V-Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  Or, as my sister likes to call it, Happy Single Awareness Day!  The acronym for the latter, I realized yesterday, is SAD.  Which is, you know, kinda sad.  

Anyway, we ended up having a packed day with some special visitors at the end.  I tried to be all creative and crafty and make fun pancakes for breakfast.  So, I snuck downstairs after Isaac's morning feeding to make the batter.  This is partly a Pinterest inspired idea and I was happy with how they turned out.  Except, Michael got a peek at them while I was making them and mistook the pink batter for pepperoni.  At which point he pulled a Paul Revere and ran through the house yelling, "There's pepperoni in the pancakes!  There's pepperoni in the pancakes!"  Nothing tops pepperoni in the boys' opinion, so when they got to the table with chocolate chunk pancakes with pink hearts on them, it was a bit of a let down.

Next it was off to the church for a morning of cleaning.  Nothing says romance like church building maintenance, eh?  Actually it was all good.  The boys did a pretty good job and worked for about 1 1/2 hours or so.  Isaac lasted in his carrier for an hour while vacuumed and then he was done.  He communicated this by screaming and soaking through his diaper and clothing.  That boy definitely doesn't beat around the bush.

Later in the afternoon Nana and Uncle Doug and lebnah and hummus arrived.  I almost spoiled my dinner with the lebnah, it is just that good.  But I showed some self control because our dinner was my attempt to recreate a burger that Jason and I had several times on our honeymoon in Canada.

Still need to tweak it a bit (or maybe just go back to Canada), but Jason seemed happy to chow down.

And the highlight of the day for the boy - Valentine's Day dessert!  Cranberry ginger ale floats with twizzler straws.  Nothing says love like SUGAR!!!!

Tiny Dictator

Have you ever had someone in your life who is incredibly demanding, has no respect for your personal space or time, and thinks he/she is the center of the known universe?  Oh and is only 21 inches long?  If yes, congratulations, you either have/have had an infant or a puppy.

So my Mom told me that this blog has been pretty boring lately.  She is right.  But really, I am not sure that me complaining about lack of sleep would be all that more interesting.  And since lack of sleep also affects brain function, I might not even be able to complain about it coherently.  Not to mention that the culprit behind all of this is the tiny person that most people coo over, most people would rather talk about how cute and cuddly he is than how he is ruining my ability to even approximate being a normal person.

So, yes, he is cute and cuddly.  And a super sleeper during the day.  Not many social smiles so far, but lots of smiles and even laughing as he drifts off to sleep.  He does seem to feel rather entitled to having his every need attended to immediately and is extremely impatient if we take care of the wrong one.  Which is all normal newborn stuff and also why I call him the tiny dictator.

Brotherly Love

It has been over a month and the older boys are still quite smitten with their new brother.  While in many ways having the large age gap is not ideal, there are some perks.  Not chasing a toddler around while having a newborn is a luxury I haven't known since Josh was a baby.  Which is nice.  I do enjoy extra arms to hold Isaac while I make dinner in the evenings or extra hands to help keep the plug pacifier in his mouth while I get lunches ready in the morning.  

Ben doesn't really offer to hold Isaac much.  Probably because that ends up being a two-person operation - one for Isaac's body and one for his head.  But he does like to curl up close to him on the play mat and wait for one of Isaac's flailing arms to punch him (Ben) in the face.

Michael does like to hold Isaac and was very excited to help give Isaac his first bottle this week.  Michael likes to call Isaac "baby" and has lots of questions about just about everything Isaac does and likes and doesn't like.

Josh is the baby whisperer.  But not in the traditional sense.  He begs to hold Isaac, but 9 times out of 10, Isaac poops when being held by Josh.  Which will be a great trait if Isaac is ever constipated, but in the meantime contributes to how quickly we are going through diapers.  Now if we could just convince Josh that he should change poopy diapers...

It has been a very, very, VERY long month, but we've been blessed to have such wonderful big brothers.

4 weeks

We've made it 4 weeks.  Which, frankly, I consider nothing short of a miracle.  The older boys still love Isaac and Isaac still tolerates their noise and "love" reasonably well.  We were very lucky to have Jason home the first week and then to have two weeks of Christmas break and then to have Nana here for a week with a little bit of Aunt Rachel thrown in for fun.

Due Date

Well, here we are!  Today is Isaac's due date.  Which means nothing really since 19 days ago this nocturnal little boy joined us.  While I am super pleased to no longer be pregnant, the last 19 days have been mind-numbing and exhausting.  Adapting to life under the reign of this tiny dictator has been stressful.  Luckily, Jason has been here to share in the snuggles and diaper changing. 

Nicknames so far:
Squishy cheeks
Mr. Poopy pants man
Froggy legs
Stinky pants
Baby
Pirate face
Squirmy worm

2014 Christmas Letter

The Millers 2014

Joshua:  Our not-so-little-anymore man started his very last year of elementary school this year.  What?!?!  He added Battle of the Books to the schedule and since we’re such book nerds, we felt we had no choice but to support reading.  He moved up to Webelos and has been more than excited to be in a den that consists of just him and his best friend.  The den leaders may not share the same level of excitement.  He also continues piano lessons and enjoys picking out various tunes on the piano when not practicing his assigned music.

Michael:  Lots of excitement for littler man this year.  This was the year he turned eight.  So in June he was baptized and we were blessed to have so much family attend – even some via the internet (thank you, Skype and Facetime).  He started Scouts this summer and loves it.  His Mom is pretty horrible about attaching badges to his uniform, but he enjoys all the activities and craziness that happens when 8- and 9-year-old boys spend quality time together each week.  Michael continues to enjoy piano lessons and we enjoy that our piano has volume control.

Benjamin:  Littlest man has had an eventful year.  He started off in preschool and graduated in May.  We were excited for him to start Kindergarten, but he was not so sure.  Luckily, he ended up with the same teacher that the other boys had and she is marvelous.  To the point that when he had to stay home sick he was devastated thinking about what he was missing out on.  We can only hope this lasts until he is 18 (ha!).  Ben has yet to add any extracurricular activities to our schedule (thankfully) and we are enjoying what is sure not to last.

Isaac:  Baby boy #4 made an early appearance this December.  Which means that he had no stocking or representation in our snowman family and no Star Wars costume for our Christmas pictures.  Just trying to focus on the important issues here.  He seems not to mind and his brothers are delighted that he is here.  Ben declared Isaac to be “the best Christmas present ever!” and we are hoping that sentiment lasts at least until Isaac is mobile enough to get into the Lego bins.  So far he shows very little consideration for his parents sleep schedule, but is makes up for that by being perfectly adorable.

Christmas

Warning!  Mommy guilt ahead!  

For the past few years, I have tried to plan a Christmas-based activity for every day in December.  Sometimes it would be centered on Santa, sometimes on Christ, and sometimes a weird hybrid like the year when the boys made Venom attack the characters in the nativity set (not part of the plan).  But this year, I just didn't have the energy.  I made a list and even bought supplies, but most days ended on the couch with various joints supported by pillows and me cursing the fact that ibuprofen is on the pregnancy no-no list.  Luckily, the boys are now all old enough to remember the year Isaac was born as the lamest Christmas season ever.  For. the. win.

Lucky for me, Ben keeps calling Isaac "the best Christmas present ever" so hopefully he isn't completely resentful.

We did, however, manage to squeeze in a few of the basics, even if I wasn't the one actually participating in them.  First up:  Christmas decorations!  

When Aunt Rachel got here, she took one for the team and headed up Project Gingerbread House.  This is the pre-sugar crazy.

The traditional opening of one gift on Christmas Eve.  After 5 years or so of getting matching pajamas on Christmas Eve, the boys have caught on.  They don't get nearly as excited at the prospect of opening a gift on Christmas Eve anymore.

Behold the loot.

Christmas morning!  Hooray!  Camo pajamas all around (except for Isaac who wasn't supposed to have made his grand entrance yet).

The boys had a great time opening up all their gifts.  Of course, we armed them heavily with Nerf gear this year, so what was not to enjoy?

The agenda for Christmas day included Jason and the boys heading over to Oma and Opa's for Christmas linner/dunch and fun with cousins.  Ben, however, caught a stomach bug and earned himself a day on a chair with a bowl.  At which point the "best day ever" very quickly was downgraded to "the worst Christmas ever."  Hopefully that means that the standard is set pretty low for next year.

And then the best day of the year:  the day after Christmas.  Christmas and Christmas Eve are fun, but usually a bit hectic.  But the after is when we benefit from all preparation and work because the boys spend almost the entire day playing peaceably with all their new stuff.  The star of the show this year was Star Wars Clone Wars Monopoly which the boys played for 4 hours Friday morning.  Hooray!

Merry Christmas!