My New Niece!

This is indeed exciting news!

Maia Sage Miller

August 29, 2009

7lb 9oz

She's so beautiful. You all look beautiful. Welcome to the family, Maia.

Photos courtesy of Farrah Moser

Music and Dancing

Yay for Friday night music and dancing at the Clement house! I love it when Mitch gets out his guitar. I've never seen Ruthie crawl as fast as she did when Mitch started to play and she wanted to get over there and check out where that music was coming from. She loved it. Josie had her banjo out and Anna had her guitar, they both had their own picks (Anna's was dark purple), and they played right along with Mitch. I like it. Then they had fun zipping each other inside of the soft-sided guitar case.

Santa Came to our House!

Honestly, he did. Left three packages outside our door the other night with the names of three little girls on them. Talk about believing in Santa, there's no question about it in our house now, he came. Signed the Christmas wrapping paper himself: ~Santa.

The girls are loving their new outfits and have worn them all over even though they would fit more into the category of winter wear. Right now I think Anna's doll is taking a nap in her new shirt. But Anna wanted me to post these pictures of her in her new outfit (her idea, promise, 'and of the back, too, Mama!') and Josie would not be left out of the post. So here are the pictures of the girls in their new clothes from Santa:

Thank you, Santa!

While on the subject of clothes I thought I would show you what the girls wore all day yesterday in between wearing their new clothes from Santa (they change clothes at least 5 times a day, they are girls, you know):

Yes, bandanna shirts, that Mommy 'sewed' for the girls. And whatever other odd assortment of hats, belts and socks they could find in the drawer. They even wore their bandanna shirts up to the University when we walked up to meet Mitch after his last class. We got lots of smiles. I don't know if they were smiling at the girls shirts or at the smiles on the girls faces as we laughed the whole way up there. Lots of laughter in the Clement house and it is contagious.

Potty Training

We're attacking the potty training hurdle in our household right now and actually seem to be making some progress. Josie is consistently going pee on her own little toilet and the accidents are becoming fewer and fewer. She's wearing underwear around most of the time. Pooping is another story. We're not there yet. We'll let you know how it goes. Any encouragement you might have for our little learner would be wonderful and any tips/ideas for mama would be appreciated as well. I'm tired of washing diapers for two little girls so I have plenty of incentive, but I'm finding my patience to be very small for accidents when they happen.

Tent Fun

We set up the girls' tent on top of our bed yesterday and the girls had a blast jumping and rolling around. Here's two videos of the fun they had:

Last Potluck of the Summer

We've had a wonderful summer here and are finally feeling rejuvenated and enjoying the rhythm of our life after a hectic last year. It's good to be able to say that! Mitch starts classes again on Monday and we'll see how we weather this next transition in our lives. At least we feel like we're starting out from a good place.

We have had a potluck in our courtyard every Thursday this summer which was a fun time of connecting with our neighbors and eating good food together. Once school starts we all hunker down and start to live a different pace of life, but we have enjoyed our undemanding summer together. In honor of it being our last potluck of the summer Mitch and I made homemade ice cream. It's the best ice cream I've ever had.

Mitch's Pictures

Mitch took the camera to work one day this week and this morning this is what I found when I went to download pictures:

On one of the last days of his internship he got to take a tour of this pumphouse. Most of the rest of the pictures were up close shots of different parts of the piping in this picture. I just thought I'd share with you what Mitch gets excited about. I'm glad somebody does because I like drinking clean, fresh, safe water out of the tap at my sink.

Popcorn and Milk for breakfast

Almanzo Wilder talks of this treat in "Farmer Boy", so when Josie requested popcorn for breakfast, I obliged. They loved it, had a lot of fun with it, and left plenty for Ruthie to find as her treat later (notice how much ended up under Josie's chair in the second picture).

If You Can Remember...

I came across this poem yesterday and really liked it. It was what I needed to hear, what I needed to be reminded to remember. I thought I would share it with you:

If You Can Remember

If you can remember that it takes three of my steps to equal one of yours;
If you can understand that I must view life at an eye level three feet below yours;
If you can touch my life with your faith, without taking away my need for self-determination;
Then I can grow, learn and become.
~ ~ ~
If you can remember that it takes time for me to gain the experience in living you have already had;
If you can understand that I can only relate to those things which have meaning on my levels of maturity;
If you can let me take a step of independence when I can, instead of thrusting me out or pulling me back;
If you can touch my life with your hope, without destroying my sense of reality;
Then I can grow, learn and become.
~ ~ ~
If you can remember that it takes courage for me to try again after failure, just like you;
If you can let me find my own path when I want, instead of choosing for me the way you think I should go;
If you can touch my life with your love, without taking away the space I need to breath;
Then I can grow, learn and become.

-Marti King
for the Montessori Foundation

Our Very Own Swimming Pool

The girls have been jealous of Jack and Caroline's pool all summer and have been asking for one of their own. Now we have one! We have water days every Wednesday here during the summer where they bring out a bunch of kiddy pools for the kids to play in. This Wednesday was the last one and the Resident Managers were throwing out the pools afterwards because they were getting pretty beat up. So we brought one home!

Anna wanted you to see her jumping skills and Josie wanted you to see how she lies down in the water:Ruthie had a ball:

Josie's my one girl that actually gets cold sometimes and will be done swimming before the other two:

The girls are hoping for lots more warm days this summer now! Well, I should rephrase that. They don't care if its a warm day or not. I'm hoping that all the many days they'll be asking to get out the pool will be warm for a while now until the newness of the pool wears off. So far it's been on the chilly side and slightly rainy here. They don't care, since I've just been filling it with warmer water.