birthday weekend!!

 Yes, mine, age 54, thank you very much.

And hers, age 16.

 There was a family party, feast and celebration in honor of all the birthdays in this span of time.

 That's my little brother.  He and I go way back.  I love him very much, and he's also nice to Maria's dog and she appreciates a friend when the house is swarming with people, especially small people.  An ally like he is helps her.

 Maria has a guinea pig, and he's pretty doggone cute.

 This is some family video game convention.

 My mother, oh goodness.

 My sister, hugging my granddaughter.

 Two granddaughter, trying to break out.

Except it's very cold out there.

And the brown eyes and the dark curls and the blue eyes and straight straw-blonde hair.  These two are the baby images of each of my daughters in law.  They both look like little clones of their mothers.

 Woo Hoo!  Cake time!

 Lydia Karina!

 Little Jay

 Me!

 My mama!

 And here's today about 11 am, after the Auntie and Niece finally woke up and decided to create a baking soda volcano in the sand box.  They'd been to Sunday school and back, were proper citizens and all.

And that's the end of a beautiful weekend.  Kirsten showed up here by surprise on Thursday evening. I went for a walk to stretch my work-from-home legs, and there she was. EATING LEFT OVER CHOW MEIN IN MY FAMILY ROOM!!

It was a great weekend. She didn't get sick, and everyone was in a great, welcoming in spring kind of mood.

It was a little wistful taking her to the airport late this afternoon. Then a real estate appointment. Then JAMES had to be personally driven, by hand, out to Eau Claire. Not his fault in the least, but still three more hours of driving.

It was so wonderful having you here, though I know you're glad to back in the arms of that nervous-looking canine, Payton.

Kirby, Thank you for making this such an awesome weekend.   love to you all, always, MOM

kari's 16

 So many greetings on Instagram today.

You're a popular baby sister.

Yep, they were old enough to remember you back when.

We did presents and you were a very good sport.

 So excited for socks!

 And pajama pants with a weird little dog print.

 You have not been a big fan of your birthday for a few years now, and this picture kind of says it all.

 Being a good sport again, letting us love you.

Because we totally DO, and always have.

That's you and Dan when you were about four hours old.

 You at 4 months

 Four minutes.  Sheesh, woman, so glad you were OUT of my BODY, and look at your cute, red, squished up face.

 Aww, Karinka Doodle, mine baby Schnoodle.

You put up with these silly endearments, didn't even seem to mind.  I could grab you right now and blow raspberries on that little belly.

 Showing off your fine Lands' End bunny hat. It's still here somewhere.

Oh, sweet, beautiful Kari.

Lydia.

Lydia Karina.

The day you were born is one of the best days of my entire life.  I wrote this about you and it was even published in an actual magazine:

"A year ago, their little sister was born.  She is our eighth child.  The oldest is named John for his grandpa; we named this littlest sister Lydia after grandma. Last spring, when she was newly born and up during the night, I received her with the full heart of a woman who knows how fleeting an infancy is.  Little Lydia Karina, our Kari, glowed in pink for months.  It felt like she gave off an aura.  

In those early weeks, I could hardly look at her without becoming tearful; she was so breathtaking.   When she was awake at night, I didn't think about the sleep I was losing, believe me.   Long gone was the crib of twenty years ago and the agenda for her to sleep according to my habits.  There were a handful of nights when I was awake with her and thought, in no uncertain terms, “I have the rest of my life to sleep.  This night is once in a lifetime.” She had fuzzy hair like duck down, big blue eyes, cheeks as bright as hibiscus blooms and she smelled incredible. Because she slept in my arms though, those nights of us awake together were so few.  She’s a year old now.  I actually wish there had been more.  More time.  More hugs.  More milk..."

Sweetheart, we could not love you more.

Happy Birthday.  Love forever and always, MOM and DAD and this whole FAMILY.

a quiet start

This month of April has come creeping in so quietly.

These are a few pictures from Little Jay's birthday.  He moved back home last September, and he's here only about half the time, if that. But it's also time when I'm not at work, so this has been just a pleasure having him here with us.

That's Katie in the dark jacket and pony tail. When I see her in a glance I mix her up with Julia, but no.  She's much more reserved, less prone to spontaneous cartwheels, and even her laugh is quiet, unlike JULIA.

 Yeah, there were so many birthday candles in that drawer, it seemed like a lifetime supply.

Until this night.

We improvised.

 There were a lot of pictures on my camera of nonsense like this.

That's a lovely ceiling.

And this little child is p.j.'s baby sister.

She's a force of her own, an insane little monster.  When she gets riled up, p.j. pats her, tells her, "Leesy-Bear, Calm down.  Just calm down."   She's actually a very good big sister, patient, just amazingly patient, with a helpful sense of humor.  (That cute baby has earned her Bear nickname, true.)

(These little girls, oh my goodness.)

Anyway, the baby. She's almost a year old now, and is starting to talk already.  When Sidney gets near the babies, or near me when I'm on the phone working, we have to tell her: Git.

She'd bite a baby who tried to manhandle her in any way.  Plus when I am on the phone working, I can't have her going all Cujo, barking because someone walked past the house. Over a thousand cars a day drive past our house.  When I say we live on a busy road, I'm not kidding. And there's a walking path behind our house in the park where probably a couple dozen people or more go by in a day. Sidney feels the need to alert us to things we do not care about.

So that's the word:  "Git"

And she gits. Sidney hoofs it out of the room. Unless Maria is home. Then she hides behind Maria and will not git.

The baby says Git. I think she thinks it's Sidney's name. She tells us hi, and today she was growling at the Masters of the Universe Battle Cats and the squeaky rubber dolphin that bit her toes.

When I had it bite my finger she yelled, alarmed.

Well, that's not funny. That's scaring her.  She frowned at us and growled, "Rarr."

My parents were both cracking up too.  We were there yesterday too for lunch, and she started antibiotics for an ear infection and she was just crazy, screechy, manic, falling down constantly. Today she was better than yesterday, and this high chair thing happened at lunch, and I wadded up her jacket as a little pillow and we let her sleep.

And last week I had a tooth break.  I've sunk a couple grand into this tooth over the years, two root canals, crowns, yeah.  Well, the thing broke and the dentist talked to me about the options involving cadaver bone grafts and an implant and no.

(Okay, those are my grandsons on an elephant. Not okay. They were also photographed with a bunch of clowns. Dental work sounds less terrifying.)

No.   He pulled it, and it was not a normal tooth, after 25 years and two root canals. It was a shell filled with dental cement, and it came out about that great.  There was a lot of novocaine, mercifully, and pounding and grinding and yanking, and it was violent and a little surreal at some point.

I'm allergic to vicodin and ibuprofen, so he gave me prednisone and tramadol, which do nothing for infection, so a few days later when the swelling was tight and throbbing, we got that going.

I'm going to be okay, but it was so very, very un-fun.

April.  That sleet and shit today, didn't like that. Sunday, the sunshine, sweeping the patio and setting up the picnic table?  April, can you please work on more of that and less of March?

Onward.

Love, Val