Pancake Goddess in the House of Boys

jamie's 8th grade promotion

Jamie with his best friend, Soccer Ball, and sporting his new Class of 2013 button.

Ryan's birthday

The timing here is pretty pathetic, since he turned five on Feb. 19, but it's not really that different from people who put together a scrapbook or photo album months years after the fact. Right?  

Grammy brought over this festive cake, covered in his favorite fruit (possibly favorite food?).

Family feast - Ryan's menu: hot dogs, mac and cheese, something else I'd remember if I'd written this post in February.

As usual, Ryan did his birthday with glee and ease. None of that high-expectation angst, sugar rollercoaster or late-day meltdown.  It's all joy, all day when Ryan has a birthday. It's been that way every year.

Our sweet friend Sally Dennis came to do a musical, dance-ical activity with the kids, which was right up Ryan's alley. He had friends and cousins to the gym and we made crafts, ate cake, bounced balls and generally did the kind of running around 5-year-olds need to do in February.  

updates

K: nursing less (plugged duct/infection to show for that), talking more, daddy-love all the time, can spend long periods at the kitchen sink playing, never forgets his vitamin.

R: scared of the dark and shadows, enjoying the Baha'i children's class - he does so well in situations like this - so compliant and joiner-y, but in a cooperative, contributing way, very different from at home, where we still experience daily surprises. Learning letters, is remarkably quick to understand simple arithmetic, has had a cold for weeeeeks.  Will not blow his nose ever. Planning to be Jedi for Halloween.

JJ: writing a 4-page story for school, starting a tumbling class at X YMCA with his friend E, spending a lot of other time with same seemingly-best friend, although he assures me his "group" at school consists of about 14 friends :-) 

J: still struggling with sleep, working with AR weekly on amazing sculptures, worked last weekend at her studio for the studio tour, maintaining As and Bs.

J and JJ's team finished in 2nd place in rec league soccer this fall - it was SO close! They tied and went into penalty kicks. Great to see the brothers on the same team again - it's been years since they happened to be in the same age groupings for soccer.

E: traveling more than we'd all like, seems to be weathering the financial situation at work, enjoying participating at the Baha'i Center, listening to Marshall Rosenberg, watching the bizarre foods and fighting shows, cleared out our shed (yay!).  

A: injured back, trying out a new meal routine - repetitive but much easier to maintain, enjoying the NVC group and Threshold Choir, absolutely cannot keep up with laundry, setting goals to hang curtains and art by J's birthday, planning to offer some community service in the form of computer help for seniors, considering whether to homeschool with R next year - kindergarten age.

Spinning/knitting: still working on red sweater, spinning about every other day for 20-30 min. Finished these bullseye mittens a couple weeks ago - yes, the color combo is just as horrid in person.

busy older guys

Late last month, J began 8th grade. He's also busy with soccer, the end of the season at the intergenerational garden, catching up on past seasons of Lost, and the beginning of the soccer season. He's also doing quite a lot of painting (post to come), and continues to beg for a fabulous camera like Aunt Katie's.

JJ began 6th grade in public school and has adjusted marvelously. As expected, he enjoys an easy and fun social life. He finds the academic work very doable, although at times not very stimulating. Both boys enjoyed the local blues festival last weekend, where JJ purchased these distinctive shades. He's playing travel and recreational soccer, and continues to be dedicated to our trusty trampoline out back.

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.

Snow!

Today we have a few inches of snow, the kids' pals are off school, and we're all in good moods. Yay! Ryan has been out twice, getting lots of exercise, practice dressing himself, and a little science in the process. He decided to bring a snowball inside, so it's sitting in a cup melting. We check on it periodically.

JJ's friend N is over and they were outside building a snowman city (think Calvin&Hobbes). Ja has invited a friend over, and I think we'll all have lunch and cookies.

updates

Ja: Soaking up the final weeks of summer, still gardening (watering often due to heat), attending Jacob's birthday sleepover, striving to be more playful with difficult siblings, striving to use less pottymouth everywhere, considering a minor haircut, doing a lot of ink drawings on file folders.

Je: Four soccer games in a weekend, making the finals, appreciating a good coach, very unhappy to miss birthday sleepover due to sleep requirements for soccer, working through the first fat HP book - #4 - and enjoying the Quidditch content.

Ryan: working hard to learn self-control with baby and cat (making lots of good progress, too), taking a break from any toileting at all, playing games involving pirates, lions, birds, babies and boats. Enjoys being told stories aloud -particular the three bears and three little pigs - huffing and puffing are a highlight. Enjoys making "quicksand" by dragging the hose out to the sandbox, having a little separation anxiety when going to Sh's house, but so far not enough to outweigh the fun and stay home, except once. Also, we're trying out a little more structured routine, to see if that gives him some grounding.  To start with, a more regular bedtime routine with bath.  Next, morning routine and regular quiet time.

K: popping 2 molars and 2 more top teeth in front, trying to run, transitioning to one nap (about half the time), still not eating much solid food, but a few bites at each meal time. Very attached to his "towel" (prefold cloth diaper - fortunately we have many of these), out of cloth diapers himself until we get out of this busy period wrt selling the house. K is also enjoying climbing on things. Yesterday I turned around to see him standing all the way up on the seat of R's trike, out on the driveway. Two feet. On the seat. On three wheels. Very satisfied and quite safe-feeling.

Evan and Amy:  thinking more seriously about moving (within town, but somewhere with 1-2 more rooms and/or basement), clearing out the garage, surviving a weekend soccer tournament through heat in the 90s, up with belly aches and wide-awake littles from 3-5am. In other words, cranky and anxious.

babysitters, tea parties, screaming dudes

I had a meeting today at a local shop, and hired Je and his friend Nathan for baby-following.  K survived and happily, cash was doled out, and we came home.

Yesterday, R started the day by requesting a tea party.

And some recent drawing by Ja.

And some cute to hold you over...

update

Our friends from Alabama visited yesterday. The boys miss them a lot! They always seem to pick right up where they left off.

In other pressing news, Ja bought new shoes.

Jeremiah had his first practice last night for his new team. He got a huge workout! I haven't had the chance to ask him if he enjoyed it, but he's certainly going to be learning a lot. The other parents who were there seemed really friendly and helpful. (Evan, I thought to ask about our question wrt tournaments and what is ok to do between games. Robert said nothing usually happens between, and that some coaches even like the boys to not hang out together, because they should really be resting and not running around. fwiw)

[from this point on, this post is for planning purposes - nothing interesting]

I'm thinking ahead about school starting - it's only a few weeks away. I think we'll try a new routine that will accomodate 1.Jamie's new adolescent sleep routine, 2. the availability of our primary childcare helper for Ryan, and 3. the timing of most toddler/preschooler gatherings around town. 

Mornings (7-11am) are for housework, playing with littles, storytimes, errands, playgroups.
Middays (11-2) are for book work with the big boys and housework. R visits S and K naps.
Afternoons (2-5) are for finishing up chores (mine and big boys'), preparing dinner, and sometimes Ryan might still be at S until 5:30??
Soccer practices will be in the evenings, at least T/H, and possibly others for rec league.

Friday playgroup from 9-12 - will people attend the Mon/Wed playgroups before noon?
What day will be story time?
Will there be a homeschool phys ed at Sportsplex?
What time is band for Jeremiah? When is art for Jamie?
When will Carlette come?
MWF morning, we have K and J here until 9 or 10am.

10th birthday fun

On his birthday, Jeremiah took a few friends and his dad and brother for a few games of laser tag. They returned to the house for "make your own cupcakes," pudding, gifts, soccer, and trampoline jumping. Jeremiah had a great time, and a big improvement over last year's challenging birthday parties.