Come And Get Me!

This is the sight that greets me each time I go to get Jacob from his crib. No more waiting around playing nicely, no! Notice his red eyes from screaming because I wasn't fast enough LOL. I'll be keeping the side up now; next thing you know he'll be throwing his leg over the side and climbing out on his own!

The Artist at Work

I have mentioned before that Troyer likes to draw and has quite a bit of talent. This summer he was inspired to make up some poster sized drawings. He has them hung up around the family room. Donatello has a place of honor above his bed.











I don't really know where he gets his inspiration from. The tree is one from our backyard. He took the paper out back and taped it to the picnic table while he sketched it, then brought it in to finish. I have no idea why he'd draw a rattlesnake LOL.

A New Crew Member on the Enterprise

Tonight, Noah decided that his shirt looked very much like Captain Kirk's. He drew up a Star Fleet insignia and cut it out. The helmet is one he came up with while at his grandma's house. Not very Star Trekkish, but whatever, LOL. He asked me to take this picture of him and print out a mini version so he could make up an ID card. The card came out really well.

I've Made a Few Changes...

to my sidebar --->

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I added a list of authors I like. I was going to list books I'm reading, but that changes too quickly and often to keep updated. The list is the authors I'm currently reading. If you can think of others to add, just leave me a comment!

I also finally added a list of blogs I visit. Check them out!

7 Months Old!

Jacob turned 7 months old yesterday. In honor of that milestone, he has gotten one more tooth (he's up to 7 now), learned to sit by himself (including getting to sitting and keeping his balance while sitting), AND pulls himself up on furniture. He has crawled into his carseat several times, and on Thursday (note that he was not even officially 7 months old yet) he pulled up on the couch and cruised down it! ACK! His face was priceless, he was sooo excited and proud of himself. But this kid is going to kill me. Where did my baby go? Only 7 months old and he's working on toddler already! Waaahhh!

Back Online!

Well, it's been a looong week! I lost my phone for over a week, so I couldn't call anyone, I couldn't get online and read email, I couldn't read my boards or blogs, or post here. I couldn't chat or IM. It was awful! The worst was, I couldn't even call the phone company and complain, because I had no phone! I had Chris call from work to tell them we had no dial tone and couldn't call out. They seemed to have a hard time understanding that we had no other phone we could use. I don't have a cell phone or a second line. In fact, I don't even have DSL or cable tv. We live in the dark ages here!

Anyway, it took them 9 days and 2 tries to get me reconnected. As it is, we have a temporary phone line running across the back yard (like a bright orange extension cord) until they schedule a crew to come in and dig up our old line and lay in a new one. I have no idea how long it will take them to do that, but I sure hope it's before someone accidentally mows our line!

Meanwhile, life goes on. Noah had his birthday last week. He didn't like any of the choices of cakes at the bakery, but he didn't want Troyer to bake his cake. He was not sure what he wanted to do when Chris suggested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. He loved the idea, so Chris brought one home after work on his birthday. He got home a bit early with the cake, and hadn't thought about size when he picked it out, but we have a side-by-side refrigerator so of course, the cake didn't fit in the freezer. We ended up eating the cake first, and then everyone was so full we didn't have dinner.






That's Levi back there, hiding behind the school books, LOL

Noah knew a few of the presents he was getting, but some were a surprise. The best surprise was for me, that he loved everything! Last year he complained about most of his gifts.

Here is one present he didn't know he was getting:

He and Troyer are all about Transformers right now, and Noah already had a Bumblebee toy, so he was excited to get the shirt.


Jacob also had a birthday of sorts, he passed the 6 month mark! Wow, that first half a year went fast. He is getting better and better at crawling, he now has 5 teeth (!), has started eating Cheerios (and any other sort of cereal left on the floor by his brothers), and started drinking water from a sippy cup. I got the high chair out for him last week, and put away the bassinette and swing. He had his 6 mo check up, and did great, even through all the shots he got. Poor baby, I sure hate watching them all go through that. He is my smallest 6 mo yet. He was only 15 lb 6 oz, though length-wise his 26.5 inches was right on. I could swear he weighs more, so maybe the dr's scale was a bit off. I guess we'll see at his 9 mo visit if he suddenly gains a lot!



I have more to post, and more pictures, but I'll save it for later.

Levi is 3!

Levi turned 3 years old on Monday. We did the cake and presents thing, even though Noah is not here. He is over at Grandma's for the week. I asked him if he minded missing out, and he said no; I guess he figures a 3 yo can't get anything too super-cool and not-to-be-missed LOL.

It was hot here again this week, so Levi chose to revisit the clothing he was born in, that is to say, none. He is potty training, so his tendency is to neglect putting pants back on once they are off. He did get into a diaper finally, so at least I could take pictures ;-)

Troyer baked the cake, a red velvet cake, and frosted it, and I did the words and sprinkles.








This present has been a big hit with all the boys. It is a plug-and-play tv video game. It is challenging enough that they all enjoy playing it. Unfortunately that means they all fight over getting a turn, LOL.

The Good News and the Bad News

The good news: I found grapes on sale yesterday, for $.99/lb and bought 5 lbs. Not a single rotten or moldy one in the bunch!

The bad news: the boys wiped out 5 lbs of grapes in one afternoon. Ack! It's like raising locusts!

Swimming Lessons

The last two weeks of July were set aside for swimming lessons at the YMCA. This year I had 5 boys signed up. I was hoping Micah would be able to be in the Polliwog class with Caleb and Samuel, but since he is only 5 he had to be in the Preschool class. This made 3 different classes I had to schedule; Troyer and Noah are in Minnow this year. For the first day, I had to go in for two classes, because Minnow was only offered in one time slot, but Preschool for that slot was already full. I had Levi and Jacob with me as well, and it was not fun trying to keep them occupied through 2 classes. After all the boys were done that first day, I went to the instructor and asked if there was any way we could move all the boys into the same time slot. She was super nice and made up a new class for Micah and another girl whose grandmother had the same problem as we did, she had two girls swimming in two different time slots. It worked out really well for Micah, too, because he got better instruction since there were just the two swimmers for one instructor.



It was still hard keeping Levi happy for the 45 minutes while we sat at pool-side. For preschool classes, the parents are expected to sit on benches right on the pool deck. Last year I sat up in the bleachers, so it was a bit easier to keep the little ones out of the way. Levi was not exhibiting quite enough fear of the water as I might have liked, lol



Jacob, on the other hand, was great. He sat in the stroller for half the class, then had a snack and fell asleep for the other half.

Samuel is the only one who passed up out of his class, he is now in Guppy all by himself. Caleb has another year of Polliwog to go. His review sheet says he needs more practice on his back.



This was the only picture I could get of Samuel, he's taken to not wanting pictures taken lately:


Noah and Troyer are at the point in their lessons where they are really just refining technique and learning new strokes. Noah tried hard to learn them well, but he still has some work to do on his sidestroke.

Samuel's Birthday

Samuel's birthday was last month, but it was while Troyer was away at camp, so he decided to wait until the next week to celebrate so Troyer wouldn't miss it. Samuel doesn't like bakery cakes, so he chose a flavor of cake mix and he made his own. He really wanted orange cake, but I couldn't find it. He settled for a confetti cake with sprinkles on the icing. He made the cake, and I decorated it. He was very happy with how it came out.





He was very happy with all his presents, mostly TMNT and Legos. He also got a book on Dalmations, which he loves. It is a book on how to care for them, and as he is not a big reader, I thought he'd just like to look at the pictures; but he is actually reading it at night before bed!

I thought it was funny when he opened this gift from his dad and got so excited:



Woohoo! Candy! LOL

Ponderings

Did you ever thing to yourself "What if" or "If only"? In the process of house-hunting, Chris and I have often thought "If only we could have afforded that house we really liked..." or "What if the perfect house would finally come along and we could actually afford it!" Do you ever wish there were times in your life you could live over again, or do differently? I often wonder what life would be like if only I had had a girl or two.

But, being the overly analytical person that I am, I took that thought further. What if, THIS is the what-if life I had imagined in a different life? What if we had been able to buy that house we really wished we hadn't missed out on, but then that house flooded, or burnt down, or we had a child die from an accident on that property. And after such calamity, we had thought to ourselves, "If only we hadn't bought this house!" And *this* is the life we were given instead? What if I had had a few girl babies, but in 20 years they'd have grown up to suffer horrible tragedy, or at least difficulty, because they were girls?

What if you could live your life over, and this is already the second time around? This is the chance to make better choices? This is the life with better opportunities offered? What if I had once been born as a single birth, with no twin sister, and I had always wondered what it was like to have a twin, and always wished I had one, and Poof! My life became one where I had a twin sister! Now I know what it's like! My wish was granted!

Ok, I know that was weird and a bit circular, and probably hard to follow, but I like to think that the life I live now is the best one I could have hoped for. Instead of wishing for something different, I like to think that this is the life I was given when I DID wish for something different. This is the best I could have gotten. Maybe that's a little bit like It's a Wonderful Life? It doesn't stop me from dreaming of a beautiful farmhouse on many acres with a house full of boys (and girls!) but it helps me to not be bitter that I don't have what (I think) I want. Maybe if I had what I thought I wanted, I wouldn't like it at all! I know my life is full of blessings I can see and appreciate, but I bet it is full of blessings I didn't even know I was given, and I'm sure there are many sufferings and tragedies I was spared. THIS life is the good one!

Und der Haifisch, er hat Zaehne, und er traegt sie im Gesicht!

My apologies for not knowing how to get the umlauts in there. I'm sure probably only Michelle knows what that means either, but it's one of my favorite phrases I remember from high school German.

Anyway, the operative word above is Zaehne, which means ..... teeth! Jacob has officially, at one day less than 20 weeks old, gotten his first tooth! It broke through this morning, after a week of grumpiness and discomfort. It is funny to watch him now, because he can't help playing with it with his tongue. Each time I look over at him, he is sticking his tongue out and grinning widely. We are both glad it has finally popped out! It is a bottom front tooth, and its partner is close behind, I bet it will be out by this weekend.

Troyer used to have the record for earliest tooth, but if I remember correctly, it was 5 days before he turned 5 mos, so Jacob has him beat!

Pictures

Ok, here are the pictures from the last few weeks:

Remember how I told you Jacob likes to roll over in his sleep, even in his carseat? here is a picture of him half way through a nap:



He will, as he is waking up, roll over onto his tummy while pushing with his feet, and eventually fall out the *top* of the seat (it rocks, so his weight tips it over). All my other kids learned to squirm out the bottom of it by wiggling until their heads hit the floor as the seat rocked out from under them. This is the first time I've had one squirm out the top!

Here is a picture of Micah blowing Levi's bubbles while Levi holds the wand. They were having a great time!



Since all my blub flowers are done for the spring, I don't really have any flowers in my front beds anymore. I make Chris leave the flowering weeds in for me, so at least there is some color LOL




Last week our exploring brought us around to one of our favorite parks. Troyer and Noah were spending the weekend with MIL but the other 5 were with us, and had a blast.



















And here we are loading up to go home:


And finally some shots of Jacob in the exersaucer. He really likes it, and got the hang of it as soon as we put him in it. He chases those toys around in circles, LOL.





I really like this early version we have. The new ones come with all sorts of activities built in to the tray, which is nice because the babies can't throw them to the floor, but they are murder for cleaning up if the baby spits up or drools wet cheerios all over.

Appointments and Check Ups

Last week the oldest three boys met with their evaluator to review their portfolios for school and discuss how the school year went. One more hurdle the education system puts up for us to jump, but we did it. The boys did great; this year she didn't have anything negative to say. She gave me the names of some art teachers for Troyer, and recommended a recent high school graduate who is giving guitar lessons. I had explained that I didn't want to fork over a lot of money for lessons when it is obvious my kids don't have a huge aptitude for music, at least performing it. She suggested that this young guy probably wouldn't be charging what a professional teacher would. She also gave me links to some great websites which I will be trying to use for next year.

Today Troyer and Noah had doctor's appointments, so I could get forms signed for camp. Noah and Samuel leave for their week next Sunday. Whew, where did June go? We saw a new doctor today, which always makes me nervous, since I have to wonder how well a new person will handle a room full of kids. And I did have them ALL with me today. Normally I would leave some of them home or else leave some of the younger ones out in the waiting room with an older brother; but since today's visit was for the oldest two, I couldn't do that. The doctor was an older man, but he was very nice, and kept telling me how well behaved the boys were. I'm wondering what room he was in, because while he was saying this, two of them were playing with the blood pressure cuffs, one was trying to climb into the baby scale, and another was standing on the desk. Not long after that, the 7 yo had to go out into the hall to use the bathroom, so of course the 5 yo decided he did too, and then the 2 yo decided he was just leaving. Ack, lol. In spite of this, there was minmal fighting and yelling, so I guess that makes me a good mom ;-) Troyer and Noah both had to get booster shots of the chicken pox vaccine, so after the appt, we went over to the grocery store and I let them pick out some candy. They are growing well and are disgustingly healthy Woohoo! Samuel and Jacob have appointments on Friday.

This past weekend Troyer and Noah went over to MIL's for a long weekend. They got spoiled rotten! They went out to eat more often than they ate at home, she took them to a museum and to a movie. Grandpa put them to work out in the yard, but I'd say the compensation was worth it ;-)

Meanwhile Chris and I took the younger boys out on Saturday and drove around. We did more graveyard visiting and also looked for house-for-sale signs. There was one house that we really liked, but the sign was gone from the last time we drove past it, so I think it sold. It cost more than we could really afford, but we spent part of the afternoon dreaming about it anyway. Chris really wants to get the kids out into the country where they can run and yell to their hearts' content without annoying any neighbors lol.

I have more pictures, still in the camera. Hopefully things will calm down here and I can post some.

Lots of Firsts

Jacob will be 4 months old on Friday, and he's already hit a few milestones! Last week he started rolling over from back to front. He'd been trying for a while, but would catch himself on his elbow and flip back before getting all the way over. We joked that it was because he doesn't like to be on his tummy. He still complains once he gets there, and hasn't figured out how to get his arms out of the way to get back over again. He even rolls over in his carseat! If I lay him down in it for a nap, he'll roll onto his side. As he's waking up, he'll push with his feet and go up and over the top! He does this a lot so I think he enjoys it.

Another first: we brought the exersaucer down from the attic and cleaned it out. Chris put him in it while I was in the shower, and he loved it! We usually bring it out just after 4 months, so this is a little early. He can even spin himself around by kicking his feet already. He also loves to suck on the cover of the seat in front of him, LOL.

He is now regularly playing with rattles and toys. He's been having fun with his feet for a while now, and also likes to suck on blankets or whatever part of his clothes he can get to his mouth, so we figured he could suck on a teether instead, lol. He must have some teeth on the move, because he is starting to drool a lot too. We've never had a baby that needed a drool bib before, but I think they might be a good investment this time.

A Great Weekend

On Sunday Chris' friends invited us to meet them at the state park for a picnic. We haven't gotten together since last year, so we were excited to go. The weather looked great and we had already been hoping for a chance to get the kids out for a day.

We left early, about 9 am, and didn't get home until almost 7 pm. The weather was great, cloudy in the morning but clearing up nicely for the afternoon. We had plenty of food and the boys got to swim in the pool for hours. Chris got to go on a 2 hour hike with just his buddies, no kids, which was great for him. While the kids were in the pool I had Jacob to myself at the picnic tables, so some quiet time for me. I also enjoyed talking with the other moms. There was a mom with a 6 mo baby, she had been pg when we got together last year. She had a little girl, I just loved seeing all the pink stuff! At one point we put the babies down together on a blanket in the shade and the 6 mo rolled over to Jacob and had her hand in his, so it looked like they were holding hands. It was so cute! I wish I had remembered my camera, but of course, left it at home.

One regret I had about the day is that it was on the same day as my cousin's baby shower. I would have really liked to go to that, but it was out of state and Chris' car is starting to really deteriorate. Since I don't have a cell phone and I would have been alone with Jacob for the trip, I just didn't feel safe driving so far. I would have hitched a ride with my sister, but she opted to make it a weekend visiting with my aunt, and we agreed that it wouldn't really be a good idea to try an overnight trip with the baby. I am sad to have missed seeing my aunt and all my cousins; it's been a long time since we've seen each other. (I think it was the summer before Micah was born) Maybe I'll get a chance to go out and visit in August, after the baby is born. It's going to be another girl, so I get to buy more pink!

How Not to Answer an Email

Remember that cool table that my aunt sent for the boys? The one I posted about before with the picture? I sent that picture to her with an additional thank you (in addition to the hard copy snail mail thanks I sent weeks ago) last week. I just thought she'd like to see the kids enjoying it. Here is the email she sent to me in response:

"I loved the pictures of the boys around the table. They really looked like they were having fun. Jake is a beautiful baby and he even looks easy going. I don't know how you do it with seven boys but you need to read "The Color of Water" as it is about a woman who raised a bunch of kids too.

I worry about you, where is your life outside the house and in the world? You can't just be a Mommy forever, you need to let Gretchen grow as adults need to do. You are a great mother and you chose to have a bunch of kids but you need to have your own time too. You need to show the boys that woman are not just Mommies. I realize Chris doesn't want your kids in school but at a certain point you need to put your foot down and let the boys learn about the real world instead of keeping them in the house for their lifetime. Even if you don't like the schools you need to be their advocate and then any school will work. They need to know how to pick friends and how to get along in the real world. It is a necessary skill set for life. I am sorry to preach but you must realize someday that you are not doing them a favor especially as they get older. Life is not as scary as you think, it all depends on who you are and what skills you learn to cope with events in life.

I do love you and I do worry about you and I am sure you are happy but I do think you could be happier. At your age you get second chances at mine you don't. You need to get unstuck which takes courage.Life takes a lot of courage but how do we learn courage if we don't take chances? Think about this stuff, don't be mad at me for speaking out.

Can you say UGH? I was up most of the night after reading it, writing responses to her in my head. I will not send any, because she will never understand me and my choices, and she will never hear me. The most I can do is make her feel bad, and I don't want to do that. Better to just not drag it out. But sheesh, can't she just reply with "Cute kids, glad they like it!"? I hate it when she does this.

A Quick Rundown

Ok, I said I'd review some more books and movies, so here they are quickly:

We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was cute, meaning it was lightly entertaining, not offensive, not horrible.
We watched Sahara, which we liked. Kind of a cross between Indiana Jones and The Mummy. It is based on a book, so I think the book would be good to read.
We rented Logan's Run, which I thought was going to be the TV show, but it turned out to be the movie which, while rated PG was not, so we returned it without letting the boys see it. That was disappointing.
We watched RV last weekend, and it was funny. I usually will like a Robin Williams movie, and this one was ok. It definitely didn't convince Chris that he wanted to take a vacation travelling across the U.S. LOL
The boys rented Thundercats, which is a cartoon from the 90s (I think). Troyer liked it, but he likes ALL cartoons; the other boys thought it was wierd. I did too LOL.
We also rented Stranger Than Fiction, and enjoyed that. I think Will Farrell is finding some better movies to do lately; I really didn't like him in his older movies.


On the bookshelf, I finished reading Simply Love, by Mary Balogh. I've been waiting for Aimee to finish it so she could pass it on to me. It's been on reserve at the library since it came out, and I was tired of waiting for it. I have to say, it was such a pleasure to read a good author again. Some of the other books I've been reading were mildly entertaining, but the writing bugged me. I found myself rewriting bits of them as I read them, thinking how the phrasing or grammar could be improved. Mary Balogh, on the other hand, writes well, so I could just enjoy the story. This book was the second in a quartet of books that are a side story to her Bedwyn series. It is fun to see her other characters popping up in these books.
Right now I'm reading When I Fall in Love, by Lynn Kurland. It's another book in a series, this one about a family whose ancestors are from Scotland. There is a lot of time travelling in the books, so they are a good read. Kurland is another good writer, which means her books don't need a lot of trashy filler and can concentrate on carrying the plot.

Finally, one more picture to share:


My aunt sent a cool art table for the boys as her gift when Jacob was born. It has a roll of paper under one end, so you pull up a big sheet, draw on it, then tear it off when the masterpiece is complete. The boys love it!

HOT

I haven't been here to post in a while, because it's been HOT. Much too hot to sit at my computer and edit pictures and wait while they upload and compose posts. Blech. I had a nice mother's day, got candy and flowers and a card, plus Chris got me a few presents. It took a while to train him, but he did well ;-) Now to get the boys on board, LOL.

Caleb had his birthday, and while his behavior has been not-so-great on occasion, he was good enough to get his cake and presents on time. I think he learned from Micah's mistake!



Jacob also turned 3 months old the same week. Wow the time went fast!





Micah and Caleb both had their check ups on the same day. There is a new chicken pox vaccine booster, so they both had to get a shot, and neither was happy about it, but it turned out fine. They didn't cry at all, and the doctor told them he was impressed, that boys older than them made more fuss. I took them out and got them candy bars to reward them for their bravery.

The next week Caleb went back to the dentist to have his molars sealed. It was a quick in-and-out visit. I wish they had sealants back when I was a kid!

This past weekend, after an awful hot week, during which I would NOT turn on the air conditioning, out of principle that you should just not have to turn it on in May, Chris decided that rather than sit in church and sweat on Saturday, we'd take the boys out and explore. We loaded up the van with water and snacks and drove around looking for fun spots. First we drove over to where Chris' grandparents are buried. It's on a hillside and has a beautiful view.



It took us a while to remember where his grandparents were buried, but after searching for a while, it turned out that we had parked right near the spot!



I had been thining for a number of years that it was Samuel who was a baby at his grandmother's funeral, but when we read the dates on the headstone, we realized that it was Noah! Oops. We had fun looking for old headstones and competing to find the oldest date. We found one stone that said 1822!

After getting hot and sweaty running through the cemetery, we went back down the hill to a little park with a stream running through it. We broke out the snacks and the blankets,



and the boys took off their socks and shoes and went wading.





They found and caught a crayfish, but they let it go. Noah found an old claw left behind by a now-gone crayfish.



Next we drove to another cemetery, this one a tiny spot on the side of the road near where Chris grew up. There is no church there any longer, but someone built a miniature church as a memorial.





We managed to get home in the evening before it started to rain. It rained most of Sunday, but that's ok, because it cooled things off a lot! We spent most of the day helping Noah and Troyer clean out their room. Ugh it was nasty. It looks good now, let's hope they can keep it that way for a while!

Oh, I have more books and movies to review, but I'll save that for another post.