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

Happy 3rd Birthday to Sammy and Happy 5th Birthday to Rosie!

We’ve had a busy few months (yeah, I know every single update starts that same way). We had a wedding in North Carolina over memorial weekend and a fun road trip. I turned 36! Rosie graduated from pre-school. Sammy lost a tooth. Sammy turned 3. Gigi came to visit and we had a big birthday party for the kids. Rosie turned 5. Rosie learned to swim! Lots more stuff, but those are the highlights….

Let’s start with Sammy. He is turning into such a little boy, he definitely doesn’t look like a baby anymore. His face and body have really been thinning out and he has a skinny, muscular boy belly with an outie belly button that I think is so cute!
When I say “I love you” he sighs and says “yeah, me too”
The only babyish thing about him is he is still whining and needing cuddles a lot, I have a feeling he will always be my sensitive mama’s boy, and I’m fine with that.
He is very expressive when talking and he is always adamant about everything - “yeah - he really, really did!” Almost every statement he makes, he ends with saying “really” as if someone is challenging or doubting him…
“We went to the store, really, we did!”
He always uses “he” as pronoun “Rosie hit me, he really did!”
He still copies everything Rosie does and says, and of course this really bothers Rosie. His new complaint when fighting with Rosie is that “Rosie is making the rules” and he does not like that at all…
A new development that I think is really cute is that he makes a noise - kind of like “tsk tsk” kind of clicking his tongue when thinking.

He complains every day that whatever we are doing is too long, especially when we are driving someplace in the car, he says “but it will be a long time” and whines. I am trying to explain time to him and get him to wait and be patient for things…

We are still working on potty learning, it’s frustrating and slow progress. I REALLY want to be done with diapers, and I know it needs to be his decision, so I will try to encourage him for a few days, we’ll wear underwear and try to remind him and see how it goes, and then he and I both get frustrated, so we’ll go back to diapers and forget about it for a week or 2 and then I’ll be fed up with buying diapers and we’ll start again - 2 steps forward, one step back….

We had a fun family trip to Cousin Robert’s wedding over memorial weekend in North Carolina.

We split up the drive, stopping halfway in Cincinnati on the way down and staying at Great Wolf Lodge and enjoying some waterslides, so it wasn’t too much time in the car (5 hours in the car each day instead of about a 10 hour drive each way). Here’s where the missing tooth comes into play (I know you were all reading and waiting for the story). At the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, Sammy jumped off a tall bench on the patio at the restaurant and fell forward into a picnic bench and hit his upper lip, just under his nose. He was screaming and his nose was bleeding and we were worried that he broke his nose at first, but he seemed to be fine. I tried to wiggle his teeth and they were solid, and he said they didn’t hurt. I pressed on his nose and he said that didn’t hurt either, and he seemed OK except for a scratch beneath his nose….

Fast forward 2 weeks later (after some extreme crankiness) when he woke up one morning with his right front tooth sticking out at an odd angle and his gums totally swollen and infected. Cue mommy guilt as we realized that he damaged the tooth when he fell and after several visits to some pediatric dental specialists and a round of antibiotics, we ended up deciding to have it pulled. He was immediately better and now he looks like such a tough guy - he is my ruthless, toothless Sammy. The tooth fairy came and left him a whole dollar and a new toothbrush.

For his 3rd birthday, we started the celebration the day before, and went to the Detroit Tigers baseball game for the afternoon. Of course it was like the hottest day of the year and we were roasting sitting in the direct sun for almost an inning before we scouted out some shady seats to move to. We didn’t stay for the whole game, but we had our fill of peanuts, popcorn and we rode the tiger carousel and the baseball ferris wheel before heading home.


Sammy decided he wanted to go to the zoo on his birthday, so we went early, as it was going to be another scorcher. We got there early enough to get tickets to feed the giraffes, which was cool.

We cooled off with some frozen lemonade, and hung out in the (nice and cool) arctic circle exhibit with the seals and polar bears.

Then we got his favorite sweet and sour shrimp at Pei Wei on the way home for lunch, and then I made him dinner that night and we went to the pool after dinner and met up with Aunt P and Uncle Lime and cousins Marisa, Noah, Cory and Ari and had homemade cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday.

Sammy’s big birthday gift this year was a Toy Story bike with training wheels, so he can ride bikes like his big sister. He also got a Buzz Lightyear doll that says about a billion things, and tons of other little Toy Story stuff, as he and Rosie both LOVED the movie and are obsessed with everything about it.

Rosie - my beautiful big girl. I am amazed every day by the things she says and does. She seems so big and smart and worldly, and not my little baby anymore.

She has been writing post cards to kids in my mommy group, and decided she wants to be pen pals with her cousin Ella. She is writing and drawing all the time, she drew a picture of a butterfly and tried to write the caption

She writes me love notes all the time

We have been getting lots of early reader books from the library and it amazes me that she can pick up a book she has never seen before and just read it! Whenever we drive somewhere, she is constantly reading signs and business names. She loves to play school and lately has been making her own math worksheets to practice her addition and subtraction.
Joe and I both cried at her preschool graduation and I can’t believe she will be in Kindergarten in a few short weeks!

She is very active and she is always asking for permission to go outside and ride her bike and now her new scooter. Just a few days ago she started swimming on her own without swimmies

She has also been making excuses to get out of bed at night, and is crawling into our bed and sleeping with us in middle of night. She loves making rules, saying “I know a good rule…” and making plans, making sure we remember the plans she makes saying “you got it in your head?” She is headstrong and loves to be in charge and have things go her way. She has been making me “pinkie promise” on things a lot lately when making plans. I have gotten a glimpse of her as a teenager as she has yelled at me a few times (when I am saying “no” to some request) and said “you’re ruining my life!”. I am not sure where she heard that from, but it actually makes me laugh when she says it with such conviction over not being able to have a popsicle for breakfast.

She still loves to dress up and be a girly girl, and chooses dresses most often to wear. She also has been putting on lipgloss (that cousin Ella got her) almost every day. She loves playing with her large collection of Barbies and other dolls (littlest pet shop, polly pocket, my little pony, etc).

She is still a great and adventurous eater, her most requested meal is going to get sushi. And, believe it or not, she LOVES anchovies on pizza (like her dad), and will pick them off the pizza and eat them plain. She tried oysters for the first time and loved them. She still loves corn on the cob and calls the cob the “rack” - asks us to take away the “corn rack” when she is done. She has a ton of cute little ways she says things, like when she says she wants to go play games at the “arcave” (arcade).

On her 5th birthday, we had an amazing fun-filled day. It started with her breakfast of choice, chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup and 5 candles on the “you are special today” plate.

Then she had “safety town” in the morning to prepare for kindergarten (learning bus safety, fire safety, how to call 911 etc.)
Then there was a county fair going on, so we went to the fair and rode all the rides we could and bought fresh squeezed lemonade and went to the petting zoo and saw all the animals and watched a pig race.

Then we went to Chuck E Cheese’s with her BFF Maddie and played all the games and ran around and had fun. THEN we went to pizza at her favorite restaurant Buddy’s Pizza and had yummy gluten free pizza and there was a clown there to make balloon animals too.

WHEW! Next year I think we are going to stick to just one activity for the birthday celebration, it was way too chaotic and tiring and the kids were melting down by the end of the day with sheer exhaustion and over-stimulation…
Rosie’s big present she wanted was a new Hello Kitty razor scooter (big kid style with only 2 wheels, instead of the 3 wheeled princess hand-me-down scooter she had been riding) and a My Little Pony Gumball House (that Gigi got her), she also got some cool stomp rockets and lots of barbie, my little pony, and polly pocket presents that she loved.

Rosie and Sammy have both been playing really well together, of course they fight occasionally like any siblings, but they really enjoy each other’s company, playing school, cinderella, dress up, dance party, etc. I actually caught them with their arms around each other, slow dancing just yesterday, and Rosie told me they were playing “cinderella”, but as soon as I wanted to video tape them, Sammy was done playing. They are constantly hugging each other, posing for pictures with their arms around each other (without me asking).

Rosie encourages her brother and praises him when they are doing an activity together. She will go get his clothes in the morning and help him get dressed and undressed.

So long for now from the Greenwalds, more to come in Sept.

We have a busy August planned…
Rosie and I will be gone on a yoga retreat with Gigi, Auntie Em, Cousin Ella, and Aunt Jackie this weekend, then Ella will be coming home with us and staying for a week, and then we’ll be in Florida for a week, then when we get back, Rosie has a personal growth camp called “stop, think and go” and then dance camp for a week, and then we are planning a trip to King’s Island (or some other roller coaster place) and then it will be time for school to start! Kindergarten - yikes!

Here’s a few more photos from the last few months…


Cousins on 4th of July at the beach at Kensington Metropark

Driving through the smokey mountains

Outside Tigers Stadium (Comerica Park)