9 Months

I was going to post this last Tuesday, but River was running a fever that day and I hadn't taken the pics yet, so I had to postpone the post.

the sun has shifted since I started taking these photos, so after two months of substandard lighting, I switched rooms, hence the different colored background

Three quarters of a year old already- how did that happen?

River is growing well, still average for height and weight, though he seems big. Maybe we just know a lot of petite babies?

He has improved his crawling skills and now crawls very fast.
He pulls up on furniture, legs, walls, whatever he can grab onto.
River has even let go of my leg and taken a step, then promptly fallen. He'll be walking soon. Sunshine cruised early and we thought she'd start walking before crawling. However, as the months passed, she was content to keep cruising. She did eventually start crawling, and finally took her first steps on her own at 14 months.

Mobility= lots of bumps and bruises.
Arnica is great, I first used it here, and have started using it liberally on River.

He likes the pool. Maybe a bit too much. He keeps trying to drink the water from the sprayers, and when that doesn't work he settles for licking pool water off his hand. So gross. But at least he doesn't have a death-grip around my neck like Sunshine did when she was his age.

trying to catch the water to drink it

River can pick out the one item in a room he shouldn't get into (my painting paraphernalia, the plant on the window sill, whatever) and make a beeline to it. If you call to him to come back, he'll turn and give you a mischievous smile before continuing on.

playing marker lightsabers with Sunshine 

it won't be the last time- many more battles are sure to come :)

He's an easy-going, happy baby unless he's tired, then he's not afraid to let you know that he wants his bed now! And he definitely prefers to sleep in his bed, as did Sunshine. I had hoped our variable schedule would help him be more flexible than her, but that has not been the case so far.

he and Sunshine frequently sleep with one leg crossed and up in the air, which we find hilarious

He likes eating what we do. We were eating bowls of fruit at dinner the other night and I'd chopped some up and mixed it into his glork (Sunshine's term for his mixed up food mess), but that wasn't good enough. He wanted what we had and kept complaining till I fed him bits of a raspberry out of my bowl. Then he was happy.

first spaghetti. squash, that is

Speaking of eating, he still nurses 7-8 times a day. This is a huge change from Sunshine, who was down to 1 or 2 times a day by this age. My milk supply was a lot lower with her and she completely weaned by her first birthday. We nursed one last time on her birthday and that was it. She never asked for more and I never got engorged, so I don't think she'd been getting much at that point. I can totally see River nursing past his first birthday- he really enjoys it, and it's a lot less stressful for me than it was with Sunshine. I credit my improved health and gluten free status for my improved milk supply.

River needs a haircut. I was hoping to make it to his first birthday, but I don't know that that will happen. He's getting pretty shaggy, and his hair is a lot thicker than it used to be. Sunshine had her bangs trimmed around 18 months and lost her baby mullet at 2 for a cute little bob. Obviously boys usually have shorter hair, but if he was a girl he'd still need haircuts long before Sunshine ever did. I'm just sad about losing the wispy baby hair look. I need to google how to cut baby hair without scalping him. How do you cut a wiggly baby's hair?

Finished Art Frame

Remember how I was on a building blitz back before River was born? I built several pieces of furniture, but didn't paint or stain them. I'm finally finishing those projects.

After painting the shoe bin doors, I did the finish work on the art frame that I constructed last year. They're both in the kitchen, which has enough issues without my half-finished projects added in. I still haven't finished the kitchen (I pooped out last summer), though I am building up steam and finally feeling motivated again to work on it.

note the rough corners with visible gaps

I sanded, puttied, and caulked the corners to smooth out the imperfections and give it a clean look. Then I touched up the paint (white chalk paint) and followed it with a coat of wax.

crappy nighttime lighting

It looked much better at that point, but I thought it needed a little something more. So I dug through my washi tape stash and found a pretty turquoise patterned roll. I stuck long pieces of that tape on the raised portion of the frame. Instead of trying to make the corners all nice and neat, I left the ends a little long so they hang over the edges.

I like how it turned out. And if I get bored of the tape, or it doesn't match the paint once I re-paint the walls since yellow walls make white cabinets look dingy :(  it'll be easy to switch the tape.

Now it's time to fill it up again with artwork :)

Sunday Funny

We were driving in the car, and I heard River coughing or choking - I couldn't quite tell which, so I asked Sunshine:

"Is he choking on spit up?"
Sunshine (calmly, not concerned at all)- "No, he's just choking."

So, as long as he's not choking on spit up, it's ok? Sunshine and I obviously worry about different things :)  Luckily he stopped coughing very soon after that and was fine.

Did you know that 8 US Presidents were born and lived in Virginia?

Sunshine's cousin's class did a Flat Stanley unit, so to help her out we took Flat Stanley to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home Monticello, James Madison’s home Montpelier, James Monroe’s home Ash Lawn-Highland, and Zachary Taylor’s birthplace Montebello. Since I put it off till the last week of school, we didn't have time to visit the rest of the houses, but we did manage half of them.

1^st George Washington- born at his father’s plantation near Colonial Beach, VA. He inherited Mount Vernon when his older half brother died and he lived there the last 45 years of his life.

3^rd Thomas Jefferson –born in Shadwell, VA. Started building Monticello when he was 26 and was constantly working on it and expanding it throughout the rest of his life.

4^th James Madison- born in Port Conway, VA. Spent most of his life at Montpelier, which his father built and he expanded.

5^th James Monroe- born in Westmoreland County, VA. Lived in various locations around Virginia and Europe. Lived at Ash Lawn-Highland (which is just a couple miles from Monticello) for 24 years.

9^th William Henry Harrison- born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, VA, where he spent his childhood.

10^th John Tyler- born at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County, VA. He spent his childhood there and a number of years as an adult after inheriting it from his father. He later purchased Sherwood Forest Plantation and renovated and expanded it. The house is still owned by his grandson.

12^th Zachary Taylor- his family was traveling from Virginia to Kentucky when some in the group came down with measles and they had to be quarantined. He was born at Montebello while they were in quarantine (the actual house he was born in is no longer around).

28^th Woodrow Wilson- was born at The Manse in Staunton, VA, but left at one year old when his father accepted a job with a church in Georgia. He spent childhood summer vacations with relatives in Staunton and briefly attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

We have lots of field trips planned for the next two years as we study the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other more recent historic events. We spent the last two years studying ancient and medieval history and have now moved to the more modern stuff, which gives fun field trips a bit more context. So along with early Pilgrim settlements and Civil War battlegrounds, we'll also be visiting the houses we haven't gotten to yet.

Do you like visiting old houses?

Fourth of July 5k

the ubiquitous port-a-potty line

I didn't run with my phone, so this is the only pic I have

Friday I ran my July race. It was my first time running this course, and I kind of like it. Last summer we were out of town, and I missed it the year before that because they don't allow jogging strollers. With Mr M home, I was able to leave the kiddos with him while I ran the race.

I ran the race in 34:15, which is a lot faster than I anticipated, though at the beginning they said this tends to be the fastest race of the year that they organize. The course is hilly, but not as hilly as I thought/was afraid it would be. We used to live in the neighborhood the course runs through and I ran the trails and knew what it could have been. It was hot and muggy, but it could have been worse. If we'd started a half hour earlier, before the sun rose above the trees, I think the weather would have been perfect.

I started out a bit faster than I should have, so while my first two miles were at a pretty good pace, I pooped out during the third mile. I felt strong the first two miles, but just don't have the endurance yet to keep it up. Still, I'm making good progress with my speed and endurance, so no real complaints. 1st mile- 10:16, 2nd mile 10:55, 3rd mile 12:21, with an average pace of 11:09.

My 5k PR is from January 2013- the New Year's Day 5k that I ran in 29:36. 34:15 is closer to that than any other race I've run since. My goal is to get my 5k time below 30 minutes and keep it there, and I'm slowly getting closer to that point.

July 5k:  34:15
June 5k: 38:11          Ran with jogger
May 5k: 39:23          Ran with jogger
April 5k: 37:40         Color Run
March 5k: 37:33  
February 4.5 miles: 1:49:55  Mud Run
January: ---

4th of July

We had a busy Fourth this year.

I ran a 5k first thing.

waiting for the parade to start

Mr M photobombing River and me

We went to our local small-town Fourth of July parade. Always lots of fun, and we even met up with some friends from our homeschool park group.

juggler on a unicycle

colonial re-enactors

patriotic kiddos

River and Sunshine with our friends

We went home for a few minutes of quiet time (Sunshine)/nap (River), then headed to our friends' house for swimming. Sunshine and Mr M hung around for fireworks, but River needed a(nother) nap, so I took him home.

Mr M (black shirt) and Sunshine (pink shirt) enjoyed the pool, while I chased after River

so cute :)

but so full of mischief!

There's a good fireworks display in town, but the parking and traffic is insane. Combine that with River's early bedtime, and we opted to stay home.

More fun with waterlogue

Shoe Bin, Part 2

Remember how I was on a building blitz back before River was born? I built several pieces of furniture, but didn't paint or stain them. I'm finally finishing those projects.

First up: painting the doors of the shoe bin.

I removed the handles and taped off the hinges. Next I primed the insides and outsides of the doors, then painted two coats of Annie Sloan Pure White chalk paint. I sanded in between coats of chalk paint to smooth out any imperfections. After allowing the paint to dry, I waxed the entire cabinet, then put the handles back on.

So much better!
                                 

Here's a collage showing the evolution of this shelf. When I originally built it, I planned on putting drawers in the bottom two rows of shelves, but we needed the shelf space so we started using it before I got the drawers finished. Then I built the homeschool cupboard and we moved the all the books to it, which allowed me to rearrange the shelves. I was inspired by my blanket cubby in the basement and made pull-down doors instead of drawers for the shoe cubbies.

Painting the doors makes such a difference- it finally looks like a finished piece of furniture. Though I need to work on  the "styling" on top. There's a little too much open space (which attracts clutter), but I don't want too many things up there either. There's a fine line between decorated and cluttered :)

Sunday Funny

As I walked through the grocery store on a recent shopping trip, I noticed that River was sitting with his legs straight out. I kept pushing them down, but he'd pop them right back up again.

While sitting in the checkout line, he finally decided to bend his legs. As you can see, he can do it easily, so I'm not sure why he was insisting on having his legs straight. If only we could see what goes on his head... :)

Nature Day Camp

The nature class Sunshine took in the fall also holds week-long day camps and sleep-away camps in the summer.

The summer location's a bit far away, though it's actually closer than I thought since I was able to mostly drive on back roads with no traffic. We were able to arrange a carpool with another family so I drove the girls in the morning and the other family picked them up in the afternoon. This made it quite manageable and River got in some really good afternoon naps that wouldn't have happened if we'd been doing taxi duty.

The camp is held at a Girl Scout camp and they go on hikes, play in the creek, swim in the swimming hole, learn about plants and animals, and get dirty. Everything kids love to do!

Though they did manage to get the kids cleaned up fairly well before sending them home, so I don't have any good pics of how dirty she really managed to get :)

One morning with her backpack full of supplies: swimsuit, towel, lunch, water bottle

Thursday night the kids had the option of sleeping over, and Sunshine had no qualms about staying. She'd missed her chance in the fall because it was 20 degrees the night they were supposed to have their end-of-class campout. That morning I dropped off the girls and Sunshine took off to get her stuff to her tent. I had to call her back to tell me goodbye- she's clearly more ready for these things than I am!

Sunshine on the right with her pink backpack and duffel

When I picked her up on Friday she looked tired. She claims she got a lot of sleep, but I have my doubts :) I asked if she had fun and wanted to go back next year, and she exclaimed "of course!"

Ottoman Tray Top

Awhile back we sold Sunshine's log bed and replaced it with a bunk bed. We then swapped her nightstand for our dresser/hutch thing, brought in the bench from our room, and added River's crib. It's a bit crowded with the crib, but Sunshine really wanted him in there with her and we weren't going to argue with that. There's plenty of time when they're older for them to have separate rooms. For now, they're still young enough to enjoy a little sibling togetherness.

I rearranged the room several times before deciding on its current layout. The only downside to this layout is the lack of nightstand for Sunshine to stack her books, water bottle, and glasses on.

We used the ottoman (we sold the lavender chair awhile back to buy a rocking nursing chair) for awhile, but stuff inevitably slid off. I couldn't let things keep ending up on the floor, so I came up with an alternative.

I made a simple tray with an edge that sits on top of the ottoman. It won't slide off the ottoman and items on top won't slide off of it.

This was a pretty easy build. I used the second table top from an old printer table (the first was used in our Christmas tree crate) and a 1x4. I cut the table top down to fit the ottoman, then cut the 1x4 into a square, mitering the corners as I went. Some wood glue and a short visit with the nail gun later, and it was ready to be caulked, sanded, and painted.

the table top and the 1x4

checking the fit of my mitered edges

finished and ready for painting

I was working on some other projects at the same time, so I used the same white paint for all of them: Annie Sloane Chalk Paint in Pure White. I finished up with a couple coats of furniture wax and let it sit overnight.

Sunshine will still have to be careful about River grabbing things out of the tray, but it'll be easier for her to move things away without them falling off.

Changing Nicknames

Since I started this blog 6 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?), I've always used nicknames for my husband and daughter. When I was pregnant with our son, he got a nickname too.

I've decided the time has come to change up the nicknames a bit. I want to simplify them and do away with the acronyms. They're convenient when typing, but I think they end up just being confusing.

Little Miss Sunshine (LMS) isn't as little as she used to be (she was 2 when I started out), so from here on out I'll just be calling her Sunshine.

The Little Mister (TLM) was a useful name when he was first born, but his personality is showing now, so River will be his new nickname. Rivers keep moving and never stop, just like him :)

I was going to change Mr Mellow's (Mr M) nickname since I am getting rid of initials for the kiddos, but I think I'll keep it. It's convenient and makes it fairly obvious that he's my husband as opposed to one of the kiddos.

And then there's me. I'm still Jen.

On a side note, I posted my 1000th post last week and I missed it. If I were on top of things I'd celebrate, but it's summer vacation and that's not going to happen :)

How about a picture of the cake our Primary President made Sunshine for turning 8/getting baptized? Two layer, gluten free chocolate cake with chocolate icing. It was delicious! Though it didn't survive our bumpy driveway unscathed...