Mom, Laura, Emily and Benjamin visited with us last week. This is a picture of the only quiet moment that occurred during the visit: No one is arguing. No one is screaming. Everyone is playing quietly…. We had a great visit with them. Two older kids argued about everything that could be argued about, but that is only to be expected from bossy firstborn...

The big event this month for Jack was the death of his kitty, Astro. Jack is almost always the first one up in the house. We allow him to be out of bed if it’s after 6am, to play computer games, or whatever, as long as he doesn’t disturb anyone. He sometimes forgets the bit about not disturbing anyone and will come into our bedroom to tell me something,...

This month, right on time, David has hit some of the wonderful stages that come with being a year and a half. He throws some really lovely fits with lots of flopping around like a fish just yanked out of a pond. He has gone from a child who would eat anything at any given meal to one who you can’t count on to eat anything, except pickles. When you give him a...

So, can you tell that Jack has begun choosing what he will wear each day? I’ve been enjoying the combinations he comes up with, and had to really choke back a laugh when he came out of his room last week wearing a pair of David’s pants. I asked him if they felt too small and he said no, they were fine, thank you very much. We got Jack a loft bed just...

It’s amazing how fast kids this age learn words. David is picking up 1-2 a day and is beginning to string a few together. He regularly pops out with some word that we didn’t know he knew. He learned to say “Mommaw” and “Poppaw” not long after we came home from Ohio, and when Granna and Granddad came for their Christmas visit, he...

These days, we’re never quite sure which boy is going to climb out of bed each morning.  Sometimes we get well-behaved, obedient Dr. Jackyll, and other days it’s argumentative, defiant Mr. Hide. Much of the time, Jack is great to have around. He’s curious about everything so it’s fun to explain things to him and teach him things. When I use a...

This month has just flown by with our trip to Ohio taking up much of it. David did about as expected in the car, but it wasn’t too bad and we had a great time visiting with family and friends. He was interested in his new cousin Benjamin, and patted on him a lot. I’m sure they’ll be good friends! David is having a language growth spurt right now, so...