Just messing around outside

Some days are a battle with the kids.  Some days they are resistant, self-centered and suffer from ingratitude.  Some days I do too.  But once in a while, we have a golden moment worth trying to remember and hold on to.  We had one today.

The Christmas holiday gets the children wound up, and spending too much time indoors makes them crazy.  Today was unseasonably warm and fair.  I desperately wanted to get them outdoors to run off some steam.  Steve was not feeling well so I packed up the kids and took them to a nearby park.  It has a man-made lake and a dam which the Army Corp of Engineers uses for flood control.  There is a gorge and some trails at the dam outlet.  The gorge loop trail is a nice little one mile trail up the side of the gorge and back.  It is just bite size for my little nippers.

When we arrived I was surprised by how fast the creek was running.  The water foaming out of the outlet was churning up some wild waves and further downstream whole stands of trees were sticking out of the water.

After a morning of picking at each other and being in each other’s way the children just had fun.  It was absolutely refreshing. I had Nathan in the backpack carrier and the other three did a lot of hurry-look-dawdle-hurry.  They were free to explore and imagine, and be daring.  An older fellow at a picnic table called out, “This is the best time of your life!”  I think he was talking to me.

While on trail I heard-

“Mommy, look I’m doing gymnastics,” as Petra balanced on a log.

“Uh-oh, mom’s going to get us!  Run!”

“As soon as mommy reaches this rock, we’ll run ahead…Run!”

“I found a walking stick”

“Is this a good walking stick?”

“You put your arm straight out and that is where you grab it.”

“I’m looking for acorns.  I can’t believe it, all I can find are caps and broken acorns.”
"Mom, Paul ran too far ahead.  I can't see him.  I'm worried about him."
"Mom, I got too far ahead.  I was worried about you guys."

“Don’t tell our mom we went this way.”

“I found the tallest tree!”

“I’m breaking the ice.”

“Look at this ice with the bumps in it!”

“I didn’t mean to throw the ice at her face.”

“Look how fast I can go.”

While on trail I said –

“Hurry up.”

“Slow down.”

“Look how high we are.”

“I can see our car from here.”

“Do you want to hold my hand?”

“Not so loud.”

“Wow, you’re fast.”

“That is a tall tree.”

“Let Petra have one too.”

“Look at the ice with my sunglasses.  You can see it stretch further under the water and it looks all rainbow-y.”

We made it all the way around with no bad bumps.  Julia gave Paul the perfect acorn she found.  Then we walked up past the dam outlet.  Paul got there a little ahead of me and said, “Mom, I feel a little afraid.”

“Good.  A little fear is a very appropriate response to the violence of this water.”

We started up the grassy slope.  Paul made it about halfway up and then he looked back.  The heights and the steepness made him feel a little wobbly so he and Petra stayed there.  I followed Julia to the top.  She’s a quick and bold little thing. 

On the way back to the car Paul kept me nervous by walking on the rocky bank of the creek.  It was his adventure.  I was impressed that Petra walked the whole time without fussing about being worn out.

NOW AN SEEMINGLY UNRELATED STORY:

Once upon a time little Steve’s parents tried to feed him green beans with his lunch.  He hated the smell of them.  They sent him to his room until he would eat 3 green beans.  Just 3.  Little Steve stayed in his room without snacks or supper.

BACK TO TODAY’S NARRATIVE:

When we got home from our hike we had hot turkey soup waiting for us.  Petra, who may I remind you is all of 4, declared that she didn’t like soup.  Paul didn’t like it either.  I told them both that they were not getting any other food unless they ate their soup, but I did dismiss them from the table.

A few hours later Paul caved in and finished his soup so that he could then get some chex mix.  Petra passed up chex mix, smoothies and dinner time macaroni and cheese all to avoid 4 bites of soup.  Despite the hike and later playing in our yard for a while, she went to bed without any other food.  I don’t know where she gets that from.

Christmas Decorating Train Wreck

How to Make a Charming and Interesting Card Holder for the Holiday Season:

1. Decide to make your charming and interesting card holder while your husband is out with the older children, so that you only have to contend with a pre-schooler and a toddler.

2. Consider the card holder you have made in the past, which consisted of wrapping Christmas paper over the large framed picture in the dining room.  Decide that it is too hard to get that picture off and back on the wall.

3. Decide that while you are changing things up, you will use a long sheet of butcher block paper on a smaller frame.  Decide that it would be cute to put a homemade decoration on the white butcher block.

4. Get the butcher block paper while the toddler fusses.  Toddler is teething and temperamental.

5. Cut paper to the length desired - about 6 feet.  Try to keep the toddler and pre-schooler from unrolling all the paper.

6. Trace the pre-schooler's whole body to make the outline for a gingerbread man.  The pre-schooler will be delighted because she has been learning about gingerbread people in pre-school.

7.  Start using marker to outline a gingerbread man in liederhosen.  Let the pre-schooler color the face. Prevent the toddler from sucking on the markers.

8.  Try to keep the toddler from tripping on the paper while he dances on it.  Try to color around the toddler's dancing feet while he sucks on your nose.

9. Realize that the giant, empty, misshapen eyes your pre-schooler has drawn remind you of the soulless Golem.

10. While you try to redeem your Gingerbread Man's face, listen to your preschooler circle through the living room, drop her marker, and sprint for the bathroom.

11.  Notice that the toddler's drool is making parts of the gingerbread man's outline run.

12.  Let the toddler run feral.

13.  Ask the preschooler if she made it to the bathroom in time.  She will answer, "Yes, mommy.  Don't come in here."

14.  Keep working on the gingerbread man.

15.  Notice that the dog is in the other room, gleefully cleaning her whisker on the couch.  What?  Wonder if she got into some food left out on the table.

16.  When you go to the kitchen to see what the dog got into, check on the pre-schooler who is still hanging out on the potty.

17. Confirm that the pre-schooler did, in fact, not make it to the potty in time.  Nor did she go #1.

18. Ask the preschooler, "Did the dog lick up some of this mess?"

19.  Make sure the toddler isn't climbing the stairs or consuming toxins.

20.  Clean the floor in the bathroom.

21. Wipe both couches where the dog may have been cleaning her whiskers with disinfectant wipes.  Pretend that you think that is sufficient to clean them.  Throw the afghans in the wash.  Hope that is enough to get rid of any germs.

22.  Mumble about the dog.

23.  Wipe down the pre-schooler.  Decide it is bath time.

24. Leave the gingerbread man paper on the floor for the husband and two children to trip on when they come home.

25. Swear off crafts until all the children are 25.

Nathan's 1st Haircut

Saturday was apparently Grooming Day at the Kuhlman house.  Maggie and all the children got baths.  All the guys got haircuts. It took all afternoon.

Nathan, the morning before his haircut.

After.

Steve giving Paul his haircut.

What a really want for Christmas

• one more pair of exercise pants
• black mary jane sketchers shoes for work
• courage to start unloading baby gear
• Buck Denver Asks, "What's in the Bible" Episode 2
• black and brown made in the USA socks
• a Tae Kwon Do uniform
• some nails placed in a few walls to hang artwork and pictures
• civil dialogue among politicians
• a warm winter hat that doesn't clash with my plum coat
• time to play piano or trombone
• time to write down songs, poems or stories
• time to draw
• time to play with my kids and perspective to treat that time as important
• an extra couple of place settings of plates or flatware
• wisdom from above in setting priorities
• daily prayer time with my husband
• a field trip with the kids to see Christmas decorations
• sledding
• a chance for girls in Afghanistan to go to school
• a couple places in the house where I can take pictures of the kids and not be embarrassed by the background clutter
• the clothing drier to keep working
• rust repair on the Jetta
• a square pan for cornbread
• discernment between contentment and complacency
• discernment between being gracious with myself and being self indulgent
• wisdom in deciding how much to work outside the home, deciding what to save and what to let go, deciding how to educate and enrich my children without injuring them
• Okay, let's just say wisdom and discernment.  I would like both, please.  Fold them up, put them in a box and stick it in my stocking.
• hair clips
• dark chocolate

Thanksgiving '13

Thanksgiving this year we decided to try to visit lots of extended family.  

ACT 1

We visited my folks for Thanksgiving Day and had dinner with the kids, grandparents and great grandparents. 

Great grandma made two pumpkin pies and one mincemeat pie.  Great grandpa likes mincemeat pie and we only see it once a year.  I like mincemeat pretty well too, but nobody else in the family cares for it.  As I sat eating my piece of mincemeat pie, I had little Nathan in my lap.  I tried giving him a taste of ice cream, but it was too cold and shocking.  He made a terrible face and spit out.  Then I decided I would introduce him to mincemeat pie and train up at least one more family member to enjoy this rare pie.  I popped a bite into Nathan’s mouth.  He spit it out.  I thought he was still recovering from the cold ice cream.  I tried again.  He spit it out again.  I tried one more time to put a little mincemeat in his mouth.  He spit it out and started pushing the spoon as far away as he could as if to say, "Will you stop already?  Get that stuff away from me."

 

So in all the world I know 4 people who like mincemeat pie – Me, Great grandpa, Grandpa K, and Great Aunt Barbara. 

Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma have had trouble the last few years to find canned mincemeat or frozen mincemeat pies for Thanksgiving.  I guess grocery stores aren’t interested in stocking an item for all 12 of us in the tri-state area who like it.

While at my folks house I pulled out a little craft for the kids to do. We cut out interesting pictures from magazines and glued them to magnets.  Then we put glass disks on top of the pictures.  I hope to use magnets as gifts to the kids’ teachers.  Paul, Julia, and Petra all did two or three magnets, and then lost interest and wandered off.  Grandma H and I thought it was a fun little craft.  I thought it was sweet and funny that the little ones had left, but Grandma H and I sat around the table and found more pictures to make a handful more magnets.  We don’t get to do little crafty things just every day.

ACT 2 

Next we went to visit my sister.  I have a brand new baby nephew that I was eager to meet.  He was tiny and precious.  He was all sleepy and sweet for our visit.

Paul got to hold his baby cousin for a group photo with cousins and cousins-in-law

ACT 3

Then we drove to Steve’s uncle’s home.  We hadn’t visited their new house on a little lake yet. The house was packed out with Grandma & Grandpa K, Steve’s 3 grown cousins and one cousin-in-law.  Our older 3 children slept in sleeping bags in the living area, while Steve and I took the baby to a local hotel.  We left saying, “Goodbye.  We’ll be back tomorrow around noon… just kidding.”

Shortly after we arrived at their home, Paul walked up to me and said, “Um… I haven’t changed my socks in a couple of days, so I think I’m going to change them now.”

I looked down, “Okay.  Hey!  Are your socks wet?  You don’t go walking through the house with wet socks!  Take those off right now!”

After he had dry socks on I asked about his shoes.  “Are your shoes wet too?”  He gave me a guilty grin.  “Bring them down here.  We need to dry them out too.”

He had been sitting on the little pier pushing the ice with his feet.  There was a new large crack running through the ice partly because of him.  I found out later that he had actually stood a little on the ice, but he was right next to the shore when he did so.  He had recently learned in Scouts about how thick ice must be before it is safe to walk on.  Even so, we had a little talk about the consequences of falling through ice into cold water.  I can understand playing with ice and breaking it up, and I’m grateful that he wasn’t doing anything too stupid.

Julia and Petra had a great time decorating cousin Allison.  The Julia treated cousin David as her personal climbing wall for a while.  We took the children for a walk down the dirt road and Petra was delighted to collect to treasures on the way – spruce needles, a couple of rocks, twigs, and a dry oak leaf.  We brought them back to show Aunt Mary.  Julia was a little freaked out at the beginning of the walk because we were advised to “watch out for hunters.”  She was starting to whine about not walking through the woods.  Steve told her that she was safe because there are very few purple deer, so she would not be mistaken for a deer.   

Mince Meat Pie Update: 

Aunt Mary tried some and didn’t care for it.  Grandpa K gave some to Petra and she liked it.  Yay!

Petra, my sweet, you can't get there from here

Petra has been asking lately to be taken to the pet store so that she can get a pet unicorn.  I keep telling her that I don't know of any pet stores in the area that carry unicorns.

Last week I made a puppet called Little Dinosaur out of my hand.  Petra, like her siblings before her, started telling Little Dinosaur EVERYTHING, including -

Petra: I want to go to the store and get a Pegasus.
LD: Oh. And where would you fly on your Pegasus?
Petra: Hmm...  I would fly to Atlantis.

Seems like an appropriate destination for a Pegasus.  I wonder if the flight is nonstop, and if there is an fee for checked bags.

Emergency Preparedness

The children at school practice "lock downs" for certain types of emergencies.

E-mail from teacher to parents:

Good Evening,

I just wanted to let you know that we had our mandatory lockdown at school today. Part of the new procedure is to discuss with children all of our options including, hiding, evacuating, and self-defense. We talked about problem solving based on the particular situation. We also discussed how important it is to be quiet in order hear directions from an adult or to assess the situation.

We also talked about what a small probability it would to have such a situation, but how important it is to be prepared just like with fire drills and tornadoes.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Mrs. C. 


E-mail from parent to teacher:

Paul and some of his friends are prepared to strip out of their clothing and make it into a rope to help lower everybody to the ground so that you don't have to hang halfway out of the window to drop them out.  

Just don't let them get lock-down and fire-drill confused.

Yours,

Sarah Kuhlman

Response from teacher to parent:

Good idea!

Zoo Jaunt

Last week my children had a day off from school for parent teacher conferences.  I had scheduled my conferences for early in the day, and then we went to the zoo.

The weather was a little chilly at first, but really not to bad.  We went to several indoor exhibits like the reptile house, the insect building, and the bird house.

One of my favorite things this trip was when we visited the manatees.  The viewing room was pretty empty and the manatee was eating a case of lettuce.  Paul and I were a little startled to realize that the manatee used its serrated upper lip to grab the lettuce and pull it into its mouth.  I let Nathan out of the stroller.  He was able to walk right up to the glass side of the aquarium and watch this big thing move around and eat.  He seemed pretty interested in it.

My kids in front of Monkey Island

Petra walking with Grandma

Proof Nathan was there

Paul explaining stuff to Julia in the World of Insect

Nathan getting a chance to explore

Nathan is 1!

Here is Nathan with Steve on his birthday

Grandma H decorated the traditional 1st Birthday Winnie the Pooh Cake

Nathan had fun eating some peas and bits of sausage off a baby fork for dinner.

He was very enthusiastic about his cake frosting.  Once he got down to the actual cake, he started dropping bits to Maggie.

He didn't know what to do with wrapped packages, but unwrapped blocks were a big hit.

Not that I want to encourage this

Julia practicing looking too cool

Petra and Nathan playing in the dog's crate

Paul relaxing before bath time with clean underwear on his head

November Thanks Part I

The colors of autumn turn my mouth to praise.  I want to remember with gratitude:

November 1: A full tank of gas, the places it gets me, and the confidence it affords me.

November 2: An exercise class that is making me think about the mind - body - spirit connectedness.  It is challenging my thinking and encouraging me to take care of my health and use movement as a form of meditation and prayer.
Also thanks for a margin of time in the evening to indulge and coddle sick children.

November 3: Freedom to go to church and be open about my faith  and the WORST that will happen is that people will think that I am snooty or foolish.
Also thanks for a father-in-law willing to watch sick children while I go to church.

November 4: We kept the baby alive for a whole year!  Happy Birthday, buddy.

November 5: The privilege to cast a vote in the governance of my community.  The resources to take sick baby to the doctor.  An experienced doctor who can trick the baby into thinking that the exam is play time.

A blog by Petra

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halloween '13

The scary cute witch with floppy broom

Paul as beetle - that's insect, not musician

Petra on the left as Diego, Animal Rescuer.

Nathan in his brother's old pirate costume

Grandma K made costumes for the older three.  They all got to wear the costumes to school.  I came to Petra's class party and saw her make a pumpkin craft and dance a silly dance.  Nathan came too, so I tossed an old costume on him before we went.

Petra and Nathan were too sniffly to come out for trick or treat.  The weather promised to be quite wet.  I took Paul and Julia out.  We had a break in the rain for the first part of our walk.  Paul went with some of our friends and Julia and I walked more slowly with one of her friends from school.  As the rain and wind picked up our friends decided to go home.  Julia had just been declaring that she wanted to trick or treat forever.  I said, "Julia, we can go to the next street and try to find Paul, or we can go back where it is dry."

"Let's go where it is dry."

"That's the answer I wanted to hear."

I held an umbrella up horizontally as we walked into the wind.  Then we had to turn a corner to get to the garage where our friends were.  I closed the umbrella and yelled, "Run!"  We ran.  Julia was still pretty soaked when we got into shelter.

Paul and his group came a little later.  He thought it was funny to hang back and try to enter the garage through the doggy door.  His bug costume wouldn't let him through.

Petra and daddy had a quiet evening.  They watched a long Veggie Tale cartoon and ate leftover birthday cake and lighted the jack'o'lanterns.  She was disappointed not to come out, but her sniffles and coughing convinced Steve and I that it was the right decision.

Petra's Birthday

Petra is 4!

We celebrated her birthday this week.  She asked for a strawberry cake, with her name and pink polka dots on it.

Poor girl has a cold this week.  Nevertheless, she is enjoying preschool.  She knows her letters now.

Petra is now telling me that she does not love preschool, because she does not like having to sit criss-cross applesauce.  She likes the computer.  She likes toys.  She is into toys from the cartoons Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First.

Her favorite color is pink.  She wants to be a princess when she grows up.  She and I are looking forward to joining Tae Kwon Do in a couple of months.  She has been practicing her warm ups (imagine doing hula hoop without the hoop to loosen your hips) and her ki-up, or spirit yell.  We might have to make a new rule about no spirit yelling in the house.

Corn Maze II

A year ago we went to a corn maze with Paul’s scout pack.  Petra stayed home with Grandma, but we brought Paul’s buddy, J. with us.  The two boys were rather excessively silly, and I was challenged by the maze because I was excessively pregnant.

This year we went again with our whole family.  We arrived a little late, but there were still plenty of hot dogs and marshmallows to roast over the fire.  I think Petra was intrigued by the open fire cooking.  After a quick meal, we entered the maze with Nathan riding in the backpack.  We did the maze with J. again, but this year we had his dad along for backup.

Maybe it’s just because I had full use of my lungs, but the maze seemed to go much faster this year.  It helped that Steve or J.’s dad would break off from the group periodically to scout around for the landmarks we were supposed to find.  Mr. V even carried Julia for a few stretches. Boy, was she ever milking that!  Steve carried Petra for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the maze.

We had beautiful weather, and it must have been a great growing season for corn.  There were places in the field where the corn stalks were 10 feet tall.

The farmers who run the corn maze have a little country store and a large pumping launching truck.  The truck looks like an antique fire truck.  It had been fitted with a 3 or 4 foot diameter air compressor on the back.  The air compressor was hooked up to a pipe which makes the barrel of the pumpkin cannon.  Each half hour they charge the compressor and then launch a pumplin.  A sign nearby says the pumpkins land about half a mile away.  

Open Mat Night

Friday we tried out Open Matt Night at our Tae Kwon Do school.  I’m excited to start taking regular classes, but we want to wait until Petra and I can join together.  In the meantime, I’ve been trying to build up my strength so that I can at least make it through the warm ups.  I can’t do sit ups yet, but I’m getting closer.  Open Matt Night is a once a month chance to get a taste of what the school offers.

We took the whole family.  Steve hung out with Nathan on the side, but the rest of us were out on the mat.  Before the class began, Steve and Nathan went out on the mat.  Steve stretched, threw some kicks and practiced his form.  Nathan stood on the mat.  At first he looked a little concerned.  What was this strange soft surface?  After a few moments of caution, he tried a couple of steps.  He quickly figured out that the mat was a wonderful place to toddle.  It was consistent, wide open, and soft for falling.  He started cruising all over the place.  Once the class started, Steve had to work to keep Nathan off the mat.

I really enjoyed going the class and learning a couple of moves.  Just getting out an moving felt wonderful.  One of our big motivation in going to the class was to see if Petra was ready for regular classes.  Steve and I agreed she need a couple more months of maturity.  She hung with Paul and Julia for the first half of class, but then she was done.  And it was pretty funny to see her sort of throw herself into completely random shapes when we were supposed to be stretching.

The group Paul and Julia were practiced some of the falling techniques from the Judo class.  The Master Steve let all the kids practice throwing him to the ground.  So Paul and Julia got to toss a big guy.

 I think they enjoyed it.  When we got home, Nathan’s skin smelled like the matt, which is to say like feet.

Brave little Petra

Last weekend Petra got her first bee sting.  I had invited or ordered the children to help me pick apples from our apple tree.  This is the first year the trees produced anything significant.  We brought out a two-step stepstool and a bucket.  Nathan played on the ground and I watched nervously to make sure he stayed away from the broken apples on the ground because they were being frequented by yellow jackets and some other type of wasp.

Petra had to wait for a turn on the stepstool.  She was so pleased to climb up where she could reach some apples too.  I was looking the other way when I heard her cry, “Mommy, a be stung me.”  She was rubbing face.  I quickly moved Nathan to the play set and told Paul and Julia to watch him. 

I picked up Petra and carried her to the house.  We have a family history of bee sting allergies, so I didn’t want to mess around.  Even so, Petra was taking the sting so well that I had trouble believing she had actually been stung.  She wasn’t screaming, wailing, or crying.  “Petra, are you sure you got stung?”

“Yes, mommy.”

“It didn’t just fly into your face and scare you?”

“No , it stung me, Mommy.”

“Are you sure?”

When we got into the house, I started making a meat tenderizer paste and Steve coaxed Petra to pull her hands away from her face.  Sure enough, there was a little welt with a red center between the bridge of her nose and her eyes. 

I was proud of how well Petra handled the whole thing.  She didn’t have a bad reaction.  Later in the day I found a rubber yellow jacket toy that was about six inches long.  I thought it would be funny to give Petra a chance to punch the toy to get even with the bees.  Not thinking, I offered the toy to Petra by pushing it right in front of her face and saying, “Look, Petra, it’s a yellow jacket!”  Poor girl jumped.  “No, sweetie, it’s a toy.  See.  You can hit it.”  I showed demonstrated and she gave it a few featherweight punches.  She thought that was funny.

And the next day when the yellow jackets were out at our church picnic, Petra was nervous, but she didn’t panic.  Good girl.

At least there is a good reason

A couple of weeks ago I got a form letter from the school nurse because Paul had suffered a head injury.  He had been too cold in class and had pulled his arms and legs inside his shirt, so that when he tipped out of his chair he landed on his forehead.  Fortunately, he did not suffer a concussion.


Today,  I felt like writing the following:

Dear Mrs C.,

I am writing to explain the small scrape Paul has on his upper lip.  You see, during his wait for the bus, he walked into a 100 year old maple tree, while pretending to be blind because his sister's striped pants looked so bad with her striped jacket.  Thank you for your patience with my son and his injury.

Yours,
his mother

Baby steps

It was a big weekend for Nathan:
his eleventh month birthday
his first Octobeerfest
he dumped Steve's glass of Coke off the coffee table
he started walking.

Saturday evening I told Petra it was bath time and she ran yelling from the room.  Nathan watched and then it was like something snapped inside him.  He stood up.

Shuffle, shuffle, sit.
Stand, step, sit.
Stand, shuffle, step, step, sit.
Stand, sit.
Stand, step, step, waver, step, sit.

Up and down, down and up he went.  I don't know how he didn't get seasick.  He kept working and has earned the title, Toddler Danger Baby Extraordinaire.

Big party through mommy's eyes

Octobeerfest '13
" Petra, have you had anything to eat tonight?  I mean besides the 3 cookies?"
With an air of injured indignation, she answered, "Yes.  I had candy corn."

Leading up to the party, Steve asked me to look for sparklers to stuff in a pumpkin to launch from our home built trebuchet to ignite the bonfire. I could only find re-lighting birthday candles, but they didn't have enough umph. I think he used road flares.  I'm pleased to report that no humans were harmed in the lighting of the bonfire, but please don't report us to the ASAPA.  (American Society for the Abolition of Pumpkin Abuse).

The children all got to bed late.  Even little Nathan held out, laying relaxed in the stroller listening to the band, but NOT closing his eyes. I think I tucked Paul and Julia in bed around eleven o'clock.

Notes to self for next year:
Buy more juice pouches for the kids.
Pick up sparklers in July.
Put the cat in the dog's crate before the party begins so he doesn't steal people food.
Take the dog's bedding out of the crate before you put the cat in.
Don't make a gallon of fresh salsa - half gallon will be plenty.
Starting brats to thaw in fridge Wednesday night is about right.
You can't buy too many glow bracelets for the children.
Keep extra towels and disinfecting spray in the bathroom - just in case.

Dog Journal

August 22

The kids keep bringing food to the barn.  Good stuff like meat and milk.  They come back smelling like cat.  Must investigate.

September 1

Cat's name is Midnight.  At least they are feeding it cat food now and not meat.  Mostly.  If I'm quick I can eat some of the cat food from the dish in the barn before the folks call me off it.

September 8

When I run after her real fast I can chase the cat up a tree. BEST. GAME. EVER!

September 15

Stupid cat stopped running.  Now she just lays down.  Stupid cat.  Sometimes she even sashays right in front of me.  Stupid cat.

September 19

Vet said Midnight is a he.  Or at least he used to be.  heh-heh-heh.

September 24

Midnight and I played together.  Kind of.  He doesn't exactly understand how to play. Cats are pretty dim.  Even so, I chased him a little bit.  He chased me a little bit.  It was good for a little romp.  Now if I can just persuade him to leave more of his food behind in his bowl...

Nathan at 10 months

Prepare for Launch!
Last week Grandma K saw Nathan take his first step.  I've seen him walk along furniture, holding on with only one hand.  He has also let go of one piece of furniture and sort of pitched forward to grab hold of the next piece.  A couple of weeks ago I watched him rise to a stand and then lower himself into a squat and hold it for a few moments.  He's ready to go.

I want to know how babies learn to tilt their head to their shoulder and do a cutie pie look.  Where do they get that?  And how do they know it will be so effective in winning people over.

Busy

I also love the nose-wrinkle grin.  It announces, "I'm an imp!"

We are read to declare Nathan's first word - Maggie.  Not mommy.  Not daddy.  Maggie.  Earlier this week Steve and I were discussing Nathan and what his first words would be over breakfast.  Nathan was crawling around on the floor after the dog.  After a couple of minutes Steve said, "Do you hear that?  He's saying Maggie."  As he followed Maggie, Nathan kept calling something like, "Dnadgee,  Dnmadgee!"

Maggie

There is an honorable mention, or runner up first word also.  Sunday morning, before our friend Tyson came for a visit, I said to Nathan, "Can you say, "Ty-ty?"  He tried to imitate me, and it was pretty close.  But since he didn't know what Ty-ty meant, and he wouldn't repeat his trick in front of Tyson, we're calling Maggie his first word-with-meaning.

Petra’s First Day of Preschool

Petra has started preschool.  She is in a program run by the city, so she rides the school bus.  She looks so stinkin’ cute with her big purple backpack.

Whenever we mentioned preschool over the summer, Petra got pretty quiet.  I don’t think she was sure about the whole idea.  When we visited her teacher the day before her classes started though, she chattered along without stopping.  I am pleased to report that she is really ready.  She has been singing little songs that she has learned in class, she’s very tired at bedtimes, and she seems to be feeding on the social interaction.

Her first day of class started with a bit of a hiccup.  I had agreed to help move some furniture in the morning, even though I desperately wanted to be the one who put her on the bus.  She visited her grandma for the morning, and I got back in time to take her home for lunch.  As she started to eat, Steve called, thinking that she would be on the bus already.  I said, “Oh, no the bus doesn’t come until 1:10.”  I double checked and saw that I had confused the bus pick-up time with the tardy bell time.  It was 12:20 and the bus was supposed to pick her up at 12:32.  “Umm… I’ll call you back.”

“Petra eat!”

I phoned grandma, explained my mistake and said, “If you want to see Petra get on the bus, come over now.”

“Here Petra, you eat, I’ll put your shoes on.  Go to the potty, we’ll take your lunch outside while we wait for the bus.”

Despite my bumbling, she made it on the bus with a few bites of food in her.  I think she had a good first day.  I asked her later about her snack at school.  “It was a granola bar [rice crispie treat], but it was all sticky, so I didn’t like it. “

“What did you have to drink?”

“It was WHITE milk” She was contemptful. “I didn’t drink it so I threw it in the trash.” 

She was a little cranky hungry when she finally got home.  Things have smoothed out a bit since then.

Who's on First?

We were driving on I-75....

Julia: Hey what’s that city over there.

Steve: What?

Julia: What city are we passing?

Steve: Sidney.

Julia: What city?

Steve: Sidney.

Julia:[enunciating very carefully] What CITY are we passing.

Steve: I’m telling you.  Sidney.

Julia: Yeah, what city.

Steve: S-I-D-N-E-Y.

Julia: I’m not saying Sidney.  I’m asking what city that was.

Steve: I know, and I’m telling you, the city’s name is Sidney.

Julia: Oh.  Why is mommy laughing like that?

Paul's Broken Arm

We made it through the first broken bone of the family.  About a week before school began, Paul fell off the top of a tube slide at the park.  He was climbing on the outside of the slide.  My mom asked if he learned his lesson about using play equipment properly.  Short answer – no.

He had just started to climb down.  As he puts it, “Climbing up is easy.  Climbing down – ah, not so much.”  He slid off and fell, landing poorly on his wrist and his sister.  She was fine.  He cried out a little, then staggered over to me to me and groaned, “I think I broke my arm.”

“Yeah, uh-huh.  Why don’t you just lay down and see if it feels better.”

I made him wait through our picnic lunch.  He was still nursing it and wanting to lay down. Okay, so he was shivering which could have been shock or could have been the natural result of running through the “sprayground” in 70 degree weather.  I made him wait through Petra’s bus orientation program. He told me that it wasn’t hurting quite as badly. I asked if he wanted to go to the library, and he told me that his arm was more important than the library.

I asked his physical therapist (aka grandma) to look at his wrist.  It hadn’t swollen very much for a break, but when he yelped as she checked his range of motion she said, “It’s probably not broken, but I would have it checked.”

The x-ray technician was very nice, but completely dismissive as she worked with Paul.  “He would be in a lot more pain if it were broken.  Look how he’s moving his arm.  There is no way he has a broken bone.”  She let us take a look at the x-ray pictures, then shook her head.  “I’m wrong.  It’s broken.”

He had a compression or buckle fracture of his radius near the wrist.  It never did swell up and fortunately he had remarkably low levels of pain for the whole ordeal.  Steve took him to an orthopedic doctor that Tuesday to get a cast.  Waterproof casts – best thing ever.  The cast barely slowed him down.  The tech who put the cast on said no bikes, skate boards… keep both feet on the ground.  But his pediatrician said he could still play on the playground equipment at school.

The cast came off about 4 weeks later.  After admonishing us to take it easy on Paul’s wrist for the next week, the orthopedic doctor asked if we had any questions.  Paul thought for a moment.  “Why does my leg sometimes lock up and go Ow when I try to move it?”  The doctor smiled and explained that his bones were growing very quickly and sometimes his muscles and tendons had a hard time stretching to catch up.  “Oh, okay.  Well how come when my neck gets jerked around it hurts…”  I eventually cut him off or the doctor was going to be covering every twinge Paul has had since age 3.

Materially rich, but blind

I was reminded this weekend how wealthy I am.

Steve and I recently made the payment for having our house re-sided.  Consequently, our bank account is on the skinny side.  I realized how skinny on Friday after paying some bills, and I cut my grocery shopping list down to two “essential” items – potatoes and baby rice cereal.  I was considering my list of things I would like to buy soon and realized I would have to delay a while.

In spite this grocery reduction, I was still able to make quadruple batches of turkey and mashed potatoes and felt relieved to be able to give three of those batches away.  While baking on Saturday I realized that 10 pounds of flour had gone bad (bugs), but I still had enough good flour to make a triple batch of muffins.  

I was delighted to unload a couple of bags of too small girl’s clothing to a family that can really use them.

My hairbrush broke, but I still had about 8 back-up combs or brushes at my disposal.

My sunglasses broke, but were still sufficiently functional to help me drive safely.

We ran out of milk, but we still had enough evaporated milk to make oatmeal for a couple of days.

We ended the weekend with more food in the house because of leftovers from a pig-roast Steve did.

Because of a couple of unusual circumstances, Steve got reimbursed and paid for the pig roast work right away instead of a few weeks later.

Dear God, please forgive me for being rich, blind, ungrateful, and greedy.

 

P.S. Steve bought me a new hairbrush yesterday.

Julia with the camera

Before Tim's wedding, we took the kids to a local nature preserve.  You should have heard the whining, especially from Julia.
It's hot.
I'm tired.
It's boring.
Can we go back yet.
I can't walk another step.

As we started to return, I handed her the camera.  The whining stopped.  The following resulted.

My girl does okay.

Cat

We picked up a cat last month.  This sweet little black kitten was hanging out at the door of the elementary school where our church is meeting.  It kept trying to get in the building, and was behaving nicely with the children.  I don’t think of myself as a cat person, but I was pretty quickly attached to the kitten.

At church, Sarah H pleaded with me to adopt the cat.  “I’ll buy cat food for you each month.”  I think she would have taken it home herself, but she had a couple of cats already.

I told her I would have to ask the boss.  Sunday’s sermon included male headship of the home.

As we were walking out the door I hollered across the parking lot to Steve, “Hey Steve – can we bring home a barn cat.”

“Um… okay.  Do you have some way of bringing it home or is it just going to be loose in the car?”  (We were driving separately.)

“Your mom will hold it.”  Mind you, I hadn’t asked my mother-in-law if she would like to hold a strange kitten for the 35 minute car ride plus stop at a gas station, but I was had a suspicion that if left to her own devices the cat would have found a permanent home in her house.

So we have introduced Midnight to our barn and the kids have been giving her about as much attention as she will tolerate.  They asked Steve for some rope at one point so that they “could teach the cat to climb up into the loft.”  Steve explained that No and cats don’t really need help learning to climb.She was getting fed milk and leftover meat until Steve made it to the store for cat food.  She continues to be friendly.  I don’t know that Maggie has made eye contact with Midnight yet, but Midnight saw Maggie and arched her back exquisitely.

Next week I will see about getting her to the vet.  If she has a computer chip in her we may be returning her to a previous owner.  At the very least we’ll see about getting a checkup.

Company Picnic

The day after Paul’s birthday we took the family to my company’s annual picnic.  Even though I have been working there for 12 years, this is the first picnic I have made it to.  Ahem.  Since we weren’t recovering from a short term mission trip or c-section this year, I thought it might be the right time to go.

As we approached the table to sign in we saw that they had set up a bouncy house and inflatable slide for the children.  I don’t think I had even finished signing in, when Paul came up to me and reported in an awed voice, “Mom!  The popcorn is free!”  I laughed.  It is so nice when the kids see something that they really want and MAY have. 

We set up camp at a picnic table near the bouncy house.  Paul, Julia, and Petra spent most of their time on one or the other of the inflatables.  We called them out to get our food from the nearby shelter house.  Paul and Petra got their shoes and joined us, but we didn’t see Julia.  I knew she had come off the slide; I had told her to get her shoes.  We looked here and there.  I finally saw her walking out of the shelter with a plate of food in hand.  I told her to come out for supper, and by golly, she went and got her supper.

There was a live band and I enjoyed the music they played.  My children had a blast, and I had a nice time chatting with people.  

PJ's B-day

Paul celebrated his 9^th birthday last month.  I guess that means he halfway to college.  Yikes.

He asked for hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for his dinner.  We added watermelon to the meal.  This year he asked for the tick-tocking crocodile from Peter Pan on his cake.  He had an alligator on his cake a couple of years ago and to do something different I tried making the crocodile 3-dimensional.  Closest I’ve ever come to train wrecking a cake.  Paul came up with the idea of how to put irises and pupils on the crocodile’s marshmallow eyes.

It was Lego kind of birthday for Paul.  Now, something you have to realize about Paul, is that if something interests him, it can really absorb him.  Paul got a Lego City set, Lego Star Wars set, Lego MineCraft set and a large Lego Chima set.  Once he starts itching to put those sets together the first time, it is hard for him to think about anything else.  So it wasn’t really a big surprise to me that at 3:00 a.m. after his birthday, I had to come to his room and tell him to turn off the lights and go back to bed.  (He might have been gotten away with being up longer but he has not figured out the subtleties of closing his door and being quiet.) 

A couple of our friends were able to come and join us for Paul’s birthday.  They helped Paul on his scavenger hunt to find his gifts.  It was a fun way to launch a new year.

Yes, you may

We've told our children to ask before getting food.  It is a safeguard against their eating junk food or eating just before meals and spoiling their suppers. 

I harvested a bunch of really big cherry tomatoes and had them sitting in a box in the kitchen.  I was wondering if we would be able to eat them before they went bad because Steve doesn't care for raw tomatoes, and I'm limited in how many I can eat.

Paul: Mom, what are those tomatoes for?
Mom: Eating.
Paul: Can I have some now?
Mom: Please do.
Paul: Can I have four?
Mom: You can have as many as you want whenever you like.  I'm not going to say, 'No.'"

I have decided that I am not bothered by them "spoiling" their suppers with vegetables. 
A little while later -

Julia: Mom, can I have one of these tomatoes?

What good little children.

On the other hand, Paul was grounded from eating blueberries for a while after single-handedly wiping out a pint of them in one sitting.

More wedding pictures

And then there are the pictures I'm missing - 

Little red-headed Rachel with spaghetti on her face, and later snuggling her great Aunt Lynn.

Petra trying on a big floppy hat.

Emma and Petra holding hands.

The little boys playing games in the grass.

Julia dancing.

Tim & JessieMarie's Wedding

My youngest cousin, Tim was married to the beautiful Jessie Marie in Fox Lake, Illinois.  Tim’s eldest sister, Becky officiated.  She gave a very good message, including a passage from Matthew 19, which Steve and I had read in our wedding nearly 12 years ago.  She advised them to treat their marriage with the same perseverance and teamwork as they approached sports.

They observed the veil and cord ceremony.  The veil was to remind them of Christ’s love over them, and the cord of the Holy Spirit intertwining them.

Paul, Julia, and Petra behaved very well during the ceremony.  Our secret?  That morning we let them spend an hour and a half at the hotel’s pool and then took them on a 2.5 mile walk through a nature preserve.  We topped it off by having lunch at a McD’s with a playland. 

Jessie Marie’s sister, Rachel, and Tim’s brother, Nate gave toasts.  Nate talked about how he and Tim didn’t always get along well when they were younger, but how much he valued their relationship now, saying, “Even though I don’t always take it, I often ask Tim’s advice.”  He also shared the words Grandma and Grandpa Stumpf gave him: Be kind to each other, and Tim needs to learn to say, “Yes, dear.”

Julia and Petra tried to wear out the dance floor.  Paul was too embarrassed to dance.  After his grandma dragged him out there for a while he went into hiding had a good time playing with some boys in the yard.

Cousin Liz was one of bridesmaids.  I asked her and her new husband to sign my kids’ National Parks Passports in the Ranger Autograph section.

I haven’t seen these cousins in so long.  My Aunt Lynn, Uncle Doug, cousin Steve and his wife Carrie were there.  My sister, her husband and adorable daughter were there too.  It meant so much to me to be there and be there with my family.  

The Wedding Review from the Kids - 

Paul: Mom, I thought the wedding was going to be in a church.  I like that it was outside.  It was more lovely, and I didn’t have to sit so much.

Julia: I liked the mashed potatoes.  I like that I could pick what I wanted to eat and I got mashed potatoes and bread and a little meat.

Paul: I just don’t like dancing in front of people.  That’s why I ran away.  I got to play with my new friends.

Petra liked the balloons.  She liked the ducks, the roses, and she was intrigued by the hats in the primping station.

Voigt Photos

Veil Ceremony

Annie & Nate

Becky, the back of Hunter's head, Liz
in the back Tim and groomsmen

Aunt Barbara and Uncle Carl

Nathan and Nate (a.k.a Big Nathan, a.k.a. Nathan the 1st)

Tim & JessieMarie

Jason, Becky, Luke, back of Hunter's head again (sorry), back of Liz's head