Hunting Season

Easter egg hunting season, that is.  Hahaha.  For the last few days, Alex has been begging to do an Easter egg hunt.  Yesterday, I finally broke down and bought a bunch of plastic eggs and candy and let the kids go to town after dinner.  I figured since I'm still standing firm in my no electronics decree, the least I could do was provide some kind of fun activity to give them something else to do.  Hahaha.  :)

Alex was so excited about the prospect of an egg hunt, that he actually started filling the eggs on the drive home from the store yesterday morning.  He wasn't too happy that his task had to be interrupted in order to go to preschool, but I promised him he could finish when he got home and that we could definitely do the hunt when the kids got home, and he was appeased.

What I wasn't counting on after school was the fact that Ethan was VERY opposed to doing an Easter egg hunt before it was actually Easter.  The things he finds to have strong and opposing opinions on never ceases to amaze me.  Hahaha.  After convincing him that we can do more hunts all week and weekend long, he got over it enough until he realized that the GIRLS were planning on doing the hiding, and that prompted another explosion.  Apparently he's ALWAYS the one who hides them and no one else is ever allowed.  Because that makes perfect sense, right??  Hahaha.  I eventually ended up needing to divide all 96 eggs into 3 groups so that Ethan, Grace, and Sophie all had the same amount to hide.  Those kids!

Once "dinner" was scarfed down {and I do use that term loosely, because it was a hodge-podged night of cereal, muffins, and leftovers}, they headed on out for the hunt!  But not before I made them pose for a picture or two.  :)  Ethan emceed the event, explaining the rules {? as if no one has ever done an Easter egg hunt before ?} and then giving Alex and Jane a 30 second head start.  The hunt was over in less than five minutes, and the fun was over shortly after when I told everyone they could choose two eggs to keep candy from and then all the rest were going back in the bag for another day.   I'm such a fun mom.  ;)

 "bunny ears"   ;)

They'll thank me when we can do another Easter egg hunt on Friday when they have no school, and another one on Sunday when it's actually Easter...  :)

Chaos Theory

Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems...

Truer words have never been spoken.  Especially when it comes to the natural system of this house.  Hahaha.  To add to the already chaotic atmosphere of the after school crush today, I had to take a time out from making dinner/helping the girls make an FHE treat this evening to perform "surgery" on Alex's foot after he got shanked with a gnarly splinter from our back deck.

You would think he would have learned his lesson last week, after getting several (less severe) splinters while playing outside with no shoes on, but no.  After taking a quick look at THIS splinter, I decided that trying to yank it out would probably hurt more and cause more damage, so I got an ice pack to numb up his foot, and went in search of something sharp enough to slice the splinter out.  Grace suggested getting her Kindle Fire to help distract him, and ran upstairs to find it, while Sophie and Jane gathered around Alex on the couch to comfort him.  The poor little guy kept crying {because it hurt} and telling me he was sorry for not wearing shoes.  :(  {Ethan, meanwhile, missed out on the whole drama completely --  he was ensconced in his room, completely caught up in the live-streaming of Apple's newest product reveal on his laptop.}

Once Grace came back down, the allure of the Kindle was pretty strong for everyone, seeing as to how I've grounded them all from electronics this week due to HORRENDOUS behavior yesterday.  First during our special Stake Conference at church, where Elder Neil L. Andersen came to visit and speak to us, and then in an afternoon filled with terrible choice after terrible choice after terrible choice for EACH and every child {minus Isaac, of course}.  I figured a little leeway was in order for the situation at hand, though, so while they watched Alex play, I set off to find some rubbing alcohol and something sharp to cut out the splinter.

In the end, I went through two different not-sharp-enough-knives before coming up with the perfect tool for the job!  Who would have ever thought that my embroidery scissors would serve such a dual purpose?  Hahaha.  Thankfully, they were small enough and sharp enough to get in there and lance the splinter out without any further adieu.  All in all, I think it MAY have been a slightly less painful procedure than my attempts to get his other splinters out last week with tweezers, when all was said and done.

After kicking them off the Kindle, Alex was happy to sit right in the middle of the kitchen floor, soaking his foot in some soapy water to clean it, while I finished getting dinner ready.  It was to this happy scene that Scott came home, taking over dinner prep while I hydrogen peroxided, neosporin-ed, and bandaged Alex's foot up, as the standard programming chaos resumed in the background with the other kids.  Ahhhhh, the sweet sounds of home -- doors slamming open and shut, Ethan pounding away on the piano as loudly as possible, Jane pointedly ignoring my injunction to get her chores done and clean up the family room, and the noisy hubbub of minor freak outs and fits from all of the kids as I corralled them inside to get them ready to eat.  Hahaha.

All's well that ends well, and once Alex had his band-aid on with his Avengers socks, he was basically back to normal.  Hopefully, this will be the LAST time I have to dig splinters out of his feet...

NOT a Malingerer

Almost exactly one year ago, I took Jane to get her eyes checked for glasses at Costco.  It was not a success.  Hahaha.  To be precise, the doctor officially labeled her with "malingering," because of her sabotaging of the eye exam process.  Today, I took Sophie to get her eyes checked at the exact same Costco, and the results were much, much different!  After hearing her complain for the last few weeks that she can't see very well to read things off the board at school, and then seeing how she couldn't even read the time off the microwave clock while sitting at the counter, I decided I should probably be a responsible mom and get that checked out before too much more time had passed.  The verdict?  Glasses for the supermuppet.  :)  Enjoy the following photo essay of her journey...

 Choices, choices, choices

 With each pair she tried on, I told her to ask herself 2 questions:  1.)  Do these spark joy? and 2.)  Will I want to wear them every single day?

After those questions narrowed her options down from her initial 5 to 3, I had her try on the remaining pairs once again and ask herself which ones she LOVED the most. 

 The winners!

 She looks pretty happy, no?

The only disappointment came when she realized she wouldn't be able to take them home with her today.  Hopefully, by the time they arrive in another week or so, she will still be feeling joyful about them.  :)

Green Day

Another day is done!  And while we don't always go all out celebrating St. Patrick's Day at home, the younger kids always have a super fun time celebrating at school.  Alex and Jane were the only ones who took wearing green to heart this morning, and they decked themselves out accordingly.  Jane wore green from head to {almost} toe, and she was so sweet to let Alex borrow her 5K fest t-shirt from the fall so he would have something green to wear, too.  He was REALLY concerned about getting pinched, so this really relieved some stress for him.  Hahaha.

When I picked Alex up from preschool, he was so excited to tell me that leprechauns had paid a visit to his classroom while they were at recess and made a mess before leaving behind some chocolate gold coins for all the kids.  He also brought home an adorably hilarious leprechaun he started yesterday and finished up today.

Isaac decided green was not his color today, and decided to keep things extra comfy and stay in his new jammies all day instead.  :)  He was fascinated by a Thomas the Train engine this afternoon while doing tummy time, and stayed longer on his belly without fussing than he ever has before!  It was so cute to see him try to reach out and grab it while I rolled it back and forth in front of him.  

{Isaac is one squirmy little worm!  He's getting really close to rolling all the way over by himself, and this is how he fell asleep at naptime today and bedtime.   I'd say his tiny little port-a-crib is starting to cramp his style.} 

This brief recap of the day doesn't even touch on the craziness of the after school rush, but running around doing carpool pick up for running club and then trying to get Jane to do homework for 2 HOURS, all while taking care of the baby, trying to get everyone else to do homework and chores, attempting to console Alex who got a bunch of splinters in his feet after running around barefoot on the back porch, plus get dinner ready so Jane could eat before going to Girl Scouts is probably not all that interesting for anyone else to read about.  Hahaha. Suffice it say, it was a LONG evening and I'm beat.  Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!  I'm really ready for the weekend and even MORE ready for Spring Break to start next Friday.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Schedules

{Yesterday, after school -- at the newly deemed "homework table" in the dining room.}

As the kids get older, I find that our schedules are busier than ever.  With track starting up for Ethan, and running club for Grace, not to mention drop off and pick up for Alex at preschool, I feel like each day is a dizzying array of trying to keep things straight with who goes where.  Yesterday, I made the executive decision to switch things up around the house for our DAILY schedule to help with my sanity and to keep the kids from slacking off with their basic responsibilities.  Instead of having screen time right when they get home (with play time and chores happening afterwards), I am now enforcing homework time right away (when they have it -- which is not always) followed by play and finishing up with chores before dinner.  THEN -- if they've gotten chores and homework done -- they can have screen time after dinner while Scott and I are trying to get the little ones in bed.  And yes, I am assuming that Jane will be in that category of little ones needing to go to bed without any screen time, because she probably won't do her chores.  Hahaha.  In my book this is a win-win-win situation.  Chores will hopefully be done, homework won't be saved until the last minute, and screens will help to keep the older 3 occupied and out of our hair while trying to put the younger half in bed.

Yesterday was Day 1 of this new schedule, and it went over amazingly well.  Today -- not so much.  At least not for son number one.  He is adamantly opposed to the whole plan, and threw a bit of a temper tantrum this afternoon when I insisted on enforcing things.  I'm pretty sure it was the tiredness and hunger talking for him, but I know how resistant he is to change.  I'm hoping that by the end of the week we'll have made some headway and everyone will have adjusted to the new schedule.  Hashtag fingers crossed!  Hahahaha.  :)

Geography Girl and Photography Boy

Jane is REALLY into geography these days.  It all started with looking through the different country flags at the back of her children's dictionary at bedtime few months ago, and from there it morphed into looking at maps wherever she could find them.  When we got the 50 States book at Christmas time, she began learning all about the states in earnest and with the last couple of trips to the library, I've made a point to check out any kind of geography type books I could find for her and she's loving it!  She's probably the most excited out of all the kids (other than Ethan) for our road trip this summer.  She keeps referring to it {adorably} as our "journey," and can't wait to drive through all the states she's been learning about.  It's kind of hilarious how proud she is of all her knowledge, especially since it has become a source of bragging rights against Sophie.  {Even though Sophie couldn't care less that Jane knows more about geography than she does.  Hahaha.}

 Geography Girl still loves swiping my phone for selfies.

Meanwhile, I caught Photography Boy setting up another photo shoot yesterday at bedtime.  Because apparently when I asked him to take care of Isaac while I was getting Alex and Jane in bed last night, he took that to mean "go ahead and tried to get some artful shots in the guest room" while waiting for me to come and get the baby.  Hahahaha.   Unfortunately for Ethan's sake, Isaac was getting tired and fussy and wasn't super cooperative.  And even though there were no chairs-on-top-of-beds involved, I doubt the baby was super comfortable and it wasn't long before Ethan realized it was best to call it quits.  Womp womp.

I have to say -- one of my favorite things as a mom is seeing the things my kids become interested in.  Whether it's geography or photography or fashion or superheroes, it's kind of really cool to see what makes their little souls sing.  :)

The Time Has Come

It's true -- he's movin' on out!  Hahaha.  The "guest room" is now officially doubling as the nursery, and I couldn't be happier. For both our sakes!!! :)  Now that we are no longer waking him up every time we walk into our room, he's sleeping a LITTLE bit better -- and since he's already 4 months old, that's a good thing!

"Oh hey!  I'm just chillin' with my chew toy and my lion."  Hahaha.  :)

"Where am I??"

Speaking of turning 4 months old, Squeaky-Squeaks had his 4 month check up today and he's getting big!  His official stats are: 14 lbs 8 oz (25th %ile) and 26 1/2" long (90th %ile).  With a head circumference of 17" (also 90th %ile).  He passed his checkup with flying colors, and now our biggest milestone to accomplish before going back in 2 months, is sleeping.  The doctor was totally on board with starting some sleep training (much to my relief), and I'm hopeful that before too long this little Squeaker will learn how to sleep longer at night! I'm not expecting a full 12 hours just yet, but if he could even sleep for 5-6 at a time, that would be amazing.  ;)  Hahahaha.

Drool baby

And that is that!  It's been a LONG day -- curse you daylight savings!!! -- and I'm tired.  So I should probably take advantage of all 6 kids being asleep and head to bed myself.  Tootles! ;)

Flashback Friday -- Comparison is Not ALWAYS the Thief of Joy

Look at those cute little precious faces up there!  Hahaha.  As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I've taken pictures of ALL of my babies at the three month mark.  And while you can DEFINITELY see the family resemblance, they each have their own unique "look" as well.  For today's flashback, I thought it would be fun to go back in time and take a closer look at each kid at this age.  And -- just for kicks -- I'm going to rate them on a scale of 1 to Sophie as for how difficult a baby they were to take care of.  Hahahaha. 

Grace was a 1.  She was easily the best sleeper and lowest maintenance of my babies.  In short, she was a dream.  Which was a blessing because I was also taking care of a high(er) maintenance toddler at the time as well.  I'm pretty sure Grace spent the first 3 months of her life swinging in the swing so that I could deal with Ethan.  ;)

I'd give Jane a 2 or 3.  She was a really happy and easy baby as far as temperament went, but she wasn't the best sleeper.  Once she found her thumb, though, it was a game changer and she slept like a champ from the time she was 4 months old until the time she stopped sucking her thumb at about 13 months.  (And since then, she's been an on again off again terrible sleeper.)

  

Alex was right smack dab in the middle -- a solid 5.  He wasn't the easiest baby, but he also wasn't the hardest.  I don't remember him having as many sleep issues, but he was a little higher maintenance than Jane and Grace when he was awake. 

Ethan was probably a 6.  He wasn't fussy so much as very high maintenance.  As long as he was being held, he was fine.  :)

I'm gonna have to give Isaac an 8.  He's almost as bad a sleeper as Sophie was.  And even though I wouldn't call him colicky, he certainly has his moments of fussiness.  And he's a bit high maintenance as well.  Despite all of that, he can also be really happy and is still a fun baby and everyone loves him.  :)

Finally, we have Sophie.  There is no number on the scale to rate this little supermuppet.  She was one MISERABLE little baby, and she helped us to feel her feelings as well.  Hahahaha.  This child never slept for more than an hour or two at a time, she screamed a good 80% of her day and night, she was constantly ITCHY for the first 4 or 5 months of life thanks to oozing, rashy eczema from head to toe, and she had MAJOR acid-reflux, causing her to projectile spit-up after every feeding.  I love this picture of her, though, because I feel like it really captures her split personality.  When she's happy, she's super happy.  And when she's not, she's an angry little elf.  ;)  Hahahaha.

While it is certainly true that comparison CAN be the thief of joy, sometimes the opposite is true instead -- because everything is relative.  And it is this relativity that helps to put things in perspective.  I'm convinced that Isaac doesn't seem nearly as hard to take care of because I've already taken care of another baby who was off-the-charts difficult.  And while that knowledge and perspective doesn't help to infuse me with a couple hours more sleep when I need it, it DOES help me to keep looking forward, knowing that even truly difficult times (and sleepless nights) will eventually come to an end. 

Book Worms

A few weeks ago, I had to run a quick errand with the girls before taking them to get their promised Orange Leaf on a Saturday.  As we were walking back to the car, Grace noticed a vanity license plate on the car next to us that said Book Worm.  And then, for the next several minutes as we drove over to get some frozen yogurt, she went on and on about how we should totally get a license plate like that for OUR car.  And how she wants to get one for HER car when she gets older.  Now, of all my children, if you would have asked me even a couple of years ago, I would have said that Grace was my least likely child to EVER proclaim herself a "reader."  And yet, here we are today, with Grace outpacing everyone in the house (minus me) and labeling herself a book worm.  Hahaha.  As a book worm myself, it pleases me to no end that the majority of my children love a good book.  :) And just what are some of those "good books" the kids are into these days?  Well, let me fill you in...

Jane has finally found herself a "chapter book" series that has captured her interest and tickled her funny bone as well.  "Franny K. Stein" is a mad scientist, and Jane loves these books!  They're the perfect length and level for her, and I'm hoping they will help to bridge the gap in her mind between picture books and chapter books.  She's been super resistant to reading any chapter books up until now, because I think she has psyched herself out into thinking that "they're too hard" or "too long" even though she's actually a really good little reader.  I'm hoping that once summer rolls around, we can branch off into finding some other series that she will like as well.  :)

Some other favorites from Jane and Alex are the Fly Guy series and the Little Critter books.  During last summer's summer reading, I think we probably checked out every single book the library had in those categories!  Alex, of course, also checked out every single superhero book he could find.  But the funny thing was, they were all a one checkout wonder.  He never wanted to check the same one out ever again.  Hahaha.  Once was enough for him.  :)  

For the older kids, Ethan really liked John Grisham's Theodore Boone "Kid Lawyer" series.  He's not the hugest reader these days, but in general, he does seem to like mysteries and realistic fiction.  Grace, on the other hand, seems to be on a roll with science fiction/fantasy and I couldn't be more surprised if I tried!  Hahahaha.  Her top favorite books of all time, she says, are The Hunger Games series, Divergent series,  and the Percy Jackson series.  She tore through the Percy Jackson books in about a week and a half recently and really, really liked them.  It's becoming really hard to keep up with her!  Whenever she's at the end of a book or series, she starts badgering me to help her come up with something to read next.  And I'm running out of ideas, because 9 times out of 10 she doesn't want to go with my suggestions!  Haha.  Sophie leans more towards realistic fiction, with a sprinkling of historical fiction on the side.  She really liked "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" (that she got for Christmas) and "Wonder" is her favorite book of all time.  

 In lieu of a bookshelf, Grace just lines all her books up at the foot of her bunk bed.  {With an emoji pillow standing guard.  Hahahahaha.}

With the end of the school year rapidly approaching, and summer on the horizon, I better start searching for some new material for this year's summer reading.   :)

He's Not Four Months Old YET

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!  Time is flying by!  I've taken pictures of ALL of my kids at 3 months old, and the Squeaker has just barely squeaked by in getting a photo shoot done before he's actually 4 months old.  :)  I wanted to do it a few weeks ago, but he's been fussy and uncooperative as of late, and it just never happened.  Last Friday I decided I just had to do it and hope for the best.

When he woke up from an afternoon nap in a happy mood, I decided it was time to seize the day and set things up in the upstairs guest room {SOON to be the baby's room} where I thought we'd get the most natural light.  Despite the pleasantness of his mood, he just didn't want to give me any smiles.  :(  I eventually pulled Ethan in to help coax a laugh or two out of him.  But even though Isaac obliged us a little bit, I couldn't get any in-focus-and-smiling-at-the-camera shots out of the little stinker.  :)

After a while, though, Isaac was DUNZO with the picture taking.  Hahaha.  Nevertheless, I'm glad I was able to get SOMETHING taken while he was still 3 months old.  This little cutie is still the apple of our eye -- even if he IS a little fussy face.  :)

Bonus Picture -- Ethan's photo shoot set up that I found the next day in the guest room.  Apparently, he took the baby up that afternoon and snapped some pictures of his own with his iPod -- with the baby SITTING ON THAT CHAIR on the bed.  {Insert shocked/freaked out face emoji here}.  I'm hoping that the fussing I gave him was enough to stop him from attempting something like that again in the future!