Isaac: 86-95 months

Hmm, apparently I should do this a little more often.  Anyway, you can see the progression of this front teeth.

86 months: Feb '19

87 months - Mar 19  (wearing almost the same clothes)

88 months - April '19

(I especially like this one.  The sun was too sunny.)

89 months - May '19

90 months - June '19

91 months - July '19

92 months - Aug '19

93 months - Sept '19

94 months - Oct '19

95 month - Nov '19

Thursday: twins!

Guess who were twins today?

The difference in height sometimes surprises me.

Wednesday: shoe sizes

I would like to complain about shoe sizes.  Especially the kids' sizes.  From what I can tell, there are two different measurement systems. 

One goes:

3T(oddler)
4T
5T
6T
7T
8T
9T
10T
11T
12T
13T
3Y(outh)
4Y...

The other goes
4 Little kid
5 Little kid
6 Little kid
7 little kid
8 little kid
9 little kid
10 little kid
11 little kid
1 big kid
2 big kid...

The problem is that sellers, oh say on Amazon, seem to mix and match the size and then put them in numerical order instead of size order.  So we saw a lot of

1 little kid (this is 1Y)
2 little kid (this is 2Y)
3 little kid (this is 3T)
...
13 little kid
3 big kid
4 big kid....

First of all, it took me forever to realize what was going on.  Then it took me a long time to find where the correct size was.  I feel like I'm a rather smart person and should be able to figure out shoe sizes for my child, but I was only 50% sure that we weren't going to end up with baby shoes.  (We didn't.)  I'm also only 50% sure that what I have above is correct, but I wrote it anyway because I'll probably have to deal with it again in a few years and don't want to forget the little I knew.

Tuesday: Christmas performance

Joshua had a Christmas performance tonight.  His mouth moved, so he was singing.  I've heard him sing his songs once or twice, so I knew that he knew them but wasn't sure how much he would sing.  He never found us in the crowd though.  :(  The best part was when they were singing 'shout' and all the kids shouted.  I wasn't expecting it for some reason.

I have a few more pictures of him afterwards.  All the grandparents that were in town came, so I think that helped make it special.  He said that he enjoyed it, which surprised me a bit.  I expect the cookie helped too.

Isaac stayed home with Aunt C.  It's been a while since they've been able to have some one-on-one time together, but I also didn't expect Isaac would enjoy it.  I remember that Nathan and I had a standing "your stuff is probably really cool, but I don't really want to sit through it" pact.  (It's not that I never saw Nathan's stuff, but only if I wanted to.)

Monday: Lego projects

I've finished a few small Lego projects recently.

A flower.

The loot we got on our vacation

Sunday: in pictures

We found Tornado in the Christmas tree.  While it looks like he's all in it, only half of his weight is actually in the tree.  The rest is on the speaker behind him.

We finished our Christmas decorations today.  I really should get enough strings of lights so that at the very least we can have the same type of lights throughout the house.  It's a bit crazy, but Christmasy.  I also finally took down this fly on the wall.  It died there a week (or two?) ago and it took me this long to get it down.

Isaac made up new rules for Ben's new game and Ben and I didn't want to play.  We told the boys they could play.  A few minutes later I hear Joshua say, "You, me, and Grey Bear!  It would totally work!  Grey Bear could play the good guy team."  Needless to say, it looked involved and took at least two hours.  I was glad that I had chosen not to play, but was glad they had fun.

I made Christmas tree PB sandwiches for lunch.

Jaq showed up, as always.  He got to be a little higher in the tree this year to protect him from the cats.

Friday: dishwasher

Yesterday as one of the boys' chores I had them load the dishwasher.  I wasn't really expecting too much from Joshua, but I figured that Isaac would be able to do a pretty good job.  After all, he has to put away a lot of it as a normal chore.

Well, Joshua did about as expected.  He did a good job, but needed a lot of prompting.  Isaac did about the same as Joshua, which surprised me.  Maybe it shouldn't have.  We had to talk about where to put the cups and how to use the space as efficiently as possible.  I had to remind him where the bowls go.

I think this means they need to do it more often.

Isaac had a good time at the lock-in last night.  I was expecting him to call by 10am, as the after breakfast time sometimes drags and I told him he could call when ready.  I ended up going to get him at 11:30.  I think he was awake until about 2:30am, but stayed happy all day.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Thessalonians 5:18: give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This was the passage at church today.  It was a good one.  There have been some things this year that have been hard.  Don't get me wrong; there have been a ton of things that have been really good too.  The good far outnumber the hard, but the hard always seem to be ...more on the mind.  I'm not sure that's really what I mean, but I think everyone understands how it goes.  Anyway, give thanks in the hard seasons and give thanks in the good seasons of life.

After church we put up the Christmas tree.  It's unique.  It's also the first time the cats have had a Christmas with decorations, so we'll see how it goes.  I'm at 30% that the tree will get knocked over.  When we got home after Thanksgiving today there were four ornaments on the ground.  None broken, and most not even breakable.

We had Thanksgiving with Ben's family, and it was a lovely time.  I feel like it's been a while since we've all seen each other, and it was nice to get caught up again.  The food was also delicious.

Isaac is at a lock-in tonight.  He hasn't been in many of the pictures that have been posted but they've run the obstacle course (his favorite), made a fort with the obstacle pieces, and then several other things (but I didn't see him in the pictures, so I don't know what he was doing).

Wednesday: half day

Today Isaac had a half day of school.  Joshua also chose to have a half day of school, even though it meant he'd have to do some cleaning at home.

After cleaning Isaac made a checker board.  He added an extra rule into the game which I didn't love, but it was at least a simple rule so it wasn't too bad.  His strategy needs some work, as he got a little bit stuck and then just went back and forth between two safe spots while I ruled the rest of the board.

Tonight the boys started out with a sleep over again and there was lots of laughter until there suddenly wasn't.  Isaac was in his own bed.  Joshua was sad.  I think they were annoying each other and didn't handle it by just going to sleep.  Tomorrow night Isaac will be away, so maybe it'll be a good reset.

Tuesday: Happy Birthday

It was Ben's birthday today!  It was a rather normal day though.

We got him a Lego set, surprise surprise.  (Joshua had a pajama day.  He's apparently grown about three inches since last Christmas when he got the pajamas.)

Also, do you want to know how a Venus flytrap and an alligator ...hug?  When Joshua asked us this yesterday it was not the question I was expecting.  Apparently they use their mouths.

Monday: fridge and green belts

I ordered a new refrigerator today.  It's going to take over two weeks to get here though. :(  It's probably because white isn't as popular of a color any more.  I really liked the black stainless color too, but that cost even more than the white (which was already more than the stainless).  Oh well..at least it's ordered.

Isaac and I were promoted to green belts in karate today.  This means that we're officially considered 'advanced belts'.  I'm not sure that if it really means anything else...will training be more rigorous?  More exacting?  I guess we'll find out.  There was a bit of that today, but nothing too bad.  We still aren't quite half way to black belt.  Which is fine by me!  The black belt test looks scary so if it takes us a while to get there I'm fine with that.  Isaac needs some time to grow into his coordination too.

Saturday: giggles

The boys had a sleep over in the fort tonight.  We heard lots of giggles for quite a while after they went to bed.

Friday: in pictures

I tried to microwave the milk this morning.  I caught myself as it didn't fit.

While I was making breakfast Joshua gave me a three minute explanation about how his toy medal works.  It has a safety snap on the cord, which made the explanation take an extra two minutes.  Tornado blocked Joshua from getting to his breakfast.  Joshua's grunts didn't persuade Tornado to move out of the way.

Dad stopped by to help with a home fix-it project.  It only took two minutes, which was about 58 minutes less than I was expecting.  So we had some spice tea.

I helped out at Isaac's Thanksgiving Feast.  This year he was an Indian.  The students were much calmer than I was expecting.

We watched Frozen 2 with Ben's family.  It was good.  There were several very funny parts.  Earlier in the day Joshua and I were talking about it and he said his favorite character from the first one was the bad snowman.  (Whose name, I just learned, is Marshmellow.)  For Frozen 2 it is the big rock guys.  Normal Joshua...he does like his bad guys.

Thursday: Pokeball

This morning, as with most mornings, the boys were playing in the basement before school.  It was time to go, so I called them up.  Neither of them like turning off the lights, so they go pretty quickly.  This morning Joshua was the last one, and so had to turn off the lights.  He is allowed to turn off the basement lights and turn on the hallway light, so I don't really know what the big deal is.  Anyway, I started telling both of them that if this is how they are going to act I might not let them play down there in the morning.

Joshua proceeded to cover his ears and say, "I'm not listening!"  I proceeded to tell him to grab Pokeball, who hadn't made it all the way into Joshua's backpack.  (It's Joshua's responsibility to make sure he's there.)  I tried again.  Joshua just pushed his feet in his shoes, grabbed his coat, and went outside.  Hmm.  I stuck Pokeball in my coat.

We got to school and Joshua realized he didn't have Pokeball.  Immediate tears.  We had a bit of a talk about how it's usually a good idea to listen to Mom before Pokeball came out and the tears stopped.

Wednesday: freezer

Yesterday the freezer stopped working.  It still cools, just not enough.

Luckily we have a second freezer.  Everything fit in it, although just barely.

Luckily the dryer is working again after we hired someone to come clean out the dryer duct.  Apparently the DIY cleaner didn't work at all.

But seriously, it's been feeling like just one thing after another lately.

Grey Bear

Some old pictures were scrolling on my screensaver and I noticed how many had Grey Bear in them.   He went everywhere with us.  He doesn't come everywhere with us anymore, but is still well loved at home.

I am sad to report that Grey Bear's paws are both currently broken.  They've been broken for a few days, but are slowly getting better.

I'm happy to report that Grey Bear seems to like me more lately, and will often give me a hug.

In other news, I tried to convince Joshua that I was a ghost today so that the ghost Legos would stop bothering me.  I put a blanket over my head.  I did my best ghost voice.  I was in a ghost competition...and declared the loser.

Sunday: loud

The boys were loud today.  And rather crazy.  It was a bit trying, but they were at least having fun.

Saturday: relaxing

It was a pretty relaxing day.  The boys played well with their assorted toys.  Isaac made a cube semi-outlines yesterday (similar to the video) and rearranged them in all sorts of different ways today.  Joshua did a lot of Legos and some play-doh and I think some other things too.

As part of the assessment at Joshua's school he had to describe a few things that were used in a story.  It's pretty cute.

Thursday and Friday: conferences

This week we had conferences for Isaac and Joshua.

Joshua's was last night.  It was the first conference we've ever had for him, so I was interested in how it would go.  In the end, about as expected.  He's surpassing all the 'necessary' requirements in regards to letters and numbers, but still has quite a bit of learning to do with them.  His pencil grip needs to get stronger, although that assessment was from the beginning of the year and I can already tell that it's better.  He loves all the science things.  He interacts well with the other students, although sometimes stands on the sidelines when not required to do something.

Isaac's was today.  Again, no issues.  He's getting his work done on time this year, so that's an improvement over last year.  He is often the last person to finish, but he finishes.  His teacher loves his sense of humor.  He got all the points on the last math test and it was a hard one.  He is implementing the concepts that they're talking about in writing, even though it isn't his favorite subject.  We talked a bit about the social side of things.  There's still not one really good friend, but we also don't see anything alarming.  He sometimes plays with people at recess.  He interacts well during group work and people talk with him/he talks with people.

In other news, Joshua was in my office for a while today.  Oh, he made such the drawing!  It has people and chains, dinosaur prints, prints with lots of toes (some up to 15!), a ghost, and a mummy.

well, I had a few pictures for today but they're not uploading.  Maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday: scary

Today I brought Ben's car in to get the winter tires on.  The trip - drop off Isaac, drop off Joshua, get to the place - was one of the scariest drives I've had.  The car didn't have all season tires on, it had summer tires on.  Summer tires don't work well at all in the (partial) snow.   They don't stop.  They don't turn.  They barely go straight. I told Ben I am never doing that again.  If the snow surprises us next year he can drive to the shop and I'll follow him and switch cars there.

I made it though!  I was only about ten minutes late, but late enough that all the people had started on a car so I needed to wait a bit longer than expected.  After the winter tires were back on driving went so, so much better.

The snowman keeps bending over more and more in our front yard.  I've made lots of snowmen that have done this, but usually there is a heat source on one side that barely melts the snow before it bends and refreezes.  I'm not really sure why this snowman is bowing so low.

Tuesday: snow day

Isaac had a snow day today!  I knew it was supposed to snow a lot and he only had half a day, so I was wondering if he'd get one.

It really was a good call; the roads were terrible.

We let Joshua have a snow day too and Ben stayed home with them.