Singing, I Love you

Me (in a singsong voice): I love you, Jacey.

Have I said that enough today/

Jacey: Say it lots and lots.

Me: I love you, I love you, I love you.

Do you like it when Mommy says 'I love you'?

Jacey: Yes, it makes my heart feel warm and happy.

.....this girl....she melts my heart.

Do I sing that badly?

Mommy singing Greater by Mercy Me in the car

Jacey: Mommy?

Mommy: Yes?

Jacey: I just want to listen to the song.

Translation: Mommy, stop singing now.

Jacey wins this round

This morning Jacey commented that she thought she needed her umbrella and raincoat.  I assured her that it was going to be hot and that she would be fine.

It rained.

When I picked her up from daycare, our conversation in the car was interesting.

Jacey: I was RIGHT!!!

Me: Really?  (having completely forgotten about our morning conversation in the first place)

Jacey: Yes!!  I said we would need my rain jacket and burella today!!

TAMU Good Bull police

Today was College Colors Day.

In our house, that means Aggie Maroon, of course.

When I picked up Jacey from daycare, she was fired up about clothing.  It was quite entertaining.

Jacey: Some moms did not let their kids were Aggie shirts today.

Me: Really?

Jacey:  Yes.  So-and-so's mom did not let her wear an Aggie shirt.

Me: Hmmmm...

Jacey:  I am SO MAD at so-and-so's mommy for not letting her wear an Aggie shirt today!

The girl takes her Aggie clothes seriously, y'all.

Summer bucket list

Tatums summer bucket list included shopping for school supplies and a special 'date' with me to Chick-fil-A. I am more than happy to oblige.

We survived Wal-Mart on tax free weekend, and the school supply list for a 2nd and 6th grader complete.

Tatum pointed out that next year I will be school shopping for three kids.  Three.  I think I need an entire year to prepare myself for that reality.

Sweet dreams

Jacey:  Good morning, Mommy!!  Did you have good dreams?

Me: Hmmm??

Jacey:  Did you dream about ME??  (smiling sweetly)

Life with a 3-year old

Daddy: We need to get a new calculator

Me (pondering what our now 5th grader is doing in math that might necessitate the need for a more intensive calculator....): What kind of calculator?

Daddy: One that hasn't been in the toilet.

Oh such is life with a rambunctious 3-year old!

A glimpse.....

So we are still having behavioral issues at school with Tatum. After a discussion with her about her behavior and how to improve upon it, she came up with her own sticker reward system on her calendar for good days both at school and Kids Klub, and a check mark on the days when she behaved well in one or the other.

There aren't many stickers on the calendar.

Needless to say, her daddy and I are frustrated with her choices and behavior.  We've talked behavior and choices until we're blue in the face. We have read scripture to her, we have read scripture with her, we have disciplined, we have tried many different things in an attempt to get her to comply with the rules.

The difficult thing for me is to differentiate her behavior from her many times.

She isn't bad - she makes bad choices. Her choices don't define who she is and don't make up the essence of her being.

I still love and adore my daughter, but I don't love and adore the choices that she makes and when she is in the midst of those behaviors, I don't want to be around her.

Hmmm....anyone see any parallels there with our Heavenly Father?  It's amazing how much more insight we're able to glean into Him as a heavenly father after being a parent.

At any rate, I occasionally get a glimpse into Tatum's essence...who she really is...and her true sweet self really shines through.  I was able to get one such glimpse this week, and it was sorely needed.

Let me explain......
We were discussing her upcoming birthday and planning some party options when she decided she wanted to have a giving party. She told me that she had enough toys already and she wanted to take all of the toys that her friends brought to her party for her and give them to someone who needed them more than she did.

I told her to go tell her daddy, who was about as dumbfounded as I was. (He even posted about it on Facebook, which happens maybe once or twice a year!)

I frequently purge the toys with the kids, and I use that type of language when we do that process to help them understand why we get rid of toys they don't play with or they have outgrown.  I will say that I wasn't sure whether the idea of a giving party would be a fleeting one or if it would actually stick.

The next morning, she made a point to ask her daddy if she was going to be able to have a giving birthday party.

It apparently stuck.

Our plan is to have her friends donate toys in the 4-6 year old range for Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach, specifically their Mama Club program. If you are reading this and feel led to donate something to this ministry, please feel free to do so. A large and constant need for this ministry is diapers and wipes for the girls who participate in Mama Club.

Awesome Mommy Moment

Many morning Mommy moments don't make my heart flutter and melt. But this morning.....this morning was different.

In this midst of changing a nose-holding-worthy pull-up, I was doing a not-so-hot job of answering 20 questions from Tatum (because I am, of course, trying to be more aware of and not contribute to her 'middle-child syndrome', right?).

But I got flustered.

And my flustered tone can sound a lot like my angry tone to my kids, especially when I have asked them just to get dressed and go eat and we are going to be late again and why are we always late and can't I answer your questions later and WHY aren't you dressed yet....And, well.....you get the point.

After I dealt with the aftermath of the pull-up, I walked into the kitchen, where Kellen asked if I was angry. I then had to explain 'flustered' to him and after doing so, he proceeded to tell me about his devotional from earlier in the morning.....about praying to God for peace in stressful situations or when I got flustered.

'If you ask him, he can give you peace in the most irritating situations.'

It was an awesome and humbling experience to have my 9-year old son speak such a truthfully simply, yet profound statement to me this morning.

His comments stayed with me all day, and I can tell you, they not only helped me have a better morning, but a better day.


Points to Ponder

• What simple truths do you need reminding about today?
• Do you trust that He will give you peace in the most irritating situations?  In the situations that don't seem to lend themselves to peace?
• What lesson might you need to learn from the situation?

I have thought about all of these questions - yes, even in the midst of answering 20 questions and cleaning up stinky pull-ups. 

The sickies....

So the sickies invaded our house.  I think we might have finally stopped the invasion, but not before taking some heavy fire.

Jacey was the first to fall.  In the middle of a restaraunt.  Right before we were to celebrate a suprise birthday party.

I don't think that was the suprise the friend had intended.

Needless to say, we left.  (Tatum and I eventually went back and celebrated, but not before another wave of attacks occurred on the way home.  It was a brutal attack).

She had an evening and a night's worth of the sickies, laid around for the remainder of the next day, then was fine.  Luckily, her attack fell over a long weekend, so we had the Monday off to recover.  Tuesday was the first day back for everyone, and everyone went to school, feeling fine.

Wednesday morning didn't go the same.

I took some heavy fire.  It was a slightly different army than the one that had attached Jacey, but a vicious one, nonetheless.  Daddy suggested I stay home.  I didn't argue.  Daddy headed off to work.

Then the army that had attacked Jacey doubled back in, trying for the kill.  It was almost successful.

Thursday's attack was directed towards Tatum, and luckily it was just the same army that had attacked Jacey the weekend before (since the other army was still attacking me).

Friday we licked our wounds and assessed our damages, trying to recover and build back up our gear.  Friday night, the attack landed on Kellen.  It actually stayed on Kellen longer than the girls (but not quite as long as on me), and he fought for a little longer than I anticipated he would.  The weekend progressed and so did the battle lines.

By Sunday afternoon, we we gotten a dose of fresh air, some playground adventure, and our first real meal since the attack had begun. 

Now it's Monday, and everyone is back at school and work, and I think the sickies are gone.  The battle grounds have been cleaned, and there is no longer signs that a battle even took place at our house last week (I mean, except for the empty Lysol containers, half-empty bottles of Purel). 

I don't want to fight that battle again any time soon, although if I could bottle the end product of the few days of it, I might have a best-selling diet aid on my hands.

Pumpkin carving fun!

After our Fall Festival fun, we came home to carve our pumpkin.  The one we had purchased a while back and declared we would not wait until the last minute to carve. Yeah, that one.

Daddy took off the top to start the process.

Daddy proceeded by getting the kids involved in getting the 'guts' out.  This time, we decided that we were going to try our hand at making pumpkin seeds, so we were a little more careful with those guts that we have been in the past.

 We tried to get Jacey involved in the gutting process, but that took some work. Then we tried to get her just to feel the guts once they were out and help us sort the seeds. That process worked out a little better. She wasn't initially interested, but surprised Mommy by actually patting and molding the seedless guts!  I'll consider that a HUGE sensory success!

And then Daddy had the kids actually help with the carving of the pumpkin itself.  All kids got a turn at the carving stage (with Daddy assistance, of course - but I apparently didn't get good shots of all of the kids carving).

And then we have our final product!

Play doh Fun

We celebrate all kinds of sensory things around here.

Including Mommy deciding that we would get out the play doh.

On a school night.

Whoa buddy.

Are my kids going to remember that they were in bed 'on time' every night?  Maybe

Are they going to remember special nights of playing play doh and creating masterpieces on a sheet in the living room?  I certainly hope so.

Expanding our support of Aggie athletics past football and baseball

to....soccer!!!

Tatum and I went to the soccer game yesterday afternoon after church.  We didn't make it for the beginning of the game and apparently they scored a goal within the first 5 minutes of the match.

We missed it.

But we watched the game, we Tatum talked, she enjoyed seeing the girls hit the ball off of their heads, and she proceeded to inform me that she was going to play soccer again - after cheerleading, she reminded me of all the goals she scored from last season, then told me she wanted to grow up and play soccer for the Aggies.

Yeah, hon. I want that for you, too.

To the fans that were sitting in front of us that decided to move to get away from her chatter, sorry.  She was excited.  I hope your new spot was a little quieter.

During halftime we walked around for a bit and ran into a College Station celebrity.

For those that don't know who this gentleman is - it's R. Bowen Loftin, President of Texas A&M University and he impressed me beyond belief by having an almost 5 minute conversation with my 5 year-old daughter.  On her level.  They chatted about soccer and school and working hard and coming to college in Aggieland.

And y'all, she had no clue.

But since she's never met a stranger she was just fine chatting it up with him.  Then we let him go on his way and she promptly asked for ice cream. Chocolate ice cream.

That's my girl.

During the second half of the game we had connected with a friend of mine and some of her friends and all of their kids, so we hung out with them on the season ticket holder side (but not in the seats - lest you be upset with me since I only bought a general admission ticket) standing and letting the kids run around (and of course, eat Tatum's ice cream!). Tatum ran into a friend that she had gone to a summer camp with and was thrilled (whose name happens to be Kellen - a girl Kellen, actually, if you can believe it!). She was so excited!

They scored another goal toward the end of the game, sealing the win. And Tatum thoroughly enjoyed herself.

After the Spirit of Aggieland, we headed home. And Tatum remarked that she wanted to watch the Aggies every Sunday we could.

Tatum is officially in kinder!

My sweet and precious Tatum-tot is officially in kinder.  And, true to fashion, her daddy walked her to school today and got her settled into her class, just as he did her big brother on his first day of kinder.

And he sent me a picture of her sitting behind her desk.  All smiles.

Not even a hint of a tear.

She was a little nervous, though, until she sat down at her desk and realized there was PINK PLAY DOH!  Then she was just fine. 

The school is bigger than her daycare, but she has such a super-duper BIG personality that I'm not the least bit very worried about her.

Kinder is coming

I have been trying to register Tatum for kinder for a while.

Yeah, I know...I can hear you mocking me now.  Things like, "For a while? Registering for kinder can't be that hard, can it?"

Ah, but yes, yes it can.

Allow me to explain.

During the beginning of the summer, Kellen took a session of Kids Klub at the school where he and Tatum will be attending elementary in the fall.  So I stopped by the office for the registration paperwork (yeah me...score 1 for efficiency!).

The paperwork sat untouched for a l-o-n-g time.  I wasn't ready to deal with it, quite honestly, until the week prior to the registration for Kids Klub afterschool care (um, yeah...late July) when I felt the need to register Tatum for kinder before actually registering her for after school care.

Call me crazy.  I just felt like they should be done in the correct order.

Apparently no one else cared, because when I went to do so, her elementary was closed that particular week.  And I tried to register her at the main administration building for the school district.

But you can't register a kid for kinder at the main adminstration building, which I quickly learned.

*sigh*

So I was all psyched to get her registered for kinder -finally- all mentally prepared, and it would have to wait until the following week when the elementary reopened.  So into the office I went the following week with all of the forms completed and with the shot records in hand......Only to realize that I had neglected to bring the proof of residency, birth certificate and the social security card.

Doh!

Considering my schedule last week, I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to make it to the safety deposit box, where I hoped beyond hope that two of those three required items were located.  The time delay allowed me to do one thing, though....have repeated nightmares that I would enter the safety deposit box to find zero birth certificates there and have to scramble to acquire the necessary documentation needed to get Tatum registered for school.

Fast forward to today, when I go to the bank, check the box, and sure enough....there are no birth certificates there.  Now, I am confident that I have them, but the question is simply, "Where?"  I didn't have the time or the energy to figure out the answer to that question and since hubby thought they were there as well, my recurring nightmare was fast coming true.

The county clerks office was my next stop, and I decided that while I was there, I was going to do a clean sweep for all kids, so I picked up copies of all three birth certificates.  I managed to get back to the school in enough time to provide them all of the remaining documentation they needed to officially register Tatum for school, so I'll consider that a success for today!

Maybe there was so much stress and chaos surrounding the actual registration of Tatum for kinder to distract me from the fact that she's actually starting kinder in a few short weeks.  She is so excited for 'big school' but right now, I just want to freeze time!!

And in case you're wondering, I did make it back to the bank and all of the certificates are back in safe keeping (so I won't have a repeat of this in three years for Jacey)!!

Turn around

I finally did it.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants and toddlers ride rear facing until they are two or until they have outgrown their height/weight restrictions on their carseat, and my particular feeling is to keep the kiddos rear facing as long as possible (with the girls, I didn't know as much with Kellen and he obviously turned out fine) to maximize their safety. Please note that I am not saying that the kids are unsafe if they are turned around prior to this, they are simply safer rear facing. Heck, I stood up behind the driver seat when I was little and apparently turned out just fine.  Maybe.  Well, that's up for debate.

Considering that Jacey was 26 lbs and 35 inches long at her 2 year check  up, and that she seems to be growing quite a bit in the way of her height lately, I finally did it.  That in and of itself is reason for celebration, so go ahead and celebrate that growth right there!!

I turned the car seat forward facing tonight.

And I'm sad about it.

Such a strange thing to be sad about.  But I am.

She's my BABY!  She isn't supposed to be forward facing yet.  She's just not.  But when I get into the car tomorrow, I'll be able to look into the rearview mirrow and the special kids mirror attached to it and see her sweet cherub face smiling at me as we head to school.

And we'll begin a new chapter where she isn't as much of my baby anymore.

Sweet sisters

Since they rarely do this, I thought it was worth memorializing. Books tonight were read while sitting on Jacey's bed.  Then Tatum (not Jacey, which was really the shocker) wanted to lay down and snuggle with Jacey.

After reading our two books for the night, they decided they wanted to sleep in the same bed tonight, so I obliged (again, a rarity around here except for when everyone manages to end up in our bed by morning).  I only had to go in to settle them down and get everyone (read: Jacey) back in bed twice (that might be an all-time record!) before they were both out.

And by 8 PM.

My sweet princesses.  My goodness they're so adorable sometimes I just can't stand it.

Mischevious One

This morning I walked into my bathroom to this...

Luckily, it was just my make-up and not a permanent marker.  But in case you can't tell from the picture, she got awful close to her eye with this one.

She keeps me on my toes.  And I'm not doing pirouettes!

Mommy-Son Date

"I don't really care what we're doing, as long as I'm with you."

Those were the words Kellen spoke to me as we started out on our Mommy-son date night Friday night.  And they melted my heart....Any guesses at to what his love language is?

We were headed to go eat, then to the Mommy-son Speedway Spectacular.  Other than the name, I really had no idea what to expect.  I was hoping there would be car races involved since we were headed to a race track.

After going to McDonald's to eat dinner (his choice), we headed there.

Once we checked in, we realized that they had provided dinner (oops).  We headed to the various booths.

Bounce house was first on the list.

Then we checked out the fire truck and talked with the firemen (for a while).

Then we played with the snakes (this one in particular for quite a while).  There was no one waiting for this one when we got there, so Kellen was able to play with him for a while.  He had to relinquish him once other kids started to show up to play with him.

He played with this guy...it was the coolest purple shade (and my camera did not do it justice).

He had fun with the turtle.

And then we painted his hair red (the only color left by the time we got to that station...since we had spent so much time playing with the animals).

We played a few games of "Minute to Win it" (successfully, I might add).



And then he (finally!!) found a remote control car - with the appropriate working remote - and was able to play with it for a little while.

We then went back to McDonald's for some dessert to finish out the night.....and then headed back home.  He journaled all aspects of the night in the notebook you see in front of him.

It was a GREAT mommy-son date.

Poop & tubs do NOT mix well......

Why does it seem like the nights that go horribly wrong are the ones when I'm currently flying solo or are awaiting Daddy to get home?

I mean....the ONLY other night I can remember when Jacey decided to give us a 'floater' in the tub (when she was bathing with her sister, mind you) was a night that Daddy wasn't home yet.

Until tonight.

Not cool, Jacey.  Not cool.

Luckily, she was by herself this time (I'm not sure Tatum has recovered from that trauma).

Looking for a silver lining........the kids bathroom will get a very good cleaning tonight!

Birthday cakes for certain celebrations for the weekend will have to wait.....