September 2010

J. really likes milk. Okay, more truthfully I think his body weight consists of about 40% milk. He does eat though, so I'm not too worried. I found this little miniature milk jug at the grocery store and J. was pretty pleased to have his size of milk to pour from. A. liked the idea too and suddenly I find I can take a few bites of my dinner without hopping up to refill glasses. Is it worth the spills? Oooh yeah.

All of our camping trips here in the Midwest consist of grassy campsites (littered with various types of tree nuts), and lakes. I don't think our boys understand that camping and fishing can actually be two individual and separate recreational activities. This picture documents the very first fish J. ever caught. Only 2 years old! (Disregarding the fishing derby in August of course, for confidential reasons). It was pretty cute. He reeled it in himself and yelled out "I got one!" To our surprise there was this little bitty fish in tow. So one would expect a child who had just partaken of the excitement in finally catching a fish would want to KEEP fishing, but not our J. He caught his fish; he was done! "Who wants to go back to camp with me?" Maybe he won't go pro after all.

A.'s first day of school. There are 6 kids in A.'s Kindergarten class (five boys and one girl!). It is practically like having a private tutor! Here's the best part: His teacher's name is
Mrs. Wisdom.

Perfect, right? The only bad part is that the school is 15-20min away and classes are right in the middle of the day. This makes playdates and morning outings impossible, as well as adding the trying task of getting C. and J. to nap long enough before waking them to pick up A.
So no, I didn't cry when I dropped my firstborn child off at Kindergarten for the first time. I know you're supposed to moms, but I was excited for him. Plus, it is only 4 hours. When I got home and got the little boys to bed I had the feeling of complete exhilaration when I realized I still had nearly 1.5 hours left to my own!!! Now I wanted to cry! J/K

I did get emotional that day though. I had excitedly packed A.'s first school lunch and put a little sugar-free Werther's candy in it. I really wanted his first day to be a good experience, and if you know anything about A. you understand that a large portion of his hypothalamus is dedicated to candy contemplation. (To this day, any time he wakes up and says he's had a really good dream it will inevitably involve a large source of candy.) In the car after I picked him up I asked if he had like the surprise I put in his lunchbag and he said, "No Mommy; we are not allowed to have candy at school. I wasn't allowed to eat it." And there it was -- a punch to the heart! I couldn't decide if I was going to cry or turn into a big angry mama bear. No one - NO ONE had ever had the power to tell me what I could or could not give to my child. If I think it is okay for my kid to have a piece of candy then he GETS a piece of candy! Don't worry. I did get a hold of myself. I can even laugh at it now..... sometimes. :)

Clean up nice, don't they? I love that once a week I get to have my husband and all my boys lookin' soooo good.


Baby J. is a big-time leg hugger. He also likes to play chase around the kitchen-living room-dining room circle of our house.

Visiting Aunt Amy! Amy and Ryan were so nice to put us up for the weekend while we went to my brother's wedding in UT. It was a fun trip. We left the two older boys with friends and took C. (since he is free to fly with). It was pretty hard to leave J. -- he is still so young! It was fun to have just baby C. and give him some one-on-one. PLUS Amy gave Ken a hair cut (so I wouldn't have to! Hurray!) and even better.... gave me highlights! We heard later that our two older boys were both taken to the Balloon Glow (where they fill up the hot air balloons before the big race) and when they saw each other there it was like a movie reunion:
"Jonas!"
"Aiden!!"
(with climactic music and running into each others arms)

The wedding/reception was fabulous. It just feels so good to see Trevor happy again. He is definitely the sole romantic in our family (how did that happen??) and we all wanted so badly to see him find someone who deserved that -- and him overall! He had to go to Utah to find one, but we'll forgive that since we all like Stephanie so well. Mom's absent was felt, of course, but there is no doubt she was happy about the wedding and feeling a lot more comfortable that day than she would have been if she were with us.. You would think I'd have a picture of them to put on this post, but I only took our video camera so I don't.... and I stole this one off Facebook because baby C. looked so cute. hee hee....