Missing Waffle

Yesterday for lunch, I heated up some homemade waffles Bill had put in the freezer. I fed the older two, and once I returned from dropping TJ off at school, started giving some tiny pieces to Nolan. So far, homemade waffles are his favorite thing to eat. He's a smart boy.

Anyway, he'll eat a fair amount, but since I can only put tiny pieces in his mouth for him to gum, it takes awhile. I decided to move him down to my bedroom, so I could fold laundry while he ate. I got down there, and needed to return to the laundry room for something. So I put a piece in his mouth, set him down, and put the waffle on my dresser.

When I got back, the waffle was gone. I knew immediately what had happened, but it took me a minute to locate the culprit. My children never answer me when they are being naughty. I finally found Sam in the living room, just as he swallowed. I asked him if he had eaten the waffle, and he said "no". "Well, where is it?" I asked him. "In my mouth" he responded. I was proud of myself for not laughing. I put him on his bed for a time-out. Turns out he was tired, because when I went in there a few minutes later to discuss it with him, he was only half awake. I got a nice 2 1/2 hour nap out of him.

After nap, as I changed his diaper, he looked at me seriously and said, "Naughty". I asked who was naughty, and he said, "Waffle". I'm hoping he realizes that it was wrong to eat Nolan's waffle, and doesn't really think that the waffle was the naughty one.

Kindergarten Woes

So, I e-mailed my state representative (Dave Agema) and told him what I thought about full-time kindergarten. He responded in less than an hour. I was impressed. Unfortunately, he told me he voted against it, but it is a done deal. Schools do not have to do full-time kindergarten, but if they choose not to, they will not receive their full funding for that grade.

I do not know what Coopersville is going to do. I don't even think they've decided yet. But I'm really disappointed. I hate that everything revolves around money these days.

I took the spiritual gifts class several years back. I bombed out on teaching and on hospitality (so don't show up at my house uninvited!). But I will teach my boys at home for kindergarten if I do not think they are ready for a full-time program.

Sigh.

The Rejects

On Saturday, I went with Mom, Amanda, Brianna, and Nolan to help Brianna select her wedding dress. She is the last of the five of us to get married. It took 4 other weddings, but I finally thought to bring my camera to document some of the planning process.

She did select a wedding dress that day. I have promised NOT to post pictures of her wearing dress, since it's her big day, not mine. But I am allowed to post the rejects. So, here are the wedding dresses that did not pass muster. I must say, Brianna doesn't look that great in the photos. I guess I should have had her pose and smile instead of just snapping pictures. However, in her defense, she looks fabulous in the pictures I took of her wearing the dress. We all knew it was her dress, and you can tell by the look on her face that she knows it too.

This is the first dress she tried on. She liked it 'okay' but claimed it made her look fat. Huh?
This is the second dress. I think she liked it a little better than the first, but it still was just 'okay':This is the third dress. It was very lacy and elegant, and had a rather elegant price tag to go with it (I almost had to scrape Mom off of the floor). Thankfully, Brianna did not want to wear ivory, and the dress is not available in any other shade.
The fourth dress was the dress. If you'd like to see it, be at Coopersville Reformed Church on September 12.

Dress #5 was funny. It looked beautiful on the model in the catalog. Unfortunately, it just made Brianna look, um, pregnant. Of course, she hammed that up:
Dress #6 was nice, but it wasn't Brianna.
At that point, she stopped trying on dresses and we moved to bridesmaids dresses. Here's Amanda, wearing the style we are going with (click here to see the dress. Brianna chose the color 'serene', which I would describe as a grayish-aqua. It's different and pretty).


My mom insisted that Nolan come, because as she put it, "Well, he came when we shopped for Amanda's dress." All righty, then. He did behave. He drank a bottle in the fitting room, snacked on Fruit Puffs with assistance from Amanda, and had a ball playing with a little boy exactly his size:

Milestones

Each of the boys have accomplished some things in the past week.

**TJ has gotten up a couple different times to use the bathroom, and he has not gotten Bill or I up to observe. I never understood why he would walk past the bathroom, come and get one of us, and then simply want us to observe him until he got back in bed. I guess he just didn't want to be alone in the dark. I'm actually sort of sad he's doing this on his own. He's definitely getting to be a big boy. Now, if he would just set the toilet seat down gently when he's done, instead of dropping it, perhaps I could sleep through his night ventures.

**Sam has sat on the potty chair a couple of times in the past few days without crying or trembling in fear. He has not actually used the potty chair yet, but just having him sit on it calmly is progress. I really want him potty trained, so I hope he surprises me and uses it soon!

**Nolan, age 10 months, 22 days, finally got a tooth today. He's been really miserable for the past 2 days. I hope he perks up tomorrow. Unless, of course, the other bottom tooth is following closely behind. We'll see. He's wearing his teething necklace and seems to get some relief from his Teething Tablets, but he's still not himself.

More "Sam-isms"

Today is Wednesday, which means we had dinner at church before the kids' Wednesday evening programs start. I LOVE the fact that they started offering this a little over a year ago. I found I was unable to get home from work, cook, feed the kids, and then get to church by 7 p.m. Instead, we come home, pack up what we need for church, pick the kids up from my mom's house and we are on our way.

Dinner varies from very simple to not-so-simple. They serve 150 people or so each week, and Laurie (a friend of mine) is in charge of the meals. She frequently bakes bread from scratch for all of us! Plus, she has 3 kids ages 6 and under. She claims it is 'relaxing' to cook for all of us. I am in awe of her. Tonight, she made lasagna, garlic bread, Caesar salad, and for dessert we had pretzels dipped in white chocolate.

For some reason, Sam wound up with a TON of salad on his plate. I didn't have nearly as much, so I finished mine and started eating his. He smiles and says (in his perpetually cheerful voice), "Mama! Are you eating my trees?" I laughed. I convinced him to try a few bites of 'trees' and he thought it wasn't that bad. He also ate a fair amount of lasagna and (of course) finished his garlic bread. So, I handed him his pretzels and he says in a very awed voice, "Look! Pretzels with ice cream on it!" He ate every bite.

He cracks me up.

Eight Month Pictures--- two months late...

I took Nolan to JC Penney's in December to get his pictures taken. Most people don't do 8-month portraits. Maybe I'm starting a new trend, or (more likely), it's hard to get the third child in for portraits!

Anyway, I didn't buy a whole bunch, but I did purchase several different poses. I just couldn't decide. He's too cute. I think he would have smiled more had the photographer not been terrifying to him (she invaded his personal space and over-did the baby talk).

Sorry it took me two months to get these scanned in. I had to bring them to Brianna, since I don't own a scanner. If they are really tiny on your screen, I apologize. They were gigantic at first, and I think I shrank them too much. Oh well--you get the general idea, anyway!

G.R.C.M.

For the second Christmas in a row, Bill's Dad and Cindy gave us a family membership to the Children's Museum. This is a fabulous gift. The boys have yet to get bored at the museum. We try to take them once a month during cold weather. During the month of May, our membership lets us get in free to the Meijer Gardens and in August we can go to the zoo for free. They call it a cultural exchange program. Considering the Gardens alone would cost us about $30 in entrance fees, this is a huge perk (During the months of June and July we could get into the Art Museum or the Ford Museum for free, but the boys aren't ready for those places).

My mom and I took the boys to the Children's Museum a couple weeks ago. Since my mom is also my baby-sitter, Cindy was able to add her to our membership for a mere $5. Bill loved that; now he doesn't have to come with me every time. Anyway, Mom and I took turns with TJ and Sam. Sam is content to sit at one thing for as long as you will let him. We had to urge him to try new things. TJ doesn't sit still for more than 30 seconds. Whoever is stuck with him winds up very tired. So, we trade off. It works.

After about 90 minutes, I've had my fill of the museum. The boys are always disappointed to leave, but they know we will be back soon.

Sam making giant bubbles:

Sam and Grandma spinning disks on the giant spinning wheel (it's hard to describe but fun to play with):

TJ creating:

TJ 'feeding' the penguins with beanbags:

Cutest Baby

I entered Nolan in Regis & Kelly's cutest baby contest. I know I am prejudiced, but I really think Nolan is a beautiful baby. However, I will freely admit that he doesn't photograph well. He is so wiggly and doesn't hold his expressions long. Either that, or I am a crummy photographer.

I borrowed my Dad's new camera (it was a spur of the moment purchase he made, and it's a REALLY nice camera). In fact, he didn't even want to lend it to me overnight. Whatever--I persevered. ha! I must've taken 50 pictures and really wasn't thrilled with any of them.

I finally cropped this one (to remove some of the clutter from the background) and submitted it. We'll see what happens. I'd love to be in the top 5 and get him some money for college! I am not even asking for the grand prize. 5th place (and a $25,000 scholarship) is plenty!

Almighty Dollar

Bill and I went to TJ's parent-teacher conferences last night. They were pretty straight-forward. Mrs. T has no major concerns with him, and agrees with us that he has made tremendous strides since the beginning of the year. Apparently, he does occasionally get out of hand when playing with another little boy in his class, and he also likes to build catapults out of the math blocks. For obvious reasons, that's a no-no, but I found it a little amusing. Bill was also smiling (of course, it's his fault his five-year-old is building catapults anyway! I think he learned that watching Mythbusters with Bill).

We talked about next year and TJ's kindergarten schedule. It sounds like he will go to school for full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then a half day on Friday afternoon. He will not have his current teacher, as she teaches 1/2 day kindergarten in the mornings. Parents can opt for that, but there's no busing for it, and I have found driving him everyday to be a huge hassle. So, he'll be in the full day, half-time program. Mrs. T is not sure if she'll still have her afternoon Young 5s class. The state is essentially penalizing schools for having that program, and Coopersville may cut it and replace it with regular kindergarten. It would be an awful shame if they did.

When Mrs. T said that, it reminded me of the talk on the state level to require schools to make kindergarten a 5 full-day program. The plan is that any school that does not make the change would not receive funding for their kindergarteners. I HATE this plan. I do not think five-year-olds need to be in school 8 hours a day. Mrs. T agrees 100%. She urged me to contact my state legislator and tell them what I think. What I think is that the almighty dollar is being placed ahead of a young child's well-being. The state doesn't like the fact that a kindergartener gets as much state funding as a fifth grader, when they aren't in school as often. Who cares? Why does it have to be about dollars? Why not keep the focus on what is best for the child?

I've also heard the argument that many working parents like the new plan, as they have to pay for a half day of day care. If kindergarten is full-day, they could save money. Ummm, again, you are putting money ahead of your child's best interest.

I told Mrs. T that if this plan does pass and becomes state law, I will likely home school Sam and Nolan for kindergarten. And then the school district wouldn't get a dime for either one of them.
She said she could totally see where I was coming from. I really do not want to homeschool, but if I have even the slightest reservation about my kids being in school that long, you betcha I'll keep them home!

So, Representative Dave Agema, be looking for a letter from me soon! This overly opinionated mother has a few thoughts to share with you!

61 degrees

We had a record high today. I thoroughly enjoyed the temperature, but could have done without the insanely strong wind gusts. There was a blue tarp blowing down the road. I thought about retrieving it, but I had no idea whose it was and really didn't want to lug it door to door, looking for its owner.

The boys enjoyed the weather too. TJ ran everywhere in his boots, since our yard is under about an inch of water. I noticed most of the neighbor kids were out enjoying the afternoon as well.

Nolan was outside a couple different times, once with me and once with Daddy. The look on his face was priceless. He looked awed, like he could not believe that he was outside and it wasn't freezing cold! He also loved the fact that I didn't make him wear his snowsuit today.

Sam had a hard time. He was outside with Bill for a little while before dinner and came inside crying. He was sure the sprinklers were going to turn on, and he wanted to wait outside until they did. Poor little guy. He's been asking all winter when the sprinklers would turn on, and we kept telling him 'not until spring'. He assumed today was spring.

Alas, winter is returning tomorrow night. But I sure did enjoy today's preview!

10 Months Old

Yes, another month has zipped by. Nolan is now only two months away from his first birthday. I can't believe how fast the months have gone by.

He still shows zero interest in crawling, but I have seen him on all fours twice (I think these were accidents). He is getting very interested in big people food and happily eats his baby food while his brothers eat their lunch. He also has supper when we do. I find he doesn't cry when he is sitting in his Bumbo on the table. I guess he wants to feel like he's a part of things. He is just starting to enjoy Honey Nut Cheerios, and has also munched on tiny pieces of bread.

I am really, really, REALLY tired of his 3-6 month clothing, but he is simply too small for the next size. And I hate to buy more 3-6 month clothing because I keep reminding myself he could have a growth spurt at any time.

Here are lots of pictures of him!

The 'official' 10-month picture:

Dinnertime:

Here is his in his Johnny Jump-Up. He is too small to jump in it. He tends to slowly spin in circles by pivoting on one foot. He isn't too fond of this contraption yet, but will put up with it if I am within eyesight:
He loves to stick out his tongue:

He loves to play in the laundry basket, although he usually prefers to be in there without the clothes!

This is how I found him napping yesterday. He is sleeping incognito!

Couple of Kid Funnies

You know, if I don't write these down, I'm going to forget them. I sure hope this blog never crashes! (that is a direct hint to Bill to back everything up for me)

Sam has been sick all weekend. Poor guy has really had a rough winter. He was running a fever on and off for about 48 hours, and now has diarrhea (oh joy!). Yesterday morning, he came into my room to tell me he needed "brestfest". I asked him if he was feeling better, and he said "Well, I don't have a heaver!" I believe he meant fever. Today his nose is running like a faucet and he still looks miserable. I asked him if he was sick of his cold and he said, "Yes, and I have a hot too".

TJ has gotten up a couple times in the past week to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. His room is right next to the main bath. But he refuses to go by himself at night. So, he will trudge into our room, wake up Bill (the fact that he wakes up Bill and not me amuses me endlessly) and then insist Bill accompany him to the bathroom. Last night, Bill felt like he was coming down with a cold and decided to sleep on the couch. So when TJ marched into our room at 1:30 a.m., he was stuck with me. I told him I was awake, and I would be right in the bathroom. TJ turned to walk into the bathroom and marched smack into the door frame. He was startled, but thankfully did not cry, and also did not wet his pants.

Judging by the artwork in the hall outside TJ's classroom, they discussed the Inauguration, and must have watched part of it on the TV in their room. Each child had their picture taken while standing in front of the television. In one hand, the child is holding a Barack Obama poster, in the other hand, they have an American flag. Next to their picture, there is a fill-in-the blank phrase. "I hope President Obama will..." and then the child could describe their wishes for Obama. They are really funny. TJ's says "I hope President Obama will ride trains with me", another child hopes Obama won't say bad words, and one child got close and said he hoped Obama would be a good president. Overall, most of the responses the kids gave were way off-base and really cute.

They seemed to have kept the day fairly non-partisan for the kids, which is how I prefer it, but TJ was still beyond horrified when I told him I didn't vote for Obama. Maybe he'll understand in 4 years. Just because the guy lives in the White House doesn't mean your mother has to like him.

To all of my relatives and friends who did vote for Obama, well, TJ will be relieved to hear it.