Shoe Dress up

Today J and T ventured into my closet for some shoe dress-up fun:

Then M joined in the fun.  At least we can console his dad with the fact that he chose rain boots!

Then again, maybe not....

The Weekend I lost my Children

I count my children all the time.  I don't know what it is about five.  I didn't do this a year ago.  But now, I constantly feel like I may not have them all.  I count grocery cart seats.  I am forever thankful to the inventor of the grocery buses.  You know the ones where I can put a toddler and infant seat up top while my two preschoolers pretend to drive the cart?  They are a blessing from above.  But seeing as how these are not always available I often have to practice counting to five all while grocery shopping.

As I reached the checkout stand on Friday I glanced around and began to count my little ones.  One, two, three, four...where is the fifth?  Wait.  I must have counted wrong!  One, two, three, four...no I counted right!  Where is J?!  I quickly told the cashier I was missing a child and would be back for the rest.  I don't know what she thought; I simply waited for her to acknowledge that she heard me. 

Off I frantically ran, back the way I came.  You know these are times in which one's brain acts as if it is trying to power an entire city, but you really don't care if your hair stands up on end.  I am watching the exit door for my daughter, looking down every isle, and asking people if they saw a child all at the same time (while not waiting for a response unless their eyes light up).  After what seemed like ten minutes, near the ice cream, I found J walking with a woman who was trying to help her.  I don't even know if I thanked this woman properly...I seriously do not remember what I said. I was in a hurry to pick J up and get back to the rest to make sure no more had gone missing. 

Fortunately I loaded my car up with five kids that afternoon.  And I learned I had better stop and pay attention when someone (T) points out popsicles because if I don't, someone, particularly her highly distractable sister, will go and check them out for herself while I take off down another isle.

But apparently I am not counting often enough. 

On Sunday our family went to church, made a stop at the home improvement store, and then came home.  We unloaded our purchases and the children and came inside.  All of the kids were more than hungry so I got down to making lunch in a hurry.  Ryan was putting away things and I asked the kids to pull out plates for lunch. 

Usually about that time M is already in his booster waiting quietly.  It suddenly dawned on me:  I had never asked any of the kids to help him take off his shoes and jacket! I had never even seen him inside! Me: "Ryan, did you bring M in from the car?" Ryan: "No, I thought you did."  Me: "No, I thought you had him".  We exchange looks, raised eyebrows, and a "Ohhhh, that poor boy!"  Never mind that it has been about fifteen or twenty minutes and it is only ten degrees outside!

He was rescued, sniffles and all, from the garage.

So, if you ever see a mom with her nose buried in her list, ingredient checking, or intensely price comparing down to the ounce while her many children try to pass the time dreaming of popscicles, just know that she is the one who goes with the child you saw alone near the bakery. She will be forever grateful!

M is 2!

In the last week our little M officially entered his twos.  What a special guy he is! Maybe every large family has an M in it somewhere, but we never saw one quite like him coming.  M truly blesses our family daily. 

From the beginning he and Ryan were connected like none before.  He would fall asleep with Ryan anywhere, anytime.  They interacted with ease.  Little did we know that there was a reason they got along so well!

There is easy going, really easy going and then there is M easy going! He will sit in his booster and wait for his meal for twenty minutes or more without a peep.  So, he's really hungry, you say?  Well, he then plods through his meal for twenty minutes beyond how long everyone else does.  And when mom takes a brief trip to another room while he finishes up she comes back in to find him nowhere and his plate gone. As mom is calling for M and looking for a guilty looking dog, he comes walking into the kitchen very nonchalantly.  When asked where his plate is he opens the dishwasher and pulls out his plate from the upper rack, shows it to mom, and puts it back and closes the dishwasher! 

M sits on our lap in church or during our small group and hardly makes a peep.  We know that most outsiders think he is a shy, nervous and passive child.  But we cherish that he is so very outgoing, carefree, goofy, and interactive with those he knows and trusts well. 

Of all our children he shows some of the best social skills.  He understands he can be rough and wild with Z, but needs to be calm and patient with S.  He knows when to be loud and when to be quiet.  M understands giving and receiving apologies. And he loves to play.  His favorite words are 'tickle', 'peek-a-boo', 'ball', and 'car'.  

Opening gifts scared him.  But he loves shooting his nerf gun with serious gusto.  Candles on a cake terrified him.  But he will sword fight with his brother and take blows like a brush on the cheek.  He won't go near a burning fire.  But throws a  baseball almost as far as Z.  He loves his bath, goes and gets his own diapers and wipes.  He sits still for haircuts and lays down and goes to sleep when we tell him to. 

Seriously, where did God find this mold???? I say, God found a lot of it in Ryan and a tad in my dad (who is quite a bit like Ryan).  We are very blessed by M and I adore that he is so much like his dad!

Happy Birthday M!

Kid Updates

I haven't been posting much here as our family has been getting over stomach issues, preparing for the Christmas season, and simply trying to get our family back on track (read here for the back story.).  In other words, there have been higher priorities lately.  Nonetheless, it has not been boring around here. 

I believe it is time for a few updates on the kid front.

S leads the way in passing milestones at a little over seven months.  She taught herself how to sit from the crawling position in one day!  I saw her beginning to try two days ago and yesterday after a few more attempts, S had it down.  Much to my dismay she has also learned how to pull herself up to standing on many things!  We now find her standing at the couch, at kitchen drawers, on the open dishwasher, pulling on my leg, etc.  But, of course, S has no idea of how to get down so she most often ends up falling back on her head... hopefully she will learn how to lower herself down as fast as she has the other skills.  She talks a ton!  When she is tired or in distress we will hear "Maaa, Maaa"  Other times there is Daa, Baaa, etc.  S also seems to like to wave.  I am not sure about the full level of understanding with that action, but it is funny, anyhow. It is still much too exciting to feed her and she does still insists on waking up once between 3 and 6 am, but we seem to be making some small steps of improvement.  You can read more about our little firecracker here. And yes, her hair stands on end all on its own! Rather appropriate for her, if you ask us.

M has discovered coloring.  This kid is something.  One day he calmly climbed up at the kitchen table where the other kids were coloring and looked very interested.  So I grabbed him some scratch paper and told him the crayons only go on the paper.  He hasn't looked back.  Never have I handed any of our children crayons and let them be much before the age of 3 (otherwise you never knew what would become colored).  Now, M passes most of his late afternoons doing this hobby, taking occasional breaks to come and show me his art! M has also learned the joys (or pains) of having a younger sibling.  The whole family nearly lost it one evening watching his reaction as he was calmly working on figuring out some toy only to have S come over to take it all for her chewing pleasure.  He looked at her with the biggest frown, seriously furrowed brows, and a stern look that said, "You are not supposed to do that!".  Then he stood up and said very demonstratively, "AAAHHHH!"  This was not a cry, not a whine, but a very serious statement and he never touched her. You must picture a very proper looking linebacker.  That is our M.  A widely built gentleman who knows how things should be!

Today T had me absolutely flabbergasted!  She asked to do her phonics together and we did.  Understand that with the two tiny ones I have it really only allows me to do 'school' with the girls about once a week.  Thus, T has not made as much progress reading as I know she is capable of.  However, she is not even in her Kindergarten year so I have not sweated it much.  Well, today we worked on her blend cards and then did two pages in her Kindergarten Phonics book.  The second page challenged her to read a sentence.  She faced it head on with no hesitation.  At her success I informed her she was nearly ready for her first reading book!  T then asked to see it.  I wasn't about to suppress her excitement, but I didn't want this positive to quickly turn negative. 

So, I handed her the book, but wasn't about to have her read it.  She promptly sat down and began to sound out one word after another.  This first 'reader' only contains one sentence, but has them work on sounding out 58 words.  It is about 6 pages long.  As I sat by quietly watching for any mistakes and clarifying 'b' and 'd' she made it through the entire book!  Then said she was ready for the next one.  I couldn't decide if I should fall off the couch or laugh! 

I am very well aware of the differences between boys and girls in regards to reading, but this is not even in the same solar system as my first experience in teaching reading. Her determination combined with a positive attitude in life is going to take her places, I would venture! She was hardly bothered one bit when I would correct her or she would stumble a bit.  It was unbelievable to watch her calmly push through it without one frown. 

I informed her that the way we do these books is that she has to read them twice before we go onto the next one, thinking about how I would like to give her brain a few days to work on the first book.  I learned this my first time around.  Otherwise, they don't get enough practice and end up moving on too quickly.  So, of course (every kid would, right?), she sits down and does the whole book again, even bringing it to me in the basement while I moved laundry along to check if she had something right.  I am still wide eyed about the whole event.  May our path to her reading continue this smoothly! 

Responsibility

A quick 'thank you Lord' update: our camera is working!!!
Now on to the post...

By the grace of God Ryan and I have been given quite a few children with a large amount of responsibility.  It really helps temper the insanity in our home at times. 

Z likes to be very helpful, even to the point of doing too much.  He is sometimes up doing his school work before I am even awake in the morning; Ryan works 2nd shift so we adults are up unusually late and Z is a morning person. 

T would keep every closet, drawer, and cabinet in alphabetical order, lined up by color and dusted if I let her.  You should see her dresser drawers! I don't let her do this all over the house because she would be driving her siblings nuts by moving all of their things constantly (it has happened many times).  T showers herself, vacuums part of the house, does the dishes, etc....mostly of her own accord. 

It really is kind of ridiculous.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining; I just know that it is not normal.  But then again they do have two first born, A-type parents. Poor kids can't hardly help it.

Now I think we may have a new up and coming responsible person.  This evening I called that dinner was ready.  The older ones washed their hands and came to the table.  I called for M specifically and told him it was time to climb into his booster.  I knew he was hungry.  He toddled toward me, went around me, turned the corner and very determinedly headed toward the hall. 

This may sound like defiance, but there was something about how he carried his wobbly stoutness that made me raise a questioning eyebrow and quietly watch him.  He continued quickly without a look back to S's pitch black room.  M walked right up to the changing table, opened the cabinet door, pulled out a cloth, closed the door, and headed back my way.  When he got in the light he looked down at what was in his hand (a crib sheet), turned around, and went back to the changing table to repeat the process.  This time he came out, passed by me, and went back to the living room with a burp rag in hand and proceeded to clean up S's spit up that I was completely unaware of.  He calmly handed me the rag and went to his booster. I got a really good laugh out of this all the while trying to tell him 'thank you' in some sort of composed way.

Are you serious?  This kid is only 22 months old!!! I'll take it.