Friday, November 28, 2008

Sights and Sounds around our house!

Tommy is now walking with a walker. He is very proud of himself when he is walking. He smiles very big and kind of makes a snorting noise. He actually walks better then any of his older brothers did with the walker. He has great control.

Tommy is now eating table food very well. He is now getting more in his mouth and he enjoys drinking any drink out of a sippy cup. I still give his morning and evening milk from a bottle but we will slowly work out of that routine.

Patrick is and always be one determined little boy. He likes to do things for himself. This past week he has really mastered the skill of taking of his tennis shoes to which he exclaims "I did it! I did it!"

We can tell Patrick has German in his blood. When he talks about books or socks - he pronounces the K very hard.

John continues to read everything and anything. We have been playing Christmas music on the TV - it is a digital channel that plays music - not videos. But they have the name of the song and artist and then little facts about Christmas. John tries to pronounce every artists name. My favorite is Frank Sinatra - he once said it was Snotrod! I think his favorite song is Burl Ives "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas". He keeps singing it over and over.

James has an excuse for everything and he always tells you "Because . . . "

All the boys ate their thanksgiving meal very well. I knew John, James and Patrick would but I was very impressed that Tommy did too. They all love my spinach dish I made. I made the spinach dish instead of mashed potatoes. Of course they were all asking where the potatoes were!

Today we decorated our tree. The boys were very excited to see their favorite Hallmark Ornaments. I hope the ornaments and the tree survive this holiday season! Tommy has not been around the tree yet since it has been up - so stay tuned for those updates!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Busy week!

With Thanksgiving this week it has been a busy week of preparing. I'm cleaning the house, baking the goodies and getting everything set for the holiday season we are about to embark. This morning I just gave the boys haircuts. It is snowing so bad that I don't even want to think about taking 4 kids out with hats, gloves and boots on. I actually thought about it for 5 minutes but Tommy was up early for him and I didn't want to deal with him being cranky and taking a gamble that Patrick may not cooperate. I took the boys to Lowes yesterday to get some moulding for the basement bathroom. We didn't have enough time to look at all their Christmas decorations so I'm anxious to get back there. They have the most enormous blow up decorations I've ever seen.

Friday is the big decorating day in our house and hopefully outside too! I'm sure the boys will enjoy. We will have to see how Tommy does. He is just starting to walk pretty well with a toy walker. He is so proud of himself. I can see him and Patrick getting into trouble with the tree very easily.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Tommy's new phase



My hands are officially full as Tommy is now into his latest phase of exploring everything more than ever. He is trying everything from new foods to climbing the stairs and even low lying furniture. Of course for the last two months he has had the opportunity to watch how Patrick does it. He is now imitating him as you can see in the picture. Patrick always thinks its fun to slide across the end table. You can see how pleased Patrick is that Tommy has picked up this skill very fast by the smirk on his face. Now in the other picture - Patrick has entered a new phase which the other boys weren't too bad with - taking off our clothes for the fun of it. James likes to take his clothes off at nap time but at least he is in the privacy of his own bedroom. Patrick has no shame. I'm hoping these two phases will go very quickly!

I went back to the mall today because the red shirt I exchanged for the red jacket just didn't look right on me. When I wore the black sweater to church last night I knew this beautiful sweater would look great not only for the pictures but the holidays too. So I thought I would check to see if they have any comfortable looking sweat pants. I found a whole rack of them - they were on sale for $10. They had a variety of colors but the color I wanted - gray - they only had a couple left and they were too big. So I thought I would look in the Lands End section to see if they had any on sale. I never made it down to that section as I found another section that had the same $10 sweatpants. When I was looking at the size they said petites. I grabbed an XL - which looked like it would be the right length. Since I was without any kids I decided to try them on because I did not want to make another trip to the mall. They fit perfectly! After 4 kids I can wear petites!! Not really but it sounds good! And they are very very comfy!

We do not have our Christmas tree up yet but we are playing a lot of Christmas music and even pulled out the Christmas DVD's. The kids have enjoyed it greatly. It helps that it is snowing too!

James actually made it to 10 stars yesterday for potty training. Today he has fallen off the wagon - BAD 3 yucky diapers. I owe him a frosty but told him he better start pooping in the potty again so he can get the frosty. I was not going out last night in the driving rain when he reached his 10th star. He better step it up if he wants to play outside in the snow with the big kids.

I got out to the store yesterday afternoon during nap time. I decided that we would get Patrick Elmo Live for his birthday. I know he will enjoy it greatly. I feel bad because his birthday is in the same month as Christmas that I don't know which present should be for his birthday or Christmas. I think the emphasis should be on his birthday so that is why Elmo is his birthday present. I think Santa will be bringing him some pretty cool toys too! I was lucky enough to get the last one that Target had!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Our visit with Santa


Today was a fun day for everyone - maybe except Matt who did not partake in the Santa fun. I know the kids were a little revved up by the way they were picking on each other, fighting and just down right getting under my skin. We left for the mall early so to let Tommy get some sort of a morning nap in. Unfortunately he did not fall asleep until we almost got to the mall. My hope was to get him in the stroller or into the mall with him still asleep but that did not work out. We had lots of time to kill so I decided to join the mall walkers and enjoy some window shopping which I never get to do! The kids tolerated the walk pretty well even though we passed the play area and another cool rides area. We went back down by Sears because I decided to return the jacket I bought on Monday deciding that I probably could use the money for something else. My intention was to return the jacket and not see anything else but I did find a blouse/shirt that was about $10 cheaper and left the store with that! Then it was time to go see Santa. The picture takers greeted us and was telling me about their picture plans - skip the talk lady I just want a CD and 5x7 photo. "We are under a new company and don't offer that" was her reply. Ok - I'll just take the CD. We were allowed access to Santa now and as I was unloading the little ones I had John introduce Santa to them. At this point Patrick wasn't jumping out of the stroller so I knew he would need a little help. I first put Tommy on Santa's lap and then Patrick. I had James and John get on each side of Santa. The ladies had me get by them so I could have the boys looking at the camera and hopefully getting a smile. I tried to do a quick "going to getcha" on Patrick but that was making matters worse. So the lady snapped two pictures and I said ok - he isn't going to smile - the second one is cute. I then held Tommy and Patrick as we spoke with Santa. John and James were pleased that Santa said he would come to our house on Christmas Eve. This Santa is so good he was sure to tell them to clean up their toys and listen to your parents. The kids all got Candy Canes. After we paid for the CD we went by the Holiday Train and it was a Santa Miracle that someone was working the train. It was $2 per ticket or 4 tickets for $7. I said - oh can I hold the baby on the ride then? The girl working the train said they normally charge for an adult but since no one was around she would let me slide. So John James and Patrick got in the first train - John took the lead on working the bell. Tom and I got in the 2nd train and waved at them. It was a pretty fun ride although I'm a bit tall for the train. We headed home with the kids eating lunch a bit early so we were sure to have plenty of time for John to get ready for school. Tommy decided when I got him out of the car he still needed to nap so I put him down in his crib. Then John was like can I see the picture? I said sure let me go downstairs and print one out. That is when I discovered the CD was blank! I was starting to freak out - the Santa folks have no phone - how can I tell them not to delete the picture?? I called my neighbor who's son catches the bus at our house and asked if she could watch John and Tom. She said she could so I got Patrick and James and back to the mall we went. Luckily we were their only business for the day and they keep the pictures they take for the whole season - so I would have been ok to go back another time - in case this didn't work again today. James and Patrick just looked at the ground as we waited for the CD to burn. They were too shy to talk with Santa again!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Way to go James!

With the little snow we have on the ground James decided he wants to play outside in it. I decided that it is time I play hardball. I told him that he could play in the snow once he starts telling me he has to go to the bathroom and actually go. He said right then and there he had to go and he went. He earned his first sticker last night John was excited and then asked how many more does he need to get - I said at least 9 for a Frosty. Today as we were getting John ready to go off to school James was sad because he said he wanted to go. I told him he knows what he needs to do in order to go to school. A few minutes later I decided it was time for James to use the bathroom. At first he resisted but once he got to the bathroom he asked to sit on the potty and read a book. I left him as John's classmate arrived to get on the bus. A few minutes later James announced he was pooping on the potty! He earned 2 stickers even though I initiated the bathroom break because it beats cleaning up the mess in a diaper!

Patrick ended up falling asleep early during Sesame Street while I was feeding Tommy his lunch. That meant he was up a bit earlier than normal. He started to call my name before John got off the bus. I sat him by the side window and made him watch as I got John off the bus. But all hell broke loose when we came in. I was talking to John about his day and the next thing I know Patrick is in Tommy's room waking him up. I quickly got him out of the room and closed the door. As I was comforting Tommy back to sleep I heard Patrick moving the step stool in the bathroom around. Can this kid stay out of trouble?? Luckily Tommy was back to sleep in no time and with the help of John was able to get Patrick the hell out of there!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Holy Crap!

Well the kids are at it again - giving me good blogging material! Tommy has decided climbing steps is within his capabilities. Luckily he doesn't climb them all the time so I don't have to have another gate up . . . YET!

On Saturday John commented on how today was Saturday and we go to church today. Matt acknowledged that he was correct and asked him what his favorite part about going to church was. John's honest reply - "going home!" I guess we don't have a priest in the making after all!

Today John had no school because of Parent-Teacher Conferences. So I took the boys to the mall we had a great time despite the first of I'm sure many Lake Effect Snow squalls of the winter. I had the kids wear their lighter winter coats with hats and gloves so it would be a little less crazy when jamming them in the basket of the stroller. We started off by getting there before the mall opened - that did two things - got us out of the house sooner and let them play in the "kids area" which still left time for some shopping. Before we left I searched online for every printable retail coupon I could find for the stores I planned on going to. It worked out great as I used everyone but one and the one I didn't use is the store we didn't go to! I was SHOCKED today with the fact that Santa was at the mall already. I wish I had known because that could have been one more thing off of our list - now I am going to have to squeeze it before school one day soon. If John didn't have an orange Cars shirt on I would have probably went for it but I just couldn't do it. The kids still chatted with Santa from behind the ropes at a safe distance. James told him he wanted Cars, John told him he wanted to Legos and we guessed for Patrick and Tommy. James offered up a suggestion to Santa that Patrick wanted cash. I told the boys we must go back again and get our picture taken and tell him want you want again as he might forget being so early. Hopefully the train ride will be going so I can bribe them to get closer than 50 feet!

The kids were good enough that I could actually shop a little for myself at Sears. They had a great sale. I was looking for something that I could wear for the holidays and our family photo for our church. They are going to have a photo album for their 60th anniversary. I found a nice sweater and jacket. I was also able to find some "holiday" pants for Tommy. I found out last night when we took our holiday pictures that the bibs that went with the outfit he was going to wear were a little short. I'm hoping the size I bought will work - I will try them on him soon. I broke down and bought John dress shoes. He looks so nice in his khaki's, white dress shirt and tie that I can't let him wear his dark tennis shoes. The brown shoes are nice and I had a coupon!

James decided he wasn't tired this afternoon so I let him stay up. As I'm typing this John is playing Wii and James fell asleep in the chair. He will be sorry at 4pm that he didn't go to sleep sooner! Ok - I need a drink - unfortunately of the non-alchoholic kind!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Awesome weather!

The past two days have been fantastic weather wise. John had off school on Tuesday due to the teachers having an in-service day. So with the weather being super warm we headed off to the zoo! The Cleveland Zoo has just begun a major remodeling stage for their elephants plus there is a bridge that goes over the zoo that ODOT has torn down and are now in the process of rebuilding. They must be getting closer to finishing the bridge because you can no longer walk to one section of the zoo - you have to take their tram service. The zoo and ODOT planned for this closure because they knew the attendance would be down with the colder weather. I was bummed because this is my favorite part of the zoo as it houses the wolves, bears and sea lions. The tram that was going to this area was very small - maybe 3 rows for people to sit in with no other cars attached. Normally their trams have 3 cars attached to the main car tram. With the double stroller I wasn't going to wait or inconveince a lot of people. So we took another tram up to see the monkeys and fish and their play area. After we spent time up there we walked back down the big hill to see the giraffes and rhinos. After that the kids were pretty much toast so we headed home. After what seemed like an abbreviated nap time, we hung outside again and had a late dinner. I am happy the next few days will be nice!

James said to Matt on Sunday - knock knock - who's there - James - James who? - James Keough loves you! TOO cute!