Of Birthdays and Babies

We celebrated Nathan's 7th birthday last week. What a big, manly creature he is becoming. I made him a dinosaur shaped cake, which he requested be colored orange. Oookaaay, orange it was.
Here are a couple pictures of Josiah. The one on the bottom was taken a couple days ago. Isn't he getting cute?! Leah and Olivia often fight over who gets to hold him. Sitting together in the recliner seems to settle the argument.

Hannah's birthday is next week. She wants cheesecake and to get horse riding lessons. Oh, how she is turning into such a young lady!

This and That

Mighty Man's new haircut. He wanted me to shave his head, but Daddy said no.

My garden. The long box is romaine, the terra cotta pot is a geranium, and the big grey pot is a tomato plant. See the snow?

It's fluff from our cottonwood trees! We get 'fluffy snow' every spring.

And this apricot confection is a skirt. I'm knitting like a crazy woman trying to get it done for Leah's birthday on the 24th. If I knit an inch a day, I think I can do it...

Nathan Michael

Today is Mighty Man's 6th birthday! Isn't he handsome?! I love my sweet boy to itty bitty pieces!!!

The above picture is Nathan dissecting a squid at the California Academy of Sciences.

Cute Kid Story

So, I'm in the shower when Bubba starts pounding on the door.

"Mom! I need you!"

"Bubba, can't it wait 5 minutes? I'm almost done."

"NO! It's important"

So I turn off the water and peek around the shower door. His eyes are wide and my heart rate picks up a bit as I imagine someone choking, or bleeding, or having left the house with a stranger. "Yes, Bubba? What is it?"

"Can I have some gum?"

Nathan

While meandering thru the backyard yesterday, Nathan tripped and fell against the shed. Ended up with a 1.5" scrape on his cheek. Then, while going for a walk as a family, he put a loooooong stick in his mouth. The stick got caught on the sidewalk, which then scraped up the roof of his mouth. Ouch!

Hopefully, he won't put sticks in his mouth anymore...

Well, as you can see, I've gotten bored with the look of my blog again. How do you like this template?

The children had their dental appt this morning. Hannah had a tooth pulled. The adult teeth came down in front of the baby tooth, so the baby tooth never got loose enough to fall out. A mildly traumatic experience for my girl - the sight of blood makes her a little freaked out. The dentist also says she has heavy lower crowding and needs braces. So we have a Ortho referral in March. She takes after her daddy, that one.

Someone came to look at the screens in our rental today. Most of the window screens have holes, and a couple are just missing. And the sliding glass door had the outer pane of glass broken out. So, the guy estimated the cost for fixing everything and we'll see what the homeowner is willing to fix. Tomorrow the blinds people come out - the blinds are gone in the master and 2 other windows the blinds will not stay up when you raise them.

Nathan starts soccer tomorrow, assuming the field is not too marshy. Hannah starts piano on Thursday. So a week of firsts, all the way around. I'm trying a new recipe tonight called Chicken Enchilada Chili in my crockpot. I love my crockpot. If this turns out, I'll post a link to where I got the recipe.

Only 3 more weeks until baby. Just got a call today about the church arranging a baby shower for us. Aside from a few odds and ends, we mostly just need diapers. A relief for the gal planning the shower - we'll go low key. A short devotional, no games, try to keep the guest list under 10 people. Baby shower games are annoying anyway.

And I think my Dear Darling Husband (DDH) has selected the name for baby. We are 85% sure we will call her Olivia Jewell. Olivia isn't technically a Bible name, but the Biblical reference is there. We kept thinking about the verse in Psalms where it talks about children around your table like olive trees. Naming her Olive was a little too Popeye, but Olivia is sweet. So, Olivia means olive, olive tree, peace, new beginning (remember Noah's dove?). We'll probably call her Livy for short. Because being able to say Livy Wivy Pivy is just too cute!

Adventures in Nathan

This has been a most exciting summer for Nathan so far. Here are a few firsts for my little man:
Playing the 'Queen's Guard' in a homemade play.

He caught his first fish with the help of Mr. P from church! How exciting can being a 4 year old be?! As a side thought - this child is going to be a manly man kinda boy. We are going to need to find ways to learn to do this kind of stuff. Neither Michael or I know how to fish, so maybe we'll have to pick Mr. P's brain on that one. Michael can teach him to work with wood and cars. There will be lots of camping. We will also need to consider activities like mountain biking (maybe even racing), and dare I say it?....motorcycles?

He learned to ride without training wheels! Only took 2 days. Somebody else who shall remain nameless took over a month and many many attempts to master this.

I love little boys. Wish I had another one...

Nathan's Very Bad, No Good Day

Earlier this week, Nathan had a horrible day. He fell down and bonked himself several times, he got in trouble for being pesty several times, and then Mother forgot and squished up all the meatloaf ingredients herself. Oops! Nathan had a very bad day.

I told him that he reminded me of Alexander. So Hannah ran and got the book and we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz.

The reading of a good book always makes things better. Don't you think?

Karate Class

I took the children to watch a karate class last night to see if it might be something they really want to do. Nathan was quite excited and the teacher (Sir) invited him to join the class. You have never seen such a happy boy!

During warm up, Sir had all the children sit with the flats of the feet together and had them 'flap their wings'. Sir said "I'm a green butterfly. What are you Isaac?"

Isaac said "I'm a bat."

Sir asked each child what animal they were. We ended up with a bat, and several butterflies. Until Nathan. Sir asked Nathan what animal he was. Nathan said "I'm a rhinocerous."

Sir said "You're not flapping your wings!"

Nathan said "Rhinocerouses can't fly."

Sick, sick, sick

It is 4:21 pm and Nathy has a fever of 102.1

Poor baby. He's lethargic on the couch and took 2 naps today. I finally caved and gave him a childrens Tylenol.

I know, I know...a fever is the body's way of burning out sickie germs. But he just looks so pathetic. And he's been feverish all day, so if that fever hasn't burned off the germs by now, the boy just needs a break.

Here's hoping for a better tomorrow for the little guy...

My Nathan

My Nathan has some fantastic ways of expressing himself. Consider the following:

Scene One: Baby Leah is crawling on the floor. She has a cold. Nathan comes up behind her and gives her a big hug.
Me: Careful, Nathy. She's sick. She might give you her cold.
Nathan: No Mommy. Only her face is sick!

Scene Two: Driving anywhere in our big, comfy van.
Nathan: Mommy!
Me: Yes, Bubba?
Nathan: Mommy! What if you were climbing a mountain and there was lots of snow and hills and rocks and there was a big monster like on the reindeer movie and he had lots of teeth and he was going to eat you up?! What if, Mommy?!
Me: Um...I would be scared.
Nathan: What if you didn't have any legs?
Me: ????

Randomness

I'm sitting here drinking coffee with my most favoritest creamer - Creme Brule by Coffeemate. Yummy! The weather is unseasonably warm this month, the past week has been sunny and in the mid-60's. The poor bulbs are going to start coming up,then get blasted when January closes back up with frost and more winterish weather. Oh well.

Here's a picture of my little Nathan back in November of 2006. Look at those fat cheeks!

And here he is now:

Sigh...my little man is growing up. It takes some major effort to lift him anymore. Oh my precious son, don't grow up too fast! In fact, just stop all together, okay?

It's Tuesday...

Today I am going to clean out the fridge. Really. I am. At some point. I really despise this chore and I've put it off for weeks. But I'm hosting Thanksgiving and I don't want people to see my normally skeezy fridge. I know - vanity.

Potty training is not going so well. Nathan had 5 'accidents' yesterday. I expect about the same today. I'm hoping that by Wed or Thurs, something will click and he'll at least tell me BEFORE he's peed. But right now it's kinda cute when he comes walking over to me with his legs spread wide and says "I poop on Thomas!".

This past Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving with our church. Had a big hall, lots of people, lots of food. After we ate, Pastor Verne said that whoever wanted could come to the front and give their testimony, or tell what they are thankful for. My Hannah decided right away that she wanted to speak. She walked right up to the microphone, faced about 150 people and said:

"I'm thankful that God made the world. And He made it perfect before Adam was born. And my Mommy and Daddy and baby Peanut. And this is kinda funny! We call the baby in Mommy's tummy Peanut!"

Random Thoughts

It is officially Autumn here in NorCAl. I love Autumn. Yes, I meant to capitalize that. And I love the word Autumn. So much better than Fall. Autumn just seems to encompass all the wonder, color and scents of the season. Red and gold leaves, cinnamon, brisk outdoor air. The hot, sticky days of summer have given way to long sleeve shirts and wondering if you need that windbreaker. I'm inspired to light candles in the evening.

My sweet Nathan (aka Mighty Man or Bubba) is 2 1/2. Yesterday he asked me to vacuum out his carseat. ?!?! His fathers genes are showing thru...

Today I hope to make some progress on a beanbag project I'm working on. I have to cut out 46 more, then start sewing. I hope to have the sewing completed tomorrow. Next week will be filling and finishing.

I got my ultrasound appt - Nov 28. Yes, we are finding out the sex. For the record, I'm guessing a girl. My friend Pam also says she 'has a feeling' that it's a girl. Pam used to be a labor/delivery nurse before becomming a mommy, so I'll take her guesses any day! Speaking of Pam, I miss her. I should call her today. I should also call Erin, Karyn, Tanya, Becky, a couple ladies from church, and a bunch of other entities for stuff I need to get done.

I am beginning my Christmas preparations. I've made a list of all the people we want to give gifts to. I've completed (including wrapping) about 7 of them. But it makes me think about what I'd like to have for Christmas. I don't have any pressing needs this year, so I just have a want list. Both of my watches died, so I should replace one even though I don't wear one normally - you never know when you're gonna need one. I'd love to have the book Dangerous Wonder. Christmas ornaments are always a hit.

Check out the poll I posted last week. 100% of people prefered to be loved over respected. Interesting. Why is that? I suspect because they're all women. All the men I surveyed (my Hubby) prefered respect. This will have to percolate in my brain awhile. I'd like to comment further, but need to think it through. Your thoughts would be appreciated here!

Well, better get started on my day. Have a great one!