Toddler tantrums

Eden doesn’t throw fits anymore, she gets emotional.  About everything.  Spend a day at my house and you will get a glimpse of the tears that flood the house over absolutely nothing.

The other morning I gave the kids cereal and raisins for breakfast.  We ran out of milk and eggs and we were going to run to Sam’s Club as soon as it opened.  But we still needed to eat something.  I dished out their bowls full of cereal and raisins.  Ella and Cooper were very excited to eat something that normally isn’t offered in the morning (call me a mean mom but we don’t eat cereal on a regular basis – it is a) expensive when you have 3+ people eating it and b) it is loaded with sugar that my kids definitely don’t need, they are hyper enough on their own).

Eden sat down at the table looked in her bowl and cried.  She wanted milk on her cereal.  I told her we were out.  She cried that she couldn’t eat dry cereal.  I told her she didn’t have to eat it then.  She cried because she still wanted to eat it.  I told her okay.  Then she cried because she needed a spoon.  I got her one.  Then she cried because of something else.

Then I just stared at her.  Baffled.

Just a normal morning

Today started off like any other morning.  You know, drinking coffee relaxing on the couch changing diapers, striping beds of their sheets (Cooper peed in his bed), trying to get my children to eat a quick breakfast (I gave them cheerios because we were in a hurry to get out the door and in a half-hour they still had yet to finish eating).

Then I called dibs on taking four of us to the chiropractor, while my husband drew the short stick and got to take Eden to the urgent care to have a rubber hair band dislodged from her nose.  Yep.  Typical morning.  Never a dull moment. Ever.

(In case you are concerned with Eden.  She is fine.  She told us this morning that when she was supposed to be sleeping last night she was talking with Ella (what sisters don’t chat it up at night?) and put it up her nose.  I think in her attempt to remove it from her nose she pushed it waaaaaay up there.  The doctor thought there was a good chance of needing an ENT to remove it.  Thankfully they were able to get it out.  She was traumatized for life and will never put anything in her nose again.  And she got an unexpected Starbucks date with her daddy.  All is well….for now.)

It’s friday, friday, friday

This week has seriously flown by.  I don’t even know where the first half of the week went.

I do know that yesterday and today we had two extra little people (ages 3 and 7 months – so it was like I had two sets of twins in the house).  By none other than the grace of God did I get all 6 children to nap yesterday.  At the same time.  For an hour.  People, that is 60 minutes of pure quiet!  It was a feat and I thanked Jesus for the peace!

The kids did really well together.  And were pretty happy.  And the only catastrophe was caused by Eden Grace.  Pillow – 0.  Eden – 1.  (She said that she found a hole in the pillow and wanted to make a pile of fluff.  That she did.)

Today I attempted to do a craft.  It was a huge fail.  Except that the kids thought it was awesome.  Who knew making crappy pumpkin masks would make their day?

Well, that is about it.

She’s a dancer

Eden started taking dance lessons a couple of weeks ago.  She has so much enthusiasm and practices her dance moves at home all the time!  She is growing up all too quickly!

Scissors

It was bound to happen.  Someone in our family gave themselves an awesome hair cut.  And when asked why they cut their hair, their response was, “Because I wanted a haircut like Cooper.”

Sorry Eden.  We are not in the market for little girls with their heads buzzed.  It’s not a big deal.  I actually laughed and am still laughing because of the mortified mom who came to tell me what she did.  It’s just hair.  And as far as homemade haircuts go, it is pretty concealable.  She just has some extra “volume” on one side of her head to hide.

And I should also mention that she decided to give her locks a trim on the day we decided to do family pictures, so I should have seen this coming.

Words of a four year old

Eden and Cooper were asking what tampons were.  I told them they were for me and tried to feel out whether or not that answer would be sufficient (because at 7am in the morning, I am not really looking to try and explain the female reproductive system to my children).  Cooper asked where they go and Eden answered, “Do they go in your mouth?”

Me, “No.”
Eden, “In your ears?”
Me, “No.”
Eden, “Oh, they go between your toes then.”

And that is where I exited the conversation.  Because she decided she knew where they went and one day she will really know where they go.

…………………………………….

This morning Eden was praying over Garrett before he left for work and the bits and pieces I could hear went something like this:

“Dear Jesus, Please give us a big house and a big yard with a swing set.  Please keep daddy safe.  Please shoot down our Goliath.  Please keep us all nourishment.  And give us everything we want.  Amen!”

When my children pray they are honest.  And that my friends is a pretty honest prayer because isn’t the last part of her prayer what we are asking for much of the time behind our big words and fancy sentence structures?  Humbled, I am.  My prayer for them, and for me, is that God gives me what He wants and I always see the blessing in it.

Opinions please

This is a real life “WWYD” moment but without John Quinones.

I have very outgoing, people loving children.  And that is an understatement.  Have you met them yet?  If you’re not sure then you haven’t because they would tell you who they are and ask you to play with them in 2.5 seconds.

So, anyway…. We are planning on homeschooling for a myriad of reasons (and to all my teacher friends it has nothing to do with teachers or the school systems in Cedar Rapids) for the first part of their schooling lives.  But here is the question, what would you do if your daughter talks about going to school all. the. time.  Not just here and there and pretends to play school but actually talks about going to school non-stop.  She gets “school” time at home right now and loves it but she actually wants to go and have a teacher and wear a backpack and be around her “friends” (yep, she already wants school friends and she just turned four).

I am signing her up for dance this year and am hoping that that maybe calms her down on the school front.  We also play with other children as much as possible.  So she is getting plenty of interaction with children besides her siblings.  I just don’t know what to do.  We talk about how she is going to stay home and go to school but she is continually asking to actually go to school.

So here is where we are at:

A) Homeschool her like planned but maybe send her to school a couple days a week for “specials” during the day.
B) Homeschool her like planned (the coop I am thinking we will join offers one day a week at a school through them).
C) Send her to school.

Has anyone else been in the predicament?  Or have you been the homeschooled child who would have rather be in actual school?  I know I have time before any decisions need to be made but I am just starting to question what to do.

***Since I am the mom, I reserve all rights to ultimately decide what happens.

She turned 4

My very first blessing turned four this weekend!  We spent the day celebrating our “princess” and after 20 minutes of true princess behavior we had a little attitude check.  We think the birthday crown went to her head.

Opening up her princess bandaids!

Her new outfit.

Our princess.

The goofy one.

Sweetest baby we know:-)

Those eyes speak volumes.

Daddy and birthday girl.

Loving her birthday sundae.

More presents!

Her new ride.

Seriously, happiest baby we know!

Within an hour she was the only one with a balloon left.

Hugs, kisses, and ugga-muggas

Does anyone else watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood?  We do sometimes.  It’s a mix between Mr. Roger’s and a cartoon where animals and humans are friends and can talk to each other and solve problems by counting to four.

At the end of each show Daniel Tiger gives the audience a good ugga-mugga (basically he grabs your face, says “ugga-mugga” and eskimo kisses you).  Weird.  But whatevs!

Eden now has to give her daddy hugs, kisses, AND ugga-muggas before he can leave.  It prolongs the daddy-getting-out-the-door or going to bed routine.  But my Awesome Husband gladly gives her the ugga-mugga with a smile (and muffled laughter).

Anywaaaaay…every one in our house is a target for the “ugga-mugga” and I have seen her do it countless times to Garrison since he is immobile and can’t fight back yet.  He also thinks its funny, so she keeps the ugga-muggas a-rollin’ for him!

Maybe one day I will tell you all about how the first time Eden gave me an ugga-mugga I thought she was trying to kiss me the way the french do it.

Sesame Street Live

I took the girls to Sesame Street Live.  Here is a direct quote from Eden about the show:

“I watched the show and then it was done.”

And when asked her favorite part of the show:

“We got tickets and then sat down.”

Doesn’t that just scream AWESOME?

Don’t let her answers fool you.  She LOVED it!  I was supposed to take her and Cooper but Cooper has literally been a sick little dude every day this week.  Poor guy just can’t seem to get better (we just came back from yet another doctor’s appointment with a new medicine to clear up a brewing ear infection).  So we swapped out Ella for Cooper and she loved it too!

I totally recommend taking your kids at least once.  Get the cheap seats, bring your own snacks, and walk quickly past the stands selling overpriced cheaply made crap.  It will be worth this look:

Horrible, dark, grainy picture. But I think you can see her pure joy! (Especially since she was more interested in the show than the iPod)