A Goulash of Facts and Photos

This post is a bit like our lives at the moment - scattered!  

But, there is hope on the horizon (for our lives at least).  We found a home to rent and will be getting the keys tomorrow.  Next Wednesday our household goods will be delivered and we'll spend the following days unpacking before officially moving in.  Just in time to head off for various highly anticipated Christmas trips and adventures.  We'll work on "settling in" and establishing a new normal sometime in mid-January.

*THANE: Yesterday I took Thane in for his 6-month check-up.  It's the first time he's been well enough in the last month to qualify for a "well-baby" visit, thanks to a long-lingering cold and subsequent ear infection.  He weighed in at 17 lbs. 12 oz., which seemed huge to me until the nurse pointed out it was only the 55th percentile.  He made up for it in his height (28 1/2") which falls in the 95th percentile.  

With the exception of his sleeping habits, he's doing great!  He's fully up on his hands and knees now and is starting to figure out how to coordinate his limbs.  Usually, once he's up on all fours he throws himself forward and ends up doing a belly-flop on the carpet.  Ouch.  He's quite quick with his army-crawling and especially likes to crawl to my backpack, the wipes, or the Duplos container.  Everything goes in his mouth.

The other day Thane was having a tougher-than-usual time sleeping.  He refused to go to sleep and the few times I could actually get him to fall asleep he'd wake back up after just 5 or 10 minutes.  By the end of the day I was beyond frustrated.  At dinner time he grabbed a piece of paper and put it in his mouth.  When I went to grab it out I was stunned to discover a sharp tooth sticking out of his bottom gum.  I know lots of kids get teeth earlier than 6 months, but Aubree got her first tooth at 10 months and Bryce got his at 9 months, so I hadn't even considered the possibility of teething.  The doctor says the other bottom tooth will be in soon and the top two should also be making an appearance soon.  I was glad to have an explanation for the non-sleeping, but I can't say I'm excited about the teeth.

*BRYCE:  Bryce is cracking me up lately.  He's begun singing his prayers.  Since he's at least saying more than "thank thee that I sleep well," I can't complain.  He's also moving more into the imaginative play stage.  He decided that his Duplos container is his "boat" and he pushes and rides it all around the house.  He'll sit on top and rock back and forth saying, "Oh no! I don't want to fall in the ocean!"  He also frequently pretends to be a puppy or a kitty.  When he's in that mode, he won't talk or walk, he'll only crawl and meow/bark. 

We started attending a local LDS homeschool co-op group that meets once a week (they call it SCOOP).  One thing that's nice is that Bryce is able to participate.  It's fun to tell him that he too is "going to school" and he is doing really well with following directions and joining in on the activities, even though he's the youngest in his group.

One of the activities at SCOOP involved cutting with scissors.  Sad to say, but up to that point I hadn't let Bryce use scissors.  So, I sat with him and he spent 30 minutes cutting his paper into tiny pieces of confetti.  Now he often asks if he can "cut!" and with all the confetti he makes, we should have a party.

*AUBREE:  Aubree is also really enjoying SCOOP.  Mostly I think she's just glad to be able to play with kids, since here in our temporary apartment we have limited opportunities to do so.  She spends a lot of her time lately drawing and writing notes.  For example, here's a note she posted on the door to her bedroom:

If you can't tell, it says, "Aubree room on the right.  Do Not Enter if your name is not written on the paper."  Thankfully, the "paper" she's referring to is very generous with regards to who might enter:

She also decided that her room needed some decorations, so she hung up a bunch of her drawings.  This is one of my favorites (I really like the details - apples for eyes, carrot for nose, blueberries for buttons...):

 In preparation for Christmas, Aubree finalized her Wish List.  These ideas are all her own, I only helped with spelling if she asked.

Notice any themes?  I like how often she wrote, "that I do not have to share."

We've also had fun keeping up with Five in a Row and doing Lapbooks.  We spent a week reading A Pair of Red Clogs, about a girl in Japan and had a great time learning about Japan and Japanese culture. 

We even bought almost-sushi (California rolls) and sat on cushions at the coffee table one evening to try and experience a little of Japanese culture.  The kids were not at all fond of the rolls, but at least were willing to try them.  The experience left me wondering a couple things.  1.  What do they do with their babies who are just learning to eat?  2.  How do they keep their two year-olds from jumping up and running off?  Mark thinks that eating at the little table would help with weight control because it's too uncomfortable to sit for long periods of time. 

For Thanksgiving week we read Cranberry Thanksgiving and did lots of great Thanksgiving-related activities.  Again, I was embarrassed to realize how little I actually knew about the Pilgrims and the events leading up to the first Thanksgiving.

Finally, here's a little story that accidently got deleted from the "funnies" post:

We all really enjoyed having Mark home for the long Thanksgiving break and Aubree took extra advantage of having him around by involving him in her make-believe play.  One afternoon she informed him that she was pregnant and that he was her doctor.  She went to all her doctor appointments and finally the blessed time arrived and she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl she named Pearl and Junior.  A little while later I asked Aubree to pick something off the ground for me.  She complied, but stood up complaining, "ouch! that hurts!"  Concerned, I asked, "what's wrong, I didn't know you were hurt."  "Mom!" she retorted, "Remember? I just had twins!"

Top Ten Board Books

 It's no secret that we love books at our house.  One of the very first things we did after we got here in Washington was to visit the library and stock up on books to read.  We were thrilled to discover that the library system here is superb!

I've been thinking about some of our favorite books and decided to see if I could come up with our top ten favorite board books as a start (someday I'd like to come up with a similar list for picture books, but I'm not sure if it's possible for us to limit those to just 10).  It was tough, but we narrowed it down to some perennial favorites to share and recommend, especially right before Christmas since books are always a great gift (and no, we're not sending any not-so-subtle hints, we already own these books).  We are. however, always looking for more recommendations, so please feel free to share your favorites as well. 
In no particular order:

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear (Wood)

Chugga, Chugga Choo Choo (Lewis)

 

The Foolish Tortoise (Carle)

Mice Squeak, We Speak (dePaola)

Good Night, Gorilla (Rathmann)

Belly Button Book (Boynton)

My Many Colored Days (Seuss)

Big Red Barn (Brown)

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? (Seuss)

Ten Little Ladybugs (Gerth)

Recalling the Funnies

* Before we left Florida the kids and I had to visit another ward as part of my church calling.  I was a little nervous about how Bryce would handle going to a different nursery after the difficulties we'd had earlier in the year attending Ward Conferences. Just before I took him to nursery, I tried to prepare him for what was coming.  He looked up at me and explained, "I'm probably going to cry."

"Uh oh," I thought, but responded, "No you're not."

"I'm not?" he questioned, "why?"

"Because you've got Lucy." (Lucy is a stuffed animal cat)

"Oh," he answered, nodding, and he went happily to nursery.

* When we're out in the car, Bryce frequently asks, "where are we going now?"  When I respond that we're going "home," he fusses, "I don't want to go back to the apartment! Why do we have to go back?"  Usually I try to explain why we need to return.  Finally, I asked the obvious question, "Bryce, why don't you want to go to the apartment."  His answer?: "I want to go to a party."

*Frequently, when we ask Bryce to do something like count to 10 or sing his ABC's, he answers, "Um, I'll do it on my birthday, okay?  On my birthday."

* Bryce loves to imitate his sister.  If Aubree's talking about homophones, so is Bryce, even if he doesn't quite understand the concept as evidenced by his interpretations:  "It's a homophone, you know, like 'going to Washington'."  Yesterday he was coloring and asked, "Mom, how do you spell 'nose'?"  Laughing, I spelled out the word and he listened carefully then seriously "wrote" it down.  Then he caught my eye and started laughing too.

* Recently the kids and I finished reading through the Illustrated Stories of the Old Testament and started reading the Illustrated Stories of the New Testament.  Apparently Bryce is paying attention and caught some of the main themes of the Old Testament.  The other morning we were reading and he exclaimed, "They were wicked!"  

"Uh, no Bryce," I corrected, "we're reading about Mary, she's Jesus' mother and she was very righteous."  

Confused, he wanted to know, "Who's wicked, then?"

* Thane's been eating baby food for a couple weeks now and it's almost as fascinating to the older kids as it is to him.  "Can I have a bite of Thane's food?" the vultures beg.  One night I mashed up a piece of banana and Aubree and Bryce stared, drooling.  "It's just banana," I explained, sharing a small bite, "if you want some, the rest of the banana is on the counter."  "Oh!" they enthused, their eyes big, "will you mash it for us too?"  

Yesterday I gave Thane peas for the first time.  "Aubree, Bryce, do you want to try a bite?" I offered.  Clearly, their enthusiasm does not extend to green food.

* For a recent bedtime prayer, Bryce prayed as follows, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank thee this day, Amen."  

"Try again," I admonished.

Immediately he began again, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank thee this day, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

* Last week was bitterly cold and we weren't prepared with the necessary winter gear.  One day we ventured out to run errands and visit the doctor.  After a long morning out, we were all hungry and grumpy and COLD.  After getting everyone into the van after our last stop in frustration I exclaimed, "I give up! We're going back to Florida!"  Aubree queried, "are we really going back, Mom?"  "No, not really," I laughed and started driving home.  About ten minutes later, Bryce asked, "Where are we going?"  When I told him we were heading back to the apartment, he cried, "you said we were going back to Florida!!"  Oops.  I tried to explain that I had just been kidding and that we really can't go back to Florida, but he didn't want to be swayed. "But you SAID!"  Remind me not to joke about such things with 2 year-olds!

*Aubree decided that she wants to be Bryce's teacher.  One day she sat down and wrote down some of the things she wanted to teach him and even made lesson plans.  I love it!

* Last Sunday when we got home from church Aubree was over-reacting to things that normally wouldn't bother her.  Little things were making her cry or get angry.  "Aubree," I warned, "I think you're going to need a nap if you keep acting like this, because you must be tired."  Immediately she launched into hysterics, "Nooooooo," she wailed, "I'm NOT TIRED!!"  

"Okay," I questioned, "if you're not tired, then why are you acting this way?"

Sobbing, she answered, "I'm just having a really hard day."

"Oh no!" I soothed, "what's been really hard about your day?"

Dropping her chin, she looked right in my eyes, "You!" she declared.

*The other day, Aubree announced that she wanted to marry her friend Parker.  Her explanation as to why included the following points:

1.  She would like being a part of Holly's (Parker's mom) family.

2.  Emme (Parker's sister) would like it (having Aubree in the family).

3.  Holly would probably give her lots of presents (*Holly is well known for her extreme generosity).

I posted this funny experience on Facebook and Holly responded saying she certainly would "shower Aubree with presents if she married Parker."  When I told Aubree Holly's response, Aubree jumped up, "I'm definitely marrying Parker!"

 *Aubree is already planning the names for her future children.  Her current favorites for girls: Ruby, Pearl, Rosemary, & Jewel.  For boys: Junior, Gordon, Henry.

*We miss our Florida friends.  One day Aubree decided to make a list of some of the people she misses (she stopped when she ran out of room on her paper):

What's that cold white stuff?

Yesterday when we left for church, our van looked like this:

 "How exciting," we thought, "our kids' first time seeing snow!"  At church everyone asked, "how do you like the snow?"  "You know," they continued, "it really doesn't snow here very often or very much and everything basically shuts down when it does snow."
A few days of a light dusting of snow?  Sounds about right to me.

So, imagine my surprise when I opened the blinds this morning and saw white, white, and more white.  I dutifully bundled my kids up in what little winter gear we own and we spent a frosty few minutes outside in the cold white stuff.

 I kept Thane out of the falling snow and he was content to look around and admire the novel situation.

 Aubree thought the snow was great fun and wanted to stay outside and play longer.  Considering she was wearing Crocs, I wasn't sure that was the best idea.

 Bryce complained, "Ahhhh, the snow is getting on my jacket!"  That's my Florida-boy!

Mark picked exactly the WRONG day to stay late at work (he was stuck in the middle of a project).  Leaving during normal rush hour time combined with the snowy, icy, and dark conditions turned his typical 40 minute commute into a 5+ HOUR ordeal nightmare.

A Birthday & a Half-Birthday

My birthday was earlier this week and it turned out to be a very happy day indeed.  In addition to all the warm wishes and phone calls (I felt quite loved), we received a VERY welcome delivery.  While most of our household goods went to storage, we were able to set aside a few things to be delivered to us in temporary housing.  So, on my birthday the kids got back a box of their toys, their Duplos (I love, love, LOVE Duplos - hours of fun and entertainment), Thane's Jumperoo, my recipe books, more jackets, and our printer.  Hallelujah!  It's made for a much better week.  Happy kids, Happy Mom.  Plus, having the printer back meant we could get back into our home school routine and having that structure has also made a big difference.  

If I had planned ahead better, I would have set aside more things to be delivered to us here.  It's the little things that I miss - my apron, clothespins, Christmas books and decorations, hole-punch, baby blankets, knit hats, etc. 

Today is Thane's 6-month birthday.  Can you believe it?  He certainly doesn't want me to forget it. He strikes me as the kind of kid that's impatient to grow up and do what the other kids are doing.  He's just starting to sit up because he'd much rather be on the ground crawling and rolling around.  Recently he's been trying to get up on all fours; not quite hands and knees yet, more like forearms and knees. 

He's been desperate to try solid foods.  His eyes get big when he sees food and he makes cunning lunges for anything he thinks might be within reach.  When I eat with him in my arms, he cries mournfully as if to accuse, "I can't believe you won't share!"  My preference is to wait till 6 months and with all the craziness of the last few weeks, that became a necessity.  "As soon as we get to Washington," I promised him, "we'll start you on solids."  I tried cereal a couple times but ultimately decided to skip on to purees, so this week he's been eating sweet potatoes.  I think he's a fan.  He cries if I don't get the spoon in his mouth quick enough and heaven-forbid if I happen to get distracted!  Still, it's a work in progress because he hasn't quite figured out how to keep the food in his mouth or swallow well.  He ends up eating each spoonful two or three times as a result.

I'm convinced Thane is bound and determined to break my nose.  So far he's only managed two fat lips, but he's constantly working on the timing of his hard head smashes.  Watch for future reports.

 Thane has pretty much gotten over his initial colicky tendencies.  He's smiley and happy, but also opinionated and determined.  He loves to watch Aubree and Bryce and they adore him as well. With his huge brown eyes and big grin, he always catches the attention of strangers when we're out and about. 

We love this boy!

First Excursion

Our temporary housing is only ten minutes from the Seattle Temple.  We waited for a sunny day last week, bundled up, and took advantage of the close proximity.  Here are some fun pictures:

In other news, my kids apparently believe that the best way to acclimate to the cold is by getting Colds.  All three of them have runny noses and coughs.  Thus far, Aubree's escaped with the least amount of symptoms.  Bryce is the worst (though he finds particular pleasure in getting himself "tissue" [large amounts of toilet paper]), and Thane is the most pitiful - too congested to sleep or eat well.  

 I've heard from many people that this is a common reaction to a major change in climate.  Hopefully they all recover quickly, especially since we haven't found a pediatrician here yet!

Going, Going... Boeing

We made it!  It's been a whirlwind week, but I'm grateful to report that we're in Washington!

The process began last Monday when the packer arrived.  Yes, packer - singular.  There were supposed to be two ladies but a last minute emergency meant only one could come.  Amazingly enough, she was able to pack our whole house by herself in about 8 hours.  Having someone else pack my home was wonderful; it would have been overwhelmingly stressful to try to do it on our own.  As it was, Mark and I stayed up almost the entire previous night just trying to pack what we needed to take with us to carry us through the next 6 weeks (since all of our "stuff" is going to storage) and make final moving preparations.  *yawn*

Monday night we checked into a hotel, which served as our home-base for the rest of the week.  Staying in a hotel always sounds like a good idea, but rarely ends up being enjoyable.  All of us in one room is just too much excitement for the kids to go to sleep easily.  The only up-side is that I always end up getting much more sleep than usual since I end up going to bed at the same time as the kiddos.

Tuesday morning, though, we had to be back at the house by 8 am to meet the movers.  Oh, by the way, Mark had to work all this week, so it was just me and the kids.  Single handedly getting 3 over-tired kids up, dressed, fed (the hotel had a continental breakfast) and out by 7:45 am is no easy feat! 

Tuesday was another full day at the house watching the movers load up all of our household goods.  Mostly we just tried to stay out of their way and find something (anything!) to do. Thankfully the movers were very kind and kid-friendly.

The big excitement of the day for the kids was the huge moving truck.  Bryce was impressed that the tires were bigger than him and we walked around and around (and around!) the truck looking at the tires and the grill.  Bryce frequently escaped outside to be close to all the action.

 

The truck owner invited the kids to crawl up in the cab and "drive." Aubree crawled right up and marveled that there were beds in the back.  Bryce was too scared to go up alone (it was REALLY high) and Thane was sleeping in my wrap so I couldn't help him.

 

Not having a place for the boys to sleep was probably the hardest part of the week.  Thane took all his naps in my wrap.  Bryce either missed his naps, or slept on the floor (he's a great napper).

Wednesday was a much calmer day.  We went back to the house to meet up with a friend who we hired to clean our home and get it "show-ready."  Cleaning myself would have been extremely stressful, if not impossible with Thane.  I consider it money WELL spent.  Then we went to visit one of our friends, Holly, and her kids.  Holly, in typical fashion, made Aubree and Bryce bags filled with toys and books and crayons to take with them on the plane.  Her bags have saved the day many times over in the week since.  Bryce, especially, has enjoyed the bag of little cars and trucks she sent.  While at Holly's, the kids finally had a chance to PLAY.    After two days of trying to stay "out of the way," it was a much needed change.  

Wednesday was also the day our cars were picked up by an auto-hauler to be shipped to Washington.  I should have taken a picture of the auto-hauler because the kids thought it was pretty neat.  

Our friend Amy invited us over for dinner that night for a final good-bye.  By that point the reality of the move had really begun to sink in and it was hard not to get emotional about our farewells.  Denial had served me well up to that point!  We will miss our friends in Florida more than anything else.

Thursday was our final day in Florida.  Mark had to do his final check-out at work and finished up around noon.  The kids and I checked out of the hotel and we spent our final hours in Florida at our home doing last-minute preparations.  

Our flight didn't leave Orlando till 6:20 pm! Thankfully, the kids did really well.  Our family is now too big to sit on one row, so Mark took Bryce and I took Aubree and Thane.  It took a while, but ultimately all the kids slept the last bit of our 6 hour flight.  Our biggest headache occurred when we got to Seattle and discovered the rental car agency had no record of our reservation.  At 10 o'clock at night, there aren't a whole lot of people at Boeing Travel who could help us.  

Finally we did get our rental cars and set off for our temporary housing in Bellevue.  By this time it was well past 1 am Florida-time and the kids were exhausted.  Still, they were impressed with their surroundings.  Despite it being pitch-black, Aubree exclaimed, "Look! Christmas trees!!!!"

While driving up one particularly steep incline, I commented, "kids, see this hill?!"  "A hill?!" Aubree responded, "A real one??  Not like the little bumps we drive over in Florida??"

And Bryce kept saying, "and it's in their backyard!"

So you can imagine their reaction the next day when they could see everything in the daylight.  It is absolutely gorgeous here!  After five years in Florida, I'd forgotten what Fall looks like - all the bright yellows and oranges and reds and pinks - I love it!  Here's the view from our apartment patio (we'll be in this apartment for 5 weeks or so while we look for more permanent housing).

After five years in Florida, I've apparently also forgotten what it's like to be cold.  I knew it would be cold here in Washington, but when I was packing it was 88 degrees and had been that warm for almost 6 months.  It was hard to remember cold.  "I'll throw in a few jackets and long-sleeves and we'll be okay."  Ummm. Not so much.  Brrrr!  

Aubree's having the hardest time adjusting to the cold.  "I'm FREEZING," she keeps telling me every time we go outside.  We tried to go on a leaf hunt yesterday and you can see from her expression in the picture below that she wasn't pleased with the experience.  "Please!" she begged, "let's just go back inside where it's warm."

The apartment is furnished and warm and great for our current needs.  For the most part, everyone is adapting fairly well.  Mark started work on Friday (yes, just hours after we arrived) and likes his new job and co-workers.  He will be doing composite Research and Design work on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (I hope I got that right!). 

Bryce is the one I've noticed having the hardest time adjusting.  His struggles are manifesting themselves in lots of hitting, disobeying, and generally being difficult.  Today he told me, "I want to be naughty."  He's becoming well-acquainted with the time-out corner and is pushing every last one of my buttons.  I'm praying this is a (very short-lived) phase and I try to remind myself that there have been a LOT of changes in his little life lately and I need to be patient.  I'm also hoping that when we get some of his toys (most of our stuff is going to storage, but a few boxes will be delivered here by the beginning of next week), he'll have better outlets for his energy.

Thane loves the carpet in the apartment and has taken advantage of the soft surface and learned to roll and/or crawl his way around the room.  Maybe I just have a terrible memory, but I don't recall my other kids being mobile so early.  

Thane's the only one who's had much trouble adjusting to the time change (the long flight and subsequent late night shocked the other two into Pacific Time Zone schedule).  He consistently gets up at 5 am, though he's finally starting to get better (sleep later).  He's sleeping in a pack n' play now and he's having a hard time getting used to that, too.  He sure is growing quickly and is ridiculously cute!