Apollo at 13 Months and an Afternoon at the Spray Park

You know you have a large family when...

...your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
...people ask if you're competing with the Duggars.
...even your friends aren't sure how many children you have.
...your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
...two of your daughters go for a walk...and get asked by a neighbor if they're foster kids.
...you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that's how many it takes to fit everyone's name.
...you take the wrong child to the dentist...simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a "j".
...grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a "small" shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, "Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast..."
...you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies...but your children eat them all first.
...you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
...it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children's dental appointments.
...you've given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
...you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99.
...you find yourself thinking, "Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children".
...you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
...you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
...when you got to buy your children those cool "spin toothbrushes" because you think they get their teeth so much cleaner...but the store doesn't carry enough styles/colors for your children to each have a different toothbrush.
...when you can't take all of your children to the doctor's office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
...when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
...you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don't have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
...you take up more than one entire pew in church.
...you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they're all yours.
...you go to fill your children's flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have...and it's still not enough.
...you spend sixty dollars on socks...and not everyone gets new socks.
...you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you're having a soccer barbecue.

July 28, 2011

My poor skinny baby. Look at those ribs! We've been experiencing a much cooler than normal summer here in the Pacific Northwest with daily temperatures averaging in the sixties. Hence the wool hat and leg warmers. Recognize those socks, Marie? Still in use!

Yesterday Tami invited us to the park for a celebration for her two children's birthday. Nevermind that Everett's birthday was six months ago...she goes for efficiency if not accuracy. She was kind enough to provide yummy fruit popsicles.

And my children joyfully shivered their way though every last slurp.

Such troopers I have!

And such a trooper I am, photographing this sea creature looking thing that Enoch brought to show me. I heard a rumor that people eat these things. Ew.

The park Tami chose has a lovely spray area.

And now for some Apollo stats at 13 months.

Apollo's vocabulary now consists of: Mama, Dada, outside, ball, book, hot, night-night and bye-bye. He tries to say excavator (ex-a) and cat.

He can sign: eat, water, all done and nurse. He unfortunately learned to sign "nurse" (the ASL sign for milk) at the Children's Museum last week. So intent was he on showing off his new skill that he kept pulling off to make eye contact and sign. He has since added his own flourish of making smacking noises with his mouth, lest anyone miss what he is trying to say. So cute!

For those of you who have asked. I bought Apollo's amber teething necklace off of Esty. It's baltic amber and is supposed to help with teething pain. Whether or not it actually works is of course questionable, since we can't ask him. I will say this though, Apollo who is not a laid back take it as it comes kind of baby has never suffered from teething. At any rate it's awfully cute, don't you think?

{ETA: Here is a link to the Etsy shop, Balticamber, where I bought Apollo's necklace}

08:27 AM in Baby 2010 | Permalink