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.