Working hard

Most of you know Brady has been in graduate school going for his Master's in Security Management. This past week was the last for one of his classes - he's on a rolling schedule so he starts a new one every four weeks and they last for 8 weeks. He has worked dilligently on his final paper the whole week, including a last minute 12 hour shift on Monday....but even with all that dilligence, he still had to cram the last few hours before the due date/time. In the last 48 hours he has had to manage his time carefully with balancing soccer games for both boys, sleep, family time, church, and homework. He has slept for five hours since Friday. As of now, his 20 page paper is submitted and a 4 question essay final exam done, but he still has a 3 essay question midterm in his other class....due at 8pm tonight. He had to tell his professor he won't be able to take the quiz on time because he needs to sleep now since he has to cover for a coworker tonight. The poor guy has been working so hard to get everything done, and there's just not enough time in the day for him. Working nights is extra tough....not to mention the demands of being a dad to four kids who love him to pieces. Brady is such an amazing dad, and I am soooooo grateful for the sacrifices he makes to spend time with us while going to school. I know if we didn't have family time yesterday he could have finished everything on time, but he made the time for us all to be together. Today I am just thankful to be married to such a wonderful man!

Chatterbox already

Tonight Ayla was ready for bed so I tried to feed her like I always do......and she wasn't interested but still acting tired. I just laid her down in bed, and she was quiet for a few minutes so I thought she was asleep. Then I heard her talking in her cute baby voice, just babbling away. After a few minutes of that, it was quiet again. I love her baby sounds. I think it's so nice that sometimes she just wants to be put to bed awake so she can sooth herself to sleep.

On another note, I am so tired after a long day today. It started with Ayla getting up at 6:40am, the first two soccer games of the season, a birthday party, and then going to the NASCAR truck race. I so don't have the energy to repack the diaper bag for church tomorrow.....but if I don't do it now we are more likely to be late for church tomorrow. After all, Saturday is the day we get ready for Sunday. Tomorrow is the Primary program for Sacrament meeting, and I am so excited!! The kids reportedly did so well in their practice last night. I was in the nursery supervising Ayla and Gideon so I missed it.

I get my sense of humor from Dad

I would absolutely love to make a "cake" like this for a Halloween party. It's made of molded brownies and chopped nuts. My sons are having a friend party again this year with a Halloween theme. We are playing Halloween games, wearing costumes, and having a themed cake. Oh how funny would this be to eat!! The whole post, in which this cake is featured, has some awesomely gross ideas for April fools day pranks. I, for one, just want to do it on a regular day just to get a reaction......sometime's I have a childish sense of humor........or my dad has rubbed off on me. (Not that it's a bad thing either. Laughter is a wonderful stress reliever :))

heat and cuddles

It's finally starting to cool off outside. Today it was 98* and it actually felt tolerable. As the sun goes down it gets even more comfortable outside. I am definitely ready for the season to change here.

Ayla is sitting on the couch by me talking away. She's a very vocal baby. I also think it's safe to say she is a thumb sucker for sure. She doesn't have a hand preference yet, but she sure loves to suck her thumb when she goes to sleep and again when she wakes up. I love the slurping noise she makes.

Confidence and sleep

Gideon has such great, unsensored self-confidence. He cheers for himself when he finishes building a tower with his stacking cups. Then when he knock it down he cheers again. He is so adorable. I love watching him play.......even if he should be taking a nap right now and not awake playing. It's 1:30pm, and he usually wakes up from his nap around 2pm....but today he refuses to sleep. I'm hoping to get him to nap soon so I can finish cleaning and get to project night at my church. I am REALLY excited to start putting my boys new quilts together. Eveything is all cut out so I just have to sew my heart out.

On another no sleeping note, Ayla is having a rough day. Last night she rolled over every two hours and woke herself up. I fed her back to sleep each time because I didn't want to deal with the crying. I should have just dealt with it though, because I am so exhausted today. She ate at 9pm, 12am, 1:50am, 3:30am, 5:30am, and got up for the day at 8am. She did the same rolling over thing again for each nap today, so she's only slept about 30 minutes since 8am. Tonight I'm thinking about letting her sooth herself to sleep because I just don't have the energy to be up with her so much. I have other kids to have energy for too.......I know this part of my life will pass eventually, and perhaps some day I will miss having babies to take care of........but today I wish all of my kids were old enough to be in school.

Thumb sucker!

Ayla was sitting up on my friend's couch, then fell over. She must have been comfortable because she relaxed and started sucking her hand right away. And then she got her thumb in her mouth, finally after 2 weeks of trying. After that she contentedly sucked her thumb and began to doze off. I can't even tell you how cute it was to watch.

Ayla's getting noisy

This morning, like all mornings, Ayla was all smiles. She was talking away on the couch and sucking on her shirt. She is my drooliest (is that even a word? It is now if it wasn't before!) baby. I don't remember the boys grabbing their clothes to chew on them like she does. I love her in capris too. She's a cute baby no matter what she wears though! A few days ago I switched out her clothes for the 3-6 month size. I love going shopping in the garage!

"Mom" moment

Last night I discovered something silly about myself. I realized I LOVE to hear the sounds of the dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer running all at the same time. It makes me feel productive :) The only bummer about these sounds is having them going at the same time I am watching tv because it's sure hard to hear! Especially when I have to keep the volume down after all the children are in bed. Someday we'll have all their bedrooms on the second floor so I can watch tv downstairs at night and be able to hear it!

I love my kids, I really do

Today has been a little frustrating. Ammon played the wii before school without permission, while I was getting ready. Granted, he did his chore and was all ready for school before he played. BUT when I said it was time to turn it off and go to school he ignored me and kept playing. I went over and just turned the game off. He got soooooo upset with me and was trying to reason why he didn't stop playing right when I said. Seriously? I am the Mom!!!! On top of that, he didn't add a player for Zenock either, and he wanted to play too. Ammon has had a real "teenager" attitude lately and I've had enough!! I don't understand where his bad manners come from, nor his negativity all the time. We have limits at our house....always have, always will.....so why this terrible behavior? I wish I knew how to switch his attitude. It does make me wonder if this is the calm before the storm of real teenagerhood.

I am also frustrated with Gideon today. While I was feeding Ayla he discovered he can reach into the kitchen junk drawer where I keep things out of sight that he can't have.........like gum. And he trotts right over to me with an open package of gum and starts unloading it. Before I knew it he had a piece in his mouth and was unwrapping more. I don't have a safe place for anything anymore!!!! I guess it's too much to expect him to be quiet and content with Gideon appropriate things while I take care of his little sister.

Getting bigger and bigger

Yesterday Ayla had an appointment with a neurosurgeon to check her head. Our pediatrician was concerned her soft spot was growing in too fast, which can result in the skull having difficulty expanding properly as her brain grows. The surgeon said according to her measurements she is in the 25th percentile for head circumferance, which is not a concern at this point.  We go back in two months for another checkup. It's nice to have a pediatrician who is overly caucious, just in case. I really appreciate the care and concern from our doctor, and her patient manner is so wonderful. We have had a doctor here and there who wasn't as friendly or helpful, so this is a welcome change....even if that means we have to drive across town to the surgeon's office. I would much rather be safe now than sorry later.

Last night Ayla went to bed at 7:30 and stayed asleep until 5am. She is back into sleeping pretty good at night again after a 2 week stint of 6 hours or less between feedings. When I got her up, she was looking at me....on her back! She is my earliest roller so far. The other kids were between 4 and 5 months old when they rolled over for the first time, not 3 months!!!

On another note: Gideon is HILARIOUS! He scooted a chair over to the sink a few minutes ago and got right up on it, pointing to the sink asking to play in the water. Who can resist that? So as I stand in the kitchen writing this, he is happily playing in a sink full of bubbles and kitchen utinsels. And, yesterday I heard him say "uh, oh" for the first time. I can't wait to get it on video because it's the cutest thing ever!

I love my children :)

Toddler troubles

Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a great amount of frustration coming from my little toddler. He is so busy, all the time. He loves to play and follow his brothers around all day. He has a few sign language words he knows, and he says bye bye and sometimes cracker and all done. But I can tell, just by the way he jabbers at me, that he wants to say so much more. I know that he knows he can speak, he's just not quite there yet. It's really affecting his attitude. He has been so moody the last few weeks, and some days I just think, "if this kid whines or screams any longer I just can't take it anymore." This problem has become even more evident after the older boys go to school. Gideon is just struggling to discover that he can have fun without his brothers.

I try all sorts of different things to keep him occupied and happy. I let him play with kitchen dishes in a sink full of water, I sit on the floor with him and build and rebuild towers, we do some scribbling with colored pencils because he doesn't try to eat those, and I take him to do errands. Yesterday we went to pick up some milk and drinks that were on sale. When we got home I had him help me bring in the groceries by giving him one thing to carry in to put on the counter. Then we would go back out and get more. He absolutely loved to help. Because he was busy, he didn't try running out into the street to watch for airplanes, nor did he have a tantrum about going inside when the job was done. Today we had him help take stuff inside and he did such a great job. He had the biggest smile on his face! I think giving him simple helping jobs like that makes him feel important.

We tried going to the movies as a family today, something we haven't been able to do since Christmas vacation. We saw the new Disney movie, Brave. I saw about 15 minutes of the show, and I loved it. The rest of the time was spent wandering the halls and foyer. Gideon just would not sit still. He was content for about 5 minutes eating popcorn and that was it. I offered him all sorts of snacks and drinks. He just pushed everything away and wanted to go out and explore. Near the end of the show I was just getting tired of chasing him around and having him screaming in my ear when we sat down. I put him on my shoulders in the back of the theater, and that made him happy for about the last 5 minutes of the movie when he realized he could bounce on my neck and run his hand along the wall as I was walking around. From now on, until he is about 3 or 4, he is not allowed to go to a movie. Not only do I refuse to ever pay for him to roam the halls anymore, but I also refuse to have such wiggly and annoying behavior in a confined space. Ayla and the other boys did wonderful. Ayla even slept on Brady for over half of the movie. But even still, both Brady and I came home extremely irritated and grumpy. Going for family time to the movies just isn't worth the hastle. We'll stick to redbox and our DVD collection for the next several years because when Gideon can finally sit through a movie, Ayla will be a toddler terror. I'll save my sanity and just wait until the littlest children are old enough to enjoy a movie at the theater.