Testosterone X 5

Today I watched my sister Julia's three boys. So to say I was out numbered would be an understatement! It is a lot of work taking care of five boys! Here is a quick run down of their ages: Connor turned 5 in April, Mason turned 3 in July, Zachary will turn 3 in October, Cooper turned 1 this month, and Benjamin turned 6 months old today. SO.... in other terms: three are still in diapers, two of them are still nursing babies (no I did not nurse Benjamin, but I still had to sit down and feed him a bottle). One REALLY nice thing though is that Cooper and Benjamin both took their morning naps at the same time and all four younger ones took their afternoon naps at the same time. Oh aren't they so cute!

This was really funny, Zachary was not happy about something and he ran behind the couch to pout and cry. Mason immediately ran over to comfort Zachary. As you can see in the picture, Mason began patting Zachary on the head, said in a low voice "it's OK.... calm down... it's OK... calm down". Then Mason began signing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" to Zachary.

Eating lunch

Benjamin laid on the floor and looked out the window during lunch.

Once Cooper was done eating his lunch, he though it would be a great idea to wiggle to a standing position so he could look out side like Benjamin.

During the little ones afternoon nap, I cut Connor's hair. I was a little nervous to cut it. Connor's Daddy is a bit picky about how it is cut. But I think it came out OK.

Before

After

After nap we played out side and just like all other testosterone driven males, they had to stop what they were doing to stare at a passing plane.

My Dad invited himself over for dinner (not knowing that I already had three of his other grandsons). We had a good dinner and played outside for a while after dinner.

Coope (and Mr. Mow Man)

*Just a little side note first* I asked Mason what I should name this post. His response was, "Coope!".

After having a lot of really hot days (the kind where you don't even want to walk a foot outside of your air conditioned house) and then followed by a few days of rainy days, it was refreshing to finally have a day with nice weather. While Jeff was BBQing our dinner, Mason, Cooper, and I played in the big courtyard at the apartment I was able to get some video of the boys. Enjoy!

Starfall

I am always wondering as Mason is watching these so called "educational" shows, if he is really learning any thing from them. I have heard reviews that say that children really don't learn any thing from these shows. I am not surprised at these reviews. Have you ever sat down and watched these shows? I have. You know how Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go!, Handy Manny and others like them "teach" children Spanish? I know for myself I don't learn any Spanish from them, so I am sure children are not either.

OK I know the shows I mentioned are probably geared for children a bit older than Mason, so here are a few other examples. Sesame Street and Super Why, teach children numbers and letters. I have never once seen Mason be able to recognize a number or letter as a result of watching these shows. I mean give me a break, you think a child is going to recognize these numbers and letters, and know what sound these numbers and letters make, just from seeing them ONE time? Yeah right. I don't think so. Who came up with these shows? and really thought they would be "educational"? Obviously not a parent or someone with a degree in elementary education.

Alright, alright, I know you are probably wondering why I am ranting and raving about these "educational" shows. Well a friend of mine showed me a website that teaches children how to read. On this website there are four different sections to chose from, depending on how old and at what level of reading your child is at. I have not checked out all of the sections, as Mason is only three, and obviously not reading, yet. The only section I have used is the "ABC's- Let's get ready to read". Mason loves to get on and click on different letters in the alphabet and be able to do the different activities that go along with that letter. I have noticed that since I have let Mason go through the different letters and their individual activities, he is able to recognize letters more than ever before (watching those "educational" shows).

If you want to check out this website it is:

http://www.starfall.com/

You can also print coloring and other activity pages.

Sister's Retreat

This last Friday night, my sister DeAnne invited me and my other five sisters, and our one sister-in-law up to her house in Newport for a sister's retreat. First of all I would like to thank DeAnne for putting together such a great event. I think it would be safe to say that those of us who went had a great time. We had many laughs, learned more about each other, and over all had a great bonding experience.

Our one sister-in-law has a wonderful gift for decorating. She put together all the decorations for the retreat. All of the decorations were beautiful! Great job Michelle!

When we arrived, the table was all set up for our candle lit dinner.

Here are the napkin holders Michelle made.

All of us, sitting down for dinner.

Michelle, me, and Julia

In preparation for the retreat, DeAnne asked each of us to come prepared to share a talent or hobby with everyone.

Tammy put together a CD with the number one billboard's from the day each of us were born, and the day we graduated from high school.

Jenny played a few favorite hymns on the piano for us.

Julia showed us how to use cross-stich thread to write/weave our name on a pen. This has always been something I have wanted to know how to do. I probably have the longest name, and I finished my pen all by my self! After finishing, I don't think it will be something I will do again. I really don't have the patience of that.

Michelle and me "weaving" our names on our pens.

DeAnne showed off her quilting skills. Now this is something that if I had the time and money to do, I think I would like to learn how to do.

Britany had each of us take personality tests prior to the retreat. She shared with us what our personality type was.

My personality type is:

Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging

My color type is: red

I showed everyone the scrapbook I have been working on for Mason. I am happy to say that I am current on Mason's scrapbook. But I have barley started on Cooper's. My goal is to get going on Cooper's once we move.

Michelle asked each of us before the retreat to think of one word that described each of our other sisters. She made these books with each of the words our sisters described us as and left room for us to write a personal message to each sister in their books.

In the morning DeAnne made cinnamon rolls and a really yummy veggie omelet for breakfast.

Don't we all look so beautiful in the morning?

After breakfast we just sat around enjoying each others company.

Tammy and me

Jenny concentrated on finishing Breaking Dawn.

Julia and Michelle

Britany with Julia's littlest, Benjamin. Benjamin was the only boy allowed since he is a nursing baby.

Michelle and me

All of us. From top to bottom and left to right: Jenny, Tammy, DeAnne, Julia, me, Britany, Michelle. The only sister who wasn't there was Rachel.

We all had a great time and I think each of us were a little sad to see the retreat come to an end. The only person who was happy to see it all end, was DeAnne's husband, Justin. Even though he LOVES all of his sister-in-laws he was grateful to have his house back to himself. I was nominated to host the next sister's retreat and the plans are already beginning to come together for that one!

Cooper's One Year Check Up

Cooper had his One Year check up today. He did really well. When his Doctor wanted him to lay down on the exam table, he showed off his strength, and will. I had to literally hold him down with my whole body, just to get him to lay down. Cooper also had two shots.

Cooper weighs 26 pounds (over the 100th percentile) and was 30 3/4 inches long (90th percentile)

I talked to his Doctor about the reaction he had two weeks ago to peanut butter, and she thought it would be a good idea to have him tested for allergies. She thought it was apparent that he is allergic to peanuts, but she wanted to figure out if he is allergic to any other foods. I guess the main lab technician who specializes in drawing blood from infants was on vacation this week. My Doctor wanted to have the gal who was in the lab today try to draw his blood, but she said she was only going to let her try one time because she didn't want to traumatise Cooper too much. So a gal from the lab came in to draw blood and was unsuccessful with her one try. I have to take Cooper back in, in about ten days when the main infant specialist is back to have his allergy test done.

Cooper showing off his two bandages from being traumatised at the Doctors. Poor thing. :(

With the weather being cold and rainy today, I put Cooper in a long sleeve shirt. He has been so used to wearing a short sleeve shirt; that all morning he kept looking at his sleeve with a confused look on his face. When I got him up from his nap, it looked like he had been trying to get his shirt off. I guess it is going to take some getting used to wearing a long sleeve shirt.

Finished!

So my sister, Julia let me borrow Breaking Dawn last Tuesday night. I told Jeff that he had to let me read the book first and then he could read it. Well, that rule didn't last, Jeff picked it up first. He did give it up once in a while so I could read some. So it took me a while longer to read it-having to share it with the husband. So I stayed up until midnight last night and finished it. It was awesome! I am so glad Britany and Julia convinced me to read the series! This book was the best by far, I loved the ending, it was very unexpected, but I loved it just the same.

So now all we have left to do is look forward to the release of Twilight the Movie which comes out on November 21, 2008.

Standing tall

OK so the last two posts were about Mason, so feeling guilty, and not wanting anyone to think I love Mason more, I though I would share a bit of exciting news from the world of Cooper.

Yesterday I stood Cooper up after getting him some ice water in a sippy cup. I let go, to see if he would stand on his own, and he did! for probably 30 seconds!- just sucking down some water. Then once he took the cup out of his mouth he noticed I was not holding him and he dropped to his knees. I was so excited! I have never seen him stand on his own, he has only shown off this cool trick for Jeff.

Yeah I know... Cooper is one year old and should be standing on his own, taking his first steps, or even walking by now. But hey, give him some credit, he's got over 27 pounds of baby chub to hold up.

My new method

Jeff has always said, "If you can't bedazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with B.S." Today I thought I would give that method a try with Mason. See, Mason has the personality that if he is trying to communicate something with me and I don't understand what he wants he will throw a fit and scream at me. I guess he thinks he will be able to help me understand what he wants. Oh, boy is he wrong!! Today for some reason one of these fits was brought on. Mason wanted me to get something out of the fridge for him, but I did not understand what he wanted. He started to get really upset and when I tried to close the refrigerator door, he whipped it right back open. I shut it again, got him to calm down a little so I could explain why the door needed to be closed.

A few minutes later, Mason's imaginary bee (if you have not read the previous post, stop here and read it so you can become acquainted with Mason's imaginary bee) some how became trapped in the closed fridge. Of course Mason went back to the fridge and opened the door. With out me saying anything to him, he began ranting and raving about how he needed the fridge door left open so the bee would come out. Mason came to me, screaming at the top of his lungs about the bee in the fridge.

At this point I was not sure what to do. In the past when he has thrown these fits; I have tried ignoring him, sending him to his room, going with him to his room for some one-on-one time, I have even tried laughing at him. With having no success with these methods I was scrambling to figure out what to do.

So I decided I would try to convince/confuse his as to where his little imaginary bee was. I told him that I saw the bee fly out of the fridge, so he went over and closed the fridge door. Phew, first part of the issue, taken care of. Then he came back to me wanting to know where the bee was. I took my finger and pinched his back and said the bee was on his back. He turned around and asked me to take the bee off, which I did and when he turned around I pretended to throw the bee across the room. Mason looked at me kinda confused, kinda relieved and said, "Thanks Mom" and that ended the fit.

So, the moral of the story is- If you can't bedazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with B.S.

And I guess I have to admit, yes, Jeff you were right on this one.

Imagination

Lately Mason has had quite a vivid imagination. He has a few, um well "friends" I guess we'll call them. The first is this imaginary bee. I don't know where he (or she) came from, but every once in a while Mason will say "hey there's my bee" or "oh no where did my bee go?" or "don't let the bee in" or "GET OUT BEE!!!". We find him sometimes just going on and on about this bee. It is actually pretty funny.

Then there are the "guys". We think there are two of them. They don't have names, but I am pretty sure they are boys. Mason will just out of nowhere say, "hey guys lets go play spaketball(basketball)" while he says this he motions his arms towards, well, nothing, just the thin air. Then he will run to his room, shot some hoops, then come back out and announce to us that he was playing spaketball with the guys and again motioning to the "guys" in thin air.

Jeff and I will look at each other and usually one of us will start to sing do-do-do-do do-do-do-do-do. You know kinda like a twilight sound. Then we just smile and laugh. And usually one of us will whisper to the other, "he's crazy!'

I know this is pretty normal to have imaginary friends, but it still creeps me out a bit. I just hope he grows out of it.....I'm sure he will. Right?

Blood spots

Cooper fell off the couch today head first. I saw him right as he fell, his head hit the ground and his neck and the rest of his body were jammed against his head all funny. It really looked like it hurt. When I got to him and picked him up, he instantly nuzzled right into my shoulder for comfort. Once I was able to pry him away from my neck to check him over to make sure he was OK, I saw that he had a bloody nose, it was bleeding pretty bad and had already gotten all over the shirt I was wearing, as well as the shirt he was wearing. After getting the bleeding to slow way down, I instantly got on the Internet to search for a way to get blood out of clothes. I can across a website that said straight hydrogen peroxide worked wonders. So I got out the hydrogen peroxide and gave it a try. I left it on our shirts for just a few minutes, and it looked like the blood spots were already fading. I put the shirts right in the wash and sure enough the blood came out!

9 words women use

I didn't come up with this...I got it from my friends blog. While I read this, I sat laughing, so I read it to Jeff, he of course, thought it was great and, well, very true.


9 WORDS WOMEN USE:

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up..

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' ... that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a women's way of saying F-you

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

In goes the carpet

Usually it is not a good sign when not much progress has been made, but in this case its great! (Considering all that is left to go in is the carpet and then just some minor touch ups.)

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Living room

Family room, Dinning room, Kitchen

Stairs


Mason loves checking out his room. He was so excited that he had carpet!


Well, now that the carpet is in it's first stages of installation, I don't know if we will be going up next Friday. But we will be going up the next week on August 29th for our final walk through. Our close date has been moved up to September 12th. Our realtor was told that once the final walk through has been completed, and any touch ups we request to be made are completed, we could move in!
So if we are able to get the financing pushed through and the closing/title agency are all ready and able to close earlier, we may be in earlier than September 12th.


Crystyne

Mason = 1/2 boy, 1/2 monkey

I have found that Mason would rather help me with various house-hold chores, than play with his toys, color, or do other activities most children his age love to do. At times Mason gets frustrated when he is not able to do something, because he is too small or the item is too heavy for him to carry, push or pull. Mason decided that he needed to help me do laundry. Usually this is one of those house-hold chores he is too small for and gets frustrated trying to reach the washer. Mason was determined to figure out a way. He figured out how to get my mesh laundry basket out of its holder and pulled the laundry bag to the washer. I was busy doing something else at the time, but when I went to the kitchen, this is what I found.

Crystyne

Email: Signs of uncommon sense

OK so a friend of mine sent this forwarded email to me. I usually just delete forwarded emails. But when they are from Rhiannon, I read them because she has a great sense of humor and she only sends me the really good ones.

Anyways, so as I read this one I laughed so hard my stomach was hurting. I've had this forwarded email in my inbox for some time now, but I really wanted to post these pictures. So I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

McLogic gone wrong...

Still dead?

What?

'Mass Suicides.... Cows going over the edge... tonight on Channel 3 News'

Load 'em up with burritos!

I''m confused.... but the gas prices look good

How does that work?

I can't even comment on this one...

OK?

Speling iz knot imprtunt fir astranawts

Make up your mind

Don't drink and make signs Sometimes a name change is the best idea..

Major dilemma in California

?

Everything you need for your 'shotgun' wedding!

What a deal, but... oh, the college costs!