the eleventh hour

well, i suppose it's not "technically" the eleventh hour (and fingers crossed it doesn't come to that).

but regardless, the effort involved in sewing summer's halloween costume this year has *really* had me questioning my sanity.

curse you 80s for being so awesome!!

caleb brushes his teeth

we've been brushing caleb's teeth for awhile now (bytheway, guess who already has his two year molars?), and one day, he started to "spit" all by himself:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIKwhu77QNU

eighteen months, one week, and two days

is how long it took for baby caleb to learn how
to climb to the top of summer's bunk bed.

oi.

more pictures from the pumpkin patch

so as you may have been able to deduce from, like, three of our earlier posts, we recently made our annual wheeler family pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch.

here are a few more pics from that favorite of fall adventures (look, ma! no rain!):

pink boots

not the first time caleb has been forced to own this look.

ps - we did buy him his own boots, but at the last minute, decided they might be too small and had to improvise. luckily, he's only eighteen months old and so thrilled to be outside in the dirt that he couldn't care less.

reasons why my daughter is crying

i'm sure you've all see the site, reasons why my son is crying.

well, here's sweet little summer girl having a fit of her own because she can't find a pumpkin.

in the pumpkin patch.

in the end, we were able to help her navigate the overwhelming world of pumpkin picking, but she still was not very happy about having had to endure such hardship.

fapqs

(frequently asked pregnancy questions)

so how long have you been pregnant? given that this is my second back-to-back nursing/pregnancy and my fourth baby in six years, it feels like i've been pregnant for a very, very long time. in fact, there is a gentleman in my ward who refers to me as "that lady who's always pregnant and who wears awesome shoes." guilty as charged.

did you get sick with this pregnancy? you know, i've heard it said that every pregnancy is different, but in my experience, they've all been pretty much the same (only i just keep getting older and slower and more dimply overall). so as we have come to expect, i spent about ten weeks out-of-commission this go round, and another several weeks fully regaining my strength. (for refresher courses on hyperemesis gravidarum, which i made famous *cough* before kate middleton did, see here, here, and here).

how did you manage being sick with three young kids? the blessed truth is that i don't have to manage. i have a faithful entourage of people who do most of the hard work for me, and i just have to survive.

i have a great team of doctors and nurses who have seen me through three previous pregnancies and who are there at the helm with all my drugs, iv care, and any other medical attention that i need.

then of course, i have such a supportive and stalwart family and community. each of my immediate family members spent some time out here this summer and all were kind and helpful and understanding.

my husband: man, oh, man is my husband a rock, allowing me to talk him in to this again and again. husbands, think of your dear wives. think of everything they do. now think for a minute that they weren't going to be able to do any of it. for months. stress you out much?

and my dearest littles are such troopers. they are loving, gentle, and resilient. they know what to expect and are dutiful in their roles to "leave mommy alone."

my mother, as you know, is a saint who even though she was recovering from cancer treatment herself, would not be stopped from helping out, and in fact, did a great deal, including managing most of my food intake.

but the great hero of this pregnancy is uncle schmatt. he had the summer off between undergraduate and graduate school and somehow got talked into coming here to spend it with our ragtag crew (the vacation of his dreams!) yes, he made breakfast. yes, he made lunch. yes, he made dinner every. single. night (and to bryan's utter delight, he had it ready at six o'clock, on the dot). yes, he changed diapers. yes, he vacuumed and cleaned. yes, he entertained children. yes, he went grocery shopping and did meal planning. and no, he never complained.

so when you're sick in bed, what do you do all day? i get asked this question a lot, and the very simple (but mind-blowing) answer is absolutely nothing. i don't read. i barely talk. i don't knit or write or craft or play games. heck, i don't even put on clothes. occasionally i'm able to watch some mindless movies, but i spend the vast majority of my days staring at the wall or listening to the boy across the street work (fruitlessly) on his basketball skillz: boing. boing. boing. rim. boing. boing. boing. rim. 

don't pity my boredom, though, because one has to been in his right mind to be "bored," and i am definitely not in my right mind. during the worst times, i'm losing up to one pound a day, and it's taking all my energy to a) fight the starvation, b) remain unplugged from some ghastly needle, and c) try to remain perfectly still. i have to think constantly about what i'm going to eat next. what i'm going to drink next. how i'm going to keep from throwing it up. and what my plan is if i do throw it up. there is no brain power left to be bored.

is the new baby a boy or a girl? once again, we have been assured that it is either the one or the other, but again, we don't know for sure which one. my motherly "intuition" is pretty terrible (my record being 0 for 3 at this point), but i was thinking for the first half of the pregnancy "definitely girl" and for the second half "definitely boy." really, your guess is as good as mine!

and finally, when is this little cherub due to arrive? this coming january.

as an added bonus, here is a recent pic of his or her newest little highness:

(profile view with the head at the right of the screen -- nose pointing up -- and the giant abdomen at the left).

caleb goes to nursery

this pretty much sums up how excited caleb was for his first official day in nursery:

ps - his parents were pretty excited, too.

little lost tooth

yesterday, summer finally lost her first tooth, which has been wiggly for weeks.

she lost it right in the middle of a friend's baptism, and she's thrilled because she'll forever remember where she was when she lost her first tooth.

to remember when summer's first tooth was born, five and a half years ago, see here.

another 525,600 minutes

remember last year at the pumpkin patch?

and the year before?

spider bows

so sometimes i still sit around and make stuff.

i'm not saying i sit around and make stuff AND get the house cleaned AND have dinner ready on time AND make sure the children stay out of trouble.

i'm just saying sometimes i sit around and make stuff.

way cool spider bow tutorial from ribbon retreat.

sail away

THERE is no frigate like a book

  To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

  Of prancing poetry.

 

This traverse may the poorest take

  Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

  That bears a human soul!

--Emily Dickinson

caleb on how to climb a slide

step one:

step two:

step three:

step four:

runner runner

summer participated in her school's cheetah walk fundraiser last week.

basically, the kids raise money for the school by seeing how many laps they can run/walk around the track in thirty minutes and then collecting pledges from sponsors per lap.

summer (a born athlete like her mom) took the experience in stride: walking/skipping/sort-of-running around the track, holding hands with her friend the entire time (i noted no other children were quite as committed to the buddy system).

she managed to churn out a whopping mile and a half in those thirty minutes, and i have to shamefully admit to underestimating her abilities and only pledging her to walk a mile.

above, she declares her victory.

chocolat

so bryan returned home from london last week (which is almost starting to sound cliche).

as penance for his departures, he always returns bearing gifts of european chocolate for momma: milka whole hazelnut chocolates, specifically.

and then i eat one giant three hundred gram bar every day until i have recovered from being left alone for nearly two hundred hours with the little martians munchkins.

(he's adorbs because he only brings home eight).

general conference

happy conference weekend, everybody!

the children very much enjoyed eating yummy gummy worms this morning every time they heard the words "prayer," "scriptures," "family," or "missionary" in a conference talk.

we heard the word "family" a lot.

of course, not too long after the morning session was over, caleb pushed the glass bowl holding the treats off the banister (where a super smart mommy had left them) and onto the ground below.

'cause he's boss like that.

baby cay

so it's actually not lost on me how there are far few pictures of my third child than there are of my first two.

and a couple of reasons come to mind for why that is:

1) our year this year has been a bit "unusual," as far as most years go, and we simply haven't gotten out the camera as often as we'd like (70 blog posts so far in 2013? come on, wheelers).

2) caleb is SO, SO hard to photograph.

it's not like i haven't tried. the child just absolutely will not sit still. and if i ever do decide to get out the camera, he comes running at me in full force, arms waving, ready to tackle me and take the strange contraption for himself.

he also suffers from a little condition we like to call "angry resting face." meaning that his face in a neutral position is quite grumpy looking, so if i happen to snap a shot of him that isn't blurry from movement, he usually looks peeved with the world. which i don't think he is, really, it's just how he looks (how he's always looked).

anyhoo, i've decided to stop my whining and try harder.

above i've captured him eating, which generally slows him down a bit and brings a smile to his face.

a kinder in my garden

here she is:

and there she goes:

summer was so excited and so ready and had a really fantastic first day experience (bytheby, for our faraway friends, summer is in morning half-day kindergarten, so she's really only gone two more mornings a week than she was last year).

she has already made a new best friend in her class (lilly, she tells me), and she sat with all sorts of great kids on the bus who helped her know the rules and find her way around the school. the only snag of the day was that she forgot her jacket on the bus ride home, but good news! the bus driver has it, and she'll get it back tomorrow. disaster averted.

unexpectedly, i didn't even shed a tear today. i guess i was just all cried out from playing and replaying that doggone perfectly pointed music by mr. folds.

back to school nite

last night we had a small back to school devotional for summer and afton.

first, we talked about our theme for the new school year. in coming up with the theme/goal for the girls, bryan and i took into account specific challenges they might face this year, as well as their personalities and temperaments, and came up with the very original and poignant "try your best."

we had the girls talk a little bit about what they were most excited about and most nervous about as they entered new schools this year, and afterwards, bryan gave each of them a father's blessing. 

then it was on to the celebratory pizookie! (a warm chocolate chip cookie dough baked almost through and topped with vanilla ice cream). bryan and i both had a bit of trouble downing all the delicious richness in one sitting, but our little ladies had their ramekins licked clean in no time flat. sugar monsters.

can you tell how excited they are for school to begin?

self-timer fail

"exhibit A" as to why we don't attempt pics like this more often:

at temple square, august 29th

first day of pre-k

afton has grown up quite a bit this summer: shedding the rest of her toddlerness and becoming so much the little lady.

we have also been able to learn a lot in the past few months about what makes her tick. afton, as it turns out, is a true introvert. meaning, not necessarily that she's shy, but that she draws her strength from being alone (summer, on the other hand, thinks it's absolute DEATH to ever, EVER be alone). 

we have therefore been more diligent about making sure that afton gets enough time by herself to jive her own jive so that she's all powered up and less likely to melt down during the times when she has to engage with the rest of humanity.

back in june, i was uncertain as to whether or not she would be ready for preschool in the fall (playing well with others, following directions, remaining calm, and overall compliance were not on her list of accomplishments at that time), but september 4th came and afton was not only ready, she was eager! 

she had a great first day.

at the amazon family picnic

a couple weekends ago we spent the day at centurylink field with face painting and glitter stamps and balloon animals and free gifts and free food and live music and 30,000 of our closest friends.

thanks, amazon team! you may be monopolizing all of my husband's time (like, *all* of it) with your relentless hard work, but twice a year, you throw a good party.

(psst - remember how much fun we had at the post-holiday party?)

school supplies

this. is. happening.

september 9th, people. 

on september 9th, i'll put that little girl on a bus and wave goodbye. i'll go inside, close the door, slowly sink down onto the floor, and then i'll cry like a baby because i'm just not old enough for this. because i remember being that little girl and now i'm that little girl's mama and where did all the time go and where will all the time go, and are the pencils sharpened and are her shoes tied and who will sit with her at lunch and who will play with her at recess and will she listen to her teacher, and golly, i could really use a ben folds song right about now.

ps - who else is totally bummed that we don't get to label school supplies anymore? what gives?

all-alaskan pig race

at the evergreen state fair, waiting with baited breath for the race to begin:

laziest summer ever

i totally give myself two thumbs down for the blog-umentation of this summer.

so here's a quick peek into our lives:

summer and afton occupy most of their time by good old fashioned playing all day (a philosophy brought to you by the letter "L" for lazy mom and the letter "S" for simplicity parenting). i see them at meal times and before bed, but otherwise, they are busy delving deeper and deeper into their fantastic and creative imaginary worlds or setting up all the little tiny toys they can get their little tiny hands on in some elaborate and delicate scheme. they have also been muy entertained by the many extended family folks who have been coming and going throughout the past several months.

caleb spends the majority of his days keeping the rest of us on our toes. i'm pretty sure a week doesn't go by that i don't amazon prime some new kind of baby-proofing device or door lock (keep in mind, we have had children before...). always in search of a good time and a big mess, caleb's little legs have spent almost every second of this summer in motion. he's also been showing very little interest in using words and instead, finds his current modes of communication -- yelling, yelling louder, and various demanding gestures -- effective enough.

there have, of course, been zoos and play dates and trips and lakes and kids camps and outings and adventures and what nots, but mostly, if you ever find yourself thinking, "huh, i wonder what the wheelers are up to right now?" you can probably just stop on by 'cause there's a pretty good chance we'll simply be hanging out at home.

(only, don't "just stop on by," 'cause there's *also* a pretty good chance i'll simply be still in my pajamas...)