Summer of Boys.

Today I found out the sex of the final baby that is going to be born this summer...Carol is having a Boy!!!  Carol and Mike are shocked after having 3 girls (4 girls for Mike).  This baby boy will be our 3rd nephew born this summer!  My sister Holly, as well as Robert's son, Paul, will also be having boys.  Apparently, it is a summer full of boys because my cousin, Vanessa, as well as Carol's sister in law, Alyssa, are both expecting boys in July!  What a fun summer!

Well, my baby boy Logan and I had a nice quiet day at home playing.  He seems to be transitioning from 2 naps to 1 nap.  Some days he needs both and other days he fights the second one and just talks for a couple hours in bed.  So, today I decided to try and keep him awake through the morning and then just put him down for 1 long nap after lunch (which is what his brothers do).  He did get fussy around 10, so I had to keep him entertained until lunch.  He then took a 3 1/2 hour nap and was great the rest of the day.  I am not a big fan of these times of transition, because I am a schedule person and like to know when and for how long they are going to nap.  That way I can base my schedule and errands around their naps.  So, I am not sure if I should go ahead and move him to 1 nap a day or just follow his lead which could be different every day.  I guess I will just see how things go over the next couple days. 

Luckily, he seems the most adaptable of my three boys when it comes to his schedule.  This is  probably a result of having to be woken up for the other boys sports, having to nap on the soccer field, and being woken up for showings or put down for naps late after showings.  I guess the third child has no choice but to be adaptable!

Big Buddy Breakfast

Dennis and Colin had a "Big Buddy Breakfast" at Colin's school today.  Basically the kids got to bring their Dads to school for breakfast and then they had some fun playing games with a balloon in the gym.  They both said it was a lot of fun!  It is always nice to get to spend some one on one time with one of the kids.  Evan was sad that he didn't get to take his Daddy to school, so hopefully we can figure something out for Evan and Daddy to do one day.

Well, overall the feedback on the house was good this weekend, 2 of the showings loved the house, but the corner lot is killing us.  It is frustrating that there is nothing we can do about that!  One of the showings have us in their top 3, but unless someone says we are number one, I am not optimistic.  We have been in someones top 3 before and nothing came of it.  We are still waiting to hear on the other showing, which is probably a bad sign, maybe tomorrow we will hear...

Carnival and Evan's Teacher Conference

I don't know if it is the $5,000 price drop on the house or just the fact that a price drop moved our house back up to the top of the MLS, but we actually had 3 showings this weekend.  We have never had more than one showing in a weekend, so we were shocked!  Actually, we were supposed to have 4 showings, but one canceled last minute after deciding that they didn't want our neighborhood.  We haven't really heard much from the showings, which I always take as a bad sign, but Dennis and I don't really get our hopes up anymore anyway.  There is just too much inventory for people to choose from.  Anyway, between trying to keep the house clean and keeping the kids out of the house, I have been too tired to blog the last few days.

The weekend wasn't too eventful, soccer games were cancelled due to the fields being too wet.  We did go to a friends birthday party and we went to our neighborhood spring carnival today.  The boys had fun jumping on the moon bounces, playing games, and eating ice cream.  They also enjoyed getting balloons shaped into a gun and sword (I wasn't too happy about this as I wanted something less violent).  I guess someone must have heard my prayers because Colin's popped within 10 seconds of him getting it and Evan's popped about 2 minutes later!  Of course, both were followed by tears and that is when our trip to the carnival ended.  They both took extra long naps when we got home!

I also wanted to mention that Evan had his parent-teacher conference last Thursday.  I was so proud of him.  His teacher said multiple times "I have no concerns with Evan".  She says he is just great...rarely gets in trouble, plays well with other kids, is doing everything he is supposed to, and answers questions in front of the class.  She also thinks he is a bit advanced compared to the average kid.  Evan also has a friend at school, Connor, who just LOVES Evan.  He always asks his Mom in the morning if it is an "Evan Day" at school (since Evan only goes 3 days a week and he is full time).  Evan's teacher told me that Connor also dresses special for the days Evan will be there.  It is so nice to hear that other kids like your kid and look up to them!

As Evan is getting older him and Colin are definitely getting louder and more active.  Now Evan is able to fight back and instigate things with Colin, which makes things very physical around here.  I think Dennis and I are both worn out from telling them to keep their hands to themselves and to be quiet.  I can not move in to another house fast enough, one that has a large basement!  I am glad that Evan, and Colin too, are at least on their best behavior at school. 

Dig Deeper!

The last couple days have been pretty uneventful.  Between the rain yesterday and someone working on our fence today, we haven't really left the house.  I did a ton of laundry which of course has already accumulated again.  It amazes me every time how quickly it builds back up now that we are a family of five.  Folding laundry with Logan took a whole lot longer, but was a whole lot more fun too! 

I wanted to mention a couple things from the weekend that I forgot to mention...First of all, Colin was one of only two kids from his class whose art work was chosen to be in the Chesterfield Art Festival this weekend.  Unfortunately, with the birthday and family in town we didn't get a chance to check it out, but we were very proud of him.  Evan was also proud of Colin when he was watching him play soccer.  He was cheering for Colin and he said "Go Colin, Dig Deeper!"  "Dig Deeper" is a saying from the Insanity workout videos Dennis and I have been doing, so I was laughing hysterically when I heard him say that.  I guess he has been watching us work out!

Logan 12 Month Well Visit

Logan had his 12 Month checkup at the Pediatrician's today.  Once again the doctor said he was tall and skinny.  However, I was surprised to see that instead of dropping in percentile for height he is back up to 90%,  31 1/4 inches!  He seems to be dropping on the scales for weight though, he was 21 lbs (almost 25%).  So, he is taller and skinnier than last time.  I was told I need to try and get more calories in him.  Of course the head remains large (95%).

Logan has been sleeping in later the last few days, I am not sure if that is because I stopped nursing or if it is just coincidence.  Maybe he is sleeping in longer in preparation for dropping one of his naps?  He slept until after 7 again today.  As a result, I put him down a little later for his morning nap which resulted in me having to wake him up to go to his doctors appointment.  Short nap along with the appointment going through what should have been lunch time made for a cranky baby.  He wasn't too happy every time I laid him down on the table for the doctor to look at him.  Overall, he is a healthy and doing everything he is supposed to be doing. 

Logan's Party!

Today when I took the boys outside to play, Evan said "It sure is a nice day." .  He was right it was a nice day and a nice weekend too!

Saturday after soccer games we had Logan's birthday party.  We did a monkey and banana theme which turned out fun.  The kids had fun making paper monkeys and racing balancing bananas on wooden spoons.  We chose to "just" invite family, since the house is on the market and we didn't know if we would have to change the time last minute.  Well, I am glad we stuck to just family because it was a full house.  My parents have 10 grandchildren (plus 2 more on the way), add that to all my siblings, their spouses, my parents, Miranda, Dennis' Mom and Robert and we had lots of people to help celebrate the big day.  Of course all the kids made the house very loud and very messy (which I tried to not get too stressed about but probably failed). 

Logan didn't get an afternoon nap (he just talked and talked in his bed for about 2 hours), so he got a little tired and clingy and one part, but after he had his evening milk he was laughing and having a blast.  He seemed to really enjoy his cake and was smiling and laughing while he ate.  He also really enjoyed his gifts and actually played with them instead of the wrapping paper.

After the party, we watched the VCU final 4 basketball game and then played Catan with my parents, Julie, and Phil who all stayed the night.  I guess Logan was exhausted from his big day because he didn't get up until 7:45am this morning!!! 

Today I enjoyed church with my parents and then Evan and I played on the church playground while Colin went to church class.  I asked Evan what he learned during the children's liturgy and he said "God was very mean and than he wasn't.  He put mud on a guys face and eyes and then he washed it off and the guy could see."  I tried to explain that it was Jesus and that he wasn't being mean he was helping the blind man to see, but I don't think Evan believed me.

Dennis spent the entire day today power washing the fence in preparation for it being stained tomorrow.  I spent a lot of the day putting the inside of the house back in order.  And Logan has been playing with his birthday presents all day! 

Brother Bonding

Colin was off school today for a teacher workday.  Unfortunately, the weather was gloomy again, limiting our ability to get out of the house.  So after a morning of hearing Colin and Evan play, argue, play, argue, play argue, etc...I let them run around outside not even caring that it was still wet outside and they would be a mess when they were done playing.  They didn't seem to care either, they had a blast outside as always.  Logan was forced to stay indoors with me so he watched and laughed from the door....

After that Colin and Evan made books.  It is pretty cute that both boys books were about their brother.  Their pages said stuff like, "I play soccer with my brother and I play football with my brother."  I am really glad they have each other to play with even if it does come with some very annoying arguing too. 

While they were busy playing, I got a few last minute birthday party preparations done for Logan's birthday party tomorrow.  We are looking forward to family coming in town to celebrate!!!