6 Month CheckUp

Although he's a couple weeks shy of his six month birthday, Gussie had his checkup today. It was easy and uneventful, as expected.

Gussie is 17 pounds 11 ounces and about 27 inches tall, around the 80th - 85th percentile on the growth chart. And he still has a tiny head (around the 15th percentile, not exactly in proportion with his height/weight, but the same amount of out-of-proportion since birth, so not a problem). Plus it's a really cute tiny head, with dimples, so I'm ok with it.

Side note - it's quite possible that he will be the first one to lose his blue eyes. They definitely have a lot more grey/brown/green streaks in them than any of his siblings' eyes have. It took four tries, but Daddy's hazel eyes might finally have prevailed.

He can do serious pushups now and will stay up high on his hands and knees if I put him on the floor like that, but eventually he gets excited and flattens out, then he can usually only get either his hands or his knees up under him at one time, not both at the same time. So I think we're safe from crawling for a little while still.

Gussie is at that stage of learning to sit up where he's strong enough and basically has the balance, but he has absolutely no concept of the danger inherent in throwing himself backwards to look up at something. Luckily there is almost always a big sister eager to sit behind him and catch.

Lately much of our view of Gussie looks like this, and he sometimes gets frantic if his rubber panda teether slips away from him.

It's clearly doing good work; the first tooth that poked through last week can be seen rather well now, and the one right next to it has just started to peek out today.

Gussie is mostly over the cough and congestion that has been plaguing the family for the last few weeks. You can still hear a tiny bit of rattling occasionally when he breaths, but no more constant coughing and runny nose. Now if I could just get Michael Jr through it we all might actually go back to getting some sleep around here. That would be nice.

Celebrating Six

Catherine turns 6 in a couple days, but we had her party yesterday. By her choice, it was a "Winter Wonderland" party, which means we decorated with lots of paper snowflakes - see them hanging from the ceiling in the dining room?

We also crafted some Snow Kids:

And played a "Dress the Grandpa as a Snowman" game where we had two teams of kids, each team trying to dress a Grandpa in hat, mittens, scarf, buttons, and rosy cheeks as fast as they could. Our wonderful grandpas very graciously took part, and the kids had a lot of fun.

Catherine was basically on her own because Michael Jr, the other main player on her team, took off running when I said, "Ready, Set, Go!" and didn't make it back from his race until the the snowman game was done.

And then Mary and Sophie decided they wanted a turn being the snow men.

I think the whole Winter Wonderland idea started with snowman cupcakes. Catherine had to have snowman cupcakes.

I think Kali only ate the icing.

Mary definitely thought the cupcakes were paper-licking good.

And I don't know how much of her cupcake Daisy ate, but I think she liked what she had.

Catherine spent the entire day today talking about, musing over, and playing with her gifts. The mini trampoline got quite a workout already, and her coffee shop got a nice upgrade with new signage, a new staff apron, a cashier, and an expanded menu thanks to all the new silly putty. We even had time to start her new 3D puzzle, but that will be a multi-day project to finish.

In typical party running fashion, I completely lost track of Gussie, and when I got back to him towards the end I discovered he had sprouted his first tooth sometime during the day! It's a little razor on the bottom. It's nice to know at least that all the dried drool puddles all over the house weren't for naught.

I think the one next to it on the bottom will not be far behind - he's still attacking and biting everything "like a baby zombie" (according to Daddy). He really wants to bite this balloon.

Thank you to everyone who came to the party - Catherine is feeling very special indeed, and that's probably all a six-year-old girl really needs.

A Handful

Yikes - I feel like I've let blogging slip by the wayside lately, but it's not because nothing is going on, it's just because I have my hands full! Work is busy, the kids are able to focus more time on school, the house is basically ensconced in disarray, food still takes all day to prepare, and the boys in the house are all struggling to kick a bad bug involving serious congestion and coughing, which means little sleep for the little ones, which means littler sleep for me (the only reason I'm blogging right now instead of sleeping is because Gussie is sleeping in the Ergo and if I sit or lie down he'll wake up, so I'm standing at my computer. Fun.). I'm really trying hard to get everyone well (and find the floors) before Catherine's birthday!

But Catherine isn't waiting until her birthday to grow up. She lost another tooth yesterday, her fifth! She has lost an entire handful of teeth. See the new gap? (Sorry for the terrible picture - I hate the flash, and I hate (the lack of) winter light, and she's tired and has marker on her face and it looks like she tried to brush her hair. But do you see the extra gap?)

Can we just talk about Catherine for a minute? Besides the fact that she can ride a bike and has lost five teeth, she continues to be an incredible help at home, putting away dishes, entertaining Gussie when I'm busy, helping with dinner, and even teaching Michael during school time. Actually, I now have both Catherine and Mary working with Michael on his alphabet, colors, and shapes on their "off" times during school, while I'm working one-on-one with the other. They all love it - the girls love teaching (because everyone likes to show off what they know) and Michael loves them spending time with him. Win. Speaking of school, Catherine is in the final section of her reading book, sounding out four- and five-syllable words. She reads regularly to Mary and Michael. I haven't figured out what her reading "level" is at this point - I'm guessing probably 2nd grade? Maybe 3rd? I'm working on putting together a list of chapter book for her to work through when she finishes her reading book. Crazy. We have a workbook called "Analogies for Beginners" for Grades 1 to 3. She's on the last couple pages, and doesn't let me help her think through them anymore. She's also on the last song in her first piano book. What am I going to do with this girl? Latin. Maybe Latin will keep her busy.

Catherine has also started to think about her future. She currently runs a coffee shop at the house that has two locations, one in the living room, and her "downtown" location in the extra room upstairs, each of which is open on different days. Her shop serves a lot of pastries and candies in addition to drinks. Every time she is helping me make dinner she muses about the restaurant she might open some day. I wouldn't be surprised if she does, but it's a good thing she has a lot of time to prepare still; she and I attempted to make a caramel praline to mix in to the caramel ice cream we were making for Daddy, but when we tasted the caramel praline candy before mixing it in, we both agreed it tasted like seaweed. We'll have to redo that one when I figure out what went awry so she doesn't end up with a restaurant with Seaweed Caramel Ice Cream on the menu.

And (surprise) Catherine isn't the only one that seems to grow months and years in a day. I found Mary reading a Fancy Nancy reader (maybe 1st Grade?) to herself today, and if Catherine doesn't keep up with practicing piano, Mary might just pass her up one of these days. Michael Jr says something new almost every day, which is usually funny, although his new "I can do what I want when I want because I want" attitude makes a lot of what he comes up with a little less funny. And Gussie, more than 5 months already, is rolling both ways and able to get his knees up under him when on his tummy; I even saw him get up on his hands and knees, but only once. Being sick the last few days, he's mostly been snuggling.

I estimate he drools about a gallon a day, and I can just barely see the little bumps that will be teeth on the bottom, hopefully soon so he stops attacking and gnawing everything that comes within his reach, including my wrists and his own poor little hands that are constantly red and chapped. 

But even congested and teething, he has more happy moments than not. For the most part.

And he's the only one who can't run away from my camera, hence the imbalance of kid pictures. 

A Singing Show

Remember a while back when Catherine and Mary took a ballet class that concluded with a little performance for the parents at the end of the week? They only lasted a few seconds into the first song when they both (Catherine first, then Mary shortly after) became overwhelmed and ducked out of the show (full post here).

Well, that was about a year and a half ago, and they've definitely grown quite a bit in that time. This week they had a little party for Epiphany in their weekly church class. This class is basically a Montessori-minded catechesis class for preschoolers, with a lot of hands-on "work", and the girls love it. For this party, the kids learned two songs that they sang for the parents, then they served everyone a little snack they had prepared  on *real* plates.

Catherine had the same "I'd rather be anywhere than here" look on her face the whole time they were singing, but she stuck with it, singing all the words, holding up her prop when it was time, and clapping during the second song. 

Mary not only participated, but looked like she was almost enjoying herself. Progress!

Wrestle Mania

We had our last visit with Kristin and Brian before they left yesterday evening, and since they would be getting ready to put the boys in the car for a 4-hour drive around bed time, we assisted the best we could by encouraging energy-releasing activities. First there was running and bike riding up and down the sidewalk. Grampy T took the training wheels off the little (little!) bike at their house so Catherine could practice. She tells me regularly that she wants to make sure to practice on her bike every day. Today we went to the school parking lot so she could practice turning.

There was also a very long and active (and therefore blurry) wrestling match.

Somehow Catherine always managed to stay on top of the pile.

Julian was amused from afar.

Mary made sure the two babies stayed well entertained with this hat.

Of course the grandparents did their share of baby entertaining as well. (Gussie was more content than he appears in this picture.)

Babies that move non-stop plus short, dark winter days equals blurry babies.

The kids are already missing cousin playtime - hopefully we get to visit with them again soon!

Train Party

Christopher turned four this week, and since we rarely get to celebrate birthdays with him we were happy to host a little party to celebrate. He likes trains about as much as Michael Jr, so we had a few train-themed elements and a lot of fun.

First we used painters' tape to make a big circle railroad track on the floor. The kids spent a good hour "choo-choo"-ing around the track, to the point that they were all red-cheeked and out of breath. Now I'm trying to figure out how I'm ever going to talk them into removing the train track.

The kids and I also did a little crafting and came up with a Thomas engine to lead our cupcake train.

I like that just the cousins in the family puts together a very good size birthday party.

 And Christopher was happy.

Gussie had a good time observing all the commotion.

And things got even better for Christopher when he discovered there were presents after the cupcakes!

Sadly the cousins are heading home today, but we really enjoyed their extended visit!

The Balance Bike

For Christmas we got the kids a balance bike.

Yes, one bike for three kids. Sharing is serious business in our house (and balance bikes are surprisingly expensive). 

Christmas being in December, the kids have been (taking turns) riding the balance bike around the house. But today had a short sunny and warmish spell in the afternoon that happened to coincide with a long nap for Gussie, so I took the kids and the balance bike out on the sidewalk. Catherine has been gaining so much confidence on the balance bike that when I offered to take the training wheels off her bike and lower the seat a touch "so it would be like a big balance bike", she agreed. Then I told her I'd be happy to hold her steady so she could practice pedaling, which she thought was fun. After about 15 minutes of jogging for me, I told her my hand was on the bike but I really wasn't doing anything - she was really doing it by herself - and she agreed that I could let go. And just like that, we have our first balance bike graduate! Of course we had to bring Daddy out to watch and video.

Given the way Mary is "gliding" up and down the sidewalk, I don't think she'll be far behind.

This is Catherine's song of the afternoon (sung to the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas):

I'm so happy I can ride a bike,
So happy I can ride a bike,
So happy I can ride a bike
With no training wheels too!

Cousins

The kids are having a lot of fun with their out-of-town cousins. Michael was so happy to see Christopher that he didn't bother to consider a coat or hat in order to run out to meet him upon returning from a walk.

Well, ok, Julian might still be a little skeptical of the cousins.

He also tried to steal Gussie's favorite teether, but Gussie won out in the end.

And you have to assume their was no malicious intent on Julian's part. Erupting teeth will make you do crazy things.

As for Catherine and Mary, as long as Dema isn't too busy with other grandkids to read them a book, they're happy.