My Assistant

Gavin is the best helper. That is not an understatement. He is the best helper. He hates it when I do busy work without him. Most of the time... when I clean bathrooms, vacuum, and clean kitchen he doesn't care. Mostly because I make them watch a show so I can get those things done real quick. Anyways, Gav loves to help. Today he surprised me when he insisted on helping me with dinner. Gavin has always enjoyed helping me bake, but dinner is different. It's faster paced, knives involved, hot liquids, oven, stove top, etc. Instead of doing my normal, "Not now. You can't" because I'm too in the mode to slow down for a four-year old, I let him help. And I'm now thinking maybe he should help me every night. Or most nights. I mean, I have this kid... this four-year old kid who WANTS to help me. All I made tonight was gnocchi, pasta, rosemary cream sauce, and broccoli. And lemonade. Nothing too big. But he set the table, helped me make the cream sauce, and helped me make the lemonade. It wasn't much, but it meant something to him. He actually started stressing me out a bit (because I'm me and can't think very well when someone is talking about things out of order) and I had to tell him that when he's in my kitchen, I'm the chef. He's the sous chef- his job is to listen to me, follow my direction, and follow what I need to do next. He loved it. He had a title! So he stopped insisting on making the lemonade and instead helped me make the cream sauce. I loved it. It was a great experience together that I really hope I remember to cultivate. Saturday we didn't get home till 4pm from James's baseball game, but Brad and I still wanted to get some yardwork done. While his brothers played in the back with their toys, Gavin was diligently with me. He has to help me plant flowers. We had gotten a few new ones for the front to help it not look so sparse. I had to weed to get it all ready and he (mostly) patiently waited and helped. He loves to pull the flowers out of their plastic containers, loosen the soil and put them in their hole. He even dug his own holes. You could tell he was so proud of himself. I told him he was like a real gardener. He laughed at that. He then said I was like a gardener too... which told me that it meant a lot that I said that to him. 

I can't wait for our garden to grow in the back so the boys can help me harvest. Jack and James will actually help with that part... especially the raspberries, which never make it inside our house. Wonder why that is ;) It's things like this I know are important to instill in these boys now. Teach them to work hard and earn rewards, especially if you have someone like Gav in the family. 

Baseball and Bad Nights

James had another baseball game tonight. Of course he did well :) He tried his best. They only had time for two innings. First at bat, no hit but great swings. Second at bat (and last one to bat for the game), got a hit! First out in field... ugh... so distracted. So James. Totally missed a ball sail right past him because he was jumping and spinning in the dirt. Second out in field, he asked to be catcher. He usually is pretty good at stopping the balls, but tonight I think they were a little too fast for him to do much. He did try harder as the game progressed. He did get tagged in the helmet, and there was an audible gasp from everyone. He turns around to the crowd, taps his helmet like, "No worries, this stopped it" and turned back to the game. That made everyone laugh and cheer for him. So awesome. I love seeing him try and progress at a sport. I'm still not sure baseball is the sport for him, but I definitely think it's great for him to learn focus and working as a team. And baseball does a good job at that. 

Onto a different boy... Jack had quite the night tonight. At the game, he fell and cut his hand on the concrete. Of course, right after I had told them to stay on the grass so they don't fall and hurt themselves. I'd say 'live and learn' but I know there still lots to live and lots of learning for this three-year old. We get home and the boys get in a bath. Brad was taking care of them while I made our dinner. I was at the door saying bye to some friends when Jack starts wailing. I rush into the bathroom and Brad's got him. He said that he had been bouncing around and slipped and fell on his face. He had a bit of a bloody mouth. Poor kid! I take him to go get some undies on so I can cuddle him better. After I get his undies on I stand up and hoist him up to carry him. Yeah... I overshot... and I was in their closet... and I "made" him bonk his forehead on the closet rod. Gah! Bad mom! Bring on more wailing and crying (with reason, gol i felt bad). He kept saying, "Mommy made me hit my head!". Blah. We finally got him to calm down and put on some Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives to keep everyone happy. I then had to try to wash his cut out more... apparently when he fell, dirt got pushed into his cut. I got a little bit out, but it was all he could handle tonight. He was in near hysterics again by the end. Now he is in bed and hopefully asleep and tomorrow better be a better day for that guy. Good thing he becomes happy so easily :)

Dirt

Well, true to nature I missed the second day of my every-day-this-week thing. Of course :) So two for today!

Today (... as in yesterday...) the boys were finally able to bust out their new "bakeware" in their dirt pile. Last year I saw that instead of having a sand box (because those are evil), you could do a dirt box/pile instead. Yes! Will it be messy? for sure. Will it be filthy dirty? yuppers. BUT these boys will be able to use their imagination more and get in their element. They have some holey jeans and worn out t-shirts that we are saving for our "dirt days". This isn't something we are doing every day. Not now, at least. We have places to go and I can't handle the stress of multiple outfit changes when we are on a schedule. But for the days where our nights are free (i love those days), this is what they'll be doing.

Today (as in for reals today) just so happens to be a day where we have somewhere to go therefore, no dirt day. Instead of using the dirt, they still enjoyed playing with their new outdoor toys on the patio. I was impressed. Hopefully the novelty of this won't wear off. I'm thinking it won't. What boy doesn't want a dirt pile they are allowed to play in in their backyard? Exactly. And yes, you may call me the best mom ever. In this regard, it might be true ;)

Everyday...

I am hoping to blog every day for a week. The boys say/do such silly, sweet, and irritating (mind you, not all at once) literally every single day that I feel I really need to capture it better. Where to begin on today...

James is super attached to me. The other day he informed me that, "when Daddy dies, I get to sleep in the same bed as you." Brad and I let him know that 1- Brad isn't going to die anytime soon (he better not...) 2- when he does, James will hopefully be married with his own family (which was followed with a very happy "Oh!" and a giggle) and 3- we're pretty sure he'd rather have his dad around than gone, even if that meant he had to be in his own room. This kid... attached. But so sweet. Well, usually. He is like 85% sweet to me and 15% I'm ruining his life and screaming at me. Better than 50/50, right??

The other day on the phone my mom said, "Hi, Gavinator!" when he got the phone. "No, I don't want to be called that today. Today I want 'Gav'... *mom, what day is it today? (Me- Friday)* Oh. On this day, Friday, I want to be called 'Gav'." And Gavin has such a way of saying things so matter-of-factly it was just hilarious.

Jack is singing... all. the. time. Either the Little Einsteins song or the Rescue Bots song. It is freaking adorable. And yet... can get a little old at times. I try to last as long as possible before needing a break. Which is generally dinner time. Doesn't last long... but oh well. It's dang cute and it makes him happy. He is sooo obsessed with Little Einsteins right now. I'm just grateful it's a show I have absolutely not guilt having them watch a bunch because they learn from it. And they hum the classical music now and love it. Ha! Win!

I actually might start teaching them basic piano stuff. I think for sure Gav and James. Jack might need to wait or at least wait till I see if he's interested in what his brothers are doing. I feel like the boys can pick whatever instrument they want to learn, but they need to know the basics of piano. Hello, free teacher and piano at home! Take advantage :)

Day 1, done! Let's see if I can do this tomorrow as well...

First Suture

Ok, honestly, it's not a suture. But for lack of a better/cooler word, I'm sticking with "suture". Today was the first day one of our boys had to get put back together!

I got a call around 2pm today from James' school informing me that he was fine, but he had slipped on the play ground stairs and had a cut on his chin. The nurse said he needed to get it sutured or super-glued back together and to see a dr. I went and picked James up from the office, and I tell you what... what a trooper that kid is! He didn't cry at all (... yet) and was being so brave. Once I told him we needed to go to the dr's and get stitches, then the waterworks and hyperventilating came. Oops. I finally got him to calm down when I remembered Tangled was in our DVD player and put it on. 

I called my dr's office what felt like a billion times, left a message for the nurse, talked to the appointment makers, and got zilch on if he could come in on or not. I love my kid's doctor office, but today they basically failed in my book. All I wanted to freaking know was if they could see him REAL quick to just put his chin back together. His school is pretty close to his dr's office, so I just stalked the phone line while in their parking lot. Since I couldn't get through, I decided to try our health insurance's nurse help line to see what I should do. I also called Urgent Care to see how long their wait was. The nurse was super helpful and said a 45-minute wait at Urgent Care is pretty good (didn't seem like it to me...) and said some other stuff about taking care of the cut. 

In the end, I decided to try a walk-in clinic to see if they were less busy (aka less sick-hurt people!). There was NO wait there and were able to see James right away. The poor kid was trying so hard to keep it together, even though he knew he might get stitches. The doctor was super awesome with the boys and explained things great to James. James was super mellow (totally unlike him) but he listened really well and promised to not touch his super band-aids later. The doctor said that he wasn't going to need to do stitches (phew) but he was going to put some super-tape on and then glue the cut closed so it could heal. James cried a bit when they cleaned the wound up and when the doctor had to push the cut closed. But, really, he did amazing. The doctor than let him choose a red or blue camoflauge band-aid to cover the cut and tape. Red won :) Once James knew he was all put back together and we were leaving, he was back to his chatty self. We then got him a Happy Meal for lunch and we all got a sundae too. Heck, when you cut yourself and have to see the doctor, you better believe you are getting a special treat after. 

Now James says it was his lucky day (he got a Happy Meal, it's a good day!) and he gets a cool scar out of it. He is super proud to be in my league of getting "cracked open". I've told him before the story of when I fell down a man-hole in the third grade and got stitches in the back of my head. He said, "Mom, you and me are the same now. Yours was a bit worse, but we've both been cracked open now. What the heck... this is so weird." It's pretty funny and dang cute. 

There we have it- our first trip to the doctor for a cut or break. I cannot even say how grateful I am it wasn't worse. He hardly bled and it was a super clean cut. He could have cut himself worse or broken a bone... so grateful this was our first incident. Let's ease into the world of blood and broken bones. I am super surprised this is our first incident with three little boys. I for sure know there will be lots more in our future :) Just bound to happen!

Randoms

Today for breakfast Gavin announced to me, while chewing his Cheerios, "My mouth is making music."

James is becoming super attached to me again. It started right before our vacation to Cali and peaked at school yesterday when he was crying for me to not go, and has now petered out to a more normal attachment. It's hard. It's hard to give him boundaries when I want to just give in, even though I know that wouldn't do any good either. For example, he wants to be with us. Always. I mean, that means we are really cool, right?? He said he'll sleep in the middle of our bed so he can be with us. So sweet! Buuut... not going to happen.

I wrote this a while ago and I'm going to publish it now. These boys are just too awesome

Smart Kid

Last night, as usual, the boys did not stay in their beds. It's been mostly confined to the two littlest, who share a room and have waaaay too much fun together. But last night was James. Instead of sending him back to bed, we let him stay up a bit with us. What is the first thing he does? Tells Brad he didn't give him his good night hug and kiss. What is the next thing he does? Hugs us both, saying, "You guys are the best parents ever.". Ah, straight to our hearts!! You better believe he got to stay up for at least twenty more minutes. And what did he choose to do with that time? Tell Brad how smart he is, that he knows everything, and, again, so smart. Then we had a spelling game. He gave Brad and I words to spell, then I'd give him a word to spell and we'd sound it out and spell it. This kid... oh James loves to learn. It's amazing to see this spark come to life. Just in time for kindergarten (eek!).