4.13.2015

Welp, it's me again.


Nothing like a five month hiatus to prove that I am not on my A game. 

:)

So, here's the deal.  When the kids do something adorable/hilarious/precious/horrible enough to make me cry but ridiculous enough to make someone else laugh, I make a little note of it in my phone in the handy dandy Notes app.

Which is all well and good until you get a new phone.  Don't worry, I didn't lose them, they are just saved to an external hard drive which I currently cannot locate.  See what I mean with the A game?

I'll give you what I've got off the top of my head and I'll post the other gems probably about a year from now.

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Nora is now seven months old.  What?  You thought she was an infant?  Yes, yes she was the last time you read this blog.  She is crawling, pulling herself up to a stand, says "dada", has two teeth, and can wave.  And sometimes I think she can also clap.  I'm not sure if it's on purpose, though.  She continues to be the sweetest baby.  Her fuzzy little baby head just makes me swoon. 

Her brothers make her laugh all day long.  Mostly by running towards her and yelling at the top of their lungs.  This baby is afraid of nothing.  She will sleep right through drumming and loud music of any kind. 

And I'll tell ya what.  Girl can eat.  She likes her food and she prefers it NOW.  As soon we started feeding her solids, she became the LOUDEST child.  If we are eating and she is not in her high chair...well, she's not havin that.  She doesn't even cry.  She just yells at you.  And she likes every food that we have ever given her.  Please, God, let her stay not picky.

Speaking of food, wanna know how to tell you're the fourth child?  You have been introduced the following foods - in this order:  avocado, pineapple, raspberries, FRENCH FRIES, blueberries, mashed potatoes, mango, broccoli, banana, applesauce, etc.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?  If so, you obviously don't have four children.


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Silas David is ridiculous as all get out.  He is the cutest, happiest boy until he is the most deviant.  He currently specializes in flooding the bathroom, covering his body in band-aids, and writing on walls (I have several large smiley face murals in my basement - I'm just going to leave them there until we repaint). 

But I wish I could describe the cute.  He is so cuddly and so excited about everything in life.  Especially helping in the kitchen.

He says really funny things right now.  For example, he gets the words "mango" and "flamingo" confused.  I.e.  "Feed Nora some flamango".

He always has a skip in his step and he is kind of on the short side for his age so everything he does is just CUTE.

The other night he asked me to lay with him at bedtime and so I did.  As we were chatting casually he said "Mom, I sat on Jesus' lap!"
"You did?" I asked.
"Yeah".
silence for a while
"Well, did you talk to God?"
"Yeah, Jesus asked me about my favorite animal", he said, "And Heaven is like music".

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Judah, my Judah-boy.  He has a loose tooth in the front that is coming out any day now.  I can't believe he will be six in a couple of months.  Judah has gotten quite a bit more talkative over the last few months.  And I just love hearing about what's going on in that little brain of his. 

My favorite times with Judah are, surprisingly, when he comes out of his room in the evening after the other boys have fallen asleep.  He usually just wants some extra cuddle time and, being an introvert, he needs more one-on-one time than the other boys do.  So, unless we have to be somewhere early the next day, I usually indulge and get some sleepy time conversation in.  He is our animal lover and always tells us he would like to own ten dogs and ten cats.  The other night he told us he wanted to get a dog and name it "Scoober".  He went on and on about the sizes and colors all of his animals would be - he also told us he wanted to name one of his cats "Tinny". 

He is starting to tell me more about his dreams - most recently that he could jump on top of the house without using a ladder. 

He is a very loyal child.  He will fight all day with Silas but if he feels that I am "wrongly" angry with Silas he will tell me "Be nice to my brother!"

He is always the first to say he wants to protect me from something.

Judah has always been a child who likes physical affection but he plays hard to get.  He will go in for a side hug if it's someone he really likes.  He will hardly ever be the first to initiate it, and he very rarely gives a full-on hug.  Same with affectionate words.  I say "I love you, Judah" and he says "yes" or "I know".  (If you have seen the recent Peabody and Sherman movie, think about how Mr. Peabody responds to Sherman's "I love you"....he says "I have a deep regard for you as well, Sherman".)  I sometimes tease him and say "Do you love me, too, Judah?  Girls like to hear it when they are loved!"  And finally he will laugh and say "Yes, I love you".  But, he has started saying it more often un-prompted, which is a sweet sound to a mama's ears.  :)

In other news, he is getting so good at writing letters and numbers.  I am proud of that boy.


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Roman James is growing up.  I mean, this kid receives his First Communion in just two weeks.  I feel like we were just baptizing him.  He is excited and ready.  He loves Jesus and he got a suit.  And let me tell you, both of those things are a big deal to him.  He's going to be one spiffy looking dude.

Roman is still the friendliest guy you'll ever meet.  He remembers everyone's name and every detail of most days of his life.  We will talk about a random event sometimes and he'll remember things about the day that everyone else has long forgotten.  For example, the other day we were talking about when Joe had to get stitches in his thumb a couple years ago.  Roman said "yeah, and then we went to the Kems for pizza"....uh, sure.

He is a great reader, he's very good at spelling, and he is super creative.  He is always making something out of recycled materials (or shall we say "materials I tried to put in the recycling bin" :))  He really likes to make swords and shields out of cardboard.  He used a round cooler and a bungee cord to make a bass drum he could wear today. 

Speaking of drums - he is quite the little drummer boy.  He has some good rhythm and there is nothing he loves more than listening to music or talking about music. 

He seems to be trying to decide if he is going to be in a band or be an actor when he grows up. 

Roman is super helpful around the house and is cheerful and encouraging most of the time.  He is a joy to have around!

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To wrap up, I just have to share some awesome videos.  Joe's sister, Angie, introduced us to the funniest app.  We have had so many good laughs with this.  Check out Dubsmash in the app store if you need some entertainment!