263/365... enJoy

Another month has gone by and my baby still gets sweeter. At five months old he's a smiling, squealing, laughing, drooling, joyful little delight. He gets easily distracted by any new voice that enters the room and loves watching his brothers and sister in whatever they are doing. He likes his Bumbo seat and I've just realized that he's probably ready for our Johnny Jumper. He has lost his head full of hair and now has a head covered in white fuzz. We already thought he looked like his biggest brother, but now he looks even more like Travis did as a baby. I couldn't possibly love this precious little five month old any more.

His most impressive trick right now is squeezing both of his legs into one pant leg in any jammies that have even the slightest bit of extra room in them. I call him our little merbaby.

Five month old merbaby joy...


262/365... enJoy

I am so glad to have kids who notice and enjoy simple pleasures like the change of seasons. I discovered this last year when Sam begged me to decorate our table for fall. So this year I determined not to wait to be asked and my efforts did not go unnoticed. And it's true, a simple thing like seasonal flowers on the table really does make a difference and goes a long way towards making a house feel like home.

The younger kids and I have been learning about the goldenrod plant this week in our nature study and eagle eye Ben has been spotting it on the side of the road everywhere we go.  I hope the state of South Carolina doesn't mind, but I pulled over yesterday to pick a handful to add to our fall table.

Simple, seasonal pleasures joy...



261/365... enJoy

I've talked about the love of chess around here lately  but I didn't mention that it extends down to even the youngest members of the family as well. True, their rules don't always completely resemble the actual game. For instance, today Ben captured every one of my pieces - or "guys" as they are called around here - with a pawn. The same pawn. And Jack can be heard saying, ""Oh! You dot my Ting!" after Ben captures any and every piece. But they love it and really do think they're playing. The set that they use belonged to my grandpa and it was bought for him by my mom over 40 years ago (sorry, mom!) during her world-traveling flight attendant days. Yes, it takes a little bit of abuse, but I'm pretty sure Grandpa would be glad to know that it's being loved well.

Mini chess players joy...



In other news, my kids were delighted to find out that today is Hobbit Day. We celebrated in true hobbit fashion by eating yummy food. : )

260/365... enJoy

I love rainy days and would be perfectly content for everyone to just stay inside, drink hot drinks and read lots of good books while we watch the rain outside. Sounds lovely, but not terribly realistic in a houseful of imaginative, energetic kids. I'll confess, my desire for them to stay inside is partly mostly so that I don't have to deal with the inevitable mud that comes with these wet days, but I guess I'm also pretty glad that they would rather get out there and play in the rain. And getting to see these dirty, chubby knees (and feet and legs and arms and two different outfits) isn't the worst thing in the world.

Rainy day sink bath joy...


259/365... enJoy

After a few weeks of saying that words on the pages of his books were blurry and that he was even having trouble seeing things farther away, we took Sam to the eye doctor. He confirmed that Sam's eye muscles are having trouble deciding how/where to focus and prescribed glasses for him to give those muscles a chance to relax. After a little while we'll go back and he will give Sam some exercises for strengthening those muscles.

In the mean time, I just want to know how a single pair of glasses can make my baby look like a huge, old kid. Seriously, I feel like he aged 10 years the very second he slipped them onto his sweet face. He loves his new glasses and wanted to celebrate by going straight to the library for a new book to read.

8 going on 18 joy...



258/365... enJoy

With this many humans living under one roof, we certainly have our fair share of fussing, fighting and head-bumping (both literal and figurative). But tonight? It was unlike any other. Big boys had wounded each others hearts, little boys had wounded each others bodies, and the littlest boy had been patient for as long as his hungry tummy could stand. And now, come to think of it, I don't even remember what was troubling the girl, but I'm sure it was heart-wrenching. It was one of those nights that was even beyond getting frustrated over. I was just so glad that it happened when my tag-team partner was home and I had someone to exchange hidden smiles and laughter with. And since I was putting the littlest boy to bed while baths were supposed to be happening, the video he took of Jack's bath time tantrum gave me the chance to see what I had only been able to witness with my ears while it was going on. I would have really hated to miss all that.

Once the dust settled and we finally headed downstairs to tackle the wreckage, we found the charred remnants of what should have been part of our dinner. It had been forgotten in the crazy attempt to throw food at people in between fits and seemed to serve as a fitting description of our evening. I'm thankful to have a husband who helps me laugh at the chaos and who doesn't get worked up over things like dinner.

Some days are just plain rough and some dinners are cereal joy...

(and if you don't think it looks all that bad, you should have smelled our house. brutal!)

257/365... enJoy

The three big kids bounded into the car this afternoon full of excitement over week two of co-op. Caroline's favorite part of today was Show-and-Tell where she got to tell her class about the clay that she scooped out of a friends creek while playing this weekend. She had it in a baggie and offered it up to the class for squishing. When I asked her if she was sure that she wanted to take a baggie of mud for Show-and-Tell she said, "Yes, I am. I mean, last week one girl brought her jacket for Show-and-Tell. This is much cooler." It's hard to argue with that.

Travis said that his favorite class today was his writing class, which is not at all surprising. I've been looking forward to beginning this curriculum (Institute for Excellence in Writing) with him for a while and I'm excited to see how his writing takes off this year.


And I was not surprised to hear Sam say that, for the second week in a row, art was his favorite class. Art is one of his passions, and his art teacher had already claimed favorite status from last week, and they got to do a full-fledged project in class. It's a triple win for art in Sam's book.

As for the little boys and I, we might have found our groove a little better this week. We had some preschool time, worked on a new skill called "room time" (needs a lot more practice), played outside, enjoyed a lunch that was deemed "dewishous" and afterward all three boys slept at the same time.

Mondays just got better joy...



256/365... enJoy

Ben takes after his daddy in a lot of ways, but their love of all things comfy might be their most identical trait. When Ben dresses himself it is always with comfort in mind and these pants, along with a blue pair just like them, are on the top of his list.

Like father, like son joy...


255/365... enJoy

Chess is the game of choice around here lately. A couple of weeks ago they convinced me to give up the table that I had sitting beside our coziest chair so that they could have a place to leave their games set up. As much as I didn't want to give up my table, it was a hard request to deny. I'm not sure if they are really good or if I'm just that bad, but Sam had me in check mate in seven minutes the other day. Travis challenged me next and I did last a little bit longer than seven minutes but after being whipped so badly by Sam I had decided to really concentrate and try to do well. He also may or may not have shown me a little mercy a few times... They are sweet boys who genuinely like it when I'll sit at their table and play with them, but their ultimate challenge is Daddy and they both eagerly await the day when they can best him. And secretly I think he kind of looks forward to that day, too.

Their own little chess club joy...