A New Low

I've had some pretty low moments as a mom.  I've had my fair share of shameful shouting incidents.

I have officially hit a new low.

I never should have told Jay.  He thinks it's perfect "kid conversation" material.  But this!  no.  This is not a cute snippet to woo future would-be in-laws (while simultaneously embarrassing my kids).  This is one that will terrify them.  About their future mother-in-law.

Anyway, he said if I didn't write it, he would, and if I write it, I can at least keep it charitable.

I have confirmed to myself that I actually have a rather evil corner of my heart because even now, I'm inwardly cackling that I actually said this.  I ACTUALLY said this.

I spend too much time around children.

No no.  I won't put blame on them.  I said it.  ME. **cackling resumes**

It all started when I so innocently, on a completely normal day, in a completely normal way, needed to use the ladies' room.  Don't worry.  No TMI.

at least not yet...

So, as usual, I make my way away from the happily playing children to sneak off to the loo.

After about 1.43 seconds of walking away, there is an eruption of crying coming directly behind me.

Turn around.

The details escape me.  Nothing out of the ordinary happens.  Give it back.  Kindness.  Get off her.  No hitting... something like that.

All is calm.

Ah yes.  I forgot the announcement last time.  Perhaps it will help this time.

"I need to use the bathroom.  Can we all be kind while I'm gone?"

"yeeeees"

Turn around.

This time, I actually make it all the way to the bathroom, only to discover (TMI warning) someone (else!) didn't quite make it in time and there is poo smeared all over the toilet seat.

By this time, you can guess I really had to go.  Luckily, I've learned to keep clorox wipes within reach no matter what room one might find themselves in, (just about) and so naturally, I had some on hand for just such occasion.  I finally had it cleaned and wiped dry so as to sufficiently satisfy the needs of my clean little behind when their second volcanic eruption occurred.

This time I decided the only way to pee in peace was to separate the offender (which is almost always unclear) and so I grabbed both Peach and The Frog by the wrist and directed them upstairs to their rooms.

I admit, I may have said this next part a bit louder than I care to admit, "Now you can come out of your rooms after I have gone to the bathroom!!"

Did I mention they were both rather upset about this whole thing?  The Frog especially.  He defiantly rushed from his room and very clearly announced that,

"I'm COMING OUT of my room!!"

There may have been some stomping.

Then, with fire that I didn't know existed, I laser beamed him right in the eyes and said,

"If you do not stay in that room, I will POO in  YOUR.  ROOM."

Well there it is.

Needless to say, I finally got to relieve myself.  In a toilet.  (ew)  The look on his face told me I wasn't going to have to prove myself.

and now the cackles return.

what if I he didn't stay in his room?

Grotto Falls

We've been getting sporadic awesome weather lately, and a few Saturdays ago I just got it in my head that we should try to go on a short hike.  A quick google search and the shortest hike I could find that we hadn't done before was Grotto Falls - .25 miles each way.  

That's what I'm talkinbout.

So we headed off to Payson with packed PBJs and apples.  

 Though the weather was perfect, I hadn't anticipated the trail being covered in either snow or mud.  It was SO muddy!! Luckily, there was a big mound of snow near where we parked and we could kinda get most of it off our shoes before getting in the car.  (Our pants, however...)

 We got to cross over this creek many times over these nice log bridges.  At first The Frog was really scared, but as you can see, after a few of them, he eventually did it alone, no problem.

 We made it without any crying or complaints from anyone, and I'm glad it was so short, given all the mud.  Hazel was very content in the carrier too - that had stopped us from hiking when The Frog was young because he was not happy unless he was walking himself.

It looked like it would be really fun to splash around in when the weather is hot, but for now, we would have frozen our buns off if we got in the water.

 Peach was perched on a log to eat our sandwiches, and she got all spazy and posed many ways.  It was hard to narrow it down, but these are my two favs.

I love this shot so much, I've changed her picture on the side (finally!)  She has appeared 2 for two long there...

This was so successful, I think we might just brave another, longer hike! :)  Any suggestions, locals?

Neighbor Swap Preschool

Disclaimer: this is more of a post for me and anyone who is thinking about teaching preschool to their kids.  I have a really bad memory and so I'd like to remember what went well and what didn't with my "neighbor-swap" preschool for Peach.

Something else that has been taking up additional time is my preschool swap for Peach.  There are 4 moms that take turns hosting, twice a week for 2 hours, and we have a schedule laid out for a letter of the week, just going through the alphabet.  We are cheap and didn't want to pay for a curriculum.  And also, all the kids but 1 were just barely 3, so they'll have another year for preschool.  We just wanted it to be low-key, a semi-introduction for them to sitting still and playing nicely in a group.  I thought about enrolling Peach somewhere, but I just wasn't ready for that.  She seems so young!  And we are doing homeschooling with her already, so I wasn't really concerned about her learning the academics- we are doing that at home.

Anyway, I finally finished my last week of teaching preschool, the week before Easter #thatwasabusyweek and I must say, I'm glad it's over.  It was fun, but I'm just not really the preschool teacher type.  I prefer teaching calculus. :)

However, if anyone else is interested in trying it out, I'm happy to share what I've learned.  It is important for kids to have familiarity, especially if you want any learning to be going on, and since each week was going to be taught by a different mom, we thought it would be wise to have some kind of schedule, so the kids knew what to expect, as far as what types of things would be happening.  This is ours, and I thought it worked out perfectly:

I made a little sign that we could hang up to remind the kids (but mostly the moms) about what was going to happen.  We kept it in the box of preschool supplies that we passed around to whomever was teaching that week.  Mostly it just had a ziplock baggie with a change of clothes for each child (in case of accidents) and also a little flag for the pledge of allegiance and some laminated cards I made that have the alphabet and numbers up to 10 on one side, and shapes and colors on the back.  I made one for each child and the mom so we could point to the letters while we sing the ABCs every day.  I later added to the sign, really small in pen, what time it should be when the task was over.  That was really what I looked at more often.  I also have a little visual timer and I would set that so the kids could see how much time was left before the next activity.

So here's a description of the schedule:

30 minutes of free play - kids can just play, and also made it low stress for us to get our kids there on time and so the mom hosting could have a little time to get last minute things together also.
5 minutes to clean up toys
20 minutes of "circle time" - we would say the pledge of allegiance, sing the ABCs with our chart, bring the letter, number, color and shape of the week, and read a story or two about one of said topics and maybe sing a song or two.
5 minutes to use the potty and wash hands before snack (really only needed a couple of minutes for that, but it's nice to have a bit of a buffer to finish up the story you're reading)
15 minutes of snack - we had a diabetic girl and a gluten free girl in our circle, so we had only no carb foods for snack.  Things like lunch meat, pepperoni, cheese, hard boiled eggs.  It would have been fun to do more fun things with the snack to go along with the letter of the week, but it actually made it less stressful to prepare a snack when your options were so limited.
15 minutes of outdoor recess - we almost always went outside during this time.  Occasionally if the weather was really yucky, we'd stay in and dance to music or something active like that.  One time I took them out to help me rake leaves.  I felt a bit guilty for getting chores done with them around, but they had a lot of fun doing it!
25 minutes of an activity -  These were usually more crafty things to help with fine motor skills (cutting, tracing, gluing), but one time, for example, we did Yoga for Y week.
5 minutes of clean up, and get shoes on to get ready for mom to pick up.

Some things I found particularly successful:
The kids love the "Shake your sillies out" song. (I only did the shake your sillies, jump your jiggles, clap your crazies, and itch your itchies verses).  When circle time was getting noticeably restless, we'd do that and it gave them an outlet and they were ready to listen again.

Glue sticks with pre-cut shapes are a very simple activity for young kids.  Have them put the shapes on the glue, and not the other way around.

They love the "hide the object" game, where you have them take turns hiding an object in a room while everyone else is outside the room and counts together.  Whoever finds the object gets to hide it next.  You have to make sure that everyone gets a turn to hide, though, or it can turn ugly.

They love pulling things out of a bag.  I would often have a bag full of objects that start with the letter of the week and then we'd think of other things that start with that sound.

They love finding hidden things.  I would often hide printed out letters in the room (of different fonts, so they could get used to seeing there is more than one way to write a letter) for them to bring back to my white board, and then we would take turns writing one on the board.

They like making noise- musical instruments or bells, even tapping spoons would probably be enough.  Turn on some music, everyone's happy.  However, that kind of activity is better as an intermediate.  It won't hold them more than 5 minutes.

Bubbles.  There's a reason they're still sold everywhere.  A giant bubble maker would be awesome :)

Balloons.  What kid doesn't love balloons?

They love dressing up.  One time I gave them each something to wear made out of yarn while we read a story.  (for Y week)

I printed out some simple worksheets online and laminated them and gave the kids dry erase markers to work on them.  Some were matching capitol letters to lower case, some had simple addition, some just had the alphabet and they could try tracing it.  I was surprised by how much everyone liked this, I mostly did it for the 5-year old so she would have something to do when she finished her tasks before the younger kids.  (everyone else was barely 3 at the beginning of the school year)

They like feeling skilled and like they're doing something tricky.  (I guess everyone mostly does, but they particularly like to prove how "big" they are.)  Can you stand on one foot?  Can you do a somersault?  Can you hop over this?

Not so successful.
I found myself over estimating their abilities.  a lot.  Only one of the 5 kids (and she was 5) could really use scissors.  We tried to do a little bit of sewing for J week (we had a coloring page with a Jellyfish and I thought it would be fun to sew some tentacles- if that's the right word- out of yarn through some holes in the paper I had poked with a large needle) and that was SO way beyond them- even the 5 year old was flummoxed.  We did something similar at the end - Y week, where I gave them the letter Y I had hole-punched and cut out of card stock and they could just sew wherever with their yarn- they did a bit better with that.  Maybe it was because there was no needle to fiddle with?  Maybe because the holes were bigger?  Maybe it's because it didn't really need to look like anything?

I found myself over-estimating how long they would spend on a task.  a lot.  Never did they spend more time than I thought.  I still have no idea how to predict what activities will be fun and keep their attention.  It's best to plan more than you think you'll need, just in case.  That's where the laminated paper activities came in.  They were backup that needed no prep.

I was really bad at getting kids not to interrupt the story with some tangential story from their life.  I would just listen and acknowledge and try to get back to the story, but usually one life story would remind another kid about their take on it, etc.  It didn't really stress me out... I mean, this is preschool people, we're not exactly prepping for the SATs, but it made me wonder if there was a way to get them not to do that, but still feel like their point of view was valuable.  thoughts?



"guck guck moose!"

Hazel is 18 Months!

I can't believe it!  My babiest baby is 1.5 years old!  I really have not been as good about documenting anything lately, and I feel particularly bad about how little I've gushed over Hazel (especially since I've been able to appreciate the baby-stage so much more this time.  I guess 3rd time's the charm) on this blog.  She is so so SO cute!  I just can't get over it!  I can see why she gets manhandled so much - nobody can get enough of the cuteness!  If only some of us could figure out how to be a bit more gentle...

She is adored by her siblings (and her parents!) and every night when we say what we're grateful for before family prayer, it's unusual if someone doesn't say "Hazel" or "Hazel's cuteness" or something like that.  The love is mutual.  She really looks up to her siblings and knows when she's not being allowed to do something they are.  She is the monkeyest of them all (meaning she copies what she sees everyone do) and she was pretty proud of herself when she was able to get up on this step stool by herself.

 She can often be seen climbing up on it, just because she can, no matter where it is placed, only to realize there is nothing to do up there and she can't get down.  It's about enjoying the journey, right?

Though she has abandoned crawling at this point, she is still prone to randomly losing her balance and toppling over.  As much as I hate to see her cry, it is so cute! You can tell that head is just soo heavy for her!

She loves peek-a-boo (which I usually call "Where's Hazel") and she loves getting chased by me crawling after her with an evil laugh and pounding my hands into the ground or stomping my feet if I'm walking, to sound more intimidating.  As soon as I start stomping or look at her with tickle-fingers, she'll grin and turn the opposite direction.  She can't really run, but it's clear she's trying to go faster because she gets more hobbley.  It's soo cute.  And she giggles hysterically when you find her in her hiding spot or finally catch her!

She's been much quicker to try "grown-up things" like using silverware (though not in this picture) and spending time with a crayon making marks on the paper compared to her older siblings.  (The Frog never enjoyed coloring until about 4.5 and Peach still doesn't like it at 3.5)  I'm hoping this means she'll like school.

She's the least picky eater.  Although Peach used to eat anything also, and now she's my pickiest by far!

She is starting to get into the "into everything" stage.  Somehow it's more cute and less annoying this time around...

The other day, I came into the kitchen and she had managed to get our homemade play dough out of a ziplock baggie and was rolling it out on the floor with our mini rolling pin.

She has requested to sit on the toilet a couple of times in the last month or so, but has yet to produce anything.  If she wants to potty-train herself, that would be fine with me... and the sooner the better :)

She's starting to find her favorite "stash" places - spots where she leaves random things.  All my kids do this.  Is that normal?
As soon as she sees me with the camera, she gives me a great big smile. (and then wants to see the picture after.)

 As you can see, she is rarely in a photo alone when her siblings are around.  They know I take pictures of things I like and want to remember and so they all want to jump in whenever one of them is being focused on.

She has a few words up her sleeves these days, besides mama & dada:
bookh (very hard "k" sound) = book.  She thinks she loves reading books, but rarely lets me actually read them all the way through.
mokhe = milk or water, although I got her to say "wah wah" for water the other day!
moe mokhe = more milk
knock = knock or door.  she enjoys closing open doors and telling you she's doing it.
uh-oh = uh-oh.  This was one of her firsts.  She uses it anytime she needs help with anything.
bye bye = bye.  of course with a wave :)
beebee = baby - she loves baby dolls
dakh = the frog's real name and if he hurts her, she lets me know...
neck = neck.  She seems to really like words that end with a "k".
I = hi.  She almost always walks into a room and repeats it, very casually, a few times to greet you
no = no
yah = yes (usually with a very deliberate head nod)
shhhhh = shhhh, as in, be quiet
la = light and she loves flipping the light switches
buh = belly.  Usually she points at it while mentioning it. I often catch her peering at her belly button.
no + pointing at her or my nose = nose.
dada = her own name, which gets confusing because it sounds just like what she calls Jay.
I'm trying to get her to make the "f" sound to help her differentiate her name, but whenever she tries, she's really just blowing air.  It's very cute!

She's definitely in the vocab learning stage where she points and gets you to tell her what it is and tries her best to copy what you say.  It's hard to believe that in 6 months time, Peach was basically fluent, and that could be my Hazel too.

 She loves brushing her teeth, especially with mom's electric toothbrush. Hopefully that will keep up through the braces years...
She is very good at giving hugs and kisses.  Especially kisses (blown ones or regular slobbery ones :D) and the kids love 'em as much as I do.  Her kisses are very loud and lip-smacky :)
She LOVES to help, and is surprisingly good at anticipating what I might need.  She is happy to throw away garbage, put clothes in the hamper (dirty or clean), help me empty the dishwasher and even pick up toys!!  I know she didn't pick those up from watching her siblings.... ahem.  She insists on having her own rag to wipe things down when I'm cleaning the bathrooms.  I love it and hope it's not just a phase.

Why The Frog wanted to wear his swimsuit in the bath?  You got me...

She loves baths and especially doing anything where she gets included by her siblings, which happens more and more lately.  Her siblings always ask if she can help put them to bed (which means she sits on them and pokes at their faces or bum bounces on them while I sing a song) and then usually immediately ask if they can help put her to bed next (which means they sing a song to her in her pack-n-play)

She is still sleeping in my closet, but can now reach the doors and push them open when she's awake, though doesn't always do it.

Jay, The Frog and I usually have little arguments about who gets to get her out of her crib after her nap.

I'm sad I don't have very many pictures of her (compared to her siblings anyway.  she still has volumes more than I have of myself at her age...), and vow to get better about that.  I'm going to miss these sweet times.

We just all love her to bits and it makes me feel super special that I'm the one she wants to hold her all the time.  As inconvenient as it may be at times, I still relish being able to hold her so much- and you should check out my biceps :D

Happy Birthday Gampie!

Today is Jay's dad's birthday and so the kids and I made him a movie full of "cool tricks!"

Brace yourself.  It's longer than 10 minutes, but it gives you a nice taste of life around here.

(ok ok. I admit. I cut out a lot of.... naughtiness :D)

Happy Birthday Jim!  The kids are so lucky to have such a fun grandpa!