As March began, we were well past stir crazy during this long, cold winter. I hope that next year when Hunter is walking we get out a lot more during the cold months, but as it is part of the busy season for Alex, it will be up to me, so we shall see. I tried to focus my efforts on peace between the kids and keeping them all healthy, and was moderately successful, at least on the first front. Here is Carter, super excited about matching with Yoda in the book he was reading...his Star Wars sweatshirt is one of his favorites, even though his knowledge of Star Wars is limited to a few times playing the Lego video game with his dad. He needs a few more years before I will show him any of the movies, but he loves it just the same.
I've made french bread before, and lots of different kinds of muffins and things, but this was the first time I ever made homemade from scratch bread that was actually beautiful, in addition to tasting good, My french bread always turns out pretty uneven and lumpy, even though it tastes great. I was more proud of this little loaf of white bread than I should have been, and I demonstrated my happiness by eating more of it than I should have.
As with most 'first winters' we have spent in new, cold places (Fresno and Concord seem to be exempt from this), we have had a hard time with sick kids. At this point, with 4 kids and 2 of them in different schools, as well as Alex working with college students, I feel we are hopeless and are going to get every germ. I hope next year that our immunities have been built up a little so we have less disturbance from constant colds and illnesses. This being said, Dr. Seuss day at school was one that Olivia had to miss because she was sick, and she was really excited about it, so I did my best to have a Pinterest-worthy Dr. Seuss day at home with no notice. I Sharpied some Cat-in-the-hat cheese sticks and we made popsicle stick cat hats, then we read book after book of the kids favorites, all cuddled on the couch together. Most of the Dr. Seuss books are quite easy for Olivia to read now, so she and I took turns reading. I printed out a few worksheets for the kids to do in the afternoon while the little ones slept, and it was a total win in the kids eyes.
As I have mentioned my efforts at getting back to the simple of cooking and cleaning and playing with the kids, I should also mention that Olivia sets a mean tea table. As long as it's for stuffed animals, she will sit and organize every aspect to make sure not one is disappointed. I have asked her to translate this skill into setting the table for our meals, and she politely declines, stating that she would rather unload the dishwasher or sweep the floor :).
At 9 months, Hunter's first tooth made its long-awaited debut. He is one of those kids who has been using teething as an excuse to be grumpy and clingy for months, so I was happy that he finally has something to show for it :). Honestly, he's the best natured baby, as long as we are in crazy busy mode with family and friends around in total chaos. When we are at home alone, he needs constant attention from mom to be happy. We are working on it, but I secretly love that my last baby wants to stay a baby just a little longer.
On the 3rd it was totally overcast, but warm enough to head outside and spend some time on the trampoline. We finally brought out the balls that Carter got for Christmas, and the kids thought it was beyond hilarious that in a game of 'poison balls', I was sure to lose, and as long as they stayed far away from me they were safe.
The next day Carter's chore was to mop the floor after he spilled some milk and decided to spread it around when I asked him to wipe it up. He had a blast mopping, and did a decent job (he mostly loved walking on washcloths and 'ice skating', but it was moderately effective), but when he finished it was almost dinner time, so everyone was gathering in the kitchen and he was quite concerned until Alex helped him make this sign. It says, "If you get on here you will slip!". He really wanted one of those yellow caution A-boards that they have at school, but this was the best we could do.
Not to be out done, Olivia made a sign as well after Alex opened the oven that reads: "If you go in here you will burn yourself". I'm so glad that we have our own safety police in the house, as we often do reckless things with the kiddos.
The next morning, Alex flew to Vegas for the Pac-12 Mens Basketball tournament. The kids were really interested when we started describing all the things there were to see there, so Alex promised to send pictures, and he didn't disappoint. It helped that he was there 2.5 days before the first game, and had only a few things to do for work each day, so he spent the vast majority of his time exploring the strip with his dad and Matt. The kids want to go soon, and I'm ready to jump on the next flight :) Two of my most fun vacations have been spent in Vegas, I just love all that there is to see.
The second day of Alex's trip, his mom and Ashley came to help me out with my solo week. As usual, I was so busy enjoying the time with them that I just relaxed and didn't take any pictures, I'm absolutely the worst about this when they come to visit, and every time I vow to do better :). Hunter took a turn in the baby high chair...his reaction was priceless
Olivia also had her last week of swim lessons, which is always the most fun with jumping, rescuing, and life jackets. She actually graduated out of life jacket practice now that she is in level 2 of swim, and she told me that it was okay because she needs to learn how to swim forever without ever touching the ground for Twin Lakes :). She is well on her way, and has really worked on her side breathing and keeping her face in the water. Definitelly a water baby all grown up :)
In a fun twist to our long winter, we got 4 inches of snow the next day! To be clear, this is March 10th, and we have had snow nonstop since the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was a revealing first winter in Pullman! This snow was the most Oregon-like in that we could totally form snowballs and build a snowman. Most of the snow we have gotten has taken days to get to the point where it could be formed into anything (except snow ice cream). Carter was thrilled to go out while I shoveled the driveway and play for a while with me, and I was happy to be able to do it while Mary and Ashley stayed inside with the two little ones. Makenzie didn't have any interest in getting all bundled up :).
Per Carter's norm, he was way more interested in eating the carrot than giving his snowman a face, so he had an early snack after I took a picture. This kid could eat carrots all day everyday.
Alex sent me this next picture of his dilemma over choosing dessert, and when I got a little grumpy with him for gloating, he sent the next one as a reply :).
Mary and Ashley stayed while Alex was gone, and went home the morning that he got home. We didn't do anything big, but it was really nice to have some other grownups around to talk to, and the kids absolutely love having visitors. Carter was also glad that he got to keep sleeping in the girls room for a few more weeks. We moved Hunter into the boys' room, and while he got used to the new bed and started sleeping better, we let Carter sleep on a cot in the girls' room. He had a lot of fun being with his sisters, and wanted to stay forever, so we compromised and told him that he could stay through March, when we had guests coming a few different times.
After Alex came back, and the snow officially melted from our street!!!, we decided it was time to get the snow tires off and switch back to normal tires. This meant a morning at Les Schwab, and they get pretty busy during the tire switching weeks, so I expected at least an hour wait. The kids love it there - and popcorn has absolutely nothing to do with it... - so we busted out the quiet bags and let them go at it :). I'm sure we were slightly disruptive to all the other people waiting, but that's just how we do things these days.
The kids and I made some Froot Loop rainbows the week before St. Patrick's Day, on yet another sick day. Hunter was pretty thrilled with his first sugar cereal, and the other kids had fun putting them all on their shish-ka-bob sticks. Only Carter had trouble eating it at the end, but he had mighty big ambitions of getting in all in at once :).
Sometimes I just can't get over how big this girl is...I can't believe how helpful and mature she is trying to be, I have to remind myself constantly not to hold her back from being the big sister she wants to be.
A couple days later, on March 16th, we had our first nice day in a long time. We celebrated with getting dressed, heading to our first library storytime in Pullman, and taking a little walk by the river. I had forgotten that my stroller wasn't in the car, so my desire to take pictures of the kids walking by the river was trumped by my desire to keep all 3 kids out of the water while we walked ... but we finished out the fun morning with lunch at Subway before taking Carter to school for the afternoon. Makenzie was adorable sharing her lunch, she ripped off the tiniest pieces of her sandwich to put in front of Hunter, then she would just grin when he picked them up. I also caught her 3 or 4 times picking tomatoes, peppercinis, and pickles off the extra sandwich.
We had an extra few minutes before Carter started school, so he entertained Hunter while we waited. These boys are going to grow up being best friends, they already enjoy each other so much.
When I got home, I noticed our first set of lipstick kisses on the mirror...aren't we too young for that?! I had to get a creative angle to avoid showing the mess that resides in my bedroom behind the mirror, but Olivia and I had a good talk before she cleaned all the mirrors in the house that afternoon, which she thought was awesome so I had to tell her that she could clean them again without drawing or kissing on them :). Kids are awesome...
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