Judah is having an identity crisis.

Sometimes when we talk to him, he insists his name is “Judah”.

But much of the time, when I call him “Judah”, he frowns at me and says, “I’m Buzz Lightyear!”

For a short time he took a break from being Buzz and decided he was “Cody”. But soon Buzz was back to his normal self.

After being gone for two days, we met up with my parents and all the children at McDonalds. When I saw Judah, he came running toward me and I exclaimed, “Hi, Judah!” He stopped in his tracks and said quietly, “I’m Buzz Lightyear.”

At church on Sunday, I went to get Judah from his Sunday School class. I was handed his class paper, and at the top was written his name: Buzz Lightyear.

Today my sister, Joyce, brought over some hand-me-down clothes for Miguel and Judah, and she had something very special for Judah: a pair of Buzz Lightyear pajamas. Judah was so pleased that he undressed right then and there so he could try on his new outfit.

Even after Judah accidentally wet his pants later, he still wore the shirt around for the rest of the day. I have no doubt that these pajamas are going to be a wonderful addition to my little space ranger.

“To infinity, and beyond!”

Our three birds haven’t ever complained about their lodging arrangements. They have seemed very happy with their little bit of real estate. However, today Laura and Isaac asked if they could make a few modifications to the bird cage. I agreed, on the condition that they would put it all back the way it was before if I didn’t like what they did. With that settled, they started creating.

I was shocked when I came into the kitchen some time later. The birds’ new lodging was amazing! It was now three cages combined using cable ties to stabilize the structure.

Often people express concern over children and birds. I suppose all animals are at risk with children, but birds are especially vulnerable since they are caged so much of the time and not able to escape their tormentors. However, in our home, the birds don’t suffer much at all. Not only are there very strict rules about how we treat animals around here, but our animals are a tad bit spoiled. The birds especially are almost always free to explore outside of their cage. They are often on someone’s shoulder or sharing someone’s shower. They are frequently offered nibbles of whatever we are having to eat, but only after the children ask me yet again, “Is this safe for the birds?”

I’m so proud of the kids for being kind to our little feathered friends. Now that the birds have triple their former space, I’m interested to see what other interesting things the children rig up for them. If nothing else, our birds are never bored! Oh, and you’ll have to notice the little walkway going from the cage to the hanging perch on the right. What next?

If you’d like to see a sample of what Laura has been drawing lately, you can see the gallery we created today.

Enjoy!

Tonight we celebrated March Birthdays at the Walsh house. It has become tradition to celebrate my Dad, Michael, Todd, Miguel and Judah.

You can see the photos in my gallery.

“Blest be the tie that binds!”

I haven’t posted an update on Lillian lately, so here is the official update, so far.

Seems like she’s gaining weight and doing the things she’s supposed to be doing. If our UPS scale is to be trusted, she’s right at 13 pounds.

I’m glad to report that Lilly is a happy baby, and so content these days. I didn’t realize how fussy she was before until she started getting enough to eat and she became so happy!

Lilly smiles readily and is even starting to try to giggle a little bit. She is learning to grab onto toys and bring them to her mouth.

Lilly is 3.5 months old, and is still the center of attention much of the time that she’s awake. Usually the kids are loving and gentle with Lilly, although today Judah got into big trouble with me after hitting Lilly hard with a baby doll. Fortunately, after Lilly’s and Judah’s tears were dried, he was back to his loving self, sticking his big ol’ face into Lilly’s face and saying in a sing-song voice, “Hello Baby Lilly!”

Lilly is still drinking almost all of her meals from a bottle, which is a little sad to me, but the great benefit is that I can hand her to her father or a sibling and they can feed her if I’m not able to sit down right then.  Fortunately Lilly is very willing to still nurse, so we enjoy those special times either right before bed or in the night when she wakes up needing a little extra nourishment.

Lilly’s next doctor appointment is early next month, so I’m eager to get a good report.  I keep hoping we’re on the right track.

Thanks to all of you who have walked alongside us on this journey with our Little Treasure.

Miguel has been counting the days to his birthday for many weeks now. Finally, today arrived, and Miguel was beside himself with delight and anticipation. We baked his birthday cake in two heart-shaped pans. I told him we could make a layer cake. So when we opened the oven to see if his cakes were done, Miguel peered closely and said, “Where are the layers?” I explained to him that we would make the layers by stacking the cakes on top of each other later on after they were cooled.

Miguel and I agreed that we would have hot dogs and mac & cheese for lunch, and I decided that supper would be meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies.

By supper time, the cake was in its layers and frosted, and Miguel was seated in a place of honor at the table. He was so excited, he couldn’t stop chattering, and his ears were bright red.

After all this excitement, I’m guessing Miguel will be exhausted. But for now he’s playing a video game with his brother and looking forward to the chance to “stay up late”.

Happy Birthday, Miguel!

Lillian is still at the age where being wrapped tightly helps her to settle down to sleep.

Even though I wrapped up Lilly’s feet, she must have wriggled around just enough to get her feet out.

I’m amazed by how tiny her feet still are.

“Sweet dreams, my Little One.”

Tonight Laura and Amelia had a piano recital. It’s been my privilege to be their daily piano nag, and to watch both of them learn so much at the piano.

Here are two photos from tonight’s performance:

I can’t wait to see what the girls learn next.

Michael sent me a link to an interesting article he found while reading his daily news items online. It’s about a physics professor at MIT (Walter Lewin) who makes his lectures come alive for his students.

After reading the article and watching the accompanying video, I went and looked on iTunes for the free lecture series’ available for download. After downloading all 36 video podcast lectures from Physics 8.02, I started watching the first lecture after midnight last night. Even though I really shouldn’t have been up so late, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by such interesting things as electricity and electrons and positive and negative charges and silk and cat hair.

Today I showed the lectures to Isaac and he watched most of the first one. He was very interested, and probably didn’t realize how educational his “entertainment” was. And I have to confess, after hearing about the electrical energy in static, the next time I combed my hair, I turned off the bathroom light, shut the door and unplugged the nightlight. I was so curious to see if the sparks were visible. Judah could NOT figure out why I was standing in the dark, and I realized I couldn’t really explain it to him.

Anyway, I hope you check out these lectures. Seems like it would be a great way to fit “science” into a homeschool day.

When we added a new family member a few months ago, we knew we were in for a treat, but we didn’t know exactly what things would change.  Now that Grammy has left us for the next month or so, we know exactly what we will miss while she’s gone.

First of all, we’ll miss having tea in the morning. Grammy is so patient with the children who flock around her every morning. She pours tea, spoons in sugar, stirs in the milk, cleans up the spills, solves arguments about who will sit next to her, and somehow manages to hold up her end of the conversation the whole time. I lose patience with the whole thing just watching it all! I’m happy to stay behind the counter and serve the breakfast. Sometimes I even escape for some peace and quiet while Grammy is keeping everyone occupied. But now that Grammy is gone, what will we do? Maybe I’ll make tea, but I know I won’t serve it quite like Grammy does.

The other thing we’ll miss about Grammy is the reminder to celebrate things. Last Saturday the girls had a piano performance for which they have been practicing since right after Christmas. After it was over, Grammy bought doughnuts to share with everyone in celebration of the girls’ hard work and accomplishment. What a joyous time! Silly me… I would have just come home after we were done with the piano thing. But Grammy knew better, so we celebrated.

We’ll miss Grammy while she’s gone, that’s for sure. And now we know what to look forward to when she comes back.