It's Official

I am now the mother of a teenager. Froggie recently celebrated her thirteenth birthday. Yikes! I remember being thirteen. We're in for a crazy roller coaster ride. We've had a few jostles up to now, but I imagine this is the beginning of a whole new experience.

Monkey celebrated her eighth birthday. It's unreal how fast the years seem to go by.

Here's the picture of Baby Bear "teaching"

When Baby Bear saw the camera out he quit playing and got camera shy, so we had to stage this.
I wish I had gotten a picture with his arm out above the stand. I couldn't figure out if he was preaching or leading music. J. asked him and he said he was teaching. He must have been teaching music. The book he had was a devotional book for worship leaders.

What's in a name?

I haven't posted for a few days and I am drawing a blank, so I decided to post about my children's nicknames.

The girls were easy:

Froggie

When Froggie was born she had this big belly that flattened out when she was on her back and her legs reminded us of frog legs the way she held them.

Kitty Kat

We chose our children's names with the idea of ease of nice nicknames in mind. Kitty Kat's nickname was chosen before she was born (If we have a girl, then...). My mom actually added the Kitty part if I remember correctly.

Birdie

Birdie ate like a little bird from the time she was born. When she started eating solids there were times that my mom and I both would take turns putting bites in her mouth and we still couldn't feed her fast enough. At home we just let her fuss between bites. In the movie FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about the movie.) the father calls one of his daughters his little bird. After we watched the movie, J. started calling Birdie his little bird and the name stuck.

Monkey

At the hospital after Monkey was born she kept crawling up over my shoulder. I had to keep pulling her back down. She has always been our little Monkey.

The boys weren't that easy:

Puppy Dog

It seemed like it took forever for us to pick a nickname for Puppy Dog. We wanted to stick with the animal theme, but we just couldn't figure out what name suited him. When he started to crawl, he crawled like an inchworm. I didn't want to name him worm or snake. Then he started going around acting like a dog all the time. He would go all over the house on all fours, he would come up to us and lick our hands, he would pant if we asked him how the doggie goes, etc. So, Doggie (and other forms of the like) he became.

Baby Bear

It was equally difficult to choose a nickname for Baby Bear. He used to scream like a wild cat, but we already had a "cat" and J.'s rival high school's mascot was the wildcat. Further screaming and growling brought us (after much deliberation) to Bear.

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Speaking of Baby Bear, while I was typing this, I caught him pretending to be a preacher or song leader.

I was going to post a picture, but for some reason I can't locate the file it went to. Maybe I can add it later.

Three small words . . .

. . . I didn't want to hear. This is how I woke up this morning.

Birdie: "Mom, (Bear) threw up!"

(a quick prayer of distress and a groan, then)

Me: "Where?"

Birdie: "on the couch and on the floor"

Me: "(Baby Bear) are you O.K.?"

There was no answer after asking him several times.

Me: "(Birdie), is (Baby Bear) O.K.?"

Birdie: (in a voice that said, Duh! He just threw up!) "No!"

Me: "Is he alive? He's not answering me."

Birdie: "No."

Me: "He's dead?"

Birdie: (Not at all distressed.) "Yeah."

Me: "Is he at least breathing?"

No answer. Birdie had gone upstairs.

I get to the living room and Baby Bear is standing on the couch like a statue. There were odd looking puddles on the couch seat and the arm of the couch. A watery stream was on the floor running from just under the arm of the couch to about three feet away.

Baby Bear: "Mom, clean me up!"

I sniffed the air.

Me: "Did you drink syrup!?"

Baby Bear: "Uh-huh."

Me: "Where's the bottle?"

Baby Bear: "in my yoom" (read room)

I tried to clean Baby Bear up with baby wipes, but he was too sticky. He got a bath.

I spent a long time sopping up syrup. I had to get a bucket of cleaning water to clean the couch. After a while, I laid paper towels and then a cloth towel on the spots hoping the rest of the mess would soak up into it. Guess what I get to do later today. Yep, I get to clean the couch again. Our house now smells like maple syrup. I guess I'll have to burn the pancake candle I got for Christmas, then maybe we won't notice. I don't think Baby Bear will want pancakes for a while.

As I was getting Baby Bear out of the tub, he asked me why he had to get out. I told him it was because I had to fix breakfast. What he said next confirmed my thoughts on him choosing pancakes, "I don't haunt (read want) breakfast!"

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As Birdie was bringing her breakfast dishes to the kitchen drinking her milk as she came she asked in typical Birdie style, "Mom, what's for lunch?".

I can see it's going to be one of those days.

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While talking to Birdie later, she told me that she had misunderstood what I meant when I asked if Baby Bear was breathing/alive.

The End.

Tonight we finished the last of the Little House on the Prairie books. The girls were sad that the series had come to an end. Monkey was teary eyed when she told me she was sad that we were done. I Googled Mansfield, Missouri and found the site for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association (http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/index.html). There is a section for children that has some word searches and quizzes based on the books, so I may surprise the kids with some.

If the kids (and maybe their mom) get their way, our next big vacation might include a stop in Mansfield, Missouri. Of course it will probably be a long, long time before we can afford to take a big vacation. Meanwhile, we'll have to be content exploring through the internet.


Now, I have to figure out what to use for our bedtime stories. I think it's probably time to use some books geared to younger children. Hmm . . . I'll be reading two or three books instead of two or three chapters.

It Hit All of Us

J. informed me last night that he had been fighting an upset stomach. He waited until he felt better to tell me. I guess he didn't want me to worry. I'm glad he let me know or I would have fretted for a while.

Our household seems healthy now. Some of the kids seem a little more tired than normal, but no one is ill. The intensity of my headaches has subsided some as well.

She's a Strange Bird

Birdie told me her tummy was gurgling.

I asked her why.

Birdie: "because 'when the sun goes down the moon goes up' "

While this may seem like she pulled it out of thin air, it was in fact a line from a song that was in a book we were reading tonight.

Still . . . She's a strange bird.

I'm Growing Younger!

I have been informed by Baby Bear that when he is my age, I will be his age. So, in just under thirty years I will be three!

Somehow, I don't think I'd really like that very much.

I Owe My Mom One

Mom took the kids to a movie and then overnight yesterday. They were almost to her house when Puppy Dog got sick. Then, in the middle of the night, Monkey got sick. Mom was the one who had to clean up after them. I think I need to keep the kids home until they are all over this.


I wasn't feeling well yesterday. So I guess that just leaves J., Froggie, Kitty Kat, and Birdie to get sick. Is it a blessing that we're not all sick at once? Hmm . . . I hope everyone is well before the two birthdays at the end of the month.

Spelling Time

Yesterday, I took these pictures of the girls practicing their
spelling words*, while the boys were napping. I wanted a
record of all four girls hard at work.

Just as I pushed the button to take the picture, Monkey decided to stretch.

In this one, Birdie decided it was time to quit.

In this final picture, Froggie took a break.

The award for working straight through about thirty seconds of picture taking goes to Kitty Kat. Her prize? The good feeling that comes from a job well done!

* The girls were using blocks they got from their aunt, TMBMT ( Storyblox ).

He's really better?

Baby Bear was able to keep dairy down today. So, I am hoping he is finally better.

Or Not!

Baby Bear wasn't entirely over his sickies. He did great until sometime around half-time last night. Then he puked in my mom's kitchen. It was gross because he had had some red food coloring, but it wasn't too bad to clean up. Later, he threw up on my mom's white carpet (not at all easy to clean up). Hmm, I wonder if it was the French onion dip he ate? Today he is back on saltine crackers and clear fluids and whine.

Go Bucks!

We're going to my mom's to watch the National Championship Game tonight. J. and I made a cake and some egg kisses to take along.

One Sick / The Rest Worn Out

Baby Bear woke up sick in the middle of the night. I helped some and then went back to bed. DH stayed up and was going to stay home with Baby Bear while the rest of us went to Church. However, DH fell asleep sometime during the night and is still asleep. The other kids have been worn out and not sleeping well. I still had a pretty bad headache when I woke this morning. So, I kept everyone home. I let the kids sleep as long as they would.

After breakfast and some free time, we went through some "Keys For Kids" devotions that we had available. As I type this, the kids are working on memorizing I Peter 3:15. After DH wakes up, we will probably sing some praise songs and have the kids recite their memory verse.

Hopefully, at least some of us will be able to make it to church this evening.

We're going to have to establish an earlier bed time for the rest of the winter. We have been very lenient over the holidays and the kids aren't getting enough rest.


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Update (1/7/08):

Baby Bear is feeling better. He is back to his ornery little self.

Party Time

Puppy Dog had a birthday party to go to this evening. It was a good thing he went. No one else who was invited came. PD, the birthday boy, and the birthday boy's brother had a lot of fun though.

Puppy Dog wanted to take the Trouble game he got for Christmas with him. I told him he couldn't, and that if they were playing games they would already have things planned. We walked into the party and the brothers showed Puppy the Trouble game one got for Christmas. They started off their time together playing the game Puppy wanted to take.

Isn't it neat how sometimes things just work out? The boys all had fun, Puppy got to play some games he really liked, and the birthday boy was not left with a party where no one showed up.

2008

Happy New Year Everyone!