It's Wild Here

December update

Earlier in the month, we attended the annual Santa/Pancake/Craft breakfast at the Methodist Church.  It's a sweet tradition.

I've spared you the alternative photo, in which Kellen makes his favorite new face (nostrils sucked in with power vacuum force --  he looks very odd).  

It was one of those years when Santa could make a long-time wish happen. Ryan has been asking to play violin for several years. I really love his expression in the very first seconds of the video.

The boys' school went roller skating during the week before break.  Kellen was quite daring on wheels, and had a great time with his pals (below the video).

 

Jeremiah's Christmas looked like this: 

Before the break, Jeremiah also joined the Mock Trial/Debate club at school, and has been enjoying that a lot. Some cruel fellow assigned homework over their vacation, so he'll be working on that soon, and these games will get a break.

Next quarter at Sinclair, I'll be teaching three sections of SOC 112, and Kellen will be switching to full day kindergarten twice/week.  I think he'll enjoy the extra time at school, as he'd been complaining of a lot of boredom in the mornings.

Christmas miracle: all 5 of them looking at the camera with smile-like expressions, probably earlier than 8am.

HEX BUGS with Uncle Troy!

Uncle Bill is a cruel, cruel ear-lifter.

Jamie has enjoyed a very long break from classes at Sinclair.  He's taken the time to write songs, bond with the cat, look for jobs, do a little work for a local builder, and play some shows.

W heels and S port F ishing USA (not really wanting fans of the bands to find this blog on google)

As it turns out, Ryan can play basketball very well. He's having a blast with it. Here is a very short clip of his awesome.

April

I hope this doesn't become a monthly-post type thing.  Between family crises and the effects of facebook and twitter, the blog has been neglected.

Last month, my grandmother passed away. I'm waiting on a CD with some nice photos from my father, and I'll make a post about her.

HAPPY 8th, Fynn!

Earlier this month, we went to see F's soccer game and had a birthday party for him at the playground. It was a beautiful day. Ryan and Kelly super-hero-ed around the track while F played his game.  The bigs kicked the soccer ball around.

Katie's friend's baby found her way into Jamie's arms - he looked very comfortable with her.  

the two-cousin birthday

grace and clover had their 5-year-old birthday parties last week, and we all had a great time.

 

 

That grin on I's face? That was not a lucky shot - he is  that happy the whole time, whenever he plays soccer.

Of course, during present time and cake time, the non-birthday-kids looked something like this...

and this.

The good weather and ideal play space at K's house made it a lovely evening.

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."  

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?

birds, deer, messes, children, looking back

Our birdhouse is broken. It was awesome - totally stumped the squirrels. If the feeder had the weight of a squirrel, the whole outer frame would slide down and cover the openings. A bird is too light so they could get the seed. Something is busted, and it won't stay up now... poor birdies. The feeder was expensive, ugh! But I guess we had it over a year and that's as much as I can expect.

Speaking of birds and their feeding, Ryan has discovered my secret birdseed stash and finds it to be an improvement over his huge sandbox. sigh.

Ever since I snuck a single moth ball into the dirt under our tomato plant containers, the rabbits haven't been back to chomp down the plants. Yay!  I did spot this hungry creature in our back yard last night.

Jamie got his first paycheck today in the mail. He plans to save all his garden job money, and that's no small feat considering how badly he wants/needs a new cell phone. His second laundered cell phone is now in the toddler toy basket, and he's saving up.

J and J are going to try out for the select soccer team in the neighboring town. I think the time commitment is going to be huge and the workouts unlike anything they've experienced, but they are excited to try. I'm assuming they'd have to practice through the summer, but they also want to play the casual pickup games on weeknights in town.  I'm told Je was out ball-handling the high school kids at the park last night. wow.

Ryan is back to daily napping.  I think he must have some kind of allergy issue - seasonal, or strawberries or both. I've decided to give him some claritin daily for a few weeks and see if things improve. He is so blinky and twitchy, and seems generally drained of emotional reserves. The weekend was hard. One afternoon last week, I thought he'd make it through the day and have an early bedtime, but apparently he really needed to sleep sooner.

K is still weighing 20 lbs, crawls with great speed and occasionally takes a few steps.  He popped his next top tooth this morning (that makes 4), so we now have to have a really good latch, or the top teeth sink in, and yow. Sharp, those new ones.  K likes to play with Jane and Ryan, is not happy to see me walk away but seems easy to distract if I'm gone. I've done a couple 1-2 hour errands in town without him and it's gone smoothly. He eats a lot more solid food in the past two weeks, so that's helpful. He really likes pasta, lentil soup, banana, and in moments of desperation Yummy Organic lollipops in the car seat. Sticky infant, anyone?

E and I are still looking at houses, considering moving versus adding, and trying to figure out what we can really afford. None of the houses for sale have really been right for us, so far.

Fynn spent the night again last Friday. He and Ryan played tee ball and had a blast.

This time last year:

not missing this

ohhh, the baby is seeping out of him week by week

the final weeks as a 3boy family

Camping out back

Last weekend, Katie and the cousins camped in the back yard as a practice run for their real camping coming up. Their tent was awesome, and everyone played outside for most of the time. We had a fire and made smores, roasted hot dogs, etc.

The next day, soccer was played by all. C and R didn't last long, but F had a grand game. He paused every 10-15 seconds to wave to me.  Can you spot him?

And to finish things off, some sweetness.

and a bit more (in the sweet outfit from Nana)

museum center

Last week, Grammy and the boys and I met with Katie at the museum center. There is a spot in the climbing area where Jeremiah had his picture taken many years ago - he was 5.

He still fits! But barely.

Fynn and Ryan enjoyed watching the fish from within the tank.

K watched from the outside.

and in case you need an extra bit of sweet for today:

Hey Fynn!

Guess what my new favorite Laurie Berkner song is?

Oh Susannnnaaaah!!  We'll have to get together and sing - will you teach me the verses?

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In other Ryan news... this guy is known as "the Christmas boy."
(He does also occasionally call him Santa, but what I really find amusing is that he truly doesn't know the word "girl" yet. Person=boy.)

playground fun with cousins

Today we met Dani and her mother Zuleka (sp?), Grace, Isaac, Katie, Clover, Fynn, and Audrey at the big playground in Wilmington.  It's a fantastic climbing structure which was great for Ryan. The kids had a ball in the sand and on the swings. It was wonderful to see Daniela's mother again. She is so warm and generous.

The babies were pretty hot and fussy, so we left a little sooner than planned to get some fast food and let the kids run around in the air-conditioned play place. We met Nana, Mimps and Grandma, who were anxious to get a second look at Kellen. He's changed a lot since that first week when they last saw him. Kellen wasn't wildly impressed with the noise level in that play place, but he was fairly settled in the sling if I walked him a bit with my hand over his exposed ear! Halfway home, I had to change him because his poopy diaper was making him fussy. As soon as he was back in the seat, you know this is coming... he pooped again. We made it home, though.

Jamie and Jeremiah are extremely helpful in the car-ride routine. Jeremiah helps Ryan get buckled in, and Jamie is dedicated to helping Kellen stay soothed.

It's never boring to see the cousins together. For those who don't know, they are:
11, 9, 5, 3, 2, 2, 2, 5mos and 1 month