Opal at 19 Months

The older Opal gets, the more integrated her story is with ours.  With that being said, there are only a few photos of just Opal this month!  But, I do believe the few photos I have, sum her up perfectly.

Opal is obsessed with Elmo and Sesame Street.  Obsessed actually is an understatement.  She says Elmo while she is sleeping, and when she is awake.  She is hard pressed to wear clothes if they do not have Elmo on them, and she only likes to read Elmo books.  She can name all of the Sesame Street characters, and most days you will find us with "I've Got a New Way to Walk" on repeat on the TV.

When we go to the library, she MUST find Elmo books and DVDs.  Imagine her excitement when she found a Grover puppet.

When we go to any store, she rides in the cart while repeatedly yelling, "Elmooooo!  ELMOOOO!  ELMOOOOOOO!"  People look at us, but obviously Opal doesn't care.  And you would be surprised to know that Elmo is EVERYWHERE.  Even when I'm certain there will be no Elmos to spot, Opal finds them.  And just when Will or I have convinced ourselves that we would not leave the store with yet another Sesame Street item, out we come with a happy Opal and a sheepish look on our face.  The best was when I dropped Will and the girls off at the store one day while I ran another errand near by.  When I pulled up at the curb to pick them up and saw Opal in the cart, squeezing a brand new Grover stuffed animal, all I could do was laugh and assure Will that I was not judging, but happy to know that he also struggled with telling Opal no.

Even when Opal is playing with her next favorite thing, water, she must do it while wearing Abby Cadabby shoes and Elmo pants.

Opal, your obsession with Elmo, and the sweet love you show as you care for him, and kiss his nose a hundred times a day, shows how loyal and full of love your heart is.  Our family is so lucky to have you show us such devoted love each and every day!

September

Sweet September seems so far away as I type this on the first day of November.  We had a busy and fun September, and the highlight was a visit from my brother and niece from Florida.  Here we are below, apple and flower picking with my family - it was great to have all of the cousins together after almost a year apart!

We loved watching Opal and my niece interact together, and hope that as they grow older they form a lasting bond since they are only three months apart.  

Another highlight was meeting our neighbor's newest little one, and getting to have all the newborn snuggles.  Sadly, our first meeting was also a goodbye, as they have since moved out of state and we aren't sure when we will see them again.  Thank goodness for FaceTime and videos for keeping the love alive and well with both my niece and our old neighbors!

We also visited the local art museum with a friend of mine in September, and my favorite part was watching my kids use their own digital cameras to capture their favorite pieces of art as well as at the end of our trip when we got to make our own watercolor postcards.

Opal wasn't as much of a handful as I thought she would be, but she still sapped a large amount of Will's and my energy.  She does not want to be restrained in a stroller but instead wants to explore on her own two feet and run the opposite way we are trying to go.

 Lucy and Emma have really developed a love for reading this past summer, and are finding new ways to fit it in now that school has started back up.  Here Emma is below, reading her book and exercising at the same time.  Violet is feeling a bit lonely, since she cannot read on her own yet and her two best playmates are constantly answering her requests to play with her by saying "after I finish this chapter."  My heart hurts to see Violet left behind on this new milestone, however I am trying to remind myself that for every new challenge or phase, there is also a silver lining.  Sweet Violet is still trying to figure out what that might be, and in the meantime, I am wishing that Opal was a tad older and could play with Violet more.  Opal does love to play with Violet, but it usually ends with her getting hurt, or the two of them fighting.  I am proud of Violet for being the only family member who does not give in to Opal's demands, however it doesn't make for very harmonious play.

The center photo above shows a praying mantis that Will found on his car one afternoon after work.  Will worked super hard this past month, not only with all of the stress that comes with back to school, but also with landscaping our backyard when he was home from work.  He worked so hard, and so efficiently - and saved us about $8,000 with his own manual labor and finding a wholesale source for the trees.  He planted about 26 arborvitaes and 2 white pine trees, to give our backyard a more private, up north feel.

Living on a corner, our backyard is not very private.  Lately, it seems like the cars going down our side road are speeding at 100 miles an hour, and it really does make our backyard feel more like a front yard.  I hope that these trees will help promote a more peaceful feel, and I think as they grow bigger that they will.  I only wish that we had planted them ten years ago when we first moved in, but the truth of the matter is we were broke back then!

Next up on our landscape goals is to convert the strip of land along our driveway into a native meadow.  Again, trying to bring the up north feel that we love so much to our own property.  The first step was cleaning out the plants that were already there and the second step was putting down a roll of landscape tarp to smother the grass and weeds without using chemicals.  In the spring, our hope is that the soil will be ready for planting our meadow!

As if the outside home improvements weren't enough, we also tackled some things in our bedroom that I have been wanting to do for a long time.  I bought a refinished desk this past summer and finally made a space for it in our bedroom.  I am calling it my happy place and I love it so much.  I also found a cute little shelf on Etsy and added a fabric backing to it and a coat of fresh mint colored paint to hang by my new-to-me desk as well.  While Will was helping me hang some other items in our room, and touch up some paint on our walls, Opal quietly tackled her own project of finding a wet paint brush and painting our bathroom counter.  And thus goes home improvement projects with toddlers...one step forward and another step or two back.  Fortunately, most of the paint came off of the counter and her hands.

The kids are motivated to continue the four day school week that we started last year, and so we work extra hard to have an extra day off.  It works well, because there is always something that comes up during the week that makes it difficult to do school at home that day.  This flex day has helped us to stay motivated on the four days we do school, and to not let us fall behind when life happens since we have it built into our schedule.  In the below photos, clockwise from top left: the three oldest doing school in their rooms right when they wake up (that was September, and now at the start of November they are no longer doing this! Ha!) Violet overjoyed to have her friend and neighbor in her dance class this year, a drawing Lucy did that makes me so happy every time I see it, and finally, Violet on her first day of dance class for the year.

Here we all are at the dentist, one morning this past month.  Homeschooling gives us great flexibility for doctor appointments since we don't have to wait until after school when everyone else is trying to get in. 

Lucy has really upped her baking game this past month, and we are going through butter faster than I thought possible (and that is crazy, because I use a lot of butter).  She made a fancy brownie cupcake for her first solo attempt at baking and they looked picture perfect.  One bite though almost choked me, and after spitting it out, we determined that she mixed up the salt and sugar proportions in the recipe.  Will made the comment that you could die from too much salt as he too started choking on his first bite, and I realized that the mistake was only in the fancy coconut topping and that by scraping off the tops, we could still eat the brownie below.  She was so bummed though, and redid the recipe a few days later, at which point we all declared them a yummy, baking success!  Below in clockwise order from top left: Lucy's first attempt at brownie cupcakes, her well-received second attempt, a buttermilk pie that she made from a recipe in a book she read, and some oatmeal apple rhubarb bars that she made.  The center photos are of my first attempt at chicken and dumplings which was a huge hit with everyone except Emma and Violet, and finally, some beautiful eggs from our chickens.

With all of the baked treats we've been having, you would think the kids would be immune to the song of the ice cream truck.  Yet another reason why we are looking forward to our more private yard.  I swear that truck drives by extra slow by our yard because of all of the kid toys strewn about.  The top photo below is of all four kids, looking sadly and longingly as the ice cream truck drove torturously slow by them.  The bottom photo below is of the one time I did let them get a treat from the ice cream truck.  Even Charlie hung around to see if there would be any treats for him too.

Below are photos of fun times this past month, found in just ordinary days.  From top left in clockwise order:  Emma reading a Berenstain Bear book to Violet, Violet tying scarves and handkerchiefs on her and her dolls heads to all match, all four girls playing with Opal, Lucy paying me some money that she owed me, but doing it in a creative and beautifully tied handkerchief, and finally, mealtime.  My favorite meals are when everyone likes the food we've made, and Will is home.  This doesn't happen nearly as much as I would like, but when it does, I am happy.

This photo below made my heart happy.  The kids realized they were all together on the couch and so ran to get "Luke's teddy bear" so he could be there with them too.  The teddy bear was given to us at Luke's baby shower by Will's grandma.  Who knew that it would become so very loved by everyone but Luke, but that when the kids hug and hold this teddy bear, they feel that Luke is near.

The above photo is of our first cold of the season.  September seemed way too early to already be sick, but with Opal in the house, she is for sure the germ carrier.  I know this not only because she is always putting her hands in her mouth when we are out and about, but because she is always the first one sick.  And since the rest of us can't resist kissing her or eating the leftovers on her plate, it is just a matter of time before the rest of us have whatever contagious thing she has.

Here I am below with my girls.  Opal fell on the driveway this past month, and had a swollen upper lip.  When we realized that she couldn't smile in our selfie, we decided to all make "duck lips" so that she "matched". 

May we all be so lucky to have friends and family who share "duck lips" with us when our upper lips are swollen.

Opal at 18 Months

Opal had a growth spurt this past month, and is now able to reach things she couldn't reach before.  Like the counter.  Or should I say chocolate cake.

Even if I hadn't caught her chocolate-handed, her face would have told me what she had found.  This little lady leaves a path of destruction wherever she goes, but has no problem singing the "Clean Up" song while the rest of us clean up after her.  

 Opal loves water... here she is below with a dish of water and a paint brush, painting the driveway.

Opal loves trees - she will hug them, and if we are on a walk and she is in her stroller, she will demand that we let her touch the bark of any tree that we pass.  In the photo below she was hugging a tree when a squirrel caught her attention above her.

 Opal loves music, and the better the beat, the more she likes it.  Here she is below playing the piano - she can now climb up on the bench all by herself.

 She loves Elmo, and we have an Elmo CD in the car that we burned when Lucy was a baby.  Yes, burned onto a CD - this was ten years ago!  We have literally spent HOURS listening to the same two songs on repeat as it keeps her from screaming.  She will demand "Walk walk" and "Elmo" if any other music without a good enough beat is on.  We were at the library the other day, and Opal discovered a sesame street lunch box in a display case that she was so excited to see.

 Opal loves her sisters, and loves being with them.  She is so proud when she can do what they are doing.

 Opal got a big girl bed this past month, and she wasn't too happy about it, as this is our attempt to get her out of our bed.  As I type this, she has resigned herself to naps and starting the night in her own bed, but we have yet to get her to stay in it the entire night.  Frankly, her three older sisters rode us hard and now we will pretty much do whatever we can to get the most sleep, even at the cost of long term bad habits.  If that doesn't sum up my fourth daughter, I don't know what does!

Opal is a feisty one, and has a very high-pitched scream.  She will scream to tell us she wants something or is unhappy, or if a sister is in her space.  Whoever is making her scream gets attacked by every other member of the family who sometimes at the same time yells "give that baby what she wants!!!" just to make the screaming stop.  Again, not great habits here folks, but we are tired.  Opal is so lucky she is cute, and if that isn't for her own survival, I don't know what is!

August Critters and Comrarderie

We saw so much wildlife in our backyard this past month.  One of the most amazing was a red-spotted purple admiral butterfly that we found in our yard - see top left photo below.  We have never seen one of these in real life before!  We also raised eleven black swallow tail butterflies from caterpillars we found on the dill in our garden.  It was exciting to release them.  Will caught a vole in our garden, and Lucy found some really big grasshoppers as well.  Emma's bare foot unfortunately found a honey bee in our grass, and was promptly stung - see center photo below with her sting slathered with a baking soda paste to help draw the poison out.  

Charlie also enjoys the wildlife in our yard, and in the photo below, we found a chipmunk hiding from his advances.  We were able to rescue the chipmunk and lock Charlie up.  I continue to be so torn about Charlie's role in our local ecosystem.  He serves a useful purpose for us, as we haven't had a problem with mice since Charlie moved in, however despite the high quality food we serve Charlie, he still prefers fresh catches over kibble and wet cat food.  Here Charlie is below, sleeping on our living room window air conditioner - you better believe we sweat that nap out, as heaven forbid we turn on the air conditioner and wake him up.  

After going through all of my photos from August, I realized we spent much of our time outside, which makes me happy.  Here the girls are below, enjoying the beautiful weather in our own backyard.

August definitely reminds us of the impermanence of summer, and we became focused on achieving the last of our summer goals this past month.  Lucy and I went on a date together, clothes shopping and then we dined at Chipotle, which Lucy and I both love, but the rest of the family could take or leave.  Will took the three oldest girls to the local baseball diamond, where they enjoyed stadium food and some special daddy time.  They went back again with Will and his parents, after receiving free tickets to the ballgame from the library's summer reading program.  In the center photo below, Violet is smiling in the dentist chair.  We have finally begun Violet's dental journey, and are looking forward to watching her smile evolve.  It's a fine line, as Violet has told us that she loves her smile, but also that she wants her teeth to look like ours.  She has experienced several different occasions of curious kids hurting her feelings in regards to her teeth, and I think that the dentist that we have decided to go with understands our wishes of function first and cosmetics second.  The dentist told us that if at any time Violet decides that she wishes cosmetics to be first, that we will make the necessary adjustments.  We are trying a relatively new procedure for fixing Violet's mouth, and our hope is if this is successful, she will avoid jaw surgery down the road.  For the price of a luxury car payment, we are taking the chance.  Will and I both feel very grateful for this opportunity/advancement in dental care, and that we have the ability to invest in a person we love.  And maybe someday, medically necessary dental care will be covered by health insurance.  The National Foundation of Ectodermal Dysplasia is tirelessly working to make that dream a reality.

We celebrated my mom's birthday this past month, spent time with friends who are like family: small, inset photo on the right is of Lucy and friend, whose mom grew up with me!  And the bottom, left hand picture below are friends whose dad grew up with Will!  In the bottom right hand picture below, the girls are making memories with Will's aunt and uncle who specialize in making our kids feel special.

Will and the kids joined me for the annual Bee Fest at the Belle Isle Nature Center in Detroit this past month.  I have no photos of me, as I was mostly busy talking about bees, and Will was mostly busy keeping the girls happy.

We have decided to transform our backyard into a native ecosystem.  I have been researching native plants and their importance in saving insects and animals.  I hope to teach a class on native ecosystems once our yard is complete.  Below is the first of several projects to transform our yard to mostly native plants - Will buried our downspout and had it feed into a culvert that our sump pump already feeds into.

We then planted native plants that thrive in wet conditions.  Imagine our excitement the first time it rained after our project was complete!  It works like a charm, and area is already abuzz with insects and we've even seen a frog!  We are hoping (especially Lucy) that in time, more frogs will make their home here.

August also marks the time for Will to head back to work.  Here we are below, enjoying ice cream cones downtown on Will's last night of summer vacation.

 We had a great summer, and I wish I knew how to slow down time.  Summer goes by so fast for us, and I have to say that we are all at our happiest when Will is home.  Does happiness equal time going faster?  I had a few projects I wanted to accomplish before Will went back - organizing some things at home, as well as making a self care area in my bedroom.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: Lucy with a comic strip she created for the library's summer reading program, the girls dress up clothes now hanging in Opal's closet since all of Opal's clothes minus a few dresses fit in her dresser, some roller bottles of essential oil scents as part of my self care corner, and a peach blueberry coffee cake I made on Will's last morning before he went back to work.  Those dress up clothes have been the bane of my existence for several years now, so I am excited to see if this solves the problem that a clothes rack and a bin couldn't solve before.

Some of the motivation for the organizing was to have more space in our house which is starting to feel quite cramped.  Six people in a three bedroom house is totally doable, and so we need to just pare down our stuff.  Will and I have been dabbling on realtor.com, trying to decide if we need more space or if we can make it in our current house that we love so much.  All arrows are still pointing to staying, and so now the effort of paring down so that we can freely move about in the house that we love is in fully swing.  We've also looked into getting an addition put on the house, but for now, we think our money will be better spent investing in our kids than in our space.  Speaking of investing in our kids, here we are in the photos below kicking off our eighth year of homeschooling.

We started back to school a little earlier than the schools around us, which was fine by all of us as it gives us more flexibility during the school year.  So, when we went up north for our final trip this summer over Labor Day weekend, we already had a few weeks of school under our belt and it felt like a welcome break.  In the below photos - Will's aunt and uncle sent us cookies in the mail from our favorite cookie place that we visited back in July.  What a wonderful surprise that was, especially since we were going up north the very next day and got to bring them with us to be enjoyed on beaches several hours away from the shores of where these cookies were from.  It was like our two favorite up north places got together, creating the ultimate in flavor and scenery.  

Our first night up north, we caught the sunset at the beach, while nibbling on our favorite cookies.  It was the highlight of our trip.  Such peace and beauty and yumminess.

 This is the same place we have been going for three years now, twice a year.  It feels like our home away from home, and for this four day weekend, we had a bucket list of places to go and food to eat.

 Opal is now old enough to do some hiking on her own two feet.  It was a joy for me to see all four of my girls with their feet on our favorite trails.  Although Opal outgrowing her hiking carrier definitely slowed us down!

 We climbed a big sand dune and realized halfway up that we forgot to bring our waters.  We asked a dad carrying a baby back down the sand dune how much farther until the beach and he responded in a defeated kind of way, "there are hills and hills to go and once you think you climbed the last hill, there will be even more hills."  Will and I looked at each other and decided that we had climbed enough, and would travel back down as well.  There were still some spectacular views and we had hiked for over two hours.

We shopped at some of our favorite farm stands, and had the best blueberries, corn, green beans, donuts and pizza bread (that we put pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese on and toasted in the oven).

 We enjoyed some cozy campfires and tasty s'mores, snuggling with storybooks on the couch and Violet even decorated our table with flowers floating in a bowl of water.

 Memories were made, and rest, relaxation and fun was had.  It was a great way to end our summer, and I am looking forward to enjoying the next three seasons, and then going back up north again!

Opal at 17 Months

This little lady keeps us on our toes!  In many ways, Opal as the fourth sister is easier than when it was just Lucy, or even just Lucy and Emma.  Now I have three extra sets of eyes to keep Opal safe, and it makes taking a shower so much easier, as well as making dinner or really accomplishing anything.  However, because there are an extra three sets of eyes on Opal, Opal is constantly being told no.  Things that I would let slide because it just isn't worth the trouble of telling her no, the sisters do not let slide.  Things escalate quickly, and before you know it - someone is telling Opal no, Opal is screaming at the top of her lungs, and someone else is yelling "what does she want?!?!" in an attempt to just make the screaming stop.  Not to mention that Opal's own set of eyes watch her three sisters very closely, and she imitates all that they do - good and bad.  The sisters taught Opal to pant instead of saying yes when she wants something for example, and they have also taught her how to count to three - when doing risky things like jumping off of the couch.  Now, Opal pants for anything she wants, and also can be heard counting to three before doing something dangerous.  I have literally  three seconds to save her from herself when I hear "ONE!  DOOO!  VEEEEEEE!!!!"

I'm also trying to teach the older sisters not to laugh when Opal exhibits less than desirable behavior.  I swear, it is so much work keeping the sisters from being a bad influence on Opal!  Luckily, the sisters love Opal fiercely, and do enjoy making her laugh and getting her excited about different things.  Here Opal is below, after one of the sisters got the idea to show Opal how to push a baby doll in a doll stroller.

Another sister helped set Opal up with a Boppy pillow and a baby doll that opens and closes it's eyes and goes to sleep if you feed it a bottle.  

Opal may have a little more street smarts than an oldest child or an only child, but she can still be sweet too.  Granted, when she is ready to go she will tell whoever I am talking to, "BYE!" while waving or blowing them a kiss.  She really can't be bothered with drawn out goodbyes or she will start wailing.

If Opal touches something or holds it, it is now her possession.  It doesn't matter if she never touches this object again - if someone else touches this object that she touched or held first - she will scream "MINE!!!!" until the offending person sets the object down.

 Opal loves animals and especially loves dogs, which she calls "ruff ruffs" and cats which she calls "ChaaaarLeeeeee".  Charlie seems pretty laid back about Opal's advances, however I cannot leave them alone together for a second, because I can't trust either of them.

Opal has learned to pick blueberries this past month, and we have taught her to only pick the blue ones.  She has gotten much better about this, and I think it is because eating a white blueberry that isn't ripe yet doesn't taste very good.  The other day we were at church, and I was taking a turn walking Opal in the lobby since her attention span was done sitting quietly in the pew when she found a fake floral arrangement.  The next thing I know she is trying to pick the plastic berries and would not stop until I told her that she couldn't pick it because they weren't ripe yet.  What can I say, she understood and moved on to wanting to play in the baptismal font.

 Opal is constantly in motion, and loves to be independent.  She is not a snuggler, but instead prefers to sit in her own chair, or next to us instead of cuddled on our lap.  She is a picky eater, and has been known to try anything, but usually spits it out while saying "wa-wa!".  She does love popsicles, smoothies, taco meat and cheese though, as pictured below!

Opal, you definitely can hold your own as the youngest of four sisters, and we wouldn't have you any other way!