June

I give up. I guess this new level of busyness is just the new normal, and I need to get used to it. But it just feels like spare moments are few and far between, with 4 kids at home, 2 of whom do not nap. This week and last week we've had swim lessons every evening for Katy and David, so one parent is heading to the pool and the other parent staying home with the littles. The lessons are going really well for both of them, and I'm glad that they have them because we haven't been doing anything during the days, but Brian and I feel so behind on life because we're tag-teaming every evening. Oh, well!

There have also been a few bumps in the road. A couple of weeks ago, there was a fire at our rental property. Thank the good Lord that it happened during the day, and that the tenants on the other side were home and noticed quickly to call 911. Our tenant on that side had left a pot of beans on the stove and left to go to a movie (honest mistake). The only damage was that the fire department had to break down the door to get in. So Brian was at the rental late for two evenings cleaning up and replacing the door and updating smoke detectors.

Then my Granny had a fall at a restaurant while my mom and Greg were taking them out for Father's Day. She fractured her neck and wrecked her nose and all kinds of other (relatively minor) injuries. She was in the hospital for several days and now is home with a neck brace that makes it hard to do anything. So I've been concerned for my Granny, and my family has been busy helping her get settled again.

Melanie moved out and we rearranged some bedrooms (pictures soon - I'm waiting on a curtain in the mail before I can take a final "after" shot). It is SO nice to move Anna out of our room, and she has adjusted just fine to being in a crib. So far we've still seen Melanie quite a bit, and I'm really glad.

So we're chugging along at home - the kids are doing well at keeping busy. Katy's motivated by summer reading programs and it's so nice that she can track her own minutes. David and I have been practicing writing letters for kindergarten. The one piece of disappointing news is that Katy's kindergarten teacher, who we loved, moved to another building. So I don't know who David will have and I have no idea whether we will be AM or PM.

Luke had a great birthday on Sunday (see below). The poor kid - I threw his birthday together just a few days before because we've just been so crazy I haven't had a chance to plan anything. But you know what's great about being 3? You don't know the difference between a well planned party and one that was thrown together at the last minute. He still had a great day.

Some photos from the past few weeks...

Following the traffic signals in Safety Town. A small part of what they teach in Safety City.

Grandpa and Grandma Sue came for Safety City graduation. It's a very well organized musical performance and ceremony. It was also Aunt Mel's moving day!

Just a picture of everyday life...these two spend SO much of their time in some imaginary land of monster trucks, vehicles of various kinds, superheros and the like. It is such a relief for them to play together so much of the time (with occasional bickering instead of constant fighting).

Katy figured out that if she sleeps in french braids, especially damp ones, she will have curly hair in the morning. She is loving the new looks and wearing it often. (I have to admit that I like it, too, and I'm thinking - why didn't I discover this in the 80's? I would've slept in braids every night! Maybe my hair didn't hold the curl as well.)

Brian hung up these decorations on Luke's birthday- I had found them in a bag while I was sorting through stuff in preparation for a garage sale. (My mom, sister, and I are joining forces - we should have a TON of stuff for sale).

Luke was really excited about his Avengers cake! This was Brian's idea - he spotted the figurines at the dollar store - DONE!

Oh, to be the third child, he never gets to do anything by himself.

So Luke's gift from Grammy and Papa John was a trip to Build-a-Bear. We also stopped on the way home at a pet store that encourages socialization of all the pets for sale - so you are allowed and encouraged to pet all the animals. We walked in the door and they literally shoved a puppy into my hands and pointed to a playroom. The kids were in high heaven. But back to Build-a-Bear,

This child was an angel - she just sat in her seat and smiled at us for the entire 3 hour journey.

It's the stuff of wedding slideshows, people. This is my son's selection, from all the available animals. Rainbow Dash, from My Little Pony, with FOUR black Sketchers and roller skates. He's seen the MLP show quite a bit lately, and he likes it. He was adamant about picking this animal. And he did not understand at first why we were giving him the empty one instead of the one that was already stuffed (insert 3 year old tantrum here). But once he caught on, there was no question that he wanted the shoes and the skates. They were the clear winners. Oh, Luke. You certainly have a mind of your own.

Oh, Lukey Loo! How I love you so! Even though I didn't write a big letter this year, you are such a passionate little kiddo, petite only in stature, confident about what you want, and willing to go to great lengths to get it. You make us all laugh on a daily basis, and I'm so proud to be your mommy!

Summer

We're in full force summer mode, even though the thermometer hasn't touched the mid-80's more than once or twice. We're getting into somewhat of a routine and figuring out what summer looks like for our family. The hard part is that with this many young children, especially with the baby and toddler, it's really difficult to go places. I cannot/will not take them to the pool, the zoo, the museum, etc, by myself. It's plain ol' not safe at this point. So we are planning a few things for evenings and weekends when Daddy's here to help. And the big kids have a few drop-off programs that they will be doing (like VBS and Girl Scout camp). But we're spending a lot of time at home, and inviting a lot of friends over to play at our house, where the baby can nap and I have all the supplies that I need for endless snacks and potty accidents and the like.

Both of the boys are making new strides on their bikes, as seen in videos above. Luke just took off on David's old bike and I can't believe it! He just needs a little help turning around but he's doing great. And David's cautiously working on learning to ride without training wheels. It's a process. By next summer, if David and Katy are both on 2 wheels, I could put Luke and Anna in the trailer and we'd be more mobile to parks that are close by, etc.

Brian went on a four day trip to help his good friend Joey move from Texas to Florida. I know I am totally spoiled that he doesn't travel much, and I even had my mom and sister close by to help with a few things. But it was still hard! As cliche as it sounds, I don't know how single parents or parents with spouses who travel do it. Really tough.

Melanie is moving out on Friday. I am really going to miss having her around, both for her company and for her assistance with the littles. But she's moving in with friends and is ready to have a little of her own life again. And we will be able to move our 5 month old out of the pack n' play in our room and into a crib! In her own room! And stop waking her up by accident when we need to take a shower or change clothes or get something out of the closet, etc.

This week and last, Katy and David have had some morning programs to keep them busy. David is doing Safety City, which is a fabulous program put on by our local police department. I am amazed at how well it is run. And they learn SO much. David absolutely loves it. He was so proud of himself for earning his junior officer badge for reciting his address and phone number. And he loves riding the bikes around the pretend city, following traffic signals.

Katy did a geocaching class that she loved. I still don't completely understand it, but it was an outdoor treasure hunt and they even learned historic facts and landmarks around our town, so it was perfectly up her alley. She enjoyed it so much that she had no hesitation about going each day, which was great.

We're supposed to start evening swim lessons next week but we haven't set foot in the pool because it's been so chilly! I'm hoping for a heatwave over the weekend? Not looking likely...

Anna's rolling over consistently. We call her Sneakypants, because the first several times, we just laid her down on her back, turned around and she was on her tummy - no one saw her do it. But now we have eye-witness proof that she's got it down. She's still a great sleeper, knock on wood, waking up once most nights and sometimes even sleeping through. I know this could change, but I'll take it for now!

My dad crashed at our house one night between a graduation party and a meeting for drill (he serves in the Ohio National Guard). He was here in the morning long enough to see the kids show them their new foot racing skills on the front sidewalk, motivated by the new sneakers they all got over the weekend.  This is what we look like at 9 in the morning:

They had the Spiderman costumes on so early that Dad asked if they slept in them (they didn't).

Everyday stuff

About a gazillion times a day, I think, "Oh, I wish I could write that down/take a picture of that/take a video of that so I could remember it forever." Because these are precious times, as we are often reminded when others face tragedy. So while I have a few minutes, I'll capture a little bit of everyday life these days.

Luke has really changed recently as he approaches 3 years old. His language has developed and he can actually argue and tell you explicitly why he is throwing a fit. He's a passionate kid, that's for sure. He loves his siblings fiercely, but unfortunately the way he communicates can be frustrating to them: whatever they are doing - he wants to do it. Just. like. them. If one of them brings home a new stuffed animal? He has a meltdown until he can have a turn with it, then he begs to sleep with it/eat dinner with it/play games with it/take it in the car/take it in the stroller, etc. And the whole time the birthday kid (or the preschool student who got the animal as part of a class project) is fighting and crying because Luke won't take turns with THEIR animal. It goes on for days usually until the owner gives up and moves on. Then Luke moves on, too...to whatever is their next interest. I understand that this is the biggest demonstration of love and is completely age appropriate.

Lukey Loo also:
- love his friends Landon, Frank, and Maggie
- loves his grandparents (although he gets all of their names mixed up)
- refers to a smaller version of anything as "The Lukey Loo" (i.e. the half gallon of milk is the Lukey Loo milk while the gallon is the Mommy milk.)
- still fluctuates between completely potty trained one day to constant accidents the next.
- gives Anna random kisses as he runs by at full speed, stopping to insert her paci if she is fussing.
- loves watching the 1960's Spiderman cartoons on Netflix.
- everytime we sit down to eat, he says, "Hey Mommy, guess what? I went to Katy's school today!" He started saying this after we were all talking about our days at the dinner table. Now he says it so frequently that Brian teases him by saying, "Lukey guess what? I went to Katy's school today!"


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David is sweet, wild, and so proud of his accomplishments. Teachers from the elementary school came to do a home visit because he is entering kindergarten. They brought some early reader books, the most basic level, and sat down with David to read them. To my surprise, he was able to read them! He was SO proud of himself - reading those books over and over to anyone who would listen over the next several days. Recently he's also been proud of learning to pump his legs on the swing and follow instructions to put together Lego sets.

He also gets so excited about things and does them passionately for several days. Currently he's on a watch kick. He's wearing his watch 24 hours a day, constantly reporting to me what time it is, checking to make sure that it matches the other clocks in the house, etc. We watched the Kentucky Derby this year, and when it was over both boys disappeared into the playroom. Brian said, "Watch, they are going in there to get play horses so they can play horse race." Bingo.

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I think Anna might be my best smiler baby. Every time you look at her, she smiles. And lately she has started laughing to, especially when she's tickled or when someone else laughs.  I also think (knock on some wood, will ya?) that she's been overall my best sleeper (after a rough start the first couple of weeks). The others have all had major setbacks in sleeping when they had to be taken out of their swaddlers. But she? First night out of it, she slept straight through, and she still isn't rolling over, so that's sleeping on her back! God bless that little thumb of hers - such a great comforting tool. I LOVE my finger-sucking children! So at this point, she's going to bed sometime between 7 and 9pm (I wish it were more consistent, but it varies based on naps) and getting up one time to eat most nights. But I can rock her for a few minutes and lay her down awake and she goes to sleep without crying (I really can't leave the other 3 kids unattended to rock her for 20 minutes anyway). Naps are all over the place, but I know that's normal for her age. Usually there's one long one in her crib at some point during the day.

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I asked Katy if she wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday, and I could tell she really wanted to, but she was afraid of the pain.  On her birthday, she opened a box of earrings from us and looked confused. I said, "Have you ever heard of clip-on earrings?" She was beaming. My favorites are these little cherries. I totally had a pair of cherry earrings when I was little.

First grade has brought with it so many "big girl" types of things. She got exposed to Taylor Swift during the school talent show and came home and borrowed the CD from Aunt Mel. At first I cringed at the thought, but then after listening together for awhile, I can jam with Taylor. She's not a bad first exposure to pop culture. Even the boys know the words to some of the songs.

I've also been so pleased at how she has made some really nice friends through school, several of whom live close by. I remember being disappointed at the beginning of the year that all the kids/families that we knew from last year seemed to be in different classes. But I didn't realize that 2 really nice families had moved in over the summer and another one with TWIN girls lived right around the corner and I never knew it. Now...the challenge is that Katy desperately wants to play with friends pretty much every hour of every day. She begs and begs me to set up playdates. And I do, but setting up one or two a week is about as much as I can handle. That leave 5-6 other days that she's begging and crying and begging for playmates. It would be ideal if some of these girls lived across the street or in the backyard so that she could just run and knock on their door to see if they want to come out. But we don't have that. We've had a lot of conversations about deciding to be happy on days when we can't have friends over. Deciding not to base your happiness on whether you have playmates. We've made lists of all the fun things you can do without a friend. I'm a little worried about long summer hours ahead. But I'm hoping she'll get better with practice? I really think this is the way she's wired, though. I try to make it a priority to sit down and play games with her, but those other 3 kids require constant attention, too... lately I have noticed that she is really upset for awhile, but then she rallies and figures out something to do. So let's hope she can hone that skill this summer.

I'm proud of how she came through this one. She's gotten into reading chapter books at bedtime. I keep telling her that she is always welcome to read if she ever can't find something to do. She also kept saying that everyone (exaggeration) has some kind of device (iPod touch, Kindle fire, DS, etc.) and she reeeealllly wanted one for her birthday. I reeeaaaallly didn't want to give her some kind of gaming device that would just cause more battles for screen time, etc etc. Then Opa asked about giving her a Nook Simple eReader. It's just an eReader - no games, no apps, no access to the internet (and you can get books from the library). Just for reading books, but it's a device. She and I talked about how reading is healthy and playing too many video games isn't healthy for your mind. I told her that there were eReaders that were just for reading books. Two days before her birthday, she said, "I decided that I don't want a device with games on it because it isn't healthy for my brain. When I go to so and so's house, they play games for a really long time." Oma and Opa gave her a Nook Simple, and she's thrilled with it.  I know we'll be revisiting the electronics thing over and over and over again through the years, but I'm happy with the way this one played out for now.

This got long...especially all the big girl issues. Those are the ones I'm working through for the first time so it takes a lot of my brain space. Thanks for reading...