Everett was bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. This is a metaphor that Chris said once a few months ago and that Everett thinks is hilarious. Sometimes he tells us that this is indeed how he feels; other times he tells us he is dark eyed and smooth tailed, especially if he senses that we expect the contrary.

Dada and the Momma Bear were very tired this morning. Everett got up early but was surprisingly patient, waiting until after 7am for Chris to get up and make him breakfast. Eventually we were all up and spent the morning unpacking the car and cleaning the house. Everett went for a short bike ride with Melissa to Wilson School. Then he wanted to go for a longer ride to the playground at Hart Park. So when the babies woke up from their morning nap we put them in the stroller, which Melissa pushed while Chris rode Melissa’s bike. Everett rode down Kavanaugh, then Portland, and then Honey Creek Parkway to Hart Park. We took the bike path through the park and crossed 70th St to the new playground by the band shell. Everett seemed to enjoy the sense of safety he got from having Chris at his side and Melissa behind him with “the auxiliary children”. The poplar trees are blooming and they are producing so much cottony fluff that at times it looked like it was snowing.

Melissa fed the babies at the park while Chris and Everett played tag. This isn’t the conventional tag game that most of us know from childhood. Rather, it’s an adaptive form of the game with the following rules:
-Dad is “it”. He must chase and tag Everett without cheating, which is defined as doing anything that might help him achieve his goal.
-Everett is “on base” anytime Dad gets within striking distance. Almost anything serves as base, including air. When Everett is on base there can be “no puppy guarding”.
-These rules are not reciprocal when Everett is “it”. In fact, arguments almost always ensue after Everett is tagged. So it’s not very fun if Chris is hoping for a regular game of tag, but it is fun for Chris to try to outsmart Everett and catch him despite significant odds. Of course, the problem is that Everett is rapidly getting smarter.

The babies were a bit sunburned from camping (please don’t judge us – we live in Wisconsin and this weekend was our first real exposure to sunlight this year) and there is no shade at the playground, so we packed up and headed home after they ate in order to limit their time in the sun. It’s a gentle uphill almost the entire way home, and Chris was surprised that Everett pedaled the entire way. What a change!

Everyone took a nap in the afternoon and Chris left for Houston about 4pm for his grandfather’s funeral.

It’s Memorial Day weekend and time for our annual, multi-generational, multi-family camping extravaganza at Clifty Falls State Park. We left Milwaukee about 7pm on Thursday night just moments before a house showing (our house has not sold yet – please pray that we sell it soon!). We followed tradition and stopped for dinner at Steak ‘n Shake in Gurnee, Illinois. We ate dinner in the car, and Gwen seemed very agitated about the fact that Everett wasn’t sharing his food with her. She is getting to the point where almost all she wants to eat is table food! We drove to the La Quinta at the south end of Indianapolis. One big difference on this trip was that Everett was so tired he barely woke up as Chris carried him in and got him settled into bed. The babies did not make the transition as smoothly. Teddy was pretty upset, then he was in bed with us for a while, but eventually everyone got settled down.

On Friday morning we got up around 8:40am and scrambled to get to breakfast before it closed at 9am. The woman who was serving it told us to take our time, and that she wasn’t taking any food away. She was really nice and accommodating, even as Gwen was throwing handfuls of Cheerios on the floor. We got on the road and a couple hours later stopped at Walmart in Madison for snacks and treats, then at The Red Pepper to pick up Vampire Slayers for the adults and a PBJ for Everett. We made it to camp about midday.

Everett experienced a high degree of independence this year compared to previous years. He is a responsible kid, and he is diligent about letting us know where he is going, but even so we repeatedly realized that we didn’t know exactly where he was. One obvious cause is the amount of time and energy that the babies require. Melissa and Chris recently acknowledged the feeling that our job is only half done when we get one baby calmed down, fed and clean. We also acknowledged how often we tell Everett he has to wait for our attention because of the babies’ schedule and needs. However, both the babies and Everett benefited from the older children at camp. The babies got lots of attention from adults and children alike. We spread the red blanket on the ground and they did something they never do at home: they stayed on it for long periods of time. Many of the children including Everett, Trinity, Anna and Amelia sat by the blanket and played with them.

Traditional camp activities included the piñata, a hike to the pool, making bubbles, Saturday night barbecue and listening to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio.


We also celebrated several wedding anniversaries: Jenny and Matt (20 years), Julie and Bill (17 years), Grant and Judy (45 years this year), Matt and Katy (1 year).

This was the babies’ first time camping and the tent seemed unfamiliar to them but they adjusted to it after a while. Going to sleep was not quite as smooth as it has been at home. Cress lent us the super-deluxe tent that he and Amanda often stay in. This allowed us to have our entire family in one tent, including a pack and play for each baby.

On Saturday night at bedtime Chris asked Everett “Did you guys hit it pretty hard today?”. Everett replied “We hit it super, super soft.” This is an interesting interpretation because as far as we could tell he hadn’t stopped moving since we arrived the day before. The kids were constantly in motion: running, bicycling, having water fights, making bubbles, etc. Everett told Chris that he felt cold the night before, so Chris gave him the down sleeping bag and got him tucked in, then showed him how to put your pillow into the pocket at the top of the bag so it stays put during the night. Afterward Chris asked “Wow, it looks pretty cozy in there! Can I have some cozy?” Everett replied “No!”, then “Hold on.” He opened an imaginary jar, put it in his sleeping bag and made glug glug glug sounds as he filled it up. Then he poured the jar on Chris’ sleeping bag and said “There! And here’s two drops of love.” That kid cracks us up!

There have been many firsts over the last week or two, some of them on this trip:
-Everett started riding a bike! Ross and Kiersten lent us a pair of training wheels, which Chris put on Everett’s bike on Friday morning. Everett seemed upset by this at first, but soon his curiosity took over and he gave it a try as Mom walked alongside him.

By Sunday morning he and Chris went on their first ride together!

-On Friday Trinity took Everett and several other of the younger children to the playground without any adults.
-On Sunday the babies got in the baby pool for the first time and seemed to love it. They also both realized at the same time that our bodies are not designed to breath water.
-A few days ago Gwen spontaneously started playing peek-a-boo. She picked up a napkin with both hands, held it over her head for a few moments and then threw her arms down to uncover her face. Of course, our enthusiastic reaction made her keep doing it over and over.
-Gwen and Teddy both wave to us now. They have different styles, and Gwen has been doing it much longer, but they both know their names and will sometimes wave if you call them.
-Teddy has discovered his voice. He often opens his mouth and makes sounds that can best be described as battle cries. He doesn’t appear upset, rather he seems to experience delight about this newfound power. Similarly, he seems delighted with his ability to stand. We mentioned before that he started pulling himself to a stand almost as soon as he learned to crawl. Melissa recently saw him standing in his crib while holding on with one finger and looking very pleased with himself. A few days later he started trying to stand in the middle of the floor with nothing nearby, or pulling himself to stand and then letting go for a few moments. Yes, times are changing for us.
-Gwen has started crawling, though only for a few moments at a time. More often she uses a transportation style that we have never seen: one leg is curled around behind her, one is curled around in front of her, and she slides her bottom along the floor with her arms. She and Teddy have both had a lot of face collisions with the floor while learning to crawl. These look very painful but the babies seem to recover quickly and keep trying almost immediately.

After a few years of raising Everett we have grown accustomed to his level of maturity and development, and in doing so it’s easy for us to forget all of the small accomplishments that children achieve along the way. These new abilities that the babies are developing are no less amazing with the second and third children than they were with the first.

On Saturday Chris received news that his grandfather had passed away the day before. This was not entirely a surprise – Chris’ Dad had called when we were driving down on Thursday night to tell us that Grandpa had an aspiration pneumonia, and that he probably was not going to make it much longer. Normally we drive to Cincinnati for a day after Clifty Falls, but Chris had to fly to Houston on Monday for the funeral service on Tuesday, so we drove straight home Sunday night. Everett was sound asleep within about 10 minutes and he slept pretty hard for the next two hours. So much for hitting it super soft!

Tonight was Everett’s first piano recital. The theme was The Olympics, and the children chose pieces by composers from around the world. In the entrance procession, each of them made a flag from their composer’s country of origin. Everett chose to play A Little Night Music by Mozart. He was amazingly calm and confident the whole time, and we were very proud of him!

Fortunately Gabby and Grandaddy were also in town and got to see it live.

There are two quotes that come up often in our household. The first is “put it on my tab”, a la Steve Carrell in the movie Dan in Real Life. As expected, this is used to acknowledge anything that is likely to have a cost in terms of time and/or money – the demands for both seem to be increasing steadily as our family has grown, and especially now that we are now planning to move. The second quote, “livin’ the dream”, is one that we attribute to Melissa’s friend Carrie who brought it up once in the context of an implausible-sounding yet common situation that parents get into when raising children. Everett has started using it as well. For example, last year he started showering by himself and when Chris asked once how he was doing he replied “I’m livin’ the dream baby!” For Mother’s Day this year Chris made a big batch of crepes the night before, and he gratefully accepted Melissa’s supervision and helpful comments while doing so. Also, Melissa got five minutes of uninterrupted bathroom time on Sunday. Livin’ the dream, baby!

Other highlights from Mother’s Day:

-We have a rule in our house that children are not allowed to be up before 7am, but no one really follows it, especially this time of year when the birds start singing at 4am and the sun is shining brightly by 6am. Everett woke up about 6:15am and stayed in his room as instructed, but was singing Away in a Manger loudly enough to keep us awake. Then the babies woke up and we were all out of bed before 7.

-Everett had a strawberry and Nutella crepe and we went to 8:30am church where Everett sang in the children’s choir.

-Sitting in church with the babies (or anywhere really) is getting more and more difficult because they are getting so strong and wiggly, and they never stop moving while they are awake. There was a time when Gwen wasn’t interested in moving much. That time is over. Both of them continuously twist their bodies and roll around while we are holding them. It’s exhausting. Chris took Teddy into the children’s room a couple times and he practiced standing.

-Following church, Everett went to Sunday school while Chris and Melissa had ham and Gruyère crepes along with mango mimosas.

-Around noon we went to Kettle Moraine State Park for a hike and picnic. As we were getting the babies in the stroller we ran into Vicki, Chris’ coworker and our family friend, who was there with her daughter. The hike went ok – the temperature was about 77 degrees and our entire family was almost incapacitated by the heat. During our picnic lunch Teddy crawled over to Melissa and seemed very interested in her orzo salad. Until today Teddy has refused to eat anything but pureed food (though not for lack of trying by us). Anyway, Melissa put a spoonful of orzo in his mouth. He ate it and wanted more!

-We got home and Skyped with Noni while the children performed a Brownian motion demonstration in the living room.

-All of the children took a bath. Gwen and Teddy are getting over a case of hand, foot and mouth virus. Their bodies have been covered in sores, particularly around their bottoms, so after bath they had some naked time to let their skin breathe.

-We had Goetta and pecan french toast for dinner.

-Kids went to bed early (7pm).

Happy Mother’s Day Melissa!