Starting our day off right

A breakfast buffet. . .

A breakfast . . .  beard?

He'll be comin' on the Cal Train when he comes...

Nan and Grandpa have been great about visiting the circus lately. They come the day that Daddy's away the longest at class, arriving midmorning and staying until late afternoon. These visits are great for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the girls are about over the moon every time their grandparents arrive. They stand watch at the front window, waiting for Nan and Grandpa's car. When it arrives, they broadcast the news of the arrival at the top of their lungs, punctuating their joyful shouts with jumps. (Or in Madeline's case, by throwing her hands above her head and saying "Hop!") Once inside the door the grandparents are pressed into service, reading stories, snuggling grandchildren of all sizes, dressing dolls, and watching "dance performances." But Nan and Grandpa's visits are also great for getting little chores done, the ones that sometimes fall by the wayside. Grandpa's hung the pictures that were propped on the stairway for heaven knows how long, watered the garden (and the wilting hydrangea by the front door), carried out the trash and more. Nan's pitched in with laundry folding and dish washing when things have been hectic. And although Mama has made countless successful solo trips to the commissary, Costco, Target and the like with three children, when Nan and Grandpa come to town, Grandpa stays with the napping girls while Nan and Mama run errands with John David. (It's amazing how much you can get done with only one baby!)

Last week, Grandpa needed to go into work in San Francisco before he could come to visit the circus. Nan drove down by herself and then a few hours later, we all made an outing of meeting Grandpa at the Cal Train station. The girls were predictably excited about seeing Grandpa. Seeing Grandpa on a train? Extremely exciting.

Here's the circus (sans Daddy, of course) waiting in the sunshine.

The girls were surprised by how loud and how big the trains are. (They don't seem nearly so large when you're sitting in your carseat in a minivan on the road while the train races by on its tracks.) Kathleen made sure Indy didn't get scared.

The sweet boy seemed neither scared nor excited. I think sleepy describes it best.

And then the train arrived. Nan held Madeline up to see in the windows and to give her a better chance of spotting Grandpa (or Bampa in Madeline-speak, which greatly amused the Cal Train workers).

When Grandpa finally emerged, he got a royal welcome.

Of course, now anytime we drive past the Cal Train station (which happens frequently, I'll have you know), Madeline shouts out, "Bampa!  Train!" and we have to explain that while Grandpa does sometimes visit us on the train, he's not always on the train...

Happy Birthday, Daddy

This morning's breakfast table looked a little different than it normally does.  It was laden with gifts for one of our very favorite people. . .  Daddy!

We supplemented our breakfast of baked oatmeal with some gift-opening.  Afterwards, we sent Daddy upstairs to study (sadly, birthdays do not trump midterms).  We continued our celebration this evening with some friends.  We had balloons, grilled out, and topped off the evening with -- what else?  -- ice cream and cake.

We are so grateful for this man who leads our family.  We know that it's not every Daddy who will pitch in with every aspect of family life -- from discipline to dance lessons -- who can manage elaborate bedtime routines without batting an eye, who gets up early and stays up late, who can be serious or silly, who changes diapers without complaint, who plans dates for each of his "girls," and loves us (all of us -- even Mama) through our tears and tantrums.

We love you, Daddy!  Happy Birthday!

Of breakfast and balloons

When Daddy returned from a run Saturday morning and discovered Mama on the sofa, nursing the baby and surrounded by whiny, teary girls, he made an executive decision.

"Girls," he announced, "we're going to breakfast!"

That sent the little girls scrambling for their clothes and shoes, while Mama was able to finish nursing in relative peace. And before we knew it, the whole circus was dressed and out the door. We hit up our local Hobee's for breakfast. Everyone seemed to be excited to get out of the house.

There were no complaints about the food. The girls loved the happy-face fruit plate they got when we sat down, and they devoured their honey-whole wheat pancakes. That the pancakes came with sliced bananas, whipped cream, and sprinkles made them even tastier, at least according to Kathleen. Madeline seemed to like them, too.

Mama and Daddy were equally pleased with their food, and Indy slept peacefully in his sling for the entire meal. After we were finished, the little girls expressed their appreciation for their father's quick thinking.

Encouraged by our outing's success, we just kept going!  We stopped to get Daddy a haircut (he's looking much more military-respectable now, we promise) and then continued on to a picnic thrown by our church.  The picnic was at a park in Los Gatos and the weather was hot, hot, hot.  Mama and Indy hung out in the shade, chatting with friends.  Daddy and the girls played with more friends on the playground.  Eventually the heat got the better of all us (Indy was a little cranky, the girls were bright red -- not from sunburn, but from running around in the heat), and we headed home.  The girls weren't so excited about leaving, though.  They'd seen some big baskets of water balloons at the picnic and really wanted to try them out.  Instead, we stopped at a drugstore and picked up our own.  

After naptime (and a significant slathering of sunblock), we convened in the backyard for some lessons on water balloons.

As it turned out, no lessons were needed.  Apparently, our girls are naturals when it comes to water balloons (perhaps that's on the same gene as dancing to the oldies).

Everyone joined in the fun.  Mama and Daddy even demonstrated how an actual "water balloon toss" would work.   The girls shrieked with laughter when the water balloon popped all over Mama as she caught it.  

Although it looks like they were throwing the balloons at one another, the girls much preferred throwing them on the ground.  Madeline would clap and dance when they burst.  As soon as they tossed a balloon, the girls would race back to get another.  They used a lot of balloons -- quickly!  (Filling balloons takes significantly longer than throwing them!)  At the end of the afternoon, our yard was covered with the colorful remnants of fun.  (Picking up the pieces takes about as long as filling balloons!)

After our big day, everyone slept very well.  And we get requests for more balloons.  All the time.  So, if you're looking for some water balloon fun (we're not really up to a consistent toss or fight),  let us know.  The circus would be happy to oblige!

Scenes from the Circus: The Circus Set to Music

If you needed further proof that we here at the circus don't necessarily know how to quit when we're ahead, consider this: we moved the girls into a shared bedroom this week.

We've been meaning to do it forever, but we've been (read: Mama has been) slightly nervous (read: terrified) that putting two little girls in the one room would seriously disturb the girls' sleep.  Kathleen is a terrific sleeper; Madeline, not so much.  We had visions of normally sleepless Madeline making Kathleen sleepless, too.  And that would mean even less sleep for us.  And since sleep is a precious commodity around here, we'd delayed the "big move."

However, in a fit of something -- we still don't know what -- we just went ahead and moved the girls in together on Friday night.  (Don't worry, the "move" didn't involve disassembling or even rearranging furniture.  That'd been done months ago.  All we needed to move were some blankets and loveys, and well, Madeline into the newly shared room.)  The girls knew the "move" was coming someday, and they were quite receptive when we announced it would happen that night.

The move has not been completely smooth sailing.  Predictably, it takes the girls longer to fall asleep.  This has been most noticeable with Madeline, who's up far longer than we'd even suspected singing and talking at night.  (We'd not used a monitor to listen to Madeline before the girls were in together.  Madeline is more than capable of letting us know when she needs us.  Loudly.)  Kathleen largely ignores her little sister and appears to be able to sleep through most anything.   Although the first night was rough -- the new routine completely threw Madeline, who was up six times that night -- things are going better.  Now if we can just convince Madeline not to start her day at quarter to five each morning...

However, the point of all that background was that, although it has deprived us of some sleep, the "move" has provided us with plenty of laughs, too.  We get a kick out of hearing the girls and talk and sing before they fall asleep. 

The first night Mama and Daddy nearly cried with laughter listening to Kathleen command her sister, "Shut your eyes!  Shut your eyes, Maddie!" while her sister responded with an equally forceful, "NO!"  Also, Madeline has a much larger repertoire than we had previously realized -- her post bedtime medley includes Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Holy, Holy, Holy, Sing, Sweet Nightingale (from Cinderella), and the perpetual circus favorite Tractor, Tractor.  The lyrics on the songs are a bit fuzzy, of course, but the tunes are easily recognizable.  Our favorite moment thus far, however, occurred just a few nights ago.  We don't know what precipitated the conversation, but we could hear Kathleen declare, "That's not funny, Madeline!" while Madeline roared with laughter.  When Madeline's laughter would die down, Kathleen would again insist, "That's not funny!" while Madeline belly-laughed.  They continued for at least five minutes.  And then they fell asleep.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Madeline's love for her baby brother has only grown over the past two weeks.  She's still fascinated by him and asks to kiss him and hold him whenever she see him.  He has a name now -- Madeline's version of Indy sounds like "E."  Although we're delighted by this love, occasionally Madeline's exuberance can be a bit intimidating.

In an attempt to keep Madeline at arm's length while Mama nursed John David, this week we set about teaching Madeline "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  (We hoped that the hand motions would distract her from climbing on Mama and attempting to hug her brother.)  We started out our lesson by asking Madeline to show us her head.  No problem!  We next asked Madeline if she could show us her shoulders.  She paused for a moment and then ran to her father, who was studying in the recliner.  

"Dada!  Dada!" she cheered.

It took a moment for the light to dawn.  

"Oh, sweetheart," Mama replied, trying to contain her laughter, "You're right.  Daddy is a soldier.  But we're going to sing about our shoulders..."

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, the other night we introduced our girls to the "oldies" after dinner. . .   They're naturals!  

A few things we've learned this week...

Kathleen and Madeline are truly in love with their baby brother.  

Madeline refers to John David as "my baby" and she becomes very, very concerned when he cries.  Whenever she sees him, she calls out, "Kiss, peash!" until you bend low enough for her to kiss his little head.  When she's permitted to hold the baby (with lots of supervision), Madeline is in heaven!

Kathleen is also quite enamored of her baby brother, although she only calls him Indy.  If anyone is so foolish as to call him something else (you know, like John David), she says quite forcefully, "His name is Indy!  You were joking."  Kathleen sings for her brother when he cries, and she speaks quite sweetly to him about how we'll take care of him, sounding surprisingly like her Mama.  When Kathleen's permitted to hold her brother, she beams with pride.

Help is wonderful!  Our church family has been great about bringing us meals to ease our transition (we're eating like kings!), and Nan and Grandpa have come to lend a hand the days Jim's at class.

Our little boy is destined for basketball.  His aunt and uncle gave him his first basketball, and he's taken to it quite well.  We've also witnessed John David craning his little neck to get a better view of the NBA finals on television...

It's definitely a bit crazy, but we love our three-ring circus!

A Family of Five

Our family of five was reunited on Wednesday evening when Mama and Baby Indy were discharged from the hospital.

John David, all tuckered out from "getting ready" to go home.

Looking pensive.

The stay at the hospital had been just fine, but we were grateful to go home a bit early. (We'd had a semi-private room all to ourselves and would have had to share it had we stayed any longer. As far as we were concerned, there isn't really an upside to being in the hospital if it isn't in a private room!)

Mama and Indy weren't the only ones looking forward to having everyone home. When Daddy left for the hospital Wednesday morning, he explained that he'd bring Mama home with him that afternoon. Madeline's first question was, "And my baby?"

We brought him, too. And when we walked in the door the girls' excitement about welcoming him home had not diminished... not in the least. They ran to greet us and insisted we put their brother's carseat on the floor so they could inspect him.

The girls showered him with kisses and with gifts they'd selected for him weeks and weeks before his birth. We celebrated the home-coming in true circus style -- with a pizza-movie-picnic-night! (No cooking, minimal clean-up, and enthusiasm from the entire family -- the perfect welcome home meal!) The girls couldn't have been happier. And their brother took it all in stride.

The celebrating continued the next day, when Indy reciprocated the gift-giving. (There'd been too much excitement to add new toys the evening before.) If the girls hadn't loved their brother before, they certainly would have after they opened their gifts! Madeline received an Elmo toy that she'd been admiring in the toy store every time we went. She couldn't wait to get him out of the box.

And Kathleen was delighted with a "leapster" learning toy, which is now a "naptime toy" and has made announcing Kathleen's nap a joy.

With the girls happily distracted, Daddy got a chance to snuggle with his little boy.

We can tell that Mama will have lots of help with the new baby...

But there'll be plenty of playing, too!

Dr. Kathleen gives Elmo a full physical.

Madeline insisted on wearing the baby's hat. He won't be able to wear it again now until he's at least a year old!

We're feeling fully integrated as a family of five! Our transition from man-to-man to zone defense seems to be going well, at least so far. We are grateful that Daddy has been around full-time since we've brought John David home. We'll see how Mama fares when Daddy returns to class and "real life" resumes...

Grandparents are great!

Mama wasn't there to witness it herself (she was still lounging in the hospital), but according to our camera's timestamp, Grandpa was manning his station (complete with accessories!) at about twenty to seven on Wednesday morning.

Is he great, or what?