Friday's child

Friday brings me to my 5th child, my second boy.

He has a variety of nicknames but we'll call him Mango.  Mango is 14 months and is already keeping me on my toes more than any of the previous 4 put together.  He is a running, climbing, screeching destructo-monster.  He isn't talking yet, just an occassional bye-bye, Dada and now finally, Mama. :-)  All my other kids were talking well by this age, so this has been a bit of an adjustment.  I finally have a "screamer".  Right now his screams resemble those of a perigrine falcon.  They're loud and piercing.  Despite the pictures I picked to put in here, he's crankier more than he's happy.  I can't help but think that once he can actually communicate with us, his temperment will improve.  I'm hoping and praying that's the case at least. :-D

Mango has lots of big siblings to keep him busy and occupied.  He likes to get in the middle of whatever it is they're playing with and mess it all up.   That's what little brothers are for, right.  :-D 

Despite his screeching destructive ways, everyone in the family is head over heels in love with our little Mango.

Thursday's Child

Thursday brings me to my 4th child and my first boy.  He wants to be called "road worker" because he loves construction trucks and building.  Can you guess that he's 3?  He'll be 4 next month and his love of construction hasn't begun to wane. :-D

Road Worker is bursting with personality.  He is so funny and loving.  He cracks everybody up around him.  He has always been a sweetie and gives me the nicest compliments.  I just love my little guy to pieces. :)

His favorite past time is to play in dirt, build in dirt and play in dirt some more.  LOL  As he's getting older he is getting more mischevious.  The other day Gill 2 asked me if it was ok that he was playing with the paint?  What???  No, it's not ok he's playing in the paint.  This paint wasn't of the watercolor/craft type of paint.  No, this was house paint left over from our wall being painted last week.  He had opened the huge 5 gallon tub and poured the paint into various dishes (and pavers, concrete RV pad and side of the house).  He also had a nice layer on his clothes.   *sigh*  I washed everything down, including him and told him to stay out of the paint.  To which he very solemnly told me he would.  He wouldn't do that again.  Off I go back to work on school with his sisters after a quick call to Dad to tell him what happened.  Dad told me he remembered reading that Dobson had said at this age boys need constant supervision or else they run the risk of killing themselves.  After we chuckled about that I hung up to resume school.  Within minutes of that phone conversation my little Road Worker was in tears crying so hard walking in from outside.  When I asked him what happened, why he was crying he told me through snuffles and sobs "I can't get it out!!" 

"You can't get what out," I calmly ask. 

"The Rock!!!" 

"You put a rock up your nose?" I asked. 

"NO, I didn't put it up there. " was the reply.

Rather than get into the whole logistics of how a rock flew up his nose w/o his help I set on getting it out.   I placed a tissue over his nose pressing on the side that the rock had not mysteriously entered and had him blow out hard.  Success, a little pebble came flying out into the tissue.

After the offending pebble was out I was able to get him to explain that "He thought he'd be able to get it out!" 

So, mystery solved.  The pebble hadn't flown in there all by itself, he put it there.  But you all knew that already didn't you? ;-)  We had a discussion on how we should never put anything up our noses and I think (pray) he got the message and won't do it again.

That's my little Road Worker.  He fills my days with such joy and energy.  He keeps me on my toes all the time!

Wednesday's Child

Is my third child who also happens to be my third dd.   This dd goes by the name of Nemo (I warned you :-) )  Nemo will be 6 in a few short weeks.

Nemo is a true middle child.  She has two older sisters and two younger brothers.  She is right there in the middle of it all.  As the middle child she is my most independent.  She is my "can do" kid. :-) 

Nemo is a bouncy girl who enjoys playing and being with people.  She has a deep need to connect with those around her.  When she was a baby I co-slept with her.  She would wriggle herself right up against me where she would sleep contentedly through the night.  On the rare occassion she crawls into bed with me now,  she still squirms around until she's pressed right up against me.  The problem now is that she's so much bigger than when she was a baby she usually ends up hitting me in the face w/ her hands and kicking Daddy with her legs all night long.  LOL

Nemo is finishing up her K year here at home.  She loves school and is so excited when it's her turn to do anything.  She whizzed through her math book in record time and it shows. ;-)  Next year, for first grade, we're going to work on slowing things down a bit and getting it done right as opposed to just getting it done. 

 

Nemo's favorite animal is a zebra with cows coming in right behind.  She enjoys riding her bike and scooter and swinging on our swingset.  Nemo is bursting with energy and brightens my day. :)

Tuesday's child

My second dd likes to be called Gill 2.  There's a bit of a Nemo obsession in our home, if you didn't already know that, it wouldn't have taken long to figure it out.

Gill 2 is a sweet ,sensitive 7 year old.   She feels everybody's pain and tries to make things better.  She is as smart as a whip but still struggles to get her work done in a timely manner.  She is a deep thinker and is often found deep in thought instead of deep in her math work. :)

Gill 2 loves, loves, loves her baby brothers.  She helps whenever and whereever she can to care for them.  She's going to make a wonderful Mommy one day.

She loves all nature and enjoys sketching in a nature journal.  Her favorite animal is a horse and would love to take riding lessons.   Lately, she's been snapping shots of the sunsets and an occassional sunrise.  Today's sunrise was particularly spectacular.  When I download the picture she took this morning, I'll post it.

That's Gill 2 in a nutshell. :)

 

My Kiddo's

Since I have 5 kids I thought I'd dedicate a specific day through the week for each one.  Today is Monday so I'll start with my oldest, who will be called Gill.

 

Gill is  a lively 9.5 year old.  She loves reading and fish.  She is my most challenging and exasperating child as well as my most loving.   Which means she also brings out some of my worst and best Mommy moments.  She is gifted in so many areas yet  lags behind her peers in social skills and basic common sense.  She has a strong sense of right and wrong and doesn't hesitiate to tell you if she thinks you've done something wrong.  Life is black and white with no gray areas.  She loves to argue and does so with gusto.  School comes easily for Gill.  She doesn't have to work hard, for anything.  This can make her fall into a lazy mode when things get a little more challenging.  She plays the piano beautifully and has a very pretty singing voice, when she's not goofing around.

Gill is very small for her age.  Most people, when asked how old they think she looks (a favorite game Gill likes to play), will guess 5 or 6.  Despite the fact her younger siblings are standing there, and there are four  of them who are clearly younger than her, they will guess really low.   She looks about 7, the age of my second dd.  She gets such a kick out of people guessing her to be so young.  If she could have her way, she'd stay at the age of 4 forever.  She has determined that to be her best year and would love to go back to that age.  I don't know what was going on at that age that makes her so attached but she is a girl who never wants to grow up.  She loves being small! 

I love that at this age, she still calls me Mommy, likes to curl up on my lap and would like nothing better than to spend time w/ me.

That's Gill in a nutshell.  I'll write more later about what she's done today.

Gill goofing around w/ the camera snapping pictures of herself.

Birds of a feather

We've been studying birds lately using Jeanie Fulbright's Exploring Creation With Zoology 1:  Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.   One of our recent lessons was on birds feathers.  We discussed the anatomy of a feather as well as the various types of feathers birds have and what they are used for.  Here is a picture of my 3 yo looking intently to see if he can see the barbs and barbules hooked together like a zipper.  

A few days after this lesson we were discussing feathers with Daddy.  Daddy was so interested he got out his big microscope (it's one he uses for work so we don't play with it) and everyone got a chance to take a look at the feather under high magnification.  It was really neat.  We were able to actually see the hooks on the contour feathers.  Then, we moved the focus down to the bottom of the feather where it was all fly away fluffy and looked again.  There the vanes were smooth w/ no hooks on them.

In the words of Bill Nye the Science Guy, "Science Rules!" 

Eliana is going home!

Check out Leslie's Blog for the latest! :)

 

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