Pancake Goddess in the House of Boys

Eleven years

Have a look at the one and only, the clever and kind, the soccer footwork master of Ohio, Guitar Hero prodigy and all around spectacular human being, JJ at eleven years old.

yumma

Ryan has this expression he uses fairly regularly when he's agreeing (or disagreeing) with something you've said. As in the case of disagreeing, I might say "You should probably go get your sandals on before you get on the bike," and Ryan would say in a chipper and sing-song way, "Nope! I suuuure won't!"

This morning, he was looking particularly huggable and I gave him a squeeze and said I love him. He replied with that same good cheer, "Yep. You suuuure do love me."

Agreeable, isn't he?

it's been a while

I thought we were through the days of "what is ryan saying?" but here's one for you.

"I want to have that waterclope."

I can never tell if these are hard or easy, since you don't have any of the context I have when he says it.

Some other funnies, all K's:

water = watee
Grammy = Bammy
Grandpa = Bappa
Jamie = Beeme
Jeremiah = Mimah

I'll have to pay more attention bc I know there are others...

PS, yes, I lost my camera again.  There's got to be some kind of gadget out there I can buy to page my missing electronics when I lose them. At the moment we're missing one camera, one cell phone earpiece, and a remote control for the cable box.  

the quiz itself is hysterical

My favorite trait, by far, is the one about the hose. wth?

75 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

books

I've been doing a lot of reading.  I get an automatic feed from the public library about their new materials, and rarely do I investigate a new book unless I already know the author. This one, however, begged to be explored on the basis of the title alone. As it turns out from the blurb, it's no coincidence I found it intriguing, although it is not, unfortunately, a guide to squeezing in a very long nap.

Jeremiah this summer

Unlike in the picture, Jeremiah was serious on the field. His team won first place in their division for the league this spring.

Now, his focus is on swimming, pick-up soccer in the evenings, an upcoming 11th birthday, and some organized activities - soccer camp, Summer Strings (band camp), and possibly a regular sports and crafts day camp in August.

He had the opportunity to go to KI with K, T and the cousins, and will probably do that again a few more times this summer.

In preparation for school in the fall, he's spending time every day on multiplication/division memorization, hand writing, and as always he's in the middle of a novel (The People of Sparks).

During the outdoor meal mentioned in the previous post (see it through the window?), Jamie was arting away in the room with the green shag carpet.  A friend commissioned him to paint his skateboard  -  a job he completed before I could get a shot.

And in closing, some sleepy yum.

playing catch up in the blog

A couple of weeks ago, the youngers attended a "Truck Touch" at a local dairy farm.

We also got a new (to us... nearly 100 years old) piano and Jamie began lessons with a new instructor at A. M.

And here is a little before and after for K's first summer buzz.  I think the new look is really sweet in person - he looks kind of unhealthy-bald in this picture, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Last week, we had cousin F here for some outdoor lunch and sleeping over. He ended up staying two nights because the big thunder storms and tornadoes arrived during our first attempt at dropping him off.

overheard

Hey, we're calling my popsicle "fire," and we're calling Ryan's chocolate ice cream "poop," and when we put ice cream on the popsicle, we call it "fire poop."  

fortunately for them, I'm not hard to convince

as promised, the self-cut hair

pretty fabulous, hm? 

quiche, garden, lily of the valley

I've aways wanted a nice bed of lily of the valley on the side of my house like my Grandma had when I was young. The quiche was yummy (enough to be eaten cold by Ryan the next day), and the garden is still fine although the rabbits ate every single small green tomato about 5  minutes after we planted my one big plant with fruit already.

then and now

On Tuesday we went for our regular swimming lesson with Jan, and arrived to find out that lessons had ended and we didn't know. The other teacher even showed up, not realizing. So, since K had slept in so late in the morning, we decided to head out for something else fun to do. JJ was in the mood for Sh. Park, which we hadn't visited in some time. In fact, this might have been the last time.

I tried to get another 3-boy photo (different set of 3!) like this one but there wasn't as much success. It didn't help that I was trying to position them in front of that giant bird.  (and that someone really needs a haircut!)

I obviously didn't get the bird behind them, but you can see it above, with Ryan.

Coming soon... JJ tries swim clinic, Evan travels, we garden, I cook, Jamie cuts his own hair, and some photo updates of JJ's soccer team and the birthday party for Mimps.

he's not itchy now

I thought he was resting quietly while watching Land Before Time. In fact, he was busily smearing an entire bottle over himself, including the head and face.  Poison control (yes, it's programmed into my cell) recommends a 15-minute bath, and the nurse had a tone as though this was one she'd actually never heard. Congrats, R, you broke a new record again.

Birthday party for Mimps and Seder, Kelly's surprise

We went to Cincinnati to celebrate with Mimps. He turned 81. The great-grandkids all made cute drawings for him and ran around his and Nana's small condo like hooligans. I know my mom took good pictures, so I hope she sends us those soon!

In the meantime, here are some cousin pics since my camera is still gone. :-( It's getting depressing.

(Hey you other cousins! Send us some updated pictures!)

Last night was our community Seder. Evan made his spectacular matzo ball soup as always. We were missing a grammy, who was home feeling unwell. Things went fairly smoothly (markers, playdough, megamags) until around eating time, after which all four boys were ready to either go home or run around like crazy people with grabber toys (thanks to the host, R, for giving that clever thing to Ryan).  A certain almost *11* year old was also spotted upside-down on their sofa with his crocs propped on the wall. You have to understand, this seder is hosted in a home that is quite a bit like a museum. EEEEeee. They are both very gracious and good sports about our kids and their shenanigans, but it's not really relaxing for the mama.

And lastly, the surprise of the week comes from Kelly, who started grabbing his diaper and saying poop. Usually there is no poop. So a few days ago I took off the diaper, which seemed to be bugging him, and asked if he wanted to go pee on the toilet. He likes to watch his older brothers and dad, so I just thought, what the heck - obviously expecting nothing. Not only did he pee that time, he peed in the toilet exclusively for the next 24 hours. Yes, dry in the morning.

Since then, he's probably only peed in the diaper 2-3 times.  He doesn't seem to have much control over #2.  In the category of Hard to Complain, he actually needed to get up and pee on the toilet at 5:30am this morning.  So, one-year-old toileting genius has made my week, and it needed some making.  How long until you think he totally reneges on this fabulous offer?

another update

Blogging is so boring (for me at least) when my camera is missing.

Kelly is saying more words than I can keep up with. Some favorites are

bum  ("come," usually accompanied by beckoning hand gesture)
bum ("gum," which he's never had but sees brothers eat)
papa ("grandpa")
papa ("popsicle")
teetee ("cookie")
pee
potty
Ryan (clear as a bell!)
Mek, sometimes Mak ("milk")

Kelly and Ryan are also swimming a couple times a week while Jeremiah has a lesson. They are fish! Mostly fearless and unconcerned with cold water, they kick like mad while being propelled across the pool by their adult partners. I was particularly surprised to see how naturally K seemed to understand what to do in the water. They both put their faces in the water but don't really understand how to prevent inhaling it, so they are still reluctant to just go diving in.

Jane's health is not great and she will probably not be coming to play after spring. :-(

Jeremiah and Grammy went out this afternoon to see the Horton movie.

Jamie is very busy with school, garden, sculpture, Power of the Pen, soccer and a dash of mischief.

misc updates

There is a new local hs group starting in this town and the next one over - much saner driving than the last group we joined. So far, we've been to a board game day.  The kids were younger than Jeremiah, although I know of at least one family that didn't make it that day with a girl his age who I think he could enjoy.

Dentist - Jeremiah and Ryan and I needing work done, wah. Not a lot but still anxiety-producing for me.

Did I post about bowling? I've got some bowling pictures and a video coming up but the camera is nowhere to be found again. We bowled with WILC. Ryan and Jeremiah had a good time.

Soccer all the time. Jeremiah is on two teams, and has soccer every day this week. He's pretty overwhelmed but is improving and seems to want to continue, even though he can be unhappy about it in the moment.  His team (and he) played very well in the soccer tournament this weekend. We thought they had made the finals but then one team had a big upset and it ended up coming down to goal differentials, and they missed out by one goal. Bummer, but it did result in only a 75% loss of our weekend rather than a complete weekend slurp, since they didn't have to go back for the 4th match.

Jamie is very unhappy with his OWL class. He had to wear a pregnancy suit and care for a fake baby during the time of the class.  It seems the camraderie and mutual respect is breaking down in that group, at least for Jamie.

Today, our kitchen is being painted. We're going to try to stay out of the house a lot and will probably go for a field trip to the newish mall that opened last year.  I think it has some outdoor water play place and Jeremiah is hoping for an arcade.  I'd like to get back to listening to books on tape in the car, to give our fluffy not-so-academic outing a bit of redeeming value.

Right now, Jeremiah and I are working our way through the City of Ember series - I just finished The People of Sparks and JJ is midway through Ember.  I've been basically meeting my reading goals this year, but not posting much since starting to use GoodReads - I'd like to link to my book list but I think you might need to log in for that. It's a very helpful site for keeping track of to-read books, sharing your reading with others and getting suggestions.v

aw, shucks, no pics for this post?

I guess it was inevitable, with four male children, that I would have the pleasure of that seemingly-universal parental experience: discovering your quiet toddler in the other room playing in his poopy diaper.  I had actually almost avoided that one. Thank you, Kelly, for making my life complete.

last week

My computer needed a lot of repair through the week, so I'm just getting around to some of these updates.  Last weekend was productive.

What you see here is empty space in a garage -- enough empty space to park a car! Of course, the bikes are still sitting out on the sidewalk and we need to build a shed for them, so until that happens they take the place of  the car in the garage. Bikes have a much greater tendency to get stolen in this town than white minivans.  Anyone care to chime in on the best way to store multiple bikes and riding toys without taking up garage space?

There has also been quite a lot of mud, good for throwing.

and new outdoor toys to assemble and dismantle

why is it so cold outside?

Isn't it supposed to be warm outside, when there are sweet things like this inside?

Also, I know this belongs in the last  post, but an alphabet song from  Ryan:
"H I J K ello mello Peeeee."

it's almost time

Soon I'll be able to post more of the "what is my toddler saying?" game as we did with Ryan. For today, though, a cute thing.  R used to call Jeremiah "mymah."  K calls him "mah-mee."  Yep that's right - he calls him Mommy. Emphatically, all day. JJ is not impressed with this.

lanolin

Ryan hid himself away in the shower yesterday with a tube of lanolin ointment. I can keep this story very short by telling you the ending now:  a new haircut.  Pics coming soon because I have my camera battery now!

wedding

Our well-dressed tree was apparently the location of a recent wedding.  Heh!

adventure

One big thing I haven't mentioned this week is Jamie's adventure in D.C. with Grammy.  They've been there since Monday, and I'm hoping we'll get an action-packed, photo-filled guest-blogger post.

Check back...

we consumed

Ikea was fun and crowded. We spent many dollars on furniture and ate delicious food that was totally affordable (close to half the cost of our family eating at the local family restaurant, and with much much better food and quicker service).  They have arrows on the floor so you don't get disoriented about where you are, and we would have, because we were following those arrows in HERDS. Evan had a hard time shaking that squicky, consumerish, disney feeling of Moooo.  I'm not sure why I wasn't having that problem except that I saw the day as the answers to my prayer: not to live among boxes the rest of my days.

There are many ways I think we could have made it go much more quickly, but it's that hindsight thing. The kids seemed to have a pretty good time even though it was a very long day. JJ had his friend JH along, and Katie (who got us properly enthused by greeting us through our van window, shouting "You're here!! It's IKEA!!") was there for the first few hours to spend time with Ryan.  In the end, I was too pooped to wonder why our final bill was so much lower than we'd estimated. When we got home and discovered all of the pieces we'd left behind on a big cart somewhere in that big warehouse, we realized why. It's ok... we bought just the right amount to fit in Evan's work van and we bought the most important pieces - bookcases and shelving, kitchen stools to replace the unbelievably sad stools we currently had in this house. They were acceptable when we moved here - spinny, vinyl covered cushion stools with wicker-ish backs.  Within two weeks, the children had destroyed the wickerish part, leaving them mangled. If I get my camera battery in the mail, I will post a photo for the benefit of Stefaneener, whose day it will make, I know.

I'm not sure what it means that I can be so chatty on the topic of Ikea and on most other topics you get a few words and a picture, but there you have it. I'd like to write more every day, but it doesn't seem to happen.

One lucky tree

In our lovely village, there is a tree downtown sporting a new sweater. Perhaps you read about it in the news.  I haven't had the chance to add anything to it, but it's a joy to see when I make my trips into town for groceries.

But seriously, if you're at all impressed by this, you will also enjoy this one, crocheted by a woman in Northern Ohio.

After seeing this, I googled around and found this tree sweater, which is definitely good for a chuckle after viewing these huge feats. Be sure and scroll down to see the picture of this baby tree sweater on the magazine, and check out the little orange starburst. I'm dying to know what that article's about.

cold Easter

So, I'm still waiting for my new battery charger to come in the mail. The charger was one of a few move-related losses. I'm sure it's going to turn up, but in the meantime, no camera?? I don't think so.  Since I have nothing new, here's my annual favorite Easter joke for your amusement.

In other camera news, we bought J a new camera yesterday, as well as some slacks, nice shirt, and casual shoes, so that he will be ready for his big trip to D.C. with Grammy.  Over the past several months they've discussed visiting many different places and I'm not sure exactly what's been settled on.

Since December, JJ has endured a dramatic emotional rollercoaster over a highly anticipated video game. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been finally released after two very long postponements. For 3+ months, we counted the days - he, because he was counting, and I, because double-checked with me daily how much longer we had to wait. It didn't arrive as expected from Amazon for several days, at which point we finally decided to buy it at a local store and return the Amazon order. We all exhaled with relief that the game was here and the build-up was over. Sleepless nights could end (not kidding!). 

But no.  The game would not work in the Wii - it had some kind of common problem that needed fixing in order to play this game. J had to send the Wii and game back to Nintendo (at Nintendo's cost) and get it repaired. He had another week to wait. Fortunately, Nintendo was fast and offered detailed tracking of the progress of the repair and the shipping.  We stalked the tracking site. At 11:04 am on Friday, he checked the site, which said the package had been delivered at 10:56am.  He checked the porch, and voila! 

Do you think this story is over? Oh no.  The game  worked for about an hour. Then the Wii was knocked off the table and it no longer played any games. It was looking like the Wii would have to be sent for repair again. J and his sleepover friend rented a movie and consoled themselves. The next morning, sleepover friend came dashing up the stairs announcing "IT WORKS NOW!"  In typical weird-technology fashion, the Wii decided it would now work, and it has worked since. I hesitate to say this, but it looks like the saga might actually be coming to a close.

spring

These were actually what came up in the yard at our old house before we moved. Yesterday, we discovered daffodils in the new yard.

Jeremiah is anticipating the permanently warmer weather, so that he can be outside every day doing his normal things - taekwondo on the roof of the shed, biking, trampolining. The littles are loving this new concept - a sidewalk! They have two very easy boundaries at the edges of our front yard, and they ride back and forth, back and forth on their bikes.

Yesterday, Jeremiah had a major accomplishment. He learned a back handspring without any help or spotting. He's a tumbling master!

This weekend, I made my first pizza dough in the new mixer, planted 24 little cups of tomato seeds, and other house-y things.          

a warmer day

We met up yesterday with cousins to exchange hand-me-downs, nice catalogs, soccer cleats, and obviously for some fun play time.

The bigger cousins care well for the toddlerbaby cousins, and we adults were able to sit uninterrupted for quite a time (10 whole minutes maybe! and listen - I'll take it).

some picture catch up and birthday sweetness

Someone's four years old now! We had a very low-key celebration in the midst of pre-moving business and box towers. Ryan created his own birthday hat and enjoyed the singing and cake as much as ever, as always.

tomato sauce mess (and a boy signing "more")

 

Attitude (and a little eyebrow modification)

and smarts.

JJ has been drawing maps and memorizing Canada

Ryan has been doing a lot of drawing.

 

and imaginary play