Just Another Week

A week full of preschool adventures. Games, planting a garden, learning about snakes and butterflies.

A week full of surprises, like this kid coming down on Sunday night with his innards mapped out and color coded to go along with a chart he created. Because what else is there to do on a Sunday?

A week full of rain. It rained most of last week, and then finished the series of storms with a day of insanity on Monday--hail, thunder, flash floods.

 

A week of adventures. The rain stopped just in time for the 5th grade trip to the barrier islands in SC. Bean has been looking forward to this trip all year and from the sounds of her stories tonight, it lived up to the hype. She had a fantastic time with all the classes and fun--swimming through a mudpit, petting an alligator, holding a snake, catching a sting ray while seining--it was an excellent field trip.

 

 

A week of projects. While Bean was away, the boys and I tackled some woodworking.

Bug helped me make a bench for the garage out of some scraps. He got to sign off a cub scout requirement and I got a place to sit while putting on shoes.

A week of brothers. These two had fun together, but I think they missed their sister.

A week of Earth Day activities. I got to help out the morning that the second grade celebrated with relay races and team games highlighting water and energy conservation.

A week of gorgeous weather. Once the rain ended Monday, the rest of the week was perfect spring weather.

Working Towards Health

It's been awhile since I updated on my Year of Health goals. I actually moved away from my original monthly plan a little bit since starting the Healthy Habits challenge I did in January. That one went so well and I felt like I was really finding a good balance to my life that I found another one for the 8 weeks following.

The second one, Feel Great in 8 (she runs them year round, with a new one starting every month, if you are interested, although the cost did go up since I joined, but I'd still say it's worth it if you need  kick in the pants to get you going), has been a bigger push for me. It has a lot of the same habits to work on, but takes them all a little, or lot, further. Instead of  10 minutes of inspirational reading, this one asked for 20. Instead of 10 minutes of exercise, I had to do 45 minutes a day to get full points.

Once again, the challenge has gone well. It's amazing what a little money on the line and a good spreadsheet to fill out each day will do for my will power. I've planned my weeks to fit in lots of exercise time, spiritual renewal, and healthy eating. I've made sure I found some way to serve each week, have gone to bed early, drunk tons of water, and kept a gratitude journal. And I do feel healthier for it all.

My life is busy, just like anyone else, but I've figured out that finding time to fit all these things in makes me so much happier and everything else still happens. The 7 hours of sleep (or sometimes more when I can swing it) really helps my energy levels, so I can keep going and not slump so bad during the afternoon. And at the end of the day, I've actually see what I've accomplished, which isn't always the case with taking care of kids, cleaning, running errands, and cooking. So many of those things feel like they are undone as fast as they are done. But with my chart, I can mark off each of my habits that day and know I've taken care of myself that day.

The challenge ends this next week and I was debating joining the next one, but have decided to see how I do working on these habits on my own for awhile and looking back to my original monthly plan to see which goals I still need to cover in the next couple months before my Year of Health officially ends.

Spring Break Road Tripping

We decided that it had been too long since we'd been able to hang out with a couple of the families who we met when we first moved to Charlotte who have since moved on to warmer pastures. So, we decided to take off for the second half of the kids' spring break. (And I'll put a disclaimer out right now--I forgot my camera, so pictures ended up being more of an after thought on this trip. I didn't get as many as I'd like, and wasn't able to be picky with which ones I posted. So there's some blurry, some less flattering, and some that are missing altogether.)

 

 First stop, Georgia, where our former neighbors who first introduced us to our neighborhood, now live. It is always good when we can all be in the same place, and this was no exception. Good food, lots of laughter, and F and I even managed an early morning walk for old times sake.

 

And these kids had a great time playing for hours and hours.

 
 
 
They transformed the basement into some sort of animal habitat using every piece of bedding and furniture they could find. Messy as always, but at least they cleaned up after themselves this time. They're growing up.

Peanut spent much of our time there dressed like this. When visiting a house full of girls, dress-up options are a little different than what he's used to. He didn't seem to mind.

Peanut loved having the attention of 4 older girls. Wish they still lived down the street because we would have a bunch of babysitters that Peanut actually likes.  And he wasn't the only one impressed with their piano skills. I love hearing kids play who have been taking lessons for a few years--it motivates me to make my kids practice.

 

After a too short visit, we were off for our second stop--Florida and this fabulous family. And once again, these kids picked right up where they left off and after half a second of awkwardness (we hadn't seen them in 2 years), they were playing away, creating their own economy in the backyard. We had to finally drag them in at 10 p.m. that first night because we figured the neighbors might want to go to sleep at some point.

And the little boys were old enough to actually play together this visit. It was fun to see them together and so fun that the ages of all the kids work so well together.

 

On Friday, they took us to Wakulla Springs-one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world. The park was beautiful. We took a boat tour so we could see some of the wildlife up close. I was really missing my camera at that point. Would have made pictures of the animals a little more exciting if I had a telephoto lens.

 

But I think you can still get the overall effect of the landscape. Of course I had to get a Spanish moss picture. I really wish that it grew a few hundred miles farther north so we could have some of this in our own yard.

If you look closely, you can see the alligator in the center of this pic. We saw 5 during the hour ride. There are usually more, but it was mating season and I guess they all had better things to do than hang out on the river. We also missed the manatees because this is the one stretch of the year that they head downstream for new food sources. We'll have to time our trip better next time, but it was still beautiful out there and we saw a lot of birds as well.

Peanut was really getting into hugs and snuggles this trip. It's a long way from just a few months ago when he wanted nothing to do with anyone who wasn't in his immediate family.

Here's Henry, the pole-vaulting fish. They have these mullet fish that were jumping really high, and they're a big enough fish that they make a good splash coming back down. It was fun to watch them.

 

After the boat ride, we went to the swimming area next to the dock. I'll admit that when K first told us that we could go on a boat to see all the alligators and then swim, I thought that sounded like a pretty bad idea. I was picturing dark murky water where who knows what was lurking right beneath the surface. Even though the tour guide kept joking about the alligators knowing not to come past the ropes, it seems a little crazy to knowingly swim in water where there are gators. But they really aren't that aggressive and with how many people were in the water and all the noise, I'm guessing they wouldn't come near it. They've only had one person killed and he wasn't swimming in the swimming area. And the water was so clear that you could see down to the bottom everywhere in the area, so the kids not only waded around, but eventually decided to put on their suits and swam out to the floating dock. And I squelched my protective mom impulse and let them have fun with the other couple dozen people who were there.

 

After that, we headed to St. Mark's Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge. Our first Florida lighthouse. As you can see, Peanut was completely spent by this point. It actually was a hassle getting him to agree to anything, even riding in the backpack (but he refused to walk anywhere, either).

 

But we did force him to go for a ride while we did a short hike between a little pond and the gulf. We saw another alligator, more birds, and these the kids got their feet wet again.

  

The next day was beach day. We drove over to the Destin area to Seaside, where we had spent Thanksgiving 4.5 years ago. It wasn't looking like a very promising beach trip on the way down--dark skies and drizzle most of the way, rain so hard we could barely see the car in front of us just 15 minutes before we got there. It stopped for a few minutes right as we got there so at least we had enough time to park and get all our stuff to the beach entrance before the rain started again.

Then we hung out on this covered patio overlooking the ocean and ate our lunch (and only felt mildly guilty that we weren't actually buying any food at the restaurant that owned it--we weren't the only ones hiding there with our picnics).

 

When it slowed to a light drizzle, we decided to take the kids down and let them play for a little bit in case that was the best we got.

 

And then, it totally cleared up! We ended up with an absolutely gorgeous afternoon at the beach (and a few spots of sunburn on pretty much everyone because the kids were already so sandy by the time we did sunscreen.)

These kids played so hard--digging, building hot tubs and castles, boogie boarding, swimming. They were in and out of the water for hours.

Peanut was mostly happy to stay in the sand, but he has gotten braver at the beach. He did let the waves come up and get his feet a few times and even his running away seemed a little more playful and a little less I'm-running-for-my-life this time around. Progress. . .

 

We had such a great trip and are so glad that we got to see some good friends. Even the long drive back on Sunday could have been worse. A little Curious George goes a long way with Peanut and we were prepared. Coming home, and having to face all of the every day stuff (laundry piles, cooking, grocery shopping, babysitting extra kids, cleaning sand off of everything) made me wish we could do it again. Today.

 

Picture of a Bedtime

     You know how in movies and t.v. shows, you'll have the scene where the parent comes in to tuck their child into bed? They might read a story or sing them a song, and the little kid gets all sleepy-eyed and drowsy. Then, the parent finishes, the kid is either already asleep, or they ask a quiet question, there's a tender moment, and then the parent kisses them goodnight and walks out of the room.

     I used to think that was what bedtime was actually like. And it looked so enjoyable--a sweet time to connect at the end of the day. Maybe it is for some families, or some kids. But we have three kids and at our house, bedtime has never looked like that.

    Here's a look at a real bedtime:

1. The PJ debacle:
       -inevitably, they want to wear whatever pair of pajamas is in the wash
       -if they do manage to pick something from their drawer, it will be shorts on the coldest night of the year, or their footy pjs when it is supposed to stay in the 70's and the air conditioner is broken.

2. The Book(s) negotiation:
       -how many books is it going to take tonight? "But that book was short so I need another one!" "You can't stop there because I'll have nightmares if I don't know what happens!" "I didn't want that book, I wanted this one!!!"

3. Teeth brushing:
       -Oh, the teeth brushing. Painful beyond belief, until they are old enough to do it themselves, which our dentist believes should happen at a much later age than I tend to want to hand it over. One night, they want to do it themselves, even though they can't. The next, their hands are like jello and they can't hold the tooth brush and drop it onto the floor (and who knows when THAT has last been mopped.) I kind of wish that kids didn't get teeth until they were old enough to take care of them. Like my philosophy on pets and ear piercings.

4. Entering the bed:
       -Now comes the actual going to bed. Two of our children tend to hop into bed and let us pull up the covers pretty quickly. But the other one, it is a whole production. (Does he have Ball, More Ball, and Mr. Murphy (cuddle blankets)? And the current stuffed animals of the week? And then we have to cover him with Big Ball (another blanket), the leopard blanket, and his quilt.)

5. Saying Goodnight:
      -"What song do you want?" Some nights, the two songs are named quickly--that's a good night.
      -Start singing, and quickly be interrupted:
                "Tomorrow, are we going to preschool?"
         Sing another line,  "And you'll come back in one minute?"
         Then another line, "Can you stay here forever?"
         And another, "You didn't sing, 'we're here together'!
         Sing required line (again), "Tomorrow night, Daddy can sing to me"
        FINALLY finish the songs, give kisses, say goodnight, love you, and get a big,
          "Go away, but come back after dishes and stay here forever."

(We only have one who we still sing to, but he makes it feel like three kids.)

6. Trying to leave the room:
         Just when we think it's all over, there's the actual act of getting out of the room, when the child is supposed to be so tired, they can't keep their eyes open, can't say a word, but in reality, we're still getting barraged by questions, "What should I dream about?", "You're not going anywhere? And Daddy is coming home in just a minute? And you'll be right back as soon as you do the dishes and kiss Bug and Bean and make them go to bed?" or the oh-so-vital summary of whatever we've been discussing all through what was supposed to be our wind-down: "Tomorrow we'll get up and take the kids to school and eat breakfast and walk the dog and THEN we'll got to preschool and you'll go work at Panera and then you'll come get me and it will only be a little while, right?"j


Seriously, it's no wonder why I struggle to get anything done in the couple hours after the kids are in bed. I'm so completely exhausted by the getting them to bed that any plans I had earlier in the day of all I will accomplish from 8 to 10 fly out the window. If I really push myself, I might make it back into the kitchen to finish the dishes and make lunches while watching whatever my current Netflix binge is (shout-out for Buffy right now--forgot exactly how awesome that show was). More often, I crawl into my bed with the computer and veg until 10. If I try to read, I usually fall asleep much faster, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, either.

But that sweet dozing child that you get to kiss goodnight as they mumble an "I love you"? I have to sneak back in before I go to bed if I want that.

Our Last Born

What they say about the last born is true. He has stayed a baby longer than the others, we let him get away with things that we didn't let the other two, and we're mostly okay with those things.

He didn't move out of the crib until he was 3 years 8 months.

He didn't go to the church nursery until he was 2 1/2.

He didn't start sleeping through the night until he was 2 1/2, and still wakes up yelling for his Daddy-o to come sleep with him, more nights than not.

He hardly ever wants to walk anywhere if he can get one of us to carry him or catch a ride in the stroller.

He still hasn't gotten out of diapers, a full year after Bean and almost 1 1/2 years after Bug.

But he's always been our little Peanut who does things on his own time table and seems to be in no hurry to grow up. And we let him, because he's the LAST OnE! We are so sad that we don't have a baby in the house anymore, so it's easier to let the things slide that make him still seem young.