Happy 5th Birthday, Tyler!

Seriously, 5 years old?! I have a 7 year old and a 5 year old now. Whoah.

I would say that Tyler had a pretty good birthday. It started off much like any other morning. He picked what he wanted to eat for breakfast. We normally do sweet-free Fridays, but today, we let him have jam on his waffles. He then opened his presents. We got him Beyblade stuff and Despicable Me on DVD. While I put Crosby down for his morning nap, Tyler got to watch some PBS Kids, which he quite enjoys. Then, we headed out to his gymnastics class.

After class, he shared some cookies with the other boys in his class. I picked the lunch spot today: Uneeda Burger. Yum. We over ordered.

This afternoon, he took his nap, then played with Vincent until it was time to go to dinner. His choice restaurant was Lark. Unfortunately, Crosby wasn't doing too well there (read: fussy), so we had to cut dinner short and pick up dessert at the little market near home. It didn't seem to bother Tyler. We didn't even sing the birthday song (it's been sung several times this week already).

Before bedtime, we let him play Skylanders on the XBOX. 

I'm glad he had a nice day. I hope that age 5 will be a great one for Tyler.

FINALLY! Vincent's Beyblade Tournament Birthday Party

After much planning, postponing, and anticipation, we successfully threw Vincent his birthday party. All, but 1, boy made it. Everyone got along, made lots of ruckus, and had fun. Crosby even napped through most of it!

The cake: Vincent picked out a ready-made red velvet cake at QFC this morning. We reused the toppers from the first cake we bought, that we only ate half of, and I wrote the message with melted chocolate.

 

The brackets. Well, sort of. I didn't get a good shot of the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Our happy 7 year old and his buddy.

Tyler got in on the action, too.

My spread. The towels on the chairs were to protect them from sticky boy hands. Very cheese forward snacks. Cheetos Puff, Doritos, cheddar slices, pretzel crackers, strawberries, raisins, and applesauce squeezers.

The party animals.

 

Happy 2014

Good day today. Lots of cooking. We had our friends, The Hidebrandt family, over for lunch. I made bratwurst sliders, kale salad, and broccoli for the kids. It was all so tasty, except, I misjudged the sliders & didn't make enough. But, this forced the adults to eat lots if greens, and saved us room for dessert!

The boys have been so excited about the new Lego sets they got for Christmas and have been playing and building a lot. Their Nana got a free box for them to fill with loose bricks, so I took them yesterday to the Lego store to fill it. When we got home, they ran right upstairs to see what they could make from them. Mind you, this was a very small box. Nonetheless, they were excited, and, of course, they already have many. That was also part of their day today.

Last night, for New Year's Eve, the older boys were invited to another family's house from 5p-7p. They have two boys the same ages, and two other brothers were also invited. David and I took Crosby to our neighborhood Italian restaurant, Cafe Lago, for a delicious meal. We tried to let the boys watch an east coast broadcast of NYE with Times Square, but the broadcast was tape delayed. Lame. David and I could not stay awake for midnight. I don't even think I got a kiss goodnight, since he was asleep before I got in bed.

The rest of today was nothing spectacular. I cooked a meal from Blue Apron, which was nice to not have to think up what to make. We ate cupcakes for dessert. Tyler and I did a mini piano lesson, then, I read the first three chapters of Charlotte's Web to the kids. I put Crosby to bed while David did a toy battle with the older boys. Like I said, nothing spectacular, but it was a good day. And, another baby was born into our lives yesterday. Not a bad way to end 2013 and start 2014. Happy New Year!

Let Them Be Little

This week, I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions. I've made a few, and voiced a couple to the kids that I'd like to instill for the family.

#1 - once a week, exact day is still TBD, we will go sugar-free, except for fruits and vegetables. 

#2 - this one was Tyler's idea, once a week, we will go screen-free. Again, exact day, TBD, but probably different than the sugar-free day.

Personal resolutions:

#1 - in bed, lights out, by 10pm, 6 days a week. 

#2 - less late night snacking (yes, totally guilty of this bad habit). I think #1 should help with this.

Lastly, as the title of this blog says, LET THEM BE LITTLE.

I like this sentence. I got it from my friend, Kami, who has been working with some of her friends on a collaborative photo blog, capturing the daily lives of their kids. It is titled 'let them be little.' It is truly so sweet to see their photos of their children being just who they are. 

This past week, this sentence really hit me, and it made me think about how I feel as if I am sometimes rushing my children to be bigger than they are. Mostly Vincent, and sometimes Tyler. Not really with Crosby, though, I'm sure I've done it. What reminded me of this was over this weekend, when Tyler and I went to get a birthday gift for his buddy. Tyler excitedly picked out this bubble making set. Personally, I loved it, too, but I questioned his choice, thinking it was too childish or little for Max. Tyler was positive that it was THE gift. It said on the box 'Age 5+.' Max turned 5 years old, so, clearly, age appropriate. Nonetheless, I thought what I thought, and even text messaged his mom to say that I will include a gift receipt.

Guess what? Max LOVED the gift. And, his older brother (almost 7 years old), and little brother loved it, too. 

This reminded me that I need to embrace my children's littleness. How will I incorporate this into my 2014 resolutions? I don't know. Maybe just being mindful of this, and trying to live in my children's moments as much as I can will do the trick.

Happy 7th Birthday, Vincent!

I can't believe I have a 7 year old kid. Before I talk about what kind of kid Vincent is at this age, let me tell about his day.

First of all, we were all set to have a birthday party for him this afternoon. It was probably going to be his best one yet. We have been planning it for about a month, maybe longer now. Vincent asked to have a Beyblade party, where he and his friends can battle Beyblades. Maybe you recognize these people.

We let Vincent choose 8 friends to invite. We decided we would do it tournament-style, with brackets. We got each kid their own Beyblade, purchased 2 battle arenas, and a Beyblade cake. It was going to be pretty epic. Last night, we showed the kids the stuff we bought, let them each pick out a new Beyblade, and even did a few practice battles. 

We sent the kids off the bed, and were going finish getting ready for the big day, when we heard Tyler coughing badly upstairs. I went to check on him, and found Vincent by his side, trying to calm and help him. Then, he threw up. Ugh. David was also not feeling well yesterday, and Vincent had a cough, too. It was a major bummer, but we decided to postpone the party a couple of weeks. 

Fast forward to today...

Vincent got up around his usual time, and we soon let him open his gifts. He received a new mystery Bey-booster from Japan, and a Bey-locker from me, $7 from his Aunt Tiffany, a science kit from his Uncle Michael and Aunt Naomi, and a skate board with safety gear from David.

Money!

Japanese Beyblade

Examining the Beyblade info.

"What? I got a heater?"

"Cool skateboard, Vincent."

Vincent asked for breakfast from McDonald's, so Tyler and I went to the drive-thru and picked stuff up for us all, except Crosby, of course. After breakfast, the boys did some battling, then Crosby took a nap. I let the boys watch an episode of Beyblades and an episode of Rescue Bots. Then, Vincent picked "Super Buddies" to watch. After some lunch, I took him to the mall to pick up his cake, and let him do a little shopping with his birthday money. Guess what he picked out? Another Beyblade. I kept trying to convince him to see what he gets for Christmas, but finally came to my senses that it's his birthday. It's his money. He can choose what he wants. Unfortunately, the place where we got it from was overpriced, but it's a local small business.

When we got home, he tested out his new toy with Tyler, then it was time for his birthday dinner choice: Pagliacci pizza. Oh, we did a little FaceTime with his grandparents, too. After pizza was cake. After cake, all the boys got bathed. We ended the day by watching a DVD of old family videos from David's childhood, which cracked the boys up a bunch.

Fingers crossed for a healthier family tomorrow. 

And, now, a little about our 7 year old, Vincent. Vincent is:
-Curious. He asks tons of questions about all sorts of stuff. But, what he really likes to ask is, "What if...(insert random, weird, makes little sense scenario)?"
-Kind. Most of the time. 
-Sensitive. In good ways, and not so good ways.
-A reader. Yup. About a couple of months ago, he suddenly seemed to turn a corner. Sort of out of the blue. He still struggles, as expected, since he's only in 1st grade, but he's definitely reading. He needs tons of encouragement and reassurance, as he thinks he can't really read. Um, yes, boy, you can.
-Decent at math. This seems to be his strength. What is challenging in this subject are the word problems, but he's coming along. As far as the basic arithmetic part, he's pretty good.

-A good buddy with Enzo from school, and our Tyler. He loves to play with Tyler at home, even if they bicker.
-Into Beyblades, Skylanders, Legos, & Star Wars.
-A really good big brother to his baby brother, Crosby.
-Compassionate. Most of the time.
-Soon to be joining the black belt training program at his karate dojo. 
-Spirited, sweet, smart, funny, silly, outgoing, friendly, good looking, fun, loving, caring, hot headed, patient, impatient, and wonderful.

For Crosby

Dear Crosby,

Today, you turned a little corner in your development. Just a little, but it's still a big deal to us. For the past 2-3 months, you have been very content to sit and play, or watch your brothers play. You have always enjoyed standing, with us holding you on our laps, too. Gradually, you have been showing less interest in sitting and more in standing. This week, however, you have especially showed preference for standing up. You make your legs very stiff when we try to sit you down, and sometimes complain once someone gets you into a sitting position.

The little corner you turned today was when you were sitting, you leaned forward and was able to keep yourself up better than you had in the past. In addition, tonight, when we were all down in the basement getting ready for Vincent's Beyblade party tomorrow, I stood you up next to the train table to see if you liked it. You did. When I sat you back down, since you were losing balance, you grabbed on to the side of the table, and started to work on pulling yourself up. Two times you were able to get yourself into a standing position on your own! You didn't stay up long, and the second time you actually fell over and got a little hurt, but you did it! When you got hurt, it looked like you might have bumped your eye. I put a cold pack on you for the first time, and that was a confusing experience for you. You did let me hold it against your eye for a while, but you really wanted to hold the cold pack and put it in your mouth.

Seeing you make this little advancement tonight was bittersweet. Although I am happy to have you stay put in one place, and I want to keep you little forever, it is still so fun to watch you grow and learn.

I love you, my sweet boy.

Mama

Outnumbered And In The Weeds

Okay, I will admit it. We are totally outnumbered by small creatures in our house. Yes, and in the weeds, as they say in restaurant lingo. Even one of our cats, Stella, feels it, and she's one of the contributors to the madness.

Creature #1, the oldest of the bunch. She feels so crazy, she got herself a new hair do.

It is non-stop here. Right now, we are in the weeds with: sick kids, laundry hampers that magically refill themselves with dirty clothes after they have just been emptied, little plastic water cups that multiply when they get wet, hungry cats, hungry kids, homework, karate lessons, piano lessons, ugh! sick kids again, dirty floors, pee on the floor, puke, cutting little fingernails, eczema, Christmas, a birthday 3 days before Christmas, junk mail piling up, dentist appointments, and the cats' flea meds were supposed to be given last week...All being done on way too little sleep.

It's all pretty trivial, aside from the sick kids. All families are busy with this or that. I don't know how other families with 3, or more, children keep it together. There is always someone who needs us for something. 

I'm not complaining, per se. It's more that I am stating the facts of our life now. Friends who are in a different place in their lives at this time will ask if we want to do this or that. I can't help but feel lame when I decline because I need to put the baby to bed at a specific time each night, since he doesn't take a bottle, and we haven't insisted on him doing so. I know my friends aren't judging me, and they probably understand. 

The truth is, David and I have sort of allowed ourselves to be where we're at, and it's not a bad thing. I know that I will only breastfeed Crosby for about a year, maybe 18 months. In the grand scheme of things, it's not very long. With the first two, before I knew it, they were ready to ween, whether I was or not. So, for now, I don't go to ladies night, unless it ends by 6pm. Or, we put the kids to bed, then we head out for a late night snack (the kids have someone with them). We also made the decision for our 2nd boy to only go to preschool 3 days a week, which allows him to bond with #3, and to try out other activities. We also recently fired our house cleaner, and I am crazy enough to think that we'll be fine without one. It's been okay, but it's definitely contributed to the extra work here. 

But, as I sat down to compose this blog post, with all these thoughts of what to say, the quickly fade when I look through my photos of ones to post. I thought I could find some photos of them doing something ridiculous recently, but the only ridiculous thing about them is how freakin' cute they all are. That picture of Stella, above, was the most crazy I could find. Well, I guess I could have whipped out my camera at the pizza place tonight while Tyler was puking up his who meal and David was trying to catch it into napkins so it wouldn't get all over the floor. That wouldn't have gone over too well with David, though. Or, when Crosby threw up on him a few days ago. Yes, two different kids have puked in the last week. 

I have very little time for myself. What little I have, I fill it with silly games on my iPad, since they can be turned off quickly, or squeeze in some Christmas shopping (almost done!). Some of our standards have been lowered drastically. I like to say that we are on survival mode at this point. I wish I could make a batch of cookies for the teachers at Vincent's school for teacher appreciation, but just thinking about it stresses me out. I'm not even sure if Santa will get homemade cookies this year. We are lucky that most nights I can put out a fresh, home cooked dinner. Um, that's IF I have gone shopping for food.

There is this part of me that says, "Hey, you, get it together! Plenty of people have 3 kids and get way more done than you do. Their kids are top of their class, with tons of extra curricular activities. They travel the world with all their kids in tow. They go to work (outside the home). They bake cookies, make their own baby food (okay, I do that sometimes, too), they are starting their own businesses..." The list goes on. And, then I just tell that little voice in my head to SHUT UP!

I love my kids. I love to love on my kids. I live to love to love on my kids. I feel outnumbered, in the weeds, overwhelmed, crazy, and so so so blessed.