Pinewood Derby

JR is working about half this weekend. The boys and I are just hanging out, waiting for a snow storm that is moving in. The timing is perfect, because we are starting to see lots of grass. I am sure this is the warmest January on record. I bet we had 10-15 days over 40.

Today was the long awaited Pinewood Derby for cub scouts. I knew it was a big deal, but seeing it is a different story. Last night I took B's car to weigh it in. It cannot be over 5 ounces and guess what, ours was 5.3 ounces. It took me about 15 minutes to drill holes on the underside to get it at an 5 even. I was amazed at the handful of men I saw that did not even have scouts, but showed up with a car for the open class. They would proudly unwrap their car and put it on the scale. Some men putting in hours and hours. Our pack has the longest track in the state. Quite impressive.

All the trophies....

Every car races in each of the four lanes, times are instantly displayed on the screen and then after each division, standings instantly displayed. We placed 9th out of 13. Worth a blue ribbon though. We got third place in this race (B is the one on the left...)
All and all the boys had a good time and we know more of what to expect next year.

Yesterday the boys were up playing in the playroom. I heard JB start crying. Jbird told me he had fallen and hit his head. I had some stuff on the stove boiling that needed immediate attention, so ran downstairs. By the time I got back up stairs, poor JB had a lot of blood everywhere. Could not figure out where it came from. Got him cleaned up and then saw his tongue. He had obviously bit it when he fell. It was nasty, he could put his finger in it. I know mouth wounds heal pretty quickly and even if they did want to put stitches in, would probably mean anesthesia. Our doctor was not available, so ran him down to the local Urgent Care just to get it checked out and for them to look at his ears (wondering if he had an ear infection). Well, after waiting 1 hour and 45 minutes, we finally saw the nurse practitioner for all of 4 minutes (and $109-thank goodness for insurance)! She did confirm another ear infection and told me the tongue should heal fine. (Later that day was still not convinced so took JB over to a friend's house who is a nurse so she could take a look). She concurred and suggested salt water rinse to try to keep it clean. Of course I had to take a picture...kind of gross so if you don't want to see it below, close out the page now!

Here is his little tongue..disregard the food in and around his mouth. It does not seem to bother him to eat, which is good. Will probably be amazed how quickly it heals....at least I hope so.

Unseasonably Warm

I don't ever recall so many days in January where we were above freezing. We are even starting to see grass. JB and I got out for a walk yesterday without a coat! Seems like it has been a very cloudy winter, so always glad for some Vitamin D. The boys have been out shoveling snow. JB sure enjoys his freedom and loves trying to climb all the snow piles. Here are some pictures from the weekend. I love that they grabbed helmets and not hats (that is not our for sale sign in the pictures).

Pictures

We called a friend yesterday to come over and play. He had the chicken pox and his mom told me he was in quarantine. I told her to bring him on over, I wanted to expose JB. (At his 12 month appt, the nurse practitioner talked me out of the varicella (chicken pox vaccine) because there are becoming more incidences of people getting shingles in their late 20s and early 30s who have had the vaccine. And it is better to be exposed to it than a vaccine anyway.) They came over but I don't know how contagious he was. It was his 5th day and he never had any scabs. His 3 year old sister never came down with them. I guess we will know in 10 days.

Got some pictures yesterday!
Look at this hair...it is so dry and was sticking up everywhere. Yes, I know he needs a haircut but by now you probably know how I feel about haircuts for my kids.

(Trying to enlarge photos...)

The hammer has fallen with B. I sound like a broken record and no way for him to learn. I had a parent teacher council meeting last night. The boys like going because they provide childcare and they have fun running around with their friends. I told B no less than 10 times that he would not go to the meeting unless he did all his homework. After some more prodding and reminding, I quit. You know what happened. Jbird and I were getting our shoes on. The wailing began. He hurridly started some more homework but it was not soon enough. I pulled out of the driveway with him standing in the doorway holding his shoes and crying. I was not taking any pleasure in it, but I knew that he had to start suffering consequences. A lesson was learned, at least for the moment. He has a birthday party tonight and he has already been told before school that he would not go if his homework is not done.

Last night at the meeting, the superintendent was there to talk about an upcoming mail ballot bond that the school district is sending out. The last two years an attempted mill levy has been voted down by tax payers. This time we are trying a bond, of which 2.1 million will be interest free. (Just so interesting to me as a home owner now and a child in school, I never really paid much attention to these things before). They are looking at renovating B's current school and building another elementary school, making it 3 in our community. The new school will be 4 blocks away, so close enough to walk. They are also looking at changing it from K-3 to K-4, as some parents have requested. The superintendent mentioned some pro educational reasons for changing it...will be curious to find out more about those. The only down side, with the location of the new school, the middle school, intermediate school and high school will now be all within a 2 block radius. All I think of is a traffic nightmare! The vote has to happen before first of March. If it passes, might be open for 12-13 school year to the tune of 12 million.

My beloved, precious middle (impulsive) child struck again. We were sitting on the couch, close enough that our legs were touching. I was on the phone and the next thing I knew he had taken an orange crayon and traced his hand on the couch. After trying several things, including a hot iron and paper bag (which I have been successful with with candle wax but it did not work with crayon, I turned to google again. WD 40. Who would have thought, but it took it out.

The other day I came to a stop sign and hit my brakes. Heard the ABS kick in and I started sliding. It was a slight decline and a truck was coming from my left. I locked eyes with him and put my hands up to let him know nothing I could do about it. I braced myself for a low impaction. At the last second he was able to steer around me. I ended up in the middle of the cross street. Yesterday I was on a 2 lane road which has a high speed limit. Noticed a car on oncoming traffic weaving in and out. Sure enough some idiot young drivers trying to pass people. They passed as my car approached and I had to hit my brakes so I would not hit them. Then the driver had the audacity to flip me off. I started ranting to no one in particular then decided I was better off praying for them before they killed themselves or someone else. Then this morning, it was still dark out and two deer crossed a couple of yards in front of me. So thankful for God's hedge of protection on us right now!!

Quiet weekend ahead. Meeting my pinochle gals for coffee and cards early in the morning. 7:00 is not too early for cards, right. Then maybe if it is not too cold, we can try sledding or ice skating as a family.

Speech

Spent the day at home with the younger two. For about half an hour I worked out as I would pick up the boys and throw them onto the bed. They would run back for more so I was flipping and tossing them all over the bed. JB is quite the rough and tumble little kid. Jbird stacked up two bean bags and then created a slide with our floor mats. JB would quickly climb up and slide down head first. He has started running at his brothers trying to knock them over. Of course they just love it until someone gets hurt!

Ever since Christmas break, the school district's computers have had a virus and been down over 2 weeks now. They have taken care of the virus but I guess it is taking much longer to rebuild the computer system. Sure is reeking havoc on things. Grades were suppose to be sent home today, they can't check out library books, not able to keep up with everyone's account in the lunchroom, teachers who routinely communicate with their parents can't. Amazing how much we come to rely on computers and how much easier it makes our life. Our teacher actually sent home a hand written note the other day.

JB had another good session with speech therapist today. We have a caseworker through another agency that follows JB's progress and makes sure we get the help we need. She sat in today with JB and the therapist. She was amazed. She said that the therapist makes JB work for everything. If he starts grunting or using inappropriate signs/sounds, she tells him she does not know what he wants. She will only give him one thing at a time to work with (everything else is put up so there are no distractions). She put some crackers in a see through container and made him say more and open before he got any and repeated the sequence several times. She sometimes has to work with him for 20 minutes before it starts to clicks. He is overgeneralizing. When he gets a sign down, he will use that sign for everything. She says his will somewhat plays into the lack of communication but she is starting to wonder if the issue is word association or symbol related. Once things start flowing he does pretty well, but it is trying to get him to connect words with certain signs or sounds. He will use the right sign over and over but then try it the next day, and he can't get it and gets frustrated. She says she still needs more sounds from him for her to be certain of the direction they need to go. I tried the clear container with goldfish crackers. He repeatedly did the sign for 'more', even after watching me several dozen times show him the sign for 'open'. He finally lost interest and threw the container. Sigh..... I also thought it interesting that she said kids at this age should not be shaking their head yes or no like he is...and he almost always uses it appropriately and very intentionally.

A friend is taking the younger two tomorrow while B is in school. I am heading over to a friend's house and at some point we will go have lunch. Hopefully I will still get home early enough to have an hour or two at the house without kids!

Had a great overnight this past weekend. Ended up being three of us. Ate lots of good food and great conversations. I was totally bummed that the recreation station was closed for the winter. Sure would have been nice for them to include that on their answering machine. Oh well, just means another trip I will have to make. The boys all survived just fine without me. Means they are getting old enough for mom to sneak off more often????

Just another week of finding more things to get rid of. We are trying to maximize our space since B needs a study/reading area. We are not setting him up for success if we continue to make him study with the other 2 screaming and running through the house. We have several options, we just need to consolidate some more and create some quiet areas on our home.

JB has now mastered the shaking yes of the head. He does not do any other signs. He makes a noise, you look at him and he just starts shaking his head. Precious little guy. Got all of B's 7 year old jeans out! I did an extra load of sheets today and unbeknownest to me, I washed a book, a paper back book. A huge mess, almost worse than a pull up. I have also washed a boot before. Glad that one came out okay.

Will try to upload some photos soon.

Had a good birthday yesterday. I headed into town with Jbird and JB. We ran some errands. This was the first time I have really gotten out and ran errands with the kids since JB was up and walking really well. JB was so proud of himself. He would not let me take his hand at all. I would try to grab it and he would grunt and pull his hand away. He had the biggest smile on his face as he would pass people and they would comment on how well he was doing. Of course Jbird was able to hold his hand in the parking lots, but not mom.

While we were in town, we saw a fire truck from our community with their lights on. I thought, mutual aid, must be a big fire. So, with nothing but time, we followed it. (At a safe distance and we did not break any laws.) Fortunately it went straight out of town on a long road, so even though we got stopped by lights, we never lost sight of it. Turns out, it ended up in a nice subdivision where there were large lots. (I originally thought that maybe mutual aid was needed because it was a big fire in a neighborhood with lots of complexes and danger of fire spreading. However, no smoke was ever seen on the horizon). There were 4 fire trucks and probably 2 police cars and definately no fire. As we turned around and left, we saw 2 more fire trucks heading out there. Curiousity got the better of me and I called my police officer friend Buffy. (Yeah, she is not buff but boy has she been known to tackle the biggest of them). She had missed the first part of the situation on the radio and was not sure. She assumed it was either a gas leak and they had back up just in case or a meth lab had been discovered. Anyway, a little bit of excitement and Jbird was disappointed but thankful no one was losing their home.

We went to the mall and ran into a friend and her son. We played with them and then all headed off to a late lunch together. While we were eating Jbird told me he had to go to the bathroom. We headed off and Jbird wanted to go in the men's bathroom. (Sometimes, depending on where we are, I will send Jbird and B in together). Jbird headed off into the men's bathroom before I could really get to him. I stood outside the door and waited. A gentleman came by with his daughter and they went in there. A few seconds later, the dad opened the door and asked if it was my son. I said yes and he told me to go ahead and come on in. So, I was standing in the mens restroom with a father and his daughter just praying that another man would not come in. Poor guy would have been so confused.

I think the best birthday present I got was B showed me his 100 on his spelling test. I was so excited. We have worked really hard on his spelling. The last 2 tests were somewhat of a disaster partly because we did not work much on them.

Every night I pull out the clothes for the boys for the next day. That way they can get dressed on their own. I had unknowingly pulled out Jbird's jeans for B to wear. He put them on and they were well above the top of his socks. Other than the length, they fit him. He decided he did not want to take them off. So, I let him wear his high waters to school.

Headed out of town today with some friends for 24 hours of no-kid time!!!!

We have finally hit the double digits! Woo hoo. Amazing how warm 14 feels. Supposedly some snow is headed our way, which would be nice for some sledding.

John was over yesterday playing with Jbird. John, as is Jacob, is almost 4. Now, my boys have been doing some things for themselves since they were 18-24 months old. John just cracks me up because I will ask him to do something and he will tell me he does not know how. It is like an automatic response for him. So yesterday we were getting ready to go pick up B from school. I walked past the boys and told them they needed to get their coats on. J told me he did not know how. I very nicely said 'yes you do John, you just need to try.' As I walked up the stairs I heard him mumble something to Jbird. I did not know if I heard him right so I very nicely asked 'what did you say'. John's eyes got really big and he said 'nuthin'. Then Jbird blurted out, he said 'you were really rude'. I just wanted to laugh. He must think I am the meanest person making him take his plate to the sink, put on his own coat and shoes.

Yesterday we were driving in the car and I had told B I forgot to do something he asked me to. He said 'I hate to tell you this mom, but you have a bad memory.'

(For those of you that tend to get confused by which kid I am talking about (my family...), I have listed the three of them in the left sidebar for you to refer back to if needed. I know J (or Jbird) gets confused with JB. My blog is basically a public blog, which means anyone could stumble upon it. For that reason, I wanted to keep it a little anonymous, just in case. (Unfortunately the world we live in these days) Therefore I try not to mention where we live and the actual names of the boys...hence the initials.

Everyone is in bed, so will organize a few coupons while I watch a movie. Off to town tomorrow for groceries - what is usually a bi-weekly trip. Friday is an early release day and maybe it will be warm enough to sled!

JB's interactions

The boys are really starting to have fun with JB, now that he is on his own two feet. B wanted to sleep with him the other night, so I gave it a shot. They did great. It took JB a minute or two to realize it was bed time but he settled right in. We have put a lamp beside their beds and letting them read for a few minutes each night. Amazing how quickly the guys will settle down on their own. JB loves to look at books too in his crib. B is now tall enough to get JB out of his crib and Jbird loves getting JB out of his high chair. Jbird has also been putting on JB's diaper and pajamas at night.

Just yesterday JB starting shaking his head yes. Even without words, he has not even been shaking his head yes or no. It all clicked for him now. He is using the sign for 'more' and 'drink' appropriately. I am working on the sign for help and please. It is amazing how much easier things are with just one or two more words.

Jbird's friend John has been spending about 1 day a week with us. His mom has started working but it is on a as need basis. Thankful for the distraction for Jbird and a little extra money for me. We watch him from about 8:15 until after 5. The boys usually do great until about 2 or 2:30 pm. The other day I heard one of them say 'well, I don't love you' to which the other reply 'well I don't love you either'. Then it got quiet and one of the boys said 'well, you like me don't you'. Just love to listen to them.

I am continuing to work on the house. I still like my schedule, especially the laundry schedule. Everything else in my house gets hit at least every 2 months. I have been threatening for a long time to get rid of toys and finally decided it is time. Now I just need to find the few missing parts and then I hope to have a Craigslist party - saving up for the increased gas prices that are coming - hoping they don't keep me from my road trip this summer.

Tried all day to download a video of Jbird but to no avail. I am tired but will try again in the morning.

Toilets, Homework, 'Arnin' and Responsibility

Yesterday I walked into our bathroom and was a little surprised to see the toilet seat down. I know we have small boys but with Joseph liking to play in the toilet, I try hard to have the boys put the lid down. I went to put the lid down and then realized why it was up. Someone had colored all over the lid. Funny how they thought if you raise the lid, mom will never know. Then I looked around and saw the black permanent marker. Frustrated! Dealt with the culprit and then tried to clean it off. Grabbed my bottle of spray cleaner and paper towel - no luck. Grabbed the spray cleaner and scouring pad - the color lifted a little but also smeared/scratched it. Then I turned to the trusty Google. I found an easy solution for getting permanent marker off of heavy plastic. I thought close enough to porcelin, or whatever it is. The remedy was to take a dry erase marker and trace over the permanent marker. Use a dry cloth and then a wet cloth and presto it is gone. No presto. Looked even worse, like a huge cover up. I walked away for a bit, came back and tried straight bleach - nope. On a whim, grabbed my Comet - bingo. Took it right off, no scrubbing or anything. Almost as easy as wiping up water.

I have printed off some handwriting sheets for Jbird. Just one word, his name. But boy, is he ever proud of his doing 'homework'. He is almost able to trace the dotted line perfectly.

The weather is changing here. The high on Monday is suppose to be -5 (yep, a negative number for the high). This past week we were out enjoying the 'warm' weather. We have a fisher price basketball goal set up outside and it never got brought in before it froze to the driveway. Since it was warmer, I was determined to chip away at the ice so the rest of it would melt and we could move it. The boys brought out 3 pitchers of hot water and about 30 cups. They poured and poured, to no avail. At one point Jbird walked up to me and said
"we are 'arnin' God".
One more time, what was that Jbird.
We are arnin God. You know, God does not like snow and ice on the driveway so we are arnin Him.
Then it hit me, he was talking about honoring God. It was more that they were honoring me by obeying/helping me, but to honor me means to honor God too. They are catching some of what is being taught.

The thing I am really trying to focus on is responsibility. I don't know if it is the age, the fact that they are boys, the fact that I am not the most consistent or maybe they inherited some of it (probably a little of everything) but my boys are having a hard time with responsibility. A friend gave me the Love and Logic book on tape and have been listening to it some. They are right on when they say responsibility can't be taught but it has to be caught. Learning how to phrase things in such a way that gives them power to make choices and learn the responsibility instead of unintentionally tearing them down with our words. (Although I am a huge propopent of kids failing and learning from consequences).

Will see how we progress. Maybe instead of reading books in the tub, I can just move the CD player up there and listen - wonder how easily I could take notes :-)

Rolling along

I put on jeans today...meaning I have been wearing the same ol sweats for 3 days. So that means a lot of being home! Just getting out to take B to and from school. The weather this week has actually been just above freezing, so finally able to chip away at some of the ice up near the door. Being home trying to get JB back on a nap schedule. There were a few days that he did not nap at all, even though we were home during nap times. Thankfully he was not too grumpy without them.

Jbird's throwing up was obviously a one shot deal, thank goodness. Health seems to continue being the constant right now in our house. JB went to therapy yesterday. I talked with the therapist some more and she still does not think he has any weaknesses, but he has not given her enough sounds for her to know for sure. Seems that they are still the same 10-20 sounds. Some of them are not intentional though. He is getting better about using a few signs, although you can see his reluctance at times.

Quiet weekend coming up. I am hanging out with some ladies from the church on Friday night, making handmade greeting cards. Then JR is running shuttles all day long on Saturday, probably long before sun up to long after sun down. I am teaching B's Sunday school class this weekend and then anticipating JR to take the boys out to go shopping for my birthday (at least I can hope right :-) ). For the first time ever, I am planning my own birthday celebration. As a present to myself, me and 3 or 4 friends are going to do an overnight (an hour away so I actually get out of town), go eat at one of my favorite restaurants and hit up the local recreation station. We will play laser tag, do batting cages, ride go-karts, etc. As crazy as it sounds, I really enjoy doing those kinds of things, being a kid. At least that is the plan for now. With all of us being moms, I hope all of our kids stay healthy.

My schedule

I did not realize how much I needed and enjoyed my schedule and routine. B went back to school today and I have been more productive this morning then I have been in the last 10 days. I am gonna have to really get things organized for spring break and summer, cause I sure need my structure. As do the kids.

Woke up at 1am this morning to Jbird throwing up. Woke up feeling fine. Not sure what that was all about. Because I did not know if it was flu or anything, I had to cancel my dentist appointment. Darn it. My filling will just have to wait :-).

Busy putting up all the Christmas stuff, getting out Jbird's 4 year old clothes and JB's 18 month old clothes. They are growing too fast. I even noticed the sweats B had on this morning were starting to get a little short.

The sun is out and you don't realize how long it has been, until it does finally come out. A cloudy winter thus far. Off to finish some more work so we can get outside in a little bit!

New Years

New Years Eve was just way to exciting around here. I decided about 6:30 that a trip to Target was in store, so I left everyone on the floor watching a movie. I had some coupons that expired that day and a few things I could stock up on. I bought about $21 worth of toiletries and only paid $2 plus change. Then I headed to Wal-mart. Again, great time to go because not many were out. How nice to casually walk the aisles. I was home before 9 and all the kids were asleep. I proceeded to take a bath and was asleep around 11:15! I heard the fireworks but never saw them.

This morning we went to a friends' house. The boys played and played. We stayed for lunch and cake for dessert. When we got home I wanted to try a new recipe.

Any ideas what it was...definately a white sticky mess. Jbird and I licked the bowl and beater while B decided to pass after a few licks.
Homemade marshmallows. They have not 'set' yet, but the creme was really, really good and not as sweet as I had expected. Maybe we will have to dip them tonight in some chocolate or caramel sauce. Nothing like a huge sugar high right before movie and a bed.

Looking forward to all the things God has in store for us this year. May not be what we expect, but definately what He expects.