One Picture A Day

Although we're almost into April, I still wanted to catch up on One Pic A Day for February.  Highlights included a Super Bowl party, mild winter weather, potty training, swim lessons, kindergarten sign ups for Cole, and a much needed Staycation for Phil and myself without kids (woot woot).  Although the reality was that the staycation involved cleaning out the basement and throwing out old trash from the yard (whomp whomp).

Now that I've completely derailed this post - enjoy the pictures.

Take A Hike

One thing is for sure - you won't ever hear me complain about this amazing weather.  Getting the boys outside makes me realize how cooped up we've been, so we're soaking up the sun every chance we can get.

Yesterday afternoon we hit up Stroud Preserve to throw rocks in the river and hike around the park.  We made lots of new dog friends and discovered that the maximum attention span for a hike is about 5 minutes.  Noted.

This is where I accidentally dropped Dean's sippy cup into the river below.  As you can see, the boys were totally fascinated with the fact that I did something I wasn't supposed to.  They're still talking about it today. 

Lucky 7

So I'm finally able to say, "I have 4 boys ages 7 and under."  That sounds much better than where we were a few years back: "I have 4 boys ages 5 and under."  Gulp.

My point here is that Ry just celebrated his 7th birthday.  Through a random web search I found the best idea for any boy's party.  Ever.  It's called Rolling Game Station, and have I mentioned it's the best idea ever?

It's a 50 foot trailer with TVs and video games inside.  'Nough said.  After the party my nephew said, "I think I only blinked 3 times because I didn't want to miss anything."

After the party we got to spend some quality time with our favorite Allentownians.  Clearly Cole was not picking up what Aunt Lori was laying down.

And how about my girl Baby Shaye?  I did her makeup and then we posed for this pic.  Aww...

So here it is in a nutshell...7 years went by fast.  And slow.  Our family motto, "The days are long and the years are short" holds up here, and I'm both happy and sad to watch Ryan grow up into the little man he's becoming.  Happy birthday big guy.

Downtime 2.0

So I’m on day 20 of my commitment to not watch any TV in the month of March.

It’s been an interesting experiment that was a little shock to my system at first. I’ll be honest - the first two nights I just threw in the towel and went to bed at 9 pm due to sheer boredom.

The other shock to my system was the lack of pure downtime.  My day is a whirlwind. I’m up at 5:30 am getting everything ready for the day, then I corral the kids, work for 9 or 10 hours, get dinner on the table, run around with the boys, get everyone to bed, then make lunch for the next day.

By the time the last bedtime story is read and the final peanut butter sandwich is made, I’m pooped. My reward for surviving the day has always been to plop on the couch and zone out for an hour or 2 with my reality TV friends.

It’s hard to muster up the strength to do anything productive, but I’ve managed a few activities in my 20 days of fun:

• Painted my nails
• Read a book (Boys Should Be Boys by Meg Meeker) 
• Cooked dinners for the week
• Organized the kid’s clothes by size and season
• Watched baby videos
• Listened to music and created new playlists on my iPhone

I know these sound small and silly (except the clothes organization – let’s face it, that was exhausting) but I can’t remember the last time I actually sat down and read a book.

11 days to go…who knows what plans lie ahead (hopefully it's a little more thrilling than painting my nails…I’ll try to top that for the sake of telling a better blog story).

Pic Download

Today I noticed that I have 758 pictures on my phone and a zillion more on the computer.  I wanted to dump as many as I could into a post so I could start blogging with a clean slate.

It's sort of like the weather lately - out with the cold and in with Spring.  We've been spending as much time as possible outside - the park, the yard, the alley.  I still think it's funny to say to the kids, "Go out and play in the alley with your friends!"  It's even weirder to say, "So the other day I was hanging with my neighbors in the alley drinking some beer..." 

It's a little (just a little) more refined than it sounds.  Anyhoo - here are the pics.

We're All In This Together

All of my babies sucked their thumbs from the time they were newborns. It’s a subconscious comfort technique, and to this day they’ll still often suck away while they’re sleeping. There were many times when people would say, “You need to break them of that habit - you don’t want them sucking their thumbs when they’re in middle school!”

When I was pregnant with my fourth boy and people found out the gender, their most common response was, “Are you going to try again for a girl?!?”

I can’t stop my infant baby from sucking his thumb, just like I can’t decide whether he’s a boy or a girl. There are many things that, as a parent, are out of my control.

Then there are those things that are in my control. What they eat and when, how much TV they watch, what clothes they wear, and how I discipline their behavior. Those are all my choices that as a parent I need to consciously think through.

Understanding those differences are a key aspect of parenting, and one that we often forget. I was reminded of this today when I checked Facebook and read this post:

Sitting in lab waiting room, people watching. Why do people insist on giving their infants bottles full of juice? Does this bother anyone else???

And here were the responses:

•  It doesn't bother me as much as sippy cups full of soda! :)
• That's why more and more kids have cavities. Tell everyone you know...Baby teeth MATTER!
• Um, YES!!! Dental hygienist here!
• Yes, and not to mention pre-disposition to diabetes later. :/
• That is a pet peeve of mine along w/ people who give their babies/toddlers bottles in their crib.
• We always watered down the juice. Also...Don't let the 3 and 4 year olds walk around with a bottle or pacifier! That is just plain laziness on the parent’s part! Wean them at a year old!
• Yes, it bothers me a great deal ...along with so many other issues..like a pacifier, our boys never had them and people wonder why their children are not speaking??
• Agreed...although Porter has a pacifier (only to sleep), if your child is old enough for juice, they are old enough for a sippy cup (with watered down no sugar added juice)!!!
• Bottle gone at 1 year and personally, I see nothing wrong with pacifiers to sleep until at the MOST 2.
• Reminds me of when I was at the laundry mat to wash my comforter....18 mo old walking around with a bottle of Coke, blew my mind.....then again Owen had his pacifier until 3 (only to sleep after a little under 2 :)
• That's ridiculous. Next thing you know she's gonna offer that wee babe a smoke. ;)
• I never gave juice in a bottle. If they are old enough for juice then they are old enough for a sippy cup. And hopefully it is more water then juice!
• How about a mom giving her 9 month old a slim Jim in the ER waiting room? I seriously wanted to get my neck punch on!!!
• [My response]: It doesn’t bother me at all. Maybe the baby needs juice for medical reasons. Maybe she can’t afford formula for all of the feeds. I always like to hope that moms support each other, understand that everyone’s situation is different, and know that we make the best choices we can for our individual kids and families.

Moms: We have to stick together. We have to assume innocence. We have to realize that there may be unknown back stories affecting other people’s choices.

At the end of all of the rants and raves, the original writer of that Facebook post commented a second time:

• Rebecca - You're right. Our job as moms is hard enough without outside criticism. I appreciate the positive thought! When I see stuff like that, though, I hope it is in the best interest of that child. All we can hope is that everyone does their best.

Here's to positive thoughts for us all.

Puppet Show

Not only was the delivery of bunk beds an exciting time here in Kerper land - almost equally as cool was the arrival of the mattresses.  Because they came in a really. big. box.  And boxes are fun for little kids.

The boys asked me to turn it into a puppet show theater - or "Pubd show" as phonetically spelled by our master decorator Cole.

Cole worked dilligently on his puppet - a groundhog named "Groundhog."  The kid's got talent and originality.  Nice.

From there they fought over who would put on the show and who would watch, the puppet's real name (Cole insisted it was "Groundhog" but Ry wasn't buying it), whether the audience (me) should clap before or after the performance, etc. etc. 

So here's all of my hard work (I even gave it a door with a knob) quarantined in the kitchen because I couldn't stand to hear anymore fighting.

Family bonding at its finest.