Monster in the Making

So, I have decided that Spencer is going to be more exhausting than BOTH his sisters - put together. What was I thinking that I had a mellow, laid-back boy? He was just a newborn and wasn't much trouble then. This morning I put him in his bouncer/rocking chair thingy while I took a bath, like I do most mornings. I was just washing the shampoo out of my hair when he launches himself completely forward so his hands are touching the floor. He is still buckeled in, however, so he couldn't fall out. It is a bouncer that rocks - it converts to a toddler rocker. I am sorry to say that I think he is done with it, until he can climb in and out of it by himself (which, the way he's going, should be in about 3 months). So I put the guard thing up on the bottom that makes it into a stationary chair instead of a rocker, and then he tries to roll over backwards in it and touch the toilet, which was right behind him. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! He is also very close to crawling, but still can't seem to get back onto his back if he rolls on his stomach. He can do it when he remembers to throw his head back first ("look at the size of that thing, it's like Sputnik!" Can anyone guess the movie??) If I had remembered that babies crawl shortly after they sit up, I wouldn't have encouraged the sitting up so soon. So I suppose I will be living in a constant state of turmoil until he learns to walk and entertains himself walking around like some alien/teletubbie for about 2.6 days, and then discovers the stairs. Oh well! At least this is my last time around, and all I have to do is cherish it. As for Mackenna, she is in a constant state of anxiety over when SHE gets to go to school like Emma. We bought her school clothes and some cool care bear shoes (what else?) that light up. So she is stomping around the house in her shoes asking when she gets to go to school. Unfortunately, we just found out her school is still under construction, and the earliest it will start is October 1st. At least she will be napping while Emma goes to school most days! It has been a busy week with Emma's 1st soccer game, first day of Kindergarten (orientation), Back-to-School Night, and then Emma's pre-assessment this morning, which Sean took her to. She doesn't start her first official day of school until this Thursday. So we are going to try and enjoy our last week of Summer. My brother and sister, Chris, age 21 (Hail! the conquering returned-missionary) and BryAnne, age 19 (Oh, what shall I do with my life???) are coming up today to spend a couple days with us and that will be fun. Sean, on the other hand, is pulling 2 graveyards in a row, which means he will be a zombee until about Tuesday, when he heads back to work. Hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! When I was young I used to think Labor Day was when all the pregnant women had their babies. Makes sense to a 5-year-old, right??

On All Fours (almost)

ya-ya tarzan monster

Here are his newest little quirks!

WANTED: BARBIE KILLER

"Being Five"

BEING FIVE by Dennis Lee
I’m not exactly big,
And I’m not exactly little,
But being five is best of all
Because it’s in the middle.
A person likes to ride his bike
Around the block a lot,
And being five is big enough
And being four is not.
And then he likes to settle down
And suck his thumb a bit,
And being five is small enough,
But when you’re six you quit.
I’ve thought about it in my mind -
Being five, I mean -
And why I like it best of all
Is ‘cause it’s In Between.

This is a poem someone emailed me a while back. I think it is precious. It kind of goes with the whole kindergarten theme, even though Emma is almost 6. Here are some pics of Emma on her first day!

Go Blue Alligators!

Well, let's just say that I am NOT a soccer mom yet! I spent most of the morning looking like I had a sign on my forehead that read "first soccer game of first child". It was fun though. Next time I need to remember sunscreen so I don't have tomato-head children, as well as snacks for Mackenna since Emma already gets the team ones. Maybe then one of her screaming fits can be avoided! (That will still leave about 3). What can I say? I guess I had unrealistic expectations about how things would be with my girls when they got home from the Lake. I didn't expect perfection; but I did expect at least 24 hours to go buy without any major conflict or "I'm going to beat you"s. Looking back I think I should've expected more rather than less confrontation, as the girls have been out of my jurisdiction for a week and aren't used to my structure, or taking orders from me, anymore. In Sean's defense he did a wonderful job. The girls are both here, alive, NOT covered in 3rd degree sunburns, and well-fed. They even brushed their teeth every day. Aside from being a tad water-logged and Emma having extremely dry/burned/chapped lips and cold sores, they came home pretty normal! I am so thankful to him for largely giving up his vacation to share it with the girls and leave me home for a bit of peace! He didnt' get to wakeboard, read, or sleep in nearly as much as he usually does at the lake, but he doesn't seem resentful of that either. As for me, I am definitely battling some bacterial thing. The trips to the bathroom are frequent when I stop taking medicine, and now I am dead tired and lethargic on top of it all! I think I will visit the doc on Monday. Later!

Use the Force

Well a few of you have asked why I am starting on my Halloween costumes so early, and what they are. This year our whole family is doing a Star Wars Halloween. Since I have only done 1 costume for Emma in the past (and usually bought Kenna's) I decided I needed to use the week the girls were gone to get a head start. Luckily my mom is here visiting and she has done probably more than half of the work! If it wasn't for her help I think I would've gotten discouraged about the time I started Sean's cape and given up. Anyway, Sean will be a Jedi, I will be Padme, Emma will be Leia, Kenna wants to be Yoda, and Spencer will be an Ewok. I think we will have a Halloween party this year for friends and family - otherwise no one will see all my hard work! Here is a picture of the costume I will be wearing. I had to include Anakin because he is the hottest Jedi ever - until Sean is one for Halloween! On a different note, Sean and the girls got home last night around 10:00 p.m. Mackenna came creeping in the back door and just stood there and smiled until I picked her up. Emma soon followed and for the next hour I loved on the girls and Sean held Spencer and watched all the new things he's been doing (ya-ya-ya-ya-ya.....shaking his head no at everything......wrinkling his nose like a pug and breathing out of his nose so he sounds congested......and to my ultimate dread - trying to get on his hands and knees). I am glad to have my family back and things back to normal. Emma starts soccer on Saturday and kindergarten on Thursday. Summer is over now, I guess!

SOME VACATION!

So much for my long-awaited girls' weekend with my best friend, Dionne. It started out well; we met up Friday and went to IKEA and had lunch. Things were fine until Saturday morning, when I started getting sick......let's just say I was making frequent visits to the bathroom. Saturday we had planned to go see "Becoming Jane" and go to dinner at our favorite haunt, Applebees. We ended up getting to the theatre 10 minutes after the movie was supposed to start to buy tickets due to a train stalled on the tracks and blocking every rational route to the mall. The movie was sold out by then. So we decided to see Hairspray instead. Pretty funny, John Travolta as a 300 pound mother in a sequin dress. Anyway, this is how it went: sat down at 4:27.....endured 9 minutes of singing hot dogs and not-so-discreet hints to turn off cell phones....movie began at 4:35....Dawson and Spencer taking turns deciding they didn't like musicals.....Dawson dropping his binky on the grimy theatre floor - under the chairs in front of us......given him Spencer's spare binky.....Spencer dropping his binky......me fishing under the chair for Dawson's and taking the spare back from Dawson for Spencer.....both babies finally asleep by the end of the move, at which time I was so nauseated that we decided to go home and make chicken noodle soup. The next day I spent sleeping and running to the bathroom intermittently. At least being dehydrated I lost another 3 pounds saturday night! Now I am home and starting the Halloween costume venture as I have to make 5 this year. I picked up my mom this morning and she is staying to help me - she will be going back Thursday morning. At least I got to spend the weekend with my very best friend, even if she was changing Spencer's diapers for me and making me comfort food the whole time! I love you, Di!

Meteors

Well I got Sean and the girls off to Lake Powell. Emma got a little emotional when I put her in the car at 4:00 a.m. on Thursday - luckily I was too tired to cry due to a 6-month-old keeping me up 3 nights in a row. Oh, and the night before that I stayed up for a meteor shower that wasn't worth the loss of sleep! I only saw two impressive ones, the rest were very faint shooting stars; and I spent most of the night laying on my trampoline fighting my cat off as he kept attacking my feet. Finally I decided I had had enough claws and craning my neck to get the best view of the sky, and went to bed. If I had known I wouldn't get a good night's sleep for 3 more nights, I would have made the most of that first night! I am at Dionne's right now and it is very peaceful without my girls around - but I am starting to miss them. Yesterday Dionne and I went to IKEA - bad....very bad. I went there to buy a $10 tent for my kids and walked out $30 later, with 4-50 cent dish towels, 3-50 cent animals for my kids, 1-$2 garbage can for my office, 1-$13 bath mat, and the tent. Good thing it is all the way in Draper! Today Dionne and I are going to see "Becoming Jane" (sorry Heather!) at 4:00 and then going to dinner. It will be a fun girls' day out. Spencer has started doing this absolutely adorable thing - I'll have to see if I can video it and get it on here somehow. He catches your eye and starts shaking his head (like saying no). Then if you do it back to him he does it back to you and it is like you are communicating. It is the cutest thing. He is also sitting up wonderfully now. Right now he is in the middle of a long nap - amazing! Another great morsel of news - I have lost another 4 pounds! That makes 10 total since May - YAY!!! I have about 10 more to go before I am completely satisfied, but I am very happy. Imagine what I could do if I started exercising faithfully and gave up soda alltogether!

SEE ANY SIMILARITIES??

Flying Kites

Well, today was a really good day. I was dreading Church because Sean was working, but surprisingly, the kids were really good. We don't have to bribe Mackenna to go to nursery anymore; she's decided it's not outer darkness after all. We had a small mishap after church; Spencer took a nosedive off my bed. I felt so bad! I turned my back for a split second to move a bucket of laundry to the floor and in that amount of time he rolled over and landed face first on the carpet. I took him with me downstairs to get his binky and calm him down, and when I came back up to my room Emma was saying a prayer for him. She said "Mom, I asked Heavenly Father to heal Spencer." It was one of those precious moments when you realize your children are absorbing some of the good you try to teach them. Anyway, the kids and I took a nap in my bed and then we had a Star Wars (or as Kenna calls it "Star Horse") moviethon. Then we had dinner and went out to the front yard. The kids and I ate popsicles while Spencer stared unabashedly at mine until I took pity on him and let him slobber all over it. Then the kids played with the bubble blower and the cat watched them chase bubbles and then wrestled with a tree. After Sean got home we took the girls out front and tried to fly their kites (it got windy all of a sudden). Now I am just killing time until midnight when I can go check out the meteor shower everyone keeps talking about. I got a telescope for my birthday, so I have been a stargazing fool this summer. In fact I have several scars on my legs from a mosquito ambush and my consequent scratching for about 2 weeks after.

Let's play Shreckers!

I guess I'd better post again as it has been 4 days! I am considered a less-active member now, I guess. One thing is for sure; having all my journaling posted helps me be more positive. Well, we are finally done with swim lessons! 4 weeks straight and a stomach flu-diarrhea bout later. I think we all got some kind of bacterial thing from the pool or something. All my kids got it and Brooke and Ryan got it too, and they had a mommy and me class. On the upside, Spencer has finally decided that pureed food isn't so bad after all - halelujah! So, we started Christmas shopping today. Not really on purpose. They had a shrek game set on clearance with checkers, dominoes, card games, etc. Emma loves checkers so i first thought of it for her - but Mackenna is obsessed with Shrek. So we decided to get it for her. We were very sneaky about the whole thing ("you underestimate my sneakiness, sir"); I paid for it and took it to the car while Sean had all 3 kids (YES!) in another section of the store. Then on the way home we moved Kenna to the back row so we could pick up Emma's friend - and when we took a turn a little too fast it fell on Kenna. She said "Look! the Shreckers game!". Guess we won't be telling her Santa brought it afterall. Here is a picture of Emma and her friend Julia and a picture of Spencer sitting up in the grass. That is our new evening activity since he gets bored in the house. He loves to sit in the grass and pull it out and try to eat it.

Spencer

Otherwise known as Spunchi or Squish. Hates his swing; loves the butterfly gym and bouncer. Will only fall asleep if he is put down and ignored (the legacy of the 3rd child, I guess). Hates babyfood, loves table food! Loves to roll onto his tummy and smile a toothless grin of accomplishment, only to get stuck there and eat carpet until someone rescues him. Finally sitting up (mostly) on his own! Swollen gums, eyes finally losing their blue, and rosy cheeks just like daddy. Finally getting some hair! Trying to cherish his babyhood as he is our last.

Mackenna

3 going on 30. Loves her daddy more than anyone in the world! Loves the color green, almost to the point of a tomboy. NOT a morning person; wakes up yelling at her sister over polly pockets every morning. MUST get out of bed at least 5 times after being tucked in, and MUST be tucked back in ("cuddled") after each out-of-bed excursion. Picks a new animal to sleep with every night and MUST fall asleep to the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Still has her baby cheeks and hands - love it!

Emma

Loves to laugh and make others laugh (especially Spencer), play dressup, ponies, barbies (recently requested a "boy barbie"to go with her girl barbies....yikes). Always hungry and must change clothes at least 3 times a day. Can't sleep without her kitty (pictured), can't wait to play soccer and start kindergarten. I can't believe she'll be 6 in a couple months!

Get with the times!

So I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon here! Journaling is something I need to do every day for my own emotional health; i just feel overwhelmed by all the details i haven't included. That is just the perfectionist in me i guess. Anyway, what's new? We have a cat now. It is a kitten, probably about 10 weeks old. He is white with black spots here and there, and a black tail. We named him patches, although the kids keep changing his name to spots. Anyway, the girls are out back with him every spare minute. They sling him over their shoulders or carry him around like a baby doll and he just flops. It is funny. We are also in our final week of swimming lessons after 4 weeks straight!! I am relieved. The girls go to Lake powell next week with Sean, and I am headed to Dionne's for 3 days. It will be a nice break, just me and the baby. Then I am picking up my mom on my way home. She will be staying for 3-4 days and then sean and the girls will get home. Sean is scheduled to take the NCLEX (nursing boards) next wednesday. That is about all for updates - now for those dreaded details: Spencer woke up every two hours all night last night. I am so tired! But after just having had my midday caffeine i can't take a nap. The girls woke up and Mackenna started yelling at Emma, as usual (she's not much of a morning person). So i told them to go watch t.v. and not to go outside to play with the cat until i got up. Well, darned if they didn't go outside right after the first show was over on disney channel. So i poked my head out the back door and told them to come in quite nicely and patiently....okay, so i yelled at them to come in.....and of course Emma blamed her younger sister for the fact that they were out there and when I told Kenna to come in she yelled her usual "I'm scared!!!" which is her way, in all her 3-year-old glory, of rebelling. So i marched outside in just my garment top to haul her butt in the house. Fun!!! Anyway, not much else for details. I read some books to the girls today while Spencer cried that he wasn't being held. Sometimes I just think "someone throw me a bone here!" I just need to take more time to look at my girls and remember the things i love about them. Motherhood is much more of a joy when I do!