life of seven

Six year old boys

 

Yes, I knit Jude a Captain America Lego Minifigure for his birthday. For real. This was such a darling, fun knit. Okay, by the time I knit the second hand and the arm, it was getting to be a little less fun, but overall, it really wasn't too bad and fiddly. As you can see, all the pieces come apart, but unfortunately, they don't stay together too well, so I sewed on the head, and I occasionally safety pin his pants to his body. What can you do? Even knitting has its limitations. If I were truly ambitious, sewing a snap or perhaps velcro to the inside pieces would work well, I think. But, my knitting ambitions have their limits, believe it or not. Obviously, I changed the colors and design a bit in order to make it look like Captain America. It was such a fun gift for Jude's 6th birthday. He told me, "This is the best thing you ever sewed!" High praise from my little boy.

Jude actually made off pretty well this birthday- going to see Captain America Civil War with the family and friends, gifted a soft baseball set (softball has been all the rage over here- Cate is even joining a church league, and Gideon and Grace show up and play at all the practices; Rockies are on whenever there is a game), and, something I'm rather proud of, a Newsies costume. I put together the individual pieces on Amazon and hoped for the best when they all arrived- it came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. 

I have to tell you, I love five and six year old boys. I told Cate, Grace, and Evie to not be offended; it's not that I didn't enjoy that stage with them, but there's just something pretty special and fun about little boys at that age. At least, my two little boys so far. So fun, so funny, so tough, so sweet, so smart. What age do I not enjoy my kids, actually? Every year that goes by is better than the last. I got pretty bogged down in the toddler years, especially when I had multiple toddlers at once. I began to think I would never see the light of day and I would be stuck in two year old logic forever. Ben would walk in the door at night and I would cling to him, begging him to just talk to me in an adult voice. Then, one day I blinked and those toddlers were gone and in their place were the most wonderful people, and friends. Looking into the future isn't scary- it's exciting and I can't wait to see what it'll bring. I thought I would feel sadder about my kids growing up. I had no idea I would feel so much joy.

***I promise there are no more birthdays until August. Worn out? Yeah, me too.***

Kids on the Keys

Grace giving Jude piano lessons: I love it. Don't you love the photo where he's showing Grace how he can find the triplets with his eyes closed? Jude is really enjoying his lessons, and Grace is enjoying teaching him. Often, family shared teaching responsibilities don't work out well, I've discovered, for us and other families I know of, so I've tried to make this as professional as possible, paying Grace at the beginning of the month, picking the same time and day each week for the lesson, writing it on the calendar, getting Jude dressed into clothes I would actually feel comfortable leaving the house in (and actually he really likes to dress up and put on a bow tie or a suit coat), and having the living room clean for his lesson. All of this has seemed to have worked quite well, and both Grace and Jude take the lesson time very seriously.

I don't know how long Jude will continue with lessons with Grace, or whether Truman and Clementine will follow suit in a few years, but for now this is working really, really well for us. I'd like to see Grace doing more teaching over the years because she seems very gifted in that area. This initial teaching experience has been a very positive one for her, and she'd love to do more in the future.

As for Jude, he is doing so well and learning so much after just a handful of lessons. At first he seemed uncertain about learning to play piano, probably because of all the practicing he observes his siblings do and the occasional grumbling about it that he hears. But Grace made his first lesson so much fun that he quickly changed his mind about piano and has become a very enthusiastic learner. He has such a good time at it, that Truman, observing, and participating in a couple of activities at Jude's lesson, has begun asking when he can learn, too. In fact, Truman told me a couple of days ago that he wanted to be a piano teacher. Well, you may be jumping the gun there a little bit, buddy, but high praise for Grace!

Meanwhile, there is Clementine, who cannot resist walking by a piano with an open lid. Quickly she scurries up on the bench and begins the serious act of playing notes, occasionally turning pages of music so she can find the right one. It's next to impossible for me to help Jude practice without Clementine discovering us and straining to get up, so I usually have both Jude and Clementine on my lap while Jude finds A, F, D, G. 

Often I wonder why I ended up having so many piano players in the house, and no other instruments being learned to vary it up a bit. But my husband is adamant that each child learn piano before foraying into another type of instrument, and I do agree with him there. After a couple of years of lessons, it seems a little silly to quit piano to learn a different instrument, thus the four, or rather, five piano players in the house. I suppose the older ones know enough about music now that in many ways picking up another instrument wouldn't be too much of a challenge. But, meanwhile, I love the piano music I hear all day. Love it. And adding Jude's piano playing into that mix is nothing but pure joy.

Best Halloween in Oslo, Norway

I know I said I'd be here on Monday, and here it is Wednesday, nearly Thursday, actually, in Denmark. We had such an amazing experience over the weekend. Yes, you are seeing this correctly: the children are sitting in a hot tub while sailing through the fjord to Norway. Though it began to get more and more foggy as we progressed, and though the hot tub was really not quite warm enough, we had to jump into our suits as swim, just to say we did it. I'm so glad we did.

The weather in Norway was surprisingly warm, or maybe I should say, not too terribly cold, for Halloween, the day we were there. I decided this was our best Halloween ever.  Our family doesn't celebrate Halloween, so we normally don't do anything very significant that day. This was an easy claim to make. Truman and Jude, however, were very bothered that I said it was the best Halloween. "But we don't like Halloween, Mom!" I hear you, boys, but nevertheless, we sure liked this Halloween. 

 

Some of the Things I Love About Scandinavia

These days keep getting away from me- school being taught, places being visited, pictures taken, and the blog begs me to be updated. So, here I am!

The pictures you see above are from our visit to Kronberg Slot, the castle that is the setting for Shakespeare's play, "Hamlet." You know, the one where Hamlet holds a skull and says dramatically, "To be, or not to be. That is the question!" Apparently that play is frequently reenacted at the castle, by an extremely renowned cast of characters, actors such as Laurence Olivier, Jude Law, Vivian Leigh, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine. Naturally, we didn't see any of those people on our visit. 

Last weekend we visited Stockholm, taking the train from Copenhagen. It was a great adventure and I'll hopefully write a post about it, with lots of pictures, but they have not been uploaded yet so I am only going to briefly mention it for now. Having a Swedish heritage, Sweden, and Stockholm, has a special place in my heart. I'm sort of falling more and more in with Scandinavia general on this trip. It's true that the language is really difficult for me, and I'm not crazy about some of the food, and the weather is too cold for me most of the year. But there is so much that is really special.

I may not be very good at describing it, but it is more of a feel or an atmosphere that I just love.

It's cozy. So much knitted warmth: hats, scarves, mittens, sweaters (you know I love that part), hot chocolate, down blankets covering babies (who are wearing the most darling wool baby bonnets)  in buggies being pushed down the streets, lots and lots of candles.

It's beautiful. Beautiful lighting, clean, simple design and furniture, absolutely breathtaking landscape, so much water everywhere, and swans! Actual swans swimming in the water! Darling little houses all designed with seemingly the same look, and did I mention the cathedrals and castles? Amazing.

Furthermore, there is a really sweet attitude toward children, where there seems to be a sense of preserving innocence much longer than there seems to be in much of the US. There are so many little spots thoughtfully set up just for children, whether a little play area next to a grocery store, a basket of toys at a coffee shop, a room just for children to play on a ferry, or an entire museum just for them. I'll write more about this museum when I post about on our visit to the extremely well done and interesting Junibacken, the Astrid Lindgren (author of Pippi Longstocking plus so much more) museum. Last week, we needed to make a late night trip to the Danish emergency room to get stitches for poor Jude, who smacked his head into a door knob. He received such sweet treatment there from the nurse. She asked him many questions about the stuffed fox he had brought along, including asking him if he wanted her to treat it with a band aid, and demonstrated the laughing gas mask (yes, they gave him laughing gas while stitching him up!) on the toy fox before having him try. For being quite a traumatic experience, Jude was quite calm, thanks in large part to the thoughtful nurse. At the end, Jude was allowed to pick a toy from the pirate treasure chest, though the nurse weren't certain if Jude knew who Jack Sparrow was yet. I wonder what five year old boy in the US has not heard of Jack Sparrow, but I appreciated the sentiment. (By the way, Jude's stitches got taken out yesterday, again, by a very kind nurse, and while he will definitely have a scar to show off his battle wound, it was stitched up quite nicely and healed very well. Please God, no more moments of cradling my boys head in my lap with blood gushing down his face, into his eyes, all over my hands and clothing so that I fear to look at how bad the damage actually is. And thank you that behind all that blood was "only" a centimeter long wound, rather than what my mind pictured it must be based on all the blood.)

One thing I really did not expect to find in Scandinavia was so many Asian tourists, who are so interested in our family. It's becoming a rather run-of-the-mill circumstance now for me to look up and find several with cameras out, aiming them at Clemmie in the buggy, and one of them asking Jude  to move closer in toward her and smile for them. Then the funny thing is I then take my camera out and take a picture of them taking a picture of my kids. Then we exchange smiles and move on.

I do really love so much about the lifestyle here. And thinking about the good parts leaves me feeling slightly less homesick. One more month until we come home again.

Incremental Development

I have a sweet, cuddly, lovable little five year old who started his very first day of kindergarten today. The day snuck up on me, like everything does, when before my very eyes, my children grow and change and hit milestones long before I realize they are ready.

Jude was an eager little pupil, somewhat curious about what the day would hold, slightly humored at the excitement of those around him when they asked him if he was excited about his first day of school. "Should I be?" his eyes seemed to ask with mild amusement.

Let me just say here that I packed twice the schoolbooks for Jude than what I packed for the older kids. Kindergarten curriculum never seems to suffer from quantity; over the years I have realized it's the quality that often seems to be lacking. This year I decided to go with Veritas Press Phonics Museum. So you know, we don't follow classical education, which Veritas is known for, however, upon having tried many different kindergarten phonics programs, I was curious to try Veritas. I thought the songs, book suggestions, and and workbook looked like something Jude would enjoy.

The flash cards are beautiful: each letter of the alphabet is illustrated by a famous painting. A, for apple (duh), is some famous painting of an apple, that I am not classically educated enough to know the name of, nor the artist. I guess my five year old and I will learn about this together. Anyway, we read a book today about the alphabet, learned a fun alphabet song, practiced tracing lines and circles (I like this aspect of the workbook so far) and colored a suit of armor. Bad mommy; I forgot to make sure I had crayons on hand and the suit of armor had to be one color only: graphite, since the only coloring utensil we had on hand was a pencil. Jude and I looked at 26 famous paintings that all represented a letter of the alphabet. D-d-dancer is illustrated by a painting of a ballerina by Degas. So, at least on the teaching end, this is certainly more entertaining to go through than many other programs I have looked through, and tried. I have yet to see if it proves more efficient, and effective than the simple Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, a book I brought along as a back up, just in case. I can promise Veritas will be more interesting.

For math, Jude is beginning Saxon 1. You guys, I love Saxon math. I love it so much. It's magical. I know some people hate it. The thing with Saxon is that it doesn't pretend to be anything but a math book. It's not fancy. It's not innovative. But it teaches mathematical concepts, beginning with the very easiest ideas, and builds up from there, one small  idea at a time ("incremental development" is Saxon's byline), and, just as Isaiah 10:28 says, " for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little," you can see that even the Bible endorses Saxon's teaching philosophy. You can't get a higher authority than that. And I'm only half joking when I say this. My kids go through love and hate phases with math. And who doesn't? Math is very hard work. And hard work, while extremely rewarding, is not necessarily always fun. There's really no getting around that. So, they sometimes suffer through math, sometimes flourish, and always test very well. Today Jude learned what a calendar was and wrote a 1 in his Meeting book to designate day one of school. We also counted to 30. We were supposed to discuss what mathematicians are and do. I elected to skip that conversation just then. I'm sure we can talk about it another day.

Jude and I looked at a map and learned a song about the capitals and countries of Scandinavia. I love the cd of geography songsI own. I'm determined for the kids and I to learn all of them this year. I can't remember what that curriculum is called, but just google "geography songs" and you'll find it. 

Finally, I showed Jude how to find all the twins and triplets (black notes) on the piano, and had him practicing playing one note four times in a row, then holding it down while counting to two. Jude will probably start piano lessons next summer or sometime around then, and I want to show him a few of musical concepts before he starts that.

That was Jude's first day of kindergarten. While all this was going on, the four older kids practiced piano, picked up where they had left off in their math lessons last June, did spelling tests, looked at maps, journaled, listened to poetry, and read. I managed to check in from time to time and make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to. Also, I threw together spaghetti for dinner, kept Clementine relatively happy, and helped Truman "color" (with graphite). Our school year got off to an impressive start.

Of course I don't expect every day to go this smoothly. I know it won't; life is busy, complicated, and things so very often don't go as planned. That's okay. I'm going to keep Saxon's model in mind as I go forward in the school year, that of incremental development. Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little. Oh right, that's not just Saxon; it's also in the Bible. Just remembering that every single day, putting in just a little bit of effort, not giving up, not quitting and steadily staying faithful to the task at hand is all that God is asking me to do.  

Clementine and Her Siblings

Can you tell that this little nine month old (she won't be ten months until the tenth, so there!) loves being a part of her big brothers' and sisters' lives? Whatever it is they're doing, she tries her best to join in and figure out just what the "game" is. Oh my, is that water play table a huge hit. I thought Jude and Truman would be the main ones who would love it, but Evie and Clementine are equally as enamored with it. Clemmie, maybe even more so, since water is still a relatively new phenomenon to her. I mean, everything is a relatively new phenomenon to a nine month old, I suppose. Peas, strawberries, grass, mud, sticks, flowers (no, don't eat them!!), legos (especially don't eat those!), bumpy wagon rides, dogs. 

She squeals so loudly when she sees Pepper, and it sure sounds to me like she says "Dog! Dog!" It's close, but maybe it's not quite a real word yet. It always amazes me how quickly babies notice, and love, animals.

Truman's hair in the middle picture...those are spider web clumps in it. Of course. Oh, that boy. Thank God for little boys. They sure make my life more interesting. For instance, without my boys, I doubt I would know, or care, what a droid is. And I know I would have never noticed that there are different colored light sabers in Star Wars- red, green, and blue, I believe. And I stand in awe of the sound effects boys can make. I never knew the human voice could sound like a machine gun, or a truck, or a sword blade, or a bomb, well before intelligible English could be spoken. Also, I think I figured out what the big deal is with legos: my boys don't as much want to play with dollhouses and miniatures ("those are girl toys!"), but legos, especially mini-figs, consist of that childlike, or maybe human-like, fascination with itty-bitty cuteness. Don't tell that to my boys.

I am sure Clementine will learn all these things, and a pile of others, from her big brothers. Maybe they will learn a thing or two from her, also.

Turning five

While we were in Florida, this little boy turned five, but we still fit in a small little family party where he got to blow out candles in front of his grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins.

Who am I kidding, that's every party I "throw" for the kids. I'm usually a pretty lame party host-er. It's show up, possibly eat some chili (that's what we did- it's his very, very favorite food. "I yuv it. I just yuuuuuv it."), open a few gifts, and eat cake and ice cream. Fancy parties just aren't really my thing, creative-wise. I love attending them, don't get me wrong about that, but it is like pulling teeth for me to try to come up with cute, elaborate, themed festivities.

No matter, Jude had a fun celebration anyway. I'm sure you can see it on his face.

And oh, my heart, this little boy is such a delight. You have to see him in person to really get it. No one can melt your heart quite like Jude. He is old enough to slyly tell jokes, especially invented knock-knock jokes, and he does it with such a twinkle in his eye. We do have a one time joke policy around here, that I instill. I had to explain to Jude and Truman that after everyone in the family has heard the joke one time that they need to not tell the same joke a second time to everyone, as it is no longer funny. And in fact, if everyone is in the room when it was told, it's not necessary to repeat the joke seven times to the seven people who were in there room who heard it the first time, albeit not personally.

Usually the jokes are of the super hero variety:

"Knock Knock."

"Who's there."

"Spied."

"Spied who."

"Spiderman!!!"

"Knock Knock."

"Who's there."

"Captain."

"Captain who." I know where this is going....

"Captain Merica!"

"Knock knock."

"Who's there."

"Huh."

"Huh? Um, okay... huh who?"

"Hulk!"

My sweet little boy...he is always up for a snuggle, and a cuddle, and a story. He loves eating chili the most, but also yuvs, yuuuuvs spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and gumbo. "I just yuuuv it!"

Jude got a Boba Fett figure (doll? what do they call those things) that has a button you push that says like five different phrases. I feel like I struck gold when I found it. Who knew they made a Boba Fett doll/thing? That talks? It seems someone must have known my two little boys personally. It was hard for Truman to agree that it was going to be Jude's Boba Fett for his birthday, that Jude would perhaps sometimes share, but truman handled it quite well, and it was in fact very good for him to give the toy to Jude. And Jude in turn has very kindly has shared it with his little brother.

These boys- they are going to grow up best buddies. They do everything together. Imagine growing up with a playmate who loves exactly the same things you do. They're not twins but they sure could be.

Okay, I'm getting a little distracted here, and need to just publish Jude's birthday post, so let me just say, Happy Birthday my little buddy! You make life so wonderful.

Matching

It's not every day that my little boys and I get to match. Thankfully I also had black boots and a hat that they approved of.

Sweater plan

I started it. No ,I didn't design my own pattern this time; this is Wyatt, and yes, the texture is that wonderful and squishy in real life. I am so glad I chose this pattern. The stitch count, ribbing and welt pattern line up like a dream. It's that feeling you get when doing a long division problem in math and it comes out perfectly with no remainder. Ah, beautiful. The stitches just fit, and flow perfectly from one row to the next. No thinking, but no boredom either. Furthermore, since it calls for worsted weight yarn, this is going (as you may be able to tell) as quick as can be. I have come up with a makeshift knitting goal for the year- we'll see how I do, but I'd love for each child to get a sweater for his or her birthday. Cate, the hardest, since she is justifiably more picky than the younger kids, and wears the largest sweater, is already done. She got Jess, albeit a little early. Evie's sweater is started, and Gideon's is off to a roaring start. That leaves, Jude, in May, and I'd love to knit a second Wyatt for him, so he could match Gideon. I mean, I may not be singing the praises of Wyatt by that time, and be bored to death of it, but that's the plan for now. That leaves Clemmie, in August, and you know she's getting a birthday sweater. That's already a given. Then I'll get a few months off till December, when I have Grace- though she did get a drapey cardigan last week so I can always count that if I need to, and finally Truman, another fairly quick knit. Like the plan? I do, but I'm only one sweater into it. We'll see how I feel sometime in May.

Mostly about Star Wars

Top photo: I finally figured out the only way for Grace's hair to hold any curl whatsoever; braid it the night before while sopping wet. In the morning her hair looks kind of like Eowyn's, which was definitely our goal. She has the length for it, and more or less the color. Only it's straight as it can be, until now. 

Second photo: Maybe it's hard to tell, but those are Truman's precious Star Wars lego mini-figs. Both boys have transitioned slightly over to Star Wars instead of all super-hero, all the time. Their favorite characters, if you ask them, are Jango Fett, Boba Fett, and Darth Vader, in that order. Because Jango Fett is like Boba Fett, only blue, so he is the favorite. Darth Vader, because he looks cool. But only the good Darth Vader, they assure me. They also love R2D2. They asked me a hundred times if a light saber could kill R2D2. I kept saying no, and they didn't believe me. Finally I decided to settle the question once and for all, so I texted Ben as well as a friend who happens to know much more about Star Wars than I do. Which actually isn't hard, since my three year old knows more about Star Wars than me. So, why do they ask me all their hard to answer Star Wars related questions? I told Jude and Truman  what my friend said: "I think R2's casing might provide a little more resistance than say Luke Skywalker's hand, but given a little time yes a light saber could kill R2D2."

When I told the boys this, Jude's lip began to quiver and his eyes filled with tears: "But Mom, you were wrong! You said it couldn't kill R2D2!"

Um sorry Jude. I am never wrong and yes I am the fount of all knowledge except for in the finer points, especially any and all Star wars related trivia. Never mind your bizarre taste that favors light saber wielding bad guys who would be the ones to use their weapons against poor R2 in the first place. 

Thankfully my friend sent another text: "You can tell him that they've written books over 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi and to date both R2-D2 and C-3PO are both still alive and kicking."

Whew.

Boys. So sue me, I grew up with two sisters. There was never even so much as a matchbox car in our house growing up, much less a G.I. Joe or some other such toy. Action figure? What's that?

Last picture: the territory I know, knitting of course. I'm not quite sure when this knitting happened, except that everyone knows that when knitting stripes the knitting happens 3-4 times faster, especially when each new stripe is a new color.