THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow mamas! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to talk about my wonderful kids and share with you the joy they bring to my life.

We have really been enjoying the spring and spending a lot of time outdoors. We have been to the zoo a few times, and we took the kids to a Tigers game at Comerica Park- it was the first time for Sammy.

It was nice to spend a sunny afternoon at the ballpark, eating peanuts and hot dogs, and Rosie insisted we all go on the baseball ferris wheel!

Sammy is now 10 months old - I can’t believe how fast these months have flown by. He looks like such a little boy to me now with his mouth full of teeth. Speaking of teeth, sometime last month he chipped his left front tooth! (you can see it in the photo below of him snacking of a purple crayon)

I didn’t even notice it until days (weeks?) later - he falls so much with all of his standing and cruising and getting into things, he has bumped his head and mouth more times than I can count. I was actually nursing him when I noticed it because his tooth felt sharper, and sure enough - he has a tiny little sliver missing from the bottom of his left front tooth. He has also been making a noise almost like a mix between clearing his throat and a woody woodpecker laugh - “eh-eh-eh-eh-eh”. He loves putting things in and out, opening doors and closing them, and putting hands and things in our mouths. He is still not eating a whole lot - chewing and spitting things out - just tasting mostly. His favorites lately are blueberries and black beans. He also loves eating books, paper, crayons, chalk and dirt. He loves the vacuum, and chases it around whenever I am cleaning - trying to bite it and using it to hold on and stand up. He is just so dang cute (most of the time).

The bad news is that he is still SCREAMING a lot. I know he is just frustrated because he can’t talk and he is trying to communicate - but HOLY CRAP - it is so piercing and annoying and Rosie has started covering her ears with her hands when he starts up. I am trying to teach him some simple signs for “nurse” “book” “eat” “more” “diaper” and etc. in the hopes he will start to be able to communicate and stop the screaming. He is also still nursing all night long. I am hoping once he starts walking and talking and finishes up with these developmental milestones- he will hopefully start sleeping better. He is like an alarm clock - regardless of what time he goes to sleep - he wakes up every morning at 7:30 on the dot. He has started saying “mamamamamamam” a lot lately - I think he means me as he does it mostly when he is grumpy and tired and wants to be held…

He is still on the verge of walking. He’s just not quite ready to do it on his own, but he walks while just barely holding one of my hands and stands on his own all the time. He hasn’t gone from the floor to standing on his own without holding onto anything, but when I put him down he stands up by himself and when he pulls himself up to stand, he lets go all the time and stands on his own for 30 seconds and more. He took his first tentative step yesterday - but could only manage one step before he lost his balance and fell down.

Oh, and I gave him his first haircut (just a trim really) a couple days ago - and it seems I cut off most of the darker hair color - his hair looks much blonder now and fuller and it is starting to curl up like Rosie’s hair too…

Rosie has been her usual precocious almost 3 year year old self. She is learning to swing on her own, with the help of the new swingset/playstructure in backyard that was an early birthday present from GiGi.

She is counting all the time, wanting to practice counting to 100 - still needing help with the 50, 60, 70 numbers. She is really making strides with learning to read. She knows what letters start words, and she is learning to sound out words and she can read certain words in books. She is always saying things like “Hey- chip and dip rhyme!”

Lately Rosie has been saying things that I have heard come out of my own mouth - things like:
“Good job sharing mommy”
“Aww - come here and give me a hug, thank you for sharing with my little brother”
“Come on cars! Let’s go!”

She has had a very active imagination lately. Putting her dolls to sleep, making food in her play kitchen, pretending to be a butterfly, etc. She said to me the other day “Remember when I was a mommy pig?” and I said “you were a mommy pig?” and she said “Yeah” and she proceeded to tell me all about her life as a pig mommy and how she used to nurse her babies and play.

She is really so smart and I forget how literal she takes things (or how silly some common sayings sound).
She has had a rough patch of sharing with her brother and has pushed him down quite a few times in effort to get him out of her way or away from her toys. In the heat of the moment on one such occasion, when she had pushed Sammy down and he had a bleeding lip and was crying I looked at Rosie and asked the rhetorical question (as has been uttered my many moms through the years) “How many times do I have to tell you to not push your brother?” - Rosie looked at me with her serious face and said “Nine. You have to tell me nine times mommy”. I barely could keep a straight face when I told her that I am sure I have told her at least 10 times now, so she should know not to do that.

She has also been singing and making up her own songs a lot. At dinner the other night, she started singing ‘Uh oh dudes, I dropped my cauliflower, that’s ok, I’ll pick it up.”

Oh they are so sweet, my pride (Rosie) and joy (Sammy).

Here are some videos I took recently - just so you can get a glimpse into my life:

Sammy playing peek-a-boo:

Rosie talking to me while having lunch at the zoo:

Rosie blowing raspberries on Sammy to make him laugh:

Happy Mother’s Day to all, and especially to Tess, my loving mommy who still inspires me daily and has been a wonderful role model for my life - especially for motherhood. I am so very lucky to have such an amazing family.