a peek at our charleston!

the weather has been quite uncooperative, but we sure have enjoyed our time together! here is a very small peek at what we have been up to!

wet.

sisterly love.

so much crying after we fond out the starfish was still ALIVE and would not be joining our shell collection.

daddy and his girls.

the big, bad wolf dance.
the princess dance ends with a kiss.

even hanna likes the aquarium.

4-D movie time!

many more to come!

the new and improved hanna tait

not really. but can't you see her better? its all in the camera, my new camera that is! she is growing so fast and will be a whopping 12 weeks on sunday! we will celebrate in charleston with dairy-free cupcakes (do they exist?) miss hanna is so happy and smiley when she is not screaming. we love her, we really do! she also looooves to talk and be talked to. i think she is just trying to keep up with the rest of her loud family!

oh and notice her pleasantly plump cheekies. we love those in our family. so kissable. should i remind you how plump we grow them here?

(ada at 8 months!)

#33

that is what reza wrote on the front of my homemade card! i felt like a basketball player with that as my jersey number. 33, already? really?

you guessed it, today was my birthday and what a simple yet wonderful day it was

(i say was because at any moment i will collapse from exhaustion!) the kids were so excited and treated me to good behavior and little fighting. elias offered me a birthday beer at 8:15 this morning. ada gifted me one of her most prized possessions, a small hand-painted fairy she made at a friend's party a few months ago. i am praying that hanna will give the priceless present of a good nights sleep tonight- although i am not hopeful. and reza gave me a wonderful new camera that just might become my new obsession! what an amazing hubbie he is (he even brought a little bouquet of roses home from work for me!) here are a few of the snaps i got during my five minutes with it!

as for myself- i took a trip to lowe's with miss hanna and elias and got lots of flowers for my yard. then spent the rest of the afternoon letting the kids make mud holes while i planted them. simple pleasures.

i can only hope my 34th year is as good as my 33rd! cheers!

in the matter of seconds and for good measure

clever title, huh?

here is my hanna, a typical few seconds in her life...

5, 4...
3, 2...

1. let the meltdown begin!

and for good measure,

my ada making fairy dust out of smashed navy beans,

and my little bucktooth boy. couldn't be cuter.

one fine saturday

in our house you don't really know how good of a day it was until the day is done. how many tears were shed? how many band aids were adhered? how many times did i play referree in sibling squabbles? and how long was the evening "witching hour"?

by all of these standards, we had one fine saturday. hanna woke up happy despite having the most terrible cough i have ever heard from one of our babies. we had a morning dance party to cat stevens and bob dylan which always sets the day off on the right foot. we went for a walk around campus without any whining! we went to a little farm to visit the new baby goats. they were quite cute although watching my children touch every goat-poop-covered object on the farm disgusts me. the late afternoon involved the men taking a trip to the grocery store while the ladies of the house pulled spring weeds out of the front garden. fun times. and miss hanna's witching hour(s) were paused by a warm bath and walk in the bjorn. not so fun times, but we will surely miss them when they have passed.

so you see, our saturday really was good. now, today, for a trip to lowes and a cookout at game time! it is a good day to live in chapel hill. go tarheels!

good morning!

this is what my morning looks like (actually, looked-- dora has since ended and my two oldest are now wrestling on the couch while they wait for the toaster to ding!)

hanna loves her playmat, but only in the morning. first thing. she can stay under there for a good 15 minutes! she HATES the swing, and her crib, so 15 minutes is the equivalent of an hour!

this kid has a cold. and he yelled "dora is yucky" the entire 24 minutes that he WATCHED it.

this kid has two ear infections and is so SUPER excited that she gets to take pink medicine! it is the little things in life, right?

and let me tell you a little more about this spring chicken, just in case you wanted to get to know her!

- she is a tough cookie.

- she has the biggest, goofiest smile that you could ever ask for.

- she cries, alot. but hopefully we will fix some of that with my new dairy-free diet. so NOT fun.

- she likes her pacifier.

- she loves her big sister.

- she is terrified of her big brother. she cries the moment she hears him make a loud noise!

- she does not sleep well at night anymore. a two hour stretch is the best that we get!

- she loves the ergo carrier.

- she also loves to go to restaurants.

- she has darker skin than ada, and maybe even elias!

- she loves to kick and move alot. i think she may be my athlete!

ok- now off to preschool. in the past ten minutes, elias has left the house to go ride his bike (in the rain), ada is on the porch playing in her pjs, and hanna is having a meltdown. oh, and i burned two pieces of toast, twice.

recent shenanigans

no time for words here (read: baby on the boob again- and i am not left handed!) things are so chaotic around here. i live for friday when i don't have to rush out of the house to preschool with a half-fed infant, half-dressed toddler, and wonderfully eccentric, self-dressed four year old. you can learn a lot about our life through pictures, and that is just what you will have to do!

we attempted to get a decent picture of our herd. unsuccessful but entertaining!

here is one of two pictures total that have been taken with me and miss hanna. i hope that sweet girl knows how much i love her!

we have had piles of visitors which makes my heart so happy!

clara and li. a match made in heaven... well, one day maybe!

i love this baby!

a tender moment

and poor ada got so super sick amidst all of our fun!

miss mala and lias, they both agree that safety comes first!

nande and poppi learn the colic hold!

AND FINALLY,

AN ODE TO MISS ADA

my little piece of perfection (lately). with all of the munchkins surrounding her and a violent stomach bug attacking her, she held her head high!
or low. she is...

an aspiring ballerina
and writer
and tennis pro (although she never really made contact with the ball during her first lesson. but she LOVED it!)