Tea Party

Many thanks to M, K, and Baby L for this adorable kids' tea set! The girls were so thrilled to open it today after school.

And, speaking of school, E's first day was today - she loved it! Afterwards, she fell right asleep until I woke her to go get C...

Take-home words

C's teacher is impressed with her sight reading, and has started adding three "sight words" a day for C to work on. Friday's words were:

Of
Have
Because

They are also working on cursive letters (which I didn't do until 3rd grade...).

The girls went to a birthday party with Aunt B and her fiance yesterday, and today we all went to the Dino Museum for a couple hours. We tried to go to this cute little coffee shop downtown, but it's closed on Saturday and Sunday (?!?!).

E starts her preschool on Thursday. Next week my friend R is coming to visit!

Now you're all caught up on the exciting lives of the Bass gang.

Spot the real baby

Is it (a):


Or is it (b):


Oh, of course...(b)...the one with the reeeeealy bad hairdo! Sadly, Baby L's lovely full, dark hair has disappeared, leaving instead this one line of thick hair at his nape. I keep threatening to pull out the clippers...

Hawkeyes

There are some things that just stick with you when you move...such as this lovely verse:

"In heaven there is no beer...so you better drink it while you're here..."
So sing the fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Baby L was just gifted these Hawkeye slippers by our neighbors and friends in Iowa City. He is now one stylin' little dude - and future Hawk?
Thanks, K and C :)

First day of school

Today was C's first day of kindergarten! Of course, since she's in a Montessori school, it's not quite kindergarten as we think of it...her class includes students ages 3-6.



End of the day report was all good. She obviously had a wonderful time, and her teacher told me she was "a joy" to have, and very inquisitive. Of course.

Cool all around

D brought home part of a rattlesnake for the girls to see (killed in the chicken coop of some co-workers...thanks S and D!). They thought it was really cool:

(a. rattle)
(b. skin)

And speaking of cool:

A little family swim this afternoon:

My new favorite slogan:

http://www.littlegreenstar.com/images/th_recycle.gif?1160015425

Cute baby

L on the couch:

And with his twin (he he):

My special 12-weeker

Baby L just flipped himself from his back to his belly...which supposedly he shouldn't be able to do until 5-6 months, according to this statement from babycenter on developmental milestones (which of course I don't really care about...but still):

"Your baby may be able to kick himself over, from his tummy to his back, as early as age 2 to 3 months. It may take him until he's about 5 or 6 months to flip from back to front, though, because he needs stronger neck and arm muscles for that maneuver."

We've thought he was awfully strong since birth! That was really fun to watch! If I'd been thinking, I would have taped it, but here are the stills from moments ago...



C stuck her hand in the picture, but she wasn't touching him. He wasn't so happy to be on his belly once he got over...so we helped him back.

While I'm focusing on Baby L, I weighed him yesterday: 14 pounds, 3.5 ounces! That's a pound and a half that he gained while in Alaska.

Brag session over. Return to your previously scheduled web work!

Fun video

Another mama linked me to this fun pro-breastfeeding video on YouTube...I'm so happy to see a dad out there advocating for breastfeeding :)

We're home!

I uploaded our pictures today, so for your viewing pleasure, here are some Alaska pics:

Kayak beach (south side of Kachemak Bay)...nice outfits, huh?

E camping (looking like a true AK girl):

On the Spit:


Many more pictures from Alaska are in the Shutterfly album (also linked on the left under "Bass links - Photo album").

Travel was pretty uneventful. Flew Anchorage-Portland-Phoenix. We ran in to our friend A with her hubby and two boys in Portland - they were seated two rows behind us returning to Phoenix!
-----------
Today we stayed home, and my friend M and her kids came over (daughter L is 3, son C is 9 months). The girls all discovered my horrible, un-ecological mistake in the back yard: I left the hose running for a couple hours!! I was watering the orange trees this morning while hanging laundry on the line...well, I forgot about it. Hours later, the girls were thrilled to discover the mud pit that had appeared!


In other news...just five days until C starts school! E's preschool will begin on the 30th.
D re-installed our kitchen counter around the new stove, removed the old, broken wall oven to give a little more storage space, finally finished the wall in the living room, and patched the roof! He also replaced the bathroom faucets in our master bathroom, and had the place sparkling clean for our arrival :)

Final musings on Alaska

We leave on Wednesday from Anchorage. We'll drive to Anchorage on Tuesday to visit with our old neighbors/friends M and J and their beautiful little girl A, then spend the night with family friends before braving the plane trip first thing Wednesday morning. I will be charging the DVD players and stocking up on snacks from the Natural Pantry...

I have really enjoyed this visit to Homer. I'm trying to figure out a way that we can spend every summer (or at least a portion thereof) here. Yurt? Cabin? Mooching off the parents? Real estate has reached a ridiculous high here - some lots in town are selling for as much as $100K an acre! Unsightly hovels with no view run over $200K. Pity we didn't think to invest a few years back...but who knew I'd find the Homer-love again? (Not like we could have anyway, but still.) I am positive, however, that I do not want to spend winters here ever again. I think we finally got it right, moving to a non-wintery place!!

This town just has some amazing things...museum, visitor's center, ocean views, boating, camping (in rentable Yurts too!), beachcombing, restaurants, great brew...and so many great people as well.

Girls are playing right now with the son of my senior prom date. We'll see our best man and his girlfriend and her daughter tonight...funny how everybody else grows older and more responsible...

That's it for now. I will post pictures upon our return to AZ...

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Remember The Cat in the Hat? Well, Thing 1 and Thing 2 seem to have been personified anew in my two charming daughters...

They have removed a handmade doll from grandma's dresser, and destroyed the fishing pole which had been attached;

Scattered every item of doll clothing and playmobil toys around the house;

Picked tomatoes immediately after being told not to;

Picked big holes in the bedroom window screen, so as to push their toys out to plummet down two stories...

And locked the cat in a trunk...

Ahh...vacation!

A Homer Hello

Greetings from the frigid north! The kids and I made it safely, and more or less without incident last Wednesday. We hit dinner at the Moose's Tooth in Anchorage before tackling the 220 miles to Homer, all buckled into the big ol' company van.

Weather has been pretty grey and dreary...and highs reach about 55 degrees (half of the temp at home). In big news, there's now a stoplight in my hometown! A real, honest-to-God traffic light with all three colors!!

The girls have been playing with the neighbor's daughter, who is 10. They think she's pretty cool - but sadly she leaves on vacay tomorrow.

Baby L is a trooper. Still sleeping and eating as always...charming the grandparents and all the folks he's met.

That's news from the north. Stay tuned for updates over the next three weeks...

Handmade presents!

 

Thanks a million to S, a co-worker of D's...look at the adorable sweater with the extra-special touch of the lamb buttons...get it? L.A.M.B. - and I don't mean Gwen Stefani's line... Big sis sports her pretty new scarf...but other big sis was being a stinker (*no...not her*...lol) and wouldn't model hers.

Two Months

 

Doin' the baby-dance:

 

And drumroll please...
As of this morning, Baby L weighs 12 pounds, 9 ounces!

That's a gain of five pounds, three ounces over his birth weight, and a gain of five pounds, twelve ounces over his lowest weight...that makes an average gain of 10.2 ounces per week, 1.5 ounces per day...or 1.74e-5 ounces per second! All fueled of course by that miraculous wonder-food...breastmilk :)

Now really, one might ask why the constant weighing of the baby...and truthfully, it's just because I can. I have a digital postage scale, so it's fun for me to put him on it every once in a while to admire the concrete evidence of what the human body can do - both the infant's and the mother's!

Gettin' chubby!

...and sorry these are dark. I'll take some more tomorrow for Baby L's big 2-month mark!

Six Years of Wedded Bliss

Our anniversary was yesterday, Bastille Day, July 14. Auntie B and Grandma S took the girls for the afternoon, overnight and this morning, so D and I could have a "date" for the big day. We saw Harry Potter (!) and went out for Cuban food at the Havana Cafe. Baby L was his sweet, cooperative self - fell asleep during the movie, fell asleep at dinner - and stayed asleep until 5:30 this morning. He woke, fed, was changed...then went back to sleep, cuddled up with daddy, until 8:30. Can I just say: we were in heaven!! I can't tell you (a) the last time we slept in past about 6:30; and (b) the last time we went to a movie together!

As we were sipping champagne late in the evening, we started talking numbers since our wedding six years ago...here are some, just for fun:

3 - kids we've had (duh)
3 - states we've lived in
4 - houses we've lived in
2 - houses we've owned
3 - countries we've been in
1 - master's degree earned

And...places we've been (just since the wedding):

Alaska
Hawaii
Yukon Territory
British Columbia
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
North Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Iowa
Indiana
Ohio
Missouri
Kansas
Oklahoma
Texas
New Mexico
Arizona
California
Sonora

I have a new phone number!

So anybody who might be calling me...send me an email and make sure you get my new number. I'll try to send out some mass emails tomorrow to update everyone...but I wouldn't want to leave YOU out. So shoot me a message and help me get my act together!

Fun with Etsy

What happens when three kids and a husband are all sound asleep and I have the whole house to myself? Why, what better to do with my time alone...I play on etsy of course! Below are some of the items I've found and marked as favorites. When is the last time YOU bought handmade?

Click on a picture to go to the listing. Play around by seeing what a seller's favorites are. Enter something into the search. Browse by category. Get lost in the site - see what some creative folks out there are doing! And no, it's most definitely not all kids' stuff.