Growing

Sometimes a mama just can't help but take a million pictures of her adorable baby.  Especially when that baby is growing so fast and that mama feels as if the babyhood is slipping away faster than she has a chance to even enjoy it.  Especially when that mama knows that this will be her last baby and that she is going to miss these crazy, messy, sleep deprived days all too soon.

 

Thank goodness Big Sis is just never far.......  Oh, what love this is.  

 

Jed waves "bye-bye".  He sits unsupported.  He has both top teeth, both bottom teeth, and I noticed the top-left incisor is in.  He has gotten himself from laying on the floor to the seated position twice now.....He sure is growing.

 

Here are a few more recorded dates:

Top left incisor Friday, April 22nd.
Sat up from the floor on his own Saturday, April 23.



Flowers for Sale

Nothing puts a smile on a mother's face like her child's artwork.  This is a recent painting from Evangeline's latest time at the Gaslight Artist Colony.  It's a farm stand flower display.  They studied some flower paintings and then replicated one.  I love the way she phonetically spelled "flowers".  This painting will have a special place in my house, that's for sure.

Mes enfants et moi

Spring has definitely sprung around here.  What lovely weather we have been having.  It's so nice to feel the warm sun and get some lighter clothing on.  Evangeline, of course, lives for tank tops and dresses, so she is just beyond thrilled.

Something truly special this year has been getting to share my lunchtime with Evangeline each Friday.  It's been our tradition this year that she come with me at lunch on Fridays and eat at Ammie's house with me and Jed.  It's very fun for all of us.  I will miss her so much next year when she is in the second grade. 

We've been getting out for walks more frequently here in the past few weeks.  Jed is enjoying the view facing forward in the carrier.  We have so many owls in our woods right now.  Evangeline and I enjoy calling to them... "who-cooks-for-you", we say up into the trees, the Barred Owl call. 

I took a walk with just her last week and we skipped nearly the whole way around the "big O", as we call our neighborhood, and sang Skip to my Luo.  I was exhausted!  Our neighbors probably think I am crazy.  Evangeline got the biggest kick out of it.  She said, "It's not every day you see a 35 young girl strutting and skipping down the street!"  We laughed all the way around the "O".  (Evangeline noted one night when she was particularly tired on a walk, that it's definitely a capital O.  I thought that was so cute...)

 

And if you look closely at this next picture you can see that a top tooth has sprouted!  He has even sprouted the second top tooth since this picture was taken.  I noticed the right top tooth on Monday, April 18th.  The left bottom tooth emerged sometime last week.  I feel like he's an early bloomer.  He already has all the top and bottom front teeth....maybe this is normal....who knows. 

Here are the other dates I recorded...

Bottom right- Friday, April 1

Top left- April 9

I took the kids to the Earth Day Celebration at St. Mary's last weekend.  We went with my friend Molly and her two kids, McAlister and Harper. 

Piggy's in the grass for the first time!

Lots of examining the grass by the handfuls.....

The girls enjoyed making crafts, riding ponies, watching an animal show, etc.

I'm going through one of my "oh my goodness, I just love a good cookbook" phases.  There is just something about holding an honest to goodness book in my hands as opposed to following a recipe from the internet.  Evangeline helped me make a delicious lemon tart from a cookbook in my collection, Once Upon a Tart... a gorgeous cookbook my Aunt Rita and Uncle Steve got me for a wedding gift.  

Mr. Prune-face watches us in awe...

 

Ohhh, there is so much going on in our lives right now.  I can't yet disclose the details, but it's been a stressful, hopeful, exciting time for the Hutsons.  More on that later....

Morning Memories

One morning last week Evangeline came into my room and got into bed with me.  She was examining my hands and commented on my puffy veins.  I told her that I always thought my Grandma Mary had the most beautiful hands I had ever seen and that I always hopped my hands would look like hers someday.  I remember holding grandma's hands during church.  I would run my fingers along the backs of her hand and her thin skin would wrinkle in the direction I moved it.  She had the puffiest veins and the knobbiest knuckles.  Her skin was iridescent...it had a shimmer to it.  Her skin was also as soft as silk and her nails were always so beautifully painted.  She always smelled so good.  I can still remember how she smelled as I sat snuggled up to her in church holding her hands.  I made sure to thank Evangeline for reminding me of my grandma's hands and that it was a very nice memory that I hadn't thought about in a long time.  I told her that I miss my grandma and that I wish she could have met her.  Evangeline, very matter of factly, reminded me that I will see her again someday.  I love my daughter so much.....my grandmother would have too.