Slice of Life

A few weeks ago, Louis brought home some caterpillars from his cousins house to feed and watch turn into butterflies.  This was significant because we’d never done this before AND because did you know my sister in law actually calls me and offers to watch my kids while I do shopping in town?  It’s like Christmas every 3-4 weeks!  I drop them off and weave through COSTCO with time to actually look at the labels and consider my purchases.  It’s a little slice of heaven.  Then I come back and they run away and don’t want to get back in the car with me.  They’ve obviously been having fun too.

Anyway, the last time they went to their Aunt’s house they found some caterpillars and brought them home.  Louis has been a very concerned steward over their well being and made sure we found the right kind of leaves for them to eat.  When they made their cocoons he could hardly contain himself and asked multiple times a day if they were ready to hatch.  Finally on Saturday, the glorious day arrived.  They hatched out and we spent a minute or two with them until they flew off to their new adventures in the great wide spaces of Hauula.

My kids are sprouting into little people before my eyes.  They run around like little hooligans together and Pearl never wants to be left out of anything.  

Pearl is saying 'cheese' in this picture

 Elsie is no longer a toddler but a full fledged little girl with multiple wardrobe changes every day and a huge vocabulary.  She always tells James and I how much she loves James and I and I have to coerce her into doing ‘pretty hair’ (she tells me she likes it when it looks scary).  She loves dolls and princesses -how they crept into our house I have not idea- but she is always telling me she needs to look beautiful.  She is stubborn but helpful and finally loves to play with her brother.  If she gets mad at me she announces how many days she's not going to love me for [usually 2-3].  Thankfully, she forgets the punishment within a couple of hours.  I can’t believe she’s three next month.

Pearl runs everywhere and is an amazing little talker.  Most mornings she and I are up before everyone by almost an hour and she loves to sit on my lap and try to communicate.  She tells me ‘fish’ and ‘bathroom’ (we have ceramic fish on the wall), ‘Elmo’ and ‘book’ so we have to go find the Elmo book we read last night and says thank you to everything.  She’s 17 months and very tiny for her age, but she's not quiet.  She fights for toys, books and food and runs up to me holding her head yelling 'ouch' if anyone hits her.  She has turned into a terrible napper, but since we’re on the go a lot, it’s probably not her fault.

Louis is still our jumping, running, villain fighting little boy.  The other day his Grandma got him a swimtsuit with long sleeves and a hood for sun protection.  He looks like a complete weirdo in it since he is so dang skinny and he is convinced it’s not actually a swimsuit, but a super hero outfit.  Now he wears it around the house screaming ‘Electric Blue!’ – the superhero name he dubbed himself and jumping from dresser to bed to floor.  Louis has so much energy and seemingly little ability to hear anything that comes out of my mouth, but his adventures are so funny, I usually can’t help but just smile and enjoy his enthusiasm (and then yell for him to stop climbing the neighbors tree, or light pole).

The other day we were driving in the car and we told the kids them that we had a surprise for our family.  It was something for all of us, but it wasn't something you could eat and it wasn't a toy, and we'd tell them when we got out of the car.  They were silent and thoughtful for about 3-4 minutes and then all of the sudden Elsie pipes up with a happy, hopeful voice and with eyes as big as saucers- "Is it an elephant????!???".  Sorry Elsie, no elephant, but you are getting another brother or a sister in October [technical due date is October 19th].  We're all excited to have another baby to love on and since I feel like I've already hit rock bottom in terms of house cleaning, meal pre and general productivity, we're feeling OK about adding another to the mix.  Its not an elephant, but its pretty good.