What's Happening?

A lot and not much, all at the same time.  There are so many adorable moments throughout our day, but my tired pregnant mommy brain doesn't seem to be able to hold onto them long enough to get them on this blog lately.

This week the three big kids went to VBS at a neighboring parish every morning until lunchtime.  They LOVED it!  When I would pick them up, they all tried to tell me everything they did at the same time.  Super cute, although not very effective since I caught very few details the first time around.  They sang songs and made tons of crafts.

Ready for the first day of VBS!

The kids had to bring water bottles to VBS so Drew insisted on having a water bottle as well.

Drew was super sad to leave them (and to be left out of the fun- he totally wanted to stay in Ite's (AKA Isaac's) classroom) the first day, but he got better each day once he got the routine down and figured out that it meant lots of mommy time.  I spent two days running errands and two days fixing up the homeschool room.

The other morning was spent at the doctor's office since I am down to the weekly appointments now.  Can you believe I am 3 weeks away from my due date and that this baby is the size of a watermelon?  I can believe the watermelon part, but how can I possibly be at the end of my pregnancy?  The baby's room is not ready.  My lesson plans are not completed.  I have badges to sew on vests, mending to do, a birthday party to plan and make happen.  Haircuts!  We all need our pre-baby haircuts.  So little time, so much to do, and so big a watermelon I must carry as I do it.  You should see my computer desk.  It is surrounded by homeschool books all opened and stacked so that I can work on my detailed lesson plans in every spare moment in which I haven't collapsed on the couch.  I don't know how I got so behind.  This is supposed to be the part where I get to just be uncomfortable and chill, not have to cram for the baby's arrival.  Okay, mini panic attack over...Reality check.  My babies are nearly always late, so I still have time.  Probably.

In other news, Hannah got a sty in her eye and had a major melt down over going to piano when "she didn't feel good."  I was a mean mom and made her go anyway.  I felt badly the whole time and then the minute we walked in the door at home she declares that she actually "feels much better."  I didn't even have my shoes off yet.
Genna sang us a beautiful song one morning about what a great day it was going to be and how the next one would be even better.
Isaac has been grounded indefinitely from TV until he can consistently show first time obedience and respect for a couple of days in a row.  He got a spanking from Daddy one night and the next day he was a "new man."  I made a huge deal out of how well he behaved that day, and he said, "I think I need spankings from Dad more often so he can send the obedience back up to my head."  Isaac is also super close to riding his bike without training wheels all on his own.  He is also swimming pretty well.  He just needs to master that side breathing.
Drew had a fever last week of 104, but has been healthy this week.  He is not eating super well these days, but I suppose that is timed about right since he is almost two.  He is currently obsessed with dinosaurs, bats, balls, swords, bikes, and motorcycles.  He loves to swim all over the pool in his puddle jumper (his flotation device) and is no longer nervous about the swimming pool at all which means more work for me, but I am glad he is such a brave soul.  He is super dramatic and quite the comedian.  Where are all these outgoing kids coming from?
Daddy has been studying 10 hours a day for his board exams, but has still made time to play baseball with the boys, go to the pool for a self-declared family fun night, and to help me with a few details in the baby's room.  We have still not come up with a name for Baby Tad, but it isn't entirely his fault.  I am clinging to my favorite name as if my life depended on it.

We have baking to do, a special visitor coming this weekend, a daddy/husband who still has 10 more hours of studying to do this weekend, Chemistry experiments to catch up on, posters to make for AHG badges, and the list just goes on.  So here comes another busy weekend where I am going to get a late start on since I am up at 12:30am when I should be sleeping while I still can.  So good night!  My memory foam mattress is calling my name.

Another Tooth Gone!

Genna's missing both her top front teeth now!

That tooth has been hanging down and driving me nuts since the other tooth came out.  She looked like a hillbilly or something.  Brian tried to thump it out a couple times one night which just made it worse and it just didn't seem quite ready to come out easily.  The next morning, he gave it another try and it came out.  I stay out of this tooth business since I had most of my teeth pulled by a dentist with laughing gas.  I am a wuss about teeth.  Don't know how all my children have been so brave about it so far.

Art Camp

 We live in an area currently that has so many educational opportunities, like their German Saturday School, not to mention the millions of museums and battlefields, etc.  However, I have had a really hard time finding a quality art program for Hannah.  I am not sure if this is because of her young age or what.  All the ones we have tested out have ended up being too crafty or just not advanced enough for her.  We did Drawing with Children at home and so she has had the break down of shapes and lines instruction.  What I was looking for was something like I had when I was little where you learn to see the object you are drawing differently, notice details, and learn how to draw those things.  The stage Hannah is at right now is where she can draw reasonable looking people and animals, but they tend to look the same in each picture.  She needs to learn to distinguish features and learn how to translate that onto paper.  The art camp she was just in a week ago was more of the same.  Although she came home with a few good pictures, when I asked how they drew them, it turned out it was more of line by line instruction.  That's fine, but that's what I do with her.

Here are the things of which I was less pleased.  Too crafty and certainly no emphasis on drawing skills involved.

A little watercolor at home...

Hannah has been at golf camp all week which she thoroughly enjoyed.  I didn't go out to the driving range or putting green with her, so no pictures of that!

Drewy the Lil' Monster

Drew is very interested in the potty these days.  He wants me to read the potty books and he begs to be taken to the potty at restaurants when his siblings have to go.  I tell him, "Sorry, Buddy, you can practice that at home."  And so he has been.  I just have to include this adorable picture of him practicing sitting on the potty in the kitchen.  Hope it doesn't embarrass him too badly when he is all grown up!

Drew is definitely not really ready to potty train.  He is just starting to show interest in learning about it.  I am sure we are a long way off.  It doesn't hurt to read about it and sit on it from time to time.  Prep work for the real deal one day when he is closer to 2 1/2 years old.

Drew calls Isaac "Ite" which is adorable.  He has also been putting two words together for the last month or so.  The girls kept telling me he was saying "Get ball" for the longest time, but then he started adding more and more combinations.  I would say we are still on the one word communication more often than not, but at least we are moving in the right direction.  He is very good about adding hand motions or sound effects to help us know what he is talking about if we can't decipher what he is saying.  For example, he was saying "done" and pointing to the car.  I didn't know what he was talking about and when he realized I had no clue, he added a gun sound and shot a pretend gun with his hand.  He had seen a toy gun before I closed the van door.  He was saying "gun."  Another time he was saying "apple," but it didn't make sense in the context of the situation so I wasn't sure if that's what he was really saying.  He then points to Genna's teeth and says it again.  Then I made the connection that we had been just talking about Genna loosing her tooth and he remembered the time when she tried to bite into the apple to help her tooth come out.  He was the one in  the end that got to eat that apple.  Funny how he relates things!

The Boys' Rooms

Saturday night we officially moved Drew into Isaac's room.  I need to paint the baby room before my parents get here and I want it free as a guest room this summer so out he went.  I figured they would need the summer to get used to the new arrangement.

So far it has been fine and the only downfall I see is that Drew is waking Isaac up every morning when Isaac used to sleep in from time to time to catch up on his sleep since he doesn't nap really anymore.

I had Brian remove the closet doors that always got stuck and we moved the shrunk from Germany into the enclave.  The rocking chair will be back int he baby room once we need it in there or once Drew needs it less.  I still read to Drewy in the rocking chair before naps and bed times.

I can already see the benefits of it though.  I think the boys are getting closer, and Drew loves to play in his new room since that's where all the boy toys are.

Here's my sleepy head at the end of a good long nap.  I wake him these days at 4pm most of the time.  He gets a good 3 hour nap in if we are home in time for him to start his nap at 1pm like he is supposed to.  The horse is his special "Neigh Neigh" that he sleeps with, but he is not rattled if we can't find him one day.

I hang the blankets because Drew was not used to a night light and Isaac is not okay without one.  The blankets kind of make the light not so "in his face." 

The baby's room is in progress right now.  The room painting is complete, but I have a lot of work to do and a few things for Brian to do to get it "baby ready."

The bassinet was a hand-me-down fom our neighbors, and it is going to be the only crib he has until he is too big for it.  I guess then we'll have to dig out the old drop-side recalled crib from the basement.  I expect it will be in our room for a month or so.

I have all the newborn (0-3 month) clothes in his drawers and put the 3-6 month clothes in the closet, hung up and in the canvas bins.  Tad's potential coming home outfit is hanging on the closet door.

The room is a gray color to go with the gray, yellow, turquoise color scheme.  I got the duvet cover from Land of Nod.  I am working on two blankets, some hanging embroidery hoops, and a mobile for Tad right now, you know, in all my spare time.  I only have 5 weeks until due date so I need to get this stuff done.  I am also working on his Christmas stocking, but I have no false illusions that it will actually be finished by the time he is born.  I have my doubts it will even be ready by Advent.  I am also in the throws of making my lesson plans for the school year.  I am homeschooling three kids this year if you can believe it!

The Girls' Room

About a month ago we rearranged the girls room because it was too hard for them not to clutter it up.  We are trying a different arrangement of toys and clothes in hopes of keeping a tidier room with less help from me.  Basically, we moved their dressers out of their closets and moved their doll house and other toys into the closet.  It has helped keep their closet doors closed and their toys picked up a bit more.  I labelled everything I could to help them be independent in putting things away where they belong instead of some random bucket or corner.  Now, if I could just get them to keep Legos on the table or in the drawers instead of on the floor we would really be making progress.

Spa Party

This was a friend's 7th birthday party.  The theme was a "Spa Party" and, boy, was it ever!  They had spa mani/pedis, made bath salts and fancy flip flops, and mixed their own avocado face mask.

The girls went through stations for all of that, and then they had snacks and a pink cake with gelatin bubbles for decoration.

What an adorable idea!

A Genius Genevieve Idea

Genevieve's genius idea for how to get her front tooth out was to put tape on her teeth and rip it off.  She, of course, did not account for the slipperiness of her teeth that prevents the tape from sticking.  I thought it was a funny and adorable idea so I told her of the potential trouble she might come across, but it would be fun to give it a try and see for herself.  Obviously, it didn't work.  I suggested a good bite into an apple, but when push came to shove she didn't quite have the guts for that.  (I certainly don't blame her there!)  She decided just to wait until it was a little bit looser, and a few days later it came out while she was brushing her teeth.

See the gap!

The other top one is pretty loose, so it is only a matter of time until we have to famous "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" smile.  This is only her third tooth to lose, and I don't think she has ever remembered to look under her pillow to see if she got a dollar for her tooth.  I always have to remind her to go look.

Genevieve, The Comedian

Genevieve is constantly cracking jokes.  So much so that sometimes I just want to say, "Enough already!"  Usually it is cute and funny though.  The other night she had the whole family giggling through dinner, including Drew.  What's even funnier is that she has taken to making what I call Uncle David jokes.  Now if you don't know my Uncle David than I may need to explain that is basically a double meaning joke.  You say something and he asks a question or makes a statement deliberately assuming the other definition of the word.

I told her we were going to the two-story Target.  She replies, "Oh, do we get to hear two stories at Target then?"

The other day as we were leaving Buy Buy Baby, she kept waving and saying "Bye bye Baby."

For our timeline memorization the kids have hand signs to help them remember the lists.  Genna came up with a different sign for Neil Armstrong walks on the moon than the rest of the co-op.  The sign is that she kneels and shows her strong muscles.  I thought this was very clever and funny, but maybe I am a nerd.

Then she is sometimes accidentally funny.  She told us a story the other day about how a bug got on her leg at the pool (when she was there with friends.)  She said, "I screamed, but the bug didn't hear me.  So then Adrienne told me to jump in the pool so I did and then it flew away."  I have been laughing about this one ever since.  I thought she knew bugs didn't have ears, but I guess she missed that part of our invertebrate study.

Drew appears to be following in her footsteps.  He is always trying to do things again that made us laugh the first time.  He will do it over and over for each family member if asked to do so.

Fireworks

Again I have failed with remembering the camera!

We started the day with swimming lessons, and then stayed at the pool with two of our family friends 3pm.  We all left tired and a lot pinker despite the sunscreen.  Drew went home around 2pm for his nap and my parents stayed with him.  Isaac has only had a week of swim lessons and is swimming so great considering he didn't even want to go under when he started.  The girls have been in lessons for side breathing and stroke clinics too.  Hannah is better on her freestyle, and Genna is better on her backstroke, I was told.  Opposites on everything!  Genna's teacher told me that Genna is so flexible and wiggly that she has trouble going straight sometimes.  Also no surprises there!

Then we met two families for a BBQ dinner and all returned to our house afterwards for some more fun socializing.  We headed to meet yet another family for fireworks in a no traffic area so we wouldn't be out too late.  This was Drewy's first fireworks, and he was very excited when we told him we were going to see "loud lights in the sky."  You should have seen his face light up.  He called them "Boom" after having witnessed them.  Isaac loved the fireworks.  He said to his buddy, "This is cooler than...cooler than...cooler than guns!"  The girls were making all kinds of oohs and aahs.  Genna thought some of them looked like fairy dust.

I had promised the kids ice cream on the way to fireworks, but the lines were insane.  Alternate plan was to stop at McDonald's for dipped cones on the way home.  Everyone fell into bed when we got home.

Beach Trip Part Three

On day 5, we had more great weather.  Drew hung out with Mimi and me on the beach.  He didn't go into the water much.  This was the most relaxing vacation I could hope for with this typically wild little man.  Who knew the ocean would be the best corral?

Unfortunately, the corral did not work for Isaac.  Isaac started getting time outs on the beach for wandering off.  He would just wander down the beach looking for a friend he had made the day before without telling anyone.  Thankfully, I got him a bright orange swim suit, and I could spot him a good distance away easily.  I don't know what got into him, but after a few time outs he was doing much better.

That afternoon, the girls all went shopping while the boys rested with Papa Boat.  I ended up being totally exhausted once we got shopping and mainly just found somewhere to sit while everyone else shopped.  Brian was thrilled that I bought nothing on my trip.  :)  The girls bought something with their money.  When I went up to the cashier with Genna, she had something to say to the cashier.  It was adorable!  She said, "Hi, my name is Genevieve.  I was just wondering why there are so many things with so many different names on it here and Genevieve is not on any of them.  I just think it is a pretty great name."  I got tears in my eyes because it was so cute.  We did end up finding something in another store that had "Jenna" on it and it said that it was "a form of Genevieve."

On day 6, it was super hot in the morning, but actually cold in the afternoon on the beach.  Lifeguards even had sweatshirts on in the afternoon.  Weird weather.  My sister took the big kids on a walk on the beach and Drew threw a huge fit when I stopped him from trying to follow them down the beach.  And I mean big.  The sad thing is my mom would have taken him on a short walk, but he immediately threw this gigantic fit that I wouldn't let her.  He eventually got distracted by some boats in the ocean.

We saw some dolphins swimming and jumping out in the ocean a few different days which was exciting.  The waves were pretty rough, and over the week we lost two hats and a bucket.  Since we didn't lose any kids to the sea, I call it a win.  I think everyone wiped out at least once, except for Isaac.  Hannah scraped her knee trying to rescue a bucket from the waves.

We tried the pool without Drew that day so we could all go in the big pool.  Isaac's new thing that day was floating unassisted on his back.  I couldn't talk him into 5 seconds this time though.  So it was less than 5 seconds, but he could have done it longer if he wasn't so afraid and tense.

That afternoon I helped the girls get started on their friendship bracelet kits that they have had for a long time.  It just takes a long time to sit down and teach them something like that so I figured the beach trip was the perfect place to bring them and try to teach them.  I couldn't believe we didn't get to it before day 6.  I went back over to Hannah to see how she was doing after I had helped her and then Genna.  I said, "Oh, but Hannah I think you were supposed to..."  Hannah interrupted with a quick deadpan, "I don't care."  I just laughed and said, "Okay."  When I told the girls we had to stop, Genna says, "Can't we do more?"

 Drew fell on the coffee table that evening as well, hit his chin, and bit his tongue on both sides really hard.  His mouth was full of blood.  Who does he choose to comfort him?  Not mommy.  Hannah.  She was more than happy to hold him while he sucked on a frozen washcloth.  (My nephew was teething so we already had on in the freezer.)  I could tell that Genevieve was a bit jealous, but she is such a trooper that she didn't say anything.

The last day we hit the beach once more in the morning with the kids.  Everyone had fun and Drew got to go on his walk with Mimi.  We went to dinner at a Mexican food place that night, packed, and cleaned up the house.  We left pretty early the next morning and hit the Sonic on the way home to get limeades for the kids and a slush for me.  The closest Sonic to our house is an hour away so this is quite the treat.  The girls had a birthday party that we just couldn't miss in the early afternoon and we made it with no problem.  On the way home we listened to A Little History of the World CD which was super fun for most of us.  Drew wasn't interested, of course, and Isaac declared it was very boring.  It is a full account of history from the beginning of time.  We only made it to Confucius during the trip so we have some more to listen to this summer for our review of ancient and medieval history.

Genna in all her jumping glory, this girl can jump waves!

All beached out and ready to go home!

Beach trip over and now we move on to the long, long to-do list before Tad's *hopefully* timely arrival in mid August.  I only have six weeks left until my due date!  I do have some more pictures from the beach though on my mom's camera.

Beach Trip Part Two

Somebody was ready to go to the beach!  I guess he liked it!  He didn't  like his hat at first, but started asking for it when he got hot and decided he liked it a lot.  Since the girls and I all got sunburns on our scalps, I am glad he wore it the whole time.

After another fun day at the beach and pool, the girls even napped.  This was mainly because I promised them they could stay up later and learn to play our family game, canasta, if they took a much needed nap.  Teaching them canasta has been a long anticipated event for them.  Brian and I just haven't had the time and stamina to do it.  They know how to play chess, so they are obviously equipt to play this game.

It was a lot of fun.  Hannah was on my team to "watch and learn," and Genna was on my sister's team.  They helped us out and were quick learners.  Genna was a clown as usual, waving to us to signify the end of her turn.  Since you need four people to play this game, we can play whenever we want now at home with Brian, the girls and myself.  Usually we just get to play when my family visits.

I should mention also that at the pool on day 3, Isaac progressed to putting his face in the water in his streamline position for 5 seconds.  It was slow going at first.

On day 4, Drew was getting braver at the beach, but then he was knocked down again by some waves.  The girls and Isaac found tons of shells and rocks to identify.  They were super excited to find a crustacean.

That night we went to a restaurant and got ice cream afterwards.  You could say that Genna's love for sweets was "written all over her face."  She was covered in chocolate ice cream.  It was on her dress, all over her face, and it even made it onto my sister's shorts somehow.  She was the only one that was a mess.  I fed Drew his, and you could barely tell that Isaac and Hannah had even had any ice cream.

The only other notable part of the day was the parking tickets we got for misunderstanding what our parking pass was for exactly.

I love these beauties!  I wouldn't trade a beach trip alone, however peaceful it may be, for all the fun and chaos we had all together.

Fourth of July Memory

We have a busy day planned today with swimming lessons and dinner and fireworks with friends, but I just woke up this morning thinking of Lillian and how I can't let this day pass without remembering her.  I was thinking of Speck and how he is now my almost two year old Drew with a chin that kills me and mannerisms that keep us all in stitches, talking and understanding more everyday.  Here I sit with Tad moving all over the place in my belly, and I wonder what he will be like as he grows up like Speck has.  I wonder this knowing I will most likely know the answers soon.  It just still hurts to think of how I will not know what kind of tiny human Lillian would have grown into, what distinguishing features or personality she would have had.  The sharp pain that so many are familiar with, the pain of loss, is only softened by the hope of one day meeting my child in heaven.

Love you, Lillian!  

BeachTrip Part One

We just got back from Bethany Beach.  It was a long trip that turned out to be more relaxing than I thought it would be with Drewy in tow.  Brian had to stay and work, but my parents, sister, and nephew were able to go with us to make it one exciting trip.

The first day we took our time getting to the beach and stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch on the way.  Once we were there and in our rental house, the big kids (I didn't take the infamous Drew because I'm not crazy) and I took off to the closest Catholic church for the Saturday Vigil Mass.  That was a wonderful way to start our trip.  It certainly put me in the peaceful and joyful mood.  Hannah made me laugh because when the music started up she turned to me with a confused face and asked, "What is that sound?"  "Drums, I think," I replied because we were so far in the back that I couldn't see.  Later during the Mass we even heard a guitar and some kind of chimes.  Not really our family's kind of music for a Mass, but to each his own I guess.

Day 2, we were able to hit the beach by 9am.  We had about a .3 mile walk each way to and from the beach.  It was some well needed exercise even if I would have preferred teleporting to the beach and back.  I had to walk it about 4 times a day since my sister, mom, and I went to the beach in the afternoon, kid-free, during nap/rest time.  My dad held down the fort, all too willing to read and be done with the beach by then.  On the beach Drew was easy to keep up with since the waves were pretty rough and knocked him down.  This made him a little more hesitant with going into the water and he was easier to keep track of then.  He liked the dino cups I brought and we sat and made little dinosaurs in the sand for a while each day.  His favorite thing was snacks on the beach though.  The girls and Isaac were constantly jumping waves, digging, and building sandcastles; I barely heard a peep from them unless Drew was getting dangerously close to one of their sand creations.  Walking back we came to a big ditch by the road.  Isaac says to me, "Mimi told me I can't walk in a big ditch or I'll break my leg."  That made me laugh because she had just been explaining the danger of walking into a deep hole without noticing, but he thought walking in it at all would make his leg break somehow.

Drew and his cousin, Dylan.  That is Drew's attempt at a smile into the sun.  Drew did pretty well with Dylan as it turned out.  He has some work to do on his "soft baby touches" that we've been practicing, but he really enjoyed the "baby."

We went to the pool after nap/rest time and discovered the most ridiculous pool rules ever.  They don't allow children under 3 years old to get in the big pool at all - just the tiny baby pool.  Then they don't allow children over 6 in the baby pool.  So how would someone like me ever be able to go to that pool alone with my children ranging in age from 1 to 8 years?  It's discrimination, if you ask me!  Discrimination against big families, don't you think?  Anyway they also wouldn't let flotation devices or balls, rafts, toys, or fun of any kind in the pool.  We didn't spend much time there, needless to say.  My goal though was to get Isaac a little more used to the water since his swim lessons started right after we got back.  Last year he was almost swimming at the end of the summer, but this year he's back to being a weenie in the water.  It took me forever to get him to put just his face in.  I told him he had to put his face in for 5 seconds, and then I would leave him to play.  He eventually did it with goggles, and when he did he comes up and yells, "Wow, I could see under water!  That was so fun!"  The lifeguards were laughing since they had seen all it took to get him to do it.