the wee one

i've posted hardly any pictures of little miss leah on this here blog, poor girl. it's kind of sad, she's so deserving! she is a tiny package of giant smiles and love. she's such a pretty baby too and we still can't figure out where she came from. beth is her daddy to a tee, hyde is my brothers to a tee and this one is... definitely her own. so different from the other two, but she is gorgeous. i may be biased.

a mellow one (probably because she has to be with all the other noise going on), she is content to lay on the floor most of the time and play with her toys and just sort take everything around her in. particularly her busy brother and sister who never.stop.going. sometimes she'll get tired of it and want to be held and she'll cry out a little bit then, so i'll grab her and let her get a look at the craziness of the day from my point of view. in these cases she sort of just becomes an extra appendage - i've somehow managed to learn how to do most things i'd normally do with two arms, with a babe in one of them. i think that just comes with motherhood for most.

she sleeps really well and has let us know that her sweet spot is her tummy. she is also... duh, duh, duh... a thumb sucker. a new venture for us. the paci has been forgone for the thumb. though it's handy, i'm still not sure how i feel about a permanent pacifier. i've heard lots of stories. but it gets her to sleep in seconds most days and that's really nothing any parent of a baby ought to complain about. right?

her eyes are starting to change too... still not sure what they'll be yet, but i think she's headed toward brown. she's also lost a lot of hair on top but as it starts to grow back it looks like it will be similar in color to beth's.

beth loves to love on her and hold her and kiss her. she tries so hard to cheer her up when leah's crying by bringing her various stuffed animals and singing songs to her and whispering "it's okay leah, you're okay, i'm right here" and even though it never works, i love that beth has naturally fallen into that big sister/care taker role. sometimes i let leah cry just so i can watch this sweet interaction take place. not really. but it is sweet. hyde, as one might imagine, could really care less that she's joined our family. sometimes when she's crying he'll say "mom... baby..." and that about sums it up. occasionally he'll grace her with a kiss or two, but it's not as often as i wish it were. it's funny how different beth and hyde have both reacted to her. it's love all around, but one certainly likes to show it more than the other.

if leah holds true to her current personality, she will undoubtedly provide me some relief from the first two treasures in my life. she has such a joy about her and with her easy going personality, she has already brought some balance to the family. 3 months, i know... hard to call that now. but she's been such a good baby and a blessing to me - innately, i think she'll always be that way. so much love that i have for this little babe.

from just a couple days ago while the other two were asleep:

the splash park

we spent many a summer day at this splash park. and it pains me that we aren't eating our picnic lunches under our umbrella and laying out in the warm sunshine on the grass there anymore. many days we had friends there with us, other days we made new friends there and this place made a rather hefty contribution to our summer being so overloaded with fun in the sun. the kids got nice and tan, i was happy to be outside in the warmth and sun, and this park provided the perfect balance of water fun and shady other-stuff fun. it made the days go by fast (and ensured both my kids would be taking an afternoon nap. at the same time. that's huge for me folks.) it was glorious.

unfortunately as the seasons change and we say goodbye to summer (which makes me oh so sad), we also have to say goodbye to our fun place. labor day hits and it's over. the water is off. which really sucks actually - there are still so many warm days in september. plenty over 90 degrees! and even more sad this year, even if the splash pad was still open we wouldn't be spending any time there - it got hit pretty hard with the flood and was totally under water for a while there. might still be! haven't been by to check in a while... hope it opens back up for us again next year!


ode to our beloved splash park:

peace out splash park. i will see you in my dreams. and get well soon. we want to come back next year and do it all over again.

rain

i took these last week - the first night it rained here. who knew it was just the beginning of 5 straight days of rain and some of the worst flooding and damage colorado has ever seen? thankfully our house is just fine and we made it through that storm unscathed though there are several homes around us whose basements flooded - there are still hoses pumping water from their homes and into the gutters and street. it hasn't rained for three days now. such a bum deal...

it's been so nice to have the sunshine back and play outside again. we try and get every ounce of that in while we can. i am just not ready to see the summer go.

a montage of beth splashing in the rain in front of our house:

her first day

so beth started preschool this week. this girl was so dang excited. she kept asking me for days beforehand if her teacher was at her school yet and if she could go. i kept having to tell her that she had to wait X amount of days before her teacher would be there. and finally the day before when i told her she could go to school after she woke up the next day, she got super hyped and didn't sleep all that well. she was so cute about it... SO excited.

i was really excited for her, but frankly, i also had some anxiety over it too. school. school. why do i already have a child doing anything related to the word school??? even if it is just preschool it still feels like the beginning of the end. the beginning of the next 15 years where she's out there in the world and it all goes so fast and she's no longer under my care all the time and is she ready for this???

i know... it's all very silly, especially considering that at this age she basically just goes and plays with 10 new friends for three hours twice a week. so i kind of got over that. but when i realized that and the anxiety still lingered, i figured out that really, a nice portion of my problem with this new venture is that... dun, dun, dun... we are now tied to a schedule.

school=schedule and that kind of sucks.

 i have thoroughly enjoyed my time off from work this summer with my kids where we can do whatever, whenever. we have had a blast this summer. like, seriously, a blast. i wasn't like all those other moms who felt like taxis and were rushing to get their kids from here to there and couldn't do this because they have to go to this one thing.... nope. not us. we were free birds living the dream. but now that school has started this year, i am slowly becoming one of them. i am entering into the phase where i have to watch the clock and rush away from activities because we have: a schedule. i had a friend ask me how it's any different than day care, and it's not really. other than it's now her schedule which is now related to the word school. refer to paragraph #2. and i'm just being a baby about it.

i'm sure i'll get used to it. the house is definitely a lot quieter when #1 isn't home. it's almost eerie actually. but in the same sense, it rocks that i can get some solid play time with hyde, and when he sleeps, it's nice that i can get some other things done without interruption. perhaps i'll be able to blog more often :) i hope so. in the meantime, i love that beth is lovin' on her teacher miss jeanine and miss carrie, and that makes me happy. she loves going and that's what matters most.

pictures from her first day of school, getting ready at home and at the school with her BFF Macy.




well, we tried....