J’s Day: the good and not-so-good

Jason still continues to struggle some mornings to get out of bed and I’m beginning to think that he will always need someone keeping close tabs on him in the morning to get him ready on time.  Perhaps it’s a boy thing.  This morning was the worst yet.  He came downstairs dressed, but grumpy.  When I realized he never unpacked his lunchbox from yesterday I told him he wouldn’t get lunch unless he took care of it.  Reluctantly he finally got it out so I could get started on his lunch.  Besides a plain cheese sandwich there wasn’t anything healthy that he wanted me to put in his lunch so I threw a go-gurt inside and told him he didn’t have to eat it if he didn’t want to.  He pouted that he wanted to buy lunch at school, which is ridiculously expensive, and with his food allergies difficult to accommodate.  It took him forever to decide what he wanted for breakfast and when he finally settled on a plain (non-blueberry) bagel I popped it in the toaster, slathered it with cream cheese and placed it in front of him.  What a monstrous error on my part to not ask if he wanted cream cheese or butter because of course, he wanted butter because today (and today only) cream cheese is “gross!”   It continued downhill.  I asked if he had socks on and moments later Carly told me he was pulling them off.  At this point we’re just minutes away from needing to leave the house to catch the bus so I pulled the socks on.  When he refused to put on shoes I strapped on the shoes.  When he refused a coat I put that on as well.  I opened the door it was no surprise that he refused to budge.  He wasn’t hysterical, but he had monstrous tears streaming down his face and that look in his eyes that he was off in some other realm where he could not be reached and cooperation and logic didn’t exist.  So what’s a Mom to do?  It’s a 20 minutes drive to school, I had a baby on the family room floor, a three year old eating breakfast… I told him it was either school or bed – he said school but he was walking at snail speed.  When minutes passed and they were just two houses away, I finally told Carly to run off and catch the bus on her own.  Jason stopped moving completely while I stood on the porch calling out for him to either run to the bus or come back to bed.  He wouldn’t run, but he continued walking very slowly.  I knew he’d never make it in time so I ran in the house, threw Katie and Drew in the van and drove around the block to the bus stop.  The bus was loaded and Jason was still 4-5 houses away, still refusing to run, but our saving grace was that another neighborhood kid was running late and the bus driver was waiting for her so Jason made it, barely. 

I was fairly confident that after a few minutes on the bus with friends he’d be fine, but I sent an email to his teacher to let her know that Jason hadn’t eaten breakfast and that he’d a rough morning.  Later that morning I received the following email from her, “Hi Holly- I just wanted to follow up and let you know that Jason is doing great!  He is his normal happy self at school today!”  I sure love that kid, but when he breaks down (thankfully, it’s not often) it is nearly impossible to bring him back – he has to do it on his own time.  Too bad we just didn’t have time on our side this morning.

Jason came home happy, which was great because Wednesday is our most crazy day.  Today was his last soccer game of the season.  I brought my camera along so I could get a few pictures to document the season.

Jason tends to hold up a #1 finger after he scores, he did the same thing in baseball

Jason has improved a lot since last year.  He can run really fast, he has great instincts on where to kick the ball, he does great at passing to teammates, he’s always enthusiastic about playing, and he’s scored in several of the games.  However, he’ll often get to the ball then take a moment to either position himself or consider his next move and as a result lose his advantage.  It’s actually been quite frustrating for me to watch.  I know he’s just thinking about the best move, but it still hard for this competitive mama to watch.

After today’s game trophies were distributed and cupcakes enjoyed.  Hallelujah!  It was a fun season, but I’m looking forward to having one less soccer schedule to juggle.

This team picture perfect depicts the personality of the team – bless anyone willing to coach young kids!

Looking at his cute face it’s hard to imagine this morning even possible

We Nailed It!

I think everybody knows that we move pretty slowly and cautiously when it comes to making most decisions, especially when it comes to decorating our house.  I think people also know that Justin is not a handyman.  The guy can paint, but you won’t find him building anything or repairing something without much stress.  However, this past week I’m quite sure we set an all time record for the number of nails and screws we utilized.

Hanging the girls most recent paintings: 

5 nails for Carly’s painting (only two nails were needed, but to took 5 attempts to get that darn thing level!)

1 nail for Abigail’s painting 

Kids’ Bathroom:

12 screws to hang up a towel hook for each of the kiddos

3 nails to hang up frames above the toilet

1 nail to hang up an old clock

Girl’s Room:

2 screws to convert an old mirror from horizontal to vertical

1 nail to hang said mirror in the girls’ room

Master:

5 screws to install the old towel bar from kids bathroom into our closet

8 screws to set up Drew’s crib 

Downstairs Bathroom:

2 screws to hang a much needed towel ring by the sink

For those of you that are not accountant-minded, that’s a grand total of 40!

Snuggle

When Drew woke up this morning Katie and I headed upstairs to feed him and then get in the shower.  I wasn’t expecting him to fall back to sleep since he’d already slept in later than usual.  

I figured he’d just take a short nap so I didn’t want to risk waking up by trying to lay him down in his crib (yes, I finally relented and set up the crib).  So he and I snuggled in my Grandma’s old lazyboy, the same blue faded lazyboy I’ve snuggled all my babies in, while Katie ran around naked waiting for a shower.

At some point I fell asleep (and Katie put on a pair of underwear) and before I knew it over an hour had passed.  Instead of feeling guilty, I felt so blessed I can stay at home with my babies and snuggle them for hours if I want to.  And so grateful to know I couldn’t have made a better choice this morning.

Ignore the creepy eye – I find it very difficult to take pictures on my phone one-handed

LOVE

Drew usually still accompanies Justin and I when we go out.  Even the quietest babies are magnets for attention – people LOVE babies, especially adorable ones like Drew.  We always get a kick out of the assumption people make that Drew is our only child and love watching their faces when we tell them we have FIVE children.  Five is practically unheard of these days.  This afternoon Katie, Drew and I met Justin for lunch and the two ladies next to us commented on our adorable two children.  When I held up five fingers instead of the usual gasps and shock they gave me a hearty “way to go!”  You see this mother-daughter duo were also members of the five-kiddo-club. 

I came home and while looking through a few pictures I took yesterday I was a bit overcome.  One of these ladies jokingly said that when you have five you increase your chances of getting a good one.  No question about it – I got five incredible children and an angel in heaven.  I must be the luckiest mama. 

Of course there are hard days and days I wonder if my kids are at a disadvantage with the sacrifices that are made when you have lot of siblings.  But I know they feel loved, I know they are successful and happy, they know how to work, but they also feel the joy that comes from having younger siblings to help care for and LOVE.

A little of This and a lot of That

Yes, I know my posting has been pretty sparse and not much about daily life around here so here’s a long random catch-up.

Back in August I took the kids (and several neighborhood kids) to the ground breaking ceremony for the big new park that will be built in our neighborhood.  When we moved here we were told it would be finished in early 2012, but due to the land being sold, changing the fields from grass to turf, etc…here we are just breaking ground.  It was definitely more of an adult-geared activity, but I thought it was fun for the kids to see.  After the big-wigs got their pictures taken they invited any kids to come up and “break ground” as well.  Here’s some of our crew posing with the Mayor.

I've always intended on taking beginning of the school year stats on my kids to compare to the end of the school year to see how much they've grown. This year I actually got around to it.  I recently had a conversation with a friend about our kids growing up and she asked how tall Abigail has gotten, I think my response was somewhere around 5' 3".  When I measured Abigail I was surprised to find that she's nearly 5' 5"!  At this rate it won't be long before she passes me up. I suppose she's gotta catch up to those size 11 feet!

We got off really easy with our back to school shopping this year.  The kids didn’t really need any clothes, we’d bought a couple pairs of jeans and a new shirt or two on sale at Old Navy early in the summer, we already had decent enough backpacks, and I was surprised how many extra school supplies from years past that the kids found as they scavengered the house for anything we could reuse.  After school started though, and sandals and flip flops needed to be put away, we realized the girls were in desperate need of new shoes.  We took advantage of the current BOGO sale at Payless, stacked it with an additional coupon and free shipping, and ordered a bazillion pairs of shoes for the kids to pick from.  Last Friday UPS delivered a HUGE box and the girls had fun trying them on to dwindle it down to a few favorites.  Sure beats lugging a bunch of kids to a store only to find they don’t have the right sizes in the styles we like.

Abigail’s stack was the tallest, then Carly, and Jason a lone pair of church shoes (we kept half)

Soccer season is upon us and once again we have three kiddos playing. This year they all have practice/games at 6pm on Mondays and Wednesdays at three different locations (the girls games are on Saturdays).  Not fun for the chauffer, but we enjoy having our Tuesdays and Thursdays soccer free. 

Katie hanging out at soccer

Last Wednesday, two weeks after school started, Katie, Drew and I ran our first errands together.   My homebodiness wasn't necessarily intentional and I only noticed cause it felt weird putting Drew alone in the middle row and Katie alone in the back. But it just goes to show that I'm not one to run around unnecessarily.

Jason’s most favorite thing (besides recess) about Kindergarten was working on his number scroll.  Often that would be the thing he would share at night as we each shared something about our day that made us happy, his was “working on my number scroll”.  His teacher told me anytime they had free time Jason chose to work on his scroll – the kid was determined not to let anyone else get as far as he was.  And nobody even came close.  Since it’s not something I’ll probably save I decided to take a picture of him with it yesterday.  

By the end of the year Jason had written his numbers from 1-3100.  Way to go Buddy!

Carly and I decided to grow out her bangs.  From experience I know this can be a long and often frustrating experience but I'm excited to see more of her beautiful face.

Abigail has been asked to accompany the primary kids for one of the songs during the primary program.  Her last primary program ever!

Last Thursday my newsfeed on Facebook had several posts regarding Pirate Day and a few friends posting pictures of their kids getting free donuts at Krispy Kreme by dressing up as pirates.  I showed Abigail when she got home from school and she was insistent that we could pull together four pirate costumes and score ourselves four dozen free glazed donuts.  She was right.  Yum, Yum.

I joined Pinterest last week and my life will forever be changed.   I haven't done any browsing of other people's boards, I’m sure that will open up a whole new use and time waster for me when I do, but simply used to bookmark my own life and ideas is perfect for the organizational part of me.   Recipes I want to try,  "Pin It", possible accessory for the house "Pin It"... awesome!  I’m a little bothered by the notices I get that strangers are “liking” or “pinning” my pins.

Justin took last Friday off and told me that he would paint the kids bathroom if I had a color picked out and the paint tinted beforehand.   You better believe I wouldn't let an offer of labor go to waste.  That brings our grand total of painted rooms to four!  (Only 10 rooms left to go)

I haven't lost a single pregnancy pound since Drew was just a few weeks old.   Obviously I don't expect to be back to pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm looking forward to fitting into a greater selection of clothing.  I'm hoping that if I give my body long enough I won't have to put in any effort to lose these 20 pounds.   Perhaps making cookies this afternoon and Sunday, eating through four dozen donuts last week, a dozen gourmet cupcakes and more donuts the weekend before, etc… aren’t helping me much.

I put this sign in my house last week that says Fall is Fabulous! 

I actually don't feel like fall is very fabulous.  Fall is nuts.  The days we have soccer is absolutely crazy. Getting three kids to 3 different places is insane and I feel so badly anytime I have to ask a friend to help get my kids where they need to be.  I have a first grader that still struggles to wake up in the morning and who moves so slowly that I have to help him make his lunch, remind him to make sure his homework folder is in his backpack, and even go so far as to help him take out appropriate clothing to wear.  Jason hasn't been most cooperative when he gets home either – getting used to being away from home 8.5 hours a day will take some time for that kid.   The kids come home from school STARVING. They’d much rather soak up the last light of day outside with friends rather than practice piano, do homework, or help around the house.  I feel we do a good job keeping the kids lives from being over scheduled, but we went from basically no schedule during the summer so needless to say we're all still adjusting to the business that fall brings.  I’m grateful though that I get to spend my days with these two cuties!

3 & 4 Months

I started a 3 month post on my phone last month, but somehow it got deleted and I never got around to getting it done.  Lots of changes for Drew in the last few months.  Here’s a bit about our awesome little guy…

Drew had his four month checkup today and here are his stats:

Weight:  16 lbs, 3.5oz  (62.84%)

Height:  26” (81.87%)

Head:  17.01” (88.12%)

I still cram him in a few 0-3 outfits, partially cause I'm not ready for him to grow up and part because we have very few clothes for him.   When Jason was little most of his clothes were hand-me-downs from Justin's sister and we gave them back to her when he'd outgrown them. 

Today the pediatrician told me that when you stroke the bottom of a new baby’s feet they stretch out their toes.  When he did this to Drew Drew curled his toes under.  The pediatrician then proclaimed Drew is no longer a new baby – I told him I didn’t want to hear any such thing.

Justin and Drew at soccer – This is one of my favorite outfits (his little big man striped shirt that he’s been wearing in dozens of pictures), but it’s a 0-3 month and it’s time to accept he’s outgrown it

Wearing size 2 diapers, he could probably still fit in size one, but the size two diapers are cheaper per diaper at Costco then the smaller size. 

Smiles when you change his diaper, doesn't matter if it's in the wee morning hours or if he's half sleep.  In his first few weeks of life changing his diaper almost always made him cry, so a grateful change.

While nursing he moves his free arm around a lot, unless he's sleepy he's moving it pretty much constantly.  So when I'm using a nursing cover he gets it all bunched up in his face or pulls it off to the side

Drew is starting to get more distracted while eating if there is too much going on

Reaching out for the toys in his swing or bouncy chair  

I took this picture of Drew asleep in the swing a few weeks ago cause it had been over a month since he's fallen asleep in it.  Even better is that he's done it multiple times since. 

Justin and I went out to dinner recently with Drew and he actually "played" with a small toy for a little while to entertain himself.  Of course he was perfectly content in his car seat until our food arrived and then he wanted to be held. 

He's a smiley baby in general, just a happy easygoing baby. 

Would rather be in the Bjorn than his carseat or stroller

If you want to see Drew really cry then take him to Wal-Mart.   I don't think I've had a trip to Wal-Mart where he hasn't freaked out and I've needed to take him out of his car seat and either hold him or put him in the Bjorn.  I think I've figured it out though.  With his car seat in the cart it’s really loud and bumpy for him especially when I'm in the parking lot or when entering a store.  If I carry his car seat into the store them put it in a cart when we have smooth ground he’s fine.

Drew has advanced to being forward facing in the Bjorn.  If I think he’ll fall asleep I still have him face me though.

Still takes a bottle on occasion, the freezer in our garage is full of milk from his first month+ so we have quite the supply.   We’ve got a few nights this week where Justin will have him so hopefully he’ll still take a bottle :)

Another of my favorite outfits

Likes to stand on his feet and is getting stronger

Is cooing more and more, he "talks" a lot and we love to hear him laugh

Still in the bassinet portion of the play-n-pack, Drew is 26 inches long and the bassinet measures 24.5 inches.  Lately I’ve been laying him down on a diagonal so his head doesn’t get smashed up at the top.  Clearly, having him sleep in a bed smaller than himself isn’t keeping him from growing so it’s probably time to move him to a crib.  Oh, but where do we put him??

As I've mentioned he's a great little sleeper, I try to avoid the whole "how's your baby sleeping" conversation with the other mothers of babies at church cause I feel bad I've got it so good. 

Asleep on the couch (August 21^st)

This morning he woke up around 5:30am to eat (the few nights before that he skipped an early morning feeding and went a full 10+ hours).  I laid him back in his bed, but he was jabbering so much I knew he wouldn’t fall asleep.  I told Justin it’d been several weeks since I’d brought him into bed with me so I wasn’t sure he’d snuggle up with me and go back to sleep, but to my surprise and delight he did.  I took this picture three weeks ago, the day before school started, when I was sick.

I’ve had a cough since that day (THREE weeks!) now Drew’s coughing too – his first cold.  Hopefully his cough doesn’t last as long as mine has.

Like most babies Drew is sporting quite the bald spot on the back of his head.   

As usual for me, the fourth month mark means I too am losing hair, thankfully I've got plenty that no one would notice (except Justin who helps keep our shower drain from clogging up)

Drew brings us so much happiness and joy.  He is such an awesome little guy.  

The picture above of Katie & Drew on couch watching TV which reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of Jason holding Katie in Lake Chelan during the summer of 2010

We recently took out the Bumbo chair for Drew.  I can’t believe my baby can sit in this already.

Just look at that smile!

Beside himself with joy!

Nicknames include:  jujubee, drewbee, bubee