And the little one said....

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8 days later...

and Bubba likes school! Kindergarten is super fun. He gets to be on the computer, he gets to paint and go to the library that's IN his school. He likes recess and the jungle gym. He doesn't like how the all the big kids take the swings. And he doesn't like some boy who pinched him one time. But he likes learning and drawing and listening to Mrs. S.

Overall, he's doing very well. Mornings are still a bit slow and whiny but once we're out the door he's fine. By about 6pm he's pretty much exhausted. This whole ''all day kindergarten with no nap'' must be tiring because he is Mr. Moody in the evenings.

His siblings have adjusted well. Sissy never seemed to notice he was gone but gets down right giddy when we pick him up. I mean giggling and kicking her legs like she hasn't seen him in months. Pooks and Peanut are doing okay. Bubba was more of a ringleader than I thought. It seems like I hear ''I don't know what to play" or "there's nothing to do" a few times each day. I just prompt them ("How about we get out the playdoh?") and they do just fine. Overall, it's a success. Next week we have Back to School night and Auntie Michelle visits then too. Bubba is very excited to show her his BIG school :)

First Day of Kindergarten...{pt 1}

 Well, the hard part is over with! This morning I dropped Bubba off for his first day of kindergarten. The morning went off without a hitch, though none of the kids were happy about waking up so early. In fact, Pooks' exact words upon waking and walking in to the living room? "Why did you wake us up when it's still night time?" Yeah, it was almost 6:30am. They were in bed by 8pm last night, but maybe now they'll listen when we say it's time to settle down and sleep?

 Bubba was not thrilled about eating breakfast so early. He just wasn't hungry and I think he was a bit nervous, he wouldn't admit that of course but he said his tummy hurt. After not eating breakfast, he got himself dressed, brushed his teeth and had me 'spike up' his hair. He was ready to go! We did the obligatory pictures before leaving...

 Then we drove to the school. Had to park quite a ways a way and walk him up and into his classroom. The first 3 days we're allowed to walk him into his room, after that it's drop off lane. He did extremely well. I could see the water building up in his eyes when we said bye, but he didn't cry. Which was quite the feat since 2 other little kids were bawling. Several had been crying {especially the ones who rode the bus!} so all in all, he did great. He gave us all hugs and kisses and sat down to play with his playdoh.

The hardest part was his siblings. Peanut refused to leave. In fact he sat down in a chair and when I asked him to move, he said "No!" I pointed out that the sign said it was Iliana's seat..he said ''No!" and when I reminded him that he would get to go when he was five, he said ''I AM FIVE!" I'm five now!". There were tears and crying (from him) and I had to carry him out. As we left the classroom, I looked back and saw Bubba wiping his eyes :( I know he was SO excited but I think the other kids crying freaked him out a bit. He didn't see me and I know he's fine but it was so hard not running back and giving him another hug.

So we left the school, dropped B off at home to get his truck and head on to work, then I took the littles to McDonald's. They shared a ''Big Breakfast Platter" watched the Disney channel (a real treat since we don't have cable...they were so excited for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!) and played in the play place.

 I think having that ''special'' moment with me helped Pooks and Peanut, they were thrilled as I have never let them play in a McDonald's play place...like, ever. (Usually they are gross and smell like feet and it makes me gag when I see other kids running through the structure with food in their hands) But this McD's was really big, clean and the playscape was HUGE.

Overall, part one is a success! Part two will be picking him up and seeing how he liked it...

Before...

 Remember before, back in June when I was wanting to tackle a furniture makeover project? Well, I finally found a piece of furniture to redo. I've been looking mind you...an occasional garage sale, craig's list, but I haven't found a piece that ''spoke'' to me (or was talking to me for under $100). Until yesterday when driving down the street to my street, a lady was putting a dresser at the curb. As she was taping a FREE! sign on it I speed dialed B and told him to bring his truck around the corner, I wanted this.

 It is solid wood, SUPER heavy and tall for a dresser. At least four feet. I love the detailing on the sides...and the solid {what I think to be, brass} handles.

Now it's in fairly decent shape when you consider the age of the piece and the fact that it was free. Every part of it is solid wood; no pressed cardboard, no veneer...just solid wood. The drawers are each in their own cubby, solid shelve in between (no plywood cheapo piece separating one drawers bottom from the others top). That being said, there are no sliders/tracks for the drawers so they are rough to pull out. The top one has issues. It will need plenty of TLC to become what I envision.

What is it that I envision? Well I'm not sure yet. Originally I wanted a piece that could become a kitchen island or a TV stand...this isn't that. But I love it and I will hopefully begin my project soon. You know when it ins't 103 degrees outside. And after I buy a sander. And decide whether I want to paint or sand. And before I do that, I need to figure out where it's going. What's it's purpose?

Good thing it was free, eh?

in 2 days...

Bubba starts kindergarten. In honor of that, we took pics yesterday (his school starts at 7:20am so I seriously doubt we'll have a mini-photo shoot the morning of) and I asked him some questions. Ideally I'd like to do this every school year with each school aged kid all the way up high school, then have them made into a book or at the very least, put into their baby books.

 

He just looks so grown up! I can't get over it...

hand-holding and cheesing!? typical day around here :)

 Can you tell his little brothers were just a tad bit jealous that they weren't getting their pictures taken? In fact I had to stop taking photos of bubba to get peanut and pooks dressed, get their flip flops on and include then in the photos...

Nap time shenanigans

Sissy is almost 11 months old and rather than sleep in her nice crib with all that bedding that I loving made her last summer, she sleeps in a pack n play in the corner in our room. In fact, I think she has actually spent the night in her crib just once since we moved here. (I would say since birth but her crib was in our bedroom for the first 6 weeks.) The reasoning? Well for one, she still nurses twice a night...she has since about 5 months when she started teething. And two, well just watch the video...

Yeah, she does that every single day before nap and bedtime. Sometimes for 30+ minutes. Up, down, laugh, cry...I can't expect peanut to sleep through her shenanigans so for the time being, the corner in her pack in play it is.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say she doesn't seem ti mind.
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Sneak Peek....

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I had a {laundry} epiphany.

When you have six people in your family, that adds up to a lot of laundry. I have to do at least two load of laundry every single day or my laundry room looks like this:

And believe it or not, that's all CLEAN clothes. You have six people in 3 separate rooms with a total of six dressers and three closets, then divide up according to which drawer...well things can spiral out of hand very quickly. Add in the linens from five beds and the towels of six people. If I think ''Man I don't feel like doing laundry...I'll just do it tomorrow'' things get bad. It all piles up to be put away but I rarely have free time to divide it all up where it needs to go and the result is the above photo. Luckily, I am good about washing clothes...very, very rarely is there a heaping pile of dirty clothes. Usually it's all clean.

But whose with me here? Putting clean clothes away is one of the chores that I detest the most. I hate it. It takes forever. The constant bending down to reach the clothes, and in the back and forth of folding the little stuff, hanging the shirts, sorting the pajamas by which kid, folding the jeans...it's enough that I just avoid doing it. I've tried washing loads of just B and I's clothing, or just the kids. The problem is they go through clothing much faster, our load would take days to build up and by then I have no clean bras. It would take us weeks to get enough items for a load of whites, and by then B wouldn't have any undershirts.

Usually.

But a few weeks ago, I had an epiphany. Now this might not work for your family but I guarantee it will for a large family. Rather than wash our clothes in the traditional loads (whites/darks/colors/etc), I sorted by what the item is. So a load of just pants/bottoms, a load of justs pajamas/undies, a load of just shirts, only towels/bibs, and lastly, bed linens. This way when it comes time to take things out of the dryer, I'm not doing the constant fold, hang, bend...it's one repetitive task. All shirts? Hang them all up and take all of them to closets. All pants? Fold in half and put away. Pajamas? neatly stack and place in kids dressers. I don't get the random piles on top of my machines...I get one pile of one type of clothing for each person.

In addition to being easier to physically hang/put away, now as long as I do one load a day, we don't get to a situation of B telling me ''I have no clean slacks." Whoops...did I forget to do a load of permanent press?---No longer an issue. Like today, I did a load of 'shirts' and a load of 'pajamas'. Now, with the exception of what we are wearing, every single shirt and pajama in this house, is clean AND put away. Tomorrow I'll do pants and towels. Thursday I'll do a load of of shirts and pajamas. Friday it'll be bed linens and pants. It's never more than 3 days before the next load-type cycles back in again, with the exception of towels and linens, which I do once a week. Each load is a good size, not heaping but not so tiny that it's not worth it. {Each day we go through at least 7 shirts, 6 pairs of pants...so two days worth is 14 shirts or 12 pants, which is a regular sized load}.

I'm a genius right?! It never gets out of hand and even if I skip a day, it's easy to get back on track. I will say that having the HE front loading machines help; I don't have to worry about colors bleeding because I wash almost everything in cold water. The machines are gentle on the clothes as well so nothing get's worn out.

The only question left is ....why did it take me this long to figure out!?

hair today, gone tomorrow

Today, I took the boys to get haircuts. Since moving to TX oh, 9 months ago, they had their hair cut once at Great Clips (EPIC fail...it was horrible), once while back ''home'' in April, and once by me using the clippers at home. Honestly, their hair wasn't that long but Bubba starts school Monday and their hair was a little uneven in areas. So I decided I was gonna find a nice little local salon that we would just fall in love with and not have to worry anymore. So after driving up and down nearby streets and running into nearby salons, I decided that wasn't the best bet. First off, we live like 5 steps from a military base so everything is barber shops and military cuts..not what I really wanted. Farther down the road there were some salons but they wanted $15-$25 for a kids haircut. (And they couldn't narrow down the price until they saw the client, despite having told them he was a 5yr old boy who sits perfectly still) Seriously? Do I look like I'm paying $75 for three BOYS to get a trim? Um that would be a "hell no!". So we ended up in a outdoor shopping area that was home to Cool Cuts 4 Kids ($17.95 and up), Sharkeys Kids Cuts ($17.95 and they watch a movie during their haircut) and Supercuts. Supercuts had no wait, and they're having a sale/promotion that ALL haircuts are just $8. Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner!

There were two stylists, each started at the same time so Bubba and Pooks went first while Peanut sat in an empty chair and I held Sissy. Both boys' hair looks nice...a bit shorter that I intended on top, but it's even and both boys still have their sideburns (seriously great clips shaved them off!). They were finished and Peanut was up. For (what I think is the first time) Peanut sat in the chair all by himself. He did wonderful! No squirming, laughing...nothing. He sat so still and I swear his cut took half the time as the older boys. So we were in and out in under 1/2 an hour and it was $24 for THREE kid's haircuts. I highly recommend Supercuts to my other local mommies that may be reading this...they weren't overly friendly but they were quick and patient. We went at 11:15am and each stylist was finishing up with someone, with the waiting area empty. They don't have suckers though, so luckily I had thought to bring my own just in case. Overall, 2 thumbs up!

Happy all around

Today, was a wacky day. We got up, did the whole breakfast/play/get dressed thing while I was on the phone trying to straighten out Bubba's immunization records so that he can actually go to Kindergarten (on Monday...eek!). Got that figured out but now we needed to go up to the school in addition to grocery shopping and shoe shopping (for me for once). Shoe shopping lead up to the north part of town, which lead us to two different stores. Well by now it's 11:30 and they want to eat but I don't want to go all the way back home and I did not want fast food.

Cue Krispy Kreme........

The boys LOVE donuts. Well Krispy Kreme just happens to be a hop skip away from Kohls. So we went there for "lunch". It was lunchtime however I knew they weren't that hungry but needed a break before we went to the grocery store. They had a blast.

We got there in time to see the employee making chocolate cake donuts and donut holes. The boys' excitement was overflowing when watching those donut holes almost run off the conveyer belt. They were shrieking watching the donuts and this got other people smiling while watching the boys' reaction.

 

They each picked out a pink donut with sprinkles and happily wore the paper hat. Well, everyone but Sissy...she wanted to throw the donut (she had parts of a cake cruller) and eat the hat. Silly girl!

"I don't want to wear the hat Mommy..."

While scarfing down our doughnuts we talked about how the man was making them and what they thought the doughnuts were cooked in. Pooks said "SUGAR!!!" but I explained how they are fried in oil...and we talked about healthy foods vs "sometimes" foods. I love being able to incorporate little education tidbits into our day.

All in all, a nice morning. After our 'lunch' we went grocery shopping, then returned home for naps. Now they're snacking on cheese and green apples...you know a healthy food to balance out the ''sometimes'' food :)

Confession

Okay, here is the thing. I have four, seriously FOUR blog posts that are half written but then I get distracted/busy/summoned and never get back to finishing them, then they sit here in blog limbo never getting published. Then later I think I have a minute, so I type some more and then again I get called away and now it's been over a week without a post and things are actually happening. So, since this is a blog for my kids and to keep track of their milestones and day to day doings, Imma sum it up right here, right now:

YOU GUYS KEEP MOMMY SUPER BUSY!

Every day we have something to do, someone to meet or somewhere to be. Doctor's visits, back to school shopping, potty training, teeth-cutting, play dates, grocery shopping...the list quite literally goes on and on. And keep in mind that we're doing all this when it's 105 flippin' degrees out. When you add all those activities into my daily responsibilities such as feeding the four children, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, making dinner, etc...well blog time is out the window.

Let's see, I haven't blogged since August 4th. Today is the 11th. In that week's time, Peanut is now fully potty trained. He wears a diaper at nap time and bedtime but usually they are dry when he wakes. He's perfected going potty, though we need to work on getting to the bathroom in time for his "number 2's". This makes mommy and daddy VERY happy! It's not that he's a "late" trainer (he'll be 3 in November) it's just that he's fairly advanced in his other traits (he can count objects up to 10, knows his ABCs, has amazing reasoning skills, knows his colors and opposites, etc) so it was a shocker that this didn't come faster. Today we went to Costco and HEB with him in his undies (no pullup) and he did great!

Sissy now has FIVE teeth with number six on it's way. She is a hot mess, sleeping awful and is fussy much of the day. That's a bit of an exaggeration; she's only fussy if I'm not holding her. So if I can hold her while doing everything else, she's fine. If I set her in her highchair or on the floor, or God forbid in the shopping cart? Fugetaboutit. She lets out the most high-pitched shrill scream that you have ever heard. I really really hope that after these teeth come in, she'll be back to her normal self. When she's happy, she's really happy! Waving and ''talking'' like crazy, standing without holding on to anything, cruises the length of the couch and lets go for that split second to reach the loveseat. She's a handful but a fun one.

  Don't mind the food, she's happiest when she's eating

Pooks is, well, he's pooks. He's a ball of energy and full of his funny little sayings. "I didn't mean to hit it, I just did it on purpose." To him, purpose=accident. I straightened my hair yesterday and I overheard him telling Bubba "Mom did somethin' to her hair and she yooks yike another lady". Out of all of the boys, Pooks looks the toughest. He isn't small for his age like Bubba and Peanut, he's spot on 'normal' for height and weight. If I had to label his body type, I'd say solid. He's not fat by ANY means but he's so much bigger than his brothers. He is just literally, solid. It's ironic but he looks the toughest but emotionally, oh my gosh is that kid sensitive. If we're playing outside, he'll pick me 'flowers'. He cannot go to bed until everyone in the house gives him a kiss, including his baby Sissy. If I have to get after him for something and change my tone of voice to ''I'm serious'' oh he'll start to cry and tell me "you did hurt my fillings [feelings] and did talk mean to me" and he will not stop crying until you get down on his level, apologize and explain why you spoke to him that way. I love it, I love his empathy and that he's not afraid to show that soft side and verbalize his feelings but man, is it unexpected!

 Bubba is at that age where he's not a 'little' kid but he's not quite a 'big' kid either. He's very, very excited to start Kindergarten. He told me yesterday that he wasn't gonna cry at all. (He might not, but I sure will). He is very excited to meet his teacher, take a lunch and stay there all day. (7:30-2:30!?! for freaking kindergarten!?) He told me that he's gonna make lots of friends and get super smart.   He is ready both mentally and physically.

When Nanaw, Nana Phew Phew and Papa were here, we did the bulk of his school shopping. He has to wear Polo shirts to school so we stocked up on those and his school supply list. After they left, we started the hunt for a pair of shoes. I checked and rechecked the dress code, no stipulations on shoes as long as they weren't flip flops. Okay, we can work with that! I was intentionally frustrated at having a standardized dress code in kinder; I think that kids should be able to express themselves and their creativity, and at 5 years old, a lot of that personality comes from their clothes. So after looking around the Converse website, we discovered that you can design your own shoe.{Here is where it's important for me to mention, my boys only ever wear Converse shoes. I'm not sure why, B and I don't wear them but every time we have to buy a boy shoes, they want those. Connor said it all when we were looking at shoes and I was saying ''Oh, how about this one?" and he replied " I only yike shoes with da star on them!"}  HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT? So instead of paying $35 and getting a black pair at the BX, we paid $45 and Bubba designed his own. I mean he sat here at the computer and told me which color/patter he wanted and where. This is what he came up with:

 I love them and I cannot wait to see (and of course blog) about what they really look like when they get here. We ordered them about 2 weeks ago and I am eagerly awaiting an email containing shipping info.

Just for reference, it took me 2+ hours from start to finish to write this post. I kept tally and was interrupted three times by text messages, once by a phone call, twice by someone needing to potty, three separate times with a ''mom I need to tell you something" and once to breastfeed. Did I mention that I wrote this post during naptime!? No joke! If it seems scattered and all over the place, it's because I am scattered and all.over.the.place.

And I wouldn't have it any other way ♥

10 months old, already?!

Sissy, I can barely believe it! Today you are into double-digits in your monthly age. 10 whole months! At this stage, right now you:

-have 2 teeth, with THREE upper teeth on their way (I can see the whites)
-wear a size 4 diaper, 12 month onesies and dresses and 6-12 month shoes
-have started cruising furniture and walls. It's the oddest thing to see you crawl over to the wall, push yourself up to standing and then walk along the wall.
-have dropped your morning nap; you take one maybe twice a week
-say ''mama, dada, hi, papa and nana". Other than "hi" you don't seem to direct them or use them correctly...yet :)
-put every.single.thing in your mouth. tiny pieces of paper? a hair? dog food? yep, yep and yep. 
- have long enough hair to wear teeny-tiny bows without any headbands. lately I've been pulling it back because otherwise, the front is long enough that it almost touches your eyebrows while the back hasn't seemed to grow at all.

-when asked to say "Cheese!" you do a big 'ol goofy smile.
-eat dry cereal (usually fruity Cheerios) and yogurt melts for breakfast, everyday. If we don't give you that, you throw what we do give you onto the floor.
-are still actively nursing and show no signs of stopping. During the day you nurse when you wake up, after breakfast, after lunch/before nap,after nap and again before dinner, at bedtime and twice during the night. Yeah, it's a bit excessive for a 10 month old but it works for us. While nursing my endometriosis is controlled so it's win-win.
-have a really bad temper. I mean if you want something and someone gets in your way, you will...express your displeasure. Usually with shrill screaming and fake crying and you started balling your fists during your tantrums.

 

I have to say that this age, is my most favorite ''baby age''. You are a ball of curiosity, daring enough to try anything and amazed at your discoveries. You love doing something and hearing us say ''uh-oh". You are going through a stranger anxiety phase and only want mommy. You snuggle into my shoulder and give anyone else a tiny little coy look. I just love you so much Sissy and I'm thrilled to watch your grow!

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

Except well, Baby.

See, this Baby is very, very mobile. She's all over the house! Playing in the kitchen seems to be her favorite though. All the open space combined with opening the pantry door, cabinet doors, pulling out tupperware and chewing on the occasional found crayon (all while keeping an eye out for an open refrigerator door) tops the list. And you may notice something in her mouth in these pics...

  Yeah, that would be her new favorite toy. You know, an empty Mylicon bottle with the squishy top.

 

Sissy doesn't take a bottle or a pacifier. She doesn't really teethe on anything (despite the numerous teething devices we have purchased) other than randomly on her Sophie Giraffe and this medicine bottle. The medicine bottle is her favorite. In fact, she crawls around the entire house, chewing/knawing and occasionally sucking on this bottle.

Sure allowing her to 'play' with medicine probably isn't my most stellar Mom moment but it's really the only thing that helps with her teething and keeps her quiet/content, so I guess we'll deal with the whole 'medicine isn't a toy' thing later. 

Afterall, take a look at her teeth...the two bottom ones are up and out but look at those monster top teeth getting ready to come through!

click on the pic to really see them!