Zoe, Ace, and Liam enjoyed gymnastics again this year. We enjoyed watching their end of year performance too!
Ace and Liam got to do the uneven bars this year. Zoe didn’t enjoy the beam as much as the bars though.
Liam is my little monkey!
Good intentions…I do have them. I fully intend to get the blog updated from May before the end of June so I can update with June even though there’s not much to report in June, except that we were visited by a host of Transueiness and we’re sick. Croup for the babe, colds, stomach issues, fevers, and a touch of laryngitis for the rest of crew…and we’ve only had three go through it. There’s still more to come!
However, before I start folding clothes, I thought I could do a post.
Our end of the year project fair with our homeschool care group was in May this year. The weekend of Mother’s day to be precise. Although it was a very busy day (and Aunt Yaya’s birthday) we had wonderful time. This year, the kids voted not to do handbells. They chose poem recitations instead. I have no clue where the video is. I think next year I’ll talk them in to doing a puppet show…or play. They do enjoy getting up and acting and such.
This year was the first year for them to do projects. I allowed them to choose their projects and have very, very little hands on work with them. I did some guidance on how to do the projects, use machines, and how not to cut yourself with a paper cutter or scissors (or glue yourself to a board).
And I have to say, I was greatly pleased with the effort they put into doing this. Because of that, we will be doing many more projects this year.
Zoe did her project on Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Lap Loom that she had received as a gift from us one Christmas.
They had to stand by their projects and actually talk to people who came by and asked about them (because they’re unsocialized). Zoe enjoyed demonstrating the loom.
We love to watch The Spangler Effect with Steve Spangler and one of the experiments he had was disappearing ink. That was Ace’s choice for a project. He also learned a bit about cryptography and steganography.
Before we left on vacation, the kids informed us that they had a show to do. We had Tracy and Kevin over with their kids and our bunch did not hesitate to perform for them. Zoe even made up a sign and programs. It was a blast to watch and they had fun putting it on.
It’s funny because this is what my sister and I did for our parents when we were little. Ge & Granddaddy please forgive me for all the times I made you “watch my feet” or listen to me sing.
No one should have to listen to me sing.
But my kids, well, that’s a different story. I could listen to their giggly singing voices all day…almost all day…especially if there is no whining or fighting involved.
No one should have to listen to me sing.
But my kids, well, that’s a different story. I could listen to their giggly singing voices all day…almost all day…especially if there is no whining or fighting involved.
We’re going on vacation really soon, so Mark and I decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for some of our non-swimmers to take some swim lessons and hopefully keep a few from drowning. Ace and Liam are so close to swimming so they were a must. What we weren’t sure of was Josiah. He had never had a swim lesson by himself before and I really don’t count the “mommy & me” class we took. Although, that was fun. So, we weren’t sure whether to put him in or not. We finally decided to give it a try.
Here’s how it went down (again, didn’t get pictures except the last night).
The first night, Josiah cried. The whole time. And did everything they said, while crying. We were really wondering if this was going to be worth the money.
The second lesson, Josiah cried but only when he had to do something. And he still did it. Hmm, this might work after all.
By the third lesson, he was smiling and informed us that he was having fun! He spent the rest of the lessons smiling and listening and doing all that was asked. He’s getting pretty good at floating and pretty good at swimming on his back! Not something any of our other 4 year olds have been able to do!
As for Ace & Liam, well, they had a wonderful teacher! Ace is at independent swimming status and Liam is so close but needs a bit more confidence. His teacher didn’t make it to the last class until the very end and Liam all but refused to do anything for his substitute teachers. He was really scared and just didn’t trust these total strangers. But, as soon as Mr. Eric walked in, he did everything that was asked. I talked with his instructor afterwards and it really all boils down to his confidence in being able to do things. Hopefully, when summer gets here (and at least our vacation), he’ll have that confidence.
We were really proud of all of them and how hard they worked!
The last of the birth stories before I started blogging in 2008. I hope you all enjoy!
Liam was due January 7th but given the size of Ace, Mark and I both were a little worried that he would come out just as big if not bigger. Dr. J was a bit anxious too. So, due to that and (yep, lack of education), we decided to be induced quite a bit early. Looking back, Mark and I both thought he would have been better off if we had waited. Hindsight…yada yada.
Also, during his pregnancy the hospital I had used to deliver Zoe and Ace stopped taking our insurance and we were almost forced to go to the larger hospital (while better equipped, it’s quite the baby producers and more of a business and less personal than the smaller hospital we had come to enjoy). Much to our delight, our insurance began to cover the smaller hospital so a delivery there was back on. But, somehow, we got all mixed up. Dr. J signed us up for an induction the same day as three other women…but they were at the big hospital. And just us at the smaller one.
When I arrived at the smaller hospital, they had no record that I was scheduled to be induced. Calls were made and they went ahead and hooked me up and got things ready to start pitocin but nothing started until the final word came down from Dr. J to start it. I visited with Zoe and Ace who were anxious to meet their new little brother and we just sat and waited. Around lunch time, Dr. J had not come in yet because of the other deliveries at the other hospital and so my water had not been broken. Mark headed out to lunch and we were told Dr. J would be there after lunch. As I laid (yeah, on my back) in pain, I rolled over and heard a pop. After that contraction, I paged the nurse and told her my water broke. She didn’t believe me but came in and did their little scientific check which said it hadn’t but she knew by the amount of fluid it had. So, for the first time ever, my water broke without Dr. J having to do it. Pretty weird. And I got a little frustrated that Mark hadn’t been there to help through those painful contractions.
Dr. J came in forty five minutes later and I told him he was a bit late. We were all set. I waited a bit longer to get the epidural. When the anestheiologist was putting it in, I felt something weird on my right side and said something about it. He said that was normal and continued what he was doing. However, when he was all done, I was numb on my left side but could pretty much feel everything on my right. I knew that wasn’t right but it was enough numbness to take the edge off. We waited until around 3:30 when I realized I was feeling more pressure. I called the nurse who checked and saw I was complete. She called Dr. J who was finishing up a delivery. Now, with feeling on one side, I knew that I couldn’t control the pushing too well. The nurse offered to give me a shot to slow the contractions for a few minutes until Dr. J came. I agreed to it and pushed the epidural button furiously until I couldn’t even move my left leg. Dr. J came in plenty of time and by the time he arrived, I couldn’t even feel the contractions to push. (So, my entire stomach was numb but the legs weren’t). They told me when to push and I pushed a few times and out came Liam screaming passionately.
Liam did give us a brief scare. Even though he was crying, he didn’t “pink” up like he needed to. The nurses took him to the NICU briefly to check his pulse ox level. It all turned out fine and his apgar scales were really high despite his whiteness! I’m guessing he’s just really white.
He was also the smallest of our crew weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs. 4 oz. He had the biggest feet but was so small for a long time, Mark and I thought we would break him by holding him. If we could ever claim a high needs baby, Liam would have been it. He had colic bad enough that he would choke when laying down and his sleep patterns were really erratic up to about four months (as opposed to the last three who settled down quite easily at night and mostly during the day after a few days or weeks). We loved our little one dearly and that one small trip to NICU made us even more grateful for him!
And, despite our high needs baby, believe it or not, eighteen months later we were ready to do it again! But, Josiah’s story will come next week (as soon as I find it), our first “no epidural” baby!
Liam turned six right before 2012! It was a fun day and his request this year was to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Not that we have anything against Chuck E. Cheese but going on a winter night to celebrate a birthday…not something we plan to do again. But, he had fun nonetheless (except when we lost him and when I found him I let it be known not to run off from us again…yeah, that wasn’t so fun).
After his Chuck E. Cheese trip we came home, ate ice cream cake (and for some reason didn’t get a picture) and opened gifts. I think he had a fun full day!
We got him a bigger bike. Without training wheels. His reaction, unfortunately, was not as excited as we thought it would be. His main problem, he can’t ride it alone yet. After we explained that daddy would help, he cheered up and was super excited!
I can’t believe six years ago I held a tiny baby (okay, tiny for me…7 lbs 4 oz after having one over 8 1/2 lbs is tiny). Now he’s getting to be so grown up!
Welll, this was an issue we started discussing as soon as we found out Seven was really Malachi. So, I went to trusty Pinterest to gather my thoughts all in one place. We started with these ideas:
Fabric sample
Another fabric sample.
And an idea for beds to include this:
And this:
Our decorating and color ideas came from this bedding that we already had:
But before any of that could work in a room with five boys, we had to paint…and before we totally took the room apart, we remember pictures!
Sorry about the spots, not sure what was up with the camera.
Totally ignore that disheveled looking closet, the curtains for it will be coming later. Ugh, I cringe when I look at that. It does look much better now but still not fun to see every time you come in a room.
Before all the painting started, Mark and Granddaddy put their heads together to come up with bunk bed plans. Granddaddy got the wood and cut it and even pre-drilled the frame and delivered it on Piano Recital day (cause he rocks).
I’m tempted to stop here and make ya’ll all wait until tomorrow to see what took place but then I think someone would come up with the cyber version of rotten tomatoes to throw at me so I won’t!
And this started…
Mark and I realized about an hour into bunk bed building night that two people, one of whom was in her third trimester were not really adequate enough to hold up these sturdy pieces of wood to build two levels. So, reinforcements were called in by way of a neighbor down the street (he always comes to help…we really are wondering why he hasn’t ran away far far from here now). So, thanks, S for helping with the project!
Not going to show the finished project yet…I had some art up my sleeve to do as well as a bit of refinishing. And while I worked on canvasses, three very sad looking male faces appeared and requested ever so sweetly to paint one. I couldn’t resist those big blue and brown eyes so an afternoon of painting commenced on their very own canvasses.
As you enter you can see that beat up dresser all done. Mark did add the knob to the door. We kept the solid wood sturdy big dresser we already had and got rid of (well, it’s sitting in the schoolroom right now) the beat up smaller dresser. We took the knobs off of that dresser and put them on here. I already had the fabric for the boys’ beds and we had plenty of paint leftover from painting the previous dressers. So, total cost was $35 for the dresser! That’s my spaceship canvas that I freehand drew from looking at the pattern on the boys’ crib.
Bryant helped with the photo tour and please ignore any toys, this was prior to clean up time. This is Josiah and Liam’s bunks.
And this is Bryant’s and Ace’s. See the sweet little head peeking out. Bryant got his mattress this past weekend and has transitioned pretty well to his big boy bed. (This is the part where I don’t admit that we tried to give up paci but Mark nor I could stand the screaming so he still has that and it’s probably a big part of the transitioning well. Yeah, it’s going bye bye before Malachi is born though.)
We put gutter bookshelves on the footboard of each bed and a push light (which is battery operated and they have to buy the batteries…some of them are already in need). At the headboard we put their name canvasses that I did with their life verses on them. Have I shown those yet?
My other canvas that I made…freehand…yay me.
This was the boys’ artwork. I thought it turned out really well. In an effort to control the art, I did sketch off the ship they wanted and outlined it and they did the rest. I resisted any desire to control how they did it but I did limit their color choices to what we were using in the room. Really, I did! The end of the legs of Liam’s ship is fire coming out. And my control of Bry’s hand was mainly to keep the paint on the canvas not on the house or me.
A sure fire way to get my kids to burn off excess energy is to go to gymnastics. There is a local gym that offers homeschool classes twice a month. The kids love it and usually rush to finish school on gymnastics days. This month, they had a “Snowflake Show-off” which meant we got to sit down front and center and watch the kids do their thing!
Ceili Rain, Bryant, and Josiah enjoyed the show. Josiah’s old enough to participate but gymnastics is not his thing.
Okay, so the Olympics is not in our future, but it sure is fun for them and they definitely sleep well after gymnastics.
As stated previously, we went to Williamsburg in November. This was my first trip (and the kids too) and we were all so excited. We spent two days there and walked and walked and saw just about everything. It definitely was a good trip for us and a great learning experience for the kids. They only wore their costumes the first day. Which was good because the second day it was cloudy and rather cool.
