3-month-old comparison

Alice

Robert

James

Kayla Matthew

Bobby

Newborn Susan

Older Susan (I couldn't find a 3-month-old picture)

My boys in a snuggly moment

Matthew chillin' in his car seat. Doesn't he look like his cousins? He's SO Evansey to me.

Robert says, "His head is so CUTE!" and can't resist hugging just Matthew's head. James wants a piece of the action, too. Apple and all.

Various and Sundry

Alice:

Alice grabs herself an apple from the fridge and goes to the drawer to get the slicer. She casually pulls it out and says to me, "It feels like we just moved here."

"Really? We've been in this house for three years."

"Yeah, but it's like we just moved here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are boxes all over the place," she points to the only box in the kitchen, which is a new crockpot we picked up earlier that day, "and everything is really clean," she gestures at the clean counter tops that I had just cleared off.

"Uh, okay."

Later on, we're eating dinner together after a long and exhausting day. Alice scoops some beans onto her tortilla and states, "It feels like we're really poor."

"Why's that?"

"Well, it's like no one has any energy."

The term "energy" is used very specifically at our house. When the kids quarrel or argue, I tell them that they're "draining my energy." They know that when I have lots of energy, we do fun stuff together. And when my energy is low, I'm grouchy and tired. No fun. They can do things to recharge my energy (e.g. leave the room, do a chore, massage my shoulders). Anyway, Alice was just noting that we were all grouchy and tired at dinner that night. I wonder how she connects that to income level. Am I subconsciously sending her that vibe whenever I talk about people in need?


Me:

It turns out one of Alice's best friends is in her ballet class. What luck! I had a chance to chat with her friend's mom and felt SO much better afterwards. You know those people who are loud and fun and complete straight-talkers? The ones who disarm you with their frankness, but keep an open mind about things in just such a way that you can exchange ideas freely without fear of offense? We talked about raising our girls...their school situation, teaching them to work hard and persist, shaping/directing without helicoptering. It was the most refreshing conversation I've had on those topics EVER. I need to talk to other moms of 7-year-olds more often. Wow.


Matthew:

The boy has slept through the night (9pm-7am) two nights in a row. I hardly know what to do with myself now that I'm so well rested. No worries, though, he'll be teething soon. Nothing lasts forever :)

James turned to me in church yesterday and asked, "Where Matthew?" I pointed to another pew where a friend was taking care of him for me (I'm thinking I'll let her take him every Sunday now). James got a little upset. He insisted that Matthew should sit with us. I like that he's attached to his little brother, but I don't like how he jumped on top of Matthew the previous Sunday (hence the desire to outsource Matthew's care during church). I'll confess that I missed having Matthew with us. Of all my kid management worries at church, Matthew is the least difficult. I should be outsourcing James or Robert!


Robert:

The other day, Robert's potty break in the bathroom was taking a lot more time than usual. I didn't feel like spoiling James' quiet play, so I decided to ignore Robert in the bathroom and just clean up whatever mess he made later. Twenty minutes later, Robert comes out with this:

It's a toilet paper snowman. Two whole rolls of toilet paper mixed with water in the sink, then molded into this fantastic creation. He shredded the toilet paper tube to create the accents. He was so proud of himself! And there was no mess to clean up, oddly enough, so I wasn't that annoyed. It's just toilet paper, after all, and he created this entirely on his own. I'm actually kinda smiling inside thinking about it.

Robert has asked several times over the last week to visit a beach. I tell him that we will see a beach this summer, but he's aching to visit a warm beach with sunshine right now in the middle of winter. Oh, Bud, I totally agree!

James:

He surprises me more often than before, but I think it's just because I don't have the time to watch him grow. That, and, he's fantastically independent and doesn't ask for me to be involved in his experiments. I found this paper in a pile of "writing" he was doing with a ball point pen:

It's interesting to me because it's so well-controlled. Most of James' "writing" is full-page scribbles of "boys, Mommy, Daddy, Alice, Robert on a boat, aaaaaaaaah!, water drive a car, monster, ugh" stuff. This piece here is a string of arches/waves along the edge of a single sheet. I just want to study it.

Bobby:

I wish I had more to say about Bobby, but I don't :( Oh wait! We went on a date. Many thanks to the Packs for taking the kids and to Bobby's parents for the restaurant gift certificate. We talked and reconnected. It was so refreshing, in fact, that even though the kids were up an hour past bedtime, I still had the energy to happily read all three bedtime stories. That means a lot these days :) 

That wasn't about Bobby at all. Hm. What can I share about Bobby? Um. Hmmm. He's been lucky enough to ride his bike to work a couple times this week. I'm a bit jealous. It would be nice to move this body a little more. He's working his job and serving in the church like a champ. There's more to do than time to do it. Some days are especially hard. He's managed to bounce back from the tough stuff so far. I feel blessed by that.

James Rocks...

...at the library:

While Robert was at preschool this morning, I thought I'd take the younger two boys to run some errands. James moaned and crumpled to the floor at the prospect of shopping for ballet slippers (yes, I finally signed her up for ballet...heaven help us all). I asked him what HE would like to do. He thought for a second and said something to the effect of "Pick out new books at the library?" I said, "Okay, let's do that, too." James cheered, "Yay! Now me better!"

And what a trip! We were fortunate enough to be there while an excavator was digging out the foundation of an old building next door. James is really into vehicles these days. We parked as close as we could and watched the trucks working for a while. I love to see my kids excited and engaged in something they love (so why can't I bring myself to put Alice in ballet until she's eight? Dunno.).

Then we went inside. Outings with James can be scary. He's curious, confident, and completely unbothered by distance from me. He doesn't think twice about much of anything. Today was great, though. He pretty much bounced between the play area and the computer consoles. He told me he had to check his email, then he typed a bunch of keys on the keyboard, pretended to grab something from the hard drive and handed it to me with a "here!" I took it cautiously, wondering what the proper reply would be when he added, "No eat it. Blech."

"Oh! Thanks," I said, and I put it in my pocket. James seemed satisfied with that action. Whew.


...at chasing games:

Robert and James have just started playing cooperatively a few minutes at a time, a couple times a day. This is a MONUMENTAL development, ladies and gentlemen. Usually they play independently in separate rooms or decide to torment each other. This time, somehow, Robert wanted James to chase him and James was thrilled to oblige! Robert is much, much faster than James, and since he was running clockwise through our circular house layout, Robert never accidentally cornered himself. Robert was chuckling and patting himself on the back for being so awesome fast. It didn't take long for James to realize the futility of the chase. There was a moment when it looked like James stopped having fun. I wondered if he would lash out or cry. Nope. James suddenly turned around and ran counter-clockwise. Robert came barreling around the corner into the kitchen, laughing and smirking, when suddenly he saw James 2 feet from him. Robert gasped, his eyes got huge, and his jaw dropped. He skidded to a stop and barely slipped away the other direction just as James let out a growly "bad guy" laugh and ran after him again. The game immediately fell apart and suddenly Robert was screaming and yelling for James to stop chasing him. James kept at it, though, since THIS version of the game was MUCH more fun.

Brothers are awesome.

A blog post by Alice

(handwritten by Alice, transcribed by me)

New years was ausom. I had a "feast" with aunt erin with olives, soda, crackers, cheese. I got a porslin Doll. it has curly hair and has Blue eyes. I rode the plane By my self. It was warm. the plane was stuffy.

2 months and Pink Eye and "No Fair"

Robert came down with a moderate case of pink eye on Thursday night, so we got him in to our pediatrician Friday afternoon. I rescheduled Matthew's 2-month check-up for that afternoon, too, just to save time and effort later. James came along for the ride...and the stickers. It worked!

Dr. Helton looked at Robert, confirmed the diagnosis, and gave him a prescription for antibiotic eye drops. Easy-peasy. I always debate whether to treat ear infections and pink eye with antibiotics, but that's a blog post for another day :)

Robert was a model patient, if a little shy. He has no problem following directions and making eye contact with the doc, but he's afraid to speak out loud in front of unfamiliar adults. So, he whispered all of his answers and questions into my ear for me to express to the doctor. 

Matthew's checkup went really well. He's big (15 and change, 90th percentile for weight) and average (50th percentile for length) and doing well. Robert saw Dr. Helton use her stethescope and he whispered in my ear to ask if he could listen to Matthew's heart, too. I asked and she said yes! That's one of the things I truly appreciate about this doctor: she's personable and easy-going with all the kids. It's too bad she's moving to St. Louis this summer :( Dr. Helton used her otoscope to look into Matthew's ears and Robert again asked to have a look. She asked him what he saw and Robert whispered to me, "A lot of hair!" She replied, "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing: there's a lot of hair in there!"

Huh, what?!

Hairy ear canals?! Go figure.

Robert was really interested in the whole routine. He was right up there on the table when it came time for Matthew's vaccinations. James was bouncing around in his usual way, asking if he could get shots, too, 'cuz if it's good enough for one of his siblings to get, it must be something he wants.

Matthew is growing well. He's cooing and smiling regularly these days. He usually stops 5 minutes into a feeding, looks up at me with a big grin, and starts chatting away. I find him charming and sweet, deliciously patient, and fun to have around. Every once in a while, he even sleeps through the night (heaven!). He has a mostly predictable routine, but tolerates slight changes around the household's schedule. I have been SO lucky/blessed/shocked to have such a flexible little guy.

Pink-eyed Robert holding little Matthew.

James surprised me again today. He's trying out a couple new conversational habits from his older siblings, and I don't know whether to laugh out loud or try to take him seriously:

"Okay, James, it's time to go to the store. Would you like to get a cookie this time?"

"Moooooooom!" (imagine the whiny, rollercoaster tone of a pre-teen) as he gets up off the floor.

"Yeah, I can see you're in the middle of something. Let's finish that tower when we get back."

"Mooooooooom! No fair!" (sounds more like "no wear!") as he follows me to the car.

He thinks "no fair" is something you say when you don't get what you want. That's how Alice and Robert use it, anyway. It's funny hearing it from a 2-year-old who has ZERO concept of how unfair this world really is.

"Selfie" by James.

James Names (Part Two)

Well, I started calling James "Jafe" every once in a while anyway. A couple times he corrected me like this:

Me: "Watcha doin', Jafe?"
James: "No Jafe. Me Zhafv." (the pronunciation is slightly different...soft j, vocalizing with f sound)

But most of the time, he hardly noticed. I thought I was home free. Then, just a couple days ago, we were sitting on the couch with some books and I said, "You like that one, Jafe?" and he replied, "No Jafe. Me Zhamzth." He stopped for half a second and got a far off look in his eye. I could almost see the cogs turn in his brain. Then he spoke again with a big grin, "No Jafe. Zhamzth!" And he giggled as if he had just told a joke.

Now he only calls himself Zhamzth, which is phonetically closer to "James" than he's ever been. It was thrilling to witness him making that verbal leap, though I'm a little sad that maybe my use of the nickname "Jafe" spurred him to make that leap earlier than he normally would have.

And on that note, I will mention that Robert has made a speech leap of his own lately. Buddy has long had an anti-lisp. I don't know how else to describe it. Instead of making a "th" sound, he would use an "s" sound. So the word "thick" came out like "sick", while the word "this" came out more like "dis." When Alice got back from Houston, it's like she suddenly forgot how Robert spoke. She questioned and corrected his every mispronounciation, no matter how small. She was being kind of rude about it, so I asked her to stop. Robert noticed anyway. He has consciously been working on it ever since. Sometimes his "th" sound is exaggerated or misused, but he's almost got it down. His baby brother is now "Matthew" instead of "Massew." I'm excited to see him work on something important to him. I'm also a little sad to see that bit of childhood slip away this week.

And since I don't want to make a whole new blog post about it, I'll just mention here that I'm very, very happy with my hens this winter. They endured the -18F temps (-30F wind chill) very well. They huddled together for warmth, kept laying eggs, and made it through! Remarkable. It's been so cold that the food scraps freeze within minutes and stay perfectly intact. The chickens' poop is frozen rock-hard, too, in little golf ball size blobs. None of it is mixing or squishing or rotting like it usually does, so their pen is a real mess. Gotta put down more straw just to make it look nice :)

Alice's Trip to Huston (Bobby's Sunday Summary)

The following are a combination of pictures I blatantly stole from Susan's Mom's Blog, pictures Alice took herself, and pictures I took of what we did while she was away.  I will try to distinguish between them.

Trip to the airport, in indy, to catch her plane (by Alice).

At the airport the plane coming in was delayed and so we waited and waited and waited.  Finally it arrived and Alice was able to get on the plane (by me).

While in Huston she had a lot of fun.  The following are from my mother in law's blog, but they tell the story themselves fairly well.

The pictures Alice took herself don't tell quite the same story.  But do show some of what was important to her.

I'm not totally sure what the 8:13 picture is all about, but the new Doll and the fact that it is "warm" outside are obviously important to her.

While she was out we did a few things ourself.  Mostly we just hung out at home.  Robert even made a couch out of couch cushions (very meta).

  

And the day we went to pick Alice up we went to the children's museum in Indy.

Sorry that some of the pictures are fuzzy, but as you can tell James likes to wander off, and gets distracted very easily.  He was fun to keep an eye on.

They really liked the dinosaurs, the merry go round, water table, and the climbing structure.  It was a crazy day, but in the end we got Alice back and got home safe and sound.