DJ-the-almost-preschooler

My first thought when starting this post was, how is it possible that our "Baby #3" is headed to 3-year-old preschool? But, here we are. It's time. DJ is a headstrong kid and affectionate and a sweetheart and a riot and a handful all rolled into one. Unlike the girls, he's perfectly happy to play on his own and "make his own fun," as we say. He loves pretty much all the classics: trains, cars, construction equipment, Transformers, all things Batman or Avengers or other superheroes, dinosaurs...you get the idea. DJ loves his sisters but does NOT love when they tell him what to do. He also does NOT love when terrible things happen to him, such as: he drops something, his hands get sticky, his shirt gets a drop of milk on it, someone looks like they MIGHT want to play with the thing he wants to play with, a dog bumps into him.

In true Wernet-kid form, DJ believes the funniest word in the English language is "eyeball." He loves to make us laugh...usually by saying "eyeball." Soon--very soon--I think he'll enter that awesome helpful-four-year-old phase. Just today, he was very interested in helping with the dinner waffles and when I picked him up from my mom's this morning (he spent the night with grandma and Xander for the first time!) he'd gotten himself dressed. He did have his shorts on backward, though, and when I helped him turn them around, I discovered he was wearing the clean underwear over the other ones. We'll keep working on that.

At the doctors office, DJ weighed in at 34.4 pounds and is 40.5 inches tall--I need to throw those stats in here so we can remember how much he's grown...and compare Eddie someday.

DJ is a wonderful, loving child whom we love enormously. Just thought I'd let that preface the next sentence. When I went to find summer pictures of DJ, I didn't have many. He's one of our "not-yet-proficient" kids when it comes to being photogenic. He is adorable, though.

While the girls were at day camp, DJ and I got to be buddies for a whole week. We did this Avengers puzzle. I said, "DJ, let me take your picture with the cool puzzle." He said, "Okay. I'm going to make this face." And this is what I got.

For Annie's birthday party, the kids dressed up as their favorite princess or in ninja black. DJ wanted to be a baseball player.

Camping. Also, going on a mission to Mars.

Cutie.

Eddie is #1! (Well, #4, but he is 1)

There's something of the miraculous in Eddie. I'm sure there's no way to describe it well, but he was born at the front end of a rather tumultuous time in our lives. He was born early in a summer when Kevin was going through rapid change and new responsibility at work, I was preparing for a new job and in the middle of writing my dissertation, and my family experienced a complete upheaval. The year proved a difficult one overall.

And here was this sweet, content, wonderful baby. I'm not just saying that. It is an objective fact. He's my fourth baby and I have seven nieces and nephews--I've seen many kinds--and Eddie's an easy one. His first morning home from the hospital, he woke up in my arms, looked at me as I sang the "Good Morning" song, and smiled. A real, happy, smile. I know--babies don't smile that early. But it's true. The girls' piano teacher swears her two-weeks-overdue son smiled at the nurses at the hospital, and I never believed her until I saw Eddie do it. And he's hardly stopped since. Kevin's nickname for him is Eddie Smiles.

Not just that--he's also perfectly happy to watch the other kids or entertain himself. If you've ever seen Disney's Phineas and Ferb, Eddie is our Perry. Several times a day while I'm cooking or cleaning or whatever, I realize I don't know what he's up to and I ask the other kids, "Where's Eddie?" And he's just off playing ball or dropping pieces of chalk into empty paint cups or sitting in the dog kennel. I actually would not be surprised if, like Perry the platypus, he's a secret agent.

His favorite place to hang out. I really don't know why.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I would have managed a high-maintenance baby this last year. God knew what he was doing, and His timing was perfect, though it didn't always seem so. He sent us this little guy who just seems to ooze a "life is good" mentality.

And now he's one! As I told Kevin, birthdays just seem to be made for a kid like Eddie. Easy-going and unassuming, he's happy with whatever. It was great to celebrate him for the day.

Eddie was actually pretty grumpy on his birthday (teething), but Kevin managed to get some happy pictures before the complete meltdown.

 Let's see, what else...at his checkup he was 22 lbs. 14 oz. and 30.75 inches tall--not a whole lot bigger than at eight months. He's sleeping better but still wakes up at night. His first words were "ball" and "yum." Funny stuff. Now he mostly says, "Uh oh _____." Like, "Uh oh Daddy," or "Uh oh baseball." Eddie loves his blankie and his big brother and sisters. He loves playing ball. He's not walking yet, but he's been butt-scooting around for months and will crawl when he feels like it. He can climb stairs and get on the couch on his own. He's crazy about brushing his teeth. Aunt Emily is probably his favorite non-parent grownup--they've spent a lot of time together this year, after all.

We're so thankful Eddie's a part of our family, and I can't wait to see what the next year holds!

His first time camping! All he wanted to do was climb in the chairs. 

Chillin' poolside

It took awhile before we noticed Eddie scooping macaroni and cheese out of the dish and into the water glass while out to eat at our family vacation.

These kids

"Be careful how you perceive the world: It is like that."

-- Erich Heller

So, Kevin thinks I have a tendency to pigeon-hole our kids. Like I over-generalize their personality traits. I try to be careful about that. I mean, if there's one thing grad school taught me, it's that the stories we tell about each other significantly contribute to the development of our identities, for better or worse. (Luckily, that's not the one thing grad school taught me. For example, I now now how to save Word files as PDFs. Also, what the words "gerund" and "Glenda Lappan" mean.)

That said, I love to look back on the stories about our kids on this blog. It helps to remember how much they've grown and changed, but it's also telling about their more enduring personality traits. There are just things they say and do and aspects of their "way of being" that are a lot like the things they said and did and were years ago. And you start to see...yeah, they're like that.

Since I've been so bad at keeping up these past few months, it's time to say a bit about each of the kids--my time with them this summer and what they're up to. I'll try not to let my perception define them--but I am their mom, after all. I like to think I know them better than anyone else, plus I'm sure they'll all be in therapy someday because of me, anyway.

They'll each get their own post, but I do want to mention: We kind of have two teams in this family. Yeah yeah, we're all on the same team, but the kids are a little like the puppies on Disney's Lady and the Tramp--some just like the dad and some just like the mom. There's what Nellie calls "Team Wernet," with their strong emotions and sleeping with their eyes open and wanting savory foods for breakfast. The rest of us tend to be pretty easy going and could live on cold cereal until the end of time. In pretty much any fight, I'd predict my team loses, but that's okay.

Actually, Eddie's tough and Annie's scrappy, so maybe we'd hold our own.

I've (still, always) got a little catching up to do

As in, I haven't written a blog post since spring. I'm not sure why--I think that once the dissertation was submitted, I was just burned out on writing much of anything for awhile! Also, it seems that the realities of having four kids (and, you know, several jobs) has set in. There are always, always, always so many things to do and so many needs to meet. I'm not complaining, it's just true. So. Here we are, at the end of July, with few updates these past months. Let's try to hit the highlights.

Spring was fairly uneventful, as I remember. We just kept plugging away at school, and counting down the days to spring break (when all of a sudden time seemed to pass in double time). Uneventful except when I GRADUATED! I can remember a time when, several years in, I quit the program (in my mind) for about the 300th time. I was driving. An image flashed in my head that was basically this picture, though Eddie wasn't even a twinkle in our eyes at the time:

Without fail, seeing this picture makes me think of the verse, "if I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all wisdom and all knowledge...but have not love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2) I actually don't have the gift of prophesy and I can't fathom all knowledge, but I do have love! And a little crazy.

Anyway, the little vision kept me going for another day, which turned into weeks, months, and then years, and finally the day arrived! Graduation was quite surreal, but the parties and celebrations were very fun. There was a bounce house.

We also celebrated Easter in there, and Annie's graduation from kindergarten--I still can't quite believe she'll be a first grader next year.

"O is twisted alley-oop!"

Of course, I suppose I should mention we got a puppy, Bolt. Hmm, what can I say about that? ... Let's go with, it is not the worst thing that ever happened to me.

Nellie, age 8 (!)

How do you feel about being eight?  

Happy, but...happy. Because I get money by babysitting, and it means only two years before I can stay home by myself! [Not so sure about that.]

What kinds of things do eight-year-olds do?   
Babysit! Talk differently. Like, learn different languages.

Do you have a favorite birthday present?
I like all of them, but I really like the gift cards I got, and the money, and the Ever After High Books. I'm talking to you, Grandma Lisa! 

What are you most excited about in the next year?
Learning cursive! [Singsong voice] I like cursive, I want cursive!

Who is your best friend?    
Avery Hartzler. [Annie: Are you sure not anyone else?]

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Everyone who I know. If I know them. Well, in other words, everyone, if I know them. But then again, I like meeting new people, and playing with them, and being friends with them. I especially like playing with my cousins and my siblings.

What kinds of things are you good at?

Reading, sewing, hide-and-seeking, drawing, writing, watching...like bird watching and babysitting and that stuff.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Well that's a hard question, but I want to be a math teacher, and then I want to be a clothes designer. Like I want to earn money by sewing clothes. Like I'll have a little shop and put up signs everywhere so people will come if they have holes in their clothes. 

Why do you want to be a teacher and a seamstress?
Well, I like helping people in my own special way. I really like sewing at this particular moment. This day, and this year. 

What’s your favorite song?   
Well, any song that doesn't have any bad words in it. I really don't like any funeral songs, because they're all sad, and they're about dead people. Well, I like funeral songs that are about God.

Favorite movie?   
The Minion movie, but basically, any movie that doesn't have any bad words in it. [Have you seen movies with bad words in them? N: Yeah. Like "Oh my ___" and "I hate that" and "stupid."]

Favorite book?   

The same thing as the last question. Right now, Ever After High books, and pretty much any chapter books.

Favorite color?   
Green-blue.

Favorite place to be?

Usually home, but if it's someplace like a hotel--that's my favorite place to be. Or Aunt Pam's, or any place you can swim.

What are your favorite things to do?  Let me guess--swim?
Swim, read, sew, draw. I really like to draw. I like to knit, but I've only knit one thing, and it kind of turned into a disaster.

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
Um, well, like I said, I really like to sew and I hope that can make good abilities out of me. I like to sew and knit, then I can give them away to people who don't have enough clothes. And if I get rich someday, I can give them money.

Annie, age 6

How do you feel about being six?  

Good.

What kinds of things do six-year-olds do?   
This one's really funny--watch TV!

What do they watch on TV?
[Giggling] Phineas and Ferb?

What are you most excited about in the next year?
First grade!

What are you excited about for first grade?
Girl Scouts!

Who is your best friend?    
Hmm. Robynne. Nellie. And my baby brother, Eddie. Eddie's one of my best, favorite babies. Mama. [In the background, DJ's yelling, "what, NOT ME?" Annie said he's one of her "suffocating friends." Poor guy.] 

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Mommy, Eddie, and Nellie! Sometimes DJ.

What kinds of things are you good at?

[Laughing uncontrollably] Watching TV! Working on puzzles. Helping people. Cooking. [Nellie: I have three things. One, sewing. Two, reading. Three, doctoring.]

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A doctor. Wait. First a teacher, then a doctor.

Why do you want to be a teacher?
Because I want to follow my mom's footsteps and work at MSU. I might even go to it for school someday.

What’s your favorite song?   
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

What's your favorite food?
Fudge brownie goldfish.

Favorite movie?   
The Minion Movie!

Favorite book?   

Harold and the Purple Crayon. 

Favorite color?   
Purple!

Favorite place to be?

Heaven. But I've never been there before. [How about your favorite place that you have been?] School.

What are your favorite things to do?   
Watch TV. Play on the iPad.

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
That I'm jealous of my sister. Because she has diving rings!

Hello, spring

Wow, it has been ages since I've last posted. Life! Crazy! Soon I'll catch up. But first, this little story from Annie, which unfolded over the afternoon and evening.

Annie's story, Phase 1:
She found a robin's egg at recess! No, she didn't show it to her teacher. But she did show it to her friends. It was blue and it was pretty.

Annie's story, Phase 2:
There was a real yolk inside the egg! Yes, it broke. She wasn't sure it was real, so she broke it. It was real. One of her friends buried it.

Annie's story, Phase 3:
"Mom, can I tell you something that's kind of funny and kind of gross? When I found the robin's egg I thought it was Easter candy. So I took a bite of it. I didn't really get any in my mouth, though. I threw it on the ground."

"Oh....um....[how am I supposed to respond to this? I don't want to freak her out, but it's so funny! And so gross!]...next time you find something that looks like candy on the playground, even if it really is candy, please don't eat it."

"Okay."