Epiphanies

I guess I have had a few epiphanies in the last day or two.  So I will share them with you.
1) Emails have been flying fast and furious regarding the classroom "fall festivals"  and I have been ignoring them because I have been too busy sewing costumes for halloween and the Wizard of Oz (you really should go see it this weekend and next.)  Last night the epiphany came.  Elementary schools make a big deal out of holidays.  I am doing homeschool kindergarten for Jonny.  I had better make a big deal out of the holidays.  So instead of going to bed I stayed up to make bat and ghost cookies and print out Halloween crafts.  After the kindergarten Halloween party I threw today (toilet paper mummies, decorating sugar cookies, stenciling pumpkins, don't eat pete, etc) Jonny's enthusiasm for learning is restored.  And I'll remember my lesson for next time.  It won't be a "Holiday" party- it'll be Christmas.
2) When you remove your bathrooms' wall coverings to make Halloween costumes (it was vinyl/fake leather looking stuff) you have bathrooms in need of urgent painting.  Oh well.  I have been looking at that fabric and thinking "Halloween" since we moved in. 
3) Since I had all this fabric hanging around (literally) I really wanted to make everyone matching cowboy outfits.  I thought to myself this Halloween will go down in family history as "that awesome Halloween we were all cowboys" or "that dorky Halloween that we all had to be cowboys."  Until this morning (when Amelia left for school in cowgirl vest and skirt and James pointedly left his outfit home) it did not occur to me that it could be both of those at once. 

Other news-
-James is the cutest member of the Lollipop Guild and I can't wait to go see him tomorrow on stage.  I'll take some pictures of him BEFORE applying the stage makeup.   He's also really enjoying math.
-Due to schedule conflicts, I took the kids to the church Trunk or Treat solo.  I instructed the kids to stick together so I could hand out candy.  I was a bit nervous as I manned my post handing out boxes of Nerds.  Toward the end of the night, I could hear the crack of cowboy guns and I knew my little posse was nearby.  Sure enough they came into view together, obedient in all things (for that night anyway.)   I got a lot of heartwarming reports on how Amelia looked after Simon helping him keep up with the over-eager older boys. She sure has grown up over the last year.  I am impressed with her maturity. 
-Simon chooses to use the potty by himself almost all the time now.  I'll give him a reminder when I notice him standing funny but that's not often.  It's a relief to have him at this stage of potty training.  I won't call it done yet, but he's really close.
-Jonny is doing awesome in his swimming class.  He is in the floater level and loves it.  He has always been enthusiastic in the water.  The best parts, he says are when he gets to try the 12 feet deep water (with life jacket) and the secrets his teacher tells him.  (here's one of the secrets: astronauts train in the water)
-Rachel is a sitter now.  She can balance by herself for a while and even play with a toy.  She is also experimenting with food.  So far she likes avocados but not green beans or oatmeal.  (Yes avocados.  It helps my scrawny babies put on weight and maintain their growth curves.) 
-someone broke the on/off button on the camera so no pictures for now. :(

The Difference One Year Makes

Last year, I was shopping at Costco with Simon when he had an epiphany.  You can but things at Costco.  I guess he just thought you walk past a bunch of things that you can't buy, to get to the food that you can buy. 
I think he said something about a tv being turned on and I said they left it on to make people want to buy it.  Then he exclaimed "You can buy tv's at Costco?!" like that was the most incredible thing he ever heard.  As we proceeded through the store, he asked incredulously if we could buy all sorts of things including pants.

Contrast this with today's excursion.  We had just dropped off Amelia at a birthday party and were on our way home.  Jonny and Simon asked if we could stop at Costco.  So we went in and window shopped down all the aisles that I never turn on- the ones with toys and seasonal gadgets.  We admired Christmas ornaments and wrapping paper.  After each item, Simon asked if we should buy it.  I said no we're just looking.  Then we went down the toys aisle and pushed buttons through packages and things.  Simon went from "should we buy it" to "can we buy it."   As we neared the end of our jaunt, he got desperate.  "BUT I NEED IT!" he cried.  I just had to laugh when I saw what it was he was referring to:  a game of Star Trek Scene It. 

Which one is different?

Below are 3 great things.  You decide which one is different and why: 
The true answer will be revealed tomorrow and the one with the closest guess will receive a surprise in the mail.



Holy Thursday!

We just received Jonathan's Catholic kindergarten home school kit. He missed the kindergarten deadline by a few days, but he's ready. If we do accredited kindergarten for him, he will have the option next year of entering first grade or repeating kindergarten at school. The only accredited home school kindergarten in the area is affiliated with the Catholic church.

As you probably know, we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tracy called the school before we ordered the kit to find out about how "Catholic" the materials are. The man on the phone said not to worry; there may be an image here, a sentence there, but for the most part the materials are strictly academic and non-religious.

I'm sorry to report that the gentleman, perhaps unknowingly, broke the ninth commandment. Or the eighth commandment, depending on your denomination. Whichever one says "liar liar pants on fire." (Okay, I don't think he meant to deceive us. It's all about your point of view.)

Actually, it's not that bad, and we can substitute those materials that are not in harmony with the gospel with materials of our choosing. And we have had a few good laughs already. For example, if you're Catholic, you might not find anything funny about the term "Luminous Mysteries," especially when appearing in a kids' coloring book, but believe me.

As another example, there was a rosary in the box. For our non-Catholic readers (which I believe is all of you), a rosary is a bead necklace that helps Catholics count the prayers that they recite. It has a crucifix at the end of it. We focus on the resurrected, living Christ so we don't even use crosses, much less crucifixes, so Jonny may or may not have seen one before. His reaction to the rosary was priceless:

"Why did they send me a dead Jesus necklace?"

good job!

Yesterday, I propped Rachel up on the free standing musical potty, for a silly joke.  Simon came in to see what was going on and I challenged him to a contest, to see who could use the potty first, Simon (age almost 3) or Rachel (3 months.)  He eagerly agreed, and scaled the big potty. 
The three of us chatted and laughed in the bathroom for a few minutes and then I picked up Rachel to get her dressed.  Imagine my surprise (and Simon's horror) when I discovered she actually had wet in the potty.  News spreads fast in our house, so the bathroom filled with revelers.  Simon's take on the situation? "I'm not good jobbing you!"

Road Trip to Upstate New York

Last weekend, we hit the road for a trip to the Finger Lakes in New York for a few days of relaxation and adventure.

We camped at Cayuga Lake State Park and I highly recommend it, if you are ever up in that area. Our campsite was right across from the playground and the bathrooms. Close enough to observe, but far enough to be out of the din. I loved that some of the kids were old enough to head over by themselves. A tiny bit of freedom and they loved it. While hanging out at the camp site, Amelia wanted to pretend superheroes. She said no one wanted to play with her and asked me to come up with a super hero identity. I said I would be "Rainbow" (always my secret spy name when I was a kid) and my power would be to shoot rainbow hoops at people and when they were hit they would suddenly feel calm and cooperative. She said "that's kind of boring, can I change it?" Gee, I wonder why no one wanted to play that game. Actually, Jonny did want to play. His super hero identity was "the Electric Cheese" and he shot cheese lightning at people.
On our way to the camp ground, we stopped by Palmyra, New York where the Hill Cummorah and Sacred Grove are. It was special at times.
Like the time when Simon happened upon a large Christus in the Visitor's Center and was so surprised and excited that he ran to James, pulling him and yelling "come and see! You got to see!"

When Jonny decided that the path to the Hill Cummorah memorial was too wimpy and he wanted to climb straight up. It was steep, but he, James and Gary (and Rachel) did it.

When Simon became very impressed with the flowers in the Sacred Grove and wanted his picture taken with them.

Talking the Jonny about how the largest trees in the grove were probably there when Joseph Smith was.

Listening to Amelia try and impress the missionaries with her knowledge of the gospel.

 

Here are a few examples frm the other times:

Each of the historic houses had floor fans in it and this attracted Jonny and Simon like moths to flame. "Yoou must build a jacuzzi!" (from Muppets in Space, spoofing Field of Dreams)

Someone talking awfully loud about using the potty in the Sacred Grove. That sounds worse than it is. They didn't want to use the potty in the Sacred Grove they just talked about it while we walked and I felt bad for people trying to have a spiritual time there.

We also saw the Peter Whitmer farm- this was where the first meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was held. I loved seeing it in person and thinking about all that went into the planning of the first meeting. The visitor's center here had art work depicting the many stages of planning that went into that first meeting. I LOVED the art. It was unique to this location I have not seen it at any other church site.

The missionaries there encouraged the kids to run races to the trees and back while we waited to go into the farm house. If you look close enough, you should see all of our runners.

We enjoyed swimming and canoeing in Cayuga Lake on a couple of days. Jonny loved swimming (with coast guard approved life jacket) out to the buoys that marked the swimming area. James enjoyed swimming too. Amelia pouted because floaties were not allowed (only life jackets) and finally agreed to go in the water as I was bringing the boys out. I got a good laugh when just as I exited the Lake, she marched up to me and yelled "there- I swam to Mom. Are you happy?!" but then she and I swam aound a little bit and the boys, who were done swimming played the the playground. 
I really enjoyed canoeing in the lake. It reminded me of the many summers we camped at Rucker Lake when I was growing up. My dad would take all the kids for a long weekend of canoeing and kayaking and swimming in the Sierras. I have very fond memories of those camp outs. So I thoroughly enjoyed paddling around with the kids, two at a time.  Cayuga Lake is very large compared to Rucker Lake so we stuck very close to shore. James was a natural with the paddle. Amelia needed a little coaching and turned out to be quite good too. Jonny and Simon sat in the middle on a cushion, looking cute. I enjoyed watching Gary take the kids out too. It was fun hearing Gary and Jonny and Amelia cheering when things went well. He and James practiced manuvers together for a few minutes before we left. One Star Wars trilogy later (the old set) we were home, very grateful for the break from the norm.

PS- For those of you who are curious, Rachel handled camping like a pro. She slept beautifully at night and was pretty cheerful (given her age) during the day.

Here's a few snapshots of James and Amelia adoring Rachel.

And since I complained about not being able to do Amelia's hair, I must document that she DID let me do it for church today- "braids up" is what my mom used to call this hairdo

A Burning Question

For one of James's cub scout requirements, he needed to talk to a wild life conservation officer on the phone and ask what they do. We checked the local phone book and came up short. So we hit the web to find a likely candidate. The first wildlife conservation officer (whose phone number was listed) happened to be in New Hampshire. He placed the call. A woman answered and she didn't have time to talk, but noticed her co worker had time on his hands so passed the phone off to him. He was kind and generous with his time and chatted with James for about 20 minutes. The best part of the call came when James asked this burning question:

Have you ever been in a situation where you come to a King Cobra and it is spitting venom at you and you have to decided whether you want to tranquilize it or not?


The part of New Hampshire he called apparently has a big problem with nuisance bears, not King Cobras.

Raby

Now that Rachel is 3 months old, she has been around long enough to have earned a few nicknames. I'll post a few, with origin
Raby: part Rachel, part baby (creation of James or Jonny)
Rachel Iris Cutie Pie-ris: Jonny's invention
Rachel Papayrus: derivied from above
Eye- ris: because she has such huge eyes
The Princess: as in do not disturb the princess
Rachelina: Gary's pet name for her- how could I forget this one?  Oh yeah, he was on a trip when I wrote this post the first time.
It's hard to tell who Rachel's biggest fan is. Everyone likes her a lot. Jonny especially shows a lot of love (and I must say it is the cutest attention seeking behavior I have seen yet.) The other day I was trying to walk from the living room to the kitchen, holding Rachel and some other thing I was trying to put down. Every time I took a step, there was Jonny. I would try moving to the right to get around him and he'd move to the right. So I'd try to move left to get around him and there he'd be. I almost tripped a few times because my arms were full. I was about to get frustrated when I realized what was going on. He was following Rachel on his knees, bowing to the floor and mumbling "hail. hail." Like the Ewoks do for C3PO.

About Hair and other girly stuff

Here's a post I wrote and forgot about last month... enjoy

There’s a first time for everything. A first time to get urinated on while weighing your child in a doctor’s office. (did it really have to take 5 kids for that one?!) To be told that you should take cooking lessons from the school cafeteria. To leave your debit card in the ATM and drive away. I hope our money is still there when all is said and done.

Having a stubborn girl means a lot of things. It means that for 2 years I couldn’t fix her hair without having her rip it out immediately. It means that for years she went around with horribly clashing outfits and I was powerless to sway her opinion on what makes a good matching ensemble. (as many colors and patterns as possible, please) And it means that playing barbies together was miserable because no matter what I made them do, pretty princesses didn’t do that. Well now it means that she wants to do her own hair her way. And I am not allowed to “tidy it up” anymore with out an all out war. Of course I love my daughter. I also love good grooming. And I want to teach it to her. How to carefully part hair. How to comb it smooth. How to make it symmetrical and how to put in rubber bands so that it doesn’t make huge tangles at the base. But she doesn’t want to learn that. she already knows it all and she doesn’t want me to say another word about it.
I remember really well when I figured out how to do hair. I was in between second and third grade and I usually wore 2 braids, one down each side. I was in my room and I did one of the braids. I went to the bathroom to carefully examine my handiwork. At the top it was a mass of snarls out of which came a decent braid. I decided that the top part looked like a rose (a brown hairy one) and ran to show my mom. She made appropriate noises and I went away pleased. I don’t know if I insisted on doing my own hair after that. I know it wasn’t too long after that that I got a really ugly haircut, one of those middle aged woman ones that looks great on 40 something ladies and terrible on a small child. Perhaps the two events were related.

Anyway, I found myself wishing that Rachel had a full head of foot long hair. So that I could innocently talk about hairstyling with Amelia. I can have conversations about matching outfits while I dress the baby, pointing out how to choose tops and bottoms with similar colors or patterns and she is very receptive to this type of teaching. Jonny I can be direct with. This shirt and this pants match because of x y and z. He says great! And forever after that is how those clothes are paired up. Every now and then, he asks for a compliment on his out fit. (does it look good? YES!) If I try that approach with Amelia, she’ll tell me blue and purple stripes make a much better match with yellow and red fruity pants, thank you very much. But somehow when I talk about choosing a matching outfit for sister, it makes much more sense. And she has been matching her own outfits better too. So I guess today, I wish Rachel had an awesome head of hair for a 2 month old. So I can talk all about hairstyling with out having to say a word to Amelia. What about Barbies you ask. Don’t they have awesome heads of hair. Aren’t they meant for hours of combing and styling fun?! You are forgetting one simple thing: pretty princesses don’t do that.

How to Silence Your Kids

We checked out this Star Wars Cook Book from the library and made the Death Star Popcorn Balls for our family night treat. I had to use a candy thermometer to cook them and they took about an hour longer to prepare than I thought they should, so the kids were up super late when eatting time finally arrived.
We passed around the popcorn balls and tried to bite into them. It has never been so quiet at the table in our house. We chewed and chewed and chewed trying to enjoy these monster treats. We laughed at the faces we made trying to pry our mouths open. I truly worried for my fillings. Jonny left a once in the middle to brush his teeth. He said he had to brush them twice to get them clean.
As I ate (and enjoyed the quiet) I thought that I would save the recipe and serve popcorn balls again, when I need to do some serious talking with the kids. There'd be no way they could talk back or disagree. They would be my captive audience because their mouths would be stuck shut.

Writings

Amelia wrote a poem, to mail into the Friend Magazine.
What Jesus Did

Jesus once was on the earth.
He started there by birth.

He grew to be a big, strong man.
He taught people in every land.

He taught people to do good.
He taught people the best he could.

He taught us to love everyone.
We know he is God’s begotten son.
Here's the one she didn't want me to send in to the Friend:

Things I learned in church:

1. Heavenly Father dose not love me. Plus everybody else.

Sigh. I think the first one is a more true representation of her feelings, but she does like to stir things up.

I love to see the temple

Here's a blast from our past. Last year we took a family trip to California to visit relatives. We swung by the Oakland Temple one Sunday afternoon. You may notice one of these things is not like the others... we call it "the temple face."

Do I really want to say this out loud?

You may not want to read this post. It's going to be a little gross. But not as gross as the maggotty thing I had to remove from the back porch last week. The exterminator called it "nature at it's best" and offered gloves, while keeping a distance. "I hate maggots" he said, "but if you've got 5 kids I guess you can handle anything." I hate maggots too, but that's not the point. This post will not be as gross as that thing was, I promise, but really it's not for those who have not potty trainned someone recently.
Simon has the mechanics down. He has a plethora of rewards in place. Thus far, he hasn't had the moment where he realizes why he should care about using the potty. Sure stripes on karate belts are fun. Candy is fun (it also makes moms chubby, so we're cutting that one out.) Surprise packages in the mail are alluring, to older siblings. Not to the young one though. But today he figured out why he cares about using the potty. And it is painful to admit.
I hesitate to document it, but there are those who will wonder why he is in diapers again.
You see as of late, he has become a nudist. He loves to run through the house naked. Or play with his fisher price people, lounging in his skin. I really try to keep him in clothes and it's only once every few days that it becomes one of those "laughing wildly while I try to dress him" times. So I have not been too concerned. You may remember Amelia going through this phase at the age of 3 (or 4) when she loved to hide and pop out at people naked (mostly me, I think.) She loved the shock value.
So it is with a little apprehension that I admit that he reminds me of Amelia and it is with much reluctance that I admit that they both remind me of myself as a kid. (when Simon attempted to eat a bag of brown sugar for breakfast this morning, I think I would have joined him, if I was about 28 years younger. I don't think I would have chased my siblings around covered in brown sugar slime though.)
But I digress. Because that pales in comparison to tonight's display. He ran around in nothing but underpants after his bath (pull ups, please- he's not ready for briefs.) I told him to get dressed.
I was not surprised a few minutes later he ran past stark naked- (sometimes I feel like a Charlie Brown grown up- like what I intend to say comes out as that "wa wa wa" sound that no one can understand, much less obey.)
I was totally unprepared for what he gleefully yelled as he ran past. "Look at my bottom! Look at my bottom!" He shouts in a sing song voice as he chases Jonny (always the victim- sigh) Jonny is of course running for his life because he DID indeed look at his bottom. So I look too. and there it is- what Simon calls his "poop tail." I refuse to allow poop as a weapon. I have to draw the line somewhere. So here is the line:
____________________________________________________________________

Pass the diapers, please.

a note from Jonny

More Photos of Newborn Rachel

Here are more photos of newborn Rachel. They were taken by my dad (thanks Dad!) and are better than the ones I took but I forgot to blog these at the time.

Joy School Class of 2010

Thanks for a great year!

self designed camp out

The side benefit of sleeping under your bed in a sleeping bag (not my personal choice):
when you throw up in the night, your clean bed is ready and waiting for you.

Photos of Rachel

I know Gary put up a link to pictures of Rachel right after she was born, but I wanted a few here on the blog too. I hope you enjoy!

Supercalifragilisticexpealidtious

There. I did it. I said something! I find that sometimes, when life gets a little overwhelming, I tend to shut up. And the longer I go without saying anything, the harder it gets to think of things to say. So I am using a little trick I learned from Mary Poppins. That word, the title of my post (that I am not going to attempt to spell again) is the word you are supposed to say when you can't think of anything to say.
Now suddenly I have lots to talk about.
Rachel is here and she's wonderful. She doesn't sleep much at night, but she is a very pleasant companion in the wee hours because she does not cry just for fun.

The basement is drying out after the pipe burst. We'll just clean the carpet a few more times before we send back the dehumidifier and put Jimmy's flooring and furniture back in place.

Jonny read a verse from the Bible last night, almost entirely by himself. We need to give him more opportunities to read. It's hard though because he is slow and at scripture time, no one wants to be reverent while he stumbles his way through.

People say that potty training children tend to regress after the birth of a new sibling. Simon is no exception. He was dry most of the time, until Rachel was born. I realize this is not so much that he'd rather regress, but that I have less time and motivation to chase him into the potty every hour or two.

James and Amelia love tap dancing class. It is interesting to watch them learn in their own styles. James tries to do each move as fast as he can to get on, to show how smart and good he is at it. Amelia prefers to do each move slowly and carefully so that she can get each step exactly right.

More later- hopefully not too much later!

Kiddo #5

Our new baby, Rachel Iris S., was born yesterday afternoon at 12:49 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 1.7 oz. and was 20.25 in. long at birth. She and Tracy are healthy and beautiful. They'll probably be in the hospital until tomorrow (Thursday).

You can view some photos of Rachel and Tracy.