a crazy kid. He seems to be in a "test the limits" phase which has me taking deep breaths and swearing to myself fairly frequently. He also seems to like rough play. He no longer plays nicely with the kids in our little group of friends. He wants to tumble about with bigger kids. He's very social and pretty fearless in social situations. Today at the park he went up to a group of 6th graders and sat down in the middle of a bunch of cute girls. He chatted away to them about his trip to the library. Sooooo cute. We've met a nice bunch of homeschoolers who get together fairly frequently at the park - kids of all ages so right up Akiva's alley.
He's starting to like chapter books. We've been reading a bit of Ramona the Pest to him but we may return it to the library and wait a few months as he's not that excited about it. He loves picture books with lots of text, though.
He's taking an art class with Nana on Friday mornings and he appears to love it. He has started to draw faces.
Benjy - 20 months
The Benjster. He's finally conquering the damn pointy teeth that have been plaguing him for months :( We should buy stock in Motrin but there's been a recall, so I guess we should buy stock in Advil now. He recently had a growth spurt and his trousers are falling down more than ever (good thing he has a cute bum). He's losing his baby fat :( but walking better and talking much more. He seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, strangely enough. He won't use a word until he can say it perfectly. Today he picked up a book and said "book" absolutely clearly. He understands everything - even complicated instructions. He's very lovey and takes good care of his siblings. Akiva is sometimes still asleep when we get up and Benj walks by the room going "shhhhh" and blowing him kisses. His heart is always on his sleeve.
He found a pony tail elastic the other day and we looked at pics of Akiva when I used to put his hair up. Benj wanted in on the action.
Mia - 6 months
15.4 lbs
Her hair is getting longer. I think it will be blond but all the old ladies she smiles at in the grocery store say "oh, a red head."
She's very smiley and full of personality. She rolled first right around 4 months but she doesn't get as much floor time as the boys did so she only recently started rolling consistently. She almost sits without assistance. She can do it, but then reaches for something and tumbles over. She's anxious to play with the boys. I've put her back in cloth diapers because I was feeling guilty about using so many disposables. I've been hanging them out to dry on the line and I'm liking it.
She recently started dabbling in solid food. Love avocado but she ate so much it gave her a tummy ache. Banana is ok. Will try applesauce next.
What are the grown ups doing? Mark took a job with the Westbank First Nation as a grant writer - this in addition to his regular gig with the Province of BC. He loves the new job so far and can do it mostly from home.
I hold children and kiss them and paint with them, read to them, make them food. I try to avoid yelling. Yeah. Akiva has decided that the madder I get the funnier he thinks it is. One of these days I swear my head will explode.
I've been desperately trying to downsize our possessions and have taken loads of stuff to Goodwill in the past few months. I was spending too much time managing our stuff. Now we're making do with less. I packed away most of the kids' toys - they weren't playing with the toys, just dumping out the boxes which led to a huge mess and a cranky mommy. Now I bring out one thing at a time but I find they are much happier playing with the recycling or the occasional cardboard box. They love to garden outside. Our new rhubarb plants have been getting a lot of attention and may not survive their good intentions.
We have bought a 1998 Dodge Caravan. We'll keep the Delica, but I need something with doors that open to the sidewalk (the sliding door on the Delica opens onto the street if I'm parallel parked - yikes!!). We finalize everything on Friday.
We've also cut out most wheat and sugar. We both have Type II diabetes in our family histories so we'd like to give the kids a good start so they have a chance to avoid it. The good news is that they love snacking on peppers, cukes, apples, bananas, and any other fruit we have laying around. They drink fresh organic milk from a local farm and eat yogurt made from the milk. They've planted seeds for our garden this year so i'm hoping they will add to their repertoire of vegetables they like to eat.
Ok, I'm off to bed. I'll post the rest of the pictures tomorrow.
Ok, I have more
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