Christmas

Christmas morning at our house. The boys dumped their stockings before Mike & Natalee were out of bed.
Natalee and the doll Caleb picked out for her.
Unfortunately, due to illness, we ended up staying at home on Christmas Day. Mike was very proud of the impromptu CHRISTMAS DINNER (chicken, potatoes, salad & veggies) he whipped together in under 40 minutes (as I was not in any shape to make anything). He asked me to take a picture and blog it so you can all congratulate him on a job well done! It was nice to spend Christmas Day at home, but I wish it had been because of a snow storm instead of me being sick. Oh well, maybe next year?
The 1000 piece puzzle I finally finished today! Caleb was running around the house with the camera, and this is one of the better pictures he took.
THIS is a "Tech Deck". A small skateboard that you do tricks with...with your fingers, that is! Joshua has his full of stickers.
Yesterday we were in Morden for a family gathering. This is Natalee and her second cousin, Taylor, who is just a couple of weeks older than Natalee. Taylor is crawling all over and furniture walking. I was hoping Natalee would be motivated by watching her move, so we'll see if she too will start crawling in the next couple of days.

Christmas Eve

Andrew decorating cookies yesterday. This was the last of my Christmas baking. Done just in time!
Natalee's picture for the month. She is sitting well now, is cutting her fifth tooth, and is so close to crawling!
Here she is practicing the crawl...
We went out to a restaurant for lunch, part of our Christmas tradition. Caleb and Joshua managed to color nicely for about five minutes or so, and then they were a little impatient.
Natalee's first Christmas! She did really well eating at the restaurant too. Merry Christmas everyone!

My Son Joshua

Joshua, 5 years old, star of the Kindergarten class singing "Jingle Bells". If you notice shaking, it's because I'm laughing! Mara, the Educational Assistant, told me this story when I went to get Joshua from school this morning. Yesterday before they had performed in the afternoon, she had moved Joshua to the middle of the line, and he hadn't been too happy about it, but he went along with it. Later in the evening, when she moved him again, he was clearly upset and voiced his disapproval to Mara. So Mara explained that because he projected his voice so well and knew all the words, etc. etc. she wanted him to be in the middle of the class so everyone could benefit from his talents. He said, "Thank you Mara, for explaining that to me." And he sang his little heart out one more time "...oh mutt fun it is to ride in a Wun-orse opened sleigh!"

Church Christmas Concert 2007

The Toddler Class (2's & 3's) performing "Baa Baa White Sheep". Andrew is on the far side (the shorter one) with the sheep ears on...sucking his thumb. Maybe next year he will sing. :-)

Our House...is a busy, full house!

Caleb and Joshua decorating cookies with lots and lots and lots of sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles.
Natalee in her "donut". She enjoys this toy SOOOOO much!
Joshua feeding his baby sister. He is a remarkably helpful boy. Today, he "surprised" me by folding the pile of towels on the couch that had just come out of the dryer.
Andrew getting ready for a night out on the town with Mommy's boots on.
Natalee...I tried to get a picture of her trying to eat Daddy's head, but couldn't get the timing right with the flash and all.

Getting ready for Christmas

I finally finished Natalee's Christmas stocking! I have had it ready to sew for well over a month already! Here's our pile of stockings.

Lots has been happening here, so that's why there have been no recent posts. Last Sunday, November 25th, we set up our Christmas tree. The boys did most of the decorations, and Andrew also helped as much as he could. So far, he hasn't played with any of the ornaments (Joshua has been more into the ornaments, rearranging "his" ornaments in different places on the tree) and the boys have been playing with the Nativity scene I made last year. Caleb was "very sad" that the Bombers didn't win the Grey Cup. We don't remind him very often about the big loss.

On Tuesday, I finally brought Andrew into the Doctor because he was working so hard to breathe and he was lying around with a mild fever. At the end of the day (after another visit to the ER - that's 3 this year!), the diagnosis is pneumonia, and he's on antibiotics, one puffer (the Doctor doesn't know if the wheezing is from - so far - undiagnosed asthma), and another medicine that's supposed to help him keep his lungs clear. He's doing really well, and we've had to bribe him with grapes to take his medicine. He LOVES grapes! Here he is on Wednesday, back to playing with trucks and cars...and the shepherds too.

Now Caleb is sick with a bad cold, which has caused his asthma to bother him. Fortunately, the puffer has helped him ease his chest tightness.

Natalee was also at the Doctor for an early 9 month check-up. In the last two and a half months, she gained two pounds and grew one and a half inches. Despite her good growth, she remains the smallest Bergmann baby at this age, no surprise there. She is trying hard to crawl, rolling onto her belly and pushing up with straight arms. At times, she's getting her bum up into the air, but usually not at the same time as her head is up. She didn't sleep well last night, so maybe this is a sign that crawling is just around the corner?!?! It's hard to believe she's at this point already!

Fortunately, Joshua has remained relatively healthy, despite a minor cold and a lingering cough. I took Caleb and Joshua swimming to the Y last week Friday when they had the day off, and he's already trying somersaults in the water. I also put them in life jackets and we jumped into the "big" pool and swam into the deep end several times, until Joshua was too cold to continue! They both loved it!

Yesterday, we had Parent/Teacher Interviews at school. Mike stayed home with the sick and healthy children while I braved the elements and walked to school (-31 with the windchill). I first saw Caleb's teachers and they are very pleased with how hard he works and his attention to detail. He's doing well with learning to read & LOVES art! He has learned quickly to verbalize his problems and works with his classmates to come to a solution when there's a disagreement.

He needs to work on his fine motor skills to improve his printing, but I am really pleased that he is working hard and enjoying school!

Caleb drew a picture of himself in his Halloween costume.

Joshua also got a good report from his teacher. On the Assessment Report the teacher's evaluate them on, Joshua is achieving at least a grade one level in most every area. He is one of the few children in the class that is reading (a few words, not actual books) but his favourite thing to do is play with the dinosaurs! This is one of the three books Joshua has brought home that he can read.

Photo for Month Nine

Here is Natalee on November 23, 2007. She's sitting by herself now, although she does take a tumble from time to time. She also is still suffering from a cold that started with a cough two weeks ago. Fortunately, it doesn't bother her too much. The worst part about the cold is that we need to wipe her nose from time to time (something that she, as a normal baby, hates to have done).
And Andrew has been running around nearly naked most mornings. He takes his pajama's off and races all over the house doing his crazy Andrew-things until someone has enough time to change his diaper and get some clothes on him.

Yesterday we were at a mall to do some more Christmas shopping. We really seemed to stand out as a family. No matter where we went, the food court, walking through the mall, in the stores, we seemed to draw an audience. And it wasn't because anyone was having tempter tantrums or being overly noisy! I guess having four young children is quite a scene for a lot of people, and we received lots of well-meaning comments and looks from a lot of people. Caleb enjoyed pushing Natalee in her stroller and at times, Joshua would also be pushing Andrew in his stroller. I felt like I was part of a freak-show (just from the reactions of other people) or something, but fortunately, none of the children were bothered by it. It's an experience that I won't soon forget...probably because it will happen every time we all go out together!

Party with Santa

On Monday, we got an invitation to a free Santa Claus party, put on by our local neighbourhood resource centre. So after school on Wednesday, we all packed up and headed out to see Santa!

There was cookie decorating, face painting, craft tables...

...a visit with Santa! Each child got a candy cane and a present! Caleb got a game of horse shoes, Joshua and Natalee each got a puppy, and Andrew got a big plastic race car.
Natalee enjoyed chewing on her puppy's leash.

Sucking on candy canes after supper (hot dogs & potato salad).

Christmas Countdown

As of today, Christmas is only 34 days away! I'm glad there's finally a bit of snow on the ground. We have a good start on our Christmas shopping and hopefully we'll be putting our tree up on Sunday.

I had to get the stockings out early this year because I am (still) planning on sewing Natalee her own stocking. Well, Andrew got a hold of them and you can always count on one of the boys to use them as slippers if we let them! The good thing about him wearing the stockings this way is that he put them on himself! He has already mastered undressing himself (only when the mood strikes), so now we're looking forward to dressing, then potty-training...well, definitely not this year.

First Snow!

It's been a while since I've posted & I've been feeling guilty for letting my Online Scrapbook get dusty. Here's a picture of the three boys playing in the snow on Sunday. They were so excited to bundle up in their snowpants & boots, scarves, jackets & mitts. They only got to play outside for about half an hour (less time for Andrew - check out those cold hands! what's with 2 year olds who don't like to wear mitts?!?!) because it was dark. But they certainly had a good time throwing snow, shovelling, and running around in it.

Learning

Natalee is 8 months old today! She has been rolling around our living room, strengthening her neck, back and arm muscles. I'm wondering if she'll be crawling before she sits! And this morning, I heard the unmistakable sound of teeth grinding. Yes, she's cut her third tooth. This one is on top, but not one of her two middle teeth.

Andrew is learning to say more words. He surprises me sometimes. The other day, he was asking where we were going, and I said "No, we're not going anywhere" and he said, "Say home?" Yes! One other time, I asked if he would share his treats with Natalee, and he said, "No, see-woll" (which is cereal - Natalee eats cereal!). There are so many new words he has learned this past little while, it is impossible to write them all down. I tried to upload a video of him, but I haven't quite figured it out yet.

Caleb is learning to read and print words. On Friday, he came home from school and I guess they had been talking about Remembrance Day because he was telling me about the war in Afghanistan, the capital of Canada was Ottawa, and the poppy he was making as a craft.

Joshua is desperately trying to keep pace with Caleb. Whatever Caleb spells out, Joshua will learn too. Sometimes, this makes Caleb upset; I think he wants to be the only one who can read and spell! Also, learning comes very easily to Joshua, and maybe it frustrates Caleb that what he works so hard to learn comes so naturally to his brother. The rivalry has just begun!

Halloween!

Halloween 2007 was another fun time for the Bergmann family. Here are our three Trick-or-Treaters this year.

Andrew and his stash of candy. He was pretty funny T-or-T-ing. He would run to the door, occasionally saying "tih ah tee", grabbing his candy with a "guck umm" (thank you) and putting it into the bag I was carrying for him, and after a while, asking me to "cawy" him. Mike and I reminisced about the first time we took Caleb and Joshua out (Caleb was 3, Joshua was 2) and how SLOW they were. Andrew was much much faster than they were!

Then there's Caleb's candy chart (the candy charts didn't get finished this year); Caleb and his candy stash; Natalee and me getting ready to go out trick-or-treating; and Joshua lining up his candy.

Notice how Caleb very neatly packs his box with his candy? I don't know if he could be any slower! I tend to appreciate Joshua's quickness more than Caleb's slowness; however, Joshua is not nearly as careful with his things as Caleb is. Caleb rarely looses his things, while Joshua is often left wondering where he left his ___ (you name it, he's lost it at least once!).Caleb's "candy art". It's a picture of him. The lollipops on the bottom are his legs to give you an idea of where to begin.
Andrew helping me wash dishes. Why do two-year-olds love water so much?
Joshua working on his candy chart. It was funny to watch them yesterday play with their candy, organizing it, driving it around, counting it, sorting it, lining it up (with the occasional treat here & there, they were SO good about asking & not sneaking...that I know of at least!).

The one thing I definitely want to remember from this year is that the boys ASKED to go home, and we weren't even done our block. We had headed west on Union, gone down and done a short block on Chalmers, come back to Union and continued west, nearly until Watt before we headed back east. We weren't even back to Roch yet, and Caleb and Joshua said they were done and they wanted to go back home! Maybe their bags were too heavy? They did have LOTS of candy and chips already, and it had been maybe 45 minutes since we headed out. It was quite strange to head out in the daylight - we felt like the first one's out, and it was shortly after 6:00. By the time we got home, it was dark and the boys got to hand out a few treats to some trick-or-treaters that came to our door. It was a mad scramble to the door every time the doorbell rang! Joshua said it was the best day ever!

Pumpkin Time

On Sunday, Caleb, Joshua and I spent some time in the afternoon carving pumpkins. They both still needed help this year, although Caleb again tried to do most of his on his own. I roasted the pumpkin seeds later on and they seem to enjoy eating them.
On Monday, Joshua and I made "Chocolate Spiders". Joshua cleaned up the chocolate from the wooden spoon after we were all done. Joshua said after he had sampled them after supper, "They're actually better than I thought the would be." They are good!
Joshua needed to bring Halloween baking for his party at school tomorrow. So we spent this afternoon baking cookies. I had picked up a pumpkin cookie cutter and a leaf cookie cutter at the dollar store and used the recipe we usually use for our Christmas cookie cut-outs...should be yummy!
Natalee on or around October 23rd.
And here's a good picture of THE TWO TEETH.