The Absence of Solitude

The Boys

I received the comment from my sister on my last post that I better not put up a Wordless Wednesday post today. So today is a random post of things going on with the boys.

If I had posted a Wordless Wednesday post, this would have been my picture:

I might jinx myself by saying this so often, but Aaron is a really good baby! He is more alert, looking around, responding to our voices, and has started to be more generous in giving us smiles. Which are so big and cute that they melt this momma's heart.

 

Oh, Simon! This kid is just crazy and he is also my most imaginative child. So imagination and crazy can make for some pretty funny/frustrating days.

He watched Spy Kids last weekend and now has become a spy. He even made a laptop to receive his next assignments and to report to his spy boss, John. He asks me to help come up with his missions and so far he has cleaned the house of monsters under the beds, locked all doors and windows so Mr. Boogity can't get in, had to call the Ghostbusters to remove a ghoul, made sure Jillian was safe while I showered, and gone on several top secret missions that he can't tell me about. Yesterday, at the store he kept asking for a watch because, "All spies have watches, Mom."

Two more Simon quotes/stories: He was playing a game with Jillian and I overheard him say to her after gettting a little frustrated, "Watch and learn, man! Watch and learn!"

On Sunday during Sacrament meeting at church, Simon was getting to be a little out of sorts. I took him out to the foyer and after a few minutes asked him if he would like to go back in and sit quietly. He looked up at me and said in his best Animal voice, "In Control." I nearly died; I wanted to laugh but held it together.

 

Ethan is always on the go. With scouts, piano, band, friends, school, etc. it can be hard to get any pictures of him. I need to be better about that. His pace will only pick up in the next few weeks with concerts and end of year activities. He is such a good kid helping with the younger ones, helping me and Allen, and overall just being a kind, loving kid. He loves school and is really looking forward to middle school while I am scared silly about him starting middle school. I just pray he has a good experience and doesn't end up hating it as much as I did. He is also really, really looking forward to summer with cousins. He misses everyone like crazy and can't wait! Oh, and can you tell he has suddenly become a Syracuse fan? Nana made him the bag while she was here and he was SO excited to show it to his friends.

 

So there is a quick update on the boys. Was that good enough Jenny? Tomorrow I will update on Lauren and Jillian.

Bum Thumb

My little Simon is a nail biter. He often gets hangnails and such from constantly chewing on his nails. It's gross, honestly. It seems like I am always telling him to get his hands out of his mouth and I usually follow it up with, "You are going to get sick from putting all those germs in your mouth."

Sunday we were getting ready for church and Simon started shaking his hand and saying, "Ouch. Ouchie." I asked him what was wrong and he said, "Nothing." So I asked him if I could look at his hand and he freaked out and ran into another room. When I finally was able to look at it, I realized his thumb was really infected...black, blue, and green type of infected and swollen to twice the size of his other thumb. Allen came home from church to take him to urgent care where it was drained and bandaged. He is also on a round of antibiotics--All from chewing on his nails! 

He has asked for help doing things this week that normally he can easily do on his own like buckling into his car-seat, getting dressed, help making his bed, picking up toys, etc. And every time he says, "Mom, can you please help me ___________ because remember, I have a bum thumb." Where he came up with that I don"t know but it is pretty cute. 

Cardboard Boxes

Watch this video that Design Mom shared of a little boy's fantastic imagination come to life in his own cardboard arcade! It is truly inspiring to see people care so much about it and make this little guy feel so awesome. It is worth the ten minutes!

 

Simon loves boxes too and takes them as soon as the are emptied. He made a house for his stuffed bear, Gochi, the other day and it sleeps next to him every night. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out the other three boxes he has been toting around for the last week. :)

 

Five on Friday

1. A hint of a smile.

2. A self potrait of Simon.

 

3. Nana playing peek-a-boo with a picture taking Lauren. 

 

4. Sibling adoration.

 

5. Aaron only two days old and leaving the hospital with Mom.

Five on Friday

Because I haven't been blogging much this week, I got a message yesterday from my sister asking me if I had the baby and just decided not to tell anyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case. No baby yet. I am just a slacker!

1. Yesterday I mentioned finding the kites in the closet. That was in fact a true story. I have been cleaning like crazy, de-cluttering, and reorganizing the last couple of weeks. When I cleaned out the coat closet, I found two kites still in their original packages tucked away on the top shelf, way at the back. I tried to remember when I bought them and I think it was shortly after we moved to NY. Seriously. I think they were for a school lesson that we never ended up doing. I am glad we finally got some use out of them :)

2.  For Simon's preschool co-op this week we did some fun things to learn about St. Patrick's Day. Here is Simon showing a couple of them:

3. After all the cleaning and organizing, we are officially ready for the arrival of this little baby. My due date is next Thursday, so I am hoping for him to make an appearance by next weekend sometime. I just washed his coming home outfit and can't wait to put it on him.

4. At school Lauren can earn what they call a "Gotcha" sticker. When they are caught doing something kind or going the extra mile the teachers and staff hand them out. Well, Lauren made a bet with Allen that she could get 20 Gotcha stickers. Her deal was that when she earned that many he would take her out for ice cream. She got her 17th one yesterday and is eagerly awaiting her reward!

5. I have been told by Simon and Lauren that tomorrow to celebrate St. Patrick's Day that we need to wear green, have a leprechaun visit to give us gold coins, make our rainbow layer cake, and have a green meal. I better get on those preparations asap! See what happens when you start traditions...they hold you to them. ;) With the nice weather we are having we might even go to the parade!

Have a great weekend!

 

two things today

Just to keep blogging, I have two things to share today:

1. Simon LOVES to get things out of the recycling boxes and create new things. Yesterday he decided to make a robot costume.

2. I have wanted to learn how to French braid for a very long time. I knew the basics of how to do it since my mother used to braid my hair for me all the time, but I could never make it look just right or get it tight enough to stay in longer than a few hours. Yesterday, while browsing Pinterest I came a across a how-to video. I was able to braid Lauren's hair for the first time this morning and for the most part it was actually still in when she got home this afternoon. A little more practice and I think I will finally get it tight enough to last the whole day.

 

There are a few different braid tutorials I want to try after I master the French braid. 

 

And how was that for an exciting post!?!

Simon Says

Simon has said some funny things lately. This is just a snippet of them:

When he does something that he knows he should not have done but wants to avoid the consequence he says, "I accidentally did it on purpose."

He told me the other night that he no longer likes milk. I asked why and he said, "It's gross 'cause it comes from a cow's bottom."  I am really not sure where he got this information!

As Allen leaves for work every morning Simon runs up to him and says this every.single.time, "Bye Dad. Give me hugs and kisses. Have a good day and be good when you get home." 

He has asked me frequently since we moved the crib into his room, "How am I ever going to sleep with a baby in here?"

Jillian and Simon often takes trips when they are playing; filling backpacks with all kinds of stuff and setting out on their adventures. The other day they went to Texas and I overheard him say, "Jillian, we have to stop in Erie, Pennsylvania so we can get Chick-fil-A." The boy knows what's up. ;)

He is a silly kid and so very precocious. He can make me cry from frustration and from his infectious smile and laugh. 

I know there was one more I was going to jot down and now I have forgotten it. Maybe it will come to me and I can post it. 

 

Five on Friday

1. I haven't taken a single picture this week. And so I haven't blogged because a post is always better with a picture, right?

2. Simon got pink eye this week and despite my efforts to contain it to just him, Lauren got it yesterday. I thought I was getting it yesterday as well but I think it may just have been some sympathy eye itching or something weird like that. This is the first time I have had to deal with pink eye in my years of parenting. I have realized three things: It's gross. It's expensive to treat with the prescription eye drops. And my hands are dry and starting to crack form the constant hand washing.

3.A couple of weeks ago I was in charge of a youth activity at church. I decided to do a night of Minute To Win-It games. It was a huge success and the youth really loved it. The night before the activity, I let the kids play one of the games for FHE. You had to start with a cookie on your forehead and then using only the muscles in your face move it into your mouth within a minute. None of us were able to do it one minute but after some practice Allen, Ethan, and Lauren all accomplished the task. (One of the youth leaders did it in 23 seconds on his first try.)

4. The biggest news around here is that Jillian is now potty-trained! Yay! I will only have one in diapers!! She has by far been my easiest one to train and also my youngest. She is doing awesome and this little girl will do anything for some Bruster's ice cream. All my other rewards didn't seem to phase her but once I said, "Bruster's," she was in. I hope I did it early enough that she won't regress too much when the baby arrives in a couple of months. Jillian has had some major changes the last couple of months..no binki, a big girl bed, and now potty-trained. She is a champ!

5. The kids don't have school today due to teacher in-service so I am off to find ways to entertain them here at home since I can't take the pink eye-d ones out anywhere. It's rainy and cold so maybe it is a just good day to watch movies, read, and make some cookies. We shall see...

 

Enjoy the weekend!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Sledding

Last weekend we finally got our first significant amount of snow. It was just enough to go sledding. Since the weekend was busy, I took the kids on Monday because they were out of school for MLK day. We had so much fun! We broke two of our sleds hitting the "moguls" the kids built and we stayed out way, way longer than I ever expected.

Simon did an amazing job this year. He would go down all by himself, get up at the bottom of the hill and yell, "That was AWESOME!" and climb right back up the hill to do it all over again. I was so surprised!

The first run down that Jillian had resulted in a lot of snow in her face (see Wordless Wednesday photo) and it took her a little while to want to try it again. And once she decided she do it again, she would only go down with Ethan and loved it every time.

I was glad we got in a sledding day because by Tuesday the snow had melted! Hopefully we will get more snow soon so we can try out snow-shoeing at the local nature park. It's just been a crazy mild winter here.