New homeschool blog post....

In case you're not cool enough to get notifications on both of my blogs....


I've updated our Homeschool Blog.

You Know You're a Large Family Mom When....

First things first, I personally think that 8 children and up constitutes a Large Family.  But most people I encounter seem to think our 5 kids are enough to earn us that label, so for all intensive purposes of having fun with this post, we'll be one.



You know you're a Large Family Mom when....



1) You accidentally slide your 3 month old off your hip as if she is a standing toddler.  (Don't worry, I caught her...sort of...)

2) The baby can't yet distinguish whether she is getting yelled at, or someone else is.

3) It's a great day when you only have 2 loads of laundry to do.

4) You wait until 6 months to give your baby solids, mostly because you don't want to deal with real, stinky poop.

5) When a child is crying, you tell them to go cry somewhere else.  Unless they are bleeding, of course.

6) You encourage Pajama Day, it equates to less laundry!

7) You've tried to jam a kid into someone else's clothing on more than one occasion.

8) You just park in the back of every parking lot so your kids can take as much space as they need to unload and load.  And to lessen the chance of someone's else's car getting hit with your doors.

9) Unlike 1st time parents who are eager to call every milestone out as soon as their baby does anything close to it, you are actively trying to DISCOURAGE crawling, standing, walking, basically  moving of any sort.  It's just more work for you.

10) You can do damn near anything one-handed with a baby either on your breast or on your hip...



And now for some random pictures from the last 2 months:

He's cute.

She's cute.

She's cute. 

And they're cute!

5 years ago today....

.... we threw one HECK of a backyard party!!!

Happy Anniversary to us.... enjoy some flashback pictures of the event of the century, 9-10-11!!

 

A Few Things of Note

Two posts in the same month?!?  Perhaps it's a sure sign that things are starting to normalize around here.  Last August was full of me trying to hide the fact that I felt nauseous and gross all day and still make tiny, feeble attempts to connect with the world (which usually failed) while also hiding the fact that I was pregnant.  I actually remember very, very little of last August...

But THIS August is proving to be busy, and fun.  And busy.  Did I mention it was busy?   Oh, what's in a word anyway.... we're always busy!

So, we started homeschool August 1st, a slow start, to get us slowly acquainted with our materials and schedule.  I occasionally blog about our homeschool here.  We did a week or two strong, then we loosened up a bit, and of course we made sure to have lots of friend time in the last dear days of summer.  These last 2 weeks we have scheduled a ton of friend time, jamming it all in before most of the friends go back to school this Monday.

Shelby Joy is 4 months old and a nice, healthy 16 pounds and as cute as ever.  She is a grabby little girl, wanting to sit up and play all the time and getting held way too much, as usual.  But of course, there is no such thing!  Soon enough she will no longer want to be held, and so, for the fleeting moment, we will hold her.

Riley holds.

Indy holds.

Sometimes we put her down so we can stare at her. 

She loves going swimming with her family.

Sometimes she sleeps.  

And then she plays.

\

And gets grumpy at her toys.

And eats her toys.

And makes insanely cute faces at us.

So in other, non-baby news, Chase got a summer job.  Some neighbors noticed that he has been taught to mow the lawn and weed-whack, so they hired him to do theirs through mid-September.  A young man making money is a happy one, indeed.  Chase has some other, big news.  He is enrolling in the USNSCC, the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Liberty Bell Squadron.  He has attended orientation and the paperwork is in process.  He will have drill one weekend per month, and prepare himself for his TWT (two week training) next summer.  The Sea Cadets are a non-committal program, meaning he is not required to join the military upon turning 18, but he will get considerable life experience from the program regardless.  He is beyond excited to start, and I'm beyond proud of him for signing up.  Chase and his Fedora and his hormonal attitude are mostly absent from my picture roll... 

...but here's one.  He's holding.  And... take a long look at that fuzzy blonde hair and kiss it goodbye, the Navy requires a haircut...

Indigo is nearly 11, and continuing to learn to mow and take care of the yard.  Yep, that's our big thing this summer... we obviously need to get out more!  Which we will absolutely do once everyone else goes back to school.  It's our privilege as homeschoolers to get to avoid the crowds.  So, on her very first mow, she had hit a rock, which came up and bit her on the leg, so she developed a fear of hitting things with the mower, and shed a few tears over it and traded dish duty with her brother to get out of it, and begged and cried a bit about it.  But she got back out there like a trooper, one time in her pajamas, as they were long pants, and once more with long socks pulled up.  She and I recently crashed the 5th grade orientation at the middle school so that she could learn the building to get to Strings lessons.  We've also poked the district a bit about connecting it's Home Education students more through it's technology systems so that we can easily partake in some of the things we are legally entitled to.  I think it's a good thing, as a homeschooling family, to be connected and to be known.  So I introduced us to the principal (who of course knew my name from my email campaign for connection) and the guidance counselor for Indy's class.  We plan to maintain as many working relationships within the school as we can.

Mowing like a boss

Practicing violin along with the music on the computer

Riley bops to her own beat, as she always has.  Though she does well mixed in with her siblings, she also can often be found playing alone, with some in-depth scenario or scene.  We recently purged a bunch of stuff from the attic, and one of the small boxes contained some trinkets that I had as a kid.  She played with them on the side of the tub for hours.  

And in early July, this 5 year old..

Turned into this 6 year old!

Even at age 6, we still read her a book each night before bed.  We've had to get creative with the larger books she desires, or else we'd be in there all night!  She's now onto the Animal Encyclopedia, and we *try* to limit her to going over a 2-page spread at night.  But sometimes we get caught up with her.  It happens.

RJ loves to be outside and is having "swimming lessons" with Mom.  He can swim nearly all the way across the pool without "sinking" and really just doesn't tire out or give up when he has his swimmie off.  He just keeps going and going and going.  He can also ride a 2-wheel bike without training wheels, but since we live on a busy road with a crappy bumpy sidewalk, he doesn't get much opportunity to ride.  Mom still makes him ride his balance bike if we do go out, which makes him quite cross.  Playing for hours in the dirt pit or mud pit (when it rains) is also a favorite activity, and he MUST have his sun hat on.  DO NOT forget the sun hat, Mom!

This 3 year old...

Carefully marked the days on his steam train calendar

And turned into this 4 year old! 

He went with sibs to Jungle Wonder and opened his presents, Thomas rain gear and blinky sneakers, what else?

Sometimes he picks his own outfits.

He rocks that tie.

And he still sleeps soundly in grocery carts. 

A well-timed Science Kit birthday gift from Avia and Coolpa happened to coincide with our Kinder Art lesson on the Primary Colors.  Boy, was this ever a hit!  

Building a machine for the "newseum" with his Tinker Toys

So with all the summer kid birthdays, we basically visit the doctor once a month for their annual physicals.  And I go in with my typed list and we go over everything and then she drops the bomb.  A question.  For me.  What do I do for "me time?"  Ummmm.  Uhhhh.  Well.  There's at night, after the kids all go to bed... for a little.  And... well.  That's it.  And I try to explain to her, that's okay.  I signed up for this.  I actually LIKE my kids and I don't spend all day thinking about how I can get a break from them.  I'm really actually okay with it.  

I enjoy when my nights and mornings look like this... 

And when my afternoons look like this.  

Shelby Joy

Due

Born

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Alright, not quite Four Months... but I might forget, or not find time, so here it is a few days early!  Our squeezable, pinchable, Shelby Joy. 

________________________________________________

She is:

- rolling all around

- being "clock hands" as the kids say, turning all around when on the floor

- sleeping in the Nap Nanny for the 1st chunk of the night, and in my armpit for the rest

- "talking" all the time

- VERY communicative about wet and dirty diapers

- a very happy, easily satisfied baby

- enjoying standing while held

- reaching & grabbing everything in sight

- able to push siblings away when she wants to

- able to "tell" on siblings when they do something she doesn't appreciate

- using her thumb and fingers to self-soothe to go to sleep

- able to go to sleep without fussing and without feeding

- a big fan of her bath and the pool

- an even bigger fan of being outside

- the biggest fan of her older siblings who simply adore her

- definitely the "Joy" of our household!