5 Miles

Today Alex got to start preschool! He was quite excited, it was the first thing he said as he came out of his bedroom (sleepily rubbing his eyes).

He is in the Lions class at the preschool we’ve been taking kids to for the last 4 years (crazy! Where did the time go?)  It’s nice to see people there who know our kids and have been with them for several years.

He had a fun first day. He wanted me to walk him in, but once he got in the room he was off, ready to join the kids in coloring (as I knew he would be). When I picked him up he told me all about the three stories they read, the craft they did, what they played at recess, the snack they had and that they played with lace-up cards. It sounds like they had a full day and he had a great time.

Thursday was Will’s 7th birthday! (7!! How in the world do we have a 7 year old? )  I had told him we’d do some playdates over the summer…those didn’t end up happening. Then I had said “Maybe a back-to-school party…” and that didn’t happen. SO, I felt I needed to do a bit of something for his birthday and actually carry through on my promise. But it wasn’t going to be a big party! We ended up doing “Will’s Wacky Water Olympics Party”.  He invited 2 friends from church, 2 from school and the two neighbor boys. All the kids ended up bringing siblings (I did invite most of them, one ended up staying with her mom because her brother didn’t want them to leave him–and it was perfect she stayed, she made the team numbers even!)

I totally stole the idea for the games from a friend of mine from High School. She posted pictures of their Wacky Water Olympics a few weeks ago and I realized that’d  it looked like and easy fun.  So I shamelessly copied her!

We had the “Hole in my Bucket” relay–the kids had to use the holey buckets to fill up another bucket on the other side of the yard (just an aside, it’s been a REALLY dry month, we set the record for driest month ever with less then half-an inch of rain–you can tell by how brown our grass is!).

We did the “Carry a Wet Sponge on Your Head” relay,  where they had to carry the sponge on your head and then drain it out to fill up the bucket on the other side of the yard. Alex loved this one best–I think he liked throwing the sponge at his teammates.

We did “Water Limbo”–at the end the kids were crab walking under the pole!

Then we did lots with water balloons that I didn’t get pictures of because I was handing out water balloons.   The kids then had a race to pick up the water balloon remains, and the reward was ice cream cake!

We got done and the kids had time to do more relays. Some played those, some played on the swings.  It was a nice, low key event that everyone seemed to enjoy.  My kind of party!

So Marcus is 8 months now–and boy is he on the move!  I’m late in putting this up because I’m now much more tired in the evenings. Between being pregnant (if you missed that, read here) and running after this cute little guy, most evenings I’m too tired to put two sentences together!

This month he has mastered the act of crawling. Within a week he went from getting up on all fours to being able to make it from the living room down the hallway to his brothers room. And he Knows where the room with all the good toys is!  The big boys have gotten good at making sure their door is closed and I often find Marcus sitting outside, expressing his displeasure at being left out.

We’re now adjusting to baby proofing.  And, the little guy was not content to stay with crawling. As soon as he got that down, he started working on pulling up. In the last two weeks most days when I come to get him up from his nap, he’s standing up, holding onto the edge of the crib (crying, but that’s another issue).

In the last few days he’s gotten even better at pulling himself up on other items around the house and is thrilled with all the new discoveries.

(He can watch the cars driving by!)

Today I felt his first tooth peeking out!  I’m not sure if this is related to the tooth, but suddenly he is NOT happy being fed “baby” food (or any food I feed him on a spoon).  He wants to feed himself and cries if I try to feed him.   But its been a struggle to find food he can manage to get in his mouth and then swallow without being able to chew. Today we tried pieces of banana coated in wheat germ, in an attempt to make it less messy.

We’ll just say that was a giant fail on the “not as messy” part.

While he was REALLY messy (and got a bath right after this), he did enjoy the banana.

Last week it was time for our annual visit to the Indiana State Fair. James had to work during the week and we didn’t want to venture out there on the weekend. I invited my mom and dad to join us and they came down on Wednesday.  Dad took most of the pictures–but here area  few of the ones I have (I was stalling to put this up until I got copies of his pictures but I decided to stop stalling and just do it!)

Mom and Dad had never gone with the kids before and didn’t realize all the kid friendly areas there are. The boys were excited to do the mini-golf course with grandpa while I was able to feed Marcus.  Then we visited the Hands-On farm exhibit, where the kids get to pretend to feed animals, gather eggs, pick some vegetables/fruit, milk a cow and ride a tractor!

The kids got to then take their products they’d gathered and “sell” them at the market. Then there is store where they could buy some orange juice, granola bar, pretzels, or other similar items.  It was a REALLY hot day so I suggested the OJ would be a good idea. They enjoyed it.   Then we noticed there was a puppet show going on we stopped to watch:

Marcus was such a good baby on such a hot day!  He was quite happy in the stroller as long as we kept him fed.

After that excitement, we had supper. Then we went to the other side of the fair grounds on the “tractor train” (a series of trolley type cars pulled by a tractor).   (The fair is around a huge horse track. Parking is in the center and things are on the north and south side, with the mid-way on the west side. We tend to spend most of our time on the north/south).  There we got see some of the animals in the livestock barns and other sites, as well as visit the dairy barn for our annual milk shakes.

Before we knew it, it was 7:30 and time to go. Will had school the next day and I knew we were testing Marcus’ limits.  It was nice to get to visit again!

Well, rather it is news that starts small and grows big. We’re having a baby!

Baby #4 will be joining the family in mid-March. (I’m not bothering with a due date since we’ll induce early again, Lord willing.)  We had decided (well, I had decided and James didn’t mind) we wanted to have a 4th. Will and Alex are very close and there is a big gap in age between them and Marcus. Next year Alex will go off to school and leave Marcus all on his own! So we thought in a year or so we’d start trying. Instead, God had other plans!

Other Frequently Asked Questions:

1. The baby and Marcus will be about 15 months apart.
2. Yes, we will find out if it is a boy or girl.
3. No, we’re not cheering either way. We’ll be thrilled with another boy–really, we know boys and then the big two can share a room and the young two can. (I need to start getting in the habit of not calling them “little” now, some day they will be big!).  We’ll be thrilled (tho uncertain what all to do ) with a girl as well. We’re not trying to be cliche when we say we’re just praying for a healthy baby.
4. The boys do know and are excited to have another baby coming.  They’ve already said they can share the top bunk so Marcus can sleep on the bottom.
5. I have NO IDEA how we’ll fit all 4 in the house. But we’ll make it work, many have fit more in smaller places, we’ll be cramped but fine.
6. Yes, this is a happy surprise. God had worked on preparing my heart for wanting a 4th one already (the earliest I’ve ever wanted another) and so while we’re surprised and its not how we would have planned it, we figure we’ll get the baby stage over in one fell swoop and then have fun as the younger two get better.  Having made it through two already, I know how fast it goes and so I’m hoping it won’t be as overwhelming as it would be if it was #1 and #2.
7. Thankfully, I haven’t been that sick, just pretty tired.  I went to the Doctor last week and had an early ultrasound.  It was wonderful to see the heart beat and see the little peanut moving around.

Will had his first day of first grade today.

I left before he got on the bus to go to the school and greet the Kindergarteners and First Graders and help them get to their rooms. I got to see Will for a moment, but then I was taking some kids to their room and he was off to his.

The verdict? It was a fun day.  They had new playground equipment and Will had fun seeing friends from last year who aren’t in his new class at recess.  They also have fewer rules on the playground then they did in Kindergarten! Lunch and Recess continue to be the favorite part of the day.  :)  He does have some friends in class and he’s excited about the field trips they’ll get to take.  He couldn’t remember anything else because “it was hours ago”. (I know, I need to get used to it, don’t I?)

Meanwhile, Alex had to adjust to not having his best play-mate around.  We had a good time playing games (after 2 games of Candy Land I was happy to teach him Chinese Checkers), painting, and cooking together.  I was reminded how much he can chatter.  Here are a few of my favorite things he said:

• “I love all the colors in the world but I’m a fan of red”
• “There’s the white part of your eye and the black part you see through, and then the colored part. That’s so you can tell who’s in your family and who isn’t.”
• As he was going to his room for rest time “Good-bye Marcus, I can’t play with you anymore, I have to go to my room!”
• “Mommy, whenever Marcus sucks his thumb he looks like a Real Marcus. Actually, whenever he doesn’t suck his thumb his looks like a Real Marcus and when he does he looks like a cutie.”

One of the great things about James’ parents visiting is they bring us veggies from the farm. Reuben and Tessa gave us 3 big bags of fresh, organic vegetables–an extra blessing this year because our garden has not done well this summer.   We were given a huge bag of beans that I was able to freeze.  This is the bowl after the boys and grandpa ‘tipped’ and cut them. (Sorry this is  so washed out, it’s not as pretty as it looked for real.)

Look at the beautiful colors!  The yellow/purple ones are called ‘Rattlesnake’ and the green/purple striped are called ‘Dragon’s Tongue’. Once you blanch the beans (cook them for about 3 minutes) the purple is gone but it was fun to see.   I got 16 cups of cut beans frozen for later in the year. And I may get a bit more from my struggling bean plants (they’re the only plants really doing well).

Later in the week, during a pretty hot day (we hit a record high on Wednesday, 97 here with the heat index up in the 105 range), the boys were putting on a concert in the living room.  I HAD to get a picture of their get-ups.  (Not the best picture but Marcus ran into some problems right after I took this, so I had to put the camera down and run.)

We made butterscotch pudding pops.  Alex decided he didn’t like his, so Marcus and I shared it.  I think Marcus enjoyed the cold more then the pudding, he liked to suck on it, but it seemed more got on his face and shirt then in his mouth.

James’ schedule at work as changed and he’s getting home about 7 right now. So we’ve been trying to do a “Dessert with Dad” instead of eating supper together (though we may push supper back until 7 and eat together, we did that tonight and I liked it better).  Last night our dessert was s’mores.  First we had to roast some GIANT marshmallows James’ cousin got back in July (it was too hot to do a fire that week so we took ours home and saved them).  The boys liked the strawberry pink ones.

Marcus seemed happy with the grass he got to eat–he was not given any s’mores! (He might get away with ice cream or pudding but that’s It. Really!)

Over the weekend James’ parents visited us. The boys had a great time playing with Grandpa.  While they were here I took advantage of Grandma Lo being here to watch Marcus and the boys, Grandpa and I used a prize the boys won during the Library Summer Reading Program.  They got to play a round of mini-golf at a local activity center.

They had a wonderful time (and are already wanting to go back).

The course has a number of water traps/ponds that the balls can rather easily roll into.  They had nets at each one so you can scoop your ball out (the balls float!).  Each boy was excited  they got to fish their ball out several times. (We didn’t give them the extra stroke they were supposed to have).  Grandpa had a hole in one and was the winner of our game.  I wasn’t too far behind.

And here’s a picture of Grandma “watching” Marcus.

Marcus was playing “drums” on Grandpa’s head, until Grandpa got hit with drool–then that was done!

Marcus decided to show off for his grandparents. He went from just rolling/scooting to crawling 2-3 “steps”. By the end of this week he’s at the point he can crawl across the living room, down the hallway, into the kitchen…quite some progress in just one week!  Once he figured out how to go, there was no stopping him, as much as I tried!

We were listening to some music in the van and the song “Please Read The Letter” by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant came on. (If you’ve never heard it, you can listen here, but the chorus repeats the line “Please read the letter that I wrote”. If you’ve not heard it, you really should listen, it’s an amazing song. If you have heard it, watch the video for a really cool old house.)

During the song, Alex asked me, “Mommy, why can’t that man not read that letter?” I had to explain that he WROTE the letter and was asking someone else to read it.

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Alex, eating a Snickerdoodle cookie we’d made, told me “These Doodle bugs are yummy!”

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Will said today at lunch,  ”Wouldn’t it be cool if flies could talk and you could play ‘I Spy’ with it?”

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Alex looked at the place of crackers and peanut butter HE ASKED FOR at lunch today and said “I’m just hungry enough to try this!”

We’re in between 2 big thunderstorms right now.  And while I’m tired, I figure I’ll stay up a bit more for round 2, just in case this second round is loud–if it is, I’ll be having a boy or two appearing. I’ve discovered I handle kids awake better if I’m already awake then if I’d JUST fallen asleep and they wake me.  (Or so I tell myself…or is this just a way to justify staying up too late?

I’m trying to do better at blogging. I don’t feel like I have lots of interest to say, but here are a few random thoughts.

We’re fighting a battle with a mouse. This mouse first appeared in the garage this winter with his family or friends. We caught several there. Then one night when I got up to feed Marcus I saw it run across the dining room to the living room. That freaked me out. I have no idea why I can handle dissecting various animals or other gross things, but a mouse makes me want to shudder and then go shower, but that’s how it is. I do not like rodents of any kind–we will not be owning a gerbil, hamster or guinea pig.  Seriously, I’ll take a snake or lizard first.   Anyway, so back in the winter we set out traps in the house (hidden from the kids) and caught another one. Then we had a bait stealer, one that kept stealing the cheese but never got caught.   Then we didn’t see any more evidence of a mouse and it warmed up, and I foolishly thought the silly thing had moved out side.   This last week I started seeing, um, “evidence” of the mouse’s presence again.  So, traps were set up again. And another one was caught again. And more bait was stolen. So now we’re bringing out the big guns, before we risk having a whole generation of smarter mice who can avoid traps being raised here.   I overheard some noise in the kitchen that I’m praying is the new trap doing it’s job. (It’s a  bigger, container ones that keep the mouse in them and say “set” or “caught” with poison inside–instead of the old fashioned ones we were using.)  We shall see, I let James check the drawer we’re seeing most of the evidence in.  And it appears I’ll be washing all the items in that drawer, again.  I’m very thankful for a dishwasher!!!   But this is a battle I will Win!

I’ve tried to not complain much about this summer, but, for the record, it’s been a hot and rainy summer.  Our garden has not done well, it’s so sad this year. Part of it is so much rain…part of it is we probably didn’t prepare our soil as well this year. Lesson learned! We’ll do better next year in hopes of better yields.  (Seriously, even our zucchini plant isn’t producing! Who has to go begging for zucchini?!?)  I’m reminding myself this, so when I start thinking “Why didn’t we go to all the parks I wanted to go to?” I can remind myself–it’s because it was WAY TOO HOT.  And you have a baby who needs naps and is heavy and hard to carry in a carrier and some of those are not as stroller friendly.  But I did want to try to do better at doing a few things with the bigger boys–thankfully they play together really well and have had a great time this summer playing sports in the back yard or playing with the hose, building a lake, a damn, streams, “bird bath” (flooded area), and making their own Wipeout course. (That’s a silly show on TV they enjoy, where people do various impressive obstacle courses and end up falling in water or mud. They do lots of jumping from spot to spot, sliding down the slide, running in the slip ‘n slide and other funny things.)

The big boys had their yearly physicals at the Doctor today. They were pronounced in good heath and Alex’s hearing and vision are fine. So the reasons for him saying “What?” all the time are not physical.

Well, the storm is heading out and I really need to head to bed!  I’m just proud I didn’t wait 2 weeks between posts again.  Oh, I added a picture of the fish Will (and James) caught in the Lake Day post.