last days at the pool

summer is over at the wheeler's. 

we held our annual "farewell to summer" family home evening on monday, so that makes it official. 

only a handful of activities (getting slurpees, playing twister, tie-dying shirts) didn't quite make the summer board in time and *may* show up here in the next few weeks. but otherwise, like 30 rock and parks and rec and the office: it's just over.

epic sigh.

here's a look back at our last days spent splashing, sunning, and swimming at the pool:

mickey still blue eyes

caleb got to visit the doctor today.

his growth trajectory remains steady:  in the "95th percentile" for weight and the "greater than 95th percentile" (which i thought was an interesting distinction) for height.

during his fourth month, he's been mostly busy giving his mama big muscles as she lugs all eighteen and a half pounds of him around from day to day.

but he's also been busy rolling, grabbing, teething, kicking, blabbing, pulling, laughing, and mesmerizing everyone he meets with those gorgeous baby blues and perfectly dimpled cheeks.

caleb is an easy smile and very social. he loves to see his sisters when they crawl into bed with us every morning and especially enjoys pulling summer's hair.

also, be advised, he has a highly sensitive startle reflex, so he hates any sudden loud noises, such as vacuum cleaners, sneezing, and/or clapping of any kind.

remember that time your hair was pink?

is what we'll say twenty years from now when we're looking at this pic.

in answer to the question most often asked: "is it permanent?"

um, my hair is, like, two inches long: nothing is permanent.

and in answer to the question second most often asked: "why, oh why?"
it's 'cause three kids notwithstanding, i'm still in my twenties, yo!

our triumphant return

we're back.

and crazier than ever.

the girls came home tanned, tired, spoiled, and wanting to be professional hula-hoopers, i came home well-rested, well-fed, and all caught up on my cinematic endeavors, and caleb came home grabbing everything in sight, cutting two teeth, and ready to crawl.

woo-hoo! what a fabulous vacation!

now it's time to hike up our britches and get to work.

on the docket for next week:  cleaning (laundry? dishes? floors? bathrooms?), organizing (ugh, unpacking...), and preparing for what's to come.

real men wear gloves

white gloves.

missing daddy

the wheeler threelers and i are very much enjoying our relaxing vaycay here in sweet home alabama.

it's been everything we set out for it to be: i sleep in until 9:30 or 10am every day (no, i'm not kidding), we watch tons of movies on the big screen, we spend a good amount of time at the pool, matt and my mom cook us up delicious meals every night, and i totally kick butt at bananagrams.

and yet...

we miss our daddy.

we miss jumping into his arms at the end of the day screaming, "swing me faster, daddy!" we miss holding hands and sneaking treats after the children have gone to bed.

i think it's good and right for every wife to think that she has the best husband ever. but sorry, ladies, on a scale of absoluteness, it's me. i have him.

dear bryan,

we love you. we miss you. we'll be home soon.

(pictured top right: beautiful flowers daddy sent us while we've been away).

a monkey on your back

afton has taken quite a shining to uncle fat.

(ps - she can't say "schmatt")

Postcard from Glasshouse Yard

Summer and Afton:

Your favorite robot stowed away in my carry on. When we arrived in London on Sunday, the streets teamed with crowds as the Olympic swell seemed to pause for one last afternoon before going home. Work was intense this week, so Mr. Robot had to forgo any sight seeing trips and simply contented himself on the terrace of the new London office.

Love,

Dad

updo update

i'm pleased (and somewhat surprised) to report that i have continued to work diligently this summer at honing my braiding skillz.

i have managed to move on from french braids to dutch braids and from straight back to crown wraps.

once again, my thanks be to youtube for its vastness of knowledge and its many, many (many) tutorials.

but after youtube, it is my summer  girl who deserves the lion's share of mad props. she patiently lets me harass her head each morning and sits still for much longer than any four year old should, whilst i curse and throw things and pop blood vessels and give up in despair only to try again (from the top!).

we've come a long way, she and i, in figuring out this "hair" thing together, and i am especially pleased to report that, thus far, but one hair-doing incident has ended in tears (hers or mine...not sayin').

anyway, above is a little glimpse of her favorite do to date: the partial dutch crown braid into a side pony.

head to toe

um, it looks like i may have added a *few* 

too many bubbles to last night's bubble bath:

caleb goes for a swim

our little man very much enjoyed his first dip in the pool (don't let his facial expressions fool you -- he had a blast!):

get well soon

our girls are wily ones.

summer recently had a little bit of a sore throat, so she went to her mere, batted those big brown eyes and asked, "can you make me a get well card?" 

mere said yes (as meres always do), and so summer, thrilled with her conquest, continued on in her list of demands, "put it in an envelope and leave it under my pillow and don't forget some candy!"

of course, afton couldn't bear to be left out of all the action.

so a card for her, too.

the girls were understandably delighted when they awoke the next morning (feeling much better, i might add), to colorful cards and yummy gummy bears. 

what a treat!

then not even a day went by before they turned their little wily girl ways on uncle schmatto (side note: i'm pretty sure summer and afton think his name really is schmatto).

"can you make us cards, uncle schmatto?"

and schmatto said yes (as schmattos always do).

then they asked *me* to make them cards.

and i was all, "children, please. i feed you, i clothe you, i buy you toys and read you stories and wipe your bums, i'm up with you in the night when you're scared or lost or lonely, and i make your lives the veritable wonderlands that they are. it is you who should be making me a card."

and don't forget the candy.

on a roll

ever since joining us here on earth, caleb has had but one little baby dream: to sleep on his stomach.

and because his parents didn't seem to be much help in this regard, he set to work almost immediately trying to make it happen on his own.

first, tipping on his side. then, arching his back. followed by much wriggling and writhing and throwing his arms about.

and finally: success!

baby caleb is officially a roller. back to front, front to back, side to side, up and down, all around.

he loves it.

and i love that he loves it.

crawling, ho!

dog dayz

today is our family dog, mitzi's, birthday.

she turned a very mature sixteen years old, which means she's exceeded her average life expectancy by, like, two years already.

miraculous given her transient lifestyle (army dog) and all the crazy kids she's grown up around.

mitzi has given us a scare a time or two, as if maybe it was her time to go, but my faithful parents continue to will her to live.

so keep on kickin', little dog.

and a very happy birthday to you, too.

mr. serious strikes again

why, hello there, blog baby.

veteran's memorial park

for christmas 2010, my siblings and i gifted our father a tribute brick paver in the huntsville madison county veteran's memorial in huntsville, alabama.

yesterday, we got to visit the memorial in person.

a happy baby

allow me to introduce you to our little michael caleb:

see, he smiles.

he laughs and giggles and grins from ear to ear all the live long day.

yes, the real baby caleb is just about as jolly as you please.

unlike his grumpy and serious, frowning, scowling, eyebrow-raising counterpart, "blog baby," who pretty much appears every time a camera is near.

first day at the pool

a little more bubbly

one of the ladies' favorite activities at mere mere and opa d's house is the nightly luxurious jetted bubble bath in mere mere's ginormous tub.

these girlies are spoilt.

barbie and the baby

ah, sisters.

away we go

the chilens and i are off to spend a few weeks at my parents' in alabama.

plans include spending leisurely mornings by the pool, taking a nap every day (to be clear: that would be ME taking a nap every day), dominating uncle schmatto at bananagrams, handing off my crying baby to his loving mere mere, eating food prepared by someone else, watching way too many movies, and pretty much shirking on all of my adult responsibilities.

there's no place like home.

sharing

okay, so i did find one cute picture from our trip to molly moon's on tuesday:

out of all his cousins, danton has a special partiality for afton.

summer is a bit too old for danton, especially because he does not take kindly to being bossed around or "babied," as it were.

and caleb is still a bit too young, doing little besides sleeping and crying (and sleeping and crying some more).

that leaves afton, our middle child.

she's approachable, interesting, mostly stays out of his way, and will even share with him some yummy ice cream cone.

which fits him just about right.

play ball

but back to me and my birthday.

first up for la celebracion de emilia, we met anna and danton (aka "dantanna") in seattle for dinner at red mill burgers and ice cream at molly moon's. sadly, we have no good pics from those excursions as we were all pretty busy stuffing our faces. 

also, a vicious rumor has been spread that i treated myself to both a butterfinger milkshake at red mill *and* a bowl full of scout mint ice cream at molly moon's; i can neither confirm nor deny this outrageous claim.

anyway, bellies full, we parted ways with the youngs and went on to enjoy an evening mariners game.

all the children did wonderfully -- the ladies were especially captivated by the fact that they could just scream at the top of their lungs when they felt like it and clap energetically for no apparent reason and stand up and dance whenever they heard loud music. 

baseball game = rambunctious preschooler paradise.

we continued consuming unnecessarily large amounts of junk food (red vines! cotton candy! peanuts!)

and the mariners won.

backyard campout

this past friday night at the wheeler homestead:

summer's conclusion, upon waking up in the great wide open on saturday morning: 

"that was the best campout ever!" 

i, for one, am glad she remains so easy to impress.