Bad Mommy! Bad Mommy!

You know you need to give your infant a bath when she's got dried spit-up in the creases of her neck. I'll spare you the pictures!

Cute Claire Bear

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had been taking some pictures of Claire before unhappiness ruled the living room. Here's an image of Claire discovering for the first time that she has a hand.




What would a post about Claire be without an obligatory shot of her just being cute and smiley?



I think Jack likes the butterfly gym almost as much as Claire does (thanks Brad Wofford!). He sure does love laying next to her on it and talking to her. Here is Jack and Claire, sharing butterfly gym time.

Caught Red Handed

It's not often that I have my camera in-hand when something erupts in our house. Yes, I said erupts.

I was taking pictures of Claire when a scuffle broke out between the boys. Cade had built a building out of megabloks, and of course, Jack came around to make sure that it didn't stay in one piece. So in typical brotherly fashion, Cade starts screaming, crying, and hitting, all at the same time. Jack starts smiling and giggling (not sure if he's just sadistic or if he doesn't catch on when someone is upset), which makes Cade even more upset.


Here is the building, pre-Jack:




Here's Cade realizing that Jack has just put his finishing touch on Cade's building (note Jack's smile):



Here's Cade making sure that I know how awful and bad his brother is. Jack is now realizing that something must be wrong:

Jack's Crush

"School" is going well for both of the boys. They enjoy mothers-day-out almost as much as I do. This year, Cade is doing my work in his class. They do things like work on their upper- and lower-case letters. Unfortunately, we've received reports from his teacher, Mrs Lynette, that he tends to complain when it's time to do his work. "Why do we have to do work?" "Why are we doing this?" It's time that boy learns that life is mostly work, some play!

As for Jack, the hardest work they do in his class is learning about their 5 senses. But Jack loves it. Whenever we pass his school, he gets a big smile on his face, points, and says, 'school.' That brief statement of the obvious is then usually followed by "Kacie."

Mrs Kacie is Jack's teacher, and I'm pretty sure he's in love with her. He just adores his teacher! Always grins when he mentions her name. And she just loves Jack! She always comments on what a great boy he is in her class. She's also commented on what a great helper Jack is when it's time to clean up the room. I then asked her, 'Jack who?"

Happy Birthday Nemo

No pics today. Sorry.

But I do have a funny anecdote for ya. Jack seems to be really into music and loves for us to sing songs to him. For some reason, he has become very attached to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." So we'll sing it to him. Then Jack will try and sing it. But this is what he sings:

Twinkle twinkle star
Happy birthday, Nemo!
Happy birthday, Nemo!

All In The Family

Apologies for not updating in a whole week. Life has been busy! Scott went out of town at the last minute to help out Driver's Edge, and my mom came in to help me with the kidlets!

It looks like the boys got the band back together... and were practicing in the office. Cade's on lead vocals and guitar (more specifically, the ukulele), and Jack has keyboard, just like his PawPaw (on a side note, PawPaw used to play for Sonny & Cher back in the day. He even appeared one time on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson! And he was on one of their albums).








I also caught this on camera... looked like something that would have happened at an 80's hair band concert. Smash the guitar, dude! (he wasn't really going to smash it... probably just thought Jack was going to take it and so he lifted it up out of Jack's reach)

A Long Few Days

It's been an exhausting couple of days: we're still trying to get over being sick, the kids have been running me ragged, etc. And then there was last night. After a very long day of being with the kids (and not wanting to go anywhere because it was raining), I started cooking dinner. Everything was finished, and I went to put on the mozzarella cheese. Boy, that cheese was stanky. Yes, stanky. Not just stinky. Stanky. But I couldn't see any mold. I looked and looked, but everything looked normal. I took it to Scott and had him take a whiff. He scrunched up his nose and agreed that it was stanky. But since there was no mold in sight, and because we were several weeks away from the expiration date on the package, I decided to use it. I mean, hey. It was going in the oven, so any bad germs would be killed right?

Well, the germs may have been killed, but the stank wasn't. Soon, the house started smelling like rotten cheese. When the dinner was done in the oven, I took it out and tasted a small bite with the cheese on it. Now, I'm not sure if it was my bias or my imagination, but now I had stank taste in my mouth. So, near tears, I looked at Scott and shook my head. Time for Plan B. Which ended up being Chick Fil A. Yummy! Scott started loading up the boys in the van. I eventually made it out there with Claire, only to find the van not on, Cade in the driver's seat, Jack wandering around the garage, and Scott with his head under the hood. Not a good sign.

Turns out that one of the kids had switched the interior lights on in the van and that had drained the battery. So now it's after 7pm, we are all starving, the house smells like stank, and our van won't start (and we can't fit all 3 car seats in the back of Scott's Accord). We eventually ended up with a way-too-expensive delivered pizza. But at least the natives were satisfied.

Here are some random pics from the last few days:


Daddy's shoes are too big to fill!

Cade's version of a smile. I remember doing this as a child. And I could never understand what my Mom meant when she said I was giving her a "fake smile". My teeth were showing, right? My mouth had an upturn to it, right? Isn't that a smile? Now my Mom's words are echoing out of my mouth...

Jack is such a lover. He is so affectionate and touchy feely. I had laid Claire on the floor, and Jack cuddled up next to her. He was initially patting her side, then he just laid next to her for several minutes. So sweet!








Claire is such a cutie!






The very first Easter basket that Cade ever had was given to him by Nikki "Kiki" Drago. It's a plush dump truck, and has now morphed into a hat.





Of course anything this silly gets Jack all riled up. He charges Cade and then it turns into a wrestling match. It usually ends up in hysterical tears. But hey. It's good for a few pictures before it gets ugly.

I Love a Project

I am a home improvement project junkie. During my 7th month of pregnancy, I was in the garage, hanging slatwall (OK, so it was part nesting. But I was thoroughly enjoying myself!) I have visions for every room in our house. Visions for the front yard. Visions for the back yard. Visions for the upstairs. What, you say? We don't have an upstairs in our house? Not yet, my friend.

Since we moved into our house, the shelf that was in laundry room was always too high for me. To reach the detergent and fabric softener, I have to stand on my tip-toes and turn sideways and reeeeeaaaaaach. Forget about getting one of the rag towels that are stacked on the shelf. If I grab at one of the towels, they all fall on my head. Not great when there's a clean-up on aisle 5 needed. So I decided to take down that shelf and install some wire shelving. Starting much lower on the wall. This world was just not made for short people!

This should have been a simple project. Just put up some wall clips, screw in some wall brackets, drop in the shelves, and ta-da... new shelving. But I have a way of making projects more difficult, more intricate, more work. I decided to also paint the laundry room.

I actually managed to get all this done Labor Day weekend, thanks to my wonderful husband who helped watch the kids while I did the tango with the ladder in the tight quarters in our laundry room. I am so thrilled with the results.




At a future point (maybe next weekend?!?) we/I will put two more shelves up above the doorways; but these shelves will go all the way around the room. Storage galore! I'm giddy with excitement.

Cough, Cough, Sniff, Sniff

Two weeks ago, Scott came down with bronchitis. Last week, I developed a bacterial infection in my chest. And now Jack is the latest lucky one of us to be stricken with yuckyness. He's coughing and has a 101+ degree fever. I hate seeing our kids sick!

Pump it Up Jr

We went to Joshua Patton's birthday party Monday evening at this great place called Pump It Up Jr. It's got several smallish bounce house things to jump on, but it's made specifically for kids aged 6 and under. We weren't sure if our boys would enjoy the bounce houses; Cade is what we call an extremely cautious kid. And Jack, just having starting walking 4 months ago, isn't fond of being off-balance. But they had a blast!

There was a big slide that Cade went down over and over again! Each time he had the biggest smile on his face. I was overjoyed to watch him have so much fun like other kids.



There was a low bounce house thingy that was great for little guys like Jack. It had little tunnels to crawl through and a small slide to go down.





But soon Jack wanted to be one of the big boys, and he had Scott help him up the big stairs so that he could go on the big slide. He slid down several times all by himself, also with a HUGE smile plastered on his face!




After all that climbing, bouncing, running, giggling, sliding, and overall having fun, Jack was pooped.




But if there's pizza in the vicinity, he pops back to life.



Another sight we did not expect to see: Cade wearing a mask! The birthday party was monkey themed, and each person was given a monkey mask. Scott and I were astonished when we looked in Cade's direction and he was busily making monkey noises while wearing his mask. If you know Cade much, you know that he does NOT wear hats. He does NOT wear sunglasses. He does NOT wear masks. He does not do anything or wear anything that he thinks will impede his vision. Well, at least he used to worry about that. Not anymore!



Seems that OT therapy we did with Cade for his sensory issues has produced some great results!

Dodurt

We have finally managed to teach Jack to pronounce "yogurt" correctly. For the longest time, it's been "doe dirt".

We haven't, however, managed to get Jack to eat his yogurt without making a complete mess. Courtesy of breakfast this morning, we see Jack enjoying his daily dairy goodness.

Miss Claire is 2 Months Old

Little Miss Claire Bear is 2 months old, and this morning, after dropping the boys off for their first day of school, I took her to her pediatrician for her 2 month checkup and vaccination torture. I am happy to report that she is 24" long (95th percentile) and 11 pounds 6 ounces (70th percentile). Not bad for a kid that couldn't keep food down for two weeks! It's fair to say that she has caught up very well!

She also had to get 5 vaccinations this morning. Yes, 5. And oh boy. She wasn't happy.

When we got home, I took some cute pictures of her. Enjoy!

School is Here!

Hallelujah!

School has started! The boys are going to a mothers-day-out program at the church where Cade has been going for the past two years. And now Jack gets to join his big brother! Scott mercifully helped get the boys through breakfast this morning while I fed Claire. We successfully got dressed (I did have to threaten Cade that I would bring him to school wearing no shirt and his pajama pants if he didn't listen and finish getting dressed).

Here's the ride to school (I was stopped at a light, lest you think I'm that bad of a driver!)




We arrived! Here are Cade & Jack with their snazzy new backpacks and "running" shoes as Cade calls them. The boys and I were so excited!

Is there a flood?

For some reason only known to the younger set, it's quite hilarious around our house to pull up your shorts and run around. Cade & Jack do this quite often: giggle, hike up their shorts, and run circles around the kitchen/living room. I didn't catch Cade doing it the other day, but I did snap Jack in mid-hike.

A Day in the Weekend Life of...

our young family:

Cade on the couch watching a show.

Jack mesmerized by aforementioned show.

The show (Blue's Clues).

Scott feeding Claire.

Don't feel bad that your life isn't quite as glamorous and amazing as ours!