Kids say...

I have some posts to catch up on, but I wanted to jot down a couple of Isaac's comments from the past two days.  :-)

He was playing, and out of the blue said:
     There are Great Grandmas, and there are Good Grandmas. 

Yesterday, I posted this on Facebook:

Isaac: Is Nathanael a lady? Josiah: No, Mommy is the only lady in the house right now.
Isaac: Mommy's not a lady. She's a princess.
Mommy: I'm a princess?
Isaac: Yes. You look like a princess. (As I sit here in my knee-length cut-offs and macaroni and cheese stained shirt.)
Mommy: I look like a princess?
Isaac: Kind of. You need a princess shirt. A big one to fit you.

Today he continued the conversation:

Isaac: Mommy, you are a lady who looks like a princess.
Mommy: Why do you think I look like a princess?
Isaac: Because of the princess shirt.
Mommy: I don't have a princess shirt. 
Isaac: You need a BIG GIANT princess shirt!
Mommy: Am I giant?
Isaac: No you are big. You need a GIANT princess shirt like Elizabeth has a little princess shirt.

Isaac makes me laugh on a daily basis :-)

Here we grow!

We measured the kids to mark the start of the new school year:

Elizabeth is just under 50 inches.  She has grown about an inch in the last seven months!

Josiah is right about 43 inches.  He has also grown about an inch in the last seven months!

Isaac is 37 inches.  He has grown TWO inches in the last seven months!

Nathanael, standing, was measured at about 27 1/2 inches.  But it's pretty hard to accurately measure a bouncing baby :-).

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school for two of our kiddos! 

 

Elizabeth started third grade!  She said she was a little bit nervous last night and said that sometimes she is shy.  But this morning, at the bus stop, she was yelling "hi" to everyone she knows :-)  This is her second year starting with a male teacher, and she thought that was pretty neat.  (Not to mention, they both have had compound words for last names:  Last year she had Mr. Whitehead.  This year she has Mr. Knightstep.)  She is also excited that she is in a gifted class.

Elizabeth got on the bus, then we had a half-hour before we had to leave to take Josiah to school.

Josiah started Kindergarten today!  Today was the first of the transition days for Kindergarten students.  (One-third of the class goes for two hours.)  He was able to meet his teacher, Mrs. Smith, last week.  I think that was great for helping this morning go more smoothly.

Next Tuesday will be the first regular day of Kindergarten and the first day to ride the bus.  The school system here is a bit different in that all the Kindergarten students go to one school.  They are the only ones in the building.  So, there are nine AM classes and nine PM classes.  It does make me feel a little bit better about sending my Josiah off on the school bus for the first time. :-)


The little boys and I had just over an hour between getting home from taking Josiah to school today leaving to pick him up again.  We took a few pictures, tried to play a game, and watched some Sesame Street.  Though I don't like that Josiah has to be on the bus as long has he does, it will be nice to have the three solid hours each day with just my littlest two...for another few months anyway.

We were home for lunch and a few hours of play, and I even got a nap!  Then it was time to get Elizabeth from the bus stop.

The kids enjoyed the first day!  Neither has homework, but I do.  Gotta love back to school paperwork :-p

What's happened in eleven months

It has been 11 months since my last blog post.  And it has been a crazy eleven months!  A lot has happened, as it always does. 

Our fourth child was born!  Nathanael James was born September 12, 2011.

In October, Isaac turned TWO!

At the end of January this year, we moved 450 miles away from our home for the previous three years.  We were blessed to move close to family!  But we do miss our friends and the area of Charlottesville.


We bought a house, and have been dealing with the joys and "joys" of being homeowners again. 


Elizabeth turned EIGHT!

Josiah turned SIX!  (We had our first Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.)

AND we are expecting our fifth child!  The newest one is due February 25th! 

Of course, that's just the really big stuff.  Phew!


I'm hoping to be better about blogging again.  (Shouldn't take much effort to be better than a blog post every 11 months ;-))  We've got so many more big things coming soon.  In a couple weeks, Elizabeth will be starting third grade, and Josiah will begin Kindergarten!  In a month, we'll celebrate Josiah being in our family four years!  Right after that is Nathanael's first birthday!  I don't think things will be slowing down any time soon :-)

School Days

This is our first year with TWO kids in school!

Elizabeth started second grade about two weeks ago.  She went into this year with excitement and confidence!  She has a male teacher for the first time, as well as a class pet!  (Lucky the hamster just spent the three-day weekend with us.)  There are two girls from the neighborhood in her class, so she was very happy about that.

Ready for School!

Coming off the bus at the end of the day

Josiah had his first day of Pre-K today!  Last week when I asked him about starting school, he said he didn't want to go.  He'd rather stay home.  However, by the open house, he was happy to show David his school and his new classroom.  Today, he was excited to get to school.  When I picked him up, he said, "It was the best day of school ever!"  Hopefully, there will be many more of those :-)

Ready for School!

Heading out to the car!

Showing off the cubbies before going into his classroom.

 Isaac had a pretty good day today, too.  We stopped by Target and a fun Amish spice store on the way home.  Then after lunch, it was about time to go back to get Josiah.  He did ask about the kids a few times, but he'll get the hang of it.

I think both kids are going to have a great school year! Elizabeth loves school.  She loves the learning and the time with friends.  It will be good for Josiah to have something of his own, and to be able to learn with peers and other adults.  It will be interesting to figure out the schedules with the new baby.  I'm thankful my mom came out to help with Josiah starting school today.  I am much more at ease knowing she will be here with the kids when things start.

Re-entry can be rough

Our three little travellers just had a two-week visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house...without Mommy and Daddy.  They had so much fun going to VBS, visiting playgrounds, staying overnight at a water park, flying with Grandpa, and so much more!  There were a few special girl things at a Sleeping Beauty dinner theater and a tea house.  The boys visited the Air Force museum and toured a former Air Force One.

Then our young journeyers return home.  After so much fun and adventure packed into two weeks, it's no wonder there are a few bumps as they re-acclimate.  They are tired from all the excitement and travelling.  Though they are not without boundaries at Grandma and Grandpa's, things are different.  David and I jokingly call the time of re-entry "de-tox."  We know emotions are going to run higher.  We know there will, once again, be testing of boundaries.  This time has just been a little harder than we expected.

Our oldest traveler started a high fever the day before they were driving home.  But other than that, she has done amazingly.  There have not been more than a couple instances of testing or such.  She has done this enough times now to know how things go.

Our second, has had the most difficult time.  Today is only the fifth day since their return, but there has been significantly more turbulence than we anticipated.  We have seen A LOT of attitude for every little thing, along with many other bumps.  As I said, we expected some of this.  It happened last year.  But something else seems to be going on.  I've tried to work through the reasons.  This is a time of big changes for this one, historically and presently.  We are nearing the anniversary of our son going through the biggest changes of his young life.  He's starting to think about starting school and having a new sibling all in the next few weeks.  I know there is so much going on in his heart and in his head.  But it's hard not to take his actions and rejection personally.  And I'm not doing a very good job controlling my reactions.  Tonight I've been thinking through so many ways for both David and me to consciously give him more time and attention.

This was the first of such trips for our youngest, so we were not quite sure what to expect.  I was a little bit worried about how he would do for such a long time.  While away, it seemed like he barely noticed that we weren't there.  He did seem to return home with an ever-present whine in his little voice.  He's been quicker to tantrum and to cling.  But I think he is slowly starting to work out of those.

We are glad to have the kids home again.  Though it was nice to relax and rest for a time, the house and my days felt pretty empty.  We missed the hugs and snuggles and giggles.  We missed the kids. 

I am grateful they are able to go and enjoy special time with family.  I am grateful we have several weeks together before school and more craziness starts.  I am especially grateful for the example I have of my Heavenly Father who loves me as I am...even with my testing, whining, rejection, tantrums, and attitude.  Praying He'll help me love the same way.

It's Isaac!!!

Next week, Isaac will be 21 months old!!!  He's definitely not so much of a baby anymore.  He's becoming quite the little man.  He even answers "No" with a shake of his head when I ask him if he's a baby.  When I ask him if he's a big boy, he nods and answers "Boy!"  :-)

Isaac also just had a check-up.  He's currently about 33 inches tall and around 28 pounds.  (I forgot to write down exact numbers.)  Both of these measurements put him just about 50% on the growth charts.  We're blessed that he has been very healthy.  Other than a high fever after his last shots and "Nanny's Elbow", he's only really been to the doctor for well-visits.

Isaac's slowed down a bit in his eating, but he's still a pretty good eater.  He will usually at least try everything.  He has started picking one or two of his favorite things on his plate, but leaving the rest.  We're working on helping him understand that he can have more of his favorites once he at least eats a little bit of everything else.  He does have a bit of a stubborn streak, though :-)  He enjoys chocolates and other sweets, but fruit remains his absolute favorite.  He would live on fruit alone if we let him.

Isaac loves to do whatever the big kids are doing.  Even if he's playing on his own, he enjoys being where they are.  He doesn't let them push him around much, though.  He knows what he wants and stands his ground.  He does love balls, cars, airplanes, and the like.  But he also has been playing with baby dolls, kitchen toys, and phones.  It's so fun to listen to him play, especially since his language has just exploded in the last month or so! 

Naps are hit or miss these days.  If he's doing pretty well, I'll often let him stay up because it means he'll probably go to bed a little bit sooner.  But there are days when he needs the extra rest...even just crawling under the bench for a little snooze on the floor.

We're so blessed to have this happy cuddlebug as our third child.  I thought he would be our last, but he's never really had the "baby" personality.  Now we know he's going to be a great big brother!

Holy Moly...

...it's already the middle of February!!!

I figure the best way to get back into blogging is to start with pictures.  These are from mid-December during my attempts to take a  Christmas card picture :-)

We ended up using crops of these three individual pictures:

Snow Days

Yesterday and today have been snow days.  We got maybe three inches of snow yesterday, but it came down pretty quickly in the beginning.  I felt kind of bad.  We never made it out to play in the snow yesterday.  David was home, but he put in a full day of work and took two finals for his classes.  I just didn't have the energy to take the three kids outside while it was 20 degrees and below.  We did finally get our Christmas tree decorated.  Elizabeth and Josiah were very excited to go through our huge tote of ornaments and see which ones they recognized.  I think Josiah was a bit disappointed that he didn't have as many ornaments as Elizabeth.  Isaac got in on the action, trying to put ornaments on the tree.  Unfortunately, I was just trying to manage chaos, so I didn't get any pictures.  Elizabeth made some cards and wrapped presents for her school teachers.  We started working on some pipe cleaner and bead ornaments, and we still need to complete those.

Today, Elizabeth was disappointed that school was closed again.  It would have been her last day before Christmas break, so she missed her party and giving presents to her teachers.  But she and Josiah have been doing a good job playing.  We made it outside today!  Elizabeth, Josiah, and I went out while Isaac was napping.  It was helpful that the temperature was up to almost 40 degrees.  :-)  We haven't managed to get a good sled yet, so the kids tried sledding on a cardboard box.  It was pretty funny.  At some point, Josiah just decided it was easier to go down on his bottom.

Notice the pink mittens?  Guess we still need to get him new snow gloves, too :-)

Wipe out!

I think we're going to need to go to the store in a bit.  We're low on a lot of foods, and we still have a few gifts we need to pick up for this weekend.  Tomorrow, we'll celebrate Christmas a little bit early with some of David's family. 

Happy Snow Day! :-)

I don't deserve these kids

Today was one of those days.  It was a bad mommy day.  I was grumpy.  I had no reason to be grumpy.  But all I did was snip at the kids a l l  d a y  l o n g.  Elizabeth, after getting up and ready on her own, came in this morning wearing a pair of pants she knows she is not supposed to wear to school.  The first words out of my mouth let her know just how displeased I was with her choice.  And the day just seemed to go downhill from there.  Isaac spilled milk all over the kitchen.  Josiah made the choice to clean it up without even asking for help.  Instead of telling him how proud I was, I complained at him for his excessive use of paper towels.  Even though I was telling myself how mean I was being to my kids, it didn't change the negative words coming out of my mouth. 

So, instead of letting the kids choose where to have dinner, I  decided my rough day meant I deserved to have my choice.  HA!  The kids weren't happy, and they complained for a moment, but they came into the restaurant and were angels.  They had been promised playtime at the mall, and instead they were stuck in seats at a sit down restaurant.  They sat well and used their manners.  They did a fabulous job eating.  As the group at the next table was leaving, they gushed about our kids--everything from how cute they all are to how well-behaved they were.  I didn't need them to tell me those things, but it was reinforcement of how very blessed I am to be able to parent these three.  And how very blessed I am that they are amazing, despite me parenting them.

Thank you, God, for these blessings...and for reminders from others that they truly are blessings!

13

On November 23rd, Isaac celebrated turning 13 months old by getting his 13th tooth!  His first eye tooth popped in.  (His fourth molar came through sometime while I was recovering.)

Trick or Treat!

(Don't mind that they were ringing the doorbell when there is a bucket of candy by the door.  They were posing in front of our house. ;-))

It's the Baber kids!

Elizabeth the Pink Rock Star! 

Everything she wore was something already in our house except a $2 can of pink hair spray.

Josiah and Isaac: Diego and Baby Jaguar from Go, Diego, Go!

I did buy the shirt for Josiah, but it's one he can wear again.  We  had the vest, and we printed and added an iron-on patch.  I made Rescue Pack.

Isaac is wearing a costume that both Elizabeth and Josiah wore.  I love that they all got to wear it!

Rescue Pack!  My first real sewing project without adult supervision ;-)  I'm relieved with how it turned out.  I used a towel, figuring it'd be sturdy and cheap.  I forgot how thick it would be as I was finishing edges and such.  The face was made with printable iron-ons.  Josiah wanted to add a zipper after most of the bag was already put together, so it's not so pretty, but it works.  Josiah loves it and wants to play with it all the time.  That makes it worth it!

Snitching candy!

Josiah and Elizabeth were as excited about handing out candy to others as they were going around to get their own. :-D



We had a fun evening.  Now Mommy and Daddy need to assess the safety of the candy.  I have a feeling most of the chocolate is going to need to be confiscated.

More pictures

Some pics of the kids playing today :-) 

Isaac was given a tent with a tunnel for his birthday, and the kids have had a lot of fun with it.

Elizabeth in the tunnel

 Isaac looking out the door

 

Sometimes Daddy's just a big kid, too!

Daddy, Isaac, and Elizabeth in the tent.

Kisses!

Hmmm....

Three kids coming down the slide with scary glowing eyes