new shoes

Got the girl some real shoes the other day. She's still a little wobbly, but walking more and more. She wasn't sure about them at first....

Maybe they're good for chewing?  (Isn't everything?)

Ah-ha! They're good for walking!

And oh my, the cuteness.

MICE

Our family is part of a most amazing group of people who come together once a month to work on each others' houses. We plant trees, paint bedrooms, kitchens and offices, sew drapes and sandbox covers, install toilets and insulation, and build everything from garden beds to bunk beds. We are the MICE: Monthly Improvement Collective of Eugene.  Ten adults and five (almost six) kids. 

Here's Lucy and Olive (almost 3) working hard in their Carhart overalls.

We take turns hanging out with the kids. Or we strap them to our backs and keep working.

We work hard for about 7 or 8 hours one Sunday a month.

And always end the day with a celebratory shotgun. (Ok, not all of us do this, some of us sit around with a glass of champagne instead.)
We love the MICE, and not just because they have made our house a nicer place to live. They are our friends and our community. There's nothing like re-organizing someone's laundry room or or seeing what's under their refrigerator to help you bond with a person. Some crappy things have happened to some of us this year - the worst things like cancer and the passing of parents - and the MICE rally around. We send flowers, bring dinner, and bake cookies. We install new gas heaters. We sit on each others' couches with glasses of wine and listen. And it's not always the worst of times. We also throw dinner parties and hold pentanque tournaments and celebrate birthdays. I count myself among the luckiest people in Eugene because of the MICE.

Spring madness

We haven't posted in weeks.  (Is anyone even still checking this blog?) Our spring has sprung, and we're busier than ever.

It all started with snow.  Joel and Lucy and I went to Breckenridge to celebrate the wedding of a dear friend - and play in the piles and piles of snow.

It was a beautiful wedding and I got to reunite with these lovely women, who have known me for most of my life.

Spring soccer has begun! Lucy and I are back on the sidelines...

And Milo and his best friend Miles are back on the field.  Liam moved up to a more competitive league. His coach, Finn, is Scottish and calls the boys "lads." Liam loves it.

Easter came and went...

And the weather is getting better bit by bit.  

I spent 19 hours back on Texas soil last week for work. Lucy and I survived our first night apart and I had some adventures pumping in airports and speeding cars. The highlight was lunch with my dear friend Kate who works crazy hours at the capitol.

Gramma, Rohanna and I took the boys to the ballet to see Peter Pan. A pirate met us in the lobby, and the boys were riveted the entire time (although Milo did suggest that the ballet would be better with more talking).

My favorite part about this spring so far: Lucy moved into her new room and we're all getting a lot more sleep.

8 months

As of yesterday, Lucy is two thirds of a year old.  She is a feisty sweet baby girl who is speeding through  her first year with gusto.  

I heard her on the monitor this morning talking to herself in her crib (don't get the wrong idea here - she only spent about half the night in there).  I went in a few minutes later and she was curled up with her "lovey" - a soft and furry mini-blanket - sucking her thumb and just hanging out.  When she wakes up in our bed (as she does most mornings), she spends a few minutes snuggling with us and her thumb, and then she's ready to go, climbing all over us and heading straight for the edge of the bed and whatever adventure she'll find there.
Lucy is one part sweet tempered and one part determined.  She loves to be held and will usually be calm and easy in our arms.  When she's on her own though, she's on the move.  She is a curious girl and adamant about satisfying her curiosity.  Immediately.  Sometimes she'll entertain herself with her toys, but more likely she heads straight for trouble...the dog's water dish, a stack of magazines, the bits of breakfast under the boys' chairs.  Everything goes in the mouth.  Everything.  If it's on the floor it's in her mouth.  We've been so careful about introducing new foods, but when I found a piece of dogfood in her mouth the other day I realized that my careful attention to her diet is no match for her curiosity.

She climbs the entire staircase unassisted.  She gets up to a wide-legged stance on her own and will stand there grinning for longer than you think she should.  She loves the animals and she loves her brothers.  She has an easy smile and glimmers of what will someday be a sense of humor shine through more and more each day (an important asset in this family of ours)!

We're still not sleeping much around here, and sometimes juggling three kids, homework and piano lessons, two full time jobs, various home improvement projects, and all the friends and family we love and don't see enough gets a little ridiculous, but we wouldn't trade it.  At least we're never, EVER bored.

stalking the cat

Lucy loves the cat.  Every time the cat tiptoes by, Lucy gets a huge grin on her face and waves her arms around.  Lucy loves to grab the cat's tail, and all Freya does is get sort of a pained expression on her face and do her best to squirm out of the baby's grasp....

...and run for the door.  But Lucy has some speed now, and she stalks the cat wherever she goes.  Loves the tail.  LOVES the tail.  

Fridays with Lucy

 I don't work much on Fridays.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I do get some work done, but it's the day I do it with Lucy.  No child care on Fridays.  (Unless I panic because I haven't gotten enough done during the week, in which case I call Joel and he talks me down and takes Lucy to work with him for a while.)
Today I put Lucy to sleep for her nap in the ergo and transferred her to her crib, all while on a conference call.  I worked on a report during her naps and made some phone calls while she was playing with her new push toy (see picture above) and spread the recycling around the kitchen (no picture of that, sorry).  I'll pay for it this weekend when I have to find a few hours to finish my report, but I wouldn't trade this day of walking in the sunshine and building blocks with my girl for anything.

Sweet potatoes....mmmm

When she's done eating she tells us by putting her thumb in her mouth.  Early baby sign language?

no poles

It was kidfest extraordinaire last weekend in Sunriver. Three families: six adults and eight kids ranging from six months to 15. I wish I had taken pictures of us all skiing. Joel and I had to switch off between sitting in the lodge and hitting the slopes because they wouldn't let Joel on the lift with Lucy strapped in the bjorn. (I admit, I was secretly glad for this.) Liam and Milo blew past me on their skis, but I loved following them down the mountain and watching them zoom straight down with no poles and no fear.

Jack carried Lucy all the way home from Goody's ice cream shop. Jack loves Lucy, in a way you don't expect from a 13 year old skateboarding eighth grader. He is very sweet with her.


Liam, drinking a milkshake that cost $6.75. Really. I don't know why I agreed to it. Probably the same reason I agree to the long shaggy hair. He's very persuasive.

Lucy in the back of the car in the parking lot of Sunrise Lodge at Mt. Bachelor. She was excited because she thought she'd get to go skiing, but as it turned out, she spent the rest of the day in the lodge, eating bananas and watching the skiers