Friday, May 30, 2008

Progress

We received our adoption assistance paperwork in the mail yesterday for both Baylee & Caleb, which means now we can petition for their adoptions. It has only been a little over 2 months since that paperwork was sent to the state... obviously it was not at the top of their priority list.

Don't get too excited, though. It will still probably be several months before we actually get a court date. Once we file the petition, there is something else that has to be sent to the state before we can even get a court date. But, at least we are moving forward.

I don't worry too much about it since we know we get to keep them, but it would be nice to actually get to make legal decisions for them and to not have to remember their legal names whenever we go to the doctor or court. (Right now, I don't even have Caleb's medical insurance card, the carrier won't send it to me because I am not his legal guardian. I'm just the one who actually takes him to the doctor and the one who has to sign the forms at the doctor. Luckily, the clinic was able to get the information they needed, but, still, it would be nice to have it myself.)

Maybe we can even get their adoptions finalized by the end of the year. (But I wouldn't hold your breath).

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Biology

Of my 5 children, 2 are biologically mine & my husbands. The other 3 all have the same biological mother and different biological fathers.

In the past I never really gave much thought to any sort of bond between biological siblings. I just kind of thought that when you grow up in the same house together, you usually end up being fairly close to each other & acting a lot like each other. And, honestly, with my 2 oldest boys, I never really looked for signs that there was any sort of special bond, other than brothers living in the same house, and sharing the same bedroom, for that matter. But now that we have our youngest 3 children who are not biologically related to the oldest 2, or to my husband & I for that matter, I have to admit, there just might be something biological that gives us a closer bond than just growing up together. Then again, maybe I'm just imagining it, who knows?

Some things I expected, they all have the same nose, and the same belly laugh, I think their smiles are pretty similar, too. Amata & Caleb have the same big brown eyes (Baylee does not have the Hispanic genes in her, so she's got blue eyes). So far, Caleb seems to have a knack for getting into trouble, just like Amata. Baylee is young enough that she doesn't really get into trouble, unless you count her constantly trying to go down the stairs by herself.

But some things I didn't expect. When Caleb was just starting to laugh, we had to work so hard trying to get laughs out of that boy! I dang near broke a sweat sometimes. Amata on the other hand, could run in a circle 10 feet away from him and he would laugh so hard, a deep belly laugh. It is the same way with Baylee. We can get her to laugh if we are tickling her or something like that, but for Caleb & Amata she will laugh just looking at them. Caleb can be almost sitting on her, which I don't think could feel that great, and she will just start laughing.

I'm just saying, it's not fair! Chris & I are the ones getting up in the middle of the night and changing the mountain of dirty diapers. Would it kill them to laugh that easily for us?

It certainly doesn't make me love any of them more or less, it's just something I thought was interesting.

Rachel's Challenge

Since I shared the attitude my 12 year old has at times, I feel it is only fair to share his good days, too. Tyler brought a slip home from school yesterday stating that he would be going bowling this afternoon.

Our middle school has accepted Rachel's Challenge. As part of that, several students & teachers have certificates to give out when they catch a student being respectful or responsible, or basically being a good role model. Once they give out the certificate, that person gets a treat & entered into a drawing to go bowling. That person is also then given the certificate to pass onto to somebody they catch being a good role model. The idea is that you never know who has the certificates, so hopefully the students will try to be respectful all of the time.

Tyler said a teacher gave him the certificate because he was helping another student with his homework. I'm not sure when he was actually given the certificate, but they had the drawing earlier this week & his name was drawn to go on the bowling trip. Nice job, Tyler!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Picture Time

I took my 3 youngest to Sears yesterday to get their pictures taken. Amata just turned 3, Caleb is 1 1/2 & Baylee is 8 months. I usually try to take a day off so that I can have their pictures done on a weekday when it is less busy. But this also means I have to take them all by myself.

Amata went first, she'd the easiest one. She loves to see pictures of herself and is usually very smiley when there is a camera around. Although, she also gets pretty wiggly, too. I try to limit myself to only purchasing 2 different poses of each child, because with 5 it can get spendy!


This picture was probably my favorite, except for the fact that she looks way older than 3 years old! She's even got the mussed hair!


Baylee went next, and she did fine, but she was pretty stingy with her smiles.

This one was by far the best smile of the day.


I just liked her expression on this one.


Caleb went last, hoping that he would have warmed up a little by then. The last time we got his pictures done I had to bring him back a second time because he was having NONE of that! The second time around started out pretty iffy. After a couple of minutes the girl suggested that maybe we should let the other appointment go first and see if he's better after that. I also brought one of his balls, because the best way to make Caleb like you is to play catch with him.

So, this time, I remembered to bring a ball, and I let them know from the beginning that he should go last. He wasn't great, but at least I got a couple of cute pictures from him. She pretty much had to be ready to take the picture & I would try to get him to go onto the background.

That's why she had to put his name on this one - to fill up that side of the picture because he was standing so far to the side.



This one wasn't too bad, I thought. I'm pretty sure this is a full body one they cropped.


I wasn't planning to take a picture of just the 3 of them, but the girls were willing to give it a try. The smiles are pretty iffy, but I still thought it was cute. Can you tell it was the last picture of the day?


Sunday, May 25, 2008

Can we say attitude

Tyler is 12, almost 12 1/2 which officially makes him a "pre-teen", and the attitude that boy has had lately does not make me look forward to the teenage years!

I should preface this by saying that when Tyler is with other people he is a very nice young man. In fact, I was working the City Wide clean up last weekend and one of his teachers made it a point to tell me how much he enjoyed having Tyler in his class. In our schools, they use steps for discipline. You start with one step, which is basically just a warning for everything from talking in class to forgetting to have your planner signed, and it goes up to steps 5 or 6 which lead to detention, suspension, etc. Last year, the only step Tyler had all year was given to him on the first day of school by a teacher who wanted to set a precedent because some of Tyler's friends had been talking in class. This year, his only step was from forgetting to have a math test signed. So, really, I'm not exaggerating when I say he can be a nice boy.

Maybe that is why he can be so irritating with us, maybe that's how he's able to be so nice in school. Yesterday, on our way home (maybe not "on the way" but in the general area) we decided to go to the outlet mall because both the boys think they want to buy themselves a leather coat, and I had told them I would buy them an outfit at Old Navy. (I kind of wanted to stop at Liz Claiborne, too, but the babies had had enough by then)

Wilson's Leather didn't have any coats their size, so that was a bust, but we did still make it to Old Navy. In addition to the shorts & shirt each of the boys picked out, I also got them each a pair of jean's that were on clearance for only $8, and Tyler also got some flip flops since he didn't have any yet, this year.

From there we went for lunch. I had mentioned the other night that I thought we'd been eating out a little too often, and not at very healthy places, so we decided to go to Subway since we still had about an hours drive home, and waiting to eat there wasn't an option. Tyler had said he wanted McDonalds, and so when we pulled into Subway, he started pouting. First, he claimed he didn't like Subway anymore (like his taste buds changed within the last month), then it was that they didn't fill him up (they had $5 foot longs, and if he would get anything more than meat & cheese on his sandwich, it might be more filling!) I was pretty tired of his sulking by the time we were done, so I decided to eat the cookie I had gotten for him because I'm mature like that, and because I like their cookies. (He didn't even know I had gotten the cookies, so it was not as mean as it sounds, it just made me feel better.)

On our way home, we had mentioned to him that maybe he should see if he could mow our neighbors lawn. He's older and his health has not been real great, lately. But Tyler had a million excuses why he didn't want to do that. He plopped himself on the couch, and other than trying on his new clothes, he didn't do much else. Chris made a list of chores that needed to get done, but he didn't do those because, "Cameron took all of the easy ones".

Chris made steaks for dinner, and because as I may have mentioned before, our boys are kind of picky eaters, they "don't like steak", although I really don't know the last time they tried it. Since Cameron had done several chores and had not complained at all during the day, Chris gave him a "free pass" for dinner, letting him just eat chips & cheese and not losing his TV. Tyler also didn't eat the steak, but he couldn't understand why Cameron got a free pass and he didn't. He said if he would have known that would happen, he would have had a better day. We tried to explain to him again why Cameron was let off the hook, but with Tyler, once he decides that something is unfair, he refuses to listen to any explanation. (I did even try to explain that that's why you should just be nice & helpful all the time, because you just never know when there will be a reward, but he wasn't listening to that either.)

After having to hear him whine for at least 10 minutes, he was told to pick up the living room. He said, "why, I didn't even do anything." I said, "that's exactly why you have to, because you haven't done any thing at all today." He really is a pretty smart boy (at least book smart) which is why I don't get why he cannot understand simple English!!

P.S. Mom, wipe that smile off your face - I thought you were more mature than to want me to have a child that acts like I did at his age!

Camping Fun

We decided to stay at our camper this weekend, the first time this season. We decided to get a seasonal site this year, hoping that we'd use it more than last year if we didn't have to get it set up & take it down every time we wanted to go. Plus, when we did tow it last year, we got about 6 miles a gallon....and with gas prices at almost $4 a gallon already, who can afford to tow a camper!

Luckily, when we bought this camper, we were thinking ahead. Although we didn't think we would have 5 children at the time we bought it, we did want to have enough room for more foster children or so that the boys could bring a friend sometimes. Little did we know that this camper that technically sleeps 9 (7 comfortably) would barely be big enough for all of us!

We did have a good time, though. And hopefully, we'll camp enough this year that the babies will get used to sleeping in it. Last night was OK, but both Caleb & Baylee woke up a couple of times.

There is a river not too far from our camp site, which the kids enjoyed walking to & skipping rocks. Amata threw a bunch of sticks in for the crocodile that she decided lives in the river. I wasn't aware that crocodiles lived in any rivers in Minnesota, maybe Amata knows something I don't! Because she is certain there is one in that river.

Caleb just liked the being outside part of camping. Hopefully it will be warm enough to use the pool next time we go. And hopefully they will have the baby pool filled by then, since that was a big reason I wanted to stay at this campground! Swimming is not as much fun when all you do is walk around carrying babies. Amata & Caleb will have much more fun if they can actually walk & play in the baby pool.

It was supposed to storm this afternoon & evening, so one night was all we spent there. Now we can spend tomorrow cleaning this house...it gets pretty bad in the summer when there is so much to do outside.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

You've heard of the pregnant man...

Now meet the pregnant boy...



I guess he also decided to have butt implants.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

They still keep calling...

Even though we have put our phone number on the do not call list, we still seem to get a lot of unwanted calls. And since my husband runs a daycare out of our home, simply not answering calls that show up as "unavailable" on the caller ID is not an option.

Chris will get several telemarketing calls during the day, and they just don't get a clue when we hang up on them, so he has started giving the phone to Amata when whey call. She loves it! What I cannot believe is how long these people will stay on the line. One guy stayed on with her for almost 5 minutes! He kept asking if he could talk to her mommy and she kept changing the subject, usually to one of her many boo-boos.

Today, while I was home for lunch, a call came in that said it was from Ontario....I don't think we know anybody from there. Amata talked to them for about a minute or so. Her side of the conversation went something like this:

Hi.
What-cha doin?
I got a owie on my arm.
Why she said be quiet? (laughing)
My baby Baylee is crying.
I'm gonna play outside with my friends later.
Why she said be quiet? (laughing)
Bye.
Mommy, you want to say bye?
I'm gonna hang up now.

It might be mean, but I just really don't understand why they stay on the line so long with her. We've listened on another phone before & they will ask her questions and everything. You would think they would figure out by now that if I want a better interest rate or credit insurance, or whatever else they are offering, I'll call them...don't call me. I don't buy anything over the phone.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Way Too Often

I've mentioned before that we live in a pretty small town, so when I'm in town, it doesn't faze me at all when people remember me. I'm on a first name basis with the nurses, doctors & receptionists at the clinic in town...I've been there at least 6 times so far this year, 3 times in the last month & a half, for check ups.

But, when we need to go to urgent care for after hours things, we have to drive to Albert Lea which is about 20-25 minutes away, and has a population of over 10,000 people. There are times when I go to Albert Lea & people do remember me, but that is usually because those people are from my town. Although, I admit the owners of the 2 consignment stores there do remember me...but I have 5 kids, so I shop there a lot!

On Sunday, I decided to take Baylee into urgent care, she had goopy eyes. It didn't look like pink eye, so I figured it was a cold in her eyes since she did also have a runny nose. But she didn't sleep very well Saturday night, so I wanted to have her ears checked - I just hate ear infections at night. So, I went to the front desk and said I wanted to have Baylee checked. When she asked for her name I had to think for a minute, since I don't use her legal name very often. The nurse then looked at me & said, "Oh, that's right, your a foster parent, I remember you."

I think that might be a sign that I am there just a little too often!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Belated Happy Mother's Day

I'm a little behind, but to all to all of the mom's out there, I hope you had a great day!

I had a very nice mother’s day. I got to sleep in, even though Chris didn’t get to sleep in on his day (Saturday) due to the garage sale, and a little boy screaming at the top of his lungs around 6:15.

Then the kids wanted me to opened gifts right away. The boys always do such a nice job! Cameron picked out earrings for me, and Tyler picked out some flip flops for camping this summer. The babies got me a new key fob for my truck. (You don’t realize how nice they are until yours goes out for a month & you have to unlock the doors with an actual key while carrying a baby or two.) Chris also got me a new mother’s ring, since we are officially done. Completely. No matter what! 5 children, a daycare and a full time job are all that we can handle. We’ve probably bitten off a little more than we can chew at this point…my house is filthy! We’re thinking about getting a maid it is so filthy! But that’s a whole other story. I really like the ring, and wanted to post a picture of it, but no matter what I try, it always seems to end up blurry, so you'll just have to trust me that it is very pretty.

We decided to go to Mankato and I was planning to go to Red Lobster. But at 1:30 they were still saying it would be an hour & a half wait. So we ended up at Chinese buffet, which I usually like, but when I was hungry for Red Lobster…you know.

After that Baylee & I went to Sam’s Club & Wal Mart for groceries while Chris & the other kids went to get a new front door. Very exciting, isn’t it?! The boys did help me to unload the truckload of snacks & frozen goods from Sam's when I got home, I don't even think they complained about it...that must have been their final Mother's Day gift.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Be careful what you wish for

Trish – thanks for your comments. We are working on baby signs with Caleb, and we will do them with Baylee, too, but unfortunately, our reason for doing them with Caleb is our of necessity.

I may have mentioned before that Amata is a tad bit hyper. She can also talk non-stop. If she is not talking she is singing, and if she is not doing either, you better go check on her because she is probably getting into trouble. I realize that she is female, but even so, she talks a lot! I have thought once or twice that it would be nice to have a child that maybe didn’t talk quite so much.

Caleb does not talk at all. He understands what you tell him. For example, if you tell him to throw something in the garbage he will. If you tell him to throw something in the laundry he will. If you tell him no, he will at least pause for a moment. But as of right now, he does not say ANY words. Not even mommy, daddy, or bye-bye. He will wave good-bye, but he won’t say it. And, actually, he really doesn’t even have any consonant sounds that he uses on a regular basis.

As much as we hope that he doesn’t have fetal alcohol syndrome, the fact is we know that his biological mother consumed alcohol when she was pregnant with him, and we know that he has been slightly behind on reaching his milestones.


The school began working with him a couple of months ago and we have seen some improvement already. Currently he knows signs for the words more, bubbles & milk. He has also made up his own sign for good night (to be honest, the sign he uses for "more" is kind of his own version, too, but it's close to the real sign). Also, since they have been working with him we have also heard him say "mo" which I think is because "more" is the sign we’ve been working on the most. Chris said he also heard a B sound from him.

We know he is capable of talking, and that his hearing is fine, so it should be just a matter of time. At least it better be, I just don’t know if I could learn American Sign Language at this point!

The ironic part, though, is that even though our main concern with Caleb is his speech, the person that specifically works with early education language problems is not the one working with Caleb. The problem is that even though he doesn't talk, his receptive language skills were actually a little bit above average, and with her testing, the state requires that overall he be a least 2 levels below average. So even though his speech is 2 levels below, his receptive skills bring the average up too far for him to qualify to work with her. Don't you just love government policies!! Luckily, for the person that does overall early education services, he just had to be low in one area for her to be able to work with him.

I know other children that our school has worked with on their speech, and they do a great job. I'm sure it will be a slow road, but I am confident that with the schools help he will begin talking more. And then I'll probably be wishing for the quieter days again. (LOL)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Bubbles

We've actually had a couple of nice spring days here, finally! Which means it is time for bubbles! This is also an educational tool, as it is one of the signs Caleb is supposed to be working on.
He loves bubbles!
But he is only 1 1/2, so after a few minutes of bubbles he was done with that and was ready to go camping.
Caleb also recently tried his first bubble gum, it was blue, can you tell?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Happy Birthday, Amata Lynn!

It was Amata's birthday on Saturday, and she turned 3. So now I can no longer say that 3 of my children are under 3. Her birthday landed on the city-wide garage sale, so we didn't do cake of gifts until later in the afternoon. We also didn't go out to eat because both Caleb & Baylee were sporting runny noses & watery eyes. So, she had to settle for take out from Dairy Queen.

Chris & the boys had picked out a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for her, but then we discovered we were out of candles(even though I KNOW we had several left after Cameron's birthday). She was not liking having to wait until they got home before we could have cake.


Having to wait to open her presents until they got back was also tough. That was probably the longest 15 minutes of her life!


But finally it was time. She seemed to love all of her gifts.

She enjoyed her new book from Nana. She sat down in her new Tinkerbell chair to read it.


Dolls are always a hit. Notice that she made sure to put her new baby next to her in her new chair before she opened the rest of her gifts.




She was a little upset that it was raining out, and the garage was still full, so she couldn't ride her "icicle" that day.
She was also pretty mad that her brother kept teasing her & trying to ride her "icicle" before she got to.
She did try to ride it a little bit in the house, but it's kind of hard to peddle with heels on!

I think her favorite gifts were the dress up set & shoes. She is female, after all, and she LOVES to wear "pretties".


Tyler like her dress up set, too.

After gifts she enjoyed her cake & ice cream, as did the rest of us.

After that she just played more dress up.

Wake Up Big Brother!

My sisters came down to help with our garage sale last weekend, so the boys both gave up their bedrooms so they could sleep there. Cameron slept downstairs and Tyler opted to sleep upstairs on the couch. I bet he was rethinking that choice at 7 AM. See, Tyler is not usually an early morning type of guy, he's really more of a sleep till noon type.

Caleb is not a sleep in kind of guy, and he feels that anyone who is not sleeping in a room with a closed door is fair game.


It started off innocently enough. Caleb pulled back the blanket and laid down next to Tyler.
And then he pulled the covers back over him. Isn't that cute!


But then Caleb got bored with that and decided it was time for Tyler to get up & play with him.

"Wake up Tyler!"

"I said Wake Up!"

"Fine, if you're not going to get up & play with me, I'm going to take your new Rugby ball that Auntie Marnee brought back from New Zealand!"

Monday, May 12, 2008

Sharing

I love seeing my kids share. It makes you feel good as a parent that they've learned how to share with others.

But sometimes, they share too much.

I guess Caleb thought Baylee must have fallen asleep in her crib because she was bored and didn't have enough toys.


Amata loves to share...especially when it benefits her. If you are eating something she wants, she will say, "I share it with you, mommy."

She has also figured out how to use it to avoid getting into trouble. At the garage sale this weekend, she took a baggie that had plastic bracelets off of the table. The first thing she did with them was to "share" them by giving Caleb one. Because how can you get mad at her when she just took it so her little brother can have one? Seriously, how can you? I'd like to know because otherwise we are in for a lot of trouble as this girl gets older!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Warning...partial nudity coming up

When I went to get Caleb up from his nap the other day, this is what I found.



Chris said that he did have pants on when he went down, but I'm not sure where those ended up. The wet diaper was pretty obvious, though.


I have made it very clear to Caleb that at least until he pees on the potty, no bare butts are allowed, but I guess he didn't care.

He did get a little shy once he noticed I had Cameron taking pictures. :-)



Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Younger Brothers

Tyler is 12 right now, and has officially begun that pre-teen woe-is-me attitude that I am well aware will continue for the next 6 years. Okay, so it will probably last longer than 6 years, but at least he won't be living full time with us after that. No, really, he won't be. I've already explained to him that if he wants to be a pro-ball player he has to go to college, and everybody knows it is important to live in the dorms the first year or two of college.

Anyway, back to the attitude. During one of our many "discussions" with Tyler about chores he needs to do, or helping watch the babies (the 20 minute "discussions" where he whines about "why does he have to" and we say because I said so again & again & again), he said that he should get to stay up later than Cameron because he is older (just over 2 years older) and in 6th grade and when we had foster children that were in 6th grade they got to say up until 9. We thought about it and I told him if he could make it for the rest of the week without using that irritating, whiny, girl voice that I just can't stand, we would consider letting him stay up later. (Seriously, I'll have to record that voice sometime, I just can't do it justice trying to explain it) And he actually made it the rest of the week, so we bumped his bedtime back.

Now, our boys are somewhat spoiled and they each do have a TV in their room, which I am totally blaming on their grandpa, since he gave them their current TV's (I really see no relevance in the fact that I bought Tyler one when he was 4 so that he would stop sleeping in our bed). Our boys are also incredibly picky eaters. I'll have to use a whole separate post for that discussion! So for dinner, we've tried a million different ways to make them at least try it, nothing has worked. So finally, we decided that if they don't eat dinner, they lose the TV in their room for a week. This has totally worked for Cameron. It might take him an hour, but he will finally try dinner so that he doesn't lose the TV. For Tyler, it hasn't worked so well. I honestly don't know when he last had TV in his room, and I know it is gone for the rest of this month.

They really don't watch a lot of TV in their room, anyway, except they are allowed to watch 1/2 hour at bedtime, which means if bedtime is at 8:30, the TV goes off at 9. But if you lost your TV in your room, then if bedtime is at 9, you go to bed at 9, No TV. So, even though Tyler technically got his bedtime pushed back to 9, it's basically still the same time as Cameron, except that Cameron is watching TV for that half hour in his room while Tyler is in the family room.

So, here's the funny part. The other night I heard Tyler speaking sharply to Cameron saying, "Yeah, I know". So I asked him what the problem was. He said that every night at 9 when Cameron is turning off his TV, he comes out into the family room and says, "Tyler, it's 9, time for bed." Don't ya just love little brothers?! I really did try hard not to laugh at loud when he told me that!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

One to Many?

I found this picture of Caleb as a newborn. If I didn't know any better, he looks like he might have been a little intoxicated...falling through his cradle like that.



The recommendation from the "experts" at this time is that there should not be a bumper pad in cribs & cradles, and since we are licensed daycare & foster care providers, that recommendation is a requirement for us. I don't necessarily agree with that, because sleeping like this can't be comfortable!


What age is too young...

to start playing the PS2 with your big brother?


Oh, and don't even try giving him a controller that is not connected! He can tell, and that does NOT make him happy!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Trial Run

The first round of my garage sale went really well! Even though it was FREEZING the whole time (silly me for thinking it would be a tad bit warm in May!), but at least it wasn't raining. I decided to do it for 2 weekends this year, so I'll have round 2 this weekend. I did manage to catch a cold, of course. I guess sitting in the FREEZING cold for 5 hours will do that to you! So I ended up in bed buy 8:30 Saturday night.

Chris had gone to pick up the camper so it was just me & the kids. I got the youngest 2 babies to sleep & left Amata with Tyler & Cameron. It was kind of neat to see how they would do getting themselves to bed at a reasonable time, and such. I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

Before I went upstairs, I told them I had the main door locked & the doors from the outside into the garage locked, but they would have to lock the other door after the dog went out for the last time. I also told them that they might want to get to bed at a decent time because if I didn't feel any better in the morning, they would have to help me with the babies since Chris wasn't going to be home until later in the morning.

At one point Tyler thought he heard somebody knocking at the door, but instead of opening it himself, he came up & got me. (There was nobody there, but at least he knew not to open it unless I was available.) I heard them make some microwave popcorn at one point.

But by 10:30 they were both in bed. I know that because that is when Amata came into my room and wanted to sleep in my bed. So I guess maybe some night Chris & I could actually maybe, I don't know, leave the house & go out somewhere together some night, since the boys seemed to do just fine by themselves.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Garage Sale Tomorrow

I spent today preparing for my annual garage sale. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, of course, just as it has the past THREE years on my garage sale. The only good thing is this year I got smart and I am having it 2 weekends. It's the same amount of work, and since we installed a back patio last summer, I can keep the garage filled for the whole week without worrying about kids & bicycles running through it. I am considering myself somewhat of a magician, since I have managed to somehow fit everything in the garage instead of hoping to have things sitting on the driveway getting drenched. I suppose it does sound pretty bad if I mention that I have an over sized double car garage...and I barely managed to fit it all in there. In my defense, my sister, my mom & 2 friends also have items on my garage sale. We don't need do mention that even with all of them going in on the sale, about 87% of the stuff (crap) out there is mine. Now, some might view that as perhaps a "shopping problem", I prefer to think of it as a "too many kids" problem.

I really didn't feel like expending any effort for dinner after all that, so we decided to do "dinner & a movie" tonight. We got a pizza & ordered a movie on Pay Per View. Mr Magoriums Wonderum Emporium. It was okay, although I don't think I'd watch it again.

Amata did entertain me with her favorite knock-knock joke during the movie...
Amata: Knock Knock
Me: Who's There
Amata: Amata
Me: Amata Who
(laughter from Amata)

Amata: Knock Knock
Me: Who's There
Amata: Amata
Me: Amata Who
(laughter from Amata)

And so on for about 3 or 4 more times.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

My 2 Sons

Okay, so I actually have 3 sons, but today I am comparing/contrasting my oldest 2. They are like day & night!

Tyler is neat, Cameron…not so much.

Cameron like to dress up (notice the "tuxedo" he picked out for himself), Tyler…not so much (notice the polo shirt that he is wearing with shorts that are hard to see, it was an argument just to get him to wear this instead of his jean shorts made to look like they had holes in them.)


Here's another example from their pictures last fall. We actually had to buy Tyler's shirt & shoes because he didn't have anything nice to wear.


Tyler likes sports, of any kind, Cameron will play soccer, but only because if he just runs around the field a lot, you really can’t tell that he’s barely playing. Tyler’s goal in life is to be a professional athlete.

Cameron loves to play the guitar, Tyler will be lucky to pass band because he wants to quite and is mad that we are making him finish out the school year. (Side note, at the beginning of the year, we found an inexpensive trumpet and asked him if he was planning to play it for the next year, he said yes, so we bought it. Then a month later he said he wanted to quit). Cameron is certain he is going to be a rock star some day.

Cameron likes to ham it up in front of the camera, Tyler…not so much.

When Tyler gets mad, he will argue an argue and argue forever! When Cameron gets mad, he usually walks away and goes to his room. (Okay, so it would probably be more healthy if he would get it out instead of hiding in his room, but if I have to pick between 30 minute arguments or hiding in his room, I choose having him hide in his room!)

Cameron is artistic, Tyler draws stick people.


I love them both, but I just marvel at how different they can be!!