Poor Raymond

It must be the middle child syndrome, maybe you can shed some light Kelly, to always feel jilted by everything. I try to let Raymond do as much as I can, but he has to realize that he is still younger than Owen and as such Owen should be able to do just a little bit more than him. He is having a hard time understanding why he can't play baseball and basketball and why last year he couldnt' go to Preschool and why he couldn't go to Vacation Bible School and why he can't go to Sunday school yet. I try and tell him that his 3rd birthday will be one of his best birthdays because than he can do all of that stuff! "Three, is the Magic Number, oh yes it is, it's the magic number...." (From School House Rock). It's true though. He will get to do all of these things once he is three. So hopefully he won't always feel jilted, but he has a great middle child personality because he is the comedian, he's very social, and very outgoing and actually very much in charge of our house a lot of the time! :) He should have been the oldest!

So here's to looking forward to Sept. 24 when Raymo turns 3. He is very much anticipating his birthday. In fact he already decided that he wants a Buzz and Woody party, from Toy Story.

Up Up and Away

It's amazing how quickly your kids grow up. I can't believe that it was four months ago already that Judd was born. He is growing so quickly and he is already my biggest baby. I took him to urgent care a week ago when I was worried about him getting sick from all of us having strep throat, and of course he was fine...but he weighed 14 pounds 9 ounces already and that is way more than Owen and Raymond at this age. But he's so dang cute and he has the most infectious smile! No one could ever be mad at him because he is just so happy. We are going to Minnesota over the fourth of July and I am excited to see the boys at the lake and on the boats and swimming and stuff. This will be Judd's first vacation. I haven't updated pictures of Judd in awhile, so here are some more pictures of my baby!
Though Judd seems to be an exact split of Owen and Raymond physically, right now he definitley has Owen's personality as a baby. He hardly crys and now he sucks his thumb and plays with his hair just like Owen!

Batter Up

Owen is currently playing t-ball. He just started a couple of weeks ago and he is on the Longhorns. The first week we missed because of his birthday party, the second week he was tired and didn't want to play and so we watched his team play, the third week he played and was awesome, then last week though he didn't want to play, he got in there and did it. It's so much fun to me to see my kids doing fun stuff like basketball and baseball. Raymond is seriously jealous and wants to play too, but I have to keep telling him that Owen is older so he gets to do some stuff before him and that he can play next year.

Owen really likes to do different stuff, though sometimes it takes some talking him into. I think he'd really like music lessons or art classes too. Raymond would be just happy to be able to do anything, but it seems like for kids stuff, 3 is the magic age. So I wanted to share with you my pictures of Owen playing baseball! Hey batter batter...

When does mommy sleep?

You'd think having a new baby, this would be the one causing any sleeping issues, right? Well, this is so not true in my house. For the last couple of weeks I have been struggling to get Owen and Raymond to bed. Typically thier bedtime is 8:30pm, and I usually hope that they are out by 9. They used to be SO stinking good at this routine, it was almost scary. Now I can get them laid down at 8 in order for them to be asleep by 9, but they are awake until almost 11pm! They come downstairs for everything under the sun. I march them back up. They cry that they can't sleep without me, or that they are scared. Which I used to believe as plausable excuses, but now I know it is just a ploy to get me to sit with them while they fall asleep. I am stuck and I am STRESSED out about this because I should be able to put an almost 3 year old and 4 year old down in their beds by 8pm and have them asleep by 9pm. I need that extra hour or so after they go to bed to get stuff done or hang out with Tony (who I never get to hang out with anymore). I can't be forced to go to bed at 8pm every night just because that is the only way I can get my kids to sleep! I need help. I need any expert opinions out there. I need Super Nanny!! Does anyone have her phone number?
Judd on the other hand has been sleeping in his big crib in his room now for a few weeks, but even before then, he sleeps from 10pm - 8am without waking. I sometimes worry that something has happend to him when I get woken up 100 times a night, but by my 2 1/2 and 4 year olds!!!
I want to pull my hair out with them right now for bedtime. I'm sure it's my fault and that I am doing something totally wrong to facilitate this behavior, but I'm not sure what to change or how much earlier I can possibly put them into bed!
Maybe someday when I am 50 I can get a good nights sleep!

Keeping up!

My friend Dani just had a post on her blog about how frustrated she gets when she checks all of her friends blogs and they aren't updated, then she herself realizes that she hasn't updated her blog in ages and shouldn't be upset. Well I am the same. I think it's funny how we are more interested in what's going on in others lives than our own and how we forget that those other people feel the same about us!
Here's the news...Owen went to vacation bible school all week this week and will sing in church on Sunday. Yesterday I was sick all day with a fever and sore throat, and though my fever is gone my sore throat persists. Today Tony developed a fever and sore throat, so we decided that we were going to urgent care tonight. Once there Raymond got really sick and so he got checked out by the doctor too. It is confirmed that all three of us have strep throat and Raymo and I have ear infections. Raymond is in poor shape - what's weird is how fast he got sick tonight. When I got back from picking up Owen at bible school, Raymo was screaming and crying and shaking because he felt so sick. So I gave him his antibiotic, some children's motrin and put him to bed. I pray that Owen and Judd don't get sick. I feel terrible so I can't imagine how Tony feels because the doctor said he had one of the worse cases of strep he's seen in a long time. His whole throat is white with blisters!! He's supposed to call in sick to work tomorrow - we'll see.

Sidenote: It's such a blessing to be the mom. You get all the joy of pregnancy, birth, nursing, being the healer and the one the kids go to for that TLC, but sometimes it royally sucks! For instance....I have strep, Tony has strep, Raymo has strep, but since Tony's strep is worse than my technically, that leaves me responsible for taking care of everyone else including him, even though I feel like crap too! When does someone take care of me??? That's the sucky part. No matter the circumstances, mommy is always in charge.

Other news: Owen plays baseball tomorrow and I'm looking forward to that. He was tired last week and threw a fit that he didn't want to play. I think he'll play though tomorrow. Also, I'm not sure who of you heard about the tornado that tore through the boyscout camp on Wednesday that killed 4 kids and injured about 40 more; but that same storm hit Omaha and we had torential rain storms, lightning, flooding, tornadoes, etc. Owen and I got stuck in the church basement from 6pm - 9pm due to tornadoes, while Tony and Raymo and Judd were at home in the basement while the basement begin to flood. We have a sump pump, but there was sooooo much rain that the sump pump couldn't keep up, and it over flowed all over the garage and then water started coming in under the garage door and the basement front door, so we ended up with a huge mess. I got most of the basement cleaned up today and borrowed my friends carpet cleaner to clean the carpets, but I still have to clean up the nasty garage!

My last irritation is our black lab, Boscoe, has somehow found a way out of the fence again, which he hasn't done in 3 years. I can't tell where he's getting out at but he's gotten out the last couple of days. Luckily yesterday I opened the front door and he came running right in. Today though, he took off down a side street and I couldn't find him anywhere. Just as I was about to load up all the daycare kids in the car to drive around and search the neighborhood he came running back up around the corner. SO thankfully he came home. But on top of everything else going on this week, why this too?
Anyhow...this is my rambling post for the night. I promise to have a more interesting post in the next couple of days. Happy Fathers' day to all those fathers out there!

CAN YOU TELL WHICH KID IS WHICH? YOU TELL ME!! THIS IS A LITTLE GAME FOR YOU!

And then there was Judd....

Well, now that I have doted on Owen and Raymond, I should probably brag a little about how cute Judd is. He is growing so big and smiles literally all the time. Even when he is getting upset, he smiles through his tears. I think he looks and acts just like Owen as a baby, but you be the judge.
He can pacify himself too. He sleeps through the night and when he drops his binky he finds his thumb, so I don't even hear him fuss for his binky to begin with.
It's so weird having three kids and seeing all their different stages. I know people think I am crazy because I would love to have 100 kids! Even when they are driving me crazy, I still think they are cute.
I can't wait to see how Judd begins to develop. Today he is 3 months old! Can you believe it? I can't! He is big too. Next month he will go back to the doctor for his 4 month check up and shots and I can't wait to see how much he has grown.
Here are now a few Judd pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Birthday Bash!

It's amazing to me that my oldest son is going to be 4 years old on Wednesday. I can remember clearly him as a baby and all the funny things he has done. He is already starting a new chapter in his life!
We celebrated this last Saturday with fun Crayon party (we decorated in crayons but didn't do any art projects with crayons) - funny.
We went all out decorating the back yard with crayon stuff, I set up a fingerpainting table and a decorate your own frisbee table for the kids. We then hung their finger paints on the fence to dry. We had chips, rice krispy treats made from Fruity Pebbles, juice and cake for treats. I had tie dyed t-shirts for all the kids and myself for the party as a sort of art shirt, and I had little crayon shaped cups with straws for party favors. I made a cake to look like a crayon box and two small cakes to look like crayons. They turned out pretty well.
It was really hot outside, so we actually went inside for more time than planned and ate cake and opened presents and played in the play room.
I think overall the party was a success. Owen got lots of cool gifts and had a lot of fun. I know that I have been slide show crazy on my last few posts, but I am behind on pictures so it's the best way to get my pictures to you all without putting 100 on the post itself! So here is a slideshow of Owen's party.

The Many Faces of Raymond...

Now I love all of my kids equally and they are all funny in different ways. Owen likes to try to make people laugh and does funny faces and becomes characters or tickles you. Judd smiles all the time which makes you laugh, but Raymond is the real jokester of the family. He is the ham, the class clown, the comedian, the preverbial goof. He doesn't even try it just comes naturally. Even when I am trying to punish him and I plan on swatting him on the butt, the way he runs away with his hands covering his butt makes me start to crack up. No wonder he is the kid that gets in trouble all of the time. He's so confused because no punishment is ever followed through on him for lack of keeping a poker face on my part!
So the other day for instance, he decided to put Tonys socks and shoes on and the way he walked around and made faces was cracking me up. So I grabbed the camera and started shooting....and below is the result...the many faces of Raymond for your viewing pleasure!

Shed No More

We have finally gotten something done around our house after living here for three years! We knocked our shed down in our backyard - which by using the word knocked it would seem like it was an easy chore. Though the shed was so dilapitated I thought a strong wind would blow it down, it was in fact a very formidable opponent! It kicked mine and Tony's butt, but we still prevailed. It is now torn down, put in a dumpster and thrown in some garbage heap for all eternity - with all of its wasps nests.

So in place of our old shed, we now have this nice clean patio space that we have converted for the moment into another play area for the kids and for their playhouse and cars. It turned out quite cute, but now we have even more to do in the backyard, like filling in the dirt lot beside our patio with some bricks or something.

But our victory is fleeting in the wake of all that is left to be done. But for now we feel like we have accomplished a great feat!

Preschool Finale

I know that this post is extremely delayed because this program took place on May 19, but it is still an important conclusion to a new chapter of Owen's life. This was the end of year preschool program. He has now completed his first year of school and this next year of preschool will be an eventful one. During the four year old preschool class we will now start to be checking out kindergartens and it makes me happy/sad to think about it. I think what makes me the most sad is that Kindergarten is full day now for the whole city and so this next year is the last year that I will EVER in my or Owen's life spend every day together. Once he starts Kindergarten then he will be gone all day through school, then he will go to college, then he will get married and leave home for good. So this new chapter of his life is one of mixed emotions. I am very happy for him to be moving on and growing up. I am so proud of him for his accomplishments already and I want him to succeed in what he loves, but I am also very sad, for the end of the "mommy" era, where I am all that he needs in life, where I take care of him all by myself (with daddy of course too), but no outside interference. He is already starting the phase of his life of leaving home and I already miss him. So I will make the most of this year and try to spend as much fun time with him as possible, because after this year, the whole dynamic of his life will change.