Hard life...

The sad life of the fourth child... Yes, that would be my 8 month old eating pieces of cheeseburger and sweet potato fries at the Carl's Jr play place at 7:40 pm. Never would have happened to Pearl.

Preschool

It's official.  He is potty trained.  One of the things I kept telling him was that he had to be potty trained so that he could go to preschool.  And he really wants to go to preschool.  Sam and Pearl go to school, it must be super cool.  

 So, quite consistently, when he would do a good job going potty, he would joyfully exclaim "Ya HOOO! I'm a BIG BOY!!!  So now I can go to PRESCHOOL!!!!!"

 I was a little worried about the reward being several months away... but when my sister sent my niece to a summer preschool program, I remembered that his preschool teacher for next year had sent me an e-mail about summer drop ins.... I had disregarded it, because we were still doing the potty thing... so I checked, and lo and behold, we made it!  He gets to go to two days of preschool before summer school is out!!!!!

 He was SO HAPPY and SO PROUD!!!  He kept telling me not to forget his backpack, and the dinosaur he was going to share with all of his friends.  

 He came home happy and tired with no accidents and a caterpillar picture.  With one eye (as he pointed out very carefully to me).  

Max loves preschool.  Mommy LOVES preschool.  Yeah for preschool!!!!

and YEAH that POTTY TRAINING is OVER!!!!!!!!  3 down 1 to go!!!

The Anti-helper

Ruby Lu and me, we used to be laundry buddies.  When she was really little, I would save the laundry for when she was awake or just drowsy, and she would lie there happily while I talked to her and folded.  Sometimes she would fall asleep and then once in a while she would peek out of her little eye to make sure I was still there.  It worked great for me.  

Now, not so much.  Now, she is the anti-help

 She just loves the piles and piles of things to reach and grab.  She has very non-discriminating taste (literally)

 So many things to experiment with!

 But really, with an angel face like that to look at while I work, who am I to complain?

Just a Day

I'm so behind.  But you already know that.  It gets to the point where there are like 4000 pictures to go through and I'm at a loss for where to start.  

But I'm tired today, my legs are complaining and at new levels of muscle building after putting 30 miles on them over the past week.  So, I sat down to do a blog post.  And came across April 19th.  

I'm pretty sure it was just a random day, at that in between late afternoon time... the naps are over, and it's not time to start dinner yet.  Or maybe I was on a cooking strike.  We all ended up in the living room for whatever reason, playing.  And they were all just playing so nicely that I wanted to remember that day.

 Yes, that is a dinosaur (Littlefoot, to be exact) that Ruby is eating.  She loves her some boy toys:)

 So so sweet.

 And the boys... lately, Max is Sam's shadow... he will do ANYTHING that Sam does.  He idolizes Sam.

 and fortunately, he's getting old enough that there really are a few games they can play together.

 So grateful for my helpful nine year old.  Seriously, it's a good idea.  She is so obedient and sweet with her baby sister, and she manages to pull out some patience for the boys sometimes:)  I don't know what I would do without her.

And of course, Ruby just knows she is the coolest.

So grateful for my good good children.  Couldn't imagine life any other way... even amongst all the craziness.

So Behind

I am behind... so very behind.  At the moment I'm waiting for the 2nd of 2 8G memory cards FULL of pictures to download... yes, I know...  but I had to grab this one and post it.  It's from today.   Miss Lu is now 8 1/2 months old, has two teeth, and has begun to self feed.  There goes my kitchen.  Really.  The crumbs are pernicious.  But just look at how happy she is!  You should have seen her when Jared handed her the serving bowl with the guacamole in it and she was putting fistfulls into her mouth.  Skills, mad skills.  She's very impressed with herself:)

And she's still really cute.