still here!

Dear friends and family,
We're still here, but come check us out on our new blog too! Just go here:

librarycollective.blogspot.com

...and tell your friends!

thanks, Amanda

quick update

Things are going along pretty well here...
oops, just a minute, Jasper's calling me from bed...
okay, anyway, here's the scoop:

Kid 1, Josie:
She's five all of the sudden and looks bigger and prettier for it. Somehow it seems to have happened overnight--one minute she was Adelaide-sized, then she was Jasper-sized, now she's a big smart girl and I don't know how it happened. She's getting ready for Kindergarten this fall (!) and we've been looking at schools for her to attend. We think we've narrowed it down to two (a local public school which is very good and a Catholic grade school about the same distance away). Both have their advantages, and we're trying to figure out which would best meet our objectives. I'm sure Josie will do fine at either, but it feels like a momentous decision! She's really become a fun person to be around, and I just wish I had more time alone with her. She's very articulate and expressive, and generally a nice kid. She's reading very well now, after having figured the whole thing out (moving from sounding every word out early in her fourth year to really getting the idea at 4 1/2, then just becoming more and more fluent ever since. She seems to be reading at a 1st or 2nd grade level at this point, although that designation appears to be pretty arbitrary. Everywhere we go it's "hey, there's a bank...let's play a game where whenever we see the word 'bank' we say 'bank'. Okay?" Then it's the alphabet game, or the 'open' game (see 'bank' game for rules :) Or we'll be picking out cereal and she'll point out that one has "less sugar, mama! We should get this one!!" She's still very interested in Adelaide and happy to do what she can to help out by playing and entertaining her. She and Jasper continue to be the very best of friends (friends who argue intermittently), and have whole imaginary worlds apart from their Daddy and me. I can see that Adelaide will just be folded into that as she gets bigga' and bigga'.
(I also meant to say that during her preschool evaluation we learned that she can count to at least 100, which was interesting since for years she would forget 20...)

Kid #2, Jasper:
Jasper's quite the strapping young boy, really fitting into the 3Ts now at 2 1/2. He's slim, but very dense and is somewhere upward of thirty pounds (and a few inches taller than all his buddies). He seems to have gotten over the difficult moods and frustration he had after Adelaide was born, and is back to his old sweet self. He's nearly always got a smile on his face (check out those dimples!), but when he doesn't he can really go off. We're working on that :) He's still very affectionate, doling out the hugs and kisses and snuggles in a way that independent Josie didn't really do. They're so different, yet complimentary, it's really fun to see. Anyhow, he's been very interested in letters as Josie's learned to read, and he knows all of them (I think) and most of the sounds that they make. I think it's just the benefit of having an older sibling who is always working on things at your level. Especially one like Josie who loves to be the teacher (teacher=boss) all day long. He started at a playschool one day per week last month and (although he complains on his way there) is really enjoying it. I think that he was really ready to go to school ("me go school, me take my ladybug backpack, me bigboy") after watching Josie go for as long as he can remember. He's set to go into Mrs D's class this fall, just as Josie did two years before. Wow, the time passes so quickly!

And Kid #3, Adelaide:

What a lovely surprise she has turned out to be. We still debate who exactly she looks like, but she really seems to be a lovely blend of each of us. She's just the sweetest thing, nearly always happy and cooing, and even when she's upset she's very able to calm herself down (I had no idea that babies like this really existed!). It's been a bit tough off and on with Josh traveling and Adelaide catching all the big kids' colds, but she's a trooper (even if she could be sleeping better, sigh, it seems like all my children are programmed to be early risers!). Yesterday she finally figured out how to roll over from her back onto her tummy, and we were all very excited. She's also been putting things in her mouth and can reach out and grab dangling things. It's so different watching each child reach these milestones as you think of the older ones and how the time passes and developments build on one another. Quite something!

Anyway, I'd better go enjoy some of Josie's company while the others are napping. We're working on art projects today (much like every other day!)

songs: I've been workin' on the railroad, She'll be comin' round the mountain
books: Anything Josie can read to Jasper!

me pwum

Jasper: It snows! (after looking out the window while eating a plate of (still) frozen vegetable bits)
Mommy: It sure is! It's been snowing all day little sugarplum!
Boy: Yup, me pwum. Me super pwum. Me save day, ta da da da (skips/runs to freezer to refill plate of frozen vegetables).
Wonder Mommy: You sure like those. Wow, you're a big eater today.
Super Plum: Yeah, me super pwum, me big eater. Two-fwee times. (stuffs face with veggie bits)

favorite book: Jasper: any book with trains, cars, etc. Josie: anything she can read herself.
on the cd player: Fascinating Creatures, Frances England. Josie's favorite traack is 'Daddy-o"
catchphrases: Josie - anything written; Jasper - no, mebigboy. teeny weeny. Adelaide - laughter!

Jasper speaks

Me: So, Jasper, did you like swimming today?
Boy: Yeah mama, me like blue water.
Me: You liked the blue water?
Boy: Yeah. Blue water my fav-rite water me evah seen ... whole world ... yeah.
Boy: Me like outah space too. Blue.


and Josie, on Christmas, repeatedly throughout the day says:

"I'm Happy."

and also is quite pleased that she asked Santa Claus for 'whatever else he'd like to bring' her, since she was so pleased with her haul.

Christmas lights

We've been driving around taking in the neighborhood displays on a regular basis for the past few weeks. I remember that over Josie's second Christmas season we would drive around and she would sing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..........way" as we drove. When she saw one she liked she was enraptured, then would chant "mo wights! mo wights!" until we found the next. Her third Christmas brought an infant Jasper for our rides and she would have a more discerning opinion, labeling each as either "colorful" or "tasteful" in the Anderson family tradition. This year Josie and Jasper clearly prefer the more ostentatious displays with multiple strings of variously colored, preferably flashing large colored bulbs, plastic effigies of Santa, reindeer, or snowpeople, projection nativities, etc. Needless to say our little white-lit pine garland isn't to their liking. Really though, Jasper prefers the "boo wights!"

favorite book: Jingle Bells by Veronika Vasylenko and Olivia's Christmas by Ian Falconer
on the cd player: track 8 (a.k.a. 'woo--woo-woo-charlie-brown-kismas-song-woo-woo-woo-right mama?) Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
catchphrases: Josie - ginormous! Jasper - wight mama? uh-huh. Adelaide - delighted squeal!

oh, and it's just started to snow as Jasper and I eat our Mackyroni and Cheese.

Adelaide smiled today!

So you've decided to check on our blog to see if there might be a new post. Sure, it seems like we we only post every six months or so (gulp!), but there might be something. Then you see this and wonder "who is this Adelaide, and where does she fit into the family sandwich?!?" Well, the last six or seven months feel pretty lost to me since we found out (three months along) that we were expecting another little gherkin. A surprise to us all, and it took me a solid six months to get over the initial shock. Thus, I'm so pleased to announce the birth of Miss Adelaide Jane Anderson, born October 27 at 1:36 pm. She was 19 inches, 8 lbs 14 oz, much bigger now! She gave me a big smile today after trying to work things out between mouth and brain yesterday. Everyone here's a big fan of the little dear, and even 5 1/2 weeks later Josie and Jasper can rarely be dissuaded from waking her up from a little nap to play with her/hold her on their lap/make her cry. She seems to be a very calm baby, generally not fussy except in the evening, and a stellar sleeper. If some of that sleep could move into the middle of the night it would be nice, but I really can't complain! She's also got a very strong neck and torso like her siblings did. At just five weeks she can easily lift her head and shoulders while lying on her belly, then roll onto her side from there.
Here's a requisite photo (not her best, but what can you do?):


So it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites, here's one of my favorite little boy too:


As for Josie and Jasper, there's just so much to say. I'll have to make another post just about them. Truly, it's amazing just how much they've grown lately (mostly in the 48 hours that I was at the hospital--Jasper felt much bigger and Josie so much taller!). Josie's taught herself to read, Jasper's nearly potty trained himself...there are Halloween pictures to post, a trip to feed the giraffes at the zoo (we saw walla-beeeees too!). You'll have to hear about what Jasper's afraid of (scuba divers, peacocks, and planetariums), Josie's love of her best friend, Carter, and I have to tell you about Jasper's surgery.

Yeah, uh-huh. Right Mama?

bad blogger.

Oh my, nearly every day for six months (and a few days) I've been meaning to just sit down for a minute and dash off a few lines. Bad me! I haven't been taking so many pictures, which might be part of it, but mostly I've been pretty lazy. This may be partly attributable to the fact that a week or so after my last post I (quite surprisingly) became pregnant. 13 weeks later I found out, though, so maybe that's not even a reasonable excuse :)
So, to update. Let's see. Josie's bigger and faster, can read lots of simple words ('Mama, why are we going to Big K? (me) How did you know that's what this was? (jo) It says up there! Big K!) and write things like my grocery list and love letters to me or get well cards to her friends. This is quite helpful. She also knows her phone number, which she delivers with a 'call me back!' and the dog's phone number which is actually the vet's office phone number from his rabies tag. Go figure. Really, I could go on and on about her brilliance and general inner beauty, but I'm her mother and I'm totally biased. School ended in May and we've since visited Boston again and are currently enjoying a visit with Josh's folks. Josie's also been taking a biweekly art class this summer which has been very fun and brought with it some good art, interest in yoga, and definite disinterest in dance :)
Jasper's also bigger and faster, can jump and run, tries to ride Josie's bike and generally do whatever she does. This includes wearing pink sparkly dresses and barrettes as well as sharing Josie's definite interest in trains and building toys. He's more of a deconstructor, though, while she's the putter-togetherer of the pair. Somehow it works. He's still not a big talker but has a wide variety of signs (still using Santa, also things like lobster, swimtrunks (same as elephant), wizard, and his own creations salt and elevator). Combined with the words he's got (dum-dum, chocolate, rock, clock, shoo (said to flies), papa, van, etc) he really gets his point across. He's also got a mean pout.
Baby #3 seems to be gestating nicely, hopefully giving us a couple of trimesters to get used to its arrival. Josh and I are both suspicious that it's a girl, but there's, of course, only a 50% chance that we're right. I have a name that I like for a girl (at a total loss for a boy!) but Josie doesn't want to hear it. She has said definitively that she wants it to be a surprise and she will find out when the baby is born. This is also the child who licks at her sucker for a minute then wraps it up to have later. She didn't get that from me :) Thankfully Jasper really thinks babies are neat, so we'll have to see what he thinks.
Okay, I'll write more later. Battery low!

two words!

baby jo! (yesterday)
mama boot! (today, after sledding)

and Jasper's got some new words to boot, including anything starting with 'f' (fruit, frog, ladybug(?!), plus a major monkey obsession centering around the movie Curious George and the movie soundtrack.

I also learned today that Josie doesn't remember going to the 'go dog go' play, and doesn't remember "do you like my hat? yes I DON'T!" how sad!

A Royal Occasion

This morning was the big party. Josie has been determined to have a princess birthday party, so 5 friends, 4 younger siblings, and 11 parents converged on the Chateau du Joe. It's hard having a princess party when most of your friends are boys. I tried to sell her on my idea for a service station attendant theme party, but Josie wouldn't hear of it. Maybe Jasper will redeem me. Amanda outdid herself I must say, with princess themed games, make your own crown crafts, gloves and tiaras for the (two) girls and homemade fur rimmed capes for the (four) boys (plus Jaspie), homemade wands and other favors, a giant cardboard castle with drawbridge, tower, windows, parapets, and a dungeon (OK, the engineer handled that) and although Josie wanted a princess cake like the store bought one with the Disney princesses printed on the top that she saw at the neighbor's kid's party, far be it from us to have a birthday without an over the top cake, so only a 3-D princess carrot cake with cream cheese dress and icing um, top half of dress, would do! Amanda's the one in the princess/bridesmaid's dress:

Jaspie want's to know who's in charge here, and where's his cake? Clockwise from Jasper we have Carter, Josie, Amelie, Sam's mom Celeste, Sam, and Wyatt. Don't know where Nico is:How do you put candles in a princess dress cake?

Later, Josie in the Tower:
Josie and Jasper at bedtime in the dungeon:

Everyone wanted to camp out in the dungeon, but no one would go to sleep!
Even Dada and Kippy got in on the action:

Ohio in the winter

There's Christmas pics to come, but those live in a different folder, so maybe tomorrow. With all of the cold at home, you would wonder why Ohio has been so unseasonably warm this winter. Mom wrote last week that it was "dark at 8 in the morning, and 53 degrees in January". Jasper prefers to take the long view, as the following slightly fuzzy triptych attests:


Meanwhile, Josie just snuggles up anyway:
But Jaspie isn't scared of the weather, he's setting out:
Here, Josie and Skye have a secret conference on the back patio to plot:
Apparently, they're all looking for something. Jasper thinks its in his pock:
Pretty darn cute, whether posed or not: