Jamie's Skills

Can I just say this kid is EXHAUSTING??  I really don't remember Lucy being quite so much work as a toddler.  I gleefully put him to sleep every night around 7, and spend most of the other hours I'm with him following him around averting disaster.

I regularly find him on the kitchen table with his toes hanging over the edge, on the back of the couch trying to climb onto the window, in the bathroom sink, on top of Lucy's dresser, and jumping on our bed.  He's also a kid with a number of hiding spots, so there are times in our 800 square foot house that I can't find him for a minute or two.  He is also getting really, really good at annoying Lucy.  It's hard to explain to her that her emphatic "yuck" when looking at the dinner on his face now is fueling more chew-and-show later.  I think, anyway.  I can already see him delight in getting a rise out of her.

We've got a few nicknames for this one including "The Safety Baby" and "Dr. Destructo."  I dropped the kids off with a friend not too long ago and Lucy asked Jamie on our way out the door, "Are you ready to go wreck the place?"  That about sums it up. 

The video is the amazing things he can do, not necessarily the dangerous ones.  In addition to making me work to keep him safe, he's figuring stuff out at a lightning pace.  He's incredible.



Jamie's Skills from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Camp 2012

It gets more beautiful every year.

I think back to when I was pregnant with Lucy and my cousin Ken was at camp with his two girls who were then 11 and 14 (ish).  Ken was ecstatic I came to visit because his girls were so incredibly bored and I helped entertain them for the day.  Apparently one of the first things they noticed when they arrived was the conspicuous lack of an ipod docking station ... and that was before we had tv channels there, too.  It was their first time visiting camp.  I first wonder if I was incredibly bored at camp as a teenager.  I have a lot of memories from camp growing up, but I don't know from which years in my life.  We also had Ree Ree and Putt Putt in town to break up the trip, as well as a lot more company than Mom?  Next, I think about if my kids will be as incredibly bored at camp as Erin and Tara were if we continue to bring them every year. 

We were lucky enough to be joined by Sara, Tim and Jacob for a couple days of visit this year.  Lucy had a blast with Jacob, one of the only 13 year old boys to ever walk the earth that absolutely adores children.  He might have been a grandmother in his past life.

Tim kayaking with a great shot of Jo Mary.

Jamie the fearless.  Here is where he got the nickname Dr. Destructo.  The next shots are him jumping off the dock.  I never tested it, but I don't know as he would have gone right in by himself.  He doesn't jump in the pool here.

Aunt Sara can't take a serious photo.

Apparently we need more choices for guest seating.

Stacy and Chloe visited as well.

 Here Chloe really dug in to her mom about how much she wanted a little brother.  It was heartwarming birth control for the Henry family.

 We were excited to give the girls sparklers.  It didn't turn out as well as planned.  Neither girl was thrilled, to say the least.

 And yes, we listened to Big Mouth Billy Bass.

 And yes, we wore the moose hat.

 And yes, we climbed the giant stone.

And yes, we engaged in activities that could lead to another dad-directed splinter surgery.

My beautiful kids at beautiful camp. 
What could be better?

Fun at Grandma's

Dragging the excitement out as long as possible, I've postponed adding any more photos of Maine because aside from 95 degree weather and a billion trips to the pool, not much is happening here.

In Maine at Grandma's, you can always count on her buying a new toy before you get there, like a water table.

And you can always count on us to use it inappropriately.  Yes, yes Lucy is wearing pearls that belonged to Nana Boddy, her great-great-grandmother.

 Yes, yes Jamie is sitting in the water table.  Way to go, team York.

 Though you may think my kids never stop moving, they do sometimes take the time to read through a few good books.

 We also play Go Fish.  Excitedly.

 Washing up is important, too.  We'll see if we get an invitation back next year, as Jamie broke the faucet he's holding in this picture.  It's possible, but I'm not counting on it. 

Maine Fun from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Dance Fever

The cutest dancing girls on earth.  Hands down.  Another devastating consequence of our cross country move is that these girls won't be grooving at their senior prom together.  We love you Chloe!



Lucy and Chloe Dance Fever from Kristin York on Vimeo.

Bad to the Bone

Yeah, Lucy's a motorcycle legacy in my wicked cool family.  She was so proud to be riding her own motorcycle with Grandpa and Uncle Ryan.

 Did I mention she's the only one that owns a harley?  We've signed her up for the princess angel's motorcycle gang starting in kindergarten.

 And though Grandma's not exactly a motorcycle mama, she's pretty cool in her own way.

More Maine pics to come!

T-ball

Lucy is a little too young still for the organized games (soccer and basketball start at 5, t-ball at 4) but a woman I teach with who is an enthusiastic coach organized a month-long t-ball experience for her kids and others that she knows in town.  It was 45 minutes of play with the most eclectic teams you could imagine, ranging from a 7-year-old who almost hit a pitch from Heidi out of the park, to Heidi's 2-year-old son Bryson who spent most of his time picking up rocks with Jamie and another little guy that had to be coaxed to 1st base.

When Heidi invited Lucy along, I asked if it was okay that she had no ball skills.  I think part of this is that Eric and I are not ball sports people and don't practice with her (as in she had no glove to bring to the game and had to use the extra that was goopy and covered in bubble solution) but I also get the feeling that her teen talents will lie outside the ball sports realm.  Can someone remind me of this in 10 years?  When Eric and I had a discussion about what she might like as a high schooler.  I thought she might stick with gymnastics (individual competition), he guessed basketball (more action) or swimming.  I think swimming was such a positive experience for him that he's hoping she will eventually be a swimmer but judging by the "lesson" he gave her yesterday at the pool, I'm not sure.  She really, really wants to swim, but the realities of her face in the water are just too much to take.  He'd better go after Jamie for that one. 

Lucy's at bat, being coached by Daddy who failed out of t-ball.  Apparently his eyes were already so bad he couldn't hit the ball off the tee, and didn't have glasses yet.  Lucy fared slightly better.  Notice her gray top and gray sweatpants.  She was desperate for a uniform (very big kid) and decided that the monochrome athletic-gray wardrobe was what the team Lucy should wear.

 Base hit.  Yes!

Sorry about the shaky camera on this one - you'll see that when the camera stops shaking Jamie runs over to the tee.  It's hard to hold onto a wiggler and shoot steady video at the same time.



Lucy's first catch!  Every time someone got a hit, all the kids in the field went racing toward the ball hoping to catch it.  I think Lucy almost quit before she got a ball in her hands.  She came by this one honestly, too.  A couple of time she was so crestfallen at not getting to the ball first that Heidi tried to get whoever it was that had the ball to toss it to Lucy so she could throw it in.  Not a chance in hell any of those kids were giving up the honor of throwing the ball back to Heidi.  It took Lucy about 30 seconds of celebrating at 3rd base before she'd give the ball up either.

 Jamie was working SO hard to act like the big kids.  I could see him mimicking things he saw the whole time we were there.  Not only did he follow Bryson around and pick up rocks, he also climbed the fence with Lucy.

True coach, Heidi had the kids line up by team and do the "good game" slap at the end.

Jamie, washing off the diamond dust.  This smile was too cute to not share.

Preschool's Over

Lucy's preschool graduation ceremony was on Friday, and though she wasn't one of the graduates that went on to kindergarten all kids participated and got a certificate.  It was a spring show wrapped in, and they performed several songs for us before each kid got to "cross the bridge" and walk over a little riser in the room.  Oh my, were there funny moments.  Lucy's best friend Stella kept lifting up her dress, several kids lost shoes on the way over the bridge (one even stopped to put his sneaker back on), and there were too many "Hi mom!"s from the lineup than I can count.  It was adorable.



Because Lucy is a 5-day-a-week kid she got to have 2 ceremonies.  Here she is shaking Miss Karla's hand on top of the bridge.  Miss Karla talked about how they practiced stopping to look and pose for pictures. 

 The certificate!

 Snacks at Small Wonders are always healthy(er) than party food.  Lucy was so excited she was hugging the cupcake.

 Lucy's friends at the snack table.  Lucy is sitting next to Stella, her best preschool friend.  We also have a best Maine friend, in case anyone was wondering (Stacy), and can't wait to see Chloe when we get back to OT.

These pictures are too funny - Jamie is following Deacon around trying to get his pacifier.  The pacifier was on a leash clipped to Deacon's shirt, and you'd think we had just taken Jamie's baby plug away the way he worked to get it in his mouth.  Deacon was not impressed at Jamie's persistence.

I had to take this photo of Lucy and Stella with Miss Karla as I got almost the same picture on Lucy's first day of preschool from Eric here.  At the time I had never met Stella (I didn't even know her name for sure) and was mildly miffed that she had crawled into the photo.  Now, she's practically part of our family.  I give her a ride home from school every day, and when Lucy comes running up to me on the playground Stella comes too, both of them shouting "Mommy!"  I don't know how to break the news to Lucy but Stella's family will be moving to Colorado at the end of June.  She is going to be devastated.  Stella is such a good friend and such a good kid.  We've had a lot of fun with her this year.

Miss Shireen hugging Lucy.  She's amazing and Lucy loves her SO SO much.  She appears to love Lucy right back just as much.

Thanks for the great year Small Wonders!