Art work, etc

Arabelle:  Dear Tooth Fairy, My Tooth has fallen out and I had lost it.  Will you still give me a prize?"

The Tooth Fairy:  Dear Arabelle, Thank you for your nice letter.  I used my special tools and i found your tooth outside under the steps.  It is now part of my collection."

Arabelle's "lesson plan" for teaching school to Charlotte:

One of Arabelle's painting and something she made in class at Church.  I particularly like her picture of Jesus and his clothes and beard.

Arabelle is quite the star student in her primary class.  She comes home every week with these meticulously colored worksheets:

Some more of her art:

A Turkey, of course:

Charlotte has mostly been doing abstract colorful shapes lately, but here is a nice Richard Gory piece:

 Invitation from Brynn to Arabelle i son the left.  Arabelle felt the need to create her own response and it is on the right.



And Uncles Phillip and James will be happy to know that they are part of Jeffrey's "Support Tree."

New Clothes!

 In which we see Rowan being ridiculously cute, Charlotte wearing a funny dress, and new clothes from Memaw!

New Rug

 And here's my new rug that I think is gorgeous.  I did order it online and did not realize how light the background is, so unfortunately it is already stained in multiple places as this room is the main thoroughfare of the house.

I may have to look at it as a temporary art installment.

Also new camel pillow:

Kids Room Before and After

Before:  lots and lots of toys.

 

And more toys:
























During:

This isn't the worst it looked during the reno, since John has already started replacing the floors here.  The worst were obviously right after the built-in and the hearth had been ripped out.

And After:

New-to-us beds (from Craigslist, of course), fulfilling my dream of matching beds.  New calm paint color.

Rug re-purposed from living room.

Finally a space for books (although I had to sacrifice this corner that was going to become "my office."

 In truth, the room is still a hodge podge multi-functional space, but asi es la vida.  Bedroom for two kids, play room, family room and office.

Wardrobe now missing a door since it broke off and fell on my toe.  Perhaps unfortunately I also discovered that there was the opportunity for storage on top of the wardrobe...

Before the door incident:  The kids really loved playing in here before we filled it to the brim with stuff.  There were no knobs initially and the doors had to be opened with a key, so the kids enjoyed playing "jail.".  Here they are in their neighboring cells, evidently.

Fall Stuff

I thought this chalk drawing Arabelle did on the flagstones in our yard was quite beautiful.


And here's Charlotte's:

I don't do much decorating for Halloween, but I love my crows:

Arabelle and Charlotte wanted pictures taken too:

Arabelle continues to be very interested in Baby Rowan.  He has definitely replaced Elsie in her affections:

Rowan at 7 months

 At 7 months, Rowan continues to be the smiliest of all my babies.  However, if he isn't receiving attention, or, for example, is left to play by himself on the carpet, he is usually screaming within minutes.  It really does seem like he is either smiling or crying.  Whenever I am carrying him  and there are people behind him, he starts smiling at them and I always hear the people remarking how cute he is and what a big smile he has.  

He has been through quite a lot in his short life:  I have lost count of how many hearing tests he has been subjected to, and he has been under general anesthesia twice:  once at 5 months for the hypospadias correction, and once a few weeks ago to get tubes in his ears.  We were hoping the tubes would help his hearing but that didn't turn out to be the case.

He has 4 teeth--two on the bottom and two on the top, and they are very sharp, beaver style.  I have bite marks on both hands and on my left shoulder and arm. I will be holding him, and without warning, he will suddenly sink his sharp little teeth into my arm.

He still wakes up at least every hour at night, so there will probably have to be a time of reckoning where I make him cry it out, but how can I do that to this little face?

We like the nickname Mommy Nick coined for him, "Fat Little Smiler":

As you can see, he is sitting up, and he is crawling army style.  He continues to scream whenever he is in his car seat, for as long as he is in his car seat (the car certainly does not make him fall asleep as it has my other kids), so I limit my outings to doctor's visits.  I have been enjoying getting all my groceries and supplies via the internet.