Be Still And Know

10 Years Ago

2012-01-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

On this day exactly ten years ago, Mike and I met for the first time. It's hard to believe it's already been that long, but a whole lot has changed since that wintery day at Augustine Hall - or the "Promised Land" as Mike liked to call it. We have so much to be thankful for, and we look forward to what God has planned for us for the years ahead!

Our first picture together, how cute. Back in the pre-digital photo age...

Not really sure why Mike is wearing antennae

Book Time!

2012-01-26T14:04:00.000-05:00

It's time to read Pop Up Peek-a-Boo Farm with Nate! Here we go:

Uh oh. Looks like Mommy Hen has lost her chicks.

I wonder if the mountain lion got into the horse barn? Horsey is missing.

Maybe you shouldn't look behind the trees... Goose is looking a bit grisly today

Sheepdog seems to have lost his head.

Perhaps those sheep are more vicious than you think

Just kidding! It's not Farmer John on his tractor.

It's just a two-wheeled tractor missing a driver.

Leftover bits that I have found around the house.

Pop-Up books are not destined to last long in this house!

First Snow! Is it Spring Yet?

2012-01-13T10:10:00.002-05:00

I was woken up this morning by Aaron and Peter jumping onto my bed and announcing "There's snow on the ground, Mom! Can we go outside and play?". I could hardly even make out their faces in the dark, but I could tell that they were excited, and we made plans to go outside and play in the snow together after everyone was dressed and had eaten breakfast. All during breakfast, the boys chattered about building a snowman and digging in the snow. The past few years have not been incredibly fun when it came to playing in the snow - either they were very unhappy with how cold it was, couldn't walk through the snow in their thick snowpants, or they didn't want to play outside without Mom, who was inside with a newborn. I thought that maybe this year would be different - Nate is walking and might have a lot of fun in the snow, and the two older boys are becoming more independent. Yay for snow! I imagined hours of happy play in the white powder, throwing snowballs and building forts.
After breakfast, everyone got changed and I pulled out all the snow stuff - snowpants, extra coats, mittens, hats, winter boots times four. The older two were impatient to get dressed and get outside, so I took turns helping them get dressed and after a bit of arguing, they were both suited up and I sent them outside while I got Nate and myself ready. I could hear them arguing outside already, and by the time I had Nate ready, Aaron was screaming bloody murder that his mitten had fallen off and he wanted to come in. I plopped Nate on the deck beside him, stuck Aaron's mitten back on and told him I'd be outside in ONE minute, just let me get my boots on. While I was getting my boots on, I heard Nate crying and I couldn't see him on the deck - Peter had come up on the deck and nicely let Nate escape down the snow-covered stairs - and the poor kid had already managed to do a face-plant in the snow on the grass. I ran over there without my coat, picked him up and dusted him off but his mittens were already filled with snow and his face was covered in snow. He was very far from amused. Meanwhile, Aaron had lost another mitten and just sniff wanted sniff to go sniff insiiiiiiide. Nate's crying escalated into screaming and his boogers were running down his chin. Since his mittens were irreparably snowy, I gave up with him and decided to take him and Aaron inside. Welcome to winter, Nate, wasn't that fun. I ran him inside, plopped him in the pack and play, and left him crying for a few moments while I searched out a snow shovel to shovel a path for Aaron to get to the side door so he wouldn't track all kinds of snow into the kitchen. I let him inside and pulled off all his snowy stuff. How is it that three minutes of being outside in the snow has to make everything disproportionately wet? In any case, everything was soaked, which is unfortunate because we need to put them all on again at lunchtime to drop Peter off at school. Lovely. Once teary Aaron was undressed and inside, and complaining about wet socks, Peter knocked on the door and informed me that it was no fun to play outside by himself and he wanted to come in too. Well, why not. Who wants to play in the snow, anyways?
So we've now had our first snowfall of the season - kind of crazy that January 13 is the first time it's been cold enough to have snow on the ground. Forty minutes of getting everyone dressed and ready to play outside, thirty-seven seconds of playing outside, and four hours to get everything dry again. I think I'm just about ready for spring now.

End of the Year Update

2011-12-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that we have 5 days left in the year... how is that time goes by so quickly, when sometimes days can go by so slowly... especially certain hours in those days, like the hour right before supper. There is something about the 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm hour that makes it last forever.
We are enjoying the start of the holidays so far, with Mike and Peter having a break from school and spending some time with family. It will be a less busy holiday season than usual, with Mike's parents and some siblings enjoying some time in Florida. We hope to get lots of work done in our basement over the next little while, and we are appreciating generous offers of help from family to help us out with some of the labor. Mike has been able to borrow some tools which will make the work a lot easier, faster, and enjoyable.
I realize now that it has been quite a while since I've done a real update on the kids. A post here and there about the antics that they have been up to, but not a "probably boring to you but important in a journaling-kind-of-way to me" post. So, scroll on to the pictures if you wish, but here's a status update on the kids.
Let's start with the littlest one. He's 15 months now, and catching up with his brothers every day. He loves to be right in with them and participate in whatever they are doing. I'll often find him happily sitting on the couch paging through a book (if he's not happily standing on the couch and jumping around...), or in his other favourite spot, flopping around on Aaron's bed. He likes to bring us books and sit with us to read them, but he's not as good at pointing out things in the books yet like the older boys were at his age. He's also not talking yet - other than the occasional time when we wonder - did he just say "hi"? did he say "daddy"? But these times are few and far between, and not repeated, so I wouldn't say he's really got any words down pat yet. It will come! For now, he communicates quite effectively with screeches, babbles, laughing, and whining. He's a pretty good eater, as long as he likes it, and he's drinking a little better now as well. Not that I keep really good track of how much he drinks, but he doesn't get annoyed anymore when I offer him milk and I'm regularly buying more whole milk for him, so he must be drinking something, ha ha. We've been back and forth to the pediatrician with him for the last few months, trying to figure out this perpetual cough that he has. It's not particularly bad, and it's not even always a cough, but his chest seems to be rattly most of the time. We've tried a bunch of different things including a test for CF (negative, very thankfully!!), a variety of dosages on a puffer and now benadryl, but nothing seems to really kick it. It was much worse in the summer with the heat and humidity, and at the end of August we installed central air in the hopes that he would improve. Of course, the heat and humidity went away so he got a bit better, but it seems strange that he is never rattle free. It's an ongoing mystery, anyways. In the meantime, I continue to take him on periodic trips to the pediatrician, whose parking lot fees are slowly sucking away the contents of my wallet. Aside from the cough, he's doing very well. For his first year of life, he was an amazingly cheerful child, and I have to say that in the last few months that unceasing cheer has deteriorated somewhat, but he is still quite agreeable, and he has a heart-melting smile. I often get good hugs and cuddles from him, and every once in a while he will give me kisses, although he prefers avoiding those with a mischievous grin. He is certainly a full-fledged toddler now, and it is a busy job keeping up with him and the older two.
Aaron is 2 years and 8 months, although I often surprise myself when I remember that he is only two. He seems older than that for some reason - he definitely likes to be called a "big boy" and his communication and personality seem to me to be ahead of course. That's probably just the proud mama in me :) There's just something about his sense of humour and the way he can communicate with his eyes that has us constantly laughing. After a few tries at toilet training (I think we tried for a few weeks starting in March, again in September, and then again at the end of October), he is now done with diapers! Hurray!!He's had a few random accidents overnight, but if we're diligent at taking him to the bathroom when we go to bed, he's pretty good at waking up and asking for help if he needs it. I certainly do not mind having only one in diapers! The other night he had to pee at 2:30 am. While sitting there, we had quite the interesting and heart-warming conversation:
Aaron: "God is good, eh?"
Mom: "Yes, He is very good, Aaron."
Aaron: "Jesus is God, eh?"
Mom: "You're right, Aaron, Jesus is God"
Aaron: "Jesus died on cross to pay for our sins. He rose again, give us eternal life, eh?"
Mom: "Yes, Aaron, you're absolutely right"
I certainly don't mind being up with him in the middle of the night when he gives such a sweet confession of faith as that. It was a pretty amazing moment.
He can be very sweet, but he also has a knack for being quite pesty to his brothers, especially to Nate, when I am not in the room. I have caught him on numerous occasions giving Nate a soother so that he can steal his toys without making him cry. If I hear Nate start to cry and go to see what's going on, Aaron can often be found high-tailing it out of the room, standing somewhere in the room with his hands over his eyes, or running to get Nate a soother to cover up the problem. The other day we were at Mom and Dads, and Mom peeked into the room when Nate started wailing, only to see Aaron trying to cover up his mouth, likely thinking "shhhhh! I'm going to get in trouble!!". What a pest! And half the time I don't even know what he's doing since he makes sure I'm out of the room. He can be a bit mean in his pestiness, and I am trying to teach him to be a bit more kind to others around him. However, it is much more fun to roll over and squish your little brother than it is to be kind. Nate still loves to play with him, though, and I am sure he is figuring out how to defend himself and participate actively in this rough "play". Growing up in a family of all girls means that I am not accustomed to the ways that boys play, and I have to tell myself often that boys do need a little more rough-ness than girls. But it's hard to know where to draw the line. Anyways. What else is going on with Aaron... he's pretty good at counting, and he knows a few letters of the alphabet. I don't work very hard with him on these things, but he's picking it up from our daily conversations and from Peter. He loves to sing, he loves books, and he really enjoys playing with play-do. He's starting to draw some recognizable people-shapes, which is fun - the other day he drew our whole family and I was impressed with how we all had heads, arms, legs, hands and feet. Pretty good for a 2.5 year old I think! He is still napping in the afternoons at the same time as Nate, which I really enjoy. Peter is at school in the afternoons, which means I get a bit of quiet time most school days when the two little guys are asleep. This is VERY appreciated!
And on to Peter - his birthday was in November, so he is 4, and quite proud of it. As I have said before, the first month and half or so of school was a bit rough for him, and it took a while for him to settle in. He seems to be enjoying it now that he's into the routine, and he is learning SO much. It's fun to hear and help him sound out words and try to figure out how to spell them. However, he seems to be thrown off pretty easily when anything is out of routine. His class was practicing for weeks for a Christmas program during the last week of school, but when it came time for the program he became very upset, ended up seeing me in the audience before he walked onto the stage, made a bee-line for me and absolutely refused to participate. It didn't really surprise us but it was a little disappointing, especially since he had been quite excited about the whole thing beforehand. He has been a bit of a challenge the last little while, as he has been increasingly defiant toward us and he seems angry a lot of the time. There is a lot of fighting between him and Aaron, and he reacts by hitting, name-calling, or loud screaming. We are struggling with trying to figure out how to deal with this, and how to teach him how to manage his anger in an acceptable way. I surely hope this is just a stage, as some days I just don't know how I should deal with him. Sometimes it seems like parenting is just a big experiment, and we hope the kids turn out in the end, but I am so very far from being an expert. How is it, anyways, that people are allowed to have kids without having a license? This job is harder than you think, and we've only experienced the first four years so far. Just wait till they're teenagers.... Well, I'm sure every age has it's particular struggles, but it is a comfort to know that we can bring all these things to the Lord in prayer. It is He who has entrusted these children to us, and though we do our best to raise them up to be godly young men, it is a comfort to know that He is ultimately in control of all things, and we rest in the promises that He has given to our boys at their baptisms.

And now we come to the end of another year... 2011. A year in which we've settled into our new home, sent our oldest off to school, done some work to our home, learned a lot, loved a lot, cried a little, laughed a lot, grown. We're excited to see what 2012 has to bring to our doorstep! Happy New Years everyone!

Nate at 15 months: 25 lbs 4 oz, 33.75" tall

Peter at 15 months: 27 lbs 2 oz, 32.75" tall

Aaron at 15 months: 30 lbs, 33" tall

Peter now: 42 lbs, 41.5" tall

Aaron now: 39 lbs, 38" tall

We took the kids to see Sinterklaas at the Dutch store at the beginning of December. Peter was surprisingly agreeable about the whole thing, and Aaron was a little nervous... no smiles, but he did agree to sit on Sinterklaas' lap

Nate was not so impressed. He spent a few moments checking out the scary dude with the big white beard, and proceeded to burst into heart-wrenching sobs

Once home, our middle child delighted in the treats

Peter was equally pleased by his treats. They both expressed much love for Sinterklaas.

Preparing their shoes by the door for Sinterklaas and his horse

Shoes all lined up at bedtime with carrots for the horse

Amazing! Sinterklaas must have visited during the night!

Nate enjoying an early morning present

Aaron opening his present from Sinterklaas, sunrise in the background

Peter figuring out his new play-dough toys

Maybe Sinterklaas isn't such a bad fellow after all?

Some basement pictures... here, the subfloor is being put in place. First a layer of delta wrap on the floor, then tongue-and-groove plywood laid over top.

Finishing up the last bit

Working on the rough-in for the bathroom plumbing

Mike got to rent this sweet tool to drill out a hole in the foundation for a dryer vent. It was HUGE! He was pretty excited about it!

Hard at work

Dad M was here for the day and he got a turn too

Some walls are up, and things are progressing nicely!

Laundry area on the right, then the bathroom, and the workshop in the corner

That's it for basement pictures. On to the random pictures on the camera from the last little while. Here we are decorating the Christmas tree at the beginning of December. The boys really enjoyed this!

Hanging an "ordamen"

Helping me do some baking one morning. The unfortunate thing about them "helping" me in the kitchen is that when they are helping, there is no longer any room at all for me to work. We have a one-person kitchen, and having two chairs and two boys in there with me is an exercise in patience.

Mixing the dough

Rolling out the sugar cookies. These cookies are for kid-consumption only - don't worry, I will not serve you cookies prepared in such a manner. Note Aaron stuffing his face with dough.

Nate eagerly watching the cookies baking

Cooling on the counter, waiting to be decorated.

I decorated a bunch while Peter was at school and the other two were napping. Melted snowman cookies! They were fun to make, and the kids enjoyed them, but they were very very sweet

Decorating cookies - note how Nate is happily eating the lid of the container

Caught in the act! Seriously, this kid loves to eat. He was too busy eating cookies or toppings to get much decorating done. Needless to say, he didn't want a lot for lunch that day

Proud of his man-cookie!

A few of the finished cookies. Happily, this cookie adventure worked out much better than the last time we tried it.... Amazing and Unsuccessful Sugar Cookies of February 2011

Opening a few early-morning presents from under the Christmas tree

Going over the stories from the Jesse Tree. I've never done anything like this before, but it was fun to do with the kids. It is kind of like an advent calendar, starting with creation and working its way through the Old Testament towards Jesus' birth, showing how everything points toward his coming. I'll have to change a few things when we do it again next year, but I liked the idea of it.

An armful of blessings getting a bedtime story

Nate in one of his favourite places, Aaron's bed

I couldn't find Nate this afternoon until I looked in Peter and Aaron's closet and found him hiding in their laundry basket, playing with a tape measure with the door almost closed. Funny kid!

Portraits by our Budding Artists

2011-12-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

Here we have an original Peter, entitled "Daddy and Mommy". Daddy has very large arm muscles as well as long toes and no fingers. On the right, Mommy gets to have fingers, four strands of hair, and very large feet with long toes. I am impressed with the details in his drawings, especially when he draws just a face, as, depending on who he's drawing, he'll usually include eyes with pupils, glasses, a mouth with teeth, a beard, and eyebrows, and sometimes even a canker sore if you're lucky, lol.

Aaron has also started to show some fantastic drawing skills, in this piece also entitled "Daddy and Mommy". Daddy is on the top, complete with a body, a somewhat skinny head, two arms with hands, and two legs. Mommy is below, similarly composed with the addition of feet on each leg. I am quite impressed with his drawings! It's the first time he's drawn anything so recognizable, and he's moving away from just scribbles. Fun!!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T09:30:00.003-05:00

Under the Weather

2011-12-06T17:05:00.001-05:00

Mommy flops down on the couch, feeling a little under the weather. Immediately, as if warning bells have gone off, all three kids swarm the couch and must maintain physical contact at all times. Kid One climbs onto the couch, settles himself behind my knees and proceeds to poke at the buttons and stitching on my pants, asking questions without hesitation. Kid Two tries cuddling with me for a few moments, then brings a book to read to me to make me feel better. I am entertained by a somewhat adapted version of "I Have To Go" whose main character, Michael VannerDeen, takes Grandma's sandwiches away and can't find the toilet. Kid Three keeps himself heartily amused by repeatedly poking my nose as hard as he can and hitting me on the head with a board book. My rejuvenating rest on the couch is brought to an end by the Board Book Headache, and I decide the best way to deal with being under the weather would be to start supper.

Rainy Day Shopping

2011-12-05T14:06:00.001-05:00

Today is a rainy, dark, blah and dreary day. One of those days that you have to have some lights on in the house during the day so you don't wreck your eyes because there's no sunshine coming in. The wet, cold weather outside sucks out the cheer and leaves you scrambling to keep the kids busy with play-dough, Lego, games, and food to keep them from each others' throats. I thought, since the fridge was getting a little empty and the grocery store has lots of light and activity, it would be a good idea to take the kids out for a bit. I packed them all up in their coats, hats, and rain boots, trudged out through the rain to the van to strap them in, and took off for the store.
Once there, I found that all the grocery carts were wet. Oh well, I guess Nate and Aaron will have to deal with a wet bum. I strapped them in and started filling up the cart. Hey, look kids! Chocolate milk! Fantastic. I put three of them in the cart, and plan on "price-matching" them to a competitor's flyer when I get to the checkout. Chocolate milk never fails to excite the kids. Then things start to unravel. I'm halfway down an aisle before I realize that Nate has lost a boot and is just about to lose another one. We backtrack to pick up the wayward footwear, and continue down the next few aisles, scratching things off the list as we go. Nate decides to try something new, swiveling around in his seat, and although he is strapped in, he somehow manages to sprawl himself out over the groceries on the top of the cart, facing backwards and wiggling out of the seat belt. I sit him back down and belt him back in at least three or four more times before we reach the checkout. Thankfully, the line-up there isn't too bad, but the cashier is new and needs manager assistance to do the "price-match" for my chocolate milk. No problem, except while she's doing this, Peter has climbed into the top tier of the now-empty grocery cart and is leaning out precariously, trying to reach the items on the bagging table while the buggy swings out the opposite direction. Ahhhh, get down from there please before you break your nose!!
I tell the cashier I've got seven bags with me, and she gives me a blank stare. They usually ask how many reusable bags you've taken with you, and give you a point for each bag. I explain this to her, but instead of adding points, she decides to redeem all my points on the current purchase. Hmmm. No, actually, I would like to wait to redeem those points until there is a promotion please, not now yet. The manager, who is still hanging around to help the confused cashier, cancels my order and takes me over to customer service. I really didn't want to be a big pain, but the headache only becomes worse, for both me and the manager. She rings my purchase through again and attempts to restore my points balance, but the balance is now down to zero, which is not great because I had at least $70 worth of points saved up. While all this is going on, Aaron is busy man-handling Nate in the grocery cart, Nate is wailing, and Peter is wandering farther and farther away. Finally, she says to just check my account over the next few days to see if the points have been returned, and we exchange names and phone numbers in case the situation is not resolved. I think next time I won't say anything about points for my bags.
We make our way back to the van in the now pouring rain, and drive home. While unpacking the groceries, Aaron's insistance on having a full cup of juice NOW escalates into a loud temper-tantrum, while Nate goes into hysterics because I stop him from walking around the house with a bottle of salad dressing that he stole from the fridge, and Peter is making loud noises in the background just for the fun of it, possibly just to tip the scale of insanity for his dear mother. Perhaps a glass of chocolate milk will calm things down in here, I think. But just before I pour the milk, I see that all three 1L containers that I brought home expired a MONTH ago.
Ugh. This is not turning out to be a very good morning.

Frog Legs

2011-11-30T20:14:00.001-05:00

When it comes to my home, I'm not terribly good at decorating. Yeah, I have ideas, but it's not very often that those ideas actually turn into real projects, and even less often that those projects are presentable enough to use. I see pictures of other peoples' homes and how they have decorated, with all coordinated colours and art and stuff on the walls. Looks nice! It's not my house though. When it comes down to it, it's a matter of budget combined with space restraints. I don't really have any window ledges or open shelving around to put things on, and chances are, my kids would knock it down anyways. Perhaps one day I will have more time, money, and energy to put into decorating, but for now I'll just focus on keeping these darling kids of mine fed, cleaned, and somewhat happy. I wouldn't mind having my kids' rooms looking a little more kid-friendly, and I did put up some alphabet wall stickers around the perimeter of their rooms, but that was about as far as I got until I saw some cute adhesive mirrors in the dollar store a few months ago. I picked out a package of three frog-shaped mirrors and carefully stuck them to the wall in Nate's room. What a wonderful idea! My kids could oooh and ahhhh over these amazing mirrors, and look at themselves, and have lots of fun with their reflections. Yeah, it was a nice idea. Well, needless to say, they didn't last very long. Besides the fact that I had to try three different kinds of adhesive material to get them to actually stick to the wall longer than five minutes, I didn't realize how attracted my youngest son is to frog legs. Perhaps he has a thing for french cuisine, or perhaps he just likes needless destruction, but in any case, he ripped one frog's legs off one by one and the poor frog has now been reduced to a limbically-challenged reflective blob stuck to the wall. So far the others have remained unscathed, but I have a feeling their doom awaits them when their reflective surface catches a certain young boy's attention...

My once-lovely decorating job

Poor Mr. ~~Frog~~ Blob

Carnage in the bedroom

Embarassing Confessions of an Unofficial Amnesiac

2011-11-30T13:42:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was in Hamilton and had the opportunity to go shopping with my Mom for a new pair of jeans, as my favourites had developed a hole in an "inconvenient spot". Thankfully, I noticed this hole myself and didn't need to have my attention drawn to it as my husband's students so graciously did for him a few years ago with a note left on his desk:

I digress. But this is the subject of my post in the first place, so I suppose I am allowed to digress. I have, since my childhood, been a somewhat scatter-brained and forgetful individual. I find that this condition has not become better with age - in fact, it has become worse with increased distractions. I constantly forget things and leave things behind, and my multi-tasking during the day usually means that lots of things get half-done. I'll start washing dishes, go to change a dirty diaper, then clean up toys in the living room, check the weather and clean the bathroom. By the time I make it back to the kitchen an hour or two later and discover that I didn't in fact finish washing the dishes like I thought, the dish water is cold and I have to start all over again. I will blame this on "Mommy-brain", although in all honesty, it is probably just a worsening of my original condition of forgetfulness that I have had since I was young.
This "Mommy-brain" not only has influence on my forgetfulness, but also my perception of the world. The other day, Peter came home with a colouring sheet he had worked on at school. He had written his name at the top, and I took a look at it and noted that although it was a little bit messy, and perhaps the second "e" was written backwards, it was definitely readable and I was impressed that he was writing his name on his own now. It wasn't until Mike got home and pointed it out that I saw that he had written his whole name right to left. Yeah, I didn't even recognize that my kid wrote his name backwards. It looked perfectly fine to me...

Back to the story of the jeans. So, I was shopping for new jeans, you know how that goes. I picked out a number of jeans to try on - I probably had about 6 or 7 pairs, and I made my way over to the change room. Once I had locked myself in, I turned to the pile to decide which one to try on first. To my surprise, my pile was not what I thought it was. Instead of 6 or 7 pairs of different jeans, I had a pile of 6 or 7 pairs of identical jeans. All the same size, length, colour. Hmmm. That was not how I shopped. Mom and I did a store-wide search for my original pile, which was discovered on a table where I had inadvertantly switched it with the stack of jeans for sale there. Whoops. So I tried on the jeans, and after a while I found a pair that I liked and we went to pay for them. We were almost out the door when Mom asked me where my coat was. Hmmm. That's a good question, Mom! I have no idea. Backtrack through the change-rooms that I had used, and I found it in the first one. I don't know how I manage to go grocery-shopping with all three of my kids and consistantly come back home with all three, as it is apparent that in my absent-minded condition, I can't go shopping without leaving things behind me in an amnesiatic blur.
Well, I think that's about enough embarassing revelations about myself for today. What embarassing things have YOU done recently?

Photo Update

2011-11-25T21:00:00.001-05:00

The birthday boy opening one of his gifts in the morning - Playmobile!

I had a lot of fun creating Peter's birthday cake, and he was pretty impressed!

I had the opportunity to observe in Peter's classroom on his birthday, which I really enjoyed. It was nice to see the class in action, and to discuss things with the teacher afterward.

Playing in the leaves on a crisp fall morning

Wheeeee!

Start them on yard work early, I suppose!

I hyped the kids up this morning to take a trip to Happy Rolph's petting zoo. Peter excitedly clutched the bag of old bread as we drove out there, only to find the gates locked. Whoops, should have thought about the possibility of closing for the season. So instead of the petting zoo, we went to the beach. First a stop off at the playground for some swinging:

And then off to the beach to play in a HUGE sandbox.

I like how this picture turned out, even

though he's pretty serious-looking

Six Years Ago Today...

2011-11-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

We were sitting at the table today when Mike remembered that six years ago on this date, he was on the road with three other young men carpooling up to an overnight men's conference at Campfire. The first snowstorm of the season was wreaking havoc on the roads, and they decided to take a shortcut to avoid the slow drivers on the main road. This shortcut, unfortunately, eventually ended up hurtling them off a boat launch and thirty feet into a lake. While this event provides excellent narrative potential for my husband, we are very thankful that everyone was ok that snowy evening and that we can now sit back and laugh about it.

I picked him up that evening from a friend's place, and he never did make it to the conference. However, the two of us drove up the next morning to see where the whole thing took place, and to see if they had managed to extricate the car from the lake yet. The car was gone when we arrived, but we did have to laugh as we drove down the road toward the boat launch, as we could clearly for at least a kilometer that the road ended in a lake. Amazing what some snow can do to your perception.

I'm not sure of the exact route, but it went something like this:

And the trip ended here

Too bad they flew past this warning sign without time to read it

Breaking the Laws

2011-11-19T22:33:00.001-05:00

Mike and I were in the basement this afternoon, both busy working. Of course, if we are in the basement, so are our dear boys, who find the basement to be a very exciting place to be as long as they are not down there alone. I found their behaviour somewhat hard to understand while we were working, as it didn't seem to fit within logical constraints. For some reason, they were much more interested in helping Mike out with his work than helping me out with mine. After all, MY work was breaking basic laws of thermodynamics and entropy. While things are naturally inclined to move from a state of order to a state of chaos, folding the laundry is a task which actually turns chaos into order. You would think that such an amazing feat would be recognized as extraordinary, and that my children would be entranced by what I was doing, and would certainly want to help. No such luck. For some reason, the wall that Daddy was ripping down was much more interesting to them, despite the fact that this moving from order to chaos is typical according to the second law of thermodynamics, and should not cause any undue excitement to anyone observing. Should I expect my children to ignore any phenomenal exceptions to natural laws in the world around them? Perhaps I should introduce them to the wonders of folding laundry...

Happy Birthday, Peter!

2011-11-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

Our first baby is FOUR! Happy birthday, Peter! We hope and pray that this next year continues to be filled with happiness and blessings for you!

Happy Palindrome o'clock!

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

Recurring Nightmares

2011-11-11T10:05:00.001-05:00

Our kids are normally pretty good at sleeping through the night. As long as everyone is relatively healthy, they go to sleep easily and wake up at a reasonable time in the morning. With Aaron recently toilet trained, he occasionally comes out of bed in the middle of the night and wakes one of us up for some gladly-rendered assistance in the bathroom, but he's pretty content to go right back to sleep. The last little while has been a bit of a struggle with Nate, as he has a few molars coming in and this has made him miserable during the day and night. Most of the time though, we have it pretty good.
Every once in a while, one of the older boys will wake up very upset in the night - I don't know if this has happened more than once or twice with Aaron in the last year and a half but Peter has always had a flair for the dramatic, and there is no exception for this in the middle of the night. If something is bothering him, it must certainly be accompanied by much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Last night was one of those nights. We woke up to the sound of Peter wailing in deep distress, and both got up to go see what the problem was and to try to quiet him down before the other two woke up. Through loud sobs, we learned that the poor kid had experienced a nightmare. When he told us what he was upset about, we recalled that about a month or two ago, he had woken up screaming in the night from the exact same nightmare. And what is Peter's worst-case, recurring nightmare about, you might ask?

"AARON IS TAKING ALL MY BANANAS AWAY!!!!"

Some Photos

2011-11-09T22:02:00.001-05:00

On October 22, we went to a Touch-A-Truck event held at the Ancaster Fairgrounds. The boys had a fantastic time, and it was fun to see them so excited! There were all kinds of trucks and machinery there, from tractors and transport trucks to fire engines and tree spades. We would definitely take them to an event like this again. I don't think the smiles came off their faces all morning!

I think Aaron is sitting in the paddywagon in this photo

"Driving" a skid steer

In a transport truck - watch out for your ears,

Dad, when he honks that horn!

Nate dwarfed by some wheels

We'll call this one a "FAIL" in the "Mom-trying-to-get-an-artistic-

shot" category. Examining the photo more closely afterward,

it was no wonder Aaron wasn't extremely pleased with me,

as I was covering up his face, haha.

This boy has talent, I tell you! The day he learned to

hang a spoon on his nose. He's better at it than me.

With that spoon-hanging gift, he's bound to get a few more of these! Peter received a Superstar Award during an assembly at school for the month of October. No, it wasn't actually for spoon-hanging, it was for learning how to print his name. I have found his name printed all over the place, and not just on paper... strange how a kid will deny writing his own name on the wall in crayon, as if he could pass the blame for that to one of his brothers... Thankfully "Peter" written all over our deck in sidewalk chalk will be more easily removed than crayon once we get a good rainfall. It's exciting to watch him learn these new skills.

Excitement reigneth on Rexleigh Crescent! One morning we woke up to see water spurting out of our neighbour's lawn - the water main had sprung a leak. I almost kept Peter home from school, as the backhoe showed up just as we were leaving home to drop him off.

This doesn't happen every day - a backhoe parked in your driveway. Needless to say, Aaron didn't have a nap that afternoon. Thankfully it was still there when we picked Peter up again from school at the end of the afternoon.

It even returned the next morning to fix the chewed up part of the lawn. The boys enjoyed breakfast in the living room with the best of entertainment. As for myself, I was just somewhat amused that it took a backhoe, two dump trucks, and six men over an hour to rake out some grass seed on an area about 3 meters square. So glad we pay those taxes...

You might guess that it was not actually me who was attempting to make this phone call... dear Nate is quick to grab things off desks or tables that he KNOWS he is not allowed to have. I'm not sure who he was trying to call, but I'm not interested in finding out what the long-distance bill might have been...

ONE good picture of ONE boy sitting still is hard enough to accomplish. The task of taking a good picture of TWO boys sitting still is exponentially more difficult. Trying to get a good picture of THREE boys sitting still is quite certainly near impossible, especially when they are 1, 2, and 3. Here are a few of my attempts.

On Time

2011-11-07T09:16:00.001-05:00

I have just realized that all three of my kids' birthdays fall on a Thursday this year. I checked it out for next year too, and they will all be on a Saturday in 2012. For the next 10 years at least, they will all be on the same day in any given year. In 2013 they are on a Sunday, then the next years they will be on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in 2021. I wondered at first it it was just a fluke, but if it's steady for 10 years I suppose it will be like that forever. Can't really figure out why the leap years didn't mess it up, but I'm not exactly good at the whole time-fiddling concept. I thought I was all on top of things on Friday with the time change and I put my kids to bed half an hour early to help get them adjusted, only to realize the next morning chatting with my dear hubby that I was supposed to put them to bed later instead.

Milestones

2011-10-29T21:46:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-21T21:42:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-10-14T21:54:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-14T21:33:00.000-04:00

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.

The Good, the Bad, and the... Cute

2011-09-30T14:50:00.000-04:00

Some days, foolishly, I know, I think I can get away with a shower when all three boys are awake. What mom of young children actually thinks she has a right to such a hygienic luxury? Apparently, one like me. On these days, I am usually quite soaked and unavailable to arbitrate whenever the inevitable argument shows up, wailing for Mommy and knocking in distress on the bathroom door. Today was one of those days. I hear the wails as I shut off the water, and wonder what transgression has taken place while I was otherwise occupied. Peter is at the door and, surprisingly, is not wailing or accusing his brother of any particular crime. However, he does urgently inform me that "Aaron has a problem, Mommy! Come and see!!" I can hear Aaron crying in the living room, but not a cry of pain. More... distress, I suppose.
"What kind of problem does Aaron have, Peter?" I inquire.
"He dropped the plant!" Peter replies.
Ahhh. I see. I go to the living room to assess the damage. From what I can gather, Aaron was playing by the bookshelf and must have pulled the trailing ivy down off the top shelf, fortunately not dropping the ceramic pot on his head in the process. Thankful for this, I calmly give Aaron a hug, and ask him what he should say to his Mommy.
"I'm sorry Mommy!" he tearfully sniffs into my shoulder.
It is 7:30 a.m. and my first disaster of the day will involve clean-up of wet soil, spread artfully across both couches and the beige carpet. (Why oh why did we ever buy a beige carpet in the first place??) And I can't help but notice that the pot of soil managed to land upside down in an open bin full of toys and stuffed animals. Won't this be fun? Instead of tackling the mess right off the bat, I set the boys up in the kitchen with some breakfast. Once they are contentedly eating, I set about cleaning up in the living room. From the kitchen, I hear Aaron calling me.
"Mommy? Mommy! I not do that again, Mommy!"

Awwww. From around the corner, I can't help but smile. Despite the bumps in the road, I love my kids! I think it's a good thing to be able to find the humour in certain circumstances, as long as you can hide the fact that you think it's funny from your kids. Take a picture with a straight face, then proceed with discipline.
Here are a few ways to know that your children have been doing what they should not when you are not around:

Crime: Half-eaten chalk left lying on the ground.

Suspect: Nathaniel.

Evidence: Orange smears on face.

Case closed.

Crime: The mirror in the bathroom has been "cleaned"
Suspect: Peter.
Evidence: Water bottle left on floor.
Not enough evidence to convict. Case thrown out.

Crime: Camping equipment out of the box, flashlight left on in the basement.
Suspect: Peter or Aaron.
Evidence: Circumstantial at best, as both were playing in the basement but not observed.
Case thrown out.

Crime: Somebody other than Mom or Dad opened the downstairs freezer
Suspect: Aaron
Evidence: Grader machine discovered frozen inside after both boys were playing in the basement.
This one made me laugh out loud. Case thrown out.

Crime: Dead batteries removed from can on Daddy's DO NOT TOUCH workbench
Suspect: Aaron, Peter as an accessory after the fact
Evidence: Dead batteries strewn over the basement carpet, and loaded into trucks
Case thrown out. They're just dead batteries I suppose.

And then there's the things that you discover when you walk in the room. Nathaniel has been the one giving me the highest number of heart attacks recently, as he is, apparently, good at climbing. I have found him on the toilet, in Aaron's bed, on the patio table, on the deck benches, on the couch, on various coffee tables,, and one of his personal bests so far from this morning: standing backwards on the kids' rocking chair, rocking with no hands. As you can imagine, I do not stop to take pictures of most of these situations. I think he's practicing now, developing the skills to climb out of his crib - which the other boys never figured out how to do. This kid keeps me hopping!

And then on other days, you find them doing things so sweet they melt your heart. We put Aaron and Peter to bed one night in the same bed, just for kicks. We didn't hear a PEEP from them, and when we checked on them they were both sound asleep, still under the covers.

And Nate, so cheerfully watching his Mommy from inside.

My one and three year olds, loving each other lots

and fast developing into good friends.

Handsome three year old.

Sweet 2 year old

I love my kids!! While it's busy, and sometimes I feel like it's way too much, there's something pretty special about having a one-year-old, two-year-old, and a three-year-old. It's a pretty huge blessing, and those sweet moments make it all worthwhile, together with the laughs when ridiculous things happen!

Haircut!

2011-09-16T14:50:00.000-04:00

Well, his birthday was yesterday and he's officially one, so I buckled down this morning and gave the little guy a haircut. He wasn't too thrilled about it at first, and I was afraid I'd have to abandon ship after the first few snips, but after recruiting the older two boys to keep him entertained, things went a little bit better. Sad to cut off those blond curls, but he's looking much less shaggy now - and also a whole lot older.

This water bottle is pretty fun, Mom!

A side view - not the best haircut in the world, but it'll do.

Looking so much more grown up! Amazing what a haircut can do

Awww, this whole birthday thing is so tiring! He was falling asleep in his highchair at lunch, and I was hoping to keep him awake until after we got home from bringing Peter to school. I took him out and sat him on the ground to wake him up a bit, but while I was reading the Bible with the older two, he crawled under his highchair and fell asleep on the floor. Poor guy!

Happy Birthday Nathaniel!

2011-09-15T13:18:00.002-04:00

A whole year has gone by already? How can that be... our baby is no longer a baby. Happy birthday, Nate! You are such a blessing to have around, doling out heart-melting smiles all the time and generally being a cheerful influence on everyone else. Your standard mood is happy and content, and you love all the attention you receive from your brothers, although they can be a little rough for you sometimes! You can't wait to start running around with them and playing their games, and I have a good feeling the three of you are going to have a lot of fun. We are so thankful for you, and we look forward to seeing what the next year has in store for you!

Happily playing with his brothers in the "lion's den" on his birthday

This pictures just makes me chuckle

Happy birthday, sweetie!

Hmmm

2011-09-14T08:13:00.001-04:00

Interesting eh? The little guy's had a fever off and on (mostly on) since Friday, between 100 and 101.5 degrees, so nothing terribly high, but a little too long-lasting for my liking. He's also been pretty cranky and he's been having a hard time sleeping, being quite restless, doing a lot of crying and needing a lot of cuddles. He doesn't have much of an appetite, and I certainly can't get any more liquid into him than usual. I had thought perhaps he was teething, as he's got a few teeth at the top that have been so close to popping through for a while now. Staying home from church with him on Sunday, I saw a red spot on his forehead and on his cheek and thought he just bonked himself on something... and then yesterday his "bonk" marks seemed to have spread, and now he has some small spots behind his ear, under his chin, and perhaps even some on his chest. Seems like we'll be making a visit to the doctor at some point today. Any ideas out there, Dr. Moms?
Edit:
After a trip to the doctor yesterday, it seems that it is most likely Roseola. Several days of fever, followed by a rash when the fever breaks. The rash on his face is looking a little better today, but it has spread to his torso now, which is covered in red spots. He's still a little cranky, but he's been sleeping a bit better, which hopefully will help in time with the crankiness. So far, Peter and Aaron seem to be fine, and we're hoping they don't end up with it as well. We are having family pictures taken tomorrow for the church directory, which should be interesting if this rash kicks around! I took a few more pictures yesterday as the rash developed:

My Best Friend and Household Enemy

2011-09-12T13:57:00.000-04:00

Sandbox
Creative, delightful
Playing, imagining, building
Keeping children busy for hours
Filling the house with a million grains
Sweeping, vacuuming, frustrating,
Gritty, dirty
Sandbox

(picture taken in May at Mom and Dad M's)

First Day to Stay

2011-09-07T13:48:00.002-04:00

Waiting in the line to go into his classroom with a few of the

other kids... it felt pretty strange to leave him behind.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his classroom!!

I don't think he was as nervous as he appears in this

photo. He was pretty excited about going to school

again, but he refused to smile for the picture

2011-09-06T20:23:00.000-04:00

A Day of Firsts!!

2011-09-06T19:17:00.000-04:00

The first day of school has arrived for Peter... today was an hour-long orientation day, and tomorrow is the first day he will attend on his own in the afternoon. Hard to believe the little guy is in school already, and I hope it's a good year for him!

And we knew this day was coming up - just not when exactly it would be. Our little guy took his first step! He took a few today, one at a time, and it was fun to watch! I was pretty sure he would be taking his first steps before his birthday, and sure enough, it happened!!

Grab A Coffee, You'll Be Here For A While

2011-09-03T21:05:00.003-04:00

Whew, August was a whirlwind, or perhaps I should call it a "tornado" instead since we almost ran into some of those as well. It's been busy and full and sad and happy, and we are grateful to be home.
On Wednesday, August 24, Oma Vander Deen passed away into glory. After a painful battle with cancer, she is now free from suffering and rejoicing with our Lord in heaven. It is difficult to say good-bye and she will be greatly missed by everyone left behind, but we rejoice that she is now in the loving arms of her Saviour, and we look forward to that glorious day when we shall all meet again.

Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup;

You have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely, I have a delightful inheritance.

Psalm 16:5-6

We had a camping trip planned with Mike's family to the Pinery at the end of August, but our plans were kept somewhat tentative as we waited and watched for news about Oma. We had the opportunity to visit with her several times in the weeks and days before she passed away. We packed for camping, a wedding, and a funeral and left home on August 20. Camping turned out to be a very strange week, with Mom and Dad gone most of the time, and the campground itself being a bit of a disappointment. Between filthy bathrooms, a gazillion wasps and stings to accompany them, and being driven home by tornado warnings, it wasn't a normal relaxing week of camping, but we were thankful to be all together as a family. We were even thankful for the tornado warnings, as we battened down the hatches at the campsite and headed to Mom and Dad's in Strathroy to hold out in the basement for the evening. It was that evening that Oma passed away, and we were thankful to be together as a family for that time.
Thursday night we headed home from Pinery, and attended a wedding in Milton on Friday before driving back to Strathroy on Saturday afternoon for the first of two evening visitations before the funeral on Monday morning. It was one more night in Hamilton, and then a day at school for both Mike and I to work on setting up his classroom for the first day of school while Mom and Dad M watched our three boys at their place.
Now we've had a few days at home to unpack, clean up, and unwind a bit (as much as you can with the first day of school quickly approaching). I have to admit that not all the camping equipment is put away yet - the tent is still hanging over the clothes line downstairs, the cooler just went downstairs this morning after drying out on the deck, and I still have to organize and put away some of the smaller camping items. BUT the laundry is pretty much caught up, the main floor is pretty much sand-free, and things look pretty much back to order. It's good to be home!
Three sleeps, Peter! Only three sleeps left!! Peter is excited about the first day of school on Tuesday. We have an orientation day where I go with him for an hour on his first day, and then Wednesday is the first afternoon he attends on his own. It will be a big change for him, and an adjustment for everyone in our family. He is looking forward to meeting other kids (and girls, he told me last night when I was tucking him in to bed, haha), playing, and learning. I'm excited for him but a little nervous at the same time. I'm not looking forward to having to pack all three kids up twice a day for drop-off and pick-up. His class starts right after lunch, when the two younger boys are ready for a nap - and if they fall asleep on the way to school, naps are toast for the afternoon. We'll just have to wait and see how things go. If our days constantly turn into a huge disaster, I have no problem pulling him out after a month or two and keeping him at home with us for another year.
Aaron is slowly getting used to the fact that only Peter is going to be in school, but he's going to miss having his big buddy around. Thankfully, he usually naps in the afternoon still, and even if he doesn't, I'm looking forward to Aaron being the big brother in the house for a little while every day. He's really testing limits the last little while, getting into things that he KNOWS are off-limits or against the rules, and being a trouble-maker. He is fun to talk with as his communication is improving by leaps and bounds. He maintains his extremely enthusiastic energy about exciting new things (how's that for alliteration), like seeing animals, construction vehicles, or suggesting things like going to the Big M for ice-cream. It's pretty much impossible not to laugh when he gets excited like that, and I will make it my task for the next week or so to capture it on video. He was very enthusiastic about camping in the "forest", but there was a little trepidation about the fact that animals live in the forest, asking "They not eat me? No scary animals in the forest?"
"Baby" Nate is almost not a baby anymore! Only two weeks left until his first birthday. Poor guy will have to wait until then to have his "wings" clipped - the wild curls he has sticking out from his head that go especially crazy when it's humid like today. Not that I want to give him an all-out haircut yet, just a little trim here and there so he looks a little more under control and less mullet-y. But there will be none of that until he is officially one. Besides, his little blond curls are pretty cute! He is doing well, crawling around like a pro, pulling himself up on everything (including onto the top of the coffee table, an ability I'm not too thrilled about), and cruising around the furniture. He can stand on his own for 10-15 seconds and is excited to walk while holding our hands. He's developing a bit of a temper, or perhaps it's more of a sense of entitlement - when you take something away from him he gets quite upset. For the most part, he is an extremely cheerful little guy, charming everyone around with his constant smile and the sparkle in his eye. I wonder if he will develop into a trouble maker who tries to charm his way out of trouble. He hasn't really said any words yet, other than "mama" once at the cottage but I have to admit that it was probably just a fluke. Hey, I'm allowed to be excited about that right? Anyways. He's drinking a little more than he was before, but still not more than between 10 and 15 ounces a day. The pediatrician wasn't too concerned about the drinking as he isn't dehydrated and he's getting liquid through his food as well. I do have to be sure he gets enough calcium and vitamin D to make up for the low milk intake. As far as the persistant cough goes, he has been on a puffer now for about two weeks, which seems to have cleared up the cough finally, and after another two weeks or so the doctor said I can start weaning him off it again and see what happens. I certainly don't want to have him dependent on a puffer, or any medication for that matter, but I'm glad his chest has cleared up finally.
He is right at that awkward stage where he's dropping his morning nap and going down to one nap in the afternoon, and trying to get him adjusted without sleeping too late in the day has resulted in him falling asleep numerous times at the lunch or dinner table. I do enjoy having him sleep on me still every once in a while, because they grow up so quickly and soon enough they don't do that anymore. Cuddling with a sleeping baby is pretty precious. How can he be almost one already? Anyways. On to the pictures!

One of Mike's projects for the summer was to brick in the milk door. A few months ago, thieves kicked in our neighbor's milk door and let themselves into their house, taking off with several thousand dollars of goods. While the most valuable items in our home are not incredibly portable (appliances, furnace, etc), it would be miserable in any case to have someone break in. So, Mike learned masonry. I don't know what it is about men and being born with a gene for home improvement knowledge, but I sure do appreciate my handy husband! This is the wall with the door removed, before being bricked in:

All bricked in - the mortar is still wet, but
now that it's dry, you can hardly tell!

Peter trying to hide a smile

Aaron hard at work with his tools

Oh no! It's the masked underwear bandits! Run for your lives!!

In case you ever wondered how difficult it might

be to clean your house with little kids around...

Ahhhh, this is the life

I took this picture on our way to the Pinery. This storm produced an F3 tornado which ripped through the center of Goderich just 45 minutes away- I'm glad we didn't know about this while we were setting up. It was a pretty intense sky!

Nate LOVED the beach. It was very dirty at the campsite, so

he spent most of his time there in a pack-and-play or being held.

When he was set free on the beach, he was very happy to crawl around
and play with the sand and rocks. Oh, and eat them of course.

What's a day at the beach without some construction projects?

The boys loved helping their Dad build an island at the shoreline

It was nice to get some time in at the beach, and the kids had fun. We had to cut our visit short, however, for the sake of Aaron's toe. When we were packing up for camping a few days earlier, about an hour before we left, Aaron dropped a brick on his toe, so we had been soaking it in epsom salts twice a day and keeping him in rain boots as much as possible. But what do you do at the beach? He knocked it on something, and the nail was hardly hanging on anymore, so we went back to the campsite for some impromptu nail surgery. Poor guy! I'm sure it will be a long time before his toe is back to normal.

I took a lot of pictures the night of the tornado watch, but unfortunately not many of them turned out. It was a crazy storm, with strong wind and lots of lightning - we heard afterward that there were 1000 strikes every two minutes from the storm, which stretched from Tobermory to Windsor and made its way across southern Ontario over the course of the evening. My attempts to photograph them were not very successful but these were the best ones. They were both taken at around 9:30 pm, with a 15 second exposure.

100% Boy, showing off a live cicada

This picture makes me laugh, as it demonstrates some truths about camping with small children. Peter is studiously roasting a hot dog for the first time, soaking in the experience. In the background, Dad narrowly averts disaster as Aaron fiddles with the valve on the propane tank. Keeps you on your toes!

Yes, I did actually go camping as well! I figured I should post the one

picture of me that was taken to prove that I did, in fact, go family camping.

I like how this shot of Peter turned out.

And what camping trip with small children is complete without ingestion of unidentified berries? Aaron had been warned not to touch the berries, but apparently he had not been told not to EAT the berries. So he ate them. After a trip to the visitor's center, we were relieved to have them identified as silky dogwood berries, which are, thankfully, not poisonous

Paranoia

2011-08-15T16:11:00.000-04:00

Down in our basement, tucked in under the front porch, is a little closed-off cold storage room. It is a handy room in which to store canning preserves, extra foods, and other items that we can bulk up on when they go on sale. Packages of toilet paper, cans of spaghetti sauce, Kraft Dinner, jars of baby food, and juice boxes, among other things, line the shelves and wait for their time to come. What a handy room! Why not store other things in there too... snow shovels and extra insulation, lawn chairs, garden hoses, extra tools, a kiddie pool, coolers, camping and fishing gear. I'm sure that's not all of it. You might be thinking - wow, what a large storage room but in fact it isn't all that large at all, but it is remarkable how many things you can fit into a small space when you stack, pack, and shove. One of my future goals is to organize this room a lot better, but we will need to have a larger shed outside before that can happen.
When this organization happens, one of the things that I hope will change is the installation of a light switch outside the room. Believe it or not, this will relieve me of a significant amount of stress each and every time I enter the room. Why? Well, because of an incident that occurred this spring.
We had occasion to need our cooler, which was packed deep within the cold storage room, so my dear husband unearthed it while I was getting some other things ready for a trip to Strathroy. As we were pulling out of the driveway, I was informed that when he retrieved the cooler, at least 20 or 30 centipedes scattered out of it into the dark depths of the room before they could be smushed.
Are you SERIOUS. 20 or 30 centipedes in the cooler certainly means a few hundred or thousand centipedes in the entire room... all waiting for me in the dark when I innocently come to retrieve a package of spaghetti noodles or a can of soup for dinner. And before I can find those food items, I have to turn on the light - which is controlled by a pull-chain just inside the door. Now every time I go in there and need to pull on the light, I cringe with uncontrollable squeamishness and my worst nightmares flash through my head. I am certain that as I reach up to the chain, a writhing mass of sinister centipedes (waiting in their lair for my arrival) will skitter off the chain, down my arm and into my clothing, upon which event I will certainly have a full-blown panic attack and my dear family, when they begin to wonder where I have gone, will discover me writhing on the floor in the doorway of the cellar, a silent scream frozen on my face as centipedes crawl around in my hair.
Pretty bad eh? Certainly the installation of an exterior light switch would be worth it to save me all this psychological stress. While I know that my intense fear of creepy-crawlies is somewhat unreasonable, to me it is very, very real, and could probably be described as a bona-fide phobia. It's not the only one I have, but unfortunately it is one that I have to deal with quite often, as I don't have another good place to store extra foods, although I've found that if I just leave the door open, the paranoia begins to subside a little. I can't wait till my kids are old enough and tall enough to retrieve things for me - at least they like bugs!!

Introducing...the CHAIN

A Week at the Cottage

2011-08-10T11:37:00.001-04:00

To celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, Mom and Dad M rented a cottage for the whole family on Sparrow Lake near Gravenhurst. We had such an amazing time! After sorting through hundreds and hundreds of pictures, I've come up with a hefty bunch to share with you. It's a mix of pictures from a number of different cameras, so I'm not sure who to give the photo credit for in most cases. Enjoy!

First I'll start off with a few pictures to give you an idea of what the cottage looked like.

A view up to the cottage from the dock

Looking down at the dock and boathouse from the deck

Looking down at the lawn mid-way down the hill, where there was a hammock and a tree fort

Another view down to the water from the deck

Typical muskoka tree by the lakeshore. Makes me think Group of Seven!

We swam pretty much every day

The boys absolutely loved the water and gained more confidence in their swimming every day

Poor Aaron and the "big diaper butt". The swim diapers were waaaay up the hill in the cottage, and I didn't feel like making the trek up there to get them. It's amazing how much water a diaper can hold!

Loving the water!

A sea-creature emerged from the depths to vacation with us. She turned out to be quite friendly!

Hey, who needs a lake when you've got a bucket!!

The anniversary couple relaxing on the dock

Niki was feeling a little "deflated" so she came up for two nights for some cottage rejuvenation. Danielle helped to pump her up

Lots of relaxing to be done!

Picture perfect place to read

Dad relaxing in the hammock

We greatly enjoyed campfires on the dock in the evenings

The firewood that Tom and Lauren brought up seemed too nice to burn, and the boys enjoyed building towers with it.

Little Nate enjoyed his week as well

Lauren, also known as the Rabid Bunny-Human

The weather cooled off enough from the week before that we were able to enjoy the nine-person hot tub most evenings. That is, after adding some cold water - we couldn't figure out how to set the temperature lower, and the lowest we saw it was at 104. One night it was at 107, and the only way we could spend any time in it was to keep spraying each other off with the garden hose.

Enjoying the week

We spent lots of time relaxing in the water by swimming, paddleboating, and canoeing. Here's Timothy returning from a fishing trip with the boys

The family was kind enough to let Mom and I go paddleboating one afternoon, but they made sure we didn't get too far. Note the rope holding us to the dock. They sure busted a gut laughing on the dock, encouraging us to pedal harder.

The boys fishing on the dock

They didn't have incredible success over the week, but there were a few good catches and we enjoyed some fish for dinner a few nights.

Fishing with Daddy

I'm not exactly an expert, but Peter enjoyed fishing with Mommy too

The boys taking the canoe out for a test-drive the evening before their scheduled early am fishing trip. About five minutes after this, they tipped the canoe and had to swim it back to shore

Chatting on the dock with Carina, who also joined us for a night

I caught a fish! Just a wee little one, but that's ok

My dear hubby

Danielle caught quite a few fish - and even gutted a few of them herself

Tom doing some fly-fishing

Brotherly love

Mike and I

What's a week with family without some games? We played Dominion, Cribbage, and lots of Bang!.

This guy sure is a Happy Camper!

While at the cottage, we became see-through and some of us developed an extra head. I suppose another explanation for those photos might have to do with camera-setting-exploration, with which we had a lot of fun!

A rainy day

We went to the Muskoka Wildlife Center one day, and saw a number of interesting animals. I wouldn't want to get this close to a bear without a fence separating us!!

The kids got to touch a snake - and Mom and Dad joined in on the action

We went to Coopers Falls one day, after reading about the ghost town online. There wasn't all that much to see - apparently an old general store-converted-into-a-house + a dilapidated storage barn/old court house + one old gas pump = ghost town. I'm sure there were more abandoned houses around, but it wasn't quite as thrilling as we had hoped. We made our own entertainment:

Old gas pump

Reading on the deck

We don't ever want to be as close as this to being out of gas again: Distance to Empty (DTE): 0 km.

One morning we went to see one of the locks from the Trent-Severn Waterway. Pretty neat to see it in action.

Whirlpool at the locks - wouldn't want to get sucked into that thing

I don't even know what to say about the next few pictures....

Another dockside campfire evening

Family picture! This is one out of about 150.

Not a view that we get to enjoy every day... beautiful!

Just gorgeous

I love this shot that Danielle took and I thought I'd use it to wrap up the post. We had a fantastic week, and really enjoyed spending the time together as a family to celebrate Dad and Mom's anniversary. Thank you so much for this lovely week of memories, Dad and Mom!!

Cutest Spaghetti Eater Competition

2011-08-09T20:31:00.000-04:00

Shopping with Kids

2011-08-02T20:46:00.002-04:00

While Aaron was having a nap this afternoon, I took the two other boys to the store with me to pick up a few things so that Mike could get some school work done. The trip involved two stops, one to the dollar store and one to get some groceries. Easy-peasy, I thought to myself, I only have two kids, this will be a breeze.
We got ourselves unpacked from the van at the first stop and I arranged Nate in the cart while Peter walked beside me. Down the second aisle, while I was looking at something on the other side, Nate grabbed a DVD off the shelf. How did he even reach that?? I attempted to remove it from his grasp and put it back on the shelf, but it is amazing how strong a grip a ten-month old can have, not to mention the attitude. The blood-curdling screams coming out of my sweet, sweet little boy quickly changed my plan of action to wait-until-he's-distracted-and-leave-it-behind-in-another-aisle. Ok fine, you can hold onto the movie as long as you don't suck on it. Too much.
Down the next aisle, there were a few more people. One of these was a woman who definitely wouldn't have fit in with the tall Dutch people we spend most of our time socializing with. She was, let's say, quite petite. Being accustomed to people of greater stature, Peter turns to me and loudly announces, "Mom, that lady is very short!!" Hmmm. That couldn't have been my child that just said that, could it? I think I'll just ignore the comment, and maybe he'll forget about it. And hey, maybe she didn't even hear.
Yeah right. "MOM, is that lady VERY SHORT?" My face is getting pretty red by now. I can't look the poor lady in the eye as I try desperately to hustle my inquisitive toddler down the aisle. He continues, pointing emphatically, "MOM, I have a QUESTION FOR YOU. Is that lady VERY SHORT???" Agh! We pass by a number of smirking customers on our way to a quiet corner in the store where I explain to Peter that it isn't polite to talk about other people in the store. As we continue our shopping, I do my best to make sure we don't end up in the same aisle as that poor lady again.
We find what we need and make our way to the checkout, after wrestling the damp DVD away from my less-than-impressed teething baby. Only one more stop to go.
Thankfully the grocery store wasn't too eventful. We managed to round the aisles and pick up everything that we needed in a fairly organized and time-efficient way. By the time we were done with our shopping, however, it was high time to make it to the checkout, as Nate was approaching nap-time and was running out of patience with his spot in the cart. Peter helped me load our items onto the belt, and I paid for them before grabbing my bags to pack the food up. As I began packing, I discovered that I was missing a number of items from my list that I had definitely put into the cart. Somehow, while masquerading as a cooperative and cheerful little baby-shopper, Nate had managed to grab a number of groceries and dispose of them at some point during our shopping trip without me knowing about it. I really wonder why it is that he can hold onto an item for dear life that is not on the shopping list, while he feels the need to dispose of items that we actually do need. I guess I'll send out my cyber-apologies now to the grocery store workers who find random items all over their store. Loading my children into the van afterward and discovering the bag of candy that Peter had stealthily removed from the grocery bag and hidden behind his back, I was glad that I didn't have Aaron with me as well to add his own brand of mischief. Shopping with kids is always an adventure!!

Life Lately

2011-08-01T15:28:00.002-04:00

So, I know it's been a while since I've posted pictures, and the longer it takes before I have a chance to sit down and get photos ready for an update, the more intimidating the task becomes. All of a sudden, I'm sitting here with a few hundred pictures to sort through and I need to decide on just a select few that will give you all an accurate description of what our lives have been like the last little while. I've decided to start off with a few photos that I've "plinked" off the web from Mom VD's Facebook, as they are too cute not to share. They aren't the greatest quality but that's what I get for stealing them :) Thanks Mom! Maybe one day I will remember to save a copy of the originals so I can repost them in good quality. Photos from the cottage might just have to wait until I get the photos that were taken on everyone else's cameras as well.

I'm not sure when this photo was taken, but the weather was cool enough to require long sleeve shirts. Those have been packed away for a while now with this sweltering weather! All three boys lined up, ready to drive.

Flying a kite with Daddy on a windy day. Lots of fun!!

Cutie pie Nate

Peter telling a story of some kind. I wonder if this is the day that Mike and Dave built the trebuchet at Mom and Dad's. I think perhaps it is.

The next two pictures are more recent, from the early/middle of July. We went to Uncle Ben and Aunt Sandy's place one afternoon/evening for dinner, and we took the boys fishing. It was so much fun! We'd catch a fish within 30 seconds of casting - what a great introduction to fishing for kids!

Fishing with Daddy

Like most babies it seems, Nate LOVES his baths!

Aunt Karen came for an overnight visit, and we took the boys for a bike ride to the park

Mike working on the deck - I have to take an "after" picture yet but that will have to wait for another day or I'll never get this post up!

Robert came over from a Friday to a Tuesday the week before we left for the cottage. Poor little nephew Matthew broke his leg and is stuck in a body cast for the rest of the summer. We were busy with 4 boys under 4 but it was a lot of fun too. They enjoyed splashing in the pool in the hot weather!

We went for a walk at Port Dalhousie one morning to check out the ducks and see the beach.

And of course, you can't visit Port Dalhousie without going for a ride on the 5 cent carousel!!

We also went to visit Happy Rolphs, a petting zoo in town. The boys were pretty impressed to have these goats eating from their hands.

Checking out the animals

Feeling HOT HOT HOT! We've had a lot of super hot, humid weather in the last little while, with hardly any rain. It hadn't even been cooling off in the evenings at all to give us a chance to open up the house and cool it down a bit. Too many hot days in a row brought the temperature in the house up to a steamy 30 degrees, blah!! However, as soon as it feels way too hot in the house, we've found it helpful to step outside into the 38 degree weather for a few minutes. That way when you come back into the house, 30 degrees is quite refreshing.

Ummm, yuck. That's the temperature outside my kitchen window as I wash the dishes. Too bad dishes don't get clean very well in icy water.

This kid is just way too cute!

Warning - Poop Content

2011-07-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

I came home from VBS this morning to a disaster zone. Breakfast dishes all over the counter, a full cup of cold coffee sitting on the table, cereal and sand spread over the kitchen floor, a wet towel crumpled up on the bathroom floor and a pair of boy's pajamas laying in a puddle in the bathtub. Not the way I would normally leave the house, as that's not a nice thing to come home to. What happened here, you might ask? Things certainly weren't so hectic when Mike left for his summer course this morning - the boys were calmly eating breakfast and the morning was under control. Then Aaron had a poop.
And did he ever. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the extent of his job until I was pulling off his pajama shorts to change his diaper... and I discovered he had blown out the side and I had successfully spread disgustingness to the bottom of his legs and on his hands, plus I had a pair of shorts and a diaper that needed to be dealt with. Trying to maintain some control of the situation without spreading the mess around too much, I grab one arm and the opposite leg and carry him to the tub, but in the process I manage to get my arms covered in poo. Lovely. Turn the hand-held shower head on and start hosing him off, with the poor kid loudly protesting that he wants OUT. Too bad, son. Guess what, I'm not so excited about this situation myself. With Aaron starting to escalate into screaming, I put the shower head down quickly to grab some soap and of course it spins around and starts spraying all over me before I pick it up again. Even more lovely. Finally, Aaron's cleaned up, I'm cleaned up and I go to grab him some clothes, only to discover several chunks of poo on the floor, carpet, and change table that must have dropped off my hazardous-waste child as I carried him to the tub. "Poop on carpet, Mommy. That's gusting" declares my now-clean child. I quickly get him dressed, and now time is running short before I have to get everyone packed in the van for VBS. Start searching for Peter to get him dressed, only to find him in the sandbox outside with sand in his hair, stuck to his hands, and all over his feet, and he's still in his pajamas. Ahhh! I wipe him up as best as I can but he'll just have to be a little grimy for his VBS closing program today. Get him into his clothes, get Nate changed and into his clothes, and get shoes on all three before hustling them out the door. It was one of those drives where I had to double-check that I was wearing all the clothes I should be wearing (does anyone else ever wonder if they've forgotten to put on something essential?), only to find that my hair was frizzy from being sprayed in the shower, my pants were soaked, and although I had used the nicest-smelling soap I could find I was still a little paranoid that I would smell like I just gave a poopy toddler a hose-down. Peter was grimy, Aaron might have still been wafting some less-than-attractive odors, and poor Nate hadn't even had a drink yet. Not exactly the way I wanted to walk into church! It was a bit of a disastrous morning, but at least everyone was in a pretty good mood by the time we arrived, and no one else seemed to notice a problem.
That's got to rank up there with the top poop-disasters that I've dealt with. Of course, small babies have blow-outs more often requiring full wardrobe changes but something about baby poop makes it not quite as bad as toddler poop. The worst toddler-poop experience still has to be with Peter when we were first toilet-training him. He got quite constipated and the situation was getting a little grim. We finally decided to give him just the tiniest bit of Senecot liquid to see if it could help him out. Who knew it could work that quickly. We were on our way out to Grassie to check something out, when the poor guy had an "accident". Actually, it was more than just an accident, it was more of a natural disaster. Anyways, when we stopped, it was quite the task to get everything cleaned up. He was covered from his hair right on down to his socks, and I ended up using almost a whole roll of paper towel and a package of baby wipes to clean him up, stripped bare and in the back of the open van in 8 degree weather. All I had for extra clothes was an outfit from Aaron, so I squeezed him into those and wrapped him in a blanket. What a disaster!! Pretty disgusting, but at least we can laugh about the gross adventures of parenthood in retrospect! :P

VBS According to Peter

2011-07-08T13:29:00.000-04:00

Day One (Adam and Eve)
There were three boys who had a goat. Actually they were three girls. They tied a rope to a stake and to the goat so it couldn't get away. Then a huge frog came and tied a rope to our van and it was stuck.

Day Two (Shepherds Visit Baby Jesus)
The shepherds came to the barn to see Jesus sleeping. Jesus was asleep on the hay, and he had two pillows, too. There were three shepherds, and they took the sheep away from the big bear, who was lonely. It ate Jesus, and He was broken in the bear's tummy - he was thiiiis small. Then the shepherd fixed Jesus.

Day Three (Jesus Raises Jairus' Daughter, Jesus Calms the Storm)
There was a girl who was sick because she fell out of bed and hit her head. She had a big owie on her head, and it didn't get better. The disciples and Jesus were in the boat and they were all sleeping. Then the disciples yelled and woke Jesus up, and they wanted Him to listen to God. So Jesus said "stop" and the water stopped. Then there was a big huge teddy bear who was mean, and the little teddy bear landed on his foot and he was mean too.

Day Four (Jesus Dies on the Cross)
It was a Saviour. Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. God put him there, and the shepherds maybe. Then the big teddy bear kicked the little teddy bear and he landed on top of a tree. That wasn't very nice. A man hid the bear under a lion bush, and then it was lost.

Day Five (Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven)
There was a little man, and he was sick. The people were afraid because he was sick. They put him in the jack and he couldn't come out, and he was lonely because he lived in a little box. Jesus is our Saviour. He went up into the earth, up into the sky without using a ladder. He watches us, and Jesus and God live in our hearts.

I could pretty much deduce what the actual story was each day, but his explanations were understandably quite puzzling. He had all these strange details and definitely non-biblical storylines which were somewhat familiar to me but I didn't figure out why until Wednesday. His teacher had also been reading to the children from W.G. Vandehulst's My Favourite Story Book, a book that I grew up with. They must have heard the story of the "Two Little Sisters" on Monday, "A Teddy Bear That Grew" on Tuesday and Wednesday and then also "Lettie", perhaps "Grandpa's Watch on Thursday and then Friday they must have read a story about a Jack-in-the-Box. It took some prodding each day but he did remember some details about the Bible story that they learned. Of course, he's heard all those stories here at home already, but he'll hear them many times in the years ahead, and it's interesting to see how he learns from someone other than Mom and Dad. He wasn't too keen on being left behind the first few days, but by the last couple days he was much more comfortable with being on his own, and he even sang in the program this morning. Aaron was definitely not impressed with not being able to stay with his brother, because he wanted to "go Bible school TOO Mommy!!", and he complained that "I will be lonely!" It was a bit of a struggle to leave with him, but once we were busy with other things he was just fine. It was an interesting week for all of us, to be sure.

Help! I'm Standing and I Can't Fall Down!

2011-07-07T14:08:00.001-04:00

Strawberries

2011-06-30T22:51:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a recent post, I managed to get out and pick some fresh Ontario strawberries last week. I spent quite a few years working on a berry farm, so strawberries have a special place in my heart (and my mouth of course!). There's nothing quite like a sweet, juicy strawberry freshly picked and still warm from the sun. It's a short season and I was glad to be able to pick 3.5 baskets for jam, freezing, and smoothies. I was sad to see, however, that although strawberries were a big feature in all the grocery store flyers last week, there was a problem. See what I mean:

Yeah. All these gorgeous, WAY more delicious Ontario strawberries grown just minutes away from home, and still the stores are all carrying imported and far less tasty fruit. I realize it's hard to organize delivery of local produce, but it seems like such a shame to buy another country's strawberries when there is a MUCH better product grown right here. Please, go out and buy your berries from a local farmer instead!!

Daddy's Helpers

2011-06-25T12:35:00.001-04:00

"Bob" (Peter) and "Windy" (Aaron) are helping "Bob's Dad" (Mike) put up the play structure that we bought off Kijiji a few weeks ago. I don't know how much faster they make it for their Dad, but at least they are having a fun time! And hey, Mom got the whole house cleaned while they've been outside - now I think no one is allowed back in the house, haha. Well, maybe I'll let them in for pancakes at lunch time, because they just might have worked up a bit of an appetite!

Elephant bladder

2011-06-25T09:05:00.002-04:00

First thing this morning, getting the kids out of bed.
Mike: "Peter, you need to go pee, please"
Peter: "But I already went pee!!"
Mike: "When did you go pee?"
Peter: "Before I went to bed!"
Seriously, this child must have the bladder of an elephant.

Summer has Started!

2011-06-24T22:05:00.001-04:00

It feels like it's been a while since I've sat down to write an update... although how much can really change in three weeks? What a silly question for me to ask when I know I have small children at home that never seem to stay the same! The biggest change in the last few weeks has been with Nathaniel. The last time I wrote, he was "on the brink of crawling". Well, to stay with that metaphor I guess he's fallen off the cliff! Not literally of course. But I did have to dust off the baby gate and block off the stairs to the basement, and we've got to be careful about doors being open and what we leave around that might be interesting to newly mobile babies who don't yet know the rules. Back to that stage again... learning the word "no". A stern "no" has sent him into heart-breaking tears on numerous occasions already - he's not too used to a firm voice yet. But along with the new freedom of mobility comes the need to learn what is and what is not allowed. Not to mention that Mommy needs to be a whole lot more observant all the time! It was nice to have a short period of time where I didn't have to worry so much about electrical cords, portable phones, buttons on electronics, and small toys that could potentially become an unwelcome snack for a little explorer.
I find it interesting to see how Nate's awareness of his surroundings has changed so much with his new skill of going where he wants to go. He sees something he is interested in, and now he has the option of going to check it out instead of just laying on his tummy and flailing his legs and arms in the air. It is so fun to watch him follow his brothers around the house, army-crawling it from room to room with his poor little legs squeaking along on the hardwood floors or the linoleum in the kitchen. It will be nice for him to learn how to crawl properly on his hand and knees. He's done it here and there for short distances, but he hasn't yet figured out that it's much more efficient! One other thing he's been doing is pulling himself up on things. He pulled himself to standing the other day when I had the T.V. on for the other boys - they don't watch much T.V. at all, so it must have really caught his attention. Let me take a look at that thing! Television screens are so entrancing for little kids... I guess for big kids (adults) as well sometimes.
Nate is completely weaned now, after a number of months of frustration and worrying. I finally got him to take some milk from a sippy cup, and then when he started refusing to nurse, I called it quits. I've been worried about him not getting enough for long enough, and it's nice, in a way, to know how much he is actually drinking. And how much does he drink? Wellllll, somewhere between 5 and 10 oz a day usually, and only homo milk. Yeah. Not much. I took him to his 9 month appointment last week, and he was finally staying at the same percentile for his age, weighing in at 20 lbs 7 oz. The doctor wasn't too concerned about his low fluid intake, and not concerned that he was only drinking homo since I've been mixing formula with all his meals, and he is developmentally on track. I do have a visit next month with a pediatrician to discuss his drinking/weight issues and to check him out for this persistent cough he has. He continues to be a very happy, cheerful, and content baby, and he sure does love his Mommy!
That's a lot of writing about one kid... the other boys are doing well too! I took Peter to a Pre-K orientation day yesterday at the public school down the block. It's a mix class of PreK and SK kids, although all the moms I talked to there had 4 year olds like Pete. I'm not sure yet if he'll be there for sure, but he was excited to go, although a little nervous once we actually arrived. I know it would be good for him socially, and kids can learn so much at a young age. It would be a good challenge for him and I think he could handle something new. I think. On the other hand, I look at him and he's so little still! Of course he likes to talk EVERY DAY about how he is big, and how Aaron is little, and how one day he will be even bigger, and he will be a Daddy, and he will be in charge. I digress. He'd only be three when school starts, and if I wait till the next year to put him in Kindergarten at Heritage, I'd have another year with him at home with me. It's a pretty special time and it goes by so quickly; I don't want to miss out these years either. Not that he'd be gone all day - the class is every afternoon for about 3.5 hours. I wonder who would have the harder time in September on the first few days - Peter or I. We've got a few months to think about it in any case. He's growing up so quick. Sigh. Writing this makes me want to go snuggle with him for a bit in his bed while he still doesn't mind.
Aaron is also doing well. I think I'm going to back off on potty-training him again for a little while. It was going alright for a while there, but he's back to doing his business in his pants without even seeming concerned about being wet or dirty, and that's not a whole lot of fun for anybody. Actually who am I kidding. That's not a whole lot of fun for ME! Who likes cleaning out poopy underwear?? Yeah, there aren't too many people eagerly raising their hands for that job. SO I think I'll give him some time and maybe he'll be more interested in another month or two or three. Maybe after summer. Maybe when Peter's in school...hmmm. It will be nice to be back to having only one in diapers.
Aaron loves to do everything that Peter does - whether it be how they play, how they eat, or how they talk. Monkey see, monkey do, all the time. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's frustrating. He definitely picked up the "WHY" question from Peter, and the two of them can drive me crazy repeating that word in unison after everything I say. Aaron is also a big fan of his Mommy nowadays, and every time he goes to bed, either for a nap or at night, he asks "snuggle with me, Mommy, snuggle with me". How can you possibly turn that down? It's nice to take a few minutes out of the day and just have a little snuggle and chat with him to wind him down for a snooze. And maybe Mom gets a snooze too... yeah right, with two other little ones. It's a nice idea anyways.
Well well what else is new. Today was the last day of school for Mike! What a busy, busy last little while it has been for him. Between report cards, class trips, school events, and cadet things, he's been going 150% and it is SO nice for him to have a break and to be able to spend a little bit of relax-time here at home with the kids and me. We've got a few projects in mind including building a deck, fixing the fence that blew over during that crazy wind storm, and mowing the lawn. Don't worry, the lawn has been mowed a few times already but apparently I am incapable of starting the lawn mower myself, no matter how many times I've tried. So it has to wait for Mike to get a chance. Am I really that incompetent that I can't start a lawn mower? I didn't think so but it seems that I am. I need one with a simple button so I don't have to rip my arm off trying to get it started. Of course, it always helps to have gas in the tank. As for the rest of the summer, we are looking forward to some day trips with the kids, a week at the cottage with my family, and a week of camping at the Pinery with the VD's.
As for me here at home, I keep busy with this and that. Some days I'm not sure what I do to keep me busy but at the end of the day I'm tired, so I must have been doing something. It might have something to do with the piles of clean laundry that sit in the living room asking to be folded. I know that I don't usually have enough spare time to sit down and read the newspaper that comes once a week, and I've been working on the same (short) book for the last two months or so. Perhaps if it wasn't for this blog I would lose my literacy, who knows. I just finished a fourth batch of strawberry jam this evening, and I can hear the jars popping while I write. What an enjoyable noise - mission accomplished! It was nice to get out and do some berry picking, it's been a few years since I've done it. Mmmm, fresh berries - the boys and I were gorging ourselves on them this morning while I was getting them ready. Yum!! I wouldn't mind putting some strawberry plants in the garden next year, except for the fact that we've got way too many visiting rabbits who like to munch my plants. Some of my corn plants have been toppled and I just saw that the tops of my bean plants have all been chewed off... time to get a BB gun I think. I'm only semi joking. These rabbits are cute, but only in a cage - when they are in my garden they transform into furry beast-thieves in need of a good lesson.
I feel like I've been sitting at the computer for WAY too long writing this update, so I need to call it a night. After I post some pictures. Enjoy!

Enjoying the swing on a beautiful day

What a goof, crawling up on my lap. Aaron likes to call him a goofball, lol

Enticing him with a soother, trying to get him to pull himself up on the couch

Another day at the park makes these boys pretty happy!

I can just hear him laughing in this one!

Higher, Mom! Push me higher!

Looks like it's time for a gate - that pack and play barrier isn't going to cut it anymore

What is this thing? Nate pulled himself up to the TV

The first few jars of jam I made yesterday. Mmmm!

"Helping" Mommy get the berries ready for jam. You have to do lots of taste-testing to be sure that the berries are okay to use, of course

I put Peter to work smashing the berries for me, and he was pleased as punch to have a job!

2011-06-22T11:29:00.002-04:00

Peter: "Aaron? Aaron, come! Do you have a bum?"
(runs over and peeks around to see Aaron's bum)
"Oh, yeah, you do. Come over here and play, Aaron!"

June Update

2011-06-02T20:56:00.003-04:00

Aunt Dell came for a visit, and, of course, only the lucky few get away without reading the boys a book or two. Or perhaps those who get away without reading books are not so lucky after all... it's pretty sweet to sit with three bundles of love and joy while you read them stories!

I'm a little bit sad that this picture turned
out so blurry... it's a pretty cute one

I wonder if there's another new tooth on the horizon... lots of drool going on

Practicing writing his name

I am so impressed with this picture of me that he drew this week! It's hanging on my fridge. A face with all the essential features, and I've got arms and legs. No body, but that's no biggie - who needs a body when you have "a hook that can open doors and carry things" (according to Peter) attached to one of your legs

Brothers

It's hard to take a picture of yourself with three small children, haha

The boys just got bicycle helmets and were so excited about them that they had to wear them at breakfast time. They like to call themselves "workermen" when they have them on. Hopefully their enthusiasm about wearing them will remain for many years...

Yeah, that's the temperature it was on Tuesday outside my kitchen window as I was washing dishes. The highest I saw it was 42.9 but my hands were too soapy to take a picture. This was not a nice re-introduction to summer! Anyone out there who wants to donate a central air conditioner to us is more than welcome to. In the mean time, on hot days like this you might find me sprawled on the concrete floor in the basement trying to cool off

I was helping Aaron in the bathroom the other day while Peter and Nate were in the living room. Peter was busy playing with a large cardboard box, and Nate was on the other side of the room when I left. However, when I got back to the living room, Nate was inside the box and Peter was playing peek-a-boo with him and closing the flaps. Little Nate, I sure wish you could tell me how you got inside that box, because I have a feeling you didn't crawl in there yourself...

A group of ladies from the morning Bible study I attend got together yesterday morning for a picnic at Port Dalhousie. We had a nice time, and the kids had fun playing on the playground.

It was a bright day - good thing the boys wear their hats without complaint

And GUESS WHO TOOK A BOTTLE when we got home from the park. Yes, the ever-so-stubborn Nathaniel! I could hardly believe it. He downed 3.5 oz holding the bottle on his own. Of course, he didn't want anything to do with it again today - actually he refused to nurse or take a bottle all day until I put him down for bed tonight - but at least I know there is some hope.

I saved this picture after it went flying around on Facebook the day after the royal wedding from Prince William and Kate Middleton.
I thought it was pretty funny!

Admonitions...

2011-06-02T17:25:00.000-04:00

This may sound strange, but I actually somewhat enjoyed overhearing Peter telling Aaron off this morning. I was in the kitchen, they were in the living room and from what I could guess, Aaron had hit Peter (must not have been too hard or there would have been tears). This is the ensuing admonition from Peter to Aaron:
"No, you may NOT hit! That makes Mommy and Daddy and God sad. Do you know what God says? God says in the BIBLE that you have to love each other. It says in the Bible that you can't hit your brother, Aaron. You may not fight with each other. That's what GOD says!"
You never know how much sinks in when you are disciplining your kids, especially when they keep repeating the same sinful behaviour over and over again. Don't hit your brother, don't throw blocks at your brother, don't steal his toys, etc etc like a broken record. Some days it really seems like it's an exercise in futility to take them aside and explain to them why what they are doing is wrong, and it seems like they will never learn. I'm sure I'll still be breaking up fights and disciplining children for a long, long time, but after this morning, it's nice to know that they do actually listen to what I tell them!

That's more like it...

2011-05-30T21:18:00.000-04:00

Although tomorrow's supposed to be pretty grossly hot and humid, the rest of the week is looking fantastic!!

May Garden Tour

2011-05-20T09:49:00.002-04:00

Rain, rain, rain. It's been pretty plentiful this spring! I've been hoping to get some stuff planted in the gardens, but it's been so wet I'm afraid things will just drown out there. Every once in a while we have a sunny day or afternoon, and it's great to be able to send the boys out there to play for a while.
I thought I'd plant some seeds yesterday, but when I almost got slurped right into the garden, I thought better of it. I almost lost my boots! I guess it'll have to wait a while before I get in there, but judging by the forecast, it'll be some time before the soil has a chance to dry up a bit.

The rhubarb is LOVING this weather, it's definitely thriving. I'll be out there later today to get some for a rhubarb crisp for this weekend! There's not much for gardens at this place yet, but at least the rhubarb is happy!

And the lilacs are blooming...mmm... smells so good out there. We weren't living here yet at this time last year, so it's nice to have free access to as many lilac blooms as I want to take inside and enjoy. They're a bit more purple than it looks in this picture.

The evergreen tree in the backyard is growing too... although I don't think it'll grow too much in the bottom three feet as the kids keep picking these light-green shoots off and bringing them to me as "flowers". Oh well, I don't know if we'll be able to keep the tree anyways, as when the deck gets built, it'll be in the way of the clothesline.

The kids are very much looking forward to this Kijiji purchase being put together into their very own backyard playground! Mike is hoping to build it on the holiday Monday coming up. Except...thinking on the spot here...he needs to replace some bolts and the stores will be closed. I guess we'll have to rethink that. Anyways, it'll be nice for them to have something else to play with in the backyard, especially as there aren't any parks within walking distance that we can use during the day (there's one close by, but it belongs to a school).

These posts are waiting for a fence to be built on them, but for now the post holes are filled with water - what a magnet for little boys playing outside! They've been fascinated by the deep puddles, and have stayed surprisingly dry while they tinker around with their shovels and sticks.

Snack time outside! The rain took a little break and the sun actually came out, so we had a snack outside yesterday afternoon. So nice to get some Vitamin D!

The sandbox is back into full swing, providing hours of entertainment. Of course, sandbox entertainment wouldn't be complete without playing Sand-In-The-Mouth and Give-Your-Brother-Whacks-On-The-Head-With-A-Shovel, and Give-Me-Back-That-Truck-Or-I'll-Scream. But the fun outweighs the arguing.

A baby swing came with the playset we got off Kijiji,
and I hung it temporarily on a branch of the apricot tree.
I think Nate might have liked it, what do you think?

Happy to have something to do outside with his brothers!

Update

2011-05-17T11:51:00.005-04:00

Another month has gone by since I've sat down to write something here. Life is busy, that never changes, but there always seems to be new things to be busy with, which is nice! This post will be written in short spurts, so it probably will take me a few days to write. Aaron has been showing some interest in toilet-training for the last little while, but I didn't want to push it too early. We started yesterday with some dedication, with great success for the first days. Of course, there are accidents, but he knows what he's supposed to be doing and he's quite intrigued by the fact that he gets to wear underwear. I can hardly hope for it to be as easy a task as it was with Peter (who hates to be dirty in any way) but he's pretty motivated by the fish stickers that he gets every time he pees on the toilet. Of course, Peter wants in on the sticker action as well, so he's got his own milestones that he has to accomplish if he wants to get a sticker too.
Nate is eight months old now - I was going to say almost eight months but a quick look at the calendar reminds me that I'm losing track of time. Eight months eh? He sits quite well on his own now with only the occasional tip-over, and he's up on his hands and knees a lot of the time now, rocking back and forth and on the brink of discovering crawling. And oh, the joy to be mobile like your brothers! I remember the first few days when Aaron had figured out crawling, and he would stop every once in a while and just clap out of joy that he could move at will. Nate isn't clapping yet like Aaron was at this age, but I asked him for a kiss this morning and he leaned over and gave me a nice slobbery one, one of those ones that you don't really want unless you're a parent, or at least pretty closely related to the genetics of that slobber. I didn't mind at all! He was really drooling for a while, and finally last week his second tooth popped through - on the bottom, right next to the first one.
I took him in to the walk-in at the doctor's last week to get him weighed. His length is still at the top of the chart at 29.5", but I've been wondering about his weight gain. I was hoping he'd be around 21 lbs to keep up to his previous percentile on the growth chart, and I was disappointed to see him weigh in at 19 lbs 9 oz. This drops him from the 67th to around the 50th percentile. For a baby who was 10 lbs 7 oz at birth - WAY off the chart - he is not gaining like I'd like to see, and he's been slowly dropping down on the chart. I know you can't really expect siblings to be identical in their growth, but at 9 months Peter was 22 lbs 4 oz, and Aaron was around 25 lbs. He's on solids now, but not a big eater, and he doesn't nurse for long. I thought supplementing him with formula would be a good idea, but I've tried everything I can think of to get him to take a bottle or a sippy cup but he is so stubborn. He won't take it from me, Mike, my parents, my sisters, or anybody. He won't take formula, breastmilk, homo milk, water, or even full-strength fruit juice. He won't take an Avent bottle, Nuby bottle, soft-spout or hard-spout sippy cup, and out of a regular cup is just plain torture. We tried a day and a half without any nursing to "encourage" him to take some liquids from another source, but I gave in for fear that I was going to damage his kidneys or something. What kid doesn't want to drink for that long?? He's never been much of a drinker - I've even had an appointment with a lactation consultant, who was very knowledgeable but hadn't come across this particular problem before, and so we couldn't come up with anything very effective to get him to drink more. So I'm adding formula to all of his meals, encouraging him to eat as much as possible, and I'm going to look for some high-fat yoghurt or cottage cheese to try and beef him up a bit. Thankfully he's doing well on the developmental front - he's sitting well, trying to crawl, and he's a very cheerful little guy. Anybody got any other suggestions for me? I realize that he is probably just has more of a "slight" build instead of the chunkiness of his brothers at this age (who inhaled their bottles and couldn't get enough!), and trying this that and the other thing might just be more frustrating for him than anything, but I want to make sure he's getting enough of the nutrients that he needs. If only kids came with instruction manuals! Not to mention, by the way, that I've been taking a supplement to increase my milk supply to make sure that he has enough - and then he has the nerve to refuse to nurse, which in turn leads to problems for me and in general the whole situation is wreaking havok with my milk supply and patience. It hasn't been a whole lot of fun! And yet with all these concerns I've had with his eating, he's finally starting to sleep through the night a little more (I shouldn't write that though, as that's bound to change again).

Weight and length charts for Nate - click to enlarge

We have been greatly enjoying the warmer weather lately. The last few days have been a bit gloomy, and the forecast includes a fair bit of rain, but that comes with spring time and we had some gorgeous weather last week. The boys can spend allllll day outside, playing in the sandbox, digging in the dirt, and hauling pieces of wood from here to there building "hospitals". I cut out some grass and turned over some dirt for a garden, and Mom and Dad came one day with some compost to help me spruce up the soil a bit. I'm looking forward to planting some seeds and tending a garden again, as last year with the move, being pregnant, and it being a thousand degrees all summer I didn't do any gardening beyond kicking at a few weeds here and there.
Anyways. I'm sure there's more, but this toilet-training has got me a little distracted so I'm going to wrap this up. Enjoy the pictures!

Dave and Bethany came up the Sunday after Easter weekend for a visit. The boys enjoyed reading books with them! Yeah, that's underwear on their heads. Again. It's pretty popular around here.

Nate had to get in on the reading action, too.

Silliness abounds!

We're seeing a lot of this pose lately. He's pretty proud of his new skills!

Hmmm. Unsupervised snack time...what can I do with this spoon?

How about destroy all the pears in the fruit bowl?

When it's not too rainy or cold, nothing beats lunch outside!

Yeah. They're doing what it looks like they're doing. I snapped a picture before going out in the 8 degree weather to pull Aaron's pants back up and to grab Peter, who was running around the backyard with a bare bum.

We had Uncle Chuck and Aunt Carol over for dinner last week,

and no one gets to visit without reading the boys a book or two.

Aunt Carol reads Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type

Spending some time outside on a beautiful spring day

Mmmm sweetness!

Quick Update

2011-05-07T12:02:00.000-04:00

It's always fun to wear Daddy's glasses

Peter giving the glasses a try

He's getting better all the time at sitting up on his own

They like to put their chairs upside down at the back of

the bed and use the legs as "controls" to steer their excavators

Pretty deep hole! Mike has been working on fixing some leaky basement issues

As you can well imagine, they come inside pretty dirty sometimes!

Nate is getting more mobile - he can't go forward yet but he pushes himself

backwards all over the place, often getting stuck in interesting places

I only took one picture during the crazy wind storm last week Thursday. There were gusts up to 124 km/h, hundreds of trees were toppled, fences were blown down, and lots of damage was done. We were without power for over 6 hours that day, and some people in St. Catharines did not have their hydro restored until early in the next week. A few tiles off our patio table blew off and shattered, and part of our fence blew over (we needed to replace it anyways). We were thankful we didn't lose any trees or sustain any more damage, especially after taking a damage assessment tour of the city after the wind had calmed down a bit later in the evening. So many huge trees blown over! This picture is the last we saw of our election sign that day, who knows how far it went flying!

I think this picture almost deserves to be posted on its own,

I love it! It's a weird one but it makes me laugh!!

Nate going incognito, haha

Easter Weekend

2011-05-05T16:19:00.000-04:00

Over the Easter weekend, the Vander Deen side of the family came to our place for a visit and to celebrate Aaron's birthday. Mom and Dad came in their RV and stayed Friday and Saturday nights at a campground in Niagara Falls, while Karen stayed at our place. The rest of the family (minus Dave and Beth) came up on Saturday. What a fun visit! Friday was a bit dreary and cold but Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we enjoyed being able to take the boys to the park while the guys played bocce. Lots of fun! I'm getting the feeling that I'm not particularly articulate or literative today so perhaps I'll just stop writing and make way for the pictures. That's all you really want anyways isn't it? Haha.

Peter and Aaron at the campground "hunting rabbits" in the gravel

It's never too hard to get a great smile out of this little one!

Aaron opening his birthday gift from Aunt Karen - books about fish!

Enjoying Grandpa's toque

Grandma and Grandpa gave Aaron a beautiful quilt for his birthday.

This morning, he was trying to eat the smarties off one of the squares, haha!

Bumper cars in the driveway!

Going on parade to the park!

Hi little cousin Derek!

Digging in the gravel

Everyone had fun, haha

Blowing out his birthday candles

I had too much fun making this birthday cake. It was almost a

shame to ice it, it looked so pretty coming out of the oven!

Buuuut I iced it anyways. What's a birthday cake without icing?

At the end of the day, Rub a Dub Dub, Four Boys in the Tub!

Toddlers Training Themselves?

2011-04-26T10:14:00.003-04:00

Peter: Aaron, I need to go pee. You come too, and you can pee with your belly button
Aaron: Ok!!
They both run, laughing, off to the bathroom. Peter pees, Aaron lifts up his shirt and pushes his belly out over the toilet. Two minutes later, Aaron comes shuffling around the corner into the living room with his pants around his ankles.
Peter: Mom, Aaron needs to go pee in the toilet!
Aaron: Pee! Pee! Need pee!
Mom: Ok, we can definitely give that a try.
Aaron sits on the toilet and pees several times. I wasn't going to try training him again for a little while but I might have to do some rearranging of my plans for the next few days. Who knows, maybe he'll just train himself, wouldn't that be great!

What's potty training without some stickers? When Aaron got one

for his success, Peter asked for one too, and then tried to go again.

I wonder if he's going to be running off to the bathroom every half hour

just so he can get stickers like Aaron!!

Forecast

2011-04-21T09:36:00.000-04:00

Lovin' the look of that long-term forecast!!

Growing Every Day!

2011-04-15T20:48:00.000-04:00

Birthday Day and Day After

2011-04-15T20:11:00.001-04:00

Balloons first thing in the morning on your birthday are VERY exciting!

Why not share them with your little brother?

Opening presents at breakfast time

Animals! He's pretty thrilled

We went to an indoor playground for the morning with Aunt Dell
and Aunt Lauren, and met up with some other moms from church.
We had a really good time! The kids spent a lot of time on these slides.

It was hard to get good pictures because the kids were always

moving but at least you can see they were having a ton of fun!

Thankfully I didn't have to worry about keeping the aunts occupied

Don't you just want to give this sweetie a kiss??

Minus the peas plastered all over his face of course!

They just keep growing! I love these kids!!

I actually managed to get a good shot of Peter -

he can be tough to get a picture of.

Happy 2nd Birthday Aaron!

2011-04-14T09:31:00.005-04:00

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Aaron,

Happy birthday to you!!!

Dear Aaron,
Time goes by so quickly! You are already two years old, my spunky little redhead. It's amazing to think of how much has changed in the past year. On your first birthday - actually the day we bought this house! - you couldn't say much more than a few words, you couldn't walk - actually, you had just been crawling for a few short months. And now, one year later, you're talking to us in sentences, you run around doing crazy things with your older brother, and your imagination is growing by leaps and bounds. We LOVE seeing your reaction to things like trucks and animals - a little screech, and your whole body shakes with excitement. Everywhere we go, people comment on your red, curly hair - I think you're just going to have to get used to people wanting to stroke it because you're just too cute! You're silly and funny and your laugh is so much fun. So full of energy, yet whenever I sit down on the couch with a book you can't seem to get over fast enough to snuggle in beside me and quietly listen to the story. You are learning so much about the world around you and the One who created it, who lives "in my heart" as you so tenderly put it. It is our prayer that we may continue to teach and guide you as you grow in a way that honors the Lord. We look forward to what the year ahead has to bring for you!
Love Mom and Dad

Moving Right Along

2011-04-08T15:41:00.002-04:00

Since I haven't been faithfully updating my "little black book", the one I keep the kids' development information in, I figure I'd better keep this blog up to date as far as what they have been doing. This way, when I publish the blog at the end of the year again, I'll have all that info in one place. Might make for some boring blog posts for all you readers, but I like to keep track of this stuff, and why not do that here. Here goes.
Peter is now just shy of 3.5 years and things for him are not changing at the same rate as they used to. Those first few years of life are so full of changes and growth and learning, it would be kind of crazy if we continued to develop at the same rate over the course of our lifetime, or even over just a few years. Imagine what people would be like! It's been a pretty healthy winter for him - I don't think he's been much sicker than a runny nose and some coughing over the season. Perhaps he's already developed some more immunity than his brothers, or perhaps he's just been fortunate, who knows. We certainly don't mind though! He does still wake up in the night frequently, wanting cuddles or who knows what. Maybe he's having scary dreams, it's kind of hard to tell. He often talks about "scary things" during the day, so maybe these thoughts are affecting him at night. Scary monsters hiding under his bed, scary lions eating people, scary chickens eating people, scary ____ eating people. I'm not really sure why he is so afraid of being eaten but this thought seems to consume him (haha). He continues to enjoy playing with soy beans or split peas, the newest thing. He can be occupied with them for a looooong time, scooping them from here to there, putting them in wagons, dumping them, plowing them, putting them in the garbage truck, spilling them all over the floor. It's a little bit messy but nice to see him so absorbed in play. He continues to be a serious little boy, doing a lot of thinking, and often coming up with interesting and amusing comments, and we are reminded of how much kids pick up from what we say and do, how they can sense if we are trying to do something behind their back (like sneak a cookie, lol - "What are you eating, Mom? What are you eating? Can I have some too??"), and how much they can remember when we are sure they have forgotten. The mind is an incredible thing! So we try to fill it with all kinds of important lessons and fun memories.
Aaron is going to be TWO next week Thursday. Two? Already? He's never been a small kid, but it still feels like he's gotten BIG so quickly. He's always been at the top of the growth charts, but his height and weight are slowing down while his awareness and mental accuity are blossoming. This is so much fun! He understands so much of what goes on around him, and he is piecing together sentences that keep us amused. I don't remember if Peter was stringing words together like this at 2 years old, but it is enjoyable to be able to communicate with him more and more effectively. He knows his alphabet fairly well - not as well as Peter did at this age, but he can sing along. He loves praying the Lord's Prayer with us after dinner, and he can count to ten. Counting to ten was definitely learned playing Hide and Seek, a favorite game of Peter and Aaron's, although they aren't too good at staying quiet while you "try" to find them, haha. This age does come with the famous "Terrible Twos" behaviour sometimes - temper tantrums and days full of crying - and I have to continually remind myself to be patient with him as we teach him to balance his growing sense of independence with an also-growing need to learn godly obedience to his parents. He is a humorous child and we continue to enjoy his mischievous antics and heart-warming laughter - we could see in him a long time ago that he is going to have a great sense of humor. We get the feeling that we are in for some interesting parent-teacher conferences in the future! He is on the mend now from a bout with tonsillitis - not very fun. Over the course of four or five days, every time the ibuprofen or acetaminophen wore off, his fever would shoot back up to over 103 degrees. I'm sure glad the antibiotics have kicked in and he is feeling better. Still a little clingy but I don't mind cuddling with my kids. Too soon, they will be too old and "cool" to cuddle with their Mom and give her kisses when she asks, so I will enjoy snuggling with them now while I'm still able to, and while my kisses still maintain their magical healing properties for "owies".
And last but not least, our little Nathaniel. He's getting close to seven months old now - wow, time goes by quickly! He weighed in at 18 lbs 4 oz, and measured 28.5" at his well-baby visit last week. He isn't growing at the same rate as his brothers did, which has me a little worried, but we're keeping an eye on it to make sure he doesn't drop too many percentile points on the growth charts. The saying "double their weight in 6 months, triple in a year" doesn't apply to every baby I suppose, but I don't want him to fall behind developmentally. To compare, at the same age Peter was 18 lbs 12 oz and 27.75", and Aaron was 21 lbs 8 oz and 29.5". I've been trying without much success to get him to take a bottle of breastmilk now and then, and he finally took two ounces today for the first time. Maybe I don't have to take him along to the Ladies' Conference next weekend? It would be nice to have a little bit of a break! That wasn't the only "first" this week - he popped his first tooth a few days go (the other boys had their first one at around 5 months), and he rolled for the first time from his back to his tummy. He rolled the other way for the first time at about five months, and still only rolls sporadically. I'm not too worried - Peter didn't roll until after he learned to crawl - every baby at his own pace - and Aaron was rolling at 6 weeks. So, very different babies. Nathaniel usually wakes up at least once a night still to eat, although over the past few weeks he has slept through till 7:00 two or three times. Bedtime is between 7 and 7:30, at the same time the older boys go to bed, and he usually doesn't give me any trouble going to sleep. He naps in the morning around 10, and then again after lunch for about 1.5-2 hours usually. I'm not too picky about the timing of the schedule, but things definitely go smoother with a well-rested baby. He's eating meals with us three times a day, and taking a variety of baby foods, all still well-pureed with the exception of the apple bits that Peter was feeding him this morning (see the earlier post). I've got a few of those Mum Mum crackers in the house that he'll be able to start trying in a month or so once he starts sitting up a little better on his own. He's still tippy with sitting on his own, but he's getting stronger all the time - I'm noticing that more and more when he sits in his bouncy chair and squirms around in there, trying to sit up and twist himself around so that he can see what's happening behind him. He absolutely loves the attention he gets from his older brothers, and they can make him smile and laugh in a very special and precious way. I love watching the three of them together and seeing the bond that exists so naturally between them. It definitely warms my heart, fills me with joy, and reminds me that we are so very richly blessed beyond our deserving!!

We went for a quick walk around the corner the other day

to watch a backhoe working. How exciting!

Driving their home-made cars/fire engines/garbage trucks/

backhoes around in the living room. They are most popularly

known as fire engines, yet look suspiciously like diaper boxes.

Always full of smiles!

Triking around the neighborhood on the way to the park

Climbing on the "rock wall". This is a very blue picture.

They love the slide!

Gotta stick that tongue out when you're working hard

digging in the split peas!!

But Mom! Daddy does it!

2011-04-08T11:45:00.000-04:00

I was busy making a batch of play-dough this morning and I had given the kids some apple slices to munch on as a mid-morning snack. I was just finished cleaning up when I poked my head around the corner to check on them, as they had migrated to the living room to where Nate was in his exersaucer looking out the window. Peter was carefully chewing up his apple and stuffing little bits into Nate's open mouth - aaagh!
Mom: "Peter!! No!! What are you trying to do??!"
Peter: "I'm just feeding him some apple, Mom"
Mom: "No, you can't feed him apple. He's just a baby! Please don't put things in his mouth, he's too little yet and it's not good for him."
Peter: "But he's a lizard, Mom! I give apples to Daddy's lizard and Daddy does too, and the lizard likes apples. Nate is my lizard!"
Although Nate's first tooth did pop through this week, he isn't quite ready for solid chunks like that yet. Thankfully no harm was done, but I'm really going to have to figure out how to grow one of those extra eyeballs on the back of my head.

Doctor Mom

2011-04-02T11:41:00.002-04:00

I feel like I'm running a walk-in clinic here the last couple of days... between Nate and Aaron, I've been dispensing Tylenol and Motrin, checking temperatures, cleaning up puke, and giving lots of cuddles. So far, Peter's been healthy and I hope it continues that way! For now, Nate is happily medicated, and Aaron is tucked in on the couch watching Wallace and Gromit while the meds work to bring down his 103.5 fever. Poor kids!

Little Mr. Sad on the couch

Keeping everything straight - who's had what, when

Game Rules

2011-04-01T20:48:00.000-04:00

Playing Garbage Truck

The rules for playing Garbage Truck are fairly simple. It requires at least one person to play, but it gets exponentially more fun as you add players. Begin with a chosen location. This location could be the couch, the coat closet, any one of the bedroom closets, your baby brother's crib, or just the middle of the floor. You could even choose your baby brother as your location if you wish. This location will be known as the "Garbage Truck". Next, collect every move-able item from the surrounding area, and deposit them one at a time into your Garbage Truck. These items are the Garbage Bags. These items can include (but are not limited to) toys, pillows, blankets, books, stuffed animals, train tracks, puzzle pieces, clothing, and any random thing that your mother may not have put away out of your reach. As items from the immediate surroundings become scarce, move your search for Garbage Bags to other rooms in the house, successfully relocating whatever you can manage before your mother puts an end to the chaos. Guaranteed to lift your mood and provide much fun (not guaranteed to provide as much fun for Mom).

Garbage Truck location: The Couch

Garbage Truck location: The Coat Closet

Garbage Truck location: Baby Brother (January)

Garbage Truck location: Baby Brother / Pack and Play (January)

Doodle Notes

2011-03-29T11:48:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned a post or two ago, I recently poked through the crawl space at Mom and Dad's and came up with some interesting treasures from my past. One of these treasures was a stack of old sermon notes from my late high school years. I was about to toss them in the recycling box when I thought I'd take a peek through them first, and it was then that I discovered why I'd kept them in the first place. These weren't just thorough sermon notes; they were thoroughly illustrated sermon notes. Along the margins and scattered across the pages were sketches and doodles of a widely varied character. Some were poignant illustrations of the sermon topic, others were slightly off-topic but somewhat related images visualizing some remark the pastor must have made, and still others were completely off topic, often off-the-wall, and even downright strange pictures stemming from the creativity of a delinquent mind-wanderer. I pondered whether or not I should reveal these pictures to my blogging audience; although I find them quite hilarious, they are also somewhat embarassing in their bizarrity at times. I have decided to share them after all but on one condition: thou shalt not judge! Yes, I know it's obvious I wasn't always keeping my mind on task during the sermon, but these sermon notes are from well over ten years ago, and a surprising number of the doodles are actually quite topical, if not a little off-colour at times. Also, you should note that I had an exceptionally speedy writing hand, and often wrote down the majority of the sermon as well as take the time to doodle in the margins. That all being said, here we go, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! (click to enlarge)

First of all, to prove that my sermon note papers were indeed

plenteous in actual sermon notes, here's a quick overview of a few of
them. See? Lots of writing. I'm positive that much of the
message sunk in.

To start you off slowly, here are a few artful illustrations for you.

Based on 1 Peter 1:4,5, these are definitely sermon-related

doodles. Not so bad eh?

Here are a variety of church/Bible personalities. We have Paul,
Dorcas, and Peter as well as a several anonymous Christian
characters preaching, teaching, or bearing fruit.
Oh, and one "bad guy".

I put together a bunch of doodles loosely categorized as "Christian Life"

Filling your heart up with the Holy Spirit, sacrificing your life on the
altar of service, and bearing fruit (again). And don't forget to
spread that fertilizer of life as you travel on the Way!

Several illustrations possibly connected by common themes of

the Holy Spirit and the early preaching of Paul. Tongues of fire,

Paul preaching great change to the sinful and crooked generation

(Acts 2:37-40), and we cannot refrain from singing His

righteousness, even praising Him in the storm.

I seemed to have a lot of sheep illustrations. I suppose this would be

because it is such a popular idea used in scripture, with us being such

drifting and fickle followers of our great Shepherd. I'm not really

sure why it appears that a sheep is pulling the ark, and I'm positive

that Super Sheep and Fluffy were not mentioned in the sermon.

A variety of sinful and idolatrous images, showing the power of sin and

different ways in which we are sinful. I think Bob and Fluffy belonged

together, gnashing their teeth.

A frame-by-frame of Eutychus falling out of the window
in Acts 20:7-12.

Some random pictures that didn't seem to belong with the other
topics. The seed of David is sitting on the throne, the horse and
rider are thrown into the sea, our living hope and captive thoughts,

and we see the Fall of Adam.

Hmm. I'm really not sure if I should have posted this one, because it

might be a little disturbing. These pictures are the abherrant ones
which have no relation to the sermon, and were strictly the product
of a wandering mind. There seems to be a theme of unsuspecting
stick men about to meet their doom, or being chased by lions, bears,
or dragons. I particularly like the bottom right-ish picture of the
"Pointless wandering of gifts"... I wonder if these pictures are in
a way a pointless squandering of gifts as well.

Well there you have it. I hope I haven't made a mistake in posting these...I haven't taken sermon notes in several years, but perhaps I should to make up for all these drawings. I'm not so much of a doodler anymore, and I hope my attention span has increased in strength and longevity and my sense of humor has matured since then. Anyways, please remember that I posted these purely for humor's sake, and don't read too much into them!

Underwear Overhead

2011-03-29T08:01:00.002-04:00

Apparently, it's a "wear your underwear on your head" kind of morning at the Vander Deen's today :)

Split-Pea Sanity

2011-03-28T13:02:00.001-04:00

This bag of split peas has been a sanity-saver for me this morning!

It's been keeping these GRUMPY boys occupied for a while now!

Transferring peas from one container to another

Pretending to be an excavator

Of course, not all boys are equally as good at keeping all the peas on the
table...but the quiet, happy playing is well worth the cleaning up later on!

Window Washing

2011-03-28T12:59:00.000-04:00

I have been looking forward to doing a good window-cleaning

for a while now... can't stand those grimy windows!

Just have to wait till the temperatures get a little bit nicer!

Pack Rat

2011-03-24T15:15:00.000-04:00

I just had a hysterical time going through my parents' crawlspace... oooh man, how did I ever collect so much JUNK? It was quite a trip down memory lane (and much more amusing to me than anyone else, I'm sure) and I think I had a grin on my face the whole time - as I write this, my face kind of hurts. Old toys, stuffed animals, journals from the primary grades, pieces of rock or wood or string etc that were for some reason very important to keep from whatever trip they were found on, right on down to tacky art projects, sermon notes, little notebooks half filled with scribbling, and even my wisdom teeth (eww!). I was a little grossed out to find those.
Now that I know how exactly much stuff is still down there, I guess I have to make a plan to go through it all and do a major "toss" session. However, today will not be that day, as I'm a little too nostalgic at the moment. Besides, I might just need that handmade picture frame someday...

Photo Update

2011-03-23T14:44:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking it's about time for a photo update. However, when I sat down this afternoon to browse through the latest pictures and select a few for your viewing pleasure, I discovered that I have not been industrious in the picture-taking department lately and I don't have too many treasures to share. I guess it's just been a little too busy for photography! Here are a few for you to enjoy:

Three boys reading on the couch - I love it!

When the younger boys are sleeping in the afternoon,

Peter loves playing with soybeans and tractors.

We had Rachel and Michelle over with their little ones... altogether we had
five little boys and two twin girls. It was a busy but very fun play date!

I suppose this could be called "baby-led weaning". Nate doesn't

want to have anything to do with a bottle, although I wouldn't

mind a little bit of freedom now and then.

It seems that whenever I put this onesie on him,

Nate decides to explode out of his diapers.

"This is how much I love you, Mommy"

He's six months old now... he was sitting for well over a

minute on his own when I took this picture. He's still pretty

tippy and needs what I call "pillow insurance"

when he's sitting, but it's fun to see him growing up!

How can you resist those eyes? Mom VD took a few

great shots of him when we were down for the weekend.

Yeah, I know I'm cute... what are you going to do about it?

Bible Stories

2011-03-10T16:43:00.003-05:00

Peter: "Mommy! Aaron said he is going to hit me, and throw me in a hole, and sell me to a bad guy!!"
Hmmm... can you guess what our suppertime Bible stories have been about lately?

Wondering what this day will turn into...

2011-03-04T09:05:00.001-05:00

9:00 a.m.
"Mommy, Aaron wanted to hit me, and he wanted to take this blanket away, and he wanted Nate to puke on the table, and he wanted to take this bucket away, and he wanted to take it away and hide it away. He did! He wants to take everything away! Watch him! He's going to hit me! No, he's not going to hit me now but he will!"

Snow Day

2011-02-25T10:52:00.002-05:00

Just got back in from shovelling the driveway - we actually got snow when a snowstorm was predicted! Since the last snowstorm was a bit of a joke, we didn't expect anything this time either. In fact, by 5:30 this morning there still hadn't been a flake and all thoughts of "snow day" were gone. But lo and behold, a phone call came at 7:00 informing me of the cancellation of school, so I could start a phone chain for one of the bus routes. Not that a snow day really means anything different for me here at home - Mike was already long gone to school, and I wasn't really planning to go out and do anything anyways. I bundled the kids up and took them outside to "help" me shovel the driveway and get a little bit of fresh air. Nate wasn't terribly cooperative staying all wrapped up on the front porch in his carseat, but the driveway got cleared and we had fun. When the snow covers up all the dirty piles at the side of the road and blankets the yard in white, it makes the long days of winter somewhat more bearable. Not that I'm not looking forward to spring!!

Toy Repair Day

2011-02-24T11:19:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, I have to spread out the broken toys that have accumulated, pull out my magic fix-it tools, and put the broken back together again. Today's the day! Now to find the book tape...

Counter Update

2011-02-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

The blog counter doesn't count my visits, but I still managed to capture this:

At the same time, the other counter I have had the following display:

And now the counter has gone up yet again:

Whoo hoo!! Almost there!

2011-02-24T09:24:00.000-05:00

Just noticed the number my blog counter is at this morning - two more visits, and I'll roll over 20,000 hits! Wow! I know that's nothing compared to people who blog a little more "professionally", but for a little home-grown family-story blog just over 5 years old and only really attracting the interest of close friends and family, I don't think that's too shabby! Will you be the 20,000th visitor? Leave your comment!

What's in a Name

2011-02-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

After much coaching and no holding-of-the-crayon

by Mom, Peter wrote the following:

(red crayon = Peter

blue crayon = Mom's later clarification of what the letters are)

It's a start!

Photo Update

2011-02-23T20:06:00.000-05:00

Nate loves his baths and kicking like crazy

Who's that handsome guy in the mirror?

Nate and his Mommy

What do you mean we're not having Kraft Dinner for lunch??!

The brothers hanging out together

Digging in the snow outside

The next bunch of photos are from Mom VD from Family Day weekend

Lost in a world of Mighty Machines

Dig, scoop, lift!

Licking the windows (washed the day before, sigh...)

Smush!!

This kid is so stinkin' cute

What a sweet smile!

Attacking Daddy with the foam swords = way too much fun

Most-Used Words

2011-02-23T14:11:00.000-05:00

I had a little fun this afternoon making these images of the most-used words from my blog at this website which I found a link to on Shirley's blog (thanks Shirley!!). Interestingly, the five most posted words were "Peter", "Aaron", "time", "cookies", and "little". I'm not sure what to think about that - especially the "cookies" part, haha. I didn't think I posted that much about cookies?

Death of a Snowman

2011-02-18T16:58:00.003-05:00

Time for a Car Wash

2011-02-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year when it's hard to keep the vehicles clean. Salt spray, snow and ice, and the occasional thaw ensures that a layer of dirt and grime coats the van and car. This morning when I was packing the kids up on our way to a playdate, Peter and Aaron were busy running their fingers through the dirt and drawing lines on the side of the van. A little bit gross to have such grimy hands, but I was a little appalled when Peter, before I could stop him, licked the "sugar" off his finger. Yuck! I guess it's time for a car wash!

Some More Pics

2011-02-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

My three little guys. Hard to get a great picture of all three

but at least you can see all of their faces!

I absolutely LOVE this picture. I think it's hilarious!

Peter clomping around in his Daddy's boots

Aaron has a turn. You've got a little growing to do, my boy!

Haircut time! It's amazing how different Peter and Aaron's hair is.

One episode of Mighty Machines later, two little boys have haircuts.

For some reason, I don't have many pictures of my

littlest kiddo to post. What a cutie!

The Amazing and Unsuccessful Sugar Cookies Odyssey

2011-02-11T21:19:00.002-05:00

Day 1 of the Sugar Cookies. The kids are having a super-grumpy day, so I think we can cheer up the mood a bit by making sugar cookies before lunch. I make the dough ready, and by the time it cools in the fridge and is ready to be rolled, Aaron is begging me to put him to bed, and Peter is crying uncontrollably. Neither of them have a bite for lunch, and they both go down for a nap. Peter ends up developing a high fever -103.5F- and is feeling absolutely miserable. After a visit to the walk-in clinic and being Tylenol'd up, he finally gets some sleep after he falls asleep with Daddy in his bed around midnight.
Day 2. Peter seems to be feeling better, although he is still pretty tired. Aaron is a little testy and also a little tired, but he never ends up with the short-lived fever that Peter had the day before. Time to pull out the dough and give it another try. I try to roll it out, and it's so hard that the tablecloth is slipping all over the place. By the time I get it to the point that I think it might be flat enough, the boys are busy smushing the cookie cutters into the dough and are having fun making mangled shapes. I start directing their cookie-cutting efforts, and we end up cutting out about 20 cookies. Hmmm, I think. The recipe said it made 40 cookies. Either my cookies are not flat enough, or my cookie cutters are really big. I decide my cookie cutters must be really big, because I'm not re-rolling all that dough. Besides, Aaron probably has snuck 2 or 3 cookies' worth of dough into his mouth while I'm not looking. Time to throw them in the oven. I throw them in the oven, set the timer for 12 mintues, and go off to check the Internet for decorating ideas. After 6 minutes, I discover that you should decorate them before putting them in the oven. Obviously I have not made these cookies before. I run to the oven, remove the cookies, and let them cool while preparing some egg yolk paint for the boys to decorate with. Painting the cookies is a job better suited for Peter than Aaron, although they both have fun for a while.

Aaron mangles some cookies, as his "painting" technique involves

shoving the brush into the cookies over and over again.

When I try to show him how to paint, he has a breakdown.

A soother seems to temporarily remedy the problem.

Aaron happily continues to ~~paint~~ mangle cookies

Peter takes his job very seriously.

Now that they have been decorated, I put them in the oven again. The boys watch the progress carefully. As they have already been half-baked, I'm not sure how long they should re-bake. I take them out after another 10 minutes. 5 minutes later I decide they are not yet done. I put them back in the oven for another 7 minutes. I take them out again. They still do not look entirely right. I decide that they must just need to be cooled all the way down before they look like they should. Not like I know what they should really look like, as I haven't made them before.

The final product. Can't say I'm too thrilled about their appearance, taste,

or texture. I guess I'll have to give this another shot someday!

Winter

2011-02-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

For days before, we were watching the weather radar and tracking the enormous winter storm coming up from the south. We were warned of the impending blizzard and probable power outages, and were told to stay off the roads as the driving conditions would be perilous. The snow was supposed to start coming after supper on Tuesday and turn into a treacherous blizzard overnight and all day Wednesday. They cancelled school for Wednesday on Tuesday morning in anticipation of the whopper storm on its way. Everything seemed to grind to a halt in the silence before the storm.

Here is the "Before" picture I took Tuesday around 5:00 p.m.

Aaaaaand here is the "After" picture I took on Wednesday mid-morning.

Hmmm. I was kind of looking forward to getting a big dumping of snow!

Mike took advantage of the snow to build an igloo ~~with~~ for ~~the boys~~ fun.

Aaron crawling inside the igloo. It was a pretty good size!

He could stand up inside it.

Mike took Peter for a walk at Port Dalhousie to check out the shoreline.

A little bit treacherous, but beautiful as well!

Looking out down the ice-covered pier

Peter checking out all the ducks and pigeons

Quack!