Words of advice from someone who (unfortunately) knows

Don’t get the stomach flu.

More on Simeon

I’ve had to give up.  I’ve had to acknowledge that, if I try to keep Sim from climbing on everything – which is what he wants to do all the time – I will not have time to do anything but follow him and take him down from things and try to make them safe, only to turn around and find him climbing something else while I was rearranging furniture so that he wouldn’t climb on that…

SO, in an effort to keep him safe even while he’s climbing, we’ve been telling him about turning around to climb off of high things – he does this very well – and that we sit on chairs, and we’ve been letting him stand on stools in the bathroom, kitchen, and living room, so that he can feel like he’s part of it all.  Of course, we have to make sure the stools are properly placed, or his stool-standing to look out the living room window turns into table-standing to look out the living room window.  We’re not going there.  He’s very adept at getting off of all the things that he can get onto now, and he’s only had one very minor fall in the past few days. 

Simeon is also no longer a prisoner of the stroller when it comes to the local playgrounds.  There’s climbing and sliding and swinging and all crawling to be done!  He’s got some water resistant pants and he’s ready to go.

But he’s not going to be crawling around the parks too much longer.  Today, I looked over from a math lesson I was working on with Hannah and saw Sim take 8 or 10 steps across the room.  Dawning pleasure on his face was most amusing to see, and after he took three or four of the steps, he said, “Walk!  Walk!”  He’s taken a couple steps here or there of late, but this was a pretty long walk.  He’ll be running soon, no doubt. 

Sometimes I don’t particularly like the books

that come home from the library.  Like the one with the story (of course, it’s a silly story which is evident from the tone and the pictures, but still!) about an octopus coming up the drain of a bathtub.

Naomi:  If an octopus came up our drain, we would get out of the bath and run away.

Me:  I think you’re right.

Mad Math Skeelz

The first part of this post is going to sound bizarre, but it’s pertinent, so stick with me!

Hannah and Naomi take vitamins every day:  two multivitamins and two calciums.  Naomi generally doles them out.  This morning, we were at the last 2 calcium vitamins, so each girl only got one.  Naomi asked that hers be broken in half, though, so that she could have the feeling of having two.  No problem.

Hannah took the bottle and perused the outside of it for a while, before suddenly announcing, while I was thinking of something else entirely, “Well, that just shows that you can’t count by fours to 90.”

Me:  You’re right.  You can’t.  Did you try?  [Counting by various numbers to 100 or another number is a regular feature of her math lessons, so I thought she might have taken up a new challenge:  to 90 by fours!]

Hannah:  No, Mama, there are 90 vitamins in this bottle, but we’re left with only two at the end, not four.  So you can’t count to 90 by fours. 

Me:  That’s very true. 

I have a feeling that word problems are not going to pose too many problems for this one.  She makes up her own at breakfast.  Maybe one day she’ll be the one writing them:  “If you have a bottle of 90 vitamins, and two children eat two a day,…”

Scenes from Christmas morning

with commentary.  (Of course!)

I know, it’s nearly a month after Christmas.  But I haven’t posted these, and some are very cute.  So I’m going to.

Stockings.

Let the record show that, when I got up at 6:30, Hannah’s stocking was already opened and all laid out on the couch.

Let the record also reflect that matching penguin pjs as Christmas Eve gifts were a lot of fun.

Sisterly love on Christmas morning – what could be sweeter?

 

Sisterly dress-ups on Christmas morning, too.  And sisterly books.

This next one was taken when Sim had only had about half a cup of coffee.

Haha!  Just kidding!  I can barely keep up with him without giving him coffee – how would I survive a caffeinated baby?  But doesn’t he give the impression of someone who hasn’t had his morning coffee?

Naomi liked to play with each toy as she got it.  Some were trying to convince her to speed her present opening.  She was not remotely swayed.

 

Yep, there’s me.  Still in pajamas under the sweater.

 

Sim was in baby boy heaven:  lots of fun things to play with that his sisters had left around.  Of course, this picture was quickly followed by screams and bustling away of all attractive toys, much to Sim’s chagrin.

 

Sometimes dress-ups can give you some trouble.

 

Mom:  picking up trash.  Sim:  trying to get into stuff.  Hannah:  no idea, but probably bustling things away before Sim gets to her couch.  Naomi:  either taking off or putting on dress-ups.

Sim’s new hammer toy was a hit!

Haha!  Get it?  A HIT!  Hahaha…

Yeah, okay, not that funny.

Naomi thought it was great, too.  She forcibly took it from him so she could play with it.

But she let him play with her tea set.  He likes the teapots.  He likes to take the lid off and put it back on.  Over and over.

 

Naomi likes her new pink parasol with her name on it.

 

But WAIT!  Who’s in this next picture?!?

  Michael!  I got up with the kids that morning and let Michael sleep until almost 8 a.m.  It was probably his favorite Christmas gift, since he’d sung at Midnight Mass. 

This one was taken after 9 a.m. Mass, the one the whole family went to.

Happiness is…

…a whole stack of books that Mom found in a random box in the basement and brought upstairs for children to discover after breakfast.

Chico

I took the kids to the nursery today to check out some plants and get some seeds and supplies.  Hannah has been helping me read the seed catalogs, and both girls are beside themselves waiting until it’s time to plant.  Every day:  “Is it time to plant yet, Mama?  Can we plant our seeds today?”  They’re almost as bad as me.  :)

We found some seeds and checked out the koi pond and were looking at plants when I suddenly saw the unmistakable zipping flight of a hummingbird.  I pointed it out and we all stopped to admire it.  A passing nursery worker, hearing our exclamations, said, “Oh, yeah, that’s Chico.  He lives here.”

We watched as Chico zoomed about, then landed on a tree near us so that we could admire him.  Then he zoomed about some more.  Even Sim was watching him, pointing and saying, “See!  See!  Bird!  Tweet!”  

We noticed that Chico seemed to like the witch hazel plants, which are blooming and quite sweet-smelling.  Hannah and Naomi conceived a plan:  get in among the witch hazel plants, hold very still, be very quiet, and wait for Chico to land nearby so they could see him up close. 

So there I was, standing next to Sim and the cart, watching the girls hiding out in their bird blind (and making sure they don’t do any damage to the plants).  It took a while for Chico to return, but when he did, our patience was rewarded.  He landed on a tree near them and hung out for a while, then flew up in the air, hovered, and flew back and landed on the same perch again. 

Once he finally left again, I called the budding birders out of the witch hazel and to the checkout.  Who knew that a trip to the nursery could be so awesome? 

OH!  AND they have big ol’ tractor-type things that drive around, dumping compost here and there for the nursery workers.  We got to see some of that, too.  All in all, a very rewarding trip.