Daley Ponderings

Last catchup ended on the weekend of the fire company banquet.  That weekend was also the beginning of the new adventure.  Two different people called up to ask about looking to buy our house.  No, not the one we're fixing up to sell.  The one we're living in.  Well, ok, I guess you can come see it, but we're not really thinking of moving.  That weekend, Jon is also showing the rental house to someone who might buy it before we finish fixing it up.  Jon ramps up looking online at houses in Hillsboro.

3/12 - Noah and Faith are supposed to be doing chores.  Faith says her hair is getting in the way.  So Noah cuts it for her.  They are both very happy with the results.  I try to remain serious while explaining why this was not a good idea, but have a hard time not laughing. I think I succeeded.  For a five year old, Noah really did a good job.  We did go to a place to get the back straightened out a bit.  And maybe next time I'll try it myself and save the money (not too much doubt on my part that there will be a next time for somebody.)  It is very cute, anyway. (More)

2/6 - Joy went down a whole flight of stairs successfully.  She slides down forwards on her bottom.  Faith was with her this time.  By now, she's an old pro at stairs.

I bought some mini hair clips for Faith.  They are the normal clear, brown, black, swirly brown that hair clips often are.  But as soon as Faith saw the swirly brown ones, she said, "Cool!  Camo hair clips!"  Then she does that macho guy stance that the boys do when they're being or doing something heroic. (:

2/21 - Faith said her whole name with all the correct sounds. (More)

Grandma, whose time is quite full with two grandchildren, is still itching for a blog post about the others, so here it is.

I found an old piece of paper witih some notes on it and just searched our blog - I did already post it and it was from 2008!

Ok, here we go:

12/22/2011 - Faith, after listening to the Hallelujah Chorus.  "That did be a lot of hallelujah!"

12/23 - We were visiting an older aunt and uncle (more like great-grand-aunt really) and Aunt Doris was playing with Joy's toes.  She asked me, "Do the piggies still go to the market?"  As in, do young mothers these days still play that game?  But Faith answered her, "No, only the big one does."

12/29 - Looking at an old wedding photo.  Noah asks, "Who's being weddinged?" (More)

11/18 - Jonathan, when meaning to say cylindrical said, "cylindicular"

11/23 - Joy took her first step, accidentally.

11/26 - Joy climbed up a whole flight of stairs.  This was the first time she had done more than one small step.  She was so thrilled with her newfound skill that she did it three times that day.

12/1 - The next first is Joy fell down the stairs.  But now the older kids are better at making sure someone is behind her when she climbs.

12/5 - Noah was partitioning 6 out loud during breakfast (5 and 1, 4 and 2, etc.)  Then Jonathan asked him how many 5s in 20.  Noah thought it was too hard (so did I) but Jonathan was patient and gave good, constructive hints.  He asked how many 5s in 10, then how many 10s in 20, and Noah got those, then was able to make the jump to solve the original problem correctly.  Then he got how many 5s in 40.  So cool!

12/9 - It seems Jonathan has been reading too many spy books without current historical context.  It just so happened that a Russian company hacked into a merchant's credit card swipers and stole our (and a bunch of other customers') information.  Jonathan overheard our calls and frustration in working it out and then said, "I always knew there was something funny about those Soviets."  So I updated him on our political status with Russia and also reminded him that people from everywhere can be good and bad.

12/10 - Joy started climbing over thresholds even when there is no change in height.

12/10 - Joy took two steps to Mommy

12/11 - Four steps

12/16 - Joy went from sitting to standing without pulling up on anything.

More than a month's worth of notes...

10/3 - Joy's diaper was dry all night long.  She went in the potty three or four times.  This was exciting to me and so the next night I prepared to be diaperless.  I spread a waterproof pad, with towels on top.  But she and I are so wiggly during the night, it was hard to keep the towels straight and then she was cold without anything on her lower half and when she did wet the towels, changing them was a pain.  So, we're not ready to go diaperless yet, but we do have success with pottying in the night.  However, recently (read: several weeks) Joy has been screaming in the night, whether it's changing her diaper or putting her on the potty.  I found that if I'm aware of more subtle movements I can nurse her before she screams (but that is her first vocalization) but I am at a loss for the hygiene part.  Do I just put her in a paper diaperand undo all the work and awareness of needing to go?  Or do I persist in hopes that she'll stop screaming before we both go insane with the sleep interruptions?  I need to go look at forums for suggestions.

10/5 - Joy got her uppder left lateral incisor.

10/5 - Jonathan, "I don't feel like Dad-o is a grandpa, 'cause he still goes up on roofs and stuff." (More)

Well, in the three weeks since I last posted, Joy has made major progress in mobility and the rest of the household is still working to adjust!

9/11 - Joy started crawling longer distances with a cross-pattern belly crawl.

9/13 - Every time we go into PIttsburgh, we cross the Allegheny River.  Faith always asks me what river we are going over.  This day, she said, "Mom, did that be the Alligator River?"  (Now, she says it correctly to the best of her speech ability and names it every time.  She has a little 'Allegheny River' song that she sings.  It sounds like "Ahwee-daynee widduh") (More)

8/21 - I can't remember when babies are "supposed" to get object permanence, but Joy definitely has it.  She was playing on her tummy on the kitchen floor with two toys.  When she lost them under herself, she looked all around trying to find them again.

8/24 - Jonathan called the part between your throat and your stomach the "sarcophagus".

8/26 - Joy started sitting up for several minutes before falling over.  Now she is an old pro at it and rarely falls over.  She can sometimes get to a crawling position from sitting. (More)

6/14 - On our camping trip, Faith liked to play Ice Cream Shop.  Her flavors are unique: pineapple hot sauce, strawberry beet, water, to name a few.  After those, I requested just plain ice creams, though she really wanted to put hot sauce on most of them.  We finally settled on a good flavor that I thiink someone should really make: mint chocolate chip cookie dough.

6/15 - Noah,"I thought 'spores' were graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows."

7/5 - After some discussion about what colors make when mixed together, I suggested that Jonathan make a color wheel.  He started basic, with the three primary and three secondary colors.  When dividing his circle, at first he drew in radii, estimating how much space he needed to make sixths.  The next time he did it (when he accidentally colored two pieces red) he drew diameter lines.

7/5 - (I don't remember the context for this) Noah, "Faith, if you see a dead guy with an American flag on him, that means he's an American soldier."

7/6 - Noah can pump himself on the swings.

7/9 - We were talking about milk banks (oh, because I was thinking it might be time to use up the breastmilk I have in the freezer) and Noah, my punster, said, "So do they put milk in the penny rolls?"

7/9 - Jonathan, "I don't know why, but being generous makes me happy."

7/20 - Joy started pushing up on hands and knees.

7/29 - Faith, when meeting someone, "I is my baby sister's big girl."

Faith says this often, when I ask her what she said, "I is just talking to mine own self."

8/12 - Joy started making forward progress on hands and knees, mostly by drawing her knees up and then lunging.

8/13 - Noah, on the boat ride back from Star Island, "Star Island is a special island.  It always brings you back."

8/13 - Jonathan, also on the boat, as he watched the island recede from view, "Mom, I think you gave me some of your brains when I was born, because I recognize a lot of these things."

8/13 - Noah, discussing a word he and Jonathan were looking at, "I thought 'ON' had two 'F's"  A couple of days before, he had noticed "NO" on a cap on the floor and we discussed how "NO" and "ON" are upside down from each other.  "OFF" was also on that cap.  I suspect that he did not understand what we meant.  He knew "NO" and so the other word, "OFF" must be what we called "ON".

We are now home from our very long and mostly fun vacation.  Here's a quick summary.  We went to Madison, OH and stayed on the beach of Lake Erie.  Then Jonathan and Noah went camping with Grammy and Papa on an island in Lake Erie while Jon and the girls and I came home.  Jon picked up the boys on Tuesday.  Unpacking, washing, and repacking.  I sprayed poison ivy in the yard and poked a (not poison) stick into my cornea.  We left for NH the next day, me riding with a pillow over my face the whole time.  Jon and his mom went on a weekend canoe trip, while I stay in bed and the kids play Wii.  My eye, amazingly, is better by Sunday, as the eye doctor had predicted. (Except for some blurrines for which I am going to see him again today to check out.)  A few more days in NH, then to the Maggie P.  The Swiss contingent is there and it is so much fun to meet Joseph in person!  Big Weekend, 7 Wonders, beach bocce, swimming, crabs, etc. Jonathan caught a soft shell crab.  Day trip to Star Island turned into an overnight, then turned into a week.  Jon stayed on the island to help lead the youth conference for the next week.  The kids and I went back to CT to finish our visit with the family.  Driving by myself on a long trip with a young baby is not fun.  Please remind me not to do it again.  Last couple of days at the Mag were sgort and sweet.  We'll miss that little guy (and everyone else, too.)  Back to NH, back to the boat that couldn't seem to get us there, but finally we did.  Lots of fun and yes, even relaxation, on Star Island.  Then back to CT to pack up the sailboat and all the other things that we did not take to Star.  One night in the Flounder, then a long and rainy trip HOME!!!

If I'm not getting sleep because I have a sick baby, at least I can make a post!

5/23 - Joy is chomping and chewing.  I suspect she is an early teether like Noah and Faith.

5/30 - Joy rolled front to back.

6/2 - Joy crawled in bed 18", with diaper

Joy is grabbing and exploring what she finds.  Likes fabric especially. Worked really hard on a
board book.

6/4 - Joy was diaper-free all day.  We only had five misses (sorry, Mom, I miscounted earlier) and they were only pee, and none got on the floor.  I held her most of the time because it's easier for me to tell when she needs to go that way.  When she fell asleep, I put her on a waterproof pad (with a diaper under the relevant part) on the bed.  Later, Faith told me Joy was crying.  When I got there, she had crawled three feet!  The only reason she stopped was because her head was smashed up against the pillow.  There was a wet spot on the diaper, and everything else was dry.  Three of the accidents were when she was sitting on my lap and those three times she gave no sign whatsoever.  Two of those times were when we were all playing a computer game, so maybe that's distracting enough even to a three month old.  The last one was when I put her in her seat in the basement while I did laundry.  She did fuss a bit, and sure enough, it was wet underneath when I was done with the laundry.  I am so happy with that day's success and so was she.  I put her in a diaper for bed because I knew I'd be checking all the time throughout the night if I didn't, and I needed to get my sleep for the second day Daddy was away at fireman school.

6/5 - We did a little diaper-free time but I had more things to do that needed two hands.  Many fewer catches this time, but you win some, you lose some.  It was the night that was a winner.  We got to sleep around 10:45, and then she started moving around at 2:15 - he diaper was dry!  So I put her on the potty and she went.  Then she nursed back to sleep.  4:30, same thing!  Then around 6 or 6:30, I was not awake enough to respond to the initial movements and she was wet by the time I got to her.  So neat!

Jon was with a bunch of people we don't see often last night, and one of the men mentioned that his wife was discouraged by all these homeschooling mother-of-many type blogs where everyone has all their lives together and nothing goes wrong.  So I thought I'd post how my life is not perfect, though it is very blessed.  I am not a perfect mother, but I'm the best one for my children.  I am not a perfect teacher, but I am the best one for my children.  I am not a perfect homemaker, but I'm the best one for my home.  I'm not a perfect wife, but I'm the best one for my husband. I hope this post is encouraging to other not-perfect moms. (More)

Joy has two hair swirls at the back of her head.  One goes clockwise and one counter-clockwise.  Each of my other children only have one.

5/3 - Joy's two month appointment.  12 lb, 3 oz.  She is developing a birthmark in the upper right of her forehead (can't remember the very long medical term, and interestingly enough, "birth"marks can appear within a few months of birth and not only at birth.)  It's likely to grow to about a nickel size and then recede to be gone when she's about five or six.  When her hair grows out, it should completely cover it.  Her bellybutton finally finished its healing and got the ok. (More)

4/15 - Faith and Noah are playing house.  They are married, and are parents to Faith's "purple baby doll".  Noah says to Faith, about their baby, "When she is happy, I hold her.  When she is sad, you milk her."

4/18 - We were talking about heaven (I don't remember the beginning of the conversation) and the boys were discussing what it might be like.  Noah said something about being able to do amazing things to the bad guys.  Then both Jonathan and I said there won't be any bad guys in heaven.  Noah was taken aback by this and the look on his face was priceless.  He just couldn't comprehend how heaven could possibly be fun if there were no bad guys to fight.

Faith still asks me to tell her "Moses and the little boat" every night at bedtime.  She has asked for this since at least December.  I got tired of saying it in my own paraphrase, so I have been reading Exodus 1:7-2:10.  One night recently, when I had finished, she rolled over and sleepily said, "That's a good story."

4/20 - Random dinnertime discussion.  How much salsa can you fit in a minivan?  We calculated about 2 tons.

On Easter Sunday, we were singing some resurrection hymns.  When we had finished, Jonathan was still looking through the hymnal, and he said, "Here's one that has parts about the cross and rising again, this would be a good one."  Which one was this?  St.Patrick's Breastplate.  Honey to a mother's heart. (And a grandmother's, too I'm guessing, as soon as she reads this.)

4/27 - Joy found her thumb.  She has also been grabbing at any fabric that is near her hands, mostly her clothes and sometimes the spitup rag.

And now I leave you with the funniest quote of the week:

4/26 - Another dinnertime discussion, talking about recent holidays.  Noah asked, "What's Lent, Mom?"  I explained a little bit.  Then he responded, "Oh.  I thought it was that stuff in between your toes."

Faith has started calling Jonathan, "Ohnny-int"  This is related to how she says medicine ("meddy-int") and other words that end in /n/.

She also says her own name, which sounds unfortunately rather like "Hate" but the /t/ is a bit softer, maybe halfway between that and "Hathe".

3/30 - In the morning, I woke to the sound of the floorboards squeaking in my bedroom.  I opened my eyes and there was Jonathan with a tray of toast and juice!  What a sweetheart. (More)

3/11 - Faith can count to six.

3/12 - Faith counted to ten.  She isn't consistent with this.  She'll get stuck after six, but if someone says seven, she can do the rest on her own.  I don't think she has quantity recognition past five, though.  And she sometimes likes to start counting with nine.

3/21 - We've been listening to CDs and tapes a lot on my old stereo.  Noah comments, "Mom, tapes are really cool.  But CDs you can skip to the next one.  But tapes you can stop it and then it starts right where you were."

Jonathan has been reading Greek myths and has made himself a Zeus costume, complete with eagle-topped staff and thunderbolts.  Then he discovered an old tape of mine with Holst's The Planets on it.  He was very excited to recognize the personalities of the gods in their respective movements.  He and Noah were marching around with invisible guns to Mars before I even told them what it was.  Holst sure did a good job!  It is fun for me to see me kids enjoying a piece of music that I enjoyed so much (well, I still do!)

Joy has been smiling a lot this week, mostly for her siblings.  I think her hair is growing.  It never fell out as her siblings' birth hair did.  Maybe her hair will start out brown?

Noah is learning simple addition and beginning to read.  He is enthusiastic about this learning and schooltime is fun with him.  It's so neat to watch them figure out things!  School with Jonathan has not been as much fun, but I think we need to find something that challenges him more.

2/11 - Faith, looking at cousin Cole's cute pictures. "Me wikey 'at wittle Tole, Tole, Tole."

2/24 - Milk started coming in Thursday evening.  Joy is a good nurser.

2/26 - Joy's cord fell off.  Noah called it the "umbilicord" when talking with Faith about it. Faith is very excited about the bellybutton.

2/27 - Faith, talking about Joy's hiccups, "Baby 'Oy had hip-up twenty-teen long time."

Things are going well.  Everybody has adjustments to make.  Faith loves her new little sister and likes to hold her a lot.  She is having a bit of a hard time with the reduced Mommy time.  She gets weepy about things that weren't such a big deal before.  Noah is more of a silent sufferer, but I can sense he is also adjusting. Jonathan seems to be doing great and he is very helpful.  He loves to check in on Joy throughout the day.

Jon and Mom are wonderful about doing lots of work and letting me rest.