Playtime: Sleeping Arrangements and Accessories

Lately, as Xandra has been playing, she has frequently been asking me to take pictures of her creations.  Here are a few of her recent masterpieces.

Notice the progression, here we have the bride and groom and a few other sleepers.

Next we have animals, including mama duck and ducklings, all sleeping together upstairs.

Then things get a little dicey, we now have a fenced in yard (not a problem), but the bride has been demoted from the bed to the bathroom floor (problem?) and has been replaced by the bridesmaid (problem).  I'm not so sure about that groom. 

Xandra saved this final creation to show Joe when he got back from his morning run.  He also raised an eyebrow at the groom.

And, just for the record, we do not sleep anyone in our house in the bathtub.

Laundry baskets, yes.  Bathtubs, no.

This was Aliyah's first time at the counter with playdough and she was very confused.  And who can blame her, the night before when we let her sit at the counter, she got chocolate chip pancakes.  One small girl can only assume that when you put her at the counter 12 hours later, she's going to get to eat again.  Thus the green playdough in her mouth.  It sure would be nice if the people who run this joint could make up their mind as to the purpose of this counter:  eating or playing.

One final creation of Xandra's that she had me shoot the other day.  Accessories.  It's all about the accessories.

Tickling the Ivories

I've been looking forward to starting piano lessons with the girls for sometime, but have been put off by the fact that we don't own an instrument.   As an anniversary gift this year, Joe agreed to let me buy a second hand keyboard that I felt would meet our needs for the years until we're ready for the commitment of a real piano. 

A week or two before Joey arrived, I loaded all the girls in the car one evening and headed to Virginia to pick up a keyboard from a posting on Craigslist.  The piano we purchased fit the financial bill and also met the sound/feel requirements I felt were must-haves in a keyboard.  

 

Last week our Music for Little Mozarts curriculum (a great preschool piano curriculum if you're in the market) arrived in the mail and we started our first piano lesson.

Part of the curriculum includes these two little animals, Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse, who journey through the book with the students.

Xandra is just the right age to absorb the curriculum and concepts.  She has really enjoyed, understood, and retained all of the things we have done thus far.

Theia is a little young, but loves to be a part of what we do.  Mostly she likes pushing buttons, keys, and playing with the animals.

Our first lesson covered hand position, seat position, high, low, up, down and glissando.  I'm not sure who had more fun, the girls or their teacher.

A Tale of Two Pumpkins

This summer Farmer Joe and I each grew our own pumpkin.

Here's how they stack up against each other.

Mine is clearly the nicer looking of the two.

It's also longer, but not as round.

It's also less cooperative,

more wiggly,

and sweeter.

The Bookshelf

Another tradition continues...

The Basket

The basket tradition continues...

Xandra shared her panda bear with baby Joey.  She insists that Pandy (as she calls it) be positioned as pictured whenever baby Joey is in the basket.

Aliyah was sure to be a part of Joey's first stay in the basket.

She offered him some milk

and then tucked him in for a nap.

Homeward Bound

Monday morning we snapped a few more hospital photos,

got dressed,

and headed home altogether for the first time.

Just Dropping In

We've had four children.  They have been delivered in three different states (Minnesota, Virginia, and Maryland), by four different groups of doctors/midwives and in four different hospitals.  One of the great advantages to giving birth in this hospital (Shady Grove Adventist Hospital), besides the great care we received, was that it was near many of our friends.  This gave us a chance to enjoy some very special visitors while we were still in the hospital.  Below is a chronicle of their visits.

First up to bat was our good friend, Julie.  She made and brought that beautiful blanket that is in my lap and that you'll see in lots of Joey pictures.  She actually made two blankets, a pink and a blue, since we didn't know which we were having.  Is she not the best?

Joey really enjoyed her visit.

While she was visiting another good friend, Lauren popped through with some Panera bread bagels (always a welcome treat) and other goodies.  Joey enjoyed her visit in the same manner he enjoyed Julie's visit.

Funny thing about that IV in my hand.  They went to all the trouble of digging for the vein and complaining at how small my veins were the whole time, and then never even used it.  That's another story for another post.

Joe (the dad, not the baby) slept through most of Julie and Lauren's visit, but woke up just about the time Panera bagels were being mentioned.

Joey gave him the same treatment.

Julie's husband, Jon, dropped by later in the evening with some much appreciated Chipotle for dinner.  He remembered the days in the hospital and the food and wanted to rescue us from another cafeteria dinner.  I think he was secretly jealous of Julie getting to hold the baby before him.

On Sunday, my good friend, Seager (she's got six kiddos and is as cool as a cucumber) stopped by for a visit.  She never misses a chance to hold a baby, she's had lots of practice with her own kids.  She's good at it.

There was actually a better picture than this, but I think the fact that the baby is hiding in her hair is hilarious.

Our final weekend visitors were Beth (our mother's helper whom my girls would love to have move in to our house) and her mom Nancy. 

We had one other visitor, our friend Heather, and I forgot to snap her picture.   Pictures or not, near or far, we're grateful for the gift of so many with which to celebrate another precious life.

Sunday Meet & Greet

Over the next few days, we'll be rewinding to post about Joey's first days, the hospital, and our beginning of  life as a family of six.

On Saturday night Joe left the hospital to pick up the girls from a friend's home.  They stayed the night with them on Friday night and spent the day playing on Saturday.  We thought the girls could use a night at home and our friends, who have three kids of their own, could use a break.

On Sunday morning Joe brought the girls up to the hospital to meet baby Joey. 

He was a hit from the start.  They entered the room chanting, "Baby Joey, baby Joey..."  After looking at him in his bassinet for a few minutes,

Xandra and Theia each took a turn holding him.

We snapped a million pictures and then

we headed to the family lounge to have a mid-morning treat.  The girls were very excited about the microwave popcorn I had stashed in my suitcase. 

After our snack we returned to my room and played on the bed, read some books, and drank some water (exciting, I know).

Everyone also attempted to push the buttons on the side of the bed about 1,000,000 times.  They're just soooo tempting!

When everyone was in bed with me, Theia would ask Joe, "Are you wonewy daddy?"  Then she would climb down and go sit on his lap so he wouldn't be lonely anymore.

Xandra found a paci in the suitcase I had brought for the baby. Since I wasn't interested in letting her give it to the baby, she gave it to her baby cow instead.

Just before leaving to go home, the girls enjoyed a picnic lunch that Joe had packed at home.  Aliyah ate her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Strangely enough she has refused to eat these for me for the past several months.  I guess Joe just knows his PB&J better than I do.

When it was time to go, Xandra was disturbed to learn that baby Joey would not be going home with them immediately.  To help avoid the meltdown that was brewing, I told her that we needed her help getting a few things ready before baby Joe could come home.  I asked her if she could help daddy get the baby's basket ready (more on this later) and if she could help him organize all of the carseats in the car (we were changing the arrangement of seats in the car to accommodate the baby).  She readily accepted her tasks and they were off to get things ready for Joey to come home on Monday. 

Joey and I passed the rest of the day entertaining a few visitors and soaking up a few remaining hours of quiet.