I give you..........

The men of Cov Pres:

Showing off a little

Here's a link to the photographer's site who took pics at our last wedding (on the 14th).

Katy and Tristan

It's really great to see our stuff photographed professionally. We usually end up with a few snaps that we hurriedly shoot on the way out the door, just as a general record of the wedding for our files. Needless to say, the results of that are somewhat disappointing. So it's nice to see "the real thing" every once in a while.

Btw, keep your eyes open for a new link in the next few weeks to introduce our wedding design blog! We hope to have it up and running before the end of next month. 

Dealing with Bullies

One of these days I'm really going to take my camera to the pool so you can all see my brilliant children swim. Judah in particular is a treat to watch. He wears one of those doughnut shaped "floaties" (as Sofi calls them) around his tubby little middle and charges (no other word for it) all around the wading pool (which comes up to his armpits at the deepest place). He chases his ball around and visits the other moms sitting on the side of the pool watching their children.

Sofi likes to chase after the diving rings we bought at the Dollar Store last year. She has a hard time getting all the way to the bottom, so sometimes she kicks it up a little with her foot before she dives under to get it.

Today at the pool we had a run-in with a bully.

As a preface to this tale, let me say that the H city pool is not really what I would call "high end" (which is the only reason we can afford it!) and has, on occasion, had to call in the cops to break up a fight or two. It's a mixed bag, for sure, but we like it-- it's decently clean and lots of other families we know (and some we're getting to know) go there too, so there's lots of company.

However, knowing the mix of people there, I should have known that this would happen eventually. Today as we were innocently playing with our squishy balls and diving rings in the wading pool, a little boy about a foot shorter than Sofi (but about twice as big around) starting getting a little pushy. He grabbed Judah's ball once. Sofi asked for it back and gave it back to Judah. Then he tried to grab it back. This time Judah hung onto it with both hands! So the little boy grabbed Judah and started swishing him around through the water by his suit-- his face ducking every couple seconds. I intervened and kindly explained to the boy not to grab Judah because he was too little and might fall over. Over the course of the next ten minutes, he repeatedly grabbed toys and on two occasions waded into Sofi with both fists when she tried to keep the toy away from him.

The reason I'm posting about this is not to scare everyone about public pools, but to point out how totally unprepared I was for this episode. We'd never talked with Sofi about bullies or how to deal with them. I'd never been faced with a situation in which I needed to stand up for my child in the face of a bully. I didn't have a clue. The best assistance I could offer her in that situation was "Well, go ahead and give it to him and we'll go over to the big pool if he doesn't leave you alone." When we got home, we had a talk with Daddy about how to deal with bullies and I think that she's now more prepared to deal with a situation like that in the future.

I'm sharing this as a reality check. Today we are worried about nap schedules and delayed crawling, but before you know it, we'll have to start teaching them how to stand up for themselves in the face of a bully. It happens fast, people.

Lightening fast.

Things I really dislike...

I can't say "hate" these days because we're trying to teach Sofi not to say it about things like broccoli and cleaning up her room, so even though my feelings run pretty strong on this topic, I am forced to use restraint.

I really, really dislike bathroom humor, fake beards (love real ones, though) and grown men acting like ill-behaved children. Therefore, Mike Myers is on the top of my "dislike" list and his new movie is right up there with him. 

I was so annoyed to see that he'd come out with another movie this summer and the previews looked dismal. Apparently my guess was right and plenty of other Americans agreed with my assessment. We therefore all refused to go see it-- me and the other "most of America" that have too much self-respect to subject ourselves to that sort of mind-numbing stupidity-- and the movie totally tanked (insert smiley of ridiculous grinning face here). Here's my favorite reviewer quote so far:

There are good movies. There are bad movies. There are movies so bad they’re good (though, strangely, not the reverse). And once in a while there is a movie so bad that it takes you to a place beyond good and evil and abandons you there, shivering and alone.

Here's a link to take you to read the whole review.

On the upside of summer movie watching, Netflix new WatchNow program has added the movie The Business of Being Born. That movie is excellent. I am totally going to see it again. Any of you reading who want to see it with me, let me know. You can all come over and I'll make tea and scones and we can rant and rave about how the male-dominated world of gynecology has stolen the joy out of birth in this country. I'm not kidding about that, I really want to try to get a group together to watch it. You'll probably be getting an email from me soon....

Back in the saddle again...

...I think. 

I haven't been posting very regularly lately (doh, you know that...) because of all the weddings and other things that have been going on, but I think we're pretty much out of the woods now. We have one more low-maintenance wedding this weekend and then things will be back to normal. Jeremiah has started his summer schedule with classes this week and work starting next week. We've whipped up a weekly schedule for the kids of fun things to do in the mornings and gardening and swimming in the afternoon. (I tell you, my kids have it gooood. Can I hear an "amen" from the other Howell siblings??) But the coolest, bestest, awesomest, most wonderfulest thing of all is..........(drumroll, please.............)

JUDAH IS DOWN TO ONE NAP A DAY!!!!

I cannot describe to you the relief I feel at having reached this milestone. I don't think I realized just how stressful squeezing in those two naps a day had become recently, until we took the plunge and went to only one nap-- despite Judah's initial vigorous protests. I've never seen a kid so miserably sleepy and so determined NOT to sleep. He whine, cry and fuss from about 8:30 to 9:30 or even 10:00 every morning. I'd try to put him down, but as soon as his head hit the pillow he was mysteriously rejuvenated. I finally decided that it must just be habit that made him feel so groggy at that time of morning. So we toughed it out through that grouchy time for about four or five days and now he's adjusted to the new nap time and our days are sooooooo much easier. We plan things more easily and have more time for "big girl stuff" for Sofi. Of course, this doesn't mean that all our sleep problems are solved. As I write, I hear him waking up waaay too early from his nap. But we're on the right track and things are looking up for the Forshey family this summer. 

Things are also looking up for this blog, since with both kids taking one nap a day, at the same time (praise God!), I have two hours a day to myself to blog, sew, clean, read, whatever. Wow. I don't know if I can stand such good fortune. I just might weep....

Tidbit

We just recently switched back form Blockbuster's online rental program to Netflix. We had Netflix for a year or so and were very happy with it, but wanted to try out Blockbuster, since it offered the option to rent movies locally, too. But after some major hassles with their "late fees" policies, we've switched back to Netflix. And in so doing, we've discovered that they've added this coooool new feature-- online viewing (or "Watch Now", as they call it). Basically they have a huge selection of movies "streaming" on their site that you can watch (without having to download them) directly on your PC (they're working on getting licensure for the Mac). It's pretty cool and they have tons of movies-- even some fairly recent ones. And best of all, they have cool kids stuff, like Shirley Temple and the Hermie movies. And of course the classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Diehard, and Much Ado About Nothing. You should check it out!! Here's a link:

Netflix

Playing outside with Daddy!

In case any of you are in any doubt, my husband is the best father in the world. I present these pictures as evidence of this. The children obviously adore him, as do I....










Happy Father's Day, my love :)

BEN IS HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 7th wedding

Thought you might enjoy seeing last weekend's work. And if not, oh well, you're a captive audience :)

Bridesmaid bouquet:

Bridal bouquet

The church (she wanted a "Gone With The Wind" feel... You think we got it?):

Head table:

Tables:

Banquet hall:

Soficism #3

(on seeing a sweet little white-haired old lady working in her immaculate yard...)

"Old people like to have nice yards. (silence for a few beats...) I think... I think it's because they want people to look at their yards and think they're young. Old people have white hair and wiggly skin and they think if they have a really beautiful yard with flowers and everything, people will look at the pretty yard and think "Oh, some young pretty person must live in that house!"