Diggiin' the Shedd

The kids and I went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last week with my friend, Lisa, and her 6 kids. Hooray for free days!! When we went up in line, they asked how many adults and how many kids. "Two adults and..." Wait, does 6 and 7 actually add up to 13? That sounds like a lot. Let me make sure my math skills are right... Yep, "thirteen."

We had a great time!! We took our 15 passenger van and every seat was filled (should've been my first clue that my math was right). The night before, I was commenting to Paul about how to keep an eye on the kids since it's a big place and I didn't know how crowded it would be. His first reply was to take a picture of each kid (just in case anyone got lost) so we could quickly have a reference for anyone else to help find them. He then said I should dress them all in the same color. I gave up on that idea because I didn't think we had the same color shirt for everyone... Little did I know Seth would come to the rescue. He woke up early and Paul mentioned finding matching shirts. Seth went right to work and actually found red shirts for everyone and had their outfits laid out for them to put on by the time they woke up!! Way to go, Seth! You can see from the picture which kids are mine by the red shirts :)

Homeschooling at it's best (other than actually snorkling in the ocean to see the fish).

Ellie's prized picture of the iguana. She was so proud to have taken it herself!

Selah's 6 weeks!

It's so fun having a newborn around again. It's been even more fun this time because of how much the other kids are enjoying her. You'd think that the seventh baby would be put in a bouncy seat and left to fend for herself, but just the opposite is true. I believe she is held more than any of the kids before her. I constantly have her older siblings coming up and asking to hold her. Funny thing is... they never seem to want to hold her when she's crying. It's usually when she's sleeping or content that they ask to pick her up. The change of movement usually sends her out of the blissful content state and she'll end up crying within a few minutes and then they set down a crying baby. I've had to conquer that dilemma in my mind and realize that their interest in holding baby Selah is worth the extra effort on my part.

The fact is, it has paid off. The kids have improved in their holding and soothing techniques. The girls accomplish it a bit better than the boys, but each has their own style. Ellie does a wonderful knee-bending bounce thing while standing up. Grace likes to sit and rock her from side to side. The boys... well, they do the best they can :) Each one is going to have great parenting skills someday.

Another thing I've had to come face to face with is the idea of my fragile newborn being carried around by a little person that hardly weighs 20 pounds more than she does. It's the old "take a deep breath and relax" technique that allows me to hand her to Ellie or Grace. They both are proud that they can hold Selah "while standing" and would prefer that I hand her over that way. The first few times were nerve-wracking and filled with "Be careful!", "Gentle, please!", and "Hold her head!", but they've proven to be excellent little mommies and I have very little inhibitions about it now. (Except when they try dancing with her or walking through their brothers'nerf basketball competitions).

Selah has a pink "storkbite" birth mark right in the middle of her forehead. She also has one on her right eyelid that is less noticeable. Most of the kids were born with this birthmark on the back of their neck. It's called a storkbite because, well, that is where the "stork" is said to have bit them to carry them to their new home. This type of birthmark fades as they get older and seems less noticeable at times. My mom claims that I had one in the same spot when I was born and would turn beet red when I cried. Anyhow, I can remember seeing birthmarks on other people's babies and feeling sorry for the parents in some way. It's funny that I don't feel the same way about Selah. I don't know how I'd feel if it were a different type of birthmark, but I kind of like it. It sets her apart a little bit and makes her special. Weird, I know, but maybe that's how all parents feel, even those with handicaps. I'm thinking that it's just the people on the outside of the family that make the parents feel uncomfortable or embarassed about it. I believe that our society cares too much about what other people think and not enough about what God's opinion is. There are many times (maybe most of the time) when Jesus cast off the "opinion shackles" of the crowd and did what was right in his Father's sight. A lesson that affects every area of life and is still sinking into my soul... (excerpt from Deep Thoughts by Amy Larson :)

Natey

Nathan is so much fun. He's talking well and sometimes you can tell when he's trying to use a new word in the correct context because he'll pause slightly before trying it. His new word today was "before". He pointed to a dolphin in a book and said, "I saw one of those, (pause) before." "Yes, your right, you did see one at the zoo," I replied. Then he went on to point out the other animals that he had seen "before". It was cute!

You'd think with five kids before him, that all the new stuff would be old hat, but I've been starting to think that the more kids I have, the more delightful those moments become. I'm not quite sure why, but although I loved watching the older kids go through different stages, it's been different with Nathan and Selah. Maybe it's because I'm older (and wiser), maybe because the other kids are excited and enjoying it with me (very likely), maybe because I'm not so concerned with having everything "perfect" (impossible, so why bother), or maybe because I realize that these moments don't last forever. Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, my heart lights up as I watch them discover new things and just enjoy life.

Nathan is a ham. He loves when people watch him and can be so dramatic. He cracks me up many times. As cute as he is, we ALWAYS know when he's tired because he causes trouble. Takes books off the shelves, gets into the game closet, irritates his sisters... BEDTIME!!

Superman!! We've had these pajamas since Caleb (and they belonged to my neighbor's son before that) All the boys have fun wearing it for the first time and Nathan's no different... he just has a bigger crowd to "oooooo and awwww" at him.

Nathan is not know for falling asleep anywhere but in his crib or carseat. None of the kids did. We got home late on Superbowl night, I changed him and though he was totally awake when I went to grab pajamas, he was out cold when I got back.

Snow, snow, and more snow

The kids have had fun playing in the snow that was part of "one of the greatest snowstorms that hit Chicago". We have areas of our yard where the hibernating grass is showing through, and other parts with 4 foot drifts. With the weatherman predicting the storm a few days in advance, we had time to get excited about what was coming! Right before it started snowing hard, the kids and I went out and built a support stucture for our igloo. We piled up all of the "junk" and toys that we could find in the yard to make a place that would be semi-safe to crawl into after the snow fell.

Me and Nathan in our snow garb. The drift by our fence was incredible... and tons of fun to dig paths through. Like my hat? I decided, after looking at these pictures, that the fuzzy thing would happily join the "hat hand-me-down club" that my kids rummage through before hitting the snow. Note to self... look in the mirror after adorning anything new... :)

Paul fired up the new-to-us snowblower that my dad gave us earlier this winter. It has saved the day a few times already this winter.

Caleb and Paul shoveled where the drifts were too deep while the rest of us played.

This is Noah and Nathan in the "igloo". The snow didn't come straight down, so our creation only got covered where it was drifted over, but they had fun digging the snow out and climbing through. If you look, you can see Nathan's red cheeks. The following day, his cheeks (especially the right one) was so red that it looked like someone had slapped him, and they felt hot (only on the red part). For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. I looked it up on the internet and came up with some "slapped-cheek disease" (fifth's disease) or a capillary problem. It took me a day and a half to figure out that he was NOT diseased or contagious, but had stayed out too long on that cold day right after the snow. The poor little guy had gotten some serious wind-burn on his cheeks. It's a week later and his poor cheek is still tinged pink.

Nathan and Grace right after we went out to play. The boys had dug some short tunnels through the drifts in our driveway. What a fun day (and daddy had a extra day and a half off to boot)!

Selah's 1 month old!

I'm still typing with one hand these days because I'm usually nursing a baby with the other :) If I have two hands free, I'm usually doing something more pertinent than blogging....

I need to do some catch up, so I'm planning to find the time soon! Til then, here's a few pictures of beautiful Selah at 1 month old...

Noah, Nathan and Selah

Gracie, in her glory... holding her baby sister.