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!