July in Review:

The Dane

Toddlers in Motion

(These photos were taken within about a 30 second time frame)

Brothers

(My sisters two boys...the older one was holding the baby. Big Boy fell asleep, Baby began fussing, Big Boy quickly scooped Baby closer and inserted Baby's pacifier in his sleep!)

Cousins:

The Projects:

The Old

The New

The Inside of The New

(Although it was a year old, it had never been used)

The Installer Runner-Up

(I had taken out the old, unhooked everything, and was ready to install the new one when I noticed it need to be hardwired, not plugged in like it had been in its previous home. I was going to do the wiring too but decided that The Children might still need The Mother. The Dad has done lots and lots of hardwiring in his lifetime. Lots! So he became The Chosen Hardwirer!)

The Installed

The New

Uhhhh, where did The Old go! I guess I forgot to upload the pic of the old sink!

The Testers

Yup! It passes as a bathtub too!!!

Oh. One more The Old, The New:

Oops! It isn't letting me add any more pics. "Enough!" it said. So here is:

(missing) The Old

The Older (but new pic)

Just for Fun!

This is our form of entertainment:

And toddlerville at its best. Big sister as Kanga, little sister as Roo. Roo keeps up with the latest technology...cell phone in a pouch!

Dizzy Dad!

This story is a bit reminescent this story, when my lovely hubby forgot we had a baby, or didn't realize the fussing baby his buddy was bouncing along with his own youngest child was, in fact, his very own daughter.

A few days ago, my husband and I stopped by a garage sale near our place. We only had our newborn baby along with us. As I walked up the driveway carrying the baby in his carseat, the man of the house said, "Free babysitting while you shop!" So I left the carseat near him and began to browse.

After browsing through many fine items and conversing a bit with the man and lady of the house, the lady shouted across the way to me, "How old is your baby?" I answered, "Eight weeks." She said, "Okay, I didn't think he was that old!" End of story. Or so I thought.

I think it was already the next day that my husband asked me, "Now how old is the baby?" I told him, "Eight weeks." He kind of muttered to himself, "Okay, so that would be about three months..?....no, more like.. two .. months..." Then, a very sheepish grin, "I told someone the baby's about five months!"

I kind of gave him a quick look and said, "You did? Who did you tell that to?" He said, "That guy at the garage sale. He asked me, 'How old is your baby?' and I said, 'mmm, about five, six months. Yeah, about five months..I think..!' I did add, 'I think!'"

I said, "Oh, funny...did you notice then that his wife asked me later how old the baby is? What if they compared notes later?...Wait a minute. Was his wife right there when you told him?" My husband replied, "Yes, she was!" I said, "Okay, that explains it. After I told her how old he is, she said, 'Okay, I didn't think he was that old!' She didn't buy your version of his age!"

My husband gave another sheepish grin and said, "I don't know what I was thinking! I mean, I know he was just born in April. I know that it hasn't been five months since April. I mean, I didn't do the math or anything. I just kinda threw that number out there! I wasn't really thinking, I couldn't really come up with anything so I just kinda pulled a number out that seemed like the right one!"

Dizzy dude!!! Gotta love the guy. I think he's one of those kind that is so smart he's.....dumb? :)

Wordful (and Picture FULL) Wednesday: The Month (or Two) In Review

Here's the little man, getting bigger! And the two babies keeping an eye on each other in the van. This is Memorial Day weekend. There's a shot of my oldest and youngest taking a nap together at the cabin we rented.

At the cemetery where my mom and infant brother are buried. On the left, "Um, you're standing on someone there! Hellooo!" (The 11 y.o. to the 12 y.o.)

Two of the girls standing at my mom's grave site. The 4 y.o. had just woken up while we were there and stumbled out of the van, walked over where my mom's headstone is, sat down and just was... She didn't really stare at it but more just was in her own world, gazing at the headstone. I had snapped a few more that turned out much better (here she kind of sensed me there and stretched and turned around) but they clearly had our family name on the stone and I would prefer not to have that on this blog.

Dad and girls......then one gravesite that had the most beautiful purple flowers growing all over and one precious angel sitting in the thickest part. The little footstone it is sitting watch over is one of a small child, an infant, if I am remembering correctly.

Homeschool projects:

Chicks one day old in first two pics, then about a month old in last picture. They are laying hens and will reside at my husband's parents' place, where we will take care of them and gather eggs, sharing them with our in-laws.

"The Secret Garden"

This was part of my Mother's Day gift from my husband and kids. They secretly had it tilled and partially seeded without my knowledge of it. This, too, is at my husband's parents' house.

Art Day! One of the girls picked mask-making so they were given only that for direction. I was very impressed how creative they were! I didn't get many pictures because my memory card was full and it was so time consuming to delete pictures.

Here's a phy-ed shot. The older two are teaching the younger one how to ride bike.

Everyone's enjoying Daddy being home from a business trip!

Oh, So Tired!

The little fella looks like he's already taken a few lessons from Dad. Church time is just so hard to keep the eyes open! Sooo relaxing!

Another niece's wedding! She's my godchild and married her sister's husband's brother. They are SOOO delightfully cute!

A girl and her dog! It was a dress-up day for the big girls that day!

Oh, I've got a kazillion and two more pictures to post but I will spare you all until I have another chance to blog! :) Actually I'm getting down to not too many more!

A few pictures at a time....

Well, here are some of the photos I uploaded the other day (as you will see on the date stamp...today is actually 6/9/09). I just haven't had time to get back on here to finish up the photos and stories. These were taken quite a while ago. These were from when baby was maybe 1 1/2 wks old. The one picture on the top I will explain in another post...they are baby chicks that were one day old at the time.

Another busy baby! :)

I've had so much to write about in the last month but I have another lap baby. For the most part, he is so happy and content...as long as I'm holding him 24/7. I'm not even exaggerating at all!

You know what though? I'm quite confident that I won't still be holding him in another year even. I think that time spent now keeping him feeling secure and happy will be paid back by a content and happy baby later on. I remember our last baby was the same way and now is such of a card, happy to be running around exploring and entertaining, with only occasional pit stops in my lap. So, in the meantime, I keep taking pictures and collecting little stories in my mind that I think, "When I get a minute or ten, I will go post these pictures and tell these stories. When I get a minute...." So far that minute or ten have been hard to come by, so by the time I actually sit down to tell my tales and post my pictures, I probably won't remember much of anything anymore that I had meant to post but I'm quite confident I will have new stories to tell! :)

Another Quick Story...

Whew! It's sure busy around here!!! Here's another story about the girls' reactions to their little brother's arrival:

After I called my sister's to tell the girls the big news, that we had a BOY, I was having the afore-mentioned conversation (in last post) with our almost-eleven-year-old. Right at the end of the convo, I could tell that everyone else had caught on that we had a boy. I heard my sister say, "A boy! You're kidding!" And then the buzz of the other kids as they were exclaiming over the fact we had a BOY! Then I heard a hoot of laughter from my sister and heard her saying, "Oh no, I'm sure you'll change your mind once you see him!" and something about they'll surely fall in love as soon as they see him....or something like that. I wasn't totally sure what she was saying or what the convo would have been about, although I gathered that there was some less than favorable reception with the news of the arrival of blue (boy).

My sister told me later (now you can correct my recollection of the details if I missed anything or remembered wrong, Joni..):

When our two middle girls (7- and 9-year-old) heard we had a boy, they said, "Aw, you can have him! We don't want a boy...it wrecks our pattern of all girls!" to which Joni had just hooted at and said that they will surely change their minds once they see him. They assured her they wouldn't.

One of them at some point asked her at what age do brothers start being mean, or how old will he be when he starts beating them up or something. She told them that they are so much older than him that he won't likely ever beat them up or be mean to them.

Our 4-year-old said something about him being mean and peeing in their faces. I had told them that one difference with baby boys and baby girls is that baby boys have the capability to pee pretty far and could even get you (the diaper changer) in the face if you're not careful. I had no intention of giving them the impression that boys do this to be mean. I think it started with her asking how we will know if it's a boy or a girl....

At some point the girls decided that they were sure they will get used to having a brother and would be fine with it, and were getting a little anxious to get to the hospital to see him. Then suddenly the 7-year-old had a change of heart and asked my brother-in-law if he would want our baby. My bro-in-law said, sure, he would take him. Our daughter then said, "Then if you guys have a baby girl someday, we could just take her!"

After they came to the hospital to see our little guy, they were instantly in LOVE!!!! They can't get enough of him! The evening they came to pick us up from the hospital, my husband only took two of the girls with him, our 4- and 7-year-old. The 7-year-old wanted to hold the baby the whole time they were there. Then at some point she asked me real quietly, "Mom, how many times do you think Sofi has kissed him in her whole entire life". I figured she wanted to kiss him but wanted to make sure her partner in anti-boys had kissed him too, so she could feel justified in giving him a kiss. I told her, "I'm not sure just how many times she may have kissed him but I know that I've seen her kiss him at least once! (just a teensy white lie)" She smiled and leaned down and gave him a kiss. That was a miracle in itself 'cause that girl don't kiss!!! ANYone!!!

First night home: Those two middle girls wouldn't leave my side until nearly midnight. THey followed me around the house everywhere I went with the baby. They were shooed to bed finally when I was sitting in the basement trying to visit with our oldest daughter. They had a few excuses to come back down, then when they sensed I was getting a bit short with them about not going to bed, they went up and were quiet for a while. Then I heard them whispering pretty close by. I found out they were gazing at the baby through a little hole in the sheetrock. Then they came down one more time to say good night to the baby. They were sitting one on each side of me, just grinning and telling me that since they were the tomboys of the family, they could teach him how to climb trees and dig for worms and find frogs and all the stuff they love doing! Then they decided that they should give him a kiss, one on one cheek, the other on the other cheek, at the same time. They did. Then they went grinning to bed!

Pardon any typos or anything that may not make sense. Baby's crying so I can't even proofread this! :)