Henry is 4!

It is really hard to believe that Henry has turned 4.  When we went to pick out his cake earlier in the week, he almost picked the "Over the Hill" cake because he thought it looked like Mt. St. Helens, his favorite volcano.  Todd and I were really hoping he'd go for that one, but he settled on a clown cake.  Throughout the whole process pre-birthday, Henry kept saying that he was going to allow Josiah to pick out his cake, to pick out his cereal (they get a sugary cereal for their birthday), as well as help him open his gifts.  I asked Henry why he was allowing Josiah to do so much and he said, "because I love him."  It's hard to argue with that.  He did end up allowing Josiah to help open his gifts, but as the day went on, he also banned Josiah from touching his new lego set.  I asked Henry a string of questions that I ask each year to see how they change.  When asked his favorite food, he answered, "Dinner, breakfast, lunch."  When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, "a fixer."  I asked him what he wanted to fix and he said he wanted to fix things that were broken.  Stupid question, I suppose.  His requested dinner tonight was shrimp, chicken, and broccoli.  It was a good meal.  I think it'll probably be Caroline's birthday meal as well as she and Henry can eat a lot of shrimp and broccoli.

Henry's new Lego castle

Caroline tried on his new underwear to make sure it fits.

As a new 4-year old Henry now wants to stand up to pee.  He's finally tall enough.  He wanted to show me how he did it, so I stood next to him.  He can pee standing up, there's no doubt, however, he cannot aim standing up.  Sometimes it's nice to be in a rental.

Saturday morning we went to buy the boys' cowboy boots.  Josiah wanted a cowboy hat and vest as well, but he's going to have to earn some money if he wants all that.  They were very happy to get them (despite Henry's lack of cheer when I asked to take a picture of them).

I finally got brave enough to take all the kids to story time at the library Wednesday morning.  It was geared for 3-6 year olds and they read books, did a puppet show, watched a video (of a book), danced/moved to songs, and made a craft.  The boys did great and loved it.  Caroline did pretty well, too.  She liked it, but wanted to participate a little too much.  Fortunately there was another little boy around her age who kept running up to his older brother and pulling his hair, so that took the attention off of Caroline's little loud outbursts.  I think this may be part of our regular routine for a while.

Caroline enjoyed her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich this week.  I gave it to her open-faced to see what she would do.  She sat there and licked off all of the peanut butter and jelly.  She loved it and asks for it a lot now.  It might be easier just to give her a spoonful of peanut butter and a spoonful of jelly since that's all she eats anyway.  She also ate a real mandarin orange and really liked that as well.  I love it when we have a new food to add to her rotation.

At CC this past Friday, it was our turn to do our family presentation.  We got up front and I spoke briefly about who was in our family, ages, etc.  I then spoke very briefly about my two grandfathers and their military service since our history sentence this week was about Pearl Harbor.  After I was done, Josiah wanted the microphone and he spoke about his Grandaddy, then how he had a pain in his ear and he hasn't had a pain in his ear since we've moved to Texas, and he finished it off with the story of how we lost his Little Buddy (blankey) at a hotel (3 years ago).  He spoke really well about all three.  Then we always close in prayer and Josiah asked to pray.  He prayed for all the teachers to teach well and for the students to learn well.  Sometimes he can be so mature!  I just never know when it'll manifest.

Sometimes it seems like the days are filled with laundry, school, dishes, making meals, etc. and it feels like I don't play with the kids as much.  So, I tried to make sure I sat and played with them distraction-free each day this week.  One day I made the kids into tacos - just rolled them up in a blanket.  An old favorite.  (Really it's burritos, but the kids call them tacos.)

3 burritos

a baby burrito with her baby burrito

Valentine's Day

Saturday morning began early.  Very early.  Todd had mentioned to Josiah about getting a surprise on Valentine's Day, so Josiah woke up at 4:30 a.m. ready to go get the surprise.  And since it was Josiah, he never fell back asleep despite desperate pleading from me lying at the bottom of the bed while he lay in my spot.  Finally around 7 a.m., Todd took the boys to Shipley's Donuts to pick out a special doughnut each.  To work off the sugar high, we checked out a nearby park.  It was mostly a big (paved) trail type park with fountains and rocks to climb on.  After walking the trails for a while, we came to a playground which made the whole experience worth it to the kids.  The best part for Todd and I, besides the beautiful weather & scenery, were the signs to not get near the creek because of alligators.  We've never seen signs (in person) like that before.  The creek had a lot of turtles sunning themselves on rocks which the boys had a good time spotting.  To keep up the day of poor eating, the kids got Whataburger for dinner. (For Valentine's Day, I got to not cook.)  :) While going through the drive-thru, the lady asked if the kids were triplets.  We've never had that question before.  I get asked if the boys are twins a lot, but never triplets!

Henry likes the donuts with a giant blob of marshmallow fluff in the middle

Josiah goes for red donuts, if it has sprinkles all the better.

Henry has been talking about heaven a lot lately.  Many times a day he asks me, "When we get to heaven, that's it?" followed by, "We can't come back?"  His latest question for the weekend has been, "When Daddy dies and goes to heaven, can we get a dog?"  We've always told them we can't get a dog because of Daddy's allergies.  Cats are out of the question (due to our extreme dislike for the feline species).  Hopefully, death doesn't have to come before Henry gets his dog.

Caroline has started talking in 4-word sentences.  Mostly, it consists of, "I sit Mommy's wap."  She seems to want to sit in my lap every time she eats or is at the table for any reason.  If Henry is in my lap, she feels the need to sit in it as well.  Then if Josiah sees Henry and Caroline in my lap, he tries to climb up at which point the lap goes upright because fighting has commenced and no one is interested in backing down.

Josiah had a great day at Awana because he received his red Sparks vest.  He is extremely excited to have it and would wear it 24/7 if we let him.  The speed with which he is memorizing his Awana verses to earn the patches and jewels shows me just what he's capable of when (highly) motivated.  This weekend we went out and bought him a real Bible since last week they had to find the book of Romans and he couldn't do that in his Storybook Bible.  He is very proud of that as well.  He has the bookmark planted firmly in 2 Kings 22 - the story of King Josiah.  When we came home from Awana Wednesday night, Caroline greeted us at the door.  She will now bear hug whoever is coming through the door.  She grabs the boys from behind and gives them a big, long hug.

Earlier in the week, Josiah had a very loose tooth.  It had been very loose for quite some time but did not want to come out.  So one night, Josiah asked Henry if he would pull it out.  Henry pulled and pulled, but couldn't get it out.  Then in the bath tub, Henry grabbed a submarine toy and somehow pulled out Josiah's tooth.  Right now he's missing three teeth and has two more loose.

At church this morning, the boys, and all the preschoolers, sang a song in big church.  Since we haven't been at this church for too long, Henry didn't know the words to the song and basically stood there staring in the wrong direction for the duration of the song.  Josiah, who stood next to Henry, also stared in the wrong direction, but he at least knew some of the words.  The preschool director mentioned to me later how cute they were because they left big church holding hands.  It is sort of nice to be at a new church because they don't know what to expect each week just yet so they're always on their best behavior and not getting into mischief.  :)  Church must have tired them out, though, because when we got home, our back seat looked like this.  It was not to last though...

Josiah drew a "poster" of himself as he calls it.  He looked in the mirror to draw his face just right.

Caroline enjoyed putting all of her Valentine's day stickers on her shirt in 15 seconds.

Lots and Lots of Singing

Last week I was struggling with homeschooling a bit.  I had wondered if maybe CC was not the best curriculum for us and began to look into different curricula.  Then at CC I was able to talk with other moms and hear how they homeschool and it was encouraging.  Then this week, the boys have been singing the CC songs (history sentences mostly) all week long.  Josiah knows all the history sentences thus far, but I hadn't realized how much Henry has picked up.  Even Caroline has picked up on saying, "Yee-haw." at the beginning of one of the songs.  This weekend, in particular, they were singing them a lot.  All throughout Costco yesterday and then this afternoon while we were working on yet another Lego project.  It got to the point that I wanted to yell, "Please stop singing!" but knew better and was just happy they are singing school lessons all on their own.  So now I have some wind in my homeschooling sails that we can do this adventure.

Josiah was thrilled on Wednesday when he received his new Awana Sparks handbook.  He has carried it around with him everywhere and he wants to catch up to earn all the patches, jewels, etc.  He already has three verses memorized for this coming Wednesday.  He is set to receive his vest this week and he speaks of it on a near constant basis.  "Mommy, did you know I'm getting my vest on Wednesday?"  Yes, yes, I did.  I have a feeling it will be worn all day, every day for quite a while.

Josiah was quite excited to go to church this morning because they had animals from the Houston Zoo there.  We guessed that they would have an owl since a lot of their puppets and coloring sheets have owls on them.  They brought a spotted owl, a hedgehog, bat skeleton, alligator head (??), lion skull (I'm told it was small), snake skin, and a sea turtle (but I think it was dead).  Caroline had to stay home from church since she has a cold and Henry requested to stay with her because he's scared of animals, although I think he would have had a fine time.  Josiah found his suit hanging on our elliptical yesterday and was very, very happy to wear it today.  We had to give him some khakis since the suit is a size 4T, but he rocked the top.  Of course, he had to wear his tie and he really wanted to wear the coonskin hat, but we told him it probably wouldn't be a good idea for an owl to see a coonskin hat.  He had a great time with the animals.  He was even disappointed that I picked him up early from his class (church let out early).

On the way to church, Josiah always notices CiCi's Pizza and asks to go there.  So this afternoon we went for lunch.  I think Josiah and Henry stared at the TV the whole time and mindlessly ate their pizza.  Not exactly a fine dining experience.  The funny part about our lunch, though, is that Todd came home and put his lunch into his My Fitness Pal and realized that he only had 5 calories left for the rest of the day.  So he ate a dinner that was 90% spaghetti squash.  Mmmmm.  (I didn't do much better though.)

Caroline has had a cold and that's messed up her sleeping a bit.  Sometimes it is hard to tell if it is teething or a cold or what.  Although she appears to have all her teeth.  Maybe they're just getting into place all the way.  However, in a slightly unrelated topic, she loves haircuts.  So every time I give Todd a haircut, she has to have one first.  Lately, since I do not want to actually cut her hair, I take the back side of the electric razor and put it against the top of her head and move it around a little.  So she feels the vibration and thinks something's being done.  I know that one of these days I'll slip and probably cut off a chunk of hair and make her look funny and she'll never want another haircut again.  But until that day, this is her joy on the "barber" chair (stepstool).

This last picture doesn't look like much, but this represents all three children being quiet and entertaining themselves while I cooked dinner.  It's a rarity, so I took a picture to cherish it for years to come.  Remember that day?...

Super Sunday

While New England got pounded with snow this week, we enjoyed temperatures in the mid-70s.  Even today, it reached 77!  It is hard to remember what month we are in sometimes.  Josiah is really enjoying the new church we are attending.  He loves the GIGL (Growing in God's Love) program Sunday morning.  I went with the boys this morning to see what it was all about and to see why Henry did not like it last week.  It was quite a production.  They have a stage and singing, dancing, a Bible lesson, videos.  It was a lot of entertainment.  Henry said he liked it now and would go back next time.  Josiah was very, very happy that he was able to start Awana this week.  He has to wait a few weeks to get his vest and new book, but he talks about it all the time.  When he and I left for Awana Wednesday evening, Caroline burst into tears.  Todd said that Henry asked him for a tissue to wipe away her tears.  He is so good with her.  Caroline is getting more empathetic as well.  Now, when someone hurts themselves, she will go up to that person and say, "Ok? Ok?"  She has also figured out how to say "Henry" although it sounds like "ren-ry."  Now she refers to herself as "dada" which had previously been what she called Henry.

For school this week, we made a big graph of our shoes.  It dawned on me that our tile floor is much like graph paper and the boys gathered one of every type of shoe and we graphed boots, sandals, & sneakers.  Then we made a hop scotch board out of the tiles and played hop scotch.  However, Josiah decided that merely playing it would be too easy, so he gave us a Bible question that we had to answer correctly before taking our turn.  Some questions he asked me were, "Did David kill Goliath?" Yes.  I got to go.  Next question, "Did the bird eat the seeds?"  "Yes," I answered.  "No, I don't think it did," says Josiah.  So I didn't get to go.  He quizzed himself for his turns.  He got them all correct.  It took some time, but they also learned to throw underhand when playing hop scotch.  Not to toss the object (little plane) as far as possible overhand.  Good life lessons are learned here.

Our amazon package arrived in the mail this week, so the boys got to try out our new school items.  One was geoboards.  The are little 6"x6" squares with pegs on them.  You use geobands (glorified colored rubber bands) to make shapes/designs on the geoboards.  The other thing was a box of wooden shaped blocks with template boards to make designs.  They loved the wooden blocks and played with them for several days for a fair amount of time.

Josiah also got a birthday present from his cousins halfway around the world - Zoob inventor.  The boys loved them!  (Thank you Fred & Jen.)  They made people, giraffes, robots, the Star Wars ship, the beginnings of a helicopter, and much more.  I love these types of toys that fosters creativity.

Working on the Star Wars ship

The boys were wearing their Texans shirts since it was "jersey day" at church.

Our art projects of the week:

Josiah made Dusty using a lot of staples

Henry made Windlifter using a lot of tape

Caroline insisted on me taking her picture while she was eating her noodles