Fall is already on it`s halfway here in Latvia. Thanks to a few sunny days kids had a time of their lives playing with leaves.

The next day after this we had an opportunity to visit the playground again. I kept in mind that the last time we were there I had a strong desire to have some hot tea, so I took with me a thermos.

July rewarded us for our patience with a lot of sun and we finally got some really hot weather here after a rainy June.

As our little girl was growing older, she started grabbing things and it was the best time to make for her a mobile. I searched for ideas through Pinterest and Google, but absolutely nothing was found that could catch my eye. Then one day I noticed that Marge likes to observe a crocheted flower in her cardigan and the idea was born. It was decided to make a few crocheted rattles with flowers on top covering plastic egg containers.

It was the first time we were driving so far with Marge. However, our older kids are already pretty much experienced road trippers. We had a major one week long journey to Poland last summer. That’s why these four hours in the car, that awaited us, seemed to be a piece of cake for us. I had all of mine checklists left from the last time, which made our preparations indeed much easier and less time-consuming. But our thinking of ourselves as of nearly travel-experts made us let our guard down and forget some essential things.

All these reflections just fascinate me!

Yes, our little baby girl is two month old already! She grew a lot, we spent past month under a sunshine of her smiles. She likes to talk and also learned to cry when she desperately needs something. It’s not like she hasn’t cried before, but this cry is somehow different from the one she did in her first month. So this is also a sign that she is getting older. Past few days of her life are also remarkable for Marge’s discovery of her fists. She stacks them into her mouth and intently munches her fingers with a unconcerned look. It seems that I have to hurry with a mobile I wanted to make for her, or I’ll miss the right time.

As Marge grows her sisters change as well. Their intention to help me with Marge is so huge that I can step aside and just watch their energy flowing in a right place. I haven’t seen so much initiative for months! They wash dishes (even though it has been my prerogative before), help me cook, hang clean clothes, through away used diapers. They even don’t mind entertaining Marge for a little bit if I need to leave the room for a moment. I am really proud of my girls!

I’ve started a new crochet cardigan for Marge lately. I’ve searched for a nice and not so common pattern for it, but haven’t found any. So it was decided to make one by myself. I actually have already started bringing to life my idea and crocheted four rows, but then realized, that I had made a mistake in the very first stitch of the first row! Can you imagine my disappointment when I had to rip it all out and start over my project!

Though May is almost over, it is still enough time for mayflowers to bloom and May thunderstorms to moisturize the air through nights. I saw a great thundercloud through kids room’s window yesterday. I hardly had time to take a picture, the cloud had covered all of the skies and it started pouring. However, it didn’t rain too long, not more than a few minutes. Now i’m looking at my daughters’ paintings of a rainy day from their art class and feeling really inspired to paint one by myself. I wish I had a time for this!

Oh, I love summer rain with it’s warm puddles!

One article from a foreign blog caught my attention a few days ago . It was about different ways of stickers’ usage in children’s activities. There was one point that I liked most. It was about writing and illustrating your own tiny book. The original idea was taken from the Nurture Store blog. I decided to give it a try.

We’ve always liked stickers, so I had some in my drawer and we could try the idea in the same day.

The result was even better than I had expected. Children accepted new challenge with a great enthusiasm. And of course stickers made this activity more attractive in children eyes.

Anastasia made a book about flower fairies. She wrote a story and illustrated the book all by herself. Veronika did a pretty nice work too, but it was hard for me to keep her within few characters per one story. She doesn’t write yet, so I did it instead of her. She told me the story, that I helped her to turn into short clear sentences and then wrote it down.

We made two books with Veronika. I suggested to her a plan of how to write a story:

• Start with “once upon a time” and set a scene: tell, who is the main character in your story, where and what did he do
• what did happen
• how did it all end

The second book Veronika made backwards: in front was the last page and the book itself had to be read from the back to the front. Dealing with this issue, we decided to put page numbers. Veronika promised me to be more careful next time. We made our books using French folding as it was suggested in the original post. Book had six pages and every two of them could be devoted to one point of the plan.

Our written stories can be read by kids to each other or for toys. We liked this activity a lot and we’ll do it again for sure!

Наклейки, конечно, можно использовать любые, но мне очень нравятся из серии Deco, что продаются в книжном Jāņa Roze. В каждой упаковочке по три (одинаковых) листика с симпатичными наклейками. Например, такие.

I love to be home! To woke up and see through my window a huge thundercloud shining in the sun above the neighbour house… To sleep on the bed that is big enough for everyone including me and my workstation…

The cat follows me everywhere I go, eats with me, sits next to me when I’m washing dishes, sleeps with me…

(By the way, thank you Phoebe for letting me take a photo of you with this flower, that I’ve crocheted in the hospital).

And the oldest daughter surprised me with a Happy Birthday card for Marge!

But the biggest surprise for me was the fact that my middle daughter suddenly became so big! I remember this effect I felt from the time when Veronika born, therefore I waited for it once Marge born.

Вот и неделя прошла с тех пор, как наша семья стала на одного ребёнка счастливее. 

Да, признаться, было страшно до самого конца — что это такое мы с мужем затеяли. На двоих и так трое детей, да кошка. Да и последний младенец уже как 4 года назад, отметив свой первый юбилей, вышел из младенческого возраста. Но теперь, после недели стойкой послеродовой эйфории, совершенно понятно — затеяли мы это не зря.

Мы оба с мужем опытные родители, для нас обоих переживания от незнания, о чём плачет малыш — пройденный этап. Но вот ощущение абсолютного счастья от каждой минутки, когда малыш не спит, для нас обоих ново. К тому же, это так здорово, когда папа принимает участие в уходе за малышом наравне с мамой, когда есть такая возможность.

С первой дочкой я узнала, что такое — быть мамой, но ещё пока не научилась при этом получать удовольствие от жизни. Со второй дочкой я научилась быть счастливой мамой, но быть счастливой мамой двоим деткам сразу у меня не получилось. С третьей дочкой я чувствую себя очень счастливой мамой трёх девочек.

Знания. Любовь. Счастье.

Моё Троедочие.

My almost seven years old Anastasia oftentimes tells us that she doesn’t have any activity to do. Usually she suddenly remembers about everything she really wanted to do right in the same day’s evening when it’s already a time to go to a bed.

This made me think of an idea of a list of tips that the kid can look into when nothing comes to his mind by itself.

I made a list in Excel, applied a dotted border. Then I cut 2×7 cm cards of a cardboard and glued a text on them. I used a trinket key chain to bind cards together.