chillin'

in recovery

Well, we've all been sick and/or allergic for the past couple of months and it's wearing on us all. After Nate's party Thad started to feel really horrible. Turns out he has a sinus infection, which is thankfully treatable. Nate's also got a really horrible cough that may be asthma, so we're trying to figure that out. It's not life-threatening or anything, but still concerning. Let's hope this is the final straw! We are ready to be healthy again.

In other completely unrelated news, we picked up our first of two winter shares from our local farm and we have SO many veggies! This was well over 50lbs. Our share included, but was not limited to, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, garlic, squash, pumpkin, kale, lettuce, radishes, turnips, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, beets, and collards.Bok choy, anyone?

four!!!

Nate is four! Time's a weird thing. On one hand, I can't believe he's already four. And on the other, I can't believe he's only four.

Yesterday was his birthday and against our better judgement, we got him drumsticks and a practice drum mat and are setting up some lessons for him. He also got a science set, which has been a hit (he's a mini Thad). We also had a bunch of his friends over for his "kid party" (the "family party" is coming up soon) and everyone had a blast. Considering that we had 11 kids and 12 adults (or more? I keep loosing count. Duh.) things went very smoothly and everyone played really nicely. We had a piñata, which was a big hit (horrible pun intended)!

anja's new party trick

Oh boy. We thought Nate moved around a lot. Anja's much, much more adept than he was at this age. She is a crazy climbing baby. I am trying not to call her "crazy" in front of her or Nate lest she become ludicrous, but I really do think she's a nutter.

the balance beam

Recently while cooking dinner I heard a crash from the other room, followed by Nate unhappily grunting.
me: Are you okay?
Nate: Yes.
me: What happened?
Nate: I fell.
me: Do I want to know what you fell off of?
Nate: The windowsill.

After a discussion about the drawbacks of walking on windowsills, we talked about the benefits of using a balance beam instead and watched a few videos of Olympic gold medal routines. Nate then wanted to try out his own routine, which he promised would be like the ones we'd viewed, "but this one will be much better." Here's Nate's better-than-gold routine:

halloween!

We had a great Halloween, but our photos did not fare so well. My computer crashed during the download, so some of the better shots were sent into the digital abyss. Luckily a few were saved, so I'm including those here. We had a blast carving our pumpkins and, thanks to my mother who gave us the book "How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?" we ended up counting out all the seeds in our pumpkin (346, in case you are interested). We went trick-or-treating with our cousins and we had a great time, especially Nate and Freya, the oldest kids. They were running from house to house, so so SO excited about all their loot. One house had a ghoul decoration that was activated by a motion sensor and it scared Nate so much that he ran away from the house screaming and wouldn't go back for candy, no matter who went with him. You've got to love Halloween!

center of our universe

Guess what I'm here to talk about once again? Poop! Yes, we are still stuck here in our poopcentric house. Such is life. And I know I owe you the requisite cute Halloween pics... coming soon!

Anja is taking after her brother and pooping way more than she ingests. She was on a regular once-a-day schedule but has now switched to a three-a-day cycle that I absolutely abhor. Not only that, but whenever we change her she tries to grab the dirty diaper and/or the poop. If that is unsuccessful she just grabs at her poop-covered undercarriage. Nice.

In other sh!tty news, Nate is very, very excited about potty talk. We've had to ban "poop" from mealtime talk, so Nate is getting around this by saying things like, "koo koo head" instead. I think things have been compounded by school where it seems every boy in his class will fall into fits of hysterics over the word "poop." If it weren't so incessant it might actually be amusing, all these four year olds cracking up. Also, everything Nate does now ends with "poop," even if he's alone. I caught him singing "I'm a Little Teapot" to himself a few days ago, but his version ends, "tip me over and pour me POOP!!!" Similarly, the alphabet song now concludes with, "next time won't you sing with POOP!!" I can assure you that this is very, very funny. At least it is if you ask Nate.