Can No Longer Hide It

Last week Kate said, "Mom, you can no longer hide it. People keep asking me if you are pregnant and I am saying yes." I thought that was pretty funny and she is right. I am 24 weeks pregnant and it is obvious.

I got pregnant right away after Christopher's death and birth. That surprised us because I have never gotten pregnant so early after another pregnancy. The closest in the past was 5 months after a 1st trimester miscarriage. We certainly didn't expect it. But we are very grateful.

This is a very active baby. I have felt it move around everyday since I was 15 weeks along. That has been a wonderful thing for peace of mind. I have not seen a doctor yet, and I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do about it. I may end up driving 2 hours away for a birthing center if I cannot get in with the one ob here that is not associated with the medical school.

I do not want to go through the medical school. I did that with Kate at the University of Michigan and it was something between a horrible joke and a nightmare. Since this may be my last baby, I want to the birth experience to be as nice as possible.

This Week at Our House # 29

1. John had a busy week. He worked, he fixed our bed, put up a support for the air conditioning unit and mowed the lawn. He went to the beach with us, Thursday afternoon, and the Temple with me Friday night. John also walked several miles most days for exercise. He has been getting in regular exercise, and while he probably doesn't recognize it, he is sleeping a lot less. I think the exercise has given him more energy.
2. I loved the beach on Thursday. It was a bit of a spontaneous trip. Ruth needed to get in a couple of hours of driving practice, so I decided we might as well make the gas and time count toward something fun. We left at 3:30 so John could come after working. We got there late enough that we did not have to pay to park or wear sunscreen. The whole shoreline has changed since we were there on July 4th. The ocean is pretty amazing. The waves were very gentle this time. I took Suzy out and while she sang, "no, no, no," she sang it very happily and enjoyed being out in the waves. 
3. I suspect there will come a time when Ruth does not hate to drive, but I think that won't happen as long as she only has a 15 passenger van to drive. Ruth was reluctant to check her blind spot and acted like we were being unkind by suggesting that she does that every time she changes lanes. Finally, we just got frank with her and told her that checking your blind spot has nothing to do with parent child relationships and that every person on the planet that wants to obtain a drivers licence must check their blind spots.
4. Kate read books all week. She had fun at the beach on Thursday and babysat for us Friday night for several hours while we went to the Temple. 
5. Joseph got a boxed set of Fablehaven books from my parents for his birthday. When Joseph opened the package, Johnny immediately burst out and said, "That's not just for you. I mean we can all read it!" Clearly, Johnny wants those books!
6. Adam came to the beach and stayed in the water the entire time. He loves to swim. I don't think it much matters whether it is a pool, lake, or ocean, Adam just loves it. Adam has been practicing the piano everyday now. I have found that when I let my kids pick out their own songs to learn, they are much more likely to learn the piano and to stick with it.
7. Rachel's knee is slowly getting better. She can walk and run around without much limping now, but still has some pain. Rachel is becoming a much better swimmer. Since the water was very calm when we went to the beach, Rachel spent most of her time out above her heading floating on the waves. She always swam next to someone who could stand in case things got rough.
8. I read Ramona and Her Father to Anya this week. At first, she seemed annoyed that I was making her sit for a book, but then she rather enjoyed it and asked me to finish it for her in a day's time.
9. Joseph had his birthday on Wednesday. He is now 7 and will be starting the 2nd grade. That is somewhat hard for me to grasp. He got 2 legos for his birthday plus the box set of  books from my home, Johnny stayed home from the beach with Joseph and helped him build all of his sets. I think Joseph and Johnny felt like it was worth it.
10. Josh was not going to go to the beach. He said he did not want to go until we were all getting in the car, and then he changed his mind. Because people were already in the hot car waiting, he came with his regular clothes on. The pockets of his shorts filled with sand and kept nearly washing off. It was pretty funny. He loved the beach, just not the drive.
11. Arwen is excited for her birthday in a few more days. She will be 4 and she acts it. 
12. Suzy found one of Ruth's markers and colored all of her stuff including her lipstick. Suzy also put lipstick all over Ruth's giant teddy bear. Ruth was not too happy about it. 

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Happy Birthday, Joseph

Joseph turned seven on July 20th. He is a very energetic and very smart little boy. He loves to jump and wrestle all of the time. He climbs everything and everyone. He is very capable when it comes to doing chores and helping around the house. While he is very active and cannot sit still for more than a minute or two, I can rely on him to get things done, cook, and clean. Joseph has inherited his father's quit wit, and he is really good at playing with the meaning of words and turning them into jokes. We love the energy Joseph brings to our family!

This Week at Our House # 28

1. John's first week of work went very well. His boss and work place are good. Getting a hold of their data is easy, so he was able to get straight to work without any complications. He can work many of his own hours and from home or from the office, so it is a good fit for John and our family. We certainly feel blessed to have him working now.
2. I had a fairly quiet week. I spent much of Monday at the doctors with Rachel because she hurt her knee, but other than that, we mostly stayed home all week and enjoyed the air conditioning.
3. Ruth spent the week reading a book that I read and loved when she was 2 and looked forward to the day that she would be old enough to read it. Ruth and I have been talking about and working out details and things she will need for college. The time is coming fast. Ruth leaves in less than two months.
4. Kate was away at Girls Camp all week. She left early Monday morning and did not return until Friday afternoon. That is the longest we have ever been without Kate. We missed her chats, playing games, and helping hands. Kate came back with all sorts of camp stories. She was a 6-year youth leader and was over the 3rd year girls. She had lots to say about that. There was a cliquish group of girls and Kate befriended all the outcasts.
5. Johnny has been reading some more. He has the problem of not having enough to read, so he has been rereading several of his favorite series.
6. Adam seems to appreciate that we have realized that if Joseph gets hurt from him, it is usually after Adam has been very patient.
7. Rachel hurt her knee on Sunday night when Adam fell on top of her. Monday morning, it was quite swollen and she could barely walk, so I took her to see a doctor. Nothing is broken, but she is still sore and having trouble walking. I am not sure if I need to get it reevaluated or just give her more time to heal whatever happened. 
8. Anya has a cute imagination and she is often telling me about some pretend thing she is currently involved in.
9. Joseph was just as active and jumping and wrestling as he always is. His 7th birthday is coming in a couple more days. He is pretty excited about that. He wants chicken sandwiches for dinner and a store bought chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream.
10. Joshua and all of the kids made Temples out of smore's during Church today. Josh would not eat his because he did not have time to finish it, but his was very structurally sound. Every one else's was falling apart, but Josh's fell down twice on the way to the car and did not come apart at all. We weren't terribly surprised as Josh is our builder. He builds with blocks and legos all the time and is very good at it. John had a funny conversation with Josh. Josh does not pronounce his r's and l's very well. He told John that he made up some new "woows". John could not understand him and asked him a couple of times what he made up and Josh finally said, "Woows, you know, those things that ground you."
11. Arwen is excited for her upcoming birthday. She asks me everyday if it is her birthday. She has about 10 more days and she will be 4!
12. Susan had a fever all day of Thursday. She woke up crying "ow, ow, ow". She was pretty miserable unless she was watching tv. I am really grateful for tv when I have sick little kids. It helps so much, But because she was not feeling well, Thursday was a very calm day. No one had to chase her down or keep her from getting into things and she only cried about feeling sick.

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This Week at Our House # 27

1. The employee that is starting John on his first project is on vacation, so John does not start work until Tuesday the 12th, He has been enjoying his last week before he starts work again. Of course we are all very happy that he will be starting work including John. A huge burden has been lifted. 
2. The 4th was fun, and then on Tuesday it got hot-- very hot. I believe the house got up to around 100, but the thermostat does not go above 90. After checking the weather forecast, I was pretty sure that July had hit in full force and it was not going to cool down. John and I had talked about buying a window air conditioning unit. We thought we might wait until payday, but the heat hit hard. We had been surviving okay, because it had been cooling down every few days. Well because John did get a job, and the house was so very hot, I gave in and bought an a/c unit on credit. Hopefully that will not turn out to be a bad move. In the meantime it has been heaven. We bought a large capacity unit and it cools the entire house in a couple of hours and it does not run 24 hours a day. We expect it will be much more cost efficient than the old unit that came with the house. I have now been off Facebook for a couple of weeks. John has told me there has been a definite difference in how I interact with the family, but I didn't really believe him. I asked the kids and they said things like, "You do more with us now." "You listen to us when we talk to you." "It is so much easier to get your attention." So while I miss my friends, my kids have spoken. I will continue to stay off Facebook for a long period of time. 
3. Ruth had a friend over for a movie Friday. She and Kate cleaned up the house and made some treats all for the one friend.
4. John read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson to Ruth, Kate, and Johnny finishing on Thursday or Friday and that is still pretty much all Kate is talking about. Kate goes to girl's camp this coming week alone without Ruth for the first time. We will miss her a lot. She will leave Monday morning and not return until Friday. Just from what we have heard, camp will definitely be a different experience here.
5. We decided to watch a movie, The Hulk, 2008 with the older kids on Friday night. The trailer terrified Johnny as a 7 year old so he refused to watch the movie with us as a 14 yr old. He wasn't scared of anything we got him to watch, but he was having terrible anxieties about his 7 year old anxieties. I am not sure if we were more humored or more worried by his 14 yr old reaction.
6. Adam made up this terrible game where he and most of the younger kids wrestle while Adam sets up his camera video taping it. I tell them to stop and that this is a horrible game and they just tell me it is not a game and they are not fighting or being too rough, they are just making a video. :P
7. Rachel has been better about helping around the house this week. She has picked up a lot and taken care of other things. Sometimes is it volunteer and other times it is by force. This week without Kate will give her more opportunity for service in the home.
8. Saturday I told Anya to go outside and play. She said she did not want to. I reminded her that she spent most of her time outside before we got the air conditioner and asked her why she would not go out now. She said, "I don't want to go out because it is boiling, boiling, boiling." I said it was boiling before and she replied that it was colder outside before. 
9. Everyday Joseph antagonizes Adam. He kicks him and jumps on him and wrestles him and teases him. Eventually Adam fights back. Adam is older, and bigger, and stronger and always hurts Joseph. At that point Joseph comes crying to me about Adam hurting him. It's frustrating to know exactly what to do about it.
10. Joshua is Joseph's other wrestle buddy. If Joseph is not on top of Adam, Josh is on top of Joseph.When Joseph is on top of Adam, Josh is upstairs building legos. Josh does three things. He wrestles Joseph, he eats cereal and sandwiches, and he builds with legos. 
11. Since we put the air conditioner in Arwen has been sitting on me for hours on end. She wiggles constantly, so it gets old fast. But I am glad that she is getting the affection she needs. I was pushing her and everyone else away while we were all covered in sweat so constantly. Now I have kids back on top of me all of the time.
12. Suzy is driving me and everyone else nuts. She will not keep her diaper on and she keeps playing in her poop. I did get her to poop in the toilet one day. The rest of the days it has been a huge, horrible mess. She is also throwing temper tantrums and sassing everyone. Johnny closed the front door so Susan could not escape out into the road, and she followed him around red faced, stamping her foot and yelling, "bad, bad, bad." She called Adam a jerk 3 times and she told John to shut up. We are really having to clamp down on this behavior. I have banned the words shut up from the house and I am trying to get all of the kids to stop laughing when she acts this way. The rest of the time, she is my little shadow. She brings toys and books for me to play and read to her. She always comes to me when she is crying or upset asks me to play wheels on the bus on youtube for her. I don't always comply. Today I told her she should ask her sisters to play with her when she brought me a couple of ponies just as I was about to start cleaning. We tried getting Arwen to play with Susan, but Arwen just ran away with the ponies and left Susan crying. Anya then came and played with Suzy for a few minutes. All I can say is that baby is sure a hand full. Whenever I go out in public with any number of my kids, people tell me I have my hands full, but right now I would say that my hands are full with one very energetic and willful two year old.

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4th of July 2016

The past 7 years, we have spent the 4th of July at the annual Robertson family reunion. This year that was not even a remote possibility. But we were actually happy to have the holiday to ourselves for a change. Still, I worried that I wouldn't be able to make it fun or meaningful enough for the kids. In the days previous, I looked up where local city fireworks would be held and made some plans. To our surprise, everything went perfectly and we had a wonderful day!

First we played some games together in the morning, and then we had our big feast for the day at lunch time. Our 4th of July feast consisted of watermelon, corn on the cob, and steak. The watermelon and corn were sweet and the steak very tender. Everyone loved it. The only problem was they wanted more.

Once the house was cleaned up, we spent time reading and discussing the importance of the Declaration of Independence. We have read it together every July 4th since the second year of our
marriage.

Around 2pm, we headed to the beach. We knew it would be a big day there, so we wanted to start a little late. We stopped at the store for some snacks to get us through the rest of the day. We drove through a rather large rain storm and wondered if we should have checked the weather ahead of time. The sky was very dark for a good hour of the drive, but by the time we got to the beach, the storm had cleared.

The beach was amazing. We found a fairly secluded spot away from the crowds. The waves were amazing-- bigger than we had ever seen them. I think they were rising between 6 and 8 feet. I would walk to where the water was up to just above my knees and the waves would still come crashing over my head. Some of them were so powerful they would send me into a backwards somersault.

It was fun. We had to be cautious about it was fun in the same way an amusement park is fun. The little kids all loved the crashing waves. They would catch the waves and ride them on their bellies into the shore. Even Arwen and Susan who usually stay out of  the water enjoyed riding the waves.

After 7pm, we left the beach and went to a park near the shore to snack and await the fireworks. The park was a fun wooden park with pathways and club houses and lots to climb and do. The kids have not been to a park since November, so that was a big deal for them.

Once it got close to 9pm. we walked the family down a few blocks to a public beach access to watch the fireworks that would be set off a few blocks further on. The spot was perfect. It was pretty because it was right on the water, but it was not very crowded because it was still a little ways from the where the fireworks were being set off. The firewoks were lovely and then we walked back to the car and went home. We got home just after 11pm, Everyone needed to shower from the beach, so we showered all the kids before sending them to bed.

One nice thing about having such a big family is that we make up our own party and there are just enough of us that we never feel lonely.

This Week at Our House # 26

1. On Wednesday John had an interview in Emerald Ilse (a beach city) so we took the whole family down to the beach. The interview went well and on Friday, the company hired him. It is a contract position, but different than other contracts where there is one project and a set time when the contract will end. This is more like a job without benefits and commitments. John starts work next week sometime after the holiday, and he is very happy. The job will be right here where we are living-- not on Emerald Isle, though we would have loved that. It is a miracle that there was even a job that suited John's skills and background so perfectly that is not in a big metropolitan area. 
2. The sunscreen we purchased must have been old because it did not work and our family came home sun burnt except Susan who just came home very tan. We really enjoyed that day on the beach. We went to a section of the island where very few people were, so it was mostly just our family. The waves were huge and crashing, but it was easy to swim out beyond the break and then they were just fun. We will be heading back to the beach on Monday for the 4th of July, where we will also go and see some fireworks. John and I went to the Temple friday night. It's an hour and a half drive, so we have a lot of time to talk. We mostly spend that time talking about scriptures, gospel doctrine, and what we have been reading along those lines. I really love that time. As parents of so many children, we don't often get that much time to really talk to each other, and I think it is nice that we tend to fall into doctrinal discussions. 
3. Ruth got so very burnt at the beach. She decided to take a nap in sun. She has been walking around like a zombie since then.
4. Kate is reading the Lord of the Rings and another Agatha Christie book. She swam most of the time at the beach, so her sunburn was not as bad, though she is so tan now, I hardly recognize her. 
5. Johnny did not like the beach we went to this time. The water smelt more like fish than it does in our usual spot, so he was more timid about swimming in it. But I had swam out a ways and found a sandbar and Johnny joined me twice.
6. Poor Adam's face is so very burnt. He has a blister mustache and beard and even days later, he is still bright red. The poor boy. But since he had a good pair of swim trunks and a neck high swim shirt, his face is the only part that got burned.
7. Rachel, Kate, and I play skipo together every day. Rachel really loves this and wins a lot. She just has the best darn luck. I am not so lucky.
8. Anya burnt pretty badly too. But she has been out in the sun everyday since April, so the burn mainly tanned.
9. Joseph loves swimming! But he is very insistent that John or I take him out above his head. I will be glad when we learns to swim, so he can do what he wants without help. He is certainly too daring as it is, though. A little more confidence is not what he needs.
10. Joshua is still very whiney about breakfast every morning. Basically, we've had to get him food and tell him that if he does not eat it, he does not get anything else. He is usually hungry enough to just eat after some whining. He does make his own peanut butter sandwiches now, which is big for Josh because he still doesn't put on his own shoes or buckles his own seat belt, or unbuckles his own seat belt. Rachel was the same way.
11. Arwen makes her own peanut butter sandwiches too. But Arwen is capable and coordinated and very independent. Arwen loves to hug, but she strangle hold hugs. I am trying to teach her to be more gentle.
12. Suzy screams and cries a lot right now. She has hit that toddler stage hard. She is a sassy little girl too. This morning she pointed her finger at me and said, "Don't!". Suzy can now take her diaper off from under her onsie. She also likes to just sit on the toilet, so I give. I will start potty training soon. I don't like having to assist toddlers in the bathroom for a year, but I have never had a child so determined to quit using diapers. Plus, I have lots and lots of helping hands that can take her to the bathrooms. Hopefully, this will go well. But with her diaper coming off all of the time, it certainly won't be more disgusting than it already has been.

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