Ben vs. Anna

I was hanging up our coats tonight when we got home from church and I turned around in time to see Ben dragging Anna by her tights across the hardwood floor. She looked rather surprised and I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. I managed to choke out, "Ben, don't do that! You'll stretch out her tights. Oh, and you might hurt your sister." You know, go for the obvious reason not too do something first. I removed her tights and went into the kitchen, but not before I heard her yell out, "Benji, no spin Anna! That's naughty!" I guess he got told!

She also been using more sentences, like "I want juice" instead of just "juice" and "How about Ring the Rosie" instead of an insistent "Ring the Rosie" when she wants to play. And the other day she strung together a medley of songs. She started with the beginning of "ABC's" then hit the middle of "Jesus Loves Me" and ended with the last line of "The B-I-B-L-E."

Thanksgiving with the Lits

On Wednesday of this past week, we took off for Illinois to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. Rob was able to get off work a tad bit early and because of that, we made it in time for a big Litwiller/Schertz family dinner. And I mean just in time: we pulled in at the same time as Rob's parents at the restaurant. We looked a might disheveled, Rob having sat in chocolate and in his traveling shorts, me in a rather dressed-down outfit, and the kids looking like, well, kids that had been in a car for four hours! I was feeling very out-of-sorts and not fit for human company, but it was nice to see everyone. I hit the shower after the kids went to bed that night and slept off the crankies. Sort of. I never sleep well away from home!

The next day we visited with Rob's youngest brother and his wife, who are expecting their first baby in July. We gave them all sorts of unsolicited advice on baby care that I hope they immediately forget, because I always tell new parents, "Don't listen to anything anybody tells you, even me. Do what's best for your baby." We also saw his middle brother, wife, and oldest child Jamie. Melissa was pregnant with their second son, who was born the following morning. We didn't get to see the baby b/c Rob had a sore throat and didn't think it best to pass that on to a newborn. We'll see baby Julian Mitchell at Christmas instead.

Our dinner was wonderful, especially since we had pork tenderloin instead of turkey! Rob and I are not great turkey lovers, but will tolerate it once a year if we have to. The kids all ate pretty good and enjoyed the meal. Anna, my little carnivore, ate an entire piece of pork! And she tried pumpkin pie for the first time and loved it.

On Friday, I went out shopping at 5:45am. Kohls had toys on sale and I had a coupon so I "braved" it. I really don't have a problem shopping on Black Friday and find people funny who keep saying, "This is crazy! This is nuts!" when they walk into a store. Seriously, did they not know what they were getting into?? Anyway, I waited a mere ten minutes in line to pay, then went to Toys R Us to find what I couldn't get at Kohls. Again, I waited about five-ten minutes in line. I guess the wait to pay earlier in the morning was almost 3 hours. That's a little excessive for me! So, the moral of the story is: go a few hours after the store opens if you're not looking for the reduced-price-but-under-stocked items. And then I used some coupons at Lane Bryant, in which I was the only customer. Not bad!

We took the kids to the Children's Museum at 9am along with my in-laws and Jamie, who was dropped off by his tired daddy. My sister and mother met us there and I got to see my nephew Zach for the first time. He was so cute! Uncle Rob put him to sleep (Zach had a cold anyway so his mommy didn't mind a slightly sick Uncle Rob holding him.) After two hours at the museum, we took the kids to McDonald's, then on to Pontiac to stay with my parents. My brother Joel, wife Cara, and son Ezra stopped in for supper and a visit. I didn't know we'd be seeing them, so it was a nice surprise!

We took off for home on Saturday morning and got here by early afternoon. In the evening, we went to the Christmas Parade of Lights. We have enjoyed going to that parade every year since we've been here. The boys just loved it! Anna fell asleep half-way through, but her sleep schedule has been off so I wasn't surprised. Ben is a cute-magnet: he was given a teddy bear and a snowman lamp. Anna was given a squishy turtle. Poor Matthew has apparently passed the age of little-kid cuteness. He was rather sad, but he did pick up WAY more candy than Ben. We had two teenagers with no knowledge of personal space standing near us. Several times I turned to talk to Rob and one of the teens was standing there instead. I kept moving up our family to get away from them, but they didn't take the hint! Oh well, the parade was still lots of fun!

And now I'm off to finish my grocery shopping, including the purchase of baking supplies. I'm going all out this year!

The TV/Wii-free Week

Last Saturday, Rob and I decided to check our Wii and see how much time we had spent on it that day. Our jaws dropped as we saw that between the four of us who play, we logged over six hours just that day alone! We looked backwards over the previous two weeks and saw that most days were under two hours, but that's still not good. So we made a little agreement--that we would try a week w/o any DVD's or Wii playing. We haven't had any TV channels since Matthew was one, but we were certainly plunking in the DVD's more that we care to admit--even to each other.

The kids were less than thrilled about the new arrangement and spent two-three days following me around the house. I started playing some CD's for them and they just sat in the dining room and listened. Pathetic. My children normally rip all over the house and play when the TV is on, but couldn't come up with much of anything to do without it. I am happy to say that they are now playing with toys they haven't paid attention to in a long time and just drag one of the speakers into the living room. They have a new love for Patch the Pirate and can work a tape deck. (I wonder how many of their peers even know what a tape deck is??)

Our biggest challenge came Tuesday night. We had agreed to babysit for some friends of ours who were attending a visitation up north for a youth pastor who was killed in a car accident. (If you think of it, pray for the Tobin family--his wife is left with three young children to raise.) My normal plan would include watching a movie toward the evening, but Rob and I decided we needed to stick to our plan. Thankfully, he came home right before they arrived so I had help. The three older children played outside, played in the toyroom, played games, and had a marvelous time. The younger girls had a good time as well, until little Maddie, age one, found Anna's special baby dolls. Miss Anna wasn't all too happy about it, but we made her share one of them. We also took a trip to the library, which was loads of fun.

So here's my assessment after one week of no TV or Wii: I like it. My children are calmer overall, they play together better than before, they get into less trouble, their attention spans have lengthened, and they walk around singing songs about cleaning their room and obeying right away. I've decided to add more "school" to our day, playing learning games, doing Brain Quest cards, and other activities. The change is astounding. We have already decided to leave movies for special family times, illnesses, and the doldrums of winter. Wii is for family time and winter (we have the Wii Fit, which has a running course on it that the boys can do for excercise.) although Rob and I will probably use it more regularlly.

On a different note, Anna has two songs on her blacklist: Away in a Manger and Rock-a-bye Baby. Sing them to her and she'll instantly start crying. I'm thinking that she thinks we're talking about doing something mean to her baby dolls, but I'm not sure. The boys amused themselves the other day by forcing her to stay upstairs and singing to her. Poor little girl!

Matthew

Okay, time for the Matthew post. I just now published this as the first sentence only...hopefully no one is trying to read it....

Matthew is an active five-year-old, for sure! He has always been my high-energy child and he hasn't slowed down yet. No, I take that back. He does slow down enough to play his favorite Wii games and would play for hours if we let him. He's a master at Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Party 8. I haven't really gotten him onto the computer much, but we're going to work on that soon. Our whole family loves playing the Wii (which the boys are currently doing) so it's no surprise that Matthew is an much an addict as Rob and I!

We've started letting he and Ben go outside by themselves. That's finally going well. I hadn't really allowed it sooner, partly because our yard is a mosquito plantation in summertime and partly b/c I was nervous about what they would DO if let out alone. But it's going well and I'm glad. It's good to say, "Go outside!" when they get too rambunctious. And my kids are as impervious to the cold and Rob and I so I'm sure they will go out until the temps dip into the teens. Maybe they'd keep their jackets on at that point....

Kindergarten is going well. We are contintuing to use Sonlight's Core 4/5, which is a preschool program we started back in the early spring. We will finish it up around January. I'm not going to order the whole of Core K, but just a few books and then get all of the readers and such from the library. We're supplementing the core with the Explode the Code series for phonics and Minquon Math. I'm not sure I really like the math program, but he is learning and I like to finish it before I pass judgement. We believe in a more unschooling approach to learning, so he may be learning more math from the games we play and, oddly enough, video games than the math program. I also purchased the entire Think it Through set from Discovery Toys and that is supplementing the math program very nicely. He's reading well and loves to take books to bed with him. I enrolled him in Pizza Hut's Book It program and he has already earned his November certificate! I decided to have him read 10 easy readers per month (the level 3's) but that seems to be too easy. We tried a short chapter book but he was overwhelmed by it, so we'll stick with the easier books. I know he reads at least twice that amount of books each month, so I think I'll up the goal in December. And try again with the "regular" books.

We decided not to do a handwriting program with him. He's very determined to write his letters properly, so I don't see the need for a program to teach him. We also try to fit in crafts where we can, the most recent one being egg carton caterpillars. Reminds me...they are not finsihed yet! We are also working on skills that kindergarteners need to know, like shoe tying, knowing address and phone number, and some other things. He's working hard to tie those shoes but hasn't quite gotten it yet. Anything that doesn't come easily for Matthew frustrates him. So we're also teaching patience :)

Matthew loves attending Tiny Trackers each week. They have too many kids for one room now, so the kindergarteners are taken to a different room for part of the night. He loves going and memorizes his verses easily. Ben wasn't there last week b/c of his cold/croup, so we'll see how he handles it next week when Matthew starts in a different room.

Matthew and Ben have been great friends for awhile, but he and Anna are bonding great as well. They love to make each other laugh. She knows just what to do to get him going! He's a great helper around the house and is usually eager to help out. He completes his chores quickly and thoroughly, something I NEVER thought he'd do!

There is one major problem with Matthew, however. He keeps growing! I told him to stop, even threatened punsihment, but he tells me that he can't help it. He said he's supposed to get bigger b/c that's the way God made him. And God made him a pretty neat kid.

Making Mommy Laugh

Today, Ben was "playing" the piano and he pulled out one of my Christmas books. He then started to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", stopped halfway through it and said, "Mom, you can't marry Christmas!"

I was reciting a few poems for Matthew and started quoting Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. I got to "silverbells and cockleshells" when he stopped me and said, "Taco shells?" and laughed himself silly.

Anna had a few random moments of peek-a-boo. For instance, she was sitting at the table quietly munching on her cereal when she ducked her head under the table, then popped up, looking at Ben, and said, "Peekie boo!"

I do not, however, find their new wake-up times very funny. After almost two weeks of the new time change, Anna has gone back to her regular wake-up time of 7am. The boys, however, like to get up with Rob at 5am. If it's just Matthew, he will watch a movie while the rest of us sleep after Rob leaves for work. If it's just Ben, I can convince him to go back to sleep in my bed. But when both of them are up, I have to get up b/c there's no telling what evil thoughts lurk in their heads. Or loud thoughts. At least they go to sleep right away when they are put to bed at night. We do devos at 8pm and Anna and Ben fall right to sleep. Matthew will read in his bed then go to sleep. And they do share a room.

You know, back in the early days of Matthew's infancy, I would read in child care books about sleep requirements. Little did I know that my eldest would be at the minimum! There are some nights he gets about eight hours. Ben is usually at ten and Anna at ten with a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. And I'm always amazed when I hear from other parents how long their children sleep. Amazed and envious. I love them at their ages now, but the sleepy part of me longs for the teen years when they sleep for large amounts of time. Who knows, maybe Matthew will go about nine hours by then! :)

My silly kiddos

This past Saturday, we decided to let the boys play outside by themselves. I know, I know, many children their ages are already doing that but I've been hesitant to allow it for reasons that I'm too tired to type out. It was a nice Indian Summer day so we kicked them outside. Over and over and over again. Those little goofballs would not stay outside without us. Finally, Rob set a timer and made them stay out! They kept complaining they were bored, they needed their shoes tied, they wanted to say "I love you", and on the list goes. We made them go out yesterday and FINALLY today they begged to go outside. They still keep coming back in, but at least they are staying outside longer. They have had their lesson on talking to strangers and know their boundaries. Anna enjoyed watching them from the window. She pulled an empty tub up to the end table and had a snack while watching their antics.

Speaking of Anna, she's been saying some silly things recently. If you ask her , "Where's Anna?" she'll say "Peek-a-boo!" When I ask her "Are you pretty?" she'll respond, "I Anna!" Whenever the timer for the oven goes off she yells out, "Hot pizza!"

We started something new today. Ben's SS teacher spoke in the student wives fellowship awhile back and gave out loads of preschoolish stuff for our use. I am taking an idea from it to make an octopus head for each child. The legs of the octopus each represent something they need to learn and when they have accomplished a skill they get to add that leg to their octopus. The boys have similar things to do, like hold a pencil properly, recite their phone number and address, and tie their shoes. Matthew pretty much does some of these just fine but Ben is ahead of him in learning to tie shoes. Matthew has to learn to properly write his letters while Ben needs to recognize them. I told the boys that it might take them a long time to learn some of the skills but that's okay. When they have all the legs on they will get a special prize. Anna watched me cut out the parts and wanted one too, so hers is all potty related.

I probably should do a post on Matthew and how he's doing in kindergarten, which is quite well. We're really enjoying this school year together.

Another week

On Tuesday of this week, Rob came home and said, "Well, I still have a job!" The C.S. did more cuts this week, which was a complete surprise b/c they said they wouldn't do anymore after the last cut. However, it was either that or shut down for two months and hope to reopen next year. We don't really know how Rob, who has worked there for three years, made it through and people who have been there for 20 years were laid off, but we're praising the Lord that he still has a job. He even got more hours than usual this week. He hasn't worked on a Friday in a long time but worked until 10 yesterday (was supposed to be until one!). We had planned to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see dinosaurs (our current science topic) but we'll just postpone the trip. I took the kids to the library story hour instead. Not as exciting as dinosaurs, but I'm not complaining. We rather like living in a house rather than a box, so it's okay that Rob had to work instead.

We had two blessings this week. A close family member is expecting a baby in July and some friends of ours here were shocked to find out they are expecting as well. Babies are such a blessing!

And for the quote of the week: The boys were in the kitchen chatting with me as I washed the dishes when Anna came running in. She stopped at the door and said, "Ewww! Stinky boys!" Then she ran away laughing her head off. The boys and I were rather surprised, yet tickled, at her little outburst.

Anna is now the proud owner of a potty seat. Yep, we're starting to train her. We'll see how fast she catches on. I'm usually sad about each milestone we reach with her since she's our last (unless God exhibits His sense of humor in my direction) but this milestone I'll rejoice about! A world with no diaper changes....sign me up!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This past weekend, I decided to turn 34 and have a two-day birthday celebration. Hmm...I guess I'm double umpteen! When I was a child and heard the term "umpteen" I always thought it was the number 17. Yeah, I know....RANDOM!

Anyway, Rob and I looked at our plans for the 31st and realized they were heavily kid-laden, so we had a grown-up celebration on the 30th. He was off work that day so we found a sitter and went out on a date. He let me break out my Lane Bryant credit card and I found a few clothing items I needed. Right next door to LB is a new Catherine's outlet and they had sent me a 50% off coupon, so it was worth a look. We had the exact same impression when we walked into the store: Hmmmm.....plus-sized rich old lady look everywhere! Nothing against women in that category, but I'm a little young for those styles. I did manage to find two skirts that I liked.

Afterwards Rob took me to the Cobblestone restaurant. (Aside: I'm always amazed when people say that there are no good places to eat in Watertown or that we have very few restaurants. There are loads of great places if you're willing to eat at a non-chain place! Hooray for locals!) It's right on our block at The Market, a shopping mall full of great little locally-owned stores. We ate the lunch buffet, which is considerably cheaper than anything on the menu. It was very good and fun to eat at a place that is not kid-friendly! We went home to find well-behaved boys and a napping girl.

Later that night, I went to a Stampin UP! party, made some cards, and ordered some new supplies with my birthday money. I'm very excited about my Christmas cards this year. I snuck in the house as Rob was settling the kids down for bedtime and cleaned up after their popcorn snack.

On my birthday morning, the children presented me with cards and gifts. The boys gave me a snowflake punch for cardmaking, Anna gave me lip balm b/c she is forever stealing mine (Mip Malm nummy!), and Rob gave me a Culver's gift card to feed my cheeseburger addiction. He also gave me a card that screams when I open it. I had my favorite breakfast, then spent the morning cardmaking and playing Mario Party 8, which we had borrowed from a friend.

After lunch, the children got dressed and we went out trick-or-treating. I just LOVE that sport! Matthew was Batman, Ben was Spiderman, and Anna was a Care Bear. It was 45 degrees outside and I was concerned about their warmth, but I swore when I was a kid that I would NEVER make my children wear winter coats over their Halloween costumes so I bundled them up good underneath :) I shouldn't have worried b/c the boys practically ran from house to house. Anna stayed in her stroller, but still managed to accumulate a fair amount of candy. We did about five blocks and a few side streets, then came home to relieve Rob. Anna went down for a nap and the boys and I handed out candy. I almost think they have more fun giving it away!

We woke Anna up around 4pm and took off for a little Halloween party given by some people at our church. The children were all in their costumes and had fun playing. We had a yummy supper, the kids beat a pinata to death and then consumed too much cake and ice cream, and the adults had a good time talking. Anna was a little intimidated by the two labs (No horsey! No horsey!) so the dogs were put away. Otherwise it was a great night.

We bathed three little people and put them to bed. Amazingly enough, they conked right out! Time change woke them up a little early, but it was okay. Rob usually up early anyway. Today it meant I could bake muffins for breakfast :)

It was a great birthday and now I'm starting to look forward to Christmas. I know, I know, Thanksgiving is first, but I'm not a huge celebrator of that holiday other than making a large meal. I'm thankful all of the time, and right now I'm thankful for a good birthday and a husband who is making supper so I can blog :)