St. Patrick's Day

Not to add any fuel to the Mommy Holiday Wars, but I'm pretty solidly in the "no frills" camp. But since Seth doesn't get the chance to celebrate at school (do they even do that anymore?), I tried to up my ante a bit this year to compensate.

For breakfast we painted rainbow toast. And I was completely shocked when Seth actually made a rainbow on his toast and not some kind of spaceship blowing up:

Catherine was just thrilled to have a paintbrush: 

Aaron didn't get any rainbow toast, but he did wear green! 

Continuing the grand Mikesell Family tradition of dyeing food green on St. Patrick's Day: 

They were both a little weirded out by the green ramen.

Catherine kept asking why it had "icing" in it.

(Assuming that came from watching me color icing with the food dye. Not sure.)

Neither of them finished it, which pretty much never happens with non-green Ramen.

I also put together a rather elaborate (for me) treasure hunt for Seth for school. He had to answer a bunch of math problems, plus put together a rainbow of colored objects from our house. At the end we found where the leprechaun hid his treasure: green Ring Pops and yellow M&Ms (gold): 

We also co-wrote a book about leprechauns, which Seth illustrated:

Just your standard story about leprechauns defending their treasure using traps, weapons & tanks. The best part was the very last page, which Seth was very specific about: "Write 'And then the spider grinned.'" Did I mention that the story featured ZERO spiders up to this point? The English major in me had a bit of a breakdown trying to make sense of it. 

"Where did this spider come from? Did I miss something somewhere?"

"Why a spider? What is Seth's subconscious trying to tell me?"

"Why is the spider grinning? And why do I find this whole thing so creepy?"

The take-away? Don't try to analyze your five-year-old's writing for hidden meaning.

Aaron at 6 Months

Irish Super Baby

At six months old, you are:

• Grabbing everything you can reach, especially when it's in Mom or Dad's hands. And you get faster every day.
• Taking legitimate naps (usually about 90 minutes), 2 or 3 times a day. But ONLY in your crib, which makes Sundays and days when we aren't at home during nap time complicated.
• Related: you still will not sleep in your car seat, nor will you fall asleep nursing (never have). You are a weirdo.
• Eating. And eating. And EATING. You eat 3-4 solid meals a day and still get offended if someone else is eating in your presence and not sharing. You love sweet potatoes, peaches, yogurt, pears and graham crackers (which you insist on feeding yourself). 

"Guys, the food-eating gig is the STUFF."

"Nummm....graham crackers....nommnomm..."

• Violently opposed to the idea of sitting up. Left unattended you'll throw yourself immediately backward. It's as if you sense that once you can sit up you're going to be put down a lot more frequently...
• Wearing size 3 diapers (same size as Catherine) and 6-9 month clothing. Official stats: 16 lbs. 1 oz. 27.5 inches. You are a tall young man (and not nearly as chubby as we thought).
• You've cut 2 teeth (bottom front) and have ten billion others on their way. Which means you are constantly chewing on whatever you can get into your mouth.

You carried around this spoon for several days. A great chew-toy.

• You've started getting bored with the same old toys. If you don't want it you'll either refuse to grab it or you'll immediately drop it.
• You LOVE bedtime. You get all excited as we go up the stairs and whine when I don't get you into your crib fast enough. You'd also go to bed at 6 pm every night if we'd let you (we don't, since you'd be up at 6 am the next morning).
• Not sure if we can blame a growth spurt, but there was one day I put you down for what I assumed was a nap at 4:30 pm. You proceeded to sleep for 15 hours (with a few wake-ups to nurse). 

Handsome boy in his Bumbo

• You don't really like the Bumbo. You'll endure it for a little while when we feed you, but by the end you're arching your back and demanding to be extracted. You pretty much always finish your meals seated on someone's lap. Also not a huge fan of the Jumperoo, but you do like your caterpillar mat. Your latest trick is either tugging or kicking the arch holding up the toys until it falls down.
• I hate the mornings you wake up before Seth and Catherine (for several reasons), but mostly because you are so darn BORED without them. It reminds me of what life was like when it was just me and Seth at home together all day long. I definitely prefer the excitement of siblings (and so do you)!

It's hard to believe you're already halfway done with your first year, little man! We adore you and your sweet drooly smiles.

That one time you mysteriously acquired some chocolate...

Apparently you'd be more than content to hang out in your dreaded car seat if 

we'd just give you chocolate to gnaw on while we drive!

Seth's Reward

Seth is five-and-a-half now, so we decided it was high time he start figuring out how to keep himself dry at night. We put away the diaper (yes, we used diapers. Way cheaper than Pull-ups and serve the same purpose), bought some Good Nite pads (LIFESAVERS) and gave it a try. 

It wasn't perfect, but he did manage to stay dry a few nights, which meant he got to cash in on the trip to the bouncy place we'd been promising for years if he stayed dry all night. He even got to bring his friend Gabe, which made it extra fun. And I was a sucker and paid for an overpriced can of orange soda and bottle of Sunny D, so it was extra super sugary fun.

Catherine, being brave and going on the pumps by herself

One of the few moments I could get a non-blurry photo of Seth

Sliding with Daddy

(this was post-bravery stage)

Aaron gets his first ride on the slide!

I wish I could say that everything is great now and Seth is dry all night, but that would be a lie. This kid sleeps like the dead. Even with Jon waking him up between midnight and 1 am every night, he still consistently has accidents. Guess we'll try again in the fall and see if things are better!

(Our pediatrician doesn't worry about it until the kids are at least eight years old, but I wasn't sure if Seth was incapable or just lazy. Incapable it is!)

That one time I cut off all my hair...

Jon likes my hair long (and so do I). Long hair doesn't have to be cut every 8 weeks, plus it can conveniently be thrown into a ponytail. Which is pretty much all I do with mine. But there's a fine line between "beautiful long hair" and "Amish/homeschooler/polygamist" long hair, and I apparently crossed that line sometime around Aaron's blessing day (right, Kenna?). 

So I went to my friend Tara and had her cut off eight inches. You know your hair is too long when you cut off EIGHT INCHES and no one notices.

Fast forward a few months. My hair is falling out in handfuls (one of my favorite post-baby phases) and I'm getting headaches every evening. I decide it's time for another haircut.

If I'm going to cut off a bunch of hair, I like to try to donate it when possible (not to Locks of Love--they're shady). I should have gone in a bit more informed. The stylist said the minimum length was 10 inches, so that's what I let her chop. In truth, I could have kept two of those inches...sigh...

Ten inches...gone!

Jon was really creeped out by this mound of my severed hair.

The new look: 

I don't love it. I don't even really like it (I would if it looked like this more often, but it doesn't). But my hair grows quickly and it will be back soon. And the headaches are gone, so hooray!

School-Type Stuff

Our co-op went to a theater performance called "Mammoth Follies" to go along with our dinosaur theme in January. Well, it would have gone along with our dinosaur theme if they hadn't postponed the stupid show for 1/4 inch of powdery snow...but enough about Maryland's complete incompetence when dealing with snow (or just the threat of potential snow).

So instead of a January show, we finally saw it in March. It's definitely not going to win any awards, but the kids were thrilled. Giant dinosaur puppets that sing and dance? What 2-8-year-old wouldn't love it?

Coolest part: After the performance they drew out two names from the audience, one from the groups of schools, one from the groups of homeschools. The winners received a dinosaur book for their groups. And guess whose name was called for the homeschoolers? Seth was THRILLED to have a chance to go up onstage and grab the book. It ended up being a really cool 3D book of dinosaurs (complete with glasses). You can see him holding it in the pictures below:

Post-performance co-op kids (and little siblings)

Being dinosaurs

Catherine has started taking an interest in her letters, so we've started doing "school" together. She's very excited to have her own workboxes and activities to do (very, very simple stuff). So we started with letter A and do one letter a week. 

Turns out that all those things they say about little girls and fine motor skills are true:

Yeah, she did that completely spontaneously.

I had written "Aa" on the other side for her to make thumb-and-inkpad ants on, but when she was done she flipped it over and just wrote an A. Apparently teaching handwriting to Catherine is going to be a heck of a lot easier than teaching Seth has been (I would totally wait until he's eight to start handwriting if the school district wouldn't freak out on me). 

Speaking of Seth and writing...  His handwriting has improved immensely recently. I think the credit goes to his newest hobby: filling notepad after notepad with drawings:

(We probably have ten of these notepads full of drawings hanging around)

I recently read a book about boys' writing that talked about the importance of letting boys illustrate their stories. The author talked about how girls tend to draw nouns (people & places) while boys draw verbs (movement). This is EXACTLY how Seth draws--in his pictures there is always something blowing up, or dripping, or flying, etc. 

I can't believe we're almost done with our first year of homeschooling (benefit of homeschooling: we get to be done by the end of May! No snow or teacher in-service days here!). It's been such an awesome experience, and I'm definitely planning on continuing with it next year!

Real Life

That one time we were crazy enough to go out to eat all together:

Sometimes it's still really strange to think I have THREE KIDS.

(But seriously--they are the best things in the world)

Love, love, love my two little boys: 

And they adore each other.

My glamour shot: 

Not a selfie--a classic Seth "in your face" photo

"Seth...what are you DOING?" 

Love my babies: 

Just chilling on the stairs, watching ballerinas on the iPad with Catherine: 

Aaron is intrigued by all the flashing:

And that's it, ladies & gentlemen! Our oh-so-glamorous life. 

Life With Catherine

Yes, that is my daughter, completely naked in front of our glass door, drawing pictures.

Also please note the neighbor boy outside (who hopefully saw nothing).

I cannot keep clothes on this girl.

Good news! Despite getting a haircut (or two or three since her hair falls differently every day), the ringlets are still there! I still have a feeling the curls won't stay forever, so I'm enjoying them while I can! 

A brief story: Catherine got a stuffed My Little Pony from Grandma Cathy for her birthday. It's not one of the few she knows by sight, so she and Seth decided to give it a name. It has a smiling flower on its rump, so I made some suggestions based off that. Nope. The pony is officially named "Crisp". I just can't figure out why My Little Pony hasn't bestowed that lovely name on a pony by now. Just imagine the possibilities for the rump image: a barbecue, or perhaps a charred horse carcass (which happens to be what I picture every time the name "Crisp" is mentioned). 

Some Tidbits

Catherine had her three-year checkup today. She's 36.5 inches and 26 pounds, which puts her right at 50% for height and about 10% for weight. This explains why her pants are either floods or falling off her waist.

She was a champ and performed nicely for the doctor (one exception: she informed the doctor that she "can't" stand or jump on one foot. Apparently all that leaping and pirouetting she does around the kitchen doesn't count for some reason).

She ended up needing one shot. I was worried because I didn't think she needed any and hadn't warned her. How was I to guess that she would not only not cry, but would instead watch the entire proceedings with complete stoicism? It was slightly uncanny. I started wondering if my child was actually human for a minute there.

Now for Seth:

Today I gave him his first creative writing assignment, which he was VERY enthusiastic about (yay! I love any pleasant way to sneak writing into this boy's life). I had him dictate two sentences to me, which I then wrote down for him to copy.

This is what I got: "There was an old worm who lived in a cabin. He had a gun."

Well, that was...unexpected. Now I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the story. (Seriously--I have no idea where this one is going).

The Seth Man

Seth is five-and-a-half and is in full "little boy" mode. We have the Legos, the swords, the cars, the planes, the cannons, the electronic devices, the comic books...and I LOVE it. 

Seth's days are a whirlwind of little-boy activity. If he's not racing through the kitchen, designing a "game" for us to play downstairs (with rules that constantly evolve in his favor), or doing an experiment that inevitably involves my food coloring, you'll find Seth on the iPad or Kindle. He's currently obsessed with Minecraft, but will also return to old standbys like Bad Piggies or Angry Birds. He also likes to try to figure out games that are above his level, like Jon's Risk-like strategy game or games involving higher math skills. 

Recently he's taken to drawing. He found an old notepad of Jon's graphing paper and has been tearing through it, drawing piles of pictures every day. Forget people or animals--this kid draws one thing and one thing only: machines. We have lots of pictures of airplanes blowing each other up, or of various "contraptions" (his word) that do things like trawl the seafloor for treasure or shoot tiny metal balls. And don't worry--you'll get a full explanation of each and every part of his machine/contraption and what it does.

(These are from the pre-machine-drawing phase--the monster-drawing phase.

The big on in the middle on the right says "Mom sees Mostr"

and has a great depiction of me screaming my head off at the sight of a monster).

In the past month we've made an abrupt shift from cars to airplanes. No idea why after 5 1/2 years of nothing but cars, but airplanes are where it's at now. 

Seth is legitimately reading now, which is so much fun. He doesn't like to be pushed to read, but when he feels inspired he'll read books to us at bedtime. He loves the Lunch Lady comics, Fly Guy books, and Elephant and Piggie books. 

Seth always says "good luck" in situations where most people would say "good thing." For example: "Good luck that car didn't crash into us!" It's one of his only language idiosyncrasies left and I love it. 

Seth is my child in so many ways. He is totally mesmerized by books and reading, he needs a lot of downtime, and he generally wants to do what will make us happy. He's also my child in that he doesn't have the best control over his body, especially during a growth spurt. One night he managed to fall off his chair three times during dinner, all while in a seated position. Sorry, buddy.

He's actually singing the songs in Primary now. This is HUGE. 

He has a great imagination and loves to role-play different characters. His favorite is "The Magic Prince" who can bestow magic on the rest of us if he so chooses. He also wins all the games and can never be defeated, even with a direct shot to the head with a hot-lava-laser gun (believe me, I've tried). 

He adores his baby brother and is constantly kissing him. Luckily Aaron is greatly amused by his brother's antics most of the time. He's not such a fan of Seth hauling him around, which Seth is only allowed to do over very short (and supervised) distances. 

(This picture was totally candid--he just LOVES kissing Aaron)

I'm not sure when it happened, but Seth is suddenly one of the tallest kids his age. Around Christmas I had to put away his 5T clothes and go buy some bigger ones. Shopping in the "Boys" section instead of the "Toddler" section was a big change for me. Suddenly Seth's wardrobe just got a LOT more expensive (and he's passing up the boy who's been handing down clothes to us for years, darn it!).

School is going pretty well for us. We've both made some adjustments and seem to be at a happy place right now. He's a smart kid and is easily "above grade level" (whatever that actually means) in basically everything except handwriting. It may still be a mess, but he's made HUGE progress and that's what's really important. 

His chores right now are cleaning his room, cleaning the main level of toys, cleaning the backseat of the van once a week, cleaning the basement toys once a week, sorting laundry and putting the silverware away. He's getting better about doing his jobs but still needs "someone to HELP me!" most of the time. 

I don't know what I would do without my Seth Man. He's been such a huge help since Aaron was born--my life would be much harder if he were in kindergarten all day! I love getting to teach him and play with him. I keep telling him he can slow down this whole growing-up deal, but he's not having any of it. "I want to get bigger than Daddy!" He's quite proud of the fact that he is now more than half as tall as I am. 

Less than five months until we hit six years old...

Some Sethisms:

Seth, pretending to be a daddy: "Come and see my new baby!" (points to Catherine).

Me: "If Catherine's your baby, where's your wife?"

Seth: "Oh, she died."

Me: "I'm so sorry!"

Seth: "It's okay. She was a pretty mean wife."

During a discussion about stranger danger:

Me: "Seth, how will you know if someone is a bad guy?"

Seth: "Oh. They will be wearing black."

Very convenient of those bad guys.

More kissing!

Princess Lightning McQueen

Dear Princess Sara Catherine/Lightning McQueen/Ripslinger/Super Dog/Twinkle Toes (or whatever character you're currently in at the moment),

Every day with you is an adventure. I never know from one moment to the next what's going on in that little head of yours or what to expect next. It makes life exciting, hilarious, and sometimes a bit terrifying. I wouldn't change it for the world.

You love singing, especially songs with actions. Current favorite is "Princess Pat", which you call "The Spider Song" for reasons unknown. You were also on a big "Once Upon a December" (from Anastasia) kick around Christmas. You made me sing it over and over (and over and over...) until I finally looked down at you and you burst into tears. Still can't figure that one out. It is kind of a sad song, I guess...

You've also decided recently that you are a ballerina and will give us impromptu performances whenever the mood strikes you. And you actually have some moves (you can thank your daddy because they sure didn't come from me). 

We should have known from the moment we put you in the Jumperoo that you were destined to be a jumper. You are constantly bouncing, climbing, jumping, etc. I can't wait for you to start your gymnastics class in a couple of weeks--you're going to be in heaven!

You've started recognizing "ABCs", as you call them. You know "C" for Catherine, "S" for Seth, "B" for Bubba, "M" (or "W") for Mommy, "U" for no apparent reason, and "P" for poop (of course). But your favorite letter is "X". Daddy taught you how to make an X using your arms and legs. You're pretty sure it's the best thing ever. You're also pretty good at counting and will proudly display your three fingers to anyone who asks how old you are. 

Your hair is an amazing, gorgeous mess. It can't decide if it wants to curl up in ringlets or grow completely straight. Most days it's a mix of both. It did finally get long enough to (mostly) go up in a ponytail! 

I don't do it often--you look too much older with your hair up.

Curls underneath, straight on top.

You love to help me with whatever I'm currently doing: changing Aaron's diaper, cooking dinner, wrapping presents...if I'm doing it, you're doing it too. And it's not a momentary "help" like Seth's--you're there next to me until the job is done. I love it.

Helping wrap Christmas presents

Hanging out on your favorite perch on the island while I cook.

(You've since been banished after knocking over several glasses of water.

Now you have to sit on the counter and not flop around).

In some ways you are such a little girl. You love your Sunday dresses and insist on wearing your "boofull" Sunday shoes every time we leave the house. You love to pretend to be a ballerina and pirouette gracefully around the kitchen. And you love my makeup:

(Not black eyes: self-applied eyeshadow)

But in so many ways you are NOT a girly girl. You don't like getting dressed in cute clothes (Sunday dresses excepted). Lightning McQueen is your favorite thing in the whole world. You would rather die than let me do your hair. And you have basically no interest in babies or dolls. I finally gave away your doll crib, but kept the stroller. How else would Lightning McQueen get some fresh air?

The only other thing you've ever pushed in this stroller is a dinosaur.

There has been a recent and notable exception to your "no doll" policy. I was pulling things out of my cedar chest one evening and you were, of course, helping. I pulled out the doll Aunt Lori brought me back from Israel decades ago and you were immediately drawn to it. It's been a couple of months now and the doll is still sleeping next to you at night.

Not sure why this doll gained your favor, but you adore it!

(photo by Catherine--already documenting her baby's life!)

You prefer to spend your days in whatever stage of undress we'll let you get away with. Apparently you're impervious to the cold.

Riding on the "boat" (Seth's booster seat)

After more than a year of potty-training (you started it, not me!), I think we're FINALLY really potty-trained. You have this lovely habit of waiting too long to get to the bathroom and then being unable to get your pants off in time. Hoping summer and sundresses will help with this.

You are a very clever little girl. I keep telling your dad that he has to raise you because you're already smarter than me. For example: at Christmas some friends came caroling and left brownies. I put them in the kitchen while we said our goodbyes. By the time we made it back in you had pulled over a chair, found a fork, unwrapped the brownies and were helping yourself, all within minutes. 

You missed the cutoff for Sunbeams by less than two months and you couldn't be more pleased with the situation. Another year in Nursery with snacks and Lightning McQueen to play with every week? Deal. You're also the oldest kid in there (definitely not the biggest, though), which means you rule as Queen of the Nursery.

And what an adorable Queen you are!

Sweet and benevolent (as long as you get the Lightning McQueen toy).

You're in the middle of another language explosion. There's nothing so fun as hearing all these grown-up phrases coming out of a little tiny person. Especially when you're still cutely mispronouncing so many words. 

Some of our favorite Catherine words:

• "woodles" = noodles
• "trampatrine" = trampoline
• "Cinawehwah" = Cinderella/any Princess-like girl (Barbies included)
• "backpacks" or "buckets" = pockets (great for storing cars in!)
• you're slightly obsessed with pockets and always comment whenever one of us has pockets. "Mommy, you have buckets?"
• "gymnaskicks" = gymnastics
• "muskick" = music
• "mushmellow" = marshmallow (you can blame Seth for this, you just copied him)
• "mahn" = more "I want some mahn" is a frequently heard phrase around here.
• "the Zone-ah" = Arizona

You have a strange obsession with tiny things. Any time you find something you deem tiny, you'll bring it to us for comment. "Mom, you see the teeny (insert object here)?" This also applies to other things, like drawing hundreds of tiny circles on your papers or making teeny tiny balls out of dough:

You adore your big brother and will generally follow him around and do his bidding quite happily. The two of you spend most of the day shifting from character to character. Right now you favorite combos are Skipper & Ripslinger, Blue (from Blue's Clues) and The Super Dog, The Magic Prince and The Magic Daughter, and Lightning McQueen and whatever car you decide Seth gets to be.

You're a bit of a TV junkie when you get the chance. You ask daily to watch "Cars Airplanes" (Planes), Signing Time, Blue's Clues, or Cars 2. Other favorites are Pocoyo and My Little Ponies (Pinky Pie is your favorite, of course--the most obnoxious pony in Ponyville. You love when we sing the theme song: "My little pony, my little pony..." at which point you "sing": "AH AH AH AAHHH!"). You're also clever enough to ask for Strong Bad when Daddy is home since you know that's the only thing he'll actually put on the laptop for you.

You also adore your daddy. When he was in Dugway for work you asked for him frequently. As soon as he walks in the door you're there shadowing him.  Your favorite Daddy time is Sunday afternoons when the two of you do puzzles together (you've gotten very good). And you can get him to do basically whatever you want by staring up at him with those big blue eyes.

Ah, my Baby Boo, we love you so. You constantly amaze me--I wonder every day who you're going to end up being. I am so excited to see you grow & take on the world. Happy third birthday, Princess Meow-Meow ("No! I Lining McKeen"!)

Catherineisms:

Me: "Catherine, what do you want to be in the Nativity play tonight? An angel? A shepherd?"

Catherine: "Uhh...no. I be Lightning McQueen."

(And there was NO convincing her otherwise)

One morning I heard Catherine in the tub singing a song I didn't recognize. Then I heard "Da nanana Da nanana Da nanana Da nanana BAT MAN! BAT MAN!" Then, while shopping later that afternoon, she asked me for "the Dalek song." I was a bit confused, so she sang it for me: "Oh, my Dalek, Oh, my Dalek, Oh my Dalek, Clementine!" It was a proud parenting day.

("Pretties" added by Seth.

And removed very quickly after this picture).