Stressful mornings, extra chocolate evenings

It has come to the time to write again.  I always find I need to write when I have a jumble of thoughts that I want to remember.  Sometimes when I finally get a moment to write them down - they all disappear.

My mornings seem stressful recently.  Nathan has continued to not do well at school and now the school absolutely refuses to do anything longer then two hours until we get him tested. I struggle between wanting what is best for him and thinking they are all crazy.  I made it my mission a few weeks ago to try and get him recess at least but the principal would not budge.  Currently Mark rides his bike to work and I pick up Nathan at 11:00 in the morning.  I'm not sure how long we can keep this up in the next few months (depends on how much snow we get?).  Needless to say we are both frustrated with the way things are turning out.  Nathan's school experience is not what we expected. Things get stressful in the morning as I have to dress and get all 4 kids outside to wait for the bus, then get the remaining 3 undressed (coats/shoes) ....they are not usually compliant....with anything.  Then, when I leave to pick up Nathan the girls are tired and hungry and are usually very non compliant.

 I feel like we have a family full of monkeys.  They are always noisy, messy and ....crazy. When Mark and I attempt to have a conversation at supper time it seems like Sarah chooses that time to impersonate a fire engine (she is pretty good), Abby starts to sing at the top of her lungs, Nathan starts asking a million questions and Hannah starts yelling to get my attention back.  Most of the time Mark and I end up finishing our conversation after they leave the table.  Supper happens in stages.  First the kids are loudly complaining that they are hungry , then we quickly make them something, they are silent eating for a few minutes , they decide that they don't like what we put together for them, they ask for different food/drink/refills/more food ....then they want to get down.....and we are left with a mess and mostly quiet (unless they start fighting).

Hannah, my little monster, is getting into EVERYTHING.  She has figured out how to open my laptop (loves to bang as hard as she can at the keys) , she steals my mouse and chews on it, she can open any door (including the front door), she attempts to eat my k-cups, and she has just figured out how to open the toilet lid :(  ....that is not even half of the mischief she gets into ....those happen most often so I remember them more.  She still hops around on her bum or crawls.  I think she could start walking if she wanted to.,,but I'm kind of afraid of what she will do once she does decide to walk.

The other day Nathan saw that we had made brownies and asked for some this way "Can I have some chocolate rectangular prism?" He had forgotten the word "brownie" but remembered the shape :).  He knows almost all the shapes including the 3D ones (some of which are hard for me to recall) and is very good at patterns.  Nathan excels at anything he wants to ....and the rest is difficult for him.

Abby is a little girl with a very loud personality.  She loves singing.  I at first regretted not having a radio in the kitchen , but Abby soon made up for it. Sometimes I try to sing along with her , which is difficult since her songs are a mixture of Spanish (thanks to Dora) and her own interpretation of words, she either gives me a scathing look for interrupting her or tentatively allows me to join the chorus.  

Sarah has hit her "act and think contrary to what ever mom wants" stage.  She drives me crazy sometimes.  Today I had to give her her first hand slap :( .  She questions everything ....even when she already knows the answer.  She is still my little princess though :)

This morning Mark was amused that I had a short conversation with the dog before ordering him out of the kitchen ....I guess I don't talk to enough people during the day.  I'll be looking forward to painting classes again :)

Ups and downs - but mostly ups :)

The year 2014 has been marching steadily by it seems.  Costco has started putting out Christmas items along with Halloween costumes.  The nights are getting cool again and the birds are starting to think about heading down south.  The past summer has been a constant change for us and it feels like the whole year went by fast.

I am loving the new house.  I love the space , the floors that I can actually clean, the appliances that work well and I love living close to the lake again.  It is such a treat to walk by the "ocean" as the kids call it (I think they know it is a lake but because it bugs Mark - they call it an ocean) . The kids are starting to call our new house "home" and not just "the new house" or at least not protesting loudly when we refer to it as "home" (well everyone except Nathan ...).  Nathan has started school.  I felt so bad for him.  He was so excited and was looking forward to going all year but when he finally did get to go it was too much for him and he shut down (not listening to anyone and eventually falling asleep).  Mark has been picking him up on his lunch hour so he gets a  few hours in.  He has started to like it again but still has difficulty with routine things.  I think he is in a class of kids who have all been to day-care programs and junior kindergarten- they are used to routine/different rules and he isn't .  Hopefully he will get used to it soon.  All day kindergarten isn't good for every kid :(

There has been some unexpected surprises in this house  - both good and bad.  Apparently we will need a new roof as will everyone in this neighborhood unless they replaced it already.  I enjoy the neighborhood but I still miss the older streets - the ones with sidewalks and houses that are all different ...Maybe the lake will make up for it.

Sarah has started potty training.  I have pull-ups for her because she is hesitant to dirty her "princess underwear".  Apparently Nathan told her that she was allowed to pee /poop in pull-ups and no amount of convincing on my part will prompt her to head to the bathroom if she feels she has to go.  Pull- ups are just expensive diapers for her.  I have started to put her in underwear for a few hours in the morning but I forget to remind her to try for the bathroom if I don't see her.  This morning she was downstairs and informed me (by yelling) that she had peed on the carpet - after I cleaned her up she asked me to clean the carpet so she could finish the puzzle .....

Sarah amuses and exasperates me ....sometimes at the same time.  She is a mixture of "sweet manners Sarah" and "shockingly rude Sarah".  One day Mark decided to take her to the old house to get some things - I overheard her happily talking and talking and talking :) She started her long conversation with "Thank you so much for choosing me! "  She reminded me of a  beauty queen making her speech after she won the pageant.  And then there is the Sarah who smacks her hand on the table yelling "I WANT a PINK cup! after I give her some lunch.

Abby and Hannah are growing (although Abby refuses to eat anything...she still manages to grow somehow).  Hannah has some new teeth and likes to use them as much as she can.  She has added to the long list of things she has fallen out of (it was the tub this time and the stairs again).  Hannah is like a scavenger looking for garbage to eat.  I'm always digging kleenex, paper and play-doh out of her mouth. Abby still likes to sing really loud.  The other day she found an attachment for the vacuum cleaner and used it as a megaphone - it was surprisingly effective. The other night Abby told me with a smile that she did a "bum burp " out of her penis.  I told her she didn't have one because she was a girl - she appeared to be surprised about this bit of news.  She decided to be a boy anyway for a little while and then later on remembered that she was a girl.  My silly little Abby - she always makes me laugh at random times during the day :)

I love my family so much :)

First ill fated day of school ....poor little monkey ...he looks so nervous 

Enjoying Abby's little birthday cupcakes 

First birthday in the new house :) 

Opening presents 

Like a Bus Baby! Like a Bus!

It seems like I start every post saying "I haven't written for awhile" .  We have been super busy this summer. June/July was spent cleaning the house for house showings (fun!...sooo not).  Our house is now sold and we have bought a new one (all done within one hugely stressful week) and we will be moving on Aug. 23.  We are getting possession of our new house this Friday.  I'm really looking forward to showing the kids our new house after talking to them about it so much this past month.  I'm not sure they have grasped the concept of moving yet but they seem to catch on to our excitement and business.  I have mixed feelings of moving.  This house is like an old friend and thinking of someone else living in here and changing things seems ...strange.  I met Mark for the first time on this front porch.  We opened all of our wedding presents in this living room.  I stood/sat laboring with all 4 children in this living room and Hannah was born here.  I remember sitting awake rocking a baby to sleep in the yellow room upstairs looking into the closet dreaming of the day when whoever I was rocking would be old enough to wear the clothing I could see hanging (things become much more simplified when you don't get enough sleep).  We have had a lot of fun in the pool (something we will be missing).  But, good memories will follow us to the new house as well.  The new house is close to double the size of this one (square footage) and is closer to Marks work as well as the lake :).      

Today while I was busily getting lunch cleaned up Sarah looked at me thoughtfully and said "Mom, I wish you had pink hair".  I told her I would get some pink the next time I went to a hair dresser - she smiled and kept on drinking her juice.  I love those little conversations, they are the reason I started this blog , I don't want to forget them :).   Sarah is in the "Why" stage now.  She needs at least two explanations for any number of things during the day - often for things she has repeatedly asked about (why are we stopping? It's a red light...Why is the light red??) .  I don't recall Nathan ever going through that stage.  He only asked very specific questions (what does that word say?, what is this for?) or he will ask silly ones like this evening when Mark told him to put the bread on the counter his reply was "What's a counter?" Abby is still a bundle of passionate energy who likes singing...loudly ... ha ha - I hope she still does that when she gets older. Hannah has added a wobble to her hopping and sometimes tips herself over in her haste to get somewhere.

Mark has said "Like a boss baby!  Like a boss!"  when he was celebrating something he did.  Nathan started saying it as well ...but it sounded more like "Like a bus baby!  like a bus!".  When Nathan repeats something like that he often does it over and over and over ....luckily he hasn't picked up too many not so nice expressions ...so far (going to school this fall).

In spite of selling , buying and moving this summer we have managed to have a bit of fun with the kids.  We visit the local parks, we went to Colasanti's , we visited the beach at Pt. Pelee and even made a trip to Greenview Aviaries  :)  I love having fun with our kids.

Abby at Pt. Pelee - She appears to be allergic to sunscreen ....and won't wear a hat

Hannah having fun mangling her lunch

Sarah at Greenview Aviaries

Nathan having fun at a Canada Day picnic

Use your fork man!

OK - so I have not written for a long time.  Things seem to escalate during the day and all I want to do in the evening is sit and watch TV or crochet (I picked up crochet to feed the starving creative part of me :)).  So many things have happened recently that I just want to snap shot the last few days (mostly because I can't remember every thing else).

Yesterday we put our house up for sale.  We don't know if it will sell this summer , but we thought it would be worth a try.  We want a house with more space ( livable basement, 2 bathrooms, garage ...) and are looking in the Kingsville area.  That square sign in our front yard is the cause of lots of muscle pain :( .  Mark and I have been cleaning /yard work.  Cleaning a house to sell is crazy hard with 4 little mess makers running around needing things almost constantly.  It still amazes me how fast those kids can make a mess and get into trouble.

When I thought of the word "trouble"  Hannah came to mind.  She is "bumming" around (doing little hops on her bum to get around) and getting into lots of trouble.  Originally I thought  "How much trouble could she get into?  The others get into stuff all the time - I'll just herd her away with them" . I forgot that she is at floor level :(  Hannah emptys the garbage can and eats the garbage , she finds every scrap of paper on the floor and eats it, she eats more dog food then the dog and spills his water (somehow getting wet from head to toe), she likes chalk, dog bones and pretty much anything else I don't want her to eat. She is starting to figure out how to open drawers and cupboards-yikes! What am I going to do with her when she does walk? On second thought I will like it when she walks because then she will slim down a bit- she is in size 6 diapers and they are getting a little tight (I don't think they make them any bigger then that)  She has 6 teeth now and will use all of them on anything she grabs to put in her mouth (including your fingers).  

Right now Abby is screaming like a banshee- she had a long nap this afternoon, I guess that entitles one to stay up all night.  Her angry gibberish is starting to make sense , which is the cause of more scraps between her siblings.   She is starting to play with and mimic Sarah.  Its so cute watching them playing with the "daddy" and "baby" bear in the tub.  I sometimes feel like I get the short end of the stick as the mother representative in their animals.  The daddy bear is a good quality German made model, the mommy bear is a goofy looking yogi bear from Mc Donald's.  The daddy giraffe is the good quality German model but the mommy giraffe came from China and looks like she is lame :( .  Maybe I will have to get them more animals, but then again maybe not ... the dog eats them.

Nathan is almost toilet trained - he wears underwear all day and night and rarely needs to change them.  He still needs constant reminders to go to the bathroom (approx. every 45 minutes) and will still throw a temper tantrum every once in  a while as I haul him (literately , on my hip) to the bathroom.  This morning Sarah noted Nathan eating his pancakes with his fingers and said "Use your fork man!" .  Which made me think of another time when Nathan caught Sarah (or Abby?) eating with their fingers and freaked out yelling at them to "USE THE FORK!" as he used his fingers to eat (like he always does).  They both are picking up expressions said by us or from the TV/computer.  The other day I put up a sticker chart for Nathan that featured numbers counting by threes and got a laugh when his response was "Count by threes? Are you kidding me? That's COOL!"

As I think about all the things I experience during a day or week or month with my family I remember how much I love them.  I still would not have it any other way.  I pity the women who somehow don't feel fulfilled staying at home raising kids , believing the well told lie that women need a job and career to be worth something.  I can't say I'm entirely free from those lies myself .  Everyday I feel God snipping away at them freeing me up to be myself :)

Nathan took this picture 

And he took several like this as well :)

I can just picture her flapping her arms and squealing in this picture 

Abby is "reorganizing" the bandaids , testing some of them. Apparently Sarah helped. 

Can you listen to my heart?  ...For some reason I hear that question often when I'm trying to eat a meal

Christmas is coming ...

It has been awhile since I could find the time to write another post.  I'm sitting on my chair by my computer and am trying to type while Sarah is sitting on my "wap" and Nathan is squished in on the other side.  The younger two are sleeping (or I couldn't be on here writing now :)).  I am never without someone sitting on me every time I sit down.  Lately it seemed like I was getting a bigger butt as Hannah was becoming a tighter and tighter fit between me and the chair- but my clothes still fit and hers don't ;)

I'm noticing we get to have more conversations with our kids.  Hannah still smiles (two dimples) her hamster smile  (one tooth in on the bottom) and giggles. Abby knows quite a few new words and can speak in sentences. I think of Abby as "defiant until the end" or "the revolutionary". She like everything else has attacked her two year old perceived independence with a passion.  I actually have arguments with her sometimes.  I will ask her to do something simple ( probably something she already wanted to do) and she will respond with a stormy face "NO!... I DON'T DO THAT" and then proceed to lecture me in a stream of angry babble with a recognizable word here and there.  Sometimes I find this frustrating , but most of the time it is amusing.  She has been in the habit of not wanting to nap recently, which of course makes her unbearable at times.  Once I tossed her on the couch and told her "Not another peep from you!" As I was walking away I heard her growl at me with her thumb in her mouth.

 Nathan will repeat himself persistently until we feel as though we will go crazy.  He repeats phrases he hears on commercials or TV programs or if he wants something he will repeat it over and over and over and over.... not listening to us try to explain why he can't have what he wants in that exact second.  Sometimes he will spout random facts like "A is a vowel!", or "A silent "E" makes the first vowel say its name!" like he was the one that discovered phonics :).   Today he has been saying "Christmas is coming!" over and over again.  Sarah has advanced in speech more then any of them.  I never know what she will say next.  Mark and I can have actual conversations with her and she understands us :)  The others can understand us as well but the interest and level of understanding varies. Sarah likes to hear me tell her stories of king Daddy, queen Mommy , prince Nathan, princess Sarah, princess Abby and baby princess Hannah. The royal family often gets out of trouble with the help of princess Sarah's magical animals.

Eating peanut butter for supper (it was a bad day...)

Happy second birthday Abby! she is pretty happy to see all those chips

Nathan taking apart my watch

"There is no good time for this "

I was not looking forward to this winter.  It was difficult enough to get out with three small kids - now I have four and its next to impossible.  The cold weather and snow have also been deterrents.  Kids (small ones) don't see the need for mittens/hats/scarfs until they are outside and feel the cold - until then they are happily or not so happily pulling them off as I put them on someone else.  Baby Hannah , as she is called by her siblings, is too small to be outside for very long. Also, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere and it has come to a point to where it seems like anything extra is a tiring thought.  I've found myself thinking "There is no good time for this..." frequently (even thinking this as I write) and other things that need to get done are left alone as I squeeze in that one inconvenient thing.  But doing the bare essentials only all day every day would soon swing me into depression ....its a loosing battle sometimes. So, that means I don't really get out at all, unless I'm walking the dog.  Yes, we have a dog!  I was so excited even though I knew it would add to craziness.  I think walking the dog this winter is helping me stay  sane in a way.  I forget how nice it is to be outside , even if it is freezing cold :).

Highlights from this month include; watching Abby be her crazy self and singing.  I love her singing.  Better her singing then her screeching- she has been doing a lot of that lately.  Abby sounds like an annoying parrot in the bathroom  - it just echos in your head.  I was treating myself to reading a book while eating breakfast the other day when Abby came up to me and quietly told me she had "poopted on da floor" .  I got her to point out the trail she had made and regretted not noticing that she had taken off her diaper.  On the plus side , she is showing early signs of being ready to toilet train :) .  While I was changing her one day she told me she wanted to "pee on da toiwet"- I let her go ...only to have her come back screaming and wet.  She had peed all over the floor in the bathroom and then slipped in it.  I also noticed that she peed all over my clean clothes I had put out for myself :( (I really wasn't expecting her to actually have to pee) .  Sarah and Abby enjoy sitting on the toilet and the princess potty we got them, but they rarely manage to squeeze anything out, if they do they get a candy.  Nathan can mostly toilet himself.  I've learned that a hands-off policy is best for him, mostly because he won't have it any other way.  Nathan gets 30 minutes of computer time as a reward for peeing or pooping on the toilet.  He still goes through several pull-ups a day but has gotten better.

Hannah is teething , slowly it seems.  Soon we will see top and bottom teeth.  It seems like babies disappear when teeth come and toddlers take their place.  I don't regret Hannah growing up, I am in fact looking forward to seeing what kind of person she will be, but I do feel some angst at seeing my last baby on her way to toddler- hood.  Hannah is a very big baby.  Sometimes I have clothing items that fit her and Abby at the same time and I think Hannah could be in a size 6 diaper while the rest are fine in a 5.  When giving Hannah a bath I usually get one as well because she likes to splash ... a lot and she can splash pretty good with those fat little arms.  The other day I was getting soaked while bathing her and commented on it - Nathan who happened to be in the tub as well at the time (he usually prefers to take a bath alone now) jumped out and tenderly started drying me off with a towel.  Nathan has such a tender heart - I hope he learns to guard it well as he grows up.

Yesterday I took the kids to the library program they have in the morning - I had forgotten how slippery it was until I saw my children slip and fall with every other step ... it was like an AFV montage "how many kids will slip and fall in one minute?".  It was also very difficult to pull the wagon (laden with two girls, library books/movies and a diaper bag) over chunks of ice and snow- my back was not happy with me and still isn't.   We had to do a crash course on walking on ice - walk carefully , slowly , SLOWER!, slide your feet!... I think it took us an extra 15 minutes to get there.  I've been trying to do exercises to strengthen my lower back , but they seem to be one of the "there is no good time for this" things lately.  Rarely do even 3 out of the 4 nap at the same time and even at night I often have one of them to take care of.  I was hoping to get by with walking the dog and the occasional acquafit class but that does not seem to be cutting it.

Well - this post has been a little random , but it was the best I could do today.  I have to stop and get the monkeys some lunch before they destroy the couch and living room.