We have had an interesting week so far. Our garage refrigerator broke yesterday morning, but it was working again yesterday night?!?!? I am not sure if the kids played with the switch and set it to warm or off or something, but now we're back in business. It's a good thing too because there were 4 gallons of milk in that fridge!
Today I heard Jonah and Sam laughing really hard in the bathroom. When I went in they were laying a towel on top of the bathroom rug. I kicked them out of the bathroom and didn't think much about it. Then later I went in the bathroom and it smelled like a pee bomb went off in there. I lifted up the rug and it was literally dripping with pee! Nice! I have no idea what went on in there! I'm not sure that I even WANT to know! I was almost going to write about how they are fully potty trained yesterday too!
One of the things on my to do list for the week was to call the local community orchestra and find out how to join or what the application process involves. I am not sure what playing level they are or even if they are paid positions or volunteers. Basically I don't know if I would be first or last chair. I called today and said that I was interested in playing viola in the orchestra and what did I need to do. The lady on the phone told me that I need to email my resume to the orchestra manager (I'm thinking last chair now). I seriously said "you mean my musical resume?". She said "yes including all of your musical experience up until now. Then you can set up an audition". I wanted to ask her if I can lie on my musical resume, but I thought better of it. I told her that I would send my resume right off to her as soon as I could. What I mean to say was "I will send it off as soon as I come up with some fake musical groups that you could never verify my involvement in and figure out how to write a musical resume". I also have to locate my viola somewhere in the house. I haven't seen it since we moved. I am pretty sure that I remember how to tune it, but that may be challenging. Then I have to see if I remember how to read tenor clef and polish up an audition piece for my upcoming audition. I'll do that tomorrow in my spare time!
Today we met Bethany and Madison at Costco for lunch. They brought cupcakes and a present for Wyatt's birthday! It was a cute little celebration. My favorite part was when Jonah dropped his hot dog on the floor and picked it up and ate it before I could get to him. So I'm thinking that next week we will be pretty busy surviving the swine flu or maybe hepatitis A who knows?!?! Life with kids is so exciting you never know what disgusting thing that they are going to do next!
I started counting Wyatt's questions this morning at 7:15 am and I lost track after 22 questions at 7:30 am. I am fairly confident that we beat the 300 question mark by a long shot today. Some day when I get dementia and ask the same question over and over a million times a day, Wyatt will know how it feels! Between his questions and Sammy's LOUD voice I feel like I am running an insane asylum over here!
Shane is LOVING his baby food. Today my baby piggy inhaled 3 jars of baby food. He is acting like he's been eating food forever. He's all "Mom, where are you keeping this stuff? It's fantastic. I am going to try and grab the whole jar and suck the food right out of it. I don't even need a spoon. Don't waste your time boob lady!" So far he has eaten bananas, cereal, and pumpkin with pears. Tomorrow I am going to try hamburgers, hot dogs, and some cheese!
John brought a bunch of baby food home from the company store at work and now the kids think that John makes baby food at work for Shane. They ask me all kinds of questions about it! Where does Daddy gets the bananas for Shane's baby food? What kind of cereal does he use? Why is Shane eating pumpkins....you don't eat pumpkins?!?!? It's easier to agree with them since I get asked the same question 3 times in a row by each kid until they get the answer that they want. So I agree that Daddy grows bananas and pumpkins at work and uses Raisin bran cereal for the baby food cereal. He smashes it all up with his hands, gets really dirty, and pushes it all into a jar for Shane. That sounds like a fun job doesn't it?
I read an article today that said that the average 3 year old asks 300 questions a day. I thought about that for a while and then I thought....that seems kinda low! So, I decided that tomorrow I am going to try and keep track of the number of questions that Wyatt asks. I was telling John about my plan at dinner tonight and while I was explaining it to John, Wyatt asked me 5 questions in one minute. Think about that! So if that carries through to tomorrow that would be 300 questions an HOUR!!!! Yeah 300 questions a day....we can blow past that without even trying. If Wyatt gets up at 7am and goes to bed at 7pm and asks 5 questions/minute, how many questions will he ask during the day? Answer: 3,600 questions. Now that sounds about right!
Yesterday I made over 90 pumpkin shaped sugar cookies for a variety of events that I need to bake for including Wyatt's birthday snack at school. I froze them in separate labeled bags and plan to pull them out just before I need to use them. I am hoping to save myself the time and stress of baking the night before like I normally do! I am also hoping to bake and freeze some banana and pumpkin bread this weekend too! I just need about 12 extra hours to myself.....
Today was one of those days full of cute melt-your-heart moments with my boys. I put some new pictures in the frames that we keep in the kitchen to include Shane and it was one of the first things that everybody noticed this morning. Sam asked "why is baby not so happy Mom?" because Shane wasn't smiling in the picture. Jonah took the frame off the table and laid down on the floor to see it better and then showed it to his baby. The fact that he is carrying a doll around at all is a miracle in itself. He has never had an interest in caring for a real baby, let alone a pretend one, so this is a big step for him. Also, he named his baby "Baby Shane"! Thank God he knows Shane's name. Usually he calls him baby (with a lower case B).
Then tonight John and I discovered Wyatt asleep outside Jonah and Sam's bedroom door. He sure likes those guys. Maybe some day they can all share a bedroom. I saw a triple loft bed online that looked pretty neat! They would have a lot of fun in a bed like that, but I'm not so sure that the walls would survive!
In other news, I had a phone conference with Wyatt's preschool teacher and director today. I was concerned that Wyatt has been telling me that he doesn't like his teacher and doesn't ever want to talk to us about school. We came up with a game plan together and will re-evaluate again in a couple of weeks. I really hated to be "THAT" parent that expects special treatment for their kid, but we want Wyatt to enjoy school and I am willing to be "bad cop" in order to make sure that we are getting what we are paying for.
My baby turned 7 moths old today! He is growing up so fast it is hard to believe! I looked at some old pictures of Wyatt at the same age and he and Shane look soooo different! Shane is really tall and skinny compared to Wyatt (who I used to call my little pork chop)! Even Shane's face is long and thin. Wyatt was sitting up by himself at 7 months. Shane isn't even close to doing that, but Wyatt was shaped like a triangle so it was easy for him to sit down on such a wide base!
Besides looking different than the other kids Shane is such a laid back baby compared to them. He just loves everything and everyone. Yesterday I heard Wyatt tell Sam "Sam, Shane likes you a little, but he likes me a lot!" and then Sam said "No!" and him and Wyatt argued about that for a good 10 minutes! Shane really prefers Wyatt over the twins, but that is about the only thing that he has an opinion about! Otherwise he is happy doing anything.
In honor of his birthday today I fed Shane his first jar of baby food! It was a jar of banana baby food. He loved it. He ate from a spoon like he has been doing it forever. I didn't know what to expect from him after Sam's first experience with baby food went sooooo badly, but he was fine! I am hoping to skip right over the whole bottle phase and go right to sippy cups in the next few months. I decided before Shane was even born that he was going to be able to feed himself because the other kids were completely helpless when it came to their own bottles and I was determined not to make that mistake a fourth time. Don't even get me started on my theory about how boys are lazy when it comes to self help skills (and how I think that grown men would still love to be hand fed....) because that is long enough for its own post.
In other news, I made brats and fries for dinner tonight and we were COMPLETELY out of ketchup! Shocking I know especially since John works for a very prominent ketchup-making company, but it's true! After we realized that we didn't have a spec of ketchup for the fries and brats Wyatt kept saying "Daddy, what are we going to do without ANY ketchup? How are we EVER going to eat?" It would have been a great commercial for Heinz!
Tonight Wyatt made a "grocery list" (which is really a list of scribbles and circles) of things that we need for his birthday. He told me that he needed cake, candles, frosting, ice cream, and two presents. He's growing up! I think that he finally understands the whole birthday concept this year. It will be a lot of fun to celebrate his birthday with him this year, but I can't believe that he is turning four in a couple of weeks already! These kids are growing up way to fast!
This month is national punctuation month. Apparently important people are concerned about the incorrect usage of periods and commas since the dawn of text messaging. The article that I read said that young adults can't even put together a formal cover letter for a resume without major punctuation error's, LOL!!!
Then John read an article this weekend that said that fewer and fewer schools are teaching cursive writing anymore. Hardly any young people write in cursive and even fewer have trouble reading it! Is cursive not an app for the i phone?
Even more troubling, I read an article a few weeks ago about how kids are not being taught how to tell time on a clock with a face anymore. They are just learning how to tell time from a digital clock like on a cell phone. Most people don't wear watches any more they just carry a cell phone. That's just weird! Even when I look at the time on my cell phone I picture the time on a standard clock face before the time actually registers in my mind.
Are my kids doomed to be terrible writers and readers? And if I spend the time to teach them about punctuation, cursive, and telling time will anybody be able to tell them if their answers are right when they go to school? Maybe I should start teaching myself text lingo just in case. Because seriously, things are getting AB AFAICS FTLOG IHA!!!! (for a complete translation see http://www.netlingo.com)
John and I had plans to take the kids raspberry picking this morning, but of course I still haven't learned my lesson about making plans. As the kids finished breakfast Jonah started acting funny. He was crying with a weak weird cry that I haven't heard before. Then he got really pale and and dead looking and threw up all over the kitchen floor. He slumped into my arms and didn't move for a while. We were really panicked because his color was off and he was acting so weak. We were going to take him to the doctor and set him on the couch to rest while we figured things out.
Suddenly he jumped down off the couch and acted like nothing happened. His color was fine. His behavior was fine. He helped himself to two granola bars from the pantry and drank an entire sippy cup of water!?!? I have no idea what had happened before that except for maybe the last residual effect from the stupid flu mist. John kept shouting "we are never doing that flu mist again! It's shots for everyone from now on!!!!"
So we decided that John would still take Wyatt and Sam raspberry picking and I stayed home with Jonah and Shane.
John said that they had a great time picking. He said that Sammy ate his weight in berries. He said that they were the only ones there so it was nice and private. He also said that the kids peed somewhere in the field, but he didn't know the details because he only heard them talking about it later! Hopefully we aren't eating pee covered raspberries! Now I am off to find some raspberry recipes to satisfy my little pickers!
We went to playgroup this morning at my friend Erin's house. The kids were obsessed with a toy they had where a car track moves automatically in the shape of a figure eight. The boys loved putting cars and money on the track and watching it spin around and around.
They played with the car track for most of the 2 house that we were at Erin's house. Finally when it was time to go Erin told Wyatt that her boys didn't use the track very often so he could take it home and borrow it. The twins repeatedly tried to "borrow" some toys that they secretly picked out, but I kept catching them as they tried leaving the house. It was like I was playing security guard busting all of these kids for shoplifting!
The boys are completely obsessed (think Rain Man level obsession) with ziplock bags lately. They pack everything up into ziplock bags and carry them around the house for hours on end EVERY SINGLE DAY. They went through and entire box of pint sized ziplock freezer bags yesterday! They pack up cars, trains, trucks and other random small items that will fit into their bags and put them everywhere. Everybody freaks out when non-bag owners touch somebody else's bag too! The fighting is epic.
So when the boys sat and played with their "borrowed" toy from Erin's house today for hours together without fighting I was almost in tears. It was like a mini miracle had taken place in our family room. My prayers have finally been answered!
The kids and I have all received our flu shots. Actually Jonah and Sam got the flu mist which is a spray that goes in the nose instead of a shot. It is a live virus, unlike the flu shot, and carries a low risk of giving the recipient a mild case of the flu. Unfortunately, I think that Jonah is in the 4% and was feeling pretty crappy all day today. He had a fever and was pretty lethargic when his Motrin wore off. He spent most of the day laying on the couch covered up watching Dora. Poor little guy. I sure hope that he is feeling better tomorrow.
I just remembered that the night before my half marathon race when I slept in the hotel room I had the same dream over and over again about not being able to find my locker. I was in middle school and classes were starting but I didn't have my schedule and I couldn't find my locker. Then when I finally found it I couldn't remember the combination. What the heck does that have to do with the race? I have no idea?!? Weird stuff!
Wyatt started preschool last week and he already has homework. Actually I already have homework. He (me) has to do a project called "All About Me" where he answers all of these questions about himself and puts it all together on a big poster to hang in his classroom.
We couldn't even do the first question which is to include a picture of your family. We didn't have a family picture with all of us in it since Shane was born. Last year when Wyatt needed a family picture for school I taped a picture of Shane to our Christmas card picture and called it good. I felt bad trying to do that again this year, so we did a family picture when John got home from work tonight.
We used the self timer on the camera and it went fairly well. It may not be the best picture ever, but nobody is crying, everybody is looking the same direction, and it is in focus! Score!
Tomorrow night I am going to set aside a huge chunk of time (since I have so much spare time on my hands) to finish my homework. I am so sick of homework already! I can't help but wonder what is going to happen in a few years when Shane comes home with school projects and I am all burned out from Wyatt and the twins?!?! Can I change the title of this homework to "All About Us" so that I can use it for all of the kids and save myself some time down the road?
We have been spending a lot of time at the library lately. I have found that if I let the the kids pick out their own books, they are more excited about reading at night. They will sit for a lot longer and pay attention better to books if they pick them out themselves.
The books that I would pick out are not exactly the same kinds of books that the boys choose. The last favorite book that Wyatt picked out was called "The Bridge is Up" about a drawbridge. "The bridge is up. The bus can't go, so everybody has to wait" Next page "The bridge is up the bus can't go, the truck can't go, so everybody has to wait" etc. etc. until there are about 12 vehicles to read. finally the bridge goes down and nobody has to wait. I literally had to read that last week 8 times in a row!!!
More recently Wyatt discovered Max and Ruby books at the library. He LOVES Max and Ruby. Jonah and Sam love Max and Ruby. John and I....not so much. Today Wyatt was "reading" to the boys. They were fighting over who got to sit right next to Wyatt to listen to Max and Ruby. It was really cute. Then tonight Wyatt told me that he wanted to read his favorite books himself without my help, so I let him and grabbed the video camera instead.....
Yesterday I ran in the Presque Isle Half Marathon. It was 13.1 miles! It turns out that my training paid off and yesterday I finished the Presque Isle Half Marathon! It feels really good to say that!
I have been training for the race since July. I did everything that you are supposed to do when training for a big race. I came up with a training plan (thanks Al), I ate the right stuff, I got all of the necessary gear, I practiced drinking while running, I registered for the race, I loaded up my ipod, and I stuck to my training plan.
Still I wasn't sure that I would finish the race because there were so many unknown "if" factors. What if running outside is a lot harder than running on the treadmill since that is where I did all of my workouts?
What if I hit a mental brick wall after mile 10 since that was the most I ran during my training?
What if the pain in my foot got worse while I was running?
What if I ran out of music on my ipod?
What if it rained?
What if I had to go to the bathroom during the race?
On the morning of the race we woke the kids up at 5:45 am and drove the 10 minutes to Presque Isle State Park where the race was being held. The were 1,200 people registered for the race and everybody was trying to find a parking spot at 6am. There were police directing traffic, but still the line was long and we were just sitting in traffic. Finally John pulled into a vacant lot near the designated parking area so that I could nurse Shane. He finished eating at 6:50 and the race started at 7:00 am. I jumped out of the car and jogged up to the starting line. I barely had time to pick a starting spot before the gun went off. People were everywhere jockeying for space and it was about a half mile before people started to fall out into smaller packs and there was space to move around.
The scenery on Presque Isle was amazing. We ran along the beach and water of Lake Erie all along the perimeter of Presque Isle which forms a 13 mile one way loop around Presque Isle State Park. It was almost a completely flat course on pavement and it was only about 55 degrees when we started the race. It was a perfect day for running.
I got water at miles 4 and 6 and then every mile after until the end. I tried to maintain a moderately steady pace, but without the treadmill to tell me I had no idea how fast or how steady I was actually going. I felt pretty good until mile 10. At mile 10 we made a turn and had to run into the wind and there was no shade on that side of the island. So we were running in full sun with a lot of resistance and a lot of people started to walk.
I could have walked. I was tempted to walk. But I didn't walk. Instead just when I was at my lowest point, a song came on my ipod "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never going keep me down" by Chumbawama and I couldn't help by laugh. I had set my ipod to shuffle before the race so I had no control of the order of songs in my playlist. It was just too coincidental that that song came on just when I needed it. Needless to say, I decided that I was going to finish the race.
When I crossed the finish line it was a huge relief! I was so proud of myself and so thankful that none of the "ifs" on my list were a factor in the run. I was so happy that John took care of the kids and they were there at the halfway point waving and cheering me on (even if they accidentally missed me finish since I got done a lot faster that I thought). I was happy that we spent a beautiful weekend together as a family and everybody had a good time. But most of all I am glad that it is over and I know that I can do it.
Maybe next year I will sign up for the marathon...we will see. I passed a guy that was wearing a shirt that said " My first marathon....this seemed like a good idea three months ago"....so then again, maybe not!
I am scheduling this post ahead of time since we are in Erie for the weekend. I am running in a half marathon tomorrow. I have been training for a while and am just hoping to finish. Maybe I will place first in the nursing mothers division and win a big trophy with boobies on it! Keep your fingers crossed. I will need all of the help that I can get! Oh yeah, and today I had my first HONEY CRISP apple of the season! It was scrumptious! I want to get another refrigerator just to hold honey crisp apples! I subsequently told John that I want to sell everything and buy an apple orchard and plant all honey crisp trees. He said that he wants to plant blueberries. At least he didn't shoot down my idea totally. Here's Wyatt's first day of school picture....
I made the best pie yesterday and had to get a picture of it since it was so perfect. Not only did it stay together like a dream, it tasted absolutely delectable. It was a weird combination made from rhubarb, strawberries, and blueberries. My only problem now is that I am just trying to remember exactly what I put in it so I can make it again sometime!
And the award goes to Wyatt for best story teller Jonah gets the award for best dimples Sammy gets the award for best laughand Shane gets the award for happiest baby
This morning was Wyatt's first day of preschool alone. Yesterday was the "Mom and me" day so I stayed with him all day in his classroom to get familiar with the teacher, classroom, and daily routine.
Wyatt went to preschool last year so it shouldn't be hard for him to understand the expectations. But he was still super clingy yesterday even when I went with him to school. He wanted to hold my hand the whole time or touch me or sit on my lap. He kept asking me if I was going to stay the whole time.
It really bothers me that he doesn't seem to be comfortable when he has to stay somewhere alone. It's not like he doesn't do this often! We do this all of the time! If I didn't know me and I was his new teacher I would think "this lady must never take her kid out of the house and expose him to the outside world. Dude, you are almost four year old. Suck it up already...she's coming back in 2 hours!". She has no idea how hard I try and expose my kids to new experiences! It drives my crazy.
Last night I got everything ready for this morning so that everything would run smoothly in getting Wyatt out the door and to preschool on time. I was hoping to minimize the morning drama. I had the breakfasts set out, the clothes picked out, and the tuition check set out. Then the kids woke up.
The kids were still eating breakfast when John left for work. He barely made it out of the subdivision when Sammy came running up to me crying. Then he started puking all over the kitchen! When you eat a lot of blueberries for breakfast and then throw up, it looks a lot like blood coming out and permanently stains everything. Before I even cleaned him up, I tried calling John to come back home, but he had his phone on silent. As soon as I got Sam cleaned up, and most of his clothes thrown in the garbage, he threw up again. I tried calling John again, but no luck. Then Sam started slipping in the puke and falling down and crying even more so I finally got a towel and made him sit on that while I cleaned up the second mess.
While I was busy cleaning the kitchen floor, Sam tried to pee on the little potty but missed the potty and peed all over the floor in the family room. Meanwhile I was still trying to call John to see if he could drive Wyatt to preschool since I didn't want to load Sam into the van when he was sick. Then I saw one of my neighbors at the bus stop with her kids and ran out to ask her if she would take Wyatt to school when she took her kid but she said that she didn't want to expose herself to Wyatt so she wouldn't drive him for me! Nice huh? I said "He's not the one who is sick" but she said "still I don't want to catch anything"! Seriously! I just turned and walked back in the house. Note to self....have Sam lick her door handles tonight!
Finally John got to work and I told him the great news so he got back in the car and came home to drive Wyatt to preschool. On the way to preschool John said that he told Wyatt the he was a big boy and how we would come back and get him after school was over and that he didn't need to get upset and cry today, but it didn't work. Wyatt told John "Daddy, I am going to cry when I get to school." And he did. According to his teacher, though, he stopped crying shortly after John left.
Sam perked up after he threw up 2 times, peed on the floor, and then got a bath. He went on to eat 3 pop tarts and some pretzels for breakfast and never got sick again. It was weird. The only thing that I can think of is that he may have been sick from the raw onion that he fished out of the garbage last night and ate before we caught him. Maybe that upset his stomach. Who knows?
What I do know is that the only person that had an accident in their undies today was Wyatt. He pooped all over himself and then threw his undies out the window and told me not to tall Daddy that he had an accident. That one was kind of funny....
I can not adequately explain how many times I have washed my hands, the floor, and the potty in this house today! I am exhausted. I am going to bed. BUT I am not making any plans for tomorrow morning....we are going to just wing it and see what happens!
Today was Wyatt's first day of preschool. He is in the 4's this year. The kids have to be 4 years old by Nov. 1 in order to be in the 4's so Wyatt will probably be one of the youngest kids in his class again this year since his birthday is in October.
Last year he went to school 2 days a week and this year he will go to school three days a week. It will be strange to have him gone so much this year. On Friday mornings we are going to be in a playgroup. So we have something going on four mornings every week! Our only free mornings are on Mondays this year!
It is so strange to go from having absolutely no outside structure to having somewhere to be 4 days a week. Since the twins were about 4 months old I have taken the kids out somewhere in the morning almost every single day barring illness. It helps break up the day and gives the kids something to look forward to besides the same old toys day in and day out. I can't help but think that our carefree days of hanging out with Mom and doing whatever are starting to slowly come to an end! How am I going to feel when they start kindergarten?
I forgot my camera this morning at preschool, so I used my friends camera to take a "first day of preschool" picture of Wyatt. As soon as she e-mails me the picture I will post it!
I decided this week that next spring we are absolutely, definitely, positively going to plant a garden. A big garden. I haven't worked out the fine details yet, but I refuse to go one more summer and fall without tending to our own plot of land.
When we lived in our duplex in graduate school we had a huge garden with Fred. Fred was a character. He was almost seventy years old and had just retired when we moved in. He had also just lost his wife to lung cancer. At first I don't think that he was really excited about renting his duplex to 2 young graduate students, but pretty soon we struck up a friendship with Fred and he became like family to us.
In our garden with Fred, we planted beans, corn, lettuce, squash, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes. We had rows and rows of tomatoes.... 150 plants one year to be exact. We had long rows of plants in the middle of a huge farm field right behind our house.
John and I spent almost every day in the spring, summer, and early fall working in our garden when we weren't studying, teaching, or running experiments at school. We were dirt poor, but we were happy. Fred taught us everything that he knew about gardening and we learned a LOT!
He taught us how to plow up the field and use stakes and a string to make perfectly straight rows. He taught us how many seeds to drop in each hole and how far apart to space them. He taught us how to dust for bugs. He taught us how to tell when our veggies were ripe enough to pick. He taught us how to make wilted lettuce! He taught us how to make rhubarb crunch (a secret recipe from his wife)! But most importantly, he taught us how to can, and freeze, and preserve everything that we grew!
Oh how I miss the days of picking and canning and freezing. We would spend entire days making and canning salsa, stewed tomatoes, tomato jam, frozen corn, pickles, canned beans, and tomato sauce. We would work until our hands peeled from the acid in the tomatoes and our fingernails were yellow. We would be covered in tomato and sweat, but it was time spent together working on something for a common purpose. It was incredibly rewarding.
On canning days, everybody had a job. There was somebody to pick the veggies, somebody cleaned the veggies, somebody to find and clean the jars, somebody to clean the rings, somebody to cut onions (the least favorite job...because we used to buy 50 lb bags of onions), somebody to buy apple cider vinegar, somebody to put everything into the pot and stir, somebody to heat the jars, somebody to hold the jars while somebody else poured, somebody to screw on the lids and rings, and finally somebody to cover up the jars with a towel and wrap our little babies and wait.
Then came the best part. While we were all cleaning up or sitting down resting and eating or drinking a beer or two came the sound of a ping from the kitchen. As each of our jars vacuum sealed shut they would make a little ping sound that would make everybody crack a smile. That sound meant that we did it right! Our jars were sealed. Our food was ready to store and enjoy. We had gone from planting a seed to sealing our jars. There was pride in that!
I want my boys to have that experience too! I want them to see the cycle of growing from planting to the ping. I want them to take pride in something that they make with their hands. I want them to have something that they look forward to doing together as a family. I want them to remember the ping as fondly as I do. That's why we are going to have a garden next year.
This weekend John took Wyatt and Sam to Michigan to visit Grand Haven and I stayed home with Jonah and Shane. Jonah loved the one-on-one time with Mom. Usually he pretends that Shane doesn't exist and this weekend wasn't much different except that occasionally when he was bored he gave Shane a slight nod as if to say "we better enjoy it while we can because they are bound to come back sometime"! He only asked about Sammy when he got into bed and realized that he had to sleep by himself. The rest of the weekend Jonah basked in the spotlight sucking up every moment of Mom time that he could squeeze in. It was wonderful! I took the two boys shopping until we all dropped every day. It is so much easier to shop with two kids than four. We shopped for Wyatt's birthday presents, running socks, groceries, school clothes for Wyatt, and fresh produce at the farmer's market. I even spoiled Jonah today and got him a strawberry and cream frozen ice drink from Starbucks complete with whipped cream on the top and topped it off with a cookie from Giant Eagle! He went to bed smiling from ear to ear. Everybody will be back together Monday night, and even though Jonah and I might be a little sad that we have to share each other, we miss the other half of our team and can't wait to see them!
Within the past 2 weeks Shane has learned premeditated grabbing. He is very efficient at unexpectedly taking things out of your hand or off the table and then putting them directly into his mouth with little or no warning. Maybe it's my cloudy brain in the morning or the fact that my thought processes are non-linear these days, but I keep forgetting that he has this new skill and have had a lot of close calls this week! Our newspaper is super tasty, by the way. Oh, and so is the phone and tv remote and Mommy's oats, and the kids discarded undies! Yummy! I'm pretty sure that we will be getting the Swine Flu this season with this little germ magnet around!
Tomorrow all of the kids in our local school district will be going back to school. I am excited for Wyatt to start school next week, but we are so sad that Kristen, our Mother's helper, won't be able to spend one afternoon a week with us! She is so great with the kids and we really look forward to her coming to help out and play with the kids each week. This Monday we took Kristen with us to the aviary to help with the kids and to commemorate our last time together. She had never been there before so it was a fun activity for us all to do together before we part ways for school! I haven't broken the sad news to the kids yet, but they will ask about her soon enough! Of course, I haven't given up altogether yet and still am working on some way to still have her come and help out, but it's not looking good. She is in dance, gymnastics, and cheer this fall! What if she fell somehow and broke a leg? Would that free up her schedule a little bit? Hmmmm.... Of course I wouldn't really sabotage her....on purpose.... but a girl can dream right?!?!?!?!
