There have been many developments in our household since my last post. The largest and most noticible happens to be the improvement of relations between our youngest progeny. It appears that with the other two boys in school, they have no choice. They have to be friends.

Make no mistake. Violet has decided to accept William's offer of friendship, but she is still the queen.

The Queen turned two years old on November 4. Strangely, this appears to be the best picture taken of her on her birthday. This must be yet another casualty of being the fourth child.

Here is a much better picture of her the day AFTER she turned two.

Halloween happened too. Here we have Dabney (Peter of Narnia), Henry (Superman....again), William (Batman), and Violet Mae (Prima Ballerina).

Superheroes in motion.

This is our life....most of the time.

Kitty!!

This is for Violet's Aunt Rachael who purchased her little niece a special Kitty for Christmas last year...

The kids are leaving me in droves now! We transferred Henry to a private school and decided our introvert Dabney needed the social exposure as well. It was a good decision. They are both thriving there and I finally have 45 minutes of peace in a day. (Seriously. I get 45 minutes of quiet. But that's more than I had before!!)

As some of you may know, I have been sick this past week. This has been a sickness actually induced by the doctor. Thanks, doc. I was informed that there was a miserably large kidney stone I had to confront before it turned evil and tried to kill me. The doctor planned a preimtive strike. Unfortunately for me, this entailed anesthesia and a stint that has to remain for the entire week. In case you didn't know, THIS SUCKS!! I have horrible back pain and cramping in my abdomen. Women - this feels like labor. Men - you have no idea. The meds for pain make me feel cloudy and stupid. Stupid like: My friends from Houston called to say that the insane decision to STAY in Houston DURING A HURRICANE actually turned out okay. I was relieved and happy they called. Then, when the doorbell rang and Betty Kuipers was standing there with a meal for dinner, I suddenly thought "Oh! Tim doesn't actually want to talk to me...I need to get dinner...Ummmmm....Okay....bye Tim...Glad you're alive......this food looks GREAT!"


Yes.


Stupid.




.

Hope!

We have started the process of toilette training the youngest of our pack. We're out of diapers once again; so it's time. Is it really possible? Could it be? We've been purchasing diapers for 6 1/2 years. Just the notion of having all my children trained makes me giddy!!

Lost

Several weeks ago, I was sitting in the car at a stop light. All the kids were loaded in behind me. Henry was gazing out across the street considering a cemetary. "What are all those statues and flowers for Mom?" I thought about my answer. He's only six, so I tried not to be overly morbid. "People put those things there to remember moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and even kids whom they've lost." "Ohhh." This moment became just one of many lost moments in my memory....until yesterday. Yesterday, as I was waking up I found Henry's face precicely three inches in front of mine. Then he whispered heavily, "Remember mom, if you lose me, you can always put flowers and statues in that garden for me. But I will stick close to you and dad and I won't get lost."

The Most Miserable Day of My Life

The most miserable day of my life happened this week - on Tuesday, to be exact. Monday I was weepy all day. Monday night I couldn't sleep; I kept crying. I actually got out of bed to have some warm milk (like they do in the movies). What, you may ask, was making me so miserable? It may seem simple to you, but it was the first teeny tiny step towards independence from my son Henry. The very same step that I wanted him to make, that catapulted my thoughts and emotions towards the day when he is an independent man who no longer needs his mommy.

Henry started first grade.

In July, we went to visit my Grandma, Aunt Robyn, Uncle Mike and seven cousins who live in California. Yessssssssssssss!!!!!

Isn't my Aunt Robyn Gorgeous? And this is AFTER 10 days with the Peters...

Henry learned how to swim in my Aunt's pool. He was so proud of himself!

After all that hard work swimming, the children needed to rest and bathe in the sun.

I could live here.

William and his (second) cousin Michael were usually best friends. We won't mention the moments when they weren't.

Henry got to go for a ride on Tesa, Robyn's horse. (Ha! my friend Tesa will fiind this amusing..) I didn't have my camera on me when they all saddled up. Henry, Dabney, William and Michael were all sitting on Tesa's back. I think Tesa is glad we left too.

The night we got there, Thomas looked around and commented, "All these blonde kids makes me feel so ordinary."

It was hard to say goodbye, we had a great trip and miss them so much!!

A few days after we returned from California, Berdine (pronounced Berdina) arrived. She is the daughter of a brother of a girl who became like a sister when she was a graduate student and I was a kid. Got that? She's like family...

My kids still don't know how to treat guests. They just get so excited!!

Berdine is an excellent swimmer (I actually got to watch her take a swimming lesson when I was 18, she was just a kid and I was visiting Holland). Berdine helped Dabney get more comfortable in the water. My technique of throwing him kicking and screaming into the water is frowned upon.

While Berdine was here, we went all over the place having fun. We went to parks. We went to farms to pick blueberries. We went to the beach. We went to Boston and New York...

It was a sad day when we said goodbye to Berdina.