3 Little Pumpkins

There's no doubt that we've had the cutest pumpkins on the block over the past several years.

Though they all have their own distinct qualities, I do find it funny how the boys look fairly similar and Leah is just a completely different child. I always knew she'd be unique!

The feelings that came with putting this costume on a baby one last time were felt much deeper than I thought they'd be felt. Who knew a little fleece pumpkin suit could have such a significant impact on a mama's emotions?!? 

Halloween 2012

We had another wonderful and memorable Halloween. The month of October in our home was filled with decorations, coloring books, stories, snacks, and anything else Halloween. The kids definitely got into it, but they sure haven't outgrown their fear of all the not-so-kid-friendly Halloween things (scary decorations, spooky stories, freaky costumes, etc.). In fact, my two favorite stories from the past month involve their sweet innocence being challenged by  all that Halloween has to offer. 

The first was when Caleb came home from preschool complaining about kids telling scary stories. In my former-teacher/mom mode, I kind of just listened to his complaint and brushed it off as no big deal. He, however, came home the next time complaining about it and so I told him he needed to either ask his friends to tell less scary stories or just go find other kids to play with. He reported back the following day that "that didn't work and he couldn't just walk away because it was happening at carpet time". When I told him that he needed to express his concern to his teachers, he responded that he "couldn't because they are on the phone." Again, in my former-teacher mode I know that the reality of what happens at school is often faaaar different from how kids explain it to their parents (as if your teachers are really chatting on the phone for 2.5 hours while you preschoolers run wild....ok, buddy). So, the next option was to make sure Caleb brought it up to his teachers by having him talk to them before class started. When he went to school the following day, he marched right in and with all his 4-year-old confidence, he told his teacher that he doesn't like scary stories and he wants his friends to stop telling them. Now, I know that he can't always have things the way he wants, his teachers would never allow other kids to intentionally frighten him, and kids will keep telling stories regardless of what my sweet, innocent boy wants....but I'm still quite proud of how he handled the problem he was faced with.

The other story highlighting the innocence that I never want my kiddos to lose comes from Halloween day. The kids were all dressed and ready to head out for trick-or-treating. Leah was waiting outside staring at our pumpkins by the front door. She had her back to the sidewalk behind her and didn't hear the trick-or-treaters approaching our front door. When she looked up, there were three pre-teen boys dressed head-to-toe in black with white "scream" masks on. To say they looked frightening is an understatement. To a little two year old girl who wasn't expecting to see anything when she turned around, they were the scariest thing she'd ever seen. I can completely understand why she screamed loud enough to surely be heard down the street. She followed her screams with tears, hyperventilating, and a sprint through the front door and into the kitchen faster than the gold medalists in the summer olympics. We managed to pull her back outside several minutes later to start trick-or-treating, but it wasn't until about 10 houses in that she finally let her daddy put her down to start getting candy.

I know I can't shelter them forever and their innocence will be lost with each passing year....but for now, I'll cling to it as long as I can. These are my babies and sometimes I just want to keep them that way!

Anyhow, the rest of our Halloween festivities can be summed up with pictures:

Pumpkin Carving:

Trick-or-Treating at school

The Lake Road Kids' Halloween Party

And of course, Trick-or-Treating (Caleb refused to respond to his name for the entire hour we spent walking around....he ONLY responded to Batman)

9 Months

Our little peanut is already 9 months old! We go to the doctor in a few days for his 9 month check-up. After that, he'll be there for his 1 year. Where is the time going?!?

EATING: Joel takes 4 bottles a day...each are about 6 ounces. This month, he's learned how to hold the bottle himself. Sometimes I will let him sit alone and have his bottle, but most of the time I just can't pass up the chance to sit and snuggle with him on the couch while he's taking it. He's my last, so the rules about pushing independence have to bend just a bit! He's still eating mostly baby food. He definitely prefers fruits over veggies, but we're still doing an equal amount of each during the day. He's getting okay with table food, but seems to have some issues when the texture is odd. He's also realized that he can throw things on the floor from his high chair. Chesney seems to really be appreciative of this latest discovery!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still fantastic! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. There have been times over the past month when he has woken during the night and started "talking", but he has never gotten to the point of crying and needing us to come in. Maybe we have another sleep talker (Caleb does the same thing at times). 

MILESTONES: Joel is a big mover now and gets all over the place by crawling (not the army crawl anymore). He's started to realize that there is freedom beyond the confines of his "baby jail". Most of the time he cries the instant you put him into his big caged area. When he does get freedom, he is into everything! He's even figured out how to climb up the stairs (with very close supervision, of course). A few times, he's experimented with standing by himself. He doesn't seem to realize that he's doing it though. The only other big milestone from the past month is that Joel now has 2 teeth! He was quite crabby while they were coming in, but that could also be because he was fighting a nasty cold at the time.

A Perfect Fall Day

When it's mid-October and the weather is in the high 60s/low 70s, there is nothing I'd rather do than take a walk in the woods. I can remember so many times that my dad would take us for walks and bike rides through the forest preserves. My favorite of those memories are from the fall, when the leaves were bright and there was a smell in the woods that you could only find at that time of the year. 

Though we're not ready for super long walks and 10 mile bike rides, it's still fun to get the kids used to the sights, sounds, and smells of the woods. I want to instill the same love of nature in my kids that my dad instilled in me. With that said, we recently took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed to Pilcher Park to play. While I sat with Joel, the two older kids could just run and have that sense of freedom that is hard to find in a fenced backyard. It was such a joy to watch them squeal with delight as they threw leaves in the air and stomped around to crunch the leaves under their feet. There wasn't a single moment of whining or complaining and that, my friends, is music to my ears!

Keepin' Busy

We've been managing to squeeze in some fun during our "free" days this past month. It's crazy how much less time we have on our hands now that we have three mornings of preschool for Caleb (one of which is also a preschool day for Leah). On top of that, we have MOPS to keep us busy several other mornings a month. And if that wasn't enough, I'm also watching my neighbors' youngest kid a couple times a week. I've even contemplated trying to get back into subbing, but I'm just not sure how that'll fit into the schedule.

This seemingly busy schedule has made me realize just how precious these early years are. These are the years when we don't have to answer to a 5-days-a-week-all-day school schedule. And we don't have to shuffle kids from one extracurricular activity to the next all week long. For the most part, we have time on our hands to still just do what we want! I also find that the more time we spend just sitting at home, the more likely I am to lose my mind to playing referee ALL.DAY.LONG! Caleb and Leah have definitely hit that phase where they do things just to push each others' buttons. So, the solution is to stay busy and get the heck out of the house when we can!

This past month we've gone to two very fun places:

FAIR OAKS FARMS

(it's a huge dairy farm in Indiana)

THE ZOO

(Daddy even got to join us for this trip)

It's funny how after only a couple of years doing this stay-at-home mom thing, I've realized just how quickly the years go by. I thought staying at home would make things slow down a bit and would give me the chance to soak up these early years a bit more. While I think I've done some major soaking, I also think I tend to take for granted the blessing of being home. There are days when I get so focused on what "needs" to get done that I fail to simply put the vacuum down, hold off on the laundry one more day, and just say "let's go have fun". Now, I'm less than a year away from sending our first baby off to kindergarten and I already wish I could rewind and get some of those earlier days back!

8 Months

There is no way that we are already two thirds of the way through the first year with this little man! He is SUCH a wonderful baby and a true joy in our lives.

EATING: Joel takes 4 bottles a day...each are about 6 ounces. He does great with solids and even seems to be more interested in table food than baby food. He can feed himself puffs, cheerios, peas, and other small foods, so we are going to try to head in that direction soon. Most of the time he swats at the spoon of baby food and makes a huge mess, so we might spare everyone the headache and just start giving him small foods the he can feed himself. Whatever it is, he has to be able to gum it, because he still doesn't have teeth!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is fantastic! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. He did have a little trouble sticking to that this past month because he had a terrible cold that lasted for two weeks. His sleeping was a bit off, but that was to be expected!

MILESTONES: Despite being sick with a nasty cold, Joel managed to learn a ton of new skills over the past couple of weeks. He is moving much faster and can crawl the correct way, but still prefers the army crawl. He can go from his belly to sitting up all by himself. He has also learned to pull himself up to a stand. All of those skills were mastered within one week. Joel is just like Caleb was and becomes incredibly preoccupied with learning new skills. When he's supposed to be sleeping, he spends time "practicing" his new skills. He's also becoming much better with language. He shakes his head when someone says, "no, no, no" and claps if you say "yaaaay". He occasionally signs for "more" and has a bunch of new consonant sounds that he babbles. One of the newest sounds is da, which of course sounds like DaDa, but I'm not sure I'm willing to call it his first word just yet. There doesn't seem to be much meaning behind the babbling!

Five for Five

It's been awhile since our last post. In fact, it seems as though changing from a family of four to five has made our lives significantly more busy than it was before. Ever since our last member joined the family, the blogging activity has come to almost a complete stop. It's not that he's a tough baby....in fact, he's our easiest one yet.

So much has happened over the last eight months, and I know that one day I'll regret not recording more of it! Anyhow, now that we're beyond the sleep deprived nights, random fussy moments, looooooong summer of siblings spending too much time fighting together, and so on, hopefully we can catch up on blogging. So, I'm starting with an update on the five of us. Five random facts about each of our five lives. No pictures, just info. Here goes:

Tyler...
1....has become one in spirit with Elmer Fudd. He has taken a HUGE liking for hunting the rabbits that destroy our landscaping, poop all over the yard, and taunt him to no end. Don't worry, he has a permit and it's just a pellet gun!
2...has gone running 3 times in the last month, two of which were the past two days. Dare I say, we are forming a good habit?!?
3...spent an entire afternoon in charge of all three kids (I was at a baby shower), while they had awful colds, which meant they fussed, whined, napped poorly, and didn't give him a minute to accomplish anything he wanted to do. There might have been a small, teeny-tiny, part of me that was VERY okay with that!
4...has, after many years of claiming to have better teeth than I, finally tied me with two cavities. He went to the dentist awhile ago and found out he has a cavity (the 2nd one since we've been married). One of my two was from when I was about 7, so I think I might be able to claim the new title for best teeth!
5...is changing jobs, yet again! But this time we're hoping it's for a good, long while. He's moving into pharmaceutical sales and the job seems like a great fit for him and our family. LivingSocial was wonderful to him during this past crazy year, but unfortunately the earning potential just wasn't there for a single-income, family of five!

Sara:
1...is watching the neighbor's youngest kid a few hours each week and loves having an extra kid around to break up the usual arguing. Josie also manages to make me smile or laugh about every 10 minutes because she is the master of adorable, only-a-three-year-old-would-say-that, comments!
2...has become like an 80 year old woman and has to check blood sugar levels throughout the day. It's just a small step in trying to find out what's going on with my whacked out, too many babies in the past 5 years, body. After a little blood work, charting my blood sugar levels, and cutting back on sugar, the doctor should hopefully have some answers next week. The doc was thinking along the lines of hypoglycemia, but let's hope that's not the case :(
3...now LOVES to sleep in the freezing cold. Bring on the open windows and fans....even when it's 40 degrees. Chalk it up again to the whacked out, too many babies in the past 5 years, gets hot flashes at age 30 body!
4...will be playing the role of single mom for 3 weeks (2 in Oct., 1 in Nov.) while Tyler attends trainings for his new job. Mental preparation begins now!
5...desperately needs to do something new with my hair, but can't figure out what. For now, being able to throw it back in a ponytail makes my life a thousand times simpler. And simple is what this lady needs (see fact #4).
Caleb:
1...has started his last year of preschool (sigh). Of course, he loves it.
2...still can't pump on a swing. I've just about given up trying to teach him.
3...is learning to read! He has flown through learning quite a few sight words, is strengthening his knowledge of letter sounds, and does a great job of reading low level books.
4...has turned into an amazing artist. I taught 2nd graders who couldn't color nearly as well as this kid does! You could put him at the table with crayons and paper and he'd been fine for hours.
5...is still the early riser of the family. The rest of us could easily sleep until 8, but this little boy just loves to rise with the sun. We're lucky to keep him in his room until 7!
Leah:
1...has some of the longest, thickest, hair of any two year old I've known. She ended up needing a haircut because it was getting too long. Thankfully, she still is very cooperative with combing, styling, and so on.
2...sleeps on the top bunk and does great. She did hit her head on the ceiling fan the first night, but as her daddy lovingly said "it'll only take one time for her to learn"!
3...talks so much that you'd never know she was in speech therapy a year ago.
4...could still live off of fruits, vegetables, and snacks. The child rarely eats a full meal, but could graze all day if you'd let her.
5...is still our clingy child. She has done well with preschool drop-off, but has had a few moments at church when she hesitates/cries to go to the nursery. She has also had several meltdowns recently when I'm leaving and Tyler's been left in charge.
Joel:
1...is our cuddliest kid yet. If you hand him his beloved blue blankie, he'll grab it, pop his thumb in his mouth, and instantly snuggle his little face into your shoulder/neck. He must know that he's the last baby, because he's soaking up the snuggles!
2...still has NO teeth!
3...just got over what seemed like the longest cold ever! He seems to be taking after his brother's terrible immune system :(
4...loves to clap and I might just be imagining it, but I think he says "yaaaay" when he's doing it.
5...is starting to really dislike the exersaucer or jumpy. This boy just wants the freedom to move!