Isaac's Salon

A hairdresser across the way from where I live was offering a one-time "End of the Month" special today -- free haircuts for all siblings 3 years old and under. Well, my hair was definitely in need of some touching up, so I decided to give him a try. After assuring me he had plenty of experience with my hair type, he deftly used a pair of Crayola scissors to trim my left side. I dunno -- the blending job he did wasn't stellar, and the look on mommy's face when she saw his handiwork leaves me wondering if maybe I should have gone to a more reputable establishment (which is, in fact, exactly what mommy's planning on doing with me tomorrow). I guess the old saying still holds true: "You get what you pay for." My instructions for next time an offer like that comes my way: "Thanks Isaac, but no thanks."

It is a Miracle!

Amazingly, I went out to check on my mud this morning, and I was greeted by a diffuse smattering of color all across the yard. One day, nothing, and the next, voila -- it's incredible! Not like I could putt on it or anything, but still, the visible progress is heartening!

Grass(lings)!

Incredibly, I went out this evening to begin my watering routine, and as I crouched down low to inspect my lovely mud, lo, but what did my eyes behold? Small wisps of green straining their little thin heads out to meet sun! Only, there was no sun to behold because of the rain clouds overhead (which, incidentally, having dumped torrents tonight, very well may have washed my little grasslings away into the netherworld.) More to come tomorrow...

Ixnay on "Preschool"

So, daddy's starting to feel a bit burned out with all the posting he's doing tonight -- guess who gets the short end of the stick here? Yeah, you guessed it -- the youngest, of course. Good thing I'm so easy going!

After hardly seeing dad at all last year, I actually see him quite a lot this year -- he stays at home to take care of me a couple of days each week, and on Sundays he's in nursery with me and Lilly. I like that I get to spend a lot of time with him. For a week or so he and mom tried me out at Lilly's preschool (preschool for her, daycare for me), but I wasn't very happy to be dropped off to spend the whole day away from home without a proper nap. So dad decided he'd start staying home on Tuesdays and Thursdays to take care of me while mom is at school, and I seem to be much happier for it -- it's just him and me at home on those days, so I definitely get plenty of attention -- lucky me!

Summer Pictures

A couple of months ago, dad left home one morning with the boys (well, not James, I guess), and I didn't see him again for five weeks! Ethan and Isaac have all kinds of pictures posted on mama and yehyeh's blog, but none of me, so I thought I'd share some, too.

While dad was gone, mom took James and I out for dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant. We ate on the outside patio -- mmm!


We flew to New England to meet daddy at the end of his training -- my first plane ride ever. I loved it -- wasn't scared at all!


One of my favorite parts of the trip was hanging out watching TV in the hotel room in the evenings.


After we met daddy, we went to Boston Harbor to sightsee -- I don't seem so happy to be with him again, do I?


We went to IKEA to look for a bookshelf soon after getting back to Michigan. We didn't come home with a bookshelf, but we did come home with a pretty pink princess cover for my bed!


As a beginning-of-the-school-year present, we all gotf the kids got new books from dad and mom -- here's the book I got -- "Fancy Nancy" -- one of my favorite library books. I thought Auntie Nancy should have one, too, so we sent her one for her birthday!


It's been really dry in Michigan all summer, but you know what they say -- "When it rains, it pours." A couple of weeks ago, it really rained hard, and we got a chance to splash in the puddles. Whoo hoo!

I'm a Kindergartener!

After a fun summer in Maine with mama and yehyeh, ending with daddy's graduation from Navy Officer Training in Rhode Island, it's already fall and I find myself back in Michigan. This year I started kindergarten with Mrs. Roth at Wines Elementary -- a momentous occasion! I love it there, and while kindergarten is technically only half-day, on Tuesday and Thursday I go to an extended K-care while mom goes to her classes. Both kindergarten and K-care are really fun, and it's great to be able to go to school with Ethan each morning. Sometimes, when we have time, mom even takes us to school on our bikes!


Yep, I'm definitely growing up, but it's not like I don't have lots of time to play still. A couple of weeks ago it rained really hard, but it was a warm kind of rain, so dad took us out on a rain walk. Normally when it's wet out, dad and mom are always telling us not to splash in puddles -- on this walk though, we were let loose and got to splash as much as we wanted -- it was so fun!

Fall Blues

Summer is over *sniff sniff* -- but what a fun summer it was! Isaac and I spent 5 weeks in Maine staying with mama and yehyeh while Daddy was at Navy Officer Training, which included three weeks of daily swimming lessons and one week at the Bangor YMCA day camp, not to mention numerous outings with mama and yehyeh on the weekends. We got home at the end of July, but still talk about it occasionally even now, two months later. Mama and yehyeh were great -- I hope we can go back next summer!

I'm back in school now -- Gr. 1 at Wines Elementary, and while I really like my teacher, Mrs. Kennedy, I'm not terribly happy about missing out on so much playing time each day, not to mention having 5-10 minutes of homework to do each day! Gr. 1 definitely isn't quite as fun as kindergarten, although we do learn a whole lot more. The holiday season is just about here though -- I can hardly wait!

A Change of Pace

When people find out that I (nominally) maintain five blogs -- one for me and one for each of the kids, the inevitable question asked is, "Wow, how do you have time to do that?" And, as should be obvious by the sparse, intermittent posting I do, the truthful answer to that question is, "I don't." So, for the sake of simplicity, starting today, I'm going to try consolidating all our blogs into one, which hopefully will get us enough posts up so my mom stops wondering aloud every couple of weeks if we're still alive or not... :)

The first year of residency is officially over! Actually, it's been about a month already, but I'm only now getting around to posting about it. Started med school in August and boy, let me tell ya, the change in pace is remarkable. No call, no patient responsibilities in the hospital, just classes, exams, and evenings/weekends at home. Enough time to host visitors,


grill a scrumptious birthday dinner for Wifey (okay, I admit it -- I didn't make the cake!),




work around the house,


go for walks in the rain,


and, of course, Saturday movie night (which we've moved upstairs to take advantage of the upstairs sound system)!


I'm not the only one who's had a change of pace, though -- everyone else (but James, that is) started school the day after Labor day, and since then, we've been busy adjusting to the new routines. Ethan in particular had a hard time with starting Gr. 1, feeling like all-day school seriously cut into his playing time. Isaac has enjoyed being in kindergarten -- his teacher loves how helpful and considerate he is. Lilly started two-day-a-week preschool at Gretchen's House, and James stays at home with his daddy on those same two days while Annie is brushing up on her English and Math at Washtenaw Community College.

As the faithful followers of our family milestones may remember, a little over a year ago, soon after we moved into our new house, "Annie razed the backyard to her neighbors' chagrin.". It had been... shall we say, "left fallow" over the year since then.


No more! After a failed attempt to recruit what turned out to be a rather unreliable landscape company earlier this spring, we finally succeeding in getting a (different) landscaping company to come this past week to bulldoze down our weeds, spread new topsoil, dig in a row of fence posts, and seed a new lawn! I stayed home two days in a row to "supervise" (not that I was needed much, but it's always helpful to be available to ensure the laborers get the particulars right).

The neighbors on all sides are ecstatic -- 3 of 4 of them approached us at one point or another to say how excited they were for us, but the last told us he's really going to miss the weeds (haha). I never realized how much attention the state of one's yard attracts!

DAY 1:

Bulldozer grading the yard



Bobcat moving topsoil from the street to the backyard



Our neighbors admiring the bulldozer operator's "blade work"



DAY 2:

Marking out the shrub/garden beds


Installing the fence posts


All seeded and ready to grow


Ever since they seeded the yard, I've spent 1-2 hours each day dragging hoses around the yard (trying not to sink too far into the mud while I do so) to make sure the seed stays nice and moist. They say it'll be mowable in 10 days, but I'm not sure I believe that: Today is day 4, and the yard still looks pretty much the same as the day it was seeded -- which is to say, a big mud hole. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but to go from mud to mowable grass in only 6 more days seems a bit of stretch! I'll keep you updated, though...