life of seven

Truman's tooth

Okay, have I ever told you guys how five year old boys are about my favorite thing in the world? It's true, and I am lucky enough to have had three of them. At any rate, I am halfway through raising my third five year old boy, at least. And, Truman, well, he is just about the funnest of the fun five year old boys I've ever met. He is also my most rambunctious, loud, and vivacious five year old I've had in this house. And I love him for all his energy. 

Leave it to Truman to be my first child to knock a tooth out. I've been a mom for 17 years, and have seven kids, and up until a couple days ago, there have been no unloose teeth knocked out before they were ready in this family. Broken bones, yes. Stitches, certainly. Sprains, bruises and black eyes a-plenty. But it took Truman running through the house, tripping over a footstool and hitting the corner of the kitchen table to knock out a tooth. Poor guy. The tooth was not loose at all (in general my kids are, like, tweens before they even get a loose tooth). The tooth ripped through the gum and came out whole, root and all. Had that happened to me, I'm sure I would have been recovering for a whole 48 hours before thinking about interacting with the outside world. Truman definitely cried quite a bit initially, but when he heard his tooth came out it perked him up considerably, even under such painful circumstances. Another 30 minutes (and a phone call to the dentist, who assured me it wasn't an immediate dental emergency that needed to be dealt with that evening) later, and Truman was telling me, "I wish that had happened, but that it didn't hurt when my tooth came out."

The dentist said to give him popsicles for the swelling, and Truman helped himself to no less than four that evening. I'm not sure the popsicles ended up being strictly necessary, since every time I checked in on him, he and his siblings and friends were playing together, stopping now and then to watch Truman get yet another popsicle, and Truman calling to me over his shoulder, "My tooth feels great, Mom!"

First thing the next morning I asked, "How are you feeling, Truman?", hoping that the worst of the recovery was over.

"Awesome!" Truman replied, as the memory of being a big boy who now had the prestige of having lost a tooth before his older, seven year old brother, returned to him.

It occurred to me later on that day that the Tooth Fairy should probably pay Truman a visit. One thing you should know in this house is that our tooth fairy is pretty unreliable. She is usually days late, if she comes at all. However, when she comes she does usually leave a decent amount of cash under the pillow, but you really can't much count on her. Her memory and the cash she happens to have on hand at any given moment fluctuates greatly. Add this to the fact that my kids are usually close to age ten before they lose a first tooth, and somehow I've never been able to convince them that the tooth fairy is real. If you can you imagine.

Well, the following morning, I told Truman to check under his pillow to see if the tooth fairy left him some money.

"The tooth fairy? What's a tooth fairy?" with a great deal of skepticism in his voice. Oh dear, she really has been absent-minded as of late if Truman doesn't even know what I'm talking about.

"The tooth fairy buys your tooth back and leaves money under your pillow!" Gideon told Truman, as he excitedly realized the tooth fairy might have really left something under Truman's pillow, for once. "Come on, let's go check!"

And sure enough, out came Truman from the bedroom, clutching a dollar bill tightly and very proudly. Even my slightly older-but-still-not-too-old skeptical children began to have second thoughts about who actually was the tooth fairy.

"Mom, Jude said the Tooth Fairy might be mom and dad, but I told him it couldn't be, because the tooth fairy gives lots of money, and you said we don't have any money!"

"Truman, you are so smart and that is some great logic!" I smilingly left it at that. If his interpretation of "money is tight right now" allowed him to believe there was a tooth fairy, so be it, right? How sweet, my kid actually believes in the tooth fairy!

"Mom, my friend Jack told me the tooth fairy might be Tinkerbell."

"Oh yeah?"

"Can we please find a video?"

"A video of what?"

"A video of the tooth fairy!"

One of Jude's and Truman's favorite activities is to look at Youtube videos of whatever animal or plant they happen to be interested at that time, usually on an iPhone. Hey, homeschooling credit, right? You never stop learning. A few nights ago it was videos of Great Horned Owls that they wanted to see. Today, naturally, why not videos of the Tooth Fairy?

I started to pull up images of the tooth fairy on the computer, curious what Google would have to show me.

Seeing they were images, not videos, he instructed me: "No, Mom, not like that, you have to do it on your phone!"

"Actually, Truman, the computer will work just as well as mommy's phone. Watch, I found a video!"

What do you know, someone captured the tooth fairy on video and uploaded it to Youtube! A little five year old boy like Truman lost a tooth, placed under his pillow, and set up cameras in his room to get video footage. Then he shared his footage with the world wide web for all little boys and girls to see. Smart kid. And, wow, she really does look quite a bit like Tinkerbell!

"But, Truman, you'll have to tell Jack that, at least in this video, she doesn't wear a green dress."

Bunting the ball

Well, it's sort of all baseball all the time around here. I never really expected that, since Ben and I really aren't sports people, and figured our kids wouldn't really be either. They love exercising and being outside, but have never been terribly excited about any specific sport. Until this past year, when Gideon and his Grandpa began sharing the love of football together. My poor dad, who went to college on a baseball scholarship, and then switched over to golf and held a position as a golf professional for over 30 years, never got any of us three girls to enjoy any of the sports he was interested in. We did stints at gymnastics and figure skating, but that's not quite what he had in mind, I'm sure. I think it was my husband who was the one to explain the rules of football to me (and who I bothered to give a moment of my time to listen to). Yes, I'm sure we weren't the most exciting daughters for a sports lover, but I think my dad's grandsons are making up for it. My three sons and my sister's two, who love nothing more than to play a game of softball or something similar. Grace and Cate enjoy playing, too. I'm glad, because if someone asks me to jump into a game of volleyball, my face flushes and gets hot, and I remember the half hearted attempts I'd made at playing in the past, ending with me walking away from the game, humiliated, tears burning my eyes. I remember a neighbor giving me a football to throw when I was about 12, and it honestly being the very first time I'd ever held one. I was so embarrassed when I admitted I didn't know how to throw it. And, in gym class when I was very young, I stood at the very lowest hoop for the entire class, trying to get the ball to go in, and failing, when all the other kids were getting basket after basket, at all the different heights. Ice skating, gymnastics, those types of activities, I was very, very, good at. You should have seen me do the splits. But It's not very often that I find myself using those skills. Okay, never. And, I would probably kill myself if I attempted a back walkover. Hey, I pulled muscles in both my legs just when running at full speed during Cate's softball game. Anyway, I'm glad my daughters have listened to my stories growing up, and decided to at least attempt to be able to play a sort that involves any type of ball. It is more than I ever did.

Anyway, look at little Truman bunting the ball and then scoring a home run. Cutest thing ever, and he's got lots of siblings to teach him exactly how it's done.

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. 

 

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.

Just catching up

The week got away from me and I missed a couple of days of posting...I want to show you the sweater I just finished for Evie, my own design that I've now knit...four times? Really? Cate has one, Grace has had two (she literally wore her last one to pieces) and now Evie has one, too. I'll take some pictures today in the gorgeous cloudy weather outside. Yes, it's still raining and our yard is a humungous mud puddle.

I'll leave you with Truman, for now, and I may pop back in this weekend. My little guy. Such a typical expression for this little tornado. An adorable, lovable tornado. That's Truman.

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.

Truman's/Evie's sweater

This is the sweater that I began for Truman in the hope of finishing it by Christmas. Well, as you can perhaps see, neither of those things panned out. I finished sewing the buttons on this this morning.  I began Anders with an extra pattern repeat to make one size bigger than the biggest size. I figured this would be about a 2-3. I was concerned about it being big enough since a good friend of mine made the sweater in the 18-24 month size for her two year old boy and I thought it looked like hers would be quite small on Truman. Well, apparently I didn't need to worry about that.

You know how your kids are always bigger than you think they are? well for once that wasn't the case. Apparently my seven year old Evie isn't quite as big as I thought, nor Truman, for that matter. That's just fine. Now I'll have four kids to wear this sweater before it's done: Evie, Jude, Truman, and Clementine. Let's hope it holds up that long.

The little ones

And now for some little kid action...I put Clementine in the Bumbo and then Truman wrapped her in the Spiderman Blanket and gave her the Captain America shield, and then he let out the loudest squeal ever: "Wook at Cwementine!" He was so proud of his "work", and then he said, "I made her, Mom!"

I spotted Evie, my newest reader, reading Her Abraham Lincoln book to her baby sister, and I just about melted. When I feel like melting, as of late, I take a picture of it and capture the moment. That's why you see the picture of Evie with her two "dolls", Saila and baby Clementine.

Finally, you can see Jude and Trumie on the banister, who shrieked at me, "Mom, take a picture of us!" And so I did.