The uniqueness of children in general

So, there is the difference between boys and girls. Bit there is an even bigger unique difference between individual children.

Nathanael loves to help with manly chores. He likes to help with he recycling and yard work. He's even been known to take the neighbor's empty trash can back up to their house. But today he took a long time bringing our can back from the road. I asked what was taking so long and he said he was afraid of the worms. It has been raining a lot lately and there are tons of worms on the sidewalks. I think it's gross, but he had a job to finish. He did finish, but admitted he had to walk on tip-toes to get the job done.

Now a couple months ago Talitha noticed some worms on the ground. They were half-dead on the neighbor's steps. Without thinking, she picked one up and asked what it was. I told her it was a worm. And she said, "oh." then she put it back down on the sidewalk and proudly said, "I smash it!" and promptly stomped on it with all her might! She may be our petite girl, but her personality makes up for her size difference in our family!

Boys vs girls

So, today I had a perfect example of how different boys and girls are. This morning, my girls were singing made-up songs in their room. Here is a sample from Hannah's leading: "Angelina Ballerina do not sin, or God will kill you. But it's ok because Jesus died for your sins..." roughly to the tune of "Rock-a-bye baby". My girls were sweetly singing about the gospel and making up other fun songs.

Now this afternoon, the boy's imagination came out. Nathanael was playing with the girls and the doll house. He tends to direct doll house lay a bit more roughly than the girls. His prompt was, "Let's pretend they just finished their dinner and then they all farted and said, 'our farts are chasing us!'" Then the lot of them, Josiah included, began running around the house screaming about being chased.

Comparing unique children

It is fun having our children so close in age. The amazing part to see with them so close together is exactly how unique they are. If our children were farther apart in age I don't think we would be able to remember as well what the older ones were like when the younger ones get to the same age or milestone.

Take potty-training. Nathanael was completely dry day and night with the occasional deep-sleeping nights with accidents by his third birthday. Hearing from many seasoned moms that girls are easier, I thought Hannah would be before her third birthday as well. While she showed interest and some progress before her birthday, she wasn't able to fully train till after she had turned three. Now Talitha shows great interest, but is struggling as well. We will be putting it off for a while like her sister.

Or their eating habits. Each of our children have loved to eat! Most of them will eat anything pretty much from the start. So far they have all been the same in the love for pizza at a young age. Any kind of fruit is always a hit, with the exception of kiwi, that takes some getting used to. Now the older two love my homemade simple guacamole, but the younger two would rather not dip quesadillas in it. Josiah will eat all the steamed broccoli on the table if we let him, but green beans are too tough for him still.

Then there's the more obvious comparisons--size. Nathanael and Hannah have both been big for their age. Talitha has proven that the Aalderink genes are not completely dominant, she's our petite little girl who is taking after the Holton and Kelley families on my side. Josiah was born huge-8lbs 10oz and has only recently slowed down. Today the two youngest stepped on the scale. Talitha is 28lbs and Josiah is 27lbs, 10oz! He's on track to pass his big sister in weight soon, though he is still a bit shorter. It will be interesting to see what size Matthew will be!

Name for our new baby

So, ever since we brought Josiah home, Nathanael kept saying "God is going to give us another baby and it's going to be a boy." Then he started saying we would name this boy Matthew. Now Forest and I thought our family was pretty much complete-we had two of each gender and life was kind of crazy. Well, God in His Providence decided to bless us with another child. When we found out, we kind of had to chuckle a bit. Nathanael had predicted the last baby's gender before we found out, what if he was a little bit of a prophet? So, when the time came for the ultrasound we snuck all the kiddos in the room to find out if Nathanael had been right for almost a year. When the lady waved the wand on the gender specific area, there was no mistaking it, we were indeed having another boy! So, after a year of hearing the name Matthew, how could we not use it? Besides, do you know what Matthew means? It means "gift of God." This is where it gets really special. Do you remember what Nathanael means? In Hebrew "nathan" means gift and "El" is one of the names of God. Nathanael's name means "gift of God" as well.

So, while our lives are about ten weeks from being a little more crazy, we are truly blessed to have so many gifts from our gracious God who does not ask us to care for these dear ones alone. He gives us the strength each day (and on those days I am worn out completely He gives the kids grace with each other too). He gave me a wonderful husband who helps out a lot (really a lot) with housework and rearing the children. He also has given us a wonderful church family who helps when we need a sitter for those doctor appointments or date-nights, prayer often, and other support just when we need it.

We are all excited to meet Baby Matthew, in about ten weeks.

Sorry!

I just realized I have been neglecting to post anything on here! The last post was about Josiah almost walking, now I have to be vigilant in keeping him off the dining room table. Nathanael has turned six. And we are a mere ten weeks from the expected arrival of our newest baby! I will try to be better about keeping this updated , it may do me more good than any of you who happen to read it. If for nothing else, than to not forget the fun, every-day things and journal-worthy happenings in our home.

Nathanael's first sport

Nathanael enjoyed his first experience playing a team sport. We wanted to play soccer with a bunch of his church friends but that team of four and five-year-olds filled up quick. So he was on a team with new people, but that was ok, he made new friends. He was one of the biggest kids on the team since he turned six halfway through the two-month season. He had fun learning the rules of the game and practicing the skills such as dribbling and toe-taps. He learned the difficult lesson of wanting to win and wanting all your friends to win when playing against their team. But it was ok in the end, you could be happy no matter the turn-out. His team lost the game, but he was happy all his friends won. He had so much fun, he decided "I want to try basketball next." We'll see about that.