l.o.v.e.

Somewhere between the rolling-of-the-eyes and the fits over what shoes to wear and the rush at 7am to be fully dressed for the day, I remember that out of me, came a sensitive, loving, intuitive little girl that loves just like a mommy loves. 
She complained on and off all day of not feeling well. It didn't stop her, but by this evening she had a little fever and was not herself.  By 7:45 she was in bed, and asleep shortly after.  By 11, she was up again running to the bathroom to pee and coming back to our bed whimpering that she didn't feel good and needed tylenol but "please, not that yucky pink kind."  I went out to the kitchen to get the medicine after feeling her heated body and she said "it's okay mommy, I'll stay here with Quinn."  Quinn was fast asleep, Isabella curled right into her and lay beside her shushing her and rubbing her back.  Quinn was totally fine, but Isabella still thought she should mother her late at night when she was the one who needed the mothering.

If you can imagine the turmoil over putting on these overalls, you'd understand how paramount this is.  Isabella's pant legs are not touching exactly at the top of her feet, there are buckles that she can not do herself, it's not a dress, or flowery, and they look like 'boy clothes.' BUT she humored me for a few hours. And she did it because she wanted to look like Quinn. Okay, that, and I told her that Mia loves overalls. That helped.

 These sisters love eachother deeply. They really, really love eachother.

We let Isabella pick Quinn up now, as long as a grown-up is close by (and by close by, I mean standing over her, hands ready to grab any falling children). To her, it's like winning the lottery--for a four year old.

We had our first farmer's market visit of the season on Saturday.  We started going to the Farmer's Market when Isabella was newborn.  Mom and I would go early, Ryan would stay home and mow/do yardwork, we'd go to the bakery, all while carrying around this sweet, new baby.  After Declan was born, and then Quinn, we went less and less.  So when I was trying to explain the concept of a Farmer's Market to Declan, he was totally impressed with the idea of a grocery store--outside.

Put the two food lovers on the same chair, with one bagel.  That's just asking for a battle.

Making sure Quinn has some bagel too.

Then a sweet lady offered the kids a sugar cookie, Declan ditched his bagel and when I asked him later if he wanted more bagel, he said "no, I wanna find that lady and have those cookies."

Quinn, my dear, if you wouldn't break my back trying to get out of the ergo carrier, I would have worn you instead. I know how you hate to be constrained these days...

If they just made the handles a little shorter, it really would be helpful for kids to push kids.



It's hard when you want to take your kids everywhere, share experiences, watch them learn, and trust me, that's all they know.  Where we go, they go. But it's tough to get what you need plus steer a cart/stroller/kid, make sure they're close by, etc.  I had full intentions of walking away from the Farmer's Market with more than a bag of kale and a basket of strawberries. But there's always next weekend.