Last week we made a rash decision to take the kids to Disneyland. Mimi and Papa graciously offered to keep Hadley to make the trip easier. And it was. Much. Easier. Penn’s favorite part was, predictably Cars Land and Isla’s was the Princess Luncheon. Her giddiness was so sweet, but we also knew that the toddler princess phase is coming to a close and will have a  bittersweet end. 

Isla has been talking about her “5 birthday” for a solid year. So we knew that this fete needed to be epic. We invited 30 kids–from a mix of school, church and the neighborhood–hired a face painting artist, picked a perfectly sunny and beautiful 75 degree Friday after school and our favorite spot at Turtle Pond in Central Park under the shadow of the stunning Belvedere Castle and brought as much food as we could cram in our double stroller and cooler. To her great joy most of the kids came and she spent the afternoon running around with her friends–all of whom were there to celebrate her. Pure heaven for this 5 year old. 

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While at Mimi and Papa’s house this week, Isla made friends with the toad that has found a home in the back yard for the last several years. When Papa asked her what the toad felt like, little miss fearless responded ” Like squishy bones!”  The smile says it all…

  
PC: Tad Morley

Every morning Ryan takes Isla to school on his way to work. Penn hates being left behind, so as soon as he sees its time for them to leave, he heads toward the door, sits in front of it and builds a barricade of scooters.  As soon as Ryan sees it he starts to sing the song from Les Miserables “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men. It’s the music of a people who will not be slaves again…” I usually am running around, shoving things in back packs and taking care of crying babies that I usually shoot Ryan a quizzical look before it registers what is going on and he stops singing to say “Buddy is barricading the door again” and goes back to the biz of getting ready.  It makes me laugh every. Single. Morning. The good news is that I finally caught it on film. Bad news? Also caught buddy picking his nose. Too bad the barricade didn’t shield all of us from that one.

I’m a little late in snapping these pics but she’s just as chubby, cuddly and sweet as ever, I’m happy to report. Her newest trick-rolling over-is sure to lead to trouble in the near future so we’re enjoying her stationary state while we can!

Penn is intensely interested in cars and is a big fan of the Character Lighting McQueen from Cars. Today, he misplaced his McQueen car and came to get me for help in the search. He grabbed my hand and said “Mama, come with me!” When I complied, he held my hand as we walked toward the living room and repeated “focus…focus…focus” as we looked carefully around the room until we spotted him perched  near the router behind the TV. Hooray for teamwork!

Today Penn and I had our usual ham and cheese sandwiches.  I read him 3 books to entertain him while I helped him get some bites in. One of the books was Green Eggs and Ham with the infamous character Sam-I-am.  After we finished the books and he was full, he refused further bites with “I don’t want any more Sam I am Mom! I don’t want any more Sam I am!!”  I guess I’ll have to choose our meal reads more carefully in the future.

Our Sunday evenings are a time to rest and recharge for the week. We take walks as a family in good weather and talk to our folks. I snapped a few shots of our Sunday last week since it seemed a bit representative of our lives at this point. Isla and Penn as thick as thieves in a constant flurry of activity with Haddie in the middle of it all–sitting as serenely as a cherub under the watchful eye of a protective parent. I’m sure I’ll be nostalgic about it some day;)

We have another chatter on our hands! Her lips seems to be loosened by warm water and a steamy bathroom.  PS–you won’t see the video in email, you have to click on the picture and go to the blog site to play it.

Six months ago, Penn figured out how to get out of his crib. I put him back into his sleep sack to buy some time. A month ago my time was up and he’d figured out how to jail break with or without the hamstring but had been going to bed and taking naps per usual. I thought I’d dodged a bullet. A few weeks ago he finally had his big eureka moment and realized that there was, in fact, little I could do to make him go to bed and nearly nothing I could do to enforce a nap. Just like that Mama’s world was rocked. We’ve had a few intentional successes here and there at nap time but today’s was totally unintentional but somehow just as satisfying. Penn conked out on the way to pick-up Isla from school and stayed asleep after we got back home with lots of head bobbing and weaving along the way.