Making Rivendell in the Desert: September 2015

At breakfastime, I put Mariam down on a blanket in middle of the living room as I made eggs. When I looked up, Isaiah and Jenny had abandoned their chairs and had gone into the living room. Kuzzles, bound into her highchair, was the only good kid still at the table.
I went into the living room and found Isaiah, standing over the baby, adressing her "Get up, Pick up your bed, and walk!" then he paused, and narrated "And he got up, picked up his bed, and walked"
Jenny was offended "NO! She's a girl!!"
Then Jenny proceeded to dance around the baby, singing "You are my baby, my only baby, you make me happy, when skies are grey..."

Kuzzles insists on coming up and carefully stroking the baby's head, and then beaming up at me as I tell her she's a good sister and she's being gentle. She does it at least 10x a day.

Mariam continues to be the best baby so far. After a nightmarish cluster feeding 3 days in which she didn't let me sleep more than an hour, she has settled down to deep feedings and lots of sleep. It's wonderful.

Jenny imagination continues to grow. She told me "I'm a little monkey swinging from a tree" as she hung off the bunkbed I was napping on.
"Are you my little monkey?" I asked.
"Yes"
"Can I be your big monkey?"
"Yes"
"Can my little monkey give me a hug?"
She did, but then stepped back, a little troubled look on her face.
"I'm not a monkey. I was pretending" she informed me, making sure I knew. She cracks me up. Isaiah gets lost in his imagination, but Jenny is never lost, and always knows exactly where she is.

Isaiah found his toy wrench and stared at it with new eyes. "It's a part of Chopper!"

"Its a wrench. Chopper has wrenches too" I tried to explain.
"Chopper shared his wrench with Isaiah. That's so nice" he continued.
Then he proceeded to tell stories about what Chopper and Isaiah were doing together, positioning the wrench doing different things. "Chopper is reading a book with Isaiah" etc. He arranged the wrench into an L shape with some other toys. "Oh no, Chopper turned into a gun!" then he took it off "Now he is chopper again." That wrench is now "Chopper." And Isaiah seems very pleased.
It somehow made me think of reliquaries with pieces of saints...

Jenny turned 3. Kind of. At least, we celebrated her turning 3 while Aunt Sarah was here.

She got a red tricycle for her birthday. She has been very generous with sharing it with Isaiah. As they rode it together they looked to me like part of a little motorcycle gang (with a medieval flair)....

I tried to do a sibling photoshoot. I will leave you with the best of the bunch.

Introducing Mariam Hope

Here is her Psalm.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.