Photo Update

 Oh, she is just so cute that I can't resist posting her over and over again.  I just love looking at photos of her and cuddling her soft hair and squishy cheeks.  It helps that she is one of the cuddliest babies that I have had yet.  Rewarding, also.  When we pick her up she always, always rests her head on our shoulders, if only for a moment.  That moment, however, conveys so much about our little Sarah.  Cool spoon, eh?  Harvey's kids meal.

 I have made absolutely zero attempts at moving this little girl onto the next milestone.  With this many siblings milestones arrive quite naturally.  So far, I have observed that those further along the birth order follow one of two developmental routes:  a.  Try to keep up and thus hit those milestones fast and hard; b. Get carried around a lot and thus miss certain milestones and accidentally meet others.  Isaac was Baby a and Sarah is definitely Baby b.  Isaac was walking at 11 months and tearing after his siblings just as fast as his little legs could carry him.  Sarah simply waits for a brother or sister to trip over her, pick her up and move her elsewhere.

 Hannah, however, is becoming impatient and has taken to practising walking with her sister.  Sarah has started to demand daily sessions with Hannah and stamps her little feet until her sister complies.  I laugh because Hannah at the same age insisted that her paternal grandmother walk her around and around and around while holding onto her baby finger.  Full circle.

 You didn't realise that pastry cutters are absolutely essential when it comes to proper infant development, did you?  Whisks and spatulas are also helpful.

 Ah ha!  Tricked into yet another important rite of passage:  standing on one's own (with or without a pastry cutter).

Ben has an interesting sense of humour.  See above.

 And then there was Family Fun Night at the kids' school.  This end-of-May school celebration is another rite of passage on the school calendar.  It should be called extremely-dirty Family Night; or Fill-the-bathtub-up-immediately Night; or does-Mommy-really-have-to-go? Night.  Yes, she does.  But, oh, do her feet feel disgusting by the end of it.

 The dirt doesn't bother the kids as bouncy castles and army obstacle courses provide more than enough counterweight for humidity and blackflies.

 But then a torrential rain and thunderstorm came out of nowhere and the crowds rushed into the school where the bumscooter scooted here, there and everywhere.  Very-dirty-bum Night.

 The storm sort of looked like the above except that this photo is from a week later when another early summer storm rolled into town.  "I'm sure it's a tornado," warned Jacob, "it will surely take down our ancient trees!"  Jacob is always a wealth of factual information.  The following day at supper he remarked, "Well, it's a good thing that Obama is almost out of office."  To which his mother replied, "No, he could win another term.  George Bush served 12 years."  Tsk, tsk, politically non-savant mother, "No, Mom.  After Franklin Delano Roosevelt left office a law was passed limiting presidents to  two terms in office..."  Oh.  I found him reading stories from the Danish Resistance the other night.  Bet you can't tell me one story from the Danish resistance, eh?  I have a lot to learn over the next few decades.  They will all pat me kindly on the head one day, "She was always very kind to us.  And sometimes funny."

 Hannah has been practising her hairdressing skills on Sarah.  This is the end result of six teeny-weeny ponytails tied into her hair while Mommy went to the grocery store just one last time.

Close look.  Not so sure about her sixth place status.