7

Today is Brandt's 7th birthday. We have been planning his party and talking about him turning seven for quite a while. I know he is about to finish first grade and move on to second and I it has all been fine. It was all okay until I got the mail today and got Ryan's graduation invitation and pictures. This tiny baby that I rocked countless nights to sleep because that is what it took to get him to sleep, that I took to school on the first day of kindergarten, that I watched in who knows how many karate classes - he is graduating and my first baby is turning seven.
I can't remember if I ate breakfast some days, can't accomplish anything unless I make a list, forget lunches and chapel money and sometimes where I park my car, but I can remember every detail of the day Brandt was born like it was yesterday. Not just because it was a long and difficult delivery and not because he was ten days late. I remember being determined that he was going to be born on the 12th, no matter what and we barely made it. Thanks to a couple of extra nurses and the anesthesiologist it was before 11:30. I remember being shocked that our family was still at the hospital at midnight, but of course they were not leaving until he made his appearance. I can remember Dr. Thurston's face when he was finally here and he saw how big Brandt was. I remember him saying I might go 8, even 8 1/2 to the nurse and how shocked he was when she told him it was 9 pounds, 9 ounces. I'll never forget all that hair!
Happy Birthday sweet boy, you are still just as adorable as the day you were born! I can't wait to see what comes next!

How Far Will You Go?

For your kids? To get something they want? How far will you go?
I have been know to drive to seven or eight different Target stores to find all of the pieces to the Imaginext set that Brandt wanted for Christmas or the Littlest Pet Shop pug that came with it's own pile of poop that was Campbell's promised reward for using the potty without accidents. Toys R Us? I think I know where everyone in D/FW is and have been there to find some missing piece of something we had to have.
If you have an elementary age child (or teach them) you know about the latest craze - rubber band bracelets. They are colored silicone rubber bands in different shapes that come in packages of 10, 12, 24 or 36. You wear them as bracelets and trade them with your friends. They are shaped like animals, cars, dinosaurs, tools, dogs, alphabet letters, sea animals, there are too many to list... There is even a princess set that Campbell is begging for.
Everyone at school has these and Brandt is going to die if he doesn't get some. Good mom that I am, I made the rounds yesterday. He told me you could get them at the Dollar Store. You can not. They sent me to Walgreens, which was sold out. I went to Sam Moon, which was sold out. I went to a second Walgreens, also sold out. I did see four other mothers in that Walgreens, looking for the same thing. I gave up and went to the Mother's Day party at Campbell's school.
After school we all went to the mall and bought them. We paid $3 for packaging and approximately .07 of plastic, but the kids are happy. Brandt went to school ready trade and Campbell is happy just to wear hers.
Today we off to finish all the things we should have done yesterday!

Then There Were Eight

Blake has been chewing on everything lately and has been really fussy (what else is new)?
Today I finally convinced him to let me look in his mouth and sure enough, he has eight teeth now! The fourth one on the top finally popped through. It is on his right and evens out his top and bottom - four on top and four on bottom.

Spanish Class

Campbell goes to Spanish on Thursdays while she is at school. They have learned their colors, how to count, some basic words. She does pretty well repeating what she learns and seems to have picked up most of what they have taught her. Mostly she uses the counting. We do, after all, live in Frisco. It is like about the whitest city in all of north Texas. The one set of friends that we have who are Hispanic may be from the valley, but they graduated from A&M a few years after I did and they speak only a little more Spanish than I do and he is a petroleum engineer.

Campbell went through a phase about a year ago where she would only count in Spanish and I would have moms look and me and say that is so great! (Like I taught her - I never confessed that she learned it all from my friend Dora the Explorer). She outgrew that and now she counts in English, so when I heard her practicing her Spanish counting to twenty, I counted along with her. We got to ten fine and she started once, doce, trece, catorce (it sounded a little funny, but I did not correct her), taco and then I stopped her. I am pretty sure that taco is not 15 in Spanish! She is learning something though!

Define Your Chaos

Last week I was at the doctor for a routine visit and he asked how I was adjusting to life with three kids. I get this question a lot and I am never sure how to answer it. It is more than two, for sure and it is harder than two. What do people expect as an answer? After we talked a little more he asked if I felt like I was handling things okay and then asked if I would rate my everyday life as completely in control, moderately wild or completely chaotic. My response was "As compared to what? Life with two kids or other people's lives?" I told him that I thought it was pretty well under control. He laughed and said he had three boys, so I guess it is all relative.
Later that week we were home from school and I was loading the dishwasher. I looked up and Brandt was playing his DS on the sofa, upside down. His head was hanging off and his feet were on the pillow where his head should have been. Campbell was riding her bike, yes in house, in a dress and rainboots, but with a helmet, in circles around the table and singing. Blake was not throwing the silverware out of the dishwasher or trying to climb in, which is why I looked up in the first place. He was sitting under the table eating a snack that I had not given him. It was leftover, probably from diner the night before - who knows what it was. He has a very good immune system. No one was watching TV, but thanks to Blake it was on the Spanish channel and no one had even noticed. Yeah, I have it all under control - no chaos in this house.

Seven Teeth

On Saturday Blake opened his mouth really wide and I realized that another top tooth was through the gum and after really looking, so was the bottom one! He is up to seven teeth now. The two newest ones are on his left side. Two new teeth explains some of the fussiness last week!

Ring Day!!

Last Friday was Ring Day at A&M for Rachel. We decided to let Brandt miss school so that we could be there in time to see her get her ring. Things have changed a little since I got my ring and it is far more organized now.
In our true family style (and a little like the Beverly Hillbillies) we all trooped in together and documented everything in pictures.