Dreading It

True Story.  I don't think Jane's hair has been brushed out since before Christmas.  Instead, the top layer has occasionally been "smoothed" over the ever-growing rat's nest at the back of her head as the weeks have rolled by.  It started innocuously enough with a skipped day or two of working out the tangles before bedtime, but as time went on, and the tangles grew tougher, Jane became less and less inclined to take to the brush and things REALLY got out of hand.  

 {Taking her time picking out which fake nails she wants the most.}

Sometimes we'd throw it in a ponytail to hide the whole mess, and occasional attempts were made to brush the top layer out -- with the hope of giving the appearance of a well-groomed child -- but more often than not over the last several weeks, her hair has been wild and free and subject to lots of comments from lots of people.  I'm not exactly sure how dreadlocks are created, but I think if we had waited any longer, we would be finding out very soon.  Hahaha.

Seriously though.  Part of the reason it took so long to getting around to combing out the knots was because I knew it would take SO very long and would be so very difficult.  Clearly, Jane can't even handle brushing out minor tangles.  Brushing out the matted, frizzled, interwoven nest of hair that was taking over the whole back of her head was going to be pretty much more than she could handle.

 Pictures don't even do it justice.

 Like for real.

Nevertheless, I finally reached the "enough is enough" point over the weekend and committed to doing something about it.  And since I'm not above bribery, I convinced Jane once she was home from school yesterday that I would let her pick out a prize at Walgreens for letting me work on her hair.  Once we were at the store -- where we also purchased some combs and brushes and other styling accouterments -- she skillfully and successfully negotiated a couple more prize items, and we all left happy and excited.

 Watching cookie decorating videos and playing on a phone helped to keep her somewhat distracted from the torture.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get right to the task at hand due to such hindrances as dinner making and toddler watching, so it was bedtime before I could sit down and focus on my Herculean quest.  We started at 7:30 and after two hours, many tears, and a LOT of shed hair, the work was finally finished.  Poor Jane.  She kept saying over and over that she never wanted to do this ever again!  She was so tired and it was really hurting and it took SOOO long.  But she was a trooper and we got it done!  I kid you not, though, that when I started I was seriously concerned that her hair was past the point of no return and we would have to do something drastic like take a razor to it.  Thankfully that was not the case and I was able to work some actual magic in getting rid of her rat's nest while staying patient and calm.

  Poor little red eyes.

{I had her sleep in braids to keep her hair from getting matted all over again.}

My work was still not done, however, as I'm sure you can imagine the state of her hair after it had taken such a beating.  It was too late to tackle last night, but this morning we kicked it into overdrive when I threw her in the tub before school and shampooed and 3-minute-miracled her hair, then blow-dried it so she wouldn't freeze, all after hitting the snooze button twice this morning and getting myself and everyone else up late for the day.  Perhaps my biggest accomplishment of all was that she didn't even miss the bus!  She made it out the door in the nick of time, with a hastily thrown together lunch of crackers and granola bars, and a half-eaten protein bar for breakfast.  It was all good, though, because Jane's hair was silky and smooth for the first time in months.  ;)

Now, if only she'll stick to her resolution to brush her hair every night before bed and every morning when she wakes up!  Hopefully, this experience was traumatic enough to prevent her from walking this same path ever again.  Hahahaha.  :)

 The prize -- fake nails.  (Along with an emoji lip balm and some gum.)

Grace's Braces

It's a new dawn, it's a new day!  Grace finally got her braces on this morning.  She didn't really want me documenting the event, but I think it was a case of her protesting TOO much, because she certainly didn't shy away from the camera all that much afterwards.  And I think when all was said and done, she was kind of excited about her new status.  And for the record, I think she looks adorable with her cute, little brace face.  :)

 The Before smile...

...and the After!

Dinner Helper

After Christmas, I decided it was time to add Alex into the chore rotation.  Since there were only 4 zone/assignments currently in the mix, I had to come up with a new chore combination so that Alex could be included as well.  The newest addition involves the Dining Room as a zone, and Dinner Helper as the assignment.  But before you start to think, WOW!  What a house of order you have!  Rest assured that chores are hardly ever done around here, and the only person who's been excited about the idea of being the Dinner Helper is Sophie.  Hahaha.

Which brings me to my point for tonight's blog post.  This week was Sophie's first week with the task, and boy was she excited.  She's had a couple of recipes bookmarked for weeks now in her library cookbook, and tonight we tackled "BBQ Chicken Skewers."  It was a little time consuming to prep all the stuff (including a homemade bbq sauce), but they turned out really tasty and everyone enjoyed them!  Sophie was adorably excited and proud to make them and serve them up. :)

 Before...

...and After!

Now if only ALL the kids would be this excited about making dinner for me every night...

Shoo Shoo's Turn

You want to know what's pretty much impossible?  Getting Isaac to stay still for a photo shoot.  Hahaha.  On Saturday afternoon, I attempted to FINALLY get the sugar bear's 1 year birthday photos taken.  It was difficult to say the least.  I wouldn't say that any of the pictures I managed to get were the money shot I was looking for, but I'm realistic enough to realize that this was as good as it was going to get.  ;)

With that in mind, here comes...

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

 Isaac Gordon -- 14 months old

 He loves climbing up on anything and everything.

He's not a huge fan of sleeping at regularly scheduled times. 

 He's finally becoming attached to his lion.

{All the heart eyes for those curls, though!}

 He's the slowest teether of all my kids -- as of right now, he's only got two on the bottom and four on the top.

 He thinks he's a lot bigger than he actually is.

 He can say mama and dada.

Just in the last week, he's learned how to sign "water" and "all done"!

 He LOVES music.

We discovered just this afternoon that he's allergic to peanuts.

 I'm also pretty sure he's allergic to tree nuts.

He loves m&ms.

And finally, he hates taking baths.

And that's a wrap!  I still can hardly believe it's been over a year since he was born.  It's so cliche, but they grow so fast... 

January Doldrums

January is the worst.  At least to me.  Once the holidays are over and and we're back to the regular grind, life just seems a little anti-climactic.  Ya know?  While it is easily my least favorite month -- and I really just want winter to subside and sunshine to rain down -- life still goes on, and I can't let the rest of January go by without documenting SOMETHING of what everyone's been up to.

So, with that in mind, enjoy the following smorgarbord of goings-on amongst our crew...

• Ethan is on a quest to buy an iPhone 7.  He has charted out a plan to save up his money (because we will NOT be buying a $600+ phone for him) and if everything sails smoothly, he should be able to buy one by the end of June, JUST in time for our next Road Trip.  In other news, he has started his daily news elective this semester at the junior high and has REALLY enjoyed producing and anchoring the school's daily show.  He has also enjoyed configuring his very own green screen for use at home.  Hahahahaha.

 (June 31st seems like a good target date...)

(Green screen courtesy of my fabric hutch.)

(I took him on a date to the mall to visit the Apple store for "research purposes" and his day was made even further with this virtual reality thing that was set up in another store.)

• Grace is also on a quest to buy an iPhone, but the details of her plan are a little more fuzzy.  As in, I'm not sure she has a plan, and I haven't heard her bring it up in a few days, so hopefully she'll just hang tight with her iPod touch and let the phone go.  Wishful thinking I'm sure. 

(Unrelated, but this is the result of her cleaning out and organizing all her junk in her closet.  I'd say she has a healthy supply of hand sanitizer, wouldn't you?  Hahaha.)

• Sophie's big excitement this month was qualifying for the school spelling bee!  She (along with all the other classroom winners in grades 4-6) competed a couple of weeks ago for a chance to move on to the district bee, and even though I know she REALLY wanted to win, she managed a very respectable 4th place and was the last 4th grader standing.  She has also been on a big kick of checking out cookbooks from the library, and is super excited to be my "dinner helper" next week when we will hopefully be successful at making the BBQ chicken skewers that she has bookmarked for her experimentation.

(I found this cute little "All About Me" project in her backpack the other day.  Apparently it was from the beginning of the school year.)

• Jane, meanwhile, has had fun working on her 2nd grade "Timeline" project, featuring 3 prominent/noteworthy events for each year of her life, complete with pictures.  As with Sophie's project two years ago, the blog books came in SUPER handy while filling out her worksheets!  Her other big excitement this month ALSO involves school -- next week she gets to be the Star Student in her class!  She has been happily working on her poster all afternoon and evening and can't wait for Monday to bring it in.

• As for the Lover Boy, Alex has been extra busy gaming it up these days.  Between Mario Kart on the Wii, and all the other board games and card games we've gotten over the last couple of months, he is constantly on the lookout for someone who is willing to play with him.  And since I'm the one who spends the most time with him, that lucky someone is often me.  ;)  But only if the baby is sleeping.

(You gotta love a Kindergarten project trying to teach kids about civil rights.  Alex's fill-in-the-blank "I have a dream..." idea for something unfair in his life that he could try and make better, was "'No Junk January' is unfair to me.  My mom could make it better if she let me have candy.")

• Which brings us to our cute little Baby Godzilla.  Hahaha.  Or maybe he's more like a baby Pterodactyl.  Whatever hybrid he might be, he is one BUSY little boy.  The name of his game is seek and destroy, with a healthy dose of "I do what I want, whenever I want" on the side.  This kid has a mind of his own and he let's us KNOW it.  Seriously, though.  It has become impossible to do anything other than keep an eye on him when he is awake.  And since he only naps once a day, and only for a couple of hours, you can imagine how much stuff is falling by the wayside.  Like dishes, and laundry, and leisure time.  Hahaha.  He's a cute little stinker, though, and even though he is the WORST sleeper, we still love him.  :)

 That little rat!!!  He spent half the night in our bed last night -- which looks super comfortable for him, not so much for us.  Haha.

• As for me and Scott, we're doing our best to to juggle all of life's responsibilities while still making time to actually see each other every once in awhile.  Haha.  Seriously, though.  Between work, kids' school stuff, church activities and meetings, and doctor/dentist/orthodontist appointments, there are some days that feel like we're two ships passing in the night.  To counter-balance this, my Christmas gift to Scott this year, was a scheduled calendar of monthly date nights from now until December.   The highlight of January to ME, was a Symphony date right after New Year's. Even though I was so tired I was almost falling asleep at the end (the baby had been up half the night before), it was still such a treat to go and do something out of the ordinary. 

And that's all folks!  Hopefully your month has seemed less doldrum-y than ours.  ;)