Stinky Alligator

The boys and I started a new game a couple days ago when they were stalling for bedtime and I had a rare bout of evening patience and played along. We take turns calling each other something stinky. They crack up after each one, sometimes genuinely and sometimes with this painfully forced cackle.

Some excerpts from tonight's ride home from dinner...

"You are a stinky... SNAKE!"

"You are a stinky... DOOR!"

"You are a stinky... SIGN!"

"You are a stinky... CAR!"

"You are a stinky... GATE!"

"You are a stinky... LEAF!"

When we'd pass a gas station: "You are a stinky... GAS! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Then things got a little risqué: "You are a stinky... BUTT!"

"You are a stinky... BUTT TRAIN!" (Heh?)

"You are a stinky... BUTT BUTT BUTT!"

"That's enough with the butts, we don't say butts."

And finally: "You are a stinky... LOTS OF THINGS! HAHAHAHA!"

Spring!

Spring is definitely upon us, and it's been a wonderful couple of weeks lately, spent with windows open and pollen flying.

So we spent a few days learning a little about spring around here. For all the days, there was a "word of the day" that we learned, illustrated, and copied with magnet letters.

On the first day we discussed spring in general, read some springy books...
Word Bird's Spring Words

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (one of our favorites)

Arranged some beautiful flowers I picked up at Publix...

Made some pretend bouquets...

And took a spring walk, during which we sang about the signs of spring and searched for them. It was warm, the birds were singing, green leaves are on all the plants, and we collected many flowers.

On the second day we discussed seeds and how they grow into plants. We set up carrot and bean sprout experiments (nothing yet), planted some apple seeds we had saved from an apple earlier (not holding out much hope for those), planted some herbs from a Christmas-gifted kit from my mom...

These have actually started sprouting - well, the basil and thyme have...

Played with beans, peas, fake leaves and flowers, and "rain clouds" in a sensory bowl setup...

Did a flower petal counting game/craft project I made up, and had an educational popcorn snack that night. They thought it was so cool to learn about the corn seeds exploding into our snack.

On the third day we learned about rain. We read some books about rain...
Word Bird's Rainy-Day Dance

I Love the Rain

Did a little experiment with a sponge "cloud" making rain, made cloud pictures, and jumped in chalk rain puddles on the patio.

Finally, we were supposed to discuss wind. But we got a little lax and only read the books, which are very cute.

The Wind Blew

Curious George Flies a Kite

Look what came in the mail today!

Nana sent a surprise follow-up to Anna's quilt! It's a very adorable little pillow, and Anna really seems to love it. Thank you again, Nana!!

Why does her head look so huge?

Maybe because I put her in a dress two sizes too small because I'm not ready to let it go...

I also recently finally ordered these cool thingamajigs to hang our plate collection with. The shockingly blunt yellow walls in the kitchen are begging for some balance. Excited about these!

RAW(e) Distraction

I've been wanting to join in the RAW(e) photo challenge fun on Sami's blog for a couple weeks, but never got around to working on it in time.

This week, the theme is distraction. Since when I read the theme I was up waaaaay too late for my own good and the good of my kids and my devotion time, with the desk covered in most of my selfish distractions, it was the perfect time! I couldn't wait all day today until the post was up to link to.

My distractions are many, but the main ones are the computer, planning the kids' homeschool (way overplanning, they are in preschool, for pete's sake!) because it's so fun, and crafting. I let these things override far too much of my time that should be devoted to time with God, or providing more attention and structure for the boys.

Anna's Special Quilt

My sister and I both have special quilts made by our Great-Nana B. Mine is been partially demolished by the family cat, but is still something special to me.

The boys each have their own that my Nana made them a couple years ago. They are very sweet - covered with embroidered and colored images of sweet little boys and girls. I think there's a name for what type they are, but I'm drawing a blank. And they are tucked away in bed with the boys for the night, so I'll have to post a picture later. The center block on each has a really pretty stitched monogram.

The boys haven't been using them for more than a year, because I just wasn't ready for them to wrestle with them like they did with the rest of their bedding. But we busted them out in the last few months, and the boys love them a lot. They are their top blankets every night.

Well, Anna received hers in the mail this week. I love it! It's sweet shades of purple, with lots of adorable Precious Moments images nicely painted on. I let her check it out when the package arrived, hoping I'd get a great pose of her on it. Pshh! That girl doesn't stop for a second, unless it's in my lap. So this is the best I was able to get. She really does seem to like it a lot, and it's laying on the spare bed in her room. I can't wait for her to cherish it as her pretty keepsake from her Great-Nana!

Thank you Nana! We love you and are so thankful for your craftiness and love!

God Bless You

Baby Bear has been paying attention these last 4 weeks of illness in this house. She recently picked up fake coughing. She enjoys it, but doesn't seem to do it for the thrill. It seems like she thinks it's the thing to do in this family.

Tonight she started fake sneezing. It cracked me up. We were out at IHOP for dinner, and one of the boys did a double sneeze. She just sat there and kept eating while doing several stinking adorable "choo"'s. Again, she didn't look like she was doing it as a hilarious show, just trying something out. The boys and I were so amused.

Just another note to ourselves. :)

Old men are the cutest

So two weeks ago was Brandon's big 3-0! We had several mini-celebrations over a week and a half, and I think it added up to a fun birthday for him. Of course, I took too long to document it, so I've forgotten a lot of the details... Honey, feel free to fill in the gaps in the comments.

There was a small celebration at our house, involving a teeny-tiny ice cream cake and two necktie-shaped bookmarks, coated with many layers of colored pencil and marker illustrations and gobs of stickers.

I'm pretty sure one night we had dinner out somewhere and called it his birthday dinner. (We ate out about a hundred times the last few weeks, so it's all a blur.) And he got himself his gift for me one night when we were out with the kids. At least I picked it out. Wait. At least I decided which thing he'd recently told me he wanted I'd get for him.

Most exciting of all, we went to the Monster Jam with the boys and Dawn and Matt. It was "for the boys", but I distinctly remember being told it could count as his birthday present last month when I was being convinced to splurge on the tickets. It was really great fun, and I think we all discovered a new passion. Unfortunately, we didn't prepare the boys well enough for the very cold evening, so there was plenty of guilt involved. I took over 600 pictures, so I'll have to set up an entire post devoted to that outing.

Say what?!?!

We ate out with my family another night. It was funny because the staff had to sing happy birthday to at least 8 tables while we were there. Apparently once it happens a couple times people start getting silly and claiming birthdays left and right. Ours was real, yay! (Dimly lit, so I have no good pictures, boo.)

Finally (I think), we had dinner at his family's house. I kinda ruined it by being really sick and droopy, but the food was good, and I'm told the cake was yummy. The boys "helped" daddy blow out his trick candles. There was an entire layer of boy-spit covering the whole thing by the time the last candle gave up. It was hilarious.

I am so proud of the man that my man is becoming. So manly. :) For a few minutes, this celebration sent me into another tailspin of panic about being 30 myself. It wasn't as real when I was still married to a 20-something-year-old stud. Thanks for being my stud, you sweet geezer.

Big Day!

The boys have been progressively getting more independent in dressing themselves. And today was the big day! They managed to completely get whole outfits on all by themselves! This is just a note to ourselves to remember this day. For the longest time we have let every milestone go unmarked, so I wanted to hop on and make this one official.

Woohoo!

Growth

I've been posting a lot just about Baby Bear. I am working on some posts dedicated to my crazy sweet prince boys too.

Baby Bear's 12-month well visit at the doctor didn't go as planned. Since she still had a runny nose and isn't sleeping well because of a cold this week, they had to check her ears to make sure they weren't infected. If they are, she can't have her immunizations as scheduled. Um, she didn't have her immunizations. She has horrible ear infections that even grossed out the doctor. So she's on an antibiotic, with two more appointments scheduled. I feel so horrible for her! Except for not sleeping well, she hasn't shown signs of suffering in that way. All our kids have been that way, sneakily hiding the disgustingness festering in their ears.

She is also still a little-bit. She is 29 1/8 inches long (52nd percentile) and weighs 17 lbs 6 oz (10th percentile). That's actually up from <10% last time, so they were pleased. And since she had a nice little pot belly showing, they think she'll be just fine. Especially now that she'll be taking whole milk.

I've been weaning her fairly quickly for the last two weeks. She only nurses first thing in the morning, which will end after tomorrow. Brandon and I are hoping to go away for two days tomorrow night, so she'll be on her own from here on out. I'm pretty sad about it, but have no doubts that it's time. I'm just a mess picturing that last time tomorrow, and when she's done she's done. Sigh.

Still no signs of walking. She does now take some steps when you hold her hands out and walk behind her, so she's figuring out that she's capable of that movement. Until now, it's been funny watching her practically ignore her legs like they were dead weight. She also just recently started crawling "normally", and is doing a little less of her famous army crawl.

Here's our weather panda that we started using this week. First thing in the morning, we open the front door and check the weather. Then we head to our calendar and update it, followed by dressing our weather panda. It's good fun. Not a lot of variety in his wardrobe lately - it's just been cold and sunny for the most part - but fun, just the same.

Sweetest Birthday

Today is the day our little princess angel baby doll girlie girl turned one whole year old. It has been a difficult, limit-testing, cuddly, pink year. We are so thankful for our sweet girl and our two awesome little boys.

We had the most fun at her Valentine's Day birthday party. It was one of my favoritest-est parties ever. All the kids had a blast and played so well together (yeah, all 8 kids under 8), the food was dee-lish (we managed to make this Pioneer Woman basic drip beef recipe, and it was amazing), and we got to enjoy most of our favorite people (yeah, all 14 adults, not including us). Baby Bear had a great time - once she got used to all the craziness - and got some awesome toys and adorable outfits.

God is way too good to us, and we are humbled by the bountiful blessings He doesn't stop pouring out on us at all times. We love all you peeps we are blessed to know and be known by.

Aunt Brianna did an awesome job as photographer for most of the event. Thank you! It was very difficult to narrow down all the photos to post here, but I've pulled it off. You're welcome. :)

Decorations - The boys helped me make this garland, and I love it so much that I am considering leaving it up all year.

After we ate lots of yummy food, it was time to open presents! The boys helped with a lot of them.

Hugging her new cuddly unicorn that cousin Laura Anne picked out just for her.

You know she knows which camera is mommy's!

The best party entertainment ever (for kids and adults alike!). They went to town with all the wrapping and tissue paper - for over half an hour, I'd say. It was so awesome.

Adorable birthday girl having a blast.

The bottle... yeah, we weaned her just shy of her birthday. I just love it when she'll hold her bottle for me. It's the cutest thing ever, especially to me since her brothers never once held their bottles. Never!

The boogers... yeah, we couldn't keep up with them as fast as the pictures were snapping.

And then it was cake time! She didn't take to it right away, but slowly worked her way through quite a bit of icing.

Popo helped us assemble her cool new toys while she napped. When she woke up, she was pleasantly surprised. She loves all her new things and is having tons of fun figuring them out.

My Heart is Breaking

Bubby is sharing with me these pleasantries this morning:

"I don't love you."

"I don't like you."

"I'm still sad."

(He went to bed crying last night because of an atrocity involving bedtime book choice. Apparently it's still rocking his world.)

That's bad enough, but my tears began because of his brother. After I explained to him that even though he's making me very sad by saying that, I'll still be sweet to him because I love him no matter what. Then I left the room. I just heard Popo asking him why he doesn't like Mommy and why is he making her sad? Bubby repeated himself and Popo responded: "But she loves you."

Oh, it hurts so much.

Funny, because yesterday I spent some time explaining Valentine's Day to them - about how you spend that day showing the people you love that you love them by being sweet to them and giving them nice things. Mostly all that's stuck is that they'll get candy on Baby Bear's birthday, since that's also a Valentine's Day party at our house. Sigh.

Brandon and I are totally feeling deja vu (or what's that term for war veterans who have flashbacks of horrible scenes?) with the extreme moodiness on the preschooler front this week. It's exactly like just about one year ago. We are now solid believers in the theory that most kids will have behavior/mood issues at their half-year birthdays. They are unreasonable wailing time bombs at times. And you see it coming, similar to last year.

We will get through this phase. Again.

Enough is Too Much

Balance is impossible. This is my lesson of the week. Actually it's my lesson every week. I know this fact, but it's amazing how it is drilled into my life so constantly.

The kids and I have been getting pretty lonely around here lately. With the crazy cold here for the last two weeks, our only options have been to stay home, go shopping, or go out to eat. And each of those things gets old. Really old. Plus, it would help to have some distractions as we count down these slow, final days of Brandon's trip.

So I was looking forward to a little action this week. On Tuesday we went to church for Mom-to-Mom, which was lovely. And yesterday I worked while the kids hung out at Grammy's, then we went to church.

I originally typed out most of the gruesome details of what made yesterday a frustrating, utterly exhausting day. But I've deleted it to spare you. The point is that it was a seriously stretching experience. I'm actually thankful for it, and was slightly aware of that during the suffering, because it's the only way I grow. I actually saw a speck of extra patience in my dealings with the kids when we got home late, hungry, and pooped last night.

After all the craziness we could cram into two days, I was ecstatic about a day to hang out at home with the kids today. I've come full circle! I was dying to get out of here just 48 hours before the madness broke me down. I'll never be satisfied.

But that's really the point, isn't it? Life on this earth will never be just right. It's a world of extremes and frustrations. Thank you, Jesus, that this is all just a shadow!! I actually wasn't planning on there being a moral of my story, but there you go.

Baby Bear's Firsts

It's been a week of many firsts for Baby Bear as we've broken into the new year.

Well, today she may or may not have swallowed her first foreign object. I talked to the doctor's office and they gave me advice. I cannot be sure yet if she even ate it at all, but time will tell. I'll post a photo when I know. Just kidding!

Her first park trip in 2010

Last weekend she had her first girls' day out with Mommy and Nana. Where else, but IKEA! This time she did not eat through the pamphlet.

Her first tunnel exploration mission

Her first trip to IHOP (Not her first makeout session with a stuffed animal)

Her first nude photo shoot of 2010

How could I almost forget to include today's first, my inspiration for this whole post?

That's right, her first taste of chocolate. I don't think we gave the boys any until they were at least one, but I'm not sure. She wasn't too sure about it at first - same as with any new thing - but she ended up seeming pretty pleased with it.

Oh, and see the hairclip keeping her locks out of her little eyes? Yeah, that's our foreign object...