Still Here!

I have birthday updates a plenty, but no time right now to post a bunch of photos. David came home from school sick today after falling asleep during his class. He has "a headache" and a fever. How does a four year old know what a headache is?! Henry is . . Henry. Loud, wild, and into everything. Jack is teething and full of snot with a probably infected ear. He had his 12 month checkup yesterday. He's 23 pounds, 13 ounces and 30 inches long. We postponed his vaccinations because he's not feeling well. He's getting his eye teeth and it's making him miserable. Or, maybe he's unhappy because he has copious snot coming out of his nose on a constant basis. You pick. And, to top it off, Chris isn't feeling well. Funny how that only seems to happen during the work week. He's been feeling ill for two weeks now, but only on work nights. Odd. I can deal with three sick children better than I can deal with one ill husband.

Oh, and my babysitter decided today at noon that she couldn't come to watch the boys because she "couldn't get sick". Her mom had surgery last week and she is helping to care for her, so I understand her concern about getting sick. However, she was supposed to be at my house at noon to watch my children. Thankfully I have a fairly flexible job and a very understanding boss, so I left work for the afternoon and raced home to pick Henry up from school on time. We spent the afternoon reading books, resting, watching a movie, administering Tylenol and Benadryl, and wiping boogers.

Everyone is in bed now, and I'm going to catch up on some work I should have done this afternoon. I promise birthday photos are coming soon!

Mama? Obama?

Jack watched the inaugural events yesterday with Chris, and was apparently spellbound. Perhaps I have a little politico on my hands?! I would love that! Chris said that Jack sat on the couch with him and was just watching TV - not crawling around, not wiggling, nothing. Just looking at the television, waving, and clapping. He was waving at the television saying, "Mama". . . Maybe this whole time I've thought he was saying Mama, he was really stumping for OBAMA?!

Pain in the Neck

No, I'm not a pain in the neck. I HAVE a pain in the neck. A pinched nerve, to be exact. Ever had one? It sucks. I have to have my left arm in a sling for a week to keep the pressure and weight off of my neck. This is virtually impossible with three children of my own and a job teaching gymnastics to another 60 children a week. If the sling doesn't help, I am potentially looking at physical therapy. Keep your fingers crossed that I can be a better patient than I have been, and that the sling works!!! Until then, Vicodin party, my house. Bring your own, because I'm not sharing.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Dear Jack,

Happy First Birthday! I cannot believe that a year has gone by since you were born. You came 15 days before you were due, and I was so happy to meet you. You have been the sweetest, happiest, easiest baby since the day you were born. Everywhere we go, people comment on what a happy boy you are!

You have learned so much this year! You hated to play on your stomach for tummy time, and I swore you would never sit up by yourself. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did you sit up before either of your brothers did, you also crawled and walked well before them. You walk or run everywhere now - there's no stopping you! You love to be in the tub or the swimming pool. You splash like crazy! You'll splash anywhere -- a bowl of water, a dog bowl, the toilet, the sink . . . any water source is good for splashing.

You are trying really hard to talk. Right now most of your communication comes out in shrieks. Loud, loud, loud ear piercing shrieks. It drives your daddy crazy! You will say, Uh-Oh, Mama, Dada and Dodo, which means dog. You babble all day long, and you're trying really hard to talk to your brothers. You also make a really funny noise when you get excited. You will suck your breath in really fast and loud, and it makes a squeaking sound. You do this the most when you see Grampy. You really, really love Grampy!

You love to play with your brothers. They are slowly allowing you to do so. Henry is more open at this point to playing with you. He tells you all the time how cute you are, he tries to pick you up and carry you around, and he loves to give you hugs and kisses. David thinks you are so cute, and he introduces you to everyone. He doesn't want you to play with his toys because he thinks you will wreck his train tracks, eat his toys, or "mess up" his stuff. He likes to play with you in your room, cooking in your kitchen and reading you books. You love to do anything with your brothers. They make you laugh a big belly laugh.

You eat all table food now. You have a lot of favorites: crackers, cheese, lasagna, spaghetti, cereal, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, applesauce, mandarin oranges, chicken, bananas, turkey, graham crackers, yogurt, hot dogs, potatoes. . . your list goes on and on. You will try anything. The only things you really don't like so far are green beans and grapes. You had your first cupcake today and you LOVED it!

Daddy and I are so proud of you and what a good boy you are. You are getting so big, and you make our days more fun. You are such a sweet, smiley, happy boy. We couldn't have asked for a better baby to make us be a family of five. Happy Birthday sweet Jack! We love you!

Notable

David got a note sent home from school on Tuesday. It said,

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm having a problem following some preschool rules. (SAD FACE drawn in by his teacher!)

I need help in the following area:
Not to kick and throw tantrums
Not to call friends names (DORK)
Listen to and answer my teacher

Please help me think of some way to have a better day tomorrow, then give me a big understanding hug. I need a helping hand!

OMG, are you freaking kidding me? He called a child a DORK!? And I can't stop giggling about it when I read the note. Over and over again. When SuperNanny ever texted me and said, "David got a note sent home from school today for making poor choices" I almost died. Who gets a note sent home in PRESCHOOL?!

We had a long talk about being disrespectful and not calling our friends names, using words instead of having a meltdown, and listening to the teachers. I'm not sure it did any good, however, because he was very sassy yesterday with his sitter while I was at work and had to spend some time alone in his room. We'll see how school goes today. . . it better be a more pleasant day for him!

I made him write a note to his teachers apologizing for his poor behavior. He was very mad about it. He had so many excuses about why he couldn't do it. His hand hurt, his pencil broke, he wanted a marker, his paper was dirty, his seat had crumbs, he couldn't remember how to spell his name, he made a mistake on the paper and needed a new one, he was thirsty, he had to pee. . . He is SO my child. That is exactly what I would have done. If someone told me a portion of my brain had been removed, regenerated and implanted in him I would not question it, as he is an exact carbon copy of me as a child. Parenting David has given me a whole new respect for my parents. I think he needs more individual attention than he's been getting. That's not always easy with three children under 5 years old and two parents who work full-time, but it has to be a priority for us. He's obviously wanting more attention and getting the kind I don't want to be giving him.

But the note did crack me up, and it's going straight into his scrapbook!

Tuesday Twelve

1. How is that face going to be a year old in less than a week?!

2. We are drowning in toys. It's making me crazy.

3. I told the boys yesterday that we were going to go through their toys and pick some to give to boys who don't have any. This has been a non-issue in the past. Notsomuch yesterday.

4. David said, "I DON'T WANT TO! THOSE TOYS ARE ALL MINE!" What a generous child, no?

5. Henry said, as he got up and started walking toward his bedroom, "OK Mama. I fink dat's a great idea. Do you fink 10 toys for da udder boys is enough?" He is so sweet.

6. Chris will be going through their toys while they are at school!

7. I'm signing up for Weight Watchers today. Again. I seriously cannot lose weight and keep it off unless I go to those meetings.

8. Chris (and the rest of the plant) have been working four days for a long while. Now it's "indefinite". That's fine -- I would rather know than have it be a day to day decision. However, working six hours, four days a week? Not cool. Good thing I got a job, because 24 hours a week is part-time and not really feasible for a family of five as the only source of income.

9. Had you told me a year ago that at this point I would be the major income earner in our family, I would have laughed in your face.

10. We had dinner on Saturday night with HotDog Combo and Small Popcorn and her family. We had so much fun.

11. Every time we do that, we say we need to do it more often. We really, really need to!

12. Jack likes to carry this baby around with him, then sit on the floor and hug it. He says, "Awwwwwww" when he hugs it, then he jams this bottle somewhere around it's mouth to feed it. It. is. adorable.

I Did It!

I'm officially a big girl - I changed my own blog. I have no idea why it worked this time and not the umpteen times I've tried before, but I DID IT!

Spiderman

While I admire David's ingenuity and desire to do things himself, this method of reaching things on the top shelf would not have been my first choice.

Resolutions

While I love the idea of resolutions, I am notsogreat at following them. That said, some things we're going to work on as a family this year are:

1. Eating better. We need to create better eating habits for our children, and ourselves.
2. Sticking more closely to our budget. This is rapidly becoming a matter of necessity, not just a "would like to do" since Chris is working only roughly 24 hours a week.
3. Maintain our organizational systems. I'm a very organized person, but it needs to be maintained by our whole family on a regular basis, not just when things get cluttery and drive Chris and me insane.
4. Be more patient. This is an ongoing life skill for us.

That should be plenty for us to do this year.

HELP!

I am the only moron who can't switch my blog layout to something else if it's not a blogger provided template. HELP! Everytime I try, I get some stupid error message. Who can help me with this?! (Read: I give you my password and you do it for me.) I am sick of my blog being lame!

Vacation Recap

OK, where did I leave off? After Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center, I think we spent the next day hanging out at our resort. We went to the Island Pool, where the boys played on the "beach". They loved it. We went back to Downtown Disney which was, by far, their favorite place to go. Henry loved this Santa made out of Legos.

We also went to Ponce Inlet, to the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. It's Florida's tallest lighthouse, and the boys loved it. We all did. It's 203 steps to the top, and David and Henry climbed up and down all by themselves. They did a GREAT job. It was a LOT of stairs! I think this picture is a pretty accurate representation of what I looked like when we got to the top! ETA: Chris carried Jack up all of the stairs! I kept offering to take him, mostly because I was afraid Chris would have a heart attack and drop him and then who do you run to - your husband or baby? But he carried him the whole way. With no heart palpitatoins, I might add.

The next day we went to Ikea. Henry was all about the play area, and David wouldn't go. He begged the entire time for the European version of the Snuggie sold at Ikea. You know, because his "hands always get trapped inside my Gigi blanket". WTH? This child is obsessed with the most obscure products. I finally convinced him that he didn't NEEDASNUGGIERIGHTNOW because they didn't have the Ikea version in red. Thank the LAWD!

Our trip was great, and we had a lot of fun. It's always nice to come home though!

Miss Me?

I'm still here. We got back from vacation on Sunday evening. I spent Monday unpacking, doing laundry, getting things organized for the week, and we picked up my new car. It's very fun, and I feel much cuter and cooler driving the new car than I do the minivan!!

I have lots to blog about - the rest of our trip, Christmas, and New Year's resolutions. I promise it's coming soon!

Five for Friday

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a fun New Year's Eve! Ours, as you can imagine with three children, was rockin'. We were all in bed well before midnight.

Yesterday we went to Cocoa Beach so we could go to the ocean. We packed our lunch and went to a really nice park. I was amazed at how clean the public restroom was! We ate lunch and the boys played on the playground for a while, then we ventured to the beach. What kind of moron doesn't bring bathing suits for small children to the beach? This one. It was only like 70 degrees out, so I didn't really think they would go into the water. WRONG. If you were at Cocoa Beach yesterday, my children were the white trash looking children splashing in the water. In their underpants. The water was frigid, but they didn't care.

After the beach, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. It was really cool, but completely reaffirmed our decision to not go to any of the parks. David and Henry enjoyed it, but were FAR too spastic to allow us to enjoy anything. They were also exhausted by the time we left, and there's no way we would get anything close to our money's worth at one of the Disney parks.

By far, the boys' favorite things to do so far while we've been here have been the beach (whether the real beach or the pretend beach at our resort), riding in the boat shuttle at our resort, and going to the playground. All FREE! I am enjoying that, because I know the next time we're here on vacation that will not be the case. Henry keeps asking, several times a day, when we're "going to our home". I do not think he'll be the world traveller in our family!

Today I think we'll hit the pool and the "beach" at our hotel. Have a great day, and Happy New Year! (A post on my resolutions is to come once our vacation is complete!)