Wild Wordless Wednesday

Fathers::Sons::Campout

This was a first for our BOYS CLUB...they ventured out to the annual/ semi-annual/ authorized / unauthorized (M5 inside joke) Fathers & Sons Campout, and this Mama Bear has a feeling it's the first of many! They went to Bear Lake, near Payson, AZ for an overnighter. Good times were had by all!

Dirty D on day 1

Roughin' it!

Breakfast of Champions!

Crawdad catchin'

My personal fav. D is always K's shadow. Nice shot, Papa Bear!

All came back with all fingers and toes, and just a few bruises & blisters. All mama bears gave a huge sigh of relief!

Wordless Wednesday

Dr. Who?

Kaleb's school had a book fair which had a SUPER HERO theme and was full of fun surprises for us. I rushed to school at 7:30 am with all of us (3 kids & me) dressed (no small feat) and ready for the day to attend my first Muffins for Moms. Turns out it's just a way to lure the moms into the book fair with their kids before school. The library was packed with books, kids, moms (mostly moms of kindergarteners I'm guessing), and only 1 mini muffin in sight...ha!

The next day we had Kaleb's first student led conference. He gave us the tour of his classroom and explained the procedures, incentives, and rules. He loved showing us his seat, cubby, and mail box. Then he showed off for us and did 3 centers all on his own: identifying numbers 1 to 30, reading sight words, and writing his first and last name. Mr. Davis told us he wished he had a class full of Kalebs! We bought the boys & K's class, a new fav. Super Hero ABC's book, at the book fair afterward.

To finish off the week, the kids could dress up like a hero. Kaleb had mentioned they were having a dress up day for super heroes, and he thought it was on Friday. About 15 minutes before he was to leave on Thursday, I find the little orange slip of paper explaining that they could dress up like an every day hero and that it was today. Nice! We wanted him to dress up like his teacher, but he wanted to be a doctor. We found the toy stethoscope from our Diego backpack (a small miracle) and he wanted me to make a headband with a light, so I guess he was a surgeon? When Dad saw his outfit, all he could do was laugh! Kaleb's grown 4 inches or more over the past year, and his only black pants were from last summer.

PRESENTING DR. KALEB: helping flood victims everywhere!

First patient ready for his exam around the corner...love it!

10 Months... A Love Letter for Ruby

RUBY super stander, furniture creeper, contagious laugher, head bopper, backward crawler, head band & shoe resistor, strictly no baby food eater, sleep through the nighter MURDOCK:

10 months have gone by too quickly, and so the only sweet snuggles I get now are when I'm nursing you. I savor this time more and more each day. Daddy's favorite is rocking you at night and singing I am a Child of God until you nod off to sleep. The boys have taught you to make funny nose noises and you constantly crawl around the house chasing after them. They swear your favorite toy is the Batman with the blue cape. Dad loves your upside down kisses, and I love to twirl you around in circles. You love to shake your head no, and laugh hysterically when I do it back to you. You melted my heart when you crawled down the hall after me and called MAMA.

Just when I think you can't get any cuter, you do! Baby girl, we love, love, love you!

Always yours,

Mama

Thoughtful Thursday

Thoughts running through my head at 5 am. What's worse? Sending K to all day kindi and having Dylan ask umpteen times when we can pick up Kaleb? (I will try to tally how many times he asks today) OR listening to Ruby cry it out? It's been a torturous week for this mom, and in an effort to give a glimpse of real life instead of the blissful life I typically portray on our blog, I thought I'd mention it.

A week and a half later...

Turns out it was by far worse listening to Ruby cry it out (almost 2 hours while Ben was snoring away & D was in my spot in our bed) than keeping Dylan entertained from 7:30 to 3 without Kaleb. It was worth it though. Ruby has been "sleeping in" until between 5 & 6, instead of waking between 3 & 5. This has been a blessing, because I'm feeling a little more like myself, and not a walking zombie. I try to make special 1 on 1 time with Dylan each day and have been making more of an effort to arrange play dates for him, so he's been great! It's also been fun watching the relationship between Dylan & Ruby grow each day. Kaleb was so excited to start staying the full day of school like the rest of his classmates, something he never wanted to do at MES, although I'd ask him each week. Just another confirmation to me that we made the right decision.

Tough decisions, tough love, tough parenting, tough week, but worth it.

Kindergarten Roundup #2

As much as I'd sometimes like to NOT be THAT Mom, I find I can't help myself sometimes. So after 5 weeks at the neighborhood school of being in a kindergarten class of 33, with no real learning going on (except the play by play of naughty kids), I started exploring our options. I quickly learned that the only excelling school in the county had kindergarten classes of 17-18, and then all I could think about was BOUNDARY EXCEPTION. I met with the principal, observed all the kindergarten teachers, toured the school, and found everything to be just what I had hoped for. Meet the newest Pima Butte Mustang!

BEFORE: Kaleb quickly vetoed the plan of the whole family dropping him off on his first day. He wanted just one of us to take him and chose Dad!

AFTER: How was your first day, son?

OUTSTANDING!

I told Kaleb on our way to meet his teacher last week that I'd have lots of fun surprises for him, if he did his best and tried to be happy at his new school. As soon as we were in the car, he asked if I had the new Nintendo DS we had (NOT) discussed!?! I had made his bed for him and bought him new Nerf darts, but I guess we had different levels of bribery in mind. ;)

Here's a link to a recent article on his new school. If interested, it's on page 22.

Wordless Wednesday