White Stuff!

We woke up this morning and there was white stuff everywhere!  We had been sort of aware that inclement weather was potentially on the way, but here we have learned to ignore whatever the weather predictions are and just be prepared.  Everyone was incredibly excited to see snow and the plans to go out and play in it began as soon as they were awake. 

All lined up, raring to go and disturb all that untouched frozen tundra!

I have to admit, it is so incredibly nice to be able to help them all get dressed and then send them outside to play!  No one needs active supervision!  They can entertain themselves!  And get us if they need help!  (One downside of the no adults having to go outside, is a lack of action shots.  I'll have to remember that next time.)

It didn't take long for the SuperFour to finish outside.  It never got above freezing, although we did see sunshine the whole day.  Actually, one member would have stayed out longer if he could have convinced other members to stay with him.  Can you guess who wanted to stay out?  I'll give you four guesses and the first three don't count.  He was rather bummed out that no one wanted to stay out with him, but he wasn't willing to stay out by himself. 

Later in the day, after lunch and play and games and starting cinnamon roll dough, I wanted to go on a walk.  I do enjoy the snow and I definitely needed to go outside after having been cooped up all day.  When I told everyone to get ready, the three girls all, separately, came to me to a)complain and b)inform me of multiple reasons why they didn't want to go on a walk.  I calmly ignored the whining and told them to get ready.  Everyone bundled and off we went. 

It was lovely.  And the moment we stepped outside the Big Three were involved in some sort of running, slipping on the (very) icy road and deep in playing having fun.  Noodle stayed back with Dadam and I, and after we convinced her to just hold our hands, we had a nice walk on a snowy lane. 

Tooth Pull

You can't see it in this picture, but there is a tooth lurking behind the bottom left tooth.  This, of course, caused that bottom left tooth to become quite wobbly.  It was bothering The Boy-child for a little while now.  He would wiggle it with his tounge and push it with his top teeth.  He would ask us daily to pull on it and "just see if it would pop out".  Finally, tonight, Dadam gave it a tug. 

But the tooth still wouldn't pop out.   The Boy-child told him not to try again, but his mouth was bleeding and Dadam knew that it now needed to come out.  Dadam left the room to grab a tissue.  When he came back The Boy-child was fussing about how it was going to hurt.  We told him that it had to come out, so he should try pulling it.  And HE DID!  And out it popped!!!

I thought The Boy-child would pop with pride. 

And there's that other tooth, peeking out from behind, nearly halfway up already!!! 

Honestly

Now that no one needs nursing, or patting, or really anything to do with Mommy when they are going to sleep, Dadam is the man for the job.  I am so thankful because it means that I can help with going to bed, do nighttime ritual with everyone, tuck all the children in their beds and then I'm done for the day.  What a luxury!!  He still sits with LuLu and Noodle, mostly because they have a tendency to chat and mess around instead of going to sleep.

Last night he was sitting in with them, patting Noodle for a bit.  I had just turned out the light in PrincessE and The Boy-child's room when I heard Dadam laughing out loud.  I went in.  LuLu had just said to him, "Ohhhhhh, my eyes are hurting so much!  You better get me a wet washcloth quickly if you don't want me to complain!" 

Tethered

From the moment she came out, Lulu has been attached to me.  I don't mean that for a while in her life I was her favorite person, I mean that from about a week old "Mommy" has been it for her.  As an infant, she would cry if someone looked at her.  And heavens above, if I tried to hand her off to another adult!  Even Dadam was unacceptable a vast majority of the time.  She was sleeping in our bed the night I went in to labor with Noodle!  I swear there is an invisible umbilical cord connecting her to me.  Still. 

She has gotten a bit better as she has gotten older.  But there are still times when she will begin to cry in the evenings, if I am taking one of the other kiddos to an activity.  Or she might cry if I am going somewhere after she is asleep.  Oh my. 

I recently got invited to take part in a book club.  (Yay!  Reading books and discussing them with other women!  Yay!)  It only meets once a month and this month I really, really wanted to go as the book was hard to get through but really satisfying and well written at the end.  ("Cutting for Stone" - highly recommended) I wanted to go and discuss!  But, bah, Dadam's schedule got all screwed up and he ended up having to go to an evening meeting on the same night.  I thought:  no problem, I'll get a babysitter, get everyone asleep and then I'll slip away for a couple of hours.  Ha. 

I didn't think I should just leave the kids without telling them what was going on.  There is nothing more disorienting and, overall, more upsetting than waking up to a relative stranger in the house and no parental units!  Well, my Lulu, decided that this was not okay.  She'd only been up since six am (a full hour earlier than her alarm goes off) and is battling a head cold, but she was going to keep herself awake by working herself up into incredible hysterics about "mommy leaving her."  Leila was already snoring peacefully in the lower bunk and the house was quiet and sleepy.  But not Lu. 

Oh, Lulu.  My Lulu!  I know you are tired, exhausted even, and I am not "leaving you", I'm "going out for me".  But how do I draw that line for you when I know that you still see me as part of you?  Oh, Lu. 

So, I stood and I patted her like I haven't done in years.  She dozed off and woke herself up again, dozed and forced her eyes open.  Finally, I just kissed her and left, warning the babysitter as I went out of the house. 

I fully expected to find her curled up on the couch, watching the football game with the babysitter when I arrived home.  But she wasn't.  She was upstairs, in her bed, sound asleep.  I kissed her when I came in and she sat up, gave me a big sleepy smile, threw her arms around me and fell back asleep. 

She's okay.  But why does she have to make it so hard on me?

Cutes

Noodle is learning about hedgehogs and owls this week in school. Today in the car, she was telling me about her day. They had read a story about owls.

"I wish we had a barn so that owls could live in it. Then we would be able to keep an eye on them."

Oh, three. Can I keep you forever?

Random Pics

Here are some pictures to see what counts for "long hair" on a boy, in this house.  When you are used to a buzz cut, this:

seems pretty shaggy!  (Note the hair is past his ears (gasp) and touching his collar (oh the humanity! or at least the poorly groomed).  When ever The Boy-child says he's ready for a cut, this is what he gets:

And here are some pictures of our jack-o'-lanterns all lit up. 

The Boy-child (on the left) wanted his to look "angry.  And PrincessE's is supposed to have a "hat" on. 

Noodles is on the left and Lulu's is on the right.  (It is amazing the differences in pumpkin thickness, Lulu's must have been much thinner, as it is *really* glowing!)

The Great Pumpkin(s)

Late last night I got an email announcing that the school was closed today due to a power outage! What to do with our all of a sudden free day? In the end of October we had purchased pumpkins to make Jack-o-lanterns with, but the pumpkins had been sitting on the dining room window sill since then. Aha! We'll carve our pumpkins!

First, we had to wash them. Then the kids all took a sharpie and went to town drawing faces. It is a bit difficult to explain how to draw a face that will be easy to cut out, but they did alright.

I cut the bottoms out of all the pumpkins. And they went to work cleaning them out. The Boy-child and LuLu got right to it; digging their hands in the muck and scooping out loads of seeds. PrincessE and Noodle, on the other hand, practically refused to put their hands in the pumpkins. I had to tell PrincessE that she needed to either do it or not, but I didn't want to hear any more complaining about her messy hands!










But they got it sorted out. Then I carved them up, trying to stick to the original drawings as much as possible. (I was a bit nervous about PrincessE and The Boy-child doing it themselves. I think next year I'm going to have to let them do it.) We have some friends who use their Dremel for pumpkin carving, I may advocate getting one for us! Four is a lot of pumpkins to carve.

They turned out really cute and we put tea lights in them, so they could welcome Dadam home.




Noodle and Lulu's punkins.



The Boy-child and PrincessE's!

(I'll post a pic of glowing pumpkins tomorrow!)

Land Shark

The Boy-child has two wobbly teeth!  More importantly, because there is so.very.little room in his mouth, the adult teeth are coming in behind the baby teeth.  One adult tooth is already sticking out behind the others.  I was examining his mouth today and predicting lots of metal work in his mouth in the future.  "Oh, don't worry Mom.  I'm a shark!"

And I was worried he'd be self-conscious!

 

Truthiness

The Boy-child is growing his hair out.  There are several boys in his class who have very long hair, flowing even.  So, he's giving it a try.  It's fairly long now and it hangs over his ears. 

This is difficult for Dadam to accept.  I have finally gotten him to stop frequently suggesting that the Boy-child should want his hair cut (we don't do that to the girls, why should we do it to him?), but he still cannot resist making the occasional slightly-teasing-remark. 

At breakfast this morning, Dadam said, "I know why you're having so much trouble hearing us!  Your hair is covering your ears!"  As I was telling Adam to leave the Boy-child alone, PrincessE piped up and said, "Oh Dad, you're just bothered because you don't have very much." 

Out of the mouths of babes.