Under the Influence

Joey made this visor during an arts and crafts station at his swim team party last night, while surrounded by little boys and girls decorating much tamer hats with buttons, stickers, paint and markers.

We're thinking he just might be spending too much time with a certain bachelor uncle who loves superheroes, light sabers, and weapons of all stripes.

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Star-Spangled Weekend

Our Fourth of July weekend turned into four days of barbecues, birthday parties, and fireworks extravaganzas. We loved all the red, white and blue festivities, and celebrating with friends!

We started off the weekend with the Raley cousins manning a pirate ship in our backyard.

I love the tan line that Joey (aka Jose) is showing off here! Is he really related to all these pale Irish girls??

It's always neat to see different cousins playing and interacting... here's Bridget and Clara pretending to be cover girls, and Megan snuggling with Molly.

Later that evening, we barbecued with the Martin-Millers... I'm not sure how hygienic it is to ask eight sweaty, grass-stained kids to shuck corn for dinner, but they had a blast!

The next day, we headed to Loomis to celebrate Briana and Brandon Alfonso's second birthday! The kids loved all of the bouncehouse and water fun to be had there!

I love these pictures of Molly and her doppelgangers... in case anyone is wondering what she'll look like in a year, they don't need to look any further than Annie and Tessa!

On the Fourth, we celebrated with all of our Lamorinda Davis friends, with more pooltime, BBQ, and some sparklers and poppers!

Bad-A**

At three and three quarters, Clara seems to be sloooowly moving out of her "terrible threes" phase. She can be an angel when she wants to be, but for the better part of six months, she's much preferred living on the edge and indulging the devil on her shoulder.

It's been a wild ride. Why eat your dinner when you can gag on it instead? Why put your carseat straps on when instead you can be taking stealth sips of three-day-old soda from the drivers' console while Mommy is strapping in the baby? Why play nicely with your brother when there's so much fun to be found in punching him in the arm? And best of all, why go to sleep at night when pounding your feet on your bedroom wall and waking your baby sister is clearly the better call?

Needless to say, she spent a lot of time over the last year parked on her bottom in the corner of the living room, thinking over transgressions like talking back, hitting, whining... and worst of all, smirking. We don't want to jinx ourselves, but we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with a sweeter, more obedient and more compliant little girl who is helpful, remembers her "pleases" and "thankyous," and seems to actually relish chores like feeding the washing machine, brushing her teeth, and practicing her letters. 

But while she's easier to manage these days, she's retained a fearless, wild-child edge that is both terrifying and hilarious. Are we raising a sociopath, or merely a future Army Ranger? You be the judge.

Her favorite pasttime right now is donning her bike helmet, jumping on her bike... preferably without pants... and racing around the backyard, dodging patio furniture, BBQs, dogs and babies.

She jumped off the diving board last week into nine feet of water (thanks to Adam Koplan for spotting her!), wearing her life vest only under duress. And at a barbecue over the Fourth of July weekend, she wowed a yard-full of party-goers by being the first kid in a packed pool to brave the diving board. In classic Clara fashion, she made me swim far away from the diving board so she could jump "all by herself."

Her pain tolerance continues to be off the charts; factor in the fact that she often lives in a rich alter universe, and she might be destined for the circus. After falling off the concrete steps outside our back door the other day, Clara stood up and dusted herself off quickly, and with typical bravado, assured me, "I'm okay, I'm okay."

I wasn't so sure.

"There's blood dripping down your leg, Clara."

 "That?" She peered closer, licked her finger, and wiped the blood away. "That was just a hair from my Ariel doll."

The Pian-y-o

The cost of renovating a 1917 piano that was sitting in our garage covered in dust and spiderwebs, hopelessly out of tune, and missing some ivories and a pedal? Too much for Tim to stomach, given that neither of us are musical or can carry a tune.

But the sentimental value of the piano was too high for me to let it gather dust any longer in the garage, and I'm so glad it's been repaired, and moved inside the house once more. The piano bench has been a resting spot for many childrens' bottoms, including my grandma, 'Ma,' when she was a toddler, seven Field kids, and many, many Field grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Seeing our own kids plunk at the keys, perform concerts and breathe new life into this very old piano is priceless. We may invest in lessons at some point, but for now, we're just focusing on correcting Joey and Clara's constant, multi-syllabic mispronunciation of the musical beast in our living room. 

In the meantime, the din and ruckus of our energetic musicians is a happy noise in our house  -- even when it threatens to interrupt nap time -- because I'm pretty sure that someone, somewhere is smiling over "The Pian-y-o's" new players.

Thirteen Months

Every household with a baby should come equipped with a five year-old baby stalker. Our resident little man is not only obsessed with the safety and well-being of Molly -- he's also doing his darnedest to ensure that I'm keeping track of her milestones and accomplishments.

The other morning, when we witnessed her say, "Yay!" while clapping, Joey had as much fun as the rest of us hearing her new word, but then snapped into record keeping mode.

"That's her fourth word!" he exclaimed. "Now she says 'hi,' 'dada,' 'mama,' AND 'yay'!!! Did you get that, Mommy?"

(For the record, this is the same tone of voice he used to reprimand me after getting a mild sunburn during swim practice last week: "Mommy, today can you ACTUALLY put sunscreen on me instead of just talking to the other mommies?")

So, this late thirteen-month update is brought to you by a chastened Mommy and her mature-beyond-his-years son. 

Besides expanding her vocabulary by 25 percent, Molly is up to all sorts of new tricks. She's on the verge of walking, can stand for minutes at a time, and has taken a couple of very tentative steps. I'm not sure what Molly will think of her new mobility when it happens, but I'm pretty sure Joey's head is going to explode -- from excitement, and then unadulterated panic, when he realizes just how unsafe a walking toddler can be.

 (Joey's bike helmet is her latest accessory.)

Speaking of excitement, Molly finally learned to clap... and hasn't stopped since. She started by clapping with one open hand and one closed fist, and gradually started clapping both palms together. Reasons for applause in her world include mealtime, bottles, any stunt performed by Joey or Clara, and Daddy returning from work.

(Don't mind the crazy Aztec rug in this video; this was caught on film at the vacation home we stayed at in Twain Harte.)

She also has perfected the art of blowing raspberries, and totally holds her own in competitions with her siblings.



She continues to be a mellow, mellow baby with some spitfire moments, who has learned to hug and kiss, is taking a big interest in baby dolls, the kids' play kitchen and anything and everything in the real kitchen drawers and cabinets. We love her to pieces!

Can You Feel the Love?

Poor Clara can't do anything right with Molly these days -- she ambled into a video of Molly playing peekaboo last week, and in return for trespassing on the baby's spotlight, she ignited eardrum-piercing shrieks, had her hair yanked viciously, and was swatted numerous times by a tempestuous redhead.

Thank goodness they're not wearing the same clothing or shoe size yet... I have a feeling that's when the real violence will begin! 

Do yourself a favor and turn the volume down about halfway through...



Conquering The Slide

We finally had a bonafide swimmer on our hands at Twain Harte this year, and he had a ball! The Slide, which Joey had only slid down under duress in years past, beckoned him within minutes of arriving on the beach the first morning. Here he is conquering this Twain Harte icon, and loving it! 

Twain Harte '11

We made a return trip to Twain Harte Lake last weekend with the Cecchin clan, and, as always, loved every minute on this kid-friendly beach. With floating diving platforms, slides, and all of Grandma's beach toys, it was heaven for our water fiends, Joey and Clara, and Molly's maiden visit was a hit as well. This year, we brought along Uncle Kyle, who was a huge help in corraling and entertaining kids!

 

What could be better than sand and surf? Adding cousins to the mix! The kids had a ball with Tommy and Lucy, and loved hanging out with Marco on the beach.

Molly and cousin Lucy are starting to take notice of each other. They're only five months apart, and the age difference is starting to feel less giant with each passing month.

 

Thanks to Grandma Cecchin for organizing another fun family trip! I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of her with the kids! Hopefully there's one stored away on someone else's camera!

One of the Gang

I don't think it's possible for a baby to look more pleased with herself for joining in on some "big kid" fun. 

Flashback Friday

Did anyone else go to bed with pink foam curlers twisted in their hair on the eve of the first day of school, picture day, and every holiday? For Shawna and me, blessed and cursed with stick-straight hair, putting curlers in was the pre-cursor to every major event, and seeing those same pink curlers at CVS the other day evoked a wave of nostalgia, and an almost visceral flashback to the giddy anticipation of Christmas Eve.

I threw them in my cart, and tried them out for the first time that night with a very willing little girl. Clara not only sat patiently through the rolling, but she actually slept with all of them on her head the entire night!

She couldn't wait to have them unrolled the next morning...

She already has some natural wave to her hair, but the curlers gave her some extra oomph that had her feeling extra-special. I can't wait to try them out for our next holiday!

In the meantime, the curlers have a new home -- a little bag I sewed out of some old fleece pajamas, exactly like the one my mom sewed to house our curlers when we were little. Clara and I had fun deciding which outgrown jammies to use for the project, and even made an extra bag for another family we know with four little girls :)

We started with two 2T sleepers, and cut off the legs, arms, and collars, making a rectangle.

I turned the two rectangles inside out, sewed four straight lines (reinforcing around the zipper and making sure to leave the zipper slightly unzipped), and then unzipped the zipper all the way and turned my new little case right-side out.

Clara got to work filling up her new curler bag with all of her curlers.

The finished product!

We made the second bag a little bigger than ours, large enough to hold curlers for four little heads of hair instead of two :)