These are the kids of Summer 2011:

They went to daycamp together. They had cheerleading camp together (well, some of them did). They had swimming lessons together. They played a LOT of legos in the rec room (that's the basement, for those of you keeping score at home). They got a few sunburns, despite our nanny's best efforts. They ate a LOT of food - we spent a TON of money on groceries. They went to the zoo and to the park and on picnics - lots of picnics - and they had a lot of fun. It's hard to believe that summer is over, but it almost is. Tomorrow we go to the Minnesota State Fair!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

And Baby Duncan Got A Quilt

After my mom died and I made sure I got her leftover fabric and other sewing supplies, I became the person in charge of making sure that each new baby in our family gets a quilt.

May I say that it is a very, very, very good thing that my cousin's wife in California is a quilter? Although I coordinate the distribution of fabric and collect up everyone's completed squares, she works the real magic of putting all the squares together.

Last Monday night was the night that we officially welcomed Duncan into the family, and his quilt was ready for him! The 4 squares in the corner were sewn by Guppy before she died. The other squares were contributed by me, Heidi, Tonya, Brenna, Charity, Charity (yes, TWO Charities!), Missy, Jean, Karen, Ginny, Abby, Polly, and Cynthia.

And most of all, Jill put the squares together and sewed everything and made it look wonderful! Thank you all for working on the quilt.

We Went Out For Dinner

Last weekend we went out for dinner, because the weekend before that, Rose #2 asked if we could. I make menus by the week (this is a necessity, really, with two full-time working parents) and so we had to slot in the restaurant outing for last weekend. We also held the outing out as a reward for good behavior.

I like going out for dinner. I don't have to cook. It is an infrequent event for our family, so I get to do things like let the girls have a milkshake!! Here's Rose #2 intently sipping her chocolate milkshake. She had it for dessert. ONLY AFTER she finished her chicken tenders and french fries. I do have some standards.

Rose #3 got a strawberry milkshake. Ooooh, she loved it. Almost as much as she loved 1) going to the bathroom there (3 times), 2) eating french fries off my plate (which I encouraged as I am still pathetically counting calories, and so the fewer french fries left for me, the better. Why didn't I ask them to substitute fresh fruit? Next time), and 3) coloring her kid menu.
Rose #1 was there but not in a photogenic mood. She will be happier at the state fair, which is this coming weekend. I haven't told her yet, but I am planning to get her one of those MPR t-shirts that says "It's 7:01 And the News Is Next." I love it that we're raising an MPR geek.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I Got Me A New Nephew!

Welcome to our family, Duncan James Peterson! Born 8/16/2011 at 1:52 a.m. 8 lbs, 6 oz, and 21 1/2 inches. We love you so much!

Here he is sleeping in his Aunt Tonya's arms:

And here he is with his already-favorite auntie:
Aunt Tonya does love a baby:
And his beautiful mom, who was in labor for 3 hours and got a wonderful baby out of the deal!
Welcome to the world Duncan. We're so glad you're here!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

And One More Rose Got Some Ears Pierced

Rose #1 has a very expressive face. You can see how she went from nervous:

To unhappy:
To scared-ish:
To exceptionally pleased with herself (and very, very cute to boot):
Even though Rose #1 has technically been eligible for ear piercing for 2 years now, she told me this afternoon that she didn't want to go all alone, so she waited for Rose #2 to be ready. I thought that was so sweet. I always hope that my girls will be friends in addition to being sisters. I still hope that. I hope that they will remember back to days like this and feel really good about them.

I loved this day. I loved going as a family for a big adventure (OK, relatively big, compared to, say, climbing Mt. Everest) and feeling so happy that it turned out well. My memories of having my ears pierced are weird - my mom brought us to a doctor's office only after I demanded that since I was in second grade, I was old enough to handle the responsibility of earrings. I hope we made a different memory for our girls today.

Rose #2 got her ears pierced too!

Rose #2 was quite brave when she got her ears pierced. This is the girl who one time wedged herself between a doctor's office examining table and the wall because she didn't want a flu shot. She hopped right up into the chair and only squirmed a little while the young woman who pierced ears today at Claire's got ready for us.

I love this picture. This was Rose #2's second ear and so she knew what to expect. She only cried a teeny bit after the first ear and then she was fine.
Here she is all done, taking a quiet moment to breathe. Really, about 15 minutes after the ear piercing operation, her ear lobes weren't even red anymore.
And here's my smiley sweet girl.
I was so happy to bring them for ear piercing today. I just wish that Guppy was here. Why? Guppy wouldn't have wanted to go to Rosedale for an ear piercing expedition. Mostly just because things don't really seem like they have happened to me if I can't tell my mom about it. Stupid cancer and death.

(Nice how a lovely post about a beautiful rite of girlhood passage turns into an observation about death. Sigh.)

The Roses Got Their Ears Pierced!

Today we set out for Claire's at Rosedale to get us some ears pierced.

My rule originally was that the girls had to be going into second grade. We-ell, how could you look at this face and say no? My girliest girl would have been the only one who didn't get her ears pierced.

We let her. The young woman at Claire's was very good and reassuring. The whole process is very quick and the earrings come preloaded in these little cartridge thingies.

Here she is, all good and done. I really like the little clippies they put in her hair.
Rose #3 chose these little sparkly blue flower earrings. The starter studs are so cute, I had forgotten how little and sweet they look.