Star Wars Lego Game

For the last three years The Boy has been playing the Star Wars Lego game. Today he got all the mini kits and has almost finished the entire game. He is so excited. Ken has been helping him with it all day (really for the last three years). He'll probably finish the game this week. Just in time for us to get a Wii for Christmas and he can start all over again with the Star Wars Lego game we got for it.

Monster Toddler

There is a reason why we call her a monster...Yesterday she took a red crayon to our tan couch, hit her baby sister on the head, refused to go in a time out (that took 10 minutes to get worked out). Later she found my makeup and got mascara all over her, the bathroom, and all over the rest of my makeup. Every five seconds she demands to be fed and throws a fit if we don't immediately jump up to take care of it.

Today she has been bouncing. She loves to bounce. She's been jumping up and down in the living room. I feel bad for our down stairs neighbors, it must sound like a herd of elephants.

She also kept knocking down the laundry baskets (that had all the clean laundry in them) so she could "swing". She lays down on them and rolls back and forth.

She also loved playing horsey with them. She'd sit on it and jump up and down. She was so full of energy today. I guess being couped up in the house for a week can do that to a monster. She is so much fun to watch (we call her a monster out of love. She is such a spitfire).

Operation Christmas Child

We love Operation Christmas Child. We've only done it once before when Monster Boy was little. But this year we had the opportunity to do it again. I decided to do the box for a girl age 10 to 14. We went to the 99 cent store and got every thing that I'd wanted and more. Here is a list of every thing that we were able to fit in the shoe box...

hat, socks, shirt, scarf, suckers, 4 tooth brushes, toothpaste, gloves, 5 packs of gum, a pair of flip flops, jump rope, 4 pencils, 5 pens, googly eye pen (The Boy picked it special), paper, colored pencils, 2 chap sticks, deodorant, glow sticks, hair pins, and hair ties.

I wish we could have fit more in. We got a second shirt and a second pair of socks just in case we could fit them in. I was bummed that we weren't able to. We wrote a note and included our address so hopefully we'll get a letter back.

I had a lot of fun shopping with the kids and putting the box together with him. Monster Boy is especially excited about it.

Three Nights Now

Its been three nights now since the Moster Toddler started sleeping in her toddler bed. The first two nights she fell out of bed twice each night and the second time we'd just leave her there. Last night she only fell out once!! It woke her up so I put her back down and she stayed that way! It was awesome.

Big Girl Bed

Last night was the Monster Toddler's first night in her big girl bed or "biga bed" as she calls it. I expected a fight at first and was very surprised when I didn't get one.

First she had to bounce on it for a while. Then she had to get all her babies in just the right spots. We read a the Pajama Time book and prayed. Then it was time for hugs and pachus (kisses). Ken got lots of pictures of her and then we turned out the lights. She never got up even once. We where shocked.

We checked on them before we went to bed. To our surprise Monster Toddler was laying on the floor but her feet were still in bed. We got lots of pictures of that too (I'll try and post that later). I put her back in her big girl bed and she stayed asleep. I also put down blankets on the floor just in case she fell out again so she'd have a soft spot to land.

At some point around 4:30 or 5, The Boy got up to tell us he was cold and that Monster Toddler was on the floor. Ken got him another blanket and checked on the girl. She was completely on the floor this time several feet away from her bed. Since it was so close to the time they normally wake up he didn't move her. She got up at 6 am. At 6:30 she ran and jumped on The Boy. Its always funny when she does that.

I hope she doesn't fall out tonight. She's a wiggler though so I'm not really holding out hope. As cute as it is, she doesn't get as much sleep as she needs.

Tonight Monster Boy is at cub scouts. The Toddler and I are watching Peter Pan (which she is thoroughly enjoying) and eating s'mores. She's never seen the movie or had s'mores. Soon it will be bath time, she needs one, especially after chocolate, graham cracker, and marshmallows. Then off to bed for the second night in her biga bed.

Too Many Things

I've been trying to keep every thing together. Its not working as well as I'd like. I'm trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, the kids clean, the kids happy, make healthy meals, keep to my menu, do home school, and have time out of the house. I'm sure there is more to my list but I can't think of it all. Also throw in staying in budget and getting sleep. I feel like I'm drowning some days.

I was out of commission all weekend. I had the house nice and clean on Thursday night. I had oral surgery on Friday morning. I'm pretty sure by Friday noonish the house was trashed again. It wasn't until Monday before I was able to do ant thing. I focused on picking up and getting laundry done.

Tuesday we had our home school teacher over and the speech therapist over. I had to have the house clean for that. Luckily Ken had made chicken noodle soup a few days before so we've been having that for the last three nights. It made it so that I didn't have to worry about making dinner on top of cleaning and the two meetings.

Trying to manage three kids, home school, meals, and house work is impossible. I'm trying to figure out how to make it easier but am just not getting there. I am also so sleep deprived that most days I spend in a foggy haze, any thing more complicated than changing a diaper requires more synapses than are currently functioning.

Monster Baby gets up two or three times a night. If I'm lucky it only takes an hour to get her fed and back to sleep. I think I get between 3 to 5 hours a night and that's not in a row.

Monster Toddler is the expert mess maker and tantrum thrower. She hates being inside and gets bored easy. Her new thing this week is to climb up our six foot tall bookshelves. She gets half way up. She also likes to dump out her toys, turn her toy basket over and use it to reach things that I am trying to keep away from her. She'll do just about any thing to get it back. It is amazing how many things they want that you don't want them to have.

Three Growing Monsters

We encountered some thing this week, all three kids needing clothes at once. Man, that can get expensive! I only buy clothes that are on sale and I usually have a coupon also. We went to The Children's Place last night and got clothes for all three kids for about $100.

We scored the best deal with the Monster Boy's clothes. We got him three pairs of pants and 5 shirts. Monster Toddler got three shirts and a skirt and Monster Baby got two outfits. I did some shopping for Monster Toddler on our last check so she's pretty well covered for now. We may need a bit more next month. She also needs a coat and new shoes. She outgrows her shoes every 2 months or so.

For the Baby we need to get more 3-6 month clothes. After that I think we're set. We still have every thing from Monster Toddler from 6 months on up. Today this mommy group I belong to had a hand me down event. Every one brings all their unwanted clothes and what ever is left over gets donated to a women's shelter. I didn't bring a ton of clothes with me. Just some of the Toddler's 2T clothes and some 0-3 months clothes that we weren't going to use. But I came home with a lot of clothes for the Baby. I think that with the little we have left from Monster Toddler and with the stuff from today we should be just about covered. I know that Ken's step mom wants to buy some clothes for Monster Baby.

I love buying clothes for the kids. What I find really funny is that Monster Boy doesn't pick out his own clothes. He runs around the store while Ken and I shop for him. I know the type of clothes that he likes. He loves sweat pants and track pants. Ken hates them. It drives him nuts when the Boy wears stuff like that. He started grumbling about it last night when I picked out a pair. I had to tell him that he's 9now and he's old enough to pick out his own clothes and he likes that sort of thing. Ken just looked at me and silently agreed, begrudgingly. Its hard for us that he's growing up. It is really hard to believe he's that not little boy we used to have. He's so big now and I can't imagine him getting any bigger. I remember when we had the Monster Toddler, the Boy seemed so big then. But I look back on pictures from then and now he seems so small. I'm sure in a few years I'll look back to this time and he'll seem so little again.

The Face of St. Paul In This Butt Roast...

assures me that I'm going up to Heaven.

I love this song by the Swirling Eddies its called "Urban Legends". All this talk about Obama's speech to the school kids is driving me nuts. It reminds me of that song.

Ken got an email from two people, the first one asked if he was going to let the Monster Boy "be subjected" to this speech and what was he going to do about it. The other one was a warning to every one about how evil the speech was (and the person delivering it). This was all before the text of the speech was made public. These two people hate Obama and swear he's the anti-christ (maybe I'm reaching but only a little) Ken responded to these people and let them know that yes we were going to let Monster Boy watch the speech and we were home schooling also. So it was our choice to subject him to it and we were doing it willingly.

Ken got a response from one of the people and they were proud of us that we're home schooling because "public schools can't be trusted". Then they went on to say that they had read the speech and even though it seemed harmless it did have socialist undertones. This person also said that this one time was okay for him to address the kids but any more than that and it would be a problem. Then he'd be taking it too far and it would be socialist indoctrination. Yes, because I can see how telling a kid to stay in school to better themselves and society is socialist. Next he'll be telling them to eat their green veggies but what he'll really mean it that they should worship Hitler.

What a lot of people seem to forget (my self included) is that Obama isn't the first president to address the nation's children. Teddy Roosevelt was the first, he told them to celebrate Arbor Day. Reagan and George H.W. Bush addressed the children also and more than once. Here is a link to the msnbc article about past presidents and their messages to children. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32737733/ns/politics-white_house/

In the song it also says that the anti-christ does laundry on the East Coast, I wonder...