Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My Gosh!

The title of this post is M's favorite misquote from "The Wizard of Oz." J always tries to correct her but she continues to say this to my great delight. It cracks me up every time! She has always been my scrawniest child and I'm always trying to get her to eat more but I have made a break through recently that gives me hope! She kept eating less and less of her sandwiches at lunch. We have P&J every day at her request. I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't eat it all (one piece of bread folded over) but I think I know now. She didn't want to get messy! It is a bit messy to hold the sandwich if jam is dripping out or if Mom happened to get a little crazy with the peanut butter while she was spreading it. :) So I tried something new. I cut up the half-sandwich in small little rectangles that are bite-size and she gobbles up every one. She picks each piece up gingerly and plops it in her mouth and loves it. Now J is requesting the special "rectangle sandwiches." Whatever it takes to get them to eat! At lunch today, another great feat was managed. I got M to eat a grape! Those of you who don't know M well might think, "Big deal! Who doesn't like yummy grapes?" Well, this kid has wanted to stick a grape in her mouth so badly her whole life but it was always followed by a quick spit out. Normally if a kid doesn't like something, they'll remember and not try it again. With grapes, that has never happened for M. She always thinks she'll like it and then spits it out as fast as possible. Well, today I figured I would try yet again to get her to eat a grape. I told her that grapes were special because they had grape juice inside them! She likes all juice, so she thought that was neat. I showed her how they roll around on the table and she played with hers a bit. All of a sudden she stuck one in her mouth and I knew what to expect. But she didn't! She bit into it and I could see her start to make a funny face from that explosion of juice in her mouth that she wasn't ready for and then she exclaimed, "I LIKE it!" as if she could not believe she could like some new food! :) A lot of my friends say their kids devour blueberries and raspberries and carrots and green peppers (eaten like an apple). To all of you... phbttt! :) Just kidding! But I am so grateful for every healthy food I can get into this kid! Hooray for small victories!!!

Mid-June update

M has been having issues with sleeping ever since we moved here. She'll sleep on the couch, the floor, the futon mattress, but not her bed for more than two nights in a row. She kept complaining that the bed was "bumpy." Well, sure enough when I feel the mattress, there are deep grooves in it where the seams are and it probably needs a nice foam pad. But the next two nights after she would complain, she'd sleep in her bed just fine! So I'd forget about it until I found her on the floor or couch or wherever the next morning. So last night I asked J to switch beds with M and guess what? They both slept like babies. Yeah, I know, it's only been one night, so we'll see how it goes. But J said she liked the higher up day bed and M loved J's bed. What cracks me up is that M has slept on this "bumpy" bed since she was 20 months old with nary a complaint until we moved here! Strange. We need to buy a bed for N soon anyway, so we may play upset the fruit basket, I mean beds, again anyway. I had some friends growing up that would always switch beds and bedrooms every few months. There were 4 girls, so they would have to share with one sister, then get sick of her and switch it up again. I have a feeling my girls will be the same! :)

J has made some huge steps in progress towards being a full-on school-aged kid! One I'm particularly happy about is that she has gotten the whole "PUMP" thing on the swings down! We got a swingset for M's birthday and the next day J was just swinging so high and never asking for someone to push her! YAY!!! That is a momentous event when you've got two other kids screaming for a push! She actually loves to help N get on the swing and will push her and M for me too. Love having this big girl around! J is doing karate and gymnastics and will start swim lessons on Monday. Karate is kind of a joke (but it's free through the YMCA) and she gets a lot of her energy out. Everyone goes to bed better after an "activity" day. Gymnastics has been fun for her as well but Princess N is really tired of me restraining her when her sisters run out on the floor. I hope swim lessons go well for her. She's taken 2 years of lessons where we used to live but the levels are different here. Here they have two levels: basic skills or you have to be able to swim 15 feet by yourself on your front and back. I mean, come on, there's nothing inbetween? So I put her in level one because she can't swim 15 feet by herself. I hope it's not totally boring for her!

M is hilarious lately, now that she's reached the ripe old age of 3. She loves to do knock-knock jokes (especially the impatient ghost one which she finally got the timing perfect on!), she loves to tell anyone who will listen, "Last night... I saw an ant in the corner!" (after which we all groan and say, "Why do you keep saying that?" and she giggles like crazy), and she loves to eat her "barbacube" chips for lunch. She's having a blast in gymnastics and when I ask her if she did one of the activities, she'll nod her head and with the most serious face, say, "Yep, I did!" She loves to color and she's getting really good at navigating her computer games. Today she asked me to print out a picture of Daphne (from Scooby Doo) for her to color. She said, "You click on the orange button and then you go down and down and down and down and then stop. And print it." Pretty smart cookie. :) When she thinks a driver in front of us needs to go or she thinks the printer needs to spit out her picture faster, she says, "GO MA'AM!" Hee hee. Where could she have gotten that?

N is running everywhere, whooping it up in the pool, squealing as she goes down the slide (which she gets up to all by herself over and over again!), and is very interested in the potty. Now, don't roll your eyes. ALL of my girls have been interested at exactly 19 months. So I got the potty chair down and the Dora ring to go on the toilet. Anytime I ask if she wants to go potty, she grabs the front of her diaper and speeds to the bathroom. It's hilarious. She sits on the potty chair, then the Dora ring where she says, "Dada, dada, dada" (being interpreted is "Dora, Dora, Dora"), then back to the potty chair. She will do this for a LONG time until I pronounce that she's done. Nothing has been "produced" so far, which is fine. She (as my other girls) is not afraid of the toilet or flushing or anything like what I've heard from other friends, so that's a positive step forward! She also will, of her own volition, pat the front of her diaper, and drag me to the bathroom. She is kind of getting it. :) But I'm in no rush. If she was keeping up with M, she'd be totally trained in 3 months, but I'm not holding my breath on that one! I really wanted M to be trained at 2 because I had the new baby to take care of but she beat me by doing it all herself 2 months early. I don't have any need to hurry this one along yet. :)

B is REALLY busy at work and stressing some times. The other day he brought home a print out of an e-mail his boss had sent the division managers. There were 12 bullets on his list of what needed to get done in the next few weeks and 7 of them had Ben's name attached to them, like this.
Ben: blah blah
Ben & someone: blah blah
Someone & Ben: blah blah
Ben, someone, and someone else: blah blah
Ben: blah blah
Ben & someone: Blah blah
Someone, someone else, and Ben: blah blah

I think he's being a little overworked for sure! Hopefully we'll be able to take a few quick vacations this summer to visit family. He earns his vacation days next month!

I'm doing fine. I like running the kids to their activities and I've been doing a preschool curriculum with Miranda (and Jill loves to do it with me as well), while Natalie naps. They love the preschool stuff so much, they beg me to do it all. day. long. Ugh. But I'm glad they love me so much they want to be around me all. the. time. :)

This morning Jill sweetly said over her breakfast,
"Mom, I love to communicate with you." What? So funny. :)
"What do you mean?"
"I just love to talk to you."
"Why didn't you say that?"
"I was trying a new word."
"Where did you hear that?"
"On TV, as usual."
"Do you ever learn anything from ME?"
"Oh yeah, I learn a lot more from you than I do from TV."
"Well, that's good!"

I'm glad to know I'm still beating out the tv for educating my children!

Caught Princess N in a fun mood!

Kitchen has a backsplash now!

Thanks to my wonderful, talented brother, my kitchen has a backsplash and is looking more and more finished every day. Still needs a little work but I'm very happy with it!