Two Wheels

Joel is training wheels-free! It only took one session of practice for him to figure it out. He was ready, and we are so happy for him and proud that he was brave enough to try it and get back on when he fell. It was a beautiful but cool, windy morning out on the track. Kari zipped around and around while Joel practiced and Aubrey got comfortable on her "big" bike.

Another look

Grant's developed quite the shiner over the past couple days. Here's what he looks like today. I'm sure we'll have many a conversation about it at church tomorrow!
 

First stitches

At 6:45pm yesterday I heard Grant's there-is-something-really-wrong cry from down the hall. Aubrey had pushed him, and he fell and hit the little rocking chair just above his eye. I saw the cut and called our doctor in a panic. They said come on in. (Can I say it again? I LOVE our pediatrician and his office. )We yelled for the kids to throw their shoes on and get in the car. Greg rode next to Grant to hold the washcloth up to his eye, and I drove. We got to the doctor at 6:55pm  (they close at 7pm), and I waited out in the car with the kids while Greg took Grant in. They came out 40 minutes later, all stitched up-just three stitches. Greg spared me the details (I don't do well with these things) but said it was a brutal 20 minutes. They had Grant strapped down in the papoose thingy, but Greg and the assistant still had to hold his head, and it was a battle. We go back in Monday to get the stitches out.

Here is our exhausted, disheveled little man after his big ordeal.
























And here he is this morning--happy and oblivious to the fact that he doesn't look so hot.






















The irony of the timing of this whole thing is that last night was when we were going to "crack down" and really start to train him to stop screaming in the night. He's never been a good sleeper, and we have had very few full night's sleep since he joined our family, but it's gotten worse in the last couple weeks.  It looks different each night, but the short, basic, most recent version is he's waking up in the night and screaming for one to two and half hours. He's not scared, not wet, has his pacifier, and wants out of his crib so he can run around and play. He's just mad! He requires less sleep than our other kids, and if he wants to lay awake in his crib for hours, that's fine, but we can not tolerate the screaming or the loss of sleep any longer! Just yesterday we decided it's become more of a discipline issue that we needed to address, starting that very night...and then this happened.  You'll get our comfort and sympathy a little longer, Mister, because we do feel awfully bad this happened to you, but sometime soon you WILL learn to be quiet at night!

BTW, last night wasn't bad. He did NOT scream for hours in the night--probably because he was so tired! He slept until 4:30am. I gave him more ibuprofen, and he went back to sleep until 5:30am when I heard him crying. I brought him into bed with me and had some nice snuggle time. I put him back in his bed when he fell asleep at 6am, and he was up for the day at 7am.

Tangled no more

Look who got her hair cut!

It's a drastic change, but she likes it, and I like how easy it was to do her hair this morning! We've had many hair battles lately, and it's been more and more of a challenge to take care of the long hair. We went in to my hair stylist for a 4 or 5 inch trim with the possibility of cutting more if there was enough to donate to Locks of Love. She had just enough (10 inches), so we did it! When I talked with Aubrey the day before about donating her hair and showed her the website, she started crying. She thought I was going to make her bald! Once she realized she'd still have hair left, she got on board. :) She's happy she gets to help another little kid have some hair. I admit I mourned a little the loss of her long, beautiful little girl hair, but the short hair suits her.

Silly girl!

Swimming

Aubrey and Joel just completed a session of swim lessons, and they both did great. Joel is swimming! We're so proud of him. He bobs in and out of the water constantly. I never thought I'd see the day...

































This was Aubrey's first experience with swim lessons, and she loved them. She liked the social aspect as much as the water, I think. The next session starts in a couple weeks, and I have the three oldest kids all signed up for lessons at the SAME TIME. I'm so excited!  

















It's been a battle to keep Grant occupied and contained during the hour we've been at the pool twice a week. The first couple weeks were challenging, but it got easier. I got better about bringing things to entertain him, and he finally realized I wasn't going to let him run away--ever. It also helped that Greg was able to meet us there after work part way through the lessons on some days and take Grant home while I stayed and waited for Aubrey to be done. Ready to do it again, Grant? I am. :)

*Mostly* Pleasant Happenings at Home

Thank goodness for washable markers! I'm not sure how he got a hold of the markers that are usually in a tough-to-open-container up high in the playroom. I can only assume someone left them out. We just can't seem to keep him out of trouble these days. We try to shut doors and take precautionary measures but seem to fail in that department a lot! Grant is talking more and more and using new words almost daily--so exciting and cute.

Aubrey is my little helper and likes to help me clean. Yesterday she really wanted to mop, so she moved all the chairs out of the kitchen, swept with her little broom, and mopped the whole floor. I helped along the way, of course, but it sure was cute to watch her work so hard.















Grant "helping" (mostly just getting in her way)















A couple weeks ago when Kari had a 2-hour delay for school, Grant fell asleep in the car at 10am and stayed asleep when I brought him back inside. He dropped the morning nap over 6 months ago, but he had been up in the night and then awake since 5:30am (when will this child ever learn to sleep?!), so he was super tired and the car ride lulled him to sleep. Aubrey wanted to hold him and "pretend that he's a baby." He woke up minutes later--no surprise there--but she sure enjoyed snuggling with sleeping Grant.

I'm enjoying a nice season of kids getting along right now. Aubrey and Joel play for hours together. It's been wet and cold outside with a mix of snow and rain this week, so we've been inside a lot. Joel didn't have school today, and he and Aubrey have been playing together (without fighting!) since 6am--that's six hours of constant, imaginative play. Amazing! Grant will probably start getting in the way, but for now, there is relative peace, and I love it. When I snapped this photo, Aubrey was "reading" a Star Wars book and Joel was acting it out.  

Great Great Grandma Carrie

Every few weeks I try to go visit Grandma at her little retirement apartment with Aubrey and Grant while the other two are at school. It doesn't always work out to be that often with sicknesses and all. (I do NOT want to be responsible for making Grandma sick, so we're pretty cautious with that.) The kids love to go there. They wave and say hi to all the older people on their way in, pet Grandma's toy puppies outside her door, take their shoes off just inside the door, go give her hugs, and then head to the basket of toys. Grant's played catch with Grandma the last few times we've gone. He thinks she's pretty fun. This last time I brought my camera to document our visit. She had just gotten over pneumonia, but she was cheerful, as always, and dressed up with jewelry and all, just as she always is. I'm glad my kids get to know her and that she's close enough that we can visit often.





Happy Birthday, My Love!

We are, once again, the same age. No more lording those 40 days of youth over me (until next year).
I love you, Greg! :)

More Aubrey birthday

Aubrey started her special day with her birthday breakfast with Grandpa and a pretty rose from him, too.

She went with us to Kari's basketball game when she got back from breakfast, and then she opened her gift from us. Opening part 1 of 2.

The Barbie doll was part one, and then came the big reveal--the doll house.

All the kids have been enjoying her gift. Kari was never really into dolls, Barbies, or imaginative play, but Aubrey is. She and Joel both have big imaginations. It's fun to listen to them play together. Yes, he's been playing with her. :) What's a boy to do when he's got sisters and a baby brother who isn't big enough to play with yet?

Aubrey really wanted Daddy to come jump on the trampoline, so he obliged and brought Grant on for a while. Grant LOVED it (hadn't been on it since summer) and SOBBED when Greg brought him inside. It was cold out there (saw snow flurries earlier in the day)!

Aubrey's family party was that evening. Here she is playing a "pin-the-appropriate corresponding food item-on-the-Strawberry Shortcake character" game we made for her. That game never gets old for kids, it seems.

While the kids were busy playing upstairs, and we adults and Grant and Miles were downstairs were having fun playing with the touchable bubbles Aubrey got from Uncle Blake. They were pretty fun!

Snow on March 1st

The kids were delighted (and, honestly, so was I) to wake up to a bit of snow today. Morning kindergarten was cancelled, and Kari went in 2 hours late. That meant we had time for some play before it melted away!

I let Grant out, too, and he was NOT pleased when I brought him in before the others. He cried until they all came in. It's rough sometimes being the littlest.