Family Weekly Digest

 ~ Week of 9 October
“Just the facts” – http://not2many@blogspot.com

Note:*means there is an entry with more details on the blog about this line item
**means there is an entry with photos on the blog about this line item

~When counting heads to make sure all the children are safe and accounted for I catch myself counting, “1, 2, 3, 4,5,6,7, and 2 in Spokane”. For you older moms…is this something I’ll do the rest of my life or will I adjust to counting 7 and knowing all is well?

~** Air show – perfect day for a great air show – 8 October

~**Sunday Finery – picture and blurb about our visit to the Gospel Service

~**Nolan learns to “ride” a bike

~**Zander learns to ride a Tricycle – he rides like the wind

~Watched Wallace & Gromit – We were disappointed with the adult humor

~**Stacia tries to roll over, has a 2 month baby check up and a VCUG this week. We are still waiting for VCUG results but the doctor says she is now at the 50% for weight and is very advanced socially. He didn’t believe she interacted and did the things I said she did; so he tested her. He said most babies aren’t beginning these things until 4 months. I explained that she was the youngest of 9 children. He said she was “socially and developmentally advanced”. Not sure that is a trend we want to continue. Pictures uploaded of Stacia learning to roll over.

~*Alex’s potty training adventures (see Zanderisms)

~**School continues on. We enjoyed math manipulatives this week. We also found some favorite websites for exploring space.

~Jamin’s team wins last year’s champs 14 – 7; if they win one more game they will be in the state play offs. This is pretty heady stuff for a team that didn’t win a single game in the previous two years.

~Friday Fun Day – The younger ones and I went to Kids Kingdom while Josiah ran to the library and Jamin went to football practice. It was a great day to visit the park. It was much cooler than it was on 4 July when it was 105*. We fed the ducks and geese. We were all taken aback when an ugly muskrat swam into the midst of the ducks and geese. It had big red teeth and red eyes. It was cute the way it scooped up the food we were throwing. I forgot the camera.

~**When faced with the age old “eat what I fix or don't eat at all" mother lecture” Alex finds a solution (see Zanderisms)

~**Zander discovers that Oompa Lumpas live in the computer? Nah – those are MEN! (See Zanderisms)

Stacia’s learns a new trick

I happened on Stacia trying to roll over. I quickly ran for the camera. When she noticed the camera, she stopped to smile and then rolled over on her back to coo and smile. I’ll have to be a bit more stealthy in the future. She’s about 8 weeks in these photos.

SCHOOL DAZE

Week of 9 October 2005

I’m not sure why, but folks seem interested in what we are doing in school. Here you go:

This week Josiah and Jamin are tackling Faust. They are also reading *Men in Black* by Mark Levine. We are all studying the founding of the Supreme Court. What a timely issue this is to study. They have been visiting many internet sites as well.

Jared discovered this week that he is much better at spelling than he expected. He made a 90% on the test from his new 6th grade spelling book.
Arielle and Nolan enjoyed pattern blocks and other math manipulatives this week. Here Arielle tries to make sure that her missing tooth is in the picture. We continue to begin our school day with either a walk or a bike ride.

Arielle, Nolan and Jared are all studying Astronomy. Here are some links we found this week that we enjoyed. We plan to try to find Mars on Wed morning in our sky. We also hope to catch an awesome meteorite shower in the upcoming weeks.

http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/skymaps/ This site has maps for meteor showers
http://janus.astro.umd.edu/javadir/orbits/ssv.html A cool animation of the solar system
http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/index.html deep space 1 - Zander’s site!!

Air Show

We were blessed with a PERFECT day for an Air Show last Saturday. The temp has taken a down swing and fall weather may be here to stay. There was a refreshing, cool breeze. There were no clouds in the sky. We had worried about sun stroke; but the sun was behaving. The temps were in the low 80’s. In addition to the weather we were blessed with GREAT seats this year. The base off-campus housing is near the lake and the airport. We were invited to watch the Air Show from the home of the NCOIC at the chapel. What a great solution. The little ones were able to play. We had comfy seats to sit in and plenty of shade.

We brought burgers and John grilled them. Melody and I enjoyed the chance to get to know one another. Nolan and Zander had a great time playing with their oldest, Noah (9 or 10). Arielle loved playing with Shiloh (4?), while visions of sisterly fun must have danced in her imagination. Stacia enjoyed lounging in her stroller. I was worried about the sun and had her decked out in a cute, skin-tight cap. The boys teased me mercilessly saying she looked like a gang baby.

John had just returned from an AETC Wing Chaplain/NCOIC conference in San Antonio and so he and Mike spent some time talking leadership philosophy and such. John recommended a book called True faced that I am going to need to look up. Melody and I discussed getting something started for the spouses of those who work in the chapel – what we may want to do and what we hope for it to look like.

The planes cooperated fully to create a perfect day. Zander seems to have forgotten how load F-15’s could be and was terror stricken when one flew directly over his head…it did seem to be lining up with the street he was running down and it was quite low…would have made a great picture but Mike had claimed the camera for the day.

At one point the older boys left to play tennis at the lake, but they eventually returned and we completed the day with ice cream and toppings. How can you beat that????

Jared (11)

Josiah (16)

Zanderisms

Zander is such a joy. Some weeks he is the only thing that keeps life funny around here.

I’ve been trying to introduce him, oh so gently, to the concept of going potty in the TOILET! First we tried to make bubbles…he thought I was nuts. Then I sat a small cup of cheerios on the toilet and told him he could sink them. A nameless older male in the house even demonstrated the maneuver for Zander. He told me later that said individual doesn’t like to EAT cereal; he puts it in the toilet….yuck…..that didn’t work. Later in the week he informed me all the Cheerios had gotten lost. I don’t WANT to know where they went. Evidently, Zander thinks I just want to play with him. He came to me one day and said, “Mooooom”. I said, “Yes, Zander?” “Mom!” I looked up. He stood with his feet hip distance apart. He pulled the right tab on his Pampers and said, “Ka boom!”, he pulled the left tab on his pampers and said “Ka boom” and then standing naked from the waist down he did a little jig very much like a Chippendale dancer while humming music and occasionally saying “ka-boom, ka-boom”. I’m about to drop the subject with him.

Before this next incident I need to make a big confession. I need to go shopping and all of Zander's food is gone....... When faced with the age old “eat what I fix or don't eat at all" mother lecture, Zander found a unique solution. I was in the shower. Zander found a package of Oreos and ate them for breakfast. I can’t decide if I should post this or hide my head in shame.

The kids and I are studying space rocks this week in science. We viewed some websites on meteorites and such. I came back later and discovered this 3 yo surfing the web. He’d found the site and loved all the pictures of Deep Space 1. He was double clicking and pulling up pictures and had figured out how to use the back button as well. Arielle and I decided to watch with him. One picture had scientists in white suits and hats working on Deep Space 1. Arielle and I began to sing “oompa, lumpa” you know from the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Zander got quite irate “Those not LUMPAS – those MEN- Just LOOK!”

His most recent comment to amuse me occurred during Stacia’s “hour of power” or as the pediatrician calls it the “arsenic hour”. Stacia is colicky off and on. I was trying to calm her and Zander said, “Mom, Stacia needs to SCREAM!” I figure that piece of parenting advice is as likely to help as any I’ve received.

Oops – no, most recent is this: I noticed Stacia was fussing and then quieted – Alex was no where around. Just discovered her in the living room with Alex’s dinosaurs, elephants and snakes ringing her blanket…he was putting a pacifier in her mouth. Guess he tried the toys first but they didn’t work well.

Yes, Alex or Zander (depending on his mood) can be a hand full but his personality is charming. He is destined to do great things…well or to be a dancer….

Sunday Finery

Here’s a picture of Stacia at 7 weeks. We’re on our way to church and she is NOT in pink. 

This Sunday we attended the Gospel Service. We love to visit this service and had not been in it for over a month. RE (Sunday School) had been cancelled so we opted to attend the 2:00 Gospel Service instead of the 10:30 traditional. Sister Cheryl is dying to get a chance to spoil Stacia.

At the service they gave Nolan a tambourine. He had a blast making a joyful noise. Somehow Zander got it when we went up for offering so he entertained one and all as he danced and jingled up to the offering plate. Pastor Floyd had a great message from I Sam 15 about appearances and obedience. During the sermon he would say “Amen” and Alex loved the chance to yell “Amen” at the top of his lungs. We are blessed that Pastor Floyd and Cheryl enjoy children.

BIKES GALORE!

We’ve discovered the terrain in this part of the States is much more bike-friendly. The kids had tried valiantly to learn to ride bikes in Alaska but our block was on a hill, add snow, ice and short winter days and there just wasn’t much time to learn to ride. Arielle had begun to make real progress in Alaska. She was thrilled when we got the bikes out a couple of weeks ago to discover that she could still ride. She’s made great progress in the past couple of weeks.

Zander had decided he didn’t need a bike and would ride a scooter instead. The problem being that he is a dare devil and we didn’t like him on the scooter at all. Boy he can make that thing go! Josiah and Jamin chase him on rollerblades. We decided it was time to take stock of the bikes we had, buy a 12 in one for Zander and set out to teach the boys to ride. Mike has a “thing” about training wheels. He’s determined that the way Dad Earl taught him to ride is THE way to teach a child to ride. We found Arielle’s old hefty, YERF tricycle and got it outfitted for Zander. At this point Zander took 3 minutes to figure out the pedaling thing and away he, Arielle and I went. He charmed the neighbors by yelling, “Mom, Look at me! I Ride Like the WIND”.

Meanwhile, back at the home, Mike had found a bike that would fit Nolan. He had lowered the seat, pumped up the tire, put pedals back on and was teaching Nolan to ride his bike. Nolan did quite well. He was able to ride from our house to the next by himself…”with dad a little bit behind me”. The beauty of this training system is that Mike is going to get plenty of exercise riding along behind Nolan. If we can find some time this weekend to ride bikes, I think Nolan will have it made.