All Day Err Day

You know what's exhausting?  Keeping up with THIS little guy:

All day, every day, his new favorite thing to do is to climb up on the kitchen chair and then up onto the table.  I finally solved that problem late this afternoon, when it dawned on me that I should just put the chairs up on top of the table, to keep him away.  Hahaha.

Today was made especially exhausting after being woken up all night long thanks to Alex -- who ended up in our room once again last night, and Jane -- who woke us up first, when she came in around 12:30, throwing up all over our bedroom floor.  Yay!  Hahaha.  At the very end of the ward Halloween party last night {which I didn't get ANY pictures at, because the battery on my real camera was dead and I forgot to get any cell phone pictures}, Jane accidentally ate a peanut butter m&m.  Dun dun dun!  Since she's allergic, it was simply a matter of time before something happened.  I was hoping we were in the clear after we made it home and dosed her with some Benadryl and saw nothing more happen than some spots around her mouth.  But such was not the case.  Perhaps the reaction took longer to occur because she ingested such a small amount, but whatever the reason, it still resulted in Scott scrubbing our carpet in the middle of the night, and me sleeping in Jane's bed with her for a couple of hours when she wouldn't go back to bed on her own.  Fun times!  Hahaha.  Thank goodness it's the weekend -- here's to hoping we can get some rest around here!!!  

Number 5

Operation Birthday Photo Shoot 2016: Part Three (of Six)

 That kid!

Kid number 5 turned year number 5 on August 13th.  As I mentioned a few posts back, he was EASILY the least cooperative/willing out of the group for this mass photo shoot I attempted to make happen a few weeks ago.  Since I have learned to choose my battles and let go of a WHOLE lot in my 13 years of motherhood, these pictures will just have to do for this year.  Hahaha.  

 Alexander Nicholas -- 5 years old

  When he's in the right mood, he's EASILY my best little helper around the house.

 Mario has now supplanted his superhero obsession.

He would eat cereal for every meal and snack if I let him.

He's working on brushing his hair every day.  It's a work in progress.

 Elephant is still his right hand man.  I tried to stage a photo shoot for his stuffed animal, too, but Alex told me he wasn't interested.  Hahahaha.

 He loves basketball.

And his favorite thing at school are the math games.  Another budding mathemagician in the making.  ;)

And that's our Lover Boy!  He's been going through a "scared of being by himself" phase again, which is SUPER fun, but at least he stays in his bed all night long.  Oh wait.  NO HE DOESN'T!!!  Hahaha.  That little stinker has become our new roommate for the last couple of weeks, as he has been waking up almost every night and making his way into our bed.  A week ago, I created a little pallet for him in the corner of our room, so that he doesn't keep us awake all night long, and for now it's doing the trick enough.  It's ironic that we first started dealing with him being "scared" about everything around the same time LAST year.  I'm hoping that like last year it will eventually fizzle out.  Ever since Grace kicked him out of the girls' room, he's been camping out in the guest room and he just doesn't like being alone.  Eventually we will move him in with Isaac, but for right now, I think they'd just wake each other up all night and then we'd be dealing with two boys instead of one.  So, until I can get him motivated by {yet another} sleep chart, I guess we'll just have an extra roomie.  :)

Halloween Countdown

We are T-minus 2 days until the ward Halloween party, and T-minus 6 days until the real deal.  And what do we have going on to prep for the big day?  Well, so far we've decorated the mantle with our pumpkin can army, hung up the cardstock buntings we created 3 years ago (that are slightly more bent out of shape but still going strong), and I've blown up a poster size print from last year's trick-or-treating to hang over the fireplace, that I think really adds a little something extra.  However, you wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of {mostly negative} comments I've received from the kids over it.  From "why did you pick THAT picture?" (Grace) to "I'm not even looking at the camera" (Ethan) to "this looks dumb" (Alex).  Basically nobody loves it but me.

In the costume department, we've gone through 3 different options for Alex before finding the PERFECT one {Mario} at Once Upon a Child; Grace has changed her mind about 5 times and still hasn't settled on anything; Ethan is insistent on not dressing up this year; Sophie has spent a chunk of her summer reading money to pay half the price of her Poodle Skirt ensemble for the big day; Jane is still going strong with "Sadness" from Inside Out; and Isaac won't keep any hood or hat on his head, so real costumes will have to wait until next year -- THIS year, he'll just rock some skeleton jammies and call it good.  Hahaha.

We still haven't carved our annual jack o'lanterns, but I busted out the "fun mom" card on Saturday (after a productive morning of cleaning the house), by making sugar cookies for the kids to decorate with the Halloween sprinkles I picked up at Kroger a couple of weeks ago.  Ethan was still out on a 5 mile hike with Scott for a scouting requirement, and Grace was at a friend's house during the festivities, but Sophie invited one of her friends over to plump up our numbers, and the younger ones had a grand old time decorating cookies and dumping far more sprinkles than needed all over the kitchen counter and floor.  Hahaha.

With Halloween almost here, we're getting closer and closer to kicking off the holiday season and I can't wait!!!  Stay tuned to see how the costumes all turn out...  :)

Simple Pleasures

In direct contrast to the way last night ended {think terrible kid behavior plus worst version reactive parenting}, today was a delight!  I stuck to my guns and banned screens all morning for Alex, which led to a lovely hour or so of him working on puzzles.  The morning continued on in peaceful happiness with a trip to the library, where both boys enjoyed playing in the children's area, and then -- to really seal the deal as best day this week -- once Alex was off to school, Isaac napped from 12:30-3:30.  What what say what???!!!???   Hahahahaha.  As a result, I was able to clean up the house, read my scriptures, AND catch up on a TV show all before any of the kids got home from school.  And since this put me in such a generous and merciful mood, I allowed the kids to earn back screen time this evening by getting their chores done and eating dinner.  And to top our night off?  Jane finished reading Harry Potter this week, so we're watching the first movie for our family movie night.  Fingers crossed that the late night for the little ones doesn't make tomorrow a nightmare for us all...  :)

 Alex is my puzzle boy.  More than any other kid, he could sit and do puzzles for hours.

 Also -- sidenote -- we have discovered that "Quality Time" is Alex's love language.  That and presents.  Hahaha.

 He REALLY wanted to give this 200 piece puzzle a go.

He needed quite a bit of guidance, but he still did a pretty impressive job on the parts he figured out on his own.

 Non-sponsored plug -- I really love these "Crocodile Creek" brand puzzles.  {These and "Mudpuppy" are my favorites for good quality, durable (and fun) kid puzzles.}

Ta-da!

My Teenager

Operation Birthday Photo Shoot 2016: Part Two (of Six) 

I'm sure it's shocking, but my boys were the least excited about our little family photography outing the other day.  Hahaha.  Ethan's birthday was way back in June, and with his celebration came our official foray into the world of teenagers.  Although, I will say -- in my limited experience here -- that "teenager" attitude and angst seems to arrive for my kids a lot earlier than age 13.  The only real difference between 13 year old Ethan and 9 year old Ethan, is that 13 year old Ethan is no longer small enough or light enough to physically remove from escalating situations and place on time-out.  ;)

This first-born of mine has to put up with a lot.  It's not easy being the parenting guinea pig and having to blaze the trail for all the others.  I'm a first-born, too, so I get it.  Hopefully we'll be able to weather these last few growing up years together without driving each other crazy.  :)

Ethan Scott -- 13 years old 

My go-to technology boy. 

He teaches himself to play new hymns each week for Priesthood opening exercises.

Future CEO of Apple.  

{That iPod in his hands was omnipresent during the shoot.} 

I'm pretty sure orange is still his favorite color.

Survivor (the TV show) is his newest obsession.

He does his own laundry.

And he's got a sweet tooth like his mother.  

He's a keeper, ladies and gentleman!  And that's a wrap.  :)

A Tooth for a Tooth

{I expect money from the tooth fairy -- $2 at least}

The Tooth Fairy in this household is notoriously unreliable.  She forgets to visit 90% of the time, and in most cases (thankfully), the kids forget about it, too.  But not last night.  Hahahahaha.  Grace left that post it note on the lamp in their room last night, to ensure we'd be reminded, after 3 days had gone by since she lost her most recent tooth.  I have to say I laughed pretty hard at her chutzpah when I read the note last night, and thought it was the perfect foreshadowing for today's fun-filled adventure with Alex at the pediatric dentist.

{Snuggling with nervous energy/excitement in the waiting room before heading back to get his work done.}

Lots and LOTS of prayers went into prepping Alex for today, and I have to say that going to a pediatric dentist versus a general one, made a WORLD of difference for him.  The waiting room was awesome with lots of over-sized stuffed animals, legos and other toys, and a TV.  Once we went back to get started, we were in a private room, with an iPad for Alex to play on, and "happy" gas help him relax.  The dentist and her assistant were great and clearly very used to working with children.

{The assistant was from Bosnia and had a REALLY thick accent.  Every time she tried to tell him what they were going to do or asked him a question, I could tell he couldn't understand a thing she was saying.  Honestly, I think it was a blessing in disguise!  Hahaha.  Alex's anxiety over even the IDEA of having a tooth pulled was enough to cause a freak out.  I euphemistically told him they were going to "wiggle out the cavity" while we were there, and it was enough to keep him in the dark and happy.}

He was slated for two extractions plus a pulpotomy and crown today, and after getting numbed up, he was good to go.  The dentist said she'd see how he was doing before pulling the 2nd tooth (the one that wasn't actively bothering him), and I was glad to know she was proceeding so cautiously and caring-ly.  To sum things up, he did GREAT at the start -- no problems whatsoever while they were drilling and doing the pulp; not so great at the end -- he started to lose it while they were putting the crown on and things escalated when they got to the actual extraction; but all's well that ends well, and they pulled that tooth out quicker than lightning and then gave him 5 gold coins for the treasure machines.

{We'll just save that second extraction for another visit.}

It took him a few minutes to calm down and stop crying afterwards, but the iPad helped, as did the gold coins (which resulted in 6 ninjas from the gumball type machine), and by the time he heard that his "soft diet" for the next 48 hours could consist of milkshakes and ice cream {among other things}, he was happy as a clam.  The fact that he now has a "silver tooth" (which he keeps calling a golden tooth) and a visit from that Tooth Fairy to look forward to tonight was just icing on the cake.  

{Honestly, that tooth is the most horrifying thing I've ever seen.}

We finished the evening off with ice cream, and once we were home, Alex scampered off to bed, with visions of tooth fairy money dancing in his head.  :)  Now we have another month and a half to recover before he has to go back in and have the EXACT same thing done to the other side of his mouth.  Happy holidays!  Womp womp.  Hahaha.