"Glow"

Isabelle was in a school play (way back in like January, haha). It was called "Glow." It was about a lady bug helping a firefly find his special jobs, "Because everyone has a special job!" Isabelle was the leading lady bug.  We practiced for MONTHS! 8 pages, people. We memorized 8 pages! She did awesome. 

The performance night, I was running lines and braiding her hair....brought back SO many high school memories doing just that for One Act.

This is Jackson, he was the firefly.  These two were pretty much the whole show with every other kid having a line or word here and there.  It was full of songs and adorable. Apparently all my pictures didn't turn out, but my videos did, so this is what you get. :)

Our neighbor, and her best friend, Avery came to support her.  These two have the most amazing friendship.  I call her Isabelle's golden friend.  Never fight, get along perfectly, love animals and art and are outside for HOURS. Love these two!

We had another special guest.  My 96 year old grandparents came. We had front and center seats so they could see the whole thing.  She was ecstatic she had special visitors.

And even Dad made it. 

I was so impressed with how well she did.  She didn't get nervous at all, got all her lines right, and sounded like she actually performed it, not just memorized it (which for 2nd graders is a feat, haha). She got lots of compliments and did a great job. Way to go my cute little Lady Bug!

Pink eye...

This poor baby got pink eye somewhere. He was so cute about it. "My owie eyes." "pink eyes." "No touch eyes." "No more drops."  "Wipe yuckies pease. No I do it." "More hanitizer." "More rock rock." "More chiggington." He got a nasty cold along with it. We were crazy about the hanatizer and Luke was the only one that got it. When I took Spencer to the instacare to get drops, I asked for a big bottle assuming the whole family would get it, but they never did! I was shocked! 

The funniest part of the whole thing was Michael. He is such a germ-a-phobe! He carried a bottle of hanitizer with him constantly and used 1/2 a bottle before noon. I heard phrases like, "AAAHHH! He looked at me with his pink eyes!!! I need hanitizer." And "He touched my back, I need more hanitizer." " He's sitting on the couch with me!!! I need more hanitizer!" (He was on the opposite side, nowhere near touching.) 

All in all, I'm surpised it took us this long to get our first round of pink eye. I'm sure it won't be our last.

Funny Funny Kid

Spencer makes me laugh. Like a lot. He also makes me a little crazy.  He is difficult when he doesn't get his way.  Well, he's 2, you say.  Well I've had 3 other 2 year olds, and they haven't had this much fire in them. So here are a few examples.

He wanted to eat his whole tomato in the living room, but I moved him to the counter....

So he told me how he felt about that.  

Then he complied 

Who sits in a stroller?  Not this one.  He stands on the little bar at the bottom backwards. 

This was a hilarious moment.  He was trying to get this old cell phone in his pocket, but he couldn't see around his belly.  Somewhat like a dog chasing his tail.  It was definitely entertaining. I tried to help, but he didn't want it.  Big surprise.  He finally let me.

He fights me every morning changing his diaper wanting undies, so I put him in underwear, but then he fights me to sit on the toilet.  It's a really awesome power struggle. Isabelle has more luck than I do, then again she usually comes with an iPad. Haha! I gave up over the holidays, but am going to hit it hard again soon.  He's super ready, i just need to get my act together to do it.  

One day he smeared "something great" down every single one of my stairs. And laughed. It was impressive enough that I did too. Haha.

This baby NEVER wears clothes! We walk in the door and he takes off his pants.  He usually at least has on a shirt, but rarely pants. It makes me laugh. "Spencer, where are your pants?!"  His response, "I take them off. I no wike a pants!"

 This was a soccer game in late September when the weather starts getting chilly. I wish I could remember all the circumstances about how he ended up this way (he usually stays dressed outside of home), but with a naked baby running around the soccer fields, I was laughing pretty hard.  

Dirt. He gets so filthy and just laughs and smiles.  

I just find myself laughing all day long at him.  The way he talks, his reactions, the way he thinks he runs the place, the way he thinks he's 5 years older than he actually is, the way he sucks his thumb the way he loves his trains. I just love this little boy. 

Birthday Boy In September

So back in September.....(I WILL get caught up!!!! 2016 WILL be better!!!! Don't give up on me people!)

Spencer had a birthday at the end of September.  It was a really hard day for me.  2 is always a hard birthday for me.  They go from being a baby to a full blown toddler.  While I absolutely love toddlers, I love babies even more.  However in the past, it wasn't quite as sad because I had a newborn already or within a week or two of the 2nd birthday of my other kids.  I tried snuggling and holding and rocking and he just wanted nothing to do with it. :( We still had a good day.  

Who doesn't love cake batter for breakfast?

Birthday candle in his banana 

He got a train book for his birthday book.  He barely had torn the paper and saw a tiny part of the train on the cover and went crazy.  "Choo Book!!!"  It was pretty cute.  

Cupcakes and yummy dinner and family. 

Spencer is such a great addition to our family.  He brings us so many smiles and giggles.  I really cannot get enough of his cuteness.  He loves Dad and asks for him all day and at bedtime if he's not home yet. He loves his trains and thinks he is one of the big kids.  He still sucks his thumb with his blanket and "his spot" in the binding.  He is in a "no wike-a" (I no like a___) phase right now.  Everything gets a "I no wike-a ____!!"  Fill in the blank.  Baths. Foods. Clothes. Jammies.  Dipers. Sitting on the potty. (Yeah, it's a great fight every morning.  He does not want diapers and wants undies, but doesn't want to sit on the toilet. Go figure.)  I can usually talk him into things, but his initial reaction is NO WIKE-A. It still makes me chuckle even though it can be inconvenient. Love this little boy of mine!!!!

Tales of Isabelle

I have a few stories for Isabelle....

Most 1st/2nd graders have very typical chicken scratch-like handwriting...such is true for Isabelle.  Then you add writing in Chinese and it's for real chicken scratch. ;) All kidding aside, her handwriting and Chinese handwriting are looking great!  I've seen a huge improvement in her Chinese handwriting this year.  Last year, I often wondered how her teacher could tell any of the characters.  But she said it's normal. Looking good!

She has brought home a non-fiction book about animals every single week since Kindergarten. She LOVES animal books.  We have learned quite a bit about lots of animals.  It's always a surprise what she brings home, toucans, elephant seals, beavers, bugs, and all sorts of things.  I love her curiosity and love of nature. 

Soccer games, she is a dream to have along.  She takes the boys to the playgrounds and splash pads and keeps them entertained. We also worked on homework and reading together during the games sometimes.  

One of her homework pages was a crossword puzzle.  She had never done one before.  I was trying to teach her what to do, but she was arguing with me.  "No mom, you just put the words where ever you want!"  I kept explaining how the clues help and she wouldn't have it.  Finally I gave up and let it go and let her do her work, knowing this was going to come up again.  Sure enough Thursday night (it's due on Friday) she was scrambling to get it finished and couldn't get it to work.  We ended up doing a lot of erasing and she took a little advice and was able to do it.  It was just a funny moment watching her and trying not to laugh at how frustrated she was. 

Toddling Toddler

This cute toddler of mine is definitely one of my more difficult ones.  He's stubborn and destructive and doesn't think any rules apply to him. He has mastered a careful tantrum. He goes somewhere soft to flop or lays down carefully before the fake cry begins.  He talks really well for his age.  He still needs a translator but he speaks in very complete sentences and just gets everything we talk about.  He's the buckle police in the car and yells at people to get their buckle on.  He says "Ok mom." or "Ok dad." in the cutest way.  He has to give hugs and kisses to all his many grandparents before leaving and it's adorable and funny all at the same time. He makes us laugh constantly.  CONSTANTLY.  I'm so glad we have this cute kiddo in our family. 

A 4 Year Old Bat Party

I threw Luke a friend birthday party.  It was all things Batman and getting bad guys.  The kids all had fun and it wasn't too bad on my part. 

They decorated batman symbols to put on their shirts and masks and had their Bat Suits! Missing Wynter and Lewis in this picture.  

Water guns and bad guys on the fence provided a long time of entertainment. 

Joker wrapping up batman with crepe paper.  They took turns being the Joker and being Batman busting out.  

Pin the Batman symbol on the Batman 

Decorating cupcakes and a few other things I don't have pictures of. 

Luke had a good time with his friends and definitely enjoyed himself and all the presents he got. Such a funny morning watching these cute little ones. 

Boys will be Boys

We had an exciting labor day weekend. One night Spencer dislocated his elbow.  It took us a little while to figure out he was really hurt because it was late and he was tired and fussy in general.  When he wouldn't use his arm to suck his thumb and hold his blanket to his face, I knew something was wrong with his arm.  We called my little bro, Dr. Matthew, and he walked Mike over the phone how to pop it back in place. The next day, Michael ran into a parked truck during an intense game of hide and go seek with the neighbor kids causing a concussion so bad he was blind for a few hours.  Yes, completely blind.  Talk about panic parent moments.  They wanted to do some imaging, but he started to get some light back so they just watched him until it all came back. So they hung out at the hospital for a while. While Mike was at the ER with Michael (and my van full of car seats) Luke split his head open pretty bad. I decided it wasn't life threatening so we hung out and waited it out.  If it was still bleeding by time Mike got back he would take trip number two.  The bleeding slowed and finally stopped just after Mike got home. 

Me sitting on the couch with concussed Michael and the top of Luke's bleeding head.  

Because of all the new concussion science, we had some good restrictions.  You have to protect the brain during it's "concussed state" (The headache) so not to do brain damage.  He couldn't do anything to jostle the brain (run, rough house, etc) or stimulate the brain (school work, screen time, too much thinking).  SO. HARD!!!!  He had to miss a couple days of school.  We played play dough, lots of easy brainless games, legos, and I read to him constantly.  Michael's brain has to be busy all the time, so it was fun for all the time together.  He was super good at following the rules.  At one time Luke was watching TV and Michael turned around and asked Luke nicely to turn it off saying he couldn't watch it.  He also kept asking when he could run again. And was careful for a few days even after he was cleared for it.  So after a few days of trying to keep his brain relaxed, my brain was exhausted.  He made super complex patters with Legos, did some multiplication, asked to read "only ever other page." and play game after game after game.  I decided kindergarten curriculum would have probably been more relaxing for his brain. Haha! 

Go Fish is definitely a good brainless game.  This game of Go Fish has gotten some serious mileage the last few months.  It's one we play A LOT!  

I'm glad we got our "things happen in 3's" out of the way all at once, and only ended up with 1 ER bill (however the pediatric trauma unit isn't the place to save $$$. Haha).  My  heart rate took a few days to settle all the way.  I'm sure this wasn't our last dislocated something, concussion, or split open head with 3 boys in the house. 

Summer Sharko

This summer we hatched a caterpillar who got named Summer Sharko.  Isabelle did the first name, the boys did the second name.  We fed it leaves and watched her grow and then build her cocoon.  When we came home from Swiss Days, she had hatched and was missing.  We found her drying her wings in the kitchen sink.  The kids enjoyed playing with her until she dried out. We absolutely loved this experience.  We have done it before in Florida, and will do it again and again. SO much fun.  Isabelle was in bug heaven, of course. :)