July

Stuff happened in July. Some of it was pretty cool and/or cute. For instance, ...

-We celebrated the 4th at Marks' parents place with a delish barbecue and fireworks in the pool. Well, we were in the pool. Charlie exclaimed "happy!" with every explosion of light, as in happy birthday. Also, I remembered to make Ellie wear her patriotic skirt, for the first and last time.



-Makakoa's first birthday party was celebrated luau style with another fabulous pool party. That's the only kind that exists during Arizona summer. Look at that adorable family of sea turtles! Okay, cake decorating is admittedly not my forte. Actually, I'm not sure if I have a forte. Spread a little too thin...





Why so cute!? I know. I love this kid.



-This picture is what I have to represent the swimming lessons Ellie and Erik conquered for two weeks, and how I kept Charlie mostly-out-of-trouble on the sidelines.

Man, those lifeguards were fierce on us parents. Forget the flailing preschoolers-- they were all eagle eyes on us sweaty adults fanning ourselves in the bleachers, lusting after that cool body of chlorinated water.



Oh goody, I do actually have a few of swimsuit-clad children.






Both the kids made excellent progress in the pool. Ellie still appears to be drowning, but engages in some swimming-like movement sans assistance. In terms of floatation devices, Erik has graduated from enclosed pool ring to simple arm floaties. Also, his reaction to the back of his head becoming moist is slightly less dramatic. His face? Still an ordeal. But yay for progress! He wouldn't have come around even this far simply at my persuasion.

Next year I want to start all three of the kids in lessons early in the summer and keep 'em going as long as I can tolerate the sweltering heat of the sidelines. This is Arizona, after all. Most kids can swim before they're potty-trained.



-You can tell I don't make cake very often by these boys' reaction to their very own mostly-scraped-out bowl of chocolate batter.









-Do pandas really have dagger claws? I've tried to convince Erik they're for climbing and catching fish and berries... that pandas don't eat, but then his y chromosome kicks in and they are inevitably weapons.

birthday and beyond

I bothered to sort through all of my unfinished blog posts today and felt a renewed commitment to help those drafts achieve their full potential. So, after I get this current stuff out of the way, it will be a return to memory lane.

You may not have noticed that you missed Ellie's cute Fourth of July outfit or a Goodwin family reunion fifteen months ago, but someday when these blog entries have magically formatted themselves into a solid piece of literature called a blog book, I will know. Yes, it may not be until my retirement (from what? motherhood? ha!) that any of this bloggishness assumes bookishness, but it WILL happen.

And now, I bring you the end of August.

-Kyle was just a wee bit sick one night and Ellie went beserk with maternal instincts, determined to pamper and make him well. She even scribbled onto the calendar "fed Dad in bed" and the next morning, you better believe she delivered, presenting first a menu of healing foods, aka all the edibleness we had left in the kitchen.

"BReKFist

-GRNoL.AND.OTS.AND.MiLK
-GRNoU.AND.MiLK
-GRNoU.AND.SHREDiD.WeT

SNAXS
PAR PeCH
MAeGO
PLUM"

We were actually all out of those snaxs (and it looks like we were out of normal-sized spoons, too), but thankfully Kyle only ordered ots and grnou. So I heard. Clearly I wasn't conscious during any of this.

-Slappy birthday to me! A surpise birthday party, too! Kjerstin and Noe did a fabulous job pulling together beautiful details and successfully deceiving me. I recall unsuccessfully attempting to throw myself a surprise party or two in my earlier days, and also I tend to get stuck purchasing and wrapping my own Christmas presents and stuff like that, so being 100% genuinely surprised was pretty amazing! At first, I thought the surprise was just that my living room was clean, and that would've sufficed. Then I noticed the balloons and streamers and Noe wearing a sideways ponytail. It was 90s themed, you know.

The only bummer was that I know all y'all love me, but you just didn't show up to my party. (I think Kyle was maybe a little conservative on the guest list, though.) Kjerstin had to keep delaying us because no one had arrived, and then finally one friend did, so poor Kjerst (it's stressful throwing this type of shindig) called us home. Another did come later. (Thank goodness those were two awesome friends.) I spent a little bit of time over the next couple of days feeling sorry for myself for not having friends, but I'm over it now.

Really, truly, my girls did such an amazing job on the party (see for yourself below), and did you know that I am actually an expert on 90's sitcom trivia? I didn't either, but I got all but one of the questions right! I honestly don't remember watching that much tv...




not sure what was with my camera that gave everyone an extra-terrestrial blurriness


Yes they did pull this bad boy out as it is only available in VHS form. I really remember my child self being a much better dancer and actor...


I wish you could see in this frame that there were actually about six children helping me blow out my birthday candles. Cuz I let them. Cuz they're so cute.

Yes, she polished off a bowl of chips for dinner.

My friends' kids are a little too cute for this universe, eh?


-Next point of business, a baby bump update. I complained to my midwife today that I'm astronomically larger than in previous pregnancies, and she kindly reassured me that I'm measuring right-on-time and not a centimeter bigger.

Yes, that I still FEEL ginormous matters, but it will be nice to sock that solid piece of datum to the next so-called-nice-person who throws down a comment like, "December? Whoa, you must be having twins!" or "Any day now, huh?" Yes, both of those insensitive comments happened to me. It's always mothers who make them, too. Selective memory, I tell you. Even those who've been through this not long ago forget how freaking huge you actually have to get before you can deliver a baby. I intend to get much, much larger over the next three months, so keep the patronizing remarks rolling my way.

Truthfully, I am just enamored enough with motherhood that I still find preggie bellies to be beautiful. I am not miserable in my body just yet.




Plus, Erik always greets his baby sis in a sugary, high-pitched voice and gives baby her very own hug and kiss. It's heart-melting material.


-I made these little ditties for a friend, but it was good practice for a baby girl crafting frenzy that will ensue in the near future.

-I also made some cute tag blankies I didn't photograph and some good old fashioned bibs, that I just realized say "ew."

-Thanks to the library summer reading reward program, our whole family enjoyed prime seating at a Diamondbacks game last week. It was actually the best family outing we've had in recent memory. The boys are a little obsessed with a jibjab clip Kyle's dad sent them months ago of our family playing baseball so they were genuinely enthused about witnessing the action in a professional (air conditioned!) arena. And during that seventh inning stretch you should've seen Erik's eyes light up when his theme song blasted through the loudspeakers.



Ellie may not appear to have been awake, and I believe she was actually flossing her teeth with a piece of hair at this moment, but she really did enjoy herself, as well.

Aside from Charlie tripping and rolling down four to five sharp, metal stairs, the entire evening was a huge success, in large part to a bag of goldfish crackers I packed. We even witnessed what I thought was a home run (turns out it was just an old fashioned run)! We would definitely repeat the occasion for another $5.


-As a final note, there was some real cuteness to behold and deliciousness to be scarfed at a baby shower I co-threw last week. Putting forth so much less effort plus splitting all the responsibilities made for probably the most pleasant party planning in my life history. Plus, I love this girl and her adoption story is so touching. Also, mmmmm, I miss those cookies already.