Three Months

I have been trying to take a picture of Isaac with Michael on the same chair with Michael wearing the same shirt every month.  Just to give some continuity to the pictures.  The idea would be to do so every month for a year.  Michael is likely to grow some during that time, but I think he will still be a good frame of reference to see how much Isaac grows over the course of a year.

This month was a little hectic.  I didn't get around to taking the picture until after church and right before dinner.  Michael had worn the shirt just a day or two ago while cleaning rocks in the tub (don't ask) so he had to dig it out of the dirty clothes and it was rather damp.  So he wasn't very happy about putting it on.  But of course, he can still fake a smile.  I made the mistake of taking the pictures right when Isaac woke up from a nap, apparently starving and with a full diaper.  Oh, and not happy.  Isaac cannot fake a smile.  The first picture I took is below and I include it because I think it is HILARIOUS.  (Yes, I may have issues.)  This is real life, people.

The next picture is more like what I was hoping for.  Nice smile on Michael and a relatively calm three month old.

After a bottle and diaper change, Isaac was in a much better mood.  Please forgive the shininess of his face in picture below.  I cover him in vaseline every chance I get to try to help his eczema.  It seems to work, but he often gives off an unnatural shine in any pictures and even more so if the flash goes off.

At three months, Isaac is a big fan of his play mat.  Here he is looking up at his favorite toy - a multicolored sun.  He had the longest conversation of his life with it yesterday.  Far longer than any conversation he has had with a human.  I don't know what they were talking about, but based on Isaac's face it was all incredibly happy stuff.

We are in a much better place sleepwise these days.  Although, I hate to actually say it and jinx us.  Funny how superstitious I get when dealing with a baby as there is no way to predict what he is going to do.  In many ways, we have hit a brief golden spot of baby life - he is very smiley and loves people and yet is in no way mobile yet.  When I look around our townhouse and think about him being on the move, I cringe.  In the meantime, the boys still enjoy smothering him with love (emphasis on the word 'smothering' - we are still working on the concept of personal space) and they mutually entertain each other.  I love that they love him and I hope it lasts when he reaches the Dr. Destructo phase.  

I would like to say that life is returning to something resembling normal over here, but I have to admit that is probably a long way off.  I have discovered that four children may be one or two too many for me.  (Ha!)  In the meantime, we'll just enjoy our not-so-much-a-blob-anymore Isaac.

Bloopers

I recently got a new toy.  I use it to torture my children.  Because, yes, they do consider it torture to sit still and give me nice smiles when they'd rather be playing.

But don't worry about my kids,  They get their revenge.  My SD card is filled with pictures like those below as my kids let their not-so-inner crazy out for the camera.  

I think Ben is casting a spell on Isaac in this one.  Or getting ready to massage his face.  Either way, Isaac doesn't look too thrilled at the prospect.

I asked Josh to smile like he would for a pretty girl and got this charming shot.

Ben wanted to rest his arms on the railing like Josh, but it looks like both of his shoulders have been dislocated.

I can only assume that Michael is trying to imitate the face on his shirt here.

And then there is this sweet boy.  He doesn't know how to be anything but cute for the camera.  I hope it lasts.

Pinewood Derby

Last night was our pack's pinewood derby.  Josh's last.  Michael's first.  And after last year's debacle (Josh's car didn't even cross the finish line when it raced), Jason vowed that things would be different this year. 

The Miller Guide on How Not to Come in Last Every Time:

Step 1: Start working on the cars earlier than 2 days before the race.  Somehow making pinewood derby cars has never made the priority list.  Even for the boys.  We would ask Josh to work on his, but he never seemed interested.  Coming in last in every race last year fixed that.

Step 2: The internet (more specifically, YouTube) is our friend.  Jason found some videos on how to make your car faster and we watched them for a Family Home Evening activity.

Step 3: Buy tools/hit up friends who have tools for help.  I am sure Jason would love to have some wood working tools.  But, we have no garage.  What we do have is a kind friend with tools who cut the cars for us.  Jason also bought a battery pack for a drill Grandpa gave him.  I am not entirely sure what he and the boys did with the drill, but I believe sand paper was involved.

Step 4: Use your snow days wisely.  If you can plan to have snow days right before the pinewood derby, you are golden.  Even more so if Daddy has snow days with you.  You are stuck in the house anyway, why not be productive?  This way the prep doesn't actually cut into your otherwise busy schedule of playing Pokemon, Bakugan, or Legos. 

Step 5: Functionality over aesthetics.  The boys did decorate their cars in a manner pleasing unto them.  However, we don't have a scale at the house, so the extra weights to get them up to 5 ounces couldn't be added until race day.  At which point, Jason glued the weights on the cars in the best place for speed regardless of what decoration was underneath.  That strategy definitely paid off and the boys had no complaints with the results.

Some pics from the evening's festivities:

Jason with the glue gun of power.

Michael and his BFF,

Our pack.  Yes, Josh is wearing a mask.  We are currently experiencing a never ending cycle of the stomach bug.  That morning it was Josh's turn (in the school clinic no less), but he was feeling much better by the evening.  It was killing me that he would have to miss his last pinewood derby, so we compromised by having him wear a mask and giving him strict instructions not to touch anyone else for the evening.

Our awesome leader made these very cool prizes for the races.

A snazzy collection of cars.  Ours are the ones with the washers glued on top.

Michael cheering on his car.

Ben watching his car lose the sibling race.  Jason made some changes to the distribution of the weights after this race and the car was much faster.  It turns out that, despite the best laid plans, we did not bring enough weight to bring all the cars up to 5 ounces.  So, Jason ran out to the car to find any loose items he could to glue on to Ben's car.  It was a bit of a hodgepodge.

Tie breaker race for 2nd and 3rd place.

Michael proudly displaying his First Place award.

Josh took Second Place.  This far surpassed our expectations.  Jason said afterwards that his only goal had been to help them so they wouldn't come in last.  We were all thrilled when they took First and Second.  Here is a picture of the top three and the cubmaster.

After all the official races were done, we raced all the boys' cars together.  From left to right: Ben, Michael, Josh.

This is the only picture I got of all three of them and it was at the end of the race of their cars together.  Sadly, I caught Ben's hand in an unfortunate and inappropriate position.

The boys all had a great time.  We were so lucky to have great leaders who put together a wonderful evening and a great daddy who spent lots of time helping the boys.

Traumatized

This is Ben.  Well, Ben minus a tooth.  His lost his very first tooth on Saturday.

His world will never be the same.

Maybe because insisted on having a wet paper towel shoved in his mouth for the next two days.  (Yes, we have changed it out several times; we aren't complete barbarians over here.  But still, it was gross.)

Oy.

It all started with a wiggly tooth.  Ben was so excited at the prospect of losing a tooth.  Oh, and the money.  He was very excited about the money he knew was coming from Daddy.  (Yes, the tooth fairy died a while back, but the money keeps showing up.)

So we started talking strategy.  A string tied to the tooth and a door knob.  A good yank.  An apple.  Ben settled on an apple.  And I went upstairs to give Isaac a bath.  A few minutes later, Ben arrived upstairs sans tooth and a little upset.  Little did we know where that was headed.

Anyway, I asked him where his tooth was and he didn't know.  It turns out, not only did he lose his tooth, he lost his tooth.  I went to tell Jason about the MIA tooth.  I was fairly certain that Ben had swallowed it while eating the apple, but given that he was already looking upset I didn't want to tell him that.  Luckily, we still have Josh and Michael's first lost teeth for their baby books, so Jason came down and "looked" for the tooth and "found" it near the chair Ben had been sitting on.

Hooray!  Problem solved!

Or not.  It turns out Ben really, really, really doesn't like the sensation of having a hole in his mouth.  Really, really.

I had given him a wet paper towel for his mouth and he decided that was the solution to all of his sensory problems.  He spent the rest of the day with a paper towel in his mouth.  We thought he would maybe forget about it in the night.  Nothing doing.  We had multiple nightly visits from a child close to tears in need of a fresh paper towel.  He was up more often than Isaac.

As a side note: I am convinced we will never, ever get a full night's sleep again.  Ever.

On Sunday, he wore the paper towel in the bath and to church.  He was rather unintelligible talking through the paper towel, so communication began to consist of a series of grunts and pointing.

Monday morning dawned with a limp paper towel hanging out of Ben's mouth.  But not even piping hot pumpkin pancakes could entice Ben remove the paper towel and eat.  I eventually exchanged the paper towel for a 20 minute snuggle and then sent him off to school with tiny tears in his eyes but no paper products in his mouth.

And then his teacher worked her magic and got him to eat his snack and lunch.  He came home talking funny (definitely don't want that tongue to touch the gaping hole), but confident that he doesn't need a paper towel anymore.

1 down, 19 to go,  I get the feeling that we have some long years ahead of us.

Then and Now

I got this idea from Pinterest (gotta give credit where credit is due).  I got a kick out of these recreated pictures and thought maybe we should try to take one.  I took this first picture back in 2009 and figured it has probably been long enough for this to be amusing.  Not bad for a first time. 

Kewpie Doll...now with Eczema

This is not our first time with eczema.  Ever since Josh was a baby we have been a Dove cleanser, All Free & Clear laundry detergent, no dryer sheets, Aquaphor/Eucerin kind of family.  Poor Josh had eczema so badly on his knees when he was little that he scratched them until bled.  This is, however, our first time with facial eczema.  

Poor baby cheeks.  

Poor red, crusty, blistery, oozy baby cheeks.  

Several lotions and an obsessive rewashing of his clothes later, it turns out that hydrocortisone is the wonder cure and if we stop using it for a couple of days the eczema flares again.  We stopped using it a few days ago and learned our lesson.

Okay, his eczema doesn't look too bad in these pictures.  And no, I didn't do his hair - that is all natural kewpie cuteness right there.  He was happy and not horribly rashy yesterday, so I decided to do a little photo shoot while Jason worked on pinewood derby cars with the older boys.

Still got the froggy leg action going on sometimes.

Mellow man.

He is not quite sure what the black rectangular thing is that I keep putting in front of his face that sometimes flashes him.

He has a wicked right hook.  Or is that a jab?

And, to keep it real, this is angry face.  Often associated with a wet diaper, hunger, exhaustion or just general overall crankiness.

The (Not So) Dream Team

This is what is on the counter in the bathroom on the main floor these days - also known as "the sick bathroom."

And why do we need a "sick bathroom" you may ask.  Well, when you are a family of 6 and one of you has the stomach bug, the sick person gets his (and yes, I can say "his" in this house and be safe that I am using the correct pronoun) own bathroom.  And Jason and I screech like banshees at the luckless child who accidentally enters the sick bathroom without actually having vomited in the previous 24 hours.

Ugh.  There are many illnesses I am happy to host.  Well, not happy but at least am not bothered by.  Runny noses, coughs, even fevers.  Even an old school case of chicken pox.  But the stomach bug is my arch nemesis.  The poor child who is afflicted gets placed on a chair in the living room that is covered with a sheet and then given a bowl as his closest companion for the day.  And then I don the gloves and start spraying with bleach and wiping with paper towels anything he may have touched and the bowl.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

And hope/pray for the best.

Sometimes that works.  Sometimes not.  This time not.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  And repeat. And repeat.