Pinata Madness

Recently we went to a birthday party and when we arrived a pinata was sitting on the counter waiting to be hung and hit.  Drew saw it before I did and went straight for it pointing and signing "Help."  I told him he couldn't have it and he gave up eventually.  When the time came to hang it up, I was just sitting Drew in his portable highchair to feed him while we watched.  He completely refused to eat and was trying to get out of the highchair.  When that didn't work out for him, he tried standing up with the highchair attached to his bottom.  I gave up on feeding him and set him free.  That's when the really strange thing happened.  He took off running toward the pinata and grabbed a plastic sword lying on the ground on the way.  As soon as he had the sword in his hand he was swinging it in the direction of the pinata.  No one had swung yet, so how did he know that's what you were supposed to do.  He threw the biggest fits when I had to take him inside so he wouldn't get hit by the bat.  He refused to stay out from underneath it.  I made sure he got a turn, and he hit at it all he wanted once it was busted open and the kids had ransacked the candy.  He did finally get it out of his system, but wow he was obsessed.

Baby Jail

Can't put this guy down unless you are watching him like a hawk!

Brian came home early one day last week right as I was waking the boys to go pick up the girls from AHG.  So I left them with Brian even though he needed to mow and do yard work.  I suggested baby jail when Drew woke up.

My Little Superman

 Isaac loved his new "Clark Kent shirt" so much that he just had to wear it to soccer even though they were going to be indoors since it had been raining.  I thought he would be hot, but the "coolness" factor prevailed.  Drew has a matching shirt too, but he is not easy to get a picture of these days.  You know, unless he is trapped in the pantry or sitting in his spilled milk.

At a field trip to the nature center, Isaac raised his hands to comment after the leader had been describing the color of the turtle's eyes.  He said, "I have hazel eyes, but my mom says there is a little gold in them."  This got some chuckles from the moms in the back of the room.  When I told his daddy about it, Brian shook his head and said, "We're gonna have to do something about that."  He thinks he is a Mama's Boy.

Excuses, excuses!

 I have been really having a hard time keeping up with my blog lately.  If I don't write things down really soon after they happen then I usually can't remember them later.  This means that if I get so behind that I haven't even been getting notes down in my drafts that things get lost forever.  I don't like that, so I am going to make a concerted effort to get back in the business of daily blogging.  Not to make excuses, but to give an idea of what I have been doing instead of blogging, here is a picture history of the last few weeks.  Not that I haven't been posting at all, just not much, because I have all these projects going that I keep waiting to post about until I am finished.  Instead of waiting for total completion, I will post the pieces.

Redoing my bathroom took two weeks instead of the one weekend I intended to spend on it.  I had to put plaster/Sheetrock on all the walls, sand it, prime it, and then paint it.  It took longer than I thought and I will get a better picture up when I have a chance.  I love it though.

Of course, I have been schooling as always.  Things are going pretty smoothly, especially since I stopped rushing them and just laid out consequences for wasting time.  They have to pay me (through chores) if I have to spend time teaching them outside of our regular school hours.  No stress for me this way.  I was stressing because I had a million things to do, but now I know that if I have to spend extra time teaching them because they messed around that they will be doing those chores that I was anxious about for me.

All Saint's Day is coming up, so the mad rush to sew the costumes is on this week.  I'll make you wait to find out who everyone is going to be.  We have a carnival at church this weekend that they get to wear their costumes to as well as an All Saint's party for the homeschool group next week.  This year since I don't have a newborn I am sewing all the costumes from scratch.  Even Drew is going to be a saint!

Then there is keeping this monster out of trouble.

He loves to climb on the stools. He did a facer off of one this morning, in fact.

After dinner, he was ready for his bath, but Isaac was still eating and not paying attention to where he set his milk cup.  I almost got there in time, but...nope.

Really the main reason I have been MIA is that I have not gotten my Large Family Logistics act together this school year.  I just realized that we are on week 8 already, and so I guess I better figure it out and get started again.  Our schedule is different this year and I have been unable to commit to a new schedule for the housework due to the change in days we are out of the house.  I need to just make a decision and stick with it or change it if it totally fails.

Practice Makes Perfect

 This guy has always hated hats with a passion.  I crocheted him a football hat and had to totally trick him and be super fast to get a photo in it for his one year pictures.  He rips them off as soon as he can get his hands free no matter how distracted you try to get him.  But this week he saw a baseball hat and wanted to put it on.  So I thought we would practice wearing it around the house and see if he could get used to it because winter without a hat for him may be a little chilly since he has very little hair.  It has been working so far.  We practice wearing it and looking in the mirror.  He even wore his football hat this morning to and from Mass since it was in the 40's.  I was afraid that he wouldn't ever wear it!

Oh, and he is totally signing "Help," "More," "All done," "Drink," and "Please" all of the sudden.  He signs "Help" the most and for everything he could possibly want.  I heard it was normal for babies to overuse a new sign, but none of my others ever did that.  I am just so thankful he is communicating with us more easily now.  He also repeated "Bah" for sheep this week.

Sympathy Rips

The three big kids ride the bus to German school together every week.  When I picked them up last week, I was bombarded by all three of them telling me about Genna's ripped paper, how Isaac did it accidentally, and requests to tape it.  We discussed it briefly and then moved on to other discussions.  Later in the week I was looking through Isaac's backpack and discovered his paper tree that he made in class was also ripped.  I showed him and said, "Oh no, Isaac I think your paper got ripped as well."  He said, "No, it was a consequence, Mom."  I looked at him not quite understanding what he was talking about, but recalling Genna's ripped paper.  Hannah comes up and says, "No, it was a sympathy rip.  I ripped mine too.  We all did it to make Genna feel better.  It was my idea." 

My poor heart just about burst.  What a sweet and loving gesture!  So much of my time is spent disciplining and teaching them what is right that I sometimes feel that it is an impossible job.  Moments like these show me that God is at work in their little hearts and there is hope for these precious stinkers.

Pow!

This is just a mini update on Drewy.  Drew is saying "Pow!" now when he plays with toy guns or kicks his foot.  But what I am most excited about is that he used a sign all on his own, clearly, and without me prompting him.  He pointed at his cup of water which was out of reach and did the sign for "Help."  I made a huge deal out of it.  I hope this is the beginning of learning and using some signs.

I know he understands so much now.  He can follow directions like "bring me a book," or "show me your tongue," or "comb your hair."  I have also been happy about him initiating bringing me a book and actually sitting to listen to it. 

Also, he is in love with his snack cup (usually full of Cheerios) these days.  If I don't pry it away from him and hide it it is in his grip the whole day.