Birthday boy season

As usual, we went one day to the next from Christmas season to birthday season. Kevin turned 34 on Saturday and DJ turned 3 on Sunday! Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Kevin on his birthday, but here's a future classic shot of Eddie trying to wrestle Grandma Linda's beer from her.

Three-year-old boys are decidedly fun. Following in the footsteps of his eldest sister, DJ has a silly, boisterous personality. He's energetic and appreciates a good joke. But boys are...different. For example, he never stops climbing on me or otherwise showing aggressive affection. Case in point, Christmas morning while I was passing out gifts:

DJ loves lots of new things, like superheroes and sport of all kinds, but especially football and baseball. He puts on a cowboy hat (?) and pretends to play "football guys." Another favorite is playing "fighting guys" with Kevin. He loves fire trucks and garbage trucks, though he's working on that "tr" sound so there's a lot of the f-word around here. When we go to Meijer, DJ pretends he's a garbage man and insists on riding on the side of the cart, or "on the truck wheel," as the case may be.

He's a little obsessed with the iPad, and he is not fond of cold weather. He melts down at the drop of a hat (or the drop of a sippy cup, or a single Cheerio, or a crayon). DJ does not love sharing with Otto. But we're working on those things. Every day with DJ brings a new skill, a new trick, a new word, a new adventure. These are fun days!

DJ, let me take your birthday picture. [Hides under blanket.]

DJ, what kind of face is that? DJ: A happy birthday face.

Gotham City Jail

The asked-for football cake

DJ, age 3

How do you feel about being three?  

Birthday, and presents, and Santa!

What kinds of things do three-year-olds do?   
Happy birthday! [Jumps up and pumps fist.] Say hi to Santa. I mean, say "ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas."

What are you most excited about for the next year?
Presents. Presents! All the presents! All presents! All!

Who is your best friend?    
You [Mom] and Annie.

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Annie and Nellie. Because they are my favorite sisters!

What kinds of things are you good at?

Playing trains, bringing juice upstairs. It's too, too heavy! Playing football, being a fireman! Fire f*$@! [Fire truck.]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Cowboy. Horse.

Why do you want to be a cowboy or a horse?
Because I'm a cowboy when I grow up! [Starts nudging me in the face with his foot and saying "punch, punch. Hey Mommy! Punch, punch."

What’s your favorite song?   
OLD MCDONALD!

Favorite movie?   
Ariel. That baby one when her mom dies and they found all the treasure and the mom.

Favorite book?   

I like to read that Green Eggs and Ham!

Favorite color?   

Orange and green.

What are some things you like to play?   
Cowboys, horsie, Batman, Spiderman, jail [he got the Gotham City Jail for his birthday]. With you!

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
Chocolate chips. Pretzel hats. Don't put them in the oven when you're eating them at Grandma Linda's. [Is that your favorite food?] Uh-huh! And macaroni and cheese.

Eddie stats

A week before his 2-month check-up, we lost our health insurance and had to cancel Eddie's appointment. Little did I know how long it would take to get covered...anyway, we went back to the doctor at 6 months knowing our little guy isn't so little. Eddie is 29 inches long, 19 lbs and 12 ounces, and has a head circumference of 18.3 inches.

Interestingly, he is the same weight to the ounce as DJ was at the same age! So he might be a couple of years behind, but Eddie is on track.

He's still about the sweetest baby I've ever met, though I discovered that he makes a terrible patient when he had a cold last week, waking up crying every half hour and not going back to sleep without pacing and singing. He can sit up well, will bounce in the Jumparoo for a long time, and is quiet and observant. He LOVES his big brother and sisters and laughs primarily for them. Eddie has tried some foods, and seems to like peas the best! He loves music, and will calm down and go to sleep whenever Kevin sings to him. We're excited for his first Christmas--he's definitely been the highlight of our year!

Thanksgiving weekend 2014

Pam's house. Zoo. Brunch at Cracker Barrel.

My best helper making whipped cream

Alexa found a deer

Nellie says she's the Indian chief...?

Watching a movie. In the background, you can see that Annie decorated Pam's house with streamers.

Nothing beats a Gull Lake sunrise 

That bright spot by DJ's head is a moose's eye. The rest of the family did their best moose call and it worked. 

Acorn races

Best cousins sharing water

Like shoveling in a snowstorm

I'm saying this as a matter of fact, not out of bitterness. I picked up and vacuumed this room minutes before taking the picture. Bonus shot of DJ-the-dog-catcher "catching" himself with the butterfly net.

I can't even

He fell asleep tucked into Kevin's jacket while we took a walk. I see Alex/Robynne/Alexa in this picture!

Nellie's assessment of Eddie

Nellie has been very impressed by Eddie's first tooth. On discovering today that he can sit up for a few seconds at a time, she very seriously announced, "Wow. This is not your average baby!"

My perception might be a little skewed, of course, but I quite agree.

Remember this day

Lately, I've been feeling the weight of all the stuff I've got going on. Just getting out of the house in the morning (at 7:00 a.m., with four kids and all their gear) feels like a full-time job. I worry about the kids, I hate leaving Eddie. I still don't really understand middle schoolers, parents don't like the way I teach. My dissertation will just not write itself, and I feel like I'll never finish it in 30 minutes per day.

But then comes along a day like today. DJ greets me with his, "good mwoh-ning." We make it to school in time despite the snowy weather. The kindergarteners got to serve the high schoolers a "Thanksgiving feast" for hot lunch, so I bought my lunch and Annie served me cranberry sauce. I got to hear her veeeeery quietly ask teenagers if they wanted any fruit, and then they sang songs and recited poems in Native American outfits. She was barely tapping on her drum and not singing at all until she saw me smiling and waving like a madwoman.

And then after school I picked up the girls, then the boys, and Eddie has his first tooth! I didn't even know he was teething, he's so sweet. He was just a little fussy and didn't sleep well yesterday.

Then we went to church and had pizza and the kids raced their derby cars. Everyone was well-behaved and ate all their food. Nellie told everyone she saw about Eddie's tooth, and Annie went without me even saying anything to get me another of my favorite cookies. Even DJ raced a car (with no paint or stickers on it--he was much too busy playing to decorate it), and Annie won 1st place for her age group. Nellie wasn't the best sport about losing, but she got over it, and wanted to pray tonight for the girl who will get her Operation Christmas Child box, and told me about how she holds a drawing each night for her mini beanie babies (who are neatly lined up on the side of the top bunk) to see which one gets to snuggle with her.

This is our life, made up of these days, and I want to remember them.

Sweet Annie, Part 2 (or 3? 4?)

Here are a few exemplary Annie quotes from today:

Stoically, on learning of the untimely death of one of Kevin's teenage campers-turned-counselor: "Here is why no one should ever tell me about someone dying, especially one of our people, or dogs--it makes me sad."

"Mom, if the Tigers were playing agains the Lions, who would you vote for?" [I explained that although that couldn't really happen because they play different sports, I would cheer for the Tigers.] "Oh. I would vote for both of them. If they were trying their best, I would be like, 'good job, both teams!'"

"I'm so glad my boyfriend ____ is still in my class." Me: Is he your boyfriend because he's a boy and he's your friend, or because, you know, you want to marry him or something? Annie: "Because he's my friend and he's a boy. But Nellie has a boyfriend, too, and she wants to marry him. Isn't that silly?"

I love you, weekend

Now that I'm working away from home five days a week, weekends have taken on a whole new wonderfulness. I've been practicing the mental discipline of not being sad on Sunday night, but instead being thankful that another weekend will come soon. Not that weekdays or so bad or anything. They're just...blurry. Weekends are kind of necessary, and great.

Here are a few fun things from our weekend:

DJ pretended to be Oscar the Grouch most of Friday afternoon, which involved sitting in the laundry hamper with his blanket and the iPad with the lid closed. Kevin picked up the girls from school and Nellie and I played checkers and learned a new game--Rat-a-Tat-Cat. She proved to be a worthy opponent! Everybody was happy at dinnertime and we played lots of rounds of "I'm thinking of something." I think my favorite was Annie's "something," which was a particular Minion from Despicable Me 2. Saturday was Fall Fest at Lansing Christian. We made it on time--early, even! Nellie ran her first 5K with Kevin and I survived the one-mile fun run with Annie. It was FREEZING but at least it didn't start raining until we crossed the finish line. There were two bouncers and a laser tag inflatable, face painting, pizza, crafts, a cupcake walk, cotton candy, book fair, and pumpkin patch, so...good times were had by all. We came home for naps, sports, and lesson planning, then it was off to Grandma's for an overnight with Xander.

That meant s'mores in the fireplace and lots of outdoor play, and a quiet night at home for Kevin and I. Sunday was quiet; Kevin left before dawn to hunt, so after church it was just me and the kids. More games, more football, more naps.

As hard as this year has been and will be just in terms of logistics and time management, I think we're finally settled in and getting used to the routine. But with all the fall fun, weekends are the best.

This is actually from the next weekend...it took me a week to finish this post! And so it goes.

Our first family picture since Eddie was born!

Annie had the idea to get her face painted like a fox, and the others followed suit.

Fox family

Another fun day of American Heritage

A full day at one of my favorite places with my favorite people!

Before we left - they love their baby brother

Learning to play checkers upstairs at the Moon cabin

Wagon ride with Emily, Otto, and Grandma

They could have watched the trains all day

Ice cream!

Trying out the teepee. Not sure what's going on with the pose.

A happy Eddie is better than Prozac

I know, I'm biased. But he is seriously the happiest baby ever, and that makes him the cutest. I tried to get a picture of him while he was full of smiles, talking, and laughter, but he also kicks around a lot so it was hard to get a picture!

But then he kicked himself to sleep so I finally captured a shot. I told him it's not safe sleeping practice to sleep on a nice cozy down comforter with his favorite blanket, but he likes to live dangerously.

Things Two-and-a-half-year-old DJ Says

DJ's vocabulary seems to be growing exponentially, along with his general enthusiasm for life. He's particularly interested in talking about anything related to bathrooms.

I was Skyping with my friend Jerilynn the other day, and I (re)introduced her to DJ. He said, "Hi. Do you have a potty there?"

At church: "Wow, this is an amazing potty! It has a flusher, and toilet paper..."

In every single public restroom we walk into: "This potty not flush by itself. This potty flushes by itself? The potty at McDonalds flushes by itself." [We had a traumatic automatic flush experience at the Grand Ledge McDonalds.]

DJ's also fond of the word, "actually" and the phrase, "all right." When I told him we were going to visit Papa John's house, he exclaimed, "Papa John? I love Papa John, actually!" He walks around saying things like, "I'm a big boy, all right" in a very matter-of-fact way.

He's terribly cute, and he knows it. When we got back from John's after a five-hour drive, I discovered that he'd spilled a large bag of trail mix all over his seat and the floor of the car.
     Me: Oh no! DJ, did you do this on purpose? [He smiles and giggles.] DJ, did you do this on accident, or on purpose? Accident, or purpose?
     DJ, grinning: I love you, Mom!

First days of school

It was a long-awaited day for Nellie. Here's what we'd been hearing:

"I wish it wasn't just Meet the Teacher. I wish it were the first day of school!"
"I wish I didn't have to go to bed. I wish I could go to school!"
"I wish it wasn't Friday, I wish it was Tuesday so I could go to school!"

In this series of pictures, note Nellie's irritation about the first photo, then lots of talking about how we should get our picture taken, then her chance to choose her own poses, finally.

Wednesday was Annie's first day--it was great! I think that between preschool and camp, and the fact that I'm in the building, made it pretty uneventful for her (and me, though I still got misty-eyed.)

As you look at these pictures, imagine us saying things like, "Okay, now hug each other. No Nellie, you're squishing her. Just put your arms around each other. Move your arm, Nellie, we can't see Annie's face. No, put your arm down. Just stand normally. Look happy about it! Seriously, smile. Okay, now do what you want." Let's just say, these are the best pictures we got.

Now do this, Annie.

Now do this, Annie.