Portraits

Every year we take our kids portraits ourselves. Then we get them printed into 8x10's and hang them on our wall. These are this years. We think that the pictures came out better this year. We are very pleased with the results. All of our kids did very well.

Portraits

Adam and Boy

This is Adam's cat. He named him "Boy". When the kittens were born, Adam picked this one out right away as his cat because Adam's favorite color is yellow. Ruth dictated who would name each kitten and was generous enough to give the orange cat to Adam to name. At first Adam said his name is yellow cat. Then a moment later he dedcided the kitten's name would be boy. All of the other kids objected on the basis that boy is a ridiculous name. But I got the final word on the matter and declared "Boy" the official name, unless the kitten ended up being a girl. Well "Boy" was indeed a boy, and "Boy" has stuck. Boy has been the most handled kitten since they were born in early May because Adam was just in love with him. Adam sometimes is very sweet. Sometimes he will get a string and play with Boy, but sometimes Adam is very mean. We do have to keep an eye on Adam and Boy. We know that Adam would be heart broken if Boy died because he swung him into a wall or smothered him with pillows.

John has been worried that Adam will turn Boy into a fierce cat. But so far, Boy is gentle and sweet and very tame. Boy will just sit on people of his own accord. He will even just come up and greet you when you go out into the garage. Boy will sit and hang out with all of the kids when they are out on the grass talking or inside in a group playing Nintendo. Boy has only scratched Adam once and just on the finger. I think he will grow up to be a very tame and nice cat.

The name Boy has had some funny results. John and I have always wanted to name a cat "dog", but the kids would not have it. We feel satisfied with the name "boy" because it just seems similar enough. The other day I said to Adam, "Okay, boy, get out of the bathtub." Adam responded, "Don't call me a cat-- call me a people." So I said, "Okay, people get out of the bathtub." Adam, said, "Don't call me people." Well that went on a bit until Adam said, "Just call me Adam."

Anyway, we all love Boy and basically acknowledge that he is Adam's cat.

We have given away the two girl kittens, and have kept the two boy kittens. We are keeping the mom cat, Meg, and we are sending Ginger, the grandma cat to the pound. Ginger did not like the kitten invasion and has turned pretty mean. She attacks her daughter, Meg. Well, that is cats so that is okay. But she now attacks our entire family if we even put your hand toward her, so she has to go. That will give us three cats, and they will all be spayed, neutered, and vaccinated soon. The two little boys will go first because we do not want prowling male cats peeing all over.

The Perfect Pet

He will let you sit on him.

He will listen to all of your secrets.

He will let you pet him as long or as short as you desire.

And unlike this one, he will never get hungry, and you will never have to clean up his poop.

Wet and Wild Day at the Zoo

Every Friday in June the fire men send a truck to the zoo and spray the hose at all of the kids. It makes a big puddle and a lot of mud. But it is really fun for most of the kids. Ruth, Kate, and Adam just love it.

Johnny hates it. He will not wear his swim suit when we go to wet and wild day, and he swears that he will never get wet. Johnny thought he was getting away with staying dry yesterday. I changed that, even though I had to get soaked myself.

Johnny ran off as soon as he was free, but I stayed in the water and played with Adam. Adam was delighted to have his mom playing in the water with him this week.

Johnny went and sat and pouted and cried for a good half hour after he got wet. It is nice that Johnny has such quiet temper tantrums. All of the rest of us had fun, enjoyed the cool spray, played with our friends and had a lovely time. We did have the Kitchen family come along. They have six kids too, and all about the same ages and genders as our kids. They had one boy when we had a girl and their is a bit of an age differences with a couple of kids. But their fmily matches our family pretty well, and the moms are good friends.

The Results So Far

One week ago I got fed up with Kate's complaining about always being hungry or thirsty (always thirsty at inconvenient times that is). It happened when I took the kids out to the museum. I put two and a half bottles of water at the bottom of the stroller for when we went to the musuem part after wards. There is no food or water allowed in the museum, but I did not want to go all the way back to the car, and the kids wanted to play at the park. We had a nice time in the museum, with the exception of all the nagging from me when it came time to move from point a to point b. (Rather difficult with 6 children). Around the time we were finished, Kate began complaining about being thirsty. I said, "well, let's hurry up and leave so you can get a drink of water." Unfortunately, Kate happened to be the main child who would not come. (am I suppose to understand this?) When we finally got outside, Kate grabbed a bottle of water and began drinking while we walked up to the park. When we got to the park I nursed the baby and ran around with Adam and Rachel until Johnny came to me saying that he was thirsty. I simply told him to get a bottle of water from under the stroller. He said, "Kate drank all of the water." Indeed she had. I felt mad and frustrated. We had to stop playing and go back to the car for more water (which meant going home). I told Kate that she was very inconsiderate, and if she would just drink when she had a drink and eat when she had food she would not have these problems. At that point, I decided that Kate's punishement would be that she would not be allowed to leave the table at meals and snacks until she ate all and drank all. I have not done this very much, because I mostly go under the assumption that kids can decide when they have had enough, and because John and I both hate force feeding, and we both hated being force fed. But I wanted to try this out on Kate. It has been one week now, and actually, after one day, John and I were astonished at the results. Kate has not complained that she is hungry or thirsty (unless, I forgot to put out a snack or was late getting meals). Kate has not stood with the fridge opened or made any food messes. That is what I was hoping would happen. But this is what has astonished us-- Kate is not complaining about anything at all. She is happy, and nice. She hasn't been saying anything mean to her siblings (a problem we have been working on with Kate since the first grade). I often would think of Kate with the nickname "Katecomplaint." I worried about Kate never being happy or satisfied in her life. I have tried a lot of things to get Kate to be more possitive. Well, apparently I needed to make her eat. Kate has not complained about anything since last Thursday. I am utterly astonished. So John and I have been making all the rest of our kids drink their drinks every meal. Everyone else generally eats unless they hate what is provided. Kate has to eat wether she likes the food or not now. But Kate has started doing this somewhat on her own too. She also recognized that she felt better, and happier. I hope things will continue to be better for "HappyKate".

Adam Flew

Dressed up as Spiderman, Adam moved close to my face and said, "I can fly. Watch me." He climbed onto the arm of the couch; stuck out his arm and said, "Chook, chook." Then he lepted off the couch, landed on his toes, sprang quickly into a hand stand and flipped over. Yep, I'd say Adam can fly.