Lucy-21 months

It seems like my 5+ year streak of nursing may be coming to a close. For the third day in a row, Lucy has not nursed at all during the day and for two days we have replaced the before bed nursing with a cup. She did wake up during the night last night and nursed back down but only for a few minutes. I think there are a lot of reasons she has lost interest. 1. I'm not offering at all and during the day if she wants to nurse I offer her a cup or snack and she'd rather have those. 2. We moved the rocking recliner to the basement to make room for a different couch. The recliner was "our chair" and every time we sat in it together she tried to nurse. Now we just cuddle on the couch. 3.We bought her 2 new cups that she loves to use and will sit with those at nighttime with some water. 4.  She is eating more and not using milk as a snack anymore, now she heads straight for the kitchen when she is hungry or thirsty.

I expected to be sad when I was really done with nursing but I have to say, I'm not feeling many mixed emotions. I was very ready, starting when she was about 18 months and have been anxiously waiting for signs that she was losing interest. Now I'm relieved and enjoying finding new ways to have those moments of connection with Lucy. Tonight it was playing on the bed for almost half an hour with her pretending to tuck me in, me pretending to fall asleep and, .02 seconds later, having her wake me up by jumping on my head. Then we would giggle together and hide under the covers. Our game happened to coincide with an awful gas attack (Lucy's, not mine!) so every time she would get laughing really hard, she would let out a big toot which just made us both laugh harder. I loved those days of nursing a newborn, and infant, and then a toddler, but I have to say, laughing with my farty little lady may be even better.

Summer To Do list, continued

Hayley, Ace, and Julia have added onto our list of things that we want to do by the end of Summer (which, with yesterday being the last day of school for the Big H, has officially begun) Here are the additions:

Julia:
See a play (lots of Children's theater here so it should be easy to find a good show)

Ace:
See Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me
Swim lessons

Hayley:
Go to Sandy Neck Beach
See a movie at the drive thru theater
Have a lemonade stand with T.
Swim lessons

Today we kicked Summer off in style with a trip to the beach. My bathing suit is missing-most likely at the bottom of a massive laundry pile somewhere so I didn't swim but the kids went in with Grandma and loved it. We also went to a a magician show and watched some tv. Tomorrow we take Lucy to get her head checked out in Boston, I'm hoping that it is just a quick in and out visit and they tell us there is no need to worry about her lumpy, beautiful little head.

Today was one of those days that I hope stays firmly lodged in my children's memories. It was spent in places we love, with people we love, there was abundant laughter and sunshine and we enjoyed it all.
We slept in and then joined Ace's classmates for a party at his friends house. Julia and Lucy and I invited ourselves to stay and enjoy the celebration. The kids ran through the sprinkler, slipped and slid on the slip and slide, enjoyed a delicious spread of food, and then walked down to the beach for more fun. We came home just in time to met Hayley coming home from school and our neighbor babysat while I grocery shopped (alone!). We fixed a picnic and spent the evening on the beach where nobody fought, nobody ignored me when I told them to stay only ankle deep in the water, and nobody complained about being bored. It was near perfect. The one not perfect moment was when a seagull dive bombed down on Lucy trying to steal her cheese puff. She flipped out for a minute or two and sat on my lap. I told her just to shoo that mean old seagull away and she took it one step further. She chased him down yelling "No Duck!" and got close enough to throw a bucket at him. I'm not condoning throwing buckets at seagulls but I have to say, that stinker was asking for it. Lesson: Don't mess with The Wooz.
We came home and every scrubbed off the sand and salt and everyone was about to crash out on the couch when our neighbor stopped by to show off his fireflies. We talked for a while and the kids marveled over the fireflies and within minutes of saying goodbye, all the kids were tucked in and exhausted.
I hope they remember these days because I know that I always will.

Some more about Summer

6.5 days until summer (un)officially begins here at the R. house. That means only 6.5 days until I can return to my natural state of sleeping until 9am and staying in my pajamas until at least 10:30. This does not mean that our summer days are not busy, is just means that busy-ness in the house must not occur before 10:30. Don't ask me why, those are just The. Rules.
We will get a sweet, sweet taste of what I hope the rest of the summer holds for us tomorrow since Ace's school has Beach Day and Julia, Lucy, and I have invited ourselves along. Our picnic lunch is already packed and I spent the afternoon at the store stocking up on even more beach toys. This poses a small problem because last summer our beach toy collection outgrew my beach bag and I had to move them to a tub. The tub is already hard enough to carry onto the beach while balancing Lucy on one arm and piling the cooler, the towels, and the beach chair on top of the bigger childrens' heads to get to the sand. But now, I have more toys than will even fit in the tub. I'm not sure what to do. Logic says I could just leave some toys behind but logic does not have to listen to four children whine that they don't have their yellow sand sifter and can we drive back home and get it because the beach is 100 percent boring without it. I'll have to figure something else out.
That last sentence reminded me that Ace now likes to complain that he is 100 percent bored. Or 100 percent hungry. Or he loves the movie 100 percent. I'm not sure where he picked that up or what he thinks it means but it melts me a little every time he says it.
Another thing that melts me is the fact that in 6.5 days Hayley will be a third grader. I have memories of third grade being a strange year. I remember feeling  left behind by some of my friends that year. They talked about things that didn't makes sense to me yet, like how cute boys were and who they like- liked. I had one friend who would spend the entire recess recapping the Nightmare on Elm Street movies in gory detail for all of us who weren't allowed to watch them yet and teaching us jumprope rhymes that included the word ass. I remember half of me wanted to go back to swinging and playing foursquare and half of me wanted to be cool enough to say ass without whispering and watch R rated movies. I spent a lot of time in third grade feeling uncool and not even knowing what cool was supposed to feel like. Everybody warns you about teenage angst but that is the thing, everybody warns you. By the time I was a teenager I  pretty much  figured that everyone else was feeling just as awkward as I was. When you are 8, you don't even know it's coming. I'm not sure if I'm ready to face third grade again, this time as a parent.
But, between now and then, we have Summer. I'm definitely ready for Summer.

Andy took my van to work yesterday so we were stranded at home until late afternoon, with nothing to do. I would normally have been flipping out because the kids get bored and when they get bored, things around here quickly go haywire. But everyone was tuckered from a busy weekend so they were content with computer games, toys on the living room floor, frequent snacking, and a little too much tv. So was I.
Today we are back to normal, busy with Spirit Month for all the kids at school. Sunday night we spent a half hour locating a suitable hat for Hayley, a pirate costume for Ace, and something green that Julia would actually wear (she prefers to rotate her 3 favorite dresses for months at a time). Today I'm at a total loss because it is Whale Day at Ace's preschool and Ace does not own one single item of clothing that has a whale on it. And we have to make an emergency trip to Grandma's house so she can mend his firefighting pants in time for the field trip tomorrow. Ace wants to bring all his firefighter gear to show his fellow firefighters. Considering that  all his gear takes up 3/4ths of his closet, I told him he can only take what fits in the backpack. He is not pleased with the compromise.
My parents are here and I am loving life with two extra adults around to even up the child/adult ratio. We met them last week for dinner at Julia's favorite joint and blueberry pancakes on Friday morning.  And Sunday we had ice cream and a walk on the beach with them. Lucy has a huge crush on Grandma. A few weeks ago she started wanting to walk more rather than be carried and wouldn't tolerate excessive cuddles. That all changes when Grandma is around. At the beach I was so flattered when she came over to me and raised her hands to be carried, then I realized she was only using me to get closer to Grandma and when we got close enough to her, Lucy leaped out of my arms like a spider monkey to get into her arms.
I'm seriously wondering how all four of my children remain in the 25 percentile for weight.  In the time it has taken me to type this post, they have consumed an entire bunch of bananas, 4 packages of chocolate chip muffins, and crackers. This constitutes a typical "small snack" for them.
Sorry, but that's all I've got for today. I miss posting pictures so much but we still have not replaced our camera. It was in the budget for this month but then Andy's truck died so a new (to us) car moved from the want to the need list. The kids are way more excited about the new truck anyway but I'm going crazy missing all these photo opportunities.