Jack's First Lemonade Stand

On Saturday we had a moving sale. This prompted a great home-schooling lesson so we went for it - an old fashion lemonade stand. Jack was very keen. We talked about making change, refreshed on all the different coins, tithing, profit margin, sign-making etc. It was fun, and anyone who knows Jack knows that he had lots of questions. We made cookies which were to be sold for 20 pence and cups of lemonade which would be sold for 10 pence. 

Jack's goal - all good salesmen have a goal - was to make enough money to buy him and Theo a McDonald's milkshake. He was a little nervous about whether he would get to this goal. We calculated that if he sold everything we had made he would earn £3.80. He said if he didn't sell everything that he and Theo could share a milkshake, but after a five second silence, he quickly added that they had never had their own (a little pressure on the mother here!). 

We are happy to report that his first lemonade stand and cookie selling was a huge success. He made £11.37 - he also learned the lesson of very generous people and tips!  We talked about how he had enough to buy everyone in our family a milkshake. Please excuse me now, I am off to McDonalds! 

Eliot's First Bath

Eliot had his first bath today. I think when you wait three weeks and are the youngest of four kids this type of event turns into a family affair. Everyone was there watching and by all accounts all seemed to enjoy themselves - Eliot included. 

Crying Won't Do You No Good

Charles collected Theo from pre-school today. On the way home, they had some father son bonding time listening to Led Zeppelin - which is usually frowned upon with Mom in the car. When they got home and got out of the car Theo made the following comment unprompted, 'Robert Plant is right. Crying won't do you no good.'

Apparently the song they were listening to was called When the Levee Breaks, and there is a line that Robert Plant sings that says 'Crying won't help you. Crying won't do you no good.'

This is a good thing for Theo to learn (although we will need a separate English lesson to correct the poor grammar), but come on, what three-year-old knows the lead singer of Led Zeppelin?

Tuckered Out

Being a big brother is hard work - Theo asleep in bed tonight - 

I use to be small...

But now I am big! We just couldn't stop taking pictures of Addie holding Eliot. She was so proud of herself.

Just the Four of Us...

More Pictures of Eliot's Birth

 Mr. Foot Down did an excellent post announcing the arrival of Eliot on the day of his birth. Since returning home with the camera, I wanted to add a few more pictures from the day of his grand entrance:

Jack's Comments regarding Eliot

There have been two things Jack has said recently that I wanted to make sure I got recorded:

1) On the Monday before Eliot was born he and I were walking home from the doctor's surgery; he was just chatting away as only Jack can do. Before I knew it we were in a discussion about how hard it was to have a baby.  He told me that he wanted to make sure he got some good rest in the next few days because he knew that after the baby was born he would be exhausted.  He then told me that he 'knew that Dad would understand because he was also the oldest and knew what it was like to have younger siblings, but that I probably wouldn't understand since I wasn't the oldest'.

So true Jack - I have no idea how exhausting it is to have a baby!  :)

2) In Sunday School a few days after Eliot was born, Jack's teacher asked him how his week had gone, prompting him to announce and tell about the birth of Eliot to the other students. Apparently Jack got a little passive, so the teacher asked him what Eliot looked like to which Jack replied, 'Well he looks a little rough right now.'

There you have it!  Jack's first impression of his newest brother 'a little rough' - I can see this comment sneaking into a future wedding toast speech 'To Eliot who started out looking rough...'

And here are a few pictures taken recently of Jack and Eliot:

Announcing the arrival of . . .

Mr Foot Down, on behalf of the beautiful, amazing Mrs Thumb Up, is pleased to announce that Eliot Charles made his appearance this morning at 10:25. Weighing in at 8 lbs. 2 oz., he ranks as the biggest of the Andersons yet. The delivery went smoothly, for which we are profoundly grateful.

The name draws on a lot of strands. First, I've always had rather strict criteria for baby names in that the name had to be significant in some way (family, Bible, someone influential in our lives). The idea that we 'liked' the name was not sufficient. But given Mrs. Thumb Up's extraordinary abilities as a mother of three, and now her bearing gracefully yet again another one, I told her I was prepared for her to have more latitude on this one. She registered a long time ago that she liked Eliot, but I wasn't as keen. But it's stayed on the radar, not least because somehow Jack got wind of it and proclaimed that it was his favourite.

We've really been wrestling with what name to choose, still uncertain this past weekend. When Eliot came back up, I had had a change of heart and was happy with it. Even better -- it actually does have significance as well. It's Erin's paternal grandfather J.W. (from whom our Jack gets some of his initials), his mother's name (in other words, Erin's great-grandmother's maiden name). The slightly unusual spelling is a tribute to the poet T. S. Eliot, who has long been a favorite for me. That also makes it more natural to abbreviate to Eli, which means 'my God' in Hebrew. So it's a win all around. Now the only problem is that Jack is going to take credit for the name.

One other funny note on the name. Some of you will remember that we've been informally referring to the baby as Jinx (see the previous post on this). Evidently, this morning, Theo was with some of our friends, and was telling them that he was really hoping we were going to name the baby Jinx. Sorry to disappoint you, my man, but you can still use it as an additional nickname.

Thanks for your prayers and good wishes. We look forward to introducing Eliot to you.

Last Supper as Family of 5 and Pregnant Erin

To remember our last night, God-willing, as a family of five,we went walked down to Pizza Express in Southgate. The kids had a great time and it was nice to have a good 'last supper'. Jack spent a large part of the night up at the pizza counter watching the man make the pizzas. At the end of the night, he knew quite a bit about this man (who his girl was (although Jack was a little confused about whether they were married or just dating, his age, his name, etc). We also brainstormed names for the baby. The kids came up with some good last night contenders. I think Charles and I have some front-runners, but we have decided we need to see the baby before concluding for sure. Naming this kid has been much harder than the others!

Here we are:

I usually resist doing things like this, but I thought it was worth recording what I looked like the night before our fourth baby is to be born. I am trusting that the baby and I will enjoy looking back on these pictures in the future, and as I use this blog as a family scrapbook I thought it was right to include these!

And finally, prayers much appreciated for tomorrow.  Mr. Thumb Down will likely be on posting duty for the next few days so do check back.

Forehead

I was just reading the David and Goliath story to Theo. The story said, 'David threw the stone and it hit Goliath in the forehead.'  That prompted Theo to ask, 'Where is your forehead?' I pointed to the top middle part of his head. He then quickly asked, pointing to the right part of his head, 'Is this my firsthead?'

I was tempted to say 'yes', and then show him where 'secondhead, thirdhead, and fourhead' were, but I resisted!

We're moving in new directions...

In the past couple of weeks, Theo and Addie have developed some new moving skills. Check them out:


Addie scooting:

Theo riding his bike:

And for a laugh - this is not that uncommon:

Toy Soldiers

One of our boys favourite things to do is to play with their miniature soldiers. They received a bucket of toy soldiers for Christmas that had British, American, Japanese, and German soldiers in it (all coloured differently). I cannot tell you how many hours they have spent playing with these soldiers. The bucket had 200 soldiers to begin with and I think we probably still have at least 160 - unfortunately, there have been quite a few causalities. After their rest time we will walk into their room and find soldiers lined up in all different areas in very strategic line ups. It is not unusual for me to hear them assign who is in charge of which colour soldiers - something like 'Jack you be British, I'll be American, and Addie you can be the Germans.'


This is often what their room looks like:

And sometimes the soldiers even 'modernize' and use the multi-story parking garage as a look out point:

Just last week the boys received the following email from my mother with the subject:
Good news for General Jack Anderson and General Theodore Anderson

An American MIA soldier was found under the bed. He appears to be in excellent health. However, there will be a required hospital observation and debriefing. The best guess is that he will be returning to his unit which is presently stationed in London, England on May 11, 2012. Please address any inquiries regarding his health to PFC Scarlett Abbott in Missouri of the USA. PFC Scarlett (the dog) will be recommended for a promotion for her role in assuring his good health by not chewing him up.

My mom is one of the most creative people I know. She breathes creativity. The boys were thrilled to know that a soldier would be returning to their unit in just a weeks time. Very fun memories.