Mad at Mom

This is so sweet, but cracks me up at the same time. Whenever Elise is upset, usually--or I should probably say ALWAYS--with me, she will run into the arms of her big brother or sisters for comfort. I love to see them take care of each other like this. But seriously, why can't they act this loving all the time???



"Mom won't let me use the vacuum cleaner!" Cue a major fit-pitching. So in jumps "Ree" to rescue her. Reid is always looking out for her safety and happiness. Well, when he feels like it.



"Mom's a horrible evil person because she won't let me run into the middle of the long jump event at Reid and Blair's track meet!" My goodness, you should have heard the screams and seen the stares. As it turned out, I practically missed the event because I had to back so far away to keep from annoying every other person out there. As soon as I put her down, she ran right to"Flone" for safety from her terrible mother.


"I don't know what mean old mom did to me this time, but I'm sure it was something horrible." And she jumped right in "Bwair's" lap for comfort.

She may not be the baby of the family, but I think she'll always be the baby of the family.

August 6, 2012 -- Snip Snip

Back to school means we can no longer avoid haircuts for the kids.

Elise's first haircut!
BEFORE:

What did they do before iphones??

AFTER:

Sloane BEFORE:

AND "Sob sob, goodbye curls, Mom will miss you!" AFTER:

REID "My goodness that boy had some hair!" BEFORE:

AND "Whew! My head can breathe again!" AFTER:

No pics of Blair because she just got a trim. She's growing her hair to donate--she's at 8 inches so far! :)

July 29, 2012 -- "Please Do Not"

"...climb on walls." Says who? ...Oh.

  

What about gates?

                                   Nobody said fences.

Back to Sanity

It's back to school time around here. Thank the Lord! It was a rough summer. Not only did we have a baby right smack dab in the middle of it, which limited the types of activities we could do, but it was way too hot to do anything outside. Our highest high this summer was 113 degrees. Not the heat index, the actual temperature. It tied the all-time, ever recorded, in the history of the city, high. Like EVER! That's just ridiculous. I don't know who I have to call about that, but seriously, I have no time for that mess. So anyway, we didn't make it outside too much. Which meant a lot of tv and video games inside. I wasn't quite sure what to do on the first day of school when my tv wasn't tuned and locked to Disney Channel all day. What? There are other things on tv besides Phineas and Ferb and Good Luck Charlie and, gasp, Jessie? (I do not care for that last one, if you really want to know. Good Luck Charlie is not bad though. I actually enjoy watching it myself!) Anyway, it's back to school, and while I am not excited about the whirlwind of chaos that will descend upon us at 4:00 every afternoon, I am excited about not having to yell at someone every second of the day.

Our first grader. I can't believe Blair is in first grade this year. At first, it didn't seem strange. Afterall, she was in Kindergarten last year so first grade is the obvious next step. But when I walked her in her class and saw her big stack of text books and was reminded that she would have a locker this year, it caught me completely off guard. She's going to have real, honest-to-goodness homework this year, not just busy work. And multiple subjects with real text books. And a locker! I might as well get her a locker mirror and magnetic notepad and 8000 decorative magnets now because that is definitely the kind of locker-user she'll be! :) Please pay special attention to the backpack in her photo--she fought and fought for a rolling backpack this year. I was steadfastly against it just for the principle of the matter...have our children gotten so lazy that they can't even carry their own backpacks anymore?? However, I sneakily gave in after shopping two stores and noticed they didn't carry them, so I figured what would it hurt to agree to it knowing she wouldn't be able to find one? Hee hee Well, we did eventually find one but they were terribly plain, so I told her she could choose an ugly plain backpack with wheels or a cute one without wheels. Of course, she decided on a cute one, which is the one she is modeling here. The part that sold her on this particular bag was that it came with a charm already attached to the zipper. Oh, and that the style name is Lollipop and "I do like lollipops," she informed me. It's the small things... It was really cute seeing her so excited about it as she packed it up on the last night of summer. "I love my new backpack. Isn't it the cutest one you've ever seen!? Mom, is this really the cutest backpack you've ever seen in your whole life!?"

Sloane is starting pre-k this year. So this is the first year she gets to ride the bus and be at the big kids' school. She chose a princess backpack. While not my first choice, it's better than the Dora one she wanted at first, especially since she doesn't even really watch Dora much anymore. Anyway, notice her shoes. Those stinkin' shoes. ...Sloane is very particular about her shoes. Once she finds a pair or two that she likes, she will not wear any other ones. Especially tennis shoes. Or socks. Normally she won't have anything to do with that nonsense. (Not even during winter. When there's snow on the ground!) It's got to be dress shoes, but only ones she's used to. Case in point, I bought her a really cute pair of pink shoes, with pink flowers on them, that SHE herself picked out, at Easter time. I think she has only worn them once. So anyway, when we were told that she would need to have a pair of tennis shoes to leave at school for PE, I bought some figuring she probably wouldn't want to wear them but that it will be the teacher's battle to fight, not mine, so oh well. (I know, I'm so considerate. ha! But I'm all battled-out.) Well, when Sloane expressed wanting to wear them the day we bought them, I agreed, knowing that her excitement over them would only help her come PE time. Well now I can't get the darn shoes off her feet. (And you have to know she wears, like, church dresses everyday. C'mon, you don't wear tennis shoes with church dresses. No, not even when you're 4.) I even tried to buy her another pair of dress shoes when we were at the store, any ones she wanted, to replace her two holey, worn out, torn up ones, but she refused every other shoe and now will only wear these. I even offered her one of her favorite torn up pair today (that I had previously told her she couldn't wear to school because they were in such terrible shape) and she wouldn't, reminding me, "You said I couldn't wear those to school." Oh, so NOW she wants to listen. So it looks like once again, the battle is mine to fight. That's what I get for being mean. 

Reid. My dear boy Reid. He's so easy when it comes to clothes and shoes and backpacks. I guess that's a boy for you. Of course, the idea of starting school again and not getting to play hours and hours of video games...well that's just atrocious. Now, he would correct you and say that he is not playing hours and hours of video games all day. He's playing the ipod. As if that's supposed to be any different. But I still think he's going through withdrawls. (Yes, I know the fact that I LET him play hours and hours of video games or ipod or whatever all day is a bigger issue, but well, that was the only way to keep the peace some days and as I said earlier, I was all battled-out long before the summer even started so I just went with the "whatever gets us through the day" mentality.) But back to school, he's in the 3rd grade now. I'm a little scared about his work load, not really for him, but for me, who is the one who's going to have to be on top of him and his work load daily. They have a major project once a month and a book report every 9 weeks, or vice versa. I can't remember off hand. Anyway, that does not sound like any fun to the one in the mom role. So we'll see how that goes. But I know HE'LL do great!

So goodbye summer and hello school! Happy school year everyone!

Big Boston

Since anyone who knows me knows that I'm a little photo obsessed, you won't be surprised to learn that I have filled my phone with photos and videos (and way too many games that I will never play, thank you kids) and now I am at capacity on my storage. So because of that, I can't take any pictures to text or instagram. So I have to do it the "new new old fashioned way"...blogging. (In case you're wondering, the "new old fashioned way" is emailing, and the "old fashioned way" is, well, good ol' fashioned post office mailing. Or should that be called ancient? Anyway...) So here are some photos of Big Man Boston. Dates got messed up when I uploaded them so I'm not sure how old he is in a couple of these, but just be glad you got pictures! :)

I know this one was this morning. Deep in thought while sleeping. 5 1/2 weeks old.

Everyone wants to help give him his first bottle. This was last night. 5 1/2 weeks old.

Not sure when this was, but he is one chillin' baby. Not a care in the world.

Thank you Elise for the hair accessories.

And that's a wrap. Phew, actually got something done before Elise woke up! Woo hoo!

Happy Moth Day

Once again, Jeremy and the kids threw me another wonderful Moth Day, or Mother's Day rather. I got to sleep in* while Jeremy and the kids made me a breakfast spread of scrambled eggs, biscuits, and croissants. Strawberries, orange juice, and fresh flowers completed the table. And I was told that Blair, always so sweet and thoughtful, was up and had the table set before anyone else was even out of bed.

* By "sleep in", I mean I got to hang out awake, with an awake Elise, in Elise's room after sleeping the last few hours with her on her floor. It's better than making taming the herd and making breakfast though!

Jeremy arranged my plate for me. When you look at it from the side, you can see that it is anatomically correct with a big belly (and quite perky boobs, I might add--I'll take those, thank you very much). I wonder what he's trying to tell me about those thick thighs though...

After breakfast, I was presented with all the kids' homemade gifts. They were so excited to share them with me.

Reid's gift is a picture of him holding a collage of 25 adjectives and illustrations that describe him. And a question-and-answer sheet about me. My favorite from "The Scoop" is:

• My mom was voted #1 Mom because: she makes the best food. This, despite the fact that he regularly tells me that Ms. Duncan, the school lunch maker, makes mac n cheese better than I...makes grilled ham and cheese sandwiches better than I...makes scrambled eggs better than I...makes everything better than I...I did win corn though, so take THAT Ms. Duncan. (I think you can click on the picture to make it bigger to read the others.)

 

Blair made me a "Flower Job" card. On the back of each flower is a way that she can help me around the house. Her jobs, which she frequently helps me with, are change Elise's diapers, feed the dogs, clean her room, get her sisters dressed for church, and clean the dishes (although "clean" is a relative term when she completes this chore. Lucky for her, sometimes "clean enough" is sufficient for me.)

 


Sloane made a flower basket that says "I can brush my teeth by myself." However, when she was "reading" it to me, she read, "This says, 'Thank you for helping me with the dishes. And thank you for helping me with (inaudible). You are special.'" It was such a sweet moment listening to her come up with that off the top of her head--I got all misty eyed! She also drew me a picture of our family. Well, part of our family--not everyone was lucky enough to be included--but she described what was (as well as what was not) on it: "this is a cross, so you know who that is....this is Daddy, but I didn't write any balls on him....this is Reid...". 






Elise's gift was her cute little handprint made by her teachers at school.















It was then time to get ready for church. Sloane wanted to help me by getting Elise dressed for church. Nice socks and shoes...that are 4 sizes too big.















Later that afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed out to the lake to eat and walk around, followed by an ice cream treat. We weren't able to get a good picture of everyone in one shot--these days we just try to get everyone in the picture. Looking at the camera or smiling are simply a bonus.

This would have been a great picture but Blair was too busy being a pill and refused to get in the shot. She was mad because I wouldn't let her walk on a wobbly pier for fear she would fall in. She's not the most graceful person after all.

If you re-read last year's Mother's Day post, you'll see that we went to the lake then too. However, we were in a severe drought and the lake level was incredibly low...so low that we were able to walk out onto the lake bed and find shells and dead fish! Amazingly, this year, it was back up to normal, as seen in the picture below.

Welcome to Summer Break

Today's the first day of summer!

I was awakened at 5:45am.

Thanks Elise.

Day at the Zoo (the actual zoo, not our house)

Blair's class was going on a field trip to the zoo. Since I still have 2 little ones at home with me, I can't often make it on field trips. However, this was one field trip I could attend, while still taking the girls with me, so off we went. Unfortunately, it appeared to be "National Schools-at-the-Zoo" Day, so it was packed. I've never seen so many school buses at the zoo, or so many people. And because of the crowds, it was not quite as easy as I had hoped or anticipatd it to be to find Blair there. We were able to meet up with her for lunch, but then couldn't find her again until we accidentally ran into her in the bathroom before she boarded the bus to head back to school. So that was disappointing, but everyone still had a good time despite not being together.

This was Elise's first time to go since being aware of her surroundings and what she was seeing. She was completely awestruck by the rhinos, giraffes, and apes. She went right up to the fence with big giggles and "ohhhhhh!"s. It was cute to see her so excited.

 

Sloane wanted to see the frogs first, so we headed to the reptile house. While there, Elise kept holding her arms out wide saying, "Hug? Hug?" No, you can't give the snakes a hug.

The only time we got to spend with Blair.

This ape was such a ham. He sat there the whole time interacting with the kids. At one point, I thought he was trying to give someone a kiss through the glass, but on second glance, he may have just been eating a bug. Not quite as sweet.

They now have a deck where you can feed the giraffes. They come right up, lean over the fence and get so close to their feeders!

See the baby! So cute! I was surprised at the number of new zoo residents on this visit- -a new giraffe, elephant, okapi, chimp, tigers.

 

I usually don't visit the tigers because they're always so hard to find in their habitat. But on this visit, they were right out in the open, wandering around and hanging out.