Thar She Blows

The red maple in our backyard has been ailing for a few years and got to the point that it needed to come down.  Jer has been trimming off the lower limbs for a while now and Saturday was the day we took down the rest.  Jer was testing the strength of his knot on the rope that was to make sure the tree fell in the right direction (and not into our house :)

It is hard to see through the trees, but our friend Bill was holding the rope...this is like where's waldo?

Jer notched the tree

and then pounded in a wedge to push the tree over in the right direction after cutting most of the way through.

This is an action shot - he was going to go help Bill pull the rope since nothing was happening, but as he was headed over there we heard a CRACK and he quickly changed direction and only nearly was hit by the upper branches

 
when she fell.

He then cut the tree into smaller pieces.

And chopped the wood for a nice pile of firewood.

After attacking the stump with a stump grinder, he leveled the soil and planted grass.  Another busy Saturday around here.

This morning Stella asked me to take her picture.  I told her to smile.  This is what I got.

Then I said something funny, and got this.

Leila has the "cheese" thing down.

Food Allergies

I had prepared myself for Henry's blood test to come back with an allergy.  I was not prepared for it to come back with four.  He is allergic to milk, wheat, egg, and peanuts.  Since I am still nursing him, I also need to eliminate these from my diet until he is weaned (or switch him to an allergy free formula).  I am glad that he won't remember how good cheese or ice cream or bread taste and wish he could still have them.  I am hoping that removing these foods from his diet will keep him healthy and happy and that he will eventually grow out of the milk, wheat, and egg allergies (peanut is typically a lifelong allergy).  To make it worse, Henry has been dealing with a fever the last couple of days, below he cried himself to sleep on the floor while I got food for the other 5 kids to eat for lunch.

It is really cute, but makes me feel bad that I didn't realize sleep was what he needed before he fell asleep.

He has been doing a lot of snuggling and sleeping, which almost makes up for the uncontrollable crying that comes with it.

 

Siblings

I love that my children are so close together in age.

They can play together and will have each other to lean on throughout their growing up years and lifetimes.

At times it is challenging and they don't always play together nicely, but that is part of learning to deal with other people and realizing that you are not the center of the universe.

Leila is thriving at preschool.  I knew she would love it there and she really does.  She likes all of the art projects and playing with her friends and learning songs and reading and really everything about it.

She even "reads" to Stella.  It is fun to hear what she remembers of the actual words on the pages.

The other morning, Henry lost a sock.
A: Leila, do you see Henry's sock?
L: No, I don't.
S: (holding up a block) He can have this one if he wants.
 I love how helpful Stella is being even though she misheard the question.

Driving home from my sister's house the other day, listening to Stella in the car:
S: (singing) Spirit I adore you (sounds like SPEEEE-wit I a-DOOOOOR you)
Spirit I adore you
(switches to talking)
Once upon a time there was a princess.
And a flower.
The end.
(back to singing)
Spirit I adore you...

Jeremy took a trip to Florida and Georgia for work last week and it was a lot of together time for me and the kids.  Which was great, and exhausting.

Stella told everyone we came across that dada had gone on a plane and that he was in Florida and Georgia.  The kids loved to be able to Facetime Jer every night and still do the same bedtime routine.

Togetherness can only last so long, right?

 

Henry has two teeth coming in and I am REALLY sick of teething.  He is a pretty cranky kid as it is, and this just puts him over the edge.  We are having him tested for food allergies, maybe his disposition will improve if we eliminate something that he is allergic to, however I am hoping that he isn't so that he doesn't have to deal with a food allergy (me either).