The Plague

Well, tonight didn't go as planned at all because, as one of the boys quipped, "The plague is upon us." It seems 2/3 of the team has contracted the pest that makes mothers everywhere cringe. Oh yes. We got 'em...or at least 2 of them did.

What you ask?

Lice.

OMG, lice.

We spent the night de-lousing all of us (because the family that de-louses together, stays together), washing pretty much everything, and doing all of the other fun that comes along with it. I may also have spent some time rocking myself in the corner, but I got over it. lol.

It seems that the shampoo is doing its thing, which is all we can ask for at this point. Fingers crossed!

Friday Five

Today is my last day of vacation, and I go back to work on Monday. I have to say that this whole having everybody in school for the last two weeks of my summer break thing has been pretty awesome. I got SO MUCH DONE! lol. It's amazing what a person can do with a few hours of uninterrupted time during the day. 😊

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Weirdest call of the week: school secretary called to say that one of the boys "may" have swallowed a pebble. (Because OF COURSE. Sigh. I have NO IDEA why he'd think that would be a good idea!) We have never received a definitive answer as to whether the rock was actually swallowed from the child in question, and he seems fine, but man. That was not a call we were expecting. lol

(We have been given repeated assurance that there will be no more rock issues. We shall see.)

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This has been a relatively good week for the boys at school! Jack's class uses a program called Class Dojo to keep track of student behavior. It is so neat to be able to check on him throughout the day and see things like "On task!" and  "Complementary/Helpful" and "Respectful" on his behavior log. The big boys' teacher is using a clip color chart. They are excited to earn tickets for their behavior which they can add in a drawing that their teacher does each week. So proud of our trio! They are happy with their teachers, too.

Can't complain about that!

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This week we experienced a milestone of sorts around these parts. Deodorant is now our friend. I am both happy (yea, less stinkiness!) and sad (my babies are growing up! sniff, sniff) about this development.

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I took a FB quiz that asked: "How Much Sleep Have You Lost From Having Kids?"

Well, I'm not sure that it is entirely accurate when you consider some of the things we've encountered on our parenthood path, but it was kind of funny seeing the results.

Apparently, we've lost 9,900 hours, or 416 days, or 14 months of sleep.

We changed somewhere over 17,820 diapers.

We've read upwards of 894 bedtime stories.

We've sang 13,320 lullabies (probably more...we sing a lot!).

Sheesh. No wonder we're exhausted! LOL!

Friday Five

The boys' first week of testing is in the books. This week the focus was on Language Arts. Math is up next week.

We're so proud of both the boys for trying their best. Way to go, boys!

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The awesome week at school led to a Target trip so the boys could pick out a toy. They were super delighted to see that the Cars 3 toys were out on display! June can't get here soon enough. They can't wait to see the new movie!

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He said he felt sick. I told him he was fine. He came back like this.

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Jack has his first appointment at the eye doctor next week. He didn't pass his school vision screening in one eye, so we are going to go have his eyes checked. (Of course, Shawn didn't pass his school screening either, but the ophthalmologist said the results from the school screening were waaaay off, so this doesn't necessarily mean his vision needs correcting. We shall see.) I don't know whether he'll need glasses or not, but I know he's going to be super cute either way. :)

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We were SO excited to find this little beauty in the garden this afternoon!

We've been growing our artichokes for nearly a year, so it was pretty neat to see some fruit for our labor!

Not Exactly the Way We Imagined It

Today was the boys' 100th day of the school. They didn't have anything special going on, thankfully, but it was noted in class today.

Nevertheless, Jason took it upon himself to do a project anyway, although I did tell him that doing something special wasn't necessary. He scoffed at that, of course, and came up with 100 hives all over his body as his contribution. Our boy is an overachiever it seems.

From what I can tell, I think this is from the color drops I put in his bath water last night. He wanted orange water, so I ended up putting in two different tablets to achieve the desired effect. Sigh. It looks like that we will have to say goodbye to the cool color drops...even I have hives today, and I didn't sit in the water. Bummer.

Anyway, Jason is on the mend, if not a tiny bit itchy. He's being lathered in creme and taking Benadryl to help him feel better. I did tell him to ease up on the overachieving next time, though. ;)
 

So Proud!

We recently changed insurance, so we've had to work our way through appointments to meet the various doctors the boys have. Unfortunately, all of these appointments are quite a way from where we live, so the entire time away from our house due to driving, traffic, waiting, appointment, and return takes upward of 6.5-7.5 hours. Today we had another such (ha - Freudian slip. I actually wrote "suck.") meet and greet.

 

The boys were awesome and so well behaved. They handled HOURS of waiting like champs. They talked to other patients and were their charming selves. I was so proud of them!

 

We took them out for a late lunch at a restaurant as a reward. They were so excited!

 

We let them pick out whatever they wanted from the menu. Shawn chose spaghetti and French fries. Jay chose mini corn dogs and fresh fruit. (Who are these kids? So not what I would have expected!) Isaac also ordered a "pizza dip" appetizer that both kids loved, too. They even ordered dessert! We had so much fun talking and sharing food.

I remember a time not too long ago that taking the boys out to a restaurant on a good day would have been a challenge, and we would have NEVER attempted to do anything after a doctor appointment. They were so afraid of doctors that we'd all leave an appointment spent and drained. I am not exaggerating when I say that I would dread upcoming appointments for weeks because they were so bad. (In their defense, I can totally understand why they were so afraid of doctors. That knowledge didn't make it any easier to experience, though.)

Today I sat back and marveled at how much our dynamic duo has matured. I'm one proud mama!

It's TIme

I've finally decided it's time.

I didn't want to think about it, so I've tried to push this milestone out for as long as possible. I've duct taped it back together. I've repeatedly tightened screws. I've ignored the decreasing space available. (It's down to less than 10 spare inches left!) I've done everything I could, all in an effort to postpone the inevitable--moving Jack out of the crib.

dum, dum, duuuuuummmmm....

I wrote those words and I swear I heard a crack of thunder not too far off in the distance.

The kid's got so big so fast, we actually had to bypass moving him to that pretty new toddler bed waiting for him in the garage. (Bummer) So Wednesday afternoon, our lovely friends from Amazon will deliver brand new bed frame, mattress, and sheets. I also ordered some wall decorations. I figure we might as well transform the whole room while we're at it.

When we do things, we go all out. ;) Now all that's left is figuring out some way to keep him in his room all night. I doubt wishful thinking is going to do the trick with this one.

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I mentioned to the big boys that I was thinking about redoing Jack's room to transform it into a big boy room. Somehow, the conversation drifted into talking about a transformation of their own room.

Now that these two are older, this kind of thing gets more complicated. Gone are the days when I can just make the decision and go for it. (Bummer) Now they have all these opinions and want to express themselves and stuff.

Expression gets a little tricky when you have two very distinct ideas of what is wanted in a room that must be shared.

Tonight we brainstormed. The boys came up with these possibilities:

• dinosaurs (which includes a volcano wanted by one and not the other)
• robots
• bugs
• airplanes
• police cars
• race cars
• planets/stars
• superheroes
• flowers
• our family (I am not sure how this one would work!)
• books and sight words

Now I have the mission of coming up with something that would work based on their ideas.

We plan on voting tomorrow! Fingers crossed that they can decide on something together. If not, I may end up just drawing a line down the middle of the room and calling it a day. Of course, that means two different decorations...

Ack! Why did I even start this?!?!

Raising Boys

This list of things the author wished she knew about raising boys had me nodding my head all the way through. I found them all accurately described my trio (especially #4 -- oh jeez, number 4!), but I do believe she left something off her list...

11. A boy's love of dirt runs deep.

It doesn't matter if there is only a two inch square of dirt available within a thirty mile radius, boys will find it and make sure they are covered with it in five minutes flat. Forget about keeping clothes, hands, or faces clean if they venture outside. No trip outside is without a dirt bath. Shoot, forget about keeping clothes, hands, and faces clean if they stay inside, too. Boys have an amazing knack of dirt improvisation. Markers all you have handy? Well they are great decoration tools. Leftover sand from an abandoned shoe? That's perfect for driving matchbox cars through. Crumbs? Dribbled spit? Just about anything will be incorporated into their brilliantly dirty play.

Really, all you can do is suck it up and invest in plenty of soap. :)

*In the end he decided the dirt needed to be put into his pants, hair, and shoes, too. Sigh.

School Daze - Homework

The boys finally got their first homework packets on Tuesday. This week they are a collection of workbook sheets, a page of letter tracing, and a page of drawing.

 

Jason was ecstatic about the chance to do Homework!

 

"It's so fun!"

 

"It's the best thing ever to do homework with mommy!"

 

I'm sure you get the idea on his sentiments. lol. Tuesday night, he got right to work.

 

Drawing his pictures.

 

And loving every minute of it. :)

On Wednesday, both boys sat down to do some homework. Jason loved working on his homework once again. Shawn, the one I was worried about, thankfully had some fun, too.

Circling the square.

"Is this a square?"
Yes. That's a diamond! (A square on its side.)

You did it, Shawn!

We figured it's never too early to get Jack used to this whole homework thing. He had to work on his coloring.

Deciding if he really wants to use pink.

Yep. He did.

Homework is fun!

Jason practiced drawing circles and did some letter writing.

Adding missing circles to a snowman picture.

See? He needs circle buttons.

He worked really hard on this page.

It didn't take long, though, for the whole homework thing to lose its appeal for Shawn.

Daddy? Are we done yet?
Make it stop, please.

We called it quits not too long after that picture was taken.

After yesterday's homework success, I was all jazzed about attempting homework tonight. Let's just say that it didn't go well.

At. All.

It was Drama for both of them (and me).

I suppose the fact that we had two out of three positive homework attempts is what I should focus on right now, but I just can't help but be glad tomorrow is the Friday, and we won't have to think about homework for a few more days.

They (fine, I) need to recover before we do this again!