All for One & One for All

Well, since my last post things have certainly developed.  I did receive a cute picture of the what I thought was a healthy Koen making his Japanese pottery.

As I mentioned, I found out that Koen was actually not getting through the cold very easily and when I took him to the doctor on Thursday morning we discovered he did have an ear infection.  Poor kid.  We had a tag-along for the doctor visit.  Penn was in a hilarious mood in the waiting room.  He and WebMD were running around checking everything out.  Koen and I were laughing our heads off (probably a little bit because we were slap-happy due to lack of sleep).

Since we were at the doctor's I decided to ask the doctor to check Penn's ears since he was battling the same cold.  Well, turns out our tag-along had an ear infection too.  Well, two ear-infected boys.  You think that'd be it.  But oh no.  After another almost sleepless night in which all 3 boys woke up at different points in pain despite Tylenol and Ibuprofen, it was clear that poor Tavin also had an ear infection.  So this morning I took Tav to the ear infection.  Yep, I was right, except he actually had a double.  Oh my goodness...all 3 boys with ear infections at once (hence the post title)!  That can't happen that often!  Tavin was miserable most of the day so he went to nap at 11:30am which left Koen and Penn and I together for awhile again.  Koen was working on some homework, so Penn wanted to "color" like his big brother.  He got a little moody though with lunch around the corner.  So one minute he was having fun.

Then he was getting whiney,

so Koen tried to get in his face and get him silly again.  Penn ended up pushing him in the face and you can see Koen's reaction of surprise and laughter.  And you can also see that Penn was mad/sad!

This all-over-the-place emotion is a good way to sum up our whole day.  These boys are a MESS!!!  Thankfully Koen and Penn are rounding the bend and Tavin is so good at being sick from all his experience with minor illnesses that he charges right through them, but still we are a bit of a wreck right now.  Here's hoping that tonight we all get a good night's sleep (especially this over-tired mommy who's hoping this blog post makes sense!)!

Another Freeze Day & Delay

What do you call a "Snow Day" with no snow and subzero windchill temps?  Well, I've landed on Freeze Day after briefly contemplating this blog post title.  I don't know when these cancellations started happening, but we never had Freeze Days when I was growing up.  I figure at this point (since we are on our third delay and second cancellation simply due to cold temps), we ought to make the most of it.  Yesterday was another Freeze Day.  Koen actually really needed the extra gift of another day at home.  This cold that has taken him down for days, then Tav, then Penn and now me, is a long, annoying one.  Koen in particular has a hard time vocalizing how he feels and often tries to act like nothing is wrong even though it is apparent that something is really bothering him (it comes off like a major attitude and willful disobedience and finally after he crumbles due to how awful he feels I figure out that most of the behavior issues are stemming from his rough physical status at the moment...poor kid!).  So, I'm glad he got another day to recuperate at home, even if it meant that Tavin and I took the brunt of these negative behaviors.  Tavin's preschool had a Freeze Day too, so I came up with one of my lists and we had ourselves a day at home keeping busy and warm and with plenty of time for resting.  

Since Koen and Tavin were at each other's throats most of the day, it was hard to grab any happy photos of us getting through our schedule for the day.  Thankfully "create!!" time was a big hit.  Tavin is learning about animals that hibernate, the Poles and arctic animals at preschool, so we made a polar bear in keeping with those themes.

Koen has several homework projects right now and one that he is particularly excited about is his "culture kit" for the Asia unit their class is doing.  He chose Japan from the Asian countries they are studying.  He has to design a box and then fill it with at least 6 items that have something to do with the Japanese culture.  He has been so interested in learning about another culture (and inundates Doug and I with new Japan facts almost daily).  He was very excited to learn that there are frequent volcanoes and earthquakes in Japan (he loves weather and natural disasters just as much as his father) and so I figured making a model of a volcano would make a great craft time activity and be a good item for his culture kit.  He loved the idea and took great care in making it.  I took some pics of the culture kit box he's been working hard on as well.

Later after the little guys were in bed, Koen and I worked on another project.  Doug received a few gifts for the boys anonymously on his desk at work on Sunday.  This was quite a blessing as it provided the boys and I with some fun distractions on these cold days stuck in the house.  Anyways, Koen and I got to do a U-Build-It Connect 4 game.  It's like Legos and a board game all in one.  First you build the game, then you play it.  It took us 45 minutes to put it together and then we played for about 15 minutes before we were both ready to relax a little.  Ha!  It was a fun activity for us though, so thanks to whoever that was that surprised us with the game and other things.  

That sums up the highlights of the Freeze Day on Tuesday.  I was thankful for the time to just hang out with the boys and tried to keep that perspective (and not lose it when their boundless energy had them bouncing off the walls or their high emotions due to their colds had them at each other's throats).  On Wednesday, the temps were still in the single digits so the school had a 2 hour delay.  Koen was very thankful that it wasn't a cancellation though because his class had a field trip to make Japanese pottery at the Union Project.  I was happy for the delay to give him some more time to rest as he tries to shake this awful cold that is definitely nagging at him still.  Before he had to leave I let he and Tav watch a Handy Manny.  Penn likes to pretend to watch (and usually drives his bros crazy crawling over them on the couch).

The rest of Wednesday was pretty quiet and restful and when Koen came home it was evident he was feeling lousy.  I gave him the option of missing swim lessons, but of course he said he was fine, so we went anyways (possibly not my best parenting decision, but how does one know how their stubborn 6 year old is feeling if they refuse to tell you?).  Tavin and Koen made a lot of progress in their lessons, but by the end Koen was a wreck and I knew he was still feeling the cold symptoms.  We got home and shared dinner with our friend, Lisa, who stays at the house while I take the big boys to swimming and she and Penn have hang-out time.  Penn has really warmed up to Lisa.  Even with me around he brings books over to her, crawls in her lap and loves to read with her.  How precious!

After our fun taco night meal with Lisa, we got the kids upstairs for bedtime.  Koen went on a downward spiral really fast.  Thankfully he and Tav fell asleep quickly, but starting at midnight one of them was up on the hour every hour with cold issues or not being able to sleep because of the other one's noise, etc.  Koen's problem was very, very evident that his ear was hurting terribly.  I'm keeping him home from school today and taking him to the doctor.  We all get very little sleep (except for Penn and Doug who slept through it all).  Hopefully this poor Koen can get some relief today when he starts on meds.  My heart just breaks for him.  

The Attempted Sunday Morning Photo

As you know, every once in awhile when we have a few spare moments on a Sunday morning and the boys are dressed well enough I attempt a few brotherly poses before we head out the door.  This was one of those mornings.  It was definitely more of an attempt than a success, but oh well.  Every picture with these boys tells something about their personalities or their moods, so I find them interesting to share anyways (I hope you feel the same or else you might as well stop reading now because there are quite a few attempts!).

Earlier that morning Penn and I had some playtime with his letters.  He cooked me up some alphabet soup.  He's so cute in this dapper little sweater get up that I couldn't resist sharing the photos.

He also found his way to my drawer where I keep my sunglasses (not that I've needed those in the last few months).  Such a cute little curious bug!

Well, that's all for now.  Hope you enjoyed my inundation of photos from this Sunday AM!

Snowy Saturday

Living in Pittsburgh the last few days has been more reminiscent of my New Hampshire winters.  Lots of cold, lots of snow.  The temps got up high enough yesterday (20's) for the boys to go out and shovel with Doug for awhile and then I sent them on a mission to scoop snow for a tasty experiment.  

Here's what the snow buddies brought in.  Isn't that snow gorgeous?  So pure and pretty!

So a few days ago I got a book entitled, Cold Snap, from the library as it seemed appropriate with the weather we are experiencing.  It's a funny little story about a town that goes through an intense cold spell like we are having.  At one point they use it to their advantage and use the frigid snow to make a special snack using pure maple syrup.  I remembered a similar treat back from my NH childhood when we would visit a maple syrup farm in the wintertime.  You are supposed to heat maple syrup to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, then pour it over cold snow and it is supposed to crystallize into a candy-like consistency.  I didn't have a thermometer, so I just had to guess on how hot the syrup was.  I don't think it was quite hot enough, but it still made for a delicious snack.  You can see what happened when I poured it in.  It pretty much made maple syrup ice cream.  It was delicious and brought me back to that visit to the maple syrup farm years ago.  It was intensely sweet unless you added more snow, so the boys and I could only eat a little bit before knowing it was enough, but it was still a fun experiment and special treat to enjoy on this snowy Saturday!

Fun with Friends during the Freeze

It is bitter cold here in the Burgh, but thankfully we have lots of friends to have over and keep the house filled with laughter and warmth (of the soul moreso than of this old house).  Wednesday we entertained all day long and especially enjoyed our morning with some little friends for the boys and Mommy friends for me.  Koen was delayed two hours so he even got to enjoy a little bit of the mid-week playdate fun.  Here's a few pictures I got with Xavier, Elizabeth and Everett visiting.  It was such a fun morning of catching up, watching the kids enjoy one another and staying put and not going out into the cold!!

Thanks for visiting, friends!!

Toothless Wonder

I totally forgot to post this on the blog last weekend, but it was very big deal.  Koen's second top front tooth was hit in gym earlier in the week and each day afterward it got more and more loose.  Well, on Sunday night he was complaining of how loose it was and that he couldn't stop thinking about it, so I asked if I could check it out.  When he showed it to me I could literally tell that it was hanging on by two threads, so I asked him if I could pull it out for me.  I was so proud of him because he threw such a fit last time around for his first front top tooth and it was such a battle.  But this time he went right along with the plan.  Tavin was so interested in this whole situation, so I made the mistake of letting him watch (and video it for Doug to see later).  I had no idea it would scare him so much.  Thankfully it was temporary, but he was wide-eyed and close to tears afterwards and asked me to never pull his tooth.  You can tell that Tav's the videographer because when things get interesting he totally forgets to point the camera at our faces and so you ended up looking at Koen's knees and my mid-section, but oh well.  I still had to include it for the sake of my brave Koen.  This is 100 times better than it was last time.  The video was too long, so I had to split it into two parts.

Although Tavin was upset afterward, Koen was thrilled.  He was so proud and so happy.  Check out these pictures of my toothless wonder!!  Good job, Koen!

It's Booster Time

Penn reached a major Melder milestone this morning...time to say goodbye to the high chair and hello to the booster seat!  He was so excited.  He's been squirmy in his high chair lately and I think he just knows he'd rather be at the table like his brothers, so today I figured was as good as any to let this kid have his chance.  He was thrilled about it (and Tavin was super happy to give up his seat and claim his place on a stool like his big bro, Koen).  Here are the two little guys hamming it up after the upgrade.  

After Tav's preschool dropoff Penn spotted some fruit in the fridge and then started majorly whining (we are reaching the tantrum stage).  Thankfully fruit is an easy give, so I just said, sure, you can have some cantaloupe.  You want to eat it in Tavin's booster seat?  And he immediately stopped crying, got up and walked over to Tav's stool and pointed to get up in it.  Yep, he's a fan of his new spot (and oh so cute in his cozy, wool sweater!).

Although these pictures are adorable and the event of Penn moving from a highchair to a booster seat isn't any huge baby to big boy milestone, but still my heart is sad as it sees it as yet another marker that this baby is growing up every minute of every day and soon and very soon he won't be a baby anymore.  Don't get me wrong, in so many ways I can't wait to see this little one grow up into the boy, then young man and then man that the Lord wants him to be.  But to be honest, I'm just in a place right now where it's hard to let this baby phase go, it's such a special time and a fleeting one.  I love you, Penn Rye!

MLK Day 2014

I think a few years ago I wrote a post on one of these Monday holidays a little embittered about how whoever made these holidays on a Monday didn't have kids.  It's still a little frustrating as it holds us back from our normal routine, but I gotta say that we are getting better at making the most of these extra days off.  Today makes a great example.  We had a nice family breakfast after which Penn and Doug read his favorite book about 10 times.  I love this phase where Penn is so into reading and labeling objects, etc.

About a month in advance or so, I made plans with a good friend, Adrianne, to have our kids hangout for the AM.  She homeschools and with Koen in school it's really tough to get our kiddos together.  I've been looking forward to this playdate for weeks and we all loved it.  Adrianne and I got a lot of chatting in because the kids were so happy to play together.  It was great to be at their place as my boys needed to get out of our house for sure.  Here are a few pictures I grabbed during our fun morning just watching the kids play and catching up.  Tav found some sports stuff.  He said he was a hockey player (he didn't realize it was a football helmet).

Carson is on the left.  He had a lot of fun following the big kids around, but he also took a big interest in Penn and hung around him, reported on him and just enjoyed him.  It was really cute!  Tav had been looking forward to seeing Claire and they enjoyed buddying up (especially since Koen and Owen spent a lot of time together).

One thing Penn really enjoyed was going up and down their staircase.  He was super comfortable at their house and didn't care being out of my sight or all the way upstairs without me.  I think this kid is working on getting over stranger danger!

Koen got a special treat of being introduced to the Wii.  He and Owen played bowling.  Koen was super excited that he won. =)  Look at sweet little Charlotte watching.  

I brought along some pumpkin bread that I made this morning just in case we needed a snack.  Of course the kids were happy to gobble it up.

I missed getting Charlotte in that first shot, so I got this precious one of her sweet smile.

Now there's everybody.  A happy crew!

Penn had Cheerios for his snack.  Charlotte was watching his every move.  Adrianne and I gave her a couple of Cheerios and then Penn started to do the same.  Then they were friends.

It was a great morning.  Thanks so much, Adrianne!  We've missed you and your crew, so it was great to have this fun time with all of you.  Thanks so much for hosting!  Can't wait until summer (for many reasons) so we can see each other more often again!

We headed home around noon, fed the boys lunch and then Doug took Koen and Tavin to meet Alex, Delia and Huxley (who we also do not get to see enough of during the school year) at the Carnegie Science Center.  It was free for all due to MLK Day.  Therefore it was crazy packed, but they still had fun and enjoyed the museum and probably moreso their time together.  Here are the pictures I received via text from Doug during their time there.  They are such sweet friends!

So, big MLK Day!  I think we spent it wisely.  My boys are going to be tired when they arrive home in a minute.  I'm headed to the kitchen to cook up dinner as I think we might eat a little early and get these boys to bed ahead of schedule!