The Artist

I have a propensity, when I stumble across a squiggled engraving on my dining room table or a pen drawing of a house on my bedroom wall or a pearl bracelet unstrung and scattered across my bedroom floor or my deodorant in pieces on the bathroom counter, to think that my kids hate me. (It has been a particularly destructive week. ) But honestly, I can remember a time when I "refinished" my dad's stapler in nailpolish and tried to do the same to his office desk using a permanent marker. My children (Noemie in particular) really are made in my image. I will be extra forgiving this month in honor of National Craft Month.

As it turns out, March is National Craft Month! I read it somewhere. On a related note, I've decided to recant my previous tirade against Pinterest; I've discovered its more noble capacities! For one, it's a goldmine of craft ideas. I've had a sewing machine sitting in a cabinet for two years that I've been scared to use. It was on account of "Pin-spiration" that I dragged out the machine and studied the manual word for word until I mastered threading the machine. I am such a novice, I didn't know I had to wind the bobbin myself! Of course, I can only work on my projects in 20 minute increments, usually while Danny is at Publix with a gaggle of children. I'm working on travel pillowcases for my sister and her hubby before they leave for Seattle. In less than a week. It was all quite sudden... I'm still crying on the inside.

March is more than national craft month, it's super-birthday month as Noemie, Giannina, Eva (our only niece), and my mom all celebrate their birthdays within a single week. What are we doing to celebrate? I've no earthly idea. Danny and I have been agonizing over this decision for months. Don't even talk to me about Easter. But Amy won't be there for any of it! [Hold back the tears. You can do this.]

School has been guh-reat! We trekked through our kingdoms of life and arrived at the animal kingdom, where we've been dissecting the taxonomic definitions of the major phyla, in particular, porifera, cnidaria, "worms", echinodermata, mollusca, and... well that's all we got so far. As girly as Noemie is, she wasn't squeamish one bit when we examined oysters. (She didn't care much for the octopus, though.)

 

Arthropoda is up next. For Christmas, Amy's [sniffle] mother-in-law, Betty Quinn-tastic, got the kiddos a mail-order caterpillar growing kit. Our larvae arrived two weeks ago.

Any day now I anticipate our family will have "pets"! 

 

I mean, we do have some earthworms in some plant plots from our worm week, but I haven't seen them since I put them in the pots and I'm not sure that they're still alive to be quite honest. That's gotta be bad luck, to have dead earthworms in your house plants.

In other family news, I tried to start exercising again. I joined a running group with friends from church. Running is my number one least favorite form of organized wellness activity. I hate running. I hate running almost as much as I hate stumbling across Noemie's newest masterpiece on the back of the 2nd row of leather seats of our minivan. But I joined the group in an effort to be disciplined, to get a break from the kids, and to be healthy, I guess. Three weeks in, I have run a total of seven and a half miles or so, replaced my 15 year old pair of cross-trainers with brand new running shoes... and totally busted my knees. After a particularly brutal workout on Monday, I thought to ask our coach why my joints were all hurting so much and he made me aware that I was running incorrectly, that is, on my heels. Now I hobble up the stairs like a 70 year old. So much for healthy.

Milestones:

 

 Dominic lost his tooth!

 

And Toby, is POTTY TRAINED. 

I thought it might never happen.

 It happened. 

Praise the Lord.

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An Espinosa family moment:
As I'm driving all the kids home from who-knows-where, Toby calls out from the backseat, "cwuhaveguhugunet?" (Because this is how he talks).
Me: You want a gub nugget?!
Dominic, Noemie, and Toby: hysterical laughter
Dominic: Toby wants a gub nugget! What's a gub nugget?! TOBY SAID GUB NUGGET!
Noemie proceeds to sing a song about numbuggets, as I'm pulling into our parking space.
Toby, realizing that he is the object of ridicule, starts to get angry and yell, "Fwop it! FWOP IT!"
I get out and open the sliding door and Giannina is looking at me, as she often does, with an expression that reads, "Are you for real? You're the family I got stuck with?"
Yes, Gigi. This is it.

 

Amy, what will we do without you?!?