Terrible 2's Already?

As you can see by the previous post, we have made no progress on the binky front. In fact, it has gotten much, much worse. He doesn’t even trust us to hold in while he eats. Any attempt to mess with his “me” (we have no idea why he calls it that) are met with screams, tears and general unrest. I know it needs to go soon, right now I am saying after flu season. We will see, we may be pulling it out on his way to preschool. It hasn’t seemed to impact his vocabulary, he continues to spout off new words left and right, recently adding “MINE” to his repitoire. The towel that I put on the floor when they are taking a bath, yes that is his and Grant had better not stand on it and don’t even think about wrapping up in the blanket we keep in the living room, it's his. The Santa picture kind of sums it up. It was my second year in charge and I worked so hard finding a new Santa and a nicer backdrop and was so excited to get good pictures of my kids. I don’t know what I was thinking. At least we could all be there this year, last year we were still keeping Ryan away from crowds since he was only 5 months out of surgery. Hard to believe what a difference a year makes. No real story behind the basketball pic, just Kyle being his superstar self. He is SOO excited for us to open up the gifts he picked out at the Santa shop. He has wrapped and rewrapped and tried his best to get us to agree to an early open date.

Random quotes heard lately: “Don’t kill me, you love me” (Grant, to Kyle) – “Digger”, “I’m thirsty”, “Empty”, “Dog”, “Dog”, “Dog” (Ryan to anyone who is listening) - “Here’s a tip, mom, we like hamburgers, not meat burgers” (Kyle to me after I had made a chuck roast into bbq beef sandwiches and was pretty proud of myself, until we sat down. Meal time is about to push me over the edge. If it’s not a spaghetti (with store bought premade meatballs on the side, no sauce or something that was at one point frozen, they “hate” it and “feel sick”. Can you imagine how the turkey meatball soup went over today? It had spinach in it.

Baby, Bye, Bye

Just because I knew it was coming, didn’t make it any easier.  Ryan had his first official haircut on the November 22^nd and now looks oh so grown up.  It took a couple of days to get used to, but I managed.  Jason used his patented set the kid on a diaper box and put in a movie approach.  Sometime I can’t believe how talented he his, he cuts the boys hair and his own.  He did mine for a long time, but I bought a “real” haircut and color from the CHD Families auction and got hooked again.  I just try to go as long as possible because I feel guilty spending that money on something so fleeting.  I put these pics in the email so long ago, I can’t really remember what else is up there.  I think I put Kyle in his Indian costume he made at school.  He was so proud.  His teacher continues to sing his praises.  Recently we I emailed her about picking him up and she replied with the following “You probably hear this all the time, but Kyle is the sweetest boy EVER!  He always works extra hard, tries his best and is very careful to follow directions.   He's also quite the math whiz.  He picks up on concepts quickly and is able to explain his thinking to the class.  I am very lucky to have him in class!”  I just wish he believed in himself as much as everyone else does.  Math whiz he can’t really argue with.  Sometimes he just starts writing out random problems, like 3-3+100 + 1 – 11 = 90 and 2 X 2 X 2 = 8.  I think it’s ironic that he understands multiplication, but still writes some of his numbers backwards.  I just can’t wait to see what he becomes. 

 

I’m obviously a little behind.  Jason spent a long week at a training class in jolly old England and it was survival for quite some time.  We missed him like crazy.  His flight out and back weren’t two late, so we took him and picked him up at the airport, which I thought the boys would enjoy, but I thought wrong.  Oh, well.  The day he left, I fixed a big dinner at 1 because I had read eating dinner in the “new” time will help you adjust.  Kyle, none to happy with the pork chops I had fixed said “Well were not going to England, so can we have peanut butter sandwichs?  We survived, but I still don’t feel caught up, instead of blogging, I should be WORKING, balancing the check book, filling out rebate forms, folding laundry, sorting laundry doing laundry, on-line shopping to finish up the boys Christmas and did I mention WORKING.  Last year my goal was a stress free Christmas, this year I will settle for a Christmas without a major meltdown.

 

I did not get up at 3:30 to go Black Friday shopping.  THOSE people are crazy.  Also crazy… grown women who see Twilight:New Moon… twice!  Not me.

My sweet boys...

While doing some fall organizing (or some attempt thereof) we have rediscovered the set of Lincoln Logs, which is all great fun until someone gets their house knocked down.  This has happened more then a few times, mostly with the middle and youngest, which is why I was so surprised that after Kyle spent a good deal of time on his latest creation, he let Ryan knock it down because “it’s what he wants to do and it will make him happy”.  Sometimes I can’t even believe what a good kid he is.  Ryan has taken to stuffed animals of late, particularly this little bear rescued from the basement.  It’s really to cute for words to see him walk around hugging it.  He has another we call big bear that he drug into my room the other day.  When I asked him to put them in his bed, he walked all the way to his room and did that very thing.  So amazing.  Grant has just been hanging around lately.

 

I did not skip baths, let Kyle do his homework in the living room and put the kids to bed after 10 tonight because Jason was working and I wanted to watch the CMA’s.  I also did not take a nap today while Grant was watching tv and then wake up and forget to walk to the bus stop to pick up Kyle.  Had I done this, I wouldn’t have gone outside to get the mail and been surprised to see him standing in the neighbors driveway.

Obligatory Halloween Pics

The standard template in the blog book contains 6 pics, so here are six of my favorite from Halloween.  It was a long week with Grant’s party, a field trip and party for Kyle and finally trick or treating on Saturday.  In what is beginning to be a tradition, Jason and our neighbor John ventured out trick or treating and after a short visit to Grandma Mary with the younger two, I stayed behind with them.  The weather was nice this year, so we all ended up outside.  I told Grant I would take him to meet up with his brother, but he saw no reason to walk around the whole neighborhood to get candy when there sat a huge bowl on the table in the driveway.  He was so excited to be “Tom and Jerry”.  I was worried Ryan would not want to wear his costume buy it was actually the opposite, whenever Grant had his on, he threw a fit until we put him in his.

 

When stopping to pay at a neighborhood garage sale, I did not pull out my credit card and offer it as a form of payment.  I also did not fall in love with a ridiculously expensive TV console from Pottery Barn.  I know better then to even look at that stupid catalog.

Soccer Champs

As you can see, Kyle’s team did indeed make it to the championship game and did indeed win. So very exciting. He was so happy. He wore his medal the entire weekend. I am so sad and mad that I wasn’t there, you see the entire tournament got pushed back one day and Jason and I had already said we would be go to the wedding on the Saturday the big game ended up being played. I did want to go to the wedding, it was one of his guys and his fiancé was a nurse who works at Mercy and was very nice to me during our stay. Since we had already said we would be there, I have some overactive since of guilt and thought we shouldn’t back out and like I said, I did want to go, but the wedding ended up being very big and we didn’t even have a chance to say hi, they won’t even know we were there until they cash our check. So I ended up very mad and sad. I did the mature thing and took it out on Jason, thus ruining our night out and making me mad and sad all over again. I need to just get over it, but moving on is not always my strong point. Kyle, if you are reading this in the future, I am so sorry. I made a bad decision and I regret it, I should have been there, you are so much more important then anyone I would have seen at the wedding, had I seen anyone at the wedding at all. Ok, moving on. The other picture shows us completing our mission of delivering the goods we collected a good two months ago for RMH. In our defense, we did deliver the bulk of them soon after our party, but we missed one bag when we loaded up. I didn’t get pics like I wanted the first time, so it ended up working out. We used the trip downtown to visit Kaleidoscope as well, then dropped Ryan off at the cave and headed back to Science City where Mad Science had extra stuff set up. Quite a night that went unphotographed when my camera batteries died. Kyle LOVED Science city and was excited to write about it in his what I did this weekend journal they keep at school. When I got the text message saying they won their game, I turned to Jason and said, “Kaleidoscope and Science City are long forgotten aren’t they”, to which is said, “Oh, yeah”.

It seems I haven’t had many Grant stories of late, so here are two that center around bedtime books. The first is after we had read a book called Hairy, Scary, Ordinary, What is and adjective?

Me: So what is an adjective, Grant? Grant: An adjective is when someone gets really mad and they take a shortcut and then they are hairy, scary or ordinary. Me: Exactly.

Grant: This is a book about Jesus, Jesus can do anything, and you know what? The next time we go to church, I’m, ah, I um, I’m, I’m….not going to yell at you. Me: Wow, what are you going to do? Grant: Just relax. (we tried it out on Sunday and he went from maybe a C- to a B in the behavior department)

I was not reading text messages from my Mom about the status of the game during the aforementioned wedding (that's not her in the background sending a text message). I am just not one of those peopIe. While on the subject of texting, my mom did not start texting before me, I am an IT professional after all. I have not taken Kyle to school 3 of 4 days this week. He is always ready to go and at the bus stop at exactly 8:05. I never need the extra 5 minutes driving him affords me. If I had taken him, I would not have had him get out of the van and go brush his teeth when I realized it was health screening day and someone would be looking in his mouth. Oral hygiene never falls victim to the morning chaos around here. Had he actually been late on one of these days, I would not have had to march into school in my pj t-shirt covered up by a fleece jacket toting Ryan still in his pjs on my hip to sign him in.

Success!

I finished the clothes sorting debacle and as you can see in the pic of Grant modeling size 2 pjs that were placed in his drawer, I did a GREAT job.  I am slightly more proud of the pics I have been taking with my new camera lens.  I am getting used to it and I think I will really like it once I do.  I’m also getting a little more adventurous with photoshop, it just takes so much time to figure things out, I would give anything for just a few more hours in the day.  I have been trying to snap lots of Ryan before Jason gets his way and gives him the inevitable first haircut.  I just can’t bear to part with those whispy curls just yet, I know he will look all to grown up.  He is already seeming that way in his winter clothes and talking just a tiny bit more.  By far, his favorite word is “Noooo”, but I think he also says dog (dah) and calls my mom Maaaa.  His brothers were late talkers as well, so I am trying to just be patient.  His new favorite past time is climbing onto the coffee table and letting himself fall face first on to the couch.  Great.  In other news we had a very uneventful parent teacher conference with his teacher, he is doing great, I just wished he liked it a little better.  His team has a good chance of winding up in the championship game in soccer and he starts basketball the first week of Novemeber.  Grant is hanging in there as well.  His capacity to entertain himself amazes me, he is perfectly content to just hang out at home all day.

Frustration

As you can see, Ryan has been enjoying the empty boxes generated by the biannual ritual of unpacking winter clothes, repacking summer clothes, sorting, labeling, etc.  The whole process makes me want to move to Arizona.  With two kids, this was an unpleasant yet manageable task.  With three kids, I am one step away from crazy camp.  It’s just so frustrating trying to figure out what is deserving of our limited closet and drawer space with the big boys sharing a room.  I feel like all of the clothes I have for Kyle are either two big or too small and the clothes that are too small or only slightly too big for Grant, making me cringe at the thought of packing them into a box that I will soon have to relocate and retrieve.  I realize, of course that there are far bigger problems in the world, but for me, this week, this is it.  Also frustrating is my 16 months old’s ability to perceive the exact time I wake up in the morning and proceed to wake up about 20 mintues later, about the time I am just starting to work out.  No matter how early I wake up, he wakes up around the time I have burned 22 calories.  I am trying so hard to be healthier, and keep failing week after week.  Maybe this will be the week it all comes together.

 

I do not have enough clothes for 3 four year olds because I have never had a problem with overshopping.  I buy only what we need, when we need it, in the appropriate quantities.  My 4 year old that only wears a button down shirt under much protest and many tears does not have 6 hanging in his closet.

FW: Fall Stuff

Lot’s of stuff on the to-be-blogged about post it and I don’t think any time will just magically appear (especially this week), so…the pics were of our requisite trip to the pumpkin “patch”.  I am sure I mentioned last year that pumpkin carving is a big deal around here.  We actually grew two pumpkins in the back yard this year (we meaning Jason).  The vine nearly overtook the entire back yard, but it was fun for the kids.  I have pics on the vine someplace, but can’t seem to locate them on my mess of a hard drive.  So 2 pumpkins only begins to fill out quota and off we went.  It took awhile, but we actually found a place where you could just buy pumpkins without signing on (and paying for) the whole fall experience.  The big boys were fine just looking through the huge selection, finding the perfect one (again and again) and loading up the wagon.  Notice the 4^th of July t-shirts and G and R.  This is something I would have cared about when I had two kids (or cared enough to change it).  As it stands, I am just happy when Grant is wearing any clothes at all, he is going through a thing where clothes just cramp his style and you can almost always find him around the house in his underwear.  Thankfully, it seems to be limited to our house and he is still psyched up for preschool.  His teacher told me the other day that one of the new kids was having trouble with the transition and would just sit and watch playtime.  She said that Grant took it upon himself to reach out and hand him a car to play with.  That brought a huge lump to my throat, especially when at pickup I saw him pat the boy on the back and said, “It’s ok, your Dad will be here next”.  Too, too sweet.  We had a little wall art incident the other day and now he tells me on a regular basis at the most random times that he is not going to draw on the wall anymore.  I must have made him feel so bad and that of course make me feel bad.  As Grant and I were correcting the wall art with erasers, I turned to see Ryan adding his talent to the mix with the pencil I had just wrestled away from Grant.  Still don’t know what I am going to do with him.  He had a good time at the pumpkin farm, although he was going through major binky withdrawl.  Jason thinks it’s time to start down that path.  It’s not such a big deal to me, but I thought we would give it a go.  We survived but there was much signing “I want” (i.e. moving his little hand frantically up and down) and digging in empty pockets.  On the other hand, bottles just rode off into the sunset with little intervention from us.  One day, I just noticed we hadn’t given him one in a couple of days, so I packed them up and we have never looked back.  Why can’t everything be that easy?

Grant's Turn

Grant got to enjoy a few more weeks of summer with his preschool starting after labor day.  He was so ready to get back to school (or maybe just away from crabby mom and his frenemy, Lilly).  I love his first day of school pose, with his hands on his back pack straps and I love that he still lets me pick out his clothes.  Kyle is so far beyond that, it is nothing but t-shirts and athletic type shorts and pants.  He made one exception for picture day, when he wore his Easter shirt and tie with shorts and tennis shoes.  He looks so good when he wears nicer clothes, but I want him to feel good at school so I don’t press the issue (at least I try not to).  He is not super into school this year, he doesn’t hate it, but he doesn’t love it and I think he really misses seeing grandma.  He has spent a few Saturday’s with her, so that helps, but it is just not the same.  I am already having to play the “no school, no sports” card which is effective because he LOVES his sports.  Soccer is going well, they are playing on a bigger field with a goalie this year.  The first few game were rough, but the week before he scored 3 goals and an assist and this week he scored on and played goalie one half, stopping all but one rocket.  No wonder Lilly and Ryan seem to worship him.  Ryan does not consistently say mama or dada or anything really, but more often then not, he will joyfully sound our “Eye-el” when he sees his big brother.  I think I am going to have to break down and record that as his first official word. 

 

I did not stand in the grocery store checkout line reading some gossip magazine about the stars of the Twilight movie while Kyle placed all of the groceries on the conveyor.  I would never set such a bad example and get so sucked into an article of that nature.  I also didn’t in the very same store take Grant and Ryan for lunch and allow Ryan to spill an entire bottle of milk because I was reading another magazine, I mean, enough is enough, isn’t it?

Birthday Party Blues

I think I have put of blogging Grant’s birthday because there really weren’t many blog worthy moments.  Notice in the picture the kid wearing a jacket…in August.  The sub-70 degree weather kind of ruined our plans for a waterslide party.  We had so much fun at our back to school water slide party that I was pretty disappointed.  We tried setting up some outside games, but nothing really took off.  We did have a nice dinner and all Grant really cared about was having his friends around while he blew out the candles on his spiderman cupcakes and opened presents.  He also got to end any disagreement with Kyle by stating “I’m the birthday boy”.  His actual birthday went a little smoother with a trip to Paradise Park with Grandma and lunch at McDonald’s with me.  He kept saying “I’ll be 4 later”.  That night, Kyle offered to buy ice cream at Sonic with his own money.  I was pretty surprised, he normally holds onto his cash for dear life, but he knows how much Grant likes his ice cream.  Maybe next year will work out for the waterslides.

Keeping Ryan Out of Trouble

I think I alluded in my previous post to my now constant struggle to keep Ryan out of mortal danger.  This picture illustrates this fact to some extent.  He is never content to stand beside something, in his eyes, things are meant to be crawled on top of.  The older boys would stand for hours by the train table playing.  Ryan instead prefers to find his way to the top, sit down in the middle and play.  I really don’t even fight that anymore, if he falls during his dismount, it is only a few inches.  Tonight marked the first night that I ordered a baby proofing product on-line and paid extra for speedy shipping.  This event was brought about by dinner.  His new found obsession is opening the door to the over, so I consciously decided to cook the chicken in the counter top toaster over, knowing I could slip for a second and he would open the hot over door.  Up until now, he had merely opened the door, but tonight, in the time it took me to wash my hands after cutting up chicken, he opened the door and climbed on top of it so that he was eye level with the burners.  I yelled no and grabbed him and sat him down in the hall way.  For about a minute, I think he was actually trying not to cry, a one year old, trying to act tough.  But eventually he lost it and I lost it and now we are just saying prayers that the aftermarket oven door lock work and he can move on to his next disaster.

Impomtu Animal Encounters

I think it was not last weekend, but the week before the unseasonably cool weather inspired us to take trips to both the farmstead (on Friday) and the zoo (on Sunday).  The pics from the farmstead include my friend Janet’s kids (actually just her youngest 3!,Alex, Garrett and Erica).  They were able to meet us and a good time was had by all.  It was a strange to be there without Kyle since he was in school all day.  Even though the farmstead has lost some of it’s magic for the big 7 year old, we missed him and he is getting to where he is pretty helpful keeping Ryan out of trouble (a one and a half person job at least).  On Sunday, we felt somewhat caught up and decided to venture as a family of 5 to the zoo.  It feels we so seldom do that (travel in a pack) and it was nice for a change.  I love how close you can get to the kangaroos at our zoo and Ryan was busy pointing at everything.

First Day of First Grade

Not much to report, Kyle seemed the usual combination of nervous, excited, apprehensive, hopeful that tends to arise with the first day of school. His nerves seem to be manifesting in major silliness and I have been working hard on patience. I didn’t go to the school, he was confident he could get off the bus and find his classroom and I was sure this would. He also had our neighbor Owen in his class. He was upset about some friends that ended up in different classes, but had enough friendly faces not dwell on it for too long. I have gotten few details as to the goings on in first grade, other then he had a corn dog for lunch and they get two recesses. I am excited about how the logistics have worked out this year. Mom takes everyone to her house early and I have all day to work (on my work days) until Kyle gets off the bus at 3:30. Since I don’t have to pick G and R until 5, Kyle and I have a stretch of time with no interruptions that we can work on his homework, get ready for the next day or practice reading. I think we have gotten more accomplished in these precious slivers of time then we did in the entire year last year. I hate making him keep at it after being at school all day and he frequently gets mad because he wants to play with Owen, but uninterrupted time is just to precious not to grab and hold on to.

I have not been in a deep state of despair over my sudden realization that I will have kids in elementary school for the next 13 years. I always look on the bright side of everything and have a positive attitude. Also, I don't harbor any secret annimosity towards my seemingly endless array of friends who now have all of the kids in school all day.

Catching Up

I have decided the my blogging fiscal year will coincide with the start of school and since that was TODAY, I need to make one final post to wrap up 08-09. After vacation, the big event of the summer was Kyle’s 7^th birthday. There was a great deal on Royals tickets this year, so we decided to take him and some of his buddies to the game. Whether or not that was wise depends on who and when you ask, but I do think the boys ended up having a good time, it was just a little stressful for me keeping track of everyone wanting to go to different places and it was pretty late when we got back. Some parents were already in pjs when I dropped the kiddos off. Kyle watched most of the game even though he informed us that he is now a St. Louis Cardinals fan (we watched one great Cardinals game on vacation). On the way home, the conversation in the back seat of the van seemed to center around “jokes” involving different combinations of people on an airplane and things coming out of their butts. Apparently to 7 year olds, this is the height of humor.

Our other big event was hosting a back to school party for our friends and collecting items to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. Kyle had been wanting to do something for “Ryan’s Hospital” for some time. We had originally planned on having a party mid July to celebrate Ryan being home for one year, but it never materialized, so we came up with this idea and did it during the day and invited our friends. It turned out to be great fun, the kids played on the waterslides for hours and the moms got to enjoy some time to relax. Kyle had a party at the pool directly after, so him and Grant were basically wet and playing from 1 – 7 on Friday. You would have thought they would be exhausted and to bed early, but not really. I think they both have my sleep genes (or lack of sleep genes). In addition to being water bugs, Grant has taken to proclaiming at random times “I’m a good boy”, sometimes followed by “and Kyle is a bad boy”. It’s really quite cute. Ryan continues to imitate his brothers non-stop. He loves carrying around their big plastic bats. One time, he actually dug a ball out of the garage, brought it to me and toddled a few steps away and turned around to look at me. We also witnessed him trying so hard to put a small ball on the tee while holding the aforementioned big bat. I think he would have stood there for an hours trying to get the ball on the little tee had I not intervened.

I have not been neglecting this post (along with numerous other household tasks) because I have gotten hopelessly, shamefully sucked into the Twilight series which I just learned was written for teenagers. Had I gotten sucked into these books, I would at least draw the line at reading the books and not stay up until 2 Saturday night watching not only the movie, but the deleted scenes and interview with the author.

There's no place like away from home

We have been talking for some time about a family vacation and we finally did it last week.  I got my act together and found a place on Table Rock close to Silver Dollar City.  After what is quite possibly the worst start ever, we had a really good time.  The week preceding vacation was not ideal.  Most weeks I feel very lucky to be a work at home mom with lots of flexibility; however, this was not one of those weeks.  I was busy with work, not swamped, but busy enough and it was registration week for school which meant lots of PTA stuff.  I got to the point where I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  I finally broke down and asked my step mom to come up and help with the boys.  I was glad I did, but it was still a tough week.  I didn’t start packing until the morning we were due to leave and I didn’t relax until, well, it never really seemed like I relaxed, but like I said, the boys (at least the older 2) had a really good time.  We went to SDC the first day and Kyle got to experience his first “real” roller coaster.  Grant was pretty meek, which surprised me, he usually seems so daring (as evidenced by his head first descent of the water slide in the picture above).  I guess if it involves wearing a seat belt, he would just prefer to pass.  Kyle also enjoyed the magic show, something he has been into for some time now.  We didn’t stay all day, choosing to go back to the hotel for some swim time and dinner.  Tuesday was spent on the lake, renting a boat in the morning and then just hanging out in the afternoon.  Grant opted out of the boat ride, but at least it gave Ryan a chance to get his only decent nap of the trip.  I forgot how much fun it can be just hanging out by the lake, the kids spent lots of time piloting the kayaks, jumping off the docks and just floating around.  Poor Ryan is just not a big fan of the water and looked miserable most of the time, the only bright spot being a brief game of pushing Grant off the dock.  We grilled again and watched a baseball game on tv, which I think was my favorite part, just sitting together, no distractions of home, no feeling like I should be cleaning or sorting or all of the other millions of things on my at home to do list.  Wednesday we left after spending another morning at SDC and headed home, just one day before Kyle turned 7.  Will post later about that because it is indeed a story deserving of its own post.

 

I did not forget to pack my swimsuit of all things.  I did not, the week before vacation eat ¾ of a peach crisp I made.  Had I done that, I would not have said that I gave ½ of it to my step dad.