Jon Turns 32

All Jon wanted for his birthday was a clean house (ha!) and a fruit pizza.

He also got some butter chicken and naan for dinner.

The kids had a great time helping make the fruit pizza:

Well, until Seth told Catherine to stop eating the icing. 

Then we got this: 

Princesses do NOT like being told what to do.

After a brief trip to her room (self-imposed), she was back in the action: 

Every fruit pizza needs a quality control Catherine: 

Birthday "cakes"

(the cheesecake is for my birthday)

Blowing out all his candles (and mine)

We're getting to the point where Seth is offended if we don't make a big deal out of our birthdays. Guess we need to start inviting hoards of people and demanding presents. :)

Happy 29th to Me!

 I turned 29 this year (for real--apparently women never really age past 29). I've gotten past the point where I really want a big to-do, but it is nice to have it acknowledged (Facebook is great for that).

This year we happened to have our end of the school year co-op party on my birthday. We had a (mostly) fun time swimming at the Y (more tears from Seth thanks to stupid rules again), then enjoyed a potluck lunch together. My sweet friends even made me a birthday cake and sang to me, which appeased Seth, who kept asking when I was going to have a party with all my (read: his) friends.

We got home to find a package waiting on the front porch: my birthday present! I wavered between getting a new knife set or a new camera, but camera won out in the end. I ended up getting this model and have been really, really happy with it. Definitely a step up from my point-and-shoot!

Some experiments with the new camera: 

"Save me!"

I'm still figuring out how to use it, but even in Auto mode it's SO much nicer than what we used to have! Thank you for a wonderful birthday present, Jonny Blood! 

I was also given a plate full of delicious lemon poppyseed muffins by my sweet friend Melissa and an AMAZING chocolate cupcake with strawberry cream cheese icing from Flavor Cupcakery by my friend Trina and her girls (my piano students). I was quite spoiled and very grateful for amazing friends.

Catherine sampling one of my delicious birthday muffins

Kindergarten Wrap-Up

Seth technically finished kindergarten on May 22nd. But we were in the middle of plagues and didn't really do anything to celebrate the day. Neither of us minded too much--I hate the trend of "graduating" from every grade and Seth doesn't know any better. 

But eventually I did get around to taking some "You did it!" kindergarten pictures. First there was his chain of 100 books (which I didn't actually plan on him finishing until mid-first grade):

More than 50% of the books were read since March, when his reading really took off. One day he read 11 books just so he could get to 100 books before he finished kindergarten. He's reading almost completely fluently and independently now--pretty good for a little guy who isn't even six yet!

I owe him a trip to a bounce house for reading 100 books.

Now if we could just stop getting lice/ripping open kneecaps long enough to get there...

First day of kindergarten (June 2013)

Last day of kindergarten(ish)

First & last day siblings

Silly pictures

This was a big day for both me & Seth: we survived our first year of homeschooling! We both had to learn to be flexible. Seth still prefers independent play to school, but I don't see that changing (ever). He's a bright, funny little boy and I'm grateful to be both his mom and his teacher. 

Extra Bonus End-of-Kindergarten Feat: 

Losing his first tooth!

(For the record, Mommy Tooth Fairy wanted to only give a quarter for teeth.

Daddy Tooth Fairy said she was being too cheap and upped it to $1.

Seth was VERY excited to find a dollar bill under his pillow instead of the promised quarter).

Memorial Day

We began with the traditional ward Memorial Day breakfast.

There were even sausages left, despite our late arrival.

Aaron loves any event that results in him being carried around

Beautiful Princess Lightning McQueen

(with hair in braids and covered with tea tree oil so as to not share any potential lice)

I have no pictures of Seth. He ditched us pretty much as soon as we arrived.

First he ate with the Anthonys (his surrogate Maryland grandparents and former Primary teachers),

then he was off running wild with the other 120+ Primary kids.

So instead, here's another picture of Aaron being cute:

In the late afternoon we spent what we thought was going to be a pleasant evening with friends at a park, grilling and watching everyone else play softball. Instead, we spent a horrid evening carrying around Aaron "I don't need a nap!" Blood while he screamed and fussed. Happy Memorial Day to us...

The Plagues

It started with a really strange fever. 

One evening Catherine came down with a mid-level fever. Nothing else--no cough, no aches--just a fever. It lasted about a week before turning into a horrible wet cough, runny nose and body aches.  And, of course, Jon was out of town. 

Just about the time I was ready to celebrate the fact that the rest of us miraculously avoided catching her bug, Seth, Aaron & I all got hit (well, Seth never got the fever, but he got the rest). This time Jon was in town but was super busy at work and couldn't take any time off.

It was awful. Really awful. And it just wouldn't go away. We missed co-op, I cancelled piano lessons for two full weeks, I even ditched out on singing time one Sunday (which I never, ever do because it's nearly impossible to find a sub). 

Finally, we made it through. I put all the tissue boxes away in joyful celebration.

Of course, it was just a few days later that Catherine woke up with a strange rash at the base of her neck. After some Googling, I cringingly began searching through her hair.

Yep. Lice.

So instead of spending our Memorial Day Weekend swimming in our neighborhood pool, we spent the day making runs to Walgreens for lice shampoo, washing and drying everything in the house and combing meticulously through hair. 

Good news? The boys were all lice-free. Bad news? She was kind enough to share with me. 

Honestly, I don't really understand the huge deal with lice. Yes it was a pain, but so is the stomach virus. In fact, I may prefer lice to a stomach virus. I can handle little bugs who can't survive more than 48 hours off a host better than puddles of vomit. 

Thankfully we're all lice-free now, although my scalp still itches anytime I think about it (and I keep combing through my hair just to be extra-super-sure they're gone). I've also started to hate the smell of tea tree oil (allegedly lice hate it so I've been spraying it all over). 

We've been plague-free for over a week now, so we're possibly safe to be around. Just don't be surprised if we end up with boils or something awful next week.

First Piano Recital

As a piano teacher, I had no intention of starting my kids on lessons until they're older. Eight or nine seems to be a good age. But Seth insisted he wanted to start (and it was a great way to check off the 'music' requirement for homeschooling), so we started! 

He's done really well for a five-year-old boy (attention span = 15 seconds). He doesn't always like to practice (shocker), but he really loves getting a reward for practicing, so he'll do it without much complaint. 

His favorite song at the moment is a nursery rhyme called "Once I Caught a Fish Alive." He & Catherine will sing it over and over again. Eventually he asked me to teach him the song on the piano, so I sat down and picked out a simple version for him.

I also wasn't going to make him play in a recital, but he was excited by the idea. The theme was "Around the World", so we just assumed his song was probably English and put him in the "England" category. 

I wasn't worried about him at all. He'd been playing the song for months and was at the point where he could play it blindfolded and upside down. And he wasn't nervous at all...

...until we got to the venue. Then he suddenly got super shy and started panicking. He was halfway to tears, but somehow we got him to sit in his chair with the other performers. He was second in line (so we could bail out early--it was Aaron's bedtime). 

I had to go up with him and basically force him to announce his name and piece, but he did it. 

And he played it beautifully (minus the part where he kept pausing to scratch his nose).

He bowed and we exited quickly and (not so) quietly to go get his bribe: 

A doughnut!

Catherine gets one for being so supportive.

Aaron doesn't get one, much to his dismay.

Hopefully the next recital won't be so scary since he knows what to expect.

But then again, maybe it will be MORE scary since he knows what to expect...

Eight Months

Messy babies get to jump (almost) naked

Once again, I was hoping we'd have something impressive to report, but Aaron is following no one's deadlines. Since he's obviously a very bright kid, I'm just letting it go. All of my kids have been slow on the motor skills, so he's not doing anything that different from his siblings. 

*still not sitting up. We have less than a month before we hit the "talk to your pediatrician if your child isn't sitting up unassisted by nine months old" mark. He actually does really well as long as you are touching him. As soon as you move away, he flops over. I'm convinced the entire thing is a clever scheme to get himself picked up more often.

(As soon as Jon would move away, Aaron would fall)

*rolling from back to belly. He doesn't do it often because he doesn't like to be on his belly. But if he REALLY wants something he can't reach by rolling to the side, he will roll over. And then immediately roll back. 

*his only real form of transportation is what Seth calls "the booty dance" (please don't ask how my five-year-old knows what a "booty" is. I have no answers for you). He'll lay on his back and push his bum up in the air repeatedly. So far he doesn't actually go anywhere intentionally--he just happens to move around while doing it.

*Suffering through yet another bout of sickness. This kid just cannot catch a break.

*Growing and growing. He now only fits in size 12 months because of his height. Of course, the 12 month pants fall right off his skinny rear...

*Waking up only once (ish) a night, usually between 4 and 5 am. Occasionally I'll still hear from him around 11 pm, but it's getting rarer. Hooray!

*Still loves food in all forms. 

"I'll just feed myself tonight, Mom."

"Ohhhmmmmmm, nooommmmmmm..."

*He's starting to get really attached to me. None of my others really did this phase, so I'm not sure how it's going to go from here. 

*Had his third haircut. I don't quite know what to do his hair--it grows straight out of the top of his head. I keep thinking it will eventually get tall enough that it lays down, but so far it seems to defy gravity pretty well.

*Favorite activity: knocking all the magnets off the side of the fridge:

I'm betting the next few weeks will bring some pretty big changes for our little man.

We shall see!

"Who, me? I am totally not making a giant mess."

Seth Paws

You know how puppies that are destined to grow into big dogs have these huge, out-of-proportion paws? I realized while looking at Seth a few weeks ago that the kid has grown puppy paws. Not his feet, which will probably always be small (I'm a size 6, Jon's an 8 or 9), but HIS HANDS! Apparently the kid has some serious growing ahead of him. I'm a little bit excited, a little bit terrified of my future grocery bill, and a little bit sad to see one more piece of my little boy disappearing forever.

A Typical Morning

Aaron is glamourous

Seth, still watching the wheels spin like he did as a baby

(I had to be really careful--he would almost fall out of his stroller trying to see the wheels spin)

Blurry, crazy-haired Ballerina Princess Catherine Lightning McQueen

And Seth, simultaneously entertaining and pestering Aaron

Saying Goodbye

Jon has been spending a lot of time this year out in Dugway, Utah for a project he's finishing up. He's been gone about a week out of every month since February. It was hard the first time, but has gotten progressively easier (especially as Aaron gets older). But we still hate to see Daddy go.

This last time Jon was about to leave (on Mother's Day, of course, and as Catherine was coming down with the plague), Seth had a complete breakdown. We had crying in the corner:

We had screaming and wailing: 

We had ball-on-the-floor hysterics: 

Of course, this entire episode would have been much sweeter had Seth been sad about Jon leaving instead of sad about Jon taking the Kindle with him...

He sobbed and screamed for about 30 minutes after Jon drove away. The night before Jon came home I got this comment: "I'm so excited! Tomorrow I can have the KINDLE again!" We need to work on our priorities, apparently.