Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas.
Santa's helpers with the Walkersville Fire Department came by our house on the fire trucks. It was very cool. This is the only town I have ever seen with blue trucks.


And I know the picture is fuzzy. BUT. Sam got caught in a barstool and couldn't get himself out. I was the helpful mother that extricated him (and didn't ask how he got there). But I had to take a picture first.

We were amazed on Christmas Eve when Sam requested to wear a tie. When he put it on he said, "Now I look like a Delivery Agent!" and then it all made sense. We have the "Operation Elephant Drop" DVD out from the library and he wanted to look like Pablo and Tyrone. I have to say that I'm not complaining - especially when he looks so cute!

Caroline looked quite gorgeous, too!

And everyone just loved spending time with Grampy and Grammy. We were very sad to see them leave.


Today we went to the Monocacy National Battlefield (only a few miles away). Caroline earned her Junior Ranger Badge (her third). Our focus today was geography (North, South and Border states as well as Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia). It was challenging, but ultimately we got the hang of it. We got the packets for the Baltimore/Washington regional badges. It's enough to keep us busy for a while. One is on the Underground Railroad and one is about the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. We also have been investigating the badge from the National Mall. One of the best things about living here is the amount of great things there are to do on any given day.

And now it's time for early bathies and bed. G'night!

Christmas Catch - Up

Umm...yeah...well.
Okay. So I'm slow. I'll admit. I'm still getting used to this whole working at home thing. And I'll be honest - it's harder than working outside the home. I'm beat by the end of the day. But it's good.

So I will post some pictures from Sam's birthday. Like I said, we had eight children that were age six and under over for pasta, cupcakes and flashlight tag. It was good - Sam had a blast. He still plays with his train table just about every chance he gets. I don't see that changing any time soon.


And then came the Christmas Pageant at church.
What could be more fun, you ask? Not much, apparently.
Caroline was so excited to be an angel. But angels, according to her, cannot be photographed doing anything but dancing. So she's dancing (and not taking a dump) in this picture.

And here is Sammy as "Donkey". Pretty much self explanatory.

But what was the best part of the Christmas Pageant?
Other than the whole miracle of the Son of God born to a virgin in a stable with angels, shepherds, kings and talking stable animals?
Well, it had something to do with the animals...
Sam, who was thrilled that he was allowed to be in the Pageant at all, has recently been investigating ways so that he can truly embody the spirit of Donkey. He did a great job and will be remembered for years, I am assured by multiple people. Sam hadn't been up in front of people before and I think he was a little nervous. So every time he saw me pull out my camera, he would run from sitting in front of the manger over to the side of the altar, smile at me and then run back. Initially, I think he was looking for reassurance - but he caught on that people were chuckling at him and decided to do it up. So then he decided to run to me and smile really close to the camera (did Mama have the good sense to turn off the camera at this point? Of course not!). And then he RAN back to the altar and slid across on his belly. This then evolved into licking the altar while pretending he was eating hay ("I AM Donkey, Mama - I HAVE to eat hay."), making sure his tail still worked and spinning in circles while lying on his stomach in the middle of the altar (almost taking out the shepherds).
Good times. Good times.

After the pageant, they announced all the names of the children to recognize them. Well, there were a lot of chuckles after "Sam Watson" was said. To the point where Caroline was sure they were laughing at Sam and not with him. She wanted to take on the whole place for making fun of her little brother (even though she was whispering very loudly to him during the pageant while the angels were busy hovering over the stable to STOP spinning). This made us a little proud - after we talked her down. =-)

Christmas Pageant

Happy Birthday, Sammy!

It's his big day. The little man is 4 years old.
From this:


To this:


And this from today (Sam's big gift was a train table in his room)...


We're putting everything back together after having 5 extra kids and 3 extra adults over for pasta, cupcakes and flashlight tag.

Happy Birthday, Sam! We love you more than we can say. Thank you for all you bring into our lives.

Ummm. Well...

I have no excuse for not blogging lately.
We're here. We're all together. We're more or less settled in a routine. My house is not spectacularly clean. Christmas shopping is not done. We own only one home now. We haven't been setting any land speed records getting much of anything done.
We HAVE been going to library a lot lately. We got the kids in their jammies and went to story time tonight at 6:30. It was pretty cool. There were probably 10 or so kids there with their parents. Whenever we have gone to any events at the library, there always is an ASL interpreter working with the kids. This struck me as a bit funny. Until I realized that the Maryland School for the Deaf is in Frederick. And looking around at the kids at the library, I realized that many of the kids that were signing were hearing (probably 50/50). Maybe we can pick up some ASL so we can use it if we need it.
Sam, Caroline and I are busy reading the Rose books before bed every night. I have been busy trying to keep up with Caroline's other reading (mostly American Girl Books) and learning about Maryland History. We have also been doing some crafts. Jim and I have both been making a concerted effort to exercise more. I'm wearing my pedometer again - though struggling to get to 10,000 steps a day. Working at home, I have more time in general -but less time for me. Exactly the opposite of when I was working. Who would have thought? We do go to the mall to walk (in Sam's words, "Remember, Mama - malls are for exercise NOT for buying.") - but it has been a lot tougher with all the Christmas shoppers. It IS nice to get up early and walk around the neighborhood (18 degrees somehow feels so much warmer in Maryland than it did in Worcester) - that can be tough, though - especially on days when Jim leaves for work at 6.
But we're figuring it out. We're meeting people. Fr Jim talked to me at church about starting a Mom's Club to meet once a week. I'm not sure I'm up to that yet - but would really, really like to get more involved.
Sam is getting super-psyched for his birthday. He is still whiny and having some behavior issues, especially when things don't happen in the sequence that he THINKS they should. I don't think it's quite as bad as it was, though. He loves to do his "homework" as Caroline does hers. Today he wrote his name (Samuel W. - using both capital and small letters) and numbers (up to 12)! He also drew a picture of himself as a dinosaur. I was impressed. I think he may be starting to read - however he won't do it when you ask him to. But he can pick up a DVD or a book that he hasn't seen before and pick out a word or two. When we're trying to do some rest time during the day, I got in the habit of reading "Anne of Green Gables" out loud to him (it would put him to sleep quickly). But now he's into it - so I will have to switch to a more boring book.
We went to Wegmans today and Sam picked out the design for his birthday cupcakes. We are having over two neighbor families ( with five extra kids under the age of 7) for spaghetti and cupcakes on Friday. Looking at my house right now, I think I must have been nuts - because I am going to have to scrub this place like a mad woman to get ready. But, I don't think it can be as bad as staging our old house - so I'm just going to try to roll with the punches.

Nate is talking more and more. Much of his communication is still signing and grunting / pointing and growling "Mine!". He is now saying "banana" (not just nana), "poop", "butt paste", "diaper" (sense a theme?), "Uh-oh", "toot"and "up". Not exactly a huge vocabulary - but it's getting there. He is fascinated with the toilet. He can flush it himself now (if anything is missing, I check the toilet first). He asks to sit on the toilet and will occasionally pee when sitting (though he sooo wants to stand to go like this brother - he just can't get those mechanics yet).

My photography skills have been put to little use recently. The kids take my camera and then I can't find it. I can always tell when Nate has it because he runs around yelling "Teese! Teese! Teese!" (cheese). The other two are a bit more clandestine about it - the only evidence they leave is pictures of their faces or feet or cat - evidenced here:


Occasionally, we will get the kids to take some good pictures.


We went to Weggies today and hung out with the train (and the graham cracker displays) - we were also surprised by finding a fire truck in the parking lot. It's the little things, I tell you. Sure does keep it interesting...


See how big my little man is getting? Isn't it crazy?



And now it's time for bed. G'night.

December Already?

Seriously?

As slow as this summer went, the past month as flown by. It seems like we haven't been in Frederick very long, but somehow we have been here forever.
Adjustments continue. The boys and I are finding lots of stuff to do during the day. We're actually getting on some sort of schedule, which is something I don't think we've ever had (and I'll admit - I kind of like).
Caroline is enjoying school more. Her homework tonight was about Park Rangers - so it's nice to see that her teacher is able to tailor the program around her interests. She and I just read four chapters of "Little House on Rocky Ridge" tonight before bed and she asked me if we could borrow a horse from the farmer down the street so we could travel in a covered wagon like Rose. CJ continues to amaze me - she can read three books at the same time and keep all the details straight! She is digging historical fiction (maybe the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree?). I'm trying to read as much as I can before I let her read a book - but I can see by the time Sam gets to read, it may be too much to screen all the books that go in and out of their hands...
Behavior is still an issue (with all the kids) but I think as we're getting settled, it is getting easier to manage. I think because our setting changed, the kids thought all our behavior boundaries would change (and that is SO not the case). But they had to find out for themselves.
We don't have our Christmas tree yet. I'm not particularly in the spirit of things this year. I hope that changes very soon (because I still have some shopping to do). =-) Kids are busy rehearsing for the Christmas Pageant at church. Sam decided he no longer wanted to be a donkey in the pageant, but rather a "Christmas Pirate". We'll see how Fr Jim takes that one tomorrow night. I'm trying to get Caroline into a dance class, but it seems like it may be too late for this year. So we'll have to see what we do.
Auntie Melanie came over on Saturday for our Fifth Annual (but second in reality) Baking Day. Remember the last one? Caroline is a little bigger now...