Odds and Ends from February

Too tired to eat? Life must be exhausting for 16-month old Eliza. "Hey sis, wake up!" Despite Eden poking Eliza in the eye, Eliza was deep asleep.
Ephraim, Eden, Eliza and Emmet--ready for church.

Conversation with Emmet on Sunday night:

We were sitting on the couch reading stories and he kept scratching his ear. Here's the conversation:

Mom: "Stop picking your ear, Emmet."

Emmet: "No."

Mom: "Yes." And we continued reading. Again, "Please, stop."

Emmet: "No."

Mom: "Emmet, stop it. You're bleeding."

Emmet: "No, I'm not."

Mom: "Yes, you are."

Emmet: "No, I'm not."

Mom: "Then what's that on your finger?"

Emmet (after a long pause): "Syrup."

Lost and Found, or not yet found

Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of something in our house. Just because one of us left it somewhere, does not mean it will be there later. There are too many little hands moving stuff in our house. Last week was the week of losing and finding. Eliza came home with her Sunday shoes on Sunday. By Wednesday, I noticed that they were missing from the "shoe basket" in the breezeway. I wasn't worried because we still had a few days to find them. I could not find them and it was starting to drive me crazy. Finally, Friday night I was picking up toys a little more than I had during the week and I opened the refrigerator door to the girls' kitchen set. Yep, you guessed it. One shoe was in the fridge and another in the oven.

Valentine's Day treats
Ephraim comes home from school with his baggie of goodies from their Valentine party. I was not home, but my mom was. In a matter of 20 seconds, there are treats, candy, wrappers, etc spread all over the table. And Ephraim has taken a mental picture of what he got. A couple hours later, Ephraim is asking for the itty, bitty snake and heart tattoo that he got in his goodie bag. Thus, began the search for two, super-tiny tattoos that I hadn't even seen yet. I could not find them. Later that night I was doing laundry and there they were--on top of the washing machine. Who knows how they got there?

And then there was the bracelet he wore home from school that same day. His story is that he went to the bathroom and then it was gone. We couldn't find it and again, I was searching for something that I had not seen yet. That complicates the process. Saturday night, I reached for clean towels and there it was, in between two clean towels. At that point, Ephraim tells me that yes, he now remembers helping put towels away.
So, I guess the lesson learned here is that if something is missing, it will eventually show up (unless the twins put it in the garbage).

Now, if I could just find Ephraim's rhinocerus and swan. Oh, and Mr. Potato Head would like to find his other ear . . . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made a heart-shaped cake for Valentine's Day. I am a cake-decorating class drop-out so it's not perfect but it tastes good. Due to the snowy weather, our valentine date for two turned out to be a family date at Long John Silvers.


A photo of the kids enjoying the new snow. It took me about 20 minutes to get everyone ready to go outside. And it doesn't help that the girls are getting undressed just as fast as you can get them ready. It goes something like this . . .
"Okay kids, let's go outside."
"Yay!"
"Emmet, go potty first."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
Mom: "Okay, whatever."
"Emmet, you need socks on."
"No, my feet aren't cold."
"Yes."
"No."
"Okay, then you can stay inside."
"No."
Eden and Eliza don't talk back yet but they can be just as contrary to get bundled up, by the time you find shoes that match and mittens their size. I get Eliza dressed with shoes, coat, mittens and hat. Then it's Eden's turn to get bundled up. And then, "Eliza, where's your mittens. . . and your hat?
Thankfully, Ephraim can pretty much get himself ready to go outside!

A photo of our house from the outside. The far left window is the master bedroom. The door and middle double windows are the living room. The smaller windows in the middle are the kitchen. The windows on the right are the breezeway, where we keep all our coats and shoes.

Doggie pile! It is so nice to see the kids laughing and playing together.

Quick, grab a washcloth! The caramel dip "exploded" on Eliza!

Eliza was eating so carefully and Emmet was teaching her how to dip her apples in the caramel sauce. I leave the room for just a minute and come back to a messy, sticky little girl.

Snow much fun!
We headed to my parents house for lunch on Sunday. Afterwards we went outside for some sledding. Then we built this ramp out of snow for the boys to catch some air while sledding. They had a blast!

Life is good!

2 pictures

We have enough sibling rivalry in our house that I had to take this picture. We were watching movies Sunday night when Eden just crawled into Ephraim's lap on the bean bag and made herself comfortable. So cute!

Here is a picture of the kids' room. I haven't forgotten about taking you on a virtual tour of our home, so here is the first picture. Emmet's bed is on the left and Ephraim sleeps in the loft. Eden has the white crib and Eliza has the crib on the right beside the changing table. Their huge closet is to the left of the boys' beds.

From the mouth of Emmet

First, a little background. Ephraim and Emmet like us to pause the movie they are watching if they have to leave to go to the bathroom.

At supper the other night, Emmet has to go potty. He gets up from his chair and says, "Can you pause supper for me?" We all laughed.

Trial and Error

Sometimes what can be so hard about parenting is not knowing what the right answer or method may be for a particular child. Here are the latest experiments going on in our house.

Experiment #1076 (okay, so I just made that number up).
The challenge: Sundays after 2nd service church
The dilemma: Emmet, Eden & Eliza fall asleep on the way home from church
The solutions:
A. Let them sleep in the van until they wake up and then feed them lunch
B. Wake them up when we get home, feed them lunch and then hope they take a nap after that
C. Take them straight from the van to the crib/bed, then wait for them to wake up for lunch

Well, what's your answer? We tried "A" two weeks ago. It didn't work. They woke up after 20 minutes in the van, were crabby, had lunch and did not take another nap. We tried "B" last week. They did not take another nap. We tried "C" this week. Eden slept until 4:30! Eliza slept about 20 minutes from the time we laid her down and Emmet didn't go back to sleep. Now what? Well, no nap for most of the kids does mean a 7:30 bedtime which isn't all bad.

Experiement # 1077
The challenge: potty-training Emmet
The dilemma: too many accidents
The solution: After hearing this suggestion from a friend, we're going to start taking away his favorite toys/movies, etc. So far, I've put his things in a cute, little Longerberger basket. I'm thinking I might have to super-size it to a LAUNDRY BASKET.

Report Card

Here's a fun report card for us right now:

A+
to Ephraim for not missing the bus yet, and actually the bus hasn't had to wait on him once. We're always at the end of the driveway by the time the bus stops.

B-
to the kids for their sleeping abilities. The other night Eliza didn't go to sleep until 1:30am. And then she was up at 6:30am, and then only took a 1hr nap during the day. Crazy child!

C
to Emmet for potty training. He goes potty a couple times a day but has at least one accident a day. He has the great ability to "hold it" for up to 8 hours. So if he has an accident, we're talking a minor flood.

D
I'm making progess with the unpacking. We've reached a bit of standstill but I'm hoping to finish up on the 16th when I have my unpaid furlough day from the State. To those of you who know I'm a packrat: I've got two boxes to give to the semi in Pella that goes to Mississippi and I know three pregnant friends/cousins and I hope to give them a "few" things.

F
to me for not looking at the snack schedule for Ephraim's class. Typically he has snack around the middle of the month. February schedule came out and I didn't look at it until Monday night. Yep, he had snack on Monday. I bought to boxes of crackers as a peace offering and will give them to his teacher to keep in the cupboard as a spare.

Well, that's all. We are all starting to come down with the cough/crud/cold. Oh joy!