Reviving the ol' Raising Frolic

Well, hello, there! I'm still here! Anyone out there? I just re-found my passwords, decided to see if this thing still works. Yep, seems to! Cool!

Not quite sure what I'll do with this yet, but for now know that I am still here, and my adorable Bean and Peach are growing fast and are happy and well. Peach is over a year now, walking well and starting to talk quite a bit. Cat, Hat, Dog, Dada, Mama....Lots of shrieking, too...always surprises WF, especially in the car. She's staying true to her earlier indications of being a quick, active girl who wants to keep up with her big brother!

Bean is now about 3.5, and just started preschool! Two days per week, and he is very excited. It's his "big boy school", with a lunch bag and Bob the Builder backpack (Mama's been trolling garage sales...). He's growing into a careful, caring boy, most of the time... he's still capable of bopping his sister, of course. He's a talker, still, when he knows the situation. If he doesn't know you, don't expect that sort of talking for a while, till he checks everything out.

I am plugging away at various odds and ends of independent work-type projects, and I'm happy to be back to a more regular two-day per week childcare/work schedule. WF is still at his old place of employement, supporting us with good benefits, etc. We're still living at our old rural place, now ON the grid, with bigger gardens, etc.

One of my biggest challenges in the past year has been colds/allergies/sinus infections; it seems my allergies to mold and/or dust have gotten worse, and our house is full of it... sneezing constantly doesn't leave much energy for cleaning, especially when the cleanign makes things worse for a while. I had about 8 colds during Peach's first year, perhaps mixed with allergies. I often can't breathe through my nose AT ALL, which makes sleeping uncomfortable. I'm in the house more than I used to be (ie home with kids), but haven't managed to get it cleaned up very well.

SO... part of my purpose for reviving the blog is to create a public accountability (but a slightly different public than Facebook; mixed feelings about that venue right now) regarding a CLEANUP project for the house and my own health. I was toying with "name" ideas... how about GREEN ROUTINES? Ie environmentally and healthy actions, done in a routine so as to make them more set in our fairly chaotic lives. Yes, something like that. More soon, I hope! I'll leave you with a picture of some sort...


At the "rock beach" on my Birthday... getting two to smile at once is nearly impossible!

6 months! (and 400 posts!)

Oh! We are still here, but didn't realize it had quite been since OCTOBER that I last posted. Hmmm. Blogger tells me that this is my 400th post, as well... in about 5years. I used to keep this fairly current back in the day!

We have a milestone right about now, with Miss Peach turning 6 months old! In keeping with her brother's schedule, she popped her first tooth this week, right at 6 months. She does NOT approve of how teething feels, and lets us know quite forcefully. She slept so well for months, and now wakes up crying. We even resorted to tylenol for a night, so we could all sleep. Ahhh....

She's a grabby, lively, active little one... she's wearing sometimes still 3 month size clothes, which blows me away; Bean was wearing 18 month clothes by this age. She can sit, grab, reach, pivot... I won't be surprised if she's crawling in a couple months. WF calls it an olympic sport to try to eat dinner with her in his lap; she reaches for EVERYTHING lightning fast. We need a little distance, and the high chair seems to be working OK for a bit. She tasted her first food the other day, avacado, but is still rather perplexed by the idea.

The rest of us are doing fine, sleeping sometimes, fighting cold and sinus germs, workin', neglecting the housekeeping, learning to use the potty (Bean is, anyway). He's doing well with that milestone, finally... such a big boy! Learning to count, recognizing letters (he shouted out to me today in the library "That's a K, mama!" when he saw one scrolling across a computer screen).

He's also so sweetly innocent of some things. He got a sucker at ECFE, and said thanks to the girl who brought treats. Then he turned to me and said, "What is this?" The conversation about this odd item continued later, to the amusement of the teachers. I later told him that people lick suckers, so that's what he did; never put it in his mouth because he'd never seen it done. And then gave it to me to save for later. Not sure if we've sheltered him too much? Ah, well, he'll learn soon enough about sugar, eh? We have been really careful, and I'm hoping I've saved him the fate of "bad family teeth", which I suspect is really "bad family sugar traditions."

Ok, a few pictures are in order...





My beans are so lovely, and I am so blessed. Much Gratitude!

9-10 weeks

Hmmm, yep, the blog. Still here, still of interest. It gets confusing, y'all. Things posted here get to different people than Facebook, which is different than real life (really!). I get lost sometimes, assuming some in one world know things posted elsewhere. And huh, maybe it would be nice to see/communicate/interact with people more in PERSON. What a concept, eh?

I'm enjoying most parts of my "new life" (ie home more with kids, no workplace, no regular paycheck....hmmm) but am really realizing what a support system a real full-time job can be. Benefits, co-workers, SICK PAY. I've been struggling to get enough paying hours completed, between kid's germs and my germs and various other things. We are still working to get the hang of things. Oddly, I miss that old workplace more NOW than I did for the past nearly-year that I've been gone. We get a little isolated out here.

But here, I do have some very cute "co-workers"... one almost 10-week old little person, who is still looking much like her brother (in similar-aged photo on left)! She definitely seems to be a bit more social, with lots of "talking" and eye contact.



Big brother Bean is still doing well, most of the time. I've had some not-great mama bear moments with him lately, when he's deliberately doing something to pester baby Peach; grrr! But he's mostly a very good boy. Here he's showing off a HUGE apple from our tree, a "crisp" (honeycrisp) apple that was very tasty when we had it for lunch today!



And in other news (that should probaby get it's own post when I get a chance)... we are now hooked up to the electric grid out here! The yard is still a mess from the trenching (digger! In the yard!) and they haven't re-connected the solar panel yet (boo). But it's been nice not to worry about power on these dark wet fall days. We'll get our first power bill in a decade soon, though, which might not be as fun.



More later!

Dancin'!

We had a big day yesterday, with a dinner out (the annual Co-op dinner, a big event with free, fancy food!) and even a dance! We stopped in at the Tamarack dance briefly (it was getting late), but Bean danced on his own, very well, with Dada. Peach refused to nurse even though she was hungry, because there was just too much to watch!





She's definitely a social one, and seems to like music. Someday we can have our own square of 4 for dancin'!

Square Compare II

So, this one's for Grandma T! Following in the tradition of these posts...




Baby Peach is doing so well... growing, smiling, "talking"... she's very social and has been cooing more than I remember Bean doing at this age. He is doing well with the new addition still, just a bit more testing limits with us lately. But he does love "baby sister"!

Catching Up

Wow, has it been a whole month since I updated this? Crazy. Sorry, you few and hearty blog loyalists! I may actually start updating this more frequently; I've recently remembered how much I used this as Bean's online "baby book" and it's nice to have that record. I have more traditional baby books, too, but since I now spend so much time online, it might be nice to have something more permanent and coherent than Facebook. That site does take alot of my online energy/writing, but it's just not a place to practice writing or keep a more complete record, I don't think.

Anyway. It's very late and I really should be in bed, so here's a quick look at Baby Peach, who has been SMILING for a while now. I finally captured it on camera! She loves her changing table as it's a perfect spot to be closer to faces, which she loves to look at and cooo.... Bean loved the changing table, too, but he seemed to be more into the view out the window; not as much eye contact from him at this age.

Ok, cut to the chase, the pictures, eh? Enjoy!