November Update

July... oh boy.  At the end of the month of July, I was finally so frustrated with our internet service - not working in the evenings, being on hold for an hour to talk to someone, faulty modems that weren't being replaced - that I cancelled them altogether and had them remove the satellite from the roof.  Unfortunately, there aren't many other options available out here, and it is also exceptionally hard to research options when you don't have internet to research with.  Long story short, we had a couple months without a connection other than mobile, and this blog got neglected.  But I'm back!  As it stands, though, the desktop computer which I do all my typing and photo-editing on is not hooked up to the internet anymore, so posting will be a bit more of a back-and-forth information challenge.  So maybe even less frequent than before (groan).  I was hoping to purchase a laptop/tablet that was on a great sale this week but I realized this morning that the sale ended yesterday so I guess I'll be waiting a bit longer before things are a bit more convenient. 

An update on the family.
Peter is in Grade 3 now and growing up so quickly.  We just celebrated his 8th birthday yesterday with some friends over from school.  It was a loud and busy evening but the kids had a good time together.  Peter is always thinking and figuring and calculating, trying to work out how things fit together and understand their inner workings.  His class has been learning about magnets at school right now and he is constantly doing "experiments" at home with our fridge magnets.  I like seeing him get excited about that kind of stuff although I admit I do get lost in his explanations sometimes.  He drew out his latest invention for me the other day which was a robot that does all the work in the kitchen and cleans the bathroom to boot.  There were pipes for spaghetti and vegetables, vats for mixing dough and sauce, and pans for cooking spaghetti and meat.  There was also a separate remote-controlled unit (controlled by the main robot) that had special scrubbers with soap and water and dirt-separators - all of this quite intricately drawn and explained.  He had a drawing similar to this a few weeks ago when the corn was being harvested across the road - he had worked out the interior of a combine and exactly how the cobs get removed from the stalks, how the husks and silk are taken off the corn, how the corn is taken off the cob and where the stalks, husks, silk, and cobs get deposited.  All this complexity and he's got lengthy explanations for it all.  While he sits at the kitchen table and draws, both Aaron and Nate sit and draw their own respectively less-complex versions of the same machine which I find really amusing, but Peter gets annoyed that they want to copy him all the time.  The joys of being a big brother doing new and exciting things I guess! 
Aaron is in Grade 1, which means full-time school for him now.  He's absolutely loving reading and it has really clicked for him.  What a wealth of imaginative thinking and learning that opens up when reading becomes part of your world!  Aaron is a hard worker and when he puts his mind to a task, he can complete it in excellent form.  He continues to be a sweet and considerate boy at heart, although of course he can do his share of miserable things to his brothers.  He is very easily frustrated when he loses at a game, when someone doesn't understand what he's trying to say, or when something he is working on doesn't work out quite the way he wants.  A few extra measures of patience would do well for him sometimes!  Of course, I could say that about anybody, most of all myself.  Is anybody perfect in their record of responding to frustrations and disappointments?  I think Aaron misses the gardens and spending time with the chickens, so it may be a long winter for him before things are growing green again. 
Nate is absolutely loving Kindergarten.  The week before school began, I took the boys to the school to drop off pencil cases and indoor shoes, to meet their teachers, and to figure out where their desks were - hoping to make the first day of school a little less nerve-wracking.  Nate skipped down the hall, burst into his classroom and loudly announced to whoever was there, "I'm baaack!"  No worries about this one being shy...  His favorite thing about school is "everything" and he is soaking things up like a sponge.  He watched his older brother work through the early literacy Backpack Bear books last year, and now he is pleased as punch to be doing it himself.  I am looking forward to seeing his report card and going to parent-teacher interviews to get an idea of how he is in the classroom.  He can be very excitable and at the same time very clueless.  It can still take him half an hour to get his pyjamas on at night and he is constantly forgetting things.  He had an audiologist appointment in October to get his hearing checked again, and the results came back just fine which is good to know.  He'll need to learn how to focus and complete his work before moving on to more fun things. 
Stephen is growing and changing so quickly as well.  His vocabulary has just exploded in the past few months, and he has become quite effective at communicating with us now.  He is at an exceptionally fun age!  He is pretty much potty-trained now which is absolutely amazing, especially because he did most of it himself!  I've had hardly any accidents with him and he is dry overnight (although I still keep a diaper on him overnight just in case).  A-mazing.  And just like that, I am done buying diapers!  Wahoo!!  The toilet training, along with some suggestions from an October visit to a urologist in London, seems to have cleared up some diaper issues for him and I'm hopeful that those issues will be taken care of now.  We'll still have a few appointments to go to but things are looking good.  The poor kid also gets some painful armpit rashes which spring up out of nowhere and spread all down his torso.  Two days ago he was walking around crying with his arms up because it was bothering him so much.  Thankfully I have a cream for him from the dermatologist that, with a few applications, had cleared it up almost completely by the time I put him to bed tonight.  It would be nice to know what sets these rashes off and how to avoid them... the doctor believes what he has is a reverse psoriasis - where skin would normally be reacting on kneecaps or elbows, his reactions are in his armpits or behind his ear.  We are hopeful that he will grow out of this and that he won't have to deal with skin issues as he grows.  The access to doctors and specialists that we enjoy (despite some frustratingly long wait times) is a privilege not to be taken for granted. 
Because our family seems not to be busy enough, we decided in October to add another member to the group - a new boxer puppy we have named Mitzi!  She is a reverse brindle flash, soft and sweet and destined to be a very big dog when she grows up (which I admit I'm a little concerned about...)  It's been quite an adjustment getting used to having a dog, especially since she is in the house much of the time.  The frequency of her "accidents" has slowed down as of late, which I am quite thankful for.  We're hoping she will be a good addition to our household dynamic, and someday in the future maybe even have a few litters of puppies - what a learning experience for us all!  
Alright, that's enough typing for tonight.  I have to figure out yet how to get this post posted, and after that is done, posting photos is the next task.  Maybe I can get it done before the end of the year?  Here's hoping!