Hello to all of my faithful followers....all 8 of you! It feels like an eternity since I posted, so I have LOTS to update you on!
Chase- my big boy is reading, which is awesome, but he just seems so much older now that he can do it. But I'm also having to fight him on doing his homework as soon as he gets home from school, and I grill him everyday when he gets in the car to figure out how many "cubes" he has in class. He has a great teacher this year, and he really enjoys all of the things he's learning. We just got the first report card of the year, and he did really well...except for the "self motivation" category, which doesn't surprise me. We're working on that.
Gunnar- the world's best 4 year old babysitter. He is a huge help to me with the babies, I don't know that I could do it without him. He entertains them so I can shower, and feeds them fruit puffies while I fix them their lunch. At first, when he came home from Daycare to stay with me full time, I was ready to ship him back. We constantly butted heads, and I felt like I was always scolding him. Fortunately for both of us, I discovered he is a child who likes a lot of individual attention and figured out his reward system (he enjoys toys and candy, just in case you were wondering.) We still have our daily debates on what he's going to eat for lunch, or how much of it he'll eat, but things are good. The babies just adore him, and he does a great job at being a big brother to them. Just the other day he wanted to create a "Fred Jones" type trap (ya know, Fred from "Scooby Doo" always had a trap) to keep Mason trapped in the hall so he couldn't crawl anywhere. I don't know what we'll do when he goes to full day Pre-K next year, I think we'll all be sad.
Parker&Mason- oh my GOSH! This has to be the biggest update! Since I last posted (I think) both babies learned to crawl. First, Mason learned to crawl backwards, then 2 weeks later Parker did it. Next, Mason started to crawl forward, and 2 weeks later Parker did it. Then, Mason got a tooth and I didn't even know it! And Parker is on track to have his first tooth, or a pair of them, in 2 weeks. Yesterday Parker was bitten by Mason- apparently he tried to pull a Mike Tyson and bit Parker on the ear! It seems like they hit 7 months and all kinds of stuff started to happen, and now they're 8 months old and every day is a new journey! We've had to put up gates around the open areas in the family room, and it's amazing to seem them work together to try and move the gate. They rush the same spot and start to pull up on it, or push it. OH! They pull up now, too! Couches, chairs, people, you name it they'll pull up on it. Their older brothers both started walking at 10 months old, so we'll see if they are on par with the older boys...who knows, they may start earlier than that!
All I know is they will be 9 months on Thanksgiving day and 10 months on Christmas day and I'm SO excited for the holidays this year. I've usually had little, sleepy lumps on those holidays- Gunnar and Chase were Summer and Fall babies, so they were still pretty small around the holidays. This year will be so much fun to have babies who will sit through a meal and sit up to eat, mobile babies crawling around and actually trying to open presents for their first Christmas! Man, I can't wait to pull out the tree and decorate!
Halloween-OK, so I have to start with our trip to the pumpkin patch: our babies were so good, we didn't even take them out of the stroller to take pictures with the pumpkins...we kinda forgot because they were so quiet! We all had fun, got lots of pumpkins, and decided we'd carve them during the week for the Riverside Ward Halloween party on Friday night. Gunnar wanted Mickey Mouse and Chase wanted Boba Fet, and my wonderful Todd carved some amazing pumpkins. The Ward party had a pumpkin carving contest and the annual Chili cook-off. I've entered in the past and haven't won, but I thought I'd do it again. So I had a crazy Friday getting ready for everything. I waited until the last minute to get the babies costumes, so we went to Toys R Us, and everything was 50% off. It was the first time I've taken the babies out without their car carriers, so we had to use the double stroller, and I was nervous about that, but we managed to get costumes, candy, wipes, and a toy for a birthday party so it all worked out. Then, we went to the store, which was crazy because I pushed the double stroller and pulled Gunnar in a shopping cart full of groceries behind me. So I start to throw my Chili together while the babies are crying, and ready to eat lunch, and Gunnar was so good to help take care of them so I could get the meat cooked. I got the babies fed and finished up the Chili and let it cook for the next 4 1/2 hours. It was a mad rush to get the Chili, costumes, kids, candy, trunk-or-treat car decorations and everything else loaded into the Suburban. But we made it on time, I entered the Chili and pumpkins in their respective contests, and we sat down to enjoy the food. A while later we heard that Todd had won 2nd place in the pumpkin carving contest, and yours truly took home 1st place in the Chili cook-off! When I picked up my Croc-pot, not a drop of Chili was left. Good thing I had some left in my pot at home! It was better the next day, so maybe I'll cook it ahead of time next year and defend my win!
Hope all is well with you, thanks for taking time to read my "update."
