Milestones

You know when you are on a long road trip, the urge to photograph moving scenery out the window gets a little old?  Like, right when you see something awesome, you pull out your camera and adjust the settings...whoosh...the moment is gone.  So then you just watch out the window and enjoy the ride... That's pretty much what I've been doing.

I think I have an unfinished post about how Heidi started walking just after her 9th month and now at ten months, walking is her primary form of locomotion.  She burns a lot more calories, so I'm trying to get more fatty foods into her.  She is above the 97th percentile for height, but only 50th for weight.  She is so cute and so funny and she is most certainly Daniel's little sister.  She grabbed a chew stick from Jack (remember, he is a vicious pit bull) and went to stick it in her mouth.  I quickly said, "Yuck!' to her and she just laughed and tried to eat it again.  Jack just waited patiently for her to give it back.

If it weren't for me and Shane, Ian would have a marshmallow on that stick.

Shane is still hanging on to eating a Whole9 menu...for one more day!  He is glad he tried it out, but I'll be glad when he is willing to resume whole grains and milk. Daniel is "broken" of his peanut-butter-and-jelly-cut-into-two-big-triangles habit and is now willingly eating different foods.  I've let him resume bread and cereal, but not ketchup or jelly or sugar in his porridge!

Coyote Ugly

I also have a half-written post about the lessons Kai is teaching us.  Like keeping important things picked up, keeping shoes in our cubbies and not on the floor, and finishing your meals during meal time.  I caught him chewing on my Birkenstock today and he is still scared to come close to me.

Lula, pointing to letters on the keyboard

Lula, who barely spoke a few weeks ago, strings two words together, the first being, "Evie, stop!"  But, the most amazing thing is that she knows all her letters.  And she can barely talk.  Not only can she pick up a letter tile or point to a keyboard letter and name it, she can sign it as well.  She really tries to finger spell words too. 

Check out the color of this October sky!!! Can you believe that I took this picture today???  The weather was so beautiful.

What do you think? Mild or harsh winter ahead?

We got to visit with Laura and Shane (and their baby due January 2015) over the weekend.  They came down to stock up on firewood given by their other grandparents.  I took no pictures because of my road trip mentality.  Sorry.  And speaking of grandbabies, Ami's baby is due in fourteen days and I'm on call!  Now THAT I will bring the camera for!

Sugar Crash!

The Whole30 is back and this time I have a few friends joining me.  In addition to the lovely ladies I know through church, a few of my children are hopping on the wagon with me doing a slightly modified program.  Some are willing to try out sugar-free living and are doing it willingly.  Others are not.

I'm having Daniel join me because he will only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For every meal. I'm thinking if I get some nutrient dense food in him, his behavior will improve. I just have to wait until he is hungry enough to eat his eggs without ketchup. He has been throwing fits over food and then falling asleep while calming down (modified time out).

The other participants are Evie and Shane.  We are spending a lot of time reading labels and learning what the other words for sugar are.  They are still drinking milk and eating peanuts from a shell, but they have cut out all sugars, processed foods, lunch meats, and breads.

Super Daniel

This is what happens when Daniel turns into Super Daniel.  This is also the noise he makes when he is being teased.  I no longer respond to the sound because I cannot tell the difference between the two.  This boy is so different than my other two.  I love all their personalities.

Who's Up for Round Two?

I only made it three weeks into this school year and I'm already pulling our family out of the new school program.  One week before school officially started, I placed an order with the school district for our materials.  One month later, they still hadn't received anything.  They have all items shipped to them, they enter each book into their library system, add a sticker, and reship the items to me.  By this rate, I wouldn't receive my school materials until mid October.  I cannot waste another day.  Especially since the school wanted me to write an in depth review of every learning activity I have patched together and they wanted each activity matched to an Essential Academic Learning Requirement created by the state.  Sorry, I don't have a degree in education.  I don't feel like I need to jump through those bureaucratic hoops.

Equilibrio: A critical thinking game involving blocks, balance, and symmetry.

Mark is the bestest husband ever.  I offered to pay for all the math curriculum I needed for Ian and Shane if he could front me enough to cover language arts and history for them.  He added in Rosetta Stone to sweeten the deal and we dug into savings.  I already own the girl's curriculum, thanks to Grandad's assistance when we were planning on leaving our last program a few years ago.  And thanks to my dad hiring me to work for him, we will be able to stay in Homeschool Fridays for the rest of the year.  So, look at us! We are independent homeschoolers using the classical, literature-based ecclectic notebooking style I have always dreamed of!

Signs of a Good Day

I treated my family to a day at the Puyallup Fair yesterday...

Shane is awesome.  He totally posed by this sign for me.

 ...I don't even want to tell you how much it costs to take a family of nine to the fair, but the memories are priceless.

How many Downens does it take to milk a cow?

Lula loved the farm animals

 My plan was to check out the rides and decide whether to buy tickets or bracelets...and when I saw that each ride was between $4 and $6, I went the bracelet route for the four older kids and Mark!

Evie's first ride...She thought she was going to DIE

 The weather was sunny and HOT!

The baby was hot!

Lula was hot!

Daniel was hot!

All I needed to do was ride the Ferris wheel with the girls...

 ...and Daniel.  I haven't been to the fair for twenty years.  I've never been on a ride with my kids. 

Holding on to Daniel for dear life.

I didn't know how terrifying it would be to take Daniel on the Ferris wheel and watch him wiggle around and try to stand up.  One would think the Ferris wheel is the safest, tamest ride at the fair, but it had NO seat belts and was wide open.

I couldn't enjoy myself while Daniel was peeking through that opening with all the warning signs around it.  Children and riders with developmental limitations must be accompanied by a supervising person to ensure that the rider remains seated properly during the ride.   That is what that little white sign says.  The sign that is right above Daniel unseated head.  These Mama instincts are not suited for Ferris wheel riding.

Those are my other babies up there.  Upside down.

I also didn't enjoy watching my boys on the Kamikaze.  But they loved, loved, loved the rides.  They went on that one FOUR times.  Even Mark went on that one...

This is where I waited to meet my boys.  No one actually got lost, it was just shady here!

Before we left, I wrote my cell phone number on a piece of masking tape and placed it on the inside of the middle kids' shirts.  That way if they got lost, they could ask someone to call me.  I coached them to ask a mom with kids first, a lady second, and a fair employee at the ticket booth third. 

Lula loved the bubbles.

Lula was a trooper.  She went on zero rides, unless you count sitting in a sweaty stroller in the blazing sun a ride.  I left Mark in charge of Heidi and Lula (and the stroller) while I took Evie, Fiona, and Daniel on the carousel.  While we were waiting for the ride to start, I watched Mark try to talk on his phone (he was kinda working), bottle feed Heidi, and watch Lula.  But while he was looking down at Heidi, Lula saw us and took off running toward us.  Mark wouldn't have been able to hear me calling him, so I tried to sign to Lula to stop, go, and Dad.  Luckily Mark looked up before Lula gate crashed the ride...and he had to make that choice of leaving the baby in the stroller to rescue Lula or stay with the baby and let Lula gate crash...

Mark and Evie...but you can't see Evie

Evie was too old for the kiddy rides and a little too short for the fun rides, but she was just right to ride the Wild Cat roller coaster with her dad.  The Wild Cat has been there my entire life.  I hope they maintain it.  I was worried that Evie would get motion sick...

"That was AWESOME!!"

Although Evie was too old for the kiddy rides, she enjoyed them and was a great help with getting seat belts on herself, Fiona, and Daniel.

We were wondering why the sign at the top of the slide was facing out....

Helicopter ride

Car ride

By the time we got to this part of the day, we were roasting.  Ian and Shane had gone off with a friend from scouts and Mark and I were getting tired.  Lucky for us, we got a call from the friend letting us know that the boys were finally hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty enough to take a break.  We got our boys and hit one more ride on our way out...

The haunted house...is it too scary for Fiona?

We needn't worry!  It's just as corny as it was 20 years ago.

Shane (maroon shirt), Evie, Ian, Mark (pushing the stroller), and Daniel running up behind, ready for Dairy Queen

We really did "Have a Great Day."  I'm thankful we don't do things like this very often.  When we do, the memories last.  But next time? I'm going on a cool day.  And leaving the stroller babies at home.

Friday Funnies

"Mooooommmmmm! Daniel's calling me a tattletale!!!"   Can you guess which dramatic child of mine said this?  And when it was pointed out that she was, indeed, a tattletale because she was tattling, she burst into tears.  Hilarious for us, soul-crushing for her.

And how about a Daily Daniel?

Daniel (banging his fists on the table): I want food!  I want food!  That's the way baaaaad boys ask for food, isn't it Mom?
Me: That's right.  I'll never feed boys who act like that.  Now, can you use your nice words?
Daniel: Can I please have some food, please?
Me: Very good!
Mark: What would you say if she said no?
Daniel (in his demanding voice): Well, DON'T!  Don't say NO! You CAN'T!

But first place for Friday Funny goes to Lula.  She went outside while I was downstairs sewing Ian's merit badges on his Boy Scout sash.  She started screaming, but it was her annoyed scream, not a scream of terror or pain.  I asked Ian and Shane, who were sitting in the schoolroom, what Lula was screaming about. "Nothing.  She's just screaming because she is a girl."  The screaming stopped shortly after it started and I didn't give it a second thought.  Ten minutes later Mark found her like this:

Lula, who is in the I'm-two-years-old-and-I-don't-want-to-take-a-nap phase, fell asleep on the porch.  I've had kids in this phase fall asleep in the strangest places, but the porch takes the cake (so far).  After I took the picture above, I realized she fell asleep outside because some idiot sibling of hers locked the sliding glass door and she couldn't get in.  It was probably Daniel because I don't think Ian or Shane would do that and then not know why she was screaming.  Because it was obvious she was screaming because she wanted in the door. 

Happy Friday!

Haley Cove

Another weekend, another Boy Scout adventure...

This time Mark had his own kayak

Ian and Shane

Camp Site

Swamping Canoe Practice

Shane doing all the work by himself

Ian

This was the first time in 15 years Mark has been out in his kayak.