Growing up

I was so proud of Mr. 11 tonight.  Today at school someone in his class said something really mean and inappropriate to another kid in his class and this really upset him.  He wasn't involved but he just didn't like seeing someone else treated badly.  After some discussion about what was said (he refused to say it out loud but wrote it out for us and then wanted to burn the paper after we read it), he decided to talk to his teachers about it but leaving out all the names of the kids involved.  He sent an email to them asking to talk tomorrow morning.  To watch him really struggling with how to not allow injustices to happen but also wanting to be fair to everyone was so special.  

Family Movie

It's no secret that Mr. 3 is a challenging guy.  He is as strong-willed as they come - and we know strong-willed.  He has shoveled out most of the litter out of the litter box on at least 3 occasions.  He can now wiggle out of his car seat unless you cinch it as tight as it goes (I had told him that 3 year olds have to sit in car seats - not in the backseat in a booster - so now he tells me "I not 3" when we get in the car).  He refuses to sit in the stroller but will not hold your hand.  He will tell you "I run away" and then he really does take off and he is fast.  Today at Trader Joes he repeatedly ran away while I tried desperately to throw things in the cart.  He crosses his arms across his chest and will tell you "I frumpy.  It's a mad day."  

So sometimes, on the hard days, it's hard to remember that he is growing up.  Yesterday and this morning were difficult.  We had planned to go see Paddington tonight and even showed the kids the trailer last night.  We were not sure how it would work (we had tried Big Hero 6 but I ended up sitting in the lobby with him) but he seemed excited about the bear movie so we walked to our local theater, bought tickets, popcorn, and some cookies at our favorite coffee shop next door and kept our fingers crossed.

And he was perfect.  So excited, laughing at all the right places, telling me the bear was sad at the sad part.  We walked home through the cold with our happy kids recounting the parts they liked and drank hot chocolate when we got home.  Yes, he's growing up.  Maybe we'll make it after all.

Playmates

The cats were a huge distraction getting the boys of to school this morning. Every task required many reminders and I pulled Mr. 3 out of the little closet where the litter box (and Reason) were many times.  Very frustrating.

Now it's just Mr. 3 and me - and Rhyme.  These two are becoming happy playmates.   Mr. 3 will throw a toy over and over for Rhyme to chase.  Rhyme climbed up with us while we were reading books.  And now these two are happily following marbles down the ramps.

Christmas Eve morning

Complete with hugging until you fall down, a new instrument to play,
and a Christmas surprise scavenger hunt! We need to get a picture of
Mr. 9 flying his new quadcopter - he's getting pretty amazing at it!

Christmas fun

Christmas Fun

Silly cousins

Mr. 5 and Cousin F had a grand time together. One of the most
memorable is the long story they weaved all about the adventures of
Papa. Papa standing on the roof of the car, ziplining, shooting at
ducks, teleporting, playing with reindeer. They are quite a pair!

Starting the new year off...

This year we decided to travel over the Christmas break.  Now that the kids are in school, it's more difficult to get away so rather than Merpy Thanksmas we thought we would try just Merry Christmas.  We left on Christmas Eve after a morning of having our own Christmas celebration complete with Christmas surprise.  Each year we have planned a Christmas surprise for the boys - many involving late nights and lots of planning.  My parents will no longer visit us at Christmas after we had them up until 3am putting together bunk beds a few years ago.  This was a little more low key - a scavenger hunt where they each found a package containing cat supplies.  We're getting two cats - but not until we return from our trip.  The boys had a great morning and we managed to finish our packing and get out the door on time.

We flew to Chicago and spent the first half of the break there and then took the train to St. Louis and finished our trip with family there.  There were some great moments but Mr. 3 does not make staying in someone else's house easy and by New Year's Day we were ready to be back in our our house.  We said goodbye to everyone and jumped on the train back to Chicago.  We discovered train travel with our crew is great - if you subtract the craziness and stress of getting everyone and all our stuff on the train and finding seats together.  Once accomplished, the kids read books, play on their tablets, do puzzles (Mr. 5 is a puzzle guru), draw, and take lots of walk (Mr. 3's favorite part).  We had lots of snacks and even a picnic dinner to keep us well fed.  So far, so good.  

We arrived in Chicago at 8:30pm and planned to stay in a hotel right by Midway to make our early morning flight easier.  Step one, walk 4 blocks to the Metra and take the train out to Midway.  Unfortunately it was freezing and we had 4 tired kids and lots of luggage, but we rallied and everyone did great.  There was a bit of a shock when we realized there were 2 stories of stairs to climb outside to get to the train but we're brave and made it to the top.  When we arrived at Midway, it was a very long walk to the shuttle spot for our shuttle to the hotel.  So we missed the original shuttle they had sent for us.  And had a to wait in the cold for the next.  We handed out snacks and everyone cheerfully waited.  We got to the hotel and up to our room later than we would have liked but we were there and knew it was a short shuttle ride back early in the morning.

Unfortunately Mr. 3 was way too tired to go to bed.  While trying to get him to bed, all of our other kids fell asleep in our bed and so we decided he would just sleep with us.  Big mistake.  He spent the night waking up every hour or so and terrorizing one parent or the other.  This was coupled by a heating system that seemed to either continuously be on or off.  Our 4:30am alarm came quickly and everyone was super helpful in getting us back to the airport on time.  We grabbed a quick breakfast for the plane and loaded up.  All was fine until landing when we realized that Mr. 3 was not smelling so good.  We'll change him as soon as we get off we told ourselves.  As we were walking up the jetway, with David and Mr. 3 in the lead, the older boys and I noticed something yucky on the path.  One of them commented that it looked like poop.  I made sure we gave it a wide berth but it never occurred to me that it might be from us until I got Mr. 3 into the bathroom.  Yikes!  Once clear and dry, there was no way he could wear those pants.  And that's how we ended up walking through Logan with our 3 year old with no pants.  We picked up our luggage, fortified the boys with donut holes, put some pants on Mr. 3, and decided we would take the train home rather than a taxi.  An hour, one bus, one train, and one long cold walk later, we arrived home with much celebration.  Maybe next year we'll go back to Merpy Thanksmas.