First Day of School

 The first day of school really snuck up on us this year. It seemed like we were just starting to hit our summer stride when all of a sudden it was time for heading back to school. It normally seems like we have weeks of build up to the big day getting everything prepared for a fresh start. This year I felt like we were scrambling at the last minute to make sure the kids had shoes that were not flip flops to wear on the first day. Even when the actual day came, it didn't seem to have "first day of school" crispness to it. I'm thinking the lack of crispness had to do with the fact that we were starting school earlier than ever this year. There's nothing crisp in the air in the middle of August.

Despite the fact I think we were gypped, at least a few weeks of summer the kids were not lacking in their enthusiasm for the new year.

Yeah...this is the best shot I have of the two of them. We hadn't left a lot of time for picture taking this morning.

No first-day nerves for Reed. I think the fact that his new class would be made up primarily of the same kids who had been in his class the previous year had something to do with it.

Max wasn't short on excitement either...

...although, truth be it, he was a little under the weather. You can see it a little more in this picture, but he wasn't about to let the remnants of any bug keep him home. He wasn't going to let a "shoe shortage" keep him away from 1st grade either. I had ordered him some shoes online, but they hadn't arrived in time, so at the last minute we found these shoes...which, sorry to say Max, somehow gives you a Mexican gangster look...a cute Mexican gangster.

The backback is the same, but where did my baby faced little boy go?? (Actually it is a little shocking how similar he looks to his kindergarten picture.) Looking at this makes my heart hurt a little.

 

We were in such a hurry trying to rush out the door that I almost overlooked getting Ruby's "first day of school" picture, but there was no way she was going to let that happen. She may have pajamas and scraggly hair, but she did remember to grab her backpack for the photo. 

After a very unceremonious drop off at school, the girls and I headed home to tend to really important tasks like cleaning up the breakfast. It always amazes me how quiet the house gets when the boys go back to school. Ruby adores her brothers, but she didn't spend too much time mourning their departure. Having the lion's share of my attention and a cute baby sister to spend the day with seemed to fill the void for her.

Ruby  also didn't waste any time filling the roll of "oldest" at home and immediately started teaching Harlow the ins and outs of what it takes to put the silverware away.


Harlow was a very attentive and interested student.

I think they were both satisfied by the experience. Give it a year or two, Ruby, and I'm sure Harlow will happily take over your job.

And just like that, another school year has begun. New routines are already developing and the fly-by-the seat-of-our-pants summer days are officially over. Thankfully I still have 100's of pictures to document the fun we had, quiet time to forget the stressful parts of the chaos, and these two cuties to keep my days full while my boys are gone.

Harlow-3 months

I guess since Harlow had her four month appointment yesterday, I am officially behind with her. Oh well...give it a few months and I wont care that I couldn't be a little more timely with this and I'll just be glad that I did it at all. 

Harlow at 3 months is just like Harlow at 1 month, 2 months (and 4)---sweet and calm as can be. I keep waiting for her personality to do a flip flop on me, but so far she continues to be easy going, super smiley and a dream baby for me. I remember when I used to do these posts for Ruby, I would have a hard time at this age catching pictures of her big smile. With this girl, however, I can almost not help but get smiley pictures every time I pick up my camera.

This is how she wakes up. Even in the early morning hours after her 6 hour stretch in the night I know she's awake because I can hear her talking/singing to herself. I've never had a cheerful waker, so I think it's pretty amazing.

Happy to hang out in the bouncer while I make dinner.

Her laugh is low and gurgley and just as infectious as her smile.

While she sleeps is one of the few times she's not smiling.

Harlow is my only child that has not slept in our room for the first 3 months of life. The bassinet we had for her was too small from day one home from the hospital. (Have I mentioned that my girl is off the charts tall?) Sam convinced me to put her in the crib right away and just use a video baby monitor to keep an eye on her. I was reluctant, but it has really seemed to work for her. I think it's made her a better sleeper at night, but I do miss having her nearby sometimes. Watching her on the monitor is not quite the same, but it still makes me smile.

She's still loves to "talk", and we love to talk back. She prefers to listen to and mimic lower tones and I love it. It looks like she and Sam are having the quite the conversation here.

Harlow has Heterochromia iridum, which just means she has two different colored eyes. You don't really notice it too much, but in this picture it's pretty prominent. Just one more thing that makes her special.

She's still a very popular gal in our house and still gets fought over now and again.

Obviously, she takes it all in stride.

Even with all the eager Harlow holders, Sam still gets his fair share of time toting her around.

Sam's not the only one that gets to take her off my hands once in a while.

Aside from being everyone's favorite, she is getting cuter and stronger everyday. The kids absolutely love it when she shows off her skills. Lifting your head is pretty exciting stuff over here.

It's hard to believe we've only had this sweet girl for three months (ok..actually 4). She really is such a happy little person and we are thrilled that she is ours.

Summer Hike

I knew having a new baby in the mix was going to make this summer a little less adventurous than most. I had secretly hoped that somehow with baby #4 I would be so experienced that everything would be effortless and I would still be able to keep up our normal summer speed of activities. Ha! The secret is out and I was wrong. New babies are never effortless for me. Even with a practically perfect one, I feel the weight of my inadequacy as I try figure out our new normal. Even so, I think we've had a good summer, although it has definitely been more low key and much of it spent very close to home.

While I have understood the necessity of not venturing out too far, I have also missed some of our normal summer outings. So last week, when some very California-esque perfect weather arrived, I knew we had to do something with it and headed just outside of our neighborhood for my first hike with the kids on my own. Even though it was only a couple minutes from home, I felt pretty brave taking on the challenge. The kids were of course were thrilled and within mere moments of the idea's mention we were all ready to go.

My sweet baby girl wasn't a huge fan of the baby bjorn, but in typical Harlow fashion she didn't make too much of a fuss about it.

Reed decided he was going to use the hike to get ideas to continue working on a sketch he was making of a "super bug" habitat that they had all been working on before I sprung the hike plan on them.

Max, was clipboard free, but full of smiles.

One of the reasons we moved to the neighborhood we did was because of the easy access to these trails. We have enjoyed them, but not as often as I would like. There are a few paths that parallel each other. The kids decided that I should go on the more worn one while they took the more "treacherous" one.

One of the paths follows a creek. I love this type of water, so it was a must-stop on our hike. The kids certainly didn't mind having time to try skipping some stones.

When the kids got tired of throwing stones, we made boats out of leaves and watched them float down the stream. I actually thought Max's simple design was pretty cool.

This is the closest we could get to a group shot. It's amazing to me how quickly Ruby has just become "one of the kids", pretty much abandoning her "baby" role completely.

Sweet Harlow.

Reed was eager to move along the trail, but was patient and helped out when I needed to stop in the middle of our adventure to feed Harlow.

Another unexpected discovery along the way was a butterfly breading ground. I have seriously never seen so m many butterflies in one place.  They didn't show up too well in any of the pictures, but the kids had so much fun dashing about trying to catch one. Max really wanted to bring one home, but thankfully we finally convinced him that the butterflies would be much happier right where they were.

My happy and adventurous bunch.

On our way back to the car the kids were a little more reckless in their hiking and ended up a lot more muddy. Especially when we discovered a lovely mud puddle.

At first we just looked.

Then we got a little closer.

It didn't take long before all three found their way into the mud.

After a while though, they were ready to be clean again.

But not before Reed made a very important discovery...

... a caterpillar which he was confident was a new species.

On our way out.  Reed is always eager to be my photographer.

Once we got home, it was straight to the hose to wash off.

I think the kids enjoyed the clean up even more than the getting messy part of this adventure.

Overall, I think my first "brave" outing on my own was a success. Summer hike? Check.