Spoiling a Child

It's ok when it's their birthday, right?

Dad is in China for business, so we decided to party hardy with donuts and chocolate milk; which is what Joe would have done for the birthday boy if he were here.

And to my Davey family members, notice the donuts are cut in halves not quarters.  Take note:  I am a generous task master. (My Grandpa Davey always used to insist on cutting every donut into quarters at family gatherings).

Happy #9 Hans! 

Behold, A Pretzel Seed!

While snacking on some pretzels this morning, Hans came up to me holding a tiny object and said,"Mom, look, a pretzel seed! Have you ever had a seed in your pretzels before?" I looked a little more closely and realized it was his formerly loose tooth. When I told him it was in fact his tooth, not a pretzel seed, he was happily surprised. He smiled, showing a bloody mess of chewed up pretzels in the hole where the tooth used to be. Luckily he didn't swallow the tooth because the tooth fairy will most likely pay him a visit tonight if he/she remembers.

Great to Be Eight!

Hans just turned 8 last week, which means:

He had TWO birthday parties--one for the family and one with friends. I made a Pokemon cake for each party per his request. The first was Polywag cake for the family party. Grandma and Grandpa Harris, Derek and Aubree, Angela, and Jeff all came to join in the fun.

The second cake was Chickorita. A couple of hours before his "friends" party, Ada climbed up a kitchen stool and helped herself to some cake. Here is a picture of how it looked after Ada's attack, followed by the repaired version:

Hans is also now a cubscout! He's super excited that his birthday came just in time for the Pinewood derby next week. Someone from the pack gave him a hand-me-down size Large shirt, but Hans is really little, so I took it in quite a bit at all the seams to make it a little more presentable.

Hans will be baptized on January 31st and can't wait! There will obviously be more on that subject to come...

Humph!

Hans' first soccer game was on Saturday. His game was at 8:30 a.m. and the temp outside was 32 degrees with a bit of a breeze, so Joe made him wear three layers (short sleeve, long sleeve, sweatshirt), a coat, gloves, and a hat. After getting dressed, Hans was really grumpy and said he didn't want to play soccer with all those layers on. Joe told him he could take off some of the layers once he warmed up, but Hans had already decided to fix a permanent scowl on his face.

Somehow Joe got him out the door and about an hour later Hans came in wearing a huge smile and carrying a 2 liter bottle of pop. He had scored two goals, and Joe let him pick out a treat to celebrate. He also told me he was happy to have all those layers after all.

Catch Up

I've heard my mother-in-law say that pregnancy really feels like 10 months by the time you deal with all the intense changes you go through the month after you give birth. This "tenth month" has taken it's toll on me, hence the big break from blogging. One thing that was especially horriffic for me this time was my "after cramps". Someone told me that they get worse with each child and my experiences have convinced me this is true. With the twins, I don't remember feeling any cramps. When Hans came, Ibuprofen kept everything under control. That didn't cut it with Austin and Jennabee, so the doc prescribed Hydrocodone which easily got me through the pain. This time Hydrocodone didn't even make a dent! I seriously felt like the pain was as bad as labor everytime I nursed the baby. Tears streamed down my face and I tried (unsuccesfully) not to writhe around and cry out loud. After about a week and a half of torture the cramps became less intense and I was able to nurse without dread. I hope this admission hasn't scared anyone from having more kids!

Now to catch up with a few things.

The week between Christmas and New Years brought two visitors to our home. My little sis, Lauren, who was in Iraq, made it back to the states and was able to come and visit us for a couple days. Now she's stationed at an Army base in Georgia where she is going to train and teach new Army nurses. My dad was also able to come up from Southern California and visit us for a couple days. Their visits overlapped so it was fun to have both of them here at the same time. Lauren left Friday, my dad left Saturday, and Sunday night I was in labor and heading to the hospital! They just missed getting to see Ada.


My mom was able to come and spend a few days with us after the baby came. It was great having her here to help with the kids, the house, and cooking. We were sorry to see her go!


Luckily my mom got to be here for Hans' birthday which was on the thirteenth. Instead of sticking seven candles in a cake, I stuck them in a Hostess mini pie (a special request from Hans). That was cool with me because I honestly didn't feel up to making a cake, so it was mini pies all around. He was happy to get some "new" toys just as his Christmas toys started getting "old", but his coolest present was the newt he got from his dad. A newt is a little lizard like creature that likes to live both in and out of water. So he was water in his cage and a cat statue (we couldn't find a rock with all the snow outside) which allows him to sit outside of the water when he wants to. He eats nasty little worms that I have vowed never to touch. I guess that means Mom won't be feeding this pet!

Pies for everyone!

The newt