Trying again

Back in the day when Daniel and I only had 2 kids, we did kid dates once a month. Daniel would head out with one kid, and I would head out with the other. The next month we would switch. Daniel and Kylie started a little tradition of getting a new shirt each time they went out. Toast and his daddy would usually get some "dang quesadillas" at Serranos. But whatever the date was, we felt it important to spend that one on one time focusing on that kid. Then James joined the family. We tried to keep up with our little tradition, but we had to juggle around the one on one a little differently. Since we moved down here, and since having Ben, we have completely dropped the ball. So last week we decided that we needed to get back on track. Juggling this between 4 kids is a little more tricky. We figured each kid will have a "date month" and during their month, they get a date with daddy, and another with me.

Yesterday Kylie and I had our little date. We went to get pedicures-(hence the picture of our feet), followed by some olive garden. We ordered take-out and took it to a nearby park. Kylie gets the kids pasta, chicken, and broccoli meal, and they had the chicken and the broccoli but no pasta. What a thing to miss. But we had a great time together. Kylie and her daddy are going to go on their date this afternoon, and next month will be Tys turn. The following month will be James, and then Ben. And then back to Kylie. The kids are really excited to start this up again. Daniel and I are too.

Discovery

This morning I was upstairs putting the laundry away, and James comes running up the stairs and says, "Bennie gots A's! Bennie gots A's!" I didnt know what he meant but the excitement in his voice told me I should find out. So we went downstairs and found Ben playing in a dozen smashed up eggs. He immediately started laughing when he saw me and the horrified look on my face. He was having the time of his life. Gotta love the age of discovery huh?

Sunday Entertainment

I got the kiddies new church clothes for Easter, but we went to Mesa for Daniels brothers baby blessing, and I didnt pack them, therefore they didnt get dressed up for Easter. So yesterday I was getting them dressed for church in their new clothes and Daniel just had to take pictures cuz we thought they were just so dang charming. Kylie unfortunately didnt want to wear her new dress, so we just got pictures of the boys.

After church James and Toast were fighting and James wacked Ty pretty hard. Ty starts scream-crying and I am trying to calm him down, and he goes off saying he hates James. I tried explaining to him that James is 2 and doest really understand that when he hits it hurts, he just knows it gets your attention. Ty responds, "He was trying to kill me!" And I thought Kylie was the dramatic one.

At dinner, Ty and Ky were trying to spell out the entire conversation. IE-"M-o-m-m-y-c-a-n-y-o-u-g-e-t-m-e-a-d-r-i-n-k-p-l-e-a-s-e-" Ty is learning to spell and read and he is doing great, but his sister was obviously having no problems and he needed to show her up, so he says "m-o-m-m-y-l-i-k-e-s-k-i-s-s-i-n-g-d-a-d-d-y. Which led those two into the "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage" song. Which lead them into a conversation about marriage. A little while ago, Ty was in love with his little friend named Allison, but sadly she moved away. But when he thinks about marriage he will sometimes still bring up this little plan of his to marry Allison. Now Ty has 2 aunts named Allison, and Kylie was for some reason thinking about them when Ty started talking about his old flame. The confusion between the two of them was pretty comical. Kylie says "you cant marry Allison, she is too old for you. Besides she is already married." Toast was shocked. How could his Allison already be married. Wasnt she after all suppose to wait for him to go on his mission first. Sheesh. And Kylie is sitting there thinking Ty is some weird sicko for wanting to marry an older woman who is not only a married woman but indeed his cousins mother. They figured it out after not too long, but boy was that some good entertainment.

Virus, Birds and Adventures

I dont know if this post will post as my computer has a virus which Daniel has been trying to get rid of, but this one is a doozy, making anything that should take me 30 minutes to do turn into an all day project, such as blogging- but as I need to keep a record of things I will make an attempt anyway.

I have been feeling like a failure as a mother the past week. Some of it is just silly, like James’s sudden interest in fingernail polish and makeup. If I don’t paint his nails-(of course he is insistent that I paint them BRIGHT pink) he will do it himself. And then the makeup- he keeps climbing up on the counter in the master bathroom and gets into my make-up and then smears it all over his arms and face and its starting to scare me a little cuz I really don’t want this kid to start dressing in drag now nor anytime in the future. I get this little voice in my head saying-he is 2 and a half so its not a big deal, but then I get another voice that’s like in 15 years if he becomes confused with his gender, his shrink will of course blame the mother and trace it back to his 2 and a half year old self. This is when I think I am not cut out to be a mom. But really- its just silliness. Don’t most 2 year old boys play with their mothers make-up?-(please someone tell me their boys play with make-up!!!)

But the not so silly parts are really freaking me out. My Toast is throwing me for a loop here. We have had several birds building nests in the rafters of our patio. Daniel went out there 2 weeks ago and started to spray them down, but stopped when one of the nests already had baby birds inside. Well the baby birds have grown a little each day and have lots of feathers and were even chirping. Then one fell. I am not sure if he was trying to fly or what but he fell and the kids came running in to tell me. So we went out there and I told them not to touch the baby bird- just let him hang out in his little spot, until daddy gets home from work. Then daddy will put him back up in the nest. They were all infatuated with the bird, but gave it its space. Skip ahead a few hours. The older 3 were outside playing, Bennie was playing with toys and I was reading blogs. Kylie comes running inside and tells me Tyler killed the baby bird. Shocked and confused I ran out there. First I had Kylie show me where the baby bird was, to really see if it was dead. It was and it was a gruesome sight to behold. So then I went to find Ty. He was, of course, hiding, and when I found him, the first words out of his mouth were, “Kylie did it! It was Kylie!” Right. I was really really disturbed and confused, and so I asked him why, but he didn’t answer me, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation, so I put him in time out and called my mom. I told her how I felt my son was evil and how I didn’t know what to do. She reassured me that he isn’t evil. She also suggested that I make him bury the baby bird. So after I vented, and she calmed me down, I went out to talk to my little boy. I again asked him why, but he didn’t have a reason. Anyway we talked for probably 15 minutes. Talked about how it was wrong to kill. We talked about Heavenly Father and Jesus, and how they created the animals and birds and even us, and that even though he made a mistake Heavenly Father still loves him. Anyway he felt awful, and I was actually glad to see that he had remorse cuz I really was a little worried this kid was of the devil or something- but then he went and apologized to the momma bird, then I made him bury the smashed carcass of that little bird, and then we went and prayed to apologize to Heavenly Father. His prayer was very sweet. And then I really did try to show an increased amount of love towards my boy. But I am still really disturbed that he actually killed the baby bird. I don’t know where he even came up with that awful idea. So I feel like an awful mother cuz we obviously missed teaching him the primary lesson #13 "I am thankful for birds"

So after that awful day, I really needed to shake that memory away by creating a new one. So I talked with Daniel, and he figured if he worked super late one night, we could take off the next day after some meetings he had. So thats what we did. We decided to go exploring the mountainous regions outside San Diego to try to find our perfect locale for our future cabin. While we searched, we still didnt find the right area, but we did find one very awesome park that had nobody else around. It was fabulous.

I really like little road trips. One the way to and fro its just so nice to have that time to talk with Daniel. I really really like that guy.

Friday night we had a movie night with some friends. Daniel set up his projector in their garage, and they had set up some couches, and camp chairs, and we brought our camping mats, and blankets, and with a few treat bags & popcorn, it was quite the night.

Then on Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed conference. I was a tad homesick in the fact that we were here as opposed to being in UT with all my siblings and parents, but maybe one day I can convince my honey that driving 14 hours each way for 2 days really would be worth it. (Can you see Daniels eye-roll/shaking of the head look?- its very similar to the one Kylie is portraying in the picture above)

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.