Walking Everywhere

My littlest buddy is officially walking more than crawling.  Drew's like a little Frankenstein walking around the house saying "No no no" everywhere he goes.  He is looking more like Brian than the rest these days too.

Floating Head

Drew needed a haircut pretty badly.  I strapped him into his portable highchair since the back is lower.  When I put the cover on him we all had a good laugh at his expenses since he looked like nothing but a head.  Genna started quoting Wizard of Oz.  "How dare you question the great and powerful Wizard of Oz!"

This is how we entertained the floating head and kept him still so I could shave his hair...Cheerios.

Drew is walking a lot more now.  If I set him down he will always stand and walk first before falling or sitting down to crawl.  Sometimes he will walk the whole way to where he is going.  He walks more when we are home with just family which I remember he did that for a while when he started crawling as well.  He has been saying "No no" and "Oh no" a lot lately which is understandable since he hears it so much all day long.  There's not much else to say to a kid who doesn't play with toys and is always finding danger.  Th only toys he will play with for more than a few seconds are balls and swords.  He is loving the sword fights.  He is also down to 2 nursings a day and takes two 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps fairly regularly.  He goes to bed at 7:30pm sharp and is up between 5:30 and 6am without fail.  He still doesn't like books much, but his favorites are the scanimation (moving) book and a puppet book we have.  Drew is still not a cuddler (although Daddy gets more than his fair share of cuddling from him somehow) and daily pushes his siblings little hands away if they get too touchy. 

I got them matching pjs.  I just couldn't resist.  Isaac needed more and Drew certainly did not, but they were on sale and so cute.  Pirates are a big deal around here these days.

A Monk's Meal

The Story of the World 2 activity book is just full of great ideas to add to our study of the Middle Ages.  This time the kids dressed up like monks in very simple robes made from cut up brown shirts of daddy's.  They made clay cross necklaces (which you may or may not be able to see in the picture below- they blend in with the robes.)  These didn't actually ever harden the way I was expecting so that was a bummer.  Two have already broken.  Brian really got into this and tied rosaries around their twine belts and brought some Gregorian chant music for the meal.  He even lit a candle.  Genna also was fully in character telling us we should even have a silent meal like the monks did.  You can imagine how well this worked, but it was a much quieter dinner than usual.  Even Drew was quieter we noticed.  When Genna realized that the silent eating wasn't going to happen she suggested that we only talk about God if we were going to talk.  Hannah thought we should eat on pillows, so she filled each seat with a pillow.

The meal consisted of home-made (crock-pot) lentil soup, bread with butter (we pretended we were monks on holiday,) an assortment of cheeses, apple slices, and apple cider.  Isaac was the only one who didn't like the soup, but he doesn't like any soup.  Even Drew liked it.

They are already asking when we can do this again. 

Harper's Ferry Day Trip

We spent Saturday afternoon in Harper's Ferry with some old friends.  Our kids had never met before, but they had a great time together just as I suspected they would.  They only had girls, and my girls were in heaven.  Poor Isaac though!  Really he is a good sport about it, but I know he gets bored especially the time when they all went into a jewelry shop to look around.

You feel sorry for the cutie, don't you?  He's thinking, "Man, I wish there was a store full of weapons for me to look at."

 Poor Drew didn't ever give in and take his afternoon nap while we were there.  I was really surprised about that, but I guess there was too much fun happening to even recline in the stroller.  He sat ramrod straight the whole time, and never even leaned back.

I've been wanting to do this forever!

Before picture

 Cover our old highchair, that is.  Well, not forever, but for a few months at least.  We are a little overly dramatic around here.  This highchair has been around for 8 years now and through 4 kids.  It is looking pretty gross.  The highchair is in great condition minus one wheel not locking and the ugly old seat pad.  So I have been putting old towels under Drew so I could shake out the mess every evening, but even this is getting tiresome.  I want something more wipe-able than the one we have which has too many creases to wipe easily and stains when covered in pasta sauce. 

After picture

 To make it, I used the old seat pad to cut my fabric to the right shape.  I was in a hurry so that I could finish it in one afternoon nap time.  In hindsight I should have cut the fabric even bigger so that it wrapped around the back of the pad more.  I used elastic to get it to fit around the seat pad.  I used a clear shower curtain liner for under $3 to put over the fabric and make it easy to clean (I am going to use the left overs to cover all my cloth bibs one of these days.) 

Looks pretty good all put together.  Now we'll have to see if it passes the "Drew test."

 Drew is very messy.  Our messiest baby yet.  Many a night he goes straight from the highchair to the sink for a quick bath.  I literally take his clothes and diaper off before taking him out of the chair.  Want to see what I am talking about?

It was in his hair and all the way down to his toes.

But don't worry, he cleans up nice! 

Anyway back to my new chair, I will have to post later on how functional this thing is.  You would hope that I would be an expert on this stuff and would have thought of everything, but I was in a hurry so you never know.

I've always loved this fabric.  I've had some left over for a long while and hadn't found the right use for it until now.  It goes well with our kitchen colors and is gender neutral.  I have it covering the old seat pad right now because otherwise there would be no padding at all.

Science Experiments: Weather

Genna's holding the anemometer.  The rain gauge and weather vane are on the rail between the girls.

 We are studying weather and keeping a weather journal this month.  We have made a rain gauge, weather vane, and an anemometer out of household items.  I wish we had more time for science.  We could spend hours on this stuff! 

Isaac was sad that he didn't get weather journal pages too, so I suggested (since he has been majorly into drawing lately) that he draw the rain gauge instead.  Here are his rain gauge drawings.  I guess yellow wasn't the best color to draw with, but I love how he drew the funnel at the top, the marbles, and the bumpy bottom of the 2 liter bottle.  The top picture he started to cross out, but I thought it was good.  He is a perfectionist though.

Are Isaac's muscles are getting bigger?

Isaac and Drew had their 1 and 4 year well checks on Monday.  This means that it was time for shots also. I decided that I would be a bit more cautious about the immunizations that I got for them.  I passed on a couple to do more research on them and then decided that the chicken pox was not something I wanted to get anymore.  Anyway, I say all this to tell you that Isaac got 2 shots in one arm (combined 7 immunizations into those two shots.)  Drew just had one in his leg.  Isaac came up to me the next day saying, "Mom, this is so cool.  Look, my muscles are getting bigger!"  I turn around to see his muscles, and I saw a swollen arm that was red and felt hot.  This at first alarmed me, but later I have had many the random smiles and giggles thinking of how cute he was thinking his muscles were getting bigger.  I showed the arm (swollen and red about the diameter of an apple) to Brian.  A conversation followed about at what point I should be concerned.  Isaac's shoulders slump and he says dejectedly, "Oh, I thought my muscles were getting bigger."  I just want to squeeze that cutie!

I was not very on top of things and didn't write down or really even listen to their height and weight very closely.  I think that Drew was 22.5 pounds and 32 inches.  I could be off a bit.  Drew's percentiles, according to that info in an online calculator, are 95% height and 50% weight.  Drew has lost weight from all his illnesses in the last month, but just a pound from my estimation.  I think Isaac was 40 pounds and 45 inches.  He is about 80% for weight and 95% for height.

While getting the immunizations Drew decided to make it a tradition to fall out of his stroller.  (He fell out of his stroller when Isaac hung on the rails while we were about to get our flu shots last year.  He slept through it all and didn't hit the ground or anything.  He fell from the infant seat into the big kid part of the stroller when it flipped.)  This time he was strapped in, but the top part of the five point harness was broken.  I was standing right there and talking to the nurse when I heard something that caught my attention.  Drew was sitting on the ground next to the stroller.  No idea how he got out, but he wasn't hurt so he must not have landed on his head.  What a monster!  I guess I need to get on that mending the five point harness.  Better yet, I'll just get him a straight jacket or something.  I've heard duct tape is very strong.

First Sword Fight Between Brothers

I technically didn't get the very first sword fight, but here is the one that ensued when I went to grab the camera.  It's a shame I missed the first one because Drew was standing up for that one, and it was so cute!  He is growing up!

My Girls

 I found these long dresses on sale and thought they were just too cute to pass up.  I love long dresses, and Hannah does too since she doesn't have to wear leggings with them.  Genna will take any dress anytime.  I think the girls just looked so sweet in them that I had to take a bunch of pictures of them in our backyard.  Just had to do it! 

This is one of my favorites.  Genna is a hugger and a kisser, but Hannah is not. 

Happy birthday, again!

The progression of the first birthday cakes from Hannah to Drew is pretty pitiful.  I had big plans for Drew's cake, but both my mom and husband strongly recommended that I save that idea for next year when he might actually notice.  Hannah's first birthday cake took me the whole day to make and decorate.  It was a giant castle, and we had more left overs than could ever be eaten.  Genevieve's was just a circle cake decorated as a big flower.  Isaac got cupcakes that had mint footballs on them.  Poor Drew, #4, gets a plain old cake with cream cheese frosting and malted milk balls crushed on top.

We had a quiet celebration at home on Saturday evening for his birthday with our neighbors.  I made bbq brisket sandwiches, green beans, and cake.  Nothing fancy.  We ate outside because the weather was beautiful.  (If only there weren't so many mosquitoes!  Shouldn't they be gone by now?)  Drew enjoyed the cake much more this time.  I'll tell myself it is because this cake was made with love. 

"All this for me?  Again?  Are we doing this whole deal everyday now?"

Drew actually ate his whole piece of cake this time.  He wasn't nearly as messy this time, but he still needed to be shuffled up to the tub right away.

First Soccer Practice

Isaac was super excited to gear up for soccer!

A friend came and took him to soccer since her son is on the team too.  I am so glad this worked out for him because so much is done for the girls these days.  I couldn't drive to one more activity every week.  So when I heard his buddy would be playing soccer then I was very happy.  Plus, it is just skills practice and no games which we needed because of German Saturday school.

Celtic Crafts

 This week we studied the Celts.  So we did some crafts to go along with the theme.  They made Celtic cloaks with cardboard brooches and a cardboard Celtic axe.

Celtic cloaks and brooches!

We only had one gift wrap cardboard tube, so they could only make one double sided Celtic axe.

It's hard to tell, but she went into my scraps and made her Pooh Bear a matching cloak as well.

Don't forget the boy in Pre- K!

When I wrote my post on my plans for the year and my curriculum, I completely left Isaac out.  That is mainly because this will be a repeat for me, but also because his curriculum and schedule is so simple.  It took no work to prepare.  He is starting back with the 100 Easy Lessons book that he started at the end of last year.  He is on lesson 28 now.  He is practicing writing his letters too.  I got a CD from Handwriting Without Tears that is kind of cute to put on while he writes a million letters.  I imagine I'll only have him write letters once a week so he doesn't get sick of it unless this seems to slow a pace.  he loved it so far!  For math I have a couple of preK workbooks and I have the Kindergarten A Singapore workbook, but this will be only when I have time and only if he seems to like it.  Once he is reading and can read directions on his own, I will let him do a little everyday just like Genna did.

He is also included, of course, in whatever he is interested in that the girls are doing.  I think history (middle ages, knights!) and the science (geology and astronomy) will interest him from time to time.  He learns the memory work without even trying, but he has been sitting in while we practice it lately.  He already knows their new poem just by being there when they practiced it last week. When they get stuck, he chimes in to help them out.

The Big One!

 One Year Old Update on Drew

After a berry good dinner!  Unfortunately, this was taken right before he learned to take off his bib.

Troubles
Drew is having a very hard time in Mass for the last two weeks.  He may be on his way to beating Hannah as the family's worst behaved baby in church.  The only reason I say he would beat Hannah is because she was at least good if you stood in the back for a while and the returned to your seat at this age.  He still cries and squirms some days, and I have to stand out in the foyer with a crying squirming baby the rest of Mass.  A good summary of Drew right now is, "Great sleeper, great car traveler, great eater, bad airplane traveler, and awful mass attender." In fact, on his birthday after Mass some daily Mass friends of ours came up to him and said, "Your brother was not like you at all when he was little!  He sat and was so quiet!"  They meant no harm, they were just stating the truth!  Father Charlie gave him a birthday blessing and then made a point of telling me how glad he is that we come to daily Mass and how it must be hard for me to get them all up and there at 8am.  I replied, "Oh, that's the easy part!" because it so is!  We are now moving from the front pew to the back for daily Mass, at least, so I can not be a visual distraction to everyone as well as a noisy one.
On top of that issue, he has begun little tantrums as well.  Aah, can't I have my sweet boy back?  Where does the time go?

Physical Development
I was expecting him to be walking everywhere right now, but he is not.  I guess his illnesses slowed him down.  He is such a fast crawler.  He just drops and crawls when he really needs to get somewhere fast.
He has said a few new words this past week, but they don't come easy.  They are "Hi" (only to the phone) and "Night night" (only once to his daddy.)  His lack of words and signs is incredibly frustrating to me since I have always had talkers.  He will sign "More" if I start the sign for him by pushing one hand toward the other.  I know he understands so much because he will look at whatever I am talking about.  If I ask him if he wants a drink and he does, he will look intently at the cup.  If I ask him if he will help me turn out the lights, he looks over at the light switch.  You get the picture.  I just wish he would try to talk or sign!
 We have been working on body parts.  He seems to know nose, tongue, feet, and belly button.  You have to catch him at the right moment though or he is absorbed in what he is doing and will not respond.  He is no performer like the other three!

Nutrition/Eating
He is a great eater and eats almost everything.  Many times he eats things as fast as I can get them on his tray which leaves me little time to eat my own meal.  He is drinking water and whole milk from a sippy cup.  He is still nursing three times a day before meals. 

Sleeping
He is doing great with sleep.  He must be in a growth spurt or something right now, because he is sleeping so much more than usual.  He started fighting the bedtime routine AGAIN this week, but had been doing well with it for a good while before that.  Even when he fights the routine part, he usually settles down during the song.  Even if he doesn't settle down for the song though, he lays right down when I put him in his bed. I guess I can't complain.

My Birthday Boy

Drew was not the least bit interested in his gifts before they were opened for him.

 Drew turned one year old today!  I can not believe how time seems to speed up as I get older.  I remember being so overdue with Speck just a year ago, and now he's my big one year old Drew!

He was a little cranky on his birthday.  I was lucky to get all the good shots of him below.  I took him outside by himself, and that seemed to do the trick.  (By the way, he is holding the gifts Hannah made him.  She made clothespin men for him, a football player and the Green Lantern.)

 The kid's made the sweetest gifts for Drew.  They came up with the ideas all by themselves.  I helped Isaac with his gift.  He made a ball out of crumbled paper and duct tape.  Genna made a sword out of paper towel rolls and duct tape.  Hannah made the clothes pin men and a sports mobile (using a hanger and drawing different sport's balls on paper to hang.)   Very sweet and, truth be told, he will probably play more with them than the gifts that I got him.  He is not much of a toy guy. 

Drew had his first peanut butter and banana sandwich on his birthday!  He ate half a sandwich, noodles, broccoli, salsa, crackers, almost a whole banana, and some string cheese.  I told you he can eat!

Brian and I gave him a wooden Melissa & Doug butterfly shape puzzle, Magformers, and Little Pim German DVDs.  I also got him a cuddly horse with a mini blankie attached.  Isaac still sleeps with his horsey, and when I saw this cute one in Red River this summer I picked it up for him. 

He learned to get on and ride his car by himself.

Gotta have a pj shot!  This was just too cute!

Good night milk!

His real birthday cake will be on Saturday night.  It's too hard to make a cake on a school day.  So we got him his first piece of cake at the store...a Little Debbie Cupcake.

As is typical of one year olds, he destroyed it and didn't eat much of it.  I expected different of this guy since he eats till he pops usually.

Drewy, we love you so much!  I wish you wouldn't grow up so fast!  Thank you for being my busy little boy with no fear!  You are so independent.  Your brother and sisters are anxiously awaiting the day when you will let them hug and kiss on you without screaming or pushing them away.  :)  You make us laugh a lot!  And your laugh is adorable and contagious!  Here's to another great year with you in our family!