Don't Watch If You Get At All Seasick

As I was deleting content from my camera tonight, I came across this gem, starring Rose #2...

Visiting Baby Franny

On Wednesday night we went to my sister's house to see the new baby in her natural habitat. We weren't able to get to the hospital - for one thing, they stayed only one night! It was a madhouse the night we were there - I think 5 of my 6 siblings and their families were there to visit the new baby. Here she is with her mama:

And Rose #2 loves to hold a baby, just like I do! Massive recurring fear of mine - my child is holding a newborn and gets tired of holding the baby, so just gets up and baby falls to the floor. I must have told Rose #2 like four times to tell me as soon as she was done holding Franny so I could get the baby before she just stood up. I was sitting right next to her the whole time, too. Luckily baby Franny emerged unscathed!

And here's me holding sweet baby Franny. I love a new baby. I must admit that I am pretty glad I don't have one myself - for one thing, I'm getting way too old. We're set with the three that we have, but oh I love holding a new baby...

We had a fun Halloween - pictures tomorrow for Nablopomo!

I Love Your Voice, Mama

Last night I was putting Rose #3 to bed, reading her a story and telling her how much I love her. She was all snuggled in her bed and looked up at me and said, "I love your voice, Mama."

What a nice thing to hear from my beautiful girl.

Welcome to the World Francesca, Born One More Redeemer!

We are overjoyed to welcome our niece Francesca to the world and our family! Born right on her due date and with a minimum amount of fuss (or so I understand), here's a picture of one more redeemer:



We haven't met her yet - tomorrow - but we're so happy she's here! Congratulations Aunt Heidi and Uncle Jay and Beatrice and Gus!

Guppy's Birthday Party

We started the party on a beautiful fall evening at Guppy's favorite park, Cherokee Park in West St. Paul. Here are various shots from the kids having fun at the playground there (and the only picture of Rose #3 is in the car on the way home, because she was too busy making friends to pose for a picture):

Well, AFTER the park we returned to our house for a delicious pizza dinner, of which there were many, many pictures. Sadly I deleted all of these pictures from my camera BY ACCIDENT after thinking I copied them to my computer's desktop. Rats. You'll never see the pictures, but they were cute. And numerous. We had pizza! And wine! And Halloween-sized candy bars! We had a toast to Guppy and lots of comments about how Guppy would have loved the party. Guppy's BFF came and brought balloons for the kids, which Guppy would also have loved.

Guppy, we sure do miss you. Rest in peace.

A Birthday Song

Tonight Rose #2 wrote a birthday song for her Guppy, who would have turned 68 tomorrow:

The lyrics are:

You are my Guppy
And you no (know) you are
You make me happy
Evere (every) step I take
You never no (know) dere (dear)
How much I love you
Please doet (don't) take my Guppy away
Oh please doet (don't) take away.

And here's the lyricist, who's looking pretty chipper for a sad topic.

Tomorrow night we're going to have a pizza dinner at Guppy's favorite pizza spot, and try to remember and celebrate her in a way that she would have loved - all her family together, eating good food, having fun (and crying a bit too).

Rest in peace, Guppy. I wish you were here. I would have found the best present ever for you. We sure do miss you a lot.

I'll Bet You Didn't Know There Is a Planet Apollo

Rose #1's first home project of the year was to design and build her own planet! We channeled the spirit of Guppy and decided we would make it from papier mache.

Although you might expect to find a picture of the planet on this website, you would be disappointed. I didn't take any pictures of the planet. I can tell you that she named it Planet Apollo, because there is a lot of music on the planet and Apollo is the Greek god of music.

Maybe you would expect to see a great picture of Rose #1 at her school event, the Planetary Expo, which she worked hard to prepare for. She made a travel brochure, a travel ticket, two solar system booklets, and testimonials from past "visitors" to Planet Apollo.

All you get is one picture of Rose #1, not even looking at the camera.

(In her defense, she had to pay attention to the "customers" that came to her booth at the Travel Expo.)

Here's a picture of a friend that Rose #1 has known since the infant room at daycare, explaining his planet to Rose #1's grandfather:

I mostly stayed out of the way and watched Rose #1 explain her planet and visit the planets of her friends. It is a very nice and vibrant 3rd grade community at Rose #1's school.