Another Post

But it is a new update - sort of. Videos for the Grandmommies, in particular. First, a bit of Bethany's "Caterpiller Crawl" from this past week. She basically pulls herself along by her hands about half the time pulling her knees up under her and launching herself forward.

Well, she is also sitting pretty well whenever she wants to.



And she's also . . . Yes . . .

She's Crawling.



I had a cute video of her crawling to me a fair distance, but I managed to delete it without realizing it. Good one, Ang. Ah, well. You get the idea from this one.

She'll be six months old this Friday and she's crawling. It's not fair!! Mommy is not ready! Bethany is supposed to take longer than the others to hit these milestones! She is not supposed to do it sooner. . . But it is fun to watch.

Thanksgiving Week

First I have to post a series of pictures from about two weeks ago. Philip was watching the kids while I was out and took some pictures of Bethany's travels - and how they wore her out. He was on his computer and she was playing nearby until he realized she was pretty quiet. The pictures are taken of Bethany along her path.

She started out right near him. At the end all he could see was her feet.

So she crawled from him towards the kitchen. She played a bit with the little house and her carseat.

He found her just around the corner in the kitchen where she collapsed.

Yup - she decided it was naptime. Right where she was.

Last Tuesday we went for a walk through our neighborhood and up to the Winn Dixie to buy some bread and milk. The love running ahead of me and are great about stopping before any streets and waiting for Bethany and myself to catch up. Aiden is our protector from any bad guys that may happen along.

I don't remember what we had for dinner that night, but it included pretzels and Aiden got creative:

Meet Pretzel Man

And Friday the kids played outside at the house on the swingset for a couple hours, then we had a picnic up at the local park and spent a couple hours playing with all the kids there.

Bethany says "HI!"

They all enjoyed hanging around on the monkey bars.
Mikayla smiling for the camera right before she fell and hurt her arm. She was fine after mommy pulled her arm out from between two pieces of playground equipment. Silly girl!

Bethany took a short nap while we were there. She sure loves those two fingers.

Now the older two are back in school this week and loving it!! And Tristan is jealous. He so wants to go to school with Mikayla! And Mikayla wants to go to big school with Aiden!

Philip and the Kids

Nothing too exciting happening here. Today was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. The kids don't really get the concept of school vacation and they enjoy school so a week off is nothing so exciting for them. So all I have today is just a couple pictures of Philip and the kids that I took last night while I was cleaning up after dinner.

I love this one because it looks like Bethany is waving to the camera, but Aiden is smiling at the ground - no clue why.


Finally everyone is smiling at the camera!

So I Lost a Week . . .

One day it was the first of November. I woke up the next morning and it was about a week later. Don't ask me what happened. Four kids, perhaps? So since the last post not too much has changed in our day-to-day. The week before Halloween, Aiden's school was having a week of emphasis on being Drug-Free, so most days were some sort of spirit day type of thing relating to being and staying drug free. Wednesday was the day to wear red - so Aiden wore Red. That same day was Mikayla's class' day to wear their Halloween costume to school. They were going to do a costume parade through the other classes. Well, Mikayla doesn't have a Halloween costume, but she has dress up dresses. So Mikayla wore a princess dress to school.

And of course, Tristan had to get in on the picture fun, too.

And one Saturday we were having a lazy morning (okay, most Saturdays we have lazy mornings), and Bethany just decided to fall asleep where she was - in mommy's arms. :)


Note the fingers in her mouth. At least she's not a thumb sucker . . . I guess. Why will my kids not take to paci's? Arrgg!

This past week I had an "argument" with Tristan. I don't remember what exactly it was about - something silly as always, but I love arguing with him because it's the easiest arguring in the world:

Tristan: Says something is a particular way - fill it in however a two-year old may.

Mommy: No.

Tristan: Yes.

Mommy: No.

Tristan: Yes.

Mommy: No.

Tristan: Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No . . .

I just have to laugh! He just takes over arguing both sides.


I may not have said it on here before, but I'm always telling Philip and others that Tristan is my comic relief. He is a trip! Another recent example:

We were sitting around the dinner table one evening this week. Most meals end up with Aiden trying to race whoever else is eating. At dinner it's usually daddy that he's trying to beat. This particular night he thought he was beating daddy.

Aiden: I'm winning!
Daddy: No, I'm on my second helping.
Aiden: I'm on my third!
Mikayla: I'm on my first!
Tristan: I'm on my seat!

We all about fell off our seats laughing.

And in other news, the one change that has happened since I posted last is that Philip got a promotion at Target!! Whoo hoo! He is now a Senior Team Lead which is two steps up from what he was. Congratulations, Philip!!

She's On Her Knees

Bethany has outgrown the big blanket now. Last week she started pulling herself up to her knees and she would sit there and rock back and forth. Now she has finally figured out how to actually move herself forward. Not crawling - yet - just getting up on hands and knees and throwing herself forward. (I don't have pictures or video from this week, yet.)

She's not even five months old - I'm not ready for this.
She's number four.
She's supposed to just sit back and chill out and do everything later than the other three.
Not earlier.

I guess she didn't get the memo.

Peek-a-boo!

Video of her getting up on her knees last week.

This started as another attempt to get a good video of her on her knees, but she saw me and just began making her funny faces at me. She loves the feel of her mouth, I guess!

Orlando Science Center

The week that Mikayla and Tristan were in the mountains with Grandmommy Chris and Grandpa Larry I tried to do some special stuff with Aiden. That Friday he had off school so he and Bethany and I went to the Orlando Science Center. We had a lot of fun! Four floors worth of fun - though we really ran out of time to do the fourth floor justice.

We got to see how a tornado works

And Aiden got to experience a category 1 hurricane - you can see the wind speed up at the top (sorry the video is sideways - I don't know how to change it!)

He got to pretend to be a baby sea turtle

And sit on a snake - King Cobra maybe? I don't remember

And then my camera battery died - and I had almost put the other battery in my bag before we left home and decided, nah, this one will be fine. Oops. But it was fun regardless.

Somewhere during that week Aiden found a new way to enjoy the swingset . . .

We had a fun quiet week without the middle two kids, but we are glad they are back now - they were missed. The most asked question during the week, "When are Mikayla and Tristan going to be back?" The second most asked question, "What do you think Mikayla and Tristan are doing right now?"

Bethany Videos

With the middle two kids gone this week Bethany has been filling the silence gap when she's awake:



And she's learning to move herself toward toys, as well:



She also tried to catch a sunbeam: