Derby Excitement

So I'm totally cheating this week. Instead of writing my own blog I am referring you to my husband's blog where he has been posting consecutive blogs on "everything you could possibly want to know and a lot you probably are not so interested in" about the Cubscout Pinewood Derby and where he beat me to the punch last night by posting the pictures and video I would have posted here about the exciting outcome of the Derby. Of course, he deserved to since he slaved away helping the boys with their cars the past three weeks, and he took them to the event and took said pictures and video while I stayed home with the little ones ;) In all seriousness, he's done an absolutely wonderful job with the boys and their cars and we (my kids and I) are so fortunate to have him taking care of us! His blog is pretty sweet, too. So please check it out here: http://pianointune.blogspot.com/

In other news, I've started working on my Master's degree in Education at the University of Phoenix, so I won't be able to blog so frequently but I will still try to get something in once a week. I was feeling nervous about starting going back to school but after my first class I think it will be good. I only have class once a week for four hours in the evening so Jon will be able to watch the kids for me and I can get work done in spurts throughout the day at my( really at my kids') convenience. I should be able to finish up a semester before Jon does, so if we have to move to where ever Jon can get a job after he graduates then I'll be done and it won't interfere with me finishing up school. It's a lot to add to our plate but it's totally doable and will be worth it. I just need to keep telling myself that! ;)

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!

the action shot

This has been a pretty crazy week.
We're still doing the potty training and Sally seems to be getting it...mostly. Around the same time we started the potty training Sally started having an insane fear of her bedroom at night/dark, so that has been a huge struggle. I'm not a "happy to share my bed with all my children" kind of parent, so every time I notice that Sally has climbed into bed with us I get up and take her back into her own bed where I have to stay until she falls back to sleep. This, with the normal sleep interruptions of a nursing baby have made for a mostly sleepless and very exhausting week.

Then in the middle of the night on Monday/Tuesday Shule started vomiting due to what has finally been diagnosed by his doctor as an "abdominal migraine". If you've seen the movie Joe vs. the Volcano then you'll understand why his condition originally sounded like a "brain cloud" to me and why I almost laughed out loud at the doctor when she gave us the diagnosis. He's had these seemingly random boughts of vomiting 3-6 times a year since he was four, they only last 12-24 hours and aren't accompanied by any other symptoms. Now we know they are associated with stress and with Shule's overly sensitive disposition almost everything is stressful for him. Of course, Shule was lying in bed feeling ill but not sure if he should get up to go to the toilet until it was too late and he wretched over the side of his bunk bed and rained vomit all over his sleeping brother. Poor Shazer! He'd been sleeping so peacefully. Poor Jon and I! It was a huge, disgusting mess for us to clean up. And, of course, poor Shule! Not only did he feel physically sick, he felt horrible for making such a big mess. Which is kind of a cool thing for us, as parents, because we've been recognizing that Shule has been having more and more feelings of remorse when he's done something bad/wrong than he ever used to in the past.
waiting in anticipation for a new belt

And yesterday I had to take Shule to get a regular vaccination which is always extremely stressful for both of us and involves much screaming and freaking out on his part and usually ends with bribery on my part (this time, a swirl ice cream cone at McDonald's did the trick).
Needless to say our home has not been the fun, party house lately. Jon will probably be more than happy next week when school starts up and he can have good reason to be away more. It has been really nice having him around to help with all this craziness.
Anyway, the main reason I'm posting is to share some good news. We got the boys' report cards for last semester and they were awesome! Shule had A's and some B's and Shazer's marks were all Excellent, he was even recognized for getting the highest score for his grade, at his school, on a district writing assessment, ( he was super impressed with himself for being able to out score his friend from India who he's in tight competition with). And they're both reading way above their grade levels! So nice to hear. Also, last week was the first week that Shule got a green (the highest level) for behavior.
Last night Jon and I had a blast watching Shazer at his karate class' Parent Night Presentation and Award ceremony. He did such a great job and was so serious, it was so cute. He was hoping to promote to the next belt:Yellow, but his name wasn't called with the Yellows during the ceremony. He was starting to feel so disappointed but then his name was called with the Greens! They let him skip a belt because he tested so well. He was ecstatic! So fun and a really nice end to a crazy week!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Such a wonderful/imaginative collection of "fairy tales" with good morals for witches and muggles alike. It was also a good Harry Potter fix for those of us who are missing the excitement/anticipation of the series.


View all my reviews.

New tricks

On New Year's day Sophie decided to get a jump start on her resolution to "grow too fast" and started rolling from her back to her tummy (but only on her left side so far). This picture was taken just after one such roll and was probably only her third or fourth, which explains the surprised expression- she still can't believe it actually worked!
Yesterday Jon and I decided to start on one of our resolutions: to get Sally potty trained. She's two and a half and although she would be perfectly content to sit in a dirty diaper all day long she had been showing the other signs of being ready and we are more than happy to no longer be buying and changing double the diapers. My mom had bought her a cute (yet increasingly annoying) FisherPrice singing potty, she has her Disney princess underwear, and we made a Princess Potty Chart for her to put a sticker on every time she actually goes in the potty (which she was very excited about). The first part of the morning yesterday was very frustrating with no successes at all until after her nap. Finally she got it and had two stickers by bedtime. It took so much energy on our part having to ask every ten minutes or so "Do you need to use the potty" and then rushing her in and entertaining her with bubbles so she'd actually stay on long enough to do something but usually having nothing happen and then having to clean up the mess on the carpet in her room three minutes later...Errg! This morning we were questioning our sanity for even trying but we stuck with it and she did awesome! She did so well that she filled her chart and started a new one (now the sticker thing is getting old, but not to her). We even taught her how to empty out the little potty bowl into the big toilet and flush and now she does that on her own! She only had about two accidents today. I was sad to have to decline an offer from a friend with a daughter Sally's age to go to the library because I didn't want to have to disrupt the potty training and put a diaper on her and she deffinitley wasn't ready for public toilets yet. We know this isn't it and there will probably be set backs but we're feeling very encouraged tonight and Sally is feeling very proud of her big girl ways.

Happy New Year!

This is the first year we let our boys (10 and 8) stay up until midnight. I know some of you may think it's lame we didn't let them stay up sooner while others may think they're still too young. We felt like this was a good time for them. They were super excited and we wanted to make it kind of cool for them so we planned lots of yummy food and fun activities. Sally went to bed early and Jon and I played Settlers of Catan (we offered to play with the boys but they wanted to watch a DVD they'd borrowed from Uncle Frankie) while the boys watched Naruto. They snacked on popcorn, soda, and candy. Yum. Both activities finished about the same time and we all played a fun game of Disney Trivia (Shule won). We had played Apples to Apples earlier in the day and had a lot of laughs when the card played by me (the judge) was "adorable" and Jon offhandedly said "Not to be confused with a door bell", a few moments later when everyone had played their card to match the adjective we were all delighted to see that someone had played the card "door bell". I had to choose it as the winner, even though I thought it was obviously Jon's, but no, it was Shule's card! What a crazy coincidence that Shule had that card and Jon had made that weird comment! Too funny!
I digress.
During the Disney trivia game we snacked on little sausages, cheese ball with crackers, and ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (thanks Mom!). There were about fifteen minutes left of 2008 when we were done with the game so we turned on the tele and busted out the Martinelli's. I went around the house and gathered up all my candles and we placed them all on the coffee table and lit them. We did the ten second count down, blew out all the candles, blew noise makers, toasted with Martinelli's, and Jon and I kissed. I thought it was pretty fun stuff and much more than we'd done last year but the boys still said "that's it?" as we marched them to the bathroom to brush their teeth and get in bed. Life is so like that, things we anticipate are often not as cool as we hoped, but the pleasant flip to that is that the things we dread are often not that bad. So as I look back at the past year and think of the things anticipated and dreaded, I feel hope for the New Year ahead and know things will work out.