Something I am Thankful For

No one in our family has food allergies or restrictions!

Made My Day

I have to admit that I have been a little edgy today. All four of the kids were up by 6:20 this morning! What is up with that?! Cole generally wakes up around 6:40 and crawls into bed with me for the last 10 minutes that I spend there. Then I shower and get ready. The big kids have a radio alarm that starts playing at 7, but don't usually wake up until I go in around 7:15 with my wake-up call. Rachel sometimes gets up with Cole, while I am getting ready, or waits until the big kids get up. Cole was interested in going back to sleep, but everyone else was up, and he didn't want to miss out. I was very interested in going back to sleep myself!
Everyone has shown their tiredness throughout the day, including me. To make matters more interesting, Robbie is a bit under the weather (cold-cough stuff) and school let out at half day today due to icy weather. No one was able to rest quietly this afternoon seemingly due to change in our routine. I am tired. I barely had time to eat lunch while Cole was screaming in his room while he was supposed to be napping. Fights have broken out randomly. Clinginess is at an all time high. Crying is rampant throughout the house.
While trying to get dinner started I sent the kids out of the main living area of our house to go play in the bedroom(s) together. Things sounded like they were going well, and then Robbie came out to announce they were going to do a music parade for me.



What a way to make me smile! Unfortunately after taking the video and starting this post, this have gone south again. Arguments have started again- over instruments this time. Instruments have been used to bonk each other over the head. Instruments have been thrown. I have someone hanging on my leg. Three children have cried. At least there were some smiles for a while. If we are lucky, we will all be stuck at home tomorrow because of continued icy weather . . . maybe people will sleep in!

Enjoy and Stretch your Mind

(I didn't create this. I pulled it from an email forward. Answers are in the comment section. I got five of them right; it helped, of course, to have a few tossed in there covering language concepts!)

This is a quiz for people who know everything! These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?
4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.
7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.'

Kids and Veggies

There are various ideas about getting kids to eat their vegetables. One of the sneaky ways is to hide them in other foods after pureeing (sp?) them. In fact there is a whole book published on different mixtures of veggies based on colors, textures, and tastes and what foods to hide them in including red sauces, casseroles, and even desserts. The name of the book is The Sneaky Chef and there is, of course, mucho info on line where you can learn more and even get some recipes. It is an interesting concept and certainly has good points if it is helping get/keep kids healthy, but it doesn't teach them to be healthy.

I just read an on-line article about kids eating vegetables and, even though it doesn't appear to be super scientific or ground-breaking, I felt like it had some good points. So . . . you can read more about it here for other ideas. I know one thing that I have to remind myself is to serve things to my kids that I don't particularly like (which then I eat too) so they can be exposed to more than just my tastes.

Girls vs. Boys, Part 2

Whoever said that a boy can't (or wouldn't want to) play with a princess castle? Anyone, anyone? As you can see below, a princess castle works great for princesses as well as for a parking garage!

Games

Our older kids received some games for Christmas. I generally enjoy games, so it is always fun for me to see them get gifts like that (also books, coloring/craft items, play-doh - rather than toys which don't seem to get much play time around here). Anyway, they got a few classics that I remember playing at their age like Twister and Sorry. I learned, however, that one of the adults in our house is not a fan of the game Sorry. Sorry!

My favorite of the games they received is a new game called Pictureka! which is kind of a like an "I Spy" book set up like a game with various twists. (I say it is new but as far as I know it may have been around quite a while.) It is advertised for ages 6 and up. Our six year old loves it and is good at it. Our four year old is a bit slower with it, but enjoys the game and has gotten better at it with each time we play. The other grown up in our house and I both enjoy it as well. I would recommend it to others and will probably use it as a gift item for others as well.

The "Secret"

Not that I am the only person to have four children, twins, or even kids fairly close together, but seeing that these characteristics do all apply to me, I am often asked "How do you do it?" I am not exactly sure what the "it" is people are referring to. Maybe they are impressed by how well they all are behaved and just didn't know it was possible to have four such amazing children. Maybe they see that I have showered, dressed in clean clothes, and applied some make-up as well as done something with my hair most mornings. Maybe they ask because my kids are driving them crazy and assume they must be driving me crazy as well. The third hypothesis is the most likely (as anyone who has spent much time with us would second), but anyway, on to the real point of this post and that is the secret to how I do "it".

The answer: Coca-cola and chocolate!

The fact of the matter is I am craving both right now. I have both available in my home but they don't really go along with the fact that I am officially trying to lose the rest of my "baby weight". I figure 33 years is long enough to carry it around. Just kidding . . . Rachel and Cole with be two in less a month (CRAZY!) and I have decided it is time. With cutting down on my soda intake at the beginning of December and trying to actually eat three meals a day instead of snacking during the day and eating dinner at night, I have lost between 7-8 lbs. I feel really good about this, but it doesn't take away my daily -okay, HOURLY- cravings for soda and chocolate.

I was hoping by writing this post, I might be able to take my mind off the cravings and avoid the kitchen for a while. It seems to have helped for now. We'll see how long it lasts!

Day 3

of napping on the sleeping bags went well too! Hurray!

An Experiment Going Well

Cole has been climbing in and out of his bed since he was about 15 months old. Some days/weeks/months he is more interested in doing this than others, but it has now become a regular routine at afternoon rest time and in the morning when he first wakes up.
Anyway, I have been considering moving Cole to a toddler bed for a while now. I know this won't contain him and may even make sleeping at bedtime more difficult (he generally falls asleep within a couple of minutes of laying down each night), but I have been hoping the novelty of a new bed and the fact that I am not trying to contain him would make him feel okay about laying in bed to fall asleep at naptime and HOPEFULLY even in the morning when he first wakes up, although I think this second desire is much less likely to happen.

A couple of things I had to consider were all our travels over the Christmas holidays and decided to wait until we returned so he would be content to sleep in cribs and such on the road. The other thing I have pondered is the idea that Rachel is very content in her crib. From experience with these two though, I know without a doubt that I cannot make a change such as this with just one of them. They are very in tune with what the other one is doing, eating, wearing, anything/everything and making sure things are "fair". I am sure this will be a popular word in their vocabulary once they learn it.

On to the experiment phase . . . yesterday Cole was exhausted but seemed to roaming aimlessly around his room and wouldn't settle in to sleep. Rachel was trying to sleep but Cole's roaming was disrupting her. So, I got out the new sleeping bags they got from Grandma Hunt for Christmas, spread them out on the floor with a pillow and blanket and VOILA! sleep. Cole fell asleep very quickly. Rachel read books for a while, but then konked out. They were both still asleep when it was time to pick Robbie up from school. Again today I stretched out the sleeping bags, and they are snoozing away on them. Rachel again took a little longer as she was checking things (books and drawing pad) out a bit, but always bringing them back to her sleeping bag space.

This is a good sign that the toddler bed transition will go well. In fact, I might even hold off a bit and let them continue napping on the sleeping bags so they can continue to keep to their normal bedtime and sleep routines.

Note- Rachel can climb in and out of her bed as well (she was actually the first one to do it last spring), but chooses not to most of the time. She is happy to let Cole bring her toys and books and remain in restful respose in her bed.

Shopping Nightmare

I took Rachel and Cole to Wal-Mart prior to picking Alexa from school at noon. Now I have had "bad" shopping trips before where I am circling the store because I can't seem to follow my list (or because I left it at home) or I have a hungry child who wants to eat everything in the cart or I have little people with me that are feeling a little too energetic for the confines of the grocery store. All of that pales to my shopping trip today. Poor Cole was so tired from our trips that he just wanted to be held. He is, however, almost 30 lbs. and I had one those huge carts with the double seat for kiddos which are hard enough to push with two hands, let alone one. Therefore, I would not carry him. I did offer him food from the cart which he vehemently declined. This in itself shows how tired he was because he didn't get to 30 lbs because he nibbles at meal time or only eats when he is hungry. My shopping was completed fairly quickly for not having shopped for food for three weeks (I was in line less than 30 minutes after walking into the store), but it was not quick enough for the little man. He started crying within 5-10 minutes from the start and by about 20 minutes was clawing to get out of his harness seatbelt amidst his screams. I only saw one person I knew (there may have been others I knew who saw me as I was trying to stay focused to get done quickly) who gave me a sympathetic nod and I heard a lot of "Someone isn't happy today" - YA THINK?! At the check-out, I let Cole out of the cart after I had put the groceries on the belt. He immediatly stopped crying and put his head on my shoulder with a sigh as if to say, "This is all I needed, Mom." As the clerk worked through our items, I was prepping Cole for the fact he would have to ride in the cart to get out to the van when we were done inside. I think he was hoping that if he ignored me, it wouldn't be true because I got neither his normal wide-eyed, enthusiastic nod nor his eyes narrowed, pouty mouth head shake. When it was time to leave the line, I gently talked to him about the next step and did my best to get him back into the seat which he fought with all his might (and he is one tough kid), so I plopped him into the front seat of the cart. At this point, I could feel many eyes on us as he continued to fight and scream. He kept trying to climb out and several people gasped as he did just that. Remember though, Cole is my climber so I really had no concern about him hurting himself as he climbed because that is just what he does. I was more concerned with him following directions and staying with us in the cart because I knew as soon as he got all the way out he would flop on the floor when he realized that I was not going to carry him. All gentleness left at this point and I could feel the concerned glances becoming more condemning stares. No worries on my part though because I was just doing what needed to be done. I did hold Cole at the van as I unloaded groceries into that back and he did fine getting into his carseat to leave. I guess all things considered, I shouldn't call this a shopping nightmare because Rachel was an absolute gem (I could have been dealing with both of them the entire time) and I only forgot one non-essential item and we got to school to pick up Alexa on time.