Baby #5

We had our first ultrasound of baby #5. Here in Canada they do an ultrasound early in the pregnancy for dating purposes. We've never done this before and didn't go in super early because we were kind of busy and had to have a Saturday for Austin to come. Since it was later, I was hoping we'd see the sex of the baby, but it didn't happen since the baby kept sticking his/her foot in the way. Austin and his eagle eyes can usually see everything, but he was undecided this time because of that foot.
The clinic didn't print any photos of the ultrasound, but allowed us to take a photo of the screen. Its all pretty much the same shot, but these are the photos Austin got.

20 Months

 

This little sweetheart is 20 months old! He seems like he is more of a little boy than a baby lately! He is getting quite independent and insists on doing many thing by himself. This includes things that he isn't able to do like put his own shoes on, but as long as I let him try for a minute, he'll eventually let me do it for him.  He loves to be a helper and bring me my shoes when its time to leave, bring me my water bottle or phone whenever he sees them, and often takes my phone out of my pocket so that he can hand it to me with a proud look on his face.
He is still in love with the vacuum and gets it out of the closet and plays with it every chance he gets. He also loves the hand mixer and my blow dryer, but those are a little better locked up and he can't get them as easily. Trevor still loves music and dances to any rhythm he hears. He is constantly bobbing his head or shaking it back and forth.
 He has finally started consistently sleeping through the night! He is a great little sleeper and sleeps for about 12 hours a night. He's easily gone to bed for a babysitter too, as long as she follows his night routine of putting his mittens on his hands, turning on his fan, and rocking him a bit before laying him in his crib. He even goes to bed easily when his brothers and sister are making all kinds of racket as we try to get them to sleep- which happens pretty much every night as they think of excuse after excuse about why they need to get up, or the boys just stay up and play in their room.
We have discovered that although Trevor throws up anything with cow milk, he is able to drink goat milk. Its been a slow process getting him to drink it on its own, since he was used to only drinking water, but he is starting to drink a little and ever since I found some cheese made with goat milk, it's his favorite food! He loves quesadillas and often wants me to just cut him slices of cheese and let him eat them. I'd happily oblige since the protein and calcium are good for him, but it's pretty expensive, so I try to moderate his cheese consumption (which is hard when he starts yelling the minute he sees the cheese out!)
Here are the photos I got of him this afternoon. Don't mind the banana stuck on his face ;) and the pink you see reflected in his eyes in some of the photos is the reflection of my skirt.

 Leif calls this his "stinky face":

Downtown Toronto

While my sister was visiting, we took the subway to downtown Toronto with the kids. The subway was as much part of the activity as the big city, and the kids loved getting on the train and listening for all the stops. We walked all the way to Lake Ontario (quite a walk for the two oldest who actually have to walk- Heidi rode standing on the back of the stroller most of the way). We were starving by the end of it, but couldn't find a satisfactory place to eat without walking a ton more (especially since we still had to walk all the way back to the subway stop) so we ended up eating food the was so-so and cost quite a bit (that just what you get when you have so many mouths to feed).

These statues were the coolest thing we encountered on our walk.

Beach Day

This blog should have gone up over a month ago, but it just didn't. Oh well. The kids and I went to a fun little beach with some friends and were there all day. A friend of a friend invited us to come to her cottage where it was so nice to have a bathroom for the kids and a nice, clean place to make lunch. All of the kids had a great time at the beach (there's just something about digging in the sand and having unlimited access to water), but I couldn't believe how much Trevor enjoyed it! Usually when he's in his swim suit, I have to worry about him scratching his legs until they bleed (his eczema is so bad that I have to keep him in one piece pajamas all the time or watch him very closely when he has jeans on- never shorts!) But he was so busy that he never even tried to scratch his legs. The kids dug and built and swam for 5 or 6 hours with a short break to eat and they still protested when it was finally time to leave saying that we hadn't been there very long.

We stopped at a little cheese shop which also sold ice cream on the way home and the kids enjoyed a little pre-dinner dessert. (Trevor can't have cow milk, so he enjoyed a cone all by itself)

Camping

This blog should have happened back in June, but I just haven't had time. We went camping with some friends for a couple nights and had lots of fun. The kids loved doing all the fun activities like canoeing, archery, a water balloon fight, roasting s'mores, and playing in the sand at the beach. Trevor was a bit panicked about being in the canoe and was a terrible sleeper at night, but we had a pleasant time having a nap together while I held him sitting in a chair while everyone else was down at the beach. Our nights were also interrupted by a racoon who was banging around in our stuff, so Austin chased it away, then went on an early morning hunt with his sling shot. He didn't get it, but he and the kids enjoyed the chase.

Asher and Leif were very eager for Austin to row us over to a little island in the lake so they could get out and explore a bit.

Here is a shot of Trevor when he finally fell asleep in the morning after hours of crawling all over the tent stepping on everyone in his confusion about not being in his crib. He looks orange because our tent is orange.

Asher was a bit upset when he wasn't able to hit the target right away, so when everyone else got tired and went back to camp, he asked Austin to stay with him and practice. It paid off and he was able to get a bull's eye.

This is a picture Austin got when he got up early to look for the racoon.

And here's the little fellow who bugged us all night!

First Day of School

We started school a bit early this year because we will be taking a two week break for our trip home in September and taking another break for a couple months after the new baby is born in February. I felt like it was a little rushed and we didn't get much of a summer break, but we did get the whole month of July off and you can't feel too bad for the kids when their school day is half that of public school. I was able to scramble and get everything planned in time, although I always have some adjustments and preparation throughout each day.
One person in our family was super excited for school to start:

She has been talking about it for weeks and couldn't wait to get started with the big new workbooks that I found for her. We are taking it pretty easy- Heidi needs a lot of easing into sitting still and doing what she is asked rather than whatever she feels like. We will have a letter of the week to introduce her to all the letters, then I'll have her do one page the way I ask her to, then she'll be free to do other pages that interest her, play with the toys that interest her, or play with Trevor.  I'll also get some interesting activities set up for her.

Asher and Leif are both so enamored with science because we are studying earth science this year and they are very interested in volcanoes, rocks, magnets, the solar system, etc. We have a few science experiment kits Asher got for his birthday that we will do as we study the coordinating topics and the boys can't wait!

And here is a bonus picture of Trevor, who gets to hang out while the older kids do school. Here he is enjoying a snack while the boys do their swimming lessons.