Bday pics

We took Ben to Kiddie Kandids this past weekend for his birthday pictures. He was not comfortable with the photographer, so we didnt get his big smile. Drats. But I think they turned out alright considering.

Kylie has a 2 week spring break and I am ready to send her back after the first week. Not that she is a problem- I really love having her around. She is so helpful and fun. The problem is with her and Tyler in close proximity to each other all day long every day. They are either best friends or worst enemies. So the fighting is really bugging me. They argue over the silliest stuff and then they come and tattle on each other. Last week they were trying to one up each other over the things they can do. For example- Kylie is obviously a better reader-(obviously since she is in 1st grade, and Ty is still in preschool-) but she like to point it out to Ty in the na-na-a-boo-boo fashion. Tyler likes to retort back with "oh yeah- well I am a kung fu jedi master in training so I know more than you." And then Kylie will say something like- " well you should take listening lessons cuz you dont know how to listen!" And this continues on and on even after they have a zillion time outs and even more talking to's. So yeah- I am ready for spring break to be done with.

Ben-jamin

Ben-jamin, originally uploaded by kimmusjax.

One year ago my Bennie boy joined our family. I remember the day well. With the other 3 I went to the hospital in labor. This time I was induced. How strange it felt driving to the hospital without having any contractions.
I remember being worried. About 6 weeks before I was induced the Dr. was concerned that my baby wasnt growing. They did an ultrasound and checked him out, and while he looked good, he was smaller than they thought he should be. So they brought me in 2 weeks later and checked him again. He still wasnt growing, so they decided they needed to keep a closer eye on this boy. That meant I got to go to the dr office at least 3 times each week. So much fun. Thank heavens for my dear friend Bree who watched Toast and James for me all those times.
Each week I would have 3 NSt's and two ultrasounds. My Dr told me they would induce me if there wasnt a significant change. But then he went out of town. So I had to see a different Dr for my weekly checkup. Now this guy had no clue as to what was up. He didnt even bother looking through my file before coming in to measure me. And then he measured me several times over as if hoping to get a different result. He tells me that since I was measuring only 34 weeks-(at which point I was 39 weeks) I must only be that far along. So he tells me to come back in 2 weeks. While he was measuring I tried filling him in on what was going on, but apparently he didnt care. I was so upset with that visit. So when I went to check-out the receptionist looked at the Dr notes, looked at me, looked back at the notes and then gave me a puzzled look. I think that was the only thing that made me smile that day. She knew more about me than the dr did.

Anyway- throughout all the tests and visits, Ben wasnt growing, but because his heartrate was good, the fluid levels were good, and his head and body had the right proportions to each other, my Dr decided to let me go to my due date before inducing me. So on the way to the hospital I just kept worrying if Ben was really ok. Daniel gave me a blessing before we went in, and that calmed my nerves, and then the fun started.
The first dr on call at the time was from my drs office but we hadnt met. I was worried about someone else taking care of me due to the visit I had with the other dr the previous week, but she was so great and took the time to look over my chart, and even had some playful banter with Daniel after he passed out.(another delightful memory- Daniel passed out when I got my epidural- I will never let him live that one down. I mean I was the one having a giant needle stuck into my vertebrae and yet he is the one who passed out. good times, good times)
Anyway the dr had the labor inducing drug set at a really low level, so we were there for a while. Then her shift was over and my dr was on call, so he pumped up the drugs, and an hour and a half later my Bennie boy was born.
He weighed in at 6 lbs 5 oz. So with all the hooplah and worry of him not growing, he turned out to be perfect. Heck he was much bigger than Kylie was when she was born and she didnt have any of the drama we had with Ben.
Anyway I am just so grateful that my Ben was and is healthy. I am grateful that he came to our family. I am thankful for the added love he has brought into our home. Like I put in the previous post, he is the snugglebug in the family. The first thing he does when he wakes up every morning is snuggle himself in to Daniel or I, and I just cant get enough. Just the other night we were talking about his name and thought it was very fitting that his middle name is Ray-which we did to honor my Grandpa Lamoreaux, but it is fitting because he is our little ray of sunshine each day. I know that sounds kind a sissy- but he really does light up our lives by his sweet and warm little personality.
Happy Birthday my Bennie-boo. Oh how we love you!!!

Walks

Yesterday evening we decided to get out of the house a take a little walk around the block. What we noticed after walking outside was that it was really windy, and therefore my kids thought it wasnt "fun." I still enjoyed it though.

While we were walking I noticed how the way my kids walk says a lot about their personalities.

Kylie doesnt like to walk. She runs. Way ahead of everyone. And thats just my Kylie- she takes off. She does that in her learning- she catches on to things really quickly. She also does that in her chores. She just dives in and gets it done. No sense in dilly-dallying.

Toast is just the opposite. He gets so upset that everyone else doesnt take their time. He likes slow and steady. And thats just Toast. He sets his own pace. If I try to prod him along he just stops. This is how he is with his chores. This is how he is with his learning. He just has to do it his way.

James does this funny stomp run and he does it with a huge smile on his face. The stomp I think says a lot about his all boy nature. This kid is no sissy. He is by far the toughest kid of ours. When he bonks or falls or gets hurt in some way, he says "ow" has me kiss it better and goes back to destroy something. The other 3 cry and holler and carry on forever. And he is always laughing at something. He is the ham in the family.

Now Ben didnt walk on our walk, but was carried on his dads shoulders. But as soon as he was up on top of the world, he just snuggled himself right into his dad. Bennie is our snuggle baby. None of the other 3 have loved to snuggle so often and so long. But I think this is his way of sharing his love for us. When Kylie or Ty or James are sad, Ben walks or crawls over to them and just snuggles on them and its like magic- they become their happy selfs again. He is our little love-snugglebug.

I could go on to decipher Daniels walk, but I just tend to notice his fantastic behind and thats a little too much info for a blog.

Rain-o-lean

With the temperatures getting hotter each day, my kids keep complaining that its "too hot" to play outside. I tell them to enjoy what little freedom they have left before it really does get too hot. To help them enjoy this perfect weather we did the "rain-o-lean" today. What is the rain-o-lean? Its where the kids get in their swimsuits, get on the tramp and Daniel makes it rain with the "fire hose." James doesnt like it much, and Toast chickened out after a few minutes, but Kylie and I spent quite a while out there in the "rain. " She has decided this will be our main activity the next several days during spring break. We shall see...

Life changing

I havent had much time to blog lately as I am busy trying to prevent my boys from burning the house down during the day,(literally- James has almost set the house on fire a few times lately and its only been divine intervention that has stopped it before it was too late) (how the fetch does anyone live through raising little boys?) and when Daniel gets home at night, I really just like hanging out with him instead of getting on the computer. But since he is having a "missionary meeting" I figured this would be the perfect time to catch up. Only problem is I can barely remember anything I previously thought about writing.

Toast finished preschool at his friends house, and will be rotating to another after spring break. I love this kid dearly, but he and I have a continuous power struggle. For some reason he has a hard time getting along with others and he can be a stubborn little punk when asked to participate. He spends a lot of time in time out at home, and we talk about improving his behavior, but he loves the excuse- "I just forget." On preschool mornings, I hype him all up- telling him I know he can be nice and be a good helper and we even had some bribery going on. He loves his webkinz and so I told him he could get another one if he followed the rules, and got along with the others, and was respectful of his teacher. Sadly he had several not so good days. When I told him he hadnt earned his webkinz he just went ballistic. So I have this mental debate in my head- do I get him one cuz he has tried, or do I stick to my guns cuz he didnt earn it. Its been 2 and a half months that he has been working on it which is a long time- but there again- he didnt earn it. Undecided I asked Ty what he thought would be fair. I explained my dilemma to him, and he understood and actually told me he didnt think I should let him have one since he didnt fulfill his part of our deal. I was rather impressed with his mind reasoning. Anyway we decided since he did try and did have several pretty good days that he could get a lil kinz instead. So we went to walgreens and he picked one out and had the biggest smile I've ever seen. Once we got back in the car, he tells me, "this is going to change my life!" Who knew a lil kinz could change someones life?

Bennie-boy has been sleeping through the night now for the past month and it is life changing I tell you! It is heaven not having to wake up every 4 hours- absolutely heaven. I told myself once Ben was sleeping through the night I would get my rear into gear and get back into my yoga and pilates, so thats my life changing goal starting next week.

Well now the meeting is done, so I am gonna go crash for the rest of the evening with my Daniel.

Boys

My cousin came for a visit last night. We havent seen him in quite a while, so it was nice to catch up. Near the end of the visit he asked if we were going to have more kids. I told him NOT in the near future as I am overwhelmed with our 4.

Overwhelmed is a bit of an understatement. Today Toast and James invented a new game. Its called "flying Kung-Fu Jedi's jump off." What they do is line up the camping mats, climb on the outside of the stair-railing, then try to do some Kung-Fu action before falling on the mat. They then chase each other with the light sabers until they decide they need some flying martial arts choreographed into the light saber attacks and will go back to the stairs to do just that. I have told Tyler time and time again not to climb on the outside of the stairs, but he tells me "I just keep forgetting." And when I tell him Jedi's dont forget, he tells me its all part of the Jedi training. Who am I to get in the way of his training?

James

I hate potty training.

But I do love his boxer briefs which show off his cute little bubble butt.