Movin' on up

JT is officially in a big boy bed. He has been in his crib minus a side for a while now, but we finally got the mattress for his real bed! We made the switch on Saturday, and I don't know if it is a fluke or something, but he has slept for 15-20 minutes longer since then....I am hoping it is a magic mattress that Ben picked up from Sam's Club! He has had fun experimenting with the endless possibilities of this new bed as you can see from the pics. Having these two big boy beds in the same room has somehow made me feel older, though. It is wierd that something so seemingly insignificant can have such a profound impression on your view of yourself. I distinctly remember using these beds when I shared a room with my sister, and my parents were old then (to my 8 year old brain)......what does that make me now? Seriously. I have 2 big boys, a lawn mower, a big ole chest freezer (Ben's dream come true) a mortgage payment.....Am I old? Just a grown up? An old grown up? How does that happen!!

DB was out of school on Thursday and Friday due to a sickness, and he really enjoyed the long weekend of hanging out with the fam. I had a tough time getting him to school today. I asked him why he didn't want to go to school since I did my best to make his time at home as full of naps and rest as possible, and he just said that he likes to be home with me. I didn't know if I should be irritated or start crying over my sweet boy. He's had a fever since Wednesday night, but thankfully it resolved Sunday morning so I could send him to school today. He went with a cough and runny nose, but no fever....and his teacher kept him, so apparently the residual stuff is okay. Part of the hazards of being a teacher, I guess.

This week's spelling words: crib, that, trip, grab, crab, win, trap, grass, good, hit

Oh, funny story about the freezer box. After I had finished cutting out the front windows and door, the boys were playing in it while Ben got the actual freezer all situated in our garage. I told the boys we were going to take the box inside so we could get out the crayons and decorate it. We could draw trees and flowers outside the windows......and Ben stopped me there. He told me that in no way was this a cute country cottage. This was a fierce man fort to be used for protection from the bad guys. The rest of the windows were to be wide and thin, only to have enough space to peek out of and slide your gun barrel through. He supervised the rest of the construction of this "man fort" very closely as I had proven myself untrustworthy of such an important venture in our son's lives. Thank heaven for Dads! We still decorated the box later, but with an American flag out front, and threatening signs like "Bad guys beware" lest any tea toting princesses happen along the way.

Kid's bathroom......CHECK.

I have been so anxious to paint something since we got to this house. I endured the white walls of St. George and now the drab tan here for long enough, so I started with something small...the kid's bathroom. I did temporarily forget however that I hate painting bathrooms--they are the hardest thing to paint! Anyway, I have had a fun 2 days and am glad the project is almost done. I have some touch-up to do, but that is going to have to wait for a day or two. I am tired. This room is now my favorite in the whole house though! Next is the kitchen. I have big plans for the kitchen and just got some awesome ideas from my SIL that I can't wait to execute. I may have to wait until baby girl comes though, it depends on what wins out-my stubborn/impatient brain or my ever increasing girth. This is fun!

P-u-r-p-l-e.....what does that spell?

I think we may be making progress! DB just has an impatient mom, I think.....and Ben agrees too. Ben was a little disappointed at my last post that was a bit critical of DB. DB was on purple for 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! Friday apparently was rough because of his teacher's birthday party. I think he got hyped up on cupcakes, not to mention that it was Friday. I remember when I was working, Fridays were my LEAST productive days. Each day he came home, he had a big grin on his face and couldn't wait to tell me he was on purple. I am still just concerned, because I asked the teacher if I could volunteer in the classroom, and she told me she would have to ask the principal if they allow parents in there. His Kindergarten teacher didn't allow parents in the classroom, so it is doubtful this class is any different. When I visited with her last week, she said DB was trying to make friends and that was okay, but she still had to give him warnings. At least we are seeing progress so I don't have to worry too much about getting into the class to see what is going on.

My boys are all just going to have to get used to an impatient, hormonal overly sensitive mom for the next couple of months. Deal with it. Ben says I have been a piece of work lately, and this could all just be part of it. DB going into first grade, losing teeth, getting more of an opinion every day, baby growing, the heat/humidity becoming increasingly irritating, my pace slowing from the extra lbs, and JT using my belly as a ladder/special seat just for him could all definitely be factors in my decreasing patience level. I think we are going to have to set up a "mommy's behavior chart" here soon!

Adjusting to school

I thought JT would have more trouble adjusting to DB going to school than anybody. Turns out, DB is really struggling. In his first week he was one warning away from going to the principal's office which is VERY out of character for him. Since that troublesome day he has gotten better though, after a stern talking to by his parents. He was proud to report that he was on purple today again for the THIRD day in a row. The color scheme goes purple, green, yellow, orange then red. Purple is the school color for those of you wondering at the randomness of the color code. Then he was written up for not wearing a belt! We had a late morning, and I just forgot to remind him to put his belt on. My bad. Now we know just exactly how strict the new dress code is. Polo shirt, dress pants and a BELT! But most importantly, when he gets home from school he is a BEAR. He is mean, sassy and obnoxious. The kid has spent more time in his bedroom after school than the entire summer combined. He is extra rough with JT, whose patience is pretty good considering he is happy to see his brother after a whole day with boring mommy. I don't know what to do. I am giving him until September before drastic measures are taken. What those drastic measures are, I don't know.

This week's spelling list: dad, nap, mat, back, sack, too, tap, man, over, sad

He's really lost it now....

Yep, the tooth came out tonight! I told him it was time for the nightly wiggling and when I realized how loose it now was, I told him it was time to come out. He was the one who requested the string, since that is how it was done in the Bearnstein Bears book that we have. After a couple swipes at it with the string and one good tug with a paper towel (sheesh, there was a lot of slobber!!) he did the rest himself. At one point during the process he had to take a step back and say "don't cry" to himself a couple of times, I think not because it hurt but mostly because of the stress and anxiety of the unknown. The first person he wanted to call was Grandpa Shoff. When he got on the phone, DB said "Grandpa, I don't have to come to your office now because my mom pulled my tooth out." DB is very proud of himself and actually can't wait for the other loose one to come out too. It is cute to see him rubbing his tongue over the hole and gawking at himself in the mirror. Like I said, it is a rite of passage. He is a grown up now.

First spelling list, looth tooth

DB came home with his very first spelling list today. These are the words:
mat, man, down, up, can hat, cat, ran.
These are all very easy for him except for down, which causes him some trouble, but just getting the list made me so excited for what awaits us in first grade. I have been amazed already at how much he has retained over the summer, and even improved upon without any practicing at home. Kids are amazing that way, aren't they? Anyway, he asks me every day when he can be done with 1st grade so that he can go on vacation again. We have a ways to go to get back into the swing of things with homework and the rigorous schedule of school, especially since the homework is already much harder than Kindergarten homework was. He had reading words, spelling words AND sentences to read today for homework! To him, that is just an OBSCENE amount of work. I think I didn't work him hard enough over the summer, you think?

Also, his two front bottom teeth are teetering on the verge of coming out. Aahh, one of the rites of passage in childhood. Any day now. It is about time, as one of those teeth has been looth since our visit to Utah where Grandpa Shoff was the one who discovered that it was looth in the first place! The problem with this is that it just makes him want a vacation to Utah more to visit his Grandpa Shoff, as he is the only one qualified to pull out teeth.

My baby has grown up so much just in these first 4 days of first grade.

The End of Summer

Yay for us! We survived the summer! DB started school today! He was apprehensively excited to go to school, and all went without any problems. He has asked that he ride the bus to and from school this year (last year the bus came at 7:15 in the morning....not possible....this year it is 7:30, and thanks to our resident early bird, 7:30 is definitely workable) and that he take lunch from home this year too. The school lunches around here are just subpar according to him-"The beans/chicken/meat/corn was TOO spicy, so I didn't eat it!" As I was looking at his pic from this morning, I mentioned to Ben how much he looks like his uncle James, and we sure hope that he does more than just look like his uncle James, but have a school year like him too--James rocks! JT has done just fine today without DB, I thought he would miss him a bit more, but we took him on a walk with us this morning and then he helped me clean the house when we got home, then it was just about lunchtime and naptime, so we kept him busy today. I don't think I can keep up with that pace for long, though.

Yesterday we finally made it to the Memphis Zoo to celebrate the end of summer, and it was awesome. It has been voted as America's best zoo by a couple travel agencies, so we finally took the drive and had a great time. It is free for TN residents to enter on Tuesday afternoons, so we went in the morning, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. When I asked DB what his favorite part was, he looked at the map and slowly started listing off everything we saw. I think his favorite part was reading the map. JT apparently liked the snakes the best, as you can see in the pic with DB and the snake. He is showing us exactly how he feels! It felt like we went on the hottest and most humid day of the year, you can see in the pics that our faces are all red and flushed. I think that Ben and I lost about 30 lbs of sweat each! Who needs cleansing pills or drinks, just go to the zoo on a humid day! The boys had a great time, and JT was WIRED at the end of the day.

We stopped at my BELOVED Costco on our way home (only Sam's Club in Jackson) and got some pizza and my much craved hand dipped ice cream bar with roasted almonds. Man, I was in pregnancy nirvana. I have been craving one of those since I polished my last one off in June when I was in Utah!

Big Talker

JT is turning into quite a talker. This is new territory for me as many of you may know, because DB was and still isn't exactly a chatterbox. I have some nieces and nephews that can talk all day, but DB just wasn't born with that gene. I have started to feel bad because I wonder if JT feels like he is constantly being interrupted. He gets going and there is just no stopping him. He doesn't even allow for an interjection here and there. At what point can you say "okay, kiddo, it is time for bed/church/prayers/someone else to talk now." I know that if I had something to say and Ben kept interrupting me, I would get pretty irritated pretty darn fast. The difference I guess is that I know the words to use to describe my story/feelings, and JT hasn't quite gotten that fluent yet. He just rambles until you figure it out. He even uses body language to help enunciate what he is saying. It is pretty darn cute, but exasperating all at the same time. Just new territory with this little one.

27 6/7

I am as far along in this pregnancy today as I was when my DB was born. I kept an eye out for this day when I was pregnant with JT, and now again with this one. 27 weeks and 6 days is kind of a "magical" number for me even after how well things went with JT. I feel some sort of amazed accomplishment every time I make it past today. I still have no idea exactly how far I will make it past this point, but the fact that I made it past gives me a bit of peace of mind and lets me relax--just a little.

I know this has nothing to do with me or how well I take care of myself, because believe me, I really could do a lot better. I know it is just in the Plan for me. Heavenly Father had some lessons to teach me with DB that still affect me, even in subsequent pregnancies. It has been almost 7 years since the kiddo was born, and I still often reflect on that experience. There is A LOT I can't remember, as my brain has decided to protect me from SOME of the especially hairy stuff I think, but I can remember enough that it still affects me.

Fear is the absence of faith, and as I remind myself of that every now and again it helps me to go forward every day with faith, not doubting that I am just an instrument in bringin these little ones to earth in the way (and at the time) that they were meant to come.