November is rushing by

Hi all.  I have officially lost at blogging once a week for a year.  I made it all the way to November, though!  And, I must say, given my extreme all-or-nothing personality, I am most proud of the fact that I'm still going to blog even though I don't have a perfect weekly streak. :)

Hank was mad one time about what was offered for dinner.  When I told him he had to eat a little of everything he said, "I never be your friend."  I explained, "Well, I love you but it's my job to make sure that you try healthy foods."  Then he went with the stance, "I kind of like you and I kind of don't like you."  Then he told me how to respond. "Now, you say, oh, you kind of like me and you kind of don't like me."  He's been through the same routine with Matt when it came to eating.  He told Matt he would never look at him again.  When Matt told him that hurt his feelings Hank said, "Well, I little bit like you and a little bit don't like you."

Hank has been on a huge pb & j kick.  Once when he was helping to locate the peanut butter he said, "Dad, I see the peanut butter.  And you say, 'Good eye.'"

It never gets old having a son named Pete.

Jane's glasses broke and we fixed them with superglue three nights in a row.  The first two nights I tried and it lasted less than a day.  The third night Matt gave it a go and it went much better, which is not a surprise given his patience and meticulousness.  Anyway, after they lasted all day at school Jane told me that Matt fixes glasses better than I do.  Jack quickly and very defensively interjected with, "That's rude!  You sound like a teenager!"  I don't know where they got this teenager stuff because all of the teenagers that they actually know are perfectly lovely individuals.

One of Pete's most frequent words is "Sah Sah."  He loves those applesauce pouches like there's no tomorrow.  And, since he's our fourth and we have completely given up on any sort of responsible parenting, he has an unthinkable amount of applesauce pouches on most days.

The kids have been watching some sort of Puffin Rock television show on Netflix.  It is about a brother and sister Puffin (I think).  Anyway, a cute little brother Puffin went up to the big sister Puffin and hugged her and said, "Baba loves you."  There was so much emotion at our house over this.  Jack ran up and hugged Jane and Jane cried real tears.  While wiping them away Jane said, "I didn't know you could cry cute tears."

Speaking of art, Jack came home from school with an empty Kleenex box and a marker lid.  He was so excited to make a robot and put the marker lid in the back to pretend it was the battery.  He told me, "Mom!  It's my first art project I made out of trash!"  Apparently, I have many more trash projects to look forward to.

Oh, speaking of Jack, we cut his hair.  He came home from school one day with a big chunk of his bangs missing.  He told me he cut it at school with scissors.  Matt wasn't home and I didn't have the patience for a scissor-cut so I got out the clippers.

In Jack's first grade classroom, I guess they have a station where you can write notes.  Sometimes Jack has notes from other students and sometimes he has notes for me or Matt.  One time he told me, "You guys should write me notes sometime.  I don't get a lot of notes."  So, a couple days later I wrote him a note about what a cool kid he was and how glad I am he's in our family, and stuck it in his lunch box.  That day, after school, he was the most helpful kid ever.  He did everything I asked, the first time I asked it and didn't complain about anything.  The next day was Matt's turn to be at home with the kids so I told him that he should probably write Jack a note.  Matt made a note, gave it to Jack and Jack said, "Mom told you I'm not getting so many notes, right?"  And Matt said it did not have the same effect.

Pete is crazy, you guys.  Like, really.  He is starting to talk but prefers to scream like a wild animal.  He also loves nothing more than to destroy something.  He loves dumping out any small items he can find.  He dumps out all the kids toys.  He loves taking things from the pantry and dumping them out.  He loves to find boxes under the bathroom sink to dump out their contents.  He even loves unwrapping dozens of tampons and throwing them in the toilet.  On this particular day he kept himself entertained by doodling on a cabinet with a Sharpie.

But, you guys.  Pete is also cute.  This is a good thing, because it helps us love him.  Matt is especially good at recognizing the good things about Pete and helps remind me to pay attention to the times that he really does warm my heart.  It makes it all worth it.

Somehow the stars aligned this past weekend and I got my homework done in order to go out with the family on Saturday night.  We ate at Kneaders and then swung by the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  We practically had the place to ourselves and I was pleasantly surprised that we handled going out with all four kids pretty smoothly.  The kids were great!

So, a little bit of bad news.  I got a cold a couple weeks ago and the first sign of the cold was that my bad ear started draining and draining.  Like, I couldn't go anywhere without a cotton ball in my ear.  I went to my ENT who apologized that my ear hasn't healed well since the surgery and thought that once my cold went away the drainage would to.  He also prescribed ear drops and antibiotic pills.  For long-term care I was told to buy this medical device to puff anti-bacterial and anti-fungal powder into my ear once a week.  Well, the bad news is that my cold has been gone for over a week, I've taken all my medicines and my ear is still actively draining.  I hate to jump to conclusions but given my past experiences, I can't help but worry that this isn't leading anywhere good.

Some fun times with the kids

Each week passes in a blur but we do get a few minutes here and there to enjoy each other.  Tonight Hank pointed to the living room chair and told me to sit down and watch him.  Then he ran and jumped around from couch to ottoman to window seat.  He was going wild and I couldn't stop laughing.  Then he dropped his pants and made shooting noises and I asked him what he was doing.  He told me, as if it was obvious, that he was doing poo bombs.

Lately Hank has been on a really big "baby" kick.  He is always a baby something.  He always states it like this, "I nam a baby ______."  This week we had baby dog, baby frog, baby hippo, baby Boba Fet, and a baby clouded leopard.  The clouded leopard was particularly hard to understand.  I finally narrowed it down to leopard and took to google to help me pinpoint.  I kept trying to tell him he was saying spotted leopard and he kept saying, "No, Touded Leper!"  One google search later I was guessing clouded leopard and he confirmed.  Just another animal they've learned about on their favorite show, The Wild Kratts.

It's really crazy how long the weather has stayed pleasant here this year.  The kids have still been enjoying playing outside.  Jane, especially, absolutely loves climbing trees.  She has learned how to get in and out of the big maple tree in the front so she loves to be in that one.

Pete got his hands on a little medicine container of ear drops.  He must have thought it looked like Matt's saline nasal spray because he kept sticking it up his nose with the lid on and snorting.

Jack asked me to put his school drawing in his keepsafe.  I thought that was an excellent alternate name for a keepsake box.

Jack wanted me to make microwave popcorn today but I told him I had to put Pete to bed first.  He didn't like that answer so when he spotted an old note he had given me that said, "To Mom. I love you. From Jack." he threatened to throw it in the trash.  This is very common for Jack so I mostly ignored it, but acted sad.  He came back in the room, also sad now, and said that he just couldn't do it.  He held it over the trash can but just couldn't drop it in because he knew how much he loved me.  Such a sweetie, when he isn't trying to bully me into giving him what he wants. ;)

Halloween and other things

Matt was nice enough to post pictures the last two weeks in lieu of a write-up.  School and work and the kids are keeping us quite busy, so I've gotten a bit behind.

I was able to take the kids trick-or-treating last night.  I pushed Hank and Pete in the stroller and Jane and Jack rode their scooters.  In our neighborhood there are a lot of dark houses and no answers so it can be a pretty slow process.  But we managed to get enough to make the kids happy so we headed home before getting too cold.  All the kids went as Star Wars characters.  Well, I guess Hank was really from Clone Wars but I don't really understand it.  Jane was Padme, Jack was Luke, Hank was Rex, and Pete was a stormtrooper.  I festively donned a millennium falcon T-shirt.  Pete quickly saw the excitement.  He kept setting his plastic pumpkin down and trying to take the whole basket of candy held out by the person.  Hank was the opposite.  He only wanted candy that he really liked so when chocolate varieties were offered he just stood there and smiled and then walked away.  Eventually he started saying, "Happy Halloween!  No thank you."  But when he did see something he liked he would hold it up excitedly and gasp, "I got this!!!"  It was adorable.  He only ended up going home with about five pieces of candy but he was as happy as could be.  Jane and Jack had fun, too, I think.

Jane has been really into reading The American Girl books about fictional historical girls.  She sure loves to read.  Her teacher has commented a couple times how much she enjoys having Jane in her class--that she is happy and fun and a good student.  This past week she had the word barbecue on her spelling test.  She was taught to spell it barbeque.  Matt showed Jane that according to the dictionary barbecue was the most accepted way to spell it but that barbeque is alternative way.  So, on spelling test day she spelled it barbecue.  When her teacher marked it wrong, Jane says she politely took her test back up and explained that it is actually spelled with a c more often than q.  The teacher looked it up and then gave her the point. 

One day Jack was telling me how he didn't need his jacket at the playground because he got so hot from having to run away from the girls that were chasing him and his friends.  Jane said, "That means they like you.  And I've gotta admit, you're pretty cute."

Hank always tries to get out of eating the produce parts of his meals.  One day he was telling me, "My tummy say my tummy is full.  Actually my brain say it."  

When Hank gets mad at us he furrows his brow so deep and barely peeks up from under them.  Or, if he's really upset he will declare, "I not going to look at you" and will punish us with not looking at us until he isn't so mad any more.

Pete has really been blossoming lately.   All of a sudden he is trying to say tons of stuff.  He even says, "Pete" in the cutest way possible.  When he sees our neighbor Scottie he yells, "cottie!"  He is absolutely wild about dogs and says "doggy, doggy!"  He loves applesauce pouches and asks for it by saying "Saw-saw".  He's even starting to be more agreeable on some days.

Here's another pic of Jane and Jack on their way to costume day at school.