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?