He Has An Answer For Everything

Hunter asked me if people can really die in their sleep. So I told him yes. Sometimes when people get old they will die peacefully in their sleep.

He said - what if I went to bed and when I woke up I was dead?

Woke up dead. Interesting.


My husband went out of town this past week. The morning he left it was garbage day. He told Hunter to bring up the garbage cans after the workers picked up the trash.

Hunter - Why?

Dad - Because Mom is busy. She has enough to do without having to get the garbage cans too.

Hunter - She's not that busy. She always has time to go on the computer.

Uh Oh! Busted!

One Of Those Days

I decided yesterday that I would take Carter to get his picture taken. He is 3 months now and I haven't gotten his picture taken since he was a week old.

I took Hunter to school and had 2 1/2 hours until I had to be back. Carter was fed, had taken a nap, I was hoping for the best.

I get to the mall and open up the back of my SUV for the stroller and it's not there. I forgot I had taken it out. Okay, not that big of a deal. He doesn't really use it anyway. I wear him in the sling, but now where do I put the diaper bag? Atleast I won't shop and buy things I shouldn't. No where to put the bags!

So I took my check card and drivers license out and put it in my pocket and pray Carter doesn't poop. Into the mall we go. They are not running behind so I'm thinking this is a good sign. The lady gets everything all set up and I set Carter down. Fuss Fuss Fuss! I pick him up. Smile at the lady! Set him down. Fuss Fuss Fuss! I pick him up. Smile at the lady! Do you see the pattern here? We left with no pictures.

I went to the grocery store instead. Shop, get all I need, and a few things we don't. The lady scans my items, and I scan my check card. Denied. Denied? Hubby just got paid this morning. Wrote a check.

On the way out I thought - good thing Carter didn't cooperate. I had no other way to pay for pictures if my card didn't work there either. That would have been embarrassing.

But did anyone notice how big he will smile when I'm holding the camera?

Wordless Wednesday

Monte, an amazing brother. So loving and caring and protective. And a huge help to me when I need it.

No Bottle Please

The other day I had an appointment to get my hair cut at 3:45. Carter ate at 1:00 and when I picked Monte and Hunter up from school at 3:10, I realized I wasn't going to have enough time to nurse Carter. He eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

For some reason the first week of his life Carter wouldn't nurse on the left side. Who knows? So I pumped on that side until he decided it was okay.

So I told hubby that if Carter was hungry, instead of making him suffer, dethaw some of the breast milk and try giving it to him in a bottle. That didn't happen. He refused to even try to drink out of the bottle. He just kept pushing the nipple out with his tongue.

I know it was only 4 hours until he got to eat again, nothing life threatening, but it makes you feel bad that your baby was screaming for an hour because he needed you.

But it secretly made me happy that nothing but me will do :)

Did You Know......

......that if a police officer knocks on your door in the middle of the night, he really does BANG on it like in the movies? Except without the open up, it's the police!

Last night around 1am I woke up to the sound of the door bell and someone banging on the door. At first I ignored it. It took me a minute to realize it was real I guess. But then I heard it again. And again. And I thought go away! But they didn't. My hubby woke up and he got up to answer the door. If I had been home alone there was no way I would have EVER opened it. They could have banged all night.

So he opens the door and there are two police officers standing there complete with flash lights shining in our eyes. They asked about some girl they were looking for. I can not remember her name, although in my sleepiness I asked like 4 times. Someone said she was staying here. I think she is like 11. I don't know much. I wish they would come back so we could say something more intelligent than Huh? What?

We are renting a duplex for a few months while they build our house, so we've only been here a couple months. I have to say that I don't feel any more safe after last night. I just hope whoever sent the police over don't come looking for this girl themselves.

Wordless Wednesday - Hands, Yum!

3 Months

Today Carter is 3 months old! Wow, when did that happen?

I love this age. He smiles all the time. Has started to laugh, and is interested in toys. Although I have to put them in his hand for him.

He is a big boy, weighing around 15 pounds right now. Some of his 6-9 month clothes are tight! He is going to slow down at some point right? I am spending a fortune on clothes.

He is a good baby. He likes to be held all the time, and those arms better be mine. I don't mind, but it does make me feel bad for my hubby when Carter cries when he holds him and then hands him to me and he instantly stops.

My favorite time of the day is when he first wakes up. He smiles and smiles. He just can't help himself. It is the cutest thing ever. And the talking that goes on. Too precious.

He is a wonderful sleeper - as long as we are home. I'm not sure where that is coming from, but it's hard to get him asleep when we are in a public place. He has to be totally exhausted and I'll nurse him and pray for sleep. But at home, he naps for a couple hours at a time and wakes up SO happy! It's the best. At night he sleeps around 7 hours, eats and goes back to sleep until I have to get him up to take his brother to school.

I am totally in love with this child. I've loved every single moment of the past 3 months. Even the screaming, and when he doesn't fall back to sleep in the mornings and wants to talk, like this morning!

I know how fast the next month is going to go by, so I'm going to enjoy every single moment.

Happy 3 months baby!!!

The 23rd Psalm

After talking about Hunter and his school - I thought that this was appropriate!!


A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn't want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe.

So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor, Mrs. Goodnest, if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn't notice her. Mrs.Goodnest said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, Mrs. Goodnest and her little girl, Marcy, set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy's little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she had seemed to do every day all week.

Finally he said to Timmy, "Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?"Timmy nonchalantly replied, "Yeah, I know who she is."The friend said, "Well, who is she?""That's just Shirley Goodnest," Timmy replied, "and her daughter Marcy.""Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us? "

"Well," Timmy explained, "every night my mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, 'cuz she worries about me so much. And in the Psalm, it says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life' - so I guess I'll just have to get used to it!"

Hunter's Address

Every Friday in Hunter's class is Share Day. They do this in place of Show and Tell. Last week Hunter had to share is address. Now I knew this was going to be hard for him. In preschool it took weeks and I mean WEEKS for him to memorize his address so he could get his address ice scoop for his ice cream cone. It was a MAJOR accomplishment.

So when I found out on Tuesday after school that he had to say his address on Friday, I panicked. 3 DAYS! So we got to work. Over and over we said his address. And much to my surprise he remembered his old address. He hadn't said it in months. But needless to say - he kept mixing up his new address with his old address.

I was getting SOOO frustrated with him. And a little crabby. At one point my hubby said - Robin, it's not like they are going to kick him out of kindergarten for not knowing his address. No, but he has to stand up in front of his class and say it!!!!!!

What is wrong with me. Who gets mad at a 5 year old because he can't remember his address? Why am I freaking out about an address? And what am I teaching him by getting upset when he is doing the best he can and just not getting it?

When I dropped him off at school I said - good luck on your address! And felt horrible when Hunter said - okay, I'll practice it in my head.

That was my sign. Chill out Mom! Just like I always tell my older son, do the best you can and I will never be disappointed in you. So I grabbed Hunter and hugged him and told him that.

He didn't say it right. Messed up a little and his teacher had to help him. But that's okay!! This week he has to learn a little poem. It's going much better.

Two Little Apples

Way, way up in an apple tree,
Two little apples smiled at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could.
Down came those apples -
Ummm, they were good.

First Field Trip

Hunter had his first field trip yesterday. His class went to the apple orchard. I wasn't picked to chaperone. This really upset him at first. Real tears and everything. And I wasn't happy either. He has never been anywhere without me or his dad. He doesn't even ride the bus to school yet. So the thought of someone else being responsible for MY child, didn't sit that well with me. But if he was going to go, I really didn't have a choice.

I talked to one of my friends that has a 3 year old and asked if they wanted to take a trip to the apple orchard to spy on Hunter's class!! I went on every field trip Monte ever has. At his old school if you wanted to go, you could go. Now it's only 5 parents. I just wanted to make sure he got there and no one lost him. Not that I ever lost someone's child! But still - I'm paranoid!!

We didn't go. It started raining the beginning of this week, and it never stopped. Yesterday was the worse. It was raining so hard that when I walked Hunter in to talk to his teacher, I had water dripping off of me. Carter's car seat had water dripping off it. All the kids getting off the bus looked like little drowned rats. It rained so much that we got 5 inches of rain by yesterday afternoon. My city is okay, but there are area cities that are completely under water. They are getting around by boat.

Hunter's class still went. His teacher said the apple orchard doesn't have other openings, so you can't reschedule. My poor baby. When I picked him up he was soaked thru to his underwear! He was SOOO wet. I wanted to take a picture but the battery in my camera was so dead it wouldn't even turn on. He asked to take a bath when we got home. He was chilled to the bone. But he had his bag of apples and a big smile on his face. He had a great time picking apples in the rain.

And I'm not so upset anymore that I wasn't chosen for this field trip!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I LOVE those first sleepy smiles when Carter wakes up!!! He smiles at EVERYTHING!!!!

9/11/01

On the morning of Sept.11th me and my family were sleeping. Monte was working 3-11 at the time so we had gotten in the habit of going to bed late and sleeping in every morning. My mother-in-law called at 10 something and wanted to know if we had heard. She also had not had a TV or radio on and didn't know. My father-in-law had called her from work when he heard. She woke me up and it took a few minutes to comprehend what she had just told me. 2 planes into the World Trade Center, 1 into the Pentagon, and 1 more that was missing.

We hung up the phone so we could go camp out in front of the TV like the rest of America. Me and Monte sat for hours not saying much just trying to make some sense of what they kept replaying over and over. Lil Monte was 3 1/2 at the time and I just remember thinking how would I ever explain this to him. So we tried to keep him in the other room with his Veggie Tales videos going.

For days it was all anyone could talk about. It was the only thing on TV. But it's not like you wanted to watch anything else. I remember my sister calling and she said she flipped thru the channels just to see if anyone had anything on, and even the food network had news coverage on. Once everything did go back to normal it was such a feeling of guilt that we could watch something funny on TV, we could go to the mall and out to lunch with a friend. I felt guilty laughing.

This morning 9-11 is all anyone is talking about. On the radio when we took Lil Monte to school. On the TV when we got home and I was nursing Carter. So of course Hunter saw and heard this. He wanted to know what was going on. Was this something real or a movie? How do you explain to a 5 year old? Hunter was 9 months old at the time. Just a baby. Someone to hold and snuggle with in a time of sadness. A baby that still smiled and laughed because he didn't know.

Today we hug tighter the ones that we love. Are a bit kinder to those we don't know. We will never forget. Could never forget.

Kids Say The Funniest Things

7 Reasons not to mess with children

1. A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.

The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah".

The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"

The little girl replied, "Then you ask him".


2. A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl: replied, "They will in a minute."


3. A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.

After explaining the commandment to "honor" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?"

Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."


4. One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.

She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"

Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"


5. The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

"Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.'

A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher, she's dead."


6. A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face."

"Yes," the class said.

"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A little fellow shouted,"Cause your feet ain't empty."


7. The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:

"Take only ONE. God is watching."

Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples.

Sleepy Baby

I feel like Carter lives in his car seat. All day long I am taking someone somewhere. Back and forth to school three times a day, soccer practice, baseball practice. (at least hubby is usually home to help with these) And the weekends aren't any better. Sat morning soccer games and afternoon baseball games every week until Oct. 28th keep us running. Sun bring church, and usually lunch at my in-laws.

Everytime it is time to go somewhere, Carter is sleeping. At least it feels that way. Every morning I have to get him out of bed and into his car seat to take Monte to school. That is the one I hate the most. He is still so warm and snuggled, and I rip him out to put him in a car seat and take him out into the cool morning air.

He is pretty good at going with the flow. He had a couple of months after he was born to sleep as he wanted. But the honeymoon is over. As the 5th member of this family he is going to have to be flexible whether he wants to or not.

I had a friend tell me - well, at least you know he will be flexible - or crabby! Lets hope it's not the 2nd one.

The New Baby

My husbands brother and his wife just had their first baby. Welcome baby Addian. Love the Mohawk!!!!!!!!!!!!!






We all got together this past weekend for Labor Day. Look at all the boys in this family! My mother-in-law wants a girl SOOOO bad!!!!

Wordless Wednesday - The Final Days Of Summer

You Go This Way - I'll Go That Way

All week long me and my hubby have been going two different directions. We only let the boys pick one activity each season to be involved in, but everything else seems to happen on those nights too.

Wednesday Monte had baseball practice, and Hunter had his back to school open house. Thursday Hunter had soccer practice and Monte had his open house. Tuesday night we were trying to figure everything out and I just looked at hubby and said you do the sport thing and I'll do the school thing and take the baby? Deal!

It's hectic weeks like this that can almost drive you mad. But then you have a weekend to look forward to of nothing but family time. We are still going to be busy, who isn't? But it's knowing that all that we do, it's going to be done together.

Friendships

One of my very best friends lives 4 1/2 hours away from me. It is a very neat story, so I thought I would share it today.

When I was in 7th grade I went to church camp with one of my friends. It was the first time her church had been to this camp, so we knew no one, and everyone else had been seeing each other at camp for years. So we felt like the outsiders. And to be completely honest, no one was all that interested in being friends with the new girls. So for the first couple of days we just hung out together.

Then one afternoon we went out on the lake in a paddle boat. While out there we ran into (not literally) 2 girls (Skye and Angie) from our cabin. They were in a row boat going round and round in circles. They couldn't figure out how to get back to shore and laughing way to hard to even really try. So in the middle of the lake, me and Brenda (my friend I went with) traded boats with Skye and Angie.

We all hung out together the rest of the week. When camp was over we traded address. I'll write you every week. And at first we did. But like every friend you make at camp, we slowly lost touch. Except me and Skye. We really did continue to write each other. All the time. Thru high school we wrote 10 page letters. (by hand before every one had computers) She is exactly one day older than I am. We always thought that was so cool. And still do. She was the person I told everything too. And she told me everything. Maybe because we knew the other couldn't tell others what we said. Even if we did no one would know us. But I really didn't tell my friends about Skye. Most people didn't even know I had a "pen pal".

Our Junior year of high school I got to spend a week at her house over Christmas break. My mom drove me half way, and Skye and her mom met us. It was wonderful. We hadn't seen each other since we were 12. We had so much fun and realized just how close we really were. It wasn't just a pen pal thing.

She went away to collage and I got married young and had babies, but thru it all we stayed in touch. Sometimes there were longer periods between letters, but we remained good friends.

When she got married I went. She came to visit after Hunter was born. After the birth of her first baby I went to the baby shower. We usually get together once a year. And you would think only being 4 1/2 hours away we'd see each other more often, but everyone is busy. And with phone calls, and e-mail we talk all the time.

It sounds funny to say that you met your best friend at camp and you've never lived in the same area, but that is our story. She is the one I pour my heart out to. The one to tell me what I already know but don't want to hear. The one that thinks to pray for me and my family when it's her that is going thru hard times.

We have often said I wonder why God put us so far apart? But then it could be worse. We could have never met, and then missed out on such a wonderful friendship.