A Baker's Dozen: Daily Life in a Large Family

Christmas Eve and Funny as Ever

It is Christmas Eve and my yummy foods are being prepared. Adalia is making cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow, and Judah and  Tilly are about to start some snacks for tonight. And the rest of my children? Well, they're being as funny as ever.

This morning Tucker (6) came up to me and said: "I think it's gonna be a pretty bad Christmas...cause our LEGO mini-figures are gonna have a battle!"

Why yes, that is twenty-two pounds of organic peanut butter that Tilly's snacking on.

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I came back from my run this morning and Kalina said, "Did Dad go running with mom?"

"No" I said "Dad was downstairs paying bills".

After a moment's pause Jubilee (9) said, "Oh! I thought you said Dad was downstairs taking pills."

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I gave Chuck a haircut this morning and Apollo was sitting on my lap when Chuck got out of the shower. He kept saying "Dada! Dada!" and I said, "yes, that's Daddy". Finally, Apollo grabbed my face in both his hands, looked me in the eyes and said insistently, "DADA!" and pointed.

Finally it dawned on me. "Oh, Daddy got a haircut. It's okay, you can go see him. Go touch his hair." Then he climbed down and timidly touched Chuck's hair and was finally reassured that it was okay. Such a bright little boy! 

Almanzo's Travels

Instagram photo {username: littleearthing}

The other day after Cub Scouts Hezekiah had his friend Ian over to play. I was sick in bed, just down the hall from where Ian, Hezekiah and Tucker were playing (Chuck was home- I wasn't neglecting other people's children. Or child. Or neglecting my own children for that matter. Oh, nevermind). Anyway, since we still don't have a door on the Yellow Submarine, I could clearly hear everything they were saying. 

The three boys, ages 6, 7, and 7 were discussing reading the Advent book Jotham's Journey. Tucker said we were reading it and Ian said, "Hey, we're reading that too!".

Then Tucker said, "Yeah, and last year we read Almanzo's Travels!" 

"We did too!" said Ian.

Too bad the book "Almanzo's Travels" doesn't exsist. 

But we have read Tabitha's Travels and Amon's Adventure. 

 

Need a Laugh?

A couple of months ago Jubilee (8) came up to me and said, "Mom, you know how you're always saying, 'Ted Bundy said this' and 'Ted Bundy' said that?"

Ummm...no, I did not, in fact, recall walking around quoting any serial killers..Her statement disturbed me and it must have shown on my face because she kind of shrunk away and pouted. I tried to get her to tell me what she was going to say, but the doors of communication were closed at that point.

Weeks went by and one day she announced, "Oh, it's Gavin de Becker! That's who I meant to say you were always quoting". Whew...I was worried for a bit there.

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Just this week in the kitchen Avi and I started talking about being mean. I pointed out that people don't want mean girls to be there friends and men don't want to marry mean ladies. Without skipping a beat, she said, "Yeah, they're not like, 'Hey, marry me you evil witch!'"

_________

Recently Tucker was heard yelling, "Two drunk people killed a fox with machine guns!"

Um...okay

On his birthday he came up to me and said, "Birthdays are all about LEGO, right mom?"

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Anything funny happening your way today?

 

Final Plea

Apollo XIV, 15 months

{Well, my friends, we have made it to the very last day of voting. Soon A Baker's Dozen and Apollo XIV will either be the Top Big Family Blog...or the second best Big Family Blog. A sincere thank you to everyone who has voted for my blog, it has been a very close race. So here's my final plea: I have a lot of blog readers...if you're reading this now, please take the time to click over to Circle of Moms and vote for me. If each one of you takes the time to vote once today, I could move in to the lead.}

So, we're doing a major room shift, flip-flop kind of thing over here this weekend. And let me tell you, it's been a bit crazy. Photos will follow, I promise, but I've been far to busy (and things have been far too chaotic) for me to update as we go along. But in the midst of chaos, I have discovered on the my favorite scrapbooks..the one where I share those oh-so-funny things kids always seem to say..and alwayas at the worst possible moment. Mind if I share a few?

Here we go...

One evening during dinner when Judah was about four years old, we were discussing miracles and giving examples when Judah piped up with: "If Daddy said, 'Judah clear the table' and I said 'yes, Daddy' that would be a miracle!"

Just after Adalia turned seven we were at dinner joking with her Great Grandma about doing the dishes. Grandma said, "Adalia, you'd help me, wouldn't you?" to which she replied, "Well, I would Grandma, but you need to learn to do your own work!"

One day when Enoch was four, he bumped into me while running through the kitchen. Without a word to me he went into the dining room and said, "Hey, guys! I just bumped in to that pregnant lady in the kitchen."

And speaking of pregnancy...when I was eight months pregnant with Hezekiah, Kalina, age three, was in the bathroom with me. When she saw me get out of the tub she said, "Mama, you have the biggest bottom in the whole world!"

And who could ever forget the story of Kalina, age four, coming out of her bedroom one night scared because she heard a noise and thought it was a tornado...when I asked her where in the world she heard about tornados (since the Pacific Northwest isn't exactly noted for them) she replied, "When Daddy put us to bed he said it looked like a tornado had hit our bedroom!".

Umm...thanks, Honey.

Ah...I could go on and on.  But I won't. 

If you have a funny story from your of your little ones, I'd love to hear it!

Books and Breakfast

I don't quite know if I'm cut out to be a "school" mom. I feel like I'm always three steps behind and never quite know what's happening. Yesterday Mordecai's school hosted a Books and Breakfast event. The idea was to show up and enjoy breakfast and read books with your child. No problem. Where the confusion came in was that the flier said the event was from 9-10 am...okay...but Mordecai doesn't get on the bus until 8:50. So was I supposed to send him on the bus, then rush off to the school the second it left? I sent a note to his teacher asking about it and the response was: "You can bring him or have him ride the bus. He gets here at 9:15, so if you want you can just meet him here". Maybe I'm a bit dim witted, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to send my son on a bus at 8:50, immediately drive to the school so I could be there by 9, then wait for him to show up at 9:15...so I drove him to school, along with a small sampling of brothers (siblings were invited).

At any rate, I like his school. It is small enough that you could know everyone by sight and has a small town community feel to it. I was able to chat with the mom of a boy in Mordecai's class who, it turns out, I met back in my La Leche League days. That would have been more than ten years ago! Small world. This mom asked if Mordecai was autistic. I immediately realized it was because she was trying to figure out why he is in the Intensive Learning class...out of seven kids he is the only one who's disabilities aren't outwardly visible. 

Poor Mordecai apparenlty did realize yesterday was a school day, because once we were done with breakfast and reading, he had his coat and backpack on and was ready to leave. Poor guy. He was in for a shock when I told him it was a school day and he was staying.

And speaking of school...have I ever told you my children are hilarious? And I love them immensely and pretty much think being a stay-at-home homeschool mom is the best thing ever? As part of our parent partnership program, my children have to answer an email survey every week to keep up with their supervisor. The older kids do this entirely themselves and I either type for the younger ones or have an older sibling help...because of this my children's answers are sometimes a suprise to me when I recieve the response from their superisor. Check out this sampling from this week's questions:

This was from seven year old Hezekiah's survey:

Think of a problem you have learned about in social studies lately and an action that was taken to solve that problem. Do you think the problem was solved in a good way or could there have been a better solution? Please explain.

Rasputin was a big problem, at first they tried to put poison in his wine and food, and then they tried to shoot him, and then they threw him into the river. Someone could have distracted him, and they could have just chopped his head off. 

And here's one from Kalina, age 10:

Pretend that you are a scientist who has recently made a discovery. What did you discover? How will you let the world know about your discovery?

I discovered a cure to the black plague, I will test it and release it.

Give an example of something you learned about in science that has surprised you.

That you have to squeeze so hard to get the milk from the goat's teats.

What I wouldn't give to be able to see the look on their supervisor face as they start reading my children's answers... 

{Don't forget to vote! I've just barely been in the lead for the last two days! Voting ends October 3}

School Days

I think it's safe to say Apollo (14 months) has the routine of school days down.

Last night after dinner Apollo found Mordecai's lunch box. He put his water bottle in it, closed the lid and clapped triumphantly. He then grabbed the lunch box and went into the other room and grabbed Mordecai. He took Mordecai by the hand and led him outside....and all the way up the driveway to where he meets the bus saying "bye-bye bye-bye bye" the entire time. I followed closely behind but left enough distance to watch, so I could see exactly what he was doing. Once they arrived at the top of the driveway, I grabbed Apollo and we said good-bye to Mordecai. I asked Mordecai to wait until we were in the house then to come in.

And to please hide his lunch box this time.

{Don't forget to vote for my blog over at Circle of Moms. I was in the lead all day yesterday....and am now 50 votes behind again. Thank you so much to every one who's taken a moment to cast a vote already. The contest ends October 3}

 

Heard In My Living Room This Morning...

Tucker: Mom, Mom! Apollo is playing with a choking habit!

A "choking habit", wow, that sounds bad!

Proud?

Do you ever have moments when you don't know whether to be proud or concerned about your children's knowledge? The other day we were driving in our van and the radio was on. The newscaster mentioned Charles Someone-or-Other and Tucker piped up saying:

Charles Van Doren? Did he just say Charles Van Doren?

To which Hezekiah replied: 

No, silly, he said Charles Manson!

I promise you, Hezekiah has neither watched the movie nor read the book Helter-Skelter. 

At least I know they're learning history. Right? Come one, someone agree with me here...

And speaking of learning, I can brag about my children on my own blog, right? I took seven of my children for their yearly mandatory testing yesterday. You've read all my posts about delaying formal learning, blah, blah, blah....then can I mention six year old Hezekiah scored at halfway through fourth grade on the math portion of his test? Must be from reading The Number Devil and Life of Fred books...

And not to leave the others out, all seven who tested (Adalia down through Hezekiah) were "above grade level" if that kind of thing matters to you. Kalina gained three years in reading (you go girl) and twelve year old Tilly got the highest math score, testing at halfway through eleventh grade. But enough about that.

 

{Apollo Update: Thank you to everyone who has left a comment or emailed me about Apollo. I assure you I have looked into everything mentioned (from allergies, to asthma, to CF, to vocal chord disorders). I try to get back to all of you, but I don't always have the time to respond. Just know that I appreciate your insight. Apollo has an appointment scheduled to go see an ENT down at Seattle Children's Hospital on May 5th. While I don't exactly hope that they find something wrong, I would like some answers.

As far as his size, being small doesn't bother me in the least. According to my records, Kalina was only 17 pounds on her first birthday...the difference is she ate well, slept well and was generally happy and healthy. Apollo doesn't eat well, has trouble gaining weight, is sick a lot, a loud breather, is a horrible sleeper and very irritable...It's not his size that has me worried, but the overall picture. 

As always, I will keep you updated.}

Your Six Year Old Might Be Precocious If...

* He takes the following books to entertain himself during a long meeting: The Number Devil and The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide. And he actually reads them.

* He approaches you and says, "Mom, I felt something in my ear and when I stuck my finger in there was an unidentified liquid."

* Later that afternoon, after listening to a story he says, "But that means he was being hypocrite!"

Ah, my sweet son. Six years old and forty years old at the same time. I love this guy...

{FYI: due to sick kids I haven't even picked up my camera in days...so you'll have to get by in iPhone photos...}

Boneless and Courage

Meet Tucker. He's cute, vivacious, loud, wild and five. You won't miss this boy in a crowd. He's been totally cracking me up over here lately. The other day we were stopped at an intersection and we saw an armored car at a gas station. I pointed it out to the children and started explaining why it was armored, etc. When I was done  talking  Tucker said, "Mom, are the wheels armored too?" Obviously he was listening closely.

Earlier this week he came up to me and asked, "Mom, am I old enough to go to jail?".

And Saturday it was, "Mom, do they give you blankets and pillows in juvie-jail?"

At this point I became a wee bit concerned about his preoccupation with jail and his interesting  use of the nickname "juvie".

A little sleuthing let me to discover his thoughts on jail have come from a movie about Richard Wurmbrand, a Christian man in Romania who gets sent to prison and locked up for years because of his faith. And Tilly was nice enough to inform him that we call "kids' jail" juvie. Such educated children I have!

And speaking of the movie, which he obviously loves, it introduced an amazing new prayer in our house. Richard prays for "boldness and courage" to face whatever it is that comes his way.

As a result, it is not unusual in our house to hear Tucker pray at meal times, "Lord, please give us boneless and courage. Thank you for this food, Amen".