***

The other day, as we are leaving for my LLL meeting:
Zibby: I sure am glad we are going to LLL meeting
Me: You are? Why?
Zibby: I am having some breastfeeding problems.
Me: Oh, really? Whats going on?
ZIbby: When I nurse my baby at night, she bites my nipple.
Me: Mmm. Yes, that is a problem.

****

He was in the sling, I was trying to help him to sleep, and he was fussing. Finally, he made the milk sign to me, so I took him out and he nursed! So exciting! He has been pointing and clapping for a week or two, and today he also waved at me from across the room. Its so thrilling to be able to understand what he is wanting. Yay Henry!

Lets, see, what else has been happening. Zibby has some more imaginary friends. We have, of course, Mary and Jo-Hos, (the original two) and now Jella Skeleton and Guana, Pretend Frances and Pretend Sara, Guana’s mom, (Guana Skeleton-though its unclear if Guana and Jella are truly related) and now, today, ZIbby told me we are getting another friend. We arent sure if its a girl or a boy, because we havent met them yet. Natch.

The other night, Zibby was sitting next to John on the bench at the dinner table. She leaned around him and started talking to Mary. It was very polite conversation. She leaned around him, and was like, “So, Mary, how is it going?”I love it.Zibby called John a slowfolk the other day. as in, “cmon papa, stop being a slowfolk”. many laughs ensued.

When something is funny, she says it “kills her mind off”, which I think is her interpretation of “blows my mind”.She also loves to say the word “ridiculous”.

I cant believe the Live and Learn conference is getting so close-our big RV adventure is going to be here soon. And the week after, little Henry will turn 1 year old. Unbelievable. But super exciting. Its so much fun to be their mom.I am lucky.

 I forgot to say, I was so productive today! I made chocolate chip walnut banana bread, two huge batches of chicken stock, finished a morsbag, did dishes, took zibby to chinese class, made dinner and cut out fabric for a few more projects to be announced later. whew.  

It was fun, enjoy.

We made 12 bags at the sewing party, and then I made another today. It was a lot of fun to sit and sew and gab with some homeschoolin mamas. I hope someone has another party soon!

So, now Bub is cruising all around, pulling up on anything that stands still for a moment or two. He can now crawl up onto furniture! Ay yi yi. He cannot get down too well. Though he did impressively manage the step at Grandma’s yesterday. He kept going headfirst, but he was able to make it work somehow.

He likes to eat sand, woodchips, rocks, and paper. And cornflakes.

He likes to scream with Zibby and make lots of noise. He laughs alot and bangs his fists around for emphasis. He can now also point and shake his pointed finger at you and squeal. He pees in the potty quite often (with help).

He thinks Zibby is the cat’s pajamas. Oh, and he loves Cinder and gets so excited if she comes near him. We are working with him on gentle touching of the kitty.

He has 6 teeth now and wants to bite us. And pull off my glasses. And pull hair.

yup. he is a firecracker. He sleeps great and likes to cuddle. He has turned into quite a good little nursling, too, after all of our initial difficulties. He is happy and content most of the time and we all adore him.Happy 10monthaversary, Bub!

and my tie dyed sheets turned out amazing. it was kind of a hassle to do something so large, but I love how they turned out.

zibby loves them so much, too. super a lot, as she would say.

Today was Zibby’s first Chinese language class. She was a little shy at first and took a bit to start participating. In hindsight, I could have prepped her a little more about how classes work-listen to the teacher, repeat, sit at the table, etc. All stuff she’s never done before! But she got involved and the teacher said she did quite well. Henry and I hung out and listened and talked with the other moms.

Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen for ice creams.

We came home and rinsed tie dyed clothing and rested and watched tv.

Good times.

Thats from last Wednesday, the day of 3 parks!

First, we had our LLL meeting. Afterwards, a few of us went to the park across the street and had a picnic lunch.
Then we headed over to our homeschool park day at another park. We were there for a while, then we went and picked up a CSA veggie share for friends who were out of town. From there, we drove up to Evanston to pick up *our* CSA share of chickens and eggs. But, we got there about 45 minutes too early. So, we played at the school playground across the street from our pickup spot. Unfortunately it started to rain kind of heavily, so then we had to wait a bit in the car, too.

Thursday we had our playgroup at Lisa’s house. We decorated bikes and trikes and had a parade. Friday, my brother came over and we went to the beach with Jill and Tony and Trap and Owl. I was surprised that the beach was not crowded at all. We set up my sunshade, and though it was sunny, it was also windy and kind of cool. We had fun playing though.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. I had to replace the cell phone I dropped in the toilet. UGH. Annoying.

Today I tie dyed some stuff and ZIbby helped alot. I dont know what it is about tie dye, but I sure do love it. I love the whole process. The mixing of the dye. The tieing of the clothes. The application of the colors. The only thing I dont like is waiting for it to cure!

I also made Zibby a shirt n skirt combo with some pink camo fabric she picked out. She wore it all day, so thats a good sign. I just love seeing her in something I made! I am super excited to do more tie dye later this week with our playgroup. I;ll post pics later

I wanted to stop at the fabric store for a couple things and there was a shoe store in the same strip mall. We went in and I let ZIbby pick out some thong flip flop shoes. She’s been asking for some for a while. I personally shudder at the thought of a strap between my toes, but she seems to be ok with them. Of course, she picked out pink ones. They are cute, very glittery and glamourous.

Then we went to fabric store. I needed some elastic for waist bands, and of course I ended up getting some fabric for some new projects. Things to make as gifts, plus some really beautiful jersey type fabric that I hope to make into a shirt.

I bought a sheet from the thrift store and I am in the process of making a skirt and matching shorts to wear underneath. Maybe I will bring bloomers back into fashion! LOL. Its just, I love to wear skirts, but they are impractical with small kids-I gotta bend down, sit down, nurse, etc, and I dont want to be constantly worried about flashing people. Matching shorts underneath seem like a perfect solution. Zibby wears them all the time, I think they are called scooters, where the shorts are sewn in. Anyway, the shorts I made from a pattern that I made by copying some shorts I own that I like. I think I will go try to finish up the shorts tonight-not sure I can get the skirt finished, too. Maybe.

Henry got his 5th tooth and it looks like 6 and 7 are almost thru the gumline, too. I gave him some baby motrin so he could sleep tonight. Poor guy. Today was a really great EC day. I put him on the little baby bjorn potty and I got 3 pees and 1 poop! I cant believe it. My catch rate has been really bad lately. Maybe Ive turned a corner.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Zibby was doing addition in the car today on her fingers.
“if I have two and two, how much is that?” (she answers herself) “four”, etc etc It was so cute!

well, tomorrow is a super busy day for us, so I gots to go.
peace out

(my tie dye supplies came today! hoo wee! cant wait!!!)

You can sorta see Zibby’s animal ears drawn on her forehead. Typical.

We’ve been super busy hanging out at the park and the beach and playing with friends and going thrifting.
We’ve been going to Farmer’s Markets and out for hamburgers and chillin’ with Papa after work.

Summer is good.
Life is good.