November 30

Can you tell that I'm trying to make up for my slacking last week by posting every day this week? Today I'm making up for it even more by posting a bazillion pictures. 

My mom reminded me that we probably shouldn't take Daisy to church today, since she had a fever yesterday and she's still fighting what I think is an ear infection. So we stayed home, I slept in, and Chris made peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes. Yum. But since the forecast was for a high in the mid-60s, we knew we couldn't sit around inside all day and be lazy, so off to the Garden we went!

(side note: Daisy was so sad to miss church today, and when I told her we were going to the Garden, she said, "No, Mommy. I have to stay home. I have a ear affection." Funny girl.)

The Garden is all decorated right now for their annual holiday lights display. We hope to visit sometime this month to see it all lit up at night, but in the meantime the kids enjoyed the decorations in the daylight. Daisy was so excited about this field of red trees with ornaments, and when I asked if I could take her picture, she was exceptionally cooperative.

Daisy pronounced this a "very good picture."

She was so excited! Also, I love that she chose to wear a dress, tights, and running shoes, even though we didn't go to church today. Normally she only wants to wear dresses to church.

We moved on to the Japanese Garden to feed the fish. Unfortunately, the fish were pretty sluggish today, probably due to the cold water temperature. But the kids still enjoyed throwing food into the water, even if no fish ate it. 

Look at my darlings, all lined up in a row!

Caleb climbed up on the side of the bridge and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm almost as tall as you now! Am I like a teenager?" The thought of my boy someday being a teenager caused an involuntary reaction - I just had to snuggle him close. Luckily, my boy likes snuggles. (Daisy saw this picture and said, "Mommy, you need to do that to me next time we feed the fish!" I guess she wants a picture just like this of me snuggling her.)

Lily spent most of her time in the Ergo on Chris' back, but he put her down to feed the fish. She was in her element when we had the bridge all to ourselves and she could run back and forth to her heart's content.

Caleb was feeling bold (perhaps due to the Batman shirt and cape) and jumped across the stepping stones all by himself.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Daisy did it too. She's becoming such a big girl!

Ear infection? What ear infection?

(This is why I'm not super concerned about taking her in to see the doctor. For the most part, she's fine. Plus, she's fighting all of my attempts at treating it naturally, so I know she'd be just as difficult about any medication the doctor might prescribe. Unless it involves a delicious-tasting medicine. Then she might cooperate. Maybe.)

Now that he's in school all day, Caleb doesn't get to come to the Garden as much as the girls and I do. It's a shame, because he loves it here!

I know. Cutest thing ever.

Garden all to ourselves. Lovely.

After long naps and dinner, we finally set out to decorate our Christmas tree. Daisy has been asking to do this for days, so she was particularly excited. 

Lily was so eager to help, even though she lacks the fine motor skills to actually help. Also, all of our ornaments are shatterproof. 

The star!

I almost deleted this photo, until I noticed where Lily was. Do you see her under Chris' chair? I think it's just hilarious.

Christmas trees, Christmas jammies, and Christmas music on the radio. I love it.

I know, I know. How many photos can I share of them putting ornaments on the tree? I'll stop soon.

The kids posed themselves like this, which I thought was pretty cute. Not my first choice, but they were so pleased with themselves that we went for it.

And tomorrow is December! Happy Christmas season!

November 29

We eat most of our meals at our kitchen table, which has an L-shaped banquette, a chair, and Lily's high chair. Most of the time, Lily sits in her high chair, Daisy sits in a regular chair, Caleb sits on the short side of the L, and Chris and I sit on the long side of the L. Lately, though, Lily has been ready to get down from her chair before the rest of us are finished. So we get her down, and she wants up on the bench with us.

This morning, breakfast time somehow turned into "family snuggle" time. First, Lily sidled up to me and rested her head on my shoulder. Then Caleb scooted over to snuggle my other side. Then Daisy, never one to be left out, hopped down from her chair and snuggled Caleb.

Family snuggles are my favorite. I was glad Chris was there to capture this one. Don't you love how Lily is cheesing for the camera?

My sweet babies! Daisy was still pretty sick today, and Caleb is still sick, even though he's improving daily. Lily is currently our only healthy child! (Well, her and Yoey, but Yoey is pretty well protected from all the viruses running around out here!)

We stayed in our jammies all morning, and by nap time I finally got myself together enough to go grocery shopping. When I got back from a pretty epic shopping trip, I found a party happening in our driveway! Our friends Dan and Jen and their kiddos were over, so the kids were playing while Chris and Dan shared a beer and our neighbor Mary (Jen's aunt) snuggled Lily. Daisy was still in her jammies while she wrote in chalk on the sidewalk, Chris had just finished putting up the Christmas lights, and it was sunshiny and warm. How perfect! 

When I finished putting the groceries away, I found that Lily and Andrew (Dan and Jen's youngest, who's 4 or 5 months older than Lily) had both discovered the little wooden bench on our front porch. They were so funny together!

I love how Andrew is tipping his cap while Lily inspects his elbow.

This was the only picture where the babies were smiling, and I think they were laughing because Andrew was picking his nose. So, maybe not the best picture.

Hi, cutie pies!

We put the kids to bed early, and my mom came over to stay with them while Chris and I went to see the latest Hunger Games movie in the theater. All in all, a great day.

November 28

Well. Caleb is officially on the mend, and now Daisy may have an ear infection. People, the last time I dealt with an ear infection was when Caleb was 18 months old. Now Caleb has just beat a sinus infection, and Daisy has an ear infection. My children have never been this sick before! (I know. We are very, very lucky.)

Daisy woke up several times in the night complaining that her cheek hurt, but we didn't know what to make of it. Today her complaint is of a headache, and she has a low-grade fever, drainage from one ear, and a super-swollen lymph node on the same side. Poor girl. For now we're taking a "watch and wait" approach while I treat her with essential oils and immune boosters. Hopefully she can knock this thing without antibiotics!

Luckily, Chris was home today and the kids enjoyed playing with him all day. It was lovely. This morning, Lily and I were watching birds out the kitchen window when Chris snapped these pictures:

The pictures aren't particularly spectacular, but I love them because they capture part of the dynamic between Lily and me. You can't see in the pictures, but in the black and white ones, Lily had her arm wrapped around my neck and was leaning against me, forcing me to stay with her and watch the birds. Watching animals out the window is one of our favorite pastimes, and I'm happy to have some pictures of us enjoying it.

November 27

 Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be thankful for, this year and always. Today I am reminded how especially thankful I am for Chris. He is the peanut butter to my jelly, and the best Daddy and partner I could possibly imagine. Today he helped me get everything ready to host 16 people for Thanksgiving dinner. His duties? Entertain the children, clean, and do anything else that didn't require cooking skills.

He entertained this child beautifully.

I should have taken video of these two as they rolled and tickled on the bed. Lily squealed with delight.

She loves her daddy!

All month long, we have each made one "Thank You Leaf" each night at dinner. I'm not thankful for Photoshop right now, because it has mysteriously not saved my edits to this photo. But this is our tree this year.

Caleb's red leaves say that he is thankful for: God healed my cold, Mrs. L (his kindergarten teacher), candy, snuggles, Lily, Daisy I love her, Legos, Yoey, snow, Caleb, no school tomorrow, Mommy was the Mystery Reader, Daddy, all the fruits we can eat in summer, Grandma, sleep, Chuck E. Cheese, Jesus, Mommy likes flowers that I pick, my light sceptre that I had long long ago, God because He is createful.

Daisy's yellow leaves say that she is thankful for: Tigerlily, my Tiger, Lily, cleaning up everything, Caleb, Daddy, Mario Kart, Mommy, leaves, Grandma, Yoey, birds bananas frogs, Daddy is staying home tomorrow, clouds, music, reading books and eating pizza, pizza, trees, Daisy, flowers, blocks because I like building castles and towers, sky, dogs.

Don't count, because we definitely missed a few days. But the kids really enjoyed doing their leaf each day, and it's fun to see how they become capable of bigger thoughts each year.

You can see our tree from last year here.

2 card tables, 4 long tables, 1 roll of brown paper, 48 crayons in 3 jars, 14 chairs, 1 high chair, 1 booster, 3 strands of lights, 1 drink table, 5 types of wine, 2 bottles of sparkling grape juice,1 buffet with 10 dishes of food including 2 types of sweet potatoes...

And one happy family.

(That's Ryan's darling girlfriend Alana in the front, and we're missing Sally, whose carpal tunnel syndrome was causing her too much pain to attend.)

Lily loved snuggle time with Grandad!

And I can tell by Daisy's hand and serious expression that she was telling Grandad a very serious - and very detailed - story about something. She's clearly gesturing with her hand, the way she only does with things that are very important.

Hi Jace!

Ryan took the above photos of Daisy and Jace, as well as this bathroom mirror selfie.

Caleb and Max snuck off to play in Caleb's room. Caleb later told me that the best part of his day was playing Legos with Maxie and putting superheroes in his little Christmas tree.

(Also: I let the children watch the video of "What Does the Fox Say?" three times in a row today. Then Caleb asked that I make him a fox mask like the ones the dancers wear. Done. He colored it himself, and he wore it all evening.)

After dinner, Chris helped me clear some dishes away. At first I thought he was just being sweet and helpful, until I walked into the kitchen and found this:

He was shoveling leftover food off the plate and into his mouth.

It wasn't even his plate.

Dude had ulterior motives.

(Don't worry - it was Lily's plate. That makes it less gross, right? I don't care. I laughed for a solid minute at the sight of my husband hovering over the trash can, surreptitiously stuffing discarded food into his face.)

And one last picture of Jace, because seriously. How cute is he?

Noticeably absent are photos of my children, which is because Chris and I enjoyed the luxury of having a house full of family members to entertain our children. We sat around and ate pie instead of tending to our darlings. Thus, no pictures of them, and I don't regret it one bit.

Another thing to be thankful for? Caleb went 24 hours without ibuprofren. I think he is definitely on the mend. Poor kid.

November 26

I know, I know. I've been slacking. My excuse is that we've been sick. Specifically, Caleb has been sick. Sick like the school nurse sent him home on Thursday. Sick like he repeatedly woke up crying because his head hurt. Sick like he missed three days of school. Sick like I took him to the doctor for his first sick-visit since he was 18 months old. 

That sick.

I love our doctor because she approaches sickness with caution, rather than throwing antibiotics at anything that moves. After a thorough evaluation, she told me that if it were her son, she would watch and wait. She thought Caleb would be able to pull through the sickness on his own, and that he should be better by Thanksgiving. If not, then we would give him antibiotics. It's hard to see him sick and not do anything, but I am thankful for a doctor who is so conservative and so confident in the body's ability to heal itself. And you know what? I  think we're on the upswing now. I was having to give him ibuprofren (which I try to avoid at all costs!) every six hours on the dot. Now he's going 10-12 hours before he starts crying from the pain in his head. So I think he's almost better.

Since no one wants to see a sick kid, here's a cheerful kid eating sugar snap peas instead:

Today I experimented with putting Lily's hair back in a clip, instead of a fountain pony. It worked pretty well.

Goodness. Isn't she cute? I can't believe how long her hair is! Or that she's smiling as she eats a sugar snap pea!

Love this girl.

And I love her dinner of scrambled eggs and veggie sticks. What a big girl she is!

November 22

Lily has just discovered dancing, and she is so cute right now. She loves when we sing "I'm a Little Teapot" and I help her do the motions, and she likes to try to twirl and swing her arms. At bath time tonight, she was splashing and attempting to dance in the tub, which was hilarious! I took some video, but it's not appropriate for the Internets. 

However, here's a video of her being cute in the tub. She's just not dancing and kicking anymore.

And some photos, too:

The water is almost all gone, but she was still happy to splash!

These two were playing tickle and peek-a-boo with the towel. Lily laughs for Daddy in a way that she rarely does for me. I love the relationship between them!

November 21

Caleb woke up today feeling nearly normal, which is a huge blessing! I still kept him home from school, though, and I'm glad I did; he didn't eat any lunch, and definitely needed a slow day with an afternoon nap. Poor kid. 

All he really wanted to do today was play Mario Kart, so I promised him that he could play after everyone finished their afternoon rest. Once the girls were up, the game was on!

This is what Mario Kart looks like with a 5, 3, and 1 year old:

5 - Caleb has figured out how to play the game, and is focusing intently.

3 - Daisy knows that she wants to play the game, but has only figured out the "go" button, and not how to steer. She is really frustrated that she keeps running into things and getting stuck.

1 - Lily just wants to do what the big kids are doing, so I gave her a remote with no batteries in it and she is one happy girl. She has also started saying, "Chee!" every time she sees the camera, hence that cute little smile. Also, can you believe how long her hair is?

In other exciting news, today was the first time that Caleb really got to feel Baby Yoey move. We were snuggling in bed during rest time, and Yoey was being particularly active. I put Caleb's hand on my belly, and he got to feel four or five really good kicks. He was so excited! Caleb and Daisy are really starting to understand that we have a baby coming. Today we watched a video explaining Baby's development over the past few weeks, and they were entranced. They even asked to watch it a second time, and then a third. At lunch time, they asked to hear the stories of how they were each born. Caleb is still baffled by the fact that he was born at a hospital, and doesn't really believe me when I tell him that most babies are actually born in hospitals. Too funny!

November 20

Oh, today. What a day.

Caleb got up at 6:30, like normal, but when I got up at 7, he was snuggled up under a blanket on the couch and refused to get up. We made a deal that I would let him go back to bed until 8 if he got dressed first. So he put on his clothes and climbed back into bed.

Meanwhile, I put a casserole in the oven for MOPS later this morning, packed Caleb's lunch, fed the girls breakfast, got the girls dressed, and even managed to witness - along with Daisy and Lily - two bucks grazing in our backyard, then briefly struggling for dominance, then chasing after a doe that ran through the yard. It was pretty exciting.

I went to wake Caleb at 8, which meant there was just enough time to stuff some breakfast in his face, throw his coat on, and take him to the bus stop. Only he was sound asleep, and I just couldn't wake him. So I scratched those plans and decided to let him sleep until 8:30, which would leave time to stuff some breakfast in his face, throw him (and the girls) in the car, drive him to school, Daisy to preschool, and get Lily and me to MOPS in the nick of time. If it hadn't been my turn to bring food for MOPS, I totally would have kept Caleb home from school.  While Caleb slept, one of the bucks came back and I snapped his picture:

He was just a scraggly young thing, but the older, bigger buck was intimidated by him. Go figure.

Finally, it was time for me to wake Caleb and begin the morning hustle. He got to school right in time, Daisy was a bit late to preschool, and Lily and I actually made it to MOPS on time. Hooray!

The rest of the day went as usual, and I was resting in bed while the girls napped when the school nurse called. I have to admit; I was kind of waiting for the call. Caleb was just so out of sorts today. The nurse didn't really know what was wrong; she said she couldn't understand him except that he was afraid of getting a bloody nose. (Poor kid has had a few winter nose bleeds the past few days. Apparently he's traumatized.) He did have a low temp, and he wanted me to come get him.

Problem: two napping babies, one of whom was right in the middle of a desperately needed nap. Thank God for good neighbors. I ran the baby monitor across the street, so Mary and Terry could listen to sleeping Lily while Daisy and I made the 15-minute excursion to get Caleb. As expected, Lily stayed asleep, and sweet Caleb was so glad to be home. He told me that his teacher sent him to the nurse because all he wanted to do was sleep.  Poor kid.

When he got home, though, he didn't want to sleep, so Caleb, Daisy and I crawled into my bed and watched Cars while Lily napped. Once Lily woke up, I checked Caleb's temperature and it had spiked to 102.2.

Lily watched 15 minutes of Cars and thought it was hilarious.

The movie was over by 4:30, and Caleb moved to the couch, where he fell fast asleep. While he slept, though, I checked his temp and it was down to 100.4. Better. He slept through dinner, slept through a visit from Grandma so that I could go to the chiropractor while Chris worked late, and slept until 7:30, at which time his temp was 98.6 and he moved to his bed, snuggled with Chris, and went back to sleep. I am so, so thankful for children with healthy immune systems that work so hard to fight off sicknesses. I feel sad that Caleb feels awful, but it is reassuring to me to see his body doing what it is made to do. 

He's definitely staying home from school tomorrow, though.

November 18

It was cold this morning.

Like, 13 degrees cold. 

When I got out of bed, I couldn't find Caleb. Normally, he's either playing in his room or eating breakfast, but today he was neither. Finally, I found him snuggled up under a blanket on the couch. Daisy wanted nothing more than to snuggle with her brother, but he refused to share, insisting that there wasn't enough room. Miraculously, though, there was room for pregnant Mommy to snuggle with him.

All good snuggles must come to an end, though, and after I got up to go make his lunch, I heard giggling coming from the couch.

Apparently he decided there was enough room to snuggle with his sister, after all.

I love these cuties.

November 16

It snowed most of the day today, and it was the perfect kind of snow - wet and fluffy, but didn't stick to the streets. While the girls took long naps this afternoon and I made dinner, Chris and Caleb played outside. Lily and Daisy woke up in time to witness the tail end of the boys' snow session, in which they threw snowballs at my kitchen window.

It was fabulous. The girls were so excited about the snowballs that they didn't even think to whine about wanting to go outside with the boys.

Window kisses from daddy.

I love that you can see the reflections of the girls' faces in this one - Daisy was curious about the snow that was still stuck to the glass, and Lily was just delighted with the whole situation.

That white blur at the top is a snowball a fraction of a second before it splatted against the window.

I think this is my new favorite way to do snowballs.