Saturday

We have had a very busy Saturday. I woke up this morning to my 9 year old (not my 7 week old!) telling me, "Get up it's 5:45." My first thoughts were, "Wow! I slept all night - thank you A!" quickly followed by, "oh yea we have a swim meet this morning." I got K up and got breakfast for the three of us then we went speedy quick to the pool so that I could write on them in permanent marker, my personal favorite thing about swim meets. :)

They both swam great and tried hard - I couldn't and wouldn't have asked for more. At one point I had to run home and feed A. While I was here Jason and I noticed the most peculiar thing, Z with his shirt up and baby bear hugged up close, when we asked what he was doing he said, "feeding baby bear." Well of course we couldn't resist this picture (Jason is wondering what Mark will say about this). I thought it was very sweet.

Here are the results we know as of today:
K came in 7th in one of her events but was disqualified from several for illegal moves - i.e. she used the wrong stroke or kick or a combination of the two. She had a good time and swam her best and that is what counts!
B came in 1st for the 100 yard Individual Medley, 2nd in the 25 yard freestyle and 3rd in the 25 yard breaststroke. I'm not sure what happened to the other three he swam in but I do know one was a relay and his group was disqualified.
Again we had a great time and now we are going to relax the rest of the day.

Ten Things

I composed a list of the ten things I love about each of my children as they are right now. I wish that I had done this when the older two were little. It is fun to sit and think about the little things that are sweet or cute. Here's my lists (the items aren't in any order - this isn't late night tv!):

Ten things I love about B (age 9):

1.) His great sense of humor

2.) He always knows how I’m feeling even when I wish no one did

3.) He is an awesome athlete who amazes me at his flexibility and diverse abilities

4.) The way he talks to his brother and sisters

5.) His beautiful blue eyes

6.) His caring nature toward all people (not so much toward bugs)

7.) His laugh

8.) How brave he is in new situations

9.) His hugs!

10.) His curiosity

Ten things I love about K (age 7):

1.) The way her nose flares when she’s laughing really hard

2.) Her willingness to do anything you ask with a smile

3.) The look she gives me when I tell her to stop whining

4.) K logic – I can’t ride my bike because my nose feels funny (I made that one up but hers are like that)

5.) The way she kisses her little brother and sister

6.) The way she reminds me of myself when I always wanted what my big brother had

7.) Her hair when it is brushed

8.) Her easy-going spirit

9.) How she taught herself to ride a bike

10.) Her silly smile when she realizes she just said or did something silly

Ten things I love about Z (age 2):

1.) His face when he’s sleeping

2.) The way he wants me to hold him when he wakes up from nap

3.) Hearing him talking in the morning before he gets out of bed

4.) Watching him give kisses at bedtime

5.) Listening to him learn to talk, I love how he repeats what we all say in such an innocent voice

6.) Hearing him sing, “Golden thinking chhhair!”

7.) When he says, “I hold her,” several times over and then holds A for less than 5 seconds

8.) He’s so honest. When I ask are you messing up your brothers Legos? He will answer very honestly, “yes.”

9.) His giggle

10.) “I want up!”

Ten things I love about A (age 6 weeks):

1.) Her smell

2.) Her smile

3.) Her coos & giggles (breathy little noises)

4.) Her silly middle toe (better known as the forgotten toe)

5.) The way she sleeps so well

6.) Her hand when she’s nursing – fingers flared out

7.) The noises that she makes when she’s nursing – very noisy eater

8.) Her faux-hawk

9.) Her sweet little nose – if you touch it sometimes she will smile

10.) Her wide eyes

B is home

Let me begin by telling you that B is home safe and sound. He had a great time and is hoping that he can go again next year. Now we are anxiously awaiting our visit from G'ma Bonnie and G'pa John (aka TTG - Trailer Trash Gramps) - they will be here on Sunday. We are all so excited about their visit - especially A, we've told her about these grandparents and how silly they are and how they will love her like nobodies business! She can't wait - I know she tells me these things! :) Oh yea - A slept all night last night! Bed at 11 awake at around 6:30!!! Yea A! What a great baby we have!
We went back to CS on Monday so I could see my doctor (all's well). I farmed out all of my kids except A who accompanied me to the doctor. K went to my friend Shelley's and played with Samuel and Z went to my friend Christi's to play with Alexis. Thank you all for your hospitality! It was a busy day but it was good to see everyone and now I'm trying to figure out when we can go again.
I knew staying home was going to be a lot of work but I'm still amazed at how busy I am as a stay at home mom. Yesterday we did a lot of running around, B lost his goggles at the river so we had to get him some new ones for swim team and I needed to do some grocery shopping. We were out all morning and didn't get home until it was time for lunch and naps. Today is laundry day so we've been busy with that. Now that we are all home all day the house is in a constant wreck - it has that lived in look! So I feel like the energizer bunny when it comes to cleaning the kitchen and picking up stuff (burp rags, notebooks and balls oh my!). Z got a new ball pit and he loves it and actually does a good job of picking up most of the balls but there always seems to be a stray one here and ther.

Captain Joe

I have a confession to make. We put the DVD player in the van before we moved and we've never unplugged it so Z has been watching the same Blues Clues every time we go for a drive. It turns out that episode has made quite an impact on Z. Yesterday we were getting B ready to go with his friend to the river and Z was enjoying putting the new life jacket on. Every time he put it on he said, "Z is Captain Joe." or "Captain Joe will sail right to it." According to B&K (who are also forced to watch Blues Clues) this is from that Blues Clues episode. Needless to say we have had many moments of laughter with Z calling himself Captain Joe & he's very anxious for the life jacket to get back so he can be Captain Joe again... I'm sure he wants B back too!!!

Credit

I believe that we should give credit where credit is due so... Thank you Rae Ann for telling me about Babywise and encouraging me to make A stick to a schedule of eating. She has been sleeping well at night for four nights now, anywhere from 9-3 or 10-4. I am so happy and wish only that I had listened to my wise old friend 9 years ago!! Yes that was a compliment Rae Ann - no I didn't just call you old! :)
So here's the latest with Jason's Clan:
B is still doing swimming, although he has not competed yet - we've had prior arrangements every weekend since he started and this weekend they are at tu and they (tu) created some rule about not allowing anyone to compete if they haven't competed twice during this summer - hmmm.. sounds like they know an Aggie has joined the ranks and they are scared!!
K has successfully taught herself how to ride a bike! Poor second child. Once she did that we realized that her bike was too small for her, so we are in the process of getting her a new bike, she's very excited about the prospect of riding her bike to school. K has also decided to join the swim team. She will go this evening to try out. She'll do fine and I'm looking forward to her getting to practice her swimming twice a week.
Z is the same wonderful little two year old! Okay, let's face it, when I'm trying to get him to take a nap I suspicion that he is a monster but I know better for many reasons:
He says, "Thank you Mommy!" in the cutest voice I've ever heard and he says it without prompting most of the time.
He kisses A with such tenderness that it makes my heart melt.
He always wants to hold A (granted it is for about 3 seconds) but it is so sweet.
He gives kisses and hugs every night to all his siblings and whatever part of Mommy & Daddy he can reach, most of the time our thighs (if the other parent isn't holding him).
If he doesn't get a nap it takes about 1 minute in the car to knock him out and then what a sight to behold he is, those sweet little cheeks, blond hair and eyelashes gently closed over those bright blue eyes - he is so precious at those moments that you know he's no monster, just completely misguided in the area of naps.
A - what can I say about A. She's smiling now and can sleep through anything - Thank you Lord!
Jason likes his job. He's currently not very busy and that doesn't sit well with him. He's a good worker bee and doesn't do well with idle time.
My friends Kierstyn and Shelley have put videos on their blogs. They are amazing! Yet one more thing for me to strive to do, here's hoping I can figure that out! BKZ could sit and watch those videos all day!! Thank you ladies! :)
Until then, here's a couple more pictures...

It isn't very often that I can get a picture of Z sleeping, but I risked waking him up for this one!

Here you can see B coaxing a smile out of A. I think they will get along just fine.

Happy Father's Day - Jason.
We ALL love you so much!

disclaimer: at any time I reserve the right to have grammatical errors and spelling errors in my blog - it's my blog and I'll goof up if I want to. :)

A sleeps

A slept through the night from 10pm to 4am! I really needed that... the night before we had a rough time with a 1am feeding and then getting up at 4:30 and thinking that it was time to be wide awake and alert. Now I'm not going to assume that this is A's new normal but oh how nice it was for her to sleep all night last night.
B&K are doing math and reading work this summer. We have a program set up that they are really enthusiastic about, here it how it works. They do a lesson in a math book that we bought them or a reading lesson and when they are done to my satisfaction they draw a card from a deck of playing cards, this tells them how many points they got for doing their lesson. We add the points up and Jason and I have predetermined rewards. For example: 50 points and they can buy a candy bar or gum at the store, 100 points they can buy a lunchable, 250 points they can buy a new book, or 400 points they can get a new toy. Yesterday they were so excited about it that they both did two lessons (I had to put a maximum on the lessons so I don't run out of work).
Today we are going to go get B's friend so that he can stay the night.
Here are some pictures of my little sweeties - you can see who the sleepy heads are and who is up causing havoc around the house in the morning.




Finally this is an image I want to keep forever in my mind. I love the way A flexes her fingers while she's eating. It reminds me of how K used to rotate her feet in a circle when she ate. I love these sweet little idiosyncrasies. A also has a toe that I want to get a picture of and show you. More about that later.

Hi ho, hi ho

it's off to the doctor we go - again! This time we went for Z - he has pink eye. I went ahead and got the paperwork to fill out for B, since next week should be his turn if all goes the way it has lately. All I can say is that I'm glad this is happening now that I'm at home and I'm not missing work and the kids aren't missing school. All is well, no one really feels sick.
This week has been uneventful for us (with the exception of our doctor's appointment today) so far, tomorrow I'm taking all the kids with me and we are getting the oil changed on the van - hope they can work fast! Then Friday B's friend, Harrison is coming over for the night. That should be fun.