Picture Wall Grammy?

Rarely can you catch this kid without a smile.  

I wish that pictures could also let the onlooker feel the softness and smell the sweetness.  This little boy is a dream come true.  

We just had his 6 month check up.  Aside from wowing the doctor with a big grin, he showed off two teeth, wriggled himself all over the doctor's table, and weighing in at 16 pounds he is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.  He is healthy as can be and just pure delight.

Prior to six months, day to day life was kind of a free for all.  Nap a little here, eat a little there, play some over here...we are finally settling into a more predictable day.  Without my help, or encouragement, he has decided that night time sleep is nice and is consistently sleeping 7:30pm to 7:30am without a peep.  So, he wakes, happily talking until either one of the kids or myself goes in to greet him.  He nurses and then we head down stairs for breakfast.  He is enjoying solid food and eats mashed bananas, pears, and oatmeal for breakfast.  By 9 he is ready for his 1st nap.  We turn off the lights and he knows the plan.  Rarely a fuss, he lays his head down on my shoulder, thumb in his mouth, and we just snuggle.  Usually he falls asleep on my, but if I have to scoot out to help a sibling, he is sad only for a moment in his bed before finding his thumb again and dozing off.  Typically this nap is about an hour and a half.  

When he wakes up we try to have some kind of outing.  So we push the second nap until 1 or 1:30.  Same kind of routine as the morning and then he sacks out until 4 or 4:30.  The evenings are a little tricky.  He spends time in the exersaucer, or closer to me in the kitchen, just sitting in the high chair, but his favorite thing is to be on the floor rolling, scooting and recently getting up on all fours to crawl.  

We all enjoy having him at the table with us during dinner.  Big smiles and happy sounds adding to the atmosphere are welcome.

But, nothing beats hiding away with him at the end of the day.  I share my attention all day, but at night I take my time, staying in the room until he is sound asleep and my arms are full of cuddles.  

And even in his sleep, there is that precious little smile.

Snow Day

We keep thinking we've had our 'last snow day'...but, we've had another!

The snow brings out something special in all of us.  For me, it brings out my inner Eskimo.  I tucked Trey inside my jacket, put a hat on my head and took my little munchkins out to play.  

It brings out the arctic wolf pup in Silas (don't know how that got in him, but it does come out).  He could not get enough of the snow.  First he made snow balls, then he crawled through the snow, then he ate the snow, finally he rolled down all the snow hills.  By the time we left he was soaked from head to toe.  But, he never complained once about being cold, and he was very sad as we drove down the mountain and the snow near our house had all melted.

It brings out the polar bear cubs in Jewel and Trey.  Jewel walked for about 5 minutes, and asked for the stroller.  I wrapped her up in the blanket, snuggled her up tight, and in a moment she was out.  She slept for over an hour in the freezing cold.  Trey wasn't far behind, all warm and cozy inside my jacket, deep heavy sighs were soon to follow.

Uncle Everett took a super quick break from work to join us.  Obviously the snow brings out the 'super cool' in him...his nephews and niece certainly think so...ok, his sister does, too.

There may be nothing in the world cuter than this little pumpkin in her snow gear.  Or any gear for that matter...precious as can be!!

Five is big

 We had a first for Silas' fifth birthday.  No families, no siblings, no parents...just Jordan, me, Jewel, Trey, Silas and 5 of his friends...and about 200 other kids at Pump It Up. 

 We had originally planned the party for a weekday afternoon.  Jordan had taken the day off of work and we were going to go to this Oregon hot spot while the rest of the world was in school.  Until I woke up the morning of, sicker than I have been in a year.  I couldn't get out of bed, unless I was bookin' it to the bathroom.  So, we had to reschedule for Monday.  Jordan still had the day off, because it was Memorial Day, so the rest of the world had it off too.  And they were all at Pump it Up.  Last time we had been there it was me, the kids, our friends, and maybe 5 other kids.  This time there were shoulder to shoulder kids ranging in age from 2 (not including Trey) to 12. 

Thankfully, this crew was not intimidated.  They kicked off their shoes, tossed their jackets, and dove into the mob. 

Silas, Tag, Thatcher and Aiden spent two straight hours going up and down the 17 foot slide.  They broke every rule in the book, going down all together, waiting at the end to make the other person crash into them, grabbing the appendages of whomever was closest to them on the way down...but they had a BLAST together.  All finishing play time completely covered in sweat, clothing stretched out, bruises on cheeks, and huge smiles on their faces. 

  

 Even Jewel went down, or as she says, 'went bombin' down the big kid slide.  She also made time to hang with the girls, and was thankful that our pals Marin and Madeline came along.

Maddie was not thrilled about the slide, but Silas didn't not leave her out.  After several slides he would stop and sit and visit with her and chill for a while. 

 After Pump It Up, we went back to the house and had pizza, ice cream, cake and presents.  The above cake is the one I made and served to the kids.  The below cake was what Jordan and Riley (who was staying with us while attending graduate classes) created on my kitchen island after I had gone to bed the night before the party.  I take full credit for the awesome fighter jet cake...I will give full credit to the boys for the blown up tank, firey bullets shooting out of the plane's guns, and army men strewn about, wounded (or worse) in battle.  For the record, Silas thought it was the coolest set up he'd ever seen.

The conversations at 5 get better and better.  Silas is totally into space and planets right now.  He somehow memorized the order of the planets, he hears facts while we are reading and just memorizes them.  Last week we were in the car and he said to me:

Silas: Mom, I just don't know how we'll get to heaven.

Me: Oh man, Silas, it's gonna be awesome.  When God comes back he is going to come to earth and get us!  The Bible says he is going to call his children and take them to heaven with him.  Maybe we'll go up in the clouds and fly into heaven...wouldn't that be incredible?

Silas:  *gasp* MOM!  We'll get to see ALL the planets on our way to heaven!  Oh, I can't wait for that.

That night in bed, as I was tucking him in, I prayed and as I was finishing he leaned in to my ear and said, 

"And thank you, God, for making the planets and that you are going to show them to us!"

Last week we had another incident with Jewel, she got into the makeup in my bathroom and crushed multiple items on the floor, making a powdery finger paint on the linoleum that also worked well to press her feet into and then walk all over the carpet, making foot prints.  The next morning while I was peicing together the remnants, trying to get ready, the kids were in the bathroom with me and Jewel was asking for lipstick.  I tried not to be too sarcastic, but told her she would not be using my lipstick today.  Silas was quiet for a moment, and then gently, as if he knew he was about to deliver a hard truth, he says to me:

Mom, it might be kind of confusing for Jewel.  Sometimes when she is in here with you, you let her see some of your makeup and pretend to put it on.  She probably can't tell the difference of when she can play with it and when she can't.  Maybe she came in here to play with it because she thought it was an OK toy to play with.  I just think she maybe didn't know it was naughty.

I hardly knew what to say.  There was some truth to it.  I mean, I think she knew better than to demolish it on the floor, but I probably just should have kept makeup off limits to my two year old.  Thankfully, Silas can start helping with parenting now, since apparently I am losing my edge.

He is typical of a five year old with 'knock yourself in the head' kind of humor, but also starting to get a real smartness behind his jokes.  The other day he came out of the bathroom and looks straight at me and says, 

Mom, I just peed in the garbage can.

(we've had issues about peeing in the shower when he's not IN it, so this is not totally impossible)

I reacted, of course, 

You WHAT??!!  Silas, why did you do that???

He says, with a grin...

Just kidding, Mom.  But isn't that a great joke?!  You should do that some time when you are at your Bible Study or your Community Group, go into the bathroom and when you come out, tell everyone you peed in the garbage can, and they'll say "you did what??" and then you can start laughing and just tell them you didn't.

OK, you got me, good one.  Don't tell your dad...He may actually try this stunt at community group. 

Silas is also making incredible progress with school work.  He is writing his name, memorizing sight words, sounding out and reading short (phonetic) words, and LOVES math. 

He is a bit of a perfectionist (ok, a lot of a perfectionist).  So mastering the 's' at the begninning and end of his name was a bit of a challenge.  I write it on the page, he traces it over and over until he gets the feeling of the movement, and then does it himself below. 

Very proud of this five year old.  Even more so, I am thankful for him.  What a very, very precious gift we recieved on February 15th, five years ago now, in the form of a sweet, chubby cheeked little babe.  LOVE YOU SILAS!!

Silas turns 5

 Uncle Everett and Aunt Daniela came to help celebrate Silas' 5th birthday.  They boys shot down army men with Silas' new rubber band gun (thank you Riley), so Silas had a blast. 

 The girls read books and snuggled...so Jewel had a great time.

 And, of course Jewel passed around her affections, which helps everyone else have a good time :)

 Then after Jewel was tucked into bed, and Trey was soundly sleeping, Silas got some special time reading books with them both...a very special birthday treat.

 And, they got him a green jacket with an airplane pin on it...really cool.

We are so blessed to have our family here to help celebrate these special days.  Thank you to E&D for making time to come and love on this birthday boy.

Potty Talk

We have entered potty talk phase.

Well, I was hoping it was a phase.  

Apparently poop is a HILARIOUS thing for 5 year old boys.  Actually, poop itself is not that hilarious, but talking about it is.  

As we drove away from the pizza place the other night, the kids were fussing and I said "say bye, bye Papa's Pizza, see you next time!"  Silas says "Bye, Bye, pizza poopoo" then Jewel says, "Bye, bye pizza poopoo"  Outrageous laughing from Silas, then outrageous laughing from Jewel.  I tell Jordan the story, more dignified outrageous laughing.  

Maybe Trey will be more mature.

Baby Love

All I can say, is that this is the sweetest, happiest, most delightful little baby that you ever met.  He melts my heart all day with his giant smiles, precious thumb sucking snuggles, giggles, growls, and bright blue eyes.  Slow down, Baby Love, slow down.

Those little things...

I shared a funny story about my kids with a friend the other day, and after laughing out loud, she reminded me that I should be writing them down.  In the moment, it feels like we'll never forget the funny remarks.  However, after the third child, it becomes evident there will actually be little that you remember.

So...

A few weeks ago at church, the kids talked about how God made each person special.  As a craft the kids traced their bodies on butcher paper and then colored the inside to look like themselves.  Silas was showing me his when we got home.  Instead of clothing or facial features or anything like that, he drew his circulatory system.  He had trails of red crayon flowing one way, and then back the other, all collecting in the chest.  He says:

This is all my blood, flowing through my body.  It goes to my arms and legs and down to my feet and toes and even through my head.  Then it all comes back to get circulated through my hearts.  See these (he points to two fist sized circles drawn on the chest)?  These are my hearts, pumping my blood.
(me) Oh, you have 2 hearts?
(him) Yeah, look.  (He then lifts his shirt up and points to his two nipples)
(me) Oh, yeah, look at that.  You do have two hearts.

We can have a full anatomy lesson later, but for now, how cute is that to think his nipples are his hearts.  And seriously, boys nipples have no use anyway, so it pretty much makes sense.


We had another jammy day today.  I like for the kids to have Jammy Day on my cleaning days, that way it seems fun for them while I am trying do more work and less play.  But this afternoon we had decided to meet Jordan at a pizza place that has a play area, to celebrate Silas learning his sight words and mastering the 'S' in his name (which has caused many frustrations in the past) without my help.  So, when I announced it was time to get dressed he was less than thrilled to ditch the jammies.  I told him he could pick anything he wanted to wear as long as it was not jammies.

He thought for a while and finally decided on his new fighter jet shirt.  Of course he has a really good reason.

Mom, I think I will wear my fight jet shirt.  Then, when I am playing at the play place, some boy will say to me 'hey, cool shirt' and I will say 'thanks' and he'll say 'you're welcome' and I'll say 'what's your name?' and he'll tell me and then he'll say 'what's your name?' and I'll say 'Silas' and then we can play together and be friends.

OH the thought that goes into these things!!!  It is actually enlightening to me.  I know he is thinking like this a lot, this far ahead and this detailed, but he doesn't always say it so clearly.  I pray that these thoughts stay captive to the Lord!  Anyway, it continues.

He heads into the room that he and Jewel share to go and get dressed.  His shadow (aka, Jewel) follows him in.  He turns around and tries to shut the door on her, yelling that he doesn't want her in there because he is changing.  As soon as he starts pushing, she of course starts pushing back...and she ain't no wimp.  So, they are in a lock down at the door and escalating.  Trey is sleeping so I whisper loudly to Silas that maybe he could say nicely to her 'Jewel, can I please have some privacy'.  He gains composure, stops pushing and says 'Jewel, I am going to be changing clothes, can I please have some privacy?'  Without skipping a beat she says 'Oh. yeah.' and walks away.  (She does this regularly, as soon as he gets amped up, she ups the anti....as soon as he asks nicely and the game is over, she is back to zero in a second flat and usually complies completely).  He closes the door and then 5 seconds later opens it to announce he has to go to the bathroom, and walks out totally nude, thinking nothing of his privacy.

So we have pizza, we play, we get tired, cranky and sweaty.  As I am helping the kids get their shoes on to leave, with a heavy sigh and sad eyes Silas says

Mom, no one told me I had a cool shirt.
(me) Oh, really?  I'm sorry Honey.
(him)  I wore this shirt so that someone would say that to me, and no one noticed.
(me) Silas, I am sorry.  That is really frustrating.  Did you tell anyone else they had a cool shirt?
(him) No.
(me) Well, maybe next time you could be brave and tell someone else they had a cool shirt and then find out their name and play with them.
(him) Oh, yeah.  That's a good idea.  Can you tell me that again next time?
(me) Yup.  Of course.


I also just love the innocence of this age.  Jordan took Silas to a monster truck show for his birthday (more on that later), and they saw the 'Grave Digger' truck.  It is decorated to fit the name with a huge skull on the side.  Last week in the grocery store, he saw the toy Grave Digger near the check out lane.  He asked me, begged me, to get it for him.  I was busy with the groceries and glanced at it, disapproving of the look, I said no.  He said

Please Mom!  This is the monster truck me and dad saw at the show...he's the 'Great Digger' and he won 1st prize!