Forget the Solstice...Summer is Here Now!

I don't care what you say - THIS is the first day of summer. I have evidence to prove it:

A kid eating a quickly melting fudgsicle on the back patio.

I recently found a really great new thing called a Dripstik. They hold popsicles and ice cream cones and have little bowls around them to catch the drips. I bought one for each of the girls and they work really well. However, Jillian decided she really, really wanted to turn her treat sideways and ditched the Dripstik. By the time I figured that out, this was how she looked. I couldn't stop her. She was having too much fun and was already about as dirty as she could get.

Believe it or not, Miss Jillian will be three years old next weekend. I don't know where those
years went. We are having a very small party for her this weekend and she's very excited.

May as well update about the other kidlets too...

Here's Claire at the park:

I have noticed a huge change in Claire from last year in terms of her behaviour at the park. She's more fearless and does a lot more climbing and jumping and swinging than before. It actually seems like she gets a bit of exercise when we take her to the park now. Before it was just an outing.

Some of the things Claire says these days are amazing. We never know what's going to come out of her mouth. Yesterday, for example, I sat down to do her hair before school. I got out my big black paddle brush to brush her hair and she told me she wanted me to use a wimpy pink comb she found. I told her no and kept going with the reasonable brush and she got sort of mad at me.
To distract her, I asked how she wanted her hair done. She didn't answer me. I repeated myself. Again, she didn't answer me but she did poke her index finger into one temple and then the other. I asked what she was doing and she repeated her actions. At that point, I gathered that she was trying to tell me that she wanted a ponytail on each side of her head but was too mad with me to talk. Well, I wasn't about to go along with THAT so I told her I had no idea what she was getting on with but if she didn't use her voice I was going to choose her hairstyle for the day. At that point she sighed heavily and said "Mommy. I was using body language to tell you that I wanted a ponytail on each side". At that point half of me wanted to laugh my head off and the other half wanted to sell the kid on eBay. Instead, I explained that body language is a lovely thing but in this situation words would have been a better choice and besides - body language plus words is the best solution of all. Body language...sheesh.

Here is sir Daniel enjoying his new favourite hobbies a) the fisher-price aquarium bouncer and b) creating a beard of bubbles:

Wow...we really lucked out with this guy. He is such a happy, mellow baby. He almost never cries and now that he is learning to smile and giggle and coo, he's an absolute delight to have around.

About a week ago, he started putting himself to bed at night. Honestly! In the evening, he will start to fuss and none of the regular things (nursing, a ride in the swing or face to face time) will soothe him. At that point, we wrap him up tightly in his blanket, pop him into bed, put his lullaby CD on, and WHAM off to sleep he goes. If we don't recognize the "I wanna go to bed" fussing for what it is, he will ramp up and then we end up walking the floor with him until he gives up and goes to sleep (this was easier when he accepted his soother but his love of his tongue and bubble blowing mean that he won't tolerate the soother anymore). We also started to notice this self-imposed bedtime getting earlier and earlier. First it was around 9:30...then 8:30 and now it seems to have settled at around 7:30. AND - if all that wasn't enough good fortune for one woman - he started sleeping for longer stretches every night. Last night he slept for 11 hours! I am hoping and praying that he keeps this up. The unbroken sleep is wonderful and I've been a much happier person to be around.

Ok...it has taken me all day to write this. Time to hit publish and get away from it!