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Four

Happy Birthday to my darling BooBaaa.

Things Continue to be Awkward . . .

. . . but I don't care about annoying neighbors this week.

Why? Because my not-so-little BooBaaa is turning four years old tomorrow.

Yes, today my middle child is enjoying his last day of being three.

His grandparents were here over the weekend, and the weather was decent, so we did give him his big surprise present a few days early so they could share in the excitement: a new (secondhand but excellent*) bike just like Ramekin's with a slightly smaller frame.

I've noted before that BooBaaa has always been a very physically-gifted child. A couple weeks after Lambchop was born, not long after he himself had turned two, he taught himself to ride a bike. When he turned three, the training wheels came off. He spent all last summer going on various biking outings, frequently leaving bigger kids in his wake. And two weeks ago he did a stunning eight miles around a local reservoir, on a route full of mud, hills, declines, etc. And yes, he got back on his bike when he came off it a couple of times. And now?

Now, with his new bike, he has gears:

So he's faster than ever, as he's quickly worked out that popping the bike into 4th or 5th gear means he can go super fast with a little more work. And his legs will do the work. So he easily stayed with his brother in impromptu races at the same reservoir this weekend where we went to try it out. Which also means G and I are going to have to work seriously hard if we want to keep track of them on our biking expeditions this year.

But he's worth it, my remarkable little BooBaaa.

I only wonder what other talents four will uncover this year...

One more day,one more da y to enjoy three. Then we will see where four takes us.



(*Is*la*bik*es Because of the search factor, I will break up the name of the bike. They are beyond brilliant children's bikes, aluminium (light) with child-sized cranks and brakes to make them safer and easier to use for small hands. But very expensive new (you can only get them new from their own shop), and even the second-hand market sees them going for roughly 2/3rds of 'new' value. We got dirt lucky finding this one secondhand for an underpriced buy-it-now ebay option, and it was worth every pence, especially since it will pass down to Lambchop eventually. I can't recommend these bikes enough if you live in the UK.)

Would you say something?

Say your over-excited child, while helping post all out neighborhood holiday cards back in December through the front door letterboxes during an *extreme* cold snap which has left the cheap, plastic bits that hold them together creaky and fragile, accidentally snaps one off. (And I've noted a couple of other broken letter boxes in our neighborhood alone this winter; ours was sounding ominous during the negative temperatures, too.)

Say said child screams when it comes off in his hands and is very upset because it truly was an accident.

Say the woman you considered a friend (she was getting a Christmas card from us!) is byond annoyed, and her husband, generally unsociable under the best of circumstances, basically wouldn't speak to us.

Say you apologized profusely, had your over-excited child apologize, then left as there was nothing we could do on the spot, to finish delivering cards.

Say that *immediately* upon returning home, you did some internet searching, found what looked to be the best option for standard replacement letterboxes, and facebooked your friend the link showing all available options. And, of course, offering to order a replacement or reimburse if they wanted to order their own. And aplogizing again.

In response, you get a very grumpy 'we wasted an hour putting the inside door plate on the outside' temporary hold message.

(Note here: I would never have held a small child, especially a child of a friend I knew, accountable for an accident like this. And it was an accident. He'd been putting cards through letterboxes without incident all along our route; they were all creaky from the cold; and the way it immediately came off in his hands, making me think the weather/previous user had already weakened the plastic bit at the corner. We checked ours when we got home, and it, too, was creaky in the cold. So while I would have expected a child's parents to offer to reimburse m for such an accident, I never would have accepted. But maybe that's just me?)

Anyway... and then say, in response to your apology again, etc., you receive another facebook message saying please deposit £15.30 through their door, and to be gentle with a ';-)' face, as they were leaving on holiday the next day.

And after an hour or so, she deletes the facebook 'conversation' about the incident.

Say you had your five year old handwrite a letter of apology and a promise to be more careful in the future to go with the £15.30 the very next day.

Say you do indeed put the money and the five year old's handwritten letter through the mailbox.

I'm wondering, what would you expect from your friend when she returned home from holiday?

I would have expected things to be a bit awkward briefly after the holidays, but assumed it would all blow over. Especially because I personally thought she'd have realized she'd rather overreacted to the whole thing. Because, hey, things happen, especially when there are small people involved.

On the other hand, her daughter, while lovely, is a little too lovely; never a hair or foot out of place. Overly cautious and not much, well, fun. So maybe she doesn't realize that things can just happen if her daughter never actually does anything.

But I digress...

I assumed it would blow over, primarily because (a) we live on the same street, (b) her daugher and BooBaaa will be in the same class at school next year, (c), heck, they now attend the same village preschool for a few hours each week, and (d) we have a number of friends in common because of (a) and (b) and (c).

Apparently, I assumed wrong. Because without ever saying a word to me since, instead she defriended me on facebook quietly. So I guess this will make our children starting school togther next September 'fun', huh?


Seriously. Am I missing something here? Should I say something? I am going to have to see her on a daily basis come September regardless, plus I am a Board member of the primary school, so I'm not going anywhere. And this rather sucks for the kiddos I think...

Would you say something?

Baby Love

Lambchop is not a 'dolly' girl. In fact, I suspect she thinks she's a well-dressed boy who just happens to adore shoes. Up until the two weeks before Christmas, she showed exactly zero interest in dolls. So, when asked by relatives what she might like for Christmas, I discouraged dolls and pointed them in other directions.

And then there were the Christmas pageants at BooBaaa's nursery; at one of her playgroups; and at Ramekin's school. All the toddlers, especially the little girls, would eye up the Baby Jesus dolls in the manger at the front of the rooms/on the stage. They wanted those Baby Jesus dolls; it was written all over their little faces. But they all resisted the urge to steal them ... they listened to their mothers ... except for Lambchop.

Yep. Lambchop seemed to realize that the Baby Jesus dolls were the coveted items during the Christmas pageant season, so she took them. All of them. She would march up to the mangers, pick up the designated Baby Jesus doll from under the watchful, desperate eyes of the other hovering little girls, remove its swaddling cloth, then run off with the naked doll.

So embarassing. And yet, so typical of my terribly cheeky little girl.

And yet she still showed zero interest in any other dolls. The Baby Jesus dolls she'd parade around with, knowing they were highly coveted; indeed, a little trail of toddler girls would follow her about post-pageants hoping she'd relinquish the Baby Jesus. She'd ignore them and hold onto the doll until she decided she'd had enough, then the poor naked Baby Jesus doll would be dumped unceremoniously on the floor and she'd continue on her merry way without so much as a backwards glance.

So no dolls for Christmas.

But she did get a little Jellycat bunny. A soft adorable Jellycat bunny. A bunny with its own cute little outfit and matching shoes which I thought might appeal to her. (Seriously. We should have called her Imelda, the way she covets and adores shoes.)

And, sure enough, we had immediate Lambchop bunny love:

Upper Left: Lambchop excitedly hugs her new bunny she's just unwrapped.

Upper Right: Lambchop thoroughly inspects and pats and cuddles her new bunny.

Lower Left: Lambchop puts bunny up on her shoulder like a baby and cuddles her some more.

Lower Right: Lambchop immediately takes bunny for a ride on her new Scuttlebug.*



I hope everyone found a little something to love under the tree at Christmas.

Happy New Year.


*Her new scuttlebug was also a huge hit. Lambchop now scuttles everywhere around the house and won't let the boys near it; highly recommended.

Another year, another photo shoot...

A particularly amusing four-shot sequence from our Christmas photo shoot yesterday . . . . And, no, I did not manage to get "the" shot, but what I did get will have to do, because they each seemed to have their own theory about when to sit still and smile, not grit teeth, with their eyes open . . . sigh.

Upper Left: BooBaaa and Lambchop decide to perform one of the Christmas songs that BooBaaa has been rehearsing for his Christmas pageant, much to Ramekin’s dismay. He wanted to sing a different song. (Note the hands; Lambchop has clearly been watching BooBaaa practice his song this last week.)

Upper Right: Ramekin is increasingly unhappy that he does not know this Christmas song that BooBaaa and Lambchop are now throwing themselves into.

Lower Left: Ramekin starts to perk up as the song nears the big finale…

Lower Right: … Lambchop’s can-can high kick! Along with a very pleased BooBaaa, who has sung his Christmas song, and a trying-not-to-laugh Ramekin because I have given up* and am now laughing at them.


*I became rather frustrated during our little photoshoot because I got lots of nice pictures of the trio this summer and fall on various outings. But yesterday ...um.... not so easy.

One Year.

Happy Birthday, my darling Lambchop.






















For Wordless Wednesday.