It's Summer

It's the first week of summer vacation here. The kids got out of school Thursday afternoon, although Friday was supposed to be their last day (just a half day) but it was cancelled due to flooding. Again. Tim surprised me for Mother's Day with a trip to San Antonio with my friend Holly. We stayed in a hotel right on the Riverwalk and got a morning at the spa, too. It was so nice! We had the best time and talked, shopped, and ate delicious food. And walked! We waked so much that we had no regrets about all the chips and salsa we ate. I came home Saturday night feeling so refreshed. And so thankful for such a wonderful husband and such sweet kids.

Tuesday the kids and I were pretty lazy, but had Rose's kindergarten graduation to go to in the evening. Of course it rained as we left and just poured down as I got to the school. (It had already been postponed twice due to rain/severe weather.) As soon as everyone had trudged through the down pour and got sufficiently soaked it stopped and was a pretty nice night. I am so proud Rose. She worked really hard this year and learned so much. It was a difficult beginning with getting her to sit down and read through her readers and practice her memory homework. Man, the beginning of the year was rough on all of us. I'm glad for summertime.

Here's a little something

Each and every time I open up "new post" I'm hit with a little bit of anxiety. I guess because I'm out of the routine and the once familiarity of sitting to write now feels foreign. There's only one way to get back into the habit and that is to just begin again. And so I will try.

Life is speeding along no matter how hard I try to resist acknowledging that fact. The boys are loving school. They are so smart. They are also fairly confident, which I love, because I never was. It always makes my day to hear about them talk about their friends and what they learned. The kindergarten-3rd grade choir sang last week and there were two (short) solo parts- Ry had one of them. You can probably imagine what proud parents look like... we were prouder! I actually teared up when he sang his part and it took a lot of concentration to not start full on crying.

The girls are sweet and also little button pushers. I am certain Rose is going through a growth spurt because she's going through a hungry/cranky/tired-but-won't-nap phase. She's almost 5. That's is incredible. She's hilarious. Last night (after a trying afternoon with her) as I was slumped over on the couch she asked, "Mommy, do you feel okay? Is your back hurting you?" I answered honestly, "No, my back is fine, it's just my patience." Rose, "Oh, but you've been SO patient today!" And I couldn't do anything but laugh.

That reminds of something D did yesterday. I had a urge to paint and so I attempted some watercolor paintings of a cardinal and a bluebird. I thought I did ok for a first try and decided to give my paintings to the boys. When D saw the cardinal he told me it looked good, but instead of just telling him thank you I proceeded to tell him how it wasn't that great, but it was just the first time I had painted a bird. His response was, "Oh, well I can teach you how to draw. I'm really good at art." See, confidence. About 15 minutes later he hands me a color drawing of a cardinal that made me feel pretty dumb about thinking my painting was any good. That kid was right; he is good at art.

August

The boys started a new school year on Wednesday. D is in 2nd grade and Ry is 1st. So far they are really enjoying school. I started doing preschool with Rose and I'm happy to say that she is able to focus and she even likes the hour we spend on it. I tried it last year and she just wasn't ready. I think being a year older plus getting glasses (yay! she can actually see now!) helps.
I've got to say, if your kids are super uninterested in learning letters/numbers or can't remember what letters look like at 3-4 years old... go get their vision checked. Our pediatrician does a little eye chart exam at 5 years old, but for us that was too late and I had already caught the boys eye problems and were seeing an optometrist. I caught Rose's vision problems pretty early. One, she wouldn't sit on the couch to watch tv or movies. She had to be close to the screen. Two, after spending an ample amount of time learning about a letter she couldn't pick it out on a page with other letters no matter how many times we tried. (She could pick out T, O and X) Three, after both boys needing glasses and the family history I was watching a lot more closely. The optometrist was impressed that I had caught it so early. Four, I had a gut feeling she wasn't seeing clearly. Trust that feeling.
We went on our 2nd annual trip to Schlitterbahn to reward the kids for completing their swim lessons and to celebrate our anniversary. This year was our 10th anniversary! It has gone by so fast and time's not slowing down. It's amazing what has happened in 10 years and I'm so glad I got to live those years with my best friend by my side. It makes me excited for the next 10!

yay! pictures!

A few weeks ago this field of oats became hay. I can see a part of the field from our back yard and in the afternoon sun it looks like gold.


 This is just a really cute kid modeling my new sunglasses. If you look past her you can see my new flower bed (it was my mother's day gift). This weekend we added some solar lights around it and it looks awesome. I love it so much.

We might have a new barn cat... only it doesn't seem to like anything about the barn. I barely ever see him during the day, but he definitely lets me know if I've slacked on getting his food out in the evening. He'll walk straight to the front door and stare and meow at me through the side lights. It's been interesting.

I'm at the very last of my "I should be washing those dishes" time, so adios for now.

sisters

Rose has become such a great big sister. She is very attentive to Sam... even when it seems likes she's playing and not paying any attention to Sam, Rose must be on high alert. She is especially watchful when we're around other people. If Sam spits up Rose goes into action finding a burp cloth and telling me all about it. When we get home from, well, anywhere and Sam has fallen asleep in her car seat I tend to leave her in it and let her nap, but as soon as she wakes up Rose is telling me that Sam wants out of there.
I love watching her interact with her baby sister. Yesterday I was in the kitchen and couldn't see either of the girls, but heard Sam laughing loudly and went to see what could possibly be making her laugh like that. It was Rose, laying on the floor face to face with Sam and waving a little toy bear that rattles. Sam loves to watch her siblings and often laughs and squeals while we are driving because she gets to sit in the middle row with D beside her and Ry and Rose behind her in the third row (she gets to face them). They all love getting her to smile and laugh.
I love it, too, because if they're laughing then they aren't fighting! 
I'm sure Sam and Rose will have some moments when they don't really want to get along, but I hope they are always friends and stay close to each other. It's really amazing to watch them bond.

Asleep at the Table

Rose was going full force on Monday. She was busy playing and having a grand time with her brother. I set them down for a snack as I started sweeping. When I went to get the dustpan I walked by her and saw that she had finally sat down long enough that she fell asleep.

And miracle upon miracles... she's napping again today!

Little Lady

Daddy's girl steals his favorite chair every day. She's "belaxing".

(Relaxing for those of you who don't speak toddler.)

She's also giving me "the look" because I'm standing in front of her cartoons (Daniel Tiger).

smiling is good most of the time

I was in the middle of writing a very lengthy post about maternity jeans, but thought better of it and deleted, deleted, deleted in order to spare you from gouging out your eyeballs. Anyhow, I'll make it really short and just tell you that I finally got up the courage to purchase a new pair of jeans (giant elastic waist band style, of course) and hope that I guessed the correct size and am waiting impatiently for them to arrive via postal express. There, that wasn't too bad.

This morning after I dropped D off at his class I headed over to the church with my remaining kidlets for Chapel. Despite my best efforts to not be super early (I mean, we are already there, I don't want to sit in the car for 20 minutes so what am I to do?) we went inside and found a seat in the back (not very difficult since there were fewer people in attendance this week). I smartly packed some drawing materials for the kids and some snacks to keep mainly Rose occupied. We made it about 30 minutes (out of the 45 designated for chapel) until Rose got a very manic looking smile on her face and race down the entire length of the pew (we had to ourselves) and back. I refused to make eye contact with her because I have learned (the hard way) that doing so will only entice her to behave even more terribly. So I simply gathered our things and hauled butt outta there. This was after several attempts at keeping her entertained, asking if she'd like to sit in my lap, telling her to be quiet and watch the 8th graders do their skit about Job... Nope, she was already on the "I'm two and will do whatever I want" train. And she even said she wanted to leave. So we did. But here's the catch, we get to see D come in to chapel (he got to carry the offering basket for his class today!) and we get to see him go back to class UNLESS someone can't be quiet and sit next to her mommy. Happy she was as we walked out the doors until I let her know that she had just messed up her chance at seeing D. Maybe that is tragic enough for her to remember for next week. I doubt it very much, although she was in tears when she realized she wasn't staying to see D. I mean, he is her favorite. It sucked for me too, not getting to see him... I miss that boy while he's at school.


It's probably time for me to do something that is more productive than eating a taco salad and pinning cookies and more things to make and eat. To be fair, the reason I haven't done anything is because I've been playing "mommies and babies" with Rose. She is currently very into this and everything she plays with is either named mommy or baby. Today it was her toy giraffes and horses and they were at the playground. I am amused with her pretending because the boys were not very into that at her age... is it just a girl thing? Or maybe since they pretend more now she has just picked it up from them? Either way it makes me laugh, but I do have to be going now. Adios.

Wordless Wednesday

Featuring a super cute two year old and her pouting brother at our second home, the t-ball field. 

(Brother is conveniently hidden behind the watermark.)

almost wordless wednesday

See what happens when Mama buys a lawn chair for herself?

Things she says

I wanna hold you, Mama.

I wanna sit you me.

Hug.

No, I don't want it!

Appleyauce? (applesauce)

Mmm! It dawishes (delicious)

 Uh, no, I don't go night night.

I do it!

I need go pa-ee (potty)

Dees my shoes?

Dat my jamas (pajamas)

Ow, my hanger. (finger)

I want APPLE juice (ORANGE- every. time.)

 I want nana (banana)

No, dats my mommy!

Mama, you seepin? (sleeping) 

Mama, wake up!

Jelly sammich (jelly- no peanut butter- sandwich)

Shh! You be quiet.

Boys!

Daddy's home!

What dat noise?

Dat my coffee. (Um, no, it's not.)

Where my stars?

Night night. I wuv you too.

It's not a crib anymore (update)

If you remember from Thursday Rose started scaling her crib and I was thinking of transitioning it to a day bed. Friday morning I took the front panel off (I followed the instruction manual) and she really enjoyed climbing in and out of her bed trying it all out. I know some of you were interested in how this transition would go. Here is an update of how the past 4 days have gone.


We went to the grocery store Friday morning and when we made it home Rose was sleeping so I laid her in bed and went on about my business. She took a long nap and was still asleep when T got home. Shortly after I told him that I had taken the crib apart we hear her crying... yeah, she rolled off her bed. She wasn't hurt, just startled because she wasn't fully awake. The bed is 15 inches above the floor (I just measured it). Anyhow, she was fine and I made a mental note to put pillows on the floor at bed time to cushion any other falls.

Bed time was a bit more interesting, however I can't remember all the details. I know she got out of bed a few times and I had to turn the light out at the ceiling fan because she wanted to turn the light on and run around. She did roll off the bed during the night and onto the pillows which woke her up and required a visit from mommy, but she went back to sleep fine.

Saturday night she woke up a few times (I think once was due to rolling off). Nap time has been  fairly decent except for Saturday due to her 30 minute nap on the drive home from town. She does crawl off the bed occasionally after I put her down for nap or bedtime, but I've been consistent in putting her right back on the bed and telling her she needs to sleep. So far it's worked.

Sunday and Monday night she slept all night, which was awesome. She hasn't rolled off the bed anymore, but I still have row of pillows next to her bed just in case. I think it's been a fairly easy transition. I hope I'm not jinxing things by saying that!

That's about it for now. Good luck to anyone else embarking on this "milestone"!

Don't Fence Me In

 *no children were allowed to climb out during the making of this picture*

(I could get right to the point, but instead I'll make this longer and more detailed than necessary. Because I can.)

Yesterday while we were outside playing Rose got really upset so I brought her inside where she threw an even bigger tantrum. After a couple of attempts to settle her down I told her she would have to sit in her crib until she wanted to play again. (She was in the throws of a full on, fists flying, back arching fit.) I put her in the crib with her blanket and walked out of the room to wait for her to stop crying. I checked on the boys and they were still safely enclosed on the trampoline and Rose continued her crying so I decided to check on blogs and email. Rose's cries were suddenly quiet so I got up to get her only to see her walking through the living room to me. Oh my word! She finally climbed out of her crib! (I say finally because she has climbed in before, with the help of a small nightstand- that has been moved, but hasn't been able to climb out.) I asked her if she had climbed out and she said, yeah, I wanna sit [with] you. So, I explained to her the dangers of climbing out of her crib and how she could get hurt, because I know my two year old fully comprehends the dangers of climbing... um no.

Bedtime comes and we put the kids in bed and settle in for some comedy on the TV only to hear Rose trying to open her door. She climbed out. She can't get back in her crib though so T went in and told her in a firm voice to not climb out and to go to sleep. A few minutes later her light comes on. She climbed out. Again. I went that time and put her in bed and she immediately threw her leg up to climb out and, needless to say, I didn't let that happen. She stayed in her bed after that. This morning I went and got her before she could climb out. I guess it's time to turn that crib into a toddler/day bed.

The boys never had a chance to climb out of the crib. They were moved into a regular twin bed between 13 & 15 months old. (I needed them out of the crib for new baby reasons.) Granted, the bed was not raised off the floor, so they couldn't possibly fall out of it. My fear is that Rose will simply not stay in the bed at all, especially for naps. I'm sure we'll have to adjust and eventually she will learn to stay in the bed... I went through it twice already, right? Except we still find Ry sleeping under the play table, in a tiny space, under the fitted sheet or directly in front of the door. I'd say 50% of his naps are taken on the floor. He just doesn't seem to mind.

We'll see how nap time goes today. The transition from crib to "day bed" is the removal of the front panel of the crib, so easy! Another step away from baby.(Aside from the fact that she is a two year old, holds complete (intelligible) conversations with us, feeds herself, is potty training herself and is forward facing in the car seat... Minor details.)

Two

Our little girl is two today! We're celebrating very low key tonight and will have a party at a later date. I made some cupcakes and bbq chicken wings. (She loved the wings.)

mmm

 mommy's spectacular cupcakes

2 years

happy birthday Rose!