Just a Thursday.

It's gloomy outside, and mama is recovering from a particularly bad day yesterday, rife with shredded nerves from a teething baby who wouldn't sleep, the lateness for an orthodontist appointment that followed, the speeding ticket that followed that, the subsequent failure to make it to the tooth appointment on time, and one very sad Mirth who has to have her appliance in a full 6 weeks longer as result.

cutting up gelatin-Grace's squares are pretty darn perfect. 

Today is better. There is tea with honey, a baby who slept curled into her mama's belly all night contentedly, roasted acorn squash and kale chips, and a tour of a raw milk dairy farm waiting for us late this afternoon. Perhaps I'll squeeze in a 30 minute run, as well.

Lark making mazes. <3 

Lark is in her bedroom on the top bunk, listening to The Chamber of Secrets on mp3. Earlier this morning, she pranced into the kitchen lightly and trilled, "I notice we've eaten a lot of sweet things lately. I think we should eat less sugar. Let's eat vegetables for lunch!" :blink blink: It'll be hard, but I think we can manage it. She's also been pushing the baby around the house on an upside down lego table, sleigh ride style, Electra giggling all the way. She's in a remarkably easy/cooperative phase right now, and she's constantly making me giggle with her insightful observations.

To my complete astonished delight, Mirth pulled out one of her old stories and decided to type it out, editing grammar/spelling as she goes and adding illustration in Paint as she goes. I'm treading lightly, so as not to disturb the magic that's going on there; too much input, and I'll pop it. ;oP When it happens, her projects are so thought out and organized, as long as no one puts too much pressure on her and jinxes it. She just asked me if I wanted tea, because "I'm making myself some. Every good writer needs tea."

 A recent homemade joke of hers, "How do you tell an asian elephant from an african elephant?" "Read the SIGN." :OP

Grace is sprawled out on the rug, doing a Montessori activity a friend recommended, and instructing her sisters on the finer points of emotional validation as she goes. ("Mirth! I lost my key. I lost my key. MIRTH. I lost my key." "OK, wow, you lost your key! Great! -.-" "You can't say 'great' when someone loses their key! You're 'sposed to say, 'Oh, no! That's so sad!'") I'm snickering here. Extraverted feeling at work here, folks. She's started drawing really detailed art writing very small, perfect, amazing letters and words. Her first word was 'poop'; no surprise there. She still flips out over small physical setbacks, but is able to work it out herself or respond to humorous explanations of *why* the frustrating thing might be happening. She loves it when we anthropomorphize frustrating objects like her pants: "Sneaky PANTS! You're trying to trick us, but we're too clever for you! We've CAUGHT you trying to be lumpy!" This usually produces a knowing look and giggles.

Electra is mostly just bumping along the floor in a sideways crawl, inspecting things as she goes, and chirping for 'nanas whenever she sees one. Of all the foods she's tried so far, bananas are her favorite, I think. She also seems to really love the soft parts of popcorn, chia pudding, beans, sweet potatoes, and curried anything. She repeats almost any word that strikes her fancy, but the ones she uses to actually tell us things are: bow, dat, dis?, mama, dada, Mirth's name, sis, mo', cat, some and the sign for milk. Her favorite is funny noises: hissing like a cat, "whistling", clucking her tongue, making a pee sound at the potty, "mop-mop-mop"ing like a fish, and imitation of pretty much anything else she hears. She tends to wake up dry in the morning, so we've started taking her to the toilet, signing "pee", and she empties her bladder there...Lark tends to come along and cheer, and Electra grins proudly with all her teeth and claps for herself.

It's so much fun to watch her develop relationships with all her family members...each one is different from the next, and she's quickly learning who to go to for what. One of her many nicknames is "Babber Nabber the baby grabber".

That's all for today. Just wanted to get those thoughts down. <3