Esther at Seven Months!

Because I forgot to take six month pictures!!!

While we were at Massanutten with my parent, my grandmother passed away, and so the children and I drove north with my parents. It was a long drive! They did great though, and we had a good visit.

Elias loves everything living. Including little pill bugs. He loved finding them while we were at my parents house in June. 

Spring days!

We have had some gorgeous weather in the last few weeks, though this week you would never know it. We jumped from snow to two weeks of 75-80 degree weather. It felt like we skipped spring and jumped right in to summer! We have been enjoying our time outside quite a bit.

I have NO IDEA what he was doing, but he looked cute while he was doing it. :)

I have been catching some of the most amusing expressions on Esther's face lately. She likes to wrinkle her nose at us, and her latest interesting (to her) noise is a really raspy sounding coughing noise. It makes everyone else wonder what's wrong with her, but she seems fascinated with the noise. Maybe it sounds interesting, or maybe it feels interesting to make the noise. Regardless, it is amusing trying to explain that it is just her latest sound. :)

Justin says this is a "blackmail" photo. I thin it is just amusing to look at Esther's face.

This one I think is just sweet.

And, Esther's face is highly amusing here.

 In keeping with what seems to be becoming a tradition, Esther seems determined to make her first solid food grass and clovers. She managed to nearly swallow a clover. It got stuck on its way down so I ended up having to swipe her throat to get it out, but she's very determined her first food will be green. She's even tried grabbing broccoli, kale, avocado, kiwi, and brussels sprouts off my plate!

Elias and Rebecca love to get the dandelion puffs and blow the seeds. Elias calls them his "wishes". I got told off for allowing Elias to blow the seeds. I don't know what child goes through life without blowing those little puffs though! And hey, he's saving the bees by planting their earliest blooming spring flower for them!

My sweet (though very dirty!) little boy. :)

It Looks Like Candy

We had a very unexpected, and obviously, unanticipated event here a few weeks back. I don't remember what we were doing, but I heard "Mummy, Elias ate the dishwasher soap" and that made us jump into action! While Justin worked on rinsing out Elias' mouth and getting him to drink a good big cup of water, I got on the phone with the poison center to find out what to do in the case your child decides to try out a diswasher tablet's red center. It turns out we were exactly right, and you rinse, clean their face/hands of any remaining soap, and get a big cup of water into them. It might upset their tummy and cause vomiting or diarrhea, but generally it is not going to do anything major to a kid. It's just soap, after all, lol. 

Elias informed us that "That was NOT DOOD [good]" and he doesn't want to eat another one. He thought it was a red candy in the middle of the tablet. I don't know how he got his hands on one of the tablets without tipping the rest of the container (and thus alerting us to the fact that he was getting into something). For that matter, I'm not sure how Rebecca would have either. That probably means it got left out in his reach. We keep the container even more out of reach than we used to, and are more careful than previously. But... looking at the picture below, it is completely understandable that a two year old would think the red center might be a candy!

On the left is a candy called a Spree. On the right is a Finish dishwasher tablet

Easter Eggs

We got a package of the eggs that are soy free for Rebecca and Elias again this year. They are great, because they are the size of the plastic eggs (hollow, not solid chocolate) and foil wrapped, so you can use them for an egg hunt! :)

Odds and Ends

I thought I would share some odds and ends from around our home. 

Rebecca, who "wasn't tired" on this particular afternoon, fell asleep in this position at nap time. She has since stopped having naps in her room, and instead has a quiet time in the living room so as to give Elias the ability to have a nap. She was becoming far too noisy in their room, and would talk to him and get him playing so much he wasn't napping. He needs his sleep in the afternoons still, in order to be happy in the evenings. She plays outside for 30-45 minutes while I get Elias into bed and Esther fed and down for her nap, and then comes in and does school with me for about 30 minutes, and has a 30 minute quiet time. Usually we hit about 3pm at that point, and we get a snack ready and play outside for the rest of the afternoon.

Esther now likes to watch what is going on from the floor on occasion. She still prefers arms many times, but sometimes she will tolerate lying on her belly (or will flip onto her back!) to watch what is going on around her. In fact, just this morning she was fussing in our arms, fussing in her little rocking chair, and when I put her down on the floor she was suddenly perfectly happy again. I'm going to have to scrub my floors so she can spend more time there!

When Justin's parents moved, they left behind many items. The carpet sweeper was one of them, but I hadn't realized it was left behind! I got it out for Rebecca and Elias to use a couple of weeks ago, and they love it! They scramble to clean the play mat and then be the first one to clean the carpet.

We had a neighbour move in a few weeks ago, and the kids begged to bake cookies for our new neighbour, so we made him some chocolate chocolate mint chip cookies. They were a hit with everyone who got some, and were all gone within a few days here. There's a reason I rarely bake cookies. We all eat too many!

While trying to sort out behaviour issues, discipline issues, Daddy time, etc, we tried keeping the kids up until Daddy got home, which varies between 9pm and 10:30pm. It didn't work, so we are back to going to bed before Daddy gets home, but they sure enjoyed it while it lasted. They played games with him, he read them stories, and then he put them to bed. In a perfect world it would work. In our household, I couldn't get schedules shifted well enough and they were still waking at 6:30/7am despite no nap and going to bed super late. Lack of sleep made for cranky children! No thanks!

Rebecca is working so hard at growing up, and wants to do everything for herself. This makes for some interesting hair styles! Hard to believe this little girl was the size Esther is about 4 years ago! :-)

A Special Friend

The kids have been begging for fish for a couple of years. Rebecca was actually asking for one when Elias was born, and has continued to ask for one ever since. Elias spotted the betas at Walmart about a month ago, and was in tears for the next 45 minutes as we drove from Walmart to the pet store to get a fish. He so desperately wanted a beta! When he finally figured out we were in fact going to get a beta, he was ecstatic! 

Elias selected a blue finned beta with a rainbow-like body. It seems to be a pale creamy colour with some iridescence to it. Elias named him Peacock. And he says, "I love my peacock". And, his Peacock loves him too! This fish spends 90% of its day hidden under the leaves of the plant in the tank. As soon as Elias is there looking at him, or even close enough the fish may see him, Peacock comes out and watches Elias' every move! Elias shows Peacock pictures in stories, draws him pictures, gives him kisses, and just generally enjoys the fish. I think I have finally convinced him that fish must stay in the water. I hope. At least it is firmly trained into him that he is not permitted to open the lid without an adult there with him. 

Rebecca desperately wanted her own fish, because she didn't want to share Elias' fish with him. So we told her we would get her some minnows, which can live without a filter/air pump, and live with a beta fairly well, so she has two minnows and Elias has his beta. They make a nice little tank to watch.

Peacock and Elias having a chat

Snowy Days

We have had a number of snowfalls this year, but only a couple have stuck around long enough to really amount to anything. It has certainly been a chilly winter though! We are all looking forward to the warm weather actually staying, as we keep fluctuating up into the 60s and back down into the 30s or even lower. Brr. It wouldn't be so bad if it would just stay cold, but the ups and downs are not fun at all!

2.5 months old

 The kids had a blast in the snow that did stick around long enough to really do anything with. Rebecca insists she wants to go visit Cokum and Mooshum in the winter sometime. Perhaps someday I will be brave enough to drive up there during storm season, but I'm not really sure I want to do that with little people! It's hard to plan around winter storms when it comes to travelling.

Rebecca learned how to make snow angels this year. Elias is not yet quite coordinated enough to make them, to his frustration, but Rebecca made quite a few.

Justin built a snowman with them. It is just slightly shorter than he is, so I guess probably about 5 ft tall. Unfortunately it got knocked down within a few hours of being built, but it was fun while it lasted. I was impressed there was still snow on the ground when the snowman had been built. Elias actually recently brought me some pecans in their shells asking if they were there because the snowman was hiding. We had used pecans as the buttons for the snowman.

3.5 months

Rebecca has been begging me to teach her to knit, so I sat down with her this winter to teach her to do so. She still needs a refresher every time she starts to knit again, but once she gets going again, she actually does pretty well! She says she wants to make a scarf for Esther. We'll see. She keeps getting bored and leaving it behind.

Time Has Run Away!

Well, part of the issue is simply that I rarely use the computer anymore. I do most of my browsing on my phone, partly because we really haven't got a good place to keep the computer accessible, and partly because that way I can grab a few minutes here and there instead of trying to sit down for any real amount of time.

Many, many, many things have happened since I last posted, and I'm going to have to do a lot of updating around the blog.

Rebecca is on the verge of reading (sometimes I really do think she already does), and halfway through the preschool curriculum we have for her. She is in a gymnastics class which she absolutely loves, and participates in the preschool choir, missions group, and Cubbies (AWANA) at church. She is very active and often too smart for her own good. Always my challenge, still.

Elias is almost THREE! How did my baby boy get so big? He is just as rough and tumble as always, and is currently challenging everything I request of him. We are working on this. I need to make more time for him with me, I think. It is hard with the baby in the house! He has a pet fish named Peacock (a blue beta fish) and loves to watch his creature every day. :)

Esther, our new addition, is growing like a little weed. She is nearly ready to sit alone, at 4.5 months. She started rolling to get places last week, so we are scrambling to baby-proof. I thought we had a little more time before it would be necessary! At least we haven't too much we need to get out of her reach, and she doesn't have much of a reach. Yet. At her most recent check-up (almost two weeks ago) she was 12lbs 7oz (4lb 3oz gain over birth), and 23.5". The doctor informs me this is around the 25th percentile and that she is growing just fine. Good thing. He mentioned that I ought to start solids with her by 6 months for reasons that made no sense to me, so we will simply introduce when I'm good and ready, just like with the other two... we might wait until 12 months, as we did with Elias since introducing to him prior to that was completely unsuccessful. :)

I'm currently working on finding the balance of house, baby, kids, schooling (mine and the children), etc, etc, etc. Many days feel very stressful, both for me, and I think the children as well. Someday perhaps we will have things more organized. I can only hope!

Preschool

We started Preschool with Rebecca on Monday!

First day of preschool

He's looking so grown up!!

We went for a nature walk on Wednesday, and Rebecca found a "hand" sticking out of the ground! What a shriek came out of her! It was quite funny, but she wouldn't come close enough to take a good look at it... even though it was just a root. :)

Looking at a mushroom

We talked about Heaven being God's home, and how we have an address here where we live, and will eventually live with God in heaven.

Elias started Nursery school this week too, and we've been learning Jesus Loves Me. He took the camera from me trying to see what I was looking at when the camera flips around. He apparently decided it wasn't that interesting, as he gave it back to me. :)