Kids Round-Up

Carrying off from the title of my last post (but with subjects of much, much, much higher importantance :)), I decided to type up a little update on our clan....

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Benjamin (4 1/2 yrs but....still wishes/hopes/dreams he's a teenager)
This oldest son of ours never stops surprising us. He's is constantly creating/inventing/discovering things and often outsmarts us! And as I stated above when listing his age, he sometimes thinks is convinced he's older than he is (he already has a list of things he plans to take with him to college). Because he's growing up so fast, his interests are always changing (for example right now he's into the game Angry Birds. What is it with that game? Can someone explain to me why the birds are angry? Since when is the feeling "Angry" a good name for a game that's suppose to be fun?). We've already hit a few power struggles with him wanting (and us refusing) certain TV shows and movies we feel are not age appropriate....such as superhero shows because of the violence. I'm sure this is confusing to him since we allow him to play with superhero toys and costumes....it's kinda confusing to us too. With toys, we run a no-guns policy but that doesn't stop him and his younger brother from making their toys into some kind of weaponry complete with shooting noises (....sigh). I know the whole play fighting thing is quite normal for kids (click here for a good read on the topic) but I still find it hard to see my innocent and cute (I mean cool!) little boys turning to that kind of play. We have also recently made the official decision to wait on him starting Kindergarten until next fall. He's a late August b-day, so we were on the fence about it for a good while.....especially since he loves interacting with other children, learning, and is so eager to move on with his life, but knowing more of him we think he'll do better with less waiting/wanting/comparing if he's in the older age bracket with his peers.

Grant (almost 3 yrs....yippeee!)
Grant is so great. He's still often in his own world but talking more and more. He also laughs a lot, loves to read (we go to the library every week!), and play on the computer (which he refers to as a co-puter). He still is experiencing some of those challenging but ever-so-necessary toddler breakdown moments...Benjamin had these too, which just goes to show how it's sooooo NOT true what people like to say about girls being more dramatic. Trust me, I've witnessed dramatic many a times and have learned it's just a part of these young growing-up years. We were gifted these soccer nets for Christmas and have already put them to use now that all of our snow has melted (sorry anyone reading this who's not in the western U.S.!). Grant is such a natural when it comes to sports and is often outside running, biking, or walking around in his rain boots. p.s. could there be anything cuter than a little boy wearing nothing but a diaper and rain boots?

Elyse (just turned 8 months)
There was a part of me that kinda dreaded the 6-12 month stage because this is when feeding changed with Grant (click here for an article that saved my milk supply and kept us nursing all the way to 15 months...although I didn't do as they advised with pumping (I don't like to pump). I just went in and nursed him while he still stayed asleep once during the night and totally noticed an increase in my milk supply during the day. After he reached about 10 1/2 months I stopped our middle of the night feedings but at that point he was okay with my supply going down a bit). And 6-7 months is usually when they start to get really mobile (often very sneakily!). But thankfully Elyse has been no problem-o so far. She really is the happiest little girl I've ever met and easy-peasy to just do whatever with the rest of us. She and I often go out shopping (or on walks when I have sitter for the boys), plays well on her own, and has caught on to eating a variety of solid foods. She also recently went to sleeping fully through the night without it affecting my milk supply during the day (like it went with Benjamin), totally debunking that whole theory of letting them cry it out....every time she'd cry, I'd go in a feed her, and every time she'd go right back to sleep. Now she puts herself to sleep and is able to go 8-10 hrs without a feeding during the night but I'm really glad I left it up to her to decide that.

SO---that's our little update. I'm a momma to 3 adorable, happy, healthy kids and I love it. Feeling very full (sometimes I have to write myself a reminder just to put gas in the car)---but still loving it. ;) 

p.s. while on the subject of kids, this afternoon I took my boys to see the lasest Disney movie...FROZEN and boy was it a disappointment! (to me anyway...Benjamin said he liked it, and Grant I don't think quite gathered it all but did do really well his first time at the theater!). I had seen the trailer for the movie numerous times and thought it looked cute and funny, and I'd heard the soundtrack, which is pretty catchy but overall I didn't think it came together very well nor did I like the twisted and odd plot lines. This well-written review sums up my thoughts on it EXACTLY.

p.s.s. i just got word of this incredibly cute women's clothing boutique here in Logan called Bella Me Boutique. It's on 1451 n. 200 e. in the strip mall under the pediatric dentist. I am so so sooooo happy a place like this is here...oh, and the prices are really good too!

p.s.s.s. i've been working on a few little craft projects....will {hopefully} post soon!