five is very, very fun

(Thanks to Kyle for taking this awesome pic of everyone at Ivar's 5th birthday party!)

At the beginning of October, while waiting for Hattie to come, I decided to plan Ivar's birthday party. And I had some thinking to do. Because last year, after his 4th birthday party, he sadly told me after everyone had left, "that was not a very good party." And that sounds like an ungrateful boy, but he was totally right. I had planned the party for all the adults coming to his party, and had somehow missed the point of the party completely: Ivar. I had made a homemade meal, we played trivia games...it wasn't very kid-fun.

So this year I was all ears. And what he kept telling me was Chuck E Cheese. Which sounded like a great plan to me. My sister said, "I think the year you have a newborn is the year you go to Chuck E Cheese." And I added, "and you buy the cake."

My fun boy had a few ideas for his party. He told me that "everyone needs to wear red to my party because red is my favorite color because Lightning McQueen is red." My dad, always the enthusiastic supporter of Ivar's latest interest, went to party city and purchased napkins and a hat and noise makers all with Lightning McQueen.

We ate pizza, cake and opened presents and then it was time to go play in the arcade. But Ivar wanted to play legos with his dad. Rory's mom had given Ivar the bucket of legos Rory had growing up...so there in the midst of ski ball and tunnel slides and tickets to be won Ivar and Rory played legos. I love that so much.

His birthday was on Sunday, so I asked him the day before if he wanted to bring a treat to share with his church family. I told him since we all had eaten so much sugar from trick-or-treating, it would be best maybe not to pick a candy. He thought for a bit and then said excitedly, "Lucky Charms!" (We clearly have some lessons to learn about sugar and nutrition!) But I loved his enthusiasm, so I brought boxes of cereal and gallons of milk to church and invited everyone for a bowl after the service.

The Lucky Charms sort of sum up the awesomeness this age. Ivar is so fun. He makes life so fun. And he makes me laugh and smile all day long. I'm so glad to be his mom.

a knight, a princess and a baby pumpkin

We had our first round of trick-or-treating tonight and it was so sweet. Kids, costumes, candy and community...I do love this weekend! The kids got plenty of candy, and you know who ended up with the tummy ache? Rory! Poor dad. He was used as an object lesson tonight as he lay on the couch. The kids noted his sorry state and decided one or two pieces a day will be plenty.

And this might be most fun for me, but these are some pretty great posts. Here are our costumes from the past few years: the shark and the cow, the peacock with hand foot and mouth disease, the farm family, a baby elephant, a groves family party, and the time that I, too, stuffed my child into a pumpkin.

how she got her name: Harriet Joy

When we were pregnant with Ivar we landed on two boys names and two girls names that we both loved. Ivar, Elsie, Harriet and...another boys name. (And because we're all about suspense and surprises, you may just have to wait a few years to learn what the other boys name is. Which is obviously dependent on if we have another baby, and if that baby is a boy!)

Elsie's middle name was going to be Harriet, but at the eleventh hour we decided to hang on to that name for a first name if we happened to have another girl one day. And then we did. :)

The name Harriet first came from Lake Harriet, our favorite destination in Minneapolis when we lived there. It is a happy and social lake, where you always run into someone you know. The feeling of Lake Harriet is always festive. There are bands and movies and ice cream and sail boats, beaches and walkers, runners and bikers. I think I've blogged about it umpteen times. (my favorite birthday party, our 9th anniversary, daily walks, etc..)

And I loved Harriet because it felt like a nod to my maiden name, Harrington. Which felt fun and fitting because I love family names.

But I didn't know how the name Harriet fit with Ivar and Elsie until I heard my friend Amanda talking about her niece Hattie, who lives on a hobby farm too. She told a story about Hattie and their chickens and I fell in love with the thought of a little farm girl, Hattie, running around our place.

At the moment we call her both Harriet and Hattie, pretty equally. I interchange them all the time, which is probably confusing, but I'm fine with both. We'll likely land on one or the other eventually, but for now she is Harriet, Hattie or most common El Hattie, because it is hard not to call your baby by their siblings name!

We were stumped on a middle name for a long time. Rory brought up Joy, which felt fitting, but I just didn't know if it was the one. And then at some point he mentioned that Joy was also his mom's middle name, which I loved. Because I'm all about family names and love having her share her name with Mimi.

So her name is Harriet Joy, and she absolutely is a joy. Hattie gets most upset when cold or hungry or if she has a dirty diaper. And don't we all. But other than those woes, I would say we have a very content baby. She loves to be held and swaddled. And she is good about letting her siblings hold her or place stuffed animals on her or force a pacifier in her mouth. And now she's fussing, so I have to go and hold my baby. :)

***
Click here to read how Elsie got her name. And here to read how Ivar got his name.

fall at the grovestead

I nearly missed it. It was when we drove home from the hospital with Hattie that I gasped, "the maples turned red!" And then we came home and hunkered down. Driving to Maddie's wedding I saw more fall colors (her wedding pictures will be stunning!) and then I came home and hunkered down again. Finally yesterday I set out with the camera to get the very, very last of fall. Most leaves have fallen, but it was a great day for a fall walk, and taking pictures with the big camera (still on auto...got to figure out manual someday) is really good for my soul. It always feels like a little scavenger hunt to find fun pictures.

Rory has been splitting wood in every free moment. (And mulching the whole farm in the other moments.) We've had a fire going the last few nights and we're so excited for this season to begin. His wood pile is growing and though not all of it will be seasoned for this winter, it is fun to watch it grow. Soon enough the farm will be white, so we'll take it these last bits of color until then!

if I had blogged on Tuesday...

If I had blogged on Tuesday I would have written about how good I am feeling after this pregnancy. How sincerely strong and able I feel. We had the whole Frick family over on Tuesday (Rory's mom's side of the family) who were here from Colorado for the wedding. It was a joy to be together and as we all love to say, it was a Frick n' Groves good time.

If I had blogged on Wednesday I would have written about how seasoned I feel at this motherhood thing. Babies do seem to get easier, because I know what I'm doing. (Plus, Hattie is pretty low-key...) And I know not to put my baby in anything with snaps or complicated foot holes for bedtime because I just don't have patience for that stuff at 3 am. I know to go to bed at 8 so I can get in that first sleep cycle before 11. I know that I can't actually sleep when the baby is sleeping, so I must sleep when the big kids are sleeping. Things aren't brand new, this isn't my first rodeo and I feel great. Also, it was Rory's birthday. Which I did absolutely nothing for because something had to give. I'll make it up somehow...though all he wanted was wood chips for his garden and look what he got:

If I had blogged on Thursday I would have written about how I started out the day noticing a blocked duct and how by the middle of the afternoon I was pretty sure I was dying. I got so sick. I was supposed to speak with Rory at our local pregnancy center banquet and by the evening I was in bed with the shakes, the sweats, and painful, painful nursing. It was bad news. By the middle of the night I was sort of wondering if I'd survive it all.

If I had blogged on Friday I would have written about how I lay on the doctor's table, answering questions with my eyes closed, how I felt so sorry for myself being so sick and in so much pain and still having to feed my baby through the pain. And then by evening I would have written about the horrors of mastitis and the miracle medicine that is the antibiotic. Because two pills in and I knew I was going to make it. I also would have written a sonnet to my mother, who came back on Thursday to sleep over and take care of me (and make me my third batch of mini monster cookies since the baby was born! because oatmeal is good for nursing! right?!!)

If I had blogged on Saturday I would have written about what a difference a day makes, how easily Harriet took my pumped milk from a bottle (my first baby to take a paci and a bottle!) And how my pump, after two other kids, sounds like a rocket about to take off and doesn't have a whole lot of power left in it. Then I'd write about how Rory's folks came in the afternoon when my mom left and how my mother-in-law sent my father-in-law to Target to buy me a new pump. And bless his heart, he went to that baby aisle and stared at all the nursing pumps and later told me that he found a woman with two young kids and asked her opinion as to which one he should buy. He came home with a great pump and it felt like Christmas morning. He said to me, "13 years ago when I was driving the tour bus and you were Troy and Sara's assistant, I could have never seen this day coming..." Oh we laughed. I don't remember the last time I was so grateful for something new. I adore my new pump. It's quiet and fast and I'm feeling so much better. And Harriet seems to love her bottles, a totally new experience for me as a mom. And I would have written about how we finished Mary Poppins with the kids and how hard Ivar laughed at all the funny parts. That movie was a joy to watch with an almost 5 year old.

Now it's Sunday and I actually am blogging. So I'd probably wrap this whole thing up saying that there are so many highs and lows in motherhood. There are joys and challenges, good days and hard ones. There are moments I feel like I rock at this gig and moments I feel brand spanking new to it all. There are moments of self-confidence followed by moments of self-pity. And it's all a part of the ride. Hattie and I stayed home from church today and I gave her bath and then we lay on the bed and looked at each other for an hour. And then I made myself a cup of fully caffeinated coffee with maple syrup and cream, which has put it me in the chattiest and happiest of moods. Plus, this afternoon I walked around our farm with the big camera and the big kids and took in all the pretty things happening around here. I'll post those pictures soon.