Sunday, February 21, 2010

Great Weekend

I was soooo glad to have this weekend off after working 11 days straight! I had to whine about is as I know that a) I'm lucky to have a job and b) lots of people have much harder jobs and work more hours than I do, but it really did wear me out to have to work that many days in a row. Anyway, it was great to be off both yesterday and today. I got to really enjoy my time with the boys and especially Luke, who turned 5 months old just yesterday.

Where has the time gone? He has gotten so big and is so alert, it's amazing! We are taking him to the dr for his first round of shots later this week so I'll be able to note his current weight. At this point I would guess he's getting close to 20 lbs. He wears at LEAST 6-9 months clothes, but is actually also wearing some 12 months clothes. He started rolling over last week and can go from his tummy to his back and also his back to his tummy. He loves his solids, which we started about a month ago. He's got quite the head of hair on him (more than any of his brothers had at this age) and his eyebrows are especially thick and full of expression. He is adored by all of us, especially his three older brothers.

We were visited by friends from the Chicago area today and it was so nice to see them. My boys are so excited to have company over. They were thrilled to see their 2 year old, Jackson, and quickly indoctrinated him into their world of rough-and-tumble play. Poor little guy seemed afraid at first, but quickly got the hang of it and began weilding one of their swords in an effort to keep up with them. We look forward to spending a lot more time with Jackson and his mom and dad in the near future!

Hope everyone out there had a great weekend!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

A few pics...

Here are the pictures, as promised. I love lining up all the cousins on the couch and trying to get at least one of the pictures to turn out ok. Looks like we failed this time around, but it was still really fun. Mya is the oldest of the grandkids on that Chris's side of the family and she's about 2 months older than Owen. I will never forget how much fun it was to be pregnant at almost the exact same time as Chris's sister.

Ella is her 2nd daughter and she's going to be 4 in May. She and Sammy were inseperable during this visit, as well as when we saw them in Michigan in October. Chris kept calling them and their names said together turned into "Samonilla," which was pretty funny. I sometimes feel badly that we haven't had much of an opportunity to get to know Ella, as she was born just a month before we moved to Wisconsin. I wish we had more time to spend with them, but we do cherish each visit.




And yes, we let our kids play with plastic bags. Look how much fun they were having making them into outfits! Which begs the question, why do I spend the money getting costumes for them every Christmas when they are just as happy with the bags I get FREE at Walmart?

In other news...


You can see how much my boys love to read. Sammy is already reading and likes to share his "Hi Five" magazine with William each month. It gives him an opportunity to be the big brother and show William all he knows.




Owen plays that role with Sammy, too. It's so much fun to see them interract with each other and their different relationships develop. I'm so glad to have been blessed with four children and I have always felt the best gift I could ever give them is each other.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Update

For some reason, I'm having a problem tonight getting blogger to upload any pictures for me and that's too bad, since I have quite a few to share. We had a great visit a couple of weeks ago from Chris's sister and family. We always enjoy visiting with their two little girls,who play so nicely with our boys. We did take lots of pictures of the kids that I'll be sure to post as soon as I get this thing going.

We started potty training William last week and it's going fairly well. He's at that great age where he's very eager to please so when we clap and cheer for his successes, he is very driven to do it again. I've been especially encouraged in just the last two days and really hope to have him out of diapers in the next month or so. Wow, wouldn't that be great to have just one in diapers??? I'd be so excited!!!

Owen is doing really well in school and I'm saying that, especially, after a conversation his teacher had with me yesterday. I was there to pick him up a bit early and she pulled me aside to tell me how close he's gotten with Jonah, a friend of his he's mentioned at home a few times. She pointed Jonah out to me and mentioned that he has "some challenges and works with a physical therapist." She told me that Owen is so incredibly kind to Jonah and very helpful whenever he struggles with anything. I was almost moved to tears. When we were walking out to the car I told Owen it was so nice to hear that he and Jonah were such good friends and he said, "Yeah, I really care about him. And you know what, Mama? He likes me, too."

Sammy turned 5 on February 8th and I registered him for kindergarten tonight. He's very excited to start school and is MORE than ready! He's already reading and has always been incredibly bright. I just know he's going to be a superstar in school! We got him a backpack for his birthday and he's already wearing it around the house. Our school district has a great summer school program with a "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" class that we'll sign him up for soon. I'm not sad about him going to school, just happy for him because I know it's something he's really looking forward to.

Luke is almost 5 months old now and developing quite a personality. He's almost sitting up by himself and just rolled over for the first time this past weekend. Chris has been working really hard on it with him so was really bummed that he was working and missed it. Sorry, Chris! Luke eats baby food now and LOVES it! He's had bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, squash and applesauce. He likes all of them, but his favorite is bananas. He is the SPITTING image of Chris - not Chris as a baby, but Chris NOW - and it's so funny when they are together. He's a mini-me of Chris, just as William is a mini-me of me. Both the older boys look like a mix of both of us and maybe some other relatives, but these younger two are carbon copies of us. We are really enjoying having them!

I'll try to post some pictures soon so it's not just blah, blah, blah. Hope everyone's having a great Paczki Day!