Bragging on My Kids

My mom's advice to me before getting married was to never talk badly about my husband to other people. Sure your husband is going to do things that drive you crazy sometimes, but as his partner in life it's best practice to never bad mouth him to other people. For the most part I have stuck to this rule over the past eleven years. As my children begin to do more things with other child, hence me being around other parents, I have decided to extend this rule to speaking about my children. Don't get my wrong, my child are far from perfect and a lot of the things they do are just too hysterical to not share. However, I am their biggest supporters and they need to hear me saying nothing but positive things about them to others.




What made me think about this was my experience the other night at the Cub Scouts pack meeting. This is only my second pack meeting and the first one I attended by myself with all three kids. We were a little early and when we got there the pack leader, talking mainly to the older boys, asked if anyone wanted to do the announcements for the presentation of colors at the beginning/end of the meeting. Here comes Zane from across the gym, volunteering to do it. To the pack leaders credit he went with it and put the Tiger den in charge of the flag portion of the meeting. I thought this meant that Zane was carrying in the flag. I think that's what Zane thought as well, but he didn't say that.


What it actually meant was that he would be on the microphone, calling out the orders to the other scouts/crowd as they brought in the flag. Such as scouts attention, audience attention, forward march, halt ect. I didn't realize this until I saw Zane front and center with a microphone. My first thought was "oh no Zane doesn't need a microphone, ever," but I kept that on the inside. The two other parents sitting by me, who I know and who know Zane, slightly panicked. "Does Zane know all the commands, has he ever used a microphone, did he practice this?" This was the point that I realized I needed to keep my fears, and all those thoughts that were going through my head right there in my head. And as his biggest cheerleader I needed to have confidence in my son. So my response I think shocked them a bit, "no he doesn't know any of the commands, but Zane will be fine," and he was. He found a Weebalo friend to help him and did an amazing job.



That statement was easy for me to say because it's Zane. Zane has no fear in any situations. Zane has the kind personality that allows him to fit into any crowd and do most everything with unbelievable confidence. The personality to, as one of the youngest people in a room, volunteer for any and everything without any idea of what he's signing up for. The fears and concern flying around in my head is because I do not have that type personality. I would have never in a million years done that as a child. I grew into leading things in high school because I'd known every person in the school for years so it was no longer scary. But as a first grade, in a room full of people, no way. That quality is all thanks to his dear old dad.




So as a parent I am trying to keep my fears in my head and project all the confidence in the world onto my children. If they make a fool out of themselves they won't even realize it and if they do I'll be there to help them with that, but I can't hold them back. There were multiple mother's who couldn't believe their children were answering questions in the meeting and their mother's were saying things like "oh don't give him a mic, who knows what he will say." This is a thought I had in my head, as a parent scared they will say they are thankful for something insane (sidenote Zane is ALWAYS thankful for food). All the kids did great, like kids usually do.


Since I'm bragging about my kiddos let me just say Rowan sat quietly, coloring and reading, through the hour and a half meeting, and Thatcher was Thatcher. He slept for most of it then just laid back and chilled in his stroller for the rest. A few moms asked in amazement if he would go to sleep tonight since he'd just slept for an hour. Yep, and sleep all night, because he's the third child, they are magical. I tried to convince a few one boy one girl moms to have a third kid because they are amazing, but they weren't buying it. So lets just say I'm blessed with wonderful kiddos who never cease to amaze me.

Thanksgiving Week In Review

1. Sunday was the Thanksgiving Feast for the pre-k Sunday school class at church. They sang songs and were all around adorable. I love that Ro and E are going to be in the same grade so will likely be in the same Sunday school classes for years to come. Look at how cute they are, I love them both!



 Here they are with their family banners.

 2. Poor baby T has been teething all week and fighting a little baby cold. This means that occasionally he actually wants to be cuddled and you could find his little head on my shoulder a few time this past week as well. It's a Thanksgiving miracle. His bottom tooth finally is starting to peek through, but he's still pretty crabby and having some little fevers on and off too.

 Don't worry there were plenty of baby giggles as well.

 3. Sunday afternoon I took the big boys to see the movie Wonder. We finished the book recently and they were both very excited to see the movie. I cried the whole time, praying that my boys will be the kid in class who is being kind even when everyone else around them is not. I preached kindness all day Sunday and the day ended with Zane accidentally hitting a neighbor with a large stick and me feeling that all my preaching might be falling on deaf years. The struggle is so very real when raising boys. The world really feels like boys should fight and hit and shoot and kill all day. That's just not true kids.

"When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind"

                                                                                            -Mr. Brown, Wonder 

 4. I worked yesterday and today which meant that we yet again did not have a Thanksgiving celebration to speak of. I feel bad that my kids never get to have Thanksgiving with a big family gathering like we had growing up, but we will have a dinner with everyone at a later date. Below is my one attempt at holiday baking, rice krispy treat turkey legs. They were a huge mess to make, as you can imagine, but they were pretty delicious.

 5. Remember the neighborhood skeletons from October, they were set up having Thanksgiving dinner this week. How hysterical is that? I love these people and our neighbors. The houses around them put up Christmas decorations the moment Halloween was over, so I respect their Thanksgiving celebrations.

 6. Tuesday the boys and I went to hang out with Aunt Anna while Zane was out of school. We met up for fancy bowling in Bricktown. This was T's first bowling experience and he loved the little fan that blows air from the end of the ball rack. His little face, getting blown with air, was priceless.

 We love Aunt Anna!

 7. For the past two weeks Zach and I have been single parenting. Zach was gone Monday-Thursday of last week, I worked Friday and Saturday. This week Zach was gone Mon-Tues and I worked yesterday and today. This happened to coincide with Thatcher starting to realize that we exist and cry when we leave rooms. Poor T has spent a lot of time cry crawling after me these past two weeks. On Tuesday night this is how I found T when I came back from putting the big boys to sleep. He was laying perfectly still, not crying. I'm pretty sure he had just given up and decided he'd sleep on the living room floor. Poor baby, it's really much better when mommy and daddy are both parenting together.

 8. Zach was in St. Louis appearing in small claims court with the crazy person who bought our old house in St. Louis. That man claims we lied on our disclosure form, about where our basement leak happened. (Spoiler alert: we did not and we have all the paperwork to prove it.) Yes, in shocking news his basement in St. Louis flooded after the huge rains there this spring. I never thought it would get this far, but Zach ended up driving for sixteen hours in a twenty four hour period, all to appear for about twenty minutes in court. No there wasn't a ruling that day, we are now waiting for a letter to arrive in the mail telling us the judges ruling. I feel confident that we will win, but have no confidence that this guy won't appeal the ruling or continue suing us for God knows what. This is the type of thing that would only happen in Zach and I's life and it's infuriating.


9. I cannot believe Christmas is just around the corner. I'm not sure I've ever been so unmotivated for a holiday season. I think it's denial that this is Thatcher's first Christmas and the last Christmas I'll have a baby, mixed with we have no money to spend on Christmas presents. Needless to say I'm struggling to get in the holiday spirit. Tomorrow we'll try to figure out where to put our Christmas tree and how we are going to manage that with an almost eight month old (how is that possible???).


10. I worked again this year on Thanksgiving so as not to have to work Christmas and to be off on New Years so we can go see family in Missouri. This year I worked in the NICU again, like last year, which makes for a lonely day with some very tiny humans. My only human contact today was with three pounds babies. I did go spread holiday cheer during my lunch break, visiting all the floors, saying hi to people I know, but otherwise just the babies and I watching the parade. I did get a free Thanksgiving dinner for lunch that wasn't half bad. Here's my holiday celebration, by myself, in the cafeteria. I miss big family Thanksgiving with lots of cousins, at Grandma's house. I never cease to be amazed at how different my children's childhoods are from my own.

Hope everyone had a great day. I missed celebrating with everyone. 



Ten on Tuesday

1. I finally gave in and cut baby T's hair. It was getting really long over his ears so after a few little snips on the side he looks like quite the big boy. This was obviously devastating to me, last baby's first hair cut!

Before,



 during,

after,

 and happier!

 2. Friday was the Veteran's Day program at school which meant that Zane got to wear his full Cub Scout regalia to school. They presented the colors, well Zane walked in behind the colors, but still he was excited to be part of the ceremony.

 Rowan wanted to be fancy too!

 3. Thatcher is the craziest little guy! He is everywhere these days. He crawls around fast and has figured out how to escape from the baby dome (what we've named the living room where we keep him contained with various footstools). He is cruising around like a mad man, he plays peek-a-boo behind the curtains, and the couch. He has crawling races with his brothers and all of it is just beyond adorable and I can't believe he's mine most days.

 4. This is the other place Thatcher can be found frequently, standing at the windows looking outside at his brothers. They come say hi sometimes, but usually he just watches them and babbles. Here he is watching his brothers and cousins roast hot dogs.

 5. On top of all that fun Thatcher now can walk with the famous alligators. Everyone remembers the alligators, only one of them chomps now so they aren't nearly as loud as they once were. His brothers are very helpful when he needs his alligators turned around. It will be no time before we'll officially be in toddle town.

 Behold Thatcher's tiny mouth!

 6. Rowan had strep throat last week. After three days of fevers, and two strep swabs, we finally got a positive test and some antibiotics. Then of course I got sick promptly there after. I was hacking up a lung, fevery, and miserable Friday night into Saturday. I have started taking Humira, for my hands, which is an immunosuppressant which means any and all fevers can be a big deal. I got my antibiotics Friday morning and feel slightly better, but am still coughing my head off. The Humira does seem to be helping my hands slightly. I've only taken one dose and think it takes awhile, but they seem marginally better which I'll take a huge success.

7. Sunday I missed Wizards on Western, the yearly Harry Potter Festival down by the shop, because I was home sick with the baby. It was pretty cold, too cold for Rowan to be Dobby, so he was a general wizard in Raven's Claw house. Zach was The Dark Lord and Zane of course was his classic Harry Potter.

 After the festival Harry worked at the shop for a bit too.

 8. Monday Zach flew to Las Vegas to spend the week at a conference. This means that I am home sick, single parenting three kiddos, all week. I don't think I've single parented all three of them before. At least not since Thatcher was fully mobile and actually knows I exist. He cries when I walk away now, which means he has been spending lots of time crying in his bouncer while I try to take care of his brother's various needs. It's no joke and I'm missing my amazing husband quite a bit right now.

9. Monday Rowan and I refilled all our spices and finally alphabetized them, which we hadn't managed to get done at the new house. Rowan is a wonderful helper and I am starting to feel the days we have together here dwindling. It's almost Christmas, then it will be summer, and before you know it I'll be putting this big kid on the bus with his brother. I can't imagine days here without Rowan's little wonderful presence here. I'm trying to soak it all up, but time just goes by all together too quickly.

 10. Lastly, here are some cute brother photos to end the post. First up Rowan and Thatcher Monday morning, playing in T's room. I was organizing clothes and closets and turned around to find this cuteness. Neither one of them was moving they were just loving each other, adorably.

 Our Choose Kind shirts arrived yesterday just in time for World Kindness Day. I didn't know this was a thing when I ordered them. I just got them because this is our new family motto and we finally finished the book Wonder. It's wonderful and touching and teaches all the lessons I want my boys to know. Also, we've been completely unplugged again at our house due to various things, which means we spend at least on hour every night reading a family book. It's 100% better than any screen time!

 T wasn't a huge fan of wonder. He fell asleep on the couch last night while we were finishing it.



Thatcher's Baptism

We had one last baptism on Sunday. It was sort of surreal leading up to it, mainly my total and utter lack of preparation. It was the night before and I was trying to remember, do you pay the priest, do I buy the Godparent's presents, does the gown actually fit, what am I forgetting?? I did get the baptismal gown, that the other boys had worn, dry cleaned. Turns out it is actually white and my two dollar investment into dry cleaning it probably should have happened earlier.

 The other two boys were much smaller when they were baptized. Zane was only a little over a month old. Rowan was five months old, but still so tiny. Thatcher is seven months old and huge. Midway into the baptism ceremony it became clear to me why people have baby babies baptized. They don't weigh anything and sleep through the whole event. Thatcher is huge and isn't a big fan of being held for long periods of time. The baptism was after an hour long mass so he was pretty well done with it by the time it started.

 Thanks to my stupid RA, holding this big man was pretty painful so I missed most of what the priest was saying. Thatcher was playing with my locket with dad's picture in it. I'm sure Grandpa B had the best seat in the house. Seven years later it's still rings true that in every major event, every happy celebration, there is always a smidge of sadness because dad's not there.



 Here's T, fully freaking out leading up to the actual baptism. Praise God this was my third child, because I didn't care. I knew he'd be fine and everything would work out. I remember being really nervous with the other two that they'd cry or freak out during the ceremony. Thatcher, my most laid back child, of course would be the one to freak out. It's just comical with the third child.

  He put his little hands on his eyes the whole time, like "just get it over with people." Then after he was baptized he fell asleep. Nothing like being cleansed of original sin to lift a weight of your shoulders I guess. The priest was putting a hard sell down on one of the three boys being baptized becoming a priest. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he's probably going to be the next Dalai Lama so he's not going to be able to be a priest.

 Sweet little sleeping baby.

  Here is the whole crew. There was lots of love surrounding our sweet boy. This is his village. These are the people who love him and who support Zach and I so we can be the best parents possible. Thanks to everyone in our village. Thanks for everything you do and for coming to celebrate with us, especially to Able and Kari, his Godparents. You guys are amazing and T is so lucky to have you in his life.

 Here is baby Alice and I. She was so adorable in her bunny dress. This might be my favorite picture from the whole day, even though the man of the hour isn't in it. I love my sweet niece.

 Then home for more celebrations. Thatcher's Godparent's gave amazing Godparent gifts including this stuffed Pope Francis, which is hysterical. They also gave him a book of letters that children had written to the Pope and his responses to them. They are lots of deep questions, not unlike the one's I'm forever fielding from my children. Zane has loved reading the Pope's answers and has decided to send the Pope his own letter asking why he decided to become a priest. We're still working on the artwork, but I'll let you know if we get a response from Pope Frank.

 

This was me trying to make up for not taking a picture with Thatcher at the church. You can tell how excited he was about it.



Thatcher's Seventh Month Update

Our sweet boy turned seven months old last Sunday, better late than never I guess. He's currently recovering from a his first baby ear infections so he's been crabby the past few days, with snot covering his little baby face. This month Thatcher has mastered oh so many things. First up he mastered crawling about two days into his seventh month. This was quickly followed by pulling up and most recently cruising around furniture. A few days ago he started to attempt to go from one thing to the other. My feeling on this is that with every child the baby phase lasts a shorter time. I assume if I had another baby they'd crawl at three months and be walking by six. It seems insane to me.

 

Seventh month pictures were lots of fun, trying to contain him.

This is a picture of the first time he crawled his way into the kitchen. I saw his little head peek around the corner and I knew it was a hole new ballgame.



 Bear crawling like daddy.



Thatcher's brother's are enjoying playing with him more and more as he gets older and more mobile. Thatcher finds his brother's very entertaining, he giggles at them all day. Rowan spends hours playing peek-a-boo when we are home. Rowan is my favorite person to listen to talking to Thatcher. "Hi Thatchy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" said in the highest pitch voice imagine. It's so stinking cute I can't help but talk to T the same way. With Thatcher becoming fully mobile we have had to rearranged our living room to keep him somewhat contained. The kitchen floor is a huge chocking hazard at all times. This rearrangement has made a cute little nook that the big boys have dubbed "Thatcher's Headquarters." The boys bring random things to headquarters everyday, new toys, the old computers they play with, stuffed animals, blankets, whatever they think he might need. I find it hysterical, but the big boys take it quite seriously. "Mom Thatcher's in headquarters, he's fine." To their credit Thatcher does love his new found play place and I like that he's not crawling all over this house. The past day or two he's ventured from headquarters and made it all the way to the big boys rooms where the proceeded to dress him up as a number of different things.

 





 Here's the view from headquarters

Here is little man playing on my bed for one of the last times. Now he bolts off immediately.

 

After months of pure laziness I've finally started bathing Thatcher in the bath tube. He loves it and has a blast splashing around, especially when his big brother Ro joins him. He has been bathing in my highly recommended collapsible bathtub. If you know anyone who is having a baby, by them this, it's fantastic. *It is available for much less than this at Target.

 

 Thatcher remains a great sleeper. He falls asleep bouncing in his jumperoo frequently which is hysterical. He still successfully puts himself to sleep at naps and at night. He sleep all night about 95% of the time. Sometimes he thinks 5am is morning, which it frequently is for me, so I can't complain. This past week, with his little cold, he's been taking huge naps, but still usually spends at least one of his naps in the car seat.

 My view when I come get him from naps.

 He had an adorable playdate with his cousin Alice last week. Look at this cuteness, isn't it amazing. These two look alike which I adore and so far get along great.

 Cousin buddies are the best.

 

This month Thatcher went on his first family vacation, as small as it was, we had a good time. He spend most of his evenings at baseball games this month. He was such a trooper and baseball is always better when you're cuddling a baby.



 

Lastly one of my favorite things we did this month was our trip to Pumpkinville. It was a full circle moment from our announcement that we were expecting, with the big boys holding a little pumpkin to a picture of our three boys back at the pumpkin patch together. How quickly time has flown by.