Logan's Haircut and Self Esteem...

When Colin was little he cried for every haircut until he was about 2 1/2 or so.  I don't think Evan cried once.  Logan so far is taking after Colin.  Today he had his second hair cut and I really thought that since he has outgrown a lot of his separation anxiety that he would sit calmly and smile while he got his haircut.  Nope, he cried and cried and cried.  We tried putting a show on and we tried to get him all excited about sitting in the "special" car, but he just kept arching his back so I couldn't even get him in his seat.  Finally, I just sat him in my lap, but he continued to scream through the whole thing.  I don't know how the poor lady was able to still do a decent job, but he is looking pretty darn handsome if I do say so myself....

And if you were wondering, he cheered right up once he was done and got to have a balloon.

In a completely unrelated topic...today a friend posted on face book a wonderful link to a blog post that a single dad had written about not yelling at your children and making them feel small.  This post really got me thinking for a lot of today and I just had to write about it.  See since even before I had kids I always felt that one of, if not the, most important things you can give your kids is self esteem.  I always felt that so many of the poor choices kids make, and adults too, is the result of poor self esteem.  Unfortunately, a lot of parents out there don't realize the amount of power they have to hurt their children.  And how is a kid to have good self esteem if even their parents, who are supposed to love them the most, put them down.

Having children has just reinforced to me how much importance parents have in shaping their children's lives.  Kids really do listen and watch everything we say and do and mimic us.  I don't want to be a parent that yells at their kids all the time.  I don't want a house of yelling.  Because, if I yell at my kids then they will start yelling at each other and soon the whole house is communicating by yelling.  I have been in homes like this and I don't get it.

I also don't want to EVER, not even once, put my kids down.  I don't understand how some parents can say the things they say to their own children.  Whether young or old, those are your kids.  Why would you ever want them to feel unappreciated, unloved or just down on themselves.  I could probably write a whole essay on this but I will keep it simple and say that I hope my kids know how much we love them.  No matter what.  And we will continue to try hard not to take our anger out on them or make them feel small.  And if my kids read this years down the road, I hope they are proud.

A Fun Friday

Colin's school allows parents to come any day and have lunch with their kids.  Knowing that I should be receiving my PT license in the next couple weeks, and will start sending out my resume, I wanted to take advantage of being home and getting to have lunch at Colin's school.  So, I surprised Colin with a chocolate milkshake and met him and his class for lunch.

It is always fun to see how Colin interacts with the other kids at school.  The boys all sat on one end of the table and the girls at the other.  The girls were chatting the whole time while the boys just sat and ate their food with only the occasional comment.  They were surprisingly quiet.

This evening we were invited over to Dennis' coworkers house, who lives in our neighborhood, for pizza.  They have been very welcoming to our family over the last couple months.  The older boys spent most of the time in their basement, playing Wii, while Logan and the adults hung out upstairs.  The couple couldn't get over how Logan ate 3 pieces of pizza (more than all 4 of the other kids)!  I brought an awesome oreo brownie dessert which was a big hit too!   We then walked back home in the freezing cold.  It has been dropping some nights in to the 30's already!  And the wind they get here makes it feel even colder.  Despite the weather, it was a great Friday

Logan is 18 Months And Evan's Special Day!

Logan turned 18 months old today!  At 18 months Logan is turning out more and more like his big brother, Evan.  They are two peas in a pod.  The two of them wake up super happy and rearing to go.  Unlike big brother Colin, who needs a few minutes to wake up.  Logan still goes to bed very easily.  You just have to lay him down and give him his lovey and he sucks his thumb and goes to sleep.  He is sleeping from about 7:45m to anywhere between 6 and 7 in the morning.  He also usually takes one nap from about 12:45 to 3pm (occasionally longer).  At times he is still tired in the morning and might take a morning nap with a short afternoon one.

Logan is talking a little.  He says "What's this?", Daddy, Ma Ma, bye bye and yes.  He also tries to say shoe and night night.  

He is often very laid back and entertains himself well.  However, when he wants something he will let you know.  He can still be dramatic at times, throwing himself down on the ground when he is upset or crying until he gets his way.  But, once he gets what he wants (which is usually food), he is right back to being happy.  He is a pretty good eater and has just a few things that he doesn't like.  Usually, he eats the fruits and vegetables and it is the pasta or something like that that he wont eat.   Many times he clears his plate and has seconds or thirds.  He especially loves yogurt, cooked carrots, and grapes (and most other fruit).  He also LOVES ketchup and will lick it all up!

Logan seems to be enjoying school.  He doesn't cry at all when Dennis drops him off now and even goes right in and starts looking around for what to play with.  When I pick him up he gives his teachers hugs and kisses goodbye.

He enjoys playing in the basement with his brothers.  As soon as they head down there he runs to me with his shoes, so I will put them on him and take him down to join his brothers.  He likes to dance when we put on music and also likes to ride his cars outside.

He doesn't have another doctors appointment until end of November, so I don't know his stats at this time.  But, time is going by quickly and my baby is getting bigger...

Most Thursdays I get to spend with both Evan and Logan.  However, because Logan missed a day of school last week due to doctors appointments, they allowed us to bring him today to make up the day (since we had already paid for it).

That left just Evan and I for the whole day.  Since I rarely have Evan all to myself, we made it a fun day.  I took him out for lunch and then we went to see The Lion King movie.  Evan really loved the movie.  When it was over he said "That was awesome, do you know what my favorite part was? It was the fighting part".  He went on to talk about the movie the entire way home.

I was glad to spend some time with my middle child.  Being a middle child myself I know how much he probably appreciates some alone time with his Mommy or Daddy.

This evening I went out for my ladies Bunco night.  It was fun to get to know a few more neighbors and I can tell I will look forward to these nights once a month.  

Last Football Game.

Well, another quick kids sports season has come to an end.  Colin finished his last flag football game on a good note.  The coach tried to give each player a chance to be quarterback and do a keeper.  When it was Colin's turn he did a great maybe 50 yard run, weaving all around and going from one side of the field all the way to the other.  I had a couple different parents comment to me that he was fast.  Colin's team had a big win and he was excited to get a huge football cookie from one of the parents.

The rest of the day Dennis and I took turns running errands and Dennis put a couple more things up on the walls.  Then of course we enjoyed watching the Virginia Tech game and having a game friendly dinner of nachos!  Sprinkled in between all that was some outside play time...

Oh and so when I look back on this in 30 years and want to remember what a silly Evan I had...Evan says he is not getting married or having kids because he wants to live alone so he can have a dog, a cat and a fish.  Dennis and I tried to explain he could have all the above, but he wasn't buying it.  Dennis also asked what about a pig, to which Evan responded, "No, then I would have to buy mud!"  Well, what about a cow?  "Nope, they need too much milk!"

Well, I am hoping he comes around one day and gives me some grandbabies, but if not, Colin still says he is going to have 100 babies, so I think we will be covered!

Logan Visit With ENT and Family Fun Night...

I took Logan back to the doctors office on Thursday to see if the antibiotic he was taking for an ear infection worked.  Unfortunately, just like his previous ear infection in February, it did not work and he had to get a shot yesterday and today.  Poor thing, 4 total shots of antibiotics in 2 days and it is supposed to be a painful one.  He slept a lot today!  We also had to see an ENT today because his pediatrician was concerned that both ear infections needed a shot to clear and she was worried about speech delays/hearing loss.  The ENT says it is too soon to worry about tubes and that his hearing should be fine since fluid is only on one side.  So, we are going to follow back up in 2 months and go from there.

Logan was a great patient!  He was very calm until the shots of course, though he bounced back quickly.  Evan was with me for yesterdays visit and he was too scared to be in the room when Logan got his shots (he didn't want to hear him cry), so another nurse took him out of the room until we were done.

Tonight we had a family fun night at Colin's school.  We ate pizza, the kids did crafts and then we all watched a Mad Science Show.  Colin and Evan seemed to enjoy the show and Logan enjoyed just strutting around in front of us being silly, but very good.

Mommy's Birthday!

My birthday was spent just like probably a lot of Mom's birthdays....cleaning, laundry, and shopping.  It also poured all day!  Not the most exciting day ever, but hey nothing too exciting about turning 33 either.  At some point birthdays became about getting older instead of something to celebrate.  While I am happy for all that I have, I wouldn't have minded if time had just stopped at age 30.

Dennis did help to make the evening nice by picking up sushi for dinner, so I at least didn't have to cook.  By the way, Evan wanted sushi instead of left over chicken pot pie!   He ate 2 California rolls, which is pretty good for him since he doesn't tend to eat much dinner.  Dennis also got me a new kindle, since mine broke a month or two ago.

I must say Facebook sure has made birthdays fun.  It was so nice to get so many "Happy Birthday" comments on my Facebook wall.  Sure makes me feel loved and happy to have wonderful family and friends.

Today is my Mom and Miranda's birthday.  So Happy Birthday to Grammy and Miranda.  I was sad to miss out Miranda's party on Sunday and all my siblings and my parents getting together this evening for my Mom's.  It stinks that my boys are going to miss out on all the birthday parties while we are living so far away.

Waiting for Colin to get off the bus...

Just Me And The Boys

Dennis was out of town for his cousin Austin's wedding.  So, that left me and the 3 boys alone for 3 days.   The boys and I had a fun time going to Colin's football game (he made the extra point playing running back), the candy store (Colin got some free candy for making player of the game last week), and spending lots and lots of time playing outside with their friends.

On Saturday, after about an hour of playing outside, Evan said he had a headache and needed to go home and "rest his brain".  Since he had a concussion Thursday night, this may or may not have been true.  Also, later that day he asked if he could play on the computer now and I said "No, the doctor says you have to rest your brain, no computer for a week.".  So, he went to the couch laid down for about 10 minutes and then said "I rested my brain, now can I play computer?"  Poor thing!

Sunday, was Religious Education class for Colin.  So, Evan, Logan and I went to church while Colin was in class.  Up to this point I had been leaving the younger boys at home while I went to Church.  But, with Dennis out of town I decided to try and bring them along.  Evan did awesome!  Logan is at a difficult age for church because he wont just lay in my arms anymore he wants to be up and about.  He is also becoming much more social.  He was showing everyone around us his cup and book.  One lady even was turning the pages of his book for him at one point.  But, luckily he was fairly quiet.  That said, I don't think I will try that again any time soon, or at least I will put him in the nursery next time.

Speaking of Logan being more outgoing...as a baby he was pretty attached to me.  He seems to be outgrowing that.  When Colin was a baby the pediatrician said from 9-18 months is when separation anxiety is worst.  Sure enough by 18 months Colin had pretty much outgrown it and Logan is 17 months and seems to have too.  He now doesn't cry at all when we drop him off at daycare and he gives his teachers hugs when we leave.  He has become very independent (and strong willed), and really spends most of his time playing nicely by himself or trying to mimic his older brothers.  I think I have also been replaced by his lovey.  When I pick him up from daycare instead of running to me and hugging me like he used to, he runs to his cubby and starts pointing at his bag so I will get his lovey out.   I have been trying to keep the lovey just in his bed for naps and bed time and not letting him walk around the house, with the hopes he won't get too attached.  He is really the first of my boys to become attached to a security blanket.

Anyway, after church we met up at the park with a friend for a play date.  Then after naps, the boys played with neighbors again.

It was nice weekend with my boys, but we were happy to see Dennis get home too.  He has been working pretty hard at work.  That combined with the longer commute he has in Indiana, makes it feel like he really hasn't been around all that much.

This was actually from last weekend, but it was a good one!