The Haircut that Changed Everything

It’s been one of those days—rainy outside, a lack of energy (my own fault since I stayed up late painting) and very little patience for: entertaining kids, the crying and screaming from minor injuries, rejecting food, and incessant questions while trying to get out the door. “One more week until school”, I kept mumbling. So we had to get out of the house. Ella’s haircut was on the list of things to do before school starts, and so we tacked it onto a couple of other errands we needed to run. So we get to the salon and Ella skips happily to the chair…she loves a good haircut. With Samantha parked in the stroller, I took the seat next to Ella to oversee the process. A lady, spotting Samantha in the stroller, came up next to us and says, “Look at that little beauty.” And then she notices Ella and says, “Oh, you have two little beauties.” To which I respond, “I sure do.” As she starts to walk away, she mumbles, “not surprising…look at the mom.” There I was, sitting in my jeans and flip flops, with my hair in a ponytail, no make-up, no jewelry, feeling so annoyed with the day, and in a matter of 20 seconds, this woman had totally turned my day around. Thank you, whoever you were, for making me feel like a million bucks on a gloomy day. And Ella's new little bob is darling, too.

And PS—Ella asked that I put up the following pictures of her neighbor friends. It’s been like one big party these past few weeks—running back and forth from house to house, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, water gun fights, playing tag, and then absolutely crashing at night. I just hope they don't get sick of each other.

Samantha

Given how fast the first year of Samantha's life has flown by, I might need to have another 10 kids in order get my full dose of the infancy stage. As of Sunday, we no longer have an infant--Samantha is one year old. It has flown by and I'm a little sad. I know having an infant has its drawbacks too, particularly the first 3 months, but we have enjoyed our little baby so much this past year.

Personality oozes out of her--in public, she stares at strangers until they look at her--and as soon as they do, she lights up with a huge smile. She eats everything under the sun--often times much more than Ella does now. She is a total snuggler and loves to play with people's hair. She is the proud owner of 12 teeth...to which Brian says, "We gave birth to a little piranha." Her preferred mode of transportation is crawling, with very little interest in being up on her feet. Our pediatrician says she may be a late walker given her 95th percentile head circumference...that trait comes from the Bowcut genes, not mine.

And then the screaming...she screams like a banshee. I was telling my friend Anne the other day about how horrible the screaming is. We stopped at the grocery store the other day for 20 minutes. From the time we entered the store, to the time we left, she screamed, an ear-piercing, lunatic scream. Not because anything was wrong..she wasn't crying...just screaming cause she felt like it. Sales people came to ask if they could help. Other shoppers came and said, "oh it's you who has the little screamer--I heard her 5 aisles over". Or, "it's pretty cute when it's not my kid screaming." For the first 10 minutes I tried covering her mouth with my hand. Then I decided I needed to just hurry and book it out of there. A cute, but maniacal little thing. Today I had Samantha, Ella and friend Nora in the car. Ella and Nora were happily playing in the very back seat of the van. Samantha, seated in the middle row, would scream at the top of her lungs, to which the girls would respond, "STOP SAM!" This in turn, made her do it louder and longer. Mid-scream, I turned around to try and distract Samantha with something and I see she has a huge smile on her face while screaming at the top of her lungs. She gets exactly the type of reaction she's hoping for.

Due to some scheduling conflicts, we celebrated her birthday on Monday, a day late. She had a pretty good idea something special was going on, she just had no idea what.

Her Grandma and Grandpa Munk and great-Grandma Spring came and joined us for dinner and birthday festivities.

Because of her love of bananas, I made her a banana cake with cream cheese frosting, which she devoured in a second.

And this little introduction to sugar did it's job--she was bouncing off the walls, bopping to the music on her new Winnie the Pooh rider.

We sure do love you, Samantha!

Quality Family Time

I’m suffering from blogger’s block. Not so much that I don’t have anything to write, but mostly that I don’t want to. We returned last week from our trip out West, and having returned to a house full of boxes and walls that need to be painted, I haven’t mustered up the energy to sit and write. So I’ll keep it brief and provide photos highlighting the trip. I left off with our time in Southern Utah, but headed North for a stop in Salt Lake. We stayed with Brian's Grandpa, who lives alone and who is so cute with the girls. This is the first time he has met Samantha and she was quite taken with him.

We also enjoyed seeing a number of friends while we were there: the Kirwans hanging out in Provo for the summer, Brian's high school friend Danny, and his wife Lisa, and then Garrick and Annie Infanger. We had a great time with all of them. The Infangers have a little boy, Eli who was born about a month after Ella when they lived back in Maryland. There is some bond between Ella and Eli--not that they remember each other, but every time we see them (maybe once a year), they immediately hit it off. And the Infangers are like that, too--I love having friends who every time you see them, you just pick up right where you left off. Please come back to Maryland!

And THEN, the family reunions: First at Bear Lake with my Mom's side. I know there some roll their eyes when they hear about having a family reunion, but in my opinion, this was unique, thanks in part to my Mom's fabulous planning. Ella's experience helped to resurface my memories of large family gatherings and playing with my cousins from early in the morning until late at night. You'd just play hard, taking little time to eat or go to the bathroom. There are 5 other little girls around her age and they had a ball. It made me so happy to see her having that experience.

This picture of my cousin Christian makes me laugh--we were waiting for our tour of Minnetonka Cave, and to keep the girls occupied, he sat there and told them a charismatic story of the history of the cave of "falling waters." The girls were spellbound.

The highlight by far being tubing on the lake. At one point my sister, Jen, Mom and I went on together and amid screams and squeals, we decided we needed a vacation home and boat at Bear Lake. It has been awhile since I have had such pure, unadulterated fun. It was a blast.

Jen and I took our girls on. We thought they'd be terrified, but to the contrary. We had a system where if you wanted to go faster, you'd give the thumbs up. If you needed to slow down/stop, you'd give a thumbs down. Ella kept giving the thumbs up--I had to at one point hold her hand down.

The Munk Family Reunion (my Stepdad's side) in Montpelier, Idaho. So great to see cousins who I haven't seen in years, and to become reacquainted with the towns of Montpelier and nearby Georgetown (where Russ grew up).

Highlights included: Crazy family activities that would give others reason to disassociate themselves from you. Isn't that the true purpose of families, though? People who have to tolerate your periodic loony-ness?

Ella reciting "I'm Being Eaten by a Boa Constrictor" in the family talent show.

The Minerva Teichert paintings in the Montpelier Tabernacle. I had no idea such gems existed in the grand town of Montpelier.

After bidding Brian good-bye in Idaho, the girls and I packed ourselves into Jen and John's minivan to drive to Oregon--yes that would be 3 adults and 5 children in a Toyota Sienna for two days. The kids did FABULOUSLY--truly amazing. My kids are hands-down, star travelers. I’m a firm believer that if you want your kids be good travelers, then you have to travel with them. But there was no precedent here--they've never been cooped up in a van with 6 other people for two days straight. This was not because I have conditioned them--they just did it. Bless their little souls.

A week in Oregon hanging out with my sister and her family. How often do you get a whole week to just hang with your sister? Highlights included:

-More quality cousin time (or maybe too much?). Ella and Lauren, who are a month apart in age, for better or for worse, are more like sisters than cousins. There is a lot of competiveness, but many sweet moments, too, including making "Pinkalicious" cupcakes.

A trip into Portland to hit the science museum. Very cool.

A day trip to a nearby state park with a gorgeous waterfall that you can walk behind.

Thanks, Jen and John for a fun week!

Okay, this posting wasn't as brief as I had planned. What can I say, perhaps I'm getting back into the blogging groove after all.