She Sticks The Landing!!

Lucy finally got herself all sorted out and balanced into a sitting position. For the first few days of her getting herself up she would throw her arms out for balance like a gymnast off the vault who has stuck her landing. It was adorable....and unfortunately not caught on camera :)

She has also taken her first few wabbley crawls. I will try to get that on video.

Yes, this is what the schoolroom floor looks like by midweek.

Ben clone?

Lucy clone?  This is Ben at the same age.  He had nice jowls too!

roughly the same amount of hair too..

Bushkill Falls

Our dear friend (and Lucy's Godmother) was visiting for the holiday weekend. So, Saturday we decided to be real Pocono tourists and went for a visit to Bushkill Falls, The Pocono Indian Museum (where they carry some of Cla's books), and then a quick stop at Country Kettle an enormous candy store.

I didn't get pics at the Indian Museum because it was sort of impromptu and dark in the museum...The museum is small and not too exciting, but the gift shop is awesome.

Bushkill is not for the faint of heart.  It is all wood decking stairs...steeply up and down...and narrow!! Ohh and because it was a holiday weekend is was a mob scene!  Definitely a workout, especially with a 15lb baby strapped to my back.  But it was beautiful and the kids did great with the hike...not a single complaint.

The main falls

Anna peaking through the gate at the falls

my ducklings

one of the steep, narrow staircases....this is how the entire hike was basically.

quick rest before we continued with out upward march!

right at the top of the main falls..

one of the smaller falls

you can see where the water cut out these rounded areas in the rock.  The water has created a fairly deep cavern.  You can see in the rock where the water used to run at the top of the rocks.

The river finally opens up into this shallow area where the kids were able to dip their feet in a little.

my foot  ;)  I didn't dare venture out on the slippery rocks because I had a sleeping baby on my back that totally throws off my balance.

Miss Dober, choosing not to take her chances down the rocky and root filled slope, waved to us from her safe resting place.

Hilarious "Mr. God Forbid I Get Even a Drop of Water On Me" held up his shorts lest he get wet in this one inch of water..

Getting so big and grown up, "Ben do you need help getting socks and shoes on?" "Nope, I got it.." and he did

The Owl and the Pussycat

Ben has finished memorizing his first poem of 2nd grade. We both thought this poem was really cute and enjoyed learning it.

Stay tuned in a few weeks for some Robert Frost.

Girls' Bedroom

My mom asked for some pictures of the girls' newly "furnitured" bedroom.

My mom and stepdad gave us a gift when Lucy was born to get some furniture for her. Because she will eventually be sharing a room with her sisters that meant that basically all the girls got some new furniture.

We really like how it turned out...and yes there will be room for one more bed when Lucy is ready to move in if we move the long dresser down and Lucy will go in the corner. We measured and we are sure. I still need to do something about the curtains and still have some stuff to hang on the walls.

From the doorway

from the corner closet..if you look close you see Buggy in bed.  She was just waking from her nap.

from the end of the bunkbeds

waking with a smile

Buggy was made for loving....love that face.

From on top of the bunk!!

Anna's in bed bookcase

Bug's in bed bookcase

from the desk

Buggy with her best lovey.  Puppy had been missing for months and Anna just found it tucked into her sleeping bag.

Lucy is 6 Months.....Or Almost 7 Months!!

 

Ohhh poor 4th baby!  Hardly a post dedicated to her here on the blog.  Well, she turned 6M on 7/25....so she will be 7M in a few days.

She is a darling and much loved little baby.  But she is my differentest baby!!  She only lags behind Anna a little for crankiest baby.  She wants your attention...and she wants it NOW! LOL...But the biggest difference is the SLEEEEPPP!!  Oh my goodness, this baby has not gotten the memo on how Salvucci babies SLEEP.  They just do!  She is regularly still up at 10pm and then up at night or in the wee hours to be fed.  None of the conking out by 7-8 and sleeping until the next morning for this one....no ma'am.  Cruel joke.

Also, compared to my other girls she is enormous.  Larger by pounds and longer. I will have to look back to compare her to Ben, but she may be bigger than he was too.  I think she was 14lbs2ozz at her last well check (I already forgot....see another thing with baby #4...the stats).  She is at the 90th I think for length and 25th for weight.  The other two girls were never even in double digits for weight...and barely for height.

She is at the slower end with motor skills.  I don't count Anna in that because she was clinically delayed and not even rolling over by 6M.  But she is now getting up on hands and knees and sort of throwing herself forward, loves to roll under the couches, not quite sitting up but does the mostly upright lounging position.  She can sit in the high chair just fine or in the wagon where she has some support...and she can sit up if you sit her up.  She loves to be fed baby oatmeal and purreed stuff.  She looks like a Ben clone and is a sweet and smiley little love girl.

Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson

 Anna has completed her first poem for Kindergarten!!


 I know the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum and many other classical curricula consider memorizing poetry to be very important for the younger grades. More important than things like science and history even...considering that Anna is studying and memorizing poetry every day, but will not even start thinking about history or science until 2nd grade. And even then it is very lightly touched upon. So, even knowing this, my inclination is often to just skip it and get done with school..get the reading and the math done and move on. Then I listened to this talk (scroll down a bit to get to the talk by Dr. James Taylor).  In fact I listened to it twice...in a row...and saved it to listen to again.  I am preparing her to read Shakespeare and Aristotle later.  We must learn the "good" books so we can learn the "great" books.

And of course Buggy couldn't have it that the camera was out and no video was taken of her...so here is Buggy's version.  (and you can see her eye looks much better, but look at that new crop of mosquito bites over her face.)

Poor Buggy!

 

Oh, my poor baby.  She is always plagued with weird and random things.  She woke up Monday morning looking like this.  She was not stung by any bee, no mosquito bites....Her pediatrician looked at her and is sure it is an infection, but we have no idea from what.  Whatever the cause she is on an antibiotic now and today is already looking a little better.