Bells and Whistles: Thoughts from my brain and pictures from my camera.

Ethne wanted me to take a picture of her holding Wyatt like this.

Brett is in Paris tonight so he can give a presentation tomorrow. It's sometimes okay when he goes away if it's only for one night--it's like a day off where I get to just relax and not worry about tidying up the house and can stay up late doing what I want... basically, being a slacker. :)

Me and my baby on Sunday. I cut my hair, but it's just so plain--I really wanted to cut it much shorter, but Brett is absolutely opposed to the idea (and to be fair, I can understand the feeling--I am, after all, absoLUTEly opposed to him shaving. Ever.). And the other thing that keeps me from chopping it is I love the ease of ponytails (see above about being a slacker). At least my ponytail now is much lighter so that's nice.

Hazel learned this song at school and she drew this little picture and I think it is HILARIOUS-- look at the boy laying in the grass with a little piece of straw in his mouth, singing the song and thinking of the cute girl. Hazel's a hoot.

We got this toy kitchen (with a bunch of toy cups/plates/silverware etc. to go with it) from the side of the road. Nice find, especially since I could easily get tired of it and put it back on the side of the road in a few months.

"Mom, something's wrong with this bottle--it's not like mine." So concerned. :)

(Speaking of bottles, I love that every night I give Wyatt a bottle of milk and he snuggles up into me and drinks it while we watch puppy or baby farm animal videos on youtube with soft music. He's my favorite baby!!)

Hazel came home pretty ecstatic the other day because what she and Jethro have been waiting for forever FINALLY happened and she had homework that involved translating English, which was, obviously, a piece of cake for her. :) It really tickled her.

This is Hazel and Wyatt with the stuffed cow she sewed for him. She came to me one day asking if she could sew something so I let her get into my sad little sewing container and helped her a bit and she made up this cow for Wyatt--how sweet is that? Imagine how much cuter it could have been had I had ANY cute fabric, or dark buttons. Oh well, she had fun and it's cute anyway. Ethne started on an owl, and it's almost finished, so pictures of that to come.

Yesterday morning I actually woke up a little early (GASP) and we did a fun hairdo on Hazel (and Ethne). I think it turned out quite lovely but Hazel was not impressed with being asked to smile for pictures.

(Color's off in the picture below, I don't know why, but it shows the back.)

She was in a much happier mood when she got home from school.

Orrin really likes playing with the kitchen, but we decided he's OCD because he has to stack everything and hang all the utensils just so.

Jethro was practicing his guitar and Wyatt loved it.

Last night we went to the school for a recital (it was called a Serenade) and Jethro played his guitar in two songs with a group of kids. One was The Rose (which sounds funny sung by non-native English speakers), and as they started I was thinking, I think that's mainly Jethro I hear. There were 6 other kids playing guitars. And then Jethro got stuck for a beat or two, and when he wasn't playing there was pretty much NO other guitar music. It was pretty funny. There were about two of them that were playing very softly, and the rest were just pretending. I met his teacher afterwards and she said that Jethro learns so well, and it really makes it fun for her as a teacher (and she said this in German and I even understood! Kind of. ;) ).

My eldest and youngest, guitarring (I really wanted Wyatt to dance on video, but alas he was too interested in playing the gee-tar.).

Today Wyatt had his first solo swing.

This is pretty much the cutest picture EVER TAKEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME!!!

Ethne and her friend Noemi.

I kind of love where we live. The kids all have such good friends to play with.

He thinks he's such a big kid--chowing down on an apple. Of course, he won't eat them if I slice them thinly and take off the peel, but give him a whole one and he's all about it.

Good jump Orrin. If I tell Orrin he's cute nowadays, he says, "I not cute, I AWESOME!" Indeed.

I came in the house to find Jethro and Hazel reading together. It made me laugh.

Hi Jethro and Hazel!

They continued sharing their book until Jethro finished and then Hazel went back and finished (she can't read as fast as him, which would have really annoyed me had I been her).

I thought I'd take a picture of my awesome oldest son. He's just so responsible and good at everything he does... I don't think I can be a mother to such a grown-up kid, can I? I sure do love him though.

Last Friday Bern had Museumnacht -meaning Museum Night where a bunch of museums are open really really late in the night and are free. Brett took the three oldest and they had a good time. Jethro went to a place where they did some shooting competitions, and he got the high score for the night (up to that point) for some kind of laser shooting.

The following pictures are stills from the video I took of Wyatt being silly and ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE in the tub tonight.