A crazy few weeks

The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. We finished up IGNITE at church and my life just went into crazy land. School begins on Monday!

This past Tuesday my princess turned 5. That is F I V E! I remember when I was having the ultrasound during her pregnancy where we found out she was a she. I had such a flood of emotions. I was scared to have a girl on so many levels. I had two boys and boys and boy things were all we had in our house. I knew how to parent boys. I knew what they liked and I knew what made them tick. Now, we were going to take my blue world and throw in a splash of pink ... threw me for a loop. I remember the next day after I dropped the boys off at pre-school, I walked through carters and actually cried. I know, crazy pregnancy hormones. I didn't even know how to SHOP for a girl. For the boys I could grab things and mix  and match them. Didn't need a different pair of shoes for each outfit. Didn't need accessories and I didn't have to do much when it came to HAIR! Now, I was having to re think my whole parenting world. :)

She had been so worth it! I wouldn't trade a day of the splash of pink in our lives. Kennedy is all girl but she can throw down with the boys while she is all made up in her princess attire. She loves to wear dresses and loves bows in her hair. I don't know what I did to deserve a daughter but man am I a blessed momma! So thankful for the past 5 years with this little lady. I pray that I can continue to be the momma she needs me to be!

Pace is about the same. The eating plan didn't change the way he was feeling or the abdominal distention so he was able to come off of it. The doctor is now looking to see if he has a motility issue. So yesterday we had two tests run. One was a gastric emptying study and one was a contrast enema. He is such a champ! He teaches me so much as I walk through this journey with him. Hopefully, we will know the results today of those tests and can move forward from here. I'm tired of going to GI dr's and tired of going to the hospital. I KNOW that he is too.

School begins on Monday and there is so much to do between now and then. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

It's been a while ...

WOW! I can't believe it's been a month since I last blogged! I haven't been spending much time on the computer lately. Life has just been too busy to spend time doing something that won't matter in a few years. :)

Keegan is 8 weeks old. Next week she will be 2 months old. It seems like she should be older than she is. She has definitely been a different baby than the other three. Love her dearly, but she is a handful at night - Or has been. Thankfully, the last 2 nights she has slept through the night and that has been wonderful. Though I still wake, waiting on her to wake up :) I think we are finally turning a corner and the reflux medication seems to be working. It's nice to have a happy baby. It's also nice to not have her in pain!

Ryan, Pace, and Kennedy all 3 swoon over her. Especially, Kennedy. I'm not exactly sure what Keegan thinks of her though. Kennedy is learning to dial it down a notch or three so I think that will help as well. Both of the boys are such big helpers and they just love her to pieces. I cannot wait to see her as she begins to interact with them more.

It is still hard for me to believe that I am old enough to have 4 kids. I was talking to my grandfather on the phone yesterday and he told me that he was turning 90 this year ... that just doesn't seem possible. I still feel like he should be in his 60's allowing me to stand beside him as he drove his red mustang convertible around the neighborhood. My grandmother has alzheimers and is going downhill. I hate that disease as much as I hate cancer. My grandmother has always been so busy and vibrant. These days she is not so much anymore. Yesterday, I saw a different side of my grandfather as I believe he is realizing his wife of 68 years is no longer really there. I have so many memories of my grandparents, it's so hard to see them sick and hurting.

Memories ... I hope we are creating the kinds of memories that our 4 kids will look back on and know that they were loved, cherished, and cared for and a home that they will want to return to. A home that is full of love and fun moments. A home that is a safe haven for them and a place that is a retreat for them in hard times. SO please excuse the blog if it is quiet .... we are busy making memories. I'll get on here and blog about it from time to time ... but the last thing I want my kids to think about when they think of me is a mom who valued her computer time more than she valued time with them!

Have a great day!

Life with 4!

Life has definitely been interesting with 4! I guess it has only been so crazy because we were in and out of the hospital twice. We both felt like we hadn't given the attention that 1, 2, and 3 needed while we had to take care of 4 and make sure she was ok. The first week was hard because of this.

Keegan is home now but we face feeding challenges. She lost a lot of weight in the beginning and so we are trying to get her back up to her birth weight.

In the hospital her liver and thyroid tests came back elevated but the doctor said he wasn't concerned about them. Her body is still trying to adjust to being outside the womb and all those are still regulating. He said they just were not elevated enough to cause him to probe further. That was a relief to us. We were discharged about 32 hours after we were admitted, her jaundice levels had come down dramatically during that time. They wanted them to be under 15 to send us home and she was 10! We are so thankful for all your prayers!

The craziness of the holidays have died down and we are slowly getting into a pattern that works for us. The older 3 just love having a baby in the house and are super helpful with her. We will see how long it takes the newness to wear off :) School starts back this week so we will see how I do getting the boys to school on time :)

It's a crazy life but I wouldn't trade any of it ... It's amazing to see a new life come into the world and the fact that God chose Jeremy and I to parent these 4 continues to amaze me. I am beyond blessed with these little lives and I pray that we do our part to raise them to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and with all their strength!

Happy New Year to you all!

Delay Consequences?

The other day Ryan got into some trouble because of his mouth. The best thing in his world right now that really bothers him if taken away is his football. He just got it for his birthday and it is TORTURE when he cannot play with it. So, we decided that this particular time the consequence of his mouth/disrespectfulness would be the loss of his football for a day. Then the mouth just kept going and so he lost it for two days - Friday and Saturday. Ryan was so disappointed because he had a play date with his daddy all set in his mind for Saturday to play football outside. He asked that we take the football away on Friday and Sunday instead of Friday and Saturday. He wanted to delay his consequences so that they fit his agenda. We of course did not give in and he actually wound up losing the football for all 3 days once it was all said and done - sometimes he doesn't know when to just be quiet.

I started thinking about his response and just how much we all do this. We hate the consequences for our sin, especially when they interrupt our plans. I think Ryan learned a lesson this day and hopefully, our steadfastness and not giving in to his request taught him that consequences are real and that obedience is better / respectfulness is better. Sometimes, parenting is hard. Every ounce of my being wanted to give in and say you know what, you are a good kid, just don't do it again and go play with your football. It's hard to discipline your kids, especially when you see the pain it causes them to loos privileges. At least it is for me. I hate seeing them sad, but I also do not want to see them continue down a path that will lead to further trouble in the future if not nipped in the bud now.

Hopefully, Ryan learned a lesson - sometimes finding consequences to match the offense is hard. Especially when one method doesn't work and you have to punt to find something that does work. I'm constantly reminded of the verse in Hebrews ... 12:7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?

Discipline is not easy, but necessary for training up our sons/daughters to be adults. I remember a sermon from our old pastor on parenting and one of his lines that he said stuck with me and it was ..." you are not raising infants or toddlers. You are raising your children to be adults ... to leave your nest and function in the world around them." I sure hope that we are doing an OK job at raising our guys/gal(s) to one day be an adult and function in a world - to show them Jesus and his love.

KNOWING God's Word

I read this quote the other day and it really made me stop and ask myself a question. First, here is the quote ....

"In order to REMEMBER God's teaching, our sons must KNOW God's teaching."- Vicki Courtney

The question I asked myself is what am I doing to help my sons (and daughter) KNOW God's teaching? There are so many days where I feel like a broken record repeating myself ... "don't hit, be nice, don't spit, have a better tone, don't yell, show some respect ....." Oh, the list could go on and on. There are days that I see them being so very nice to each other that I just want to freeze frame it so that it lasts. However, it's the days where I am repeating 1 Corinthians 13 to them and where they are quoting it back to me that I scratch my head and wonder where the disconnect is. They can tell you what it means to love each other and they can tell you what love is not, yet they turn around and treat each other (sometimes) with such disrespect that I wonder how much they understand from these verses. I think my children do well in a lot of areas but they are falling short in how they treat each other sometimes.

So, how do you help your children KNOW God's Word so that they REMEMBER God's word when it matters .... so they are living, breathing examples of God's word to those around them? I'd love to know some of the ways you are pouring God's word into your children.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

An Oh NO moment!

This week I had an OH NO moment! It was one of those moments where as a mom I wanted to grab my 3 kids and wrap them in bubble wrap and NEVER let them leave my sight or at least home school them!! And any of you that know me, really know me, you know that homeschooling has NEVER been in my vocabulary ... like ever! I'm not against those of you that do or desire to ... I just figure that I'm not cut out for it.

Anyway, back to my point ... I was putting the kids to bed this week. Jeremy was away at a meeting and we were finishing up with our devotional. Our Bible Verse this night was "Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10. Right before we started to pray Ryan told me he needed to tell me something. He proceeded to tell me something that was weighing on his heart, something that someone at school had asked him to do and he did. It didn't make him feel good and so he wanted to tell me about it.

At first my heart was thrilled that my child opened up to me and shared with me. On the other hand I was ANGERED at what my child was asked to do and then did. I hope and pray that I handled it in a way that made my child feel secure and comfortable in talking to me, made him know he can always talk to me (and his dad), and helped him be able to be a little more discerning when in those type of situations in the future. We are working on critical thinking in this house. We are working on making wise choices when those around you are not. It's hard thing to teach a 6 year old who just wants to be friends with everyone.

On another hand it really made me proud ... it's times like this where I can see the Holy Spirit working in his life. That makes my heart so happy because if I ever doubted his faith at such a young age ... God is definitely showing me that I have no need to doubt that my boy understands the decision that he made as best as his little mind can. It shows me that for now, my child trusts me enough to come to me with the hard things and that we are doing something right in raising him.

So, although it was a very hard moment for me as I heard what my baby boy shared with me, it was also a moment where God showed me so much. I'm also praying so much harder for my kids than I ever had realizing even more what a crazy world they are growing up in!

Lessons from a 6 year old

Today at 4:08 am my baby turned 6! The last 6 years have absolutely FLOWN by! In 6 years Ryan has lived in 3 different states, in 5 different houses, he has gone to 4 different schools, and 4 different churches (not counting all the ones we visited trying to find the one) He has the biggest heart and is ALWAYS striving to do his very best at everything he does.

This year in April Ryan decided to give his life to follow Jesus. His heart has been transformed so much over the last year .... I have seen such tremendous growth. We have had our periods of trial and error but he is learning and his heart is being softened. The best thing is that I see his mind working and I see his heart bending towards the things that matter to the heart of God.

Each year at Christmas, our children get 3 gifts, to represent the 3 gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus when they visited him. Its our way to teach them many lessons at Christmas. They also give away 3 of their toys at Christmas ... it makes room for what they will get but it also teaches them to give to others who do not have as much as us - they get to pick what 3 toys are given away. (we also buy new gifts to give away, so don't think we are scrooges)

This year as Christmas has gotten closer and closer we have talked about the various ways as a family we can help those around us who are in need. One of the things that we talked about was Ryan's birthday. We talked to Ryan about how much he has and how blessed he is compared to so many. (God had already been working on his heart) We asked him if he would mind asking others to bring a gift not for him, but a donation for others. He was more than excited about this idea.

Saturday, was his birthday and everyone who attended brought a donation for a local rescue shelter in our area. We had toiletries galore! Soap, razors, deodorant, toothpaste, tooth brushes, etc ... all for a 6 year olds birthday! He was so excited when we got home and looked at everything that had been brought. His brother even commented how he wanted to do the same thing for his birthday!!

Fast forward to today ... his birthday ... we picked him up from school and took him to deliver his donation to the rescue shelter. We had so much stuff that Ryan couldn't carry it in. We walk in and the staff greeted him with such a grateful heart .... the woman who runs the shelter came out and told us that the Lord told her to pray over Ryan and our family. She prayed the sweetest prayer over him. I cried. I was blown away with how she prayed for my son. I have prayed some of the same words but he is MY son, I should pray those prayers. This lady had no clue, zero, who this child was, she didn't know him before he walked in the door and she has no connection to him. But the prayer she prayed ... WOW! She spoke a word over my son and I cannot wait to see how God brings it to fruition! I've known God was doing something special in his life, but to hear a stranger also testify to that ... WOW is all I can say, WOW!

Today we were blessed so much more than we were a blessing! I love how God encouraged us today as parents through this womans prayer over my son! I loved seeing the JOY on my childs face as he received nothing but gave away instead. I loved seeing how it trickles down to the other two. I love how his heart is changing and growing!

Thanks!

Thanks for all the comments on my hypothetical story. :) Seriously, though. Today was a bit of a better day. She is STILL yelling at her brothers but she did go down for her nap and bedtime a bit better today.

I'm seriously trying to evaluate how many choices I am giving her. I don't feel like I give her many at all. We have never been one to give them many choices at all, so my eyes are open to where I might be.

Her world is about to come crashing down when the boys go to school in a couple weeks. Honestly, I think this is part of the problem. It all started about the time that the boys spent a week away with Jer's parents and the night issues started. The nap issues started after the boys came home. We never go back in so I have no clue what is going on. She once was the picture perfect child at bedtime and nap time. Hopefully, it has just been a phase and she is coming out of it.

We are totally getting on the yelling so hopefully this will end. The girl has a set of lungs on her!

Thanks for all the comments and prayers! We can definitely use them! Where is the raising a girl book? :)

Need Mommy Help

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved to nap, she loved to eat her veggies and her fruits and she was so easy going. Then all of a sudden about a month before she turned 2, she decided to no longer love naps or going to bed at night, no longer like to eat anything remotely healthy and she decided to YELL at the top of her lungs when things don't go her way. She might even be known to pull hair or hit her brothers.

So now she has a mommy that is pulling her hair out because said little girl doesn't do this for other people when they keep her. And mommy doesn't know how to get back her great sleeper who doesn't scream when put down at nap time and bed time, she doesn't know how to get her sweet princess to eat and she just doesn't like consistently putting said child in time out because she REFUSES to say she's sorry when she has yelled at or hit her brother, let alone get her to stop hitting or yelling at her brothers.

Not that any of this is going on in our home ... but if it were, that mommy might be in need of some advice or maybe just a few people to say that they have been there and there is another side?? Someone, anyone????

Going Marbles

We have moved to a new discipline / reward system here in our house. We have a chore / attitude chart which we came up with to help the boys learn and grow both as little boys and in their relationship with each other and others as well. There are really easy things on their chart that we hope that by rewarding them for, they will become a habit and will also help give them incentive to work on the harder things.

The easy things are the same for both boys: Brushing teeth, making their beds, putting their clothes in the proper place, cleaning off the table after each meal, and cleaning the playroom. The harder things vary between the two. Each one needs to work on different things. One of them has: No complaining, no yelling at brother, respect for others, no back talking. The other has: No complaining, respect for others, no whining, sweet tone. So at the end of the day we sit down with the two of them and we go over the hard things (they get the easy things throughout the day) and we give them the proper amount of marbles. Marbles vary from 1 to 4 depending on the "hardness" of the task at hand.

Since doing this system, I have walked in to find beds made before I ever go to get them up! I have also seen them helping out in different ways without being asked and from time to time they will get an extra reward for that. They began doing this on their own and they didn't expect to get rewarded for it - so we reward them sometimes but not always. We want them to want to help and not just to get something in return. They also sometimes have to give their marbles to their brother when they hit or hurt the other one. They do not like this one at all.

When they get a full jar we give each of them $1. I know, it doesn't seem like much but right now in their world it is a lot. It takes a bout a week for them to fill their jar. When they are given their money we give it in coins and they get to keep 80 cents of it to spend however they want. 10 Cents goes to their tithe and 10 cents goes to a savings jar. Hopefully, by starting them off now on how to take care of their little bit of money, when they are older and have more ... they will not get into financial trouble. At least that is our desire.

It Grows back ...

Yesterday, I cut Ryan's hair. I didn't want to. I knew it needed a cut but I didn't want to cut it ALL off. However, he did. He wanted to be able to "spike" it up.

Hair really isn't a battle worth fighting. I've learned that some battles are worth fighting and some are not. I save my energy and power as a mom for the battles that are worth my effort. This one was not. It's his hair so I let him make the choice, as much as it pained me to cut it off.

And much to my dismay, right after we were done cutting it off he said he wanted it long again ... oh well, it will grow back, it's just hair!

He looks a lot younger now, I must say!

The power of a spoken word

We are trying to teach Ryan how important it is to think before he speaks. How the words that come out of our mouths can never be undone. Once they are out ... they are out for good.

His mouth has gotten quite sassy and I would add that his mouth is quite "clean" lately as well. I'm just saying!

Anyway, today we were driving to school and he asked me a question. I didn't answer it the way he thought I should so the following came out of his mouth ... "That's not what I'm looking for. Let's back up and try this one again." Obviously he has heard this come out of my mouth before when he doesn't respond the way he should. However, it's not so appropriate coming back to me. I explained that sometimes mommy and daddy say things to help him remember to do the right thing, but he should not respond to us in this way.

Then this afternoon, I asked him to do something that he didn't like or want to do and he mumbled something under his breath that may or may not rhyme with doupid. Again, it was the wrong choice of words. So his mouth got a mountain fresh feeling. Afterward, we sat and talked about our word choice and how words are powerful and hurtful. That we should choose our words carefully and make sure that they lift others up and not tear them down.

I know he gets this. I know it! He just has such a sassy mouth! I hope this lesson is one that doesn't take too long to sink in! I know it took a while to get through my thick skull when I was a kid and so I pray that my son is a bit less think skulled than his momma.

Already a Drama Queen

My Kennedy is already a drama Queen! She's 20 months tomorrow and she absolutely thinks she will be 20 tomorrow. She is really keeping me on my toes lately. One minute she is dressed like this picture and wearing her heels and the next minute she is laying (or is it lying) on the floor throwing a FIT and I honestly have no clue why. Zilch, Nada. Maybe the wind hit her the wrong way as she twirled around in her fancy pink dress, who knows? All I do know is that she is a girl who knows what she wants, even if she can't articulate it just yet :)

I love being a mom and I pray that I'm being the mom that these 3 need me to be. I'm praying for wisdom and strength and that maybe just maybe these 3 will actually like me when they grow up :) GRIN

Taking a breath

I finally feel like we are in a stage where we can take a breath and exhale. It's been a roller coaster of a year for us. Transition doesn't feel like it's as much a part of our vocabulary as it once was. It feels nice to be settled again.

The kids are in a better place as well. I finally feel like we are getting past the baby stages. Having 3 so close together has been rough BUT the benefits far outweigh any of the hard parts of the past few years. Since we are not having any more children we are cherishing the moments we have with our littlest while trying not to spoil her rotten at the same time. She is in a stage that is just too much fun right now. Her personality is SHINING through right now and we just find ourselves laughing with her so much.

The boys adore her and the feeling is mutual. She gets in there and can play right with them or she can play alone. Most of the time she is begging for a bow in her hair while holding batman, robin or some die cast car. She loves to wear dresses and doesn't like to stay in her PJ's at all. The rest of us love PJ days but she wants nothing to do with it. The struggle over clothes is starting early with this one! :)

She's showing small signs of wanting to potty like the rest of us. Jeremy and I were talking the other day that maybe, just maybe, this summer we could begin the process with her and could we finally stop buying diapers after 5 1/2 years of buying them straight with no breaks? It doesn't seem possible but that will be a glorious day to celebrate!

So we are in a stage where we feel we can breathe again and it feels so nice. I do not want my kids to grow up at all. I want them to stay 5, 3, and 1 1/2 for the rest of their lives ... does anyone sell a pill I can give them? But ONLY if I can take one as well!

Hope you all are doing well! Pipe in and let me know how YOU are ....

HOLY POOP Batman!

I know not the most fun title ... but I'm sure I got your attention didn't I? I had grand plans for today. I was going to venture out to a store I really don't like with 2 of my 3 kids while Ryan was in school. After nap time yet before lunch time. I had lofty goals to get in and out and back home to feed before picking up R! They were lofty but they were met with a hurdle, no make that a mountain that I did not anticipate. If I had of had a camera close by I might have taken a picture but I was too grossed out to even think about a kodak moment! Even if I had of snapped a pic, I'm sure you wouldn't really want to see it anyway. Allow me to set the stage for you ...

Pace was downstairs putting on his shoes finishing up his snack. I am going to go upstairs to get Kennedy up early from her nap so we can get in and out of this store, with the things we need in a flash so we can eat lunch and pick up Ryan. I walk in the room to a daughter who is laying in POOP! Not only is she laying in it but she is COVERED in it. Not only is SHE covered in it but so is her Crib, blanket, paci, baby, bumper, did I mention the crib? Did I mention HER? Did I mention her PACI? Her mouth is also. Yes I know DISGUSTING!!!!! So I knew my lofty plans of getting in and out of this store was out the window. Now my daughter who apparently enjoyed her nap time today is crying because she has been found out ... either that or by this point she did not enjoy being in crusty poop.

Off to the bathroom we go ... oh why couldn't Jeremy be working at home today (GRIN)? I get her in the tub and her clothes off of her to hose her down and scrub her off! I get her clean and get her out of the tub only to have her PEE all over the floor and begin the crying again ... this time it could have been by both of us, could have, might have, ok we both cried. Seriously, though we go back into the tub and do a quick soap/rinse and get back out. Dry off and new clothes put on ...

Now it's on to how to tackle the mess. Part of me wanted to shut the door and pretend that it did not happen. This child has NEVER had any interest in her bodily functions, never. The Monet drawing on her crib was not exactly the creativity level I would want her to aspire to. I began to strip everything down and start the washer and then I began cleaning the crib itself.

Cleaning done ... turn around to my daughter who is standing watching me in her clean clothes ... who then says to me "hey, luv u".

Prayerfully we will have no more poop Monet in this house!

Not yet Son, not yet!

Oh my stars! Someone please smash the clock and throw it out the window! My son is growing up WAY too fast. Way too fast. He has discovered girls. Right now they do not have cooties and they are not gross. They are not to be avoided at all costs. He has this one friend at school. He doesn't even know her name but he was so excited to go back to school so that he could go to the playground and see this girl and play with her. In the beginning they had this little tiff but he got the courage one day and worked out his differences with her and now they are buds. Buds in the sense that he has yet to learn her name, but she is "beautiful". His mission has been to find out her name but they haven't been back to the playground again so he hasn't been able to find out her name. They are in different classes.

My boy is growing up too fast ... aren't all girls supposed to have cooties at this stage? Five is too early to be blushing when talked about :) However, it has been a learning experience in our house ... We are trying to use this as a teaching time to talk to Ryan about what it means to have a girlfriend over a girl who is a friend. We are trying to teach him to look at qualities of the heart instead of the outward appearance ... to know that true beauty is from within. We are doing this as much as we can on a five year old level. And he is asking questions and we are answering them ... I swear I did not think I would be having these conversations with a FIVE year old! Please tell me that he will not be going to the Prom tomorrow! I sure did like it better when he had a crush on my married friends!

Parenting is not for cowards

Lately life has been CRAZY on a bunch of different fronts. We have been busy having guests, which we loved and love! In fact if you want to come visit just let us know!

Parenting is not for cowards! The kids have been full of whine lately. Ryan is going through a sassy mouth spurt, Pace is going through a whiney spurt, and Kennedy is getting 4 new teeth. Life has not been dull!

I've been trying to deal with the sassy mouth. I feel like school has been both great for my child but also it has taught him new language and ways of speaking that I'm not too fond of. Every day I feel like I am parenting a different child. He often reminds me that so and so does this and so and so does that. I sure am glad that I'm not a parent to all those so and so's. (grin)

Pace is in a new stage as well. He is more sensitive than ever before and he loves using that against us. He also loves to say one thing, yet do another and then blame his brother. It's quite the little show but it is also very wearing on this mothers heart.

So if the blog is, has been a little quiet ... it's because we are busy parenting 3 little ones who are growing up quicker than I might like. Every moment is a teaching moment and every moment wasted is lost forever.

WHY?!?!?

I'm sure if you are a mom you hear this question a million times a day! If you have more than one child who talks go ahead and just multiply that by a million. :)

I hear this question ALL.THE.TIME. around here. I ask either boy to do something and instead of "yes ma'am" being the first thing out of their mouth ... it's normally "why". I was so frustrated over the weekend but then I began to think a little differently about this question ... what if instead of getting frustrated ... I used those "why's" as teachable moments? Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of things I will say "because I said so." (Swore I never would, but alas I do) But, I'm learning that really isn't teaching them anything.

I'm wondering, if instead of saying the proverbial cliche', I actually tell them why (gasp, I know) I am asking them to do something ... maybe, just maybe next time they will not ask me "why"?

A mother can dream right?

Transition help Questions

Those of you who are / have been in transition and are parents I need your help! Ryan is having a HARD time lately. The boys got here on Saturday and were so excited to see their stuff. Ryan's appetite was really decreased on Saturday and Sunday. Today he started pre-school here and when I picked him up he looked like he was about to cry. My child NEVER looks like this after a day of school. He loves school and loves everything about it. He would go on Saturday and Sunday if it were held then. He explained to me that he didn't want to go and that he didn't want to talk about his day or for me to ask questions about his day ....

So those of you who have lived in (Or are living in transition) ... please send me some pointers on how to help my boy and get him back to the fun loving, carefree child ....

Temper tantrums!

This sweet little girl can throw a tantrum, full kicking of her legs and all. Right now her screaming fits revolve around me giving some attention to the boys. She does NOT like it one bit when one or both of the boys come and sit in my lap. She can be across the room doing her own thing and if, out of the corner of her eye she spots the boys with me, or me kissing or hugging them, she will throw a fit!

This morning was one of those times. We had about 15 minutes between breakfast ending and needing to get in the car to go to school. Kennedy was using her walker and walking around the room. Pace decided to come sit with me. Kennedy hears us, turns around and then proceeds to flop herself down and throws a fit. Neither of the boys can be around me or in my lap without her crying and pitching a fit.

Neither of the boys did this so I am at a loss as how to handle it. This morning I ignored her, hoping that she would settle herself down but that was not the case.

Any of you have little ones that do not like it when you give attention to your other child(ren)? If so how do you handle it?