New Teeth!

There are six new teeth in our house! Brendan has cut all four of his six-year molars and is very proud of the fact that he now has 24 teeth - more than any of his brothers. And Matthew has finally cut his first two teeth! He's been drooling and chomping for a few months now; we've been expecting teeth "any day now" for at least two months. He cut his first, the lower left, on the 11th, when he was exactly six months old. He cut the lower right tooth on the 13th, his Papa's birthday.
Papa and Oma came to visit this past weekend. My mom and I tore up the carpet in the living room with a great deal of assistance from the older three boys. Luke and Brendan were working on pulling up staples and Nicklas wandered around with a pair of kiddie scissors randomly snipping at carpet and padding. Later that evening, Mom and I slightly rearranged the furniture, turning the TV armoire at an angle in a corner. Michael and my Dad hooked up a new receiver (our last one was fried in the recent power outages). When Luke got up the next morning and came into the living room, the first thing he said to me was, "Mama, why is the receiver black now?" Nothing about the fact that he had to look in a completely different place to see the receiver in the first place, just that it was a different color. Papa and Oma also brought us a fish tank and stand, which is now set up in our dining room and is occupied by one blue and red beta fish named Thomas. We'll be getting a couple more fish later this week most likely.

Latin

We've been teaching Brendan Latin in school. No, we don't speak it ourselves, we've found a great program, Prima Latina from Memoria Press, that he (and Michael and I) are learning from quite well. But I didn't realize just how much the younger children were picking up until yesterday when Nicklas began to insist on calling his water bottle an aqua bottle. At supper Brendan was talking about one of his vocab words, amici, which means "friends". He was wondering how to say "my friends" and said "Oh, mea!" At which, Nicklas replied with "culpa." As in one of Brendan's recent vocab words, mea culpa, which means "my fault."

It's Been Awhile...

But we're back. I don't know just how often I'll post, but I'm gonna try to keep posting somewhat regularly.

June 7

This morning Luke was sitting on my bed and playing with some plastic hangers while I was packing clothes. He was holding them up and telling me what colors they were. "Pink!" "Green!" And then he held up a white one and said "Cow's Milk!" I laughed and told him it was white, but apparently he knew better than I did as later, when we were at Menard's, I was picking up some paint chips and found one that was indeed, named "Cow's Milk." I almost fell over laughing right there in the middle of the aisle.
And in Nicklas news - he sat himself up for the first time today. He's been trying to figure that one out for a few days now, but I figured it would be a bit longer than this before he actually pulled it off. He was playing on the floor in front of Papa, laying on his side, and then he was sitting up!

June 1

The other day, I walked into the kitchen to find Luke carefully pouring a glass of water into my drawer of dish towels. No idea why.
Nicklas is moving pretty fast now. It's quite impressive just how fast he can crawl across the living room.
Brendan is still proudly telling everyone the First Commandment.

From the Mouths of Babes...

Last night, Michael was reading the Scripture lessons for next Sunday during our evening devotion. The last verse of the Old Testament lesson was:

and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Brendan looked up and said, "Daddy, 'The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me!'" He was quite proud of himself and we were very proud of him for connecting those two things.

May 26

Watch out world...

...Nicklas is scooting!

May 21

Brendan's new favorite hymn is "Lord, Keep Us 'Standfest' in Thy Word". The rest of us refer to it as "Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word".