Typical Chaos

A collection of pictures from a random day in our household.  

My day begins with a cup of coffee and the calendar.  Well, it began before that with dressing kids and getting their breakfast ready but this is getting my brain in gear.  Add in the telephone, and after the phone call is done I remember why I shouldn't talk on the phone with the calendar in front of me -it always ends up a bit of a mess.  I guess planning the rest of January will have to involve maneuvering around some artistic creativity.  This particular doodling was inspired by Lauren.

 I have a couple of furniture-rearrangers living in the house.  At least once or twice a day, the crib in the older boys' room is hauled over to the other side of the room for some hyper play time.  This is the first time they've done any large-scale moving operations in their younger brother's room.  I'm just glad he wasn't napping at the time. 

 This is the more typical scene:  Aaron's bed pulled over to Peter's, the quilt thrown out and all the animals and pillows thrown in, and lots of screeching and laughing going on.  That is, until one of the monkeys bumps his head, monkeys call the Momma and the Momma says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Much loved by his older brothers, Nate has been supplied with as many baby toys as Pete and Aaron could find.  He's just able to peek through the mound to look for the boys as they run back and forth from his room bringing him more goodies to play with. 

 Something tells me it just might be naptime.  Maybe. 
What do you think?

Hanging out with the littlest bro'

Look like brothers?  I think so!

 Is it really possible to keep the play-dough colours separated?  I'm thinking not.  I wonder what the dominant colour will be when red, yellow, green and blue are finally all mashed into one homogenous mound. 

 Boots drying off after the boys had fun playing outside for an hour 

this morning.  Little bit of snow, little bit of mud, lots of fun.

 Doesn't everyone have a garbage truck and a backhoe sitting 

on their bathroom counter?  Nice new bathroom, by the way eh?  

Worthy of a post of its own.  I'll have to work on that one.

 Typical to find random farm machinery lying abandoned 

around the house, waiting to be stepped on. 

Clomping around in Mom's slippers

Such a nice feeling to find a child playing with a large container of 

diaper rash cream... not.  Thankfully this one was an empty 

one ready for the recycling bin. 

 Yeah I know, they shouldn't be jumping on the bed.  But they've 

been pretty crazy today, and this is helping to burn off a little steam...

 Pull chair over to table.  Grab an orange when Mom's not looking. 
Take a big bite, expecting nice juicy fruit.  Discover the taste of
an orange peel.  Reject fruit. 

Mmmmm, So Yogurty

Peter:  "Mom, yogurt is SO yogurty.  Is that cofound, Mommy?  Is that cofound?"  (profound)
This child makes me laugh! 

Happy Boy!

My Favourite Boys...

Photo Update

 Time to load up some pictures!  Danielle took this photo when we took Aaron to McMaster for his pneumonia.  He had fun being wheeled through the halls in an enormous geriatric wheelchair, haha!

Smiles from little Nate

He likes being bounced on our knees

 Big blue eyes! 

 Aaron loves his little brother!

I don't have a photo of Aaron in this coat and hat, 

since he was more of a summer baby

 Enjoying our first snowfall with a little bit of accumulation

 

 Since he's given up his naptimes, Peter gets to help me with all my 

holiday baking.  He liked putting sprinkles on the truffles

 When Aaron woke up from his nap, we were still working on 

the truffles... and he was very interested as well!

 Reading baby Nate a book (aka "getting smothered")

 A blurry photo of my three kiddos

 Aaron being Aaron, what a goof!

 Packing up to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house!

Aunt Andrea had her baby! 
Congratulations on the birth of a healthy little boy! 

Derek Benjamin was born on Dec 11, weighed 6lbs 7 oz, 

and we are so thankful for his safe arrival

 Little Derek, so tiny!  Nate was a full 4 lbs heavier at birth!

 Uncle Mike and Aunt Rachel meet their newest little nephew... 

this makes 7 little boys in the family!  Not a single girl, crazy! 

Question Period

Peter can be incredibly inquisitive, and he doesn't just stick to the "why" or "why not" questions.  He gets into a mood where basically everything he says is a question, and then they come non-stop like verbal diarrhea.  Just for interest's sake, I decided to count today, and Peter asked me 68 questions in 5 minutes - which works out to one every 4.5 seconds, believe it or not.  Somedays, I need an triple-extra-large dose of patience!  The following is a brief sampling of my day today to give you an idea of what he can be like: 

What are you doing, Mom? 
Is Nate hungry?
Why is he hungry?
Are you feeding him Mommy?
Can I touch you Mommy?
Can I touch Nate?
Can I touch your chair?
Do you want me to sit in my chair?
Do you like it when I do this Mommy?
Can we talk?
Can you talk to me Mommy?
Is Nate all done now?
Mommy, is he full now?
Can I touch him now, Mommy?
No?

His diaper is dirty?

Nate has to poop now?
Does his diaper have poop in it?

  Is his diaper wet, Mommy?
Does he need a new one?
Are you changing his diaper?
Does he like to have a new diaper? 
Is he happy now? 
Are you happy with me, Mommy? 
What's I'm driving you nuts for, Mom?
Why am I driving you nuts?

The Night Wanderer

Sometime during the night last night, Peter woke up crying.  Mike got up out of bed, made his way over to the boys' bedroom, and crawled in bed with Peter to calm him down.  I didn't wake up with either Peter's crying or with Mike getting up, which is a little strange.  What is more strange about this story though, and actually quite hilarious, is that Mike didn't wake up either.  Actually, he woke up in Peter's bed at some point later on in the night, not sure exactly why he was there, only knowing he'd been gone long enough for his spot in our bed to have grown cold...

Update

While I'm on a roll (three posts in one day?? Count yourselves lucky, readers! I think I've done my quota for the next month or two, haha) I should do an update on the kids.  Let's start with Nathaniel.  Nate has been the baby with the best sleeping habits of all my kids - and probably of all babies that I know.  Last night, I put him to bed at around 9:30, and he woke up this morning at 9.  He didn't wake up ALL night, and although I went into his room with much anxiety this morning to check on him, he was still happily sawing logs.  He usually takes two naps during the day as well, one of them often 2-3 hours long, and then a little cat-nap while I do the dishes after supper.  Combined with my two other kids who usually don't wake up until 7:30 or 8 (8:30 this morning!!), I'm not sure how I deserve all this extra sleep but it's pretty wonderful and I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  I've been taking some specific vitamins and supplements which have been helping me sleep better, and I feel like I am catching up on the weeks of insomnia I had after he was born, and the months and years before that of very crummy sleep.  Nate is almost 3 months old now, and growing well.  He was just over 15 lbs when I had him weighed two weeks ago, so he's probably creeping up on 16 lbs now.  He's growing out of his clothes so fast, as he is a very long baby and fitting into 6-9 month clothes, sometimes even 12 month clothes.  He's not particularly chubby, but is just large for his age - both his height and weight are way off the percentile charts.  It's such a blessing to have a healthy and happy baby, and so nice that I'm able to keep up with nursing him.  He is a little sweetheart, giving us lots of smiles, starting with little laughs, and loving to talk to us as well.  Peter and Aaron were not very talkative babies, so I am enjoying this stage a lot.  He loves to be held, and I love to hold him.  It can be hard to get things done around the house but they are only little for so long.  We don't really need to eat supper on time anyways do we? 
Aaron is growing up so fast - looking at pictures from just a few short months ago shows such a difference from the little boy we have today.  It's amazing how much kids grow in cognition at this age - the first year of life seems to be much more of a physical growth, while the second year their mind expands so much.  He understands so much of what we say, and although he doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet, he's working on that every day.  I love listening to him singing along with the CDs I play for the kids.  One of his favourite words right now, unfortunately, is "no", and this is the source of much frustration for Peter especially.  Peter knows he isn't allowed to say "no" to Mommy or Daddy, but when Aaron says "no" to him, he gets SO mad!  "Mommy, Aaron said 'no' to me!".  If I'm not in the room, Aaron gets spankings from his brother for his obstinence.  Of course this is not allowed and in a "trying to see the bright side" way, I find it a little amusing.  Aaron watches everything his brother does and wants to take part in it as well.  He loves to tag along with Peter when Peter goes to the bathroom, claiming he has to "pee".  He'll stand there at the edge of the toilet and Peter will tell me that Aaron is peeing with his tummy.  Hopefully this means that toilet-training will be just as easy with Aaron as with Peter when the time comes!  Aaron is recovering from a bout with pneumonia that started about two weeks ago.  He had been sick with a cold and runny nose for about 2 1/2 weeks, but all of a sudden his breathing became quite laboured and shallow.  I took him to McMaster with Danielle (we were in Hamilton for the day) and a chest x-ray confirmed the pneumonia.  He was on antibiotics for a week, and it took a few days up and down with fevers and struggling to breath before he started to get better.  His appetite is just returning now.  No fun!  We're glad no one else ended up with it. 
I've done a number of updates with little things that Peter has said or done in the last while - he continues to be a lot of fun as well as a big stinker.  He is the oldest and so we have no older sibling to compare his development to.  Part of the adventure of parenting I guess!  I feel a little bad not having much to write about him here that I haven't already posted but just look over the last bunch of posts and you'll see some of his antics. 
Anyways, I've got some pictures of course, so here you go!

Nathaniel, getting bigger every day.  His acne 

has cleared up nicely!

 A little bit of anger at Peter's birthday - no fair!  

Only he gets presents??

 We went to Swiss Chalet on Peter's birthday, and the 

servers sang for him :)

 Always a goof! 

 Little sweetheart!  He keeps changing so fast!

 Watching the cookies baking...mmmm

 Playing in the cupboards is so much fun!

 Enjoying some creative time with paint - this time not 

licking the brushes thankfully

 Middle children unite!

 Snuggling with my littlest man

Weight and height charts for Nathaniel - definitely off 

the charts for both!  He's the average size of a baby 

several months older than him

 Aaron was also at the top of the charts, but his weight has 

gone WAY up.  He's a solid little guy! 

 Peter's charts - you can definitely see where he started on formula

Baking With Children

Since it's always more fun (well, I try to tell myself this anyways) to bake WITH your children, Peter and I made some chocolate peanut-butter balls this morning.  Things always take waaaaay longer when you have this kind of "help", but he certainly loves to bake with me and gets so excited when he gets to wear his own kid-sized apron.  I am admittedly not the best chef in the world, actually very far from it, but here is are the results of our efforts.  Here are the peanut butter balls:

And here are some of the ones that Peter helped me make (the ones I didn't 'fix').  He informed me that he was making worms and turds.  Lovely... nothing makes you want to snack more than chocolate-covered turds!

Things Where They Shouldn't Be

I'm discovering more and more that my kids are quite good at hiding things in unexpected places.  Aaron is particularly good at this, and it keeps me on my toes - or rather it keeps me searching high and low for items he probably tucked away in some dark corner.  Observe the following:

 There are often random objects in my cupboards.  Here is a tractor 

parked by my blender, along with a book to keep it company.  

Hey look, another tractor.  This seems to be a favourite of Aaron's - 

parking his tractor in strange places and forgetting about them.  I've also 

found them in the bathroom cupboards (strictly off-limits, by the way).  

 

I reach in to grab some potatoes to peel for supper and AGH!  

What could that be?  Oh, it's a metal scrubby.  In my potato bag.  

Thankfully it was a new one, slightly pulled out of shape by some curious 

little hands who gave it a new home with the spuds.

Why throw a perfectly good juice container into the recycling when 

you can use it to hide the night-light?  A light-sensitive night-light,
I might add - which is dutifully lighting up the inside of the can. 

What a fun little cupboard!  This is the old milk-delivery door by the side
door, and I find random toys stashed there more often.  Usually toys,
but if I'm missing a sippy cup or two, this is one of the first places I look. 

Talking about sippy cups, this is another one of Aaron's favourite
past-times : Hide The Sippy Cup.  I'd show a picture of one of his cups
INSIDE our boxspring but I don't really want to show you the dust that
may or may not have accumulated there.  There is currently a sippy cup
hiding somewhere in our house that I have not been able to find
for about three weeks now.  

 While we're on the topic of things that are missing, I haven't been able to 

find one of my pan lids for about a week now.  Peter and his Oma were 

busy in the kitchen last week when I took Aaron to the doctors, and

somehow Peter managed to hide this lid SO well that I haven't been able

to find it since then.  It's not tiny, and my kitchen is pretty small, so it's a 

little puzzling that he found such a good hiding place.