My Five Year Old

Benjamin's birthday was on Tuesday.

It is crazy to think that I actually have a FIVE-YEAR-OLD!  Someone half a decade, someone almost old enough for school...it hardly seems possible.  He's a bit bigger than the baby we brought home five years ago:

Benjamin is such a special little boy.  He is SUCH a sweetheart - a very cuddly and loving little boy.  He is great at sharing and helping his siblings, and he is becoming a great help to me!  He is quite detail-oriented and interested in facts.  He has a great imagination and is NOISY!  He constantly has his own little soundtrack going!  His favorite toy right now is LEGO.

Age Two

He is so excited to be five!

Out and About (and the places that make it easier)

I am a total homebody - I love being home, and we're home all day most days.  But it's also good for us to get out a bit now and then - it's nice to have a change of pace and the kids love the adventure of it.  It doesn't always happen, but it's my goal to get out of the house at least once a week.  It's kind of funny - while it certainly isn't easy to take four little kids somewhere, somehow it sometimes seems easier to get out than it did when I had just two.  Definitely a lot has to do with being able to load the kids in the car right outside the door rather than down a flight of stairs and around the building as I had to when we were in an apartment (and I can't even talk about the horror of leaving something essential in the apartment and only realizing it after I had both kids buckled in the car - that did happen a couple of times!).

In some ways it's easier because I have some older kids who are definitely more self-sufficient (of course, that adds in other challenges, too...).  And since the kids are older, they want to go places, which encourages me to get out, too.  Back then I'd often think we'd do more "when it's easier" (ha!), and of course now I know it's never going to get easier, so we either have to do things even though it can be hard, or we will never do anything.

One huge factor, though, in us being able to get out and about is having places we can go.  Having several little kids and a baby means I can really only go places where I can keep an eye on all of them and nurse the baby at the same time, if necessary.  That rules out a lot of places, but we've found several that fit that criteria.  Our library has an open playgroup every week where we can go and play with toys there.  We enjoy going to story time at the library, too, but that can be tricky if the baby is fussy, so this works better for us for now.  We just discovered the brand new play area at our local mall.  It's an enclosed area and is never very busy, so this is something I expect to do fairly regularly from now on.  And, over the summer we discovered an awesome park.  It's a small park, with a small (but big enough!) playground and a small grassy area, it is never busy, and it's fully fenced!  Obviously we won't be able to go there all the time in the winter, but it's perfect for when we can!

Having a few places that makes it easier for me to get out and about with the kids has been such a blessing!

Three Months

Tobias is three months now - can't time just slow down a little bit?

This little man is the sweetest thing ever - I know I've said that about all of my babies, but it's like Marilla says in Anne of Avonlea: "Every baby is the sweetest and the best."  That is so true.  Toby is such a joy!  We love him so!

October

I have to say I am sooo glad October is over.  I don't remember having that crazy of a month in a long time.  Seth is back into the full swing of school, and since this is his last quarter, he's also been spending a lot of time hunting and applying for jobs.  I, of course, had the normal full-time job of taking care of four kids and a house (the laundry these days - it's ridiculous!), but I was also extremely busy sewing for the bazaar I was in at the end of the month.  I really enjoy participating in the bazaar; it just made for some crazy weeks this year.  If I had been on top of things, I would have had that stuff done long ago, but I didn't, so it was definitely a scramble.  I'm so thankful Toby is such an easy baby, or I never would have finished it all!  Speaking of Toby, a couple of weeks ago we found out he has two hernias that will require surgery sometime in the coming months.  Poor little guy.  Then Ezra was sick for several days.  And, on top of all that, we've definitely been going through some new-baby adjustments with the older kids.  I think we've run the whole gamut of things - from attention seeking to potty issues to meltdowns to plain old defiance to bickering amongst themselves.  I don't think it helped that Mommy and Daddy were busier than usual, either.  Sooo...anyway, here's to a better November!  It hasn't started off awesome, since almost everyone has a cold right now and is not feeling great, but it will get better!  =)

And lest you think October was all bad, here are some pictures to prove that we did have some fun, too!

We went to the pumpkin farm...

...twice!

Then, of course, we had to carve one of our pumpkins!

The kids were getting ideas from one of our new favorite fall
books: Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Although we don't go Trick-or-Treating ourselves, we enjoy handing out candy to those that come to our house.  The kids have been looking forward to the "costume guys" coming for weeks.  We got dressed up, too, for fun.