Wyland Art Show May 12,2009 Presents:

As a family we walked down to Boston's school. We participated in some hands on art making. Boston and brody made feathered masks, skateboards and an aquarium sheet. It was a night showcasing all art work done by the kids and here are a few of Bostons!
This is Bostons' "handy"Worhal

This is Boston's self portrait .... good thing he doesnt actually look like that

Brody at the Wyland Art show with his handmade mask.

Boston at the same Wyland art show with his handmade mask

Loving those pics of Brynden thought you might as well .....

Brynden at the art show

my cutie patootie

so serious: bet he is tired of me taking pictures

little cheesey grin

look at that face, dont you just want to kiss it ???

Brynden at the church easter egg hunt

Brynden vs weaning take 2

Okay so bright idea yesterday. I am going to go COLD turkey on this weaning thing! I hid the boppy pillow so he couldnt find it and ask for the booby. I refused the booby giving all day yesterday. Sadly this resulted in huge dolly parton like PAINFULL engorged boobies for me and a slightly angry Brynden. woke up to find myself still in pain and wait for it TMI : was in my bathroom this morning, at 130am, hand expressing out milk to relieve some discomfort.... told you it was TMI. Alas was not able to get enough out called it quits and went back to bed. Brynden woke up at 445am wanting booby. I refused giving him cow milk and a snuggle instead. he fell asleep in my bed, score 1 point for me. everyone awake by 645am (this is early) boobs still in MASSIVE amounts of pain/soreness. after feeding Brynden breakfast, have given in. (after all book did say may have to express once a day to relieve discomfort while weaning)...He nearly jumped for joy. After both of us have been relieved, have now decided to not go cold turkey but to go down to 2x a day once in the morning and once in the evening. Over all Brynden takes the fight with a TKO

Brynden vs weaning

Brynden is winning. I am trying to wean him and to no avail. He has a very carefully formulated plan. when he is hungry he makes the eat sign when he wants more he makes the more sign. when he wants the boobie he tries to lift my shirt. He also pulls down the boppy pillow which for him is CLOSELY associated with nursing. Grr Brynden 1 Weaning 0

Daila

It has long become common in our house to hear the name Daila attached to any sentence out of Brody's mouth. I think he misses his friend... one instance is when we said prayer and i told him i love you and he said ok daila.... or when he dances around the house singing, his song goes a bit like this....ladidah daila da la di daila. Its a bit alarming and quite funny. It is his response to everything.... we dont get it. I think the only cure is to have that silly girl back over for play time.. hint hint voelkel family....

days like today

days like today make me smile. We got the chance to eat lunch and visit with some friends. The boy had a great time Brynden kept crawling up the playset to the fort via ladder (had no idea that he could even do that) he also like licking the dirt that was everywhere and eating the sidewalk chalk. this was trying for me as i was trying to not further his palate by adding nature items.

Brody and pals were making sand /dirt castles with water(yes just making mud) and threatening to sword fight the dog a few houses down.

today was also a little sad, a smidgen. We found a tiny baby bird dead on taylors cop car. we scooped it up and buried it under the tree in our backyard. Brody said the prayer for it :) it was very tweet(haha) and not a bit solemn. just the right mix for the baby birdie.

anyway another funny thing today that i had to record before i forgot was boston requesting to be called cody jones. who apparently is the kid of casey jones and april o'neill from the TMNT. i fondly recall wanting to change my name to Darling just like the wife in Lady and the Tramp. My reasoning was that this way i would be everyones' darling...... kids, man!

One last good thing was Boston's second ever dolphin. this a huge thing cause he has had a bit of trouble this past week and a half with check marks galore and even a sad face(that he is filing a claim against apparently it was a sub and she doesnt understand ms.mestmans behavior chart) just an fyi on the behavior chart : unhappy face, check mark, happy face, and DOLPHIN (kinda like an A++

tonight is our YW activity : heres to hoping it all goes well ;)

Finally

Today Brynden finally walked a few steps to me on his own. He did this 3 times and then decided crawling was more fun and faster :(

Prisoner

So baby brother strikes back! Brody was playin with an empty laundry basket and was underneath it. Brynden climbed on top of it and Brody could not get out..... it was super funny and my camera still didnt have batteries (really need to work on that) so no pic but you can just imagine!

climbing monkeys

Brynden is my climber. He climbs out of the walker and he climbs onto the coffee table. He climbs into the man box(an 18 gallon tote) he climbs everywhere. Its becoming a problem when i put him into his crib for a nap (which he did not take) and instead of playing with his blocks which was naughty enough, he decides to climb out of his crib using Boston's dresser and i go into check on him cause he was too quiet and low and behold he was perched on the dresser two hands on the crib and one chubby leg falling off the dresser...... i about died. what if i wouldnt have checked on that naughty monkey??? and what do i do now?

cherrios attack

this is what i deal with. Brody begging for a late night snack of cherrios, i give in and tell him that he has to keep them in the kitchen. of course he takes them into his room where i catch him later, of course there were some on the carpet. which was my original argument to him and he promised to 'not spill' so i send him to the kitchen to put it away since he broke our deal and this is what happened...

once again MY MISTAKE when will i learn?

Putting away dishes

I was putting away some dishes and I went back to grab some more and this is what i found , talk about some heavy dishes to put away :)

hectic days : sunday

It seems like every sunday is a hectic day. But on the days that it is branch council it seems as though i am rushing that much more to be at church by 8 to have a meeting end by 9 just to go home(or not) just to come back by 10 for sacrament.

I have become resigned to this. Today though was even harder. Today Taylor had to be at work at 630am. Of course i didnt go to bed early. Because that would just be too easy. So alarm goes off, i am already awake, having fed Brynden 20 minutes ago, I rouse the sleeping monkeys and pile them into the car and drop Taylor off. It is 630am. I am off to the house where the marathon begins. I need to get the boys dressed and fed. Do my workout and shower, get dressed for church, make sure i have everything i need for the next 5 hours and the whole time Brynden is crying, screaming, wailing at the injustice. I make it to my meeting, late of course, but a few came in behind me so it wasnt so bad.

Cue in screaming children running amok for the next 3 hours till i dropped them at their classes.

then we have to have lunch get taylor and i am sleepy and grumpy finally falling into bed for a nap. woken up at 5 to start dinner where i tackle this fatty piece of pork that seems like it has more fat then meat and of course its marbled so the fat is really in there.

get dinner done kids still wont stop with the talking crying playing not eating food while i am trying to relax. I go to put the baby down for bed and walk into the dark bedroom and step on something cold and squishy. I immediately think CRAP! its a banana (they had them earlier) well taylor turned on the light ( i refused to move didnt want banana all over the floor) and i have a piece of POOP on my toe!!!!! Gross I am about to cry and trying not to drop brynden and trying to not put my foot back on the floor, cause taylor is trying to clean off the poop.

apparently earlier when Brody barely made it to the toliet, he took a pit stop in his room to grab his stool( play on words) so that he could get onto the toliet, not realizing that he left a bit behind........

MOving on, put the baby down
Get the bath going while i am washing dishes, thankfully taylor bathed brynden earlier and now they are both sleeping. Walk into the bathroom(it sounded like trouble) and lo and behold there is about an inch of water on the floor. Apparently it just jumped out. URGH, can this day ever end???

finally put them into bed and have a pile and i do mean PILE (think HUGE PILE) of smelly urine clothes to wash.. and instead i am playing on facebook with linda! Yippee for me. I did compromise. there are loads washing and drying while i am playing.

Maybe monday will be better

Cherrios

I love cheerios, all my kids love cherrios and the baby especially. So naturally I let the kids eat them whenever they want. My mistake!!!

Today Brody and Daila were playing in the back room and were playing so quietly and well that I let them play with out checking in on them for a while, once again MY MISTAKE

I got the lunch ready, put the littlest monkey down for a nap and went to call them to lunch and imagine my suprise as i opened the door to a floor covered and i mean wall to wall covered in cherrios!

argh!!! And then I cried.....

Minor correction

So my last posting about crying kinda made me sound like a wuss. When I said I cry at children's books I mean a few in particular like "I will always love you" when it talks about the mom creeping into the kids room every night and rocking them and then when she gets too old he goes and rocks her... makes me cry everytime. There usually is some sentiment behind it. Nothing cheesy but like (for those who are avid greys watchers) when Christina gets left by burke and it doesnt hit her until she is alone in the apartment... man the tears that rolled down my face could have sailed a boat. Or when denny dies and izzy is laying on the floor crying those kind of heart wrenching break up scenes.... those are just a few examples... Just so you guys dont think you are friends with a crybaby. Well I am but a picky crybaby.

I still cry

It used to be that i cried at sappy endings to some movies. Then when i got pregnant I cried because i was hormonal. Fast foward 6 years and I cry at everything! I cry at hallmark commercials, I cry at regular commercials.I cry when i read childrens books. I cry when i think about the end of the world and not being able to protect my children:using this same scenario, i cry when i think about my house catching on fire and my kids being stuck in side. I cry when i think of them being stolen. I cry when i think of Boston riding the school bus all by himself. I cry when they are babies and getting shots at the doctors. I cry when I watch my favorite shows and they have sappy happy stories, I cry when they have break up stories(only the good ones) I cry when they have children involved in a crisis because i think, what if that were my kid??? I cry when i watch the news and hear another child is missing, killed or abused. I cry an awful lot and i just can not seem to stop the tears. I pray that the world will end many generations into the future so i dont have to deal with childrens deaths or the deaths of my immediate grand children. I cry when i think of what i would do if some one broke into my home. I worry that i will not grab the gun fast enough, that i will forget to call taylor/911 to let them know, that i will be unable to carry all my children to safety. I look at my youngest baby and am in awe at the fact that i made those eyelashes. That he will grow up and get married and have kids of his own and be too big for me to snuggle to sleep. I cry when I look at my middle child who is dancing and pretending to be a power ranger and wish i could constantly have a video running to catch all these moments. I cry for my oldest that i get on him the most but he is unfailingly a wonderful helper... always willing to be the sharer and the entertainer for the others. I cry for my husband when i think of the job that he has to do. That one day someone may walk up to his cop car and shoot him for no reason and there is nothing that any one can do about that. I worried that my brother would not come back from IRAQ, now i worry that he will get stuck making stupid choices. I cry for my grandparents, that they are old and i am not there to help them..that they have to suffer indignities bc they are sick and how i wish they would live forever. I cry for my dad who has always been alone even when he is surrounded by friends, i worry that he will grow old alone bc of his mistakes. I cry for my mom when i put myself in her shoes. I admire her being able to deal with a mother who is dying esp when i know that when i am her shoes i would be lost. I cry for my cousin who is too stupid to realize that she is putting her kids in danger with her actions and too stubborn to accept help.
I cry a lot more now than I did 6 years ago. Every day I am overwhelemed by the responsiblities i have to my children. That i have to keep them safe and that someday i may not be able to. My husband laughs and asks when did i become so fatalistic???I have no answer to that except i have grown up and realized my mortality. If i die tomorrow how will my baby survive? Maybe my older ones could adjust, but the one who depends on me most for his food, he wouldnt even understand why i wasnt there....why i didnt come back.
I pray. Thats how i get through my days. (sounds overdramatic) I pray a heck a lot more than I did 6 years ago. I still cry but when I pray I lose some of the hoplessness. I strive for a balance. For protecting my kids with out making them prisoners.......I keep my fingers crossed and hope that I am doing it right.

Brr its beginning to look a lot like winter

So high today is like 15 degrees. Its icy and cold and raining and slick and yucky and cold and did i mention its icy and BRRRR!!!
Yesterday it was almost warm like 50 degrees or something, and it was fantastic. No coats just nice cool wind and an overcast day. Yep that ended last night. its crazy/ Today was a snow day for Boston. His school called at 5:00am to let us know that there was no school. Which was nice, cause i was a bit worried. dont want my first born on a huge honking bus skidding into school.......... But taylor started working nights again and so he was sleeping today and of course the kids were going nuts.... i tried distracting them with making sugar cookies with cookie cutters and icing. it was slightly fun but mostly aggravating. I cannot make certain cookies for the life of me. I am sure the more i try the better it will be but alas i am lazy.

Leaving .... on a jet plane

Today is the day!!!! I am not leaving today but i am getting everything ready. I have a list and i am checking things off. But of course it had to start out like any other jam packed day.... Baby woke up at 230 and then at 430 AM of course. I refused to get him until 445 to feed him breakfast.... changed him cause he soaked thru and sucked his boogers out(not with my mouth) and gave him some meds cause not only is he teething(top two) but he has a cough and a runny nose a fever and 2 sick brothers. YEP! So at 630 after Taylor has left for work in the morning Brody has woken up crying bc he peed his diaper and he is sleepy and feverish and coughing.... he ditches the underpants and comes snuggling into bed with me... keeping me nice and toasty with his fevered body. now it is 720 all the monkeys are up and its time to start the school rush. since we woke up late i am trying to get boston to eat FASTER, since it is 755 he is not done yet and needs to brush his teeth and get his jacket on and did i mention that we need to LEAVE?!?? Brody is whining, Brynden is crying and i am frustrated.......finally get him off to school and start my list mopping laundry the whole nine yards..... and then i get a phone call. School Nurse ::Boston threw up in PE 2x and refuses to come home..... now i think great dont have my car, taylor is at work and my pals are busy.... i could always walk to go get him but i have 3 kids and going to get a fourth kid a little over a mile away (and a mile back) in the COLD is not my idea of FUN> call TAY beg him to go get Boston in his police car.... B gets a kick out of that.

Now everyone is home napping and medicated and I still need to mop, laundry etc.,..... grr vacation cannot come soon enough

friendly faces

oh who are the people in the neighbor hood we have daila , boston, Naked Brynden, Brody and dad ......just your average friendly faces

Big boys

Long day today as to be expected. Seriously love that the boys are able to play by themseleves. They take their blankets and build forts, without any help and play power rangers. Have been longing for these days. The few minutes to myself. Not quite having to help them get dressed or put their shoes on. they still need help on occassion but it is nice to have them act like big boys. They dont last very long yet, and after 15 minutes someone is crying but it makes me sad. They grow up so fast. Part of it is me giving them responsiblities. Boston is the biggest helper and best hanger uper we have while Brody does well with picking up toys and getting the dog food bowl. Part of it is them, desperate to help to do something that adults do. Little do they know that we wish we could be their age again.