Odd Squad

Here's to the final night of the Odd Squad... (for a bit). Here's what they are up to

They'd best step up their collective game for the Christmas card pic... just saying

R - 5 - She is rocking Kindergarten. She has made some good friends in her 'new' school. She's got a good class of kids and I love that she loves her school and her friends. Her handwriting is still improving and she's powering through her sight words. Tee ball is her sport of choice is she is making HUGE strides in hitting off a pitch. 

E - 7 - Second grade? E is getting into the groove. The first few weeks of second grade were kind of a bear (maybe more for me than her). She loves to read. LOVES TO READ. She can get so into a book. She's swimming year round again for the second year and doing well. Still working some kinks out of breaststroke, I believe she can do it but she might tell you otherwise. 

C - 3 months - She's talking up a storm and loves to chat it up when I change her diaper and enjoys looking at herself in the mirror. I really need to move her into her crib for the night because I think we are keeping each other up at night. She's still coming to work with me and Papa has not attempted any sort of bottle with her soooooo, I'm never too far away. 

A - 1 and/or 23 months - AAK (get that)! How. Is. It. Possible. A is turning 2 tomorrow. He is all boy. He loves to lay in the dirt and play outside. He is still in the very clingy mom stage during the day - especially when I drop him at school and in the afternoons. He HATES to wear shoes and has the saddest looking feet with splinters, ant bites and scrapes - but he wouldn't have it any other way. 

M - 3 - This girl will be 4 in a month. Also, insane. She is loving her 3 yr old class and has some really great friends. She is mischievous and devious and calculating and cute all at the same time. M prefers playing with the big girls but can be caught playing with A after lunch because sisters are at school. She's a mess and she's got everyone fooled by her cuteness. She played soccer for her third season and did leaps and bounds better (comparatively, but we aren't supposed to do that, right) than her big sisters. We owe her a celebratory trip to Pit Stop and probably a few extra topping because of her season performance : ) I think M is a little E with some third child swagger. 

It is kind of weird dynamics we have going on right now. I think that E, R and M are their own little dynamic in the family. E is definitely the oldest. R is the forgotten middle child who is harassed by the oldest and the youngest (M). I try not to forget her but it is hard because I think of her more like E and she's not as small as M - it is easy to forget she demands her own standards. M is the youngest who thinks they can get away with anything (she does get away with some stuff but when I catch her... score one for Team Mom - she is a predictable 3 yr old.) 

A is the only boy and acts like an only child. He wants me to drop everything for him all the time. Hold him. Feed him. Take him outside. He wants all my attention. 

C is still in that 'finding her place stage'. I don't know where's she's going to fall but A is so so so attached to her and the big girls are good with her but also give C her space because they have a million other things. 

7QTs - Dr, ER, RR

Linking up with Kelly and co

---1---

Sickness report from the last 2 weeks:

An afternoon a couple weeks ago I was SURE that A had an ear infection. He woke up from his nap clingy (nothing new) and on fire. I teetered over taking him to the doctor but I ended up going because 

A. I was sure it was his ear and 

B. I was terrified of an ear diagnosis because any more ear incidents would likely earn us a FastPass to the ENT for tube. 

Well we rolled in there with me and A and C, I was nursing C with A clung onto to me for dear life - he is pitiful when he's sick. Finally it was moment of truth and.... "his ears are the best I've ever seen them". 

Oh the irony of it all. Ear infection parents unite. I can totally see if you have a kid with chronic ear infections why you immediately run to the doctor. I never understood until now.

In other thriller-ish illness news, M woke up sick in the middle of the night last Friday morning - like that kind of sick. She's a pitiful sick-y too. I was sure everyone was going to get the stomach bug and the whole house would succumb.... but everyone else escaped unscathed.

Praise

The 

LORD!

An addendum to the sicky report.... yesterday Lee woke me up saying his back pain (from work - hello never ending pool season : ) had taken a turn to his stomach. Well he decided not to wait for his doctor's office to open and headed straight for the ER. Hello chaotic morning of dropping kids off, worrying about him, not going to the ER because C is small... Another praise report - it wasn't terribly serious, just diverticulitis. A few antibiotics and pain meds plus a change in diet and hopefully he won't be too worse for the wear. 

---2---

During one of E's swim practices we patronized the park like so... 

I think if I had to tote A around on my back all the time I'd be back to my pre-preg weight in a week. Also he thinks he's supposed to ride in the Beco all the time now... but he's not. 

Swing love

Stroller love

---3---

He's so cute : ) and turning 2 next week!

A zonked out after the playground. He is so stinkin cute but he can drive me totally nuts at the same time. I think it might be time to cut his hair but I cannot bear the thought of baby boy looking like little boy. 

CAN'T 

DO 

IT

---4---

This picture is worth a thousand words...

The Nini + her thumb = makes me sad the lady who made the Nini isn't here to see C

---5---

Okay this post is insanely old because these book are due in a day... 

Rainbow Fairy Heaven

39 books checked out... I think about 20 were Fairies. E wanted to leave the library immediately after the fairies were found but I dragged her through the other aisles of books and low and behold - there are other books out there she likes!

---6---

As promised: 

R's art. I think I love the H the most. Also, the D'neilian or whatever kind of script they use - the Ks are the worst. Not a fan. 

---7---

Sports keep going along...

R is making some good strides in hitting a ball being thrown to her which is actually helping her when she hits of a tee ( They get 3 or 5 pitches and then the ball is placed on a tee). I'm excited for her. There will be batting lessons available in the winter so I'd love to sign her up for some so she can be a little more confident in the spring - if she decides to play because you know she is NEVER doing tee ball again according to her. 

2017 Summer Swim reCap

The summer swim season has come to a close. Cra-zee. Here's how it went down:

R gained a ton of confidence in the pool. She's swimming across the shallow end by herself and she really only stops to take a breathe. The breathing in line thing still hasn't happened. : ) 

She had a fun summer and this exemplifies her enthusiasm. We really thought she was going to get moved up to 6 and under from Pup Squad and we even had the racing bathing suits in hand BUT it didn't happen. She really really really wasn't ready. She handled it well. I hope with a few lessons over the winter she'll be good to go. 

E had a good season. She was swimming 7-8 which is tough because she turned 7 right before the cut off but it is what it is, you know. 

She rocked out her diving. She finally got it down. She still dives a bit deep but diving is better than flopping. I was really hoping breaststroke would be the same. She's improved but still very much DQ-able if she isn't 100% focused on the kick (it doesn't help her feet turn in a bit when she walks so having to have feet turned OUT for breaststroke doesn't come naturally). E still loves doing IM. And it that even this year was the thing I want to remember the most about her swim season. It was the last swim meet of the season (before conference) and she has practiced breaststroke a lot that week as to not DQ in the breaststroke portion. She did well in her butterfly length and then came backstroke. 

She was in lane one right next to the shallow end - and I was standing right at the corner to cheer her on. E veered toward the shallow end when she pushed off the wall and she keep going into the buoy line and then hit her head on the wall. She was crying. I kept cheering - you are doing great! Don't stop. Don't stop. And I could see her face and her eyes and she wanted to stop so bad. I felt for her; she needed a mama bear hug in the pool but fortunately I retrained myself 

She recovered and swam breast and free and didn't DQ! It was a 'rough' meet for her she said but to me that was the most defining race of the season. 

At conference she got two 3rds and a 7th. 

She didn't care too much but she might have her eyes and heart and mind set on winning a medal at conference for most points at that meet. 

Nash Rec Swim Team 2020 or bust

M has gotten tons of confidence in the water and I'm excited to see what next year will hold for her. She might be able to get to 6 and under if we go to the pool often over the winter : ) 

Here's to an A+ summer pool season 

7QTs - Injuries, Sports, Leaks

Linking up with Kelly and co

---1---

Our injury report for the week: 

E got some sort of bite or sting last Friday - nothing a little baking soda paste didn't take care of. She came home from school yesterday with a splinter but that took care of itself.

R still had her splinter in from the pre-tee ball antics. I read clove oil can help draw the splinter out so we did a few rounds of that and it seems to be gone!

This is A's foot from last Friday, covered in ant bites. Put some lavender on those and that helped. I had to take him to the doctor this week because I was 100% sure he had a ear infection - but it wasn't. I wasn't sure if I should be happy that he didn't need tubes (okay seriously thrilled) or disappointed because I was THAT sure it was his ears. 

During that appointment of having to hold him and C, I discovered he had a splinter on his hand. Of course since he's going a million miles a minute I have no idea when and where he got it. 

---2---

Saturday we went to the pregnancy care center walk with E and R's AHG troop

Not thrilled about early morning pics

It was a 2 mile walk and I think M and R were exhausted afterwards

C decorated the road with spit up but none got on me!

Overall a success!

---3---

Sunday we convinced Papa it'd be a great idea to do s'mores after dinner... 

He was the reluctant mellow griller... There are flat marshmallows made just for s'mores which I highly recommend

A didn't know what he was missing because he just ate grahams and was content with those

I think she likes it

Letting A in on the secret : ) 

---4---

In Sports News... 

M scored 2.5 goals in her first game of the season! The game itself was just ridiculous because of me misreading the schedule (or not reading it at all and just making an assumption) but other than that it was fun. 

R had a tee ball game this week and there was way less playing in the dirt on her part. A made up for it by laying himself out on the sidewalk and digging dirt out of the sidewalk crack - it was gross but I cannot stop him. 

I took this picture because R shared her snack with A after the game (E and M were at AHG) and R gave A the very last cookie without even thinking about it. It does my mama-heart well to see that. 

---5---

In school news... 

I've determined, I still despise homework, though E's amount has been adjusted a little so that is helpful. It is nearly impossible for E and R to do their homework at the same time so divided and conquered. Sometimes I think it would be better if E just did it at 7:45 when everyone else is in bed but the nightly schedule has been weird.

M had a tea party with her Teddy bear at school this week. $10 if you can guess the letter of the week

---6---

Weekly randoms: 

A and Papa moving his truck

R finished her summer workbook! and opted for Wonder Woman Legos for her prize. That's been a huge topic of discussion - what to be for Halloween. R wants to be Wonder Woman and E wanted to be an angel but I think she's leaning toward Poison Ivy because E wants to have a family theme. Papa said he was going to be Batman and A could be Robin. M is going to be Batgirl and C will be stuck as a pumpkin for now. 

Speaking of which... C is still super cute and she's taken to squirming around more so I had to get out her mat so maybe she can start rolling over? Also she is loving her thumb these days 

We visited Papa's latest and greatest project before lunch one day. He was working just around the corner from the house so we detoured there for a few minutes to catch a glimpse of him :  )

---7---

In house news...  

Houston we have a plumbing problem... $260 later we have that nice piece of Pex? pipe in place of the high dollar copper. We clearly need to replace our plumbing to avoid these spring leaks. 

Meet the mother of the one that was just repaired... Not to be confused with the original one from a while ago. 

The problem is we want to add onto our house...

1. Microbus garage, downstairs chapel, library, study, 

2. designated dining room, larger kitchen, outside patio (in 2 parts), 

3. expand downstairs kid bathroom, nix master garden tub, move Lee's office downstairs, make a designated nursery on the back side of the house without noise access, Mama office/nook, make AMAZING master closet using scheme of some friends of ours. 

Basically we have big plans (that include moving plumbing) but I things should happen in parts 1-3 and Lee thinks they should got 3-1. But first we need a plan and I need an architect. 

For now we'll stick with the annoying plumbing repairs and call it a week. 

7QTs - Spartan Races, Moving Friends, Filthy Brother

Linking up with Kelly and co

---1---

Our neighbors officially moved : ( 

It's been a tough week in that department and I half expect them to just come back home. 

---2---

R had a art project for school to work on  

I think she only got hit a with a few hot glue daps in the process... 

A continues his super neediness unless he is outdoors. 

And of course on the day she brought it in I couldn't find my phone - only to find it stuck in the driver side door of the van AFTER she went into class. 

---3---

The big girls had a dress down day yesterday 

And if there was any question this girl's favorite color is pink... Not pictured are her pink socks. 

---4---

A had an immune building jaunt in the dirt of the school parking lot yesterday morning

He didn't even make it over to prayer line as he patronized the dirt that had settled brought that the rain brought in the night before 

My girls would NEVER have done that. I'm finding myself saying that more often

Ever so filthy 

Yet ever so pleased with himself and genuinely happy (to make up for all the crying and whining that he does inside)

---5---

C is great:

She is still chattering up a storm if you can get her 'talking' and still spitting up like a champ

And is generally quite happy unless she thinks you are ignoring her

---6---

Last night was R's first tee ball game of the season... 

But that was not without drama because right as we were leaving our neighbors (who we are cementing them in the neighborhood FOREVER! : ) house R got a splinter in her finger. INSERT FREAK OUT. She screamed most of the way home - even M got tired of listening to her screeches. Well by the time we got home and she had held her finger, I think she pushed it further in. She was losing it the whole time I tried to get it out but we had to leave for the game because I had the hats for the kids so we couldn't be late and Papa was at swim practice with E. 

My life. 

A comedy of comedies. 

I could write a book.

But I'll blog for the time being

Lee tried to get the splinter out but that didn't happen so this was R before the game. Unhappy with the entire situation. 

They started doing 5 pitches of coach pitch and then using the tee. I cannot say she's improved in the offseason but there was loads of fun to be had in the dirt

And when you're five, I suppose that's just fine. 

---7---

My own post week notes: 

1. I really need to get all the laundry folded and put away before Monday starts. 

2. I missed the pool this week since I had a bit of a head cold so maybe I'll shoot back next week?

3. WE REALLY MISS OUR NEIGHBORS

4. In the afternoons I really have to have my game face on for homework. Table needs to be cleared and younger kids need to be occupied to give E and R my attention. If we ever add on to this house, I'd add on a wing with a garage big enough for the bus, a wet/dry outside-ish shower and bathroom, a downstairs chapel room and a dedicated study/library with each kid having their own desk. This is my inspiration. 

5. I think I could write a book on navigating healthcare as a self payer. 

6. We ended up at church 45 minutes before services began this week - instead of 15. Which super annoyed me that Lee and I both did not read the email thoroughly but ended up working in our favor since E and R had time to get their homework done BEFORE. 

7. Have you ever heard of Spartan races? I am toying with the idea of signing the girls up for one next weekend because it looks like loads of fun and it's only an hour or so from our house and we don't have any sporting events. Thoughts?