End of Summer Musings

 So, even my attempt to post every 2 weeks has failed...maybe I can handle once a month???  We've had a really last part of the summer.  Eric has nearly mastered getting everything ready before 7:30 AM Mass so that we can go straight to the beach.  John is not nearly as needy...or maybe he is, but he is content to just watch his sibling play and will even be soothed by them.  Last night I had laid him in his crib so that I could do something and I heard him start to cry...and then it stopped.  When I walked in, I saw Molly over him and he was just looking up at her with a smile.  As Molly put it:  "Look, Mom, I made John happy!"  And it is very true.  Obviously there are things only I can do, but as far as entertaining John, that is a team effort and so far there are always willing participants.

 The Tour de France ended a few weeks ago, but it tapered off here through out the next week.  Dom had taught himself how to ride without his hands on the handlebars.  As someone who cannot do this, I was amazed.  He can pedal and everything.  Just like the guys in the Tour!!!  Naturally, the next step was to make jerseys.  As a completely incompetent artist, I handed him some paint markers and white t-shirts and told him to do it.  He loved this.  We were happy with the results...even if the King of the Mountain t-shirt looked like a used prop from the Godfather...

 Then, Eric came home and schooled us all in his free handing.  We've been married 9 years and I just assumed we were both equally incompetent.  But, it turns out, Eric is actually amazing at looking at a picture and recreating it.

 Not bad, eh? 

 Actual bicycle jerseys will cost at least $50 even for a youth, if not quite a bit more.  All four of these winners cost maybe $10...and I'm way overestimating on that.  And the kids are happy!  Oh, and Molly can ride on the trailer bicycle with Eric.  She loved it and wanted to go on and on and on.  Not unlike when some neighbor kids were running the hill in front of our house for training.  They were complaining until Molly joined in and then it became much more enjoyable.  She ran that hill in her skirt and pigtails at least 4 times always ready go again.

 John has reached the age where he can play with toys.  It is such a milestone.  The night Eric brought out the baby toy box was almost like Christmas.  We've had a lot of these toys since Dom was John's age.  The older three played with everything and John just quietly watched (he's already sharing so well!).  The older ones loved hearing me tell the stories of when and how we got the toys.  The pink toys were pretty obvious...And I have to say, having three older kids who actually enjoy playing with these toys and entertaining John really beats me having to sit on the ground and do it.  Man!  I wish I'd had three older siblings for Dominic.  Though, he's turned out alright.

 Our neighbors must have been doing an annual get-rid-of-things-we-don't-use activity and Molly was the lucky recipient of some great dress up clothes.  Isn't she beautiful?  Of course, now she would like me to dress up a little more, which I do try to do, but I drew the line at wearing heels to clean the kitchen.  Those are for vacuuming.

 I had the great idea that the kids should do self portraits just for fun.  Will likes to draw free hand, but Dom has inherited my genes...so I thought this might be a way to jump start his creativity in that department.  I loved the results.  And, again, I was blown away by Eric's drawing.  As I told someone, I just made sure I had brown hair...and in looking at this picture, I think I even screwed that up.  It looks a little red...As far as Will's picture, he drew his glasses as green, but he has already commented that he'll have to re-do it once he gets his new frames sometime in the next couple of weeks. 

Last week we officially started school.  With a soft roll-out.  It just so happened that on the day we began, two boxes of goodies came from Nana and L'Opa.  A bunch of souvenirs from Germany including World Weltmeister t-shirts and newspaper articles from Germany's victory.  The shouts of excitement were quite loud, and they grew louder still when Dom looked on the back of the newspaper page to find a Tour de France article!!!  Heads exploded!  Granted, we couldn't really understand anything, but maybe we can locate an 'Alles Klar' somewhere.

Also included in the box of goodies was a PuzzleBuzz for Molly.  She is very keen on wanting to do school...much more keen than I am to have her start.  PuzzleBuzz is a nice way to include her, though, as there are a few pages she can do on her own.  She immediately just plopped down and started finding her favorite pages.  Now, if I could just be organized enough to have it ready for her when the boys sit, we really might be on to a serene classroom situation!

 In the evenings, we've been playing a lot of games.  Lately, Sorry has been the favorite board game.  I don't know if there is a better game to teach good sportsmanship with.  We've had a couple of teary finishes, but Eric has gotten a lot better about losing.  I love that the boys are figuring out strategy.  Eric and I try to bite our tongues as they make minor tactical errors, but overall they do an excellent job.  As evident that Will has won twice, Dom once, me once, and Eric...never. 
  Another game we've played quite a bit is Flag Frenzy.  We've turned it into a Spot It type game only using international flags.  The boys are pretty amazing.  And since I am not as knowledgeable about the flags as they are, the games are quite close.  Speaking of countries, just the other night, I was amazed to learn that they know several international capitals.  It is finally paying off to have random atlases, almanacs, and encyclopedias laying around.

Friday nights are being designated as family movie night.  I needed to do something, so I sat John next to Dom the other night and seeing them both content, I just let him there.  The other two quickly joined their siblings.  We are very blessed to have four kids that are such good friends. 

And with that, it's time to change John and get the boys started on Math.  See you next month!