Icing

I really love hearing children acquire language.  The manner in which their understanding of words evolves is so telling.  A child's curiosity and courage in applying new words in a new context is incredibly fascinating and often just plain funny.

This morning the boys made cinnamon rolls.  Miss. A asked specifically for her own.  She didn't want to share.  So I cut one in half and put just a little bit of icing on top.  She immediately put her finger in the icing and licked it.  "Mama, somebody put candy on this."  Laughing, I explained, "No that isn't candy, that is called 'icing.'"  With another finger of icing in her mouth she inquired, "Oh, this is freezing, it is good freezing."

Hahahaha icing - freezing...  I have to love the connection.

Candles

We had an advent wreath in December and the boys really enjoyed lighting and blowing out the candles each night.  For Christmas Johan got me some candle sticks and we have been enjoying candle-light dinners at the table.  Many nights we just eat dinner at the counter in the kitchen, but I have realized that it really changes the flow of the conversation when we are all lined up, looking one direction, versus sitting around the table.  So I am trying to make more time for eating at the dinner table.  Plus it has also made us more aware of some poor table manners; slouching, dive bombing, and holding the fork upside down.  But I digress, this post was actually supposed to be about this:

Yes Miss A is in her pajamas and the boys are in the bottom half of theirs... judge away...  Dinner was late, so everybody had showered/bathed before dinner.  And lately the boys like to sleep without the top half of their PJs on, I can live with that....

Johan and I were cracking up because Miss A was so incredibly enthusiastic about blowing out the candles.  Each attempt took her a minimum of 10 or 12 blows to get the candle extinguished.  The boys of course were happy to relight the candles (playing with matches...I know).  All the candle blowing out started because C and K wanted to try to put the candle out with their fingers like Johan.  They were pretty funny too, they would lick their fingers and then hoover nervously over the flame for almost a minute before starting over re-wetting their fingers.  Finally C pulled it off, then not to be outdone K gathered some courage and...burnt his fingers.  He recovered though, and after many near tries got the candle out.  I always admire the boys tenacity.  They do not like to give up, especially if one or the other has already succeeded.

There was of course plenty of wax to clean up.  C helped with that chore, and the next night he was a lot more careful with the wax.

Making a mess...

We call her hurricane A because in less than 3 minutes she can completely turn a room upside down.  A loves to move random things from room to room, and will proudly announce, "Mama I making mess!"  But if little K starts to make a mess, Miss. A is quick to chastize, "Oh NO MAMA!  Ki-Ki (pronounced Keye Keye) making mess."

Here is a shot of Miss A and some of the stuff that she is busy hauling around the house.  This is pretty standard for her.  I generally refrain from straightening up during the day.  I wait until she has gone to bed, but first thing in the morning she is back at it...

And here are the girls, enjoying each other.  It is so much fun to watch them as they are starting to really interact with each other.  It brings back so many memories of the boys learning to play together when we lived in Idaho.

Sequins

On Friday night Johan and I attended the Ops group Christmas party.  A loves to "help me" get ready.  She always wants a bit of lotion, she pronounces it "lotion."  She usually asks to blow dry her hair, and spends quite a bit of time playing with barrettes, etc.  While I was getting ready I laid out my new sequin top.  A was totally struck, like a moth to a flame.  She wanted to touch the sequins, and talk about the top, and then she exclaimed, "Mama, it's so boootiful!!!"

The next morning, A slipped into my closet and dressed herself.

She was, of course, thrilled with her outfit.  She put the sequin top on over her jammies.  She paired her sequins with soccer turf shoes.  In her defense, she really doesn't have that much to work with in the shoe department in my closet...

Hollywood!!!

Ms. A loves sunglasses.  She almost always puts them on upside down, and every time, without fail she proudly turns to me and theatrically exclaims, "Hollywood!"  I think I must have said that when she put them on before, and now anytime she dawns sunglasses, or in this case Nerf dart protective goggles, she says it with a giant smile that belongs on a red carpet.

K Baptism

K was baptized on November 17.  She was nine months old when we baptized her.

In Catholic churches the baptism usually takes place during a regular mass.  Which means the family stands in front of the entire church, hoping that their baby cooperates and that all the siblings remain quiet and stand still.  We had every confidence in the boys, but couldn't be sure about little K or Ms. A.  True to form Ms. A., who at one point attempted to climb into the baptismal font, did not disappoint.  Johan had to move quickly to prevent her from getting wet.  She had already thrown one leg up and over the edge of the font before Johan moved to quickly shut her down.  Then we had to get little K into the gown during the ceremony.  For the other three kids we were allowed to put the gown on them before we went up.  For K however, Johan had to fumble around awkwardly trying to fit K's fingers through her sleeves in front of the whole church.  Those little fingers just would not go through the sleeves, she had them all splayed open and the sleeve openings are tight and not elastic.  Finally Johan was successful after what felt like eternity standing in front of the whole church. 

Jill is her God-mother.  Thank you Jill!

I should point out that all four of our kids wore that gown for their baptism.  C was just a month old when he was baptized in Alaska.  The gown was huge on him...  K was six months old when he was baptized.  We got him baptized at the same church where C was baptized when we were back in Alaska on vacation.  The gown was very tight on him, but we cut the sleeves a bit and it worked.  A was three months old she was baptized in the gown.  It was very tight across the chest, and thankfully the sleeves had already been cut.  At nine months the gown was just a tad tight on little K.  She is a petite little thing.

Bishop Liam Carrey baptised little K.  It was his first baptism as a bishop, so we feel special.  That is the bishop on the left.  Father Rick is between Johan and C.

Special thanks to the Cooke family at church who took the above pictures with their camera.  We were in such a rush getting ready and getting to church on time that none of us brought our cameras or phones in.  

November

The leaves are almost totally gone, the clocks have been turned back, and the turkey has been carved.  I miss summer so much already, I don't know what happened to that extra hour, and can't believe that it is time to think about Christmas!  Time is racing, and although I feel like I am constantly busy, I also feel like I will never be caught up....

So we did a whole lot this month, but I failed to blog about it.  Just a few recent pictures so that I don't lose the month entirely.

Little K is nine months now!  She is crawling around so well.  It is amazing how much more proficient a crawler she has become just since this time last week.  She is even pushing up on hands and feet, bottom in the air.  She is still tiny.  She is in the 25th percentile for height and weight, 75th for head circumference.

K...what can I say...this guy is so sweet and helpful and really pretty funny!  I love you K!

Kind of a sad day C was not that interested in playing ball tag with us at the park...  He wanted to play catch with Johan.  But (really big sigh) I think we are on the edge of adolescence.  He did join in at the end, and we all had a great time, but there are more and more signs that my baby is growing up...

Ah lovely Ms. A.  How I adore you, so sassy...  Lately Ms. A has perfected the damsel in distress routine.  She will begin carrying something and almost immediately announce, "No, too heavy for me."  And then she will practically curtsy before skipping off leaving her brothers or myself to do the heavy lifting.  She loves to need help as well, she will begin a task and then quickly beckon K or C, "I need help!"  But her favorite of all is feigned fear.  She loves to scream and she loves to be chased and tickled.  Sometimes even if the boys are just walking in her general direction she will drop what she is doing and squeal before crying out, "Ahhh he going get me..."  Then run off as though the boys were chasing her, thus ultimately prompting the desired game of chase.