Henry, Oh Henry

My little buddy loves to collect things. Very random things. I knew when I cleaned out our mud room cubbies he would be in his element. Captured is Henry wearing his dad's helmet band, a headlamp, a hammer and a golfing tee. 

Not sure if these items speak more of his interesting fashion sense or of my exotic collection in my mud room cubbies. 

Kids rule the world

Maybe not the world, but it's impressive when a 2 year old determines your day. May and I just dropped off Lily and Harrison at school and instead of going inside to tidy up the kitchen after breakfast we are sitting in my van. May's  favorite activity as of late is to play in my van. Pushing all the buttons, opening doors and appearing confused when the child safety lock prevents them from opening over and over. All the while I sit nearby slightly bored and knowing there are breakfast bowls needing to be rinsed and cereal needing to be swept off the floor. But at least now I can blog about it. Yeehaw!! 

First day of school (A week late!)

Lily 4th grade!!

Harrison 2nd grade!!

Preschool and turning the big 0-2

This momma was hit hard in one day by proof of babies growing up too fast. Henry was off to his first day of preschool AND May turned 2 years old. On the same day. Tears. 

Henry was my first stay at home baby.  Despite working from home for his first 1.5 yrs he never went to daycare. A college girl babysat him a few hours a week during my work from home stint. He got a lot of mom's attention!  Anyhow, I was worried about him and it was for nothing. He did great. Big smiles going and big smiles coming home. 

May's birthday was pretty low key. Grandma Kim and Grandpa Roger visited for her birthday which is always nice.  I made her some cupcakes and she was sung to about 100 times that day. So much she started singing it (as best she could).  She got some trucks, books and I'm going to decorate her bedroom since she never really got any decorations at all. Since birth. 😁 

Waiting for kids

I'm currently sitting in car pool line waiting for Lily and Harrison to get out of school. Usually I walk to their team door (Harrison's at least, can't be two places at once although that would be soooo nice) and walk home or to our car with them. But they are happy with the extra independence of meeting each other and walking the back trail to my car (where I wait with all the other parents).  And now I can blog while doing so!  

Not to exciting of a post but I'm over the moon to have the easy access of the app!  And can blog as easy as posting to facebook! 

First time blogging via app!

The hardest thing about not blogging for so long and actually keeps me from blogging, is that I have so much I need to write about.  It gets overwhelming.  But I will take a deep breathe, in through my nose, out through my mouth and...blog.

Right now, Randy and I are in bed watching The Voice.  He's eating ice cream while I blog.  What I love about us is that we just laughed (I laughed until I cried) about something so silly...I was staring at him thinking about what I was going to blog and he caught me staring and was taken aback thinking I did something to his ice cream.  So that probably isn't funny to anyone else but we just cracked up for a few minutes.  So yeah...what was I saying?

This past weekend, Randy was pretty sick with a virus.  Like contagious (higher fever for 2+ days) and self quarantined himself to the basement.  This virus struck earlier in the week with May and hit Lily but not as hard.   It was a hard weekend with May being 18 months old (which I know because she was being such a pill for days-yes she was sick-but this went on for longer than her sickness, and because my kids don't hit age 2 and turn terrible, they like to hit that milestone early at 18 months!) and Randy being out sick.  But it's Monday and we all survived and Randy is better!  He's even eating ice cream. Haha.

Henry received his birthday present from Grandma Sherry in the mail.  A brand new scooter.  He's pretty excited.  So is the 18 month old.  Can't wait until she tries riding it outside on the sloped driveway.  Uh huh.

Lily is the homework champ.  She has until every Friday to complete a 1 page worksheet and practice her spelling words but she does them immediately after school on Monday.  Since I am a HUGE procrastinator, I am in awe.

After school, Harrison read me his literacy library books, did his homework and tried out a new math website on the "big computer." And before May's bedtime I planned to read a few Dr. Suess books since it's Dr. Suess week, but Harrison requested to read them.  Yay!!  Love his interest in reading.  He's really improved this year and went up a few levels just from December.  Happy! Happy!  Happy!

And now, we have a quiet house.  Everyone is asleep.  Maybe not Lily.  She likes to read for a very long time before bed.  Sometimes I feel like I should make her stop reading to get to sleep but that seems wrong.  Occasionally if shes reading an really great book she'll come into my room and have to tell us about it.  Then we might suggest she get to bed and continue reading tomorrow.  But again, love when my kids love to read.

So I'm outta here.  Hope to blog again soon!!

cool new toy

Happy Halloween

I know we're missing a baby but I can't manage to upload a photo from my phone.

My new camera is AMAZING! Take a peek and see for yourself...

A strong man with his little beauty

Don't tell Henry this is what happens after he's in bed

Daddy and May time

Sweet daddy  kisses for baby May

May May, 6 weeks old!

May Picture!!

Quick picture of Miss May!!  I got a new camera so I have many more!  I'll upload more when I don't need to choose sleep over blogging. :)

May (AKA Hannah) is a whole month old today

Four weeks today!  Little Miss May is 4 whole weeks old.  As Henry says "Wwwwhhhhaaaaatttt, nooooooo????"  She is getting chubby cheeks and she is stretching out her legs.  She is opening her little fists more often.  She still holds in her legs, tucked under her butt, when I pick her up.  I need to capture that on video...I find it soooo precious.  A week ago, she was watching me while I was talking to her and she SMILED.  A few times.  Then she did it for Randy (who thought I was making it up) and she had another smiling session the next morning for all the kids to witness.  She melts Harrison's heart because he always says "Awwww" anytime she makes a cute face.

For the past 4 weeks, Henry has called his new sister "Hannah."  Prior to May's arrival we practiced taking care of a baby doll that Henry named "Hannah."  It was very sweet since his occasional babysitter this past summer was named Hannah.  But when he visited the hospital after May was born and when we introduced her as May, he said "No, Hannah."  He has called her Hannah ever since.  I try to correct him and he stands firm.  So firm, occasionally I have called her Hannah!  Well, at least he loves his "Hannah" and is frequently doting on her.  Maybe too frequently. :)

Harrison's missing tooth

Harrison lost his first tooth!  His tooth has been "loose" for approximately 2 years (or so he thought!).  It had been pretty loose for about a week before it actually came out.  He said it hurt so he didn't work on it as much right away.  Finally one day it was hanging on by a thread.  I offered to yank it but he wouldn't let me.   While we were all watching tv one night he called out "MOM!  It's out!" I knew immediately what he meant and I ran over to him to see him holding a tiny, little tooth.  He didn't like the blood but he was soooo happy and excited.  The tooth fairy delivered him three sparkly dollars.  He immediately spent the money on legos.

I'm here, really here!

Hi!  I was enjoying a few quiet moments after Randy took Lily and Harrison to school, Henry was watching his tv show and May is sucking her pacifier while in her swing, moments before shes due to eat again.  Oh wait, you might be asking Who's May?  Haha...it's quite unbelievable the major life event that has happened since before I last blogged!  But everyone that reads my blog already knows about our new little bundle of joy, May Violet.  Since my few extra moments were really spent trying to get into my blog (they tend to change settings more frequently than I blog) I don't have long.  But I will leave you with 2 fun pictures...

My husband rocks

I'm slightly delirious from sickness but my husband does really rock.  My new job doesn't come with any sick day benefits.  Can you believe that employer?  I'm not flu sick or strep throat sick which is probably the only time I would have really called in sick to work anyway BUT it's not rainbows and butterflies trying to care for children all day while having a hacking cough, throbbing headache and hardly a voice.  My voice is better than yesterday but most times I say something the recipient asks me to repeat what I just said. Understandably since I sound like a drunk with a 50 year smoking history.  But it takes effort to talk.  So when I have to say it AGAIN I usually give up.  It's just not worth the exertion.

Back to why my husband rocks.  He has to work.  But he left work early to come home and help out.  And he ordered me straight to bed.  I wandered around for 5-10 minutes because I wasn't sure what to really do with myself.   I mean, there are 3 hungry kids around.  But he kept ordering me until I finally saw the light and  realized how great this action was going to be.

What mom has time to be sick anyways?  At Christmas time??  With hardly any shopping done???  

I'm holed up in my bedroom (if kids knew I was actually laying in bed no rest would be happening) but I can hear Randy cooking dinner.  And whistling.  Did I mention he rocks?

Side note: Harrison has a pretty bad habit of yelling "MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME QUICK!!!!!!!" and my inner track star comes out but I'll find Henry sitting nicely on the rocking chair in his room.  Harrison is totally correct that I don't want Henry unsupervised on the chair; however, I've started encouraging him to describe the scene to me before completely freaking me out.  I mean, if I hear "MOM, COME QUICK!!!  IT'S HENRY" of course I imagine he crawled up the wall and is caught in the imaginary ceiling fan.   Instead of the boy who cried wolf, this has been the boy who freaked his mother out 10 times a day.  Since this mom was forced to lay in bed, guess what I just heard?  "DAD, COME QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and Randy's pounding footsteps as he ran down the hall.  Guess our lesson on describing the situation will continue.

Another thing I have to mention....he not only made dinner but he's also emptying and filling the dishwasher.  Love that man.

Brotherhood

The joys of brotherhood include Harrison teaching Henry new things.  Harrison teaches Henry new words almost daily, usually things like "truck" and "trains".  It always melts my heart when I hear it.

Today I overheard another language lesson while Harrison and Henry were in the bathroom.  Harrison was finishing up his bathroom duty while Henry was waiting for his bath.  Harrison said "Henry, say junk."

Yep, joys of having boys.

To note-we have always called our body parts the appropriate names.  "Junk" is a recent discovery and I believe it was learned from his father.

Sick kid. Elf with pointy legs. Fitting title.

Lily is home sick today.  I don't think she's really sick.  She has a constant runny nose and is mopey but no fever, thankfully.  She's had her fair share of fevers so it's nice (?) to just have a cold.  And apparently, having all 3 kids at home with one constantly demanding more toast (the sick one) is when I find time to blog.    Harrison is enjoying Lily's sickness since this means he can watch tv with her.  Henry is quiet too.  As I typed that I got scared and now I can confirm his quietness means he is watching Thomas the Tank Engine on the portable DVD player.

Other news around our house...our Elf on the Shelf, Will, arrived last Saturday.  This is his 2nd year with our family.  Last year was great.  This year started great.  Will's arrival included a fun breakfast of sugar- complete with doughnuts, marshmallows, chocolate milk and hot chocolate.  He even brought fun straw glasses where the chocolate milk swirled around the kids' eyes and ears.  And yes, they were made for kids. Not college students if you know what I mean.  And no, I never used one as a college student.  I was way more sophisticated than that.  I used Randy's 3 story beer bong.  Once.

Back to Will, our Elf.  Let's just say he lasted 3 days before he started scaring the you-know-what out of Harrison.  Apparently, his elf legs creeped him out.  They are sort of long and pointy-ish.  So Will took this to heart and started hiding in spots that hid his legs.  It didn't work.  Yesterday, Will was in a large vase on the highest book shelf in OUR room.  The day started fine with all 3 kids saying Hi to Will.  But things went down hill fast when Harrison was left alone while I rocked Henry to sleep for his nap.  Harrison would normally hang out in my room and either play a x-box game or watch a show.  When I came out of Henry's room I found Harrison lying on the living room floor.  Just lying there.  Bored but scared.  He didn't want to go into my room since that scary elf with the strange grin and even stranger elf legs was there.  Staring at him the minute he walked into my room.  So we decided I would move Will to the bathroom.  Well, you cannot touch the elfves.  Or they lose their magic.  Will needs his magic to fly to the North Pole nightly to report the good (and bad, imagine that!) behavior, fly back home and hide in a new spot (preferably one so we couldn't see his legs) and watch how the kids' behaved.  So I carefully moved the entire vase into my bathroom.  Harrison was happy.  He didn't use my bathroom again but that is fine with me (he is a 5 year old boy with a 5 year old aim).

I wish our story ended there but it doesn't.  Will was instructed to return to the North Pole and never come back.  Per Harrison.  We settled on asking Will to watch our family from the North Pole and not come back to the house for a while.  So this morning Will wasn't here.  Harrison was soooo happy and relieved.  Lily, on the other hand, was devastated.  She cried and cried.  So much that Harrison decided Will could come back tomorrow.  Oy!   Will, the scary Elf on the Shelf with pointy Elf legs, saga will continue I'm sure!

Guest blogger

I am going to introduce you to a guest blogger. She is very creative and loves to write. She is a darling and I'm happy to introduce her writing to you.

Stay tuned....

lilys post

this is lily. i love mommy and daddy and fandml too. daddy is backinn panckas. but i am not eatin tham. i am eatin eggs. Harrison is eatin them tho. nevrmid i eat tham.

it is litin out sid. it is ranin out sid rile hrd. the deck is rele wet. our deck is rile wet like a putl.

ckewes are gren.