Whining and fighting and complaining! Oh my!

Well, we failed miserably on our goals from last week: to sleep all night and to not complain.  Caroline and I got sick this week with a nagging cough that has made sleep short and not restful.  She sounds far worse than I and it always sounds worse coming from a little one anyway.  She did get a pillow in her bed for the first time tonight in hopes that her head will stay elevated and she'll cough less.  In the past I had always put blankets under one end of her mattress to help elevate her head.  However, every time I did that she would inevitably sleep the wrong direction, elevating her feet and totally defeating the purpose.

Caroline's cough has also somehow made it to her voice box and caused it to be incredibly whiny.  Every time I ask her to do anything, she says in a very whiny, defiant voice, "No! Mommy do it." or "No! Mommy get it."  That and wanting to be carried everywhere, I'd say it has been a rough week.

"Hi, my name is Caroline.  I am not a happy camper this week, but I do love my fabulous red glitter shoes that are several sizes too big.  I wear them all the time and usually on the correct feet (but not today!)."  :)

The boys seem to be fighting more with each other as well.  It started small on Monday as they fought over a bag of baby carrots.  Henry held the bag and handed them out one-by-one to Josiah.  They ended up eating a bunch of baby carrots but I think it was mostly because they were determined to each get the most from the bag.  I finally had to take the bag away from them just to end the feud.  And ironically, when I put 3 baby carrots on their dinner plates they act like they cannot eat all 3.  "I ate one, can I have dessert?"  By the end of the week they were fighting over everything.  Henry seems to think that he can muscle toys out of Josiah's hand instead of merely using his words to ask for said object.  That is our issue with all the kids.  If they would only use their words FIRST instead of grabbing things out of their sibling's hand this would be a much more peaceful house.  I know one day they'll do it.  They will probably be 25, 27, & 29, but it'll happen.  One day.

We brought out a classic and did a little fishing.  Then this pleasant scene turned ugly and now this game, with only one working fishing pole remaining, belongs to Caroline ONLY.

Monday we had workmen come to reattach our bathroom sink to the countertop (under mount sink).  All the kids were fascinated to watch them work.  This contractor man has come over before and is very friendly and nice.  Due to detaching the pipe from the sink bowl, it produced a foul odor in the bathroom to which Josiah announces that the men smelled.  Then he said they were making a mess and it wasn't nice.  So we had manners lessons a lot this week.  (And they even cleaned as they fixed, too.)

Josiah was able to complete his Awana book this week.  At least his leaders signed all the pages.  I, however, have held out on signing his last page because he has to accomplish five days of picking up his toys/clothes, coming to dinner when told, AND NOT COMPLAINING.  He didn't have an issue with any of the items on the list except for the complaining one.  He's going to earn those two remaining non-complaining days and I'm going to love having a couple of non-complaining days around here.  I've contemplated on keeping his last jewels that he'll get on Award night until he completes the book to my satisfaction.  Some may consider that too harsh, but I am not a fan of complaining.  And I do not want to raise a complainer!  This week is Awana store where he gets to spend all the points he's earned this spring.  Being that this is our first time to do this, we have no idea what to expect, but he is super excited.

Josiah has also been humming the Star Wars theme all week long.  He's dressed up as Darth Vader for many of the days as well.  Then he likes to hold out his hand as if he is lifting me up by my neck (from a distance).  I am then to dramatically grab my neck and get on my tippy toes as if he were picking me up with "the force."  Then he tries to move me left or right by moving his hand.  I tell him he doesn't have that much "force" to do that.  I am no ballerina.

This picture brought to you by "Mommy has run out of creamer and NEEDS to have some decent coffee."

Finally, we began the house hunting process this week.  I was so looking forward to looking at houses.  We talked to the boys about proper house hunting behavior: stay with us, don't run, don't touch their furniture, don't get on the beds, don't close doors, look with your eyes, not your hands, etc.  And then we walked into the first house.  All three kids went wild.  They ran all over, opening and closing every door, yelling in excitement, touching the very breakable goblets on the staged breakfast nook table, up and down the stairs again and again.  It was too much.  So after that house (which we didn't care for anyway), we had a long talk as we drove to the next.  House #2 they did much better.  Caroline didn't quite take our conversation to heart, but at least we understand she lacks a lot of self control.  The boys did well until the end when one boy decided to open the homeowner's hutch in the dining room which held all their expensive, breakable China.  By house #4, Todd and I took turns looking around individually while the boys looked longingly at the house from the car window and Caroline shouted "Stairs!" because we all want "stairs!"

House hunting has become our obsession.  It seems Todd and I are on the websites constantly looking for houses, seeing if any new ones are coming on the market.  We are making ourselves crazy and frustrated even though it really has only been a week of looking.  This could have made us (me) slightly less pleasant to deal with which may have had something to do with all the fighting around here this week.  Maybe a little.

So, we are standing by our original goals again: sleep all night and no complaining!  I think I am going to start using the phrase, "use a pleasant voice" a lot.  "Did you talk to your brother with a pleasant voice or did you rip the legos out of his hands?" "Did you use a pleasant voice or did you use your foot to kick his face?" (yep, we had that this week)  Henry has muscle power.  Josiah has agility.  And they each know how to use it to their advantage.

Stop the Screaming!!!

This has been the week of yelling and screaming and saying "NO!" and crankiness from our little darling baby girl.  I think the root of it is a lack of sleep.  Since converting her crib to a toddler bed, she has gone to bed fairly well (fairly), but then she doesn't stay asleep.  She will wake up and come visit us anywhere from midnight to 3 a.m. or 5 a.m.  She doesn't pretend to rest in our bed anymore either.  She comes right out with "Cheerios?" or "drink?" and "TV?"  We have had a week of lots of crankiness all day long.  That, in addition to saying "NO!" to anything and everything we dare ask her.  By Saturday night, I had had about all I could bear of the not sleeping well and the saying "NO!" to everything.  She didn't want to go to bed, she didn't want to stay in her bed, so I gave her one warning which she did not heed.  And then I turned her bed around.  With her toddler rail portion up against the wall, she was confined to her crib again.  We all slept very well that night.  All. Night. Long.  :)

Caroline also likes to just yell and scream.  Some of it is out of anger, some joy, some excitement.  When we go to the library now and she sees a book or video that she recognizes, she will scream its name at the top of her lungs.  "PEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!"  or "KITTTTTTTYYYYYY!!!!!!" (when Henry found a Hello Kitty book) or "CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!! CHOO CHOO!!!!" when she sees a Thomas the train video.  She all of a sudden has no volume control.  At home she often yells, "BUG!!!"  Although when I go to investigate, my typical response is, "No, Caroline, that's just dirt."  I always thought we'd have a clean house....

She loves her babies and her stroller

We ventured to Costco this weekend with all 3 kids.  We will not do that venture again for some time.  Henry and Caroline were just loud.  I finally took them both back to the car.  So this is Henry being punished.  He looks like he's really sad to be in the car.  I think it was more punishment for me because I had to answer 100 questions about what all the dials and buttons on the dashboard do.  "What does this one do?  Can I push it?"

Caroline did crack me up a few days ago.  I was working on a letter and she was sitting quietly next to me taking apart a stack of post-it notes.  Since I was actually accomplishing something, I let her continue with the destruction.  After taking apart the entire stack, she stands in her chair, throws her hands up in the air, and excitedly exclaims, "I did it!"  Yes, dear, you did it.

She also now requests a "tail."  I put her hair in a pony tail the other day just to see what it would look like and she thought it was the greatest thing.  So, now when I ask her to come to the bathroom to do her hair, she will actually excitedly go to the bathroom and say, "Tail!"  :)

Josiah had a very good week.  When he went to Awana on Wednesday, they took his book to see what all he was owed in terms of patches and jewels.  Then at the end of the night, he got an envelope with all his patches, jewels, and hang glider wings.  He was ecstatic.  He started putting the jewels in his hang glider wings the second he got in the car.  Then when we got home, he wanted me to iron on his patch immediately.  I did iron it on and he was beaming.  He thrives on awards like these.

Then on Friday, our last day of CC for the semester, he was awarded with a History Memory Master certificate.  I had no idea they were going to give him that, and he was thrilled.  The students who were total Memory Masters (all subjects) got certificates AND medals.  He thought it was a big deal to get a medal so now he has something to work towards next year.

The boys decided to play pretend a game of "house" this week.  Josiah was "Daddy."  Henry went out on a limb and played the "4-year old son."  Caroline was "Mommy."  And I was cast as the "Maid."  It was all going well until they boys thought "maid" meant total servant.  When I would not cook for them (as maids only clean), the game quickly ended.  Next time, Todd needs to come home from work so he can play the role of "Chef."

We had a good end to our week.  At church today, it was "County Fair Day."  They had a very condensed version of a county fair.  Caroline spotted the Batman bounce house quickly and kept yelling, "Do do do do do do do do Ba-Ba" (her version of the Batman tune).  After eating, she got to go in it and she totally enjoyed herself, but then when asked to come out (by the operator, no less), she smiled sweetly and said, "NO!" and kept playing.  I had to get Josiah go pull her out.

The boys loved the tractor-train ride.  It was driven by our music minister and he didn't mess around.  This was no slow kiddie tractor-train ride.  He would start off slowly until he got to the area of the parking lot with no people and then he would go fast and turn quickly.  The kids were loving it.  Caroline threw a fit when we wouldn't let her take a turn.  She did like her balloon flower, but then she kept banging it on everything on the walk back to the car and by the time we got to the car she had popped two petals and the stem.  She was not a happy camper.

The ropes they are holding were totally useless - in no way a restraint.

So, our goals for next week are to sleep all night, every night.  To say "yes" a little more often than "no."  And to not complain so much (this from a little unnamed boy).

A Memorizing Master!

The day after Easter, Josiah and Henry kept play-acting Jesus going to the cross, dying, being put in the tomb, and then finding the empty tomb.  Josiah, (always our play director), got to be Jesus, Henry was the Roman soldier, and I got to be Pilate.  Caroline got to be the women who found the tomb empty, when she chose to cooperate.  Otherwise, I changed roles and found the tomb empty.  Josiah did this all day long.  It did strike up a lot of conversation between the boys and I about heaven and what it takes to get there (faith in Jesus as the Son of God and acceptance of Him into your life).  This prompted them to have very nice prayers in the evening for people they wanted to see in heaven with them.

Then out of the blue, Henry recited John 3:16 for me and I had no idea he knew it.  ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.")  I asked him where he learned it and at first he said I had taught him, although I  never formally did so.  Then later he said they put it on the screen at church and they say it there.  He knew the whole verse, though!

Since Josiah missed Awana last week, he made up for it this week.  He recited 4 verses, spoke about a missionary couple we know (who they are, where they live, what they do, etc.), and sang the song for all the books of the New Testament.  Then he added another verse at the end that we didn't even go over.  I have no idea how he did that.  He is bound and determined to finish the book.  He has two more weeks to do so and he should make it.  I think all of the memorizing he does for his CC work has helped with Awana as well.  He is very good at memorizing!

Thursday he did his Memory Master at our CC director's house.  He said all of the history sentences to her and she said he did very well.  It is good practice for him to be tested by another.  Next year we'll try to do two subjects and eventually work our way up to all of them.  I think he liked playing in their son's room after the memory master best of all.  He had Star Wars legos and he was very nice to let Josiah and Henry play with all of them.  Now the boys have a new item on their wish list.

Caroline is still not sleeping through the night - we had her visit for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night (midnight to 2:30am); then Saturday night she came in our room to sleep at 3:30am.  She and Henry came one after the other, so they somehow slept next to each other in my half of the bed and I had a sliver down the edge of the mattress.  If she doesn't visit us in the middle of the night, she has been waking up at 5:30 am.  This is at least an hour and a half earlier than she's used to, so she has been a bit on the cranky side this week (as have I)!

Storytime at the library this week had to do with April Showers.  It was rough because Caroline was so tired from waking up early that she was less than cooperative.  Henry is never very cooperative there.  But they did make a cute hat.  It was a rainbow hair hat and they all liked this one.

Hat on backwards, of course, because that is hilarious to all 4 year olds.

Thursday morning we went to a different playground.  It is part of a Memorial Park which has a monument commemorating the different military branches.  I'd know more if I could ever finish reading the information plaque.  Basically it is a very tall concrete monument shaped sort of like the Washington Monument, but with spaces throughout.  There is also an opening so the kids enjoyed going inside the hollow monument, which proved to be a great place to hear their echos.  I knew my children were loud, but now so does the couple that were sitting close to one another on the park bench next to the monument who have probably decided to forego having kids.

Saturday we did the Texas Children's Hospital Fun Run. We had to park off site and then shuttle to the hospital.  They used school buses to shuttle us and you would have thought we had just won a million dollars to see Josiah's excitement over riding a school bus.  They had 3300 participants and they let them start running in waves of 100.  We were in the far back with all the other families with strollers.  At one point in the race you could choose to go the 1K route or the 3K route.  Todd was running ahead with the boys and they chose the 1K.  Caroline and I were running/walking/looking at the scenery together and we chose the 1K as well.  A 1K is only 0.6 of a mile, so I found it quite humorous that halfway through our race they had a hydration station.  Of course we had to stop for water.  Caroline leisurely drank a few sips of the water, and slowly dumped the rest of the water in the trash can before throwing the cup away.  Like any good fun run race, they had medals at the end.  The boys then found themselves in 7th heaven at the buffet station.  Apples, bananas, chips, granola bars, breakfast bars, and fruit rope things.  I think they went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.  And what is better to do after eating all that food, but to bounce in bouncy house rides.  Caroline loved the little bouncy house "obstacle course" for kids her age.  She was beaming the whole time.  The boys even made a Home Depot toolbox at the end.  Henry said it was one of the best days.  We were thrilled that the rain held off because it was supposed to thunderstorm all day and it ended up being just really overcast (which was great for the race).  We ended it with another super-fun bus ride back to our car.  

Not sure why they have glum faces - they were very happy to finish the race and go do all the fun stuff.
They don't like stopping for pictures.

Next week is Josiah's last day of CC for the year.  Not the last day of kindergarten, I have to remind him, just the last CC meeting for the year.  :)

Finally, Todd's parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary this weekend.  That is quite a notable accomplishment.  I'm embarrassed to say I had to go all the way back to Josiah's first birthday to find a picture with both of them in it at the same time (that wasn't blurry)!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Easter!

Caroline had a rough start to her week with a stomach bug.  She was up for several hours early Sunday night and early Monday night.  Then the bug worked its way through her system for the remainder of the week.  She finally seemed a lot better on Saturday.  Her appetite seemed to come back, and to make up for a lack of eating throughout the week, she joined Todd and I at midnight Saturday night.  I laid her next to me and after a while she whispers, "drink."  "You want some water?" "Yes"  So I get her some water.  A little bit of time passes and she leans over again and whispers, "Cheerios."  "You want some Cheerios?"  "Yes"  So I get her a bowl of her Cheerios.  When I hand them to her she points to the TV, so I turn that on.  I drifted in and out of sleep until 2 a.m. when I put her back in her bed for the night.  She was still sitting up, eating and drinking as if it was the middle of the afternoon.

Her sickness prompted me to have her nap in our bed so that I could prop her up on our pillows instead of having her flat on her bed (which seemed to cause her to throw-up at night).  She did that for several days and then started napping on Henry's bed.  She loved the new nap routine.  I wouldn't have minded it if she would only nap longer.  Her 2 hour naps have turned into 1 hour naps and I really need to them to last 2 hours.  That's when we get our phonics and math lessons done without her "helping."  After half a week of no longer napping in her crib, on Wednesday, she decided she didn't want to sleep in the crib at night either.  She screamed (and I mean screamed) when I put her in her crib Wednesday night.  Thinking about it, when the boys were her age they already had a younger sibling who was sleeping in the crib and so they already had their own big boy bed.  Thursday night we converted her crib into a toddler bed and she is very happy with the situation.  She still isn't sleeping long enough, but I remember the boys went through a transition period of not sleeping long as well, but eventually they went back to their old routine.  Her first night in the toddler bed, she got out once.  I put her back and told her that if she got out we would put the side back on and make it a crib again.  She stayed in bed!  When the boys got their big boy beds Josiah got out well over 90 times the first night.  Henry got out about a third of Josiah's number.  Caroline - 1 time.  Girls.  :)

Caroline likes to be a little helper with everything.  After she finishes eating her meals, she takes her plate, dumps the uneaten food into the trash can (before I can save it for the next day), and then throws her plate in the sink.  And I mean throws.  We always make sure to give her plastic everything until she learns to place things gently in the sink.  She's a little nurse to everyone.  Every time someone gets an injury, she goes up, puts her hand on their back and says, "Ok? Ok?"  Then when she gets an injury, not matter how slight, she says, "Kitty? Kitty?"  She has a love for Hello Kitty bandaids at the moment.

She was happy to get her summer shoes this week.  It's been so warm here and putting socks on the kids just seemed cruel.  For her shoe-obsessed self, she has taken great delight in putting them on, taking them off, putting them on, taking them off.  She now asks if she is putting it on the correct foot and will listen to my instructions and fix it if wrong.  She is leaps and bounds ahead of the boys in this department.  Both of them seem to consistently put their shoes on the incorrect feet (and they could care less about it as well).  I am constantly saying, "Switch your shoes."

We did make it to the park one day to test out their new shoes.  It was a huge blessing that Caroline wanted to swing herself.  I didn't have to bend over and hold on to her and the swing while trying to swing her at the same time!  :)  They also love the handicap swing and she insisted Henry push her in that.  They were pals that day.

her buddy

They held hands all on their own.  

The boys dressed up as ninjas for the first part of the week until it got too hot to wear the ninja masks on their heads.  That and their ninja weapons got confiscated for all of eternity after a poke to the eye.  I try to give them chances, but I know the outcome anyway.

Fortunately (?) they moved onto a less aggressive activity mid-week.  I told them to take a potty break and when they didn't return, I found them in the bathroom with water running (for quite a while I imagined) and soap bubbles everywhere.  They were giddy with themselves.  It is exhausting around here some days.


Todd had Friday off from work so we took advantage of it and went to a restaurant that he and I love, Sweet Tomatoes.  It's a salad bar buffet with soups, baked goods, and a make-your-own ice cream sundae station.  We were super happy that all the kids did very well.  The boys loved it.  Henry kept calling it Sweet Potatoes despite many corrections.  He finally said, "I like calling it Sweet Potatoes."  He ended up eating a sweet potato there as well.  He took a bite and said to Josiah, "You HAVE to try this.  It is so good."  They do have amazing sweet potatoes there.  Caroline enjoyed one herself.  The boys had a good time with the ice cream station.  Each chose rainbow sprinkles and a brownie muffin on the side.  I think that sealed the deal with them and they've been asking to go back for just about every meal since then.

Easter morning began at 5:30 a.m. with Josiah.  His early start turned from excitement to crankiness and lots-o-attitude after 2 hours.  It ended up being a very cranky morning, lots of meltdowns and defiance by all.  Fortunately, after about 3 p.m. everyone seemed to chill out and we had a good afternoon.  We made Resurrection Biscuits with the boys.  We let them do the work and I helped some.  I was super happy they turned out because I wasn't convinced they would (because of us not wrapping the dough around the marshmallow and sealing it very well).  We did an egg hunt in the front room.  In addition to regular plastic eggs, I got a dozen of the confetti eggs thinking it would be a good alternative for Caroline who can't have the chocolate.  But they didn't exactly explode.  More like they were cracked and dumped.  Fortunately, Henry was quite eager to vacuum afterwards.  It ended up being a good day as it should be when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.

Resurrection Biscuits - marshmallow in the middle which melts making an "empty tomb"

Confetti eggs

I tried to take pictures of the kids before church.  It was actually lightly raining and cool so we did them quickly.  I have no idea why Henry thought surfer dude was a good look for Easter, but he went all out.  I was just happy that he wore those pants because they were too tight for him, but he sucked his little belly in and said they fit.  Now on my list is "khaki pants, husky size."

hang loose

surfer dude

The kids are really looking forward to next week when we do a fun run at Texas Children's Hospital.  We picked up our packet on Saturday and got our t-shirts and bibs.  I think they're more excited about all the free food and entertainment afterwards, so maybe they'll run faster to finish.

He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed.