It occurred to me recently that there aren't nearly as many photographs of sweet little Luke as I would like there to be. I suppose it's the lot of the fourth child, but the poor guy hasn't been the subject of as many snapshots as his siblings have been. And as you can probably guess, I feel more than a little guilty about that.
When Luke was grinning in his Bumbo the other day, I attempted to assuage my mother's guilt. But, as you know, getting a photo of only one child (Luke in particular) is next to impossible with this group. No sooner had I pulled out the camera than siblings were angling to get in the shot. First one, then a second, then a third. All four kids together!
Predictably, none of the photographs was "perfect." But somehow the series of photographs captured what no single photo could -- a real glimpse into life at our circus.
So, without further ado, a circus photo shoot:
I love these people! (Even though they sometimes drive me crazy.)
So, once again, it's been an appallingly long time since a proper update. Here's what we've been doing since the first of the year...
Being Goofy.
The girls call this "Who-Hair." (You know, like Dr. Seuss's "whos down in who-ville") It's possibly their favorite thing about bathtime.
Being Adorable.
Almost three months in, and his hair is still (we think) sort of red. I love it! I just wonder how long it will stay that way.
I know this photo is blurry, but it's still so cute! Luke has great expressions.
Taking a spur-of-the-moment adventure.
On a sad and rainy Saturday morning we jumped into the van and headed down to Monterey to the aquarium there. It was quite literally a spur-of-the-moment decision. One minute we were lounging around in our pajamas and the next 45 minutes later we were driving down highway 101. It was a great decision. The girls and John David loved the aquarium. And the weather in Monterey was far, far better than at home.
The sunshiny day meant lunch outside -- with a view of the ocean. Jim and I liked the view, but the children were more impressed by the sea gulls. Go figure.
Dancing.
Both girls performed in their dance class's "Big Show." The class was a lot of fun; not only were the girls able to be in class together, but there were only two other girls in the class. It was like a semi-private lesson. Some days we were the only folks there! (Also, we loved the "Hawaiian Rainbow" music.)
Learning how to help out.
Fortunately for me, our little people seem to enjoy helping out around the house. (Well, not "picking up." That requires coercion encouragement.) The girls are quick to volunteer to help dress or undress little Luke, to fetch diapers or burp cloths or such. Kathleen has really enjoyed helping in the kitchen and has recently learned to peel carrots. (A word of warning -- if not closely supervised, the carrot will be peeled away entirely!) And John David loves to vacuum. I can't take the vacuum out of the closet without him begging to use it.
Being a star. (Or at least the Star of the Week.)
Kathleen was the "Star of the Week" at her preschool during the last week of January. She worked hard on her poster. It reads: All about Kathleen Golby. I am 5 years old. My favorite color is pink. My favorite animal is a snail. My favorite food is hamburgers. Illinois is my favorite place (my cousins live there). When I grow up I want to be a mommy. My favorite thing to do is go to the beach. If I had one wish, I would wish for another stuffed animal dog to play baby dog with.
Acquiring pets.
No, we've not gotten a dog. Or a cat. But Jim has allowed the girls to keep two snails (found in our garden, no less) as pets. The snails, Katherine (Kathleen's) and James (Madeline's), live in a very large clear plastic jug that has been made more hospitable with some river rock and sticks and such. The snails seem to like their diet of kale, spinach, and romaine lettuce. And the girls absolutely love having pets, even though everyone knows that the snails will be staying in California, even when we move. (Now you have a better idea why Kathleen's favorite animal is a snail.)
Hanging out at the park.
John David is scheming about how to get up as high as Madeline...
How terrifying cool is that rope climbing park? Our children love it!
The "I Rule" shirt cracks me up. The girls are just old enough to understand the pun, so they love it, too.
Playing soccer.
Kathleen has begun a soccer class, which meets one day a week in the early afternoon. (We play at the park while she plays.)
She was a bit tentative at first, but warmed up quickly.
And gives soccer a thumbs up!
Developing our fashion sense.
"Look at me, Mama," she called, "I'm so dylish!" (Stylish!)
Smiling!
Luke might be our most smiley baby yet. His grins delight all of us. Even when I stagger out of bed in the morning to pick him up, completely exhausted, he has only to smile up at me and he completely wins me over.
Kathleen is such a proud big sister. And look at Luke. He adores her, too!
It's nearly impossible to take a photo of Luke alone. Everyone wants to be in the picture with him.
Being unstoppable.
John David continues to give us a run for our money. He has recently discovered that he can defeat the gate closing off the kitchen by barreling into it. When the gate falls down, he steps careful over/on it and then continues into the kitchen. This little maneuver takes no time at all. He can complete a mission for a banana (which he elected to eat with a wooden knife!) or chocolate syrup in less time than it takes to change his brother's diaper. He'll climb anything. He'll open anything. He'll spill anything. (How about red nail polish on carpet? If you ever need to know, Windex will take care of that. It'll take an entire bottle, but it will work. Thank you, internet.) Honestly, he's smart and he's unstoppable. But he's sweet and he's cute. And he absolutely melts my heart when he leans in and says, "Wub you, Mama." (Good thing, huh?)
These first two months of 2011 have been, yet again, a whirlwind. Jim is working like crazy to finish up his dissertation (he's scheduled to defend on Good Friday) and we're slowly coming to grips with the fact that we'll be moving across the country in four short months. We're doing our best to deal with the chaos of our circus while soaking up the last of our time here...
And so we can finish up with last year and get on with this year, I will now share two photos of our New Year's Eve celebration.
We started gearing up for this celebration at about 7:30 pm, Pacific Standard Time. This is not as much lead time as you think; we celebrated New Year's Eve along with the great people of La Paz, Bolivia, which is to say that we celebrated the arrival of 2011 at 8pm Pacific Standard Time. We like a party, but we like our little people sleeping even more.
We got the kids all ready for bed, decked out in fleecy pajamas. Then we put sweatshirts and vests and shoes right on top of the pajamas and headed out the back door. This alone constituted a party for our children -- running around in the backyard, in the dark. What can we say? We're exciting people.
To add to the festivity, we distributed glow sticks (which we'd had in the kitchen cabinet, leftover from when I'd stocked up at Target's dollar spot back in October) to the children. (We'd had glow sticks on the brain, given the glow stick celebration at the end of the nativity video we'd been watching all Christmas.)
For the next fifteen minutes, our children just ran around our little backyard, waving their glow sticks, cheering in the dark.
Do we know how to throw a party, or what?
This is a dark and lousy photo, but you can see that I'm not exaggerating --
our children were racing around our backyard, cheering.
Jim brought his macbook out with us and, thanks to a friend's code-writing genius, we used a nifty little countdown clock to count down the seconds until the New Year (in La Paz). At the stroke of eight there was much cheering and hugging and toasting (with apple cider for the kids and a bit of red wine for Mama and Daddy). Our neighbors probably think we're insane, but we were having a lot of fun.
In fact, counting backwards from ten was so much fun that we did it all over again at approximately 8:02. The counting, the hugging, the cheering, and the toasting.
Kathleen loved the countdown. Madeline loved the glow sticks. John David loved the juice. He drank from his sisters' glasses while they were running around. Luke loved his nap.
We just loved being with our (very enthusiastic) little people.
Kathleen took this photo of us... It was her second attempt. Her first was just our midsections. We had a good laugh over it and promptly deleted it. And then added core work to my New Year's resolutions.
By 8:30 we had our littles in bed, and we settled down for a quiet grown-up evening. We were tired enough that we'd have been happy to greet the New Year in the morning, but Luke had other plans. In fact, he finished up his last meal of 2010 just a few minutes before midnight, so we welcomed 2011 at its very start. (I'm not sure that 2011 is going to be the year we get a lot of sleep!)
(Since we're now well into the month of February, this is clearly the time to tell you about our Christmas Day. You'll probably be reading about our Valentine's Day in July. Oh, well. Better late than never?)
Our quarantine continued on Christmas Day. Despite the lingering coughs and runny noses, the littles were beyond excited on Christmas morning. The girls woke slightly earlier than normal, and waited impatiently on our bed for their brother to wake. (It was John David who remained blissfully asleep, too young to really know what was going on; Luke, though also too young to choose to wake early for Christmas, woke when the girls burst into our bedroom, begging to go downstairs.) Once everyone was awake we had a collective mad dash downstairs. Here at least, the parents are nearly as excited as the children -- we were just about giddy with the anticipation of their joy.
And no one was disappointed.
Our quarantine meant that the day unfolded slowly and beautifully. We opened our gifts slowly (as in, we opened the last few just before dinner) and we ate favorite holiday foods and we stayed in pajamas almost all day.
Daddy and John David work on stocking; the kid-sized picnic table from Aunt Marg and Uncle Craig was an enormous hit; Luke was absolute angel for Christmas -- so well behaved!
The girls' "big gift" was a doll house to share; John loved the rainboots he received from Kathleen and still insists on wearing them frequently, even though they're rather too large; his wooden dump truck was another hit (and yes, we let him wander around in just a diaper all Christmas morning because we're classy like that -- and it made him happy); the girls were almost as happy opening gifts for baby Luke as opening their own gifts.
By late afternoon, everyone had dressed. (A Christmas miracle of sorts!) We watched Curious George together -- and snuggled in close for the "scary parts" (where George is all alone and sad).
We were slow to give up Christmas. The girls kept asking to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas andRudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer... Daddy even indulged them in their request to be reindeer!
A few days after Christmas we ventured up to Nan and Grandpa's for a Christmas Day redo. The bigger children were excited by all the presents (not just from Nan and Grandpa, but also from their aunts and uncles), but Luke chose to take a nap instead.
It seemed like a perfect opportunity to get a family photo -- we were all reasonably presentable and there were actually people to take the picture. Alas, this was the best we got:
It might not have been picture-perfect, but it was a great Christmas, nonetheless!
It's loud. It's messy. It's alternately humbling and hilarious. And it's frequently rather sleep-deprived. Nonetheless, we love it. We're learning to revel in the chaos of our life, trusting that where we are now is right where God would have us.
