What is with the shoes????

Everyone told me when I had kept having boys that I could be thankful that at least it wouldn't be so expensive in terms of clothes and shoes, wouldn't have to worry about bathroom time, etc like those with girls do. How wrong they were! No, my boys don't wear make-up but they will occasionally get a haircut that requires 20min in the bathroom getting it "just so" and usually requiring my help. Now they are bugging me for $100 Heely shoes and they want clothing that you can't find anywhere so it would have to be custom made for them.

Oh, yeah, boys are soooo much cheaper than girls. NOT!

How to homeschool with Nico

I get asked that question a lot by anyone who has seen Nico in action....How do you do it?!

It's true, he's a non-stop, always climbing, always looking for the next bit of trouble, but frequently charming monkey. Well, the answer to the question is -->

Katsup and Mustard (sometimes pudding, sometimes Jell-o, sometimes cornstarch and water, you get the idea). We just tried this yesterday instead of regular fingerpaints and while the mess is no less, I'm a) pretty certain it was cheaper using condiments than finger paints and b) it was totally edible since most things still seem to make their way into his mouth. He had a great time with it, kept signing more and pointing to his tray. I got a whole 30min of just having to occasionally reload his tray while teaching History to Jonathan. And the katsup and mustard cleaned off everything just as easily as finger paints do.

His other favorite thing is puzzles right now and building with blocks so we schedule time for those activities too and I'm currently browsing Amazon and teaching stores for more puzzles and arts & crafts books for new things to do with him. In the meantime tho, I just plan to buy stock in Heinz 57 and French's.

Boxing Day...

has come and gone. I'm thankful that a) Christopher and Matthew got some of their classes in last school year and b) not everything for everyone came all at once. I'd forgotten what it was like having a new full student and how much stuff they get all at once. 6 boxes for him alone!!! The UPS guy said I'd get a bill for his chiropractor. LOL I laughed and told him he should be glad the 7 boxes for the other two had shown up last week. He just gave me this look that said it all. LOL I'm thankful tho that I was able to get everything sorted, organized, and put away in it's new homes.

We have started slowly trying to get everything going according to schedule. Of course with the anti-scheduler it's been interesting but I'm even working on him.

Jonathan is excited but nervous too. It's going to take some time to get him up to getting everything a day. He's just not used to sitting still for that long so I've made sure to schedule him up some movement and break time hourly.

Matthew is on probation for staying home but he seems to be finally getting it and has been working the last couple of days. I hope that this new pattern continues.

Christopher is steady as always. It's nice to know that I can just tell him what needs to get done and rarely get any flack or have to ride him in anyway. It makes me hopeful that Matthew will eventually get there too.

The hardest thing for me, besides trying to convince Nico what a schedule is, will be getting up so early and actually start moving. I want to start making exercise and meditation a priority so that I can feel my best for my boys because they deserve nothing less than my best in everything.

So screwed

Today Nico learned a new trick, a lovely new trick, one that was inspired by Jonathan....He learned to climb out of his crib. Like having a high-energy, high-maintenance, highly demanding, stubborn, opinionated, non-sleeper was not enough....Now I have NO place to safely contain him!!! Look out world, here comes Nico the Destroyer! Nothing can stop him now!

And we're off!

Seems like we always are but yet again, we are gone for a long weekend away. We were going to go camping Sunday-Tuesday with my dad but my step-mom has been ill so they can't make it. Things are crazy at Mark's office right now so we decided to leave Friday late afternoon and come back Monday early afternoon so he takes less than a day off (he'll work from home on Monday after we get back). I'm soooo looking forward to this trip tho. The woods we are visiting are just beautiful. There is no internet, no cell phones, no tv, nothing except the banana slugs, the birds, and the huge redwood trees (okay, skunks and raccoons too but we try to ignore them LOL).

Smore's anyone?

How different they are

I know that my kids all have different body types and that personalities but today we decided to go through and get all their weights and heights and enter them into the percentile calculator and this is what we got:

Nico:
wt: 26.4lbs (56%)
ht: 33.75" (84%)
head: 19.75" (95%)

Guess I don't need to worry about his weight any more, huh?

Jonathan:
wt: 43.0 lbs (23%)
ht: 45" (24%)

Perfectly proportioned!

Matthew:
wt: 95.4" (97%)
ht: 54.75" (80%)

My big boy!

Christopher:
wt: 78.6lbs (10%)
ht: 59.5" (30%)

I so wish I could eat like he does and still be so skinny!

More words to live by

I found this poster and bought it for Christopher. It contains some of the hardest lessons to learn but ones that are so important to one's overall sense of accomplishment and emotional well-being. I wanted to write them down here before giving it over to him so that I can remind myself of them as well.

A Winner's Creed

If you think you are beaten,
You are;
If you think you dare not,
You don't;
If you'd like to win,
But think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose,
you've lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a person's faith;
It's all in the state of mind.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster hand;
They go to the one who trusts in God
And always thinks "I can".