This boy

Aw man, this Moosling of ours. This one is a doozy. I forgot the roller coaster of age two (well, I didn't really forget so much as I had no idea it could be like this).

This kid is a BOY in the most traditional of ways. He loves to wrestle and be noisy and wild. Any padded surface is a trampoline. Every longish stick like thing is a sword. He loves semi trucks and mud puddles, dinosaurs and airplanes.

 

 

But, he is also the most sensitive of little souls. The wrong tone of voice can get him sniffling. He gives hugs that make you  melt with arms wrapped tight around your neck. He gives kisses and says "I missed you today."  This boy loves  his mama and has also recently found room in his heart for daddy. But forget those grown ups, it's his "Shoo-Shoo" he loves the most.

 

This boy loves to be included in the big kid stuff--no baby cups or baby sized silverware, he wants what Clementine has. He loves music and singing--he quickly learns choruses and claps along to songs with perfect rhythm. He is drawn to daddy's "t-tar" (guitar) and longs to play drums in the drum room.

 

Dutch is the biggest talker of the family and he often creates  his own Dutch-ese. Recently, he's asked for "Roni-peppers" on his pizza. Pomegranate somehow became "Apple Pie". Sister became "Shoo Shoo". He sings the words "thank you" as well as "You're welcome." After school, he wants the music on the radio turned off because he's "Got stuff to say!"

 

We love this wild little moosling. Even at his all too familiar 5 am wake ups.

 



This Girl

This girl, our darlin' Clementine. We just can't get enough of her these days. Seven is an amazing age.

She sings wherever she goes. She makes up her own epic songs. She sings Katy Perry in the shower. She has a poet's heart (and recently learned about metaphor) and she expresses her love for us thusly: "Mama, you are the moon and Dutchy and I are the stars close by."

She is sensitive all the way through. Tender to the core, Clementine just wants everyone happy. She's a born care-giver.
(She is also literally sensitive--she can't hold an onion or walk close by the bin of onions in the grocery store as her eyes start leaking immediately!)

She is an artist, a story teller, a musician and a tremendously patient big sister.

She is growing on up and changing more and more every day. Making her own way is becoming  more important to her and sticking close by mom and dad is a thing of the past. We love this little soul so much.

Holiday Port Festival

My mom came up for the weekend and to celebrate we took her to the Ferry Terminal's annual Holiday Port Festival. (Where are the boys, you may be asking?? After getting up, ready to party like a Canadian, at 4am-Dutch finally crashed and took Cam along for the nap.)

 Clem got her face painted and then we listened to some carols and kind of watched some dancing.

 There were DOZENS of really cool gingerbread houses on display. It was really super crowded around these tables so we saw the items on display from our school then high-tailed it outside for....

 HORSES! We got to go on a little horse and carriage ride.

 It was literally around the block but this girl loved it so much!

O'Tanenbaum, O' Tanenbaum

We are the kind of family that does one holiday at a time. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, we're over it, moving full steam ahead toward Christmas. To get in the Christmas holiday spirit, the four of us headed on down to Old City Hall to check out 22 themed Christmas trees and see Santa Claus.

 There were all kinds of Christmas tree themes. This one was called Granny's Memories and it was my favorite because it was pretty vintage-y. It had old spectacles, kid's handprint ornaments, quilted and hand-stitched as well as some traditional ornaments.

This one's theme was Shiny Things and it had lots of hand made tin ornaments in all different shapes.

 

Here's Clementine's favorite tree, full of Nutcrackers! It was German themed.  

(Fairy themed!)

 I get asked a lot about carrying this nearly 40 pound boy on my back (still). Mostly it's the "Why are you still carrying him on your back??" question. "He's nearly three!" And I'll tell you why I do: this kid is a RUNNER. And he's not nearly three, he just looks like it! He's only 2.5 today! My point is, I'll take knowing where this kid is and enjoying the scenery as long as I can.
(He proved his running skills when we finished up at City Hall seeing the trees and walked over to the Children's Museum for the babes to get their goofballs out. He ran laps around the Children's' Museum for about an hour and a half.)

 

 

 

When we were done, we checked out the vintage Santa Claus figurines behind the glass. While Santa was there today, my kids just weren't quite ready to see him. Clem was especially timid when we went in the Santa Claus room! She prefers Santa statues.

Clem's Artist Party

 

 

 

 While starting to think about this girl's birthday celebration--back in August, of course--she stated emphatically that she would like to combine her love of Art and her love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Of course.

 So, we decided to break this soiree into parts: first, an Artist party with her friends at Creativitea in Fairhaven.

Clem and I have been here several times and totally love it. It seemed like a great place to do a birthday. I had no idea that the kids would have the entire loft space to themselves, a staff member to help move things along and everything planned so I could just snap pictures and chat.

 

Pumpkin Patch v2.0

 We sure love our Pumpkin Patch excursions around here. We've done two this fall, so you would think we'd know what we're doing. Nope. (This second Pumpkin Patch outing proves we're still a couple of rookies.)

 This pumpkin patch is at Bellewood Acres, which mostly deals in apples. My kids loved all the family style things to do there: tractor tires for climbing?? Yes please!

(Rookie mistake #1 dressing your two year old explorer in white when headed toward muddy pumpkin patch.)

 Fences for posing upon? I'll take some!

 Pumpkins for hugging? That's right up Dutchy's alley! (Yes,  he hugged every pumpkin we passed.)

(And it was at this point that Rookie mistake #2 became evident: while I knew to dress my children in rubber boots, I kicked it into high-gear wearing my favorite pair of Converse. My now destroyed pair of converse--as I lost one shoe, completely lost it, in an unseen patch of mud.)

 This pumpkin patch also has corn. And the inedible corn gets shot from blasters toward targets 50 yards out. Clem had a pretty keen eye!

(seriously, look at my shoe!)

Pumpkin Patch 2014

 

 We had a beautiful burst of sunshine over the weekend so our little crew high-tailed it to Stoney Ridge for a bit.

 Dutch has been once before but he was so itty bitty that he slept through it. Needless to say, this was a very exciting trip for him. He was excited to explore, excited to run and excited to make a TON of noise.

 Dutchy loved the scarecrows and pumpkins,

and loved running in the wide open spaces most of all.

 

Clem liked the snowman made of tractor tires,

 and her little train ride.

I realized, quickly, that I really wasn't getting the pictures I had hoped to with Dutchy's constant running. So I bought a bag of fresh doughnuts in the hopes he'd hold still. I got this, above, shot. Not my favorite, but he WAS holding still. For the rest of the day, he carried around the same doughnut in his hot little hand.

 And at the same time, Clem found this gourd someone had dropped on the ground. She immediately started scheming: "What can I use this for??" And she carried this little gourd around for the rest of the day in her hot little hand.

 There was a tractor ride, of course.

 And more pumpkin-patchin'.

 Clem found her perfect pumpkin (which I made her carry).

While this last picture has neither of my children in it, I had to share because I love this chandelier so so much. It's made of like 50 mason jars!! I loooooooove it.