tidy-er, in places

I got a little more done today. Some high-quality fretting about the future, which I managed to squash fairly easily, and I spent a little time in the room we want to use for a kid room - undetermined if it's going to be the boys or eventually the baby girls. Right now it's a huge mess, and has been catching all the junk we don't know where to put. Today I got a lot of cardboard and and paper out of there. Of course, it also made the living room even messier because some shuffled out, but that's ok.

Now I'm going to make some tomato sauce and boil some pasta.

The kids watched Anastasia on Netflix. They were a bit disappointed to learn that it was untrue. Ah well. Lovely animation though! Faith has been nostalgic andis  rewatching many older animated movies with an eye to indoctrinating the littles. For the nth time we wish Ghibli was streaming!

slow day

I have a lot to do - when do I NOT have a lot to do - and the babies are uncooperative. Clementine won't sleep unless she's in arms and I don't want to trap the other children under her much. Also, the moment my arms are free, Dorothy wants to be held. Can't blame her. So today has been spent under babies. Slightly grumpy babies. It looks like this:

Clementine is teething and Dorothy is two (and probably 'too'.)

But that's okay. The house can be dirty one  more day. Or week. These guys won't be little forever.

Don't you know what 'ther' means?

One of the nicest things about having a whole passel of children is getting to experience childhood classics over and over again. Dorothy, aged 2, is all about Winnie the Pooh. Her enjoyment is limited to the Disney version: the first and last Pooh movies (really the only ones worth bothering with, in my opinion.)

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Winnie the Pooh (2011)

and some toys she got for her birthday: a full set of the characters (even Christopher Robin, and Gopher, who's "not in the book") and a few Disney-fied books. Above, she hugs Pooh. Aww.

The older children have been introduced to the movies, of course, but also the original source material. Sean, bless him, has read bedtime stories every night for the last eleven or so years, including four trips through the Hundred Acre Wood.

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh

He's read it twice to each set of kids, Faith and Abby, then Bede, Gilbert, Trixie and Gloria. Dorothy and Clementine will get it next, but it'll be a few years yet. The humor hits at different levels depending on the age of the reader or listener, of course, and seeing the kids get jokes they missed the first time is a delight.

What a happy world!