six

Whenever Clayton has a birthday I am always nostalgic and surprised at how my baby ever got so big. I figured that since Clayton was the forerunner, I wouldn't be so shocked when Noah turned a year older. I'd done it before...no biggie. What shocks me is that I get just as nostalgic and just as surprised over Noah (and Josie, and Sammie). Here he is, a big SIX YEAR OLD, and all I can wonder is, "how did this happen?". How did my baby become a six year old boy? Weird.


I have gotten pretty sentimental in past posts so feel free to read those (I have) if you want a dose of nostalgic mother-talk. I'm not going to do that today. Today I'm going to focus on Noah: The 6 Year Old Pootie. This morning, he came bounding into the kitchen bright and early (6:30) singing - at the top of his lungs - "Happy Birthday To ME!" He's been looking forward to and counting down toward his birthday for MONTHS. He's made himself birthday cards and talking endlessly about the extravaganza that would be his birthday. He's a child after Aunt Anisha's heart (no one loves their birthday like Anisha...until now). Here he is, a brand new 6 year old:

 Some Pootie-riffic facts about my 6 year old:
- He's such a boy. Weapons, 'girls have cooties', dirt, mud, wrestling, bugs, superheroes, legos, danger, you name it. He's all over it.
- He's such a little brother. This kid has the pestering thing down pat! It's not our favorite, but I think that's part of the reason he does it. And although he's technically not Josie's little brother, he's just as pestery with her as he is with Clayton.
- He's a good gymnast. I love watching him. He genuinely loves gymnastics and practices all the time. He loves to show me his big muscles every day.
- He's very sweet. Of all my kids, he's still my biggest cuddler. Plus, the way he interacts with Sammie melts my heart.
- He loves all things Pokemon, Skylanders, and Legos.
- He is very smart. His reading surprises me every day. He has great comprehension skills and can ask some questions that really make you think.
- He's always moving. If he's awake, he's moving. Even when he's watching TV or playing a game, he is bouncing. He has more energy than any kid I've ever known. It's exhausting to watch sometimes.
- He likes to play a game called 'dangerous stuff'. The game is him climbing up something as high as he can and then jumping off. Sometimes he gets hurt playing 'dangerous stuff' but being hurt does nothing to deter him.
- He's not a picky eater. Like his Grandpa and Mom, he's a slow eater, but he'll eat just about anything. It's pretty refreshing since he's sandwiched between two pretty picky eaters.
- He's funny. He'll do just about anything for a laugh. Dress up in silly costumes, tell jokes, use accents, etc.
- He's determined. Sometimes I use the word stubborn. It's a trait that I have a love/hate relationship with but mostly I love that he makes a decision and will do just about anything to follow through.

I'll do a post later about how his special day went but so far so good. I absolutely adore this kid. He makes me crazy sometimes but I love who he is. He's one in a million, that's for sure. Everyday with him is an adventure and I feel so blessed to be along for the ride!

Happy Birthday Noah! We love you!

A Family Portrait...

...as drawn by a three and a half year old professional (a.k.a.: Josie):

My top 10 favorite things about this portrait:
1. Sammie. Is she sleeping? Did she fall over? Has she passed out? Perhaps we'll never know.
2. Noah. What is that thing coming off of his head? A ponytail? A plunger? A wire hanger? Again, we'll probably never know.
3. Noah. His facial expression. I asked the artist about it and she told me that Noah was "vewy gwumpy". That speaks volumes about their relationship.
4. Justin (or 'Daddy' to some of us). Holy big eye Batman! I've never noticed how unsymmetrical his eyes were. I suppose it's time for a closer look.
5. Justin. Ummm, what's happening on top of his head?
6. Josie. Mismatched Minnie Mouse ears? Pigtails? Ahhh, so many questions that beg for answers.
7. It appears as though the circle representing Josie is smaller than the circle representing Sammie. Appropriate.
8. Me. Again with the one big eye. I've heard that as you age, your ears and nose never stop growing. Apparently the same is true of one eye. Only one though.
9. Clayton. Symmetrical eyes. Big smile. Weird hair (if that's even what it is). AND she colored him purple. Can we guess who her favorite is? She didn't really try to hide it did she?
10. Even though our circles and facial features may vary in size (supposedly in proportion to how old we are), our limbs are all about the same teeny tiny length. Except Sammie. She's got the length in our family. Go figure.

Thank you Josie. This portrait is a treasure. Never again will our family be captured so accurately...or frighteningly.

Fall!

We've been pretty lucky the past 7 years to have lived places with awesome falls. Indiana isn't quite as picturesque as Vermont, but I'll take it. So far, this fall has proven to be unpredictable. It was really cold for a while and I was sure we were going to be getting snow but, suddenly, it decided to warm up. The past few days we've had delightful weather.  Mid to high 50's with no wind! I even heard a rumor that it's supposed to be in the 60's on Thanksgiving day! Awesome.

Since I know that weather like this is fickle and fleeting, we've been trying to take advantage of it by spending lots of time outside. The other day Noah and Josie decided to start making a leaf pile. They dragged leaves out of the woods and into our realitively leafless backyard (sure, most people try to rid their yard of leaves, but we're rebels over here). They were working together so nicely! If you know Noah and Josie, you know how absolutely rare this is (those two are too alike for their own good).

A few days later, Clayton joined in and the once leaf pile became a huge leaf runway. The kids were in heaven!

Leaf jumping. Definitely a childhood experience I missed growing up in Vegas. Glad my kids get to have it!

 Handsome!

 Love this action shot!

This leaf track, pile, runway, whatever was really Noah's baby. He directed operations and really loved doing this.

 No jackets? In the late afternoon? In November? Glorious!

Sammie came out to play after a while and it was a perfect photo op. I love Clayton and Sammie in this one!

 Sammie's not quite sure what's happening but four kids all looking and 75% smiling. Success!

 My favorite. This one captures their little personalities so perfectly. Noah's absolute joy of being in the leaf pile, Josie's sassy head turn and coy smile, Clayton's pose, Sammie's smile...perfection!

 Sammie wasn't quite sure what to think about the leaf pile.

 "Hmmm..."

 She didn't like when it rained leaves.

 "Mama, I don't love this. Take me outta here!"

We're totally relishing this perfect fall weather. I know it won't last, but we're determined to enjoy it while it's here!

Who wants more?

I know that I just barely posted video of Sammie walking but this is another winner. I love how quickly she's progressing. I also especially love how proud she is of herself for standing up! This is one of my new favorite videos. Go ahead and ignore my baby voice and watch repeatedly:



Man, I love this sweet little girl!

Halloween!

I'm tired and don't want to spend too much time with commentary so here's the spawn:
This was about a week before Halloween. The kids were getting ready to head to the annual trick or treat at Justin's clinic.

 Josie's really into making faces lately.

 The boys have been watching the old school Super Mario Bros TV show lately (remember, from the 90's - thanks Netflix) and decided that they wanted to be Mario and Luigi. Clayton needed to be Luigi because, you know, Luigi's the taller one.

 "I'm mah mah Mah-rio!"

 Ready to get Gumbahs

 I made them do this. It's funny. You know it.

Josie got it in her head this year that the three of us (myself, her, and Sammie) needed to be the Powerpuff Girls (another older cartoon). She was adamant about it. I looked online for Powerpuff Girl costumes but they were T.R.A.S.H.Y. So I decided to make them. I am NOT a seamstress of any sort and these costumes gave me a fair amount of grief but in the end I think they turned out pretty great (mistakes and all). Besides, how insanely adorable is my little Buttercup!?!

 And her sister Blossom!

We also had a great time carving pumpkins. Clayton wanted a Pikachu pumpkin.

 Josie wanted a flower (if you can't already tell, we're not a fancy pumpkin carving family).

 Noah wanted this guy. I can't remember his name, but he's also some sort of Pokemon.

 Here they are all lit up. I love how Pikachu looks.

 Poor wilted flower. I freehanded this guy and he didn't fair so well.

 Ghost Pokemon. I wish this picture would have been better. This pumpkin looked super cool!

Halloween night. Here are the Powerpuff Girls:

I was Bubbles, Josie was Buttercup, and Sammie was Blossom (Josie decided who wore what costume). We wore our costumes to Josie's preschool party that morning where no one had any idea who we were and when Josie went out trick or treating without us (Sam and I stayed back and passed out candy) only one person recognized her - which was one more person that we thought would recognize her! Apparently a lot of people thought she was Dora (what?).

 Love Sammie's face here.

 Ready to take on Mojo Dojo!

 Mario and Luigi (this time with mustaches). Love Clayton's intense stare?

 Their big fake bellies make me laugh.

My cute costume clad clan! I love that, even though they all chose their own costumes (well, except Sammie) they all chose costumes that sort of coordinated. Themey. I like it.

 The kids went out with Justin and Jared.

Josie, Levi, Tori, and Ella came back first with Kerstin. It was getting dark, wet (although fortunately not actively raining), and chilly. Noah and Landon came back a while later with Jared and Clayton outlasted everyone! He and Justin stayed out until Justin made him come home. My oldest boy apparently has this trick or treat thing down!

Sammie obviously didn't like being left behind. She was not a happy camper to be at home passing out candy with me. On the upside, with her screaming and the Disco's constant barking at every doorbell, our house sounded like we were playing a haunted house CD!

It was a great Halloween. My kids really cleaned up this year (read: Justin and I have been eating a lot of candy - a LOT). I love this holiday (my waistline, not so much)!

No Halloween Pictures...

...yet. I have a ton of pictures of my adorable spawn in their costumes and I am eager to share them, but then yesterday something happened that trumped pictures of cute kids in costume. Behold:

Did you catch that? Here it is again:

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is my 14 month old baby. Walking! As you can see she's really shaky and four wobbly steps in a row is the most she's done but she's doing it. She still doesn't stand up on her own and she's a very unsteady and floppy walker but she's getting there. She was making us laugh - you can see on her face when she gets excited and wants to get somewhere really badly, she wants to run but she can barely walk. The result is a massive face plant. It doesn't hurt her it's just kind of funny to see her try so hard to get somewhere so fast and her body just won't move as quickly as she'd like. She'll get there. In the meantime, she's a championship crawler and cruiser. My goal is to have her walking fluidly by Christmas. Our physical therapist is certain that this is going to be the case. Hooray Sammie! We're so proud of you!