what you should teach your kids

the first thing you should teach your kids...not 911, not how to get out during a fire, not stop drop and roll, not "don't talk to strangers"....nope - teach them:

HOW TO BRING YOU TOLIETPAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

both my boys know where my extra tolietpaper is so gone are the days of being stuck alone and dripping!!!

just stuff

so my shoulder is doing better. thanks for all those who asked to help. ben took a day off (thanks ariel!) to let me go a day without lifting a 30 lb kid. that day seemed to help a lot and by tuesday my shoulder/arm was just really really sore. but much better than shooting pain. so i'm happy about that. my brother and his family are gone now. i have to say that i am pooped! the boys are pretty wore out too! i don't think they stopped one day while they were here. zoo, museums, beach, park, legoland, etc. and all in 90+ degree heat. it's been tough.

but on monday i had jade's 4 month dr. appointment. thank God ben was with me cause i don't know how i would have handled her. anyways, she's 15 lbs 14 oz (91%) and 26 1/4" (99%). it's funny cause she's a whole inch shorter than both boys at this age, but yet for a girl she's at 99%. no wonder i spent my whole life feeling huge next to boys. my daughter will probably deal with the same thing.

things with ronan have been going much better. maybe he's turning a corner. or maybe the sun's getting to him. either way, he's been doing better behaviorally. he's still a cuddly little thing and i swear there is nothing better than him coming trodding down the hall (resembling an elephant with his thudding walk) and jumping into my lap after his nap and saying "whats up mommy?" thats my boy. then randomly at dinner he starts flapping his fists at me. it took me a little longer than it probably should have to realize he's trying to hit knuckles with me to be 'tool' aka 'cool'. so cute!

but today's frustration comes with legos. legos are the most torturous things ever invented. we got this starter box of legos for z after he went to legoland. on the front are all these cute little lego block things...(is lego block redundant?) zander tells me he wants me to make this silly snail looking thing on the front. a SNAIL?! so 1/2 hour later with my son yelling at me that it's taking "FOREVER" and "come on mommy it's not that hard, just DO IT!", i have a silly looking snail. then what does zander do? he takes it, walks off, and accidentally drops it! are you kidding me?! so back to square one since no, i don't retain the info in my brain to remake it once i've done it once. BLAH! the best part is this....after daddy gets home z shows him the snail and goes, i don't know why she didn't follow the directions....DIRECTIONS?! oh yea, on the table.....poop.

my dumb shoulder

so of course i would go and do something that would make my life as terribly and unfuctional as possible. and of course it would be by doing something totally not possible by any other living human. i swear. so on thursday we were headed to seaworld. i met my brother and his fam at their hotel. now i'm going to try to explain this as best as possible, but i wish i had a visual instead. anyways, i was standing on the edge of the back door of the minivan. i had my arm stuck through onto the front seat. i went to step down and realized my arm was in fact going to be wedged between the seat and the door jam/seatbelt thingy....so i start to twist but then fall faster, cause well, let's face it, i'm a big girl. so my arm sticks, squeezes, then my shoulder stretches out and pulls. oh man it was painful. i instantly have a huge bruise down the back of my arm and my shoulder starts killing me. but off to seaworld i go. and i carried jade in the baby bjorn all day. and it was hot. then friday off to the zoo, more carrying of jade, more pain. so friday night i went to urgent care. i got some xrays and did find out that i have some wear on my shoulder from a previous injury or something. probably vball. but that does explain why my shoulder is always hurting. so all in all, i guess i pulled the tendon down the back of my arm. and they gave me a dumb sling. but do you know what? its my right arm...i'm right handed. sooo....what can i do with my sling on? umm...NOTHING! so i don't wear it much. which means it hurts more. which is not good. i haven't had anytime to let it just rest without lifting kids. tonight i lost it and cried like a baby. stupid baby crying...thats me. but as a mom you don't get to stop and nurse a wound...you keep going. cause you have to. you don't get a day off. blah. it just hurts bad. really really bad. dumbness. i think i'm going to go outside and kick the mini van. just out of principal. oh and did i mention i have a 40 lb infant that needs to be held...a lot. that's good times on my shoulder.
ok i'm having a whiny fest. sorry i don't mean to use this blog for sympathy and tears. wait, yes i do. WHINE WITH ME! FEEL BAD FOR ME! SEND FLOWERS AND CANDY! and maybe some money! thanks!

just a few pics

oh my...

said by zander "uncle tim uncle tim!" me - "its uncle chris zander"
"uncle chris! I love you..." WHAM!!!! zander runs in the side view mirror on the van....
oh i love him.

my oldest brother Chris and his family is visiting from michigan right now. i am pooped already but i LOVE watching the kids play together. Chris and Jen have four boys - 8, 6, 4, and almost 2. so it's a lot of kids together. we went to the beach yesterday which was fun....but exhausting! it takes three hours to get sand off of children. and then weirdly enough, even after baths, two days later, i am still finding sand in jade's neck folds. GROSS! fat babies, gotta love 'em. today we played at my parents house and then went to a park. it's just so fun to watch all 6 of the boys playing together (poor jade she was busy spitting up down the front of my mother!). there is just true joy in watching little boys tear up a playground with sweat dripping down their faces. they can barely stop for water! except for my son zander who thought he should stick his entire mouth around the spicket. he's determined to die of a communicable disease. then they danced in the outdoor theater to "there's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy." truly hilarious to see. i love my family. times like this makes me wish we had cousins closer. but i'm blessed with my precious small group and their lovely children to fill that void! love you guys!

picture page, picture page

Update on Ben

Just wanted to let you all know how ben is liking his job at ashford university. he hates it. he has this horrible boss named ariel. HAHAHA...j/k. he loves it so much! and yes, his boss is ariel. and she has red hair. and sings. and do you think she'd dress up for birthday parties? hmmm....hello boss lady ariel! (ben said she reads this).
anyways, ben loves what he's doing and from what i understand, he's doing really well. it's so nice to have a happy husband at home. it makes a big difference in our relationship too. i'm so proud of him and we are truly blessed by God's provision in this job. it's a great place to work.
as for today...here are things i shouldn't have to say to my kids, but somehow they came out of my mouth.
"ronan do NOT ride your sister."(contrary to his belief, she is not a horse)
"Zander take the stick from my garden out of your mouth."
"zander ronan is half your size, push back." (ronan was trying to drown zander)
"ronan do NOT hump your brother."
"ronan do NOT hump your brother with no clothes on!"
"Zander shut your mouth when you kiss your brother."
"please do not lick me"
"do not touch mama's butt when she's on the floor cleaning"
"ronan do not drink the bubbles"
"DON"T TOUCH THE DUCK POOP!"


i'm so going to make this blog into a book so my kids will know what they did to me!

Happy 4th of July

This year we went back to Chuck and Helen Price's house with my parents. Last year ben helped them with their bathroom through his work at the expo, so this year we went back. it's very kid friendly and you can see the el cajon fireworks from their yard without fighting traffic! it's great! lots of food and it's casual with little stress. the boys played baseball and zander even hit it and made it to base. which i was happy for the little guy since most of the other kids were older. ronan made a girlfriend out of a 10 year old who thought playing with him was the greatest. she was a lifesaver cause anything that keeps ronan occupied is wonderful! and jade was well, just adorable! here's a few pics. Some are from lunch today after church.

Beach fun

or not....we decided to go to torrey pines today and have some family beach time. i cannot go by myself and ben had the day off, so i talked to him in to it. however, it was freezing! and by freezing, i mean FREEZING. i had poor little jade in her little bitty bathing suit. so i had to bundle her up in towels and the boys clothes. the boys however took off running to the water and my wonderful, amazing father to my sons, went in the water with them and they played for a long time. it was soooo cute! i adore that man! mostly cause i got to sit my butt down in a chair for two hours and watch them play. LOVED IT. and the sun never came out and it never got warm. but the boys had fun! and that is all that matters. no pictures cause i couldn't unfreeze my hand to take any.

dumb woman at doctor's

so i'm at the doctor today with my three kids...always a joy. and i look over and i see this trixie all dressed to the nine's with her one child run arounding hitting people, and her little three month old baby in a car seat with a bottle propped up on a blanket. THE BOTTLE IS PROPPED UP ON A BLANKET! the baby is twitching and gasping trying to get the bottle into her mouth correctly. what's the trixie doing? sitting with her head in her hands watching people and i'm sure assuming we're all looking at her! i wanted to shake the gigantic big weave out of her! PICK UP YOUR BABY! LOVE YOUR BABY! CUDDLE YOUR BABY! and for goodness sake, feed that child!!!! oh my land...i was livid. and at a doctor's office no less. shouldn't a nurse tell the off beat mother that this borders on neglect?! blah....

toenail fun

i'm pretty proud of myself for holding off this long...but i broke down and didn't even have to convince my kids to let me paint their toes. LOVE IT!

ronan squeezing jade's foot. so jade on the left and ro on the right. jade's little toes.

ronan in pink, jade in hot pink, and zander in green. aren't they cute?!

cutie patootie

Ronan's 2 year apt

my ridiculously tall boy is 99% for height at 37 1/2 ". and weirdly enough only 69% for weight at 29 lbs. the nurse was slightly weirded out by how still he sat for his shots and that he insisted upon watching it done. that he gets from ben, NOT me.
i'm starting to wonder if my dear sweet zander has been replaced by aliens. he has always been very mild mannered, sweet, tender hearted, and an easy crier. but lately he's turned into a very mouthy, obstinate, crazy child. he fights back, yells back, talks back, and cannot understand how to obey. umm...i want my boy back. he's only four! and hasn't even started kindergarden or preschool so i can't blame other people's influenc. grr....
dear aliens,
please return zander to his body. i need my sweet cuddly child back.
thank you.
his mom.

3 kids, 3 stories

Zander - i love him. i do. but he's four and trying desperately to give up his nap. I REFUSE! and at around 5 pm i am VERY aware that he's truly not ready to give up his nap. he loses his mind. loses it....out the window. so he likes to come in and tell me he slept. well today he comes in and tells me he slept. but he doesn't have that 'i just slept and my hair is a sweaty mess' look. so after a while of sitting i went back to the room to turn off the fan and i see the tv is on. yes, the junior cheeze puff forgot to turn off the evidence. for an HOUR AND A HALF he sat there and watched tv. can he tell time?! how did he know when it was 'ok' to come out? genius...but only slightly. next time turn the tv off.
Ronan- i often threaten this kid. usually i threaten to leave him standing in our driveway or someone else's driveway. usually he comes running with this sad look of 'please don't leave me!'. however, he's learning. like a crazy adaptive computer he's realizing that i might not be serious. he just turned two. so today after our bible study the little fart stood in the grass while EVERYONE left. i shut the doors to the van...still no response. i got in the van. (this is now the farthest i've pushed it) i look at him, he waves. little punk....so i start the car. ronan starts rolling down the grass hill and giggling. ok, van in gear and off i go my three inches. all the while praying and sweating in hopes that he comes running. ahhhh....it worked. praise the good Lord! he came running. how many more threats will i have to actually follow through with? could i actually drive off? probably not...i guess i need a new tactic.
Jade- i was holding the cute little fat thing outside watching the boys play. cute. fat. hmm....she flails her arms up and WHOA! what is that stench?! oh yea, it's my precious cute, FAT, little girl. her little arm pits are enough to knock you over. can babies smell like that?! good lord, get that girl a bath. i took multiple baby wipes to her cause well, you can fake a bath. especially with babies. once a year is good for a bath right? just don't get to close, this baby's got stink issues! HA!