Happy Birthday Catherine!

Guess who's THIRTEEN? The first teenager! In case you haven't been able to spend enough time with her recently to know, Catherine dominates as a teenager.

I really wanted to do something fun for Catherine's 13th birthday. Maybe a little trip? A show or outing just the two of us? Big party? And she wasn't really interested in any of it. All she wanted was to go to the beach, and it being January and us living in St. Louis, the beach doesn't come close to qualifying as a "little" trip. However I talked to Aunt Kristin about driving the kids down to Florida for a visit with them sometime in May, as soon as everyone was done with school but before the summer camp schedule kicked in. So I told Catherine I couldn't get her to a beach in January, but if she would be willing to take a raincheck on the beach trip until May, then we'd all go. So we had a small party with family and ice cream cake for her real birthday, and looked forward to cousin Christopher giving us surfing lessons come May.

Before the party: all kids have to sit ON the table instead of in chairs to play games at the table, right?

Oreo ice cream cake courtesy of Dema!

Agnes thought all of the present were for her to open, of course, and Catherine is the kind of big sister who lets her believe it.

After presents, Gigi brought out one of her famous magic tricks. She gave the kids a few hints on how to accomplish this chain-and-ring trick, and Edie was the first one to figure it out!

The haircut she gave herself must have made her super smart.

Hi Mamo!

I know we're only a few months into this teenager phase, but for the moment I'm leaning to the side of THREEnagers being much more difficult to live with than actual teenagers. Here's a little "moment in time" picture of what Catherine is doing at 13:

• Height: 5' 10" (taller than me if I'm slouching holding a toddler, but not quite taller than me if I'm standing up straight)
• Shoes: Definitely bigger than mine now, but I got some nice hand-me-downs from her, so that's good.
• Hobbies: Volleyball, watercolor painting (she's getting quite good!), growing houseplants, piano (sporadically), baking, sneaking oversized t-shirts and hoodies out of Daddy's closet, and a fun little pasttime we like to call "pushing Mary's buttons," unless they're both in the mood to be friends, which is more often than the mutual button pushing.

If teenagers have a reputation for being disrespectful and selfish and distant, well, we're definitely not there. Catherine is generous and fun and involved, better at entertaining Agnes and getting her down for naps than I am, and loved by her siblings and friends. Her one teenage habit is probably taking lots of selfies, but I'm actually fine with that.

Happy Birthday, Catherine! I'm sorry we haven't been to the beach yet, but we love you!

Adorable Agnes

I never get tired of watching little toddler hands at work. I get totally and completely tired of cleaning up the messes made by little toddler hands at work, but you can't have one without the other and this too shall pass. Let's focus on the cuteness.

I have a water carbonating machine and Agnes is delighted by it every time it turns on. She likes things with buttons that make noise.

And she loves the mixer. She loved it even before she realized that delicious things materialize after it makes its fun noises and motions.

Agnes's signature face at the moment is a fun scrunchy, sheepish smile with a great shoulder shrug. I have been failing to get it on video but she was so excited by the mixer that only a little suggesting by Catherine in the background got her to mimic it.



I didn't get many pictures at our last trip to the City Museum, but Agnes did not have as much fun as I thought she would. She was mostly totally overwhelmed by the space and the people. But she really liked when I put her up in the seat of this tractor.

That was one of our last fun field trips before the novel coronavirus shut us down. More bemoaning about that later.

Agnes means "little lamb" and the feast day of her name sake is January 21, so of course we had to make a lamb cake to celebrate. I had approximately 1.5 seconds to snap this picture of her with her cake before she tried to attack it with that spatula.

Agnes, true to form for the babies and toddlers in our family, is a terrible napper and pretty much only naps in the car or wrapped up on me. I alternately adore and begrudge it, depending on how tired I am and how many other things I'm trying to do with an adorable sack of potatoes on my back.

Every once in a while I try getting her to sleep and then transferring her to a crib. It usually fails instantly. This time I managed to get her down still asleep, marveled at her adorableness which was running extra high since she was sleeping *not* on me, snapped a quick picture, sneaked out the door and even made it downstairs and opened my recipe so I could start making dinner while she was out. She woke up before I had pulled out the first ingredient. Focus on the cuteness.

Epiphany 2020

Every year near the feast of the Epiphany in January we have a parish-wide breakfast to celebrate. There is always some sort of entertainment, last year being the play semi-starring Gussie and this year we had a procession of the three kings with all the kids singing We Three Kings (obviously). Edie immediately volunteered to lead the procession carrying a big star, which was an excellent idea, and when I accidentally stumbled upon a huge paper star at IKEA it seemed like an even better idea. We also had a craft table set up where all the kids could make their own crowns to wear. We tried to make one for Agnes but she refused to wear it for even long enough to snap a picture, but we won in the end by slipping it on her when she fell asleep.

Visit With Uncle Thomas and Aunt Jena

Thomas and Jena got to stay in town for a bit after Christmas so we snagged them for an afternoon at our house. Every time they visit at least one of the kids wants to fly back to stay with them in California. I think this trip it was Michael Jr.

We were still having delightfully not at all wintry weather so we played in the yard. Edie wanted to play soccer, but also refused to take off her new roller skates, so she was made the goalie.

I put Agnes in her swing to keep her out of the soccer game. She had mixed feelings about it, both enjoying the swing but also desperately wanting to join the soccer melee.

Not only a goalie on roller skates, but a singing dancing goalie on roller skates. She stopped a few goals also!

But eventually Edie wanted to play forward. This was slightly less successful.

Aunt Jena was incredibly brave to help Agnes with whatever she was eating.

Uncle Thomas got really into helping the kids with a puzzle in this game, which somehow helps teach computer programming logic.

It was so great to hang out with them for a bit - we miss you!!

Finishing 2019 and Some Videos

We had a surprise snow in early December and were caught unprepared with no sleds to use on the hill in the park, and everyone was sold out of sleds everywhere. So after that we picked up a couple sleds so we would be ready, and Grampy T and Michael Jr converted a set of broken IKEA bed slats into two amazing looking sleds.

Unfortunately, we didn't get another good sledding snow all winter and couldn't test them out. But we're ready for next year!

Agnes still pretty much only falls asleep if she's on my back on in my lap, but she randomly dropped on in her high chair while I was making dinner and I had to stuff a wrap under her head while I finished.

Here she was just sitting in my lap and fell asleep and tipped forward into my hand.

Here are a bunch of daily life videos that I'm pretty sure are from December, but could possibly be early January.

Edie has been working hard on her handstands.


And so has Agnes! We call this "gymnurstics". It's ridiculous. No one can say my big kids don't have an honest idea of what it means to have kids.


Michael's job was vacuuming. Vacuuming in the dark on a light up hoverboard makes chores more fun.


Agnes was determined to jump over the rope. She didn't make it, but she thought she did!


And Edie lost her first tooth!


Agnes wants to read so much. She's at that amazing phase where you can't read her books because she just constantly turns the pages.

December 2019: The Rest of Christmas

Christmas never ends on Christmas Day at our house, but these are the rest of the Christmas pictures I could find in my December folder. Since we went to Mass on Christmas Eve, we had time to open our presents in the morning before Michael went to work (because obviously being up super late for Christmas Eve Mass did not cause them to sleep in even a tiny little bit Christmas morning). Then we dawdled over breakfast and got lunch ready for when Michael came home.

The kids made a bunch of presents for each other like normal. I LOVE how hard they think and work on presents for each other. I don't know if you can see Edie's face here, but she is that excited about Gussie opening his present.

She claimed the Santa hat right away. She just has so much fun giving presents.

But also receiving them! She has been asking for roller blades for months. It's maybe not the best December gift, but with St. Louis weather there's plenty of random days that are dry and warm enough to skate around the sidewalks.

Gussie was really excited for Daddy to open his gift.

Mary made this adorable headband for Edie, which is maybe the only thing that can tame her homemade haircut.

And Catherine wrote an activity book for Mary that made her laugh for HOURS. (Mary is an expert journaler, if you didn't know).

Agnes helped open everything, and she had plenty of her own to open as well because I had the kids run around the house and collect a bunch of toys to wrap for her because she loved unwrapping so much.

Oh, it turns out Christmas Day was one of those random warm days - I comfortably grilled our Christmas lunch in my bare feet.

After lunch we went over to Grandma's house for presents with Gigi and Christmas dinner with the whole family.

Agnes loves clothes. She will take anyone's clothes and wrap them around herself like a scarf. I have to keep a close eye on her around the dirty clothes hampers.

I always need pictures in the Twinkie Power wagon.

See, Edie got to try out her new skates!

Hi Mamo! Also, Catherine crocheted this sweater for me for Christmas. I can't imagine how many hours it took her. The results were amazing and it's such a cozy sweater!

I definitely cajoled Mary into this picture.

And Christmas kept going a few days later with our present day with Grandma and Grandpa. These fishing pole shaped marshmallow roasters were a big hit (and have since been used many times in our backyard fire pit!).

Adorable sled.

And her own ukulele for Agnes.

Agnes still insisted on helping everyone open every gift.

Michael had played with some old Lincoln Logs at the farm and loved them, and now he has his own set!

His designs have only gotten larger and more complex after this first build.

Gussie and Michael Jr received a joint hover board. It took a bit of practice and one fairly unpleasant fall for Gussie, but he was back at it the next day and is a pro now!

This video is from Day 2 of ownership.


Uncle Thomas did some peppering with Catherine. It didn't last long.

Watch out for your electronics around Agnes. She's a sneaky one.

Edie got some karaoke microphones and Catherine and Mary commandeered them to annoy Grandpa more effectively.

Agnes really enjoyed the microphones as well. I've watched this video a dozen times and I still laugh out loud at Mary's face every time. Wait for it.



This is the first day Agnes realized stuff can stick to the bottom of her feet. It distressed her to the point that I had to put socks on her.

We always have to have at least one gingerbread activity for Christmas. I wasn't up for houses this year, so we decorated gingerbread men. The extra kid slipped in there is our next door neighbor. Being an only child, she shows up in the kids' activities at lot.

Agnes really wanted to be part of the action as well, so Grampy T let her help with his cookie.

I know it wasn't Agnes's first Christmas, but for sure the first one she participated in and it was so fun to experience it with her. Yes, I'm writing this in April, but Merry Christmas!