School and Breaks + A Birthday

Our Miss Kate has had the experience of going to first grade this year.  She also got glasses in December, much to her great excitement. She is only required to wear them for school and generally doesn't wear them around the house, in spite of her initial excitement.  :)

She asked me to curl her hair with sponge rollers.

It lasted through the following day.

 This girl loves to write and I often find her thoughts and notes lying around on various writing surfaces. Even a bit of venting of upset feelings have been found on scrap papers (as well as encouraging or otherwise notes on her Brother's school papers). I discovered this gem and had to document since it is erasable. :D

 Reading is not her favorite because she cannot yet read 200 words per minute. (she is getting closer)  :D She sets the bar high for herself and sometimes gets discouraged at how long it takes for her to get there.

 Getting in her reading requirements on a sick day while mom does laundry .

 And then its his turn. He is reading over my shoulder as we speak, correcting my mistakes. :)

Kate loves to be the teacher and begs the kids to play school. I loved this note I found on the fridge after a school session.

The "teacher" teaching Jax how to write.

On MLK day we had a warmish and beautiful sunny day, which is something that has been much more rare this winter than usual.  With Kate home from school we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and go for a walk and stop in at the park. Our outdoor experiences have been very minimal this winter with all the sickness and such.

 This " Cat About Town" Kitty scurried right over to the park for a bit of excitment when we showed up. :D  It lives on the edge of the park and is VERY friendly and fun to watch.

 It ran straight over and jumped into the bottom basket of our Bob Stroller.

 Then it proceeded to show us how to use the playground equipment... much to the delight of the kiddos.

When it got bored it played a game of chasing its own shadow before wandering off. So funny to watch.

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This should have been in the last post but its here instead.

Way back in the month of December, this kiddo turned 1! I know I skipped all the other kids Birthdays this year and they are somewhere in an unfinished post, but for now I will just squeeze Jax in here. After all, it was quite a simple affair.  Various ones were sick and we barely managed to squeeze in a little cake. Presents didn't happen. :D  He's a 4th child. We don't need anymore toys. He didn't care. :D

 He DID enjoy the cake!  Maybe a bit too much! :D And then he collapsed over in a heap of exhaustion.

  He loves to play peekaboo or hide n seek games.

 Eats people food in spite of the fact that he barely has 4 teeth. However 2 more have broke through in the past week and there are 6 fiery red spots and 4 bulging molars.  That also = one rather cranky toddler. :)

 He is still fine tuning his walking skills, but it is happening. :)

He does his best to keep up with his siblings and they are learning how to be patient and include him when they can. :) His jabber right now probably more interesting than conversation and his actual words are few. Dah Dah Dah= Daddy.  Nah Nah Nah= no no.  Gaw gaw gaw = go go go. He has attempted a few all-dones after meals accompanied with the sign but it sounds more like ah-dah. Mostly he uses noise instead of words though. Loud screechy noise.  We are working on that. :D

Winter Wildlife or Wild Winter Life

A snowy sunrise is a beautiful change from the drab of the bleak winter scenery.

Even a gray morning fog is pretty in the snow.

When the lake is frozen over we sometimes have geese in the park and on occasion we also have deer in the yard. On this particular morning I looked out to see 6 deer invading the premises!

We scurried from window to window, getting a good look at them as they wandered about the yard.
They got a good look at us too! :)

They were in the front yard...

the side yard...

eating the rosebush outside the living room window

and the back yard.

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On the flip side, our wild winter life, we got sick, traveled, got sick, had company, got sick, traveled, got sick again, and now we are finally back to normal. At least I think...it still feels a little foreign.

A few snapshots of days with company. 

innocent or not? that is the question.

Sunday storytime.

sickness was here along with the cousins

camera shy

Aubrey and Jax had the influenza virus while our company was here. It was pretty miserable and took a few weeks to bounce back from. Just in time to make it to U. Daves wedding. I did bring the camera but photos taken are nonexistent. That's mom-life. :)

This wee man spiked his fever too fast and ended up haveing a febrile seizure.  Not something I would want a repeat experience of, although they say it is more likely to reoccur to babies it has happened to before. We medicate whenever he gets a fever from now till 5yrs. The main danger is past by 3. It seems like but a distant memory now. The ride in the ambulance. Leaving my other sick baby and everyone else in the care of my wonderful In-laws. Spending a sleepless night of comforting a screaming-inconsolably baby and monitoring another spiking fever the wouldn't quit rising in Miss Aubrey.  Dozing in and out amidst flashbacks of the seizure. Waking to the next day.  A normal day of goings on with life and company.  A normal acting baby with the exception of a few more screaming fits.

The day after his ambulance ride he was back to normal

When we got back from the wedding we had the stomache flu. Thankfully a very mild one, so not really a big deal.

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Somehow, somewhere in there we got our supply of blackberry jelly done, finally!  Mostly just because I needed the freezer space. I didn't actually have the time or energy, but it somehow happened because I have a wonderful husband.

2days work

I would like to think the rest of the winter won't have so much sickness, but hopefully just as much good times. Because the happy stuff was plentifully sprinkled throughout the not so pretty stuff. :)