Back from the dungeon...

K, I'm now over the initial thrill of sewing. :) I am in the planning stage...looking at patterns, fabric, etc.  I really want to try my hand at making some simple summer dresses for my two girls to match this summer.  Can't easily find size 6 and size 12 months that match.

It has been awhile since I blogged.  I don't really know what to catch up on. 

Vanessa started up on her hands/knees crawling again today.  She has mastered the army crawl across the house, but today went for a toy in a different way.  It was fun to see her clumsily pad her hands and knees together on the floor in motion to get something. 

We had some friends over tonight, it was really fun.  The Hemmer family came over, and we fed the kids chicken nuggets and fruit before we ate our supper together.  It turned out to be a wonderful night ~ the food was yummy (Dave and Dennis BBQed chicken, I made twice-baked potato casserole, dinner rolls and cut up fruit, and the H family brought two Village Inn pies), company was even better, and all 7 kids played really well together.  Violet and Ivy changed into many dresses Violet owned including her white flowergirl dress she wore when she was 3.  It was incredible to see the dress be 5 inches off the ground instead of brushing the floor like it did when she wore it last.  Calvin and Evan played well, but not necessarily together.  Sylvie bounced around shrieking and smiling at everybody, and Vanessa and Silas even sat on the floor and "played" together.  The kids ran around every floor of the house and enjoyed themselves, we heard lots of laughter and very little screaming.  Good times catching up with good friends.

Violet has been talking a lot about God and death lately.  Her mind is spinning with thoughts and questions.  She has asked me a few times what are some things that God cannot do.  I was grateful for teaching on this subject years ago and the three things came to me right away.  God cannot sin, He cannot lie, and He cannot change.  I gave her those answers, and she said "Oh! Well that's good!"  She knows God can do anything, so she says "like what, mom? What can he do?" And every answer I give she responds with "really!? Are you serious?" and seems to be in awe.  She wants to know when she is going to die, how old she will be when she dies, how old everybody else will be when she dies, etc...all those questions are floating in her mind a lot (probably since she went with us to a visitation prior to a funeral a few months ago).

Calvin is a huge bundle of energy.  He runs almost everywhere he goes, he loves to push his trucks everywhere and at times, relax on the couch and watch a video.  His favorite latest toy is a little rocket ship which he is constantly "blasting off" into outerspace by saying "1...2...admission!" Which should be "3...2...1...ignition"...or blastoff...or something.  Full of sound effects and firing, exploding engines to complete the act.  He pretends the rocket ship's black jets on the back of the toy are burning hot and if we touch them we'll get burned.  He LOVES to roleplay and act like he's the baby.  Monday morning when I took Violet to school, Vanessa went down for a nap so it was just me and Calvin for an hour and a half.  I didn't really "play" with him, but I was talking in a play-voice the entire time.  He was all over the map, grabbing all his trucks, airplanes, etc and putting little wooden toy pigs, horses, and cows into them, acting like they wanted to do all sorts of things.  I pretended to be one of the animals and talked along with him whatever direction he wanted to go with the scenario.  I spent most of the time cleaning and loading/unloading the dishwasher and flipping laundry...the whole time pretending to be a cow in an airplane that was scared to go too high, etc.  I found it quite entertaining.

Violet is turning into a great reader.  She has a few simple books that she can read perfectly word for word.  Every day she asks what certain words and expressions mean.  She can sound out words very well and try read things that are too advanced for her.  She gets VERY frustrated if I try to help her or tell her what it is before she tries, so I'm very careful to not help her unless she asks for it.  I recently picked up a bag full of library books and both kids really enjoyed a silly book called The Baby Beebee Bird - about a little birdie who is new to the zoo and sings an annoying high pitched song only at nighttime, so all the other zoo animals can't sleep, and the next day they plot to annoy the bird while he is sleeping during the day with an annoying song so the bird stays awake, and everybody peacefully sleeps during the night when they're supposed to.  They ask me to read it to them all the time. 

This year is in full swing, I can not believe it is March of the year 2011.  Dave's job has gotten extremely busy, he is working extra hours and has traveled more lately.  Calix recently bought another company (Occam, their main competitor), so there are a lot of new employees joining his team ~ he had to make some personal connections with the new co-workers in Minneapolis this past week, and the week of the 14th, he is going to be in California for 4 days. 

Violet does not do well when Dave is gone.  She acts out more, and gets very weepy at bedtime when daddy is gone.  He always spends extra time with her at bedtime, telling silly and funny stories with her and talking about whatever shoots the breeze.  She really misses that time when he's traveling.  They talk on the phone sometimes at night but to her, its not the same.  If I can get Vanessa to bed before I put the other two kids to bed, I can do it sometimes too, but the weeks Dave is gone, I am usually looking to get them in bed as soon as humanly possible so I can get a break.  I love nighttime, and its the most relaxing part of my day...going to bed "on time" ... which would be near 10:30 is so hard.  I suppose life would be easier if I was an early-to-bed, early-to-wake-up person, but I'm just not.  I could be...if I changed my habits.  I heard somewhere it takes 21 days for something to become a habit.  I don't know if I could go to bed at 10:30 every night.  Here it is 10:47 pm and I'm wide awake wondering what I can accomplish. 

Calvin does OK when Dave is gone.  All he cares about is that daddy will come home.  He says "are you going to come home?" and is happy enough with a "yes" for an answer.  He's so goofed up with his perception of time (of course, he's just 3)...but the things he says are just too funny.  He says in all seriousness, "Mom, is it warm enough yet so I can go to the park?" I say "Not yet, we need to wait for winter to be all done, then it will be warmer outside.  I'll tell you when its warm enough, ok?" and he says " In 5 minutes, ok?"  Sure thing, Calvin. 

This spring, we hope to get the landscaping in our property majorly scaled back.  The amount of bushes/trees/flowers is just too much to keep up with.  We need to rip out a lot of stuff and replace it with grass, and only plant things that are super low maintenance.  We hope to put in some type of play equipment and a sandbox for the kids.  Playing in the sandbox was one of my favorite things to do when I was a child.  making castles, moats, etc was so fun.  Even though its super dirty play, I'm ready for it, bring it on...we have a hose.

I think that's about all I got for now...will write later!