OH MY: School’s Out for Summer & Sis is 7 mos!

Remember these cute babies from their first day of school? 

Much to my dismay, the boys had their last day of school last week.  It was a sad, sad day (for me).  I’m not sure that they know, exactly, what is happening, but I was very sad . . . first, that school has ended for the year, and second, that my babies are growing up so much!  So much has changed in their first year of school!  They are now big brothers, they sleep in big boy beds, they have easily mastered going up and down stairs and running circles around their mother and father, they talk and tell stories with great expressions and eloquence, and they know what they like (trucks, chocolate, animal crackers, balloons, Daddy, etc.) and what they do not (this category is more fluid and really is more of what they do not like at the current moment in time.)  They started off the school year a bit hesitant, and finished out the year talking on and on about their sweet teachers and their school friends.  I am so proud of my sweet loves!

H’s face in this picture makes me laugh out loud!  School?  NOOOOO!

Oh, these sweet faces!

and . . . AIRPLANE!!

Who doesn’t love starting out their morning with a good airplane sighting?

Hudsey now

 

Hudsey then

 

And William with Daddy    

And William on Day one (I didn’t have many great pics from this day, after all!)

May I just pause for a moment to say, please look at these locks!  Amazing!

Oh, the sweetness.  Let’s hope the sweetness just gets sweeter as we’re playing together all summer long!

And, I cannot believe this either, but Sissy Loula-Belle is 7 months old!  What are we going to do with her?  My Nana would say that we should put bricks on her head.  I think I’ll smooch her instead.  She is oh-so-smoochable!

Remember these chubby lovies in their yellow rocker donning their pale blue?

While brothers were at school, we snuck into their room for some pictures in their rocker (which, for the record, they now climb and rocket off of instead of rock in with their mama) of sissy in her blue dress. 

This little love is so sweet.  She is highly amused, at all times, by her brothers.  She has mastered screaming and squealing at high pitches, so please do not even think of walking into a room and not speaking to her!  She loves to wiggle and thump and roll all around her bed, and she is constantly bouncing these days—in her seat, in my lap, on my hip.  Her feet are always going!

She still only eats two meals a day unless she yells so loud and so long that I decide to make an impromptu lunch.  She loves to bang on the tray of her high chair, and she is quite interested in eating puffies and throwing them all over the place.  She is now an expert at trying to drink out of her water cup, too.  Of course, she does have two assistants who are happy to show her how to eat her puffies and happy to help her drink out of her cup as well.

Now, back to the blues . . .

Sister has given up her middle-of-the night play-until-she-cries party, thanks to some good overnight diapers and a fleece sleep sack, I think.  She still wakes up a hair too early in my opinion, but I will take that over her giggle-and-cry-fests of the last few weeks.  

All in all, Little Miss is absolutely made of sweetness, and she melts our hearts.  I have a hunch her Daddy is going to have a hard time ever saying no to these blue eyes!  (Fear not, her brothers have no problem telling her no.  We’re working on why babies and “big boys” are different and have different standards . . . ha ha.)

Kiss kiss my love, we adore you and thank Jesus for you daily!

Today: Trucks & Other Drama

This morning started off early. The babes were all up with the birds, and the mama does not like to be up with the birds. Little Miss has officially busted out of her swaddle and now throws her stinger all around in the bed (we call her Thump-Thumps) and ends up all upside-down and backwards in her crib. And, of course, if she ends up on her tummy, she cries and cries, so we are adjusting to the new routine! That said, she has not had her middle-of-the-night party the last two nights, so that is a treat!

She does love a good little morning nap, and then she has her breakfast. She was getting ready for the fun this morning!

And, she’s learned what the bib means—food is coming! This bib was her mama’s! Some things do seem to last forever . . .

Due to the early morning combined with a promise of last night from Daddy that if Hudsey looked out of his bedroom window he would see the “ ‘cycle truck,” (fyi: He did look out his window and he did not see the ‘Cycle truck) there was a bit of drama to be had. This child did not want to have a diaper change, take his clothes off, put new ones on, or eat breakfast without having seeing the recycling truck. I explained to him that the driver has to wake up, brush his teeth, put on his clothes, get in his car (at this point, William corrected me and said “no, truck, mommy!” and I said “not yet—CAR”), drive to the ‘Cycle Truck Parking Lot, turn on the truck, and then he probably realized that he was out of gas and he had to go to the gas station . . . THEREFORE, we need to WAIT FOR HIM TO COME. Waiting is not a strong suit of the Reppards. It does not come easily. We hold tightly onto our dreams and plans. So, needless to say, this morning was off to a sad start.

We did have a conference call with Daddy to talk us through why the truck had not yet come. Sometimes, we need a reminder of why we are waiting . . .

Others of us were happy drinking our milk with peanut butter on our face . . . and content to wait . . .

We carried on with our oh-so-sad little morning and let little miss roll all around, which is her new favorite thing to do!

Does it get any cuter than this? These thighs are amazing!

I feel certain that it will not be long before this crab catches her brothers!

Oh, sadness.

And, more rolling!

And, some playtime with the phone.

Oh, my heart!

Anna was so very thankful that her brother gave her a detailed instruction on using the phone. Anna, you say “Where da ‘cycle truck?”

Despite my attempts to keep her on the massive quilt, she always ends up on the floor!

this picture just makes me laugh! I LOVE IT!

Much to everyone’s great pleasure and excitement, before we left the house, we sat on our front step and watched in amazement:

1 Recycling Truck—the driver even waved to us, bless his heart!

1 police car

1-2-3-4, yes 4 tow trucks (which waived and HONKED at us) and a special thank you to Jane who called and texted me to remind me to MOVE MY CAR. otherwise, we would have been sitting on the stoop waving as my car was towed down the street!

and these were ALL driving down our street. Then, from the car, we saw:

1 crane

1 Delivery Truck

and ANOTHER ‘CYCLE TRUCK!

And, the boys were thrilled. It was as though these trucks were coming bearing pounds of gold for our family. William said “Dis is FUN! Dis is really FUN!” and, Hudson said “ME YUV ‘CYCLE TRUCKS, MOMMY! ME YUV DEM!”

With all of our hopes and dreams come true, we headed off to run errands . . . (These next few are from my cell phone) . . . And, we went and picked up the new shades for this handsome man. Is he cool or what? (And, he loves them. LOVES THEM.) Things are no longer “too bright,” and he can see now, too!

And, when we got home, it was street cleaning time. OH, THE JOY!

They were literally squealing with excitement!

(*note the pottys in the picture. guess what is in our future? you can pray for us. I am DREADING THIS.)

Seeing the street cleaning team (1 big truck spraying water, 3 cleaning trucks, 1 police car, and 1 van) was AH-MAZ-ING! I’m not sure that these two boys could have imagined a better day! They kept listing all of the trucks we saw! And, we even called and told Daddy all about it! I am so glad that our day took a turn from so-sad to shockingly great. Isn't that such a sweet thing for us all? And, especially for Mommy, who, you know, was up with the birds, after all!

Here’s to hoping you see many interesting trucks today. And, if not, please try your best not to cry about it. Your time will come, I promise. And, if you get really antsy, just come by two Thursdays from now, and we can sit on the stoop and wait together for the JOY of watching the ‘Cycle Truck drive down our street. You will NOT be disappointed.