While I Was Gone...

1. Zion turned 9 months old.

He is such a grinny little cheesy scrunch face cheeseball. I love him to PIECES!!!!

• He has been pulling up to standing since about 8 months 2 1/2 weeks.
• Has four teeth.
• The boy can GET AROUND. He books it all over the place, following Israel pushing a toy, or going to check on who is in the bathtub. (please excuse my unfinished cabinet door...)

• He LOVES to be in on the action, whether it's the boys wrestling with their daddy, and he piles in, toppling over Tim's leg, giggling all the way, or watching Gabe and Israel get their bath, banging his hands on the side of the tub and messing with the water, or happily standing by Gabe's bed watching his two brothers play bouncing Super Heroes. :)
• He really enjoys baths.
• Still breastfeeding, but also does really well with ground up table food, crackers, Cheerios... He loves to eat strawberries, and I will put a whole one on his tray and he'll just gnaw away until his sweet little red-stained face eagerly looks around for more. :)
• Makes a bee-line for electronic objects. Really enjoys banging on a drum. Also loves to chew a rubber duck. Pushes cars as he crawls.
• "Talks" mostly when unhappy, "Da da da da nah nah nah na." or particularly happy.
• Has a toothy grin.
• He is a very happy boy who just loves his brothers.
• He takes a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon, of varying lengths. I am way more laid back this third time around, and really could not tell you the average nap length. He does well even if he has to miss a nap.
• Still usually wakes up a least once during the night to eat.
• Has had a BEAR of a time cutting those top two teeth. Phew. Lots of night wakings, screamings and flailing and refusing to go back to his crib, so I would tiredly march him around the house until he calmed down and the Tylenol kicked in. Only 16 more teeth to go. Wide wide Mommy eyes.
• He has been the WORST twisty-turny boy for getting his diaper change of the three. He is a MESS!!!
• Loves to be turned upside down.
• So I was trying to do his 9 month pictures, and he kept not looking at the camera, and falling over in the laundry basket, and was NOT into leaving his hat on, and it was so hot outside, and then he threw up on his hat, his outfit and the sheepskin I had. Sigh. Such are the life and times of a mommy just trying to get a picture before the kid up and turns ten months. Here he is pulling off that bothersome hat...
  

Phew! :)

2. Had Vacation Bible School. Gabe just LOOOOOOOOOVVVESSS things like this. LOVES them. He is such a social guy. From all reports, he was very interactive and did well at answering questions. The theme was "Boot Camp", and sparked a lot of following discussion about that all intriguing "sword of the Spirit". There has been a lot of sword action around here ever since. Also talk about how "God is going to beat the debil (devil)." He does an excellent job still reciting his verses that he learned. Such a good job that I'm going to try to work on more memorization with him.

Israel followed his Mommy around in the kitchen, since he decided he didn't want to be left in the nursery. He had a great time playing with Amber, who was also following her mommy around, and eating snacks. :)

Zion stayed in the nursery most of the time.

It was a good week, but really felt kind of long, since we were still neck deep in boxes at home and Bible School was from 6-9 PM. Phew.

3. A Roseola Outbreak.

All three boys came down with roseola the week after Bible School. That Saturday, Israel had a fever of about 102, and Zion had a low grade one. The next day it disappeared, but showed up again on Monday, again 101-103 for both of them. Zion was starting to break out in red spots by that night, and the next day his fever was gone and as the day progressed he got more and more spotty. :)

Israel got his rash the day after that, I think, and Gabe didn't get sick until Saturday. His was the mildest case. He had a lower fever and fewest spots. Zion was F.U.S.S.Y. Oh my. SO fussy. Really for most of the week, but especially the first few days until his fever was gone. He wouldn't really let me put him down, and had a really hard time going to sleep. He was up until midnight or after for several nights. I thought maybe part of it was those teeth that he was working on.

4. Gabe went to see his Grandma and Grandaddy in VA. We had some friends that were traveling to VA for a wedding, and were actually staying with Mom and Dad, and so Gabe hitched a ride to have some Grandparent time. He did such a great job. I missed him SO MUCH!!! I missed him before he even left!!! The house felt only 2D without him, lacking that 3D dynamic. It was a lot quieter. Israel missed him, too, and asked about him hopefully every morning and during the day. He was gone 5 days and 4 nights, from Wednesday to Sunday. He had a great time, but said several times while he was there, "I wish Israel could be here." Before he left he said, "Mommy, will you miss me?" I said, "YES!!!" and he said, "I will miss you too!! And I will miss Zion and I will miss Israel!!"

5. We have been taking full advantage of our new surroundings. We have booked more miles on our stroller in the past month than were on them in entirety from before, I think! We have two playgrounds about a 10 minute walk away, we have tennis courts right down the road from our house that Gabe and Tim love to play on, and a track that we have been to twice. I pushed the boys to the library the other week, and we stopped at the bagel cafe on the way home for some tasty sustenance. :) We have walked around the neighborhood, and walked twice to Nanticoke River Festival that was in town last weekend, for food, rides, and some more food. :) I am SO loving our location.

6. Also, my friend Emily came to visit, which is always a favorite event of ours.

Zion working his nose grabbing magic on Emily.

And the boys and I trekked to the beach with some other friends for some sun and sand.

7. WE HAVE A NEW MINIVAN!!!!!!!!! Love LOVE our new wheels!!! We were GIVEN a van, from Harvey and Grace Mast. It is a 2004. So we went from a 1995 Dodge Caravan with over 250,000 miles on it, no airconditioner, no rear view mirror, and a short in the electrical system that meant that I generally had to jump the battery before going anywhere, to this one with air conditioner, a rear view mirror, doors on each side, extended for more room - and it does that amazing thing of just starting right up when you turn the key!!!...I am just so in love with it. My pupils were dilated from sheer van-love for the first few days and I had to keep going places just to try out my new possession. I feel so incredibly blessed right now, in so many ways. We have a house we love, a minivan that works great, and friends that are such a blessing in so many ways. Thank you so much, Harvey and Grace, and thank you too, Mom and Dad for Ol' Blue that we wore to a frazzle. She was a good ol' girl. We sure loved her when she arrived!!

8. Nana Carol and Grandpa Norm buzzed in from Saturday evening to Monday lunch. We really enjoyed having them around. Unfortunately, my camera battery recharger was safely hidden from my searching eyes, and I couldn't find it until Monday. So here's just a few pictures - I'll do better next time!!

Gabe was very busy with his shoot-gun. Too busy, in fact, to adequately participate in the picture. Somehow all sorts of shooting arrived on the scene, who knows where from. There are many many many things that need to be shooted. Like bears, birds, trees, bad guys ("No, Gabriel, you may not pretend to shoot people. Pretend to shoot a bird." Pause. Shot of the "gun". "I just shooted a bird off of the bad guys head.").

Tim and Norm standing proudly next to their grill patio creation.

Here's a silly dude Israel.

Nana Carol with the boysies.

9. And finally, a few random pictures from the month-ish.

Boys happily helping their daddy.

Here was the helper in the stroller.
Mommy is a big fan of all three boys helping their daddy at one time. That way she can sit on her butt on the steps and be lazy.

When it rains, all boys except the baby must retreat huriedly to the tool shed, so they can hear the rain on the roof.

Mommy with her roseola-ed child.

One of Gabriel's favorite activities is being a "monkey" in the "monkey tree" in our front yard.

One of Israel's favorite activities is standing on his toddler bed, watching the world go by.

Grinny Gus. :)