when guests arrive with small children!
We had some friends over for supper this past weekend. I’m still not sure how the girls got in there and how Ginger got in. The gate was locked on the Freedom Center. Hmmm…
And no, Ceili Rain does not have sunburn. She has mosquito bites all over her face. It was like they saw all her sweet meat and launched in quickly!
I know everyone is just aching to see how Bryant is growing. The posts last week were from waay back (that would be July) and they got swapped around so we could smather our blog with pictures of Bryant.
One of the library books Ace chose the last library trip included a book called The Three Nasty Gnarlies. On the back, Ace found a recipe for a dessert. He asked that we make it while our friends were here. I obliged even though it looked completely gross. It was in fact called Grubby’s Mud Puddle Surprise. The kids loved it. It’s chocolate, peanut butter and cookies. What’s not to love!?!
While visiting with Kristina and family at the jumping place and while waiting on our pizza, we ordered nachos to appease all our kids large appetites. After the nachos were gone the big kids left to play. The two littlest ones climbed onto the table and shared the leftover cheese.
Megan taught Ceili Rain how to dip her fingers into the sauce. She was very happy with the process. The pictures just do not do the cheesiness of our little ones justice. They were pretty covered. Luckily, it was very close to their skin tone so it blended in well after it dried (please know that we did eventually bathe them before they left…and that doesn’t count our pool play).
While waiting on Bryant, my best friend planned to come visit. We were thrilled and prayed and prayed Bryant would come while she was here. Alas, God said no to those plans. But, while they were here, we had a wonderful visit. My kids didn’t know they were driving nine hours just to visit us. So, it was exciting to see their reaction when they pulled up. The kids were pretty pumped and even though they hadn’t physically been in contact with each other (only visually…through Skype) they all picked up right where they left off! Running and screaming and singing, “There are no cats in America” only a few minutes in to the visit.
Our husbands both speak computer…and so…this is what we found the first night we were all visiting. Mr. John came up a day ahead because he had to work at the local fort this week.
This is what you do with nine kids when it’s bedtime. Actually this is only six of them. The crib kids (or ones who need to be contained during the night…except one of them who was still awake), got to sleep in pack n’ plays and various ensembles throughout the visit. Now, here’s the ages of our kids…7, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1. Yep…just imagine the decibel levels which led to this the following day:
We loaded them up as soon as a jumping place opened and threw them in.
Since we’ve been attending a church where no one looks at us like we’ve lost our minds when we bring our children in to the service. And since I don’t want to be running around with a newborn in my arm and chasing Ceili Rain during the service, we’ve started blanket training.
Blanket Training was a concept I’ve heard of a long time ago but learned a little more about by reading the Duggars book, 20 and Counting. A couple of weeks ago, I researched a little more about how to do it. Apparently there are various ways to do this. This is how I did it.
First day, I sat her down for about five minutes with two to three toys on a blanket. If she tried to get up, I told her, “No, it’s blanket time.” and sat her back down. The second time she got up, I told her the same and disciplined her. I actually don’t think I had to tell her twice the first couple of days. Her attention span is pretty good so she got up to 10 minutes pretty quickly. So…basically the goal is to increase the time she can sit on the blanket. My goal is 30 minutes since that is a typical sermon (I haven’t “timed” our preacher but I’m just guesstimating).
She loved it from the beginning, and like I said, she sat on it for a long time for a 16 month old. I’ve been impressed with her stamina. I’ve also been able to walk out of the room for brief periods and she remains on the blanket.
The goal, however, is to do it consistently so that it becomes routine.
We tried it out at church on a Wednesday night after three days of working on it. She did amazingly well. Our Sunday worship was not as great…but I had not been consistent over the couple of days leading up to worship for her to do it correctly.
I’m loving it though and hoping it will help not only with worship but also when I’m feeding Bryant!
So, we had friends visit from far, far away last week. The dad is in the army and worked while here. He got up the first morning in his army uniform (camo) and came and ate breakfast acting pretty normal. However, as soon as Liam saw him his eyes got very wide. He was quiet for awhile and then asked, “Are those your pajamas?”
He was pretty much in awe when I explained that Mr. John was actually in the army and he had to wear that work, etc. Then Liam decided that meant he was going to fight the “bad guys.” Then I had to explain that Mr. John was a computer army man. Still didn’t lose the awe factor on him though.
***
A very overly tired Liam on the way to get something to eat: I’m looking for cars with trees on top of them.
Ace (who somehow knew what he was talking about): Those are Christmas trees and it’s not Christmas.
Liam: I know. But they are saving them.
Zoe: Ohhhh, Because it’s Christmas in July in some places.
Me: Um, Liam wouldn’t know that because he can’t read.
***
Liam: Mommy, do some men marry old ladies?
Me: Yes, Liam, Daddy did.
(Mark is 20 months younger than me)
***
Liam: Mommy, do you remember when Santa got his hair cut off?
Me: Um, no.
Liam: You don’t remember that story?
Me: No.
Liam: I’ll tell you. Remember he killed the lion and then he went to the bad place where that mean woman was. And he got his hair cut off.
Me: Oh, yes, I remember when Samson got his hair cut off.
Liam: Right, that’s what I was telling you about.
Congrats Crystal M! You won a Total Pillow. The winner was chosen using Random.org. I’ll email you to verify your address! Hope you enjoy it.
UPDATE: I’ve just emailed the company and will post up to date information as I receive it. You can check the Total Pillow post for up to date info. Thanks!
I was trying to use my Total Pillow last night and realized there was something “crumby” on my bed…after a little further inspection, I realized it was the microbeads from the pillow! They were all over my bed, hair, and Bryant’s hair. I checked out my pillow but could not find a hole but noticed that they were coming through the fabric.
So, I wanted everyone to be cautious of this. I’m in the process of the contacting the company to see if this is a common problem or an isolated incident. I’ve used it mildly over the past seven days (couldn’t really get it adjusted at night for comfort but used it for my back and some neck support). So, I’m not sure why it’s doing this.
I wanted everyone to be aware of the problem, so if you win and don’t want the pillow, please let me know so I can select another winner.
I’ll update on this post as soon as I hear from the company.
The kids were so excited to come and meet Bryant. Normally, we would have them up at the hospital in the morning, they would hang out there all day playing in the waiting room or at the playground (which is a great playground by the way) and then go eat lunch and if I was close (which I’m usually not) they would hang out some more and if I wasn’t (which is the case) they would head for naps and be back up long before I delivered. But, since Zoe decided to, um “spill the beans” earlier that morning, we decided to have them wait at home and see if she let loose any more stomach contents. Which she didn’t…which leads us to believe she just ate a little too much or had a little something that didn’t agree with her tummy the previous night. So, we intended to call them when I got really close. But close came right before naptime and baby came right near naptime.
As Mark put it to Zoe, “you guys wouldn’t have even had time to get your shoes on and he was born.”
So, we opted to just have them come up right after naps. It worked out great because they arrived right as we were getting settled in our post delivery room.
Zoe was very patient about waiting for her turn to hold Bryant. But she definitely wanted to get her hands on him. She is really enjoying showing him off when we have visitors at the house too!
Ceili Rain decided he was all hers. We think her main thought was that he was a doll. Bryant had been very alert and finally settled into a good sleep when we got to our room. So, he was still and had his eyes closed. A sure sign to a 16 month old that mommy had been gone all day to get her a baby doll.
She also didn’t want to share him with anyone else and squeezed him tight when we tried to tell her she was all done. The next day, when he did stir she looked around at us. I’m surprised she didn’t flip him over to find the batteries.
We make up “labor bags” for the kids to keep them occupied on labor day. This year, we included card games much to their delight.
