First week of school

One week down and this is promising to be a lovely year. The Friday before school we went to meet the teachers and check out the classrooms, and while Andi was excited and happy, Sammy realized then that neither Andi nor I would be in his class with him. There were no tears, but some definite chin quivering. I guess when I kept saying, you get to go to school with Andi, he took that to mean like with her in her class and everything, so he was a little nervous. Monday morning I was expecting tears and clinging, but he walked right in to class and never looked back. Andi of course wanted to drop her bag and run to the playground and didn't care to say good-bye at all. I do appreciate their independent  spirits, but sometimes it would be nice to think I was missed for like 5 seconds. Oh well, here are the obligatory first day of school photos.

3rd Grade, Ms. Norris class

TK, Mrs. Katavich class (none of the kids can pronounce that correctly)

So far they both love it. Andi has a few friends from last year in her class, and already loves her teacher. There is some sort of rewards program going on where they earn tickets to use for prizes later, and Andi is a sucker for that positive reinforcement/competition. I can't tell which she likes more, the praise from the teacher, or being able to say she has the most of whatever it is. Either way, it definitely works for her and the teachers love her for it.
Sammy is making new friends, and loves riding the bus. He goes with Andi in the morning and then rides all by himself on the way home and he feels like such a grown up.  He likes his teacher, and playing with other kids, but is still learning the rules of the classroom. Wednesday he jumped off the bus, "Mom, I did something bad today."
M:"Oh really, what did you do?"
S: " I was running in the classroom playing tag."
M: "We probably shouldn't run in the classroom. What happened? Did you get in trouble?"
S: "No, but it made my teacher sad, and we aren't supposed to make the teacher sad so I had to sit in the calming chair for a little while."
M: "I see. Did the calming chair help you settle down?"
S: "No. My teacher said it was a magic chair. But it's not magic, it didn't do anything."

Yep, he was thoroughly disappointed by the calming chair. Hopefully he'll stay out of it.
On the first day of school Andi was a kind sweet big sister and came to check on Sammy at recess since he was also having recess in the Kindergarten area. The next day however she didn't come to see him and he was irritated. "I was looking and looking at her on the playground, but she did NOT come to say hi to me. That was not very nice."  He doesn't like that they are on different playgrounds and that she has other people to play with. He'll adjust.
My mornings at home have become a lot more peaceful. Peter is so calm and happy when no one is around to get in his face and take his toys and bug him. He just roams around getting in to things and occasionally comes and gets in my face and smiles and then wanders off again.

He still isn't walking yet. He takes steps off and on, but isn't too interested in walking with a purpose. He also can't stand the grass on his legs, so he crawls around like Mowgli in the backyard.

So the other night I was doing dishes and thinking, "this is weird, Peter is not climbing in the dishwasher unloading everything as I put it in." So I look around the kitchen to find him and found this.

Yes, he pulled that out of the trash can, and yes I let him keep gnawing on it while I finished the dishes without his help for once. It had only been in there a couple minutes :)
He's also started a new game when it's time to eat. If it's finger food, he wants to feed me instead of himself. The funny part is that he's concentrating so hard on shoving food in my mouth that he doesn't realize I'm shoving food in his mouth and he's eating anyway. It works.

So that is the first week report. Dance and piano and karate all start next week, wish us luck!

Bulkeley Vaca

Sammy has been asking at least three times a week since June when we were going to the lake for vacation. Last week we finally did that. We headed to Lake Siskiyou again with Thad's family and now that we are back all Sammy can say is "I miss the lake house."  It's quite a drive, so we split the journey in to two days on the way there, stopping in with Tenille & Matt for a night. The kids were excited to be on our way and did really well traveling.

 Even Peter was a team player and took a nap in the car, which is pretty much unheard of. He does NOT sleep in the car.

 We spent a lot of time just lounging and hanging out, either by the water or in the house.  Peter loved to sit in the water and play in the dirt.

 Andi & Sammy spent most of their lake time building sandcastles and digging moats with the cousins.

 Peter may look unimpressed in this picture, but he really liked the water.

 There are a lot of girl cousins around, so these three spent a lot of time hanging out together and Sammy loved all the dude time.

 One day Billy & Matt gave everyone boat rides, and even let the kids and grandparents drive.

Cutest Grandparents ever! 

 We took a big family picture in our matching t-shirts one night. Hopefully the group shot turned out better than the one of our little family. This was seriously the best one. Peter was not having it, and Sammy was feeling like a pirate.

We went on a short hike one evening which might not have been the best idea considering all the babies and grandparents, but it was pretty. We had to keep moving, or keep feeding Peter or he wanted to be down in the dirt. Here we are on our snack break. See all those crumbs on his pants? He dumped just as many down my shirt ! lesson learned; no crumbly snacks while being held.

The last night was pretty rough with Peter. Sharing a room with a baby is never fun, but that night he was up a lot. In fact this picture was taken at 4 am after we put on baby einstein to keep him quiet and in his own bed. Longest night ever!

After the night we had I was really dreading the drive home. 10 hours in the car, and only a 30 minute nap, but we made it with very few problems and only one serious meltdown. But I have a feeling that if the older kids ever have to see another baby einstein video they might gouge their eyes out.

We had a good week, but we were all pretty happy to be back in our own beds that night.  And with that the summer is pretty much over. One more week till school starts, I can't believe it's starting so soon. I guess we should start gathering those school supplies.

He's 1

Peter turned One on monday. It seems that with every child the time goes by faster. There are parts of the first year that I am very glad to have over, like the constant spit up, but other parts I'll definitely miss.He has been such a happy guy, a little more clingy to me than either of the other two, but in general just happy and peaceful. At his one year check up he was just over 32 inches long, (again over the 97th percentile) and 21lbs 9 oz(33rd percentile). He also grew 4 new teeth the week before his birthday bringing the grand total to six.

We had the whole family over Sunday for a little cake and ice cream to celebrate, and I think Peter was more interested in the candle then the actual cupcake.

 

 

He did manage to enjoy and eat a little bit of his cake.

Peter also took his first steps a few days before his birthday. He has been hesitant to repeat the preformance since then, but I'm counting it because he took 4 steps in a row a couple of times that day and I even got it on video. But no, I can't post it because I took it on my phone, and the file needs to be converted to something or other. Blah Blah Blah, Thad has to make it work and I don't have the patience to wait for him to get to it.

Here is his last ride in the baby seat. Big boy chair, here we come.

Peter loves his baby einstein these days which has become very helpful when I need to make dinner. But he does not appreciate having his show interrupted.

We've had a couple little adventures recently. Thad has been gone a lot with scout camp, and setting up for girls camp and what not, so while he was gone for a few days I took the kids and went to the beach with my parents. This was my first solo road trip with the three of them, and we did great.  Peter would not sleep in the car at all, but was totally content to just stare out the window and chew on toys.

It was only two days, but it was so nice to get over to the coast since I didn't get to go last summer, what with having a new born and all. The kids love the water, and Andi is getting pretty good on the boogie board.

The kids have been wanting to have a camp out in the backyard, but it's just been too hot at night. We finally gave in one evening and let them give it a try. It started out fine, but didn't last. They realized about 9 that we were right, it was way too hot to sleep outside.

The summer is racing by too fast for my liking, but we are having fun swimming and playing the days away.

Dear Journal

Sammy has me at my wits end a dozen times a day, but has me laughing and amazed equally as often. He doesn't listen to a word I say, and I go back and forth between wondering if I need to get his ears checked, and realizing that he has learned to completely tune out the sound of my voice. For a while I excused him as "easily distracted" but these days I think it's more willful and defiant. If he doesn't want to do something, he won't, and then just say "I forgot" or "I got distracted." Even little things, like go brush your teeth and get in bed. He will literally sit on the couch and look away for 3 seconds, then look back and start talking to me about something random trying to distract me so he doesn't have to go do what he's been told!
Last week he wanted something off the top shelf of the freezer. I told him i'd get it and not to open the door. So of course he opens the freezer all the while telling me he just wants to look at it. I'm standing there telling him to close the door and get out of the freezer and he's half looking at me still telling me why he needs to do what he's doing in spite of what I say, and starts climbing up the freezer trying to get at what he wants. This wasn't the first incident of the day and at that point I lost it. I pulled him out of the freezer, slammed the door, and told him that if he could not listen to me, I would have to give him away to a new mom who he would listen to. Not my finest parenting moment. I was all ready for him to glare and give me a rude comeback, but instead he started crying and said, "Mom, Heavenly Fathers plan is not for families to be taken apart!" It took me a second to figure out what to say next as I realized he really has been listening in Primary and that he counted on that truth. So I  told him he was right, that Heavenly Father wants families to be together forever, but that we have to earn the right to stay together. We have to be good and kind to each other and part of being kind to mommy is being obedient and listening to what I say. He promised he'd try to listen, but our moment of understanding lasted like 5 seconds before I had to remind him that we had just talked about listening.
A few days later we were going through our nightly ritual of sending him back to bed 56 times before he actually goes to sleep. I'm patient the first few rounds, but had gotten to the point where I yell and threaten to lock him in his room if he comes down again. I don't know why I don't start with the locking in threat, it's usually very effective. Anyway, I yelled up the stairs and he whispered back, "But Mom, I wrote a letter to Jesus Christ." Of course I can't be mad about that, even though I really wanted him to go to bed. So I told him to come downstairs and show me. He drew a picture of him and Jesus and asked if we could take it to Him. So I explained that we can't actually drive to Jesus' house and give him the picture. "But, what if we have a hundred gas in the car?" Which is his way of saying if the gas tank is full. So I told him to go hang it on his board in his room and Jesus would know Sammy had drawn a picture for him. "So, can Jesus see through walls?"  Yes Sammy, He can see everything. "But how? does he have special goggles?"  He finally went back to bed and stayed there. And I sat thinking about how Sammy understands gospel truths. He has been told that Jesus was resurrected and that He lives, and so Sam doesn't see why we can't go to his house. He believes prefectly.
A couple months ago, Thad's parent were taking the kids home from a reception for us so we could stay to help clean up. Part way home Sammy asks, "Grandpa, are you running out of gas?"  "No, why?"  "The trees are going by slow. They go by a lot faster when Mommy and Daddy drive."
Sammy was a pretty late talker, and still mispronounces quite a few things. I've never really corrected him because it sounds so cute, but recently we decided it was time for the baby talk to end. My mom was correcting him and he just told her, "Grandma, I know, but that's not how I say it." He's so stubborn!
 He is constantly trying to rough house with Peter, who doesn't appreciate it in the slightest, and pesters Andi out of her mind, on purpose. But then he runs out of swim class all smiles and gives me a hug and says "I just love you Mom."
So I've come to the conclusion that he will probably never behave properly, and always do exactly what he wants to do regardless of what I say, but I won't be able to stay mad at him for it. I think it's that whole "Mother's love" business.

Recital Week and Peter's Antics

Well, we survived recital week again and Sammy made it through his first recital in the audience. It was a long week, but Andi loved every bit of it. She loves being at the theater and loves her turn on stage even more. I stayed backstage with her as usual and the girls are starting to be pretty fun to watch back there. Bonus points to whoever can pick Andi out of all three pictures. It gets hard to tell them apart with the make-up and buns and matching costumes.

After the show with Ms. Cathy.

And Grandma, who is still running the show.

And  the annual Britt & Callie photo op. We aren't dancing anymore, but we are still backstage every year.

I completely missed the whole 11 month photo, but Peter is getting more adventurous every day. We have to lock the water on the fridge door because he can now reach it and flood the kitchen. He can pull things off the dining table now, including an entire bowl of baby mush which he then utilized as finger paint. And he is sneaky and is constantly trying to escape. Luckily he can only get the back door open this far. Then he starts yelling.

 

 He also likes to play in Andi's room.

Bath time is still his favorite time of day.

He's even learning how to use cups. Gross.

Last year our peach tree was pretty small and only gave us a couple dozen peaches, so we decided not to prune it, just let it get bigger. Bad idea. We have so many peaches I can't give them away fast enough. I picked this basket one morning. In case you were wondering, that's 90 peaches!

We've got a lot of something else going on in the garage as well. That is what half a cow looks like all butchered and frozen.

We aren't huge meat eaters, so this is a year or more supply of beef for us, but it is grass fed, hormone free, and a ton cheaper even than costco.

Summer Time Fun

We are less than two weeks in, but summer so far has been pretty amazing. We've got a great routine in the morning where the kids do their chores and practice piano and things like that, and then when Peter gets up from his morning nap we play. We've gone swimming at the grandparents several times already, and love taking pictures under water.

Sammy and his buddy Hudson

Andi all the way at the bottom

Andi practicing her diving skills

Turns our Peter LOVES the pool. We bought him one of these floaties with the shade because it's so crazy hot and no one wants a sunburned baby, but this picture shows how he feels about it.

He just wanted out, and had to be submersed in the water up to his neck to be happy.

Peter also has a few new tricks, like opening doors.

And unrolling the toilet paper rolls.

He keeps us on our toes.  Thad taught the kids a gross and disturbing new past time. Apparently he did this as a child, which makes me second guess leaving the children home alone with Daddy.

Yes, those are flies with string tied around them. How did this happen you ask? Well apparently you catch the fly and then drown it, or freeze it. Either option will stun the fly long enough for you to tie the string, then for some bizarre reason it comes right back and will fly in circles while you hold the string. Sick and wrong.
Onto more normal summer activities. There have been play dates and picnics.

 And pirate birthday parties that just wear you out.

And now we are preparing for the big recital, which means an entire week of rehearsals and costumes and late nights. Pictures to come!