Mommy Guilt

This is a picture that DH took of DS#3 and I this evening. The lighting is so bad in my house, but I love this picture anyway. I can't sit near my little cutie without kissing him or hugging him or even tickling him. The whole family was watching "Wipeout" on TV and DS#3 picks my lap to sit in. In fact, he often decides he wants to sit near me as opposed to DH. Whenever he doesn't see me or know where I am at home, he often says, "Mama Work Day" roughly translated to "Mama is at work today." Talk about "Mommy Guilt"!

I've had 'Mommy Guilt" for as long as I've been a mother. When DS#1 wouldn't nurse, I felt enough 'Mommy Guilt" that I expressed milk for six months without being able to nurse him. I nursed the other three just because I felt like at least I could give them a little part of me every day even if I wasn't there. When I was there, I could feel that closeness. When DS#1 was a little older and I had to go to work and he wouldn't say "goodbye" to me, I felt that 'Mommy Guilt" again. In fact, the kids have always known how to make me feel 'Mommy Guilt" without even trying. When we go out to eat at a restaurant, they all want to sit by me. To me that translates into the fact that they don't see me as much as their father. When DD asked me to volunteer at her school, I tried to do it as much as my schedule would allow. I couldn't do it much, but I felt pretty good about how excited she was whenever I did volunteer.

Of course, when I come home from work and they all give me hugs, that makes me feel much better. DS#3 is the one that most reliably does this as sometimes the other kids are with friends or in the middle of a video game. I guess that's one reason why I can't help but hug/kiss/tickle him. I miss him so much when I'm gone!

Soccer Start

Tonight was the start of soccer practice for both older boys. This is a photo of DS#2 with his team and coach. It was still close to 100 degrees outside when I went to go pick him up around 7:30PM. I had the other kids with me running errands, but I had to get there by 7:30PM for DS#1's practice. Yes, that's right--the older boys both have soccer practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays but DS#2 has practice from 6-7:30PM and DS#1 has practice from 7:30-9PM. Ugh!

This week DS#2 also has practice on Saturday morning, and next week he has at least three "Club Friendly" games for Saturday. "Club Friendly" games are basically games set up by the coach with other teams for "practice", sort of like a scrimmage where the results don't really count but your team gets a chance to play together against another team. Next Saturday is also DD's birthday party. The busy school/fall season has begun for us!

I had to take this picture of DS#3 tonight because he looked so cute, almost like he was stretching. He was very interested in watching his big brother playing during practice. He even started pointing and saying his name. I half expected him to yell out his brother's name and distract him.

I also had to take this picture because I loved how DS#3 went to DS#1's chair and was casually leaning against him. I love the connection between those two! I could go on and on about how well DS#1 cares for DS#3 and how well DS#3 responds back.

I "had to" get a new pocket camera last week because the other one broke. This is the first time I've taken a bunch of photos with this new camera and especially using the zoom feature to it's potential. One of the reasons why I picked this one was the 10x zoom lens. It's so much easier than carrying that huge zoom lens on my big camera. Although I love the pictures from my big camera more, I enjoyed the photos from this new camera better than the old broken one.

Unplanned Thaw

*SIGH*This is a picture of our garage chest freezer before DH threw away most of the food in it. DS#2 didn't close the freezer door last night when he got out some frozen pizzas, and so everything in it thawed out. He was doing something very independent and the freezer was very full, so he didn't think to make sure the door was closed all the way. DH and I did a good job of not yelling at DS#2. He heated up his own frozen pizza after all, and he didn't mean to do it.

I'm trying not to think too hard about it or I might cry because it was SO much food. There was meat, ice cream, frozen dinners, etc. in there. Luckily, we were able to salvage some of it that can be cooked and refrozen, but most of it is gone. *SIGH*

Our Wonderful Babysitter

DH and I have an excellent babysitter; it's DS#1. Today when I got home from work, DS#1 was watching his siblings while DH ran to the store. He had just finished changing DS#3's nasty diaper. I didn't see the diaper, but the smell was still in the gameroom even after DS#1 had bagged the diaper and thrown it away downstairs.

Later tonight, DH and I went out to dinner and left the kids in the care of DS#1. Not only did he feed the kids, but he dealt with a fussy, napless 2-year-old. DS#3 was refusing to eat and refusing very loudly at that. He had eaten a large lunch and some large snacks just before dinner, so DH and I weren't worried about him starving. DS#1 ended up letting DS#3 watch Thomas the Tank Engine videos to calm him down. Later, DS#2 discovered DS#3 asleep with the video still running so DS#1 put him in his bed.

DH and I saw the new Harry Potter movie tonight, and near the end of it, DS#1 sent us a text message saying that DS#3 had awakened after 3 or so hours and that all he wanted to do was sit on the sofa and drink milk. By the time we got home, though, DS#1 had handled the situation like a pro and had convinced DS#3 to change into his night clothes and get back in bed. DS#3 fell asleep in the 10 minutes or so that it took us to get home.

This is a picture that I took yesterday of DS#1 playing with DS#3. They were touching noses through the bannister. DS#1 is SUCH a good big brother AND he's a terrific babysitter. DH and I are VERY lucky.

Last Day of Summer Camp

Today was DS#1's last day of Summer Camp. I've been bringing him a snack when I pick him up, usually cookies. I had planned to do a little something special like getting him a shake, but he got out from his final exams about an hour early. He and a couple of friends walked to a nearby Wendy's so he bought himself a Frosty and thus got his own snack. :)

DH had some Costco rebate money to spend, so he went ahead and bought DS#1 a new laptop to use for school. Since he'll be working with computers quite a bit at school, we figured that he could use his own. It has a 17-inch screen to make it easier for him to use for some of the graphics programs they'll be working with. DH has reasoned that since DS#1 is "saving us money" by going to a public school instead of the private Catholic school that we had originally hoped he would go to, then we could splurge a little on some of his school "supplies". I think DH just wanted to buy another computer. ;-)

I thought this was too funny. DS#1 was playing with his new laptop, surfing on the wireless Internet, and texting all at the same time. He's already hoping to buy some games to play on his new computer. DH and I aren't sure about that yet, but it would make a good incentive for him to continue making good grades. We've been lucky that we haven't needed to provide incentives before.

A Thousand Words

Wow, what a busy day! I was busy at work, then I picked up DS#1 at summer camp and came home. I exercised on my Wii Active then made some Jambalaya from a mix. I took a shower while dinner was on the stove. We ate then we had a family movie night. DH had gotten "Inkheart" from Netflix. I hadn't heard good reviews when it was out in theatres, but we found it entertaining. It was after 9PM before I could tuck the youngest three into bed.

I'm very tired but this picture inspired me to post on my blog. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I can think of quite a few when I see this picture (sorry ahead of time for the rambling post):
--DH is trying to keep DS#2 from turning away from the camera.
--Oh man! Their eyes are closed!
--We have really bad lighting in this house.
--Wow! Look at all of those books and games behind them!
--We've owned those three 7-foot tall bookcases for probably about 12 years.
--We've been accumulating those books and games for that long too.
--I love that our family can laugh together.
--I love that DH and DS#2 are actually getting along right now.
--DS#2 is getting so tall.
--I can't see DS#2's fanning hair in this picture (he has a cowlick at the back of his head that makes his hair fan out when it gets too long).
--DS#2 really needs a hair cut because his hair is fanning at the back of his head.
--DS#2 is getting so tan, and that's with using SPF 70!

On the Phone

This afternoon, DS#3 picked up this old cell phone of mine that we still have, and started talking on it. We kept hearing him say, "Hi Lola! Fend E-yit (Friend Eric)." He also kept laying on the stairs and just chatting away in a conversation we couldn't understand.

He even held the phone up to various family members so that they could talk to Lola too. Of course I tried to take advantage of this by actually calling my mom, who is his "Lola". He absolutely refused to talk on the phone with his actual "Lola"! I tried, and DD tried. Everyone tried to get him to talk to my mom, but he continued talking on HIS phone to Lola.

Another funny thing was that he wouldn't stay still. He kept moving from one location to another, sometimes running when he saw me with the camera. I took many out of focus shots of him. It was also difficult to actually get shots of his face because most of the time I would see his back running away from me! At one point he even went into the hall closet (with the light on) and shut the door behind himself! We were all just cracking up, he was just that hilarious!

Sleep

I'm exhausted! I know that's nothing new, but I worked a 24-hour call yesterday and things were a little busy. There's something about being the only trauma hospital in town that's open to trauma that really ruins any chance of getting sleep. I used to be able to recover from a night like that very quickly, but I anticipate feeling the effects over the next week.

I did get to nap this afternoon with the little man. He must have been tired too because he didn't really fight me. After a couple of hours he woke up when his train fell off the bed. He acted like he got enough sleep until DS#1 got home from his Splashtown summer camp field trip and I asked DS#3 to give him a hug. He yelled, "Nooooo!" and threw himself onto the ground. That is not his typical response. After he saw me taking pictures, instead of doing his "cheesy" smile, he started closing his eyes like he was sleeping. Kind of telling, don't you think?

Dinner Out

Today I thought I would post about a fairly typical dinner out for us. Maybe some day I'll put this on a scrapbook page. We got to Chili's at around 6:25PM, right after church. We got seated right away. DD always insists on sitting next to me and DH and I try to sit next to DS#3 so he can eat from our plates. We order drinks--strawberry lemonade for me, DS#2, and DS#3, Sprite for DS#1, chocolate milk for DD, and a Presidente Margarita for DH. DH wanted to go ahead and order our food also, but we weren't fully decided on whether or not to get an appetizer, so the server goes to get the drinks first.

When he gets back, I order the Grilled Salmon to share with DD. DS#1 gets the Jalapeno Smokehouse Bacon Big-Mouth Burger with no mayo no lettuce no tomato and no onion. Try saying all of that ten times fast. :) DH orders the Kickin' Jack Nachos with Fajita Chicken and DS#2 orders the Pepper Pals Pasta for kids with Alfredo Sauce and Cinnamon Apples on the side. It always seems like a long wait to get our food but it really wasn't that long. DS#2 and I managed to drink our first servings of strawberry lemonade, though.

I gave about half of my salmon to DD who refuses any of the rice or veggies on my plate. She did eat all of her salmon, though, and wanted more. DS#2 devours his pasta in seconds then he proceeds to eat some of the salmon I offer him, maybe about a fourth of my original salmon or more. I don't have very much salmon left so DD has to make do with what I've already given her. Meantime, DS#3 has eaten one bite of my rice and refuses anything else. He wants some of DS#2's noodles but there isn't any left. For once I think DS#1 and DH are the two last ones to finish their meals.

We don't JUST eat at dinner, despite the above description. We talk about DS#1 spending Sunday night with me at work since then I could take him straight to Summer Camp from there. Actually, the enticement is that we could also have breakfast at IHOP before camp. The drawback is that there is a flurry of activity near the on-call sleep rooms by around 6AM and overhead announcements all night long, plus sleeping in a new place. No firm decision was made yet, but I think he's leaning towards sleeping in his own bed.

There's plenty of joking around. We talk about how the boys need their hair cut. DS#1 calls DS#2 "special, very special" which for some reason he finds so funny that he shoots Sprite out of his nose. I have to hand him a napkin because he is leaking Sprite into his hand. I talk about how we don't have a portable camera anymore and that I need to take a picture for today and DS#1 leaking Sprite out of his nose would have been perfect. DS#2 suggests that we reenact the scene at home by putting Sprite all over DS#1's nose and then taking a picture.

DS#2 talks about stuff that really doesn't make any sense. He states that DS#3 has to learn more family names than DS#1 did at the same age because there used to only be DH, DS#1 and me, but now DS#3 has three siblings and more cousins. He then starts asking what DS#1 used to call him when DS#1 was DS#3's age but then backtracks when he realizes that he (DS#2) wasn't born yet when DS#1 was DS#3's age. Sometimes I get really tired listening to my children talk because of all of the convoluted reasoning. :-)

As I mentioned earlier, the food could not have taken long to come out to us because we were walking out of the restaurant after having paid the bill at around 7:05PM. That's only 40 minutes and all of us finished pretty much everything on our plates!

When we got home the family was watching some Sci-Fi Channel show called "Warehouse 13" so I started playing with the manual settings on my camera while they were distracted. I was having a difficult time focusing on faces because the lighting in my house is so bad. I managed to get this decent photo of DS#3 resting his head while playing with his cars and while watching TV. Poor little man is trying to catch up from little to no nap the last couple of days. He actually took a 2 1/2 hour nap today. The most telling fact is that he didn't fight laying down for a nap. That was good because I was tired too and I slept almost as long as he did. This next week should be a more normal schedule for us.

Fiesta Texas Part 2

I told my dear sis that maybe next time she could give me advance warning of her visit and I can actually take some days off. :) She didn't take a camera because they went to the water park and she was worried about something happening to it. Alas, that meant that I couldn't see the kids playing today.

My dear sis stayed mostly with the girls and DH stayed with DS#3. Apparently, DS#3 didn't do too much. He mostly played with the little fountains in the kids' area. The others did things like the lazy river and some of the tube rides and slides. Dear sis did manage a few photos on her IPhone. I thought this one of the kids and DH walking out of the park turned out pretty well. I love the colorful towels and parade of kids (DS#3 is in the stroller at the front being pushed by DS#1).

At home the girls took a bath together and dressed in their matching Gymboree dresses. DD's has been worn and washed so many times that you can see that it's a bit more faded than my niece's dress.

Dear sis bought us all some food from Pei Wei tonight and then the kids sat down to watch our "Alvin and the Chipmunks" Netflix DVD. I had no desire to watch that movie, but I have to admit that it was cute and more importantly, the kids enjoyed it. Our company is leaving tomorrow and we'll miss them. At least they're coming back for DD's birthday party in three weeks!

Fiesta Texas Part 1

Today I went to work, DS#1 went to summer camp, and the rest of the family went to Fiesta Texas. It was a hot day so they rode mostly water rides. Thankfully, DH and my sister were both able to snap some pictures which I'll share below. I'm always sad when I miss fun family days like this, but at least through these pictures I get a little glimpse.

Are you wondering why my sister took a picture of the log ride seat? Do you see the colored lumps on the bottom left and right hand corners? See how frustrating shutter lag is when you're trying to take a picture of two 10-year-old boys who don't want their picture taken? :)

If you click on this picture you'll get a better look at DD's face which just cracked me up! She just looks so hot and bothered, but this was still in the morning. Apparently her face got better later when she got wet.

This was taken on one of those spinning rides that I usually try to avoid. The centrifugal force is pushing DD into DS#2 and for once he doesn't mind her so close. I love the pure joy on their faces and I love that DH was able to capture this moment in time. My sister and I were surprised that the kids didn't ride with the boys in one seat and the girls in another but instead they rode in brother-sister pairs. I was hoping it was because they were showing sibling love but my DS#2 brought me down to earth by telling me that the boys had to ride with the girls because they weren't tall enough to ride by themselves.

When I first saw this picture I thought to myself how cute that all of the kids were trying to help DS#3 drink from the cup. My sister introduced the additional concept that they were all waiting for their turn to drink from the cup. As I said before, it was really hot out there today! They're all wet from the water rides they were riding. Tomorrow they're planning on going to the waterpark at Fiesta Texas.

I had to include this picture, of course, of all the kids and especially DS#3 waiting for the train. Little man LOVES his transportation vehicles. Luckily he was able to take a little nap later in the afternoon while at the theme park. He should sleep well tonight--they should all sleep well tonight.

Summer Visit

My sister arrived today with my niece and nephew. In school they got free Six Flags tickets for reading ("Read to Succeed Six Hour Reading Club") so they're visiting so they can use them. They usually visit at least once during the summer so they can go to one or both of our theme parks since the city they live in no longer has any theme parks. DD and DS#2 are the most excited that their cousins are here because they're pretty close in age. DD is five months younger than A and DS#2 is eight days younger than N.

The boys are usually all about video games, but I caught this shot of them playing with my IPhone and my sister's IPhone. This photo is significant because my nephew is actually IN the photo instead of in the corner running away. DS#2 usually runs from the camera too, but he seems too involved in the game DS#1 is playing to care. The girls were playing in DD's room at the time. DS#3 is in heaven because he has three more people to order around. Later, everyone watched "Wipeout" on TV--my sister is using that photo for her photo for today.

Groceries and DS#1

After I picked DS#1 up from his summer camp this afternoon, we went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Around 4PM or so I start getting a little hungry, and DS#1 is always hungry so this was a bad combination. When we were there, DS#1 kept checking out the free food samples. I will usually pass up the free samples, but I ate a couple of things just because he was sampling them. One of those things was some cheese flavored with garlic and herbs spread on crackers. That was really yummy, so we put that in our cart. We got the usual milk, bread, and sandwich meat, but DS#1 requested some Haagen-Dazs Bailey's Irish Cream Ice Cream so we picked some of that up too, along with a couple of other types of ice cream. He saw a sale on Pringle's cheddar flavored potato chips--yup, that went in the basket, too. I did manage to put some non-snack items in our cart, but it was definitely not a good idea to take a hungry teenager to the grocery store! He even made a comment about how he never goes to the grocery store. That's usually because DH will leave him home with the kids since it takes longer with all of the kids there. Of course DS#1 proved today that it takes longer when DS#1 is there, too. *WINK*

For dinner he requested his favorite Schlotzky's sandwich--an "Original" with meat and cheese only on jalapeno cheese bread with Dijon Mustard. DH picked some Schlotzky's sandwiches up on his way home from DD's piano practice. DH and I usually get variations on the "Original" sandwich while DD gets their pizza and DS#2 gets the Kids' Ham and Cheese sandwich. I thought this was an appropriate picture given our grocery trip today and how hungry DS#1 was. DH got him a medium sized sandwich (DH and I both got smalls), which came with that big drink, too.

Some time after dinner we saw the dark skies and heard some nearby thunder. We also saw the wind pick up and the air just smelled like it was going to rain. DH jokingly sent the kids outside to do a rain dance since we need rain badly. They did just that! They were making so much noise that he had to quiet them down for fear of disturbing our neighbors. Here's a quick picture I took of DS#3 running into the street. It sprinkled just a little but NO RAIN! Grrrr!

Helpers

First of all I wanted to show photographic proof of DS#3's polished toes. You might need to click on the picture to see it zoomed in, but I think it's pretty subtle. DH threatened to get the nail polish remover out, but I don't think he really knows where I keep that and I don't even know if he knows how to use it. On a side note, I do think DS#3 has some cute little toes, don't you?

I've been on beeper call all weekend, which has limited my activities somewhat. I wanted to go to Academy today though, to look for some workout gloves and shorts. DD always wants to go shopping with me, whether it's for clothes, food, or whatever, but DS#3 heard us and wanted to get out of the house too. DH had gone out so I took a chance and took both kids with me. Of course everything takes longer when you have two little helpers with you.

First, DS#3 insisted on getting a shopping cart. He won't ride in it, he just likes to push it around and keep you from doing your shopping because you're always trying to keep him from hitting anyone or anything with the cart. Luckily, DD wanted to ride in it and therefore DS#3 wanted to ride in it too. This at least had the effect of keeping them corralled, even if it was difficult to push that cart in between the narrow areas between clothing racks.

I managed to finish my shopping and of course I'd forgotten my reusable shopping bags, so I was going to just carry everything to the car. DD was fascinated with my workout gloves (she even said she wanted to use them) so she carried that. To my surprise, DS#3 also wanted to carry something and grabbed the two pairs of shorts with the hangers from the checkout girl. He was so hilarious carrying those shorts across the parking lot. I was sure that he was going to drop them in the dirt, but he managed to hang on. I didn't take a picture until we were safely across the parking lot and next to my car. Aren't they the cutest little helpers?

Favorite Daughter

DH and DD used to have this interchange where he would tell her that she's his favorite daughter, to which she would respond, "But I'm your ONLY daughter!" How true that is for me. Interacting with DD can be quite a challenge for me, and DH often remarks that this will only get worse as she gets older.

For example, last night she was practicing her piano lessons. All week she has been practicing before I get home from work. Despite being a control freak sometimes when it comes to her piano playing, I allowed that because I was already having a stressful week. On Thursday night, however, she told me that she wanted to practice with me on Friday. I was thinking to myself, sarcastically, "Great! I'm SO pleased about that!" She doesn't do well when she practices at night when she's tired, and I also don't cope well at night when I'm tired. Anyway, as per our usual encounter, she shed some tears, I stormed off, and DH took over. She did much better when she practiced this morning, by the way, and our interchange was much friendlier.

One of the "side effects" of having a daughter is that I get to do "girly" things with her. I've never been very "girly" and actually, she isn't either (see the Super Soaker photo posted above), but she loves "girly" things and having her around has made me appreciate some of those things. I didn't used to care for the color pink, but she LOVES it and it looks good on her, so I buy it for her and now I buy it for myself, too. I didn't used to care about what handbag I used. In fact, I was satisfied getting the cheapest ones or getting my dear sister M's designer hand-me-downs. I haven't bought a whole bunch of bags or anything, but having a DD who loves bags has made me notice bags more and I'm sure I've bought more since she's been born than I've ever bought before in my life.

Today we painted DD's nails. I really need to get DH to take a picture of us doing this one of these days, but he wasn't home at the time. I didn't used to care about that too much before either, but I routinely do my toenails now. The fingernails are still bare, but mostly because of my line of work and the constant hand-washing. Over time DD has become a bit more patient with painting her nails and she can stay still a whole lot longer. She favors any color with glitter, especially pink, of course. She chose a darker color once, but I had to redo them every week, which is still too time-intensive for me, so now we stick to light colors that aren't as obvious when they need retouching.

Something hilarious happened today. DS#3 came upstairs and started watching us. I was afraid he was going to knock something over, but I guess he was fascinated enough that he was staying still. To my surprise, after I finished DD's nails, he plopped himself down next to me and said what else but "My turn!" (see yesterday's post). I thought to myself that DH would FREAK, but DS#3 was very insistent and I figured that the clear base/top coat that I was using would be subtle enough to not matter in the end, especially if it was just his toes. However, when I finished with the clear polish, he pointed to the colored bottle. *GASP* I thought again to myself how DH would FREAK! At that point I yelled downstairs to DS#1 that he needed to get a camera. When he heard what I was doing, he laughingly said, "No, No, No! No, Eric!" Since he was playing his PS3 game at the time, that also meant no camera. I managed to put very small dabs on DS#3's toes so that he would feel the applicator but so you couldn't really see anything but the clear polish. Then, when he started asking about his fingernails I couldn't go on with it anymore. I asked DS#1 to come upstairs and distract his little brother so I wouldn't have to do it. At this point, DH had arrived home and when he heard about what was happening he raced right up and didn't bother trying to distract DS#3, he scooped him up and took him downstairs. I wanted to get a photo of DS#3's toes, but I didn't get a chance today. I'll have to try tomorrow so I can post it here.*WINK*

My Turn!

Some time right before our DC vacation, we realized that DS#3 could say, "My Turn!" Usually he said it in conjunction with trying to get someone to feed him ice cream. This is a picture of him that I took yesterday at our favorite ice cream shoppe. He was yelling, "My Turn!" to his poor sister. Notice how his body is completely on top of the table. She barely had a chance to get any of her own ice cream!

DS#3 has really been talking a lot in the last couple of months or so. My mom made a comment last weekend when we were visiting about how he speaks mostly in sentences now, although we can't always understand him yet. Just tonight he was telling me, "Pea toon on fan" or "Please turn on fan" (as in ceiling fan) when I was tucking him into bed. He also almost always wants to sit with me on the sofa, so he'll say, "Sit nes Mama" or "Sit next (to) Mama". Of course, my favorite is, "I lah yah Mama" or "I love you, Mama." :)

The other day when DD asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he plopped himself down in the dining room and asked for "BB jeh wee" also. It was a small sandwich especially since I had cut off the crust to make it easier for him to eat, but he ate most of it.

PE Summer Camp

This week, DS#1 started his PE Summer Camp at his high school. As I described in this post in February, he won the chance to go for free. It's been really, really hot here, but they've had outdoor activities in the morning and then classroom time in the afternoon, when it's hotter. The outdoor activities are sports like soccer, tennis, and I guess today he played Ultimate Frisbee. The classroom time involves Health class for which he is getting credit, which is good because it's a required class to graduate from high school.

Besides these activities, they get to go on "field trips". Today, they went in different groups to various nearby fast good restaurants. They were working on their "You Are What You Eat" project "Lunch Out" for their Health Class. They were going to figure out how many calories they consumed at lunch. DS#1 chose to go to Wendy's and he ate a total of 990 calories for lunch! For once he didn't get anything for dessert, or that would have increased his total quite a bit. Apparently, there were a couple of boys (who weren't obese) that consumed 2000 and 5000 calories! DS#1 didn't know exactly what they had consumed, but the former at least had a shake and the latter had "some desserts".

Other field trips will be going to mini-golf and bowling next week, and a local water park the last week. The fees for these are already paid for, thank goodness, so DS#1 is having fun for free! Yay for DH and me! ;) The best thing about this is that DS#1 is making friends. He's already exchanged cell phone numbers with them and I was about to say that he is probably texting them right now, but he's playing a game on the Playstation 3 instead.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't realize until I got home from bringing him on the first day that he is technically starting high school already and I didn't get a picture. I was being good and not trying to embarrassing him but as usual, when I do that I regret not getting any pictures. Thankfully, DH got a couple of pics of DS#1 next to the school sign yesterday morning before many people showed up (less embarrassing). I won't post it here because it has the name of his school, but he was really good about posing. :)

Our Gym Pool

I came home from work this morning rather exhausted, not because I worked hard, but because someone moving furniture in the hallway outside of my call room at 3AM was not conducive to getting good sleep. Still, I always feel like I need to go do something with the kids. Since DH hasn't been able to take them to the neighborhood pool, I decided to take them to the pool at our gym. I went to a fitness class first, but I'll talk about that on another day.

I wasn't sure how things were going to go, at first. There are some big water slides at the gym pool, and DS#2 and DD went on those as soon as we got there. DS#3 wanted to go on those slides too, but he didn't meet the height restriction of being at least 42 inches. He was SO upset!

He didn't do too much at first. The pool doesn't have steps on one end, it just gets deeper gradually, sort of like at the beach. He would climb in and then step out and sit on the side. Then, DS#2 started entertaining him. He really started having a blast. DS#2 would go into the pool backwards and then fall on his rear, making a splash. DS#3 would follow and do the same thing, only he didn't go very far and he would just sit down after a while. He must have done this for a good half hour straight, but he was really fun to watch, and I couldn't stop watching. One thing that wasn't fun was that he would let out a high pitched scream every time he started going backwards. I think that probably got rid of any hearing I have left.

This isn't the best picture, but it was tough to capture the action and I still wanted to remember this as my picture for today. Every once in a while, DS#3 would get on top of his big brother or big sister. They loved that interaction with him and it was really sweet to see them really enjoying each other.

Tomorrow, I'll hopefully get and post some pictures of my high school boy during his first few days of "school".

Weekend Favorites

Now that I'm home I can show some of the great photos I was able to take this weekend. I love the expression on my DD's face on this first one that I took during the kids' sprinkler fun on Saturday morning. Her expression looks a little pained, but make no mistake--this girl LOVES to get wet!

My focus is a little off on this photo, but I love how you can just see how much DS#1 loves his little brother and how he takes such good care of him. This is DS#3's "serious" face. He enjoyed the sprinkler fun, but I don't think he liked running around on the grass, even with slippers on. He got a little wet and then went inside. I don't think DS#1 wanted to get soaking wet, although he did enjoy getting a little damp running around the sprinkler a few times.

I didn't get a really good group photo of my Mom with her grandkids, but I thought this one turned out pretty well. The girls helped blow out the candle a little too much, I think, but Mom didn't mind, of course. We decided to only put 7 candles on the cake, one for each decade.

Finally, I got some photos of the kids. The photo of the girls was a little off focus and yellow because of the lighting. I like this one of the boys much more. DD spent the night over at my niece E's house. She had a blast, of course, because E has such cool toys and DD LOVES "sharing" with her. The boys spent the night over at my nephew N's house. He has all of the cool video games and such that the boys enjoy.

DS#3 spent the night with his parents. The little stinker wouldn't go to sleep for a while, and then woke up crying at 5:30AM. He did go back to sleep but awakened at some other early time and started blowing on his horn. He has begun an obsession with blowing into whistles and other noisemakers. *SIGH* I have to admit that I would miss the noise and chaos if it went away.

Water, At Last!

I'm having to resort to photos from my IPhone during this trip to my parents' house, so bear with me with the less than stellar photos.

This morning the kids got to do something they usually don't get to do--play in the sprinkler. With Stage 2 water restrictions in our area, lawn sprinklers are strictly forbidden. We didn't pack any swimsuits, so the kids got their clothes wet. Here is a photo of DS#2 and DD getting along--for one brief moment. Soon after this, they were arguing, as usual, and both of them got in trouble. Nothing unusual there, these two are in a constant battle with each other about pretty much everything. The other two boys were out there, too, but not for nearly as long and they didn't get nearly as wet.

We had Mom's birthday celebration at lunch. Dear Sis C brought Chik-Fil-A chicken nuggets for the kiddos and her DH. Actually, my DH had some, too. Mom actually made her own cake, with chocolate brownie on the bottom and vanilla ice cream on top, with the help of my niece, but we couldn't just have that, so Dear Sis M also brought Red Velvet Cake. Mom also made some more Flan for DS#1 and I. For the main dishes, DH, DS#1, and I picked up Chinese/Vietnamese food from Kim Son. DS#1, the one who is always saying that he is hungry, actually said that he couldn't have any of the Red Velvet Cake because he was so "full". Of course, just a few minutes later, I offered him some of my piece and he promptly ate the whole thing!

I don't have any IPhone photos of the birthday lunch because DS#3 was just a little bit needy at that time. It was right around 1PM and naptime was quickly approaching. I took this picture tonight instead. My parents have one of these fold-out sofas in the office. DS#3 was all sprawled out watching a Thomas the Tank Engine video in there tonight and chunks of time during the day, too.

DS#3 is by himself here just because his siblings are staying over at their cousins' houses. DD went with Dear Sis M and her DD, and the boys went with Dear Sis C and her family. My kids don't have any problems separating from me, but that's not the case the other way around. Just this past week, DS#1 spent the night at a friend's house, and I missed him terribly. I told him that I would be a wreck when he goes off to college in four years!

At Lola's House

We're visiting my family this weekend to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday. We arrived this evening around 7PM. Even though she just had surgery three weeks ago, as per her usual routine, she and my Dad had some of our favorite foods ready for us. She had ordered most of it, which didn't matter to us. We enjoyed it all the same. As soon as we arrived and unloaded the van, the boys immediately started eating. DS#1, aka "the meat eater" went for the barbecue on a stick. DS#2 ate dinner and then went for the mangoes and made his own vanilla ice cream shake. He was even cutting up his own mango, which was making me a little nervous.

DS#3 immediately had some "rice soup" that Mom hand-fed to him. When he saw the mangoes, he sat himself right next to his brother with a fork in hand. DH had some meat lumpia, one of his all-time favorites. I myself was so busy eating a little bit of everything that I just realized that I didn't even notice what DD ate. To top it off, she had coffee ice cream (a favorite of DH's and mine) and later, she showed us the Flan. I managed to eat just a little, but by the time I finished that, DS#1 had eaten the rest of it! Our stomachs certainly appreciate visits to my Mom and Dad's house!

Wii Active

I bought the EA Active "game" for the Wii a few weeks ago, on the advice of my dear sisters, but I really only opened it yesterday. As you can see from the photo, DD had a little fun with the security sticker from the game. It was actually DS#2's idea first, but she grabbed that sticker from him and ran with it.

I really need to start exercising more regularly, and so far this has been a fun way to do that. I chose the "30 Day Challenge" option which comes up with a workout plan (different for each day) for 20 days out of 30 (with built in rest days). I was so sore today after the squats I did yesterday, but I was really hurting after the lunges today. So far, some of the fun seems to be from the comments my children make while I'm exercising. Each of them try to repeat the encouraging words that the program says, things like, "You're doing great!" and "You're putting so much into this!" (I can't remember the actual phrases, but they were something like that. Just imagine your children saying that to you.) Of course, DS#3 is also intrigued and watches it intently just like when he watches TV. He will also come and give my legs a hug while I'm exercising--not an ideal time but I can't refuse some loving from my cute baby.

DS#2 and DD have really been intrigued by this game as well. They both made their "profiles". DD actually did a whole 30 minute exercise session for her 30 Day Challenge. DS#2 hasn't done a whole program yet, but he made up his own "custom workout" including a bunch of the sports games like Baseball and Tennis. They both got along (for once) for short periods of time while they were "working out" together, which is one of the options in this game. So far this has been a wise purchase, both because it's something I might actually stick with because of the variety, and because the kids can get their exercise without having to go outside in the 100 plus degree temps we've been having in our part of the world.

Favorite DC Photos

I don't have too much time to post, but I couldn't resist posting a few favorite pictures from our trip. This first one is a favorite because the boys are smiling so nicely. The story behind the photo, however, is that DS#1 is trying to keep DS#2 from raising his arms enough to do the bunny ears thing behind DS#1's head. I also love looking at shots of the Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in the background.

DH took probably close to twenty shots of DD climbing on top of DS#1 while he was texting. The two of them were laughing so hard and having such a good time. DS#3 couldn't resist and got in on the act too. He climbed on top of the pile. He got into trouble once when he climbed on top of DS#2 and proceeded to fall off the edge of the bed. He wants to keep up with the big kids but he's not quite capable of doing everything they do yet.

I thought the colors came out really well in this photo. It was so bright and sunny but hazy that a lot of colors came out muted, but for some reason this one didn't. This was taken on the day we had tickets for the Washington Monument but we were killing time walking around the National Mall before our noontime tickets.

I had to take this one without the flash because otherwise the colors came out so harsh. The pose was DS#1's idea--he is so creative. Unfortunately, I had to take a picture of that white thing in the foreground, because it was in the way. It's a stand with a description of the wing where they housed the portraits of all of the past U.S. presidents.

DH has to take all the credit for this photo. He took it with my new lens when he and DS#2 were visiting the monuments at night. I did fix the lighting just a touch just because I can't help but tinker with that stuff, but it's a really gorgeous shot, isn't it? He's been trying to learn more about photography and it shows. :)

This is another super-cool shot taken by DH. DS#2 is looking at fountains at the WWII Memorial. That really is a beautiful area with all of the water and stone, by the way. I just love how you can see DS#2's face just a little, and he also looks perfectly centered on that halo of light illuminating the wall so that it looks like the light was meant to be there. This is also such a peaceful, reflective-type photo, which is probably totally opposite of what DS#2 was feeling at the time. He was SO excited to be seeing those monuments at nighttime with his Papa!

On Our Way Home

I just wanted to post quickly that we're on the plane ready to go home. When we get home we're planning to do a little (ha ha) laundry and then DH will take the older kids to see some fireworks at the local theme park. Hope everyone has a happy 4th!

Mount Vernon

We waited in so many lines today! This morning, we only found out after breakfast that the public transportation in town would be operating on a weekend schedule since it's a Federal Holiday today. The fact that we didn't already know this meant that we were already behind schedule. We had to take the train to its terminal point and then wait for a bus to take us to Mount Vernon. The problem was the bus was only running once every hour today and we missed the last one by 15 minutes. By the time it arrived, lots and lots of other people were waiting for the bus. We managed to be one of the first to get on, but three of our seats were taken away by a wheelchair-bound child that boarded the bus after eveyone else had taken the rest of the seats. To top it off, the fare machine malfunctioned after we had already paid and sat down, so the bus driver let almost everyone else on for free, but we had paid plus we didn't all get seats.

When we got to Mount Vernon, the line for the mansion was reportedly 50 minutes long, so that was yet another line to wait in. It actually ended up being an hour and a half wait, but we passed the time playing games with each other on the IPhones. Luckily, the weather was actually very nice--cloudy in the 70s with an occasional breeze. The price was that when we were waiting for the return bus, it started pouring rain on us, right after I tried to be optimistic about the drizzling by saying, "At least the rain isn't coming down hard on us." You should have seen DH and DS#2 whip their heads around to look at me and ask, "Why did you have to say that?"

At least DS#3 let us put his hat on to keep a little of the rain from his face. He let me take this photo after we had made it back to the Metro station. He had just awakened from his nap a few minutes before it started raining, and he was in a decent mood after that, despite the rain.

I should add that we all thought that visiting Mount Vernon was worth the wait. The property is beautiful and everything is well-preserved. There were quite a few knowledgeable docents that told some interesting stories about George Washington and his beloved estate. The view of the Potomac River is just breathtaking.

On the way back to the hotel, DH and DS#1 decided to return to the National Gallery of Art to finish what they didn't see yesterday while the rest of returned to the hotel. I spent some nervous moments trying to navigate the crowded subway station with three kids in tow, but it was worth it for DH and DS#1 to be able to feel like they could see all that they could see.

After a nice dinner together in the hotel restaurant, DH and DS#2 this time, went out so they could see the monuments all lit up. A good friend suggested that we try to see the monuments at night, but it just wasn't practical for the two smallest children. DS#2 really, really seemed to enjoy himself. He even let DH take a number of pictures, with a great big smile on his face and everything. In all it was quite a fitting end to an awesome week here.

Tomorrow we finally return home. It's been really fun, but it will be nice to be home again.

But It's Art!

I had to take this picture of DS#2 today when we were at the National Gallery of Art. You see, we were in the section with marble statues of nude women on display and he makes a big show of not looking at such things or not even being interested. His big brother just tells him that he'll be interested one of these days, and his little sister taunts him by trying to trick him into looking.

I wasn't able to take too many pictures today. Our first stop was the International Spy Museum and they didn't allow any photography in there at all. We spent most of the day there because there was so much to look at (which was a good thing since we paid $18 per person over 12 and $15 per child between 4 and 12). They started out with what spies are trained to do, then they had on display all manner of spy gadgets. The last section was about spies in history and was pretty extensive starting from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War and beyond. I think the ban on photography was more for proprietary reasons, but it would have been really nice to be able to take a few photos as momentos of what we experienced. A lot of it was film footage which helped break up the monotony of reading, and that would have been impossible to photograph.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left to spend at the National Gallery of Art after that. We at least covered the "American Origins" exhibit (which included an area fort home state of Texas) and "American Presidents" (which housed a portrait of each president) with a few areas in between, but there was still so much more. I wasn't allowed to take photos in much of that museum either.

I wanted to go ahead and include this photo I took last night. They have this "free" Manager's Reception from 5:30 to 7:30pm nightly at our hotel. That includes free drinks and snacks, which alternates between chips and salsa or cheese dip, or celery and carrots with ranch dip and pretzels. Last night DD and DS#3 were munching on pretzels while watching the free movie, which was "Kung Fu Panda". I just thought it was funny how mesmerized both of them were, that they were so busy watching TV that they still had their hands up at their mouths after their last bites of pretzel. DS#3 has been quite the snacker lately. The other day we caught him with his hand in the Pringles container, but when he realized he'd been discovered, he immediately got up and started brushing off his hands and walking away from the Pringles as if he had never been there. Hilarious!

Tomorrow we have a really long train ride to Mount Vernon planned. I hope it's a smooth ride!

No Wheels

The title is "No Wheels" because of the big two-year-old truck than ran DH and I over last night. DS#3 awakened screaming some time around 1am this morning. His diaper had leaked, but changing it wasn't enough to stop the screaming. We knew he had conjunctivitis when he went to bed, and when he awakened he seemed warm plus he was coughing and congested, so DH went to Walgreen's at 1:30am to get some ibuprofen and allergy stuff. Luckily, DD is a heavy sleeper and barely remembered this episode in the morning. DH and I were really dragging today (especially DH, who bore the brunt of it).

I also titled this "No Wheels" because we walked a lot today. We took the Metro but had to walk a bit to get to the Washington Monument. We had "tickets" for noon, so we had some time to check out the Smithsonian Castle, which was the first building of the Smithsonian Institute. The picture above was taken from the top of the Washington Monument. Too bad it was such a hazy day, but it was still pretty cool to be able to see so far. After that we went to the Jefferson Memorial.

That brings me to the final reason why I titled this "No Wheels". DH adamantly stated that the Jefferson Memorial is the most stroller and wheelchair unfriendly building we've encountered thus far in D.C. He had to walk all the way around the large building in order to find a way in without using steps. The other buildings have had ramps alongside the steps.

I haven't asked the family what their favorite part of today has been yet, but right now I'm guessing it will be playing in the pool (which they're doing right now) or getting some ice cream at Walgreen's on the way back to the hotel. DH is considering going back out to the monuments this evening when they're all lit up. We'll see how energetic we are later.