Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Rosemary is 5!

Rosemary was the beneficiary of many parties this year. 

She had a joint birthday party with her pal Simon, also born on May 25.
She had a school party (pictured here with her best buds Reece and Parker).
And on the night of Rosemary's actual birthday, both sets of grandparents were present.

Grandpa Keithley and Tess played "Happy Birthday" on our new piano, and everyone sang.


Portrait of a five-year-old:

Rosemary loves to work in the kitchen.  She is our carrot-peeler and egg-beater.  She mixes batters and bakes breads and cobblers, and is in charge of waffles on Saturdays.  She wants to be a chef.

Rosemary also loves to create art, and her artwork adorns the walls of our household.  She tends to paint the same themes over and over again.  For a while, the theme was thick vertical lines of green, yellow, and purple.  She also had a "family standing on a sidewalk" phase.  Currently, her theme is orange sunsets ("I really hate the color yellow in a sunset.")  She frequently asks for an envelope, and then mails her drawings to her schoolmates. 

Somewhat famously among our adult friends, Rosemary has made a habit of latching onto catch phrases ("Too bad!") ("Don't you dare.")  We're not sure where she gets these signature lines, but she delivers them with gusto.  Her latest:  "You're killing me."

Rosemary continues to keep us on our toes.  She is headstrong, tenacious, and quick to fight with her brother and defend herself.  The #1 thing she gets in trouble for is throwing objects at Silas, primarily books and toys, as a response to being teased.  Yet there is no one she loves more than Silas -- she follows him everywhere, covets his approval, and imitates him frequently.  (Both of the older kids are great with Tess; often they are fighting over who gets to play with Tess.)

Every night, sometimes at 11:00 p.m., sometimes at 3:00 a.m., Rosemary wakes up, bolts down the hall, and clambers into our bed.  We can count on one hand the number of nights in her life that Rosemary has spent entirely on her own.  I assume that in this next year, we'll finally buckle down and teach Rosemary the value of nighttime independence -- but we will miss her sweet, sleepy, cuddling presence each dawn. 

Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Great Escape

Jail break in cell block 9!

It finally occurred to Tess that she didn't have to wait to be taken out of her crib.

Time for a bed.

Tess seemed sad about the change, and sweetly said:

"I'll never be a baby again?  No fair!"
We told Tess she will always be our baby.

And to ease the transition, we are calling this her "crib bed."

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Mother's Day

 
The kids couldn't agree on which flowers to buy, so Meredith received 'em all.


And instead of breakfast in bed, there was reading in bed.

It was a lovely Mother's Day.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Coyote Point

Pictures from an afternoon at Coyote Point park.
Tess threw a lot of rocks into the San Francisco Bay.
Silas staked a claim on his section of the beach.
Rosemary conquered the monster slide.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Rosemary at the Library

I love libraries.

With mixed success, I am trying to instill my library passion in the kids.




Back in September 2015, Rosemary applied for her own library card.

(Silas did the same when he was four: reminisce here.)
Today, the library was seeking testimonials and taping them on the wall.

Rosemary -- with no nudging by me -- asked if she could write one.  I was thrilled.

She composed her own sentence (I helped her with spelling and Ks):

"I like the books."

Mission accomplished!




Sunday, April 3, 2016

Hiller Aviation Museum

What should we do today?

 Crawl all over a Boeing 747? 



   

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter 2016

Once again it was a double egg-hunt Easter.

The kids combed through our back yard in the early morning...
 ...then searched Ray and Charlotte's yard in the afternoon.

Cousin Elijah joined us (Ariel and Liza in background).
 Eating the loot.
Triple-sibling harmony.  An Easter miracle.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Uncle Blair's Retirement

We traveled to Maryland to see cousins and to be present for an amazing event...
Uncle Blair, a Commander in the Navy, retired after twenty-six distinguished years serving our country.
The Navy did a great job of honoring Blair's family for their commitment  and sacrifices.  
The sideboys were present and the piping of the boatswain's mate was heard as Commander Keithley requested permission to come ashore. 
Proud kiddos.
Proud parents.

On top of it all, we squeezed in a birthday celebration for Grandpa Keithley's 80th!

More photos are here