Strapping at Seven

One morning this week, Josiah woke me up to say he was going to bring my coffee up to me.  I (quickly) went downstairs with him to find he had pushed the brew button on the coffee machine, poured me a cup, and had poured creamer in the mug as well.  (It was sweeeet.)  Then he presented me with burnt toast "because you like it burnt, Mommy."  He said he wanted to do that for me every day.
"Can I get, 'Motivations for How to Get Up Earlier in the Morning,' for $200 Alex?"
He has really been wanting to help out more in the kitchen, though.  It's a good thing.  A good thing that requires a fair amount of patience for such enthusiasm.

Our boy, Henry turned seven this week!  Seven.  Many, many months ago he asked us to hide his birthday presents.  He didn't forget that and so we hid all his gifts - the three from us and the boxes from his grandparents and cousins.  His card held the first clue that sent him to his first gift, which held the clue to the second gift.  He had fun doing it, even with an overly enthusiastic brother trying to take the lead.  Henry was super generous with his siblings - letting them each open one of his gifts.  Later, he let Josiah build a lot of his big Lego kit.


The rest of the day seemed like an eating expedition.  We started off with donuts for breakfast.

We were at CC for the morning, and even ate lunch there, but Henry didn't want to miss out on the opportunity for eating at a restaurant for his birthday lunch, so after CC we went to Which Wich for sandwiches.  Henry asked for a milkshake there since Josiah got a milkshake on his birthday.

How Henry filled out his sandwich bag.

Then we went out to dinner for hamburgers, and finally home for cake.  That night, I'm not so sure we went to sleep per se, but more like we drifted off into food comas.

He requested a football cake and he was not disappointed.  Although, he did think that the football on top was a real football cut in half.  That was a little disappointing to see that it was a flimsy piece of plastic.  People requested their cake slices based on the side yardlines.  "I want the 50 yard line."

Henry got a football game from his cousins and he has loved it.  For the first few days he didn't play it according to the rules, because he said he already knew how to play.  He literally pushed the football down the field with his fingers and if it rolled off the table, then it was the next person's turn.  Todd read the directions this weekend and they finally played for real.  He loves that it comes with every team in the NFL with their names and helmets to put in the end zones.  In his excitement he wrote out every team in the NFL.  And, yes, we did count that as handwriting practice.  :)

One of our gifts for Henry was a football, and he was thrilled to get it.  But we quickly realized that giving Henry a hard rubber football was not the wisest of present choices because we don't want him to throw it inside.  We currently have a Nerf football in our amazon cart.

We have played countless games of Guess Who?  Caroline has enjoyed it as much as the rest of us, but instead of asking distinguishing physical features of the people, she asks, "Does your person start with the letter A?"  It makes it a much longer game (because she requires all players to only ask about letters), but it works.

And speaking of letters.  The boys spelled this out.  Todd and I both said, "At least they spelled everything correctly."

Josiah has been asking to do pastels again.  They tend to be incredibly messy, so I told him he had to do them outside if he was to do them.  And they're still incredibly messy.  He had to take a bath after doing them - the dust literally went all the way up his arm.  His picture turned out well though - it's Kylo Ren from Star Wars.  He says it's the "force" surrounding him.

I had the kids go through all of their artwork because it was busting out of their containers.  The boys didn't want to throw anything away, so they made room in their containers by hanging a ton of pictures up on their bedroom wall.  It looks a bit schizophrenic at first glance, but there really is an order to it all.  And after seeing it much of the week, we've been quite curious just how they got some of the pictures hung up as high and as far away from the bed.  "We just stretched out from top bunk."  Hmmm.

We finished out the weekend by doing our annual Caring for Katy with our church.  It's the day the church doesn't have a service, but we all go out into the community doing service projects.  Our group went back to the same trailer park that we were at last year.  They have a Kidz Club there that helps the kids with homework/tutoring, provides snacks, etc.  It was raining all day, so our entire group was inside this trailer - painting walls, organizing their library, creating a doorway, moving and organizing all their shelves.  Todd helped with the manual labor, while the kids and I helped bag animal crackers.  We did 16 crackers to one small Ziploc, 25 small Ziploc bags into one giant Ziploc.  You know what I heard the entire time we bagged them?  "Can I have some?  I want some."

Then our kids discovered the food brought by some of our group - kolaches, donuts, cookies.  Josiah and Caroline helped themselves quite a bit.  After sorting animal crackers, we went through all of the games to make sure they had all of their pieces.  We were there for 3.5 hours, so after some time the kids were getting a little crazy (not to mention it was the kids who were eating all the donuts), so one lady wisely had all the kids color at a table and they were not allowed to leave that area if they were 3rd grade and younger.  It worked.  They all colored very nicely while the other projects could finish up.  Caroline left saying she had made two new friends.


For birthday season, we are two down and one to go.

Quarterback and Wide Receiver

Caroline was quite sick for the first half of the week.  No matter how much she kept telling me she was okay, we still missed our fire station field trip.  There were many moments of sleeping.  In fact, one day she took three naps.  There were also many moments of being awake - she saw 3:45 a.m. for quite a few nights.  Then there were times that she would get sick and about 2 minutes later ask if she could have chicken nuggets.  Uh, let's wait until you can handle 1 oz of water for more than half an hour.

It was a rough go for a while, but by Wednesday she was finally keeping things down.  By Thursday, she was totally back to her old self, chatting away.  Henry woke up Thursday morning and came up and whispered to me, "Can we touch Caroline again?"  It was a very sweet question on his part.  I had not let the boys near her and they really missed playing together.  Henry and Caroline have been getting along better than they have been in quite some time, so maybe this sickness has helped their relationship.  We will all be very happy to see the constant bickering depart.  Henry even asked her if she would take a walk with him around our circle that Thursday afternoon.

With her being sick, we improvised a little with school.  We moved a few subjects to the living room so I could keep an eye on Caroline and the boys' work.  Henry happily did his spelling on the living room floor.

Josiah did his reading there, too.  It is amazing to see how in two short years he's gone from reading first grade material to reading long chapter books.  He loves reading, so it's never been a chore with him (ginormous blessing there), but it's just crazy how much he's grown, how well he can read and comprehend.  He's getting so old!

At CC we did a fun experiment this week.  We had half a cup of water and vinegar and put them in a bottle.  Then we slid a balloon on top filled with baking soda.  When the baking soda went in the bottle the chemical reaction caused the balloon to inflate.  The kids had a lot of fun doing it and, fortunately, it worked really well.

Dumping the baking soda in the bottle.

We finished up our week having a birthday meal for Henry.  He wanted Sweet Tomatoes and we went during a really busy time, so we had to scrunch into a booth.  Henry wanted to sit in-between Todd and I, and since it was his birthday meal we went ahead with it, making our side of the booth really tight.  He ate a good meal and stuffed himself until he wanted to fall asleep as is his custom there.

For Henry's last few days as a six-year-old, here are a few pictures to completely encapsulate what he likes to do best.  He tries to do it every moment of every day.  He runs from one end of the house to the other throwing the ball in the air and catching it as he runs.  He acts as the quarterback and wide receiver.  When we play catch in this same area, he likes to yell, "Omaha!" like Peyton Manning did.  And when he plays catch with his brother, every throw/catch is a possible touchdown pass.  If it's caught, "Touchdown!"  This child always has a ball in his hand.  He says he wants to be a football player when he grows up.  He's always asking Todd and I what the scores were for games played early in the last football season.  (He hears a lot of, "I have no idea." from me.)  He's always talking football.  Always getting football books from the library.  He loves football.

In just a few short days he's going to be a strapping seven-year-old.

The days are long, but the years are short.

Down For the Count

Monday morning, Caroline and I went on a quest to get Todd his medicine.  The ER had sent his prescriptions electronically to one store, but when we got there, their computers were down.  Not knowing how long it would take to get them back up again, and given that Todd needed this medicine to help him breathe, we went back to the ER to get paper prescriptions.  They kindly gave them to us and we headed off to a different pharmacy.  We got them filled and came home.  While we were at the second pharmacy, Todd got a voicemail from that pharmacy stating his prescriptions were ready to be picked up.  He called the pharmacy back and said he didn't have any prescriptions there.  The pharmacist told him, "Well, I think your wife and daughter just left with them."  Of course, one of the prescriptions was cough syrup with codeine in it, so they probably went back and red flagged our account.  I hadn't bothered to text Todd about the situation because he was sleeping upstairs when we left the house and his phone was downstairs.  The medicine has helped mightily and he's a lot better today than a week ago.   

The kids have really enjoyed watching Ellen's Game of Games.  It comes on at 7:00 p.m. here, and it's basically just a crazy game show with giant props and they find it all hilarious.  The problem is they never go to bed after it.  On a normal night, they're all asleep by 8:00 p.m. But after Ellen, they're up til 9:00 hyped up on the energy of the show I guess.  So, because of that I've told them they better sleep in if they want to stay up to watch it.  But, of course, sleeping in is an impossibility for one child of ours.  Wednesday morning came and both boys were standing at their bedroom door at 6:00 a.m.  Josiah can handle it.  Henry needs more sleep.  I asked Josiah if he had woken up Henry.  He denied it.  I asked Henry, "Did Josiah wake you up?"  "Yeah.  He opened my eyes."  Josiah wanted to check to see if Henry's eyes were open by physically opening his eyes.  I sent them back to bed until 7.  Caroline was no better.  She got up at 3:45 a.m. to start her day.  At least she took a 2.5 hour nap the next day.  (And she hasn't napped in forever.)  Thank goodness this past week was the season finale.

The kids all had dentist appointments this week.  They are all clearly very, very comfortable at the dentist's office.  Henry and I stayed with Caroline at her hygienist's chair.  Meanwhile Josiah went a few chairs down and was chatting the entire visit with his hygienist.  She came down later and said what a great conversation she had with him and that he was using such large words.  For missing vocab words on his grammar tests, he can sure use them well in spoken conversation.  It's amazing sometimes how mature he can be and yet at other times not-so-much.  Caroline chatted up her hygienist as well.  While Henry was being worked on, she asked every question she could think of, "What's this?  What does this do?  What are you doing?"

"Mom, look at my beard."

None of the kids had cavities, which felt like I had passed some sort of parenting test.  I always tend to hold my breath while we're there until I get the teeth report.  The end of the visit is the favorite part for the kids - there's a big basket from which they get to choose a trinket.

The dentist told Josiah that he had quite a few loose teeth in his mouth.  Apparently he was unaware of this, but ever since we left the office that day, he's been wiggling his teeth like mad.  "Mom look!"  Always at the dinner table, too.  I'm not squeamish, but I also don't want to see a horizontal tooth hanging on by a thread while I'm eating dinner.  That just makes him want to show me all the more.

Caroline had to stay home from Awana due to some belly problems.  She was devastated because she had made Valentine's to exchange.  I brought them in for her anyway and told her leader, that she still wanted them to be passed around.  They made her a basket of Valentine's which was super sweet.  She was really happy to get them.

She has actually had a really rough weekend, throwing up quite a bit.  She's been my TV partner from midnight to 3 a.m..  Basically, I'm laying in bed closer and closer to sleep when she'll laugh at the TV and tell me about how Grand-Pere snuck up on Daniel Tiger.  This coming week we're supposed to go on a fire station field trip with some friends.  It's looking doubtful at this point that we'll make it.  However, Caroline is determined to get us there.  She literally throws up, wipes her mouth, and says, "I feel better now.  I can go."  Yeah, we're going to have to wait 48 hours after that.

The kids were super excited to open a package from Todd's cousins.  She always sends them Valentine's gifts and they were giddy to get it.  They've been doing all the mazes and word searches and coloring everything all afternoon.  It's actually been quite helpful to have the boys do that while I hang out with the princess, her Netflix, and her throw-up bucket.

Waiting for his Whack-a-Packs to burst into balloons - super cool invention.

I think instead of praying for better health this coming week, I'm going to pray for warmer weather so we can open these windows and air this house out.  We need to get these germs out of here.

Super Bowl. Strike that. Super ER Visit

Monday morning Henry has his final test for first grade math.  It was a four page test.  He was excited to finish his math book, but he was not excited to take a long test.  I told him to do his best and let him go to work.  He turned it in and kept asking if he missed any.  I went through the first page, all correct; second page, all correct; third page, all correct.  The fourth page was filled with double digit addition and subtraction problems.  He missed one of each.  He completely and totally melted down, bawling.  I was trying to tell him how well he did and how proud I was of him, but he just cried loudly and said he didn't care.  Actually, given your display of anguish, you care very much.  I put a congratulatory sticker on the top of his test and after a bit he accepted his two missed problems.  The sticker got a small smile out of him.  We talked about how it is good that he wants to do well and get everything right, but we also talked about proper reactions to missed problems.

Not a happy camper.

The next day he began second grade math and he was a happy camper again.

Monday afternoon we also went to a friend's house to play.  It is the family with five children, so there was someone for everyone.  The kids all got along really well and they had a great time together.  As we left, Josiah asked to take a picture with their dog and then the other two wanted to join in (although they didn't want to look at the camera).  They really do want a dog!

When we got in the car to leave, Caroline announced that their little boy of the same age told Caroline that he wanted to marry her.  She has actually told us this several times.  We told her that when he graduates from school and gets a job we'll consider it.

Mid-week, Todd got sick and stayed home for the rest of the week.  I still took the boys to karate and their church activities, leaving Caroline at home to care for Todd.  She was a good little nurse and wouldn't leave his side.  She also was happy to watch her favorite TV station for 3 hours straight.

Todd was actually sick for most of the week with a fever and congestion issues.  We nursed him as well as my germophobe self could, but he may not agree.  I don't think he appreciated that I was constantly walking behind him wiping down everything he touched with a Norwex cloth (they're amazing cloths).  He definitely got tired of my, "Don't touch that, I'll get it for you."  The kids made him Get Well Cards, but were instructed to "drop them on the bed - don't touch anything and wash your hands when you get back downstairs."  We didn't know what he had, but suspected it could have been the flu given how rampant it has been here.  (I really didn't want three kids sick with the flu.)  By Saturday he seemed to be getting better, but then his breathing got worse today.  Fearing it could (or already had) turned into pneumonia, we went to the Urgent Care who sent him to the ER.  They ruled out the flu and pneumonia, but diagnosed him with severe bronchitis.  Coupled with his asthma, he was having trouble breathing!  Three nebulizer treatments later, he was doing a bit better.

The kids and I originally hung out in the ER waiting room.  They were super well behaved.

Then Todd called us back to his room.  The nurse gave us all face masks, which the kids thought were great.  But it took all of 2 minutes to be in his room to realize it was a very bad idea.  There were two chairs for 4 of us.  Henry wanted to sit in a particular spot because Todd had the football game on, Caroline also wanted to sit in that exact same spot.  So, we decided to wish him well and said, "Text us when you're done!"
When we did go back to pick him up, the kids got in the car and immediately put their masks back on.  I didn't tell them to do it, so when I turned around it cracked me up.

He was happy to get home and eat and rest and breath better.  I wish I had gotten a picture of him, because he was wearing his super cool baja from the 90's.  Every time he wears it he does the Luke Perry side punch from the 90210 opening. 

Caroline and I stopped off for bread and milk on our way home from church this afternoon.  The store was filled with samples for the Super Bowl.  Guess who loves kale salad when it comes in a little plastic cup?

My favorite Henry quote of the weekend.  He said this as he was walking down the stairs having just gotten dressed for the day.
"Yeah, I don't like to wear matching stuff.  I like to wear things you can tell apart."
Mission accomplished.

So, here begins another week.  We are really hoping for Todd to get better soon and for no one else to fall ill.