Milestones

It's been an milestone week here at our home!  We're down to one kid in diapers again, which has been extremely nice.  I started up potty-training with Aaron again about four weeks ago - this was our third try at it.  On Friday morning, I was just about ready to give up again for a little while, as he just didn't seem to get it.  Yeah, he'd pee on the toilet every time I put him on, but then he'd go again within five minutes without being too concerned about it at all.  Good thing I didn't give up though, because I guess he decided he was ready, and since that day he's been just fantastic!  He's been dry through the day, pretty much dry through the night (we get him up before we go to bed), and he's been wearing one pair of underwear all day successfully since Tuesday.  He's pretty proud of himself, and he's quite excited to be a "big boy"!  Aaron has demonstrated himself to be quite a sensitive kid, which I don't think I've mentioned here lately, or maybe even at all.  During the summer at one point, we had been driving and listening to the soundtrack to the Lion King, which they have never seen.  There is a song where Timon and Pumba are sad about losing their friend Simba, and while this was playing, Mike and I were astonished to see Aaron get all sad and teary eyed about this, as he was genuinely concerned bout the loss of their friend.  A few weeks ago we were in Strathroy and the boys were watching a movie about a polar bear who was rejected by his mother at birth.  Aaron became extremely concerned that this polar bear was lonely and didn't have any friends, and as he watched, his lip started quivering and he just broke down in with heart-wrenching tears.  It is intriguing to watch this emotional development in your child, especially since he is such a goofy, fun-loving kid.     
The other milestone that we reached this week was with Nathaniel - he's been taking steps and walking from one person to another for a while now, but he decided on Monday that he is officially a "walker" and no longer a "crawler".  It has been quite enjoyable to watch him toddle all over the house, still a little unsteady on his feet but gaining confidence every day!  He loves to get right in there with his big brothers, but he knows that he has to be a little careful or he'll get bowled right over by their overflowing enthusiasm at times.  He still doesn't have any regular words, although we've heard him say a few things like "Mommy", "Daddy", and "Amen".  Most of the time, though, he just says "yeah", which can actually be quite funny if you start asking him funny questions.  He gets called a number of interesting things, and most of the time we call him Nato, or Nate-o I suppose.  How do you know how to spell a nickname correctly anyways?  Do you think any other kids in the world who are called Nathaniel are referred to as Nato?  Mike thinks not, but I think there might indeed be some "Nato"s out there.  What I am quite certain about is that there are no other "Nato"s who became "Nato"s in the same way that our Nato did.  It was probably about two or three months ago that Peter and Aaron started calling their younger brother Nato-Bato-Bido-Bu.  He was no longer just Nate or Nathaniel.  This name has progressed through several stages into Nato-Bu, Nato-Bato, and the most recent Nato-Bato-Bido-Butt-Butt-Butt.  I find the shorter Nato to be much more convenient, but the older boys find Nato-Bato-Bido-Butt-Butt-Butt to be quite amusing.  At this point, you are probably thinking that we are all very strange.
Let's talk about Peter.  Peter is doing very well right now, finally settled into the routine of school and enjoying his time there.  He was quite excited to be the "Leader" at school on Friday, and he got to do Show and Tell this week as well.  He had to bring something that started with a P, so he brought a Play Phone with which he could call the Police.  He did go through a stage where he was quite afraid of being left alone, and was quite clingy to me.  There were a few days that the teacher had to peel him off me when I dropped him off, screaming and crying, and those were not good days for anyone.  He was also upset about going to Story Hour on Wednesdays when I go to Bible study, and his JK teacher said he had a hard time with any "transition" like going to the library.  We found that it really helped to talk things through ahead of time, and help him to decide that he wouldn't be upset about going to school or going to the library.  Once he decided that he would be happy and cheerful, it didn't seem to be a problem at all.  Strange how that is!  It seems to help him in other situations as well, that we can avoid meltdowns if we explain how things are going to go and what an appropriate emotional response would be.  Peter also seems to be going through a growth spurt right now - his pants and shirts are quickly becoming too short for him, and he is hungry ALL THE TIME.  Twenty minutes after breakfast is done, he is asking for more food, for a sandwich, for an apple, for anything!  As a result, my kids have been eating a lot of apples lately.  When I measured him at the end of September, he was 41" tall and 37 lbs.  At that time, Aaron was 37.5" tall and 36 lbs, and Nathaniel was 31.5" tall and 22 lbs 15 oz.  Nate's right around the same height now as Peter and Aaron were at a year, but he's 3-5 lbs lighter than either of them were.  I find it interesting to compare their heights and weights at different ages.  I should put it all on a chart sometime...someday when I have some extra time that is! 

Never-ending Dirt

Mom:  Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sigh. 
Mom:  "I think this is the sixth time I've swept this kitchen floor today.  Where does all this dirt come from, anyways??"
Peter:  "God puts it there, Mom"

Hmmmm.  I guess I can't really argue with that one, can I?

No Fear of Heights Here!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how Nate is into everything, and is going to give me grey hairs.  We are hoping that with him learning how to walk, he will become more interested in the horizontal as opposed to the vertical.  However, I am pretty sure that learning how to walk is simply going to increase his confidence and ability to get to even more dangerous places and mom-heart-attack-provoking places.  Here are a few situations that I imagine I might find him in sometime in the near future.  Three of these scenarios are of real places that I have removed him from, without stopping to take a picture first - it's up to you to decide which three those might be... 

Climbing out of his crib

 Climbing on Peter's top bunk

 Climbing on the patio table outside

 Climbing onto the bathroom vanity

Climbing backwards on the rocker, with no hands

Climbing in the trees outside

 Climbing into the play structure outside

 Climbing up the walls, or the windows, whatever might be easier

 Climbing up the giraffe at the zoo

September rolls into October

Without any further apologies - actually, without any apology whatsoever - I am going to catch up on some photos from the last month and a half.  You know, that month of September?  The one that was here for about a day in between August and October?  Yeah, that month.  It was busy, and here are a few pictures to prove that it did indeed last more than one day.
On Labour Day, we went to Safari Niagara with Mom and Dad M.  It turned out to be a pretty chilly day, but thankfully it didn't rain on us, and we stayed relatively warm - except for poor Dad who wore shorts.  We were pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of animals there, and the boys especially enjoyed the treat of hearing the lion roaring several times during the day. 

Riding the train around the park

White Siberian Tiger

 I think this lion was the boys' favourite!

Hippos lounging.  Aaron randomly started talking about these hippos this morning at breakfast, talking about how they were under the water, which they were when we saw them the second time

 One of my favourites, the weirdly elegant giraffe!

 Aaron the hippo!

 Warthog

 Camels, one with a saggy, lumpy bump

 And then in mid-September, we celebrated Nate's first birthday.  Yeah, I know I already did a post about his birthday, but here are a few photos of the celebrating that we did.  I can't take credit for all these photos, as some of them are mine but other ones came from Mom VD or Bethany.

Nate's cake!  I actually forgot to take a picture (gasp, shock, shame) 

but Bethany saved the day and took one for me!

We took the kids to Port Dalhousie for a ride on the carousel.  Looks like Mommy gets to ride on the sleigh.  Again.  We've been to the 5-cent carousel several times now, but I have not yet had a ride on an animal, despite my attempts at coercing my children into thinking it is fun.  Peter and Nate were much more content to ride in the sleigh, so there I sat as well. 

 See?  It is FUN to ride the animals.  If only Daddy's 

enthusiasm could be contagious for the kids!

 Aaron was brave enough to take a ride by Grandpa's side

 Enjoying a quick stop by the beach.  I really like this shot!

 I think he might have enjoyed his cake.  Just a little... 

 Cake went over pretty well with this guy, too.  Note the empty fork and the bite of cake in mid-fall, haha!

 I could use some more of that cake stuff, Mom!  It wasn't half-bad!

Four lions, roaring ferociously.  Thankfully we have a gate on our 

deck to keep them out, or we would all have certainly been eaten alive!

Danielle, Lauren and I had a sleepover to celebrate our birthdays.  How fun!  Nate came along with us and helped Danielle to a  fabulous victory in a new word game, giving her many solid tips

 Also in September, our copy of "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go" suffered some serious and disappointing damage at the hands of a delinquent napper.  This much beloved book required some delicate and lengthy surgery and has been repaired to a somewhat less glamorous version of its former self. 

 I took advantage of a beautiful fall morning to take the boys to Happy Rolph's to see the animals and feed the ducks.  We all had a good time, and I think we'll be going back there more often. 

 I'm sure this little guy can't wait to be walking on his own!  He's doing really well right now with that, walking a good number of steps between obstacles, and I don't think it will be long before he abandons crawling  and adopts walking as the new mode of transportation.  In the meantime, when I take all three boys out, he has to be content to sit in the stroller.  

Peter carefully ripping up his bread for the ducks.  I didn't get too many pictures of this, as I had to keep a close eye on Aaron, who kept trying to sneak the nasty old bread into his own mouth instead of feeding it to the ducks. 

Can you guess who this might be?  He gets into EVERYTHING!  Excuse the messy picture.  I had blockaded the computer tower off with a laundry bin and a chair, but Nate figures, why not crawl under the bed to get there instead?  If Mom blocks it off, it must be worthwhile breaking into.  Perhaps I should attach a dust cloth to him and send him under there on a more regular basis...

 It is fire prevention week in St. Catharines, and we walked with the boys to the fire station by our house on the weekend.  They were excited to sit in the fire truck, see all the hoses, and even ride on the boat!

 Aaron gets at turn.  Just as we were getting ready to go, they received a call and we watched them get ready to go, and take off with the sirens going!  Pretty exciting.

 Getting a tour of the truck

On Thanksgiving Monday, we went to Queenston Heights with Rick and Elaine and their kids.  The weather was so gorgeous, and we enjoyed walking around the park and spending some time at the playground. 

 Peter made sure Thomas didn't get lost

 I thought perhaps if I buried him in a basket of toys, he might stay in one place and out of trouble for a few minutes.  He seemed to be pretty happy in there.

It is a never-ending job for a Mom to try to keep her kids clean.  Every time I turn around, there is a new mess to clean up.  Of course, messy playing is usually the most fun, so I have to let them get into the mud sometimes.  It's too bad the weather is cooling off enough now that I can't just clean them off with the garden hose anymore, haha.  But seriously...when this much dirt can accumulate ONE HOUR since I last swept the kitchen, how am I supposed to keep my house decently clean? 

 Especially when this little monkey wants a ride on the 

vacuum every time I try to clean up the mess?

 They play outside... and get covered in chalk.  Aaron!  You have a blue nose!

And then Peter sees me taking a picture of Aaron with his 

blue nose, and proceeds to grab the chalk and colour up his 

own nose so that I'll take a picture of him too...

 But how can I deny this sweet child the endless joys of the 

sandbox?  Because obviously, he is in his glory covered in dirt.

 Lots of fun to be found in the dirty outdoors...

And there's the dirty indoors too.  Nate enjoyed his first Oreo, and I think he'd agree that the post-cookie-doekie-cleanup was worth it.  I was pretty impressed with how he ate it, as he carefully separated the two sides just like his brothers were doing.  Is it just a natural instinct to eat Oreos that way?  I found it very interesting that he ate it that way. 

 This mess was pretty sizeable, but so was the happy-factor.  The older two had a LOAD of fun with a bucket of water in the sandbox this week.  Judging by the forecast, they won't be playing with buckets of water too much more until the springtime when it warms up again out there.

Dirty boys headed straight inside to the tub.  When I shook out their clothes outside, a pound of rocks came flying out of Peter's pant pockets.  I think day by day, we are relocating the gravel from the playground at school to our house via the boys' pockets, and my poor washing machine has washed a few more rocks than it probably should have.