6 Miles

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend. That was good because this week has been and will be active!

Monday–Mom came down and she and I picked up Dad from the airport. It was fun to see him and we were all happy he didn’t have any delays. (He was flying in from Israel/Atlanta, and neither of those were near the ash plumes but we’ve been having spring storms all around and Mom was concerned he’d be delayed by them.)  James never got his birthday lunch celebration back in March, so we picked Will up from school early, got Marcus and all went out to lunch.  Then they left to go home, I got a hair cut and everyone at home relaxed. That evening I got to go to a parent/teacher conference at Alex’s preschool. (Result–he’s doing fine, she’s concerned he might be bored. I just wanted to make sure he listens and obeys and is a good friend. He is.)

Tuesday–The morning somehow disappeared, I have no idea what happened to it!  Then we ran to the store to get a birthday gift for a friend of Will’s. I had the boys make cards while I worked in the afternoon, then I packed everyone up and we headed to a pool party at the Community Center. The kids had a great time and Marcus was a good sport napping (though not long enough) watching/smiling and ”talking” with people and not fussing when I made him wait until we got home to eat.  I was thankful the party went well, I had visions of me having to be in the pool with the kids, trying to hold Marcus and not having a good time. Thankfully the boys were off playing it went really well.

Wednesday–I was so focused on thinking about and planning for Monday and Tuesday that it was mid-afternoon today that I realized Wednesday was tomorrow & it’s my last Bible Study for the semester.  We have Awana tomorrow night as well and didn’t get as much done for Will as I’d hoped (he’s learning the books of the Old Testament. He got bogged down after Psalms, which is understandable!). He only has 2 more weeks and I was trying to help him push to finish his book but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Thursday–Will probably be a stay home and clean day, we’re going to need a day home to catch up. Then Thursday night Will’s school has an Open House we’re going to try to go to for a bit.

Friday–Pay day, so grocery shopping day. We’ll see if I’ll have time to get that in (Friday’s Will only has a half-day so I have to pick him up at 10:50) or if I’ll be able to wait until Monday when I have a bit more time.

Saturday–National Scrapbook Day! I get to go scrapbooking ALL DAY! I’m quite excited about this, even though this year I don’t have any friends who can go with me (usually the chatting with friends is the best part…of course I’ll probably get SO much more done this year without it!

Not to go on and on about the baby, but we can’t let the youngest get ignored!

Marcus has really started doing more and more in the last few days. He has suddenly decided he likes to suck on his index finger (At least he’s not a thumb sucker!)

Here he is asleep–he’s REALLY cute when he’s awake and doing it, but this is the only picture I have of that.

He is starting to grab things and put them towards his mouth to chew on. When he’s on the floor by his little play gym, he’s reaching out and grabbing at the things, not just looking at them. Today at his changing table he grabbed the plastic bag that holds his socks and pulled it towards his mouth. Needless to say that bag is no longer there!

Today Yesterday Marcus is turned 4 months old! (I started this Sunday and didn’t get a chance to finish!) Here’s his  4 month picture his dog from Uncle Randy & Aunt Shari.

I tried so hard to get him to smile…I only got this when Will came over and started talking to him. He’s smiling and talking to both his brothers more and more–which thrills them both, of course!

Saturday we pulled out the baby saucer for him to play in.  He’s still not quite old enough for it, but he seems to like being up and able to watch everyone.

(Here he’s more interested in looking at the dome which has the spring in it (on the right) then playing with the ball on the left.)

He’s starting to get better at sitting up (today was the longest he’s done it yet but I didn’t have the camera near-by. That’ll be for the next blog post!) He’s starting to enjoy chewing/sucking on his pointer finger more and more–the thumb doesn’t appear to be something he wants (yet).  He seems much more interested in chewing on things.   He’s usually awake about once a night, though some nights he’ll surprise us sleeping all night. He usually sleeps on his tummy and has gotten quite good at flipping himself over in his bed. He can also scootch around and can end up facing the opposite way from how I put him in bed. Yesterday he got to go to the nursery at church for the first time. He did fine, and they seemed to enjoy having a smaller baby who liked being held (most of the kids are walking around in there–they’re going to be moving up in June when they start promoting kids and have more room in the toddler room, so no fears about him being run over!  )

Today I decided to give him rice cereal for the first time. Do I wait until I found the box with the soft tipped baby spoons and cute bowls? No I just grabbed one of the older kids plastic spoons and a small bowl and mixed up some cereal.  At first, he wasn’t quite sure what to think about it:

He enjoyed it. I was hoping it’d help him sleep better tonight. Insead, he was up an hour later, wide awake, ready to chat again.

Updated: He went back to bed after a short bit and slept until 5 am! Very nice!

I’ve been trying to post a bit more often. I got two whole days in a row before I missed a few (thus, my inspiration for the title).

It’s mainly because I just don’t have much to say…or much of anything that interesting to say!  Here’s the short view of the last 2 days:

• Three nights in a row of kids waking me up multiple times is draining me.
• I’m trying to get into Spring Cleaning mode, so I’ve started doing list making, planning and starting to get some of the things done on it. (But not much has been done yet, can you tell? That’s mainly because of what I did next:)
• Last night I made our menu plan for the next two weeks, got coupons for things on sale and then went shopping this morning. I’ve gotten spoiled shopping with just Marcus, while Will and Alex are at school. This summer I’m either going to “get” to take all 3, or go once James wakes up (at lunch time) and lose some of the time I get to see him.
• Strawberries were on sale $1/lb. carton. I bought 10 today. 5 are already frozen or eaten by the kids. The frozen ones are for smoothies. I may even go back and get more later in the week, I have a feeling the price will spike up once the demand is down and this way we’ll be all set.  Four more are for two more batches of strawberry jelly tomorrow (we’ve done two already).
• James worked Monday, to help with the business before Tax day, and got today off. So he has a four day weekend. It was really nice to have him around today!
• We had several record setting or tying days this week. We’ve had temps in the mid-80s all week and have been VERY spoiled with the fastest change from winter to spring then I’ve ever seen. I learned when I moved to Indiana what the phrase “April showers bring May flowers” meant, but I’ve come to realize it’s really May temperatures that bring May flowers!  I’m trying to get out and do some weeding as well, when Marcus is napping. This weekend our weather gets back to normal as far as temperatures, but we’ll continue to be pretty dry.
• Our big plans for the weekend are spring cleaning, jam making, game playing with the boys and relaxing.

I feel I MUST do an update after yesterday’s post–today was MUCH better! It was quite a blessing–even with 2 kids waking me up 4 times last night (Will was the only one who didn’t wake up).

I was finally able to make it to Women’s Bible Study, for the first time in about 2 months. Marcus is STILL (or again) a bit snotty/sneezy/stuffy so I kept him with me instead of sticking him in the nursery. He was great, sleeping most of the time.  

After Bible Study, James and I got to go on a lunch date. The first Wednesday of the month Alex’s preschool has “Lunch Bunch”, where the kids can stay after and eat lunch with their friends. They were on spring break during the actual first Wednesday, so it happened today. With Alex and Will at school, James and I could enjoy a nice quiet lunch together, along with Marcus. (Since he’s not talking yet, he’s easy to bring along!)  We had a good time catching up a bit and then we split ways again–he went to go pick up Alex and I took Marcus to the Doctor for his 4 month check up. For real this time!   He was quite a little show off for the Doctor. She put him on his belly and he showed off his “I’m almost ready to crawl” skills I’ve only seen once at Easter time. She was quite impressed with his neck strength and how well he is growing. He then endured two shots and was asleep before I got back to the van. He was a tired little guy but only took a short nap then.

We all enjoyed another beautiful afternoon. We’ve had so many strings of warm days we’ve really gotten spoiled! Reality comes back this weekend, so we’re planning to enjoy tomorrow outside as much as possible.

Today I woke Marcus up at 12:20 (after a rushed lunch) to take him to the Doctor for his 4 mo. check up. We get up to the office and discovered they had no record of an appointment at all, so we had to reschedule. I have no idea what happened…it didn’t get saved in the computer? It didn’t get entered at all? I just know I write appointments down RIGHT away in my purse sized calendar when I make it (so I won’t forget), and it was there, so I’m putting them blame on them, but if they don’t have a spot, they don’t have a spot. I’d rather go back another day then sit and wait and then make others wait the rest of the day.

I promised the boys we’d go to the Children’s Museum this week.  As we looked at the rest of the week, today was the best day to go. We got a rather late start.  Once again, I had to wake up Marcus to go.  By the time we got there, it was 4 (and they close at 5)–but we could still have fun for an hour! (I’m so thankful for our passes that let us go in for a short time, have fun, and not feel like we have to “get our money’s worth.)  So we get there and I open up the back of the van to get the stroller out…only to discover the stroller was taken out of the van on Sat. and not put back in (by someone else who I’ll let remain nameless).  Add in driving a van without A/C in rush-hour traffic on a warm day, dumping out my ENTIRE cup of Diet Coke on me, the seat and floor, and you get an idea of how the day went. (I just heard on the news we hit 80 today—almost 20 degrees above average for this time of year, and the 4th time we’ve hit it already this spring!! No wonder it seems all the plants leafed/bloomed FAST. And,  I admit it, I’m now a wimp about heat, I don’t handle it well, especially in the van that seems to get hot quickly. But I’m not complaining about the heat, not after the winter! I’m just sayin’.)

But I’d rather end on a positive not, not a grumpy one. At least it’s beautiful out! And we’re taking the van in Thursday to get the A/C fixed (we hope, they’re not quite sure the problem and I’m praying it won’t be as expensive as they’re predicting. Did you know it has to be above 70 for the shop to work on Air Conditioners? I found that interesting and is why we’ve had to wait this long to fix it.)   The boys really enjoyed our one hour of fun and I’ve started to always keep a sling in the car so I didn’t have to carry Marcus the whole time. I had read in the paper last week that a local store was going to start selling Blue Bell Ice Cream, something we had in Texas. I ran to the store this morning and got a carton.  We all had some after lunch and it was REALLY good, nice of it to live up to the memories of childhood!   So that’s  our Tuesday.

They were on the couch together and Will asked me to take their picture–how could I not?

We got to spend Easter up in Northern IL with James’ Aunt, Grandparents and 2 of his brothers. It was a wonderful time of catching up, celebrating the most important holiday of the year, and hanging out with family. We drove up Saturday and got there about mid-day. We enjoyed talking, watching Butler beat Michigan State, eating pizza and playing games.

Sunday we got up bright and early because they are an hour behind us & we were sharing a room with all the kids.   We had a nice service at the church to celebrate Easter. Karl and Cori drove out after their church service and we had a wonderful Easter Feast together.

Teri, Karl and James.  Two babies were down for naps when this was taken.

It was hard for Will and Alex to have to wait for the Easter egg hunt. FINALLY, after lunch & talking, it took time to hide them and then it was time!  It was warm but VERY windy out. Strong enough to blow the bucket out of Will’s hand at one point.

(We brought the boys boots in case it was rainy. Aunt Nancy had some work done on the sceptic tank last fall and grass hasn’t been seeded there yet, and we were warned it’d be muddy. It ended up not being that bad, but Alex couldn’t wait to wear his.)

We had talked to Will and Alex about the importance of letting the little boys find the easy eggs.  Will seemed to have a few more eggs then all the others so I asked him to share, which he nicely did.

It wasn’t all fun and games–that strong wind blew Will into the door (or made him lose his balance or something, it was hard to understand with the tears) and he got a rather large gash on his head. He was telling me “I’m NOT going to go outside again, EVER!” as I tried to get him to go out with Alex. A few moments later Jaems came back in with Alex saying it was so strong it was blowing the toys around, so the kids got to play in the basement instead.  Notice I waited to take the picture until AFTER he had ice on it. I just had to get a shot of his sad face.

The next generation of Miles Boys. Can you believe the 3 younger ones were not even born at least years Easter gathering? How much changes in a year! And how much more fun next year is going to be when they are old enough to play more!

I’ve starting reading “By The Shores of Silver Lake” to Will. He loves listening to the books on CD and I was saving some of the older books of the Little House series for when he was older, but when he started quoting “Little House in the Big Woods” and the others to me, I knew it was time to move on and let him hear what happens next. On our last visit to the library I let him check out the books on CD. That afternoon I went into his room to see CD #6 of 6 in the CD player. I asked him why he put the last CD in first and he said “I wanted to know how it ended!”  I just had to shake my head…and not say anything since I am one to read the ending of the book if I get too caught up in it!

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We were driving up to Northern Ill. for Easter and driving by a number of windmill farms. James realized the kids were saying “windmeals”, so we were working on saying it right. What ended up coming out of one of the boys mouth was ”mendwills” !

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We got the boys dry erase markers + some laminated cards to play with in the car. Alex kept calling them “Dry race” markers.

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Alex: I’m not afraid of thunderstorms. The lightening is just  ‘lectricity and the thunder is God talking.
James: What is God saying?
Alex: Rumble, mumble, mumble.

Well, really we’re more at 3 1/2 months, but with being the third child, he’s lucky to get what he gets! Part of the reason I’ve been waiting is I want to do some pictures of him…it’s still not happened the way I want (I’m going to try tomorrow) but I can slip in a few from I took today for Easter in here.

A few things I wanted to record and remember about Mr. Marcus Man. First, we are blessed with what a laid-back child he is. He really does a great job being flexible and just going with the flow!   We’ve had several people remark, with amazement, at how laid back he is and it reminds me how blessed I am. Now, there are times when he gets upset and lets us know, but for the most part, he’s just content to chill and watch what’s going on around him.

He’s started doing more and more kicking, reminding me of how much my insides suffered when he was en utero.  He is a belly sleeper and tends to “scootch” as he’s falling asleep or waking up. Several times, I have found him with his foot OUT of the pants leg of his sleeper–he’d kicked his leg right out! (Either through a gap or completely pushed open a snap.) He’s also started to move more and has managed to rotate 180 degrees in his crib.

He got past the “screaming in the car” stage rather quickly and did a great job on our first two big drives–up to Mom and Dads and then our drive up to IL (5 hours). He slept and “chatted” at times but was able to wait until we could stop to feed him and let him out. I’m sure having brothers in the seat behind him help out! He loves to watch them, and they love to entertain him (sometimes to the point it seems annoying to me, I’m not sure how he feels about it). We’re all thankful for our cutie and we all love him a great deal!