“Uh…Mummy? Well, ax-ualy, I ax-ualy forgot how to say ‘Mummy,’ so I think I’m ax-ualy going to have to start calling you ‘Janet.’”
Category Archives: noah
"Ax-ualy"
Before…
It’s been a very long time since these three have had haircuts. I can’t even remember when I last tackled those mops of hair. All three heads have been getting more and more out of control over the past month and now, I’m not really sure where to start. If I keep up with it on a monthly basis, it’s not so bad but now…well, I think we’re gonna have to return to “ground zero” folks… Yep, buzz cuts.
I’ve known buzz cuts were the only option for a couple of weeks now – since I stubbornly and sting-ily refuse to pay someone to cut my kids’ hair - but I wanted to wait for the weather to warm up a little. Like, at least to above freezing. Dave buzzed his head once in the middle of the winter, and he had to wear a tuque* to keep warm! So, with a stretch of “warm” (40-50 degree) weather coming next week, Dave and I have agreed to become barbers for a couple of hours sometime tomorrow. Wow…there’s gonna be a lot of hair on our kitchen floor! Look for an “after” photo on Monday.
P.S. Here’s an interesting tidbit of information. (Well, I find it quite interesting.) We recently bought a little Macbook (with some proceeds from our tax return. I love tax return time!) and the iPhoto software on it has face recognition technology. It can distinguish Elijah and Zeke quite easily, but it’s still figuring out Noah’s face. Half the time it thinks Noah is Elijah and the other half it thinks he is Zeke. iPhoto has confirmed what I’ve always maintained: Noah is quite a perfect hybrid of Elijah and Zeke…or me and Dave. 
*a heavy stocking cap worn in Canada.
Just Call Me Mischief…Mr. Mischief
Yes, Noah is indeed full of mischief these days. I think it’s a combination of being bored, testing the limits, (which every true three-year-old should do… at least all mine have), and …well, actually, really, truly being full of mischief. It’s a good thing he’s cute. To be sure, though, the cuteness factor has no effect on his siblings. Only me. I’m such a softy.
Here he is trying to atone for one of his latest three-year-old stunts; washing off a big circle drawn on our fridge with a 
pink permanent marker. In all honesty, I didn’t really care about the artwork (and secretly, I really thought it was quite an excellent circle!) but, to prove a point, I thought he should be made to try to clean it off.
Another thing he’s been doing lately, that I’m not sure what to think or do about, is telling stories. Long, adventurous tales…starring him. Just yesterday he tried to convince me that he’d been chased by a skunk to our patio door, and had just managed to get inside before the skunk “stinked him up!” The earnestness with which he told the story was quite comical and really, I’m torn between letting him use his imagination to create such tales and wondering if it will encourage him to be dishonest. I just don’t know! This is something new in my parenting experience. Any thoughts?
There Were Three in the Bed and the Big One Said…
“Hey Mummy…come! Come on! Come see us …and I think you’ll want to bring the camera!”
By the way, don’t you love this soft, whimsical green in Phoebe’s new room? We moved Phoebe into the boys’ old room (a real room…with, like, a window!). The boys are now in the second bigger bedroom, which used to be our bedroom, and we’ve moved into the first big bedroom, which used to be our playroom. (Confused yet? I would be.) It was fun changing everything around and applying new paint colors! Our playroom is now in the windowless room back room that once served as Phoebe’s bedroom, which works out great.
Phoebe isn’t in the little toddler bed you see in the picture yet though. We’ve just moved it in there so she can get used to the idea of sleeping in it. I guess she’ll need to transition into it soon, so her new sibling can use the crib. Yikes! I’m nervous. I don’t like abandoning the security of a crib.
Testing, Testing, 1-2-3…
Hello? Is any body out there? Anybody?
Seriously…does anybody still read this thing? Probably not. I don’t blame ya.
I am, however, regardless of the readership of djandtheprophets, convinced that it is high time that I reentered the world of blogging. For a couple of reasons. One is that I spent a whole evening a week or so ago looking through my very own blog archives, and absolutely loved it. So many great little photos and snippets of our life. The other is that, around the same time, one of the kids did or said something really cute, and I thought, “That would be a great blog post!” Sadly, though, a week later I couldn’t even remember which kid it was who had charmed me, let alone what they had said! Crazy, eh? I remember getting frustrated with my mom when she would get things about her five kids mixed up…but now, I understand perfectly. :-)
So, if you’re wondering, “Gee, what has happened to Janet? Will she ever blog again?” the answer is an enthusiastic yes! I very much want to for purely selfish reasons…’cause you know me, I’m so selfish. :-)
Below is a little teaser of, hopefully, more to come. I snapped this photo yesterday. While preparing lunch yesterday (pasta and pesto. Mmmmm.) I heard Phoebe and Noah laughing hysterically at…something. Now understand that when you have several children and hear peals of laughter erupting from some room in the house your first reaction isn’t to go investigate. You’re just thankful that they’re getting along and not screaming in pain. So, I let the laughing continue, finished up the lunch prep and then went to round up the little rascals for lunch. This is where I found them…
Up on the counter in the bathroom, undressed (clearly), with the water running, their feet in the sink, throwing water at each other with some little candle votives that were on the bathroom counter. There was water everywhere. Little monkeys!
P.S. I hope to get back here before the end of the week and share some of the things that have been happening here in Horsmanville lately, and I have one piece of really, REALLY big news to share. (Yes, I realize that most of you have probably already heard through Dave’s Facebook, but there just might be someone out there who has remained immune to the Facebook bug.)
Cheers to returning to blogging!
Christmas Has Come
Christmas has come to the Horsman house. We had a great weekend of vistiing and partying with family, and the boys did an awesome job with the Christmas program at church. Elijah had the staring role and he did awesome!
Some Long Overdue Pictures…
Elijah turned nine on November 24th. Nine!!! How can this be?! Soon he’ll be a whole decade old, and then a “tween,” and then… But, hush…we won’t speak of such things.
We had one of the best autumns ever here in Minnesota this year. All the leaves seemed more vibrant than usual, I thought, and mild weather allowed lots of opportunity to play in them… And set up the tripod for some family pics.
I love this one of Noah from that day…
Here’s Zeke preparing to take a flying leap into a huge pile of leaves that is under this tree…
Zeke, by the way, won 2nd place in his first grade class’ “lace race” last week! Pretty impressive, I think, since he didn’t learn this skill until about a week before the competition…when he came and asked me to teach him. Oops…blame it on Velcro.
Here are a couple of Phoebe from just yesterday…
She just gets cuter and cuter every day. She can call us all by name now, Noah is her favorite one to say. She often follows him around yelling, “Noah! Noah!” as loud as she can.
One of her favorite things to do is eat. Interestingly, she loves most vegetables, especially legumes, but turns her nose up at most fruit. Isn’t that weird?
Here’s a cute one of Noah from yesterday. Do you notice the gray tooth on the left side? He knocked three of his front teeth loose one day when his face connected squarely with a sidewalk in a bike accident. The teeth all righted themselves in a few days, but that left one has turned gray. I’m not sure what to do about it. I suppose I should schedule a visit to the dentist, but I’m half scared that he’ll tell me it needs to be pulled. 
And here is one more from yesterday evening at Elijah’s very, very impromptu, belated birthday party. We had his two best friends, Jack and Petros, over for some games, pizza and ice cream cake. (Oh, and by the way, those are root beer bottles on the table!)
P.S. Doesn’t Phoebe kind of remind you of Forrest Gump the way she’s just sitting back there in the corner chowing down on her ice cream cake?
Wise Words From a Three Year Old
Noah usually has a rough go of it every afternoon from about four to five-o-clock. Normally, everything fun that could be done has been done by this time of the day and tiredness and boredom have set in. Late yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the bathroom – and it’s important to note here that Noah needs to completely undress in order to use the toilet, everything must come off – he struggled to get his clothes back on. The shirt finally made it’s way onto his torso, inside out and backwards, but the pants just did him in!
Finally, he threw himself back with a loud wail, “Oh! I can’t do it!”
“Yes you can, Noah,” I assured him. “Remember, just this morning you did it. Your a big boy!”
“Ohhh…awwww, but Mummy! Sometimes I’m a big boy, but sometimes I’m a l’il boy!”
