Abby after dark

Last night after the kids were in bed I was doing some cleaning up in the kitchen. After about 15 minutes, I heard Abby making noises on the monitor. I turned it up and realized that she was singing..."Ah-yeah-you-ah, Ah-yea-you-ah! God will save the day!" We had been listening to the kids' vacation bible school music CD earlier in the day and apparently she wanted to sing some to herself before falling asleep. She sang on and off for about 10 minutes. We listened to the CD more today and Abby is very opinionated about the music. "Not dis one!" she yells when she doesn't like the song being played. She also will yell, "Nother one!" when there's a break between songs. "Nother one, nother one, nother one!" she yells until the next song begins. Sometimes I sing along and often she doesn't like it. "No mommy," she says, shaking her head. "No sing." Ok, Abby. We knew from the beginning that she was quite opinionated and she is beginning to show her opinion with regard to her taste in music. So it begins.

"Vacation"

We just returned from our annual vacation up north with the Reese side of the family. The term vacation has taken on new meaning for me lately. Before Jason and I expanded our family, a vacation meant a good number of days relaxing, maybe some sightseeing or hiking, but generally enjoying a break from the everyday work of life. These days a vacation involves visiting places and people, and watching the children experience new things and new places. Relaxing isn't really a big part of it anymore (at least while the kids are little and while we travel with the kids), and it takes a bit of time for us to recover from the lack of sleep associated with travelling with the kids. Regardless, we had a good time with family and enjoyed swimming, playing on the beach, fishing and riding in the boat and eating lots of good food. The boys also enjoyed sharing a room (which was part of the lack-of-sleep problem) and Abby slept like a baby in her cave or tunnel as she calls it, waking a few times during the night to call gently, "Mommy?" to which I responded, "Yes, Abby, night night."

Here are a few pictures spending some time around the "camp", which is the area between the two cabins my family stays in. We set up two tables and arrange chairs around the outside. In the first picture, the kids are coloring pictures on a beautiful Minnesota morning.

 Abby is spending some time with Great-Grandma Verna.

We were able to go swimming and play on the beach every afternoon. Jason and the kids built a fish mountain, a volcano, a stegosaurus, and many, many towers for all the kids to destroy which they heartily did so. 

Shaving, shoveling and VBS

Yesterday afternoon Matthew was yelling, "Wipe my butt!" so I hurried upstairs and did the deed (which fortunately I beat Abby to it as the previous day she beat me there and was wiping his butt when I walked in. She did a pretty good job, but well, you know...). I walked downstairs after Matthew had flushed and was at the sink washing his hands. Moments later I heard him screaming horribly and I thought maybe he had fallen off the vanity or bathtub or something similar. Then Jason yelled out to me to bring some band-aids. So I ran upstairs to see Jason wiping blood off of Matthew's chin. It turns out he had tried to shave with Jason's razor which was at the far end of the vanity (so Matthew had to climb across my sink and the rest of the vanity to get to it) and cut himself. I stuck a big bandage on his chin and he then took a pretty good nap after his injury. His cut looks pretty good today and I don't believe he will try shaving anytime soon. After the incident and screaming, Sam said he was never going to shave. Again this morning, Sam told Jason that he was never going to shave. Jason said, "You don't have to shave, you'll just have a really big beard. Sam got excited and replied, "Arrrrgh! I'll be a pirate!" 

Today Sam went to vacation bible school at Ken and Cheri's church. He was quite a trooper being in a semi-unfamiliar environment, especially when Matthew was, um, reluctant to stay and I ended up taking him with me and leaving Sam with his new friends, teachers and new experience. He enjoyed it, especially the singing and dancing and wore the crown he decorated almost all day (it got a little sweaty playing in the sun this afternoon but is still in decent shape). Abby was quite disappointed that she didn't get a crown. Ah, princess.

And Abby was quite a work horse this weekend. We had the stumps from the trees which were taken down in the spring finally chipped and Jason then shoveled and hauled an enormous amount of wood chips to the pathways of my garden and the rest to the dump. After that task, we hauled loads of dirt from the dirt pile which we had delivered this spring to the areas where the stumps were to fill them in. The boys shoveled dirt into the wheel barrow with their snow shovels (which worked surprisingly well), while Abby used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop dirt into the wheel barrow. When I took a break from wheel barrow duty to go prepare lunch, she did not want to stop working, so then she then would get a scoop of dirt and walk the 40 feet or so with it to the stump area, dump it, then walk back and get another 1/3 cup and she did it repeatedly. Abby helped scooping cup after little cup of dirt for probably around 30 minutes and was quite upset when I told her it was lunch time and she had to quit working. I think I know of another Kirchhoff who is reluctant to quit working for lunchtime...hmmm...

Morning of messes

It all started off when I got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I stepped in pee which was on the floor by the toilet. Sam had apparently gotten  up and used our bathroom at some point, then went back to bed. I cleaned up the mess, then went about getting ready. After I was all ready and the kids were up and hungry, we went downstairs to get breakfast going. I was preparing oatmeal and Sam again had to go to the bathroom.

He again missed the toilet and made quite a mess. He has to help clean up such messes these days, so I gave him a few paper towels and told him to start cleaning up. He threw them on the mess and tried wiping them up daintily with his foot which was not very successful. I told him he was going to have to use his hands, then wash them well, and gave him a few more paper towels. He did a better job and I went back to finishing breakfast prep. Moments later I heard the toilet flush (or attempt to flush) as Sam was finished and he decided to flush the paper towels down the toilet. They didn't want to go and I fished them out of the toilet with my hand and threw them in the garbage.

Then I washed up, finished wiping down the floor, washed up again and went back to breakfast. Sam spent quite a good deal of time cleaning his hands which is unusual for him. But he finished up and came to the counter to enjoy his breakfast. After a bit I heard, "Mom, look at this!" Sam was holding his spoon upright in his bowl and spinning his bowl around it. Before I could say the words, "Don't do that!" the bowl flew off the counter to the floor and the floor near Sam's chair was splattered with oatmeal. Ugh. I gave Sam some more paper towels and he set to work cleaning up. It took everything in my not to scream and go crazy at another mess in the first hour of the day. And the floor was just mopped two days ago. Wow. Patience and fortitude take on new meaning when you have little kids.

I instructed Sam to put the dirty paper towels (which were loaded with clumps of oatmeal) into his bowl. He resisted, saying he was going to walk them over the garbage (he has entered the phase where he thinks he knows best). I told him they should go in his bowl, then he could dump them into the garbage as they would probably drip oatmeal onto the floor. He started walking away with a dirty paper towel and clump after clump after clump of oatmeal fell onto the floor. Oh my. Don't scream. Instead of screaming I told Sam, "See? Put it into the bowl." He complied, and together we cleaned up the rest of the oatmeal and wiped the floor with a wet cloth and we then went on with our day.

Generally our mornings aren't quite so exciting. To look on the bright side, the floor by two toilets and under Sam's chair got an extra cleaning this morning. And Sam is becoming quite a good helper and I am becoming a more patient mother.

Chores

I read about using chore sticks a while ago as a means to distribute chores to children and tried it out today. You take some craft sticks and write the chores that you want done for the day or week and the kids draw their chores from the bunch. So I wrote down 6 chores today, put away silverware, put away kid plates, wash windows, dust, set table and empty trash cans (the little ones in the bathrooms and bedrooms). Now, I don't expect the kids to really wash the windows or dust without some significant help and guidance, but it's a start. They already help me with these tasks, but I thought I needed to make their helping a little more organized rather than me just asking them to help when I feel like it.

So I wrote on the sticks and the boys got to each pick three. They were quite excited about picking their sticks and even excited about their chores. Sam was especially happy to get washing the windows and Matthew was disappointed with dusting, but liked emptying the garbage cans. At one point I tried to grab one of the garbage bags Matthew had collected and was scolded because "That's my job!" he yelled. Abby fussed because she didn't get any sticks, but I gave her some blank ones which she colored. Sam and Matthew also wanted some blank sticks which they colored and Sam organized his into various shapes such as a parrot.

All in all, it was a successful first day of using chore sticks. The kids were excited and completed their chores mostly without complaint. It was a good start and hopefully their excitement about chores will continue for a long time (although I'm not holding my breath).

Matthew after dark

While Sam is asleep within in minutes of hitting the pillow (usually with the book he was looking at covering his face), Matthew takes a bit of time to get to sleep. He generally doesn't take an official nap anymore, but he often does fall asleep for a few minutes watching cartoons before dinner. This leaves his with a burst of extra energy at bedtime which he uses up in imaginative ways.

For example, last night Jason and I went to bed around 10. We had heard Matthew moving around from bedtime (around 7:30) until 8:30 or so and didn't think too much of it because we always hear Matthew moving around after bedtime. We usually don't interfere as long as he's not loud and bothering the other kids. Anyway, when we got up to our room Jason saw a pile of clothes hangers on the floor in the middle of our closet. It was quite funny, until I saw where the hangers came from. A good pile of my clothes were lying on the floor underneath one of the hanging racks in the closet. Hmmm. Matthew. He had to help put the clothes back on the hangers in the morning.

This is just one of his many after dark antics. In the past he has emptied his clothes drawers. And no, he doesn't just pile his clothes up on the floor, he lays them all out completely flat, so they cover his entire floor. Then he walks around from item to item.

Another favorite of his is to lay his books out on his floor. And no, he doesn't just lay them haphazardly, they are organized in "roads" and at the end of each road is a group of books which he claims are his "houses". His cars and trains are covering the roads. It's really quite a lot of fun for Jason and I to see what he has come up with each evening before we go to bed.

A few nights ago, he made a fort in his room. He took some blankets and draped them over the chair in his room and when we went to bed that night, we saw that he was sleeping on the floor in his fort. Another time he had moved his pillow and blanket on the floor right next to his bed and fell asleep there.

Of course he still performs the "Mommy? I have to tell you something" trick on a regular basis (like 3 times an evening) and he also is coming up with some more imaginative tricks to get our attention. Last night it was "Mommy, my knee hurts". He had come downstairs to tell me about his knee and as he was telling me, he started shaking his knee. He has pulled the "sore knee" trick before so I knew it likely wasn't serious. I told him that sleeping and resting would probably make it better, but he insisted that it wouldn't. So I then asked him what would make it better and he said, "A cough drop." Ok. I got him a cough drop hoping that it would appease him and he would stay in bed. But a few minutes later, he came down and said that the cough drop didn't help him. Fortunately, Jason came in from working on the garage at that time and took Matthew upstairs and "looked" at his knee, which apparently fixed it better than a cough drop.

Matthew usually falls asleep around 9 or so (when he doesn't nap at all during the day it's closer to 8), but you never know what you'll get between bedtime and sleeping. The kid is full of surprises.

A typical weekend

This weekend was pretty typical of a weekend around our house. On Saturday Jason spent some time in the basement building a really cool fort with the kids while I went for a haircut (so a haircut isn't typical for me, but some time to myself is pretty typical, generally I go grocery shopping). Then Jason worked on the back garage while the boys helped or hung out with Abby and I. Matthew especially spent a good deal of time in the garage, sitting on the John Deere, playing with scraps of wood and just watching Jason work. In the afternoon Sam helped me make ice cream and we all enjoyed homemade ice cream which Sam remarked was extra good because he secretly stirred it extra while I was setting up the ice cream machine. It was remarkably good. The kids and I set up a blanket under a tree beside the garage and watched Jason work and helped out when needed or when we felt like it. Abby enjoyed practicing her balance by walking back and forth on the pieces of siding which were lying on the ground.

Our Sunday afternoon was quite fun too. Jason worked on the garage while the boys and I went swimming in our little pool. I got a bit tired of their lackluster playing in the water (they were sitting on a chair in the water) and decided to show them what playing the pool is really about. So I got on my swimsuit and showed them how to do a running headfirst sliding entry into the pool. The excitement of having Mommy swim with them or my inspiring moves really brought out a new level of fun in our swimming and the boys made up all sorts of interesting water entry moves. Sam's favorite was the feet first butt flop, while Matthew preferred a circle entry in which he ran around in circles before gently entering the water headfirst (all without getting his hair wet). We had loads of fun, but Abby was napping so she didn't get to join in.

After Jason finished up the garage, he set up the sprinkler so we could continue some water fun. The boys (including Jason) really had a blast with the sprinkler and ended up getting soaked which is not usual for them as they generally hate getting their faces wet. However, they took it like little boys should and just had a lot of fun. Abby did not have much fun with the sprinkler. She was walking toward Jason who was near the sprinkler when she walked right into the cold sprinkling water and was quite surprised and shocked. She ran over to me, crying, terrified of the sprinkler and then shrieked whenever it came near her. She and I spent time on the deck watching the boys enjoy the sprinkler. After Jason turned down the sprinkler so the water was only spraying maybe 3 feet high, I was able to convince Abby to let me run through it while I held her and while she was apprehensive, she didn't cry and may even try it out herself next time. It was a beautiful summer weekend and we really enjoyed our time as a family.