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An Exercise In Avoiding Going To Bed

What better excuse is there for avoiding going to bed than admiring your new baby sister? Isaiah is absent form these photos because he actually goes to bed when we tell him it's bed time (most of the time).

Summer Garden Pics

The main bed of purple cone flowers in the front yard. They did really well this year. By August most years they are pretty ratty looking.


Some more purple cone flower near the front porch.


These zinnas bloomed despite my neglect of the garden as I got closer to my due date.


The goldenrod is starting to turn yellow heralding the beginning of the end of summer.

New Addition

Jewel Elisabeth a few minutes old in L&D.


A few hours old in Maternity.




First day home with big sister. Funnily enough Sophia had a similar look on her face to Jewel's when we brougth her home to Ethan and Isaiah.

Birthday Boy

Celebrating the big 06. There was no cake since Isaiah doesn't care for it. I made ice cream sandwiches instead. No candles either since A)I was tired and forgot to get some and B)I really didn't want to find out what my little MacGyver/Evel Knievel/A-Team hybrid would do when presented with an open flame.


Mom scores! Mr. Potato Head is a big hit with the birthday boy.



Cutting the wrapping paper was as much fun for Isaiah as actually playing with his presents.



Whack-A-Mole! Those critters never had a chance.

Toothless

Isaiah's not big on have his picture taken but I managed to get this shot of him while he was disassembling his PB&J sandwich.



Look carefully and you can see where his first baby teeth have vacated the premises and some new teeth are starting to grow in.

He Can Build It

After watching construction crews tear up many of the sidewalks in our neighbourhood for most of the summer Ethan has decided that he's a construction worker. Here he has his hard hat and shovel for digging. Sophia is checking out the action from the couch.

He also made himself a construction vehicle out of a rocking chair and he drew a construction road sign on the chalkboard. I'll try to get pictures of those later.

Listening to Baby

When Ethan and Sophia start fighting they can briefly be distracted with an offer of listening to the baby. They usually conclude that the baby is either sleeping or laughing.

The Makeup Artist

My budding makeup artist got her hands on some eyeshadow. I'm really impressed that she realised what it was and where it was supposed to go (sort of). She was very proud of herself since she went looking for me when she was done to show off. She even showed me the eyeshadow she had found to prove that it was eyeshadow and not crushed chalk or something. I had to distract her with an offer to take her picture and then wrestle the eyeshadow away from her.

BIrthday Boy

Ethan turned 7 today. Here are a few pictures of the festivities.

The Cake: Ethan had asked a few times for shamrocks for his birthday so I made him a shamrock cake.



The birthday green eggs and ham egg pie (also know to some as quiche). We love Dr. Seuss in our house.



Ethan blowing out the candle.



Ethan with birthday cards from Grammy and Papa and Great Grandma with Isaiah swiping frosting off of the cake in the background.



Ethan and Isaiah playing with some of Ethan's presents.



Sophia playing wish a large light kosh catepillar.



Ethan standing in one of his presents.

Spring is Coming

I saw these beautiful sights as I was running in and out doing errands today. Sophia excitedly joined me as I took pictures with my new camera.

First up, winter aconite and Sophia's finger.


Next, two yellow crocuses. There are lots more ready to burst forth in the next week or so.

Toothless

Here's Ethan showing off his missing teeth at the end of the summer. I strongly suspect that both teeth were helped along the way by the candy apple he ate on the last day of the State Fair just days before he lost the first tooth. Ethan has since lost his two top front teeth. The bottom ones missing here have grown back and one of the top ones is also growing in.

Read the stories about losing the first two teeth, One Down, 19 to Go and "Now I have to grow a new one".

Independence

Sophia really developed a thing for dressing herself over the summer. As with learning all things new she ran into a few snags but she was always happy with the results she got. Here's to Independence.

Back From the Dead

Since cameras seem to have a short life span in our house I haven't posted any pictures in a long while. So I've decided to start pilfering the pictures that my sisters and other family members take of the kids. The commentary will be all mine of course.

I'm ready for my close up now

"Mommy,mommy! Take my picture!"




"Take my picture again mommy! Take my picture again!"

Baby Bird

I found this little one as I came back from a walk on Thursday evening. I assume it took a tumble out of the neighbour's arbovitae while trying to fly. I took its picture and left it alone. Friday morning it was gone. I hope it recovered and went on its merry way.

Look, it's Spiderman!

That's Ethan enjoying the present that my family got him when we all got together a little while ago. We'll to let him see the movies one of these days.

We made the news

(I posted this on my main blog last night. It goes well here too.)

Sophia made it into the picture of the day.


The caption reads: "Anya Burkhart, 5, center, attempts to catch some of the bubbles floating around the Upstate Cerebral Palsy's Promise Family Picnic Tuesday, April 3, 2007, to help celebrate Autism Awareness Month in April. Behind Burkhart is Sierra Larkin, and at bottom right is Sophia Pierce, 2."

This picture and a picture of me rolling up Isaiah's sleeve made it into the Utica paper today. I haven't been able to find that picture yet. We were visiting Isaiah's school for the annual family picnic.

If you're wondering why Isaiah is going to a school two counties away (two and half if you count the fact that we are in the middle of our county) it's because there were no programs for autistic children that we thought would be appropriate for Isaiah with openings any closer than that. It's a long haul out to Utica but it is the kind of environment that Isaiah needs.

Dance

Here's a photo of me struttin' my stuff with a couple of the other ladies from y dance troupe. This performance was back in January (I think).

Summer Memories 2

More items from the vault to reminds us of warmth and sunshine.


Riding off into the sunset.



Ethan and Peanut on the trike with Kay in the background.



Sophia sneaking off to the house.



Peanut on the trike with Sophia dancing in the background and Ethan just passing through.