Pictures from a Tuesday afternoon- playing outside in the water, drawing & painting in the afternoon… 2/23/2010
(Savvy asleep when these pictures were taken)
Annual Physicals & One-On-One Time
March 3, 2010 — threelittlejewellsOne-On-One time with the Kids
Kip & I both strive to spend quality one-on-one time with each of the children. He takes Nathan to work with him on Saturdays. On the weekends Mary is allowed to skip her nap while the other two still lay down. She gets Daddy all to herself for 2-3 hours every Saturday & Sunday and boy does she love it. They work out in the yard together or run errands. Savvy is still to young for either of those things but Kip does take just her on errands when he can. Occasionally he will take just Mary out to breakfast and soon Savvy will be included in the breakfast rotation.
One thing that I do is to make the day that they have their annual physical a special day. I leave the other two kids with a sitter & just take the one child. We go to their doctor appointment, and then out to lunch- just the two of us- at the restaurant of their choice. Then the child gets to pick something they want to do. Nathan chose to go to our favorite local toy store- he played for a while & chose this Torpedo Shark to take home (although that one is grossly overpriced- I only paid $7.99 for the same one!). Some kids had those at the pool last summer and those things will go a looong way underwater. Pretty cool.
Mary chose to go to Build-A-Bear. A good friend gave me a $12 off coupon so we only paid $3 for the bear + $10 for the outfit. Not to bad. Mary’s favorite bear has been missing for a year now and we’ve never found it- so she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear and choose another bear. She had a lot of fun… until she fell on the escalator & scraped & bloodied her poor back- I felt so bad for her!
Doctor Appointment Stats: Both kids had excellent vision & hearing tests. Nathan continues to be in the 75% for weight & height. He is going to be big & tall like his Daddy! (43 3/4 inches tall & 45.8 lbs.) Mary remains in the 5%- quite small for her age but that’s okay with us- She’s perfect just the way she is! (42″ tall and 37.8 lbs.) Nathan might be a year younger than Mary but he is almost 2″ taller than her and 8 lbs. heavier!
Mary’s 6th Birthday
February 20, 2010 — threelittlejewellsOn February 3, 2010 our precious Mary turned 6 years old.
Truly, she is the absolute JOY of this entire household. She has such a sweet spirit- we are so lucky to be her parents!
As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, we do Birthdays and other minor holidays (Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc.) a little bit like Christmas morning. Their presents are set out at the table after they go to bed the night before. Here she is racing into the kitchen on her birthday morning to see what’s been left for her.
Mary with her presents from Mom & Dad- wonder what’s in there????
Mary has been admiring this doll for months in the toy store. She has brown hair and blue eyes just like Mary.
Her new teaching & learning clock- it plays games.
Crafty stuff for the girl who LOVES to do crafts!
Working on one of her crafts later that afternoon.
Birthday dinner that night- Paw Paw & Mimi and Aunt Sarah & Alec came to celebrate. We had Mary’s favorite dinner- spaghetti with salad and homemade breadsticks.
Mary’s birthday cake- as always the cake was a surprise. Kip and I worked on it late the night before and kept it covered up until dinner time. Mary loves all things horses so she was thrilled!
Opening presents…
First Birthday Party
September 30, 2009 — threelittlejewells9/26/2009
On Saturday Mary was invited to her very first Birthday Party. Her cousin, Jenna, was turning 5 years old and they were having a Dora party for her. Mary was so, so excited to be invited to a party. She wore her pretty new dress and took great care with Jenna’s birthday present. She had a wonderful time at the party- there were 8 little girls there- they did some crafts, danced the Hokey Pokey, played some games and ate entirely to much cake- perfect!
Here she is, all ready to go.
Grocery List
September 17, 2009 — threelittlejewellsMary sat down at her little art table the other day and made up her own grocery list. This is the first time that she’s attempted to write words on their own. They are not spelled correctly but they are spelled phonetically, which is typical of early writers/young children.
I really loved her list- I’m saving it!
First Load of Laundry
August 5, 2009 — threelittlejewellsJuly 25, 2009
Mary folded this entire load of laundry all by herself. She even sorted everything into the correct piles. She did a great job! We love to see a hard-working girl!
Celebrating Gramma’s Birthday
July 11, 2009 — threelittlejewellsJuly 3, 2009
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned numerous times before, Mary was named after my grandmother- Mary Elizabeth Caster Fairchild. She was such a wonderful, Godly lady. I was just thrilled when Mary was born- I had a blue-eyed little girl to name after Gramma Mary.
She passed away in November, 2000. Every year since then, I make Buckeyes on her birthday as a way of remembering her. I make Buckeyes because I have this really clear memory of spending the night at her house one COLD winter night in Upstate New York. It was early evening, pitch dark out and I remember the warm glow of the kitchen and the two of us rolling the little peanut butter balls and dipping them in the chocolate. Such a fun night. 
Here are pictures of my three kids helping me to make Buckeyes on Friday, July 3rd. She would have been 89 years old.
Mary (5 years old) and Nathan (4 years old). The large tupperware bowl we used to mix the ingredients was Gramma Mary’s bread bowl. I use it all the time and it makes me smile.
Where’s Mary????
July 9, 2009 — threelittlejewellsThe other night, Kip and I went upstairs to go to bed and I did my last minute bed check of the children.
Nathan? Check. Tuck the covers back around him.
Savvy? Check. All cozed up with Giraffy.
Mary? Not in her bed. Not under her bed. Not in her closet. She’s not in the school room. Not in the hallway bathroom. Not in Savvy’s room or our room or our bathroom. No where to be found. We’ve just come upstairs so we know she’s not in the kitchen, living room, laundry room, or study.
By this point, Kip and I have been searching for her for about 10-15 minutes.
And honestly?
I’m starting to panic. I’m starting to have visions of Elizabeth Smart. I’m really starting to panic.
Empty bed. Where could she be? Did someone kidnap her out of her room????
I say to Kip- you know, the only room we haven’t checked is the dining room. So, I start to head downstairs to check the dining room. Kip was in our bedroom and as I got several stairs down, he said something to me. I turned my head to look through the stair banisters and into the bedroom to answer him. Because I’m several stairs down, I’m at eye level with the floor when I turn and look through the banisters. And guess what I see?
.
.
.
.
.
.
One of our neighbors had been setting off fireworks. Mary is TERRIFIED of fireworks. She had grabbed her pillow, her meme and crawled under our bed and fallen asleep. Because the other children were asleep, when Kip and I were searching and calling for Mary, we were doing it quietly. And because she was asleep, she didn’t hear us calling her.
Sleepover, 5/9/09
May 16, 2009 — threelittlejewellsSleepover… with siblings.
We let Mary and Nathan have a “sleepover” in Nathan’s room on Saturday night. They were up until well past 11pm chattering away.
Around 11:45pm I peeped in on them and they were finally passed out.
