Summer is ending! Or so the Facebook reports of school beginning lead me to believe summer is over. The hot heavy humid weather finally broke. The weather is now cool and dry, crisp, like you can smell the pumpkins and apples ripening in the fields.

Did I say pumpkins? Our fabulous pumpkins have grown and grown!

We have three x-large. And then four or five smaller ones. We can’t wait to carve them. I don’t think I have much of a farmer in me; it seems so bloodthirsty to plant the seed, fertilize them, water them, weed around them, and then wait until they are perfect and cut them up. And not even to eat them.

Summer is ending. And with it, the chances to take off for the day. I decided to take the kids down to the Art Museum. Wednesday was a beautiful day – blue skies, dainty puffy white clouds, Lake Michigan , dragonfly swarms!  And minds influenced by John Hughes start thinking about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Three kids, an Art Museum, blue skies. Ah. But taking the three small-ish kids by myself, especially with the youngest still needing to be strapped into a stroller to avoid having us be shushed or worse by security guards, it doesn’t seem like the brightest idea. But the blue skies and the plan – only an hour or so there. We’re walk quickly. We’ll take in the Art Museum in a very breezy, kid-friendly way.

The Burke Brise Soleil as designed by Calatrava was magnificent. Miranda missed the wings entirely, and she still loved the space.

Bella wanted out of the stroller. The Brise Soleil is the prettiest waiting room in all of the country. It has gorgeous views. And space to run. And benches. But we could be waiting to see a doctor, or a judge or maybe even catching a plane. It didn’t prepare us to see the art collection. And it was so very light and airy and much of the gallery space is shadowed and almost dank.

Of course, with everyone snapping photos like this, who needs art?

We made our way into the museum. And maybe if I had pulled out a Monet first off or if this museum had a Seurat, Miranda would have gotten into the spirit. Instead, I thought modern might tickle our sensibilities. All those questions about what is art and the colors are so lush. Alas, I chose wrongly. Even Ferris Beuller had to deal with Cameron on his day off.

The kids area was a hit:

I missed the family packs when we went into the kids area on our way into the collections. A scavenger hunt might have helped. Of course, every time we stopped Bella decided she wanted out of the stroller. So no sketching or reflecting or slowing down for us. Henry would have liked to find out just how close you can get to the art before the alarm goes off. For the record, we did not set off any alarms.

They did appreciate the chair gallery where you could sit in the chairs! Which is way cooler than it sounds. And twins of some of those chairs were in other exhibits, which the kids noticed and appreciated.

Next time, I figure out how to get outside to the War Memorial. I think the juxtoposition and the views are interesting. Next time, we’ll check out a family pack. And next time, we’ll take Papa.

For all time and memory, Miranda put a small clear disk of plastic in her eye today. We saw our favorite eye doctor, who diagnosed Miranda with amblyopia ~four years ago. Without glasses, she still sees 20/400 in her left eye. With glasses, she sees around 20/60. And today in a contact, she saw a few letters at 20/50. Contacts probably won’t make 3-D movies work any better for her, but some tests show she is getting some stereo vision benefits from both eyes working together.

Her right eye is still humming along at 20/20 and confused about what wall the bother is about.

Like a girl whose found her identical twin, Miranda is already plotting all the ways she can refute our pleas for her to “put on her glasses!!!”

Henry’s eyes have stayed the same. His amblyopia is still there and his vision is corrected to 20./20 in both eyes with glasses. Hallelujah and pass the salt.

I didn’t take Bella back to the eye doctor. She went last year. And having two of them squirrel around is probably all I or Dr. D can handle.

I read somewhere today (but I don’t remember where so it will be sadly uncredited) that August is the February of summer. Isn’t that the truth?

Our August has been fine. Our anniversary kicked off the month (12 years). We saw one of Rob’s brother and family. The kids would like to have cousin C visit often.  We met a new baby, darling N, last Sunday. She was so small. And adorable. And patient with my kids’ desire to paw her. Miranda had junior book club. Henry won a TROPHY for participating in T-Ball. T-ball has dragged on for Henry, his enthusiasm waning with each 3 inning game. But the trophy, wow, it buoyed his spirit. He’s ready to sign up for next year.  I know we’re supposed to hate participation trophies and the “we’re all winners” spirit of t-ball, but I disagree. I love it. I’d rather we all not lose than only one team win. The kids went to Pioneer Kids Day on the railroad in West Bend. The learned about hobos. And model railroads. And had a far better time than Miranda expected. Of course, after her plan to chalk hobo messages on our mailbox fell to the wayside, she had a hard time falling asleep, worrying that we’d all become hobos and lose our house.

We’re off to the State Fair on Saturday. Having done the Ozaukee Co. Fair last month, I think we can skip the animal barns.

It is incredibly, soul-despairingly hot here. I don’t want to go outside. I don’t want to let the kids out, not that they are enthused. It is hot. We (our family, not humanity) are not meant to live in the desert, I’d guess. I venture out at some point to check on the garden. Harvesting has begun. The zucchini had to be trimmed be trimmed back – too much miracle grow? We have 3 huge pumpkins, grown from seed! They are amazing! And several small pumpkins. I’d love to have more pumpkins next year. I am most excited to watch my red and orange bell peppers – they are just tinged red and orange. The zucchini feel like I am paying to harvest them. But red peppers feel like someone is handing me crisp dollars along with the yummy vegetables.

We have begun shopping for Miranda’s birthday. And Bella’s will be right behind. Ah, August. School is sneaking up on us. Boo!

I better post about T-ball before the season ends. Henry plays. Rob coaches. Miranda, Arabella and I cheer.

Miranda and Henry were in the local fourth of July parade. It was so hot. After  a charming weekend weather-wise, Sunday was hot and humid. I’m glad the kids did not melt. They both rode on floats, Henry for t-ball and Miranda for swimming. I waited at the end of the parade, to allow us to make a good getaway when they were done. My mom saw them much earlier and she thought they were a bit perkier.

Click on any photo to begin the slideshow.

Just yesterday I heard on the news that it had rained on 16 out of the past 27 days. And even with all that rain, I lost a grape plant. And when I returned the plant to Home Depot, the woman remarked, “boy, it looks dry.” As if I purposely killed the plant, just so I could return it and the go outside and buy a new plant, exactly the same type.

I should have sent my representatives.

What a bunch of clowns:

No really, circus people:

My parents took the older kids to the circus in West Bend. They were prepared and amazed.

We took Bella along with us to Miller Park to sit in the good seats. Well couches, in the back of the suite. She was underwhelmed. If she had had to sit in park seats, she would have known she had it very very good. Running. And carpeting. And a 5 year old girl to chase. And at the end, balloons!

Samurai Bella

KISS Bella

Beautiful Sisters (Bella Sorelle)

Graduation Day

One of the last pictures of the front teeth, I’ll guess. They are getting pretty loose.

Henry came home from school today and the first thing he said was, I cut my pants at school. I was cutting and my pants got cut. I didn’t know that could happen.

The shorts (the weather is finally nice enough for shorts!) have a small cut about 8 inches from the waistband. Lucky he didn’t catch any skin, I guess.

* * *

Bella continues with the flop on the floor and kick and scream temper tantrums. She even follows you from chair to chair or room to room when you try the sensible course of ignoring it. I think they frustrate her nearly as much as they frustrate me. I hope she learns to talk soon.

She flopped face first in the sand yesterday. She came up with a mouth full of sand, indignation and confusion.

* * *

Miranda did a perfect dive in her swimming lesson tonight. She came home floating on a cloud. After spending so much time consoling her when she isn’t happy with her swimming and reminding her that swimming is going to get harder before it gets easier, it is hard for me to remember to just be happy when she’s happy. I have to work on that. And she’ll be happier to try the next dive.

I hope you’ve found your way here. I moved the blog again. Why do I do this? I used to change the homepage that had the link to the blog. And now I haven’t. But I do update the blog (sometimes). And someone told me that I can make a static front page for the blog, so that might happen. Or not.

Right now the old blog address has an oops link, which isn’t correct. But WordPress often doesn’t want to do what Iwant it to do, in the way I expect it to do it.

In other news…

T-Ball begins tomorrow. Henry is excited. Don’t remind him that he only king of liked t-ball last year.

Miranda has been having headaches. So often and so loudly that I have considered they are, well, in her head. But the pediatrician suggests we look at TMJ. So we’ll try that route.

Arabella wants to give up her nap. Her mid-morning or afternoon nap, she was already down to one. She thinks if she eats, she doesn’t need to sleep. But she’s awfully grumpy. Until she lies down, then she finds a rainbow and it pulls her out of bed with a giant smile on her face. 20 months. Oh my.

In happy news, Daria comes out of video (DVD? digital format in 1 easy package? What do we call things anymore? Do musicians make albums? records?) tomorrow. I love Daria. I think it was the first show that I watched on MTV, and I was old (for MTV) when that happened. I considered naming Miranda and Henry and Arabella “Daria.” Rob’s birthday is coming up. I wonder if he’d like the set?

May Day! How did it get to be May? Where are the communist parades? I read one of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries and its Cold War details were charming and historical.  I suppose that happens all the time – the huge thing that seems so huge, it just vanishes or fades away and calling someone comrade isn’t even a meaningful insult any longer.

I am mostly amused these days. Except about the pollen. Damn pollen. Spring allergies are here. Boo! And with it, I feel like I am going to die before I ever recover. I wonder if in addition to the histamine reaction and the leukotrienes being modified if the serotonin levels in my brain dip? In the last few years I have really noticed how hopeless I feel when I am sick.  I can usually tell the gloom is descending, and it lifts when the snot stops.

Bella, poor Bella. She is suffering from whatever tree is blooming right now. We are in sync. I don’t think I’ll hema nd haw as I did with the odler kids about an allergist visit. Henry is much better on the Singulair – his head is not clogged. But his allergic symptoms without an acute allergic reaction has always made me a bit suspicious. Bella, she has the dripping nose and she’s rubbing her eyes and she is not eating well. All in the last 18 hours. Same as my timing, which makes me doubt we’re sharing a cold. Those seems to cascade around here  rather than hit with brute force at one time.

Bella is perfecting the temper tantrum. The lay down on the floor and kick. The follow me from room to room until one of us gets distracted sufficiently. I think she is frustrated that she can’t talk. This is such a  novel problem I am speechless. Miranda didn’t speak until later and when she did speak it was very hard to understand what she meant. But she was rarely frustrated. I learned to say she was frustrated to get speech therapy services (because I was frustrated and she probably was, even if she didn’t show it). Henry didn’t talk and didn’t care about talking and then one day, he did care. And he started talking.  Bella grunts expressively. She points. She touches things and then other things and convinces you she really wants that cookie -not not that one, that one! ! !

I have mostly convinced myself that I am going to wait her out. We’ve watched her ears more closely than Miranda, she she is hearing us. But I feel so bad for her, unable to make the words come out. C’mon language explosion. We’d liek to see you. Stat! ! !

When Bella isn’t adding drama to our living room…which she does by throwing tantrums and then making the same noise when she is stuck on a chair. So the first time, you hear wah wah wah! She is yelling. And we are taking the ignore the tantrum approach.  Calm calm calm. Pat her back. Then she wonders away happily. Eats something. And then another tantrum. Really, Bella, again? And this time, she’s on a dining room chair and she wants to go down. She isn’t even yelling Moooommmm! My favorite is when Mom is pronounced to rhyme with come and means Mom! Come!

In other news, I was using voice recognition software to type in a pages and pages of a work-related project.  And even after 17 times, when the computer thinks you said cheeses instead of Jesus, I laugh. And my dad could hear me talking. Maybe the occasional giggle. He asks my mom what I’m doing. She explains. At lunch he says something about those darn computer systems and I should just talk to a person. Huh? I said. It seems obvious to him that I was trying to talk to a computer and it would be better to just call a person and not a computer. Huh? I said. Computers taking peoples jobs. Huh? I said. I am typing…well, I am trying to get out of typing so I am talking. I did agree I could hire a typist, but she would probably make more than I do. It could be argued that I am the typist, but let’s just say typist will never appear on my resume as it is not one of my top Skills. He was still unsure who I was talking to.  And I was still unsure how to explain what I was doing. Other than not subcontracting this project.

Miranda thought that the voice recognition was hilarious. It is. She quickly produced nearly a full page of mostly nonsensical text. And she has her own email account now, so watch out world.

I still have reminders, phantom pains, about my laptop going kaput. I don’t have photos under control. I have barely emptied the camera. Today I realized I had to use GIMP as I never loaded PhotoShop on the new-to-me laptop. And I have been using a newer version of PhotoShop at work and I love it. Time to save my pennies and upgrade.

Way back:

Making Miranda's Mars visual aid

And the for Henry’s birthday, we went to the Hilton. It was very nice. We got very wet.

Catch it!

Splish

Splash

Henry lost his first tooth

He is now down two teeth, and the first one that fell out is almost all grown in.

The stairs, not just for climbing.

Hugging her fuzzy puppy while wearing her fuzzy jacket.

Kiss!

She has probably just hit the dog. The surest way to get a kiss from Bella is to have her first smack you in the face. I am not sure I ever want to see what goes on inside a toddler’s brain.

Star Wars: Battle of Unfair Advantage

Arabella loved wearing Henry's Obi-Wan robe.

That was last month’s obsession. She has moved on to taking her pants off and on. All day long. Extra fun – getting stuck taking off her shirt.

Happy Birthday to Sarah

The lovely roses from Rob, who was not glowering at Miranda or me, I don't think.

Sitting in the plastic hat box, reading the story Miranda wrote