Commercialization

I like classic-y things. A lot of the kids books we have are books that I read when I was a kid. Same with a lot of our toys. I'm all about wooden toys, musical instruments, wooden puzzles, Eric Carle books, Shel Silverstein...classics.

When Henry was a newborn I signed him up for a book club in our town where kids from birth to age 5 get a free book mailed to them once a month. There was a HUGE waiting list so imagine my surprise when his first book arrived yesterday. Woohoo! It was the classic The Little Engine that Could. I was thrilled and Henry carried that book around all day.

When I went in to tuck him in last night he was flipping through his new book. So I asked him, "How do you like your new book?"

"Good."

"Is it The Little Engine that Could?"

"No. It's Thomas the Train."

The Pumpkin Patch

A couple of my high school friends and I have a yearly tradition of visiting the pumpkin patch with our little ones. There are three of us and we all had our first two kids around the same time (I pulled ahead with Elisabeth this summer)! Here are some of my favorite shots that Betsy took:

Betsy is the Martha Stewart of my friends. She and her mom made these shirts after seeing them in Family Fun Magazine. Elisabeth got a matching bib.



Since Elisabeth couldn't stand along the fenceline she gets her own close-up:



And this year we made the husbands come, too. There is no way we could chase the kids through the maze, playground, and patch without them. However, when you bring men and they see pumpkins they inevitably go for the biggest one. And then prove how manly they are by lugging it on their shoulder. See how strong he is?

Here she is...

A friend of mine took some pictures of Elisabeth for me. Here is my favorite! I wish she wasn't hiding her mouth but getting a perfect shot of a baby is nearly impossible.

Henry snuck in at one point so they took a couple of pictures of him for good measure...

Charlie was no where near the camera. He hates getting his picture taken. Last year we had an awful argument the day of school pictures because he was determined his hair would be combed and I wanted it spiked. Right before pictures he flattened his hair AND he didn't smile. Grrrr. This year we got his pictures back and HOORAY! He smiled! The smile is a little crooked but his eyes are awesome...you can see that look like he's up to something which is so Charlie.

(And, yes, my scanner is FILTHY)

Elisabeth Emory

July 1, 2008 @ 3:28pm

7lbs 10oz

20 inches

Hopefully the hair stays as pretty as the boys' hair did! So far she's been relatively easy (as babies go) but the boys have been away at Nana's so we are definitely in real world mode quite yet. Charlie is totally in love with her and Henry wouldn't care if we sent her back where she came from. We're working on that.

For now we are keeping our heads above water...trying to balance when to eat (for her and for us) and when to sleep (mostly for us...she tends to sleep when we need her to be awake and vice versa- the curse of the baby).

Injustice

For the first time ever I saw one of my children suffer an injustice at the hands of an adult. I see it kid-to-kid almost daily and though it is hard I can handle it and most of the time so can Charlie. But an adult being harsh, unkind, and unfair? That's a different story.

It started last week when Charlie told me about his school day over lunch. He got his "clip moved" which means he got in trouble (not by his teacher who is FANTASTIC but by a note to his teacher). He told me the story and it sounded unfair but I thought maybe since he's only five I wasn't getting the whole picture or I wasn't understanding it right. I shared the story with Chad and we decided if it didn't come up again we'd let it go.

This week, not only did it happen again, it happened to the extreme. It led to serious embarrassment to Charlie, a visit to the secretary, and a tearful phone call home. Needless to say I was upset. However, in my emotional pregnant state I knew better than to march into the school and unload on someone. I walked in calmly, greeted the secretary politely,m and thanked her for her discretion. I then proceeded to quietly sneak Charlie out to the van without his classmates seeing. And then I called Chad- and HE marched into the school.

First off, Charlie's school is wonderful. I love, love, love his teacher and her aide. Love the principal, love the secretary, love the librarian...but every now and then a school will have a staff member who doesn't like kids. Especially little ones. Secondly, my husband rocks. He followed the chain of command, spoke with confidence and *AHEM* made sure the offending staff member would be doing no more offending.

A couple of days later we had parent teacher conferences and can I say again how much I love Charlie's teacher? She brought up the incident (there had been a substitute teacher that day) and let us know she was behind us. It was awesome. It's so comforting when a non-relative truly knows and loves the heart of your child.

The big struggle here was deciding when to let Charlie deal with the hard stuff of life and when to stand up and defend. This isn't to say he doesn't misbehave- he does and we deal with it. There was no misbehaving involved here- only pure meanness from an adult. I had high hopes of staying under the radar during the school years. I didn't want to be the parent that made teachers groan when they saw me coming. But when an adult acts like a child and intentionally hurts the pride of one of my kids? My reputation doesn't matter much after that. Letting Charlie know we will protect him matters more.

The Party

I'm not exactly sure who's party it was last night. Charlie kind of took control as apparently I wasn't doing a good job. He decided Henry needed a VeggieTales party but we live in a small town and finding veggie decorations is pretty difficult. So Charlie made some.

He decorated the cake:

He made "Pin the Plunger on Larry Boy" (I can't figure out how to turn the picture):

He made Veggie Balloons (Bob, Jr., Larry, and Laura):

He made a centerpiece and drew Bob the Tomato on all the red cake plates.

When Henry woke up from his name he kept saying "Veggie for me? Veggie for me?" He was thrilled! So, it's official- Charlie is in charge of all party planning from now on.

A Busy Day

Today is Henry's second birthday! So it's 9:30 and he's still in his pj's. Actually, I'm letting him watch whatever Veggie video he wants to since Charlie isn't here to commandeer the television. Henry is in heaven.

I made a list of things to do but I've lost it. This is what happens when we go away to a conference for a couple of days. I always clean before I go so I can return to a nice house but then our things sort of explode everywhere and stay that way for an indefinite amount of time. The red longish looking thing is Henry's present that hasn't been wrapped yet. It's a tent. There's also a veggie book under the laundry basket. See, I know where things are.

Monica has announced her Spring Cleaning Contest again, thank the Lord, because I'm highly motivated to clean when there are prizes involved. Plus, my mom reads my blog and she'll die when she sees my before pictures so it will be nice for her to see the after pictures as well.

And now I'm off to clean my kitchen, bake a cake, cook some "cheeken" (Henry's favorite), and run around town getting things I forgot.

For some reason I had it in my head that I was doing a great job blogging. And then I realized I only blogged three times this month. I think I write lots of posts in my head and THINK I blogged them but I really didn't. Those were some great posts, too. I wondered why no one commented...

I finally got myself a planner for 2008. We're two months in and I'm finally ready for the new year (yeah, it's gonna be rough). I've filled it in with my work schedule, appointments, school calendar events, church calendar events...and I've still managed to double-book myself- TWICE. And I say that like I have this super active social life. I don't. I just remember in my head that Friday we are going out with so-and-so and February 29 we have a church thing- not realizing FRIDAY and FEB. 29 are the SAME DAY. If I have anymore pregnancies I will have no more brain cells left. I had a teacher in high school once say that babies suck all the vitamins out of you leaving you with mousy hair and pasty skin and this empty look in your eyes- I think she was trying to scare me into staying away from boys but I do agree I lose brain cells. But my planner is very pretty and compact and works for me! When I remember to write in it. Actually, I get really attached to my planner and can't go anywhere without it. I'm one of those people who will lose their minds if I lose my planner.

But on a much happier note I've purchased two adorable little girl dresses and I've been given the cutest little pink polka dot swimsuit. It's tiny! Having a "baby" in size 5 diapers and then pulling out the newborn stuff makes Henry look huge. Huge. I can't wait until I get the newborn diapers. I love how they look like toy diapers for a baby doll. And I can't wait to hold that wrinkly, snuggly little baby! I've got a long wait...being buried in all this snow makes July 4 seem a long ways away.

Saturday afternoon...

We are all sleepy and bored and sick of the TV. Today we all huddled in the kitchen, Chad and I drinking coffee, and the boys coloring. Henry is at the color-the-walls stage so he can't be left alone with crayons. I HATE to draw. And color. And do any kind of art whatsoever. And I'm a grumpy mom about it, too. I won't help or trace or anything. I'll watch but that's it. I try to tell myself it will teach them responsibility and enable them to do things for themselves but really it's because I truly HATE to draw.

But, as seen by today's drawings, they don't need my help anyway.

Charlie, age 5 (no help)

Henry, 23 months (he has informed me it's "Bob", "Spiderman", and "pretty")

I'm hoping they really develop their crafts and can one day redesign my house. How cool would that be?

Christmas Eve

My parents are scrooges and go to Florida every Christmas. They flew and had us take them to the airport. They offered to take us to breakfast for our troubles and I'm all about free breakfast. Henry (my BIG eater) was out of sorts and only wanted to drink chocolate milk. Have you ever seen chocolate milk the second time around? Yeah. It's that gross. And even though I haven't been sick with this pregnancy I almost lost it. Thankfully he waited until my parents had already been dropped off and we had stopped at a gas station. Charlie freaked out so he and I went into the gas station to get wipes and paper towel and anything we could think of to clean it up.

Poor Henry was stripped down to his diaper and it was COLD. We swung by a Target so I could grab him some sweats and a sweatshirt and then we took him to a walk-in clinic. Because what could be more fun than being sick and sitting in clinic all day?

They stuck us in room pretty quickly but they were short staffed. Thankfully a nurse brought in "Rudolph" for us to watch. At first it was quaint- the four of us hanging out watching a Christmas movie. But when "Rudolph" started a second time it wasn't fun anymore.

The diagnosis? A double ear infection. Oh yeah- tons of fun. The medicine kicked in just in time for Christmas and life was good.

And hopefully there will be no more throwing up in this house for awhile. Because I truly can't handle anymore.

The Costumes

Another Charlie-ism: "Mom? This costume makes my hiney look big."

Halloween Quotes

This was said at every house-

Charlie: Trick or Treat!
Henry: Punkit! (pumpkin)

Comments about costumes-

Homeowner: Boys! What beautiful costumes! Did your mommy make them?
Charlie: No. Old Navy did.

And at the end of the night as we dumped out the candy from the houses and the church party-
Charlie: HALLOWEEN IS AWESOME!


**Somehow this horrible mother didn't take pictures. I KNOW. My sister in law is emailing me some later.**

Big Stuff

Charlie is five which means he's big stuff. Ask him and he'll tell you. He can dress himself- unless it's for school or for church because suddenly on those days he's incapable of pulling his shirt over his head and wanders around the house shouting "Help! I can't see!" He can brush his own teeth, he can make his bed (mostly), he can clean his room (if bribed), and apparently he can do his hair.

Last Sunday morning Charlie miraculously dressed himself, brushed his teeth and did his hair without me asking. His hair is at an awkward stage. Because he is a boy and gets wild and dirty and hot in the summer I shave his head. He has two massive cowlicks on the back of his head that give me grief when his hair starts to grow out. I bought some pomade/wax to make his hair do one of those messy, spiky looks until it gets to a decent boy haircut length. He knows how I do the pomade so he attempted to do it himself.

I use enough pomade to cover the tips of my fingers. He used half the container. HALF the container of wax 10 minutes before we left for church. He was so proud of himself I made sure I gave him praise for his hard work and then hinted that maybe we should wash a little of the wax off to make it just right.

Lesson: wax doesn't "wash" out. I stuck his head in the sink and washed it/scrubbed it three times before I called my husband in a panic. "It's THICK with wax! I can't brush it! It's got chunks of wax in it!" He walked over and attempted to style it. Imagine tiny little pastor's kid with a mohawk. That's pretty much what it looked like. Thankfully he proudly told the 60 and older crowd that he did his hair himself and they all laughed because they lived in the pomade era and they totally get it.

After church Chad tried washing his hair (3 more times). That stuff doesn't budge. I got online and found that olive oil will take the wax out. I grabbed my olive oil and went to work. Ta-da! No more wax. Only now his hair (and the tub) were full of oil. I went back to the internet and discovered that Dawn dish soap removes oil from hair.

I marched into the bathroom with the dish soap and started scrubbing while Charlie pleaded "Please stop washing me with kitchen things!" And it worked! And I'm pretty sure Charlie will never do his own hair again.

Childhood Conversation

Charlie (with his face mashed against the screen door): MOM!!! MOM!!!! MOOOOOOOMMMM!

Me: What.

Charlie: I'm 64 cents! Dad says I'm 64 cents!

Me: You have 64 cents?

Charlie: NO! Dad says I'm 64 cents! He's messin' with me.

Me: Dad's messin' with you? Is he funny?

Charlie (clearly exasperated): Grrrrrrr...... No. Dad....is...MEASURIN' me.

Me: OH! He's measurin' you!

Charlie: Yes! I'm 64 cents tall.**

**And for clarification purposes that means 46 inches.

Thump

This morning I was sitting in the kitchen drinking my coffee and reading my morning blogs. Charlie is at school, Chad is at the Men's breakfast for church, and Henry....what on earth is that thump?

I looked into the living room and noticed he had pushed a footstool up to the back of the couch. He was climbing the stool and doing a FLIP over the back cushions and landing with a thump on the floor...over and over and over.

At least he isn't breaking anything.

Fair Time

In other news...it's fair week back home and I was able to take the boys to the parade and to visit the fair.

There is so much to do at the fair- rides, games, booths, barns, tractors.... and I really thought the boys would love walking through the cow and horse barns. Wrong. Henry thought it was pretty cool and made animal noises at the different animals. Charlie said, "Mom this is disgusting. There is horse stinky everywhere," and he proceeded to tiptoe through the manure.

We quickly got out of the barns so Charlie would quit grumbling about it and went and got some donuts and cider. While we were sitting there Charlie accidentally banged his leg against the stroller tire- which had manure on it.

He was NOT PLEASED. Can you tell?

First Day of School

**Edited because when I checked sitemeter this morning someone found this site by a google search for something inappropriate. I changed some words and hopefully that'll fix it. Darn, that upsets me.**

Oh, the tears. And they weren't Charlie's. Last night we were laying out his clothes, packing his backpack and filling out papers for the teacher. Charlie was jumping and leaping and talking very loudly with excitement and my eyes filled with tears.

"Charlie I can't believe how big you are."

He puffed out his chest and stood on his tiptoes, "I am a BIG brother and I'm going to kindergarten!"

"Well I think I'll cry about that," I told him. And I proceeded to cry- and I mean SOB.

Here is what he said to me:

"Mom I will love you forever and ever and even when I'm gone you can look at pictures of me."

I tried to explain it wasn't that I would miss him it was that he's so big now that he won't need me anymore.

Horrified by my statement he said, "MOM! But who will be there to swat me? I need you to swat me when I'm naughty! And give me ice cream when I'm good!" Because if there's one thing I'm good for apparently it's discipline.

And here he is on his first day...

We walked to school together (it's just behind those trees in the background- I can see it after the leaves fall) and he held my hand the whole way. He opened his locker by himself, hung up his backpack, grabbed his supplies and marched into class. I asked for a good bye kiss and he said, "No, Mom. That's not cool."

So I held in my tears until I got home. I'm pretty sure a crying mother isn't cool, either.

A Healthy Snack

It's the beginning of apple season here and we LOVE apples in this house. I have a bag sitting on the counter that the boys can reach so they can eat an apple anytime they want.

This morning Chad and I were drinking coffee in the den while I watched the news and Chad checked his email. Henry was lounging on the couch munching on an apple.

Very proud of his healthy snacking preferences and feeling like a pretty good mom I turned to Chad and said, "Isn't he so cute sitting there with his apple?"

Chad turned to look at him, turned back to look at me and said, "It's not an apple. It's a potato."

It's still healthy, right?

Dad the Bible Hero

Tonight we had a baptismal service at church. We had set up the service outside and Charlie wanted to sit in the front row. He was so fascinated by what was going on that he sat more still than he ever had in an evening service.

Chad gave a mini-sermon and then climbed into the pool. Charlie shouted, horrified "Dad! What are doing with your clothes on!" much to the amusement of our congregation.

Once we got home I talked on the phone with my mom for few minutes and Charlie asked if he could talk. When he got on the phone he said, "Nana! Church was OUTSIDE! And guess what? My dad is JOHN THE BAPTIST!"

Classic.

Leprechauns

Yesterday, my mom gave Charlie a little wink. Charlie winked back and said,



"Nana...never, never wink at those little guys that run around and steal gold from the rainbows."



"Why not?"



"They'll PINCH you! (whisper with his hand cupped to his mouth) I learned that at preschool."



Good advice indeed.