Mr. Independent
February 8, 2010
Since Paul has become fully potty trained he has become wildly independent. Did you catch that? I wrote Paul was fully potty trained. Yeah, it amazed me too. It came far more easily than I thought it would. I am not sure why, but I am so thankful that I was blessed with easy potty transitions.
Mr. Independent has now decided that along with taking care of his business in the potty he also wants to only do things that are his ideas. You can ask him if he wants to do something that he wants and he will say no. Then he will go say “now” and he will do what it was you asked him. It is a serious assertion of control and I just let him do it. I know it is a phase and that he will stop saying no before he says yes someday, at least I hope.
His latest and greatest talent is dressing himself. I mean completely dressing himself. He puts on his Thomas underwear, then the socks, then the shirt and pants. He won’t even let me help him get the socks on, unless it were his idea for me to put them on. 
Today he put the pants on backwards. Try as I might he wouldn’t allow me to turn them around. So if you saw me at Costco today you saw me with the little man and his pants on backwards. Thankfully they were sweat pants and you can’t really tell.
I captured this photo today while he was outside making baskets.
Mr. Independent can be hard to live with especially when we are on time crunches and I really don’t have time for him to buckle himself in his car seat, but it is so worth it. My boy is growing up. It is enough to make my heart swell.
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Stuffed it up
February 7, 2010
Today the Girls were invited to a Build-a-Bear party. They were giddy with anticipation. It was their first experience with stuffing their own bear.
When they arrived they picked out a bear and named it. They stuffed it, put a heart in, and picked out a dress for it. They said it was a wonderful birthday party and that they want to go back someday. It certainly was a neat experience for them.
Mimi and Rosie
Kimmie and Cutie
Annie and Daphne
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Bingo Night at school
On Friday night we went to the Elementary schools Bingo night. The kids had such a fun time eating at the school with friends. They were excited to play bingo. They have heard me talk about it plenty and were very interested.
As you can see from the picture above Annie and Kimberly were overjoyed! They were both able to find the right column and check for the numbers on their own. They got close to bingo once but didn’t win—sounds like bingo to me.
Mimi had fun too, though it was much harder for her to follow the numbers. I had to help her out a bit, but she still had fun!
Paul was not into bingo at all and was fairly hard to wrangle most of the night, with the exception of the 10 minutes he was eating Dippin’ Dots.
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Day in—day out
February 6, 2010
Being a stay at home Mother has been one of the most demanding jobs in my life. I cannot imagine a harder job. It stretches me farther than I think I can be stretched. Some weeks life moves along smoothly and some weeks it drags me through the mud.
This past week I had a drag through the mud kind of week. Bill has put in millions of hours at work this week (maybe not millions but certainly more than 60) and that means that a lot more things fall on my shoulders.
I tend to be a very strong woman but, I too, can be beat down. I hate to feel this way. I HATE weakness. I really do. I cannot stand it in others and loathe when I see it in myself. I want to stand strong all the time, but the bottom line is that I am human and, like everyone else, I have a threshold.
There are so many wonderful experiences that a stay at home Mom gets to have with her children. You are there the first time they take a step, or the day they learn to ride their bike. You can soothe their first injuries and care for them in the way that only a mother can. However, nobody talks about the other side of that coin. You are the one that HAS TO do all those things. Some weeks it is hard to see the beauty of the flip side of that coin. You get so overwhelmed that you can’t see anything but the mess that lies in front of your own two feet.
Any stay at home parent who doesn’t claim to have those moments is not being 100% truthful. It is inevitable in the job. Stay at home Mom’s get a bad enough rap as it is and most won’t admit the hard days for fear that someone will seize upon those moments and say “I told you so.”
While I have those days or weeks where I am overwhelmed, exhausted and worn thin I still wouldn’t trade it for anything. Don’t think I haven’t pondered this point a million times over. When I started out being a Mother I doubted I could make it 6 months at home let alone 6.5 years!!!! Every single day for the past 6.5 years has been the same: feed the kids, play with the kids, and clean up messes. Yet, everyday I get up and do it willingly, that speaks volumes.
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Playdough kind of day
February 5, 2010
The other week the kids were home from school on a half day. I thought we should do something a little different so we made homemade playdough. The kids were very excited!
We gathered our ingredients and started to mix them in the pan. Once we poured the ingredients in the pan the girls thought we needed to add more flour. I told them that as we cooked and stirred the mixture it would turn into playdough. They were skeptical but excited to see it.
Each girl made their own batch. Kimberly made purple, Annie made pink and Mimi made green that was scented of mint. Annie thought it was a wonderful experiment, Kimmie thought it was magic and Mimi thought it was awesome. (Their thoughts on this showcase their personalities.)
We all had a great time playing with the dough all afternoon.
Here is the recipe for those who would like to have their own fun!
1 cup flour
½ cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. oil
1 cup water
food coloring
Mix in a teflon pan and cook over low heat until it forms a ball and mixture is not sticky. Store in an airtight container.
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The longest day of the week
February 3, 2010
Wednesday is always the longest day of the week for me. There are so many things I am stretched to do. I love each and every one of them and I wouldn’t change it, it just makes for a long day.
Every Wednesday I:
* get the kids dressed and ready for school
* comb and style 3 fussy girl’s hair
* pack lunches, including a snack pack for Paul
* drive Annie and Kimberly to school and drop them off
* most Wednesdays I pick up Abi from school to carpool to preschool
* drive to preschool, often with a stop through Starbucks to get my fuel for my busy day.
* drop off Mimi and Abi (if she is with us)
* run back to the van with Paul (yes, he loves to run back to the van)
* drive Paul to my Parent’s shop and drop him off
* drive back to Annie and Kimberly’s school to volunteer
* volunteer in a kindergarten classroom, fully remembering why I will never teach kindergarten 
* drive to pick up Paul
* drive to preschool to get Mimi and Abi
* drive Abi home
* come home fix lunch for Mimi and Paul
* get ready for Daisy Scout meeting
* go back to school to lead the Daisy Troop
* bring Annie and Kimberly home
* take babysitter home
* kids play and I collapse on the couch
* make dinner
* eat dinner, coaxing Paul the entire time
* bathe kids
* give them dessert
* tuck them into bed
* collapse on couch and be thankful Wednesday only comes once a week
I really do love all the things on that list. It is just that all together they make for one very long day. Factor in the fact that Bill has been working major hours and isn’t home for most/if any of that and you have one exhausted Momma.
I was talking with a friend tonight and he and I were wondering what it would one day be like to look back on these days. I wanted to document what my Wednesday was like so that I could look back on it later. I can’t currently imagine a day when these 4 are teens sitting in their rooms, ignoring me, but it will come.
Each phase in parenting has been so different and unique (and I have only been in this for 6.5 years). It is amazing to me. I truly enjoy each one, but am thankful that everyday isn’t Wednesday.
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Doctor visit strategy
February 2, 2010
There have been several times that I have had to drag a child of mine to the doctor with me so that they can hear the doctor tell them all the things I have been. I call this the doctor visit strategy.
Today was one of those times. For some reason they listen so much more to the doctor and heed the advice. It is totally worth the twenty dollar co-pay.
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Diaper days are numbered
February 1, 2010
I have made posts in the past regarding diapers, but those posts spoke of how many diapers we were consuming. At the height we were using 27 diapers per day!!!! Knowing now that Paul is almost potty trained completely our days with diapers in our life are coming to an end.
There are stages that pass and you miss them. I can’t say I will miss diapers, even for a moment. A huge grin comes to my face when thinking about how close we are.
Paul has been accident free for several days now. He is proficient at taking his underwear down and climbs up on the potty like a pro. My boy is growing up and I couldn’t be more happy!
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Birthday Party Madness
January 31, 2010
Weeks can go by without a mention of a classmate’s birthday party and then, without warning, we have back to back parties on both weekend days. It can be draining. For me and for the children.
We haven’t had a weekend without back to back parties in 3 weeks. that means we haven’t had a lazy pajama day on a weekend. 
We love having fun at the parties and celebrating so we can’t skip any.
Who knew with 4 kids you would have such a busy time with the parties. I sure didn’t anticipate this and Paul isn’t even in school yet. I would have to say keeping Annie and Kimberly in the same class is a good idea in order to not have more parties to attend.
I don’t want to seem like we don’t enjoy the parties, or love celebrating each friend’s day—we certainly do. Which is why we accept the invitation, pick a gift for the special child and attend the party. I am glad the children are so well liked by their peers.
I am sure the parties will ease up sometime soon, or at least I hope they will.
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Father Daughter Dance
January 29, 2010
Tonight was the Girl Scout Father Daughter Dance. Annie and Kimberly were so excited for the dance. They have been talking about it all week.
I bought them new dresses for the event the other day. Kimberly approved of her dress by saying that it was good and twirly.
Annie loved her dress and said it was the perfect color of pink.
When Daddy came down the staircase from getting dressed Kimberly and Annie exclaimed that Prince Charming had come. It was so cute and adorable. This adoring nature will only last so long so it is best to soak it up now.
Where did those two little babies go? Somebody around here is getting old and it certainly isn’t me, must be them!
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100th Day
January 27, 2010
Today was the 100th day of Kindergarten for Annie and Kimberly. They had to make a shirt with 100 things on it. Kimberly’s shirt had 100 pieces of fabric fused to it. Annie had 50 pieces of fabric and 50 buttons hot glued on.
They were excited to celebrate the day at school and had tons of fun.
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Mr. Mature
January 26, 2010
Paul has been doing really well with his potty training and has fallen in love with wearing his Thomas underwear. He is almost perfect with potty training as long as you don’t put a diaper on him. If you put a diaper on him he assumes all bets are off and pees at will.
He also has finally decided to be responsible about coloring on the marker board in the kitchen. Before this he would sneak the markers away from his sisters and color on the walls or furniture. I am so glad he can enjoy this now. He loves drawing. Today he drew a picture of Daddy.
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Fancy Free Skirt Tutorial
January 25, 2010
This is my first tutorial so please bear with me. If something is confusing leave a comment and I will try to clarify.
First thing you need to do is pick 3 fabrics to make the skirt out of.
You will not be able to use fat quarters on this skirt because you will need the width of the fabric to make it.
For the top piece you will need to fold the fabric and cut 13″ of the width of the fabric. The measurements are for a 5T, if you want to make a larger size I would increase it on this layer.
Fold the fabric in half that you intend to use for the middle pleated layer. Cut 2 pieces 4″ wide.
Fold the bottom layer fabric in half and cut 7″ wide.
Sew the two pieces of the pleat layer together making one very long piece 4″ wide. Fold this layer over and iron. Begin folding pleats. I made mine 4″ long.
Pin the pleats and baste together. Set aside.
Iron bottom layer in half.
Lay the top part of the skirt face up. Layer the pleated layer making sure the raw edge lines up with the edge.
Place the bottom layer on top matching the raw edges. Pin into place and sew. I sew this with an overlocking stitch, but you can use a straight stitch.
Cut on each edge to cut off selvedge and to even up.
Iron open making sure the seam allowance is ironed toward the top piece.
Fold skirt in half and sew. Again, I use a overlock stitch here but you could use a straight stitch.
Fold and iron on top edge. First at 1/4″ and then again at 1 1/2″.
Sew ironed edge making sure to leave a 2″ gap to thread elastic through.
Pick out a coordinating ric rac or ribbon. Sew it on the skirt just over the pleated layer making sure to sew down the seam allowance.
Measure elastic to the size that would be comfortable for your child. Insert elastic through the waistband using a safety pin to pull it through. Sew elastic together once you have it threaded through. Close 2″ gap in waistband.
Enjoy your cute skirt!
Be careful though, they are so easy to make you will make a lot of them.
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Bingo!
I have been going to Bingo at Fort McDowell Casino for about 10 years now. I don’t go very often, maybe 3 times a year. It is a fun night out and since I never win I just enjoy the time out.
I couldn’t believe it on the first game when the first 3 numbers set me up to win. I told Steph I would probably not hear that number this entire game. I was stunned when the next number out was was the number I needed. It was bound to happen sometime. It was only $100 jackpot but it was fun to win.
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Can’t you tell us apart
January 24, 2010
Today Bill and I were trying to pick through our memory to figure out which child something happened to. We had narrowed it down to either Annie or Kimberly. When they were such tiny babies we didn’t get a lot of sleep and neither of us have much of a memory of those first months with them.
Annie was trying to help us figure it out and she said, “did the baby have brown or yellow hair?” Bill and I couldn’t help but laugh. If we knew that we could figure out which baby it was. She certainly keeps up laughing.
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Real pigtails
January 21, 2010
Back in 2007 Mimi finally had enough hair to put her hair up in tiny pigtails. Today she finally had enough hair to do it up in “real” pigtails. She was so delighted. I couldn’t help but smile each time I saw her today. She is so cute!!!!!
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No TV day
January 20, 2010
Lately the kids have been getting into the habit of watching too much television. (Yes, I realize that 1-2 hours of TV is not a lot to the rest of the world but to me it is.) Paul has gotten so attached to TV that he doesn’t even play choo choo trains. He just wants to watch movie after movie.
I thought a no TV day would be good for the family. I was right it was just what we needed for them to realize that they can do other things.
The Girls spent the afternoon playing imaginary games, creating art projects and had no problem with the fact that I had placed this limit on them. Paul on the hand was a wreck the entire day. He wanted so desperately to watch a movie. He cried, threw tantrums, and basically punished me all day for putting this limit on him. I didn’t play his beloved Wiggles DVD but we did listen to the CD in the car. Still he was not happy. I can see that this will be a struggle for him, he loves TV.
Tomorrow we will watch some TV. I can only imagine how excited Paul will be.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Last week Annie and Kimberly studied about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in school. They learned about the horrible facts of racism in America. When they came home they were horrified.
As soon as Kimberly started to tell me what she learned she got big tears in her eyes. She said, “and my little bro Paulie wouldn’t have had the same things as us.” “Mom, he would have to use dirty bathrooms and not ride on buses.” “He couldn’t go places we can.” She was hurt by the facts. I was hurt by the facts and the pain in her face.
Annie chimed in to tell me similar stories and was so choked up that she gave Paul a long hug. She wanted to know why people would do this in the first place. I took her in my arms and told her I didn’t have an answer. I cannot imagine thinking any different of any human based on the color of their skin. She shook her head and walked away.
They were so thankful to Dr. King for making all things possible for their brother. I too find myself in awe of his dreams of freedom for all people. She said she wanted to be like him and I just smiled. He had a dream and he made his life work achieving it. I can’t think of a better role model for my daughter.
A wise woman wrote this on her facebook status on Monday:
Thanks to the impossible dreams of giants before me, my dream of a family is now my reality. ~ Jill Catlett
Dr. King was born in 1929 in Georgia. He dreamed of a reality that seemed beyond possible, yet he achieved it. I hope my children will be filled with this sort of determination, whether it be for worldly ideas like Dr. King’s or meaningful personal goals like creating their family. The greatest of things come from the greatest trials.
sandi > Annie, Kimberly, Thoughts | Comments (0)
Craft Hope for Haiti
January 19, 2010
If you love to shop etsy.com and love to help out others in need this is a wonderful time to do both. Craft Hope is donating all proceeds from sales on their etsy site to Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.
If you have are crafty and want to donate something you can contact them as well. Such a wonderful cause.
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Snow Trip #2
January 18, 2010
The last time we went on a snow trip we didn’t know what the day would someday mean to us. This photo was taken of our family December 9, 2007 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
That is us on the day Paul was born half a world away. So going to the snow again was exciting. This time we would bring Paul and it would be his first experience.
We had such fun!
Early on in the week they were predicting snow up North so we decided to book a hotel room for the long weekend. We drove up on Sunday morning. As soon as Paul saw the snow out the car windows he said, “Santa Santa ho ho ho” over and over. I guess the only time he has really seen snow has been in Santa/Christmas tv shows. It was so cute. The Girls really got a thrill as we drove into Flagstaff.
We checked into our hotel room and got dressed for the snow.
Paul loved eating the snow. It was his favorite thing. He liked sledding but he loved eating snow.
This is the face he showed me each time I tried to tell him that it wasn’t the best idea to eat the snow.
Madeline was so young the last time we went to the snow, combine that with her breathing issues left over from RSV and she wasn’t able to enjoy the snow as much as the older kids. She loved the snow this time. She loved sledding by herself and she would run the hill as soon as she got down. She made a snow angel and was able to play hard the entire time we were out. She was a pro at making snow balls and throwing them at our family
Annie loves snow. She loves to eat it, this trip she even crawled around on her knees to eat it like a dog. Sledding is fun for Annie. It isn’t hard to see her enthusiasm for it. She goes whole hog into most things and snow is no different. She threw snowballs at us whenever she could. Annie had a great time in the snow. It was a lot of fun to watch her enjoy it.
Kimberly had been predicting all week that there would be snow this weekend. She was right. She loved playing in the snow. With Kimberly you always know she has a list to check off when we go somewhere. She wanted to make a snow angel . . . check. She wanted to build a snowman . . . check.
She wanted to sled . . . check. She wanted to have a snowball fight . . . check. Sadly she didn’t love this one so much when Daddy accidentally hit a snowball to her face. Sled with Paul because as she says “he is just so cute” . . . check. She also came up with the idea to toboggan down on her stomach like penguins do. She would waddle around and then slide down.
We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner. The kids had really worked up an appetite and ate all their dinner and more. We finished dinner and went back to the hotel to cozy up for the night.
This was the first time we tried the Girls in the queen bed. It was an experience. They are not used to sleeping with people, at least not to fall asleep, and it was a bumpy night.
All in all it was wonderful! We had fun and can’t wait until the next time we go. For now we will enjoy our nice warm home and be thankful we don’t have to deal with snow all the time.
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