Thursday Update

 A few Saturday mornings ago I slept in!  The house was unusually quiet and I thought that it must be unusually early and that the kids hadn't yet awoken.  I was wrong.  It was 9am and the kids were preternaturally quiet.  I found Isaac and Sarah in their room (adjacent to mine) playing a very quiet game.

Although they look like they know what they are doing, they certainly don't.  Mensa members, these are not.

Mommy and her friend enjoying a rare moment of relaxation.

 Hannah and her friend playing around on the iPad.  Unfortunately for Jacob most of their playing around involved doctoring photos of Jacob to look like either Justin Bieber or the opposite sex.

 Sarah, Ben and I on our way back from a doctor's appointment.  We are in the midst of trying to figure out whether or not Ben has mono or a secondary infection related to untreated strep throat.  He is on an antibiotic at the moment and we are waiting to see if he responds favourably to it.  If not, we will test for mono.  A spare prayer for Ben (and his ever-worried mother) would be much appreciated.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of Sarah asleep clutching a bag of Doritos.  The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.  In this case, the maternal tree.  However, this little apple doesn't fall very far from the paternal tree either; she seems to have inherited the Afelskie propensity to overly large tonsils and adenoids.  Consequently, she is scheduled for a tonsillectomy on June 10th.  The poor little thing:  let her sleep her uninterrupted Doritos sleep for now.

Three Little Kitties

 Isaac, Sarah and their good friend, Lauren, busied themselves with the confiscation of bowls and milk from the kitchen yesterday.

We found them on the back deck playing kitties.  Intensely cute.  Unfortunately the dog was convinced that he too was a kitty; it was all we could do to keep the hairy monster out of the photo.

Benjamin is Nine!!

 Benjamin turned nine on Saturday.  However, a few weeks before we had a stomach flu.  Here is Hannah recovering.  It's the rare event to catch Hannah completely unaware of her surroundings.  You're welcome.

 Our local newspaper has a weekly feature called The Athlete's Profile.  All of the local teams submit their players' names to the paper and the paper draws a name each week and profiles the athlete.  Ben, as a member of the sledge hockey team, had his name drawn the week before his birthday.  How serendipitous.  Here is the head shot that I sent the paper.  Hannah saw it and said, "Good, his Miraculous Medal is showing."  In the background is our two-doors-away-neighbour's pool.  On sweltering summer days, the kids grip the bars of the fence and stare longingly.  I'd like to see them from the other side of the fence.

 Just a photo of Jacob partially captured in a shaft of light.  He recently won the out-of-school spelling bee.  The funniest part was when he was given the word poignant.  I could see by his body language that he was stumped.  He asked the definition.  This didn't help.  He looked around confused and the moderator asked the gathered teachers if there was another pronunciation.  One teacher replied, "PoiGnant" - without a silent g.  Jacob lit up and said, "Oh, poiGnant!  P-O-I-G-N-A-N-T.  PoiGnant."  Oh my.

 Dear Ben, where have nine years gone?  Ben's birth is one of my favourite memories. This is probably because he was the first of my singletons and the weather was an unusually warm spring day.  Plus, he was eminently reasonable about his birth time - 6:31 pm - and gave us just enough time to snuggle and settle in for a normal bedtime.  His behaviour at birth set the pattern for his easy-going and sensible nature.   He is very much the peacemaker among his siblings.  We call him The Bridge because of his ability to reconcile his brothers with one another.

 He is very much like Dave and meticulous about his personal belongings.  Thus, I knew that when we gave him toy soldiers for his last birthday, the set would still be intact come this birthday.  My parents added to his arsenal and he was absolutely delighted to open a package of WWII German, Japanese, British, Canadian and American soldiers.

 Hannah took the time to set up the growing armies on the coffee table.  There is something beautiful about such order.  Very much like little Ben.

Thoughts to keep me in the swing of things

Benjamin, who turns nine this Saturday (!!), is a creature of habit.  Particularly when it comes to his clothes.  He keeps his belongings neat as a pin and rotates the same two to three outfits through his closet.  His favourite go-to's are a black and red Underarmour t-shirt and an orange hooded sweatshirt.   Hannah actually asked me if I could hide these two items so that Ben would be forced to wear something other than his 'uniform'.

The other day, when out on a walk into town with Sarah, I discovered just how emblematic Ben's outfits have become.  The church that we pass on our way into town is in the process of acquiring a new roof.  Two twenty-something men were working on the initial stages of the massive project.  One of them was wearing a bright orange hooded sweatshirt.  When Sarah caught sight of the worker, she yelled, "It's Benjamin!"  We got a little closer and she screwed up her eyes and said, "Oh, that's not my Benjamin."  Perhaps in another few years, Sarah.

Hmmm, what else?  Yesterday I attended the May Tea at our parish.  It was a decidedly female event. In fact, 90% of the attendees were female.  Lots of women sitting at tables trying to restrain themselves from eating too many tiny sandwiches and squares.  In fact, the whole church basement was one big exercise in self-control, at which, by the way, I failed miserably.  There is something about sandwiches made by other people that make it absolutely essential to try one of each.  Each table also had a sampling of squares.  Normally, I am not much of a sweet tooth.  However, someone had made those mini-marshmallow mixed with Kraft peanut butter squares and I was done for.  Is it OK to gain a pound for every week of pregnancy?  Anyway, the most humorous part of the afternoon was when I was setting off to leave.

Jacob asked me where I was going.
I responded, "The May Tea."
To which Jacob replied, "The Metis?"
About which Ben asked, "Who are the Metis?"
To which I replied, "A mix of French-Canadian settlers crossed with Native Indians.  Their populations are mainly found in Manitoba."
To which Jacob said, "They're coming to our church?"
To which Dave commented, "I teach a unit on them in grade seven history."
To which Hannah, in exasperation, corrected, "She's going to the MAY TEA.  The TEA in MAY.   The MONTH of MAY!! And you (glaring at her brothers) are not coming.  It's for the ladies."