When a family has five children under the age of 5, another four between ages 4 and 6 (plus an 11 year old), the best possible place to have a family dinner is obviously the Train Restaurant!
Paul loves watching his food come out on a train.
Who knows when these four siblings will be together again?!
A great time was had by all! (Caroline slept through it in her carseat…)
At the end of June, we went to the zoo with a friend!
We saw the Dolphin Show.
Paul pretended he was a zookeeper.
Paul and Meredith had a fun time!
(Caroline slept in her carseat most of the day!)
Our library’s summer reading program has a theme of “Reading is So Delicious!” Going along with that, we had the chance to check out a carrot named Rooty to take with us on our adventures.
Last week, we took Rooty with us as we went on a “mammal hunt.” Paul has been learning about mammals (versus everything else) so our trip to the Barnyard Zoo and then our Trip to the EIEIO exhibit at the Discovery Center Museum was a fun time to talk practically about which animals were mammals and which were not. We visited the Discovery Center Museum on two different days.
Caroline had fun too. (This is our toy from home.)
Paul and I went to a kiddie amusement park, Pirate’s Cove. It is geared toward 1-8 year olds, mostly 4-6 year olds, and it was simply perfect for Paul’s age. I was too big, and Caroline was too little, so it was a day for Paul!
He wrote up his thoughts on his new webpage. He will be tracking his homeschool projects on that site, and I’m encouraging him to write and type his own posts. I am adding some previous posts that I wrote, but from here on out, it will be his!
Anyway, back to Pirate’s Cove.
Apparently, Caroline was happy to just be in her carseat, smiling at people.
Today was Caroline’s four-month doctor’s visit. She is 11 pounds, 7 ounces, and is 23 inches long. That’s the 10th percentile. She’s gained exactly 4 pounds and grown 4 inches since she was born. She’s petite but in normal ranges.
She is, for the most part, a very happy girl. Today is an exception. She was okay for the two hours after her immunizations this morning, but now she’s crying pretty constantly, wondering why she’s in pain. Paul is walking around with his hands over his ears. “Can you tell Caroline to be quiet?” he recently asked.
On a normal day, Caroline loves to see happy faces. She delights in being with others and demands that she be up in her high chair where she can see us eating our dinner and so forth. If she’s away from the action, she’ll cry very vigorously, demanding attention.
Right now, I’m in the midst of a de-spoiling process. This means that I’m letting her cry herself to sleep at night when I know she’s ready to go to sleep, and I’m trying to not feel guilty when I put her down to clear the dinner dishes or go to the bathroom(!) or otherwise let her be by herself for a few minutes. She’s a very social little girl so she doesn’t like being alone. It’s hard to let her cry, but she must learn, right?
Caroline loves to smile and laugh, and Paul is a central part of her daily joy. She loves to watch him walking around the room, to smile at his songs, and to listen to what he has to say and the stories he likes to read. I can already see her adoration of her big brother as she brightens when he approaches her with his love and attention.
The love and attention is not one sided. Paul loves to be near his sister. He loves to help her be happy, to tell her stories, and to read her books. He remembers to include her in every game and he cannot wait until she is a “kid”. Even as a baby, though, he’s tender and loving to her, giving her big hugs and kisses.
I love to watch these two special spirits interact. I know there will be plenty of times when they are tired of each other. As I mentioned, Paul does not like the loud crying and when she’s finally old enough to play, I suspect he’ll be a bit annoyed at her destroying his Lego creations or what not. But in general, I see love and adoration coming from both of them. Caroline will love her brother as she gets older: she doesn’t know life without him. And Paul, who did “long long ago before Caroline was born” (his words) live a life without a little sister, will certainly care for his little sister and protect her as much as he can. He will teach her important things and he will make her laugh throughout her life. He will find such joy in his role as big brother.
I look forward to the coming months as I watch these two special spirits interacting and learning from each other! I am so grateful that Paul can have a sibling to learn from and to serve! I’m so grateful that Caroline has joined our family. I wouldn’t have our family any different.
These kids sure love each other!
We’ve been wanting to do something special as a family. With the Memorial Day weekend, we especially searched for the right thing. Ryan felt inspired to take our family on a trip to Kirtland and Palmyra so off we went on Thursday afternoon.We came back Monday.
It was a whirlwind of a trip. Paul and Caroline did great on the way East but I’m sure no one would be surprised to learn that the long drive back Sunday night and Monday was long. Caroline spent most of the trip through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois on Monday screaming because she was mad to still be in the car. We took lots of breaks and she still was pretty mad. I didn’t put her in the carseat again until Wednesday afternoon but as soon as I did she started screaming again! I think she’s calmed down for now, because she’s been okay since then. Paul did well but got pretty tired of that car!
Our visit in Kirtland and Palmyra was a perfect amount of time. Paul was very excited to see the Sacred Grove. The week before we went, he told everyone. (This provided some interesting missionary moments for me. How great that a family vacation lets me explain to people what Mormonism is, and why we find it so important that the heaven are open to prophets in this era, just as in the past!)
Paul did tire of the old houses and lengthy sister missionary tours, so we did not see everything in Kirtland or Palmyra. We did see the Kirtland Temple with a Community of Christ tour and the N.K. Whitney store and house in Kirtland, and in Palmyra we saw Joseph Smith’s log home, the frame house, the Sacred Grove, the Grandin print building where The Book of Mormon was first published, and the Hill Cumorah statue. (I dropped my camera at the Hill Cumorah, breaking the lens, so the only pictures we have from that are those Paul took.)
The trip was just what we needed to create memories as a family. I think Paul now has a frame of reference. Although not everything will remain memorable, I suspect he will not forget that he has seen where Joseph Smith prayed.
Here are some of the pictures Paul took. He played with the camera as we drove, so he had tons of pictures of Caroline (who was right next to him). My favorite is the ultimate bored look in the second picture of my baby.
Before we went out of town, Paul had his last day of preschool. He got a goodie bag with candy and things to make sure his summer is fun, like yet more sidewalk chalk (I think we have about two dozen pieces of that now). Here are some pictures of the happy boy with his class mates and his teachers, Mrs. Polit and Miss Emily. Paul told me the week before school ended that Liam was his “new best friend.” So I got a picture with him too.
The last two pictures are Caroline, aged 3 months, hanging out in her crib. She’s wearing a boyish outfit that Paul wore when he was her age. Compare this picture to Paul wearing the outfit. Of course, the comparison doesn’t really work since Caroline is three months here and Paul was only one month in that picture, but anyway. Does Caroline’s face look feminine enough to pull it off? What do you think?
Maybe this is still unintentional on Caroline’s part. But she is getting pretty consistent: I know if I put her on her tummy she probably won’t stay there! As much as I’m not looking forward to Caroline becoming mobile (I like her to stay put, thank you very much), I am so excited to watch her blossoming and developing into her own personality.
And what a personality she has! She seems to be a social bug: she loves to see a smiling face and will almost always return a happy smile. She wants to be near other people, even when they are not smiling at her. I’ve already pulled out her high chair so she can be table level when we’re eating — not down in her rocker or crib! She wants to be where the action is! She knows what she wants, be it food, a smile, or a clean diaper, and she will scream herself red in the face to make herself heard. If she simply wants a smile, she’ll stop crying as soon as someone approaches. Daddy says he will not give in to this “drama queen” behavior and I’ve overheard a lecture or two about it.
Paul usually wants to tell me what she needs as much as he can guess: “She’s still hungry” or “She has a messy diaper, Mommy.” But on occasion he’s informed me that he’s “tired of all that crying.”
Here are some pictures from our trip to Grandma’s house May 18, 2012.
Paul has one more day of preschool and then we’re off for a whirlwind weekend in Kirtland and Palmyra. And then summer officially begins, as well as my homeschooling years. I’m really looking forward to not having so much on my schedule: we’re going to take each day and each week as it comes, making fun plans to keep us interested and leaving plenty of open time on the schedule for imaginary play and running around outside.
We have decided to not send Paul to another year of preschool. There is a year before he’s officially kindergarten age, but we’ve started already. I’m really looking forward to learning and growing with him in the coming years. While I can’t say for certain we’ll home school forever, I’m planning on staying with it for the long haul. I believe that although it will be a lot of work, we are certainly going to have a lot of fun also!