The one where he bled all over the library

This week is book fair week at Connor’s school, and tonight was a special event called Literacy Night. We made an outing of it, and had fun playing games, seeing friends, listening to the principal read a story, and of course shopping at the book fair.  If there is one thing I love, it’s a good book fair.

Since this is a school wide event, the book fair (set up in the library) was absolutely packed.  I ran over at least 4 small children while trying to maneuver Camryn’s stroller through the throngs of people.  And I nearly knocked over a sweet little grandma, too.  We had just made it to the picture book section (which was all the way at the back of the room), when I felt my elbow knock into something small and child-like.  I’ll admit I was a bit relieved when I realized I had elbowed my own child.

The relief was very short lived as I saw the blood start to run down Connor’s face.  Here I am, by myself with 3 small children in a room absolutely packed to the gills.  I’m trying to get Connor to hold his hands under his nose, and for the love of all that is holy, can you please not blow out of your nose in order to get a better look at the blood? Logan is pulling on my arm to show me the book he found.  And Camryn is pulling the books off of the table and onto the floor, but not before putting each one in her mouth.   I realized there was no way that I could get everyone out of there quickly, so I gave Logan instructions to stay right there and keep and eye on Camryn.  Big brothers sometimes have to take on that kind of responsibility.  I started steering Connor through the crowd, and thankfully, one of the teachers realized our predicament and hurried ahead to get some paper towels.  We got the bloody nose under control fairly quickly, and Logan, in a all-star big brother moment was standing with Camryn exactly where I had left them.

Never a dull moment, I tell ya.  Never a dull moment.

I think that maybe it was all a big scheme set up by Connor in order to score the $24.00 “Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary”.  It’s good book fair etiquette to buy any of the books that your children bleed on.

Yet another post about boys

There are 8 kids in my backyard right now.  6 of them are boys.  Needless to say, there is some serious roll playing going on involving light sabers, bazookas, and army men.  There were a few girls over, too, but they quickly retreated to our neighbor’s yard.  There was definitely too much boy going on for them!

I’m sitting in the kitchen, keeping and eye and an ear on what’s happening.  I happened to look up from blogging just in time to see Logan moon his friends.  Awesome.  They of course laughed and laughed, so of course Logan had to do it 2 or 3 more times.  I was just about to give the “we don’t moon our friends” lecture when he was distracted by an incoming explosion and had to hit the dirt.

The other day, Logan and Camryn were playing together in the backyard.  Camryn was hanging out in her favorite backyard spot.

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Logan informed me that he was going to play hide and seek with Camryn.  He carefully chose his hiding spot.

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“Where’s Logan?” I asked her.

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There he is!

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She got such a kick out of this game.  I just love seeing her play with her big brothers!

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Now that it’s almost 5:30, I’m going to have to break up the boy fest in the backyard.  Makes me just a little bit sad and almost wish it was still summer and they could play outside to their heart’s content.  But, alas, first grade is calling and there is reading to be done and dinner to be eaten and baths to be taken and bedtimes to stick to.   So long, sweet summer.  We’ll see you next year.

Boys, Part Deux

Logan is crazy. The boy never stops from the moment he wakes up until the moment he crashes at night. I don’t think I truly understood the phrase all boy until Logan came along. He is no stranger to accidents, and pretty much always has multiple bruises and scrapes with no idea how he got them.

So when Connor and Jake (our neighbor and one of C and L’s favorite people in the world) rushed into the house and informed me Logan was bleeding and crying, I didn’t really panic. I calmly walked into the back yard and peeked over the fence into Jake’s yard to see what was up.

It was a real doozie, one that led me to hop the fence, which is definitely not something I’ve done in many, many moons. Logan was sitting in the grass with Jake’s mom, bleeding fairly profusely from his nose and crying like I really haven’t heard him cry before. I’m not really clear on the details…nobody really saw what happened…but, Logan basically did a face plant from the top of Jake’s swing set/play house thing (probably about 6 feet high). What Logan was doing on the outside of the fort part is anyone’s guess. Nobody (including Logan) has any idea what exactly what he hit his face on. But my poor Logan bug…he is a mess! His poor little nose and mouth are all swollen. According to Doctor James (my brother), there is a good chance he broke his nose. Not much we can do about it…just wait and see how it looks in about a week and go from there.

Of course I made Logan take some pictures. I don’t think the pictures really do it justice. But you can definitely see his unhappiness at the entire situation.

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Poor Logan.  Boys…farts and face plants.  Pretty much sums them up!

Boys

I took the kids to the park this afternoon.  This was by far my favorite conversation between the boys.

Connor: “Hey Logan.  Smell my butt.”

Logan: Leans in and sniffs.  “Ewwww!”

Seriously? Such boys.

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When I told Derek about this little brotherly exchange, he simply looked at me and said, “well, are your surprised? How is that any different than a fart circle?”

And then I remembered that game I used to play with my little brother where we would draw a circle in the carpet, sit down in it to fart, and then smell the ground.

Yet another example of how the apple does not fall far from the tree.

And, just for the record, my brother and I no longer draw fart circles when we see each other.   We are much more refined and have graduated to the “pull my finger” game. 

Always, Sometimes, Never

I always stay on top of the washing, drying, and folding of the laundry.

I always sing hymns in my head if I can’t sleep.

I always read for a few minutes before going to bed.

I always drink an iced latte with breakfast.

I sometimes put the laundry away immediately.

I sometimes spend too much time reading blogs.

I sometimes get up early and go for a run.

I sometimes wonder if we will have another baby and when that might be.

I never flush if I pee in the middle of the night.

I never go to sleep without peeking in on all the kids.

I never get tired of hugs and kisses from my family.

I never eat or cook green peas.

And so it goes

It’s the beginning of the school year.

Know what that means?  Germs.

Since all three are going to school, it’s like a triple dose around here.

Friday afternoon, Camryn started running a fever.  Friday night was pretty miserable (for the baby and the mama), and Saturday I debated back and forth all day about taking her to the urgent care place.  See, I’ve always had this “rule” that I don’t rush to the doctor’s office.  9 times out of 10, it’s just a virus, so I usually wait until day 3 of fever to go to the doctor.  Well, that was until I had Camryn, Little Miss Every Time I Run A Fever, I Have An Ear Infection.  Of course, she has tubes now, but I just wasn’t sure…luckily we’ve got Dr. James, my brother, to consult with on the weekends.  The verdict?  Wait until Monday, if she’s still sick, go see the doctor.  By Saturday night, the fever was gone, and by Sunday, she was back to normal. I was so glad that I didn’t spend all day Saturday in an urgent care clinic getting exposed to who knows what.

Monday everyone was healthy.  It was such a tease.

Today, Tuesday.  I send Connor of to school.  Logan, Camryn, and I go to the gym.  We go to playgroup.  Logan is totally out of sorts, crying about the littlest things, and eventually asking to leave playgroup, which never happens when he is with his bffs.  He nearly falls asleep in the car on the way home, which never ever happens before 4 p.m.  I carry him in and discover he is running a pretty good fever.  I’m so glad I could expose the maximum amount of children this morning before realizing he was sick.

Logan chills out on the couch with his fave show, Max and Ruby.  He really needs a nap, and the tv vegging just isn’t working.  So at 2:0o, I lay down with him and get him to sleep.  At 2:15 the phone rings.  I ignore it since I don’t want to risk jumping out of the bed and waking Logan.  Plus, it just feels good to lay down.  ( I played bunco last night and didn’t get home until 11:45.  Someday I will remember how hard it is to live it up like that, although it was worth every tired minute today!)  At 2:20, my cell phone rings, and I decide I better go see who it is.  I laughingly think to myself it would be sort of funny if it was the nurse at Connor’s school.

Guess what.  It was the school nurse.  Connor was in her office, not feeling well, and running a low grade fever.  With only 30 minutes left until dismissal, and since he really didn’t have a fever yet, the nurse and I decided that he could stay there and ride the bus home like normal.  I was so thankful when the nurse suggested that! I was dreading having to wake up sleepy Carmyn and sickie Logan to go pick up Connor.

Connor gets home and is clearly not feeling well.  By 5:00, he had a real fever.  No school for the boys tomorrow.

That’s just how it goes sometimes.  So much for bible study and shopping with my Kohl’s coupon tomorrow.  It will be a chillaxed movie day instead…which really doesn’t sound too bad.  And hopefully whatever they have will be as short lived as it was for Camryn.

I still scrapbook

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a scrappy post, and it’s definitely about time.  While I don’t scrapbook as much as I once did (I think it was 2003-2004 when I literally scrapped 5-7 pages a week), I still bust out the old supplies every once in awhile.  And every time, I wonder why I don’t make more time to be crafty.  I truly love this hobby, and now I’ve been at it long enough that I can see how fun it is to go back and look at the old pages.  I’m going to make a resolution to scrapbook more.  I know it’s not really the new year, but c’mon…it’s September and that is pretty New Years-ish in my book.

So, in honor of the revival of scrapbooking, here are a few pages I’ve created recently.  And by recently, I mean in the past 4 months.  Not really that recently, but whatever.

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sweetgirl

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sweetestbond

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And, I also just have to say, if you are a scrapbooker, you’ve got to check out Paper Trunk’s newest release.  The Krafty collection is amazing and so fun to play with!

shiny happy me

My mother-in-law called today and pointed out that I haven’t blogged in awhile.  That’s not the only reason she called, but she is right that I’ve been on a bit of a blogging hiatus.  It’s been about a week and a half, but I think in grandparent time, that’s like going several weeks without seeing pictures of the grandbabies!

Well, we all know what a people pleaser I am, so I’m blogging.  It finally cooled off enough that we were able to take the kids to the park last weekend.  Connor struck this pose for me.  He is really growing up!  He is absolutely loving first grade, and I am just so thankful for his little mind that absolutely loves to learn.

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Logan struck this pose for me.  He is as full of life as ever, and I love that he is wearing his sock monkey shirt.  Don’t tell him, but Derek and I call him our little sock monkey…there is a striking resemblance…

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And Camryn let us all know when she was all done with the park and ready to go home.

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Speaking of Camryn, this is one of her newest things.  You can ask her “where’s (fill in the blank with anything under the sun)” and she does this.

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I love it.  She is just getting to the most fun age!  She gives kisses on command.  She claps along with “If You’re Happy and You Know It”.  She says uh-oh, mama, and dada.  She loves to read books, and has been known to dance along with any music playing.  She loves to play with toys, and does her best to get into anything and everything.  She is turning into a full fledged toddler and I love it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the baby stage too…but I honestly prefer toddlers.  They are way more fun!

In other news, last weekend our 20 year old hand-me-down refrigerator began to go kaput.  It could either keep things frozen or keep the fridge cold, but not do both.  So we took advantage of the good Labor Day sales, and this beauty is now in our kitchen.

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I didn’t know I could love a new appliance so much!  The kids seem to like it, too.  Connor is fascinated with the water dispenser and the fact that we can lock the control panel on the front.  He compulsively checks that it’s locked by pressing the water button, which means I’ve wiped up more than a few puddles off the floor.  Hopefully the novelty of that will wear off soon, or I’ll just remember to lock it every time.  Yesterday, Logan opened and closed the freezer like 10 times, just to look inside.   Derek and Camryn are pretty ambivalent.  All Cami cares about are that her magnets are within reach, and all Derek cares about is if it cools everything appropriately.  Whatever.  Don’t rain on my shiny new appliance parade!

Funny Connor quote…”mom, before we got that new fridge, we were fallin’ apart here!”  Cracked me up.

Other than park time and the new fridge, we are just busy settling into our school routine.  Summer is fun, but man do I love the start of the school year.  It’s such a refreshing change of pace!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and to the grandparents, I’ll try to get my blogging back on track!

Independent

Logan’s been going through a bit of an eating strike.  He snacks like a pro…it’s the actual meals where he has a hard time.  We have a family rule that everybody must eat one bite of everything on their plate before being excused.  Logan is famous for saying “I don’t like this!” having never tried it before.  Drives me crazy!

So last night was especially bad because I put…oh horror of horrors…squash and zucchini in our chicken spaghetti sauce.  Both boys were carrying on and moaning and groaning about it.  Connor is pretty good about trying things.  I don’t know if he would admit it, but I think he actually liked the zucchini.  But Logan is a different story.  He carried on and on, complaining an whining up a storm.  Derek, in what I think he thought was a moment of parenting genius, informed the boys that when he was a kid, if he didn’t like dinner, his mom would say that she was not a short order cook, and if they didn’t like what they were served, they were welcome to make themselves a peanut butter sandwich.

So what did Logan do?  He jumped at the opportunity and made himself a sandwich.

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He was quite pleased with himself.  I’ll have you know that Mr. I’m Not Hungry ate every last bite of that sandwich.

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And he’ s so cute…little Mr. Independent…it was hard not to smile about the whole thing.

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I’m quite certain that when Derek told the “when I was a kid” story, he didn’t actually think either of the kids would jump up and make themselves dinner.  That just goes to show that we’ve always got to be on our toes with this one!

(And, just for the record, I still made him eat a bite of zuchinni and bite of chicken.  Mean mama.)