Leah Claps and More Happenings...

On December 6th it snowed.  The boys were so excited to get out in the snow and play.

That night, Dennis had his monthly poker night at our house.  I am really starting to enjoy these poker nights as much as the men do.  I love the quiet, alone time.

The weekend was fairly uneventful.  On Sunday I watched Evan's CCD class at church because his teacher was out of town.  It was fun to see what they do during the class.  During prayer circle each child says something they want everyone to pray for and Evan said, "I pray for my Aunt who is going through a divorce."  It definitely made me tear up.  Sad that at 6 years old he had to be talked to about divorce and what that means.  He has such a big heart and is such an empathetic boy, that I know it has probably been on his mind a lot since we told him.

In happier news, on Tuesday, Evan had his friend Noah come home with him on the school bus for a play date.  This was a first for him and he really enjoyed it.  They did their homework and then played in the basement.  They were both very silly, I guess it is the age.

Wednesday, Leah and I visited the boys' school and had lunch with Evan.  I have to admit, he barely paid me any attention.  Him and his buddies talked football the entire time!  It was actually really funny to hear how much they new and how animated they were about it all.  It was good to see that he has so many friends.

On Thursday, Leah clapped for the first time!  I was so excited to get it on camera too!  She was so proud of herself, and Logan was so happy for her too!

On Friday, we did a movie night.  I told the boys we had a surprise for them.  The movie was their first clue and then they could open a present under the tree, which is their second clue.  We watched the Polar Express and then they opened up gifts which were Christmas PJ's.  They couldn't figure out the clue, so I said it was somewhere we were going to go.  We then told them, we had tickets to go on a Polar Express train ride and see Santa!  They didn't believe me, I had to show them the confirmation email with the tickets!  The ride is on the 21st and we can't wait!

Update on All Four and Thoughts on Being a Parent.

Leah is getting very chatty.  She says Daddy all the time now, especially to Dennis, so I am pretty sure she knows what she is saying.  She is getting in some more teeth.  Last month she got her 4th top tooth and this month it looks like she is getting her 3rd bottom one, if not the 4th too.

Leah is cruising around furniture and I have seen her let go and stand for just a second without holding on.  She is sleeping longer than ever at night.  She goes to bed around 7:30 or 7:45 and sleeps until about 8 in the morning!  This is pretty awesome for my kids.  Usually she just wakes up and plays or sucks her thumb in her bed, so I don't even know exactly when she wakes up.  I just eventually open her door to see if she is up and she will give me a huge smile and stand up.

Since Thanksgiving she has started sucking her thumb a lot.  I'm not sure if it is just because of the teeth coming in or if this is a new habit.  But, it keeps her content and she soothes herself with it, so I am fine with it.  Evan and Logan both sucked their thumb at some point, but both stopped on their own by the time they were two, so hopefully she will be similar.  She is now no longer nursing, so it could be related to stopping that.  She is taking whole milk in a sippy cup and is doing great!

Colin is doing well in school.  The Challenge class is for sure more challenging.  He is even putting together power point presentations.  It is very impressive.  It is fun to see him grow up and become more independent and slowly more responsible too.

Evan is doing wonderful in school as well.  I have been so lucky that school comes pretty easy to both of them.  Evan is still at the age that he wants to rush through his work to go do screen time or play, but overall, he is doing great.  We continue to be amazed at his memory, especially with football.  He was telling us the other day that in 1988 the Redskins played the Broncos in the Super Bowl and the score was 42-10.  Dennis had to look it up to see if he was right and he was!  Evan says he "saw it on TV once when they were talking about Shanahan coaching the Bronco's".  Maybe he will be a football announcer one day?

Logan is doing well too.  He is a pretty easy kid a lot of the time.  But, is incredibly independent and wants to do everything himself.  Unless he wants attention, and then suddenly he says he needs help.  He has fussy times, but can also entertain himself pretty well.  He is usually the first one awake in the mornings, but will wait until he sees Colin or Evan come out of their room as a signal it is time to wake up.  All 3 wake up sometime between 6:40 and 7 am usually.  And take turns being the first up.  Occasionally, I will have to wake one of them up at 7:10 to get ready for school, but most days they are walking out of their room at 6:45am (which is the time we make them stay in their rooms until).  Logan is becoming so loving toward Leah.  He gives her snacks and kisses and cuddles with her.  He is starting to really embrace the big brother role.

They are all growing so quickly.  They are a lot of fun, very affectionate and kind.  They are typical boys and are active and have their hands on each other more than I would like.  Raising multiple sons is not an easy task, especially for someone like me who likes a quiet, clean home.  But, there are lots of rewards that go along with it too.  They can all be very nice to one another when they want to be.  I think they all have big hearts and they are growing everyday to be thoughtful young men.

I never knew parenting would involve so much self doubt.  Every time they do something bad I automatically think what am I doing wrong.  And then they will do something so sweet or thoughtful and loving and suddenly all is right in the world, and it feels like maybe we will make it through this ok afterall.  I never really understood what a roller coaster ride parenting would be and what a humbling experience it is.  Despite the craziness, the tears, the tantrums, the yelling, the physical activity, the exhaustion, I am truly enjoying being a Mom and there is nothing I would rather be doing or want to be more.

When we returned from Virginia, we pulled out our Christmas decor and put up the tree.  Once again we chose to put up our small artificial tree, since we will be traveling for Christmas.

Thanksgiving in Virginia.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  The day before we kept the boys out of school so we could fly to VA.  We saved about $750 by flying out of Columbus instead, so we drove the three hours there and then took the flight to DC.  Logan was excited for the plane, since he didn't remember flying before. When we had a bumpy landing he yelled out, "Ya Hoooooo", I heard a couple chuckles from other passengers.  Leah did pretty well on the flight, though I am glad it wasn't any longer.  Toward the end, the lack of a nap caught up with her and she got a bit fussy.  On the way home she was even fussier.  Most the time though, I was able to entertain her with snacks, water, books and small toys.  She also liked to look at the passengers around us.

Wednesday, after we arrived we went to see Dennis' friend Charis and her family.  She made us dinner and it was great to catch up.  That evening Dennis drove over to my sister Julie's house to play Catan with them.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving lunch at Grandma and Robert's house.  The boys had fun with Miranda and even got to see a goat that had showed up at the house!  Then we went to Julie and Phil's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  Leah (and I), were surprised to see that they had a cupcake cake for her birthday and she got to open up presents from all her aunt and uncles.  That evening, after we took the kids back to Grammy and Grandpa Pritchards and put them to bed, Dennis and I went back over to Julie's to play Catan with them (and David and Fanchon, who were staying there).

Friday, I went to a good friend of mine, Nikki's, parent's house and caught up with her and another friend, Kim.  It was cute to see 9 kids all playing nicely together.  One baby girl was only 2 months younger than Leah and they were very cute together.  While I was doing that, Dennis got picked up by his friend Jeremy and met his cousin Shane for lunch.

Nik with Tatum (Kim's daughter) and Leah

Then Friday night my parents babysat so Dennis and I could go out to dinner (Rio Grande) and then David, Fanchon and Phil came over to play Catan with us and my parents.

Saturday, we met up with Dennis' friends, Tasha and Keith, and their kids for lunch and then went to Holly and Pete's new house in Elkridge, MD.  All my family was there to hang out, watch football and eat dinner.  It was a fun day.  The kids and Dennis also went with Pete to get a tour of his fire house.  That evening Dennis went to Julie's again for Catan, I was exhausted so went to bed just a little after the kids did.

Sunday morning we flew back home.  Dennis and I both said multiple times that it was a great, successful trip in that we were able to see lots of different people and yet none of it was rushed or too crazy.  We also got in lots of Catan playing which is always fun too!

Evan's Thanksgiving Performance, Logan's Conference, and Leah's 1 Year Well Visit

This morning Evan had his school Thanksgiving program.  Dennis had planned on working from home and coming with me, but Colin was picked up from school early yesterday due to a fever.  So, Dennis had to stay home with him and Logan, while I went with Leah to the show.

Evan did a great job!  I got there super early so I could get a front row seat, because Evan had said he would be standing near the bottom of the stands and I wanted to be able to see him and video tape.

Last night, I had Logan's parent teacher conference.  It went very well.  She said, "I have no concerns with Logan".  He plays well with other kids, is helpful, is doing everything he should be doing and is really interested in learning.  She was especially impressed with his fine motor skills, which I attribute to being the third child and wanting to do everything, "by myself".   Just the last few months he has really started to enjoy drawing and also learning his letters and numbers.  The other day after Evan read to me he said, "Now can you teach me to read?"  I love his enthusiasm, but I explained to him he has to start with learning what sounds the letters make!

Leah's 1 year appointment went well.  She is very small still and not even on the charts for height and weight.  She is 16 lbs even and 27 inches tall.  Her head is 30% though :-).  Her doctor says we will have a better idea at 2 years old if she is going to always be small or not.  She is meeting all her milestones though, so we couldn't be happier.  The doctor suggested we try and give her her milk after meals instead of right when she wakes up, so that she will eat more at meals.  However, I tried it one day and she not only ate the same amount of food, but was also not interested in the milk, so I made the decision to stick to what we were doing before.

Leah's 1st Birthday Party.

Leah is the first baby we have had that we were away from family for her first birthday.  So, we knew that we still wanted to make it special for her.  We invited 5 family's from our neighborhood to our house for her party.  I did a lady bug theme.  We had a pasta dinner and some cake.  The kids mostly hung out in the basement.  I also made a banner of a picture of her from her whole first year and I think it turned out pretty great.  I couldn't get a good picture of it though.  Dennis wanted to take a break from making cakes, so we got a bakery to make her a cake and a matching smash cake.

I thought Leah would be overwhelmed by all the people, but she was great.  She was even calm when we were all surrounding her watching her eat cake.  She loved it!

She got lots of nice gifts from our neighbors, they were very generous!  She is enjoying all of it, but I have to admit her favorite toy is still just holding a Lego piece or especially the Lego people.

Today, the first graders at church had their retreat.  I volunteered to help and ended up the leader for Evan's group.  I got to lead them to each of their stations.  They were putting together snack bags for kids at a shelter and made a few crafts to go in it.  Evan really enjoyed the retreat.