It's no wonder that our world is falling apart when you consider what kinds of things we read to our kids. I'm shocked as I read to the kids; the stories can be quite startling. But the kids like the stories so I keep reading them anyway.

One story they love is the story of Peter Rabbit. Anthropomorphism suits this story well for the most part. Until you get to the line where Peter Rabbit's mom warns Peter Rabbit to stay away from Mr. McGregor's garden because

"Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

Imagine being a child and having your mother say this to you.

I'm also unnerved by the Mother Goose nursery rhyme "Goosey, Goosey Gander":

Goosey, Goosey Gander,
Wither shall I wander?
Upstairs, downstairs,
In my lady's chamber.

There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers;
I took him by the left leg,
And threw him down the stairs.

As parents are we supposed to use this story as a threat? As odd as this poem is, I'm not sure if it's better or worse than the story of the frantic woman who is chased by handicapped mice before she finally cuts off their tails.

Perhaps the creepiest story of all is the disturbing "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. It starts off nice enough but quickly degrades into a tale of an aged woman dragging her son, who is a grown man, out of bed after breaking and entering into his home. She then holds him down and rocks him back and forth while singing to him. It's just like a scene out of a horror movie. Not the "Saw" kind of horror movie - I mean the really freaky movies like "The Sixth Sense" or "The Changeling". It may just be a rumor, but I heard that the original version of this book ended with the mother's ghost coming back to haunt the son. She whispered the song in his ear every night until he finally went crazy. They were going to print the story anyway but Sheila McGraw's illustration showed the mother's ghost with no eyes in her sockets and it freaked everyone out.

A lot of ladies think "Love You Forever" is a very sweet book but there's a lot they don't know about Robert Munsch. First, and most awkward, is that he's a Canadian. An American-born Canadian, actually. I'm not sure how that works. Second, he wrote a book called "Good Families Don't". Since this is a family blog I will limit what I say about this book. Suffice it to say the plot involves beans and the effects of eating said beans.

Now that I think about it, a book that combines the stories from "Love You Forever" and "Good Families Don't" might actually be a good read.

I was hoping to catch up on all my blogging before sickness hit our home again, but alas it was not meant to be. Thankfully, Chase recovered very well after coming home from the hospital. He finished his antibiotics and everyone was doing well until Bryce started showing signs of a cold today. The cycle never ends. Anyway, I better get a little blogging done while I can.

Bryce has had the most significant life changes lately. About a month ago he started to take his first hesitant steps. He slowly warmed up to the idea of walking and he has become a full-time walker over the past two or three weeks. Up until a week or two ago he only walked in straight lines, but since then he has mastered the turn and is making his first attempts at running. He's anxious to develop these skills because he wants to run away. Not from home - just from certain situations. For example, he hates brushing his teeth so when he knows it's time to brush teeth he quickly turns around and runs.

Speaking of brushing teeth, Bryce has been acting whiny recently. He's usually a calm, happy baby. A few days ago I dug around in his mouth to see if he had some more teeth coming in and found that he has one cuspid and three molars coming in. No wonder he's cranky.

He's also been talking a bit for a while now. He likes to say "daddy" and if you ask him a question he'll say "yeah". He said "graham cracker" last week, but I haven't been able to get him to repeat that stunt.

In other new, a few weeks ago we were having family home evening and were talking about anger management (not for any particular reason). I asked each of the kids what makes them mad. Chase answered, "pushing." Next I asked Mason the the same question. He answered, "Chase."

Finally, I made a 2RBC blood donation on January 20. I found that the United Blood Services web page only tracks number of donations, not the number of units. As a result, there are 15 2RBC donations that may or may not be reported on the web site. And I'm too lazy to call and ask for more information about it.

In a perfect world I'll blog some more. Or not.

I was hoping that we would be past all the sickness by now, but instead we spent the weekend in the hospital with Chase. Between Friday night and Saturday morning Chase was having a coughing fit. Emilie checked on him and decided to give him some medicine because he had a fever. Shortly after taking the medicine he began coughing so hard that he gagged, thus expelling his medicine. Emilie became concerned when she noticed blood mixed in with his recently evacuated medicine.

Emilie took Chase in to have him checked and they performed a barrage of tests on him. He was negative for flu or H1N1, but they found that he had double ear infections and bilateral pneumonia. He was finally admitted to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Emilie spent most of the day with him and then I spent the night with him.

I missed the insertion of the IV, but according to Emilie it took four nurses to help hold him down long enough to get the IV in. He was very cooperative and brave after that, but by Sunday morning it was apparent that he had had enough. Although he toughed out the breathing treatments, he finally said no to having his blood pressure checked.

Chase was released shortly before noon yesterday and has been doing quite well. He hates taking his medicine - sometimes he tortuously bears it and other times we have to force it down. His mood is still quite cranky, but his appetite seems to be getting much better.

Jaxon and Mason are recovered, but Bryce still has a lingering cold. We're just hoping everyone gets better by Christmas.

December was a month of serious partying. First, we had Bryce's big one year celebration. We had a small group of family over that consisted of grandparents and the "duckies". When it came time to sing to him he wanted to grab the flame so badly that he had to be restrained. Here's a picture of the moment:

Chase also had his birthday in December. Once again, it was a low key affair with just grandparents.

Christmas was a particular joy because everyone was fairly healthy - something we haven't enjoyed for years. We had a fantastic Christmas Eve out in Spanish Springs at the S. household. On Christmas day we went to Emilie's parents for a fabulous prime rib Christmas dinner. After dinner we spent the rest of Christmas at my parent's home. Between Christmas and New Years we had a lot of fun family time. As previously stated, it was doubly fun because no one was sick.

In addition to the family partying, we also attended my work Christmas party. The food was okay, but we were mystified that the Christmas party had a "Studio 54" theme. To make it all the more authentic, the ballroom was scattered with "exotic dancers". No joke. I'm not sure if they were intentionally trying to be offensive or if they just wanted to make everyone extremely uncomfortable. Either way, they certainly achieved their goal. They sent out a survey asking for feedback about the party. I said it was okay, but maybe next year it would be cool to have Andrew Dice Clay come do an act. Or they could do a "Silence of the Lambs" theme. That would certainly open up a lot of possibilities for dining and entertainment. We'll see if they actually take the feedback seriously or not.

The most exciting thing about the party is that we got real babysitters to come watch the kids for us. Not even family members - just a couple of young women from church. Shockingly, everything seemed to work out okay. Maybe one day we'll get to do it again. One day...

A few entertaining things from our kids lately:

Chase: While playing Rock Band a few weeks ago (a rare luxury that we enjoy every other month or so) Chase began playing along on the drums. He was drumming to the beat, but he was singing the words to "the wise man built his house upon a rock."

As Christmas approached last month Chase asked us if Santa was going to come down the chili.

Jaxon: At the conclusion of family home evening on Monday we had Jaxon say the prayer. The prayer was kind of a combination between his own words and the words I was telling him to say. That was kind of funny, but we were far more amused when instead of ending his prayer with "amen" he said "the end".

Bryce: A few weeks ago we were just finishing our nighttime routine, including baths. Everyone was ready for bed except Jaxon, who was still in the tub. Bryce had been extracted from the tub and had his pajamas on but apparently decided the party in the tub wasn't over yet. He climbed in fully clothed. This is something Jaxon used to do on a regular basis. I'm sooo glad that we still have a child who likes to do that.

Since our kids have been sick we've been giving them Gatorade to help keep them hydrated. For some reason we can't get any of them to call it Gatorade. It is simply known as "alligator". It's a blast when you have a room full of kids whining because they want "alligator". One of these days I'm going to put a real alligator in their cups to help them learn the difference.

All the kids are horribly sick, so that must mean it's time to blog. I'm quite bitter because I blogged a couple of weeks ago and my stuff didn't save. BAH! So I lost the inspiration to blog.

It started with Mason. He got a fever and was hoarse and coughy. He is mostly recovered, but still has a bit of fever. Jaxon picked it up a few days later and has been quite miserable. In a fit of delirium last night he freaked out and started screaming that he needed to be covered up. Emilie went up to check on him only to find that he was already covered up. The ongoing fevers led to a trip to the doctor today for Jaxon and Mason. The doctor says all is well - just a bad cold.

As Jaxon and Mason slowly rebound, Chase and Bryce have been in decline. They both had a horrible night last night. And of course that means that Emilie and I had a rough night. Emilie certainly bears the brunt , though.

To ensure at least some progress I'm going to leave this entry short and sweet and full of talk of sickness. More to come...

Chase is making headlines these days. Over the past couple of weeks Chase has been potty training. He tried training several months ago and did okay for the first day or two, but the whole plot fell apart when I took him to church. Using a toilet in a foreign place can apparently be terrifying. Anyway, we went back to diapers for a little while and this time he seems to be much more eager and prepared.

Chase continues to be wild and affectionate - a combination that can cause issues. He constantly wants to be hugging and wrestling with his brothers but they are rarely willing participants. He also doesn't like to eat much. He used to be a great eater, but not so much now.

Chase loves Christmas books, so this is his favorite time of the year. He also loves to look at Christmas lights on houses.

The first picture was taken about a week ago at the park. The second picture was taken last August in our backyard. It gives him kind of a nice Hulk-ish appearance.

Mason is currently going through an I-can-do-it-all-by-myself stage. He can become downright vicious if you try to help him when he doesn't want help. His way of telling you that he does not want help is, "I want to help you." If you help him when he says he wants to help you then you're really asking for it. In general, though, he tends to be fairly obedient. He usually stays in bed when told, shares with his brothers when asked and stuff like that. That said, he probably has the most unpredictable temper of the bunch. He can communicate quite well, which makes it slightly easier to deal with the temper.

I don't have any very good, very recent pictures. The first picture was taken in our backyard about three months ago. The second picture was taken about a month ago. He looks like a scruff, but that's okay.

Jaxon is a little bit smaller than Mason, but he also doesn't eat very much. He picks at his food, so it's amazing that he's as big as he is. Jaxon's personality comes out more and more each day. He continues to be the most daring one of the bunch. He can also be the most defiant and strong-willed. Bed time is a good example: while Mason at least pretends to try to go to sleep, Jaxon will spend an hour and a half sneaking out of the room and goofing around. He seems to be impervious to any form of discipline we've tried. All in all, he tends to be very expressive and generally good.

The first picture was taken at the park last Saturday, 11/28/09. The second picture was taken during Thanksgiving dinner.

Bryce is officially a crawler. In the past week or two he finally decided that it's easier to crawl and now uses crawling as his primary mode of transportation. He continues to be a very happy child and doesn't like sitting still. His two settings are on and off. Once he is in his crib he goes right to sleep pretty much every time; however, when he wakes up he has to move constantly.

These pictures were taken at the park last Saturday, 11/28/09.