The writing is on the wall...

Literally.

And on the house.

And on the fence.

And on the floor.

And on Timmy.

My kids are messy!!!

I'm Ready!

It's been coming on for a few days.

It started with the kids turning on the hose and making mud puddles in the back yard and then tracking it in the house. Then, of course, they make their own snacks and forget to clean up, I can't find the family room floor (I know it's under the mess somewhere!), the toilet overflowed twice this past week (I had to use an auger because the plunger just wasn't enough), and the family room, bathroom, and Jonathon and Christian's bedroom were decorated with black marker (thank goodness for the Magic Eraser!), not to mention the normal everyday spills that happen multiple times a day. And it's only Tuesday.

School is only a week away and it will be nice to have most of the day with just 2 kids. However, 6 hours of mostly peace and quiet comes with a price. Life will be crazy starting at 3:30 p.m. when Jonathon and Christian walk through the front door and take off their backpacks, coats, shoes, socks, and whatever else and leave it wherever they are standing (most likely just inside the door). Then, Nathaniel and Eliza will come home at 3:45 p.m. and walk through the front door...you know the rest. Then there will be the snack time mess, homework chaos, dinner to be made and eaten, clean up, bedtime routine, and kids to have in bed at a reasonable time so that we can have them up on time for the morning craziness. And it's even harder on nights when we have Family Home Evening, Young Men's, Scouts, soccer or karate.

On second thought...I don't think I'm ready after all!

On the Appalachian Trail...

Over the last few months, Jonathon has been working towards the Backpacking merit badge for Boy Scouts (Michael has been tagging along). It requires 3 backpacking trips of 3 days each and 1 trip of 5 days. Here are a couple of pictures of the 5 day trip, which Jonathon completed on Saturday 8/16/08. He has been hiking the Appalachian Trail in NJ, this last trip began south of the NY/NJ state border and ended at the border. He was nervous at first, because backpacking is not like camping out of your car. You have to carry everything on your back, including all of your food, water, shelter, bedding and clothes. Because of the difficulty, Michael told Jonathon that these trips would help him to grow hair on his chest (fortunately this hasn't yet happened, we're not ready for that). Jonathon is also the youngest (and shortest) to get this far along on the merit badge, his final trip towards completion of the merit badge will be some time in the fall. To date, he has backpacked over 65 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

This trip featured hiking to the point of highest elevation in NJ (about 1,800 ft. All of you westerners can stop laughing now) to High Point, NJ (very original, I know). We also slept our first night in a lean-to that was home to some very friendly bats (we like bats on the trail because they eat the mosquitoes). We also endured some rain on a couple of the days, but were well-prepared. I have to say that there is nothing like a nice cup of hot chocolate after hiking in a rain storm. We also met some interesting people on the trail, most of whom had decided to leave behind their lives for a few months to hike the entire Appalachian trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia, over 2,100 miles. Can't imagine asking the boss for a few months off to go and do that, but there you go. There was plenty of other wildlife, as we also ran across some deer, hawks, many orange salamanders, and even a bear.

The first picture is Jonathon and Michael on the trail, at the NY/NJ border. Jonathon is the one without the beard.

The second picture is Jonathon straddling what we thought at first was the border, but turned out to be an arrow pointing to a side trail known as the State Line (S/L) trail.

My Sixth-grader and My Memory

Today Christian had 6th grade orientation for middle school. Finding out about orientation has been interesting. I got a letter in the mail about a month ago about the orientation and looked at it. I didn't write it down and I wish I had. I thought I had left the letter in a basket under my coffee table, so I cleaned out both baskets and found the envelope (small help that was!), but not the letter. I remembered that it was around the 20th and that the bus would pick him up about 9:03, but I couldn't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday. He asked his friend, so that's how we found out it was today.

This morning he woke up in plenty of time to get ready and have breakfast. He was out at the bus stop 5 minutes early. He was waiting for about 40 minutes (we saw other kids, so we knew he hadn't missed the bus) and it was so long that I wondered what was going on and called the Board of Ed. They told me that he was waiting at the wrong stop (no wonder he was alone on the corner!) and that they would page the bus. About 5 minutes later, he was at the right stop with all the other kids (another street down) when the bus came. So, the poor kid was waiting for the bus for 45 minutes before it finally came. However, he waved to me from the front of the bus and looked pretty excited. He got back about lunchtime and handed me a folder with stuff the school thinks relevant. Today I got some info that I wish I had had last year when Jonathon started middle school. (Jonathon missed orientation because it was the day before our vacation and it slipped my mind...)

Later, Christian let me know how bad my memory is by telling me that the bus was supposed to be there at 9:30. So if I could have remembered the info better or where I put the letter, he wouldn't have waited so long at the wrong place!

My Two-Year-Old

Timmy has been growing very fast for the past six months (unless it just seems like it because now I have someone smaller to compare him to). He seemed so small around his birthday! He is very good with the baby and loves to give her wet kisses, then wipe off the wetness. I haven't noticed a huge difference in his behavior after Katie arrived, except I think that now he hits his older brothers and sister more and sometimes throws a fit when he can't have what he wants. He's probably just acting like a two-year- old! This video is a milder version of how he acts when he wants something and doesn't get it:

He tends to fall asleep in a variety of places when he's tired. He's fallen asleep on our bay window, in the shopping cart, in his booster chair at the table, and a few times in front of the TV.

This was on Christian's birthday. He fell asleep on the bay window holding his truck.

This is when Grandma M. and I were at the store during naptime on July 18.

You can see from the previous pictures that he had more curls a month ago. He got his second haircut, but his first professional haircut, on July 19.

He is very sweet most of the time and so cute. He is usually cheerful and helpful (he will throw away his own diaper and Katie's, too). We are very lucky to have a boy who is so sweet with his baby sister.

Katie's Progress

I took Katie to her doctor 2 weeks ago and forgot to post how she is doing. She was 13 1/2 pounds and 23 inches long. She is doing great and is smiling like crazy and is cooing, too. She is so sweet. The kids love to kiss her! Can you blame them? They love watching this:

Look how much Katie has changed over the past few months!

This was when she was four days old:

This was today (she's two and a half months old):

She has started to just have one or two BM's a day, so it's quite a bit when she does. She often goes through her diaper and messes up whatever she's wearing. When I went to my six-week checkup at seven and a half weeks, she had a really cute white spring dress on (naturally), and pooped everywhere. Unfortunately, I had already gotten my gown on, so I tried to change her without exposing myself. The doctor had to come back several times before I had cleaned her up and then nursed her. What an interesting appointment! I have a great OB/GYN, who is very understanding and told me to take my time...I think I was in the room almost half an hour before I was ready!

Nathaniel's Birthday

Nathaniel's 9th birthday was this past Sunday. I got to teach Nathaniel's Primary class. That was kind of fun. I brought cookies to celebrate his birthday. After church, John, Kathy, Scott, Linda, and Spencer came over for lunch. We had pizza, Nathaniel's favorite food. After we ate, he fell asleep on the couch and took a short nap, then we woke him up so he could open presents. His aunts and uncles know him pretty well: he got quite a few different kinds of coloring books and markers. He also got a Rubik's cube, a card game, some Pringles (they didn't last long!), and an indoor remote-controlled helicopter. He also got a new bike more to his size, but we gave it to him at the beginning of the summer so he could enjoy it longer. After he opened presents, we had cake and ice cream. We had a great time, but then we always do when we get together with Michael's family!

Nathaniel also celebrated his birthday by going to Hurricane Harbor on Saturday with Christian and Michael. They had a great time, so I hear. Nathaniel loves water parks, especially the slides! (Unfortunately for Jonathon, he stepped on a piece of sharp plastic on Friday and cut his foot pretty deep, so I wouldn't allow him to go for fear of infection. He was a huge help at home, though!)

Update on Christian

Well, I took Christian back to the allergist yesterday. The doctor wanted to test him for asthma. Christian had to breathe out into a gizmo that was hooked up to a computer and then breathe in. He tested Christian before and after he ran around in the parking lot. He said that they were very similar. However, after he ran, the results show that he might have some kind of tightening in his throat as he breathes in. He said that it could be spontaneous or it could be caused from stress. He gave Christian a prescription for an inhaler to use just before any kind of exercise. He also recommended an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. He will be checking his throat and then we can go from there.

Summer Classes

Jonathon, Christian, and Nathaniel have been going to the high school for the month of July for 3 hours of classes. They took some really fun classes: Clay Creations, Engineering, Cyber Kids, Net Games/Wall Climbing, Animals in Art, and Primary Art. Eliza went also to the high school to go to a preschool class for 5 year olds. She will be starting full-day kindergarten in September, so I wanted her to get used to being away from home for a few hours before she starts. The boys have done this program every year and love it! Today was the last day, so they will be home all day until school starts again. We'll see if I survive!

Christian's appointment

When Christian plays on his Nintendo DS, Timmy always sits right next to him and watches. I'm pretty sure it's because Christian's favorite game to play is Disney's Cars "Mater National." Timmy loves all things cars, especially Lightning McQueen and Mater.

I took Christian to the allergist today. He was pretty nervous, but the doctor was really good with him and tried different, sometimes funny, ways to distract him. The testing went well. We found out that he is highly allergic to dust mites (4++), allergic to cats (4+-), and dogs (1). The doctor did the "prick" test and gave him one with straight histamine, a chemical that the body produces when it has an allergic reaction. Christian's reaction was a 3, 1 being the smallest reaction and 4 being the biggest reaction. So, the fact that he had a reaction to the dust mites that was about 3 times the size of the histamine, means that we have some work to do so that he won't have trouble breathing any more. We have to get covers for his and Jonathon's (since they share a room) beds and pillows, an air purifier, some spray for the carpets, and we have to wash his blankets in hot water once a month and freeze his stuffed animals for a few days every couple of months. Christian didn't want to freeze his stuffed animals at first, but I said that he could either freeze them or have trouble breathing. He has already put them in a bag and put them in the freezer. I think he doesn't like the idea of microscopic animals in his toys and bedding. He keeps asking me questions about them. He is a very curious boy. All I can say about this experience is that I'm glad that it's an easy fix. I'm glad that he won't have to start taking medications like Michael or get allergy shots every week. Whew!