Potty Time!

Tubby and Ses are officially potty trained. I figured once they were taking their diapers off to go poop, wiping themselves and putting back on their own diapers, it was time. They can go all day with no accidents! I now have 7 potty trained children. I only have one in diapers. I don't think that's happened since I only had one child.

In other news, our Uncle Mike is home from Iraq!! He is HOME!!
For more pictures, go here Those were taken by a professional photographer my sister hired for the event. Gosh I want to be that good when I grow up.

Baby Girl has gotten a couple of new teeth and started the Reflex Anoxia Seizures, or Pallid Breath Holding Spells as they are more commonly known in the US, that most of her brothers have blessed us with. The name change is because they are not actually holding their breath, but since they were similar to the Cyanotic Breath Holding Spells in that they are completely benign and usually have a triggering event, they got the name. All these years though it's really bugged me that my children never exhibited any of the symptoms of CBH, the classic and most common kind. My children were not angry or crying, they did not turn red. And they were not fine within a few minutes, they usually slept for the rest of the day after what looked like a seizure. But we did all the EEG and other stuff, all came back fine and the boys all grew out of it eventually so I do know that the result is the same. Now I just know what to call it, and for sure that it is not a behavior, it is a condition. At least that's what the internet told me. I did print all the info and will run it past the pediatrician.

Other than that though life is cruising along. We are loving the weather right now and having fun on spring break.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This was originally designed for the grown ups, but it just fit too well for the kids this week.

I didn't do things that required my mom to say:
get your pepperoni off your head
get your muffin off your head
don't throw crackers at your brother

I didn't beg to spend the night at someone's house and then stay scared and lonely all night because I wanted to be at home.

I didn't do something that left this:











on my bedroom floor, causing my mom to ask "WHAT on earth is that?" and then giggle and start humming La Marseillaise while taking pictures. Here's some close ups, got a guess what that is?









I also didn't clean up a mess my brothers made without being asked, see that mommy was really tired and help my brothers with snack, and do silly things to make my sister laugh, just cause it's so cute.

We've obviously been busy around here.

A Hollow Victory

I occasionally have some weakness in my hands due to arthritis and so asked Red to help me get the top off a bottle. He did and I observed that it was a switch, him getting the top off of something for me, and did that feel good? He looked at me and said, "It is but a hollow victory".

February has been a rough month. Lots of sickness. Cuddles' breathing problems continue to plague us, Princess has been replaced by a snot monster, and Frogboy, Cuddles and Tubby have all had a stomach bug, Cuddles and Tubby more than once. Smash, Red and Jes have all had days where all they did was sleep.

I had a glimpse of the future. I was able to hire Red to get the ground ready and then plant grass seed in our front yard (for the Nazi Perfect Yard Society, home owners association) while Frogboy and Zaney did the weeding in the beds. The littles all begged for jobs too. Hmmmm, they work for quarters....must write that down. Except for Red, he got actual dollars, but it was worth it.

And here's more pis of Baby G as she is starting to be called:

The last Christmas and Redneck sleddin'

I promise this is the last. But I HAD to show off this:
and here is the page from Frogboy's birthday. He went to a movie and then came home and played games. We don't do sleepover's, except for on your 10th, 13th and 16th birthdays. Keeps the number of nights I have to sleep somewhere else down.


We had about 1/2 inch of ice the day after my birthday. Yuck. But we managed to sled, even me. You'll notice we don't have sleds, but this is redneck country and clothes baskets work just fine. This was Smasher's page, which is why there are so many pics of him.



The boys first spent 1/2 an hour just knocking ice off of everything with sticks?? They liked to watch it break. Tubby and Ses almost didn't go out at all, Ses took literally one step out the back door, slipped and fell and decided this was awful. Frogboy finally convinced him it wasn't all bad, look you can hit stuff! But sledding was way out of their league.

Mommy needs to watch her mouth, Smash asked his brothers what the hell they were doing......I don't talk to the kids like that, but he must have heard me while driving *blush*. We're plugging away at school, finding a good groove. I like what we're doing and how we are doing it. The boys don't seem to mind it, considering that it's not Legos (at least not all of it). Zaney and Cuddles actually beg for math. I broke Frogboy and Red of that bad habit by teaching them long division. Sigh...I wish they could always love all of it, but the truth is, long division is a lot of work.

Princess is weaned fully. I hate that, sort of . She just wouldn't nurse any more, she has things to do and places to go. And she is going. She can get anywhere she wants and pull up when she gets there. Her favorite thing to do is pull up on the coffee table with a toy and pound it for attention. She still prefers a driver, that is, she would prefer me to hold her all day while I go about my work. I wear her on my back when I can but when I can't she scoots around behind me, yelling until I sit down beside her. I try and remind myself she isn't interrupting my work, she IS my work. Now if I could just get the laundry to do itself.

The neverending Christmas post

Our December was so full this year, and one of the best parts was getting our Uncle Mike home for the holidays. We were there to welcome him at the airport!



He will be home for good sometime this Spring!


Our neighbors also did their annual Christmas play. Every year, they write and direct a play for the neighborhood. There are weeks of practice and memorization, costume design and all kinds of fun.

Then it was finally Christmas Eve! We got to have our cousins with us this year! We love having our cousins over!

My laptop is going to have to get some work done on it so I probably won't update while it's gone.

Frogboy

In January of 1998, I gave birth to my second son. We named him for Esau's younger, and much more famous, brother (those biblical scholars among you now know his name LOL) because Esau was a red head and he came "on the heels" of his brother. This man is also one of the more headstrong of the old testament fathers....hmmmm, I might have rethought that.

My Frogboy is very much his own person. Legos, movement, laughter, noise, more movement, quick, funny, emotional....that's my boy. He's always been quick to laugh, quick to cry, quick to lose his temper and then have you laughing again before you've had time to get mad back. He loves babies and is always ready to welcome a new sibling, often asking when we are gonna get a new one! He's is fun to do school with, as just about anything can capture his imagination, except history. He's doesn't enjoy reading but is a whiz at math, like his daddy. His mind is a maze and he sees things very differently from the rest of the world. He can occupy his younger brothers with imaginary worlds for hours, but when he's done, he's done. He has taught his brothers to literally climb the walls, jump like frogs, "fly" off the bunkbeds, climb trees and so much more. More and more now I see him growing into a young man. My little guy with the super power fits is gone. He notices others feelings now, he shares his own with words instead of actions, he is more patient and gentler. He still has his fire though. I'm glad for that. His joy, creativeness, intelligence and emotional personality give so much to our family. It is truly amazing, I was just sure he was the one I'd be apologizing for on the evening news.

Happy Birthday Frogboy, glad you are mine.

Christmas

In the interest of killing two birds with one stone, I've decided to have most of the pictures I post here be scrapbook pages I build for the kids. It will hopefully encourage me to keep current on the scrapbooks and I don't have to arrange them artfully here, it'll already be done. But I've only done part of the holidays so far. Yall saw the gingerbread house, next was our baking. We bake cookies and pumpkin bread every year for the neighbors. The plan is to to bake it and deliver it with some caroling before Christmas, which we almost always achieve (the exceptions being Christmas' after delivering twins). Red has become an ace at making pumpkin bread and does almost all of it by himself. The younger kids do the cutting out of sugar cookies, which is the hardest 30 minutes of my life, other than leaving for church. Red and Frogboy can do their own but aren't fast enough to please the little guys so I roll out the dough for them. It takes them .2 seconds to cut out 20 cookies, at which time I have to roll it out again, and there are 5 of them. I'm gonna miss this some day, right?

But it's tradition. My Uncle Vern, who Ses is named after (middle name), used to pack up me and my cousins and take us to sing for his neighbors and deliver baskets of homemade goodies on Christmas Eve. I loved those times. My kids love these times. I hope my grandkids will love it too. It fills the house with good smells, laughter, and thoughts of others, with only the occasional threat of being sent to their room breaking the harmony.

After the baking, our neighbors and caroling partners come over to decorate cookies and package everything up. Our neighbors are such a blessing. They have 4 beautiful children (the youngest I jokingly refer to as my future daughter in law), 3 girls and 1 boy. The boy is Red and Frogboy's best friend and the girls, even though 2 are older, are great playmates too, showing them that girls are human, and can kick a mean soccer ball. I love that they entered enthusiastically into our tradition, it makes it more fun with more singers. We usually sing for everyone on the cul-de-sac that wants it, but it was cold and wet and we had a new baby, so we just did the ones directly next door and across the street. One of the women across the street is bed ridden on a respirator, but her mind is still sharp. She loves to have us come visit and over time the boys have become comfortable with her machines. Last year she was able to sing with us, but this year she was too sick. She did smile and move her lips. Our next door neighbors have a son with Down's and while he loves our little guys, the big ones scare him a bit. He usually runs when we knock but this year he actually watched us from behind his mom and waved at the litte guys.

Coming soon:
Frogboy's birthday and more of Christmas.