This week's events

A few quick things from the Mischnick home ...

First, spring is almost here!  Last week and over the weekend we had some nice, "warm", sunny days.  In fact, Sunday was sunny and almost 60 degrees ... woohoo!  The girls didn't want to head outside after lunch, but we kicked them out of the house and once they were outside, they didn't want to come back in :)

Ethan has even gotten more and more time outside in the past week ... hooray!  We've done a few trips down to a neighborhood park as well as played in the backyard.

The beauty of those nice days has made the last couple of overcast rainy ones particularly hard.  But, as Kate reminds me, all the rain will help the trees and flowers to grow.  And, at least it's not snow!

Saturday night we had an eventful night on our street.  As I was tucking Kate into bed, we heard a really loud pop/bang outside and then all of the lights went out.  Hmmm ...  So much for bedtime.  Anyway, we looked outside to where the sound originated and saw that the top of the electric poll was burning.  Not a lot, but still burning.  Matt called the electric company, but couldn't do anything more than leave a message there so he tried the non-emergency number at the local fire department.  No one answered.  So then Matt got to make his first 911 call!  He made sure to explain that it wasn't an emergency, but they sent out the firetruck with lights flashing anyway to hold down the fort until the electric company showed up.  Remember, this all started when Kate was supposed to be going to bed.  Anyway, we managed to get the kids to bed and asleep without any power, then Matt stayed up until the lights came back on so that he could go around and turn the lights off.  Memories, memories.

Anna and I had a Mommy-daughter morning on Saturday going grocery shopping and running some other errands.  She was a joy.  I don't often get time just with Anna these days, so this was really nice.  Plus, Kate got to have Matt just to herself (well, along with Ethan) for awhile and I know she enjoyed that.

I also took both girls swimming on Saturday afternoon.  We had a bunch of fun together while Ethan and Matt had some father-son time.

And finally, Mr. Ethan had his 4 month check-up today.  He weighs 16 lbs. 8 oz. (59%), is 25.5 inches long (50%), and has a head circumference of 43 cm (77%).  He was rediculously social and smiley with both the nurse and the doctor this afternoon and seems to be weathering his shots a bit better than last time.  We'll have to see how tonight goes, though.  The only thing the poor kid is struggling with is a recurring neck rash due to his continued spitting-up.  So we've got a cream that should help get rid of it and hopefully when he's sitting up more, his neck will be able to stay drier so it doesn't get so nasty.

Spring Break

The rest of Anna's spring break last week was great.  There were quite a few "firsts" for me that gave me some hope for the summer, as well as some confidence that it can actually work.

First, I managed a big grocery shopping trip with all three kids.  Having Anna along certainly made things more eventful and energetic.  I also did my first trip to Olbrich Gardens with all three kids, although a neighbor and her daughter came along for that one.  I had to do bedtime for everyone by myself on Thursday night since Matt was lay minister at the Maundy Thursday service at church.  (We didn't even try to take the kids to any Lenten services this year; maybe someday, but not right now.)  Plus, I had four full days with all kids at home and Matt at work, and three of those days Matt biked to work.


Probably the best part of the break for the girls was being able to play together and imagine all day long.  Sure, we had some reason to get out of the house each day, and I had a few ideas to redirect our energies when they needed a break from each other, but they had so much fun together.

A few of their creative ideas were to build a dam across their doorway so the flood wouldn't come in, to have their babies do "Baby Gymnastics" using furniture in the kitchen, to pretend that each room in the house was a different state (or country) and then to visit one another, to make up a "storm" dance to a song from one of my classical music CD's, and to use sticks to "churn the butter" out in the drying out pool sand area.

There was also a lot of practice reading and writing.  Here's what Anna chose to do during the Easter Sunday worship service.

Another thing that helped was being able to get outdoors just about every day.  Spring is FINALLY on it's way to Wisconsin.  The snow is gone for the most part from our yard and after a few days last week of being confined to the driveway, I finally let the girls roam free in the yard on Monday and they LOVED it.  Before things dried out, though, I had several days of extra laundry as just about anything they did outside resulted in clothes being covered in mud.  See the video for an example of why this happened :)

4 months!

Ethan turned 4 months old last Wednesday.  Where has the time gone?!?!  He doesn't have his check-up until next week, but we're pretty sure he's a fairly happy, healthy 4-month-old.

Where's Ethan at with life?  Well, he doesn't really roll yet, but we think it won't be too long.  He seems to have the strength and the mechanics, just not the coordination or the motivation.  He loves being entertained.  He enjoys new places and new faces.  He is getting better at grabbing things and pulling them to his mouth.  He likes the exersaucer and the doorway jumper.  He's working on sitting up, but doesn't get a lot of practice with that because it usually results in lots of gooey spit up.  He's starting to have more time outside, and those experiences seem to tire him out.

He doesn't like being left alone.  He still spits up all the time.  He's not sleeping through the night.  On "good" nights (probably about 80%) of the time, he just gets up once between about 8 p.m. and 6 p.m.  I've decided I can handle that, as long as I can get back to sleep easily.  On "bad" nights, it's more than that :(

I love the above picture.  As a friend put it, Ethan's expression is worth a thousand words :)

And, unfortunately, he's come down with his second real cold.  Hopefully this one goes through his system quickly and without too many sleep disruptions ...

Trip up north

We got back from our visit to Augusta yesterday afternoon.  Here's a few highlights (good and bad):

*My dad taught Anna how to play sudoku.  She's pretty good for a five year old.
 

*Kate preferred to play with Ethan's bobcat more than her special bear; go figure.

*The girls helped collect and cook some maple sap on Saturday and Sunday.

*We learned that Ethan sleeps pretty badly away from home right now.

*We had lots and lots of tasty food.

*The girls went sledding down the hill a lot on Saturday, but we managed to pop one of the tubes during one of the first trips down on Monday.

*Ethan enjoyed a little bit of outside time, but no Kubota rides yet :)

*Matt dug the girls a few caves and tunnels in the big snow piles.

*Everyone made some great memories.

 Here's a couple of videos that Matt took, too.

Now we're looking at "slightly" warmer weather for the rest of spring break ... hooray!

Picture stories

I was able to take some fun pictures this last week that require stories to explain them so that's how this entry will go.

First, although the calendar says that it's spring, the season of spring has definitely NOT arrived here in Wisconsin.  Today we had one of our first days where the temperatures were above 30 degrees.  There's still plenty of snow on the ground and more snow in the forecast.  So we make do with the outside snow activities when we can.  Since it's lighter later now, Matt has taken the girls outside after dinner sometimes to slide them down the ice path in the ditch.  They are full of giggles during these evenings :)

They also had a good old fashioned snowball fight.

Before our most recent batch of snow, we got out the bikes.  Anna wanted to try hers without training wheels; this is going to be the summer of learning to ride a bike for her!

We also still have lots of indoor fun.  Here's a good shot of "pile on top of Daddy".

On Monday, Kate, Ethan, and I had a playdate cancelled due to a friend's illness so we decided to make it a special day and visit Anna for lunch at school.  Kate even got to have hot lunch with Anna at school!  Kate sat on the rug with Anna and her classmates before lunch dismissal, lined up with Anna, went through the lunch line, ate lunch at the kindergarten table, and played with Anna and her friends at recess.  It was a fun event :)

On Thursday, the Valpo basketball team played in the NCAA tournament (and lost to Michigan State :(, but Ethan and I were sporting our VU gear, at least until both my sweatshirt and his onsie were coated with his spit-up.

On Friday after school, I dropped Ethan off at GE with Matt and drove the girls to meet up with my mom so she could drive them the rest of the way to their place.  Matt, Ethan, and I will join everyone sometime on Sunday afternoon.  Today Matt and I have enjoyed having some time just with Ethan, and a chance to do things together with one another (cleaning, laundry, pruning fruit trees, running errands, and even watching a movie!).  We're looking forward to having a mini-vacation up north with the rest of the family, too.

Updates

Once upon a time I was much better about updating this blog once a week.  I usually had a nice spot in my weekly routine when I could sit still for a few minutes and jot down some ideas.  Life as a family of five has changed that a bit :)  So here are a few updates about the people in our family.

Anna - I don't know if I mentioned this or not yet on this blog, but sometime during the past couple of months, Anna has really hit some kind of plateau.  Her whole mind and body has just settled a bit.  She seems to have finally adjusted to the all day everyday kindergarten routine and is simply a really cool kid right now.  She's not as tired or overwhelmed at the end of the day and is usually a very kind, pleasant, responsible and funny kid.  All of the work we've done with her during the past few years has finally seemed to pay off!

We had her parent-teacher conference last week and everything sounds good from that end, too.  According to her teacher, Anna is a kind, responsible kid who works hard to do her best.  She can be very particular about some things, but is a great kid who is learning a lot in kindergarten :)

Kate - Kate is definitely the middle child right now.  I've been being conscious about making sure she has a few playdates each week with kids her age because I'm certainly not the best playmate for her these days.  If we're at home, I'm usually trying to get something done ... food prep, dishes, laundry, picking up, etc.  She's actually been very upset when I come to pick her up from a playdate because she says "but who will I play with at home?"  Granted, we have our special time together, too, but I know she likes kid playmates more than momma as a playmate right now.

The time change seems to have been good for Kate.  She was finally able to sleep in for a few mornings and got over some of the crankiness that was creeping up last week.  Though she can dig her heels in sometimes about certain things, Kate still has a pretty laid back personality and just likes to have fun.

She's officially signed up for preschool for next year, the same preK class that Anna did, but with a different teacher.  We opted out of 4K for several reasons, 5 days a week and large classes being a couple of them.

Ethan - Ethan falls into the "third child" category pretty accurately.  He gets dragged around a lot of places and has just had to learn how to be flexible.  He loves places that provide him with lots of stimulation and seems to prefer being around others.  If he's left in a room by himself for more than a minute or two, he lets us know :)  I can't wait to get this boy outside.  I think he's just going to love all of the different sights, sounds, and smells that the out of doors has to offer.

Ethan has been trying to suck on his hands or fingers or thumb pretty consciously the last week or so, but hasn't had much success.  At this point we'd rather have a pacifier kid than another thumb sucker, but whatever will be will be.

Ethan has also discovered this week that he can reach for and grab things with his hands.  It's funny to watch the concentration on his face when he's really trying to touch something.

He's also started laughing :)  I love baby giggles.  We can usually get some good laughs out of him a few times a day; Matt and Anna finally got to hear some good ones last night.  The best way to get him to laugh right now is to sing songs or say rhymes that involve his hands and arms and then be really over-the-top with his movements.

Like our other children, Ethan is also very strong.  He can handle 10-15 minutes at a time in the excersaucer these days and also enjoys the upright position of the Bumbo.  However, both of these activities usually produce lots of nasty spit-ups so we don't do them right after he's eaten.

Matt - He got to ride his bike to work once last week and once this week ... hooray!  Maybe we can get a good routine going where he gets to do it twice a week again.  Work is okay these days for him - some good and some not so good.  We're just very thankful for his job.


Me - I'm ready for some more normal sleep and some warmer weather.  I think those two things may go hand in hand.  Some days I feel a bit overwhelmed with the daily tasks while other days Kate and I have too much time on our hands.  Overall, I'm doing my best to enjoy little moments each day :)

Stories to remember

I've been keeping a running list the last few weeks of things Matt and I want to remember about this stage of our life.  Here it goes ...

Anna and Kate think everything tastes better with butter and brown sugar.  The other day Anna suggested those additions to some popcorn we made as a snack and it was delicious :)

One morning while Kate was sitting on the toilet, she said her feet were going to sleep.  She looked down and said "See, their eyes are closed."  Sure enough, her footie pajamas had bunnies on the feet and their eyes were closed.

A Saturday morning activity a few weeks back was to decorate Ethan with stickers.

I've given up on the long-sleeve battle with Kate.  No matter the temperature outside, she insists on short sleeves.  She claims that if she wears long sleeves it will make her fall asleep (huh?).

A few weeks ago Ethan gave me the sweetest coos and smiles right before I'd put him down for a nap or in the morning when he was supposed to be eating.  It seems like he already knows that these are the special "Ethan-Mommy" times and so he wants to make sure he makes the most of them :)

Who needs toys when you have a big box to play in?

Our girls have an uncanny ability to know when a book is being read out loud anywhere in our house.  As soon as Matt or I start reading to Ethan or one of the girls, their "book sense" starts tingling, they stop what they are doing, and flock to wherever we are to listen to the rest of the story.

Ethan LOVES his mobile right now.  If I need 5-10 minutes to get ready to leave the house or to stall him before a nap, it almost never fails to lay him in his crib and turn the mobile on.  As with Kate when she was an infant, we call the animals on the mobile his "friends".

Last week Anna confided to me that her container of strawberries spilled right at the beginning of her lunch period.  She said her friend, Lauren, went to get a teacher right away and they all worked together to clean it up.  I asked Anna if she was upset about this and her reply was "Mom, I'm in Kindergarten now.  I can handle it when those kinds of things happen!"

And since I failed to note it last week, Ethan is three months old and officially out of the fourth trimester!  Hooray!  I had a rough time getting a clear picture of him smiling so here are a couple that might show how he's growing and changing.  And yes, he has the big Mischnick baby cheeks and multiple chins.