The Correct Way

Grace, to Faith: You aren't saying "no" to Micah right. You don't say [sing-song-y voice] "Nooooo, Micah, noooo". You say [firm, no-nonsense voice], "No, Micah. No."

So if anyone needs to borrow an extra mother hen who knows the right way to say "no", just let me know!

Anna and Grace

Today I "aided" in our elementary co-op for the morning, which means I spent time doing the character lesson, taking prayer requests, helping the kids eat lunch, and helping them exchange their valentines. I aided for the K-4 and K-5 classes, so I got to spend time with Anna and Grace in the their TNT environments, which was so fun! I had Anna's class first, and one mom, who had recently taught those 2 classes was commenting on how sweet my girls were--especially one of them, but because there were kids coming in, I couldn't hear which name she was talking about. She was talking about how this girl was more quiet, so I automatically assumed she was talking about Grace. Wrong! It turned out she was talking about Anna! I was shocked!

Well, as the morning went on, Anna really hardly said 2 words! That's not totally true--they had some free time, and she played happily with some of the other girls (there are only about 10 kids in her class total), but she definitely didn't chatter away, even at lunch. And she's definitely a chatterer at home, LOL. But she LOVES the co-op, and she considers these kids GREAT friends of hers. it was just surprising to me to see how shy she did appear to be in that environment!

So then the classes switched, and Anna's class went off to learn about France. Right now the kids are al studying "Europe". Last week Anna and Grace's teacher taught them all about Poland, since she is a native of Poland. The girls came home spouting all sorts of random facts about Poland--they were both listening very attentively, I can assure you! I don't think they had ever really put together that Grandma B is Polish as well!

Anyhow, Grace's class came in, and I was VERY curious to see how they all interacted. Last week when I had picked the girls up (which I only did because Christine was over there aiding that week--normally I am teaching science, and the other Rivendell ladies pick everyone up), the aide told me that one little boy just loved Grace--he calls her "Beautiful Grace", and he always wants to sit next to her. Awwwww . . . so sweet! Well, the little boy actually sat on the other side of the table, across from Grace, today, but he is a little cutie, LOL. And I was shocked to see how confidant Grace was in there! She talked to the kids, and just in general acted like she was at home. Huh!

This is such a big switch from church, which is the girls' other big social weekly experience. There, Grace hardly says a word in class, and she acts PAINFULLY shy, as if the act of cutting paper is too much for her. Although, maybe I should ask her teachers specifically on Sunday. Those reports were from a few months ago, and maybe she's had this blossoming transformation, LOL. Whereas Anna has always seemed perfectly comfortable there even when she is the only girl with a bunch of boys.

It just goes to show that you can't pigeon-hole your kids' personalities!

Ice Cream!

The end of another week! Today we were supposed to go to the National Cathedral with our co-op, but we ended up postponing. I was so thrilled, not because the tour wouldn't have been fun, but because I just really needed a day where we didn't have to go anywhere! We have been rushing around this week, and I am so tired, especially with Bob being gone.

We finished up our Rivendell year with an ice cream sundae bar on Tuesday. We had lots of ice cream and a bunch of toppings, as you can see from Caleb's multi-colored creation. Fresh strawberries, M&Ms, and chocolate sauce are all I need to make a yummy sundae, and we had all of those, so I was quite happy! Before we ate, the younger kids recited all their memory work--I was so proud! Nathan just has to finish his history final, and he'll be all done for the summer . . . except for the Spanish Siri assigned to keep them all from forgetting everything they ever learned this past year! Actually, that is a bit misleading, as we'll still do math, grammar, and Latin over the summer as well. But he'll be finished with the rest of Rivendell stuff!

Wednesday, Grace had her 4-year well-child appointment. The doctor and I were pleased to see that she has really chunked up since her month of sickness back in October. She is up to 31 pounds, which puts her in about the 20th percentile, instead of the 5th percentile or below, where she's been the rest of her life! I'm not sure what to attribute the weight gain to, but it's a good thing! Grace was so funny in the exam room. She stood at attention, like a little soldier, with her arms at her side, and a little smile on her face, but she would not answer any questions, even what her name was! Finally she did say she was 4. No, no socially awkward homeschoolers here, LOL. I made sure to point out all the socialization opportunities we are involved with! Grace had to get 4 shots as well, and absolutely miracuously she didn't cry at all! She was very excited about the lollipop and sticker she was going to get after it was over, and I guess the thought of those things was enough to get her over the edge. I took Luke along to help me with Micah, and I was so glad to have another pair of arms. How did I manage before I had all these older boys to help?!

We are also dealing with a poison ivy outbreak here. Bob and Jonathan did some yard work last weekend and touched some, because both of them are suffering. Bob is really sensitive to poison ivy, and he didn't have any benedryl or anything during his TDY, so the reaction just got worse. Hopefully we can get a handle on it this weekend. He was able to be home today, since he already got in all his hours, so that was nice. We all had a restful day at home!

So that was our week--plus other miscellaneous activities, such as a house appraisal on Monday (and all the cleaning that goes with that!), Latin class on Wednesday after Grace's appointment, and my Bible study with Kimberly and an orthodontic appointment for Luke on Thursday. Thursday night we had a treat--the McC's invited us over for dinner and to play! That was a fun time! We rushed home to take showers, and then I picked up Bob from the airport. Whew! I always think "next week will be easier", and yet--it never is! I just have to get through testing next week . . .

Happy Birthday, Grace!!

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since Grace was born! She was definitely our surprise baby, coming just 13 months after Anna! Her birth story was another more difficult one, like Micah's. Hmmm . . . something about my even-numbered children--they are harder to birth, LOL. But we are so happy that Grace came into our family! She is such a delicate little sprite. She loves to dress up and to play dolls with her sisters. Her new favorite activity is coloring. She is a very dedicated colorer, very particular and careful. She colors in the lines, and she even outlines--Aunt Claire's coloring genes have passed down to another generation!

After our exciting birthday celebration Friday night, Saturday was a more quiet day! Bob did some outside work, the rest of us cleaned the garage and the house, and then Bob took the kids to a showing of "Tangled" at our church in the evening. There was face-painting, popcorn, and cotton candy as well, so the kids had a great time!

But the most important thing that happened on Saturday is that Bob and my dad finished installing our new double oven!!! Our old top oven died on St. Patrick's Day--I could not make Irish soda bread! The bottom oven limped along, taking longer and longer to preheat, and sometimes turning off, but it kept working until the end, praise the Lord. I was able to bake Grace's cupcakes and reheat a casserole a friend from church brought us on Thursday, and then Bob and my dad took out the old oven in preparation for the new one being delivered Friday. There were a few technical difficulties--some drywall had to be cut to make it fit exactly right--but it is working now! Here is a picture of our new workhorse. Hopefully it will last close to 20 years, like the old one.

Today we had church, and then growth group at our house in the afternoon. I made Amy's nachos, which were a big hit, as well as some more chocolate-covered strawberries (also a big hit!), and we ate the rest of Grace's birthday cupcakes. After growth group, Grace opened her presents, and then we were able to Skype with my brother and his family! The kids really enjoyed seeing Emily and Elia, their cousins! So it was a good day, and a good weekend!

Big Birthday Bash!

We are having a very special birthday weekend! My dad's birthday was yesterday, Grace's birthday is tomorrow, and Bob's birthday is Monday! So to celebrate, we brought lots of desserts to Bible study, where we sang "Happy Birthday" to all the celebrants, to include Amy P., who shares Bob's birthday on Monday!

My mom and I made birthday request desserts--my Grandma G.s coffee cake for my dad, cupcakes (funfetti ones, just like Anna's!) with purple and green frosting for Grace (notice the "4" design), and chocolate-covered strawberries for Bob. He actually wasn't sure what to request, so Caleb suggested the strawberries--mainly because I hadn't made them since he outgrew his milk allergy, and he wanted to taste them! (He thought they were "okay". We assured him that if he was not THOROUGHLY enjoying them, then he could just leave them for everyone else, LOL.). We came home with a few cupcakes, and that was all--the coffee cake and the strawberries (4 pounds of them) all went!

Grace has been so excited for her birthday to come! We have our church small group over tomorrow afternoon, but after they leave, we'll eat left-over cupcakes and she can open her presents. So exciting!!

It's What We Do . . .

Grace: "How old will I be on my birthday?"

Me: "4"

Grace: "And then I'll be 5 . . . and then I'll be 6!"

Me: "What will I do when we have such a big, big girl?!"

Grace: "Have another new baby!"

The Infamous Haircut

So back on that horrible Sunday, Grace took a pair of scissors to her own hair and lopped off a big chunk right in the middle of the back of her scalp. I knew theoretically that it could have been worse, but I still had such a hard time dealing with it. It took me 2 days before I could even really look at her to begin to evaluate how I could attempt to make things better! Here is what it looked like. She cut up and down, so there was a nice, long hunk missing, and no possible way to do layers or a block or anything like that to disguise it. I guess I could have shaved it, LOL.
So after contemplating for awhile, I finally just cut everything shorter and tried to blend the back as best I could. It really isn't as noticeable now, unless you are really looking.

And, thankfully, you can't tell anything from the front, so we are still going to attempt pictures sometime in the next week or so. Before anyone else gets hold of any scissors or gets a black eye or anything . . .

Grace's Great Waterslide Adventure

I mentioned how Grace worked up her courage to go down the waterslides in the kiddie area, and she did enjoy going down them. But she is not one to really get her face, hair, or even the top part of her swimsuit wet, so she always wanted me to be right there. Also, just about each time, she would sit at the top and think about whether or not she really wanted to go down, before finally making the big plunge.

But there was this one time . . . It was Tuesday after dinner, and I was trying to get Grace to try something new. There was a big fort-type thing in the middle of the park, with a bunch of climbing ropes and other things to do on it. I told Grace to go climb on that thing for awhile, along with Jonathan and Anna. Faith was pretty tired, so I went up a few steps, holding her, and watching the other 3. It wound around in there, so it was hard to see exactly where everyone was. Soon I saw Anna climbing back through the ropes. Breathlessly she told me that Grace was going down the waterslide at the top, and "she is really scared!" I assumed she meant Grace was sitting at the top of the slide, not wanting to slide down, but I really couldn't get up there, with my pregnant self having to climb on ropes, holding Faith and dodging water. So I hollered to Jonathan to go see what the problem was with Grace and tell her to come back down the way she came. Next thing I know, I see Grace come around the bottom of the structure, sobbing away, sopping wet! She had indeed gone down the big orange slide, and she was NOT happy about it one bit! She kept talking about the scary slide she didn't like, that she "accidentally" slid down, LOL.

So . . . how do you accidentally slide down a big water slide? There was a life guard at the top, so it certainly wasn't like she slipped and tumbled down! We never could get a straight story out of her, and both Jonathan and Anna had gotten distracted by filling buckets and doing all these other water-related things along the way to the top, so they weren't there to see anything either. I guess she just marched up to the top and sat down on the slide, probably expecting to be able to sit there awhile and cogitate about whether or not she actually wanted to go down. And then when she decided "no", she would just get off the slide and go back down, or something. But instead, when she sat down, she must have immediately started sliding, and away she went! I wasn't even there to catch her! Poor girl! She had no interest in even going back up on any of the climbing things that night or the next day, LOL.

The Leaves Are Changing . . .

. . . the bruises are fading . . .
(One day after the 3 hour test)

(This afternoon, five days later--and no, I don't know the results yet, LOL)

. . . Ah, it must be fall.

I think football ended not a moment too soon. We bundled up for Nathan's playoff game on Saturday. Isn't Luke's reflective jacket nice?! He won't get hit by a car playing in the snow, if we get any snow, that is. Nathan's team lost, and I was sad for them . . . but happy to have our evenings and Saturdays back!

Sunday we had our annual time of fun at Chuck E. Cheese with our Friday night Bible study group. The kids all had a blast! I enjoyed the fact that they could all run around without me, while I sat and visited. Next year I'll be dealing with a 6 month old again . . .

When people ask me about what we do for Halloween, I like to point out that our kids dress up all the time! That's nothing special! Going to Chuck E. Cheese, however, is a once-a-year thing, and they REALLY look forward to that, LOL. I did have to run to Walmart Monday, so I did pick up some half-price Halloween candy. We discovered over the weekend that Caleb likes Twix bars, when a neighbor girl down the street gave him one. The first chocolate thing he has liked! So I bought a bag of those, and I'll put one in their lunches for co-op day for the next little while.

And in the spirit of dressing up . . .

. . . here is Grace, as a lovely ballerina, although I think her leotard is actually on backwards. This is another one from Bob's sister Rose and her 2 girls. I tell you, Anna and Grace have LOVED the stuff they have passed on to us!

And lastly, here is a picture of Faith, fresh from a nap. She is eating a Tootsie Roll that Luke bought for her out of his Chuck E. Cheese winnings. (He got 301 tickets, and everyone else combined got 318 tickets, LOL. Of course, Jonathan drove the average down, as he seems to have spent all his allotted tokens on things that take pictures. He has 13 pictures from Sunday night! Ah well, the prizes you can buy are nothing to get excited about, so whatever makes him happy!)

Happy Fall!

Whew, What a Week!

I'm glad it's over. Hopefully next week will be more restful!

1. We're not out of the woods with Grace yet. She did really well on Thursday and Friday. She ate and drank normally, and she also played and generally acted totally normally. No stomach pains or anything. But early this morning, around 5:00, she woke up crying. She ended up vomiting a total of 4 times in one hour, each time nothing more than stomach acid. She just kept clutching up under her ribcage, making me again wonder about a reflux-type thing going on. So if she keeps doing that, I guess I'll try to take her in again on Monday. She seemed fine today, although tired and a bit crabby. She didn't eat much in the morning, but by the afternoon, she was fine.

2. Today was Nathan's last regular season football game. They lost, but his team won 3 games this year. One of his coaches told them that was a record for an expansion team in their league! Last year's expansion team didn't win any games last year--or this year. That would really stink. Earlier in the season we had been wondering why the league even decided to have another expansion team this year. It seemed like a boy from Nathan's team could have gone to each of the other teams. We have decided that the league, when they realized Gary was wanting to coach again, thought that they should do an expansion team this year with him coaching it, in hopes that in a few years the team would be a successful part of the league, as opposed to a perpetual bottom-dweller. I think Nathan has learned so much about foootball this year. And I know he would not have played anywhere near aas much as he did if he had been on an established team, where most people had played plenty of organized football before. It's definitely been a good experience for him. I, however, am not sorry to see the season end. It definitely takes up a lot of time! They will still have at least one playoff game.

3. Tonight we went over to the McC's house for chili, along with the other 2 families in our jr. high Rivendell co-op. The kids all watched the first half of The 10 Comandments, to celebrate our finishing Unit 1 of Tapestry of Grace. We adults made so much noise talking and laughing in the dining room that the kids had to come in and tell up to keep quiet! It was a fun evening! We are so blessed to have these families for friends. Developing good friendships, the iron-sharpening-iron type, especially for our boys, was a big goal for our co-op, and I would definitely say we are succeeding, praise the Lord. The boys all played football out front before eating, and I am sure it was a bit shocking for the neighbors to look out and see the 11 boys from our combined families all out there running around!

Grumpy Grace's Big Day

I realized this afternoon that I had my camera in my diaper bag, since I keep meaning to take pictures at football games, Rivendell, etc. Instead, I was able to capture for posterity my charming, sweet, and cooperative Grace! Ha!

Let me back up a bit. Grace was still vomiting off and on through the weekend. Saturday was an especially bad day. She just laid around, moaning and groaning, most of the day. Eventually she ate some small bit of something (a few bites of toast, maybe?), felt better and went outside to play for a bit. We had pancakes for dinner, since we were heading off to Nathan's game and were short on time. She ate 2 of those, but started complaining about her tummy immediately after. She did throw up all of dinner, she felt better, and we headed off to the game (which Nathan's team won. Yay!). She complained of being hungry throughout the game, however, so I finally said she could have applesauce when we got back home. That came back up around 1:30.

Sunday morning she felt bad and ate hardly anything, but I was able to distract her with picking out a church dress and tights, and we went to church. She seemed like she was doing better Sunday. She even kept down a tiny bit of beef barley soup that evening. She slept through the night without waking (due, I am sure, to all your prayers!! Thank you!), and so I decided not to take her in Monday after all.

That was not the right decision, as it turned out. She did not throw up Monday, but that was because she pretty much ate nothing. Tuesday morning she woke up thirsty, drank some water, and threw that back up 30 minutes later. She didn't eat anything more, and she was definitely not herself the rest of the day. She just laid around, groaning, and complaining that her back was hurting. Because I was teaching at the co-op, I could not take her in, and so she went to Christine's for the morning, and just laid around the church in the afternoon. She ate a little bit of oatmeal when we got home, and that came back up at 10:30. She did sleep the rest of the night, but I got up at 6:15 to call and make an appointment for her today.

We left for Bethesda at 9:25 for our 10:20 appointment. The doctor didn't find anything really wrong, but she ordered some bloodwork and IV fluids, since Grace was dehydrated. The doctor said that they had been seeing quite a few families where a few people got sick with a bug, but one child just couldn't shake it. The stomach got irritated from the vomiting, which led to more vomiting, and eventually dehydration. She said the pain was so bad for some kids, they were working them up to check for appendicitis. That actually happened to us with Luke when he was maybe 3, although his "sickness' turned out to be an impacted bowel. Thankfully, that was not the case here, as that episode is not really my favorite memory with Luke, LOL. Quite tramatic!

Speaking of tramatic, it took 2 attempts to get the IV in Grace, and she was not a real happy camper about that, as you can see in the top picture. I took a picture of all the tubes so we could show the boys, especially Caleb. I am sure he would have jumped through the roof if this had been attempted on him! Maybe the dehydration took the edge off Grace, but at least she didn't struggle or cry too terribly much, LOL. I told her that Mommy always got IVs when I had babies, so she could tell Anna she was being like Mommy, but amazingly, that didn't go over well. LOL! She did get an Ariel sticker.

She also got a chewable anti-nausea pill. She chewed it up and took a sip of water, but then she decided that it tasted so bad that she didn't want to swallow it. So she held it in her mouth for over 45 minutes! Stubborn girl. Finally I resorted to forcing her head back and her mouth open several times, which made her swallow most of it. Good grief. I felt like Dr. Herriot or something, with a recalcitrant dog!

And finally you can see the difference that one bolus of fluid made in her disposition. Before the second bag was started, we tried getting a urine sample from her. We had already tried, before any of the IV fluid, but that was not a success at all. The second attempt was not either. Sigh. So we headed back in for more fluid. After that was done, we tried again in the bathroom--for 45 minutes. Grrrrrrrr. I was not a happy camper myself at that point, since it was already close to 3:30, and I knew we would be facing serious traffic. Plus, all I had eaten since we got there was a small bag of trail mix and a granola bar, which I happened to have in the diaper bag. I was SO hungry!! Eventually the doctor knocked on the bathroom door, and we went back to the treatment room. She said all Grace's labs had come back perfectly normal (except her glucose level was low, wonder why?!), so it was highly unlikely that she had a urinary tract infection. So she let us go without getting a sample, thankfully. I was about on my last legs, and so was Grace.

Of course, I was worried that she would have a terrible accident on the way home, with all that fluid, but not to worry. She fell asleep and had a nice nap, but she didn't pee. She didn't even go right after we got home. Maybe an hour later she finally went. I guess she really was dehyrated!

So that was my very long day. My wonderful friend Christine called me at the hospital and told me she was bringing a meal for us for dinner. What a tremendous blessing!! I inhaled that, then drove Nathan off to his football game (which they also won--yay again!). And now I'm eating ice cream. Oh, I've decided I'm not doing the glucose test until next Friday, LOL.

I do want to mention how wonderful the boys were today. I was gone pretty much the entire day, but Nathan and Luke kept everything running. They changed poopy Faith and put her down for her nap, they got lunch, they made sure everyone did school and chores . . . I am so thankful for such responsible and helpful boys. I could not have taken everyone with me--there simply wasn't room where we spent the day. What a relief to be able to leave everyone here and know they were being well taken care of!

Dentist Appointment!

Anna and Grace have been looking forward to this afternoon for quite a while now. It was time for their dental cleaning appointment! Grace had never been before, and she has been so eagerly anticipating going. I was a little nervous that she would get there and balk, but she was a pro. I left Nathan at home with everyone else, and it was just Anna, Grace and me, so I was able to go back for a little while just to make sure everything was okay. The girls got to go at the same time and sit next to each other, so I'm sure that helped. Grace was most excited about getting to pick out a new toothbrush and small toy, as well as getting coin to put in the bouncy ball machine. She's been carefully examining all her new loot all afternoon.

Afterwards, the dentist came out to talk to me about Anna. Back before Anna was 2, she fell and had a gray tooth, indicating the tooth was damaged. It was also pushed forward some. They've been monitoring it, and this year they noted that her front two teeth are not the same size. The damaged one is shorter than the other one, which is not a good thing. The dentist said they most likely will have to pull the tooth maybe even next year. They will do an x-ray when she comes back in a year to evaluate. The dentist said that damaged teeth often don't fall out on their own, and since they are pushed into awkward positions, they can hamper the correct descent of the permanent tooth. Obviously we don't want that to happen, so I guess we will see what develops! I'm not sure Anna will be quite as excited about a tooth-extraction as she is about getting her teeth cleaned!

It's dental time for the boys Monday afternoon. We're taking care of all these things before Bob officially goes off active duty! He still doesn't have a job, although he has an interview next week. We definitely need something with good dental insurance!

Three Cousins

. . . splashing in the wading pool in the backyard

. . . playing dress-up with the princess costumes in the basement

. . . eating an after-swimming snack at the little table, which is just perfect for the three of them

. . . pretending to be future pilots in the cockpit of an F-16 at the Air Force Museum (Grace wouldn't get into the cockpit AT ALL, LOL)

. . . playing at the park! Best buddies!

Lovely Ladies

We've been going for a walk almost every night after dinner. Sometimes we all go, and sometimes just certain ones of us go. One night these 2 lovely ladies joined us with their babies! They carried their babies and bags the entire walk, and they were so cute tagging along after Bob and me, as we pushed Faith's stroller, chattering away.



Anna to Grace: "Is yours a purse . . . or a diaper bag?"



Grace's bag turned out to be a diaper bag indeed--look at all she was carrying! Talk about prepared for anything!


Food, bottles, camera . . . and pistol. Oh yeah, packing heat! I don't know if you can call it "concealed carry" when it's in a clear orange bag though, LOL. Clearly we are teaching our children about their second amendment rights at an early age!

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Wow, Grace is 3 today! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was talked into an induction by a paranoid civilian doctor who thought anyone who had more than 3 children was necessarily heading straight to a ruptured uterus. That labor was definitely my hardest, as she was simply not ready to come out. But eventually she decided to come out into this wide world, and we are so glad she did! Grace is like a little butterfly, so light, quiet, and cheerful! She likes to sing songs to herself, and she will play forever by herself with the Little People or Duplos. She also loves playing with Anna, and she is a great big sister for Faith--very conscientious, which Faith doesn't always appreciate, LOL. She seems to be another detail person, a lot like Luke, which will be helpful. Her funny quirk is that she uses only objective pronouns--"Me finished that", "Her is over there"--and funny possessive ones--"My's favorite color is purple". I know she'll grow out of it, and she sounds cute, so I haven't bothered correcting her. If she is in high school and still doing it, then . . . LOL.
For her birthday, I made a purple castle cake, since purple indeed is her favorite color. We had the cake on Friday night after Bible study.

For weeks now, ever since Anna's birthday in March, Grace has been so eager for it to be her birthday. She asked all the time about it, and I would say, "Not yet . . . It's getting closer . . ." etc. When I put the girls to bed Thursday night, I told them to hurry up, since I had to go bake Grace's birthday cake. Grace shook her head and said seriously, "Not yet . . . my's birthday not yet." I don't know that she totally believed me when I assured her I really was baking her cake, for her birthday!

Friday night, when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to her, her face just lit up with this huge smile, like "It's finally here! I can't believe it!" It was so cute!

Today we had a graduation picnic for our co-op, and I was on the committee. We were there for a good chunk of the day, so Grace didn't get to pick out a meal or anything. We were all wiped out from the heat, but we hung in long enough to open her presents tonight! She was most excited about this Little People book from Grandma and Grandpa G. (You can see her saying "Oooh . . . Little People" here. Little People are definitely her favorites!)

Pictures!

I finally took the girls to get pictures yesterday. I usually try to have pictures done of my babies before they are a year old. Well, Faith is now over 13 months old, so I figured I really had better get moving on this! I went to Portrait Innovations, and we had a VERY good experience there. I was very pleased. We used to go to Kiddie Kandids, but when I looked them up online to make an appointment, I discovered they had filed bankruptcy and gone out of business! Well, their loss was our gain, because Portrait Innovations was even better. I think Kiddie Kandids problem was that they had not gone digital. Portrait Innovations is all digital, so the photographer snapped a ton of pictures--115--with none of the "Well, you have to pick if you want this picture before we can move on, or it's lost forever". Also, the camera is a regular one that the photographer can move around, not like the old ones that hang from the ceiling. Maybe all the places are like this now--I really try to avoid portrait studios as a whole, so it's been over a year since I had pictures taken of the kids, LOL.

When I put Faith down on the backdrop thing, she immediately started crying and crawling away as fast as she could. I had flashbacks to a photo session at Pennys not long after we moved here. Jonathan was about 16 months. The very first picture the girl took was of Jonathan, and he looked like he was smiling, but actually he was gearing up to cry. Even with treats, he never smiled again, and I did not get a picture of all the boys together, which was incredibly frustrating. The girl was terrible, though. She had absolutely nothing in the way of tricks to jolly him out of his bad mood and scared-ness. This photographer was MUCH better, and he as well as another girl worked diligently to get Faith to smile. It worked! We got some really cute pictures of her.

Anna had almost the opposite problem. As soon as she was posed, she fixed this huge tight smile/grimace on her face, with her eyes all squinty, and nothing anyone could do or say made her relax it. Some of the pictures are hysterical! Nathan, Luke, Caleb, and I were totally cracking up when we were going over them after the session was over. I kept saying, "This really isn't how she smiles--although it's definitely how she looked today!" We tried to pick the best of the bunch. Oh well--it's just a phase. I remember my brother Dan going through a squinty smile phase!

So we got some good pictures, some of which I posted on Facebook. We will try to send some out soon, but I am not guaranteeing it being too soon, LOL. It was a very positive experience. I highly recommend Portrait Innovations!

They say Virginia is a southern state . . .

And it must be true, because here are two southern belles! Bob's sister Rose gave us dressup clothes from her girls back at Christmas, and Anna and Grace have LOVED them all. Grace's favorite is definitely this purple number, since she will tell you, purple is her favorite color. Anna likes any of the pink dresses. They don't usually wear the hats with them, though. That was a new touch. Sometimes they like to put on ballerina tutus (also from Rose) under these dresses, which makes a VERY big skirt. They love dressing up!

Here is a bonus picture of Faith, who is not a southern girl, but who does like being in pictures, LOL. Next year I think we'll have 3 in big pouffy dresses, though. She does like hats and shoes already!

3 Big Girls!

Faith had her 1 year well-baby appointment on Monday. Bob went into work late so I didn't have to take all the kids, which was really nice. Bethesda has actually moved things around, and now they are seeing well-baby patients on a completely different floor, in a separate area. This area had bigger rooms than the regular pediatric rooms, so we would have fit better, had we all gone!

We again saw Faith's regular doctor, which was nice. She knows us, and in fact, she told me that when she saw our name on her list of patients, she was excited to see us again! She said she tells everyone about this family with 7 kids, where the kids sit quietly in the office, taking turns giving the little ones snacks, LOL. Faith has plumped up to 18 pounds, 7 ounces, which is the 9th percentile! The doctor was happy about this, but she said usually babies lose a little bit in percentile between 9 months and a year. I said that was probably because many babies are just learning to crawl around then, so they become more active, whereas Faith has been crawling since 5 months, and walking for 6 weeks. She had her big fall off the charts back at her 6th month check-up--after she started crawling and being more active! Plus, now Faith is eating all table food and enjoying it much more than baby food. I can't remember exactly how long she was, but she was in something like the 43rd percentile for that.

The doctor started asking all these questions about how I shop for food, and whether I make a ton of food ahead of time or what. I told her how we shop at the commissary every 6 weeks, with stops at Sams, Wegmans, and local grocery stores in between for fresh produce, milk, and sale stuff. Since I had just gone to the commissary last week, I told her how Thursday afternoon I had cut up 2 round roasts in chunks for burgundy beef, cut up some meat in strips for stir-fries and put them in marinade, cooked and cut up a ton of chicken for casseroles and soups, and browned a ton of ground beef for whatever. All that meat I froze, and now it's ready for me to just pull out to put in the crockpot or to deal with in the afternoon. Having the meat all ready to go really cuts down on meal prep time. Of course, the night before our trip I had to sit down and make a list of all the recipes I wanted to have over the course of the next 6 weeks, and make sure all the ingredients for those recipes were either in the pantry or on my commissary list, so it does take a little bit of planning. But I can't deal with making the whole meal ahead of time and freezing it right now. I'd run out of freezer space, for one thing. It would just be so much food! Plus, that seems like it would take too much time. Just preparing the meat is a good compromise! The doctor thought it was all a great idea, so that was nice. We had a nice visit, and it was even more pleasant because there were not 6 other little bodies in the room!

Grace is a big girl because we can officially say she is potty-trained! Yay! She got her toenails painted Tuesday. While this was not a big incentive for her to become potty-trained, like it was for Anna, she was certainly happy to have it done! I ran to Target on the way home from dropping the boys off at their co-op, and I bought a new bottle of nail polish in a lavender-y shade, since purple is Grace's favorite color. Anna got her toenails painted as well (did you even doubt?!). Grace is having no problems with pooping in the little potty. She hasn't made the switch to the big potty, but I don't even care, LOL. It's all better than washing out poopy panties! She is peeing on regular public toilets as well, so that is a big relief. I am still going to put her in a pull-up for Classical Conversations tomorrow, since that is such a long day for her, but she was dry for it all last week, and that was without going on the big potty, even though she tried a few times!

Sno-cation!

This has been such a fun week! Today is the first day since last Friday that Bob had to go to work. Let me just say that is absolutely unprecedented! The federal government has just been shut down, and so we have had a wonderful, relaxing week here at home. Bob has been able to get a lot of little projects done around the house, including repainting our bedroom. He went to work today, but don't worry--Monday is Presidents' Day, so he'll have a 3 day weekend to recuperate from this one day of work, LOL.

We managed to do a week of school last week. No snow days here! Well, that's not totally true. We did do a little bit less some days, so the boys could go out before and after lunch. Still, we got a lot accomplished. As my friend Christine said, we were actually "homeschooling" this past week, instead of running around to our 2 different co-ops! Very nice! It was so refreshing not to have anywhere to go. Many board games were also played, and much time was spent outside.

Bob and I did sneak out to Walmart and Sams on Tuesday to get more milk before the second storm hit, but other than that, we have been homebound. Of course, now that the snow is over, I am ready to be out and about again, LOL. Bible study was canceled tonight because the L's don't have anywhere for anyone to park at their house. I was looking forward to conversation with other people not in my immediate family!

Our big project during this time at home has been potty-training Grace. We started this back in October, but then she got sick and was totally not interested after she got better. Being gone 2 days a week was not conducive to working with her on it, plus I was totally stressed out with the tin whistle/CC tutoring/teaching the Egypt unit at TNT before Christmas that I could hardly think straight, much less worry about potty-training. So we just let that go. In the new year, she has gone on the big potty sometimes, but never on her own accord.

Well, once the second snowstorm started, and I realized CC would be canceled on Thursday, I knew immediately that this was our window of opportunity! We put Grace in panties on Tuesday, and she did really well, even pooping on the little potty 2 times (first time for that particular accomplishment, woo-hoo!). Wednesday she did a little worse, having a few pee accidents and one very messy poop accident, where I eventually just put her in the shower and hosed off her legs, LOL. (This was not a popular decision.) Thursday was a terrible day, where she had multiple accidents of both kinds, and I was very frustrated with her. The boys were tired of it as well, and they suggested we just put her back in diapers. Bob pointed out that it would be awkward explaining the diapers to Grace's future husband, so we should just push on and help her get rid of them, LOL. I am happy to report that today has been a much better day, with no accidents of either kind. Yay! Maybe we have turned a corner. I can only hope so.

After potty-training Anna, I was ready to say definitively that girls were much easier to potty-train than boys, but now I can only say that--some people are harder than others. And Grace is one of those, LOL. That's the good thing about having multiple children--whenever you think that you've figured out something, another one comes along and shows you that you really don't know what you're talking about! Keeps one humble . . .

Potty-Training Update

I thought I should also give an update on Grace's potty-training adventures, for those who may possibly be interested. I would say she has regressed, rather than gone forward. She will still pee (mostly) on the potty, but she will not poop on it. She also will not pee on a big potty, like when we go out, after one flushed automatically while she was still on it. She was terrified! Amy P. did give the helpful hint at Bible study that if you cover the red "eye" with a post-it note, then it won't flush until you take that note off, and now I have some post-it notes in the diaper bag, but I'm afraid the whole thing has set her back quite a ways! So this makes it challenging. For example, she peed before we left for Classical Conversations Thursday morning at 8:45. She was still dry when we done there, at noon, but she wouldn't go on the big potty. We eat lunch there, and I knew she couldn't hold it indefinitely , so of course I was not surprised when we finally did get home, after 1:00, that her pull-up was wet. (I put her in one deliberately, realizing something like this would probably happen.) I know people will say to just carry a little potty in the car, but that's not really feasible, especially on CC mornings, when I already have a ton of stuff to carry out, and we're really rushed. Also, it would be a hassle to deal with everyone else while I take Grace out to the car to go potty. So I'm just not going to go there. Eventually she'll get over it and go on the big potty.

Basically, since she is still having so much trouble with pooping on the little potty, I'm just not going to worry about the whole thing right now. I'll put her in pull-ups if she wants that (which she usually does), and then she will most often go potty on her own, but I'm just not going to worry about the pooping thing. Cleaning up a poopy pull-up is not much worse than changing a poopy diaper, and it's a whole lot better than cleaning up poopy underwear (which I have done my fair share of over the past weeks!). I figure we'll revisit the whole underwear thing in a few weeks. In the meantime, whenever ANYONE in the house goes poopy on the potty, they must come out and announce it in a magnificent manner, while everyone else goes wild with cheering. Then the lucky big girl or boy receives several M&Ms (or Skittles in Caleb's case) for their efforts. This new initiative has made Grace think about the benefits of pooping on the potty, but so far she hasn't cracked, LOL. So we'll see how much longer it takes for her to go potty on a big potty, and to poop in her little potty. I will keep you updated!