February Way Too Long and Overdue Update

What are the months of the year?  February, March, April, May...  yes apparently we will forget all about January this year.  It did happen!  I am long overdue for a written update about how everyone is doing - it's been, well, perhaps since March last year since I really did a good job of it.  Yikes.  March. 
Ok.  Let's start with Stephen since he's probably changed the most since then.  He's 21 months old now, which is getting quite close to 2.  TWO!  He's an active little guy, and I often get questions from people asking if he ever walks, because he always seems to be running (sometimes a little faster than his slightly out-of-balance body can take, which ends up in a fall).  He is a fast, smart, and extremely strong-willed child.  He keeps me on my toes, as he looks for trouble wherever he can find it.  A few months ago, it seemed all I was doing during the day was trying to stay on top of where he was, preventing disaster and cleaning up disasters I had been too late for.  Raiding my bedside table drawer for tape, scissors, or markers, playing with the toilet bowl brush, taking everything out of the bottom cupboards in the kitchen, climbing onto the table, emptying all the bathroom drawers into the sink, ripping all the kleenexes out of any box he could find... and that's just if he stayed upstairs.  He's moved on to bigger and better things, as he has discovered he can move kitchen chairs around to climb up to new and higher trouble.  Climbing on the kitchen counter to get to the fruit bowl, tinkering around in the china cupboard, trying to get into the markers (which I try to keep out of his sight).  While I was cooking dinner today I cut up some apple for him to munch on.  The next time I glanced over at him, I saw him carefully placing pieces of apple into his mouth that he had stabbed on the end of my paring knife.  I don't want to look too closely at my head for grey hairs but if they are there, he definitely takes some blame for that. 
He is also a whole lot of fun.  The vocabulary is just starting to blossom after being slow with words just like his brothers were.  He has been saying "Mom" for some time now, usually with some amount of indignation when he is not getting his way (throwing a temper tantrum on the floor this morning when I wouldn't give him cookies for breakfast).  Some of his spontaneous words include "Dad", "kies"(cookies), "chee"(cheese), "byebye", "bug"(Gold Bug), "no"(a favourite), "amen".  He also will repeat words if the mood suits him - I had him repeating "I" and when I said love, he would endearingly coo "yoooouuuuuu".  Of course he doesn't want to do this anymore but I know that he CAN.  He has his own way of communicating.  I was in the living room the other day and I could tell that he wanted something by the way he was standing by me and pointing.  I started following, and he would walk ahead, look back at me, point, and wait until he knew I was still coming.  We moved like this all the way through the house, down the stairs, through the laundry room and into the downstairs bathroom where he stopped and pointed at the jacuzzi bathtub.  I just laughed, as he had just had a bath the night before, and he threw a full on temper tantrum on the tile floor when I said no.  I should probably have a greater appreciation for a boy who likes to be clean?
We've been in and out of the doctor's office with some strange issues with him.  He's been dealing with a weird armpit rash for almost a year now, and transferring doctors halfway through the diagnosis process isn't the best thing for timely treatment and recovery.  He is quite itchy and I have tried everything I can think of to clear it up - creaming it up, keeping it dry, corn starch, baby powder, Aveeno oatmeal cream, vaseline, polysporin, canesten, medicated cream, hydrocortisone cream, coconut oil... nothing seems to be touching it.  Now in the past week or two it seems to have spread across his whole abdomen and around to his back, although this secondary rash has a different appearance similar to when he had roseola.  It didn't come with a fever, his appetite is still pretty normal and he isn't acting lethargic or upset.  Mystery!  He's also had some "diaper issues", I'll leave it at that, that have taken us to see a specialist at Victoria Children's Hospital for some tests that have given us no answers.  He hasn't had any repeat symptoms since November so I'm hoping that issue has resolved itself.  He was also sick two or three weeks ago and I ended up taking him to the ER where a chest xray confirmed he had pneumonia.  It was sure a relief when those antibiotics kicked in, as he was a pretty sick little boy for a while there.
Other than those health issues, Stephen is generally a healthy and happy little boy.  He chases enthusiastically after his brothers and wants to keep up with whatever they are doing.  He loves to read books, especially the family favourite Cars, Trucks & Things that Go (he can find Goldbug faster than you!), and another surprise favourite, Stephanie's Ponytail.  Oh, that's another word he knows... he sits on his own and reads that book with special emphasis on the words "UGLY, UGLY, veeerrryyy UGLY."  He has loved that book almost to its death, as I have taped it back together again way too many times.  Maybe not as many times as the Goldbug book which has more tape than paper, but it's on its way to joining the ranks of the Please Replace Me Book Club.
Moving up the birth order list to Nathaniel.  And oh what a fun age he is too right now!  Four and half, and extremely excited to hear on New Years Day that THIS year, he would be starting Kindergarten.  Unfortunately, September is quite far away but he is really looking forward to joining his brothers at school.  He is farther ahead in his literacy than P&A were at his age.  He is constantly sounding out words and telling me what they start with, and he loves working with letter recognition games and educational books.  We have a fun time together on days when the older boys are in school, playing Blokus or Spot It or other good and uncomplicated two-person games.  He can be really absent-minded, being the most likely of any of our children to be sitting naked in his room reading a book at any time of the day.  It can take him FOREVER to eat his breakfast or put his shoes on which you can imagine can be a bit frustrating at times.  I am thankful that his imaginary friend Bushak has not made an appearance for many months now.  He talked about Bushak all the time before we moved - Bushak had a wife and two kids and lived in our neighbourhood.  One day Nate saw him at church and he forgot to put pants on, but that didn't matter because Dad and Mom couldn't see him anyways.  Bushak bought a house in Strathroy around the same time we did but I don't mind that he hasn't had any contact with my imaginative child since then.  He has a fantastic memory and comes up with some fascinating questions.  His older brothers tend to overshadow him but when he is given a chance to do his own thing, he shines.  He is enthusiastic about helping me out at home with small chores like making juice, bringing up toilet paper from downstairs, or helping prepare lunch or dinner.  More and more I can see that he plays alongside his older brothers instead of being on the outside, and he is learning to stick up for himself a little more and have a say in how they play.  He is still a bit of a lightweight, which resulted in him getting hip-checked during a bout of wild brotherly excitement and flying into the counter head first a few months ago, ending up with stitches.  However, he is brave and sweet, and thrives on the encouragement he receives when he does the right thing.  He often comes up to me, grabs my hand and tells me he loves me... how can you not melt?  He loves to sit and read stories together, although with some of his favourite stories (Stephanie's Ponytail, Superworm, No More Elephants) he gets me in trouble if I try to read the whole thing because he wants to "read" it to me instead - he's got whole books memorized.  I just love how our boys love reading! 
How can I possibly sum up how a child is doing in one paragraph?  I also don't want to bore you.
Aaron is thriving in Kindergarten.  School is everything he had hoped for and he is learning so much.  I think he would be even happier if he was there every day instead of two or three days a week! He will be six in two short months. He is loving his new ability to pick out words and read simple books... I gave him Green Eggs and Ham to read this evening, and he was just beaming with happiness and pride when he finished it.  What an exciting stage this is, when the whole world of books opens up for you.  He has always loved having books read to him, but to be able to read the code yourself is a whole other story.  Aaron's fascination with treasure has calmed down a bit, and he occasionally brings some of his shiny things to school to share with other kids who enjoy treasure as well - often the girls in his class.  He has a caring heart and a concern for others which is so encouraging to see.  He loves to play games, but is so easily discouraged when he is losing that it makes it hard to play with him.  His moods can go up and down very quickly, and I need to pray for constant wisdom on how to show him how to manage his emotions.  I do not often feel even close to qualified for this whole parenting responsibility, but I sure am glad that they start little and not as teenagers. 
Peter is also enjoying school right now.  He is getting so *old*.  He is 7 years and 3 months, and I think he thinks he is an adult a lot of the time.  The way he interacts with us (or other adults) makes it seem he sees himself as not so much of a kid but more of an "equal" if you can understand what I mean.  It is fascinating this change from talking "to" a child to talking "with" your child, and amazing when you think that this only becomes more and more the case as they get older.  There is a slight loss of respect with this attitude though which needs to be worked on.  Peter can be incredibly helpful and kind, and is particularly sweet when his baby cousins are around.  He is perfectly content to lay on the floor face to face with these little ones, and he doesn't mind when they grab at his hair or poke at his nose or slobber on him.  Considering that he is usually quite sensitive about touching, germs, or pain, I find this quite incredible.  Usually he is the first one to complain about something hurting, or food being too spicy, or the tag on his snowpants feeling like a needle in his back.  I wonder if he has a heightened sensitivity in his nerves, which might explain some of his behaviour as an infant.  Peter also is quite intuitive and asks some incredibly difficult questions that I have a hard time answering.  Of COURSE I haven't written any of these down so you'll just have to believe me.  Besides, I've been at this computer writing for a long time now and I'm running out of brain power. 
As for Mike and myself... well, here we are.  Things have changed so much since March that I really can't fully address that change in a short blog post.  Moving to a new home, a new community, a new church, a new school... it also means leaving an old home, an old community, an old church, an old school, and certainly old friends.  There are plenty of new opportunities to take hold of here, but it is so hard to start over from scratch.  We have had some treasured visits with friends from the Niagara area, and I hope that we can keep that contact up but the reality of it is that distance is difficult.  I hope we can continue to keep those friendships up because they are a valuable thing. 
Wow, I've really hit a wall here.  What else is there to write about.  We've got a LOT of snow over here in the snowbelt, with wind blowing all over and visibility down to nothing today.  The kids are loving all the drifts and piles to dig in although the temperatures have often been quite cold (I think it's about -17 right now).  Mike has been happy to use his new snowblower/lawn tractor this winter.  Ummm.  We bought a parking pass for the hospital in September when Mike cut his knee, and we used the last visit up about two weeks ago when our newest little niece Leah was born.  A beautiful baby GIRL joined the VD family! She will have many boy cousins to protect her in the future. 
I think I've got to wrap it up now before my sentence-writing ability gets too stunted. Over and Out.