Back to School!

School started on time and in person for our kids (although it took me a month to upload the pictures to my computer). The main differences will be wearing masks in school and not being able to mix with other grades. Their small class sizes have helped keep things fairly relaxed though. Several students at the school had to miss the first two weeks. There was an outbreak at a wedding the weekend before school started and quite a few families had to quarantine. 

The public school ended up delaying their start a week and then distance learning at the high school level for the first 2 weeks back. We are back in class now, but we have had to sacrifice several vacation days during the year as a result. This means I will have very few of those coveted 3-day weekends come January and February, and I will also have a shorter Xmas break :(  

Even with students having to be gone frequently for any little symptom (Elena had to stay home the last 2 days waiting out a sore throat), it's less chaotic that last spring for sure. In hindsight it's kind of ironic that we were all stuck in our homes when there were hardly any cases in the county and now that coronavirus is actually spreading in our community, we are back in school. The masking/distancing/closely tracking symptoms seems to be keeping things under control, though. Now we have pretty much gotten used to this new, strange normal for the long haul.

Frankie has loved preschool and was beyond excited for his first day! He gets pretty bored once he comes home at noon so we might have to extend his days. 

Olivia loves to help give (and receive) blessings before the kids go. We always lay a hand on the kids' heads while saying a blessing, and about 2 days in Olivia was coming up to us at the time with a hand on her head asking for her own blessing. She also likes to lay her hand on everyone else's heads.

 Livi does not, however, like being the one left behind after everyone goes to school. 

 

Dorito pants

Olivia's latest hobby has been playing with the spice cupboard, which is in one of our upper cabinets. This means I spend quite a bit of time every day standing by her while she shifts and reorganizes our spices to her liking and making sure she doesn't fall down or throw any glass jars. 

This and similar activities that need constant supervision seem to be her only current interests, other than just general clinging to me which has gotten worse since she started daycare. As a result I don't have many opportunities to to do anything that requires the use of my hands. 

The only reason I am able to get this typed is because Frankie woke Olivia up early from her nap so she is taking a horribly timed second nap at 6:30pm...which means I will be fighting with her to go down again from about 10:30-12:00 tonight because she will be tired and crying, but not tired enough to fall asleep. (And if you are thinking I should just let her sleep, I know from experience that if we put her to bed before 8:00 she will wake up around 2:00am and decide it's time to get up for the day.)

Anyway, I digress. During one such session of spice cupboard playing, I thought of a few things I needed to add to my shopping list so I told Alexa to make a shopping list. When I went back to play it later, I learned the kids had inadvertently added a few things of their own. 

Here was the list (and the reason you can hear Olivia screaming in the background is because I put Elena on "spice girl" duty with Livi and she tried to make her get her down):

Riveting conversations

And yes, our bike cart is on its very last leg! It has been well loved by many children.

 

Busy and "Watchy"

Life has been a whirlwind here to say the least. We visited family and friends for baptisms and first communions. Kids started school. Olivia started daycare for the first time (no crying by day 6!) The garden is coming in and demanding to be dealt with. (Anyone need peppers?) Coronavirus officially hit 2 houses on our block.

Teaching for me was delayed a week because of coronavirus. With the extra time, I have been over-prepping my Spanish classes. The internet is a blessing and a curse when it comes to ideas for teaching. It's basically like going into one of those ice cream shops with 58 flavors and unlimited samples. So many good ideas! I'll start with this one. No, this one. No, that one. I have redone my first week lesson plans 3 times this week. I really need to remind myself to just take it one day at a time. Especially given we never know what the next day will bring with this pandemic.

Maybe I will find time to fill more details of our life later but for now, I really just hopped on to share one great quote from Frankie.

Picking him up from daycare yesterday, I asked him if he was hungry. He said, "Yeah. And watchy."

"Watchy?"

"Yeah."

"What's 'watchy?'"

"It's when you want to watch a show."

And not to leave you hanging - in no particular order - here are some pictures.

Charlie on a horse named Charlie.

Making big waves in Sorensens' pool.

Cuteness.

Gabby's baptism!

Us (You can't imagine how much work it took to get us all corralled for this picture).

Fun with friends at the lake!

Day trip!

Here are a few pictures from a day-trip we took to Ortonville last month. The plan was to take a boat out to an island on Big Stone Lake but it started to storm about 30 seconds after we pulled up to the lake. Also, Olivia really hates boat rides. That's way too much time confined to one spot for her. 

So instead we went to a wildlife reserve and climbed a big rocky hill. Saw some goats. Had a great time after all. 

Elena was not thrilled to have Charlie join in on the sisters picture:

Trying times

 At age 4, Frankie can be as sweet as apple pie. He can also throw a major tantrum over the littlest thing. 

Yesterday was a rough day for him. In the morning he decided he wanted a certain dragon toy to play with. The problem was that he decided to get rid of that particular toy about a year ago so we donated it to the thrift store. Try as I may to explain that it would be impossible to track it down, he insisted I find it and get it for him. "You gave it away! You can go and get it."

Not long after, he asked me to play a song on Alexa. Only he didn't know the name of the song. Or any of the lyrics. His specific request was, "Play that song that you played once when I was probably 3." When I told him I had no idea what song he was referring to, he kept insisting "Mom! You know the song. You have played it before and I liked it!" 

After more helpful details like, "It has a lot of boys" and "It goes kind of like this: da-da-da-da" I wasn't much closer to guessing. At one point I asked if it was a Beatles song, and he replied with a groan and a completely exasperated voice, "Mom! Why are you messing up your life???!!"

I finally scrolled through my history on amazon and played some songs that had been played in the last couple of months. And we found it! It was "Wipe Out." (which I had actually guessed when he said the "da-da-da-da" but he said, "NO! Not that one!") I'm not sure how he thought it had lots of boys since there are no voices, but whatever. 

1 out of 2 crises averted isn't bad. He was still upset about the missing dragon at bedtime.

Maybe he just needs to spend more time in meditation:

(Bad) Eating Habits

Livi survives primarily on berries (cherries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) and breastmilk. She even eats the tart cherries right from the tree, which are extremely sour. Sam gave her one as a joke and she just kept eating them. And popcorn, which she prefers to shove in her mouth by the handful like everyone else. Other favorites are peas from the garden and asparagus. Everything else is pretty hit and miss so far.

Also, try as I may to discourage her from eating sugar, she seems to know exactly what it is and that it is delicious. At a graduation reception, there was candy on the table which she kept reaching for. Every time we tried offering her a healthier option of food, she quickly grabbed it and forcefully threw it onto the ground so she could go back to reaching for the candy.

And she hates sitting in her high-chair 80% of the time, preferring to be on my lap (where she can dump my meal onto the floor) or to be fed while moving around. I have tried refusing to give her any food unless she is seated in her high-chair to which she responded, "That's fine, I just won't eat at all. And then I will keep you up all night because I am hungry. Have fun with that." At least that's my best interpretation of her gibberish based on the events that followed.

....Since writing the above, I am happy to announce that Livi has improved in her eating habits a bit. She will go in her high chair much more frequently at least. She doesn't last too long, but it's a start.

Here she is sharing her food with her brothers:

News in Frankie's World

A few recent anecdotes about Frankie:

1. The pool is open in Minneota, much to our delight! Frankie had mastered doggy paddling by the end of our first day there. After several visits, he decided to tackle the diving board. The rest of our kids jumped off at age 2, but Frankie has been more hesitant, always backing out at the last minute. When Seth was able to come with us to the pool one night, he got in the water to help catch Frankie. Still, he stood at the end of the board for a looooong time, not jumping. He was holding up a pretty long line of kids behind him, who were all very patient. Before long pretty much everyone there was encouraging him - including all those kids in line. He got off a few time and went to the back of the line. At one point, a lifeguard went to try to help him. As soon as she got near him, he grabbed onto the railing and yelled, "Don't throw me in!!!!!" Eventually he did it to the applause and cheers of everyone there. And "It was SO fun!!"

2. When requesting songs to listen to, Frankie asked me to play I Can't Touch the Ceiling. I was a confused until Elena clarified that he wanted Can't Stop the Feeling.

3. Frankie came downstairs one morning and, after a bit, said he had to go to the bathroom. The main floor bathroom was occupied so I told him to go upstairs. He kept dancing outside the door, refusing to climb the steps all the way upstairs - which was apparently too much to ask. Concerned that he was about to go in his pants, I suggested he just run out in the back yard and go in the bushes. (If that seems uncivilized to you, I assure you it's par for the course when you live in a neighborhood with something like 25 young boys. The neighbors have a bush that is universally referred to as "The Pee Tree" by the local children.) Anyway, he ran out back only to come right back with a frustrated groan because he couldn't go outside either. "Aaaaaww! Charlie's peeing out there!" (Charlie must have run into the same issue.) "Why does that matter? There's plenty of room out there," I said. "I don't want him to see me!" This from a kid who, last week, I had to stop from peeing in the front yard very near the road with the family across the street sitting on their front porch.

4. Seth took the four oldest kids golfing one night last week. With the little ones on the golf cart, he was driving carefully, but he ended up taking a fairly sharp turn at one point. He immediately looked over to check on the kids and saw Frankie hanging off the side of the cart holding on by his hands. He quickly stopped and Frankie hopped back, wiping his brow and saying "Whew!" When Seth asked him if he was ok, Frankie replied, "Yeah. It's a good thing I'm a stunt kid!"

And here is Frankie listening to his new favorite joke:

Livi at 1 year

Sometime around a year, our kids become A LOT of work to watch. Based on tales from our parents, they get that from me so I guess I have no right to complain, but I will share. In fact, I have written at least 1 blog post for each previous child when they hit this state. It appears there is a pre-walking stage of needing constant assistance as they increase in mobility (which is where Livi is now) followed by an increase in extreme mess-making (yet to come).

If you care to recap, here are the previous I-can't-get-anything-done posts. Just click on the names to see them.
Elena
Sam
Charlie (10 months)
Charlie (1.5 years)
Frankie (10 months)
Frankie (1.5 years)


She has moved from wanting to be carried everywhere by me - forcing me to do everything one-handed - to wanting to be walked around while holding someone's hands (usually mine). As bad as it was trying to make supper or clean up with one hand, I am realizing it was much better than with no hands. If she wants to walk and we try to hold her or just set her down, she arches her back/stiffens her legs and screams. This also applies to walking up steps - she hates being carried up, preferring to climb up herself. Surprise, surprise: we got another strong-willed child.

We swore we wouldn't ever "walk" her by holding her hands because that's all Frankie wanted to do for a good 2 months, but here we are again. I think most babies sort of hit a point where they force it on you - it's just that our youngest two like it a bit too much. When Seth is around, we take turns watching her and getting things done. When Seth is gone, pretty much nothing gets done - she wants to be carried, walked, climbing or playing outside non-stop. It can take me a good hour some mornings just to get dressed and brush my teeth.

Here is a glimpse of how my days look:

The older kids help some, but they have been pretty busy running around with friends and to the pool. Plus, Livi is getting to be so much work  to watch that the kids quickly disappear as soon as they suspect I might ask for help soon. At least they love helping her to practice walking as you can see in the video below. She can take several steps before falling, but she still prefers to have help. So while she officially started walking at 13 months - she's still not a consistent "walker" unless she is practicing.

She is happiest when she is exploring something or visiting someone new. Her best days are when we visit friends who have a 9-year-old daughter to play with or when the neighbor girls knock on the door and say, "Can Olivia play?" and then whisk her away to a new environment. Here she is being pulled in a car by our friend,  Claire.

Of course her cuteness outweighs any struggle, and we are very appreciative to have this healthy and happy baby. One of our favorite habits of hers is her laugh. She has this devious little chuckle that she makes whenever she gets what she wants.

Here is a video of her "I like this" laugh. I don't have one yet of her chuckle, but I will keep trying.

Four-year-old Fun

As fun as it is to watch kids at every age, I really enjoy age 4. At this age, kids become a bit less demanding, and it's so much fun to watch them start doing all the things they see adults do while putting their own spin on it.

Frankie is becoming quite the conversationalist. He has a very earnest way of talking that's pretty adorable. He loves to strike up a conversation with adults we meet on the street or at the grocery store. He asks things like, "How's your day going today?" and "What's your name? My name is Frank, but my long name is Francis." (He recently asked this of a man named Tom, and responded, "Oh! I watch Thomas the Train!!") He stopped to visit Grandma and Grandpa the other day and informed them that it was "the best day of his life because the weather was just perfect."

He has his fair share of funny one-liners. Of course, I would have to write them down immediately to remember them all. He recently tried pulling the, "I'm little and sometimes I just don't understand!!" line on his older siblings when he was trying to get his way with something. We all agreed that if he could use that as his argument, he clearly did understand.

He has also FINALLY started to let me cut his hair with the clippers. He used a scissors to snip a small chunk of hair off the front of his head. It wasn't too much and would have been easily remedied, but when everyone laughed he decided it was funny to cut hair. So of course, he ran and did it again, cutting it as short as he possibly could. I told him I would have to use the clippers to even it out, and to my great shock, he agreed. 

Here's the before picture. (Sorry, no after shot).