Last Day of Soccer Camp

The whole team, plus Coach Mickey (known to his players as Coach Mickey Mouse):

My future goal keeper (child could not keep his hands off the ball):

With buddy Jack:

Matthew did a fantastic job with soccer this month; it was amazing to see how much differently he handled himself in that environment (as compared to when he's at home). He was brave and tough and enthusiastic. He took some pretty hard falls and bounced right back into action with NO FITS or drama. (Pretty much miraculous!) We are proud of our boy and thankful that he had this opportunity.

So what did we do? We celebrated!

So, Grahamy, what do you say? Do you want to be just like your big-brother-soccer-player when you grow up?

He says yes.

Esme (and Co.) at Playgrounds

Here's a little sequence of Esme shots taken at Black Hills Park on a recent family day...

Another Esme playground memory (that Dave tweeted last week with much more brevity than my version):

So David takes the kids to our neighborhood playground after he gets home from work. He and Esme are swinging, side by side, when she pipes up.

Esme: You gackie. I peeyo.
Dave: (incredulous) I'm the blanket, you're the pillow?
Esme: Yesh.

Oooooookay! Obviously, we can't know exactly what was going on in her mind when she made this profound utterance, but if I had to translate, this would be my guess.

Daddy, in this moment, I feel utterly content and at peace. You and I go together so well; your very presence is inexplicably comforting to me. Metaphorically speaking, Daddy, you are the peanut butter to my jelly, the whipped cream to my hot chocolate, the cheese to my macaroni. Forgive my pedestrian imagery, Honored Father, but words are inadequate to capture my deep affection. All I can say is that I love you more than my very life, and I beg you to remain with me always.

Or, in the immortal words of my least favorite musical theater characters of all time:

"We go together like

Ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da dinga dong,

Remembered forever as

Shoo-bop sha whadda whadda yippidy boom da boom.
Chang chang changity chang shoo bop.

That's the way it should be!
Waooooooh - Yeah!"

A little girl and her daddy. That's the way it should be.

Graham and the Ham

First Summer Celebration

Meg just completed her very first Summer Celebration, our church's week-long morning camp for 6-10 year olds. She had a great time and came home strangely subdued each day, which could only mean that the SummerCel folk did a fantastic job exhausting her usually boundless energy. She learned a lot about God's greatness, laughed a lot at the antics of Captain Cooley, Captain Maka and Douglas Doogleberry and played a lot with her teammates Lexi and Chloe, among others. Also... we heard through the grapevine that she won yesterday's race for her age group, beating all the other six year olds, both boys and girls. (Neither Dave nor I were there, so I'm not totally sure that this is accurate. Meg seems to think that some of the boys beat her. But I wouldn't be totally surprised if she won, because she did very well in the timed race at our home school field day last month.)

Our very special thanks go to our dear friends the Cooleys, whose hard work and sacrifice did so much to make this week a highlight for our girl and several hundred other kids! We love you, Josh, Kel and girlies! Well done! May God reward you with some rest and family togetherness in the days ahead.

Reading Corner

Summer Haircuts

In case you didn't catch it in the last post, two little people around here got new warm-weather 'do's last week. Matthew just needed shearing; that Wilcox hair is thick and hot! This "before" picture was taken on a Sunday, when he was all spritzed down and combed. Other days he looked kinda shaggy.

Meg was inspired by a recent stylistic maneuver my sister made to chop her growing locks and try to look "just like Aunt Lena." In her "before" shot her shoulders are all scrunched up, so the hair looks even longer than it really was.

And an "after" picture!

I think they both look so cute. Super-short is perfect on Matthew, and a bob is my ideal cut for Meg--it frames her face so well! (Actually, she looks like I have always wanted to look in a bob!)

Weekend Celebration

(June 16th was Dave's birthday; the 17th was Father's Day. He worked both days, but we managed to squeeze in a little celebration last night.)

Copy Cat

For some time now, one of Meg's favorite early-morning activities has been copying pictures from our library books. After our last trip to the library, I was startled to see how well she imitated the different illustrators' styles. Here are three examples:

From Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

by Dr. Seuss

From Brownie and Pearl Step Out

by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Brian Biggs

From If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond

Very interesting, no?

Five Months Old Today!

Soccer Player

Someone is attending a soccer "camp" this month.

It's more like a clinic, really, that meets twice a week through the month of June. He loves it so far, and we're thrilled that our big boy has a real BOY outlet for a while, a place to run and kick and yell and be with a bunch of other boys who are all doing the same thing.

Last Math Lesson

Around here, we're making a slow merge into summertime.  Today we did our last official math lesson of the year; all that remains for tomorrow is a final "assessment." I've done very little documenting of our school life since Graham arrived, but completing our math curriculum in its entirety seemed noteworthy, so I got out the camera.

The lesson involved drawing and graphing some of our favorite summer activities. Meg and Matthew wanted to color in our pictures.

The finished product:

Aaaaaand, the close-ups.

Taken together, those last two shots show that our favorite indoor summer activities include going to see a movie, making lemonade, playing soccer (more on that in another post), reading a book, and watching TV. Outdoors, we like to go on picnics, play at the playground, watch fireworks, go to Jimmie Cone, swim, go to the beach, help Nana in her garden, and walk on our neighborhood trail.

Sounds pretty good, no? Bring on the summertime!

Space Hat

Mommy, can I have a space hat like Little Bear?

There are so many times a day--too many times, I often feel, especially with an infant--when I have to say no. But this was a request I could happily answer in the affirmative.

We had to cut the flaps off of our box, so it's not exactly like Little Bear's, but Matthew is quite satisfied.

Little Bear pictures credit: Maurice Sendak via my vintage book collection (in blog form) on flickr

Graham-Graham's Sweet Face

If a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, then Graham is all the tonic this family needs. He is such a sweet, jolly little fellow, a bottomless well of smiles. I never knew anyone to give love so freely. I know, I know--all he's really giving is a contraction of his facial muscles. Still, if you had the chance to live with this little guy and be on the receiving end of his smiles for one day, you would feel loved too.

On the eczema front, I was able to get him into the pediatric dermatologists at Johns Hopkins amazingly promptly. (Many, many thanks to Sarah for babysitting my bigs at the very last minute to make it possible!) Dr. Cohen gave us two new prescription creams, one for the thinner skin on Graham's face, and one for the rest of him. He also told me to give him two baths a day, and to keep him in long sleeves and pants all summer long. He told me not to take him outside unless we're in the pool. Word for word: "There are only two places he should be this summer: in the pool, or inside in the air conditioning." Of course, my first reaction was an internal snort ("Huh. That would be great if we had a pool, and if this was my first child instead of my fourth!") However, I have since learned the hard way that the summer heat and humidity really do exacerbate Graham's eczema (super bad), so we're doing what we can to follow the doc's orders. And the two baths a day, which I don't really have time for, are helping a LOT. So I'm making the time. Because eating is overrated. And so is showering, and all that other stuff to which I used to feel entitled.

As long as I can keep those smiles coming, I'll be just fine.

Cutie-Tootie

There aren't enough words in the world to describe how much we enjoy this little person. I don't know whether it's just her, or her age and stage, or the curls, or what, but Dave and I love us some Esme Rose. Of course, she is two, so there's the whining and the fit-throwing and the collisions with her siblings... but there's so much fun stuff too.

One of our favorite things right now is how she mixes up her "ings." "Cleaning up," for example, becomes "clean-upping" when Esme says it. "Dressing up" is "dress-upping." "Getting up," "get upping." And you have the idea. I like repeating her words back to her to see if she'll notice anything funny when a grown-up says it that way. Nope. Not at all.



And after all, Mommy, why should I take any notice that it's not "right," since you and Daddy think it's so adorable?