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Monthly Archives: January 2008

"Goin' Commando"

31 Jan

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Well, Noah decided it was high time that he be potty-trained.  Imagine that.  I was feeling pretty apathetic about the whole potty-training thing this time around.  I thought this summer, after his third birthday, sounded like a good time, but in the course of just a couple weeks Noah seems to have figured out, pretty much on his own, how to do his business in the toilet.  I haven’t changed a dirty diaper – well a big-boy dirty diaper – in over a week.  Sweet!  Although…I’m not so naive as to think that potty-training is over and done with.  I’m sure there will be accidents – many - but it’s so nice that Noah has initiated the whole process!

Now the only hurdle to overcome is getting him to leave his underwear and pants on.  He seems to like the freedom of not having a diaper on a bit too much…”goin’ commando!”

P.S.  Can you guess what Noah has been eating?

 
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Posted by on January 31, 2008 in noah

 

One-Dish Double Chocolate Snack Cake

30 Jan

Oh boy, am I glad that I can stay inside on this cold, miserable winter day!  I just refuse to venture outside on days like this.  Dave even drove the boys to the bus-stop today, so they wouldn’t have to wait in the -40 windchill.  Brrr!

Does this weather make anyone else want to bake?  Or more importantly, eat baked goods?  It must be my instincts kicking in, telling my body it needs to fatten-up, to survive!  Yesterday, I had a serious hankering for something baked, but, sadly, I was out of eggs, (don’t you hate running out of eggs?) and there was no way I was doing a grocery-run yesterday.  Then I remembered this super-easy, one-dish, eggless recipe I had!  It totally hit the spot.  I love that you mix up the ingredients right in the baking dish…

1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
powdered sugar, if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt with fork in ungreased square pan  (8x8x2 inches).  Stir in remaining ingredients except chocolate chips and powdered sugar.  Sprinkle chocolate chips over batter. 

Bake 35 – 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

So easy!  It makes a nice little after dinner treat.  I like it warm right out of the oven, when the chocolate chips are all melty, but somehow, it seems to taste even better the next day.  Yum!

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2008 in food

 

Magnadoodle Dave

28 Jan

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Just having fun with one of my – er…  I mean, Noah’s – favorite presents from this past Christmas.

Oh, and while I’m on the topic of Christmas presents, check this out… 

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Remember what Zeke asked Santa for?  Isn’t that hilarious?  A Segway!  It’s one of the game pieces in the new Electronic Banking Monopoly that we got Elijah and Zeke for Christmas. (Which, by the way, I love that they’re totally able to play by themselves, without the confusion of all the paper money.  And it goes without saying who gets dibs on the Segway gamepiece!)   Zeke said, “Well, I guess I didn’t say exactly what kind of Segway I wanted.”

 
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Posted by on January 28, 2008 in art, general

 

Cruise Control

25 Jan

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Can you believe this is my baby?  Pulling herself up, and cruising around on the furniture.  Unbelievable.  And let me just say that I think it’s really unfair that my daughter (it still sounds so wierd to say that!) has been my earliest crawler – she was barely six months old.  I thought girls were supposed to be more into the verbal side of things, and slower at those large motor skills.  No such luck for me.

She’s gradually looking more like a girl (I think), although, she still gets mistaken for a boy when she’s in some of her brothers’ clothing.  Normally, I can’t get enough of all the pink, but there are a few outfits that she simply must wear.  Like the fuzzy, cuddly, green outfit she’s wearing above.  It was Elijah’s, and it’s my very favoritest.  So cute.  It’s close to being retired for good, though, as you can see from the picture.  Boo-hoo.

 
8 Comments

Posted by on January 25, 2008 in phoebe

 

Hi-Low

24 Jan

Ever play Hi-Low?  You know…when everyone shares their personal high point in the day, and then their low point?  We “played” last evening around the supper table.  Wanna hear what mine were? 

My high was at about 11:30.  During Phoebe’s morning nap, I cleaned the entire house.  Everything.  Sorted toys out and put them away.  Vacuumed.  Swept.  Made beds.  The diswasher was humming away.  I even washed down the toilet (a job usually reserved for my husband, since it was his idea to teach our sons to pee standing up!).  So, at 11:30, I sat down triumphantly to revel in the fact the my house was spotless.  Oh, it felt good.

My low was 45 minutes later.  Lunch was over, so the kitchen was messed up again.  Zeke, upon arriving home from school at noon, had run to the bathroom and peed in (and around) the toilet.  Noah had toys strewn about already.  Again I realized, as I have hundreds of times, that it’s impossible to keep my house “Martha Stewart” clean with four kids! 

The general consensus around the supper table was, though, that if that was indeed my low point, then I had had a pretty good day.  So true. 

But as I lay falling asleep last night, I reached a new high point.  As I pondered the day, and it’s happenings, I thought, “I have four kids.  FOUR KIDS!”  Wow.  Four amazing, beautiful, heathly, active kids, and I’m so thankful for them.  What a gift.  The reason that my house is a mess, is also the source of my greatest joy!  Would I trade my messy house for a perpetually spotless one if it meant I would be childless?  Never!  Children and messes go hand in hand.  And that…that is Okay. 

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2008 in family

 

Sugar, Spice, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails…

23 Jan

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Elijah:  Hey Mommy, you know what I’ve heard? …I’ve actually heard that little girls – if they have three brothers, that are all boys - usually turn out to be tom-boys.

Sounds good to me.

 
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Posted by on January 23, 2008 in family

 

A Brief Lapse In Judgement

22 Jan

nocoke.jpgFor some reason, yesterday I allowed Elijah to drink an entire 600 ml bottle of Coke for a “treat” while we were out and about.  (He and Zeke had no school yesterday because of MLK day.)  I don’t know what I was thinking.  Oh my word…you should have seen him.  For those of you who have the pleasure of knowing Elijah personally, you know that the kid already has enough energy to power a small town.  Add caffine to that…oh dear, he was absolutely berserk!   He really couldn’t control himself…and it was totally my fault.  All I could do was try to stifle laughter.  I guess at least the next time he tries to talk me into letting him drink Coke, I’ll have undeniable proof that he can’t handle caffine!

 
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Posted by on January 22, 2008 in elijah

 

On The Topic Of Teeth

18 Jan

Zeke lost his first tooth!  Right after his sixth birthday.  If memory serves me correctly, that’s about when I lost my first tooth.  I also remember being so scared to go to school with a loose tooth, and crying, begging my mother to let me stay home!  The boys have been so brave about the whole loosing teeth thing.  Zeke’s tooth actually fell out at school (the reason for the little envelope) and he thought that was so cool. 

(It looks like we’re going to have two lower central incisers growing for the one that Zeke lost.  Phoebe is getting her first tooth…in the very same spot where Zeke lost his!  It will be interesting to see if Zeke’s tooth loss/Phoebe’s teething pattern will be the same.)

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Some of you may remember this comment, from way back in April of 2007…

How many teeth has Zeke lost and when did he start? This usually has more to do with small motor skill development than anything else.

I had written a bit about Zeke’s preschool teacher saying that he needed to work on his small motor skills, and about his general disinterest in things like drawing, printing, coloring.  His Grampie left the above comment in responce.  

And then there’s this one from even farther back, in September of 2006, also from Grampie Horsman…

The chemical change in your body which causes you to loose teeth is the same change which helps you develop coordination and concentration. That’s why, in the Academy, we never pushed the children to do what we felt was “good work” until they started loosing teeth. 

I am now truly a believer!  I had started to notice just a couple of months ago that Zeke’s dexterity had gotten much better, and that he seemed to actually like drawing and coloring now!  Very interesting.

And also on the topic of lost teeth, remember this post, about Elijah losing one of his top front teeth, and the little, twenty second video that we linked to – “Elijah The Toothless Whistler?”  Up until about a week ago, it had had about 70 hits, but now, mysteriously, it’s had over 1500!  How wierd.  And some people aren’t very happy about being “forced” to watch a twenty second video of a kid who “can barely whistle!”  We’ve deleted some of the nastier comments, but some of them we left, ’cause they’re just so silly.  I wonder what exactly they thought “Elijah The Toothless Whistler” would be about, anyway?

 
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Posted by on January 18, 2008 in elijah, zeke

 

Our Little Human Alarm Clock

16 Jan

Well, as far a wake-up calls go, you couldn’t get any cuter than this…

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That is, of course, if the wake-up call is happening at seven am.  Our cute, little, human alarm clock seems to be malfunctioning these days, going off at such unearthly hours as two am, three am, four am…  It has also developed the skill of pulling itself up to standing, but lacks the skill of getting back down.  How wonderful.  ;)

 
3 Comments

Posted by on January 16, 2008 in phoebe

 

Ga-ga-ga-gargle

15 Jan

Overheard last evening…

The sound of running water, and the whir of electric toothbrushes coming from the bathroom.  Then the sound of someone gargling. 

Zeke:  Eli*…how do you do that?  How do you gargle?  Can you show me?

The sound of water being spit out.

Eli:  Oh…Zeke, you just get some water in your mouth and then make the “G” sound.  Just go “ga-ga-ga.”

Zeke:  Okay.

A few seconds pass, then came the sound of the attempted gargle, then peals of hilarious laughter from Eli. 

Eli:  Zeke!  You’re getting water everywhere!  You’re supposed to put your head back!  (more laughter and attempted gargling)  Zeke…stop!  Stop it!  You’re making a mess. 

Zeke:  Oops…c’mon, let’s go to bed.  Can you read me a chapter from The Magicians Nephew**?

Eli:  Okay.

*Zeke started calling Elijah “Eli” a few months ago.  Strange sounding to me.  I guess we knew that he would probably eventually be called “Eli,” and actually, we intended to call him that, but he just always seemed more like an Elijah to us. 

**We got the Chronicles of Narnia box set for Christmas, and the boys and I have been loving the The Magicians Nephew.  (Which I now know is the “wrong” book to start with, but once we started it, we just couldn’t stop!) 

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2008 in elijah, zeke

 
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